W

ith the dust over a maritime skirmish involving Chinese coast guard vessels and Indonesian patrol boats last month yet to settle, relations between Indonesia and China are once again being put to the test.

On this occasion China has refused to extradite a fugitive Indonesian tycoon recently caught in Shanghai, unless Indonesia returns four Chinese citizens, of Uighur ethnicity, currently detained in prison for terrorism.

Indonesian authorities’ joy at the arrest of Samadikun Hartono in Shanghai 13 years after he fled the country was short-lived after officials confirmed the extradition process was likely to be complicated.

Indonesia and China already have an extradition treaty and State Intelligence Agency (BIN) chairman Sutiyoso confirmed the swap proposal to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “Just wait. I will immediately resolve the problem,” he said, without elaborating.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, who oversees immigration affairs, said on Tuesday that the extradition could not proceed smoothly as China had “demanded something in return”. Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta has declined to comment.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan is due to discuss the issue with his counterpart in China during his visit to Beijing next week, although Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, who is accompanying President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on his European trip, said she had no knowledge of such a demand.

The Chinese authorities detained Samadikun last week on suspicion of passport falsification. Before his arrest, Samadikun had reportedly traveled into and out of China frequently by means of changing his identity. He was arrested just prior to the start of the Formula One race in Shanghai on April 14.

Samadikun was sentenced to four years in prison in 2003 for embezzling funds from the Bank Indonesia liquidity support (BLBI), which caused state losses amounting to Rp 169 billion (US$12.84 million).

The funds were to be used to bail out his Modern Bank during the monetary crisis of 1998.

China’s demand for the return of the Uighur prisoners hinges on its campaign against terrorism and on a row with Turkey over the cultural identity of the Uighur people, who are mostly Muslim and whose language is related to Turkish.

The restive Xinjiang province, home to the Uighurs, has long been a hotbed of terrorism.

A Cabinet member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Indonesia was unlikely to return the Uighurs because of concerns about mistreatment once they were handed over to the Chinese.

“Indonesia would be condemned by the international community if something awful happened to the returned Uighurs,” he said.

The North Jakarta District Court sentenced the four Uighurs to six years in prison last year after finding them guilty of conspiring with the East Indonesia Mujahidin terrorist group, led by fugitive Santoso.

The court ruled that Ahmet Mahmut, Tuzer Abdul Basit, Altinci Bayram and Ahmed Bozoglan were guilty of violating the antiterrorism and immigration laws. The men were arrested in September 2014, as they attempted to link up with Santoso in Central Sulawesi.

The Turkish authorities have lobbied Indonesia to have the prisoners extradited to Turkey rather than sending them back to China. Turkey insists that the Uighurs are their citizens, a claim strongly denied by the Chinese.

International law expert Hikmahanto Juwana said the existing extradition deal between the two countries, signed in 2009, permitted extradition without swaps. “There should be no ‘requirements’ by China,” he said.

The prisoner-swap issue comes on the heels of Indonesia’s accusation that China obstructed law enforcement when two Chinese coast guard vessels intercepted Indonesian patrol boats towing a Chinese fishing boat caught operating illegally near the Natuna Islands.

The Chinese coast guard vessels took the fishing boat from the much smaller Indonesian patrol boat, which had to settle for detaining the fishing boat’s eight-man crew.

The crew are still being detained at the immigration detention center in Riau Islands. Beijing has called on Jakarta to release the eight, arguing they were operating in traditional Chinese fishing grounds.
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