Activist urges DFA to protest deportation from Indonesia

The environmental activist from the Philippines who was arrested, detained and deported after joining a public forum against a waste incineration project in Bandung province in Indonesia urged the Department of Foreign Affairs on Thursday to file a diplomatic protest over her deportation. Indonesia sent Gigie Cruz, 33, back to Manila on Wednesday, three days after she and two other foreign environmental activists were arrested and detained “for speaking in public without permission." They were on their way to the 13th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, but took a side trip to Bandung province to join the residents in opposing an incinerator project there. Cruz, an advocate of “zero waste, zero warming," said she spoke at the protest action simply to raise public awareness on the negative impact of waste incineration, particularly on health, the environment and the climate. In a news conference, Cruz said she was encouraged to submit documentation of her ordeal to the DFA to pave the way for the filing of the diplomatic protest. “Our undeserved deportation prevented us from campaigning for ‘Zero Waste for Zero Warming’ in the Bali climate change meetings. We resent the suppression of our right and responsibility to speak out and take action against climate change. Free speech across borders is non-negotiable if we are to succeed in the global effort to arrest the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for heating up the planet," said Cruz of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). After speaking at the forum last Sunday, Cruz found herself in the hands of the Bandung police, along with two other activists--- Shibu Nair from India and Neil Tangri from USA. Two local activists from Balifokus and the People’s Alliance against the WTE Plant were also detained, but were released immediately. GAIA said in a press statement that Cruz and the other foreign environmental activists who apprehended were “unrightfully expelled" from Indonesia, noting that they were merely speaking in public about waste and climate change and the availability of ecological and socially just solutions such as zero waste. The group called on governments taking part in the Bali conference to stand against waste incineration, support zero waste, withdraw funds and subsidies to dirty disposal technologies, and uphold democratic free speech to stop the climate crisis. “The destruction of resources by burning them in incinerators contributes to climate change. Incineration requires a constant flow of resources to be pulled out of the earth, processed in factories, shipped around the world, and burned or buried in our communities, emitting greenhouse gases polluting our environment at every step of the way," GAIA stated. - GMANews.TV