PRESS STATEMENT BY ARCAN
The Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria (ARCAN) condemns in the strongest term the unprovoked attack by Indonesian Immigration Officials on a Nigerian diplomatic agent. The attack was not only unprovoked and unwarranted, but it was also a glaring abuse of established conventions and international norms and conduct as enshrined in the Vienna Convention (1961),on Diplomatic Relations.
ARCAN notes with appreciation and support, the interim steps so far taken by the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry by summoning the Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria to protest the actions of the unruly Indonesian
Immigration Officials and recalling, for consultation, the Ambassador of Nigeria to Indonesia. It, nevertheless, recommends further actions to be taken following the conclusion of the investigation the Government intends to carry out.
The actions of the Indonesian Officials represent a modern-day display of gangsterism and inhuman behaviour towards a fellow human being, even if he was not a diplomatic agent, and must therefore be met with robust response from the Federal Government of Nigeria through the application of measures that may include a complete reassessment of Nigeria’s diplomatic relations with Indonesia. ARCAN rejects the statement credited to the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Indonesia which makes no sense and an obvious attempt to cover up the barbaric action of the Immigration officials, and a clear indication of the unacceptable manner foreigners, legal or illegal, are treated in the country.
ARCAN stands in solidarity with the NIGERIAN Government and in this regard looks forward to adequate compensatory measures to be dispensed to the traumatized Consular Officer including appropriate and adequate medical treatment, as well as other measures, to help in his rehabilitation.
ARCAN is of the hope that at the end of all this, other rogue officials in Indonesia and elsewhere in the world, would have learnt the necessary lessons and ensure that this type of clear breach and barbaric behaviour never rears its head again.
ARCAN
11 August 2021
