This is my Bali Update page where I will publish details of any events in my long and often tiring quest to get justice in a country renowned for having none, except for the elite military connected wealthy families of Java. Please do not confuse this page with the email "ezine" organ of lies published by Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours; unlike his rag where he talks constantly about himself in the 3rd person and tries to make a selfish buck, here you will get only the truth.

Above photo: President Yudhoyono "The guys behind me work for my boss". That really is less joke and more irony as you may imagine, because the TNI (armed forces) state they are guardians of the Republic of Indonesia, not the civilian government (including the president).

It is no secret I often focus heavily upon and am trying to bring John Millard Daniels, American owner of travel agency Bali Discovery Tours and his pet colluding and corrupt Balinese police officers to justice. When I set out to do this I knew it would take time and I would be subject to further lies and abuse, and for the self-interested to claim this is solely some out of hand dispute between myself and Daniels. But whatever anyone thinks of me I would rather spend $100,000 trying to bring Daniels and his crooked cops to justice then I would pay 1 cent to a bent cop as a bribe to make the problem go away or $20,000 to have Daniels murdered as I am 100% certain he is willing to pay to have me killed. I want people to realize I know my problem is with the corrupt Indonesian police and judiciary and that Daniels just started the problem. If I focus somewhat on Daniels, it is because I have to both to bring my case against the Balinese police and also to answer the falsehoods he purveys about me and what happened, plus the fact he does not deserve to get away with his obnoxious piety all the time he is evading justice in a land where the real criminals wear uniforms.

Jack Daniels lost a WIPO domain complaint against me because he lied (he claimed to have a Trademark when he did not) which I knew he brought against my registration of the domain I used to use to warn people about him, balidiscovery dot org, because he wanted to misrepresent a decision in his favour both with the world and the Balinese police to act unlawfully yet further against me. I was amazed yet somehow not that when he actually did get a Trademark and a letter from the Indonesian Trademark Office saying he could backdate this, which he probably bought (under the table), he was allowed to file a second domain complaint against me which he actually won under highly dubious circumstances (see WIPO Fraud, Terry Laidler and Hill Associates Bangkok). Sure enough, he presented a Trademark law decision regarding a domain as my having broken some libel law; but that is what Jack Daniels does best, lie.

I tried resolving matters with Daniels in the US Courts but he ran a mile. Jack Daniels an American citizen refused to meet me face-to-face in a US court of law claiming; a) He had not been served properly, b) What he wrote in Indonesia was outside US jurisdiction, which is very ironic as Daniels claims to the Balinese police what I write outside Indonesia somehow comes under their jurisdiction. My hope was to get Daniels into court so that details of his corrupt nasty cats would be heard in a real court of law, not a kangaroo Indonesian court room where judges are known to be as bent as they come. I hoped to get a ruling against Jack Daniels which would allow me to demand he was arrested and tried with excuses in Bali. Unfortunately for me and my US lawyer, my lawyer's paralegal (legal secretary) messed up and filed an important court document 2 days past the deadline; she misunderstood which days counted. As a result of that the Supreme Court of Arizona ruled I could not sue Daniels in the USA; that's right, Daniels got off on a technicality. Of course I was not too happy about that given it had taken many months to get that far. The only consolation I got was my lawyer very graciously refunded the vast majority of the legal fees I had paid him and that the US court denied Daniels' requests for costs against me; so he ended up paying a lot more than I.

I then looked into the prospect of suing Daniels in the High Court in England to the same end. The problems that entailed were the prospect of yet another long wait preventing me from taking legal action (a human rights case) against the Indonesian Government (you can not file a human rights case all the time other legal action continues), plus the fact Daniels could well (and therefore likely would) try to get the case denied on the basis it came after a failed US case, plus the fact English law could allow Daniels as defendant demand I place a sizeable bond with the courts while the case dragged on. As my problem is with the Balinese police / Indonesian authorities with Daniels solely the instigator, I decided this would detract from the real goal of my efforts. So I have decided not to sue Daniels or any of his cronies in England unless they sue me first, in which case I can place the burden of a large bond upon them; as the saying goes: "Go ahead, sue me, make my day!"

I have decided to file a complaint against Indonesia under two International Conventions on Human Rights even though I believe these are too often a political joke. I say this because all a government has to do when it signs up to one of these conventions (they call it "accede") is to refuse to sign up to the first optional protocol which allows complaints against that country to be made directly by a victim to the United Nations. If any country acceding to the human rights conventions does not also agree to the first protocol, all complaints have to be made with the member state. That's right, because Indonesia has decided not to accede to the first protocol, I have to file my complaint with the Department of Justice and Human Rights in Jakarta. Now, bearing in mind it seems every human rights group going states there is abundant proof that the Indonesian TNI orchestrated the 1999 East Timor mass civilian murders yet no officers have been convicted (actually, the reverse, many have been promoted), and that the Indonesian judiciary are recognized to be one of if not the most corrupt in the world, and that human rights activist Munir Said Thalib's murder somewhat shows Jakarta commit state murder so are hardly disposed to effecting human rights justice, means my case may not exactly be dealt with justly! But who knows, maybe I will strike it lucky!

However, there are good reasons for filing it now as any rejection, given the documented evidence I hold, or attempt to bury it will enable me to petition the British Government to file a state-to-state complaint against Indonesia at the UN for failure to comply with its obligations under the conventions. Also, I can and will file the complaint at the same time with the UNCHR even though Indonesia has not accepted the First Protocol and the UN will have to consider it and state they take all such complaints up with the countries involved, but they are not allowed to adjudicate (rule) on the complaint. Finally, I am exploring other options at this time as the world is getting smaller and smaller as far as the corrupt go. I will report anything I can as and when I get it below.

01/Feb/07
My letter to the new police chief in Bali setting out the unlawful acts went unanswered, no surprise; I find crooks and public servants who know they are in the wrong practice this "method" when confronted as anything they do say tends to incriminate them. The Indonesian Corruption Commission's director of Internal Affairs (which covers the police) Chesna Fizetty Anwar contacted me after I asked her colleague Erry Hardjapamekas how many police officers they had actually investigated and prosecuted as I intended to disclose this in my human rights complaint to the UNCHR (as I have to disclose what I had done to resolve things, with whom, and why things had failed). She asked for me for details and documents which showed the police's unlawful police acts were as a result of corruption, so I sent her these and the rational (of course I do not have photographic or otherwise recorded evidence of Daniels paying the police through his lawyer, but I can show the clear corruption "footprint" or "smoking gun"). Chesna has since failed to reply to me requesting an update on my "case" (not that I believe there ever would or could be one now) and also repeated requests for specifics of who the KPK had investigated, why and as a result of whose complaints.

I pointed out to Chesna that I had a legitimate right to ask as such information would be appropriative to my human rights complaint and also for me to duly provide this data to the British Government and European Union Trade Commission if it became clear the KPK were nothing but frauds and a political instrument used by the president and Golkar party used to witch hunt political rivals as had been suggested to me by a third party. I explained I had good cause to believe the KPK were frauds a) based on their handling of the Harry Bleckert and Michelle Leslie corruption cases in which they admitted they could not investigate Bali's police officers and b) because what information I could find about their investigations and prosecutions which seemed to indicate they only prosecuted bank fraud (which is not corruption and should be job of the police) and political rivals. Today I was made aware of an article in the Jakarta Post which confirms there is evidence of this: see Jakarta Post Review In case they are forced to remove or change it at a later date under Indonesia's tough reporting restrictions, here is an excerpt;

"In the past year, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has been charged with selective justice in its prosecution of corruption suspects. The KPK was said to be targeting politicians from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a party that had pledged opposition to the Golkar-controlled government. People expected the KPK to pursue high-profile graft cases involving powerful officials. Punishing a few big shots would have sent a strong signal against graft. But those expectations were apparently too high. Some cases that drew criticism included the failure of the KPK to name Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin as a graft suspect, even after former National Election Commission member Daan Dimara implicated him."

Of course it is not comforting to see that the head of Indonesia's Human Rights Ministry stands accused of getting away with corruption, nor too was a report also in the Jakarta Post that wife of murdered human rights activist Munir, Suciwati Thalib and other widows of men murdered they suspect by the Indonesian state were conducting a protest outside the presidential palace last week because none, repeat none of their human rights complaints had been investigated.

Meanwhile Interpol refuse to comment to my London lawyers on any aspect of the data they provided the Balinese police about me or to say what the status is of the complaint we made against the Indonesian police authority under Interpol's Anti-Corruption Mandate. As previously stated it is not possible to sue Interpol for violating my human rights as they are a stateless body under UN Charter and therefore basically accountable to no-one but themselves. In fact, my lawyers have tried to sue Interpol who are located in France at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in a case involving Turkish police and a Kurdish businessman granted asylum in the UK; the court threw the case out on the basis they did not have jurisdiction. However, we now have a plan, after trying yet again to get the British Foreign Office to do something about Jakarta and the British Home Office about Interpol, to write to each of the EU member states' justice departments asking them to agree to instruct their own police not to pass any details on me to the Indonesian police setting out our case to them, and then suing those states who refuse to reply or so agree in Strasbourg! It seems you need to be creative in this world to get justice, but if there is a will there is a way. In any event, informing individual EU states about the actions of the Indonesian authorities and Interpol should ruffle some feathers, not least as I will be seeking an EU wide travel advisory warning about the risk of corrupt police and lack of justice in Indonesia. But these things take time, so don't expect any further updates for a while. I will give the British Foreign Office one last go through my London lawyers before I file the human rights complaint, as I want at the very least agreement from them they would file a state-to-state complaint against Indonesia in the event HAM (Human Rights Department Jakarta) are in breach of their UN obligations as I suspect them to be.

The British Foreign Office will not guarantee specifics in specific cases of course! Also they still claim that it would be interfering in Indonesian domestic dealings regarding the unlawful Interpol order, even though my lawyer agrees it does not. I do have the right now to sue the British Foreign Office for failing to perform their legal duty but have been advised the cost would be high and to first of all lobby various MP's with the facts asking them to intervene with the Foreign Office (sounds like a comedy play; asking someone to intervene to ask someone else to intervene). This has started to actually bring some hope and results both from my own constituency MP and the Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary; the later having agreed in writing to review my case with the "FO" (Foreign Office). The FO have been very quiet lately, as is typical when they are considering or doing something. Normally they send out out "We have already told you...." responses after a few days, but they are taking weeks now. Recent events such as proof the Balinese police gave my personal details to Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours (see: passport article on Bali BS) hopefully will force them to act.

2007 / 2008

The FCO (British Foreign and Commonwealth Office) have flat out refused to assist me and even removed a page off their web site which outlines what their legal duties are as a direct result of my continued requests to them; luckily I printed this page up before they removed it. As a result the British Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Moore MP and Chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee Dr. Tony Wright (Labour) have both kindly taken an interest in my case and have refereed it as a complaint (against the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for not providing the legal protection to me they should) to the British Parliamentary Ombudsman. Whether the Parliamentary Ombudsman will do anything I do not know, but I feel vindicated that two senior British MP's have made a complaint.

The British FCO say they do not interfere in domestic judicial matters of sovereign nations despite the fact my case involves unlawful even criminal acts outside Indonesia against me and that the FCO mandate does cover both protection from serous crime and miscarriages of justice. It was poignant and timely therefore that the case of Gillian Gibbons and the teddy bear she named Mohammed in the Sudan came about, where the FCO showed they do actually interfere in the domestic judicial matters of sovereign nations. Gillian Gibbons was not under any physical threat, she had been sentenced to 15 days jail and was actually being detained in a special prison of a much higher standard than other Sudanese jails. The FCO not only petitioned the Sudanese Government but sent two Peers to secure an early release for Ms. Gibbons; they knocked two days off her time in jail (big deal). But the FCO will not stop the Indonesian police from having me listed as a terrorist with Interpol? The International criteria for being designated a terrorist is someone who murders civilians for political reasons. So my calling the Balinese police, alongside Human Rights Watch Amnesty International, TAPOL, Transparency International and various other organizations, plus naming Jack Daniels of Bali Discovery Tours as the man behind all of this and the one who tried to have me killed makes me a terrorist? The FCO will not help me but they helped Gillian Gibbons get 2 days off her jail sentence; what is the deal here? Could it be Indonesia has gas, oil, minerals and regional strategic importance, The Sudan has nothing?

With this clear disparity in act, I also wrote to several British MP's who hold positions at the FCO, one of them Megg Munn, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the FCO. Unlike with other FCO MP's, Megg Munn's staff read my letter and instead of blocking it, put it on her desk. A few days later I received an FCO response that said they could not discuss nor compare my case with the Sudan / Gillian Gibbons as each case is confidential under the Data Protection Act, one of the acts I was complaining under regarding my passport details being circulated by the Indonesian police (as in salt into the wound). Of course the fact that Gillian Gibbons' case was fully in the public domain by way of the massive media attention it generated, token of western disgust that one of theirs should be jailed for insulting Islam, made no difference; the FCO just repeat themselves like a bad curry of course.

Recently it has been made clear to me that the British Government will not intervene unless they are dragged screaming through the courts because of their complicity with the Indonesian police. I understand Britain's large corporations have massive economic contracts with Indonesia, one of if not the world's most corrupt country, and that they would be playing that fiddle. But I did not know the extent of what this entailed; major British corporation using offshore subsidiaries to circumvent international laws and UN / EU sanctions which clearly require British Government complicity. But the FCO get their hands directly dirty with the Indonesian police too;

Indonesian Police, The Real Terrorists Part 1
Indonesian Police, The Real Terrorists Part 2

So the British Government provides millions of dollars of soft loans (loans that never get repaid and are used to buy military equipment) directly to the Indonesian police to fight terrorism, they say. But the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is not even outlawed in Indonesia and all of the terrorists who have been caught were done so because US spy satellites located them (their mobile phone signals) and fed this information to Australian Federal Police officers who accompany Detachment 88 of the Indonesian "Brimod" anti-terrorism police to arrest them. It is only Detachment 88 that, with direct help from the USA and Australia catch the JI terrorists, so what do the other Brimob officers do? The above video clips show there are thousands of Brimob officers in armored vehicles paid for by the British Government; these are not used against JI though, are they? Where are they used? Why, they are used to suppress the lawful independence aspirations of civilians around Indonesia. My own government can hardly help me it seems because they support unlawful Indonesian police tactics elsewhere all for a British corporate buck and regional influence, still pretending they are a world power with their nasty colonial attitude.

So, I will see what the British Parliamentary Ombudsman will do or not for me. If nothing, my only option then to get the British Government to do what they should be anyway is to sue them in an expensive High Court case in London.