Not necessary to make a fuss of Singapore`s random examination of Adnan Buyung

"Actually, it was a routine procedure, but lasted too long and caused some inconvenience to the two Indonesians," spokesman for the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Kristiarto Legowo said recently.

He said the Indonesian embassy in Singapore had yet to receive information on the matter from the relevant authorities and only gave an explanation on the immigration check on Adnan Buyung and Abdul Rahman Saleh who happened to hold ordinary passports at that time.

"We have received an explanation on the matter from the Indonesian embassy. When it happened our officials rushed to the scene but on arrival the examination was already completed, and the two had already left," Legowo said.

However a release from the Singapore Embassy in Jakarta on Monday quoted a statement of spokesman of the Singapore foreign ministry Jonathan Han that Adnan Buyung Nasution arrived in Singapore on 20th of March, 2008 using an ordinary, not an official or diplomatic passport.

Nasution was met by immigration officers who were conducting random interviews and inspections of newly arrived visitors, Jonathan said.

Such interviews are part of tightened security measures that have been introduced for several years whereby visitors are randomly picked by immigration personnel for examiantion before entering Singapore.

"We offer Mr Nasution an apology for the inconvenience", he said, adding: "We hope that all visitors to Singapore will understand that these special measures are necessary under the current circumstances in which all countries are facing new security challenges."

"These are not meant to offend anyone but to tighten security precautions for all, including visitors to Singapore," Jonathan said in the release.

In the meantime, an expert in international law of the Hasanuddin University, Said Nizar, said if the ordinary check and examination were was part of standard procedures, it was necessary for Indonesia to deplore it.

As Buyung flew to Singapore using an ordinary passport, the immigration personnel at Changi considered him as ordinary visitor and therefore had to be questioned in accordance to their standard procedure.

It`s not necessary for Indonesia to make a problem out of the case, as not all the immigration personnel in Singapore knew that Buyung was an important person in Indonesia, Nizar said.

The Singaporean embassy in Jakarta already explained the real case on the questioning of Adnan Buyung in a release, so just regard it as an apology for ...