Washington – Indonesia's decision to expel a prominent American political analyst has raised concerns about the country's crackdown on critical observers ahead of the July 5 presidential election, US-based Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

The group said Sidney Jones, Indonesia country director for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), had received a government order for her to leave the country. It "appears directly related to her critical reporting on Indonesia," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

During the last two years, ICG has criticized Indonesian authorities about their response to the ongoing activity of an al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jamaah Islamiyah as well as alleged government human rights violations during armed conflicts in the provinces of Aceh and Papua. Jones was a former director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

The group said Tuesday that the Indonesian government had also placed 20 international and local nongovernmental organizations on a "watch list" as threats to the country's security.

"Targeting independent monitors is not about protecting national security, it's about protecting officials whose records are embarrassing when exposed by insightful experts," said Sam Zarifi, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

"These tactics signal a return to the bad old ways of the [Soeharto] era," he said referring to president Soeharto's 32 years in power which ended in 1998.

Zarifi said other organizations and individuals on the Indonesian government's "watch list" include ELSHAM, one of Papua's leading human rights groups; Max Lane, an Australian academic with a long history of reporting on Indonesia; and ELSAM, a Jakarta-based research institute and human rights advocacy group. All have reported critically on the policies and actions of the Indonesian government and military, he said.