Assistant Secretary of State for basic rights and labour affaires, John Shattuck, visited labour leader Muchtar Pakpahan in hospital on Tuesday 18 March. He wanted to visit Pakpahan who is on trial for subversion to find out for himself Pakpahan's state of health. He spent thirty minutes with the labour leader.

Muchtar Pakpahan, chair of the independent trade union, the SBSI, is currently being treated at Cikini Hospital in Jakarta. It is feared that he has a tumour on the lung. Shattuck was accompanied on the visit by the secretary-general of the SBSI, Sunarti and a senior official from the Attorney general's office.

Shattuck said his visit was prompted by concern among many people in the US about the labour leader's condition. He said that Pakpahan indeed looked very ill.

Shattuck also asked to meet Fernando Araujo, (an East Timorese serving a ten-year prison sentence in Cipinang Prison) but was told that permission for this was not in the hands of the Attorney-general's office.