Jakarta – Police Friday detained two Australian trade unionists and at least nine Indonesian activists after ordering the closure of the annual meeting of a local union, witnesses said.

But the police released two Jakarta-based Dutch journalists they had taken in at the same time.

Police moved in after ordering the officially unrecognized Indonesian Labor Welfare Union (SBSI) to end its meeting, which a number of international unionists were also attending.

They seized film from a camera crew of the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN) at the scene and took film from a number of local photographers, one of whom had a bleeding lip from a police baton.

"It shows that they are ashamed of their actions," Aart Jan de Geus, deputy president of the Dutch Christian National Trade Union, said after the headquarters was cleared.

The SBSI, headed by lawyer-activist Muchtar Pakpahan, who has been in detention for more than a year on subversion charges, wants significantly better conditions for workers than those sought by the government-sponsored national union.

Witnesses identified the detained foreign unionists as Greg Sword, senior vice-president of the Australian Congress of Trade Unions and a top official in the Australian Labor Party, and Ma Wei Pin, Australian-based regional secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Association.

Police said both were Australian citizens.

"We are interrogating them and taking statements. The results will be reported to my superiors and any decisions are up to them," Lt. Pandi of the section for the supervision of foreigners told Reuters.

Police said journalists Ronald Frisart of the Netherlands Press Association, and Step Vaessen of the Dutch NOS television, were released around 7:30 p.m. (local time) after having their identities checked.

The nine Indonesians detained, some forcibly after resisting arrest, were believed to have been attending the SBSI meeting.

An SBSI lawyer and conference organizer, Lutfie Hakim, told Reuters he was being questioned along with the nine activists in the South Jakarta police headquarters but police declined to comment on their case. Hakim had earlier voluntarily gone to a local station with police to discuss the congress. The SBSI had told police they did not need a permit to hold a meeting in their own offices.

Earlier, Hakim told the congress that plans to hold their meeting in a Jakarta hotel had to be canceled after they were unable to meet administrative conditions in time.

Witnesses said the foreigners were driven away in an unmarked car driven by a police intelligence officer.

Sunarty, the secretary-general of the SBSI and one of the nine detained, told Reuters just before she was taken in that police had earlier arrived and asked the participants to end the meeting and leave.

Participants had refused to cancel the session. Once the meeting had adjourned earlier than scheduled and the foreigners had left, police moved in. A number of foreign diplomats had earlier attended the congress opening.

The Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) strongly criticized the closure of the SBSI meeting in a letter to a number of Indonesian ministers made public.

The meeting had heard statements of support for the SBSI and its jailed leader Pakpahan from the foreigners.

The more than 100 delegates from 87 SBSI branches had planned to reconvene at a secret location near Jakarta Saturday to avoid further harassment and elect new office holders, one official said. It was not clear if this would still go ahead.

The Friday meeting was held in Pakpahan's law office, which also acts as the union headquarters in south Jakarta.

"Continue to fight, don't surrender before the destiny of workers is improved (and) remember only workers through real unions can improve their destiny," Pakpahan said in a statement read to the congress.

Indonesian police have regularly harassed meetings of the SBSI, a member of the Brussels-based World Confederation of Labor and the International Trade Secretariat, in recent years.