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The people of Indonesia and East Timor need your support
Green Left Weekly - May 6, 1998
Janet Parker – As the crisis in Indonesia deepens, dictator Suharto has deployed more than 30,000 special army troops in Jakarta to crush the rising tide of protests against price hikes, mass unemployment and the lack of democratic rights.
Added to the arrests, detention, beatings and torture of pro-democracy activists, there has been a new round of "disappearances". Non-uniformed military abduct their victims at gunpoint in the dead of night. Nobody knows their whereabouts or whether they are alive or dead. Some have been missing for weeks, some for months.
The government's main targets are activists from the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and its affiliated groups, in particular Students Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID). Andi Arief's reappearance last week, in a police lock-up, is in no small part due to the ongoing protests in Indonesia and internationally against the disappearances.
People's Power Fighting Fund
While the economic crisis has fuelled unrest, it has also made the work of Suharto's opponents harder. The massive increase in inflation has made the cost of paper (used for leaflets), rent for safe houses, electricity, transport and food skyrocket.
To assist the political underground, Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) launched the Indonesian People's Power Fighting Fund at the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference. Participants contributed $1500 in just one day!
ASIET activists are now discussing the next steps. What dinners, concerts, raffles and film nights can we organise to raise funds? Which unions will sponsor the campaign, run articles in their journals appealing to their membership for donations? Will any of the university student bodies contribute to help SMID continue its work?
We also want to raise awareness about the underground movement in Indonesia. To this end, ASIET will be promoting two dossiers: The Struggle for Democracy in Indonesia and the PRD's new publication, Free Indonesia.
Free Dita Sari campaign
The petition campaign to Free the Political Prisoners in Indonesia culminated at the conference, having raised $6000. Some 5000 signatures will be presented to the Senate.
The second phase of campaign, also launched at the conference, will concentrate on political prisoner Dita Sari, chairperson of the Centre for Indonesian Labour Struggle (PPBI) and a leader of the PRD. She is currently serving a five-year jail term for helping organise workers to fight for better wages and working conditions.
An ASIET booklet about Dita's life and struggle has been distributed among women's organisations and trade unions. Dita's case has also been taken up by Amnesty International, which has adopted her as a prisoner of conscience.
More recently, the Body Shop has decided to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Human Rights Commission by profiling a number of human rights defenders. In New Zealand and Japan, Dita Sari will be the focus. Information, postcards and posters will be available from Body Shop outlets.
ASIET has also produced a series of protest postcards, to be sent to Howard, Downer and McLachlan, calling for pressure to be exerted on Suharto for Dita Sari's release and urging the government to end military ties with the regime.
Over the coming months, we will be stepping up the campaign, in particular urging unions to run articles and make donations, and calling on the ACTU to formally recognise the PPBI and campaign for its affiliation to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
Boycott Nike!
ASIET branches participated in the international day of action against Nike's sweatshops on April 18. Nike operates factories in Indonesia because workers cannot easily defend their rights. Nike's overwhelmingly female work force is paid around $2 a day, though the currency crisis has reduced this to around 70 cents. Many workers suffer malnutrition as a result of inadequate wages.
Twelve-hour days are common, as are physical and verbal abuse from supervisors. Workers who fight for better conditions have been arrested, beaten and/or sacked.
While these conditions are similar to those in Reebok and Adidas factories, Nike is the target of this international campaign because it leads the industry. If international action against Nike forces change, others may follow suit.
ASIET will continue to take part in the international days of action, coordinated from the US by the Campaign for Labour Rights.
End military ties
Ending Australia's military ties with the Suharto regime remains a major campaign focus for ASIET. Demonstrations were held last December 7 to mark the anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
In Queensland, a protest at the land warfare base in Canungra received considerable press as a number of activists were arrested. A Sydney protest outside the Richmond RAAF base also succeeded in causing a considerable stir; the names of those killed at the Dili massacre were chalked up the front drive of army personnel and more than 200 crosses planted in garden beds.
Both Canungra and Richmond are used as training centres for Indonesian military officers, including Kopassus forces, which are responsible for many atrocities in East Timor.
ASIET is producing a booklet detailing Australia's military ties with the Indonesian regime. It will be launched at ASIET's national conference in Melbourne on August 22-23. For details of other protests, talk to the ASIET branch in your city.
Let the refugees stay!
More than 1400 East Timorese are seeking asylum in Australia. Hypocritically, the Australian government on the one hand recognises Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor but, on the other, says the refugees are Portuguese and should go there.
The sanctuary movement was set up to help Timorese refugees facing deportation. It has won the support of some 12,000 people willing to risk imprisonment to hide the refugees.
This seems to have forced the government to change tack. In an effort to avoid a public backlash over deportations, it has decided to try to starve the refugees out by cutting financial assistance through the Asylum Seekers Assistance Scheme.
The sanctuary movement is now seeking financial donations to help feed, clothe and house the refugees. ASIET is a sponsor and will continue to help raise awareness about this.
ASIET will also help publicise the refugees' plight at actions marking the anniversary of the Dili massacre on November 12 and December 7, the anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
We will also continue to demand that Australia end its recognition of Indonesia's annexation of East Timor. Australia is the only government in the world to do this.
ASIET national conference
ASIET's national conference in Melbourne on August 22-23 will coincide with a national day of action for the release of political prisoners and the disappeared on the 22nd. National gatherings provide valuable opportunities for activists from across the country to share ideas, make plans and coordinate national campaigns.
As Free Indonesia, the PRD's new publication, puts it, "The road to overthrowing Suharto is open". This means the international solidarity movement has an even greater responsibility to support the pro-democracy movement in Indonesia and the resistance in East Timor. Get involved!
[Janet Parker is the Sydney ASIET coordinator.]