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ASIET Net News 19 – May 5-11, 1997
PRD Statement - May 6, 1997
Democracy is at its nadir! The sentences meted out to the eleven
PRD activists have proven that the New Order regime is an
oppressive regime. It proves that fundamental differences of
opinion are not allowed in this country. In the history of the
world, only dictatorial regimes dare to put political parties on
trial. The New Order regime has already put itself on par with
the worst of dictatorial regimes.
The sentences of the eleven PRD activists have proven the truth
of the PRD statement that there is no democracy in Indonesia!!!
Democracy, which means people sovereignty, is being trampled for
the sake of maintaining a regime that exploits the people. The
suppression of the PRD was necessary to threaten people who dare
to express and fight for their rights. Those sentences proved
that the PRD had precisely analyzed the central problem of the
Indonesian people while simultaneously developing a program of
struggle, with strategies and tactics, to solve the problem..
Those heavy sentences are needed by the New Order regime to
suppress the people resistance which is blooming and beginning to
send forth the fragrance of democracy. Those sentences are needed
so that workers, peasants, the urban poor, students and
intellectuals who have stood up become terrorized into abandoning
their resistance. Those sentences are needed so that the
exploitation of the workers, the expropriation of people from
their land, and the expulsions of the urban poor, can go on
smoothly. Those sentences are part of a larger system of
exploitation. Therefore, we strongly protest those sentences by
launching a hunger strike.
We have begun our hunger strike on International Workers Day, May
1, 1997. Only in Indonesia, under the New Order regime, is May
Day not commemorated. Representing respect towards the toiling
workers, it is observed in every democratic country as a national
holiday. But in Indonesia, PRD activists who fight for the
economic and political rights of workers are convicted in
kangaroo courts and imprisoned. Please remember on this day that
Marsinah had to pay, as the price of her struggle, a horrible
death at the hands of ABRI. This is the uncivilized nature of the
oppressor which affects the workers and various sectors of the
Indonesian people. It is primitive! It is far removed from the
civilized and just humanity proclaimed in the second principle of
Pancasila.
On this workers day, we PRD activists behind bars call for
resistance to this oppression. Our hunger strike is one way we
call upon the workers to support Megawati Sukarnoputri leadership
and to boycott the elections until the Five Political Laws and
ABRI Double-function are repealed! There is no use joining the
elections when they are obviously being used by an authoritarian
regime to oppress the people and those who are fighting for the
people. As long as the elections can not bring any benefit to the
workers, there is no point for you workers to make it successful.
We have to be resolute in facing this regime wickedness. Do not
tolerate its harsh and brutal acts to silence the people voice.
The actions of this regime are immoral and they are against the
values of democracy, of Pancasila and of UUD 1945 96 the
principles which the regime itself hails. At the drama
performance of the 1997 general election, we have to be brave and
shout BOYCOTT!
Why? Because we cannot accept this election which has excluded
the PDI-Struggle under Megawati Sukarnoputri. We certainly do not
want our voices to be corrupted into legitimizing the authority
of those who oppress us.
For this reason, we have to take substantive steps to reveal the
lies behind the upcoming election. A public campaign has to be
launched and spread widely according to the following method:
1) Open mass mobilizations and public gatherings during the
campaign period.
2) Producing publications and pamphlets and distributing them to
the mass of the people.
3) Raising banners, sticking up posters and pamphlets in places
where they can be seen and read by the people.
For the success of the above campaign, we need to form general
election committees aimed at developing a wide network with the
active involvement of the people. PRD suggestions are, among
others:
1) Form boycott committees and also committees to mobilize
support for Megawati in the cities where you live. When the public campaign of the boycott committees spreads, we
can then begin tactics for the actual boycott of the election.
Precise tactics should be chosen based upon the quality and depth
of the networking.
1) Organize people to submit their yellow registration cards to
the branch office and central office of PDI-Struggle. Through the
committees, the number of yellow cards will be counted so that
the real number of people who support Megawati will be known. The central point is that all boycott activity has to be directed
towards mass mobilization. Only when millions of people who have
been economically and politically oppressed for decades begin to
move, will the New Order pay attention to their political
influence. Only when the people are able to organize themselves
like this will the regime be forced to meet their demands:
WITHOUT MEGAWATI THE ELECTIONS ARE INVALID!!! Only then will the
New Order be willing to repeat the elections with Megawati as the
legal leadership of the PDI. Only with this kind of organizing
activity will people not resort to anarchic activities and people
power will be concentrated on the attempt to assert their
demands.
From behind the prisons of Suharto regime, we PRD cadre are
starting a hunger strike to protest the elections. It is our form
of resistance, undertaken with all the strength we have, to
oppose the elections that only legitimize the power of this
oppressive regime. It is a real step we can take to keep sending
the message to the people that the fake elections have to be
stopped. Only the people can put an end to this Festival of
Deceit. Therefore, LET US FORM COMMITTEES FOR BOYCOTTING THE
ELECTIONS! PROCLAIM THE SLOGAN: "WITHOUT MEGAWATI, BOYCOTT THE
ELECTIONS!"
Jakarta, May 1, 1997
Signed Budiman Sudjatmiko, General Chairman
Petrus H. Hariyanto, Secretary General
PRD Media Release - May 9, 1997 (From Tapol)
Early today, 9 May, the Central Committee, in coordination with
committees in eight cities, Lampung, Bandung, Yogya, Solo,
Semarang, Surabaya, Palu and Menado carried out a second graffiti
action, putting up posters calling on the entire Indonesian
people to boycott the unconstitutional and corrupt 1997 elections
which will do nothing to bring about change and democratic
reform.
PRD activists, all of whom are now underground scrawled slogans
and stuck up posters at strategic points. The posters said:
This is the second boycott action by the PRD. The first one took
place on 3 April. The aim is to show the Indonesian people that
in such a repressive situation as the present, with the military
doing everything to 'make the elections a success', the PRD will
campaign to ensure that they are not a success.
There is no justification in going ahead with the election
because of the absence of one of the contesting parties,
Megawati's PDI, and the participation of the unconstitutional PDI
The rules regulating these elections have been designed in such a
way as to ensure victory for GOLKAR. The elections will do
nothing to achieve any democratic changes which is the only way
forward to improve conditions for the people. The statement then
listed in places in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bogor and Bekasi where
the action had taken place.
May 29 elections
East Timor
Human rights
Economy and investment
International relations
Miscellaneous
Democratic struggle
PRD hunger strike to boycott general election
2) When these committees have been formed, develop alliances
among committees so that the resistance network will become
larger, moving from the regency level to the provincial level to
the national level.
3) Conduct consolidation meetings and discussions about the
current political situation in the nation. Hold meetings to
organize mass actions with an election boycott as the main issue.
4) Constantly publish fliers and distribute them wherever people
gather: at the factory, campus, market, terminal, theatre, mall,
etc.
5) Write graffiti with spray paint, markers or any other device.
Slogan: "Boycott the elections."
6) Conduct trainings routinely which can impart an understanding
and technical ability in the field for mobilizing and leading
mass actions. 7) Hold free speech forums and mass actions in
campuses, public parks, factories, near parliament or other
government institutions.
2) If mass militancy survives the terror which will be launched
by the regime, the number of supporters will be regularly
announced to the public. It is important for the public to see
the development of the struggle. The courage of the masses has to
be considered at this stage.
3) If mass militancy is getting higher, the yellow cards which
have been collected and counted should be burned. This burning
has to be widely announced. This action can be done when there is
a network committee in the big cities even if committees in the
villages have not been formed. This action can spontaneously
prompt similar actions in other places.
4) On the day of the general election, mobilize the public 96 at
the same time, in every region. Here we can show in real numbers
the amount of support for Megawati and the demand for boycotting
the elections.
PRD's second graffiti action to boycott elections
PRD court statement summary
Tapol - May 7, 1997
[We offer below a summary of the first part of the statement in court on 21 April made by nine activists of the Partai Rakyat Demokratik, the PRD, at the conclusion of their trial, a week before they were all sentenced. This is the section that deals with political structures under Suharto's New Order regime and lambasts the five political laws of 1985, which have been widely condemned by the pro-democracy movement in the past few years.]
This is not a 'pledooi' or defence plea but a Declaration of the PRD's Responsibility addressed to the Indonesian people, not to the courts that are trying us.
The fact that we have been accused of subversion demonstrates that the trial is political. The decision regarding our case rests with forces outside these walls. It has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with politics. There is no such thing as the separation of powers - Trias Politika - it's in the hands of a single man, General Suharto, backed by the armed forces, ABRI, as defenders of the Five Political Laws of 1985.
We are determined to serve the people of our beautiful country so as to ensure that it becomes the property of the people, with people's severeignty fully established.
We have chosen democracy, a political system with parties and a Parliament. It was for this purpose that soon after Indonesian independence was proclaimed, Vice- President Moh. Hatta issued Declaration X enabling people to set up political parties. It is only with the establishment of political parties that political power can be based on the people's will. It is unacceptable for anyone to be charged with subversion just because he or she understands this simple truth.
The events of 27 July 1996 were the culmination of a series of events going back to the internal disruption within the PDI under Megawati's leadership. The bloody onslaught against the PDI head office was the opening salvo of an operation by top army officers to clean up the forces of democracy. We first heard of this attack on the PDI office from one of our comrades, Garda Sembiring. We never believed that such a thing would happen because we thought that the political costs for the government and ABRI would be far too high. Little did we realise that the rulers had not only planned the scenario for the attack but had also decided who would be the scapegoat.
This scenario is reminiscent of the Reichstag Fire which paved the way to Hitler's rise to power. We stand here like the Dutch madman whom Hitler accused of being the communist responsible for a fire that had been started by Hitler himself. This is what gave Hitler the legitimacy to exterminate his political opponents.
Information about the events was reported in such a way as to imply that they were the result of a conspiracy to stage a rebellion, in which the PRD played the leading part. Yet the National Human Rights Commission said not a word about our being involved. As the Commission pointed out, the incident involved violations of the freedom of assembly and association, freedom from fear, freedom from cruel and inhuman treatment, the right to life, the right to the security of the person, and the right to property.
At the heart of the conflict was the question of people's sovereignty and the state of political life. Institutions of the state, the bureacracy and the military, interfered in the internal affairs of one of the parties.
Parties do not control the government and the military; on the contrary, the parties are totally dependent on the government. Under Law No. 3, 1985, the parties have been turned into nothing more than fraudulent electoral machines.
The PDI was the creation of this political system, the essence of which rests in the ability of its bureaucrats and military in interfere in the internal affairs of the political parties and the ability to silence all challenges to the system. As we, standing here, have experienced ourselves, we were only able to challenge the system by signing Interrogation Reports to be charged under a subversion law with the threat of a death sentence hanging over us. Such gagging methods are very effective indeed for rulers who have no moral, constitutional or historical legitimacy.
After the 27 July events, we young people in the PRD lived through very hard times, accused by the dictator General Suharto of being the reincarnation of the PKI and faced with the threat of his guns. The entire state apparatus, from top to bottom, was mobilised to conceal evils in society and alienate the people from the PRD. Even the mass media was forced to spread these lies.
The PRD came into existence in a situation in which none of the parties has the capacity to function independently or have roots in the community. The Suharto dictatorship accused the PRD of being the reincarnation of the PKI because, like the PKI, we have affiliated organisations - a workers union, a peasants union, a students union and a union of cultural workers. But all parties in the old days had similar structures. This is quite normal. Even GOLKAR has its mass organisations.
When the PDI showed signs of becoming an alternative party and restoring links with its mass basis, everything was done to prevent it from consolidating itself. Despite all attempts to prevent this from happening, the PDI was able, at its conference in December 1993 to elect Megawati Sukarnoputri as its chairperson. Under her leadership, the PDI was transformed from an electoral machine into a party dealing with peoples' problems. Issues like reform, the party's independence and upholding the sovereignty of the people were frequently mentioned in her speeches. It's one thing for ideas like these to be discussed in seminars or in journals but quite another thing if they are talked about before the masses.
In the eyes of the rulers, it was one thing for such matters to be raised by extra- parliamentary pro-democracy forces but quite another for them to be raised by a political movement that had representatives in Parliament. The combination of these forces, the extra-parliamentary and intra-parliamentary, terrified the New Order rulers, especially as the 1997 elections and the 1998 MPR session drew near. It gave a new meaning to party political life, with the rulers being forced to accept that this challenge had penetrated the very system which it had created.
From this platform, we want to unmask the system created in a conspiracy between the government and the armed forces. The falsehoods that have stifled the political life of the people are known as the Five Political Laws of 1985, the laws which became the bastion to defend and perpetuate the dictatorial powers of the New Order which is now more than 30 years old. Let us take a closer look at the the evil and falsehoods embedded in these five laws.
Pwrticipation by the people in the political process will always be bereft of meaning where people do not have the freedom to create their own independent parties. Article 1 of Paragraph (1) of Law No 3, 1985 on political parties names three parties, the PDI, the PPP and Golkar. Under this law, no other partiers are allowed to exist. Furthermore these parties are only allowed to have officials at the national capital, the provincial capitals and the district capitals. Below that, they may only have commissioners. This means that parties are prevented from having contact with the masses of the people down to the village level.
Article 10 of this Law establishes the principle of the floating mass, forcing people to become a-political. The people are only allowed a platform once every five years, at the time of an election. This aims to demonstrate that people are only interested in basic needs like food and clothing; their political rights, their concerns for their own future, have been sub- contracted to the rulers.
It is no exaggeration to say that the mass riots that have erupted in the past few months have occurred because people don't have any political channels through which to express their aspirations and find solutions to their problems.
Law No 8, 1985 on social organisations had a direct impact on destroying democratic life in Indonesia by placing social organisations under government guidance, giving the government powers to remove elected leaders if an organisation is deemed to have violated provisions of the Law. Furthermore these organisations may not affiliate to a political party. We state clearly that the basic objective of a political party is to struggle for the interests of its members and therefore needs affiliated organisations.
This Law puts social organisations into the regime's armpit, having destroyed their right to an independent existence. Furthermore the Law stipulates that there may only be a single organisation for each sector, an impossible state of affairs in a society which is so pluralistic in its culture and interests. The prime purpose of this Law is to prevent these organisations from getting involved in practical politics.
As for Law No 5, 1985 on a Referendum, the purpose of this Law was simply to protect the interests of the rulers. The Law is intended to prevent any move to amend the 1945 Constitution. Suharto said at the time that any move to end representation of the armed forces in Parliament would pose a threat to national security. A Referendum is supposed to be a way of testing the opinion of the general public, but not here in Indonesia, where the aim of a Referendum is to protect the interests of those in power.
The Law on Elections is profoundly anti-democratic. It regulates everything in very general terms, leaving it up to the Executive to work out the details. A general election is supposed to provide a constitution basis for changing the government. But under the New Order regime, it is nothing but a farce. It involves a huge squandering of money on somethings that has nothing to do with people's sovereignty. The purpose of the five- yearly exercise is nothing more than to legitimise the regime. All people should have the right to vote and be elected. But here, all candidates are screened according to very vague criteria. The purpose is simply to select individuals who are in tune with the rulers.
The Law says nothing about screening candidates. Article 19 says that candidates may be rejected if they fail to comply with Article 16 but Article 16 says nothing about screening; it only regulates material things. However, Article 19 says that the government will introduce regulations about the nomination of candidates. Presidential Decree No 10/1995 states that the Election Committee shall conduct investigations regarding the nomination of candidates, which only goes to show that the rulers can do just as they like.
The Election Law provides for the establishment of an Election Institute headed by the Minister of the Interior in Jakarta and Election Institutes in the provincial and district capitals, as well as vote-counting committees and voter-registration committees in every village.
This means that the election is completely in the hands of GOLKAR because all officials involved, from the Interior Minister down, are members of GOLKAR. Under such circumstances, how can the fairness of the elections possibly be guaranteed?
The election law turns the other contesting parties into nothing more than 'also-rans', without any chance of playing a significant role in the process. Everything is arranged in such a way that the men in power have conceptualised the system, they are the ones who implement it and and they are the ones who will win. Never imagine for a moment that it will be possible to have free, fair and honest elections until this Election Law has been replaced.
Any political system will have methods for recruitment of people to political positions. In a democracy this should be open and transparent but under the Five Laws, everything is hidden and conspiratorial. A Parliament should be the expression of people's sovereignty with powers to criticise and control the Executive but what we have here is a Parliament composed of people selected by those in power.
There is also a law providing for the appointment of 75 members of Parliament from the armed forces. They are chosen, not elected, and members of the armed forces do not vote. If the armed forces want to have members of Parliament, they should set up their own political party and take part in the election.
The force blocking democracy in Parliament is the alliance between GOLKAR and the armed forces. There can never been any rational, open political dialogue if one side threatens the other with the use of weapons. The method that has been devised for appointing representatives of the people is the most conservative, authoritarian and anti- democratic aspect of the election law.
Kompas - May 6, 1997 (Abridged from Tapol)
Former MP Sri Bintang Pamungkas was moved from a detention cell at the attorney- general's office [where he has been held since 6 March] to Cipinang Prison, Jakarta, to serve a 34 month sentence for insulting the president. This followed rejection of his appeal against the verdict by the Supreme Court on 11 April 1997.
He had been found guilty of insulting the head of state during a lecture on economics delivered at the Technical University in Berlin. Pending appeal, Sri-Bintang was not held in custody, but must now serve the sentence.
Sri-Bintang told journalists that he would not be taking the case any further [ie to seek clemency from the President] as he sees the verdict as a 'consequence of struggle'.
Before leaving his cell at the attorney-general's office, he was asked to sign a document releasing him from detention by the attorney-general and transferring him to prison to serve the 34 month sentence, but refused to do so, saying that he had not been officially informed that his sentence would now be implemented. An attorney-general official stated that he had been released from their custody in order to serve his sentence but that he is still a suspect under the anti-subversion law. His interrogation for the subversion case against him will continue. The period he spent in detention by the attorney-general, from 6 March until 5 May would be deducted in the event of his being sentenced in the subversion case.
One of his lawyers, Bambang Widyajanto said that the Supreme Court's ruling on his case had come much faster than is normally the case. 'We only filed it two months ago,' he told journalists. He believes that the case was speeded up to keep him behind bars up until 1998 [the year of the presidential election]. 'Of course, the attorney-general can go on extending the detention order but it's easier to have the 34-month verdict upheld as the way to keep him in custody.'
The lawyer also said that it was regrettable that Sri-Bintang and his family had not yet been notified of the the Supreme Court's finding; he learnt about it from the press.
Kompas - May 6, 1997 (Abridged from Tapol )
The nine PRD activists who were found guilty and sentenced last week on charges of subversion have filed appeals against the verdict with the appeal court.
Secretary of the Team to Defend Justice, Dwiyanto Prihartono, the Team which had handled the PRD defence, said they had filed their appeals through the prison authorities, an avenue that is open to defendants who have no lawyers [As will be recalled, the PRD activists dismissed their lawyers in the concluding stages of their trials, to indicate their rejection of the court process.
In a written statement signed by PRD chairpperson Budiman Sudjatmiko and secretary Petrus Hariyanto, they said that this appeal was being filed to demonstrate their total rejection of the verdicts passed in court. 'We will use all avenues to demonstrate this,' they said.
| May 29 elections |
Agence France Presse - May 2, 1997
Jakarta – Election violence hit several towns on the fourth day of the country's electoral campaign.
In Pekalongan, a coastal town in northern Central Java, supporters of the ruling Golkar party clashed with those of the Muslim-led United Development Party (PPP) on Wednesday, leaving five people injured and several buildings damaged, Kompas said.
Police in Pekalongan declined to comment when contacted on Thursday.
The clash broke out after PPP supporters stumbled on Golkar supporters who were removing PPP flags on the side of a road, the newspaper said. A government office and five other buildings were damaged in the melee that followed.
About 3,000 Golkar flags have disappeared from the streets of the town that has seen several clashes between supporters of the two parties since March.
In Yogyakarta, also in Central Java, the local PPP chapter halted campaigning after one of its offices was pelted with stones and attacked by Golkar supporters.
The Yogyakarta PPP chapter also decided to take down all the party flags, signs and posters that had been put up for the campaign in the city, to show support for the chapter's decision to halt campaigning.
In Pontianak, West Kalimantan, five supporters of the small nationalist alliance Indonesian Democracy party were injured after they were attacked by an unidentified group of men.
Golkar campaigned in several towns around North Sumatra and the Western Lesser Sunda islands, while PPP addressed supporters in Sulawesi and Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island.
Voice of America - May 5, 1997
Jenny Grant, Yogyakarta – Political tension in Central Java is rising after a series of clashes between rival party supporters. Jenny Grant reports from Yogyakarta the killing of a local gangster has added to the uneasiness.
It is election campaign time in Yogyakarta and the streets are heavily guarded by soldiers armed with semi-automatic weapons. Youth ride motorbikes wielding traditional knives and party security guards secure key locations.
Analysts say the university town of Yogyakarta is the political barometer of the nation, and the pressure here is clearly growing.
Last week 50 security guards working for the ruling Golkar Party attacked two branches of the Moslem backed United Development Party -- the P-P-P.
The attack, which left two people injured, is being investigated by police. The P-P-P boycotted two days of campaigning in protest and officials met here Saturday to discuss the violent incidents. They say they plan to resume campaigning on Sunday.
The Legal Aid Institute has released a list of 14 violent incidents that have occurred here since the campaign began, including beatings and vandalism of party property.
Earlier this week, local gangster Sudiraharjo (no other name) known as "Abu" was killed by a group of unidentified men north of Yogyakarta. Abu had been working for Cakra - the Golkar Security Taskforce which attacked the Moslem Party offices. This had led to speculation that he was killed by P-P-P thugs or the military in an operation to rid the town of criminals before the May 29 polls.
P-P-P has rejected the allegation and Yogyakarta Police said they were stilll investigating.
Political analyst and leader of the National Muhammadiyah Group, Amien Rais, said party leaders will have to manage the tension to ensure it does not flare into open violence.
An election boycott campaign by university students which was thriving last month has now been forced underground. Students allege beatings and torture by military authorities, but the harsh treatment has not deterred them.
Activist Hari Prabowo who was arrested in April at a boycott protest said he has chosen to boycott because the elections were not free and fair.
We are all students together. We don't believe in the general election which is arranged by the government because we know there is no democracy.
A recent survey predicted that nearly 40 percent of students at the state run university of Gadjah Mada here will boycott the campaign. A poll at the National Islamic Institute here showed 90 percent of students would choose to blank vote.
Radio Australia - May 3, 1997
Scores of people are reportedly injured after clashes between supporters of Indonesia's main opposition party and backers of the ruling Golkar party in Pekalongan, Central Java.
Pekalongan is one of the few districts where the Moslem-led party won over Golkar in the last elections in 1992. The area has suffered increasing violence between supporters of the two parties since March, however the first week of campaigning for the national election has seen even more trouble.
The Jakarta Post daily says in one confrontation, about 100 supporters of the Moslem-led United Development Party, returning from a campaign rally, were attacked by a mob in front of a Golkar office.
Indonesia's 124 million voters will elect 425 members of parliament in the May 29 polls.
Straits Times - May 5, 1997
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers broke up a demonstration by Muslim youths carrying mock coffins and flaming torches in the Central Java city of Yogjakarta as tensions between rival parties escalated in the run-up to this month's general election.
Soldiers armed with riot gear charged the demonstration held by 120 youths yesterday morning after they took to the streets to protest against last week's attack on local branches of the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP).
Reports said that the youths carried three mock coffins, a mock corpse, flaming torches and incense to symbolise the death of democracy. They chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) as they marched or rode in convoys of motorcycles waving green flags. Some also burned car tyres in the streets.
Security forces dispersed the procession by pointing their rifles at the protesters when they stopped near the Kraton or Sultan's palace in the city centre. No shots were fired, however.
A PPP cadre told The Straits Times that none of the youths sustained serious injuries during the incident, adding that the party was investigating the reasons behind the protest.
"It must be a reaction to the obstacles that have been placed before the PPP by Golkar and the military," said another cadre.
Several incidents have flared up between the ruling Golkar party and PPP in Yogjakarta over the past week.
On Wednesday night, two PPP branches were pelted with stones and ransacked by a mob. A day later, about 1,000 PPP supporters damaged roadside lamps and burned tyres in protest against the attack on their offices.
In Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi, a PPP mass rally attended by some 5,000 people on Thursday turned violent when a mob pelted a electricity station causing a power failure there.
Several PPP branches have boycotted the elections to register their protest against the attacks on their offices and "unfair" election rules which PPP sources say favoured Golkar.
Meanwhile, the Central Java military commander, Major-General Subagyo Siswoyo, whose troops have been called in repeatedly over the past month to quell unrests in the region, has warned that the security forces would not hesitate to take action against those who violate campaign rules.
"The regulations are very clear," he told reporters in Semarang, stressing that national unity came before party interest. According to Central Java police, nine people were killed and 20 injured in the past six days of campaigning.
Analysts believe that the Indonesian armed forces would pay more attention to Central Java, East Java and West Kalimantan during the elections given the recent violence there.
Indonesia's national election supervision committee chairman Singgih, was quoted by the Jakarta Post yesterday as saying that all three political parties had breached campaign rules in the first week of hustings.
He said that the removal of party flags and banners, and physical clashes between rival party supporters were common offences.
He also said that motorcades had been the most difficult violation to control although the three party leaders and government had agreed to ban them.
But he noted: "None of the violations can be be categorised as subversion."
Dow Jones News - April 28, 1997
Dili – Four men have been arrested in the killing of a member of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party during an election meeting in East Timor, police said Monday.
The arrests brought to six the number of men held in connection with the killing Sunday of Alsino da Costa, 29. It was the only violence on the first day of the official campaign period for May 29 general elections.
East Timor Gov. Abilio Jose Soares said anti-government activists killed da Costa when they tried to break up a ruling party meeting in Baucau, 150 kilometers east of Dili.
Police are looking for more suspects, Col. Yusuf Muharam said by phone from Dili, East Timor's capital.
Indonesia is trying to crush a separatist movement in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesian troops in 1975.
| East Timor |
Progressive Magazine - May 1997
Eyal Press – Never underestimate the power of partisanship to alter the consciousness of America's pundits and policymakers. In the final months of 1996, soon after the Clinton-Riady-Lippo scandal broke, rightwingers throughout the media and political establishment suddenly became champions of human rights for the people of East Timor, whose plight had until then gone unnoticed in both official Washington and among the punditocracy. For some, this meant breaking twenty years of silence on the subject; for others, it required a dose of amnesia to block out their own complicity.
Former Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist William Safire may have experienced the greatest epiphany. On October 7, 1996, in his first-ever Times column on the subject, Safire described East Timor as "a human-rights hellhole," this in the context of discussing Webster Hubbell's visit to the island and the Clinton Administration's financial ties to James and Mochtar Riady of the Lippo Group.
"The Riadys gained much face in Indonesia in 1993, helping the Clinton Administration lose interest in labor abuses in East Timor," Safire fumed. Having, like so many others, ignored the issue for more than two decades, the normally well-versed Safire got the facts wrong. The "labor abuses" condoned by the Clinton Administration had been taking place in Indonesia, not East Timor (the latter is a prison-island that barely has a labor market). Safire also referred to "Indonesia's East Timor"–an unfortunate use of the possessive by the master linguist and wordsmith, who may not be aware that Indonesia's annexation of the island is illegal and still not recognized by the United Nations.
In the weeks that followed, Safire turned again and again to the human-rights situation in Indonesia, penning columns on October 14, October 17, and November 28, and pointing once more to "labor abuses in East Timor."
For all his indignation, the pundit has yet to connect East Timor's deplorable condition to his friend and one-time colleague Henry Kissinger, who back in 1975 gave Indonesia U.S. permission to invade East Timor, and continues to nurture a relationship with the Suharto dictatorship, earning hundreds of thousands as a consultant to U.S. corporations with interests in the country. He also regularly visits Indonesia.
Another sudden convert to East Timor's cause was that consummate friend of democracy, Oliver North. On his own radio program and on a CNN panel hosted by Larry King, North scolded the Clinton Administration for arranging arms shipments to an abusive Third World junta behind the American public's back. North told CNN it was wrong for Clinton to be "taking money from Indonesians, selling F- 16 jets to a country that has human-rights abuses writ large all over their record." North neglected to mention that his hero and former employer, Ronald Reagan, supplied Suharto in the same manner when he was in office (not to mention a certain Ayatollah).
Even Crossfire co-host Robert Novak managed to work up some indignation over abuses by the Suharto regime in East Timor. Unlike North or Safire, though, Novak could not hide his distaste for the task: "Bill," he chortled to his liberal CNN counterpart, Bill Press, "as a good liberal I am sure you're very upset about this brutal Indonesian regime's slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in East Timor."
No newspaper editorial board has taken up East Timor's cause more avidly since the Clinton scandal broke than the Moonie-run Washington Times. The paper has published nearly a dozen op-eds and unsigned editorials in recent months excoriating Clinton for taking Lippo's money and turning his back on human-rights abuses in East Timor. Things were not always this way.
In November of 1994, in an editorial on Clinton's foreign policy, the paper scoffed at the notion that, after Rwanda and Haiti, the President would "next week" be preoccupied with "East Timor, which may be a nasty place to live these days, but is not exactly a vital U.S. interest." (To its credit, however, the paper's news section did run an informative, detailed story on East Timor in the summer of 1996, months before the Clinton fundraising scandal erupted.)
On NBC's Meet the Press, meanwhile, East Timor's cause was embraced by Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour. "Now that all these millions have gone through [from Lippo to Clinton]," Barbour railed, "Mickey Kantor stops the investigation on human-rights abuses in East Timor, which has been taken over, invaded, and captured by Indonesia, and a third of the population, 95 percent Roman Catholic... has been exterminated." Not bad for a quick review of the demographics, only Barbour had evidently been reading Safire: Mickey Kantor halted an investigation of human-rights abuses in Indonesia, not East Timor. Barbour said, "There was a quid pro quo, and the quo is billions, F-16 fighters for Indonesia... billion dollars of contracts for the cronies of all of these people... genocide in East Timor." Barbour didn't add that it was a Republican President, Gerald Ford, along with Henry Kissinger, who gave the go- ahead to the invasion.
During the 1996 campaign, Bob Dole began discovering East Timor, too. Dole campaign manager Scott Reed even issued press releases instructing the media to scrutinize Clinton's "ties to the military junta that has slaughtered hundreds of thousands in East Timor." It was an act of true desperation, in that it begged the question of what Dole himself had ever done for the East Timorese.
In fact, quite a bit. In 1994, the Senator helped kill legislation barring the use of any U.S.-supplied weapons in East Timor. Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, had helped craft the provision Dole killed. "Senator Dole not only did nothing to help us, he actively weighed in against the people of East Timor when the votes were being counted," Feingold said. Undaunted, a Dole campaign official in Orange County picked up the phone and rang the East Timor Action Network to see if its members might want tickets to an upcoming Clinton event. The Dole campaign said it had good seats right in front of the cameras, ideal for signs and banners. The group turned down the offer.
Newt Gingrich, for his part, held a press conference and declared that "everything the Administration has said about... Indonesia is now suspect." Gingrich duly called for a suspension of the planned sale of F-16 fighter planes to Indonesia, and, to his credit, invited Nobel Peace Prize recipients Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Belo to testify before Congress. But this marked a sudden change of heart for Gingrich, too. He was at the height of his power as House Speaker when Republicans pushed through a restoration of U.S. military-training assistance to the Indonesian regime.
On the left, Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have been writing about East Timor for two decades. But in the mainstream media, with the exception of Anthony Lewis, there has been next to nothing.
Even today, more than six months into the Indonesian financing scandal, the media have neglected the story. Here are some of the issues they've missed: the Ford- Kissinger role in the atrocities in East Timor; the U.S. corporate connection to Suharto; the impact of U.S. arms sales to the regime; the role of U.S. companies extracting oil in the Timor Gap belonging to East Timor; the massive political crackdown being carried out by the Indonesian government; the jailing of independent labor leaders such as Muchtar Pakpahan; and the stepped-up repression in East Timor since the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta.
Tapol Press Release - May 5, 1997
Eleven activists, including three East Timorese and a journalist, were arrested early today Monday when they entered a factory site in the south of England to protest against the export of armoured vehicles to Indonesia. Seven were released after being held by police for fifteen hours but the three East Timorese and the journalist are still in custody.
The activists entered the premises of Glover Webb in Hamble, near Southampton, manufacturers of Tactica water cannon and armoured vehicles for export to Indonesia. They entered at 2 am Monday and gained access to a very large warehouse where Tactica water cannon, Hornet armoured vehicles, and armoured prison vans are being stored. They were inside the warehouse for about 45 minutes before the alarm system went off. A security guard discovered them and called the police who arrested them all. Besides the three East Timorese, whose identities have not yet been revealed, there were seven arms exports activists from East Anglia and a journalist/photographer from Smallworld who had joined the group to make a video of their action.
Before being discovered the activists managed to plaster the vehicles with posters saying, 'Not for export to Indonesia'.
The East Timorese have so far refused to cooperate with police interrogators, refusing to identify themselves, despite threats that they may be sent to a nearby detention centre for illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, outside the factory premises later in the day, dozens of local activists from Campaign Against Arms Trade gathered to protest against the export of Glover Webb vehicles to Indonesia. The protesters had photographs of Tactica water cannon being used in a police show of force in Jakarta in April, in preparation for security operations against street protests during the Indonesian election campaign which is now underway. Local pressmen and TV crews covering the action took shots of the photographs which were taken from the Dutch daily Volkskrant and The Jakarta Post, Indonesia's leading English-language daily.
This is the first action against the Glover Webb company which has been exporting Tactica water cannon for several years.
East Timor Human Rights Centre - May 5, 1997
The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) holds grave fears for the safety of four East Timorese men who were arrested on 30 March 1997 in the sub-district of Atabae, Bobonaro, by members of the SGI (Special Intelligence Unit) and Kopassus (Special Forces Command). According ETHRC sources, Felisberto Maria dos Santos, Domingos Laranjeira, Jose Sobral and Marcelino Fatima dos Santos, were traveling on motorbikes when they were stopped at a military checkpoint at Atabae and arrested. Although there has been no official reason given for their arrests, it is believed that Felisberto Maria dos Santos was arrested on suspicion of being a member of the East Timorese Armed Resistance. The other three are believed to have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the clandestine resistance movement in East Timor. According to the most recent information from East Timor, all four men are being held in military custody by the SGI (Special Intelligence Unit) in Dili, however, their whereabouts is still unconfirmed.
The East Timor Human Rights Centre is concerned for the safety of the four detainees as they are believed to be at heightened risk of torture an ill-treatment while their whereabouts is still unconfirmed. Prisoners in East Timor are routinely subjected to torture and ill-treatment while in military or police custody, especially if they are denied access to members of their families and independent legal representation.
Biographical details:
Amnesty International - May 2, 1997
According to an unconfirmed report, at about 4.30pm on 21 April 1997 members of the security forces shot and arrested Edison Marcal Dias Freitas, an East Timorese man from Santa Cruz in Dili. On 23 April, relatives went to the police station in Dili to inquire as to his whereabouts and state of health, but without success. Since then there has been no more information.
The family was given no reason for Edison Marcal Dias Freitas's apparent arrest. However, it is believed that he was suspected of having been involved in incidents, some violent, which took place when Bishop Belo returned to East Timor on 24 December 1996 from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway (see UA 06/97, ASA 21/01/97, 8 January - and updates ASA 21/04/97, 12 February and ASA 21/16/97, 18 March). At least 15 people are currently standing trial in East Timor in relation to the events of 24 December. If Edison Marcal Dias Freitas is in custody Amnesty International is concerned that he may be subjected to ill- treatment or torture and that he may not have access to the medical attention which he requires for any injuries he might have sustained from the shooting. The lack of information about his whereabouts also raises fears that he may be killed or "disappeared".
| Human rights |
Kompas - May 6, 1997 (Abridged)
[Odd indeed that the Suharto regime has chosen to take Buchori and not Soebadio to court for an act that was clearly the latter's responsibility. The reason is not difficult to find, the embarrassment of charging an elderly and highly respected politician from the Sukarno era. Tapol]
Soebadio Sastrosatomo, the author of a pamphlet titled, New Era, New Leadership: Badio rejects New Order's Machinations, was questioned for seven and a half hours Monday by Jakarta police. He was accompanied by his team of lawyers. One of the team, Hendardi, said the questioning went smoothly.
Soebadio was being questioned as a witness in the case against Buyung Rachmad Buchori Nasution, his personal assistant who arranged for the pamphlet to be printed and distributed. Buchori is being charged with insulting the head of state for having handled the printing of Soebadio's pamphlet.
Hendardi told reporters that Soebadio had taken full responsibility for the contents of the book, which was banned by order of the Attorney-General on 4 March this year. He also said that he, Soebadio, had instructed Buchori to arrange for a thousand copies of the pamphlet to be printed.
Message from Elizabeth Wong of Suaram - May 5, 1997
A Malaysian citizen and prominent human rights activist, Dr. Syed Husin Ali, was detained at Soekarno-Hatta airport, taken to the hotel where he was participant at a United Nations Seminar and NGO Symposium on the Question of Palestine in Jakarta before being deported on 4th of May, by the Indonesian immigration and military.
According to Dr. Syed Husin Ali in his press statement today, "On arrival at the Sukarno-Hatta Airport about 10:30 am, I was stopped by the Immigration there. I asked for explanation and was only told that they acted on the orders of the higher authorities from ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces) and the Immigration. I noticed a list of names of eight other Malaysian also banned from entering Indonesia. After being detained for two hours, I was allowed to proceed to Hotel Millennium, the venue of the seminar/symposium. But my passport was kept by the Immigration."
"On 4th May 1997, about half an hour before a meeting between participants and the organisers, three officials, including one in uniform who identified himself as an immigration officer, entered my room and informed me that I had to be deported. No reason was given. After packing my wife and I were escorted out by six persons through the back door of the hotel, where we boarded flight MH722 of the Malaysian Airline System. Although we requested, we were not allowed to meet organisers of the seminar/symposium before leaving the hotel."
We are appealing to all solidarity partners to write into the UN Office and especially the conference organisers before the 7th of May, to protest the deportation of Dr. Syed Husin Ali. We hope you will urge the organisers to acknowledge what has happened; to seek redress in having Dr. Syed Husin Ali continue his participation in the ongoing conference, and issue strong public statements condemning the Indonesian regime for its harassment.
| Economy and investment |
Straits Times - May 6, 1997
Susan Sim, Jakarta – The fabled Busang gold mine, once described as the richest find this century with a reputed 71 million ounces of gold, is a scam "without precedent in the history of mining anywhere in the world", a report has concluded.
Not only was there "virtually no possibility of an economic gold deposit" at the site deep in the Kalimantan jungles, but samples submitted by mining company Bre-X Minerals had been doctored, an independent consultant hired by the company said.
As the mining industry here reacted with stunned dismay to the news, released in Canada late on Sunday night, the Indonesian government vowed to take legal action against Bre-X if it was proved to have acted fraudulently.
The interim report by Strathcona Mineral Services, dated May 3 and addressed to Bre-X president David Walsh, was brief but direct in its condemnation of what it described as "fraudulent activities" by unnamed parties. "The magnitude of the tampering with core samples that we believe has occurred and resulting falsification of assay values at Busang is of a scale and over a period of time and with a precision that, to our knowledge, is without precedent in the history of mining anywhere in the world," it said.
It did not elaborate on who did the tampering or how it was done.
The report, coming after weeks of nervous anticipation that saw Bre-X shares plummet and climb with each rumour after a Bre-X partner said it had found "insignificant amounts of gold" in due diligence checks, brought the high-stakes saga to an ignominious end.
There was first the dramatic struggle for control of the mine as the company and its rivals roped in two of President Suharto's children, a former Canadian prime minister and a former American president for heavy behind-the-scenes lobbying, before a confidante of the Indonesian leader, Mr Bob Hasan, brokered a deal.
That deal cut Bre-X's share by half to 45 per cent, gave 15 per cent to American company Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold, 10 per cent to the Indonesian government and 30 per cent to a charitable foundation headed by Mr Suharto and managed by Mr Hasan, Nusamba and two other Indonesian companies.
Then, there was the mysterious death of Bre-X chief geologist Michael de Guzman, who apparently fell from a helicopter while on his way to meet Freeport executives to review his findings. And with that, came unstuck the tale of the tiny Canadian company that made instant millionaires of its shareholders, including Mr Walsh and his wife, as estimates of the Busang find rose, at one point reaching the stratospheric level of 200 million ounces before settling at 71 million ounces.
While Mr Walsh said he shared "the shock and dismay of our shareholders and others, that the gold we thought we had at Busang now appears not to be there", local partner Nusamba announced last night that it was withdrawing from the project.
And amid speculation that the government would now tighten mining regulations and subject small exploration companies to more stringent scrutiny to avoid a repeat of the scandal, sources said that top mines ministry official Kuntoro Mankusubroto was summoned to the state palace by State Secretary Moerdiono at noon yesterday.
Mr Kuntoro, who as secretary general oversaw the granting of contracts of work to foreign mining companies, was stripped of his powers briefly last year, because of reported differences with his minister over the ownership of the Busang mine.
He was replaced early last month when media speculation intensified that Bre-X geologists might have doctored samples by adding gold particles. See page 13.
Canadian Press - May 5, 1997
A patch of Indonesian jungle that Bre-X Minerals had hailed as the gold find of the century is actually a tampering job "without precedent" in the history of mining anywhere in the world, new tests show.
Bre-X released the information in a statement late last night.
An intensive investigation is expected to begin immediately. Bre-X has hired experts to find out why its own findings were so glowing.
"We share the shock and dismay of our shareholders and others that the gold we thought we had at Busang now appears not to be there," Bre-X president and chief executive David Walsh said in a statement.
"We have spent millions of dollars in the strong belief that a sizable deposit existed and have directed all our efforts towards development of the project."
| International relations |
Tapol - May 9, 1997
The London Times' diplomatic editor, Michael Binyon reported on 8 May that Robin Cook, the new Foreign Secretary, has told Foreign Office officials that the Government will take a much tougher line than the Conservatives on arms exports and may halt all weapons deliveries to countries with dubious human rights records, such as President Suharto's Indonesia.
Binyon's report also says that Britain, France and Germany have agreed on a tripartite effort to ban landmines and intensify cooperation in arms control and disarmament.
Foreign Office guidelines will outline the department's priorities intended to give much greater emphasis to human rights in Britain's dealings with other countries.
| Miscellaneous |
South China Morning Post - May 3, 1997
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The Government is waging war against a new breed of freedom fighter for East Timor - the computer hacker.
A Portuguese hacker was the latest Internet guerilla to sneak behind enemy lines - breaking into a military Web site to plaster the word "propaganda" across the green and brown camouflage page.
Using the tag name Toxyn, he claimed to represent a group called Portuguese Hackers Against Indonesia. But the raid was short- lived. Military computer experts counter-attacked to chase Toxyn out of the system.
"This is not the first time," said Onno Purbo, head of the Computer Network Researchers Group at the Bandung Institute of Technology.
"Hackers have already attacked the Department of Foreign Affairs Web site, the Iptek government computer system, the Indonesian Institute of Studies and the Surabaya Institute of Technology," he said.
The latest computer clash came on the armed forces' site at [13]www.mil.id.
"They did not succeed in destroying the information on our home page," said Brigadier General Slamet Supriadi, head of the military's information unit.
Under its "daily news" section yesterday, the military offered a 20-page history and geography of East Timor which had been posted in January.