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ASIET Net News 46 – December 1-7, 1997
Indonesian People's Front - Bandung, November 17, 1997
[The following is an abridged translation of a statement sent to
ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) by the
National Committee for Democratic Struggle (Kelompok Nasional
Perjuangan Demokrasi). The original statement included a number
of press reports on the action and arrests – only one of these,
a Bandung Pos report dated November 19, has been translated -
ASIET]
The political and economic situation [in Indonesia] is
experiencing an extended crisis which has implications for the
apprehension and unrest of the people which is unable to be
resolved by the state apparatus. More than this, after more than
31 years, the authoritarianism of the New Order regime has made
the Indonesian people live under economic pressures and
experience a process of depoliticisation. By legitimisation and
other means of the New Order, the authorities have entered all
sectors of the peoples' lives.
The people live under extreme and unusual levels of control so
that they are afraid to put forward their aspirations and
demands, because in the history of the power of the New Order
none of the peoples' demands have been given a channel; in fact
it has been dammed by all kinds of repressive acts.
The Non-government organisations, which it was hoped were capable
of channeling the aspirations and demands of the people, have
been accused of being communists, rebels and scapegoated in order
to contain the peoples' resistance. As a result, the underlying
unrest has emerged and accumulated in the form of social
explosions and riots. This indicates to us that the desires of
the people must be [given a] channel. The institutions
legitimised by the government such as the political parties (1),
the DPR (2) and the National Human Rights Commission are just not
enough. Most importantly, because these institutions have been
coopted by a system which is not on the side of the people.
Departing from a number of problems faced by this nation, the
Indonesian People's Front (Front Rakyat Indonesia, FRI) was born.
Although in the recent political situation this is not permitted
[by the regime] because of the increase in political repression
facing independent political activists, we believe that the
struggle to liberate the people from oppression and exploitation
requires an extended process and not a few casualties. With
strong resolve, the FRI is trying to provide a contribution to
the building of an economic and political life in Indonesia which
is qualitatively more mature and advanced.
As the first step, the FRI calls on the people to resist the
arbitrary [use of power] and condemns the regime's violent acts
against the pro-democratic activists which were repressed on
October 28, 1997, in three cities: Jakarta, Bandung and Semerang.
The FRI also supports and promotes all pro-democratic groups in
resisting the oppression and exploitation because only by the
peoples' resistance can the "Pandora's box" of the peoples'
liberation be opened.
Chronology of the FRI action: Justice for the people and reject the sole nomination of Suharto
Bandung (West Java), Tuesday, November 17, 1997
09.30: Hundreds of troops, the mobile brigade, local and regional
police were already on guard around the Sate Building and had
closed off roads leading past it.
10.20: The action started, attended by students and local people
(around 200) and watched by hundreds of troops. Red banners with
"Justice for the People" written on them were unfurled. There
were also posters reading "Reduce prices and increase wages" and
"Reject the sole nomination of the Indonesian president". The
marshal, Binbin (a Stikom student) began a speech.
10.40: The Peoples' Declaration was read along with singing the
song "Bloody Struggle" by a FRI leader named Dewi (a STSI
student). Security forces responded by forming a blockade. Anti-
riot troops encircled the action. One of the other FRI leaders
named Eka (an IAIN student) tried to negotiate [with the
authorities] who wanted to break up the action.
10.50: The action continued and a small fight occurred with
troops. When Eka tried to read the FRI statement, it was snatched
away and he was hit. The authorities tried to forced them to put
away the banner and posters. On the initiative of the marshal,
the masses broke through the cordon and moved off towards the
local parliament.
10.50: The action was continued at the grounds of the parliament.
Parliamentarians asked to meet with and speak to FRI activists.
The masses rejected this because they no longer trusted them. Too
often they make high sounding promises while democracy is
shackled and the people are left to suffer. Parliamentarians are
only the tools of the authorities.
11.10: Songs of struggle were sung followed by reading the FRI
statement which had been prevented from being read before. The
FRI condemned the repressive acts against their comrades in
Jakarta, Lampung, Bandung and Semerang on October 28. The FRI
statement also rejected the sole nomination of Suharto as
president.
11.25: After the statement was read the marshal was suddenly
attacked and beaten by intelligence agents and mobile brigade
troops. The marshal, who had already fallen to the ground, was
stepped on and then dragged 30 metres, put into a truck and taken
to police headquarters. This was immediately followed by the
arrest of other activists.
11.26: All of those arrested were put in a truck and taken to
police headquarters. They were beaten and mistreated (3) like
other pro-democracy activists who have challenge the oppression
and exploitation of the New Order.
11.45: All of the 12 who were arrested, were interrogated about
the relationship between FRI and the People's Democratic Party
(PRD), because of the red banners and posters, head bands and
words of resistance which have become a call to action by the
people.
17.00: After the interrogation, Pius, an Aldera (4) activists who
has become a "public secret", who often trades with the military
and there is a strong indication that he is an intelligence
agent, approached Ipung, a Bandung activists not known by FRI –
and suspected/accused of being a PRD cadre – asking about FRI's
relationship with the PRD. Pius then persuaded an FRI activist to
work together with him to exchange information and leave the FRI
because it is suspected by the military of being affiliated to
the PRD. Pius said that the FRI activists that were arrested
would be released the next morning. This was proved to be true
when the 12, accompanied by Saut from the Bandung Legal Aid
Institute, were released at 6am on Tuesday. The FRI pleaded with
all the groups to watch out for Pius and not be taken in by
Pius's persuasion.
Bandung Pos - November 19, 1997
Police admit that they have arrested a number of Bandung students
while they were holding a demonstration on the grounds of Gasibu,
Bandung, last Monday.
The head of the Bandung police, Colonel Eriwn told the press that
the arrest of the students was done in order to interrogate them
about the background to the action.
"They were `secured' to get information in relation to the
demonstration they held which was directed in provocative forms
and intended to spread feelings of hatred against the government
among broader society" said Colonel Erwin.
According to Erwin, security forces had already identified and
investigated them to find out the extent of their involvement in
the demonstration, which also distributed a leaflet titled
"Declaration of the Indonesian People's Front".
The students who were "asked" for information by the Bandung
police are: Den (21), an IAIN Bandung student; Wil (19), an Unwim
Bandung student; Sam (21), a STIKOM Bandung student; Mar (20), a
Unpar Bandung student; PA (21), an Unpar Bandung student; Bin
(22), a STIKOM Bandung student; Pit (21), an Unpar Bandung
student; DY (18), a STSI Bandung student and; LNH (22), a student
at Unpar Bandung.
Erwin, accompanied by a number of other officers said that they
were detained at 10.30am while the group of students was leaving
the Gasibu grounds heading toward the Jebar parliament building
and taken to the police station by truck.
Police said that the initial results of the investigation found
that the nine students did not know about the leaflet which is
considered [by the authorities] to be quite disturbing to
society.
Police however, consider that there is still a possibility that
the action was "masterminded" by irresponsible people.
"Look at the sophistication of the leaflet's contents, clearly it
is a form of provocation and spreading feelings of hatred,
primarily against the official government", he said.
Because of this the police will continue to carry out the
investigation to find they "actor" who is behind them, he said.
Notes
1. As of December 3, the FRI activists are still being processed
by the authorities and will be tried for disturbing public order
and insulting the head of state. Letters of authority ordering
them to be witnesses (without knowing who has been charged) have
already been received by the arrested FRI activists, although FRI
activists have refused to respond to the letters.
2. The FRI is preparing a solidarity action for the struggle of
the East Timorese people on December 8, 1997, in Jakarta.
3. We ask for concern and support from all Indonesian and
international democratic groups,
Translators notes:
1. Aside from the state party Golkar, only two other "opposition"
parties are allowed to contest the general elections. They were
"created" in 1993 when the regime forcibly amalgamated the
remaining ten political parties which had survived the purgings
and bannings of 1965/66 into the Indonesian Democratic Party
(PDI), made up of the Christian and Nationalist parties and the
United Development Party (PPP), representing Islamic interests.
2. DPR: Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat, Peoples Representative Assembly
(Parliament). Consisting of 500 members, 425 elected from the
three officially recognised political parties during the general
elections: Golkar (the state party), the United Development Party
and the Indonesian Democratic Party. The remaining 75 members are
appointed by the president from the military (who are not allowed
to vote).
3. The original Indonesian term used was "disiksa", which can
also mean to interrogate or torture.
4. Aldera: Aliansi Demokrasi Rakyat, the People's Democratic
Alliance, was formed in late 1994 and is made up of a number of
pro-democratic and non-government organisations including PIJAR,
FAMI, SKEPHI, the women's organisation Kaliamitra and the
Yogyakarta Student Youth Council (Dewan Mahasiswa Pemuda
Yogyakarta, DMPY).
[Translated by James Balowski]
East Timor
Environment/land disputes
Labour issues
Human rights/law
Social unrest
Arms/armed forces
International relations
Economy and investment
Politics
Democratic struggle
Declaration of the Indonesian People's Front
Arrests of students was for interrogation
East Timor
Distressing secrets for East Timor's women
The Age - December 6, 1997
Timor's suffering women believe that a harsh program of 'ethnic dilution' is under way, writes Karen Kissane.
The first shock came when her husband fled. He feared the Indonesian troops invading East Timor in 1975 and jumped on to a ship and out of her life. "Maria", as she wants to be known, struggled to keep going with her four children in the war-torn city of Dili. She cooked food and sent the children out into the streets to try to sell it.
She never grew used to the soldiers. They knew there was no man in the house. They would come by at four in the morning, battering on her door, demanding to search for freedom fighters or ammunition. They never found either but took whatever they fancied - watches, suitcases, clothes. Then came the night that three of them fancied something she could not let them take: her daughters, aged 10 and 11.
Maria tells the story sitting under a shady plane tree in Melbourne, her fingers twisting a handkerchief, her eyes red with tears she refuses to shed. She had sent the girls to hide with a neighbor. She had heard stories about mass rapes in the villages, about groups of women forced into long-term sexual slavery. "Because they couldn't find my daughters they were very angry," she says, through an interpreter.
"All along they had just wanted to come into my house to demonstrate how powerful they were. When they couldn't get my daughters, they forced me instead." She told no one of the pack rape. Even the child born of it, who is now a teenager, does not know.
Many of Timor's women carry terrible secrets. A new report published by the East Timor Human Rights Centre says that Indonesian authorities, and in particular the military, have systematically violated the human rights of Timorese women. They have been forcibly sterilised, coerced into accepting contraception and raped so routinely that some Timorese families teach their girls at home because they fear they will be attacked on the way to school. Others lose access to education because their parents fear that school "vaccinations" might be the controversial injectable contraceptive, Depo Provera.
The report, From One Day to Another: Violations of Women's Reproductive and Sexual Rights in East Timor, was written by Miranda Sissons, an Australian now based at the Yale Centre for International Studies in America. This report and another by Dr George Aditjondro, a lecturer at NSW's University of Newcastle, were prepared for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. The Special Rapporteur is due to report to the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva next May on the issue of state-sponsored violence against women.
Sissons' report concentrates on alleged abuses by the Indonesian national family planning program. In the 1980s this included the forcible injection of schoolgirls with Depo Provera and the covert sterilisation of women who were admitted to hospital for other procedures such as caesarean delivery or appendectomy. There were also stories of babies aborted or killed after birth by hospital staff. Aditjondro documents rape, sexual slavery and prostitution.
Sissons, who visited East Timor as part of her research, found that women had been denied medical treatment in life-threatening circumstances. Some had died after being refused care while in labor. Sissons reports that soldiers round women up for sterilisation or contraceptive "safaris", and that no follow-up care is readily available for women who later have trouble with the IUDs or injectable hormones given to them.
Sissons says that Indonesian women in other provinces are sometimes treated brutally in relation to population control measures but abuses have been more widespread and extreme in Timor because of its isolation; Indonesian authorities refuse to allow human rights monitors into the island.
The abuses have convinced many Timorese that the family planning program is being used to bring about the genocide of their people. How, they ask, can Indonesia justify forcing contraception on a nation that lost a third of its population following the 1975 invasion? "There is no good answer to that," Sissons says. "There's a very strong belief that this is about ethnic dilution, and it's not totally unjustified."
The fear is so great that many now refuse to use the Indonesian- run health services. Sissons says that, partly as a result of this informal boycotting, the death rate in East Timor is the worst in South-East Asia and its infant mortality outstrips even Rwanda's.
Many have suffered like "Maria". Ordinary Timorese women, officials and refugees told Sissons that "Rape and other kinds of sexual violence have become embedded in Timor in the last 20 years."
Dr Aditjondro says that rape is the most common form of torture perpetrated against East Timorese women and is used as a political weapon to subdue, punish, humiliate and "dilute" the local population. It is mostly inflicted on women living in poor, isolated communities, but Aditjondro says that many female relatives of freedom fighters have been raped by soldiers as a form of revenge, including a sister of resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. Another kind of abuse is "forced marriage", in which a soldier appropriates a young woman to live with him for the duration of his tour of duty. The woman and any children of the union are abandoned when he returns home. Other women are used as "sex slaves", confined to a house where they must service the local troops.
"Rape and prostitution are linked," Aditjondro says. "The victims of rape often become very marginalised because they are in a traditional Catholic society where virginity before marriage is highly prized. Often the shame of the woman herself is enough to drive her into prostitution. So the military gets to continuously benefit from its sexual abuse."
Timor is also experiencing a phenomenon similar to Australia's "stolen generation" of Aboriginal children farmed out to whites. Aditjondro says that the orphaned children of freedom fighters are "stolen" by the military to be raised in Indonesia, where they grow up learning nothing of their Timorese heritage.
"Maria" has kept her mixed-race child. "It's not her fault," she says. "She wasn't the one who created all this pain. I can't reject her. She still is my daughter as well. I feel that, in the end, life is given by God."
It was a struggle for her to reach this point. After the rape, and when she discovered she was pregnant, she wanted to kill herself. "But then I worried about my other children," she says helplessly. "Who would look after them?" As it turned out, even she could not look after all of them. One son was killed by Indonesian troops who opened fire on the group of friends he was talking to in the street. It was then that she decided the family should come to Australia. She has tried to put the past behind her. She is not altogether successful. She walks heavily, as if carrying a great burden, and seems to have no plans for her own life other than to endure for the sake of her children. Here is the only question with which she cannot cope: Since the rape, has she been able to feel happiness? Her iron control breaks. She buries her face in her hands and weeps, silently.
Sydney Morning Herald - December 6, 1997
Paul Cleary in Canberra and Louise Williams in Jakarta – When Indonesia invaded East Timor 22 years ago, the population stood at 688,000 and was growing by 2 per cent a year. Today, instead of reaching a potential 1.1 million, the number of indigenous East Timorese is still roughly the same.
War and famine have been the accepted explanations for this, but a new study by an Australian academic, Ms Miranda Sissons, at Yale University has led to claims by East Timor activists that Indonesia's family planning program is part of the story, through covert sterilisation and compulsory injections of a controversial contraceptive, Depo-Provera.
But aid workers with experience in East Timor said that while stories about forced sterilisation were frequent, they had not come across any direct evidence.
The Indonesian Minister for Demography, Haryono Suyono, dismissed the findings.
"This is an ancient rumour and an undermining political hoax," Mr Suyono said. "Only 20 per cent of East Timorese adults use contraceptives. We never try to force any contraceptive use against their will."
Family planning was not used to prevent birth but to protect mothers by spacing births, he said.
Ms Sissons criticises the wide use of Depo-Provera, which she says is not recommended for use by adolescents and is likely to cause medical complications among a population where rates of malnutrition and anaemia are high. The method is used by 62 per cent of women using family planning in East Timor, twice the national rate.
Even if women were not being coerced to take contraceptives, "at a minimum we are looking at a worrying health situation", Ms Sissons says. "Maybe women are not being offered anything else."
The report cites a number of alleged instances in the 1970s and '80s in which schoolgirls were rounded up for "vaccinations", and suffered the after-effects of hormonal contraceptives. It says many women who gave birth with Caesarean section in government clinics, or those who had other operations, would later find themselves infertile, indicating covert sterilisation. In one instance of supposedly voluntary sterilisation, Ms Sissons quotes a foreign nurse who was in a hospital ward where 17 East Timorese women were awaiting sterilisation operations.
While she believed some of the women were happy to undergo the operation, she was distressed by the age and demeanour of others. "Many did not seem to know what was happening," the nurse said. She was also concerned by the lack of patient-doctor communication, as none of the patients spoke Bahasa Indonesian; nor did the doctors speak Tetum, the main local language of East Timor.
Ms Sissons herself says the family planning program could not have had a "major" impact on population growth, given that it covers only 20 per cent of the sexually active female population. But it was a major cause of stress to women, and consistently violated human rights, she said.
Mr James Dunn, a former Australian consul in Dili who is now a noted writer on East Timor, said that up to 200,000 deaths had been attributed to the 1975 Indonesian invasion.
He finds the estimate of a potential population loss of about 400,000 "quite appalling", and notes: "It is against Indonesia's interest for the East Timorese population to increase."
But Mr Dunn is "cautious" about claims of violations in the family planning program, having heard them "again and again over quite a long period of time", mainly from members of the Catholic Church.
He said that Indonesia might have simply applied its family planning program in a harsher way in East Timor.
"The Indonesian family planning program can be rough anyway," he said. "Add to that the constant pulling between the Timorese and the Indonesians, then you could see it being translated into a pretty heavy program from time to time."
Lusa - December 5, 1997
Macau – The Governor of East Timor, Abilio Osorio Soares, has ordered the police to arrest the leaders of the Movement for the Reunification and Unification of the People of East Timor (MRUPTL) recently created in Dili, the secretary-general of MRUPTL told Lusa on Thursday.
"We were informed yesterday (Wednesday) the governor had had a meeting with the police and army chiefs two days ago and that he had ordered our arrest, on Sunday at the latest", said Francisco Lopes de Carvalho, contacted by telephone from Macau.
He added that no one had been arrested yet.
The president of the MRUPTL, Manuel Carrascalao, told Lusa in Perth where he is attending the congress of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) that he was "quite concerned" with the situation of the other leaders of the movement.
Carrascalao, 65, said he did not fear returning to Dili, despite the arrest order.
Extracts from TIRAS - 8 December 1997
A new organisation called Movement for Reconciliation and Unity of the East Timorese People has come into being in East Timor, led by Manual Carrascalao as the chair and Francisco de Carvelho as secretary. Carrascalao who served as a member of the regional assembly for three terms is the brother of former East Timor government, Mario Carrascalao. Francisco de Carvalho was former in the civil service, becoming the private secretary of Government Abilio Oosoorio Soares until he was sacked in 1996. The organisation has some thirty members, all of them well known political figures or former civil servants.
Manuel said the intention was to establish roots in society, among all sections of the people, in accordance with international law, under the UN. Fully aware that the aims of his organisation did not meet with the wishes of the government, Manuel said he was fully prepared to be arrested by the security forces at any time. 'We are not afraid,' he said, 'and are ready to accept whatever risks may be involved in setting up this new organisation.'
The governor shrugged off the movement, saying that they are an insignificant group of people, 'trying to grab people's attention. All they want to do is to disrupt development in East Timor,' he said.
Some circles in East Timor have accused the organisation of being involved in the recent unrest.
As for Major-General Syahrir, military commander of Udayana military command based in Bali, he regards the group as 'clandestine', a new anti-integration organisation. He said that the military authorities, along with the prosecutors' office and the police, were taking all the necessary measures to prevent the group from exerting any influence in society. 'If anyone knows anything about them, please report to us and they will be dealt with in accordance with the laws in force,' said Major-General Syahrir.
Reuters - December 4, 1997
Jakarta – The bodies of four youths have been found in the troubled territory of East Timor and Indonesia's military has blamed their killings on rebels opposing Jakarta's rule, the official Antara news agency reported on Thursday.
East Timor army chief Colonel Slamat Sidabutar said the killing of four members of the Catholic youth group Mudika was a "terrorist" action.
Sidabutar told reporters in Dili, the territory's capital, that the bodies of the four – identified only as Imersio, Ferando, Fatrecia and Berdito – were found near Sare village in the Liquisa regency on Wednesday morning.
"It appears the four youths before they met the hour of their death were treated sadistically because of the condition of their corpses. They were found tied and their bodies bore the marks of torture," Sidabutar was quoted as saying.
"They (the rebels) are trying to intimidate and scare the people in that village and inhumanely without care they have exterminated the lives of four innocent youths," he said.
Last week Indonesia's military blamed rebels for kidnapping and killing a soldier in the neighbouring Ermera district.
Indonesia still faces a small band of poorly armed guerrillas fighting for East Timorese independence as well as an underground clandestine movement in the urban areas of the territory, a former Portugeuese colony.
The United Nations still does not recognise Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor following its invasion the previous year and considers Lisbon as the administering power.
[Poster's comment: It seems the Indonesian military will now blame its own torture killings on the resistance. The description of the corpses sounds like how victims of the military and police torture are treated.]
Lusa - December 3, 1997
Jakarta – The chief police of Dili, Colonel Rismanto, said on Tuesday he did not know the whereabouts of three East Timorese students who have disappeared since the incident at the University of Dili on 14 November.
University sources said that police wearing civilian clothes had taken three youth following clashes between students and security forces at the university.
The Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights, that sent members to Dili to investigate the incident, said that the three students-Abraao Benjamin, Domingos dos Santos and Duarte Araujo had not been seen again since 14 November.
Rismanto said last week that six students detained during the incident would go on trial on charges of attacking members of the security forces.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it one year later but the United Nations still regards Portugal as the territory's administering power.
Lusa - December 2, 1997
Jakarta – Indonesia announced on Monday that it had appointed new chiefs for the police and army in Dili, capital of East Timor.
Lieutenant-Colonel Setyananto, police chief in Baucau for the past six months, was appointed to head the police in Dili, and Lieutenant-Colonel Endar Priyanto was chosen to lead the army forces in the East Timorese capital.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it one year later but the United Nations still regards Portugal as the territory's administering power.
East Timor Human Rights Centre - December 1, 1997
Grave fears are held for the safety of Bobby Xavier, Boaventura, Cristiano Conjaka and Gaspar da Silva who are currently in detention at POLDA (the local police) station in Dili.
According to ETHRC sources, Bobby Xavier who is from Matadouro, Dili, was arrested in Dili on 22 November and has been accused of involvement in the killing of a member of the Indonesian military, Alfredo de Santo Siga, on Christmas Eve, 1996. Siga was beaten to death after violence broke out at a gathering of thousands of people who were welcoming Bishop Belo home following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The crowd had become angry at the presence of armed security forces at the gathering (see UA 3/97 for details).
Boaventura, Cristiano Conjaka and Gaspar da Silva were arrested, together with Rosa Sarmento, at their home in the hamlet of Karau Mate, Becora, a suburb of Dili, on 23 November, by soldiers and police from the Indonesian military. It is believed the four were arrested under suspicion of assisting Bobby Xavier who was being sought by Indonesian authorities. They were arrested without warrants, and at the time of their arrests it is believed they were subjected to physical assault. The ETHRC has been informed that Rosa Sarmento has now been released but that Boaventura, Cristiano Conjaka, Gaspar da Silva are still in detention at POLDA.
The ETHRC is concerned that the four East Timorese people are being arbitrarily detained. It is not known whether charges have been brought against them and it is believed they have been denied access to members of their families and to legal representation. Detainees in East Timor are at heightened risk of torture and ill-treatment while in detention if they are denied access to their families, legal representation and humanitarian assistance.
Agence France Presse - November 29, 1997
Jakarta – A student attacked a university lecturer in East Timor for trying to teach dispite a student boycott, a report here said Saturday.
Students at Universitas Timor Timor, in Dili, have called for a boycott to demand the release of students arrested during violence there last week.
Trisno Sumbodo, a lecturer in the agrigulture department, was kicked in the stomach three times by one of his students when he tried to teach on Tuesday, the Kompas daily said.
The students have called on lecturers to halt courses until six students who were detained by police on November 14 are released, the daily said.
East Timor Police Chief Colonel Atok Rismanto said on Wednesday the six students will be charged with violence against security officials following a clash between students and Indonesian security forces at the university.
Clashes erupted after pokice and soldiers entered the campus following an earlier brawl between plainclothes security forces and students. At least seven people were injured and 13 were arrested.
The agriculture department has since remained closed.
The university suspended courses there shortly after the initial clash in an effort to prevent further unrest.
The management of the university Friday met with the police chief in Dili to discuss the incident, the daily said without giving further details.
Police chief Rismanto could not be immediately reached for comment.
Universitas Timor Timor is a hotbed of East Timorese pro- independence student activists.
Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975 and Jakarta unilaterally declared the former Portuguese colony its 27th province the following year.
The United Nations and most states still recognize Lisbon as the official administrator of the territory.
| Environment/land disputes |
DIGEST No. 45 (Indonesian news with comment) - 29 November, 1997
One rarely considered element of the environmental drama playing on Kalimantan is the widespread use of often dangerous pesticides. When big companies got an international flogging for using fire to clear the forest for plantations and new transmigration areas, someone floated the idea that chemical defoliants might be a good alternative to burning off. Forestry expert Prof Gunawan Satari warned recently of the dangers of such massive application of herbicides.
The 'million hectare' irrigated rice development area in South Kalimantan already consumes pesticides on a massive scale. The area has special permission to use dangerous weed-killers not licensed for use elsewhere in Indonesia. Most important among them is paraquat, marketed under a variety of brand names and made by the British chemical giant Zeneca (formerly ICI).
The environmental consortium Walhi has expressed concerns about the effect on the ecological balance in the peat lands of South Kalimantan due to the widespread use of pesticides. Down to Earth says the project uses 2.4 million litres a month.
Paraquat causes many kinds of injuries under unprotected use. Protective gear is too hot and expensive in Indonesia. It is fatal if swallowed and there is no known antidote, making it a significant method used in rural suicides in recent years. It also remains in the soil for a long time. The World Health Organisation ranks it 'moderately hazardous' (Table 3) in its latest classification of pesticides.
Agriculture Minister Sjarifudin Baharsjah in 1992 made paraquat illegal everywhere except in South Kalimantan, and even there it could only be used by trained personnel. However, a survey last July found that paraquat from South Kalimantan was being sold freely all over Kalimantan, and was often found stored in farmers' kitchens. The next month the Agriculture Minister ordered the distribution of paraquat suspended also in South Kalimantan, citing health concerns. It was being distributed there by Surya Agronusa (possibly affiliated with the Sinar Mar Group).
What the latest ban will actually do remains to be seen. Another survey by the NGO Yayasan Duta Awam found last August it was being sold freely in rural kiosks all over Java and Sumatra as well.
If effective, paraquat's main competitor stands to gain from the ban. Glyphosat is a safer organophosphate produced by Monagro, associated with the US giant Monsanto through a Dutch subsidiary. Insecticides are also big business in Indonesia. Du Pont expects to expand its US$235 million a year operation to US$312 million over the next five years. It says it is providing 'public baths' so farmers can wash themselves after use.
The Semarang based Lembaga Pembinaan & Perlindungan Konsumen says fifteen types of pesticides banned by the Agriculture Minister since mid-1996 remain in circulation in Central Java. A Food and Agriculture (FAO) survey of Central Java farmers a few years ago established that over a third of them had dangerous insecticides in their blood, including triazophos, which the WHO labels 'highly hazardous' (Table 2).
Control over pesticides used to be easy. In the 1970s and 1980s the government subsidised them to the tune of US$150 million a year and channeled them exclusively through state-controlled cooperatives and their extension programs.
But between 1987 and 1989 the subsidy was withdrawn, and the pesticides were entrusted to private business. Government Pesticide Commissions that operate at every level of government down to the regency have no teeth to enforce regulations. In Jakarta the Central Pesticide Commission has only 24 staff, not all full-time. Compare that with Malaysia, with a tenth of the population, which has three times that many expert staff controlling pesticides.
Yayasan Duta Awam found that 97% of farmers had no idea certain pesticides were banned, and those who did know said they would still use them because they were effective. Pesticide companies advertise their wares aggressively and sometimes misleadingly.
Farmers around the large fresh water lakes Semayang, Jempang and Melintang in East Kalimantan were shocked to be told last August that insecticides they had applied to their cash crops had killed many of the fish upon which they were also dependent.
With the assistance of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Indonesia in the early '90s implemented a widely praised integrated pest management program involving biological predators. Insecticide use, upon which Indonesia's Green Revolution had been built, dropped markedly, yet rice yields went up. However, judging by the latest reports, more resources need to be put into controlling not only insecticides but also herbicides - especially amid the strong commercial pressures on Kalimantan.
[Gerry van Klinken, editor, Inside Indonesia magazine]
| Labour issues |
Jakarta Post - December 5, 1997
Jakarta – Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief said yesterday that it was President Soeharto who ordered the use of state-owned social insurance company PT Jamsostek's funds to finance the deliberation of the manpower bill.
Latief said the President's decision was taken because the ministry fell short of funds and the government was pressed for time to establish such a crucial law in the face of many problems such as unemployment.
According to Latief, the President told him that from now on he would directly oversee the spending of Jamsostek's funds.
"The President instructed me to convey this to the press," he told journalists after attending a ceremony to present Upakarti awards for small companies at the State Palace. The ceremony was led by Vice President Try Sutrisno.
Latief met with Soeharto Wednesday at the latter's residence on Jl. Cendana, in Central Jakarta to report on, among other things, the controversy surrounding the use of Jamsostek's funds to finance the deliberation of the manpower bill.
Latief came under severe criticism for allegedly paying members of the House of Representatives to help pass the controversial bill his office sponsored. He denied the allegation but admitted to using the money for, among other things computer services during deliberation al some expensive hotels.
Earlier reports said that Latief had asked Jamsostek for Rp 7.1 billion (US$2.15 million) to finance the two months of deliberation, but the company only managed to provide Rp 3.1 billion. The money was taken from the company's budget earmarked for protection of workers and membership expenditure.
"As I told you before, Rp 2.85 billion has been used (to process the bill). It included Rp 950 million for secretariat and computer services," Latief said yesterday adding that Jamsostek's funds had also been used to finance the repatriation of 24,000 illegal Indonesian workers from Saudi Arabia last month.
Latief said the government asked for Jamsostek's help because the company had performed commendably. Its assets are worth Rp 5.3 trillion, with cumulative profits in the past three years reaching Rp 476 billion. The Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and the Attorney General's Office are now investigating the alleged misuse of the funds. The Jakarta Provincial Prosecutor's office has questioned eight people in connection with the case.
Latief said the President had also assigned Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono "to solve problems with related state agencies". "This is the President's instruction. As an aide of him I must obey his order. An honest minister must act like that," he said.
Deputy House Speaker Syarwan Hamid and legal expert Muladi found nothing wrong with Soeharto's order to Latief, saying that it was common for a leader to take over his or her aides' responsibility.
"In management, such a practice is acceptable," said Syarwan.
Muladi said although the takeover was constitutional legal proceedings to investigate possible administrative irregularities in the use of Jamsostek funds must go on.
"The investigation itself remains under the President's supervision, given that both the BPKP and the Attorney General's Office are two government institutions," Muladi said.
Jakarta Post - 25 November 1997 (posted by Tapol)
Jakarta – Seventeen Indonesian housemaids died abroad while 46 others were either tortured or sexually abused over the past year, a report said.
The report, compiled by Solidaritas Perempuan (Women's Solidarity), a non-governmental organization for the protection of Indonesian women's rights, said the housemaids worked in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. Chairperson Tati Krisnawaty said that two female workers died after they fell from their employers' apartments in Singapore.
One worker was burned to death in Hong Kong, another died of an unspecified accident in Malaysia and the other, Solihah, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia in October for killing her employer.
Tati said the cause of the deaths of the other 12 women remained unknown as the organization failed to obtain the information from related authorities of the countries where they worked.
"Violence against Indonesian female workers abroad was 'systematic' and yet the government failed to undertake a fundamental effort to protect female migrant workers," she said. She also condemned the employers, who had violently intimidated the workers, robbed them of their rights, physically and sexually harassed them and, in some cases, raped them.
"This violence against female workers caused both physical and psychological scars, shocked them and even ended in their death," she said.
Tati's statement coincides with the International Anti-Violence Against Women Day, which falls today.
Jakarta Post - 21 November 1997
[A huge row has broken out about use of money in the social security agency Jamsostek to give hospitality and bribes to members of Parliament to enact the very controversial Labour Law that was adopted in the last days of the old Parliament. The following editorial gives a good summary, in unusually frank terms, about scandal which involved the Minister for Manpower, Abdul Latief - Tapol.]
After some hesitancy, PI Jamsostek, the state-owned social security company, has admitted that it took Rp 3.1 billion (US$1.3 million at the old exchange rate of Rp 2,400 per $1), out of its huge fund for what really amounted to "servicing" honorary members of the House of Representatives in deliberating the government-sponsored manpower bill this year.
On Wednesday, Jamsostek president Abdillah Nusi confirmed the allegation which had been circulating for three days. But he defended the move as being the company's contribution toward the new law which he insisted was designed to give greater protection to Indonesia's 90-million-strong workforce. "What's Rp 3.1 billion if it means protecting millions of workers?" he said smugly.
Jamsostek and senior officials of the Minister of Manpower had been ducking the question for three days since copies of the correspondence between the ministry and the insurance company found its way to reporters Monday. Some, like Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief, tried to hush persistent reporters. Others even issued outright denials.
The ministry, which oversees PT Jamsostek, represented the government in the deliberation of the manpower bill which the House endorsed in September.
The bill had been a source of controversy from the start, with labor activists, including those from the government-backed Federation of the All-Indonesia Workers Union, denouncing it as a step backward. Deliberation was postponed until after the May election. When the House started debating the bill, it did so in a swift manner, working overtime, while often taking the deliberations to luxury five-star hotel. Hence so the argument goes, the huge contribution from PT Jamsostek.
While Wednesday's admission by Abdillah Nusi was welcomed is is but a first step toward clarifying what some newspapers have already described as a scandal. There remain many unanswered questions about the purpose of the money, the amount involved, the extent to which the Minister of Manpower can dictate to PT Jamsostek and about the way Jamsostek's huge fund is managed, or more aptly perhaps, mismanaged. There are also questions about the delay in clarifying the issue, and about the apparent lack of candour among officials. In all fairness to Jamsostek executives, some of these questions should be answered by Minister Latief. Already, some labor activists suspect collusion between the government and the House in ensuring the bill's smooth passage.=
Jamsostek's fund - the company collected Rp 1.1 trillion in premiums from workers last year - is essentially money entrusted by hundreds of thousands of people to the social security program. How the fund is managed, therefore, should be more transparent. It is not enough to simply state that all its spending had been approved by the board of commissioners, like the Rp 3.1 billion for the deliberation of the bill.
The latest disclosure adds to the list of questionable investments or expenditures that Jamsostek has made this year.
Last week, the Supreme Audit Agency ordered a reappraisal of the cost of constructing the Rp 319.5 billion Menara Jamsostek, a luxury office building on J1; Gatot Subroto, noting an unusually high markup. Then there was the disclosure that Jamsostek had Rp 125 billion deposited in five of the 16 banks that were liquidated by the government this month. Jamsostek has also admitted that it lost Rp 100 billion from the Rp 250 billion it invested in the stock market because of the plunge in share prices.
Accountability is one thing, but good management is another. At the end of the day, Jamsostek may be able to account for every rupiah it spends and invests, and it may have valid excuses for some of the investments that go sour. But if some of these investments and spending look questionable, it is hardly comforting to the real shareholders=97the workers.
This negative publicity does not bode well for PT Jamsostek's own campaign to recruit more participants into its social security program. Despite a law compelling companies to enlist their workers, PT Jamsotek at the last count had only managed to recruit workers in 83,100 of the country's 400,000 registered companies.
Jamsotek's management and its supervisors of the Ministry of Manpower must do a lot more explaining if it wants to convince more and more workers to entrust their money - and therefore their fate and future - with the= company.
| Human rights/law |
Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) - December 1, 1997
Today, we, a number of artists of the Jakarta Artists Solidarity Group visited the offices of the Indonesian National Committee for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to protest against the banning of the play 'Marsinah Menggugat' (Marsinah Accuses) by the East Java regional police force. The play had previously been performed without hindrance in seven different cities.This case represents a serious violation of the freedom of expression as guaranteed under the 1945 constitution.
On 26 November 1997, police officers from both the local Surabaya and East Java regional forces banned the play 'Marsinah Menggugat' by Ratna Sarumpaet and the Satu Merah Panggung Theatre only three hours before the performance was due to begin. The play, dealing with the unresolved murder of Indonesian labour activist Marsinah, was to be presented at the Cak Durasim Building in Surabaya at 20.00.
Dozens of police descended on the theatre without warning, and in an intimidating and heavy-handed manner ordered the Satu Merah Panggung crew to cease their activities immediately, adding that they would not be allowed to perform the play.
The police informed the Satu Merah Panggung members that they had not obtained a license to perform the play.In actual fact, the event organisers, Korps Putri Pergerakan Mahasiswa Islam Indonesia (The Women's section of the Indonesia Muslim Student Movement) had obtained a license for the performance several weeks previously. In addition, according to the License Regulations as outlined by the government, arts performances do not require a license.
This case represents a serious violation of the basic human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of opinion, as guaranteed under article 28 of the 1945 constitution.
It also eloquently demonstrates that creative freedom in Indonesia is under threat. State agencies such as the East Java police force are able, in violation of state legislation, to arbitrarily ban an arts performance using contrived reasons and only because they do not like a particular performance.
Through Komnas HAM, we, the Jakarta Artists Solidarity Group, convey our strong protest against the banning of the play 'Marsinah Menggugat' in Surabaya.
We ask Komnas HAM to take up this case because if events such as these are not addressed, the creative energy of the Indonesian people will remain under serious threat. Although conditions which guarantee creative freedom exist under the 1945 constitution, these are not respected by the regime. Through Komnas HAM, we the Jakarta Artists Solidarity Group urge the government and official agencies to respect and uphold the rights of the Indonesian people to freedom of opinion and creativity.
Through Komnas HAM, we demand that the police forces involved apologise to all those involved: the organisers, the artists , the audience and the Indonesian people in general whose rights have been violated by the banning of the play 'Marsinah Menggugat.'
Through Komnas HAM, we demand that all those concerned undertake to guarantee that a case such as this one will not be repeated anywhere else in all of Indonesia again, whomsoever the individual or which ever the art form, including the next three scheduled performances of 'Marsinah Menggugat.'
Chronology - Wednesday, November 26, 1997
16.00: Dozens of police officers headed by the Chief of the South Surabaya police intelligence unit entered the Cak Durasim building. At that moment, the Satu Merah Panggung theatre crew was in the last stages of preparation for the performance due to begin at 19.30.
Without any dialogue, the police chief ordered that all activities in the building be stopped immediately. He cited the reason that Marsinah Menggugat did not have the correct license.
Those present in the building comprised only of the Satu Merah Panggung crew and three sound engineers. As the leader of Satu Merah Panggung, Ratna Sarumpaet refused to stop preparations for that evening's performance. As an artist, Ratna was only concerend with the artistic aspect of the performance. Thus, Ratna requested the police to await the arrival of the organising committee, i.e. the women's section of the Indonesia Muslim Students Movement Surabaya (Korps Putri PMII Surabaya) in respect of the issue regarding the license to perform.
The police chief replied "where is the organising committee?" Perhaps the police thought that Satu Merah Panggung were concealing the whereabouts of the organising committee.
The situation became tense as the police became increasingly intimidating in their treatment of Ratna.
During these exchanges, police officers locked all the doors and switched off the lights to the building. The building was lit only by light entering through the glass doors.
Outside, local inhabitants watched what was happening through these glass doors. Aware of this, the police closed all the curtains and the building became dark. Because of this, one of the Satu Merah crew switched all the stage lights, which by coincidence were powered separately from the main lights to the building.
Ratna Sarumpaet decided to remain silent and sat with the rest of the theatre members on the stage. Ratna became overwhelmed by the situation.
The police blockaded the building and no-one was able to enter. A number of journalists were eventually able to enter in turn.
17.30: Ratna explained to the police that one of the crew would meet with representatives from the audience waiting outside the building in order to apologise for the cancellation of the performance. Instead of granting permission to do so, the police phone for back-up forces to come and block the entrance to the Taman Budaya Surabaya.
18.30: The atmosphere at the Taman Budaya which is located on Gentengkali road became increasingly intimidating. Dozens of uniformed police formed a human barrier three-men deep with a radius of around 500 metres to the left and to the right of the building, also using quick response unit vehicles The car park to the building was filled with. That notwithstanding, those coming to see the play continued to arrive.
19.00: The hundreds of ticket-holders who had gathered in front of the building began to shout, and the situation became increasingly tense. Several ticket-holders tried to charge and enter the building, but the security forces continued to hold them off. All that the crowd was able to do was shout and chant.
21.00: Accompanied by the organising committee, Ratna and the others members of the theatre group met with the assembled crowd which was still waiting outside. Ratna apologised for the unwanted and unexpected events which were taking place. After singing national songs of unity, the crowd dispersed.
22.00: Dozens of police officers continued to guard the building and followed Ratna as she left the Cak Durasim building, as she was accompanied by supporters and the organising committee on their way to the IAIN (State Islamic Institute Surabaya) dormitories. It was as if the police were afraid that Ratna might attempt to perform the play on the street.
Reuters - November 29, 1997
Jakarta – An Indonesian man accused of the high-profile murder of an investigative journalist has been acquitted by a Central Java court, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported on Saturday.
The Bantul District Court found on Thursday there was no case against Dwi Sumaji alias Iwik for the murder of Fuad Muhammad Syafrudin, better known as Udin, on August 13 last year. Udin was known for critical reports on local government corruption.
Prosecutors had earlier asked the panel of three judges that the charges be withdrawn against Iwik after their case collapsed from unreliable police evidence.
The official National Commission of Human Rights had called for a review of the case after their inquiries revealed concerns about the police investigation.
The paper said Iwik's arrest drew wide criticism after it became known the police used some questionable practices including the use of alcohol, intimidation and a call girl to force a confession from Iwik.
In addition, police investigator Eddy Wuryanto reportedly threw a sample of Udin's blood into the sea to ask for divine help in solving the case, it said.
National Police Chief General Dibyo Widodo was quoted as saying police accepted the verdict in the case in which prosecutors had repeatedly sent back police dossiers because of a number of perceived flaws in the investigation.
"We respect the ruling but we remain steadfast in our conviction, based on evidence and testimonies, that Iwik was the one who ....caused Udin's death," Widodo said.
| Social unrest |
Human Rights Watch/Asia - December 6, 1997
[The following is the summary section only of the full report - James Balowski.]
Between December 1996 and the beginning of March 1997, one of the worst outbreaks of communal violence in Indonesia in decades broke out in the province of West Kalimantan between indigenous Dayak people and immigrants from the island of Madura, off the coast of East Java. In the aftermath of a fight between Dayak and Madurese youths in a town called Sanggau Ledo, in which two Dayak youths were stabbed, the Dayaks waged what appeared to be a ritual war against Madurese communities, burning houses, killing inhabitants, and in some cases severing the heads and eating the livers of those killed. The death toll was probably about 500 by the time the killing ceased, appallingly high but still much lower than some early estimates of 2,000 or more; the Indonesian government has discouraged any effort to determine an accurate count. The majority of those killed were Madurese, but several dozen Dayaks died as well, some in revenge attacks by Madurese, most in clashes that took place when army units tried to stop Dayak war parties from reaching Madurese settlements. About 20,000 Madurese were displaced.
Almost a year after an uneasy calm returned, and after innumerable government-supervised "peace treaties" between the two communities were concluded across the province, tensions remain so high that another outbreak could be triggered at any time. Given the precarious state of inter-ethnic relations in the region and the potential for future outbreaks of communal violence, it is imperative that the government take steps to investigate the conflict and answer the questions raised about the performance of the army and police.
There is concern in Kalimantan that this may not have been simply another eruption between the two groups, despite the fact that there is a history of Madurese-Dayak conflict in West Kalimantan. This clash was so much worse in terms of casualties than its predecessors and so much more geographically widespread that several people we spoke with, both Dayak and Madurese, saw as the precedent to this outbreak not the previous Madurese-Dayak conflicts but the Dayak war against ethnic Chinese in West Kalimantan between October and November 1967. The army claimed (and still claims) that the 1967 attack, which cost about 300 lives and led to the displacement of more than 55,000 Chinese, was a spontaneous uprising by the Dayak people against Communist guerrillas who had strong support among the local ethnic Chinese. In fact, the ritual war, in which ethnic Chinese of all political persuasions were killed, is now widely believed to have been deliberately sparked by the army.
Even though there is no hard evidence of manipulation in this outbreak, people of every background and belief seem to believe that there must have been, from the army commander who talks of an oknum penghasut, a scoundrel instigator, to those who believe the violence was related to a pre-election quest by the ruling party, Golkar, for dominance. It is the lack of obvious answers to hard questions that have led different people to propose a provocateur as the only explanation; a policy of greater transparency on the part of the government and a thorough investigation by the National Human Rights Commission, in collaboration with appropriate Indonesian or international non- governmental organizations (NGOs), might provide some of those answers. Not only has there been no such investigation, but at the time of the conflict, the government actively discouraged reporting, apparently out of concern that accurate information would only make the situation worse.
Whether or not communal tensions were deliberately whipped up, it is clear that human rights violations took place in the course of the conflict that have exacerbated ethnic tensions. These violations include reported extrajudicial executions of members of Dayak attack parties by soldiers, and arbitrary arrests of both Dayaks and Madurese in what appeared to be a misguided government attempt to prevent further conflict. There are also claims of police discrimination against the Madurese, failing to arrest the perpetrators of anti-Madurese violence or to respond to Madurese complaints.
In instances where the army stopped Dayak raiding parties from attacking Madurese settlements, the use of lethal force may have been justified, although how that force was applied and whether non-lethal alternatives were available need to be examined. The apparent extrajudicial executions took place not when the army opened fire on oncoming trucks full of Dayak raiders, some of whom were also armed and returned fire, but when soldiers reportedly shot and killed, at close range, individual Dayaks trying to surrender or those who were already in custody. Dayak sources believe some of these killings were carried out by or under the direction of Madurese soldiers, a perception that ensures communal tensions remain high even though it is not clear that the perception is accurate. The fact that some bodies were buried secretly, without a chance for families to hold traditional ceremonies, has also angered many in the Dayak community.
There is clear evidence of arbitrary arrest of both Dayak and Madurese under an anachronistic emergency regulation dating back to 1951 which effectively bans possession of sharp weapons. In a part of the country where most males carry a traditional knife and families keep various kinds of knives in their home, the regulation provides a pretext for arresting anyone at any time. Many of those arrested under this law were not involved in the conflict and are not charged with engaging in any violence; they were arrested by joint army-police teams who raided houses and work sites in the conflict area in late February or early March, looking for weapons. (All of those arrested under the 1951 law had been released by this writing.) There is insufficient evidence at this stage to support claims of discrimination by police against Madurese, but those claims need thorough investigation. Both Madurese and Dayaks believe that the police have been looking for an opportunity to get back at the Madurese ever since 1993, when Madurese in Pontianak went on a rampage against virtually every police station in the city after a Madurese man was tortured to death in custody, and the involvement of several individual police officers and ex-officers has fueled speculation that the police had a hand in encouraging Dayak attacks. Several Madurese told us that complaints they had filed with police were ignored. In one case we were able to follow up, the subjects of the complaint had in fact been arrested, but the complainant, displaced from his home and living with relatives in Pontianak, had never received the news. Still, if the perception is left to persist that the police discriminated against Madurese and the army targeted Dayaks, the government's ability to diminish communal tensions in the future will be severely hampered.
This is a case where government controls on information, however well-meaning, are not only misguided but dangerous. Four highly negative consequences of this conflict are already apparent: deepened enmity between Dayak and Madurese at a grassroots level; deepened distrust of the police by Madurese; deepened distrust of the army by Dayak; and a heightened sense of ethnicity, not just on the part of Dayak and Madurese but on the part of every ethnic group living in West Kalimantan. To safeguard themselves against attacks during the conflict, non-Madurese residents scrawled "Melayu" (Malay) or "Jawa" (Javanese) on their homes, and Chinese hung a strip of red cloth on their doors.
This report is a very preliminary analysis of the conflict. It does not come to any hard conclusions about the causes but instead suggests questions that an investigation, preferably one conducted by a neutral body not linked to either ethnic group but trusted by both must answer if communal tensions are to be reduced. We set out the background to the conflict as well as a detailed description of its two phases, based on interviews with eyewitnesses and leaders of both Dayak and Madurese communities. The information was obtained on two visits to Kalimantan, in January and July 1997. We then look at the way in which the Indonesian government reacted to the conflict in terms of the military's use of lethal force, pattern of arrests, efforts to control information, and promotion of local and province-wide peace pacts. While most of the government's actions appear to have been undertaken in a genuine effort to calm tensions and eliminate possible sources of violence, the end result appears to have been precisely the opposite. It has created as much ill-will on the part of both parties toward the government as between the parties themselves.
Reuters - December 1, 1997
Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta – A U.S. based human rights group called on Monday for an independent investigation into violence in Indonesia earlier this year during which it said 500 people were killed, some beheaded and some the victims of cannibalism.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its report "Communal Violence in West Kalimantan" that clashes between local Dayak people and immigrants from the island of Madura from December 1996 to March 1997 were some of the worst such outbreaks in Indonesia in decades.
"In the aftermath of a fight between Dayak and Madurese youths in a town called Sanggau Ledo, in which two Dayaks youths were stabbed, the Dayaks waged what appeared to be ritual war against Madurese communities, burning houses, killing inhabitants, and in some cases severing the heads and eating the livers of those killed," it said.
"The death toll was probably about 500 by the time the killing ceased, appallingly high but still much lower than some early estimates of 2,000 or more," the report concluded after two visits to the province in January and July this year.
"The Indonesian government has discouraged any effort to determine an accurate count," it said.
The report concludes that most of the those killed in West Kalimantan on the Indonesian side of Borneo island, about 700 km (430 miles) north of Jakarta across the Java sea, were Madurese.
But it said several dozen Dayaks died as well, some in revenge attacks by Madurese, most in clashes that took place when army units tried to stop Dayak war parties from reaching Madurese settlements. About 20,000 Madurese were displaced.
West Kalimantan Governor Aswin Aspar said in April at least 200 people had been killed in the clashes and 27,000 displaced at that time.
While an uneasy calm had returned to the area after government- supervised "peace treaties," the report concluded that tension remained high and another outbreak could be triggered at any time.
The report argues the veil of secrecy cast over the events by authorities in a country where the state ideology stresses religious and communal harmony has been counterproductive.
"Even though there is no hard evidence of manipulation in this outbreak, people of every background and belief seem to believe that there must have been," the 37-page report said.
"It is the lack of obvious answers to hard questions that have led different people to propose a provocateur as the only explanation," it said.
"A policy of greater transparency on the part of the government and a thorough investigation by the National Human Rights Commission, in collaboration with appropriate Indonesian or international non-government organisations, might provide some of those answers," it added.
"Not only has there been no such investigation, but at the time of the conflict, the government actively discouraged reporting, apparently out of a concern that accurate information would only make the situation worse," it concluded.
Many human rights violations took place during the course of the conflict which exacerbated ethnic tensions, the report said.
"These violations included reported extrajudicial executions of members of Dayak attack parties by soldiers and arbitrary arrests of both Dayaks and Madurese in what appeared to be a misguided attempt to prevent further conflict," it said.
| Arms/armed forces |
The Nation - 5 December 1997 (Editorial & Opinion)
The Indonesian military is serious about redeeming its tarnished image, a top general said. The Nation's Rita Patiyasevi reports.
Atrocities and human degradation in warfare can be greatly reduced if those engaged in armed conflicts were to abide by the International Humanitarian Law (IHL). But despite strict military training to respect human life, soldiers often commit chilling acts of atrocities against civilians.
While conventional battles are no longer a regular feature in today's world, low-scale insurgencies, supported by foreign countries, have become more prominent.
According to Maj Gen Prabowo Subianto, commander of the Indonesian special forces, such intervention follows the norms of low intensity conflicts, defined as a limited political-military struggle to achieve political, social, economic or psychological aims.
While the international community continues to attack the Indonesian army for widespread human rights violations, Prabowo's paper on "The International Humanitarian Law in Low Intensity Conflicts" serves to defend the country's image.
Maj Gen Agus Widjojo presented Prabowo's paper at an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) seminar in Bangkok last week. The ICRC seminar brought together military instructors from 16 countries in an effort to promote the knowledge of the international humanitarian law and create common awareness among the military of its importance.
Prabowo's paper describes low intensity conflicts as generally confined to a geographic area of less developed countries and characterised by constraints on weaponry, tactics and level of violence. It explains that interventions by outside countries take the non-traditional forms of economic, diplomatic and psychological coercion, and through paramilitary operations. Implications of such phenomena are seen in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Panama, Cuba, Haiti and the former Soviet Republic, the general said.
Common cause
Philippine Col Manuel L Carranza, in responding to Prabowo's paper, agreed that common cause factors of internal conflicts or insurgencies in some countries in East Asia today are brought about by ideological, ethnic or religious differences. These conflict situations are aggravated by poor economic conditions and are therefore more prevalent in less developed countries.
Indonesia, a country which comprises an archipelago of more than 16,000 islands and over 100 ethnic groups as a result of 350 years of colonisation, is susceptible to potential internal differences in terms of ideology, politics, economy, social structure and culture. It also has to deal with elements that want to pursue separatist causes.
Prabowo, considered by observers as a key general in the Indonesian military, said the dissidents create low intensity conflicts in the form of infiltration, subversion, insurgencies and terrorism by taking advantage of the lack of education and development. He described most conflicts in Indonesia and almost all the military operations that have been conducted during the last 20 years as low intensity.
"Since the war of independence, the Indonesian government has never conducted an act of aggression towards another country," he argued in his paper.
But critics of Indonesia would certainly refute that assertion. One clear example is the invasion of East Timor, a former colony of Portugal, by the Indonesian army in 1975. The United Nations Security Council has called for the withdrawal of the Indonesian forces. However, Indonesia has consistently argued that the invasion was carried out upon the invitation of the East Timorese themselves. East Timor was subsequently annexed by Indonesia in 1976 as its 27th province, and resistance guerillas have been fighting the Indonesian occupation since.
At a UN special committee in June this year, the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) petitioned the committee to denounce Indonesia's false claim that the UDT was one of the Timorese parties that had welcomed the Indonesian invasion and supported East Timor's illegal annexation by Indonesia through the so- called Balibo declaration.
Prabowo, who was stationed in East Timor after he graduated from the military academy in the mid-1970s, justifies Indonesia's action as similar to that of Western democracies, which would not tolerate the idea of separatism through violent means. The general claims its action in dealing with separatist forces is no different from that of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland, France in Corsica and Spain in the Basque region.
Under pressure
Atrocities committed by soldiers are said to be due to the pressure, high tension, fear and fatigue in the combat zone, which could drive soldiers to excessive violence, causing civilian casualties, unnecessary property damage, torture and rape.
The Indonesians are aware of this, asserted Prabowo, and is trying hard to show the world that they care. He believed that low intensity conflicts can be resolved by "winning the hearts and minds of the people". However, critics may ask how this can be achieved, especially in East Timor, given the unsavoury image the Indonesian army has in relation to human rights.
Widjojo quoted Prabowo as saying strict adherence to the rules and provisions of the International Humanitarian Law will help win over the people. He said the Indonesian Armed forces' doctrine is based on the concept of a people's army.
"The key is to win over the support of the people or the hearts and minds of the people," Prabowo writes.
Widjojo said those found guilty of abuses will not go unpunished. He gave the example of the military trying to redeem its tarnished image after troops killed more than 50 people in the Timorese capital of Dili in November 1991.
In the wake of the massacre, the military had sought to lay the blame on some agitators and claimed that the protesters were armed. However, the Muslim-based United Development Party demanded an investigation into the shootings, which eventually saw the removal of three officers from their posts.
"We may have made mistakes way back in the early 1990s, but we have learnt from our mistakes," Widjojo said.
Indonesia, he said, realises that to win low intensity conflicts, everything must be done to win the support and sympathy of the people. It also knows that bad treatment of the population will result in antipathy towards the government and the loss of popular support.
| International relations |
Green Left Weekly - December 3, 1997
Norm Dixon – Thirty-eight trade unionists protesting against the visit of Indonesian President Suharto to South Africa were arrested in Cape Town on November 20. The protesters, members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), who had gathered outside parliament, were chanting and waving placards that read: "Release Xanana Gusmao", "Workers to end Suharto's genocide", "COSATU supports the struggle of Asian workers" and "Suharto, end union bashing now".
Police in riot gear formed ranks beneath the towering statue of white South Africa's first prime minister, General Louis Botha. Chanting "Viva COSATU", the protesters were bundled into police vans and taken away, just minutes before the Indonesian dictator arrived.
The demonstrators were arrested because they contravened an apartheid-era regulation that prohibits groups of more than 15 people demonstrating within 100 metres of parliament without permission. The Cape Town City Council refused to allow the anti-Suharto protest.
No action was taken against a pro-Suharto gathering - mostly Muslim schoolchildren - a few metres away as they waved tiny Indonesian flags. When Suharto arrived, he was surrounded by sweet smiling faces - a perfect photo opportunity.
COSATU spokesperson Nowetu Mpati angrily denounced the police action. "It is a violation of the constitutional right to demonstrate peacefully. At this time of our democracy, it is barbaric for police to act like that."
Mpati said the protest was in line with COSATU's national conference resolution to protest against Suharto's human rights abuses in Indonesia and East Timor. It was also meant to show support for President Nelson Mandela's efforts to resolve the conflict in East Timor.
The people of Indonesia had experienced the same repression and oppression that South Africans had felt under apartheid, Mpati said. "Solidarity knows no boundaries. Wherever Suharto goes in South Africa, people who feel strongly about the abuse of human rights will protest", she vowed.
The Pan Africanist Congress also criticised Suharto's visit.
Suharto was greeted by Mandela and 16 members of the cabinet. Following an hour-long meeting, Mandela emerged to describe the discussions with his "close friend" as "very fruitful". He thanked Suharto for his financial assistance to the ANC prior to the 1994 elections.
Suharto was also awarded South Africa's highest award, the Order of Good Hope.
Mandela indicated that East Timor had been raised during the talks. He said that he was confident progress had been made but refused to discuss the details. Speaking at a function at the presidential mansion, Tuynhuys, Mandela referred cryptically to South Africa's willingness "to help resolve problems that beset Indonesia, but only where this was required and within the context of multilateral institutions".
Economic relations topped the agenda. Two agreements - on trade and air links - were signed. On November 21, Suharto and South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo visited a trade fair at the Cape Town Civic Centre. Trade between South Africa and Indonesia has risen from virtually nothing five years ago to almost US$200 million.
Indonesian officials have expressed interest in buying the South African-made Rooivalk helicopter gunship. The Rooivalk was developed by the apartheid regime for use in its counter-insurgency wars against freedom fighters in Namibia, Mozambique and Angola.
During his visit to Jakarta in July, Mandela said, "If it becomes necessary to for us to supply arms for external defence to Indonesia, we will do so without hesitation".
On November 18, South African Communist Party deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin urged the government not to supply arms to Indonesia. Suharto's regime is "at war with it own people" and the people of East Timor. Any arms sales that result in further repression would be against South Africa's arms sales policy, he said.
Vancouver Sun - November 30, 1997
David Hogben – Two Indonesian security officers were arrested while installing electronics equipment in a secure zone at the Hotel Vancouver during this week's APEC conference.
The prime minister's office and the foreign affairs department confirmed Friday they were aware of the arrests earlier this week, but said they could give no details.
The two Indonesian nationals were inside a marked secure zone atop the Hotel Vancouver on Tuesday.
Sources differ on exactly what the two men were doing.
One said their presence was detected when their soldering gun set off a fire alarm while they were installing an antenna. Another source heard they were spotted on a security camera installed by RCMP and Vancouver police while they were installing a camera of their own.
"The individuals concerned were stripped of their credentials and returned to Indonesia," a source in foreign affairs said.
Two other Indonesians, both security officers, were arrested Tuesday during a demonstration on the University of B.C. campus against, among others, Indonesian President Suharto.
The officers were also stripped of their credentials, turned over to the Indonesian delegation and returned to Indonesia.
They were using radios to communicate at the time of their arrests.
Suharto was targeted by protesters this week for his role in the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese following the illegal occupation of their lands by Indonesian forces. Protesters printed posters declaring Suharto a war criminal and made a symbolic attempt to perform a citizens' arrest during his visit to Vancouver for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.
| Economy and investment |
Jakarta Post - December 4, 1997
Jakarta – Bank Indonesia, the central bank, yesterday denied rumors that it would convert bank deposits into government bonds and freeze U.S. dollar accounts.
"Regarding the misleading rumors that the government would convert bank deposits above certain amounts into government bonds, it must be stressed that the news is not true at all," the central bank said in a statement.
"It is also not true that the government would freeze U.S. dollar accounts at banks," the bank said.
Rumors have been circulating here that the government would convert bank deposits of more than Rp 20 million (US$5,120) into government bonds so that the money would be kept longer in the banking system and not redeemed to buy U.S. dollars.
Rumors also created concern that the government might freeze dollar accounts to give support to the rupiah.
"We appeal to the public not to believe such rumors and rely on government policy and information," the central bank pleaded.
"Public calm will help greatly in our effort to restore the economy and strengthen our economic defense to face the monetary crisis confronting this region," it added.
Bank Indonesia's denial combined with its market intervention, stabilized the rupiah at 3,940 against the U.S. dollar at the spot market -approximately the same level of the previous day's close.
Currency dealers said that the central bank was seen intervening in the market after the rupiah touched the day's low of 3,955 to the dollar.
They said the central bank had tried to drain some excess rupiah from the money market by bidding overnight money at around 15 percent through some state banks.
The central bank had absorbed some overnight money Wednesday from the interbank market along with overnight and oneweek swaps in an effort to slow the fall of the rupiah.
Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Michel Camdessus said yesterday in Tokyo that it could take several more months to see a turnaround in the Indonesian economy.
But he added that the rupiah would stabilize if Indonesia remained committed to implementing its IMF program.
"In the case of Mexico, it took several months... before the economy had its U-turn. It will possibly take several months more for a U-turn to materialize (in the Indonesian economy)," he was quoted by Reuters.
"I received from President Soeharto the strongest assurances that he himself was fully backing the (IMF) program," he said.
"I believe that if they continue in that direction, you will see not only the rupiah stabilize, but the economy to be prepared for a good new start."
Far Eastern Economic Review - December 4, 1997
John McBeth, Jakarta – Last February, an Indonesian military intelligence team filmed American human-rights activist Danny Kennedy lifting samples from the silt-laden Aikwa River in the lowlands of southern Irian Jaya. Later, when Kennedy attempted to airfreight the vials of water to Australia, he was detained and quickly deported. His crime: conducting scientific research without proper authorization.
Why were intelligence agents filming a lone activist in Irian Jaya? Well, the Aikwa is no ordinary river. It carries millions of tonnes of finely crushed rock in a 2,700-metre plunge from Freeport Indonesia's giant Grasberg copper and gold mine to a final resting place near the clapboard town of Timika. Environmentalists claim these "tailings" from the mine are toxic. Freeport insists it has the scientific evidence to prove they aren't.
And that's just the beginning of the battle. Kennedy's deportation was part of a steadily escalating conflict between Freeport and a loose coalition of environmental and human-rights groups. The organizations are angry about Freeport's plan to double the mine's production and also its perceived failure to come to grips with problems affecting the 20,000-strong local Irianese tribal community.
Better funded and now able to employ the Internet and other new tactics to fight what they see as corporate abuses, activists say they want to build greater democratic control over multinational corporations. "The worldwide green movement is moving towards highly sophisticated point attacks," observes Geoff Dews, a Brisbane-based marine scientist for the Torres Strait Regional Authority. "They don't say mining is bad, but they pick out a company and throw all the resources they have at it."
Freeport is in the crosshairs because, quite simply, it's an activist's dream: a big multinational seen to be colluding with a corrupt, authoritarian regime and struggling to cope with a cocktail of environmental and human-rights issues. Like Unocal in Burma, Shell in Nigeria and Exxon in Alaska, it has become a symbol of a larger battle. "We're a big, easy target," sighs Paul Murphy, Freeport Indonesia's executive director. "We're in a pristine part of the world with a project area extending from an equatorial glacier to a warm tropical sea, and we have primitive people walking around wearing penis gourds."
Freeport isn't lying down in the face of the protests. On one hand, it has spent millions on environmental projects and improving the lives of villagers, doing the sort of touchy-feely things that don't come easy to a mining company. On the other, it is employing retired American and Indonesian military officers, ex-policemen, former U.S. federal agents and other security consultants to safeguard the mine and to counter the activists.
Freeport is also forking out $35 million for barracks and other facilities for an 800-strong military task force the government brought in after anti-Freeport rioters rampaged through Timika and the high-altitude Tembagapura mining camp in March 1996. The Indonesian army recently assigned six armoured cars to Timika, which one activist now calls "the most militarized district in Indonesia."
The stakes are enormous. Grasberg is the world's third-largest copper resource and, at 108 million ounces, its biggest gold reserve–enough to keep parent company Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold in Irian Jaya for at least another 30 years. The first large foreign investor under Indonesia's New Order government in the early 1970s, Freeport's rise and success parallels that of President Suharto, who sees the Grasberg mine as the cornerstone of his eastern Indonesia development policy. The government has a 10% stake in Freeport Indonesia, with another 5% owned by Nusamba, a Suharto foundation run by presidential ally Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.
In keeping with their new-found sophistication, activists have attacked Freeport on several fronts. Apart from opposing its application for an environmental-impact permit to cover the mine expansion, campaigners are actively supporting a $6 billion class-action lawsuit brought by tribal leader Tom Beanal, accusing the company of eco-terrorism and blaming it for abuses committed by the Indonesian military against indigenous Irianese.
Activists have also created minority-shareholder lobbies, either by buying stock or acting as proxies. They have sought to drive a wedge between Freeport and British-based partner Rio Tinto Zinc. And they have been trying to raise the company's alleged misdeeds with the maritime-resources working group of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Project Underground, the Berkeley, California-based group that Kennedy heads, coordinates 20-odd international and Indonesian non-governmental organizations which are taking on Freeport, ranging from Britain's MineWatch to the Sierra Club, Australia's Minerals Policy Institute and the Indonesian Forum on the Environment, or Wahli.
Kennedy and other activists insist they aren't anti-mining and that they're only sticking up for the rights of local people and demanding more corporate accountability. Both Project Underground and MPI are working together on an international database of 200 mining companies to ensure, as MPI Coordinator Chris Harris puts it, "wherever they go, their track records will go before them." Project Underground has also been getting under Freeport's skin by acting as a proxy for minority shareholders. Earlier this year, Kennedy spoke at the company's annual meeting on behalf of the Seattle Menonite Church, which owns a small parcel of Freeport stock. Freeport's hard-bitten chairman, James "Jim Bob" Moffett, gave him two minutes to say his piece, in part a dig at Moffett's $42 million annual salary, then abruptly cut him off.
The Indonesian military is watching events with no small interest given its contention that activist NGOs were involved in last year's Timika riots, though it has offered no proof of such a link. Following those disturbances, the government listed Wahli as one of 32 "problematic" NGOs – organizations deemed to be carrying out activities that exceed their charter.
Wahli's feisty director, Emmy Hafild, has since been called in several times by the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency to explain her ties with Western activists. (Wahli is partly funded by the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation through the International Rivers Network, the group which played a key role in getting the federal Overseas Private Investment Corp. to cancel Freeport's $100 million political risk-insurance policy in 1995.)
When Kennedy calls Freeport "the biggest rogue American multinational in the world today," the rhetoric is nothing new. Freeport took too long to get to grips with its environmental and social problems, and so much mud has stuck to the company that few are prepared to listen to what it has to say in its defence. What is particularly disturbing to Freeport is the way it is being held responsible for the actions of its partners, including the army's abuses against Irianese living in the company's area of operations.
On the environmental front, Murphy contends Freeport is doing everything right. He says the company has commissioned studies on everything from the top of the Carstensz Glacier which overlooks the mine to the marine floor more than 100 kilometres away. "There's no place on the planet Earth that's had so much scrutiny as has our project area," he insists.
But that hasn't solved one big problem with the expansion. Freeport must figure out how to store 3 billion tonnes of waste ore over the next 30 years. Murphy says the company has narrowed itself down to two options: expanding its present lowlands deposition area in the Aikwa River or building a pipeline from the mill to a 90-square-kilometre dumping site just north of Timika – a project that would cost $300 million-500 million and which even Murphy admits is environmentally problematic.
But Murphy claims the environmental battle is being won; it's social issues where he admits "we're vulnerable." That's for sure. In the wake of the 1996 riots, Freeport hurriedly implemented a scheme to parcel out 1% of mine revenues – about $15 million annually – to local Irianese villagers. But this collapsed after the first year, largely because of corruption and mismanagement among the provincial officials who administered it and the central government's insistence on parcelling out the money to tribal foundations. Freeport is continuing to add to an escrow account while a new spending mechanism is worked out.
Tribal conflicts, however, will always remain a concern. The prospect of work at the mine has brought historic enemies into close proximity with each other for the first time. The 3,000- strong Amungme tribe, for example, settled around the Grasberg near the turn of the century after being hounded out of areas farther north by the more populous Dani. Now the Amungme find they are outnumbered in their own bailiwick by Dani tribesmen, who the Amungme feel are horning in on what's rightfully theirs.
Today's battles, of course, may be mere preludes to longer-term political questions. "After Suharto is gone," says one mining source, "Freeport won't have the influence it has now and there's a potential it may be regarded negatively." But then, it wouldn't be the first time.
Sydney Morning Herald - December 4, 1997
Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's rupiah hit a record low yesterday, despite the massive International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package, following the Soeharto Government's announcement that it would stop attempting to prop up the currency by intervening in the money market.
The rupiah fell to 3,977 to the US dollar yesterday afternoon, wiping off all the gains made after the IMF announced the $US38 billion ($56.1 billion) package for Indonesia last month. In August the rupiah was trading around 2,400 to the US dollar before trading bands were removed in the face of the Thai economic crisis. The currency dropped to 3,800 before the IMF was called in.
At the same time a member of the Human Rights Commission said large scale lay-offs over the next few months would mean all Indonesians still holding a job would be supporting seven members of their extended family.
The Finance Minister, Mr Mar'ie Muhammad, said intervention by Japan, Singapore and Indonesia which has been used to prop up the rupiah would be suspended. The turmoil surrounding South Korea's economic woes meant intervention was no longer effective, he said.
| Politics |
Sydney Morning Herald - December 3, 1997
Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament is preparing to hand President Soeharto sweeping emergency powers that would allow security forces to take "preventive measures" against opponents of the regime in order to "secure national development".
All factions of the 1,000-member People's Advisory Council have agreed to reintroduce a defunct security decree, following Mr Soeharto's statement earlier this year that freedom "is being misused by irresponsible persons".
In September, Mr Soeharto told incoming politicians that "current laws lack the power to oppose those who betray [the national ideology] Pancasila and the Constitution".
The decree on emergency powers was abandoned in 1993 because the political situation was judged as stable. But the current Parliament is planning to hand the extra-constitutional powers back following presidential elections next March, which are expected to be won unopposed by Mr Soeharto.
Indonesia has been hit by a series of riots over the past 18 months and social commentators predict that tensions will worsen next year as unemployment and inflation rise due to the economic crisis.
A spokesman for the ruling Golkar party said the proposal for emergency powers was not based on exaggerated fears. "It is an anticipative step for the future," he said. "As long as stability is under control, the decree will not be used."
But political analysts criticised the decree, saying Mr Soeharto's Government already had considerable power to use against its opponents with the existing subversion laws. These permit imprisonment without trial for one year and carry a maximum penalty of death.
One political scientist said: "The reason given by the Government for the decree is the riots over the last year or so, but the reason is thirst for power.
"It is not because the Government's power is inadequate now, but because the Government is no longer confident of its power because of the recent empowerment of sectors of society. They only have the legitimation of the elections, which were not honest and fair."
One diplomat observed: "The Soeharto Government is anticipating a very tough year next year and may read the situation as needing another club on the shelf."
He said millions of workers would not receive their annual bonuses in January because of the economic crisis. The removal of highly sensitive fuel subsidies would be likely after March, while workers would be pushing for an increase in the minimum wage as prices increased, at a time when companies could not afford to pay.
A political commentator, Mr Muhammad Hikam, said the decree would allow almost any preventive measures during a crisis, including the break-up of political parties.
"The worry is that it can be used as a tool to prevent the development of the pro-democracy movement."
The minority United Development Party has argued that the decree's revival must be accompanied by protection for human rights.