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ASIET NetNews Number 11 - March 23-April 5, 1998
East TimorPolice fire tear gas at students Tens of students and guards injured Violent clashes between students & military Clashes at 11 March University Government orders report on clashes
Political/economic crisisYouth tortured in Dili Konis Santana dies in accident Indonesian forces torture Timorese farmer FRETILIN warns of possible famine Timorese youth protest at British Embassy
Environment/land disputesIndonesia, IMF reach agreement IMF Jakarta package 'waste of funds' Suharto gives a little -- and gets a lot
Labour issuesFires won't be put out at Brunei meeting UN says millions face acute food shortages River dying as paper production thrives
Human rights/lawPoverty soars as wage rise refused
Economy and investmentMalaysia undeterred to deport immigrants Indonesia tightens grip against dissenters Appeal of Ratna and friends rejected Rights groups concerned about migrants Andi Arief arrested, PRD activists tortured LBH press statement on Andi Arief's arrest Growing concern over `disappearances' Andi Arief in incommunicado detention
Japanese banks to write off loans Only 180 companies have reported debt
Warning of an insular Indonesia
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- Police fired tear gas at rock-throwing students after a big anti-government protest turned violent, witnesses said.
At least 40 students from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, 420 kilometers east of Jakarta, were treated at nearby hospitals for gas inhalation, as well as injuries sustained when police used sticks to disperse the crowd of several thousand.
Witnesses said the protesters gathered on the campus of the university, the oldest in Indonesia, and called on President Suharto to quit amid the worst economic crisis in three decades.
Several hundred baton-wielding police moved in when demonstrators attempted to march into an adjacent street.
Witnesses said some students retaliated by throwing rocks after police fired at least six canisters of tear gas. Some police threw rocks back at the students.
One canister hit a television cameraman at the scene.
"I saw students being beaten by ratan sticks. The police fired tear gas. Then the students and the police started throwing rocks at each other," said one student Dwi Hartanto.
"Some students were taken away with their heads bleeding."
A minivan, apparently owned by a senior police officer, was overturned by some protesters before they retreated back inside the campus.
Witnesses said the area around the campus perimeter was littered with rocks after the four-hour protest.
Police confirmed that a demonstration took place but declined to comment further. There were no reports of arrests.
Thursday's demonstration was that latest in a series of dozens of students protests against President Suharto's government in the past month.
Jakarta -- Demonstrations still happen at a number of campusses, with unchanged demands, namely about economical and political reforms. Eventhough the demonstrations occur in the campusses, at some places happened "try outs" to go out of the campus.
The Lampung University (Unila) Campus which in the last week
was free from various peaceful demonstrations, was Tuesday (1/4) shaken again. More than 100 students, shouting pro-reformation yells tried to make a break through out of the campus. But the demonstrants failed to break through the gate at the crossing of Soemantri Brodjonegoro Street and Zainal Abidin Street which was blocked by the security apparature. Four trucks of the apparature were on the alert around the gate.
In front of the apparature, at a distance of about 20 meter the students continued to shout which was coloured by reading poems. The students declined a dialogue, either with the ABRI leadership or with President Soeharto. During the action some guards who were at the gate prevented the students who could not show their student card to enter the campus.
Pontianak
In Pontianak about 350 students from Universitas Tanjungpura (Untan) held a demonstration at the yard of said state university.
The theme of their struggle in this action was about social diseases, among others collusion, corruption, nepotism which often occurred in various govt policies which was considered degrading the people's moral.
At the orderly action the students displayed hundreds of posters and banners containing demands. They planned to hold a long march from the campus to the Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) Office of West Kalimantan for a dialogue with the representatives of the people. Hundreds of guards outside the campus foiled the plan.
Meanwhile tens of students from various universities in Aceh came at the same day at the DPRD Aceh to convey their concern about the recent situation. They called themselves anti arrogance, violence, collusion, corruption and nepotism students and demanded that more attention should be given to matters which could make the govt foundations collapse like corruption, collusion, nepotism, violence and arrogance.
Not violating HAM The Chairman of the subcommission for Monitoring of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Dr AA Baramuli clarified that the student demonstrations in the campusses were not violations of human rights, were even the embodiment of HAM, namely freedom of speech. As long as they remained in the campus the apparature could not just arrest the demonstrating students. Barumuli was at the meeting sided by Dr Albert Hasibuan and Soegiri. He said that Komnas HAM was continuously sending its members for direct monitoring.
Yogyakarta -- Violence occurred again at the demonstration in the Gajah Mada University (UGM)'s Campus and the IKIP (Teacher's Training College) in Yogyakarta, Friday (3/4). At least 14 students were injured and between 10 and 20 persons are treated in the hospital, 14 others are missing, six are arrested, and at least 25 motorbikes from students and spectators were damaged by the assault which was harsher compared with the affair of a day before. A number of glasses at the UGM Campus were also reported broken. them seriously wounded - hit by stones. The Head of the Detectives Directorate of the Yogyakarta Special Region Police Lieutenant Colonel (Pol) Erwin Tobing who was in civilian dress was also hit by stones and beaten by fellow guards.
The action which started 09.00 ended at 15.00, after the IIIrd Rector Assistant Ir Bambang Kartika met the Police Chief of Yogyakarta Colonel (Pol) Bani Siswono and the Commander of Military Resort 072/Pamungkas Colonel (Inf) Djoko Santoso. Bambang Kartika then climbed on an armored car to disperse the students who were still continuing the demonstration after the riot while the police chief and military commander withdrew their troops.
At the emergency meeting in front of the Panti Rapih hospital in Yogyakarta Bambang Kartika much regretted the incident which caused wounded students. While the police chief said that actually the whole security apparature already restrained themselves to give no reaction. "The reporters could see for themselves in the field. We restrained ourselves long enough eventhough thrown with stones. Six of our members were even wounded, among others a broken nose and open cheecks, hit by stones. We regret this condition. We know the demands of the students, but please have it controlled. You see for yourselves that firecrackers as big as a head were exploded by the students, if it hit persons they would certainly be injured," said Bani Siswono, sided by Lieutenant Col (Pol) Erwin Tobing.
Negotiation failed
The demonstration occurred first separately in two campusses, the UGM and State's IKIP Yogyakarta starting 09.00, then it fused since 11.50 after violence first started at IKIP Yogyakarta. The IKIP Yogyakarta caused that Munadi, the Chairman of the Students Senate was arrested and seriously wounded with stitches on his head and ear while between 10 and 20 colleagues were beaten by the guards who entered and chased the students in the IKIP campus which is about one km east from the UGM.
The Friday afternoon incident which was very regretted and criticized by the students was a continuation of the incident on Thursday (2/3) at the UGM and the IAIN Sunan Kalidjaga Yogyakarta. The incident of Friday yesterday occurred because there was no consensus between the apparature and thousands of students in Yogyakarta who wanted to hold a long march to the Northern side of the Town Square in Yogyakarta to meet with Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X who happened to be abroad.
The demonstration which was arranged by the Yogyakarta Moslem Students League (LMMY) was attended by thousands of students from various universities, a number of schoolchildren and between 10 to 20 youngsters who walked from the UGM Economic Faculty to the Faculties of Philosophy, Law, Agricultural Technology, Forestry, the audience hall, and to the boulevard or the UGM traffic circle.
First the mass of students walked freely to Jalan Kolombo in front of the Mirota Campus Supermarket west of the UGM. But hundreds were hindered by the close rows of guards. Finally they went back and fused at the UGM boulevard.
About 11.30 when both parties started to withdraw and the armoured cars were withdrawn, between 10 and 20 students appeared who threw stones to the guards and two explosions were heard from firecrackers in the midst of the arena. The attack with stones increased till the armoured cars penetrated, followed by the security guards who chased the demonstrators. Lieutenant Colonel (Pol) Erwin Tobing noted that due to the intifada five members were wounded and Chief Sergeant (Pol) Suharno and 1st Sergeant (Pol) Samiyono were treated at Panti Rapih Yogyakarta Hospital. He noted that six demonstrators were treated at the same place.
While the students noted that 12 students of the UGM action were injured and a part was treated at the Sardjito Hospital, six were besides the 12 treated at Panti Rapih Hospital, one employee of the Student Cooperative of the UGM and more than ten others at the IKIP Yogyakarta action. Many students were seriously wounded, like broken bones, head injuries and being unconscious.
In other campusses
At the Udayana University Campus in Denpasar about 3,000 students burned three helms, a rattan stick and a fiberglass shield from the security forces for their unsympathetic conduct.
In Jakarta about 1,000 students from Universitas Indonesia (UI) held a free speech forum at the UI Salemba campus where the former rector Prof Dr Tadjuddin and the legislative expert Prof Dr Harun Al-Rashid attended and gave an oration. Some representatives from other universities enlivened the action, among others from IKIP Jakarta, IAIN Jakarta, Unair Surabaya and UGM Yogyakarta.
In said action the students declined the solution offered by the govt as it was only symbolic and inclined to avoid the essence of the real problem. About 2,000 students from the Universitas Andalas (Unand) Padang held a demonstration at the Unand Campus, 25 km north of the centre of Padang. In Ujungpandang about 500 students from the Moslem Students Association (HMI) of the Ujungpandang Branch gathered at the Karebosi field in Ujungpandang to hold a free speech forum called Big Rollcoll. They then made a long march to the HMI Secretariat. At Universitas Syiah Kuala Banda Aceh and Universitas Brawijaya Malang there were also demonstrations attended by hundreds of students.
Yogyakarta -- Student actions have entered a new phase, moving off campus. As a result, at several campuses which held demonstrations on Thursday, April 4, battles with security forces could not be avoided and resulted in students being injured.
At the Gajah Mada University (UGM) and the Islamic Religious State Institute (IAIN), student actions clashed with security forces which resulted in at least 29 injuries and a private vehicle parked on the UGM campus destroyed, when it became the target of the Yogyakarta students rage.
At a press meeting yesterday, the head of the local police, Colonel Bani Siswono and the commander of the local military, Colonel Djoko Santosa, said that 29 students suffered injuries and three are still being treated at the Panti Rapih Yogyakarta public hospital.
On Thursday afternoon, the UGM Student Executive Body also reported that there were 29 victims of the violence and tear-gas attack.
However according to the UGM Emergency Aid Unit, there were 42 students who were injured at the UGM demonstration. The three victims who are being treated in hospital are Rahmat from the Faculty of Politics, Edi Hutapea from the Imanuel Christian University (Ukrim) and Titien, a male student from the Yogyakarta Madrasah Aliyah Negeri (MAN).
It was not only university students that took to the streets. The UGM demonstration was joined by high-school students who rallied under the flag of the Inter-School Student Organisation (OSIS). Meanwhile the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Foundation reported that at least 53 people were injured.
Rallying to the local parliament
The clashes at UGM an IAIN both occurred when the students broke through a blockade by anti-riot personal with the intention of marching to the local parliament which is around three kilometres from UGM and five kilometres from IAIN. But student were unable to break through the blockade by troops armed anti-riot shields and clubs.
At IAIN, students repeatedly tried to force their way through the campus gates but their efforts were only able to force the troops retreat. Blockade was not broken. Finally, at around 12.30pm, the students were given an ultimatum. If they left the campus and went out on to the streets the security forces would take stern action against them. The security forces blockading the student at the campus then withdrew. Seeing the opportunity, the determined students began to march, however as they entered Jalan Solo, the students reconsidered because the street was still blocked by security forces.
The clash at IAIN did not result in many victims except for a number of students who were hit with clubs by police. The students dispersed after seeing how tight the security was.
Gajah Mada demonstrations
A clash also occurred at UGM at around 12 noon. Initially students marched around the campus from the Faculty of Politics, Sociology, Psychology, Arts and then gathering to hold a free speech forum. From there, students planned a "long-march" to the Yogyakarta Parliament on Jalan Malioboro. Security forces were guarding the streets around the campus. The clash followed a call by the leader of the demonstration to go "Forward two steps". When the university and high-school students position came up against the security forces there was an order to go "Forward four steps!"
A clash could not be avoided. Students and security personal pelted each other with stones. The security personal responded by throwing rocks and waving their batons, firing tear-gas into the demonstrators and chasing students. The university and high- school students involved in the action scattered in disorder.
According to students, the identity of the owner of a vehicle which was overturned by students was found. Also found were tear-gas which was used against students. However the head of the Yogyakarta police, Colonel Bani Siswono said it would be investigated and the total number of tear-gas canisters used by the security personnel counted.
Meanwhile in press statement, Colonel Djoko Santosa from the Yogyakarta Danrem 072/Pamungkas military, said they were very concerned about the incident. "ABRI [the armed forces] and students are a component of the nation which have the potential to contribute to the nation. The victims of this clash have fallen uselessly", he explained.
Djoko said that the demonstration at UGM was no longer responding purely to the economic crisis that has occurred in the country, because during the demonstration, Fretilin flags and East Timor independence banners were displayed.
The UGM Executive Student Body said in a written statement, that they regretted ABRI's violent action because it violated human rights and conflicted with the [the state ideology of] Pancasila. The Executive also demanded that ABRI publicly apologise and take responsibility for all damages suffered by the students.
Jakarta
On Thursday April 2 in Jakarta, student actions continued at the National University (UI), the National Development University (UPN), the Institute of Science and Technology (ISTN), the August 17 1845 University and the Academy of Industry Leadership (APP). The students not only held a free speech forum on the campus but rallied off campus.
Scores of ISTN students marched around 500 metres from the campus towards APP, which is around one kilometer away. To prevent the students marching too far, security forces from the Mobile Brigade blocked the intersection between Jalan Moh. Kahfi II which leads toward the ISTN campus and Jalan Timbo, which leads to the APP campus.
Despite this, a clash occurred between ISTN students and security personal after they marched off campus. They read poems, presented speeches and sang in front of the security force barricade. As mid-day approached, they dispersed in an orderly manner.
At the UPN university, students who were able to leave the campus, were asked by the Rector's assistant, Brigadier-General Dedi Atmanandi, to return to the campus. The action proceeded orderly although student were able to march as far as 15 metres from the campus before security forces ordered them to return.
It was similar at the UI campus. This time students march quite orderly, although the action was carried out outside the campus gates. The police which were deployed, prevented the students from going far from the campus. The road in front of the campus was close for some time.
Purwokerto
An action in Purwokerto, Jateng, resulted in pushing and shoving between students and security personal who tried to block students from going into the streets. A number of students were beaten with clubs in an incident at the Purwokerto General Soedirman University. Security personal from the police and military were able to prevent around 1000 students from taking to the streets.
In Pontianak, West Kalimantan, around 200 students from the Tanjungpura University (Untan) held a "long-march" to the local Kalbar parliament, around 1.5 kilometres from he campus. The students carried a coffin which was covered with a black cloth and a seat without legs.
The Untan students, calling themselves "Student Solidarity with the Little People", went to the parliament intending to hold a dialogue with the people's representatives. Parliamentary members however, did not respond. On returning from the parliament, students were tightly guarded by security personal until they reached the gates to the campus.
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski]
Jakarta -- A clash between demonstrators and security personnel has again occurred on the campus of UNS, Solo on Wednesday (25/3) yesterday. The incident took place at about 13.50 West Indonesia Time, some ten meters in front of the campus gate. The reason was that no agreement was reached between the security apparatus and the demonstrators concerning the demarcation line of the campus area. As a result of the incident, five students were injured, two among whom had to be treated in hospital. Some 39 persons were affected by tear gas.
This clash between demonstrators and security at the UNS is the second occurrence, the previous event occurring on 17 March.
Police Colonel Imam Soewangsa emphasized to journalists that there were strong indications that the demonstrators had been infiltrated by the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). He mentioned a number of names of those who had been active in the Indonesian Students Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), which is a substructure of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), and which had been behind the demonstration of sentiments. He said that was no idle talk, because their files were at his office. The demonstrators rejected that they had been infiltrated by the PKI and PRD.
According to Yoyok, of the UNS Emergency Coordination Board, 39 people affected by tear gas were on record. Five students suffered injuries, but only two were rushed off to the Dr Moewardi Solo hospital.
In Medan, some 100 students of the North Sumatra State Islamic Religion Institute (IAIN) staged a demonstration of concern on their campus on Jl Sutomo. They demanded lowering of prices, and that reformation of politics, economics and law be carried out soon.
The campus of Universitas Lampung (Unila), which was busy with student actions during the past week, looked quiet yesterday. There were no more free forums and hunger strikes. Academic activities have started to return to normal.
Concerning the intelligence agent who was beaten by students last Tuesday (23/3), Korem 43/Garuda Hitam commander Col. Simbolon, through the unit's information head, conveyed that the man was not an Armed Forces intelligence agent , but a technical person from Telecommunications. However, the information official could not yet comment on the intelligence identity card found on the person, Shn (39), (Kompas, 25/3).
Still normal
Ismail H Metareum, general chairman of the Development Unity Party (PPP), considers the student actions still normal as they do not carry out actions out of bounds. He also considered as positive the student delegation which came to the Parliament to convey their aspirations.
When met after the Open Meeting of Professors of Universitas Indonesia to evaluate the dissertation of Dr Arifin Tambunan at the university in Jakarta on Wednesday (25/3), he said that the students now wanted dialogue with a government able to clarify what they were pondering.
Meanwhile, Social Affairs Minister Mrs Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana said, concerning the waxing actions of concern of students in Indonesia, that students indeed have to be critical, but should also know the rules, as long as the actions are carried out on campus. Their criticism is needed, for without with we would grow lax.
Jakarta - Minister for Education and Culture Wiranto Arismunandar has commissioned a special report on the clashes between students and security forces which occurred at the University of Solo (UNS) on 17 March 1998. He has given specific instructions that the report should provide a detailed chronology of the events which eventually led to 29 students being injured.
According to the Head of UNS, Prof. Harris Mudjiman, "the minister is praying for the prompt recovery of the students injured in the clashes." Arismunandar has also asked campus authorities to restrain the activities of students. "In principle, the university's staff does not prevent students from engaging in demonstrations or from staging free speech forums as long as these activities respect the constitution and are held inside the campus," he said.
A stand-off between students and security forces at Lampung University escalated into a bloody clash where four guards were injured and some 60 students - some injured - were taken into custody by the authorities.
"Gentlemen, we are keeping these four guards as our hostages. That is, they are not going to leave this campus until you set our schoolmates free! You better take our word for it," said a student spokesman. At sunset the guards were finally set free and approximately one hour later the security forces released the students.
The demonstrations at Lampung University began at 10:30 in the morning and were staged by thousands of students from Lampung schools and universities. The protesters asked for genuine political and economic reforms as well as a drop in the price of basic foodstuffs.
Although the protests began on campus, they soon spilled into the surrounding streets and students were confronted by hundreds of security officers. Prior to dispatching his troops into the area, Col. Simbolon had appealed for them to remain calm should there be acts of provocation. However, around 12 noon the students began pelting the soldiers with stones, prompting violent reprisals.
The head of Lampung police, Col. Gendro Budi Santoso, told reporters that he is planning to take more stringent actions if the demonstrations continue. "I have already warned them that if they wish to protest about academic matters they are welcome to do so. However, if they start to behave disorderly by breaking property and setting it on fire then we will clamp it down." "We will not stand for anarchy, and they will be stopped," said Santoso.
Meanwhile, universities across the country joined in the protests and declared their solidarity for Lampung University. Demonstrations were staged at Padang's Andalas University, in Medan at the National Islamic Institute of North Sumatra and the Islamic University of North Sumatra, in Semarang at the Soegijapranata Catholic University and the Sultan Agung Islamic University and in Surabaya at the Airlangga University.
Small clash
In Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali, hundreds of students at Udayana University who attended a general meeting clashed with police as they sought to march outside their campus. Six students and three security guards suffered light injuries. This demonstration by Balinese students called for economic and political reforms as well as complaining about the violent reprisals by security forces against students at Jakarta's National University (Unas), UMS in Solo, and ITS and IKIP in Surabaya. On several occasions, students sought to defy the authorities ban on demonstrations being held outside campuses, but have hitherto failed because they were overwhelmed by large numbers of security forces.
Dialogue with students
In Jakarta, 48 students from IKIP visited parliament to submit a written complaint. They were received by the ruling party Golkar's representatives and by members of the small Partai Demokratik Indonesia (PDI). The students called on parliament to increase its awareness of the public's needs and to adopt a more critical stance towards the government's policies.
The commander of Jakarta's Regional Command, Major-General Syafrie Syamsuddin, warned students not to break the law and to remain vigilant about potential infiltrators among student ranks. In Unjungpandang, the commander of the South Sulawesi Regional Command, Major-General Agum Gumelar said that the armed forces are ready to initiate dialogue with the students. "Until now there hasn't been a breakdown in dialogue between ABRI and the students. In our day and age the best way to resolve potential disputes and to avoid making wrong assumptions about the other parties is to keep talking with each other," said Gumelar.
| East Timor |
Coimbra, 01 Apr (Lusa) - Indonesian military arrested and "tortured" a young Timorese in Dili on Friday, a Timorese student in Portugal said on Tuesday.
Antonio Ramos, quoting Timorese resistance sources, told Lusa on Coimbra that the youth, Teodoro Goncalves, 27, from Audian had been arrested on Friday when he was leaving the University of Dili and released on the same day after being "tortured and burned with cigarettes".
Lisbon -- The commander of the Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor (FALINTIL) Konis Santana died on March 11 after falling in an embankment, Portuguese radio RDP announced on Monday, quoting a radio message by the a spokesman for FALINTIL, Taur Matan Ruak. Activist and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Jose Ramos Horta said in Lisbon following a meeting with Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio that the death of Santana represented a "serious setback" for the Timorese resistance.
Ramos Horta said that Sampaio was "profoundly sadden and dismayed" with the death of Santana.
He added that jailed rebel leader Xanana Gusmao would have the "last word" in the selection of the future commander of the Timorese armed resistance movement. Ramos Horta said that Tuar Matan Ruak would temporarily head the guerrilla. Gusmao is currently serving a 20-year sentence in the Indonesian jail of Cipinang, but he is still considered the leader of the Timorese armed resistance movement.
Sydney -- Indonesian soldiers detained and tortured a young Timorese farmer early this month in the region of Baucau, the organisation East Timor International Support Centre (ETISC) said on Friday.
It said in a statement that the farmer who was seriously injured during the detention was now under the care of his family.
ETISC said also that two Timorese informers accompanied the Indonesian soldiers.
Several sources contacted by Lusa in East Timor said last week that the growing economic crisis in East Timor has led some Timorese to collaborate with the Indonesian military to obtain money to pay for food.
Lisbon -- The head of the external delegation of East Timorese resistance movement FRETILIN warned on Saturday for the shortage of basic foodstuffs in East Timor, due to the "economic, social and political crisis" affecting Indonesia.
Jose Luis Guterres told Lusa that warehouses and shops in East Timor were running short of basic foodstuffs following a three- fold increase in their prices.
"The situation in East Timor was serious since 1974, but with the current situation of economic, financial and social crisis, and political instability in Indonesia, it has become ten times worse, to take dramatic proportions", said Guterres.
He also described the situation as "catastrophic" as "the population of East Timor does not free access to land farming".
Guterres urged the international community, in particular the United Nations, to send "relief aid to East Timor" and to "continue the negotiations with all the sides to rapidly find a political solution for East Timor, taking into account the right of self-determination and independence of the territory".
Diplomatic efforts aimed at finding a solution to the East Timor problem seem to be making little headway of late and for that reason a large group of East Timorese youths today demonstrated in front of the British Embassy in Jakarta.
This action, today, coincides with the start of the second Asia- Europe Summit (ASEM) in London and serves to remind the international community, in particular the European Union, that the brutal war in East Timor is not yet over and East Timorese are still living in a climate of fear, with disappearances and extra-judicial executions being common occurrences.
The East Timor International Support Center (ETISC) today received reports that the Indonesian military is organising raids into the houses of civilians in Dili. These attacks usually happen late at night or in the early hours of the morning. On April 2, at 4:00 am the military raided the house of a widow in Hudi-Laran, Bairro Pite suburb in Dili. The widow and eight youths were arrested after the storming, and one youth killed and another injured. The whereabouts of the widow and the eight youths are still unknown.
There is disappointment, among the East Timorese youths that the date for a visit to East Timor's capital, Dili, by the European "troika" of past, present and upcoming European Union presidents, announced by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook recently in Jakarta still remains ambiguous. The youth are also disappointed with this year's long-awaited UN-sponsored talks between Indonesia and Portugal which crashed to an immediate halt, because of the Indonesian currency crisis, with both countries agreeing to virtually nothing in trying to break the impasse over East Timor.
In February 1996, at the first ASEM in Bangkok, Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres met Indonesia's President Suharto at the sidelines of the summit and presented a package of proposals to Indonesia, including the release of jailed East Timor resistance leader Xanana Gusmao and the opening of diplomatic "interest sections" in each other's capitals. The Indonesians later rejected completely Prime Minister Guterres' proposal with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas angrily telling the Press that East Timor had "already determined its self-determination to be with Indonesia."
This time again, Alatas is repeating that same line saying he did not see East Timor coming up in the ASEM talks. "I think that will impossible during the summit. We should know that it will be an irrelevant topic. All people, including the host country (Britain) know this," he told Kompas news agency firmly last week. The East Timorese youths protesting outside the British Embassy, today, urge European governments not to use the Asian financial crisis as an excuse to not take a stand on East Timor or press Indonesia on it. The ongoing occupation of East Timor, the East Timorese youth point out, has been one of the factors contributing to the economic problems faced by Indonesia.
Over US$500 million dollars a year is spent on maintaining the huge Indonesian troop presence in East Timor. This amount does not include the costs of arms purchases, mostly from Europe, spy networks, civilian administration, notably corrupt and ineffective development works, as well as expense on international diplomatic damage control efforts. The material expenditure by Indonesia for its ongoing occupation of East Timor cannot go on and countries involved in the financial bailout of Indonesia should be made to realise this.
Through their protest action, today, the East Timorese youth also wish to remind the European Union that the current crisis faced by Indonesia is not merely financial in nature. It is the outcome of a profound political and social crisis in Indonesia, resulting from the excesses of 30 years of authoritarian military rule under President Suharto.
A solution to the current crisis requires a fundamental political change. The current system must be dismantled and democratic changes need to take place. ASEM must be focussing on ways to assist democratic change in Indonesia, as way to resolve the present crisis.
The East Timorese youths, also, wish to use this protest to show their solidarity with the youth of Indonesia, currently engaged in protest actions at universities throughout the country against the corrupt and authoritarian Suharto regime. The East Timorese youth hope that their daring action will further encourage their Indonesian counterparts to persevere at their campaign of protests until clear change is achieved in Indonesia.
| Political/economic crisis |
Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Jakarta -- After more than two weeks of negotiations, Indonesia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached an accord on revised target figures for the country's 1998/1999 budget, a government official said Thursday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the revision includes new assumptions about the exchange rate of the rupiah, the country's currency, about the inflation rate, which is likely to soar, and about the economic growth rate, which is expected to shrink.
The agreement, which still needs approval by visiting IMF Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer, came as students in the city of Yogyakarta in central Java clashed with riot police during a protest over economic and political reforms, resulting in 77 injuries and leaving four students listed as missing.
The government official said the IMF team, led by Asia-Pacific Director Hubert Neiss, and the Indonesian economic team will most likely agree on an exchange rate of 6,000 rupiahs to the U.S. dollar in the revised budget, which began Wednesday.
Both sides, according to the official, have also predicted a shrinkage in the economy of 3% to 6% and inflation of almost 50% for the fiscal year, which will end March 31, 1999.
In January, the government announced an IMF-sponsored fiscal budget that targeted zero economic growth, 20% inflation, and an exchange rate of 5,000 rupiahs to the dollar, different from the government's earlier predictions of 4% economic growth, 9 % inflation, and an exchange rate of 4,000 rupiahs.
Relations between Indonesia and the IMF hit a low point in February when the country was thought to be backing out of its commitment to the IMF-sponsored reforms agreed to in January.
This resulted in the delay of a 3 billion dollar installment of the 43 billion dollar IMF-led rescue fund scheduled to be disbursed in the middle of last month.
The Indonesian economy has been battered by a sharp plunge in the value of the rupiah, which hit its lowest level -- 17,000 to the U.S. dollar -- in January, compared with 2,450 before the crisis began last July.
The situation has incited a series of rallies since February by university students across the country calling for economic and political reforms. The Asian Development Bank and the World Bank have pledged to provide humanitarian aid under a short-term program -- which is expected to total 1.5 billion to 3 billion dollars -- to finance the importing of staple goods, medicines and hospital equipment.
Indonesia's major donor countries have also announced similar commitments, including the provision of trade financing.
Peter Hartcher -- The international community's $US43bn ($64bn) package for support of Indonesia is a waste of money, according to a US analyst and former senior policy maker in the Bush Administration.
With the Soeharto Government now negotiating to win back the support of the International Monetary Fund, the president and founder of the Asia-Pacific Policy Centre in Washington, Doulas Paal, said the IMF should walk away from Indonesia.
"We ought not to have an IMF program for Indonesia, it will just waste taxpayer money," Mr Paal said.
While he advocated aid for the Indonesian people, he opposed financial support for the Soeharto regime. The international community should accept that the regime was in terminal decline, he said.
Mr Paal was special assistant to Presidents Bush and Reagan for national security affairs and senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council. Previously, he specialised in Asian affairs at the CIA and the State Department.
"The fear that all powers have is that they want stability, but Soeharto can't deliver stability and we don't know anybody else who can deliver," Mr Paal said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review. "I think events will end up being led by the rabble.
"Great powers have tremendous difficulty with situations like this. Look at the example of the Shah of Iran. He made it difficult for any successor to emerge and we are still feeling the consequences of that."
In the case of the Philippines, Mr Paal said, the US was fortunate to have had Corazon Aquino to support "as a working solution" in opposition to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"But in Indonesia, we are not even close to having anyone like that there." Instead of supporting the Soeharto regime through an IMF program, the international community should concentrate their efforts on other areas, according to Mr Paal.
"First, we should do whatever we possibly can to extend aid at the provincial level," he said. "Food aid is easy to keep up because the farm lobbies always support it. Just writing cheques is harder politically.
"Number two, we should try to insulate others from Indonesia's collapse. We should be looking at how to limit future exposures and unwind existing exposures." IMF technical support for economic and financial reform might be supportable, Mr Paal said, but not financial support.
He said the security consequences of the collapse of the regime should be able to be contained within Indonesia and were unlikely to spill over into neighbouring countries.
An expected IMF deal leaves him plenty of maneuvering room It's a confrontation that has pitted the might of the U.S. Treasury and the International Monetary Fund against an ailing dictator and his clique. Now, this battle between the IMF and Indonesian President Suharto may be ending, thanks to compromise by both sides. But on balance, the old man comes out the winner. By threatening to cause another panic in Asia with his reckless policies, Suharto has forced the IMF to water down its terms considerably. Now, he will get billions in aid, while still keeping his family's grip on the economy.
Informed sources in Jakarta and Washington say that by early April, Suharto and the IMF hope to announce new terms that Indonesia will honor to qualify for the next $3 billion tranche of aid from the global agency. "The Indonesians are negotiating in earnest with the IMF," says David Lipton, under secretary for international affairs at the Treasury Dept. The Indonesians will have to boost interest rates sharply to curtail growth in the money supply; consolidate the banking sector to 20 institutions, from 200 now; break up certain monopolies held by Suharto's family; and work out a repayment plan for the $74 billion Indonesian companies owe foreign banks. The
Indonesians are already acting. On March 25, banks doubled the rate on one- month deposits to 67.5%.
The IMF is also backing off from earlier demands. While Suharto's son Hutomo Mandala Putra will relinquish his grip on the clove trade and auto industry, the President's family and friends still will control the markets for essentials like kerosene, flour, rice, and cooking oil. The IMF wanted to break up these monopolies immediately, as well as end subsidies that are keeping down prices. But they'll stay in place for now, with a stipulation that the Indonesian government gradually phase them out. The IMF decided it could not trigger social unrest by insisting on the end of subsidies at a dangerous moment. And the monopolies seem like the only way to distribute food efficiently to hungry Indonesians.
Shopping around
Suharto did his best to avoid making any concessions. In a last- ditch bid to get funding with no strings attached, the Indonesians pleaded with the Japanese to offer their own aid. "But the Japanese said, 'Sorry, we've got to go with the IMF,"' says a prominent Indonesian businessman who attended some of the talks. Sources say the Australians gave a similar rebuff. Cornered, Suharto's negotiators started hammering out a deal with the IMF.
One contentious issue, Indonesia's proposed currency board, seems to have disappeared. But Suharto may have extracted a nice concession for dropping this idea. Indonesian sources say that if Suharto sticks with the reforms, come June, the U.S., Germany, and Japan may buy enough rupiah to stabilize the currency at 7,000 to the dollar. Washington sources emphatically deny this.
A possible side deal on the currency is not the only benefit for Suharto. By backing off on the subsidy issue, the IMF implicitly has dropped its demand that Indonesia reduce its deficit to 3%. Preserving state subsidies on staples also will maintain the safety net that keeps Suharto in power. And the subsidies ensure a steady cash flow for politically connected businesses like the Salim Group, which has a monopoly on milling imported flour. Salim Chief
Executive Anthony Salim also will run a new agency to implement the IMF deal. "Salim is effectively Prime Minister now," says one prominent businessman, who hopes Salim can separate his business interests from his political role. Suharto can still delay reforms. He is supposed to set up an Indonesia Bank Restructuring Agency to sell off weak banks. Yet nobody knows how long that would take or whether the Indonesians will give the agency real power. And a gradual phaseout of certain monopolies and subsidies gives the Indonesians many a chance to slow down the process.
If Suharto manages to evade real reform, his clan's triumph will be Indonesia's failure. An American businessman notes that last July, when the rupiah began a 90% slide against the dollar, the consensus was that the Indonesian economy would recover in 18 months. Now, he says, it will take three to five years. A deal is in the works. But real recovery is a distant prospect.
[By Michael Shari in Jakarta, with Dean Foust in Washington]
| Environment/land disputes |
Raj Rajendran, Singapore -- Southeast Asian environment ministers meeting this weekend have little hope of finding a way to extinguish Indonesia's raging forest fires, experts said on Wednesday.
Ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Brunei on Saturday might best focus on prevention of future fires, rather than cure, they said.
"There is very little chance of controlling the fires at this stage," said Dennis Dykstra of the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) at Bogor, near Jakarta. "There's too many of them and too widely spread. It's not humanly possible to put them out."
"The focus needs to be on developing, first, the policies and, second, ways to implement them that will prevent these kind of things in the future."
Dykstra said a Japanese remote sensing system showed up to 5,000 "hot spots" on the island of Borneo.
The experts said the fires were likely to burn unabated until October, when seasonal monsoon rains should put them out.
"They (ASEAN) don't really have the expertise to recommend short-term solutions to put out the fire," said David Glover, director of the Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA).
The ASEAN ministers are expected to formalise a task force with funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to take the lead in the battle against the fires, sources said.
The ministers, who have already met twice in the last four months, have devised a regional plan and sought outside help to combat the fires, after the region was blanketed with a thick smog from the Indonesian fires between August and October.
Experts said these actions, when implemented, would be too late to douse the flames in the jungles of Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, but they could be used to ease the misery of people living in towns on the fringes of these fires.
"The government can target this area and make people feel better," Dykstra said.
Experts said fires in the second year of an El Nino weather pattern, as now, are always worse than in the first because the forests are drier after the fires and drought of the first year. "I can see that the forest (around the Kalimantan town of Samarinda) is already black and dry. Very, very dry," said Caroline Purba, a field researcher with the Indonesian Forum for Environment, who had just returned from there.
"The fire has become worse. I think it's too late to stop. It's worse than the forest fire in 1997," she said.
Purba said intense efforts were being made to fight the fires, with help coming from the army, villagers and nature club members.
Glover said a similar trend was seen in the last El Nino drought in 1982 and 1983, when the forest fires were more severe in the second year than the first.
He said the EEPSEA, having put the economic cost of the 1997 smog at $1.4 billion, was expecting severe damage in 1998.
Singapore's tourism earnings are expected to fall about S$1.5 billion (US$930 million) this year if smog again shrouds much of Southeast Asia as it did in 1997. Other countries in the region are likely to suffer at least as much.
The smog from the fires burning on Borneo is being blown away from Southeast Asia by southwesterly winds, but these would change to easterly winds in May and bring the smoke to Singapore and west Malaysia.
Dykstra said the smog could be less harmful this time if the fires do not spread to peat beds, which have a high concentration of sulphuric acid.
The experts said Indonesia's troubles would not end when the fires are put out as the peat fires of last year had removed a lot of the jungles' natural ability to absorb water, so floods and soil erosion would be commonplace during the next monsoon.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Geoff Spencer, Jakarta -- Millions of Indonesia's poorest are in danger of serious food shortages because of drought conditions and a deepening economic crisis, a United Nations team said today.
The finding, though not unexpected, adds to growing alarm that a sour economic climate in the world's fourth most-populous nation could spark widespread social unrest. Student protests have been gathering force, and rioting broke out recently over rising food prices.
The UN group said today that 1.5 million families, or 7.5 million people in 15 provinces, "risk experiencing food insecurity until early next year."
Those most at risk are in the bottom third of 8 million rural families, a group that government officials say normally live under "chronic marginal circumstances," including less than two meals a day.
Team leader Uwe Kracht said the situation could not be described as a "famine." Nevertheless, "many pockets of the population are facing acute food supply inadequacy," he said.
While Indonesia has large cities, many of its 200 million people are poor rural dwellers, dependent on traditional farm production, mainly rice growing.
But that cycle has been compromised by severe drought. Meteorologists blame the El Nino weather phenomenon for the absence of seasonal monsoon rain in many areas.
In addition to the drought, Indonesia is being dragged through its worst economic crisis in 30 years. The currency, the rupiah, has plunged about 70 percent and inflation and unemployment have soared.
According to news reports today, President Suharto acknowledged this week that government policies have contributed to the severe economic troubles.
In a speech read out at a series of provincial ceremonies across the country Tuesday, the president said his government bore some of the responsibility for falling living standards and the impoverishment of many Indonesians.
"We need introspection and to review various policies and sectorial strategies we have followed so far, which directly or indirectly caused the monetary crisis," Suharto said.
The U.N. warning on hunger comes as representatives of donor countries and other international agencies were scheduled to meet in Washington to discuss aid to lessen the social impact of the crisis.
The U.N. team, which comprises staff from the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Program, said a lack of water and scant funds for fertilizers and good quality seed will reduce the rice harvest this year. As a result, costly rice imports will reach record levels.
Ravi Rajan, who represents the United Nations Development Program in Indonesia, said the WFP would provide nutritional support for pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers as well as children under five, and would distribute free food on a limited basis.
Several countries have already pledged food and medical aid for cash-strapped Indonesia.
Indonesia and the International Monetary Fund are finalizing negotiations to save a $43 billion economic rescue package. The IMF bailout was originally agreed to late last year and was reviewed and strengthened in January after it faltered.
But it stalled again in February amid fears that Suharto's government was backsliding on promises to reform the economy, including breaking up monopolies and subsidies that have enriched the president's family and friends.
Kafil Yamin, Pekanbaru -- For two days now, Dorin, has been staying in a high hut here, waiting for armies of fish to pass through the small canal below so he can catch some.
But the fish have remained scarce. "I thought the fish flee the main river down to small canal here. I was wrong," the 48- year- old villager said, referring to Kampar, the main river in Riau province in Sumatra island.
Accompanied by his 14-year-old cousin, Dorin has been combing the canal that cuts through the Riau jungle 12 km away from his home here in Pekanbaru village. So far, he has caught only less than 2 kg of fish.
Dorin is among hundreds of thousands of Riau villagers who have been experiencing falling fish catches in last three years. He says he has no idea why once bountiful fish have dwindled, and only knows that things are turning for the worse.
Even the province's popular fish, called patin, is hardly found in local markets and restaurants any more.
Villagers living around the Kampar river say fish catch has actually been dropping since the middle of 1994. But they say it was during the last two years that fishing production plummeted to its lowest level -- and greatly reduced their income. Only a few villagers are aware that since 1994, the pulp and paper factory PT Riau Andalas Pulp and Paper (RAPP) has using up water from the Kampar river.
And as the company increases its production volume, more and more water is channeled to it from the river that has long supported the residents of nearby areas.
Today, 100,000 cubic metres of water a day is sucked from the Kampas river and channeled to the processing plants of RAPP, according to Ulf Raij, the company's production manager.
RAPP's present production capacity is recorded at 750,000 tons of pulp and 300,000 tons of paper annually. But it is preparing to double paper production capacity from 300,000 tons to 600,000 tons a year.
Environmentalists believe this greater demand for water will take an even bigger toll on the Kampar River, which is the only water source available for the paper company.
"If you take a huge amount of water away, you're also taking living creatures in it away. Fish embryos are sucked by such activity. That's why fish population in the Kampar river is reduced," said Pehr-Eric Patt, vice president for business development and environmental affairs of the Helsinki-based UPM- Kymmene Fine Paper.
Canesia Munoz, general manager of the forestry division of the paper firm, dismisses allegations that his company pays poor attention to the environment.
"Before constructing the pulp and paper plant, an independent team had conducted an environmental impact assessment, from which we got a certificate," he said. In a preliminary study, the company took everything, including concerns about biodiversity, into account, he added.
But now, the company's plans for expansion are running counter to the livelihood needs of people who live by the Kampar river.
Fishing is the main source of livelihood and sustenance for villagers along the river's side, while they wait for harvest time to come around. When that happens, they work on and harvest from plantations that grow rubber trees, palm oil and coffee.
Fish from the river also help the villagers get by, at a time when prices of necessities such as cooking oil, rice, sugar and other staple foods have risen.
RAPP's record in environmental preservation is not as impressive as its size. In April 1997, Indonesia's environmental impact controlling body, called Bappeda, blacklisted RAPP and 13 other companies for water and air pollution and problems with local people.
Locals say water is not the only problem they have with RAPP. They say the company, whose concession spans 290,000 hectares and of which 195,000 hectares is a logging area, has acquired some of their land without proper compensation.
And in December, the forestry ministry revoked the company's license for land clearing through slash-and-burn, which contributed to forest fires last year.
Locals say they are worried about future access to the river and its resources, saying five other companies, which are into pulp and paper, palm oil and rubber production, also use its water.
"If one company use 100,000 cubic meters of water, you can count the amount of water used by those companies altogether," said an environmentalist with the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi).
A visit to the river area shows a number of fishing boats standing idle. "They (ships) have been there for three months," said Supadio, a fisherman. "The fishermen left their ships and turn to small canals and river branches for fishing. Still, they don't catch enough."
While official figures on fish production in Riau province are not available, rough estimates say some five to seven tons of fish are lost from the usual catch every month given the deteriorating state of the Kampar river.
Apart from the decrease in fish population, the water level of Kampar is falling, Walhi says. It warns that it is not just fish population that is affected, but the whole biodiversity in the river.
Supiado, the fisherman, knows full well what this means. In the river's healthier times, he used to earn from 15,000 to 20,000 rupiah a day (1.60 to 2 U.S. dollars). Today, all he earns per day is a measly 3,000 rupiah, or 30 cents.
| Labour issues |
Louise Williams, Jakarta -- Indonesian workers have lost their bid for a minimum wage rise, despite record inflation, as business closures force millions out of work and back into poverty.
The Manpower Minister, Mr Theo Sambuaga, was quoted yesterday as saying there would be no increases in minimum wages, which workers complain no longer cover even the most basic needs due to spiralling food prices.
The Jakarta Post newspaper said Mr Sambuaga promised to review the decision when the economy recovers, but most economists predict that Indonesia is facing at least two years of economic problems.
Government officials and the International Monetary Fund said they were optimistic a new agreement would be announced "within days" which would modify the conditions of a $A63 billion bailout for the second time.
New unemployment figures released this month showed unemployment has doubled to 8.7 million people, and another 18.4 million are underemployed. This means more than 30 per cent of the entire workforce does not have adequate work.
In the past workers have enjoyed an annual increase to keep minimum wages within a range which covers 92 per cent of the cost of basic needs, such as rice. But the same wage which last year bought 6.2 kilos of rice buys only 4.7 kilos today, despite Government food subsidies, and much less of other basics such as cooking oil and noodles, according to a recent study by the International Labour Organisation.
The current minimum wage for Jakarta is 172,500 rupiah a month, worth $A34.50, and less in most rural areas. Last year, before the rupiah's dramatic devaluation, the same wage was worth $A100.
The ILO estimated there are 10 million new poor in Indonesia due to the economic crisis, pushing the number in poverty up from 22.5 million in 1996 to 32.5 million in 1998 and wiping out years of progress in poverty alleviation.
| Human rights/law |
Nelson Graves, Kuala Lumpur -- Malaysia has locked hands with Indonesia to deport thousands of immigrants, dismissing pleas to protect Acehnese asylum-seekers and opting instead for regional stability.
Malaysia's hardline stance over 14 Indonesians seeking protection at the U.N. refugee agency in Kuala Lumpur underscored its determination to press ahead with a deportation programme that critics say turns a blind eye to human rights.
Malaysia said on Tuesday that the Indonesians, who drove a lorry through the closed gate of the U.N. refugee agency's compound in the capital, were considered illegal immigrants who were to be deported.
"Our position is very clear," Foreign Ministry under-secretary for Southeast Asia and South Pacific Mohd Arshad Hussain told Reuters by telephone. "We don't recognise the Acehnese as having any grounds for seeking political asylum."
The 14 Indonesians broke into the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) compound on Monday to avoid being sent back to Aceh on Indonesia's Sumatra island, where a separatist revolt peaked in the early 1990s.
They said they feared persecution if repatriated.
Human rights advocates have appealed to the government to refrain from deporting Acehnese while authorities assess their asylum claims.
The opposition Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (DAPSY) said "the government should make allowance for humanitarian concerns for some Acehnese illegal immigrants who face certain death from Indonesian authorities if they return to Indonesia."
International human rights groups expressed concern about the possible torture of more than 500 Indonesians, expelled from Malaysia last week, because of their possible links to separatist groups.
"We are concerned about refoulement (refusal of asylum) by Malaysia and torture during interrogation by Indonesian authorities," Sidney Jones, Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.
London-based Amnesty International said it was concerned the Achenese who arrived on Sumatra on Saturday were reportedly detained at a military detention camp without access to local human rights lawyers.
Malaysia, hit hard by the regional economic crisis, has brushed aside the appeals. "These Indonesians are like the others," a senior Foreign Ministry official said. "They came to Malaysia for jobs and now we must send them home."
Deputy Home Minister Tajol Rosli Ghazali, who has been in the front lines of the government's attempts to cope with the thousands of illegal immigrants who have come to Malaysia seeking a better life, was blunt.
"We don't differentiate among Indonesian illegal immigrants," he said on Tuesday. "They are all the same."
Amnesty International said that in the past, Kuala Lumpur has granted several hundred Acehnese special leave to remain in Malaysia without giving them refugee status. But in late 1996, it told them that they could be repatriated.
"We had been planning to send these Acehnese back before," the senior Foreign Ministry official said. "Now with our detention camps full, we have to send the Indonesians back. We can't be setting up camps everywhere."
The opposition DAPSY party disagreed.
"Malaysia has said that we should not be involved in the internal affairs of another country. However, it cannot use such reasoning to justify sending refugees who face the possibility of being killed because of their political beliefs or fight for Acehnese independence," it said.
But Tajol stressed Malaysia's desire to keep relations with Indonesia on track.
"We also don't want Malaysia to become the base for rebel groups from the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. We want to maintain good relations with our neighbours," he said.
"If our people are acting like that in Indonesia, how would we feel? So we have to consider the feeling of the Indonesian government too."
Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas, reiterated their countries' shared desire to proceed with the deportations after they met in London on Tuesday ahead of the Asia-Europe Meeting.
"We do not wish to burden a country like Malaysia, a close brotherly nation, a member of ASEAN," the official Bernama news agency quoted Alatas as saying. He was referring to the nine- nation Association of South East Asian Nations.
"Malaysia already has problems of its own. Why further burden Malaysia?"
Cindy Shiner, Jakarta -- Francisca Sri Haryatni never spoke to her six children about the hardships she and others endured during the turbulent period leading up to and immediately following President Suharto's coming to power in the mid-1960s.
She didn't talk about how, while in labor with her first child, she had to walk a mile to the doctor because there was no transportation; how there was no milk for her newborn; how neighbors and friends disappeared or were killed in the anti- Communist purge that followed the unsuccessful coup that heralded Suharto's ascendancy.
"It was pointless. I didn't want to talk about the suffering of the past," said the slight, 63-year-old Sri Haryatni.
But she can no longer block out reminders of that painful era. Sri Haryatni's son, a political activist, has been missing for more than a month. Human rights workers say he has been jailed, but their search for him has been fruitless. They say he is among a growing number of government opponents who have disappeared, gone into hiding or been arbitrarily detained this year as the administration seeks to quell dissent during Indonesia's worst economic and political crisis since Suharto came to power 32 years ago. "I think it is the same now," Sri Haryatni said. "The government threatens its opponents now just like they faced the Communists. They only recognize parties or political activities on the side of the government."
Her son Pius Lustrilanang, 29, is secretary general of a group known as Siaga, a political coalition that supports two of Indonesia's most prominent opposition figures: Amien Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of former president Sukarno. Another Siaga leader, Ratna Sarumpaet, was arrested with eight other activists March 10 during a small pro-democracy demonstration.
Marzuki Darusman, deputy chairman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights, said it is "worrying" and "quite out of the ordinary" for such prominent activists as Lustrilanang and Sarumpaet to disappear or be detained. "Now and then we do have reports of people missing who are just the rank and file activists, but this time it's an official, or an officer of a movement," he said of Lustrilanang. "It does give out that signal that [authorities] are not taking these new groupings lightly and therefore these things can happen even to open and on-the-surface groups."
Amnesty International says there has been a "dramatic increase" in the number of political detentions this year. At least 140 people are in jail awaiting trial for involvement in political activities or demonstrations -- including one against rising milk prices. Local human rights groups say about a dozen people have been reported missing -- a loose term that usually means a person has been detained by security forces, gone into hiding or been abducted by shadowy, pro-government vigilante groups. "We are very worried about the situation, and we have been monitoring it quite closely for the past few months," said Kerry Brogan, Amnesty's researcher on Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
Local human rights workers also have been intimidated. They talk of harassing phone calls in the middle of the night and constant surveillance by intelligence agents. The home of one rights worker was stoned. Some political detainees have been roughed up and burned with cigarettes.
The last time the government cracked down on its opponents with similar vigor was in July 1996 when Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party headquarters was stormed. Sixteen people are still missing.
Last month, the government banned political gatherings and demonstrations during the week leading up to and following the 11-day meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly that appointed Suharto to a seventh five-year term. Political activity on college campuses was banned 20 years ago, but student protests are held almost daily across the country. Activists, however, rarely dare to leave campus to march down the streets to press their demands for political and economic reform. On the few occasions they have, security forces quickly intervened with truncheons. The military recently called for dialogue. "Until the last few years, people only whispered about politics," one student said. "They were afraid to speak out loud. They have been living in fear for the past 32 years."
In some cases, that fear has given way to anger and violence. Students recently burned an effigy of Suharto, which is considered a treasonable offense. Members of one banned political group, the Democratic People's Party, have been linked to at least one bomb blast in Jakarta and are suspected of assembling other small explosive devices in various parts of the country. "It's something that's relatively new here. You didn't have people trying to actively use violence," said one human rights worker. To deal with growing popular discontent, the government has begun dusting off old laws on subversion and political activity from the pre-Suharto era. "They seem to have difficulties referring to the existing laws, so they are looking into the archives and have found that apparently there is a law that is still in force that can be used to process borderline cases," said Darusman of the Commission on Human Rights.
At least one dates to 1963, when President Sukarno was struggling with his Communist opponents. The law stipulates that every political activity must be reported to the police and a permit issued for gatherings or demonstrations. Authorities also are trying people summarily or, in lesser cases, threatening to do so. Falling into this category are 129 people arrested during a peaceful demonstration more than a month ago in Jakarta. "They're holding them at a police station, and there seems to be a misunderstanding as to what kind of proper trial should take place," Darusman said. "The police want to try them at the police station, whereas legally they should be brought to court."
Nobody knows whether Francisca Sri Haryatni's son, Pius, has already been tried. She has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to help find him. In the meantime, Sri Haryatni displays the stoicism she learned in the pre-Suharto era.
"I'm proud of Pius because he's always on the right side in helping poor and disadvantaged people," she said. "And I don't feel as though I suffer because of his political activities as long as he speaks the truth."
Jakarta -- As many had suspected, the pre-trial appeal of six of the accused in the case of those arrest at the "Indonesia Congress" was rejected by the judges at the North Jakarta high court. At the session held this morning (31/3), the judges unanimously rejected all of the accused's requests. As a result the accused remain detained at Polda Metro Jakarta.
According to the judges, the arrest of Ratna Sarumpaet, Ging Ginanjar and friends was legal. The delay in providing them with arrest warrants was, according to the judges, "only an administrative error". The judges ruled that those appealing had been proven to be carrying out political activities. An example of their political crimes was, said the judges, the singing of Indonesia Raya and To You My Country.
When the judges read out the part of the ruling that stated that "singing Indonesia Raya and To You My Country was proof of their political crime", one of the appelants, Wirahkusuma, shouted "Allahuakbar", which was echoed by those present. Besides singing the two songs, the other strong evidence of political activities was "the speakers invited [to the event] are political experts" said judge Soeparto, who headed the session of Ratna Sarumpaet and Wirahkusuma.
One of the accused's lawyers explained that the judges' decision, in ignoring the complaints of the accused, was illogical. In the case of Ging Ginanjar, for example, the judges rejected his complaint that he was present in his capacity as a journalist reporting a newsworthy event.
After hearing the decision to reject their complaints, Ratna Sarumpaet commented to journalists that justice was still a long way off, "Although I am physically in prison, my ideas about truth and justice will not be imprisoned", said the head of the theatre group Teater Satu Merah Panggung.
Meanwhile Petrus, one of the lawyers, said, "If simply singing is regarded as political wrongdoing, what can we do?" He asked this of the 200 or so people who attended the court hearing, among whom were Goenawan Mohamad, Fikri Jufri, and a number of foreign embassy officials.
Jakarta - International human rights groups expressed concern on Wednesday about the possible torture of more than 500 Indonesians expelled from Malaysia last week because of their possible links to separatist groups.
The London-based Amnesty International said in a statement it was concerned the Achenese who arrived in Lhokseumawe on Saturday were reportedly detained at the Rancung military detention camp without access to local human rights lawyers.
"Rancung was used as a detention facility between 1989 and 1993, the most intensive period of the Indonesian military's counter- insurgency operations against Aceh Merdeka, the armed Acehnese separatists," Amnesty said.
"Suspected members of Aceh Merdeka detained in Rancung were frequently subjected to torture and ill-treatment. Amnesty International knows of recent cases of individuals being held incommunicado at Rancung," the statement said.
"Many of those returned are known to be Acehnese who are at particular risk of human rights violations because of alleged links to Acehnese separatists," it said.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement received on Wednesday that while Malaysia deported the more than 500 Acehnese as illegal immigrants, many had a valid claim to refugee status because of their links to Aceh Merdeka.
Human Rights Watch called for an immediate end to the deportations by Malaysia until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur had an opportunity to interview each Acehnese asylum-seeker there.
"We are concerned about refoulement (refusal of asylum) by Malaysia and torture during interrogation by Indonesian authorities," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in the statement.
"The only way to prevent both these abuses is to allow access by international agencies to detention centres in both countries," Jones said.
Human Rights Watch said the UNHCR has never had access to the camps in Malaysia and access by the International Committee of the Red Cross to prisons in Aceh has been suspended since March 1997.
Indonesia's military (ABRI) spokesman Brigadier-General Abdul Wahab Mokodongan was quoted in Wednesday's Kompas newspaper as saying those repatriated from Malaysia who were former rebels would not be processed by the law.
"They will not be subject to any legal process, moreover be tortured or killed by ABRI," Mokodongan told a media briefing.
"There have already been 24 former rebels who have returned home and they have been surprised by the behaviour of authorities who have greeted them as family and given them food. While they were on the ship they were wary because of propaganda," he said.
Eight Indonesians and one Malaysian policeman were killed last week when they resisted a secret night time operation by Malaysian authorities to expelled them from camps.
Indonesian media reports said up to 42 repatriated Indonesians were transferred to hospital in Lhokseumawe suffering from gunshot wounds incurred during the riots in the Malaysian camps.
Amnesty said unconfirmed reports talk of more deaths in transit as a result of injuries sustained during the deportation process.
The Indonesian government has denied foreign journalists access to Aceh province to cover the arrival of the expelled Indonesians on national security grounds.
Andi Arief, the ex-chairperson of Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (Solidaritas Mahsiswa Indonesia untuk Demokrasi, SMID), one of the affiliated mass organisations of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), who has been sought by the authorities for some time, was arrested Saturday morning (28/3) at around 10.30am. He was arrested at a house owned by his older brother. Andi Arief's family have reported the arrest to the Lampung Legal Aid Institute (LBH). At the time of this report, there has been no further news from his family. LBH Lampung has taken on the case.
Previously, three other PRD activists, who were arrested at an apartment in Klender (13/3), Nezar Patria, Mugiyanto and Aan Rusdi, have been tortured. An AJI News source said that they were tortured when they were interrogated at an extra-judicial [read military intelligence - JB] headquarters . The three were tortured before they were handed over to police who are to carry out the official investigation.
They were seriously hurt after being beaten and electrocuted. It is believed the interrogation was intended to obtain information about the whereabouts of PRD figures Andi Arief and Daniel Indrakusuma, who the authorities have been searching for since the 1996 July 27 incident. On Thursday, March 12, three other activists are said to have disappeared without a trace. One of the three is Sadli who was last seen when the National Committee for Democratic Struggle (KNPD) held a press conference at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation offices in Central Jakarta. Sadli was last seen at Slipi (Jakarta), when the Indonesian Workers Movement were planning an action on the last day of the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly [which reappointed Suharto as president] on March 11.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Press statement by the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute and the Lampung Legal Aid Institute regarding the arrest of Andi Arief by security officers today.
The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) and the Lampung Legal Aid Institute have received a complaint from the family of Andi Arief represented by his father, Arief Makhya and his older brother, Edy Irawan.
In the complaint they stated that at around 11am, a group of people arrived in two Toyota Kijang vehicles at the house owned by Andi Arief's family, which also functions as a shop renting musical instruments. Two of them went to the second floor of the house and met the shop's security guard. The guard asked them what they wanted and if they wanted to rent musical instruments. At the time, Andi Arief was sitting near the telephone on the second floor. The two then approached Andi Arief, arrested him, took him outside and put him in one of the Kijang vehicles. The vehicles then drove away. According to the shop's security guard, one of those that arrested Andi Arief was heavily built, around 170cm tall with short cropped hair and carried a pistol.
When they arrested Andi Arief, the two men did not identify themselves or present an arrest warrant. Andi Arief's family have asked YLBHI and LBH Lampung to provide legal assistance for Andi Arief. With regard to the above, YLBHI and LBH Lampung state the following:
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski. Please note that the Lampung LBH office confirmed on March 29 that the Attorney general had issued an arrest warrant for Andi Arief but did not give details of the charges or when the warrant was issued. In other reports (see next item), the military have denied any involvement in Arief or any other activists disappearance.]That the actions by the security officers in arresting Andi Arief are in violation of Article 17 of the Indonesian Criminal Code which states: "An order to arrest a person who is strongly suspected of committing a criminal act must be based upon sufficient prior evidence". And Article 19, section (1) which says: "Arrests are to be carried out by police officers of the Republic of Indonesia [who must] present an arrest warrant to the suspect which includes the identity of the suspect, states the grounds for the arrest, a brief explanation of the suspects crime and the place where they will be questioned". Because of this the arrest of Andi Arief by security officers is to be deplored. That with regard to the arrest of Andi Arief, the principal of the assumption of innocence must be respected. A person can only be said to be guilty or innocent after there has been a decision from the courts where the case is being tried. 3. That the arrest of Andi Arief was not legal because prior to and after arrest, his family have not been informed by the security personnel of Andi Arief's status, whether his name was on a wanted list or if he is a fugitive from justice. For this reason there are no grounds for the arrest. Moreover, the arrest was made without mention what criminal actions were made by Andi Arief.
Tuesday's issue of Kompas reports on the growing concern over a number of "disappearances". While ABRI spokesman Brig.Gen Mokodongan is quoted as saying that ABRI has "nothing to do with" the disappearances of a number of NGO activists, Professor of Law Dr Dimyati Hartono said that the government should respond to the "disappearances" because such things are deeply disturbing to the general public.
According to a report from Lampung, nothing is known yet about the fate of Andi Arief, chairman of SMID, the Indonesian Students' Solidarity for Democracy, [one of the PRD's organisations] who was kidnapped by unidentified persons last Saturday from the home of his brother in Bandarlampung.
The Legal Aid Institute in Bandarlampung said that since the bloody incident at the University of L:ampung on 19 March, three students are still unaccounted for - Umi Masrifa and Bahrul Alam both students at UNILA and Ananda B, a school student.
Professor Dimyati said the government should provide clear explanations about what has happened to these people and must take responsibility for their fate. "It is the responsibility of the state to safeguard the citizen's right to life," he said. At the very least, the goveernment must tell the public what they have done in response to reports from the public about "disappeared" persons. They should say what investigations they have carried out and what they discovered.
He said that if anyone is considered to be guilty of a crime, they should be arrested in accordance with the Procedural Criminal Code and the Police Law. "We need to know who is responsible. If this is not so, things like this can go on happening," he said.
A member of the National Human Rights Commission said the Commission had received reports about at least four people, Pius Lustilanang, Sec.general of Aldera, Desmond Mahesa, director of the Nusantara Legal Aid Institute in Bandung, Haryanto Taslan of the Megawati PDI and Andi Arief who was kidnapped last Saturday.
"These are serious human rights violations and undermine the public's freedom from fear. Disappearances puts into question the activities of the security forces," said Clementino do Amaral, member of the Commission. He warned that this could damage Indonesia's reputation internationally. Three members of the Commission will be going to Geneva next week to attend the UN Human Rights Commission, himself, Marzuki Darusman and Asmara Nababan. It is more than likely that these disappearances will be spotlighted.
Brig.General Mokodongan however said that the armed forces cannot be held responsible for kidnappings. He said it was "not fair" to link the disappearance of a number of activists with army intelligence. "People should also realise that the disappearance of these activists are nothing more than a scheme by certain people who want to show up ABRI in a bad light as a human rights violator on the international arena," he said.
Andi Arief has been in incommunicado detention since 28 March 1998. There is grave concern that he is at risk of torture or ill-treatment. He is also known to have been seriously ill recently and in view of this there is concern that he may require immediate medical assistance.
Andi Arief was taken into custody by a number of plain-clothes men who arrived in two vans to collect him from his parents' shop in Lampung, Sumatra. They neither provided information concerning their identity nor produced an arrest warrant.
Despite efforts by Andi Arief's family to trace their son through human rights lawyers no information has been forthcoming. Local police and military authorities have denied any knowledge of his whereabouts.
Andi Arief is the leader of SMID, the Indonesian Students' Solidarity for Democracy, an organization regarded as illegal by the Indonesian Government. SMID is affiliated to the People's Democratic Party (PRD), an unofficial political party banned by the government in 1997.
In July 1996, fourteen members of the PRD were arrested and tried following riots in Jakarta and sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years. Amnesty International believed they were detained as a result of their non-violent political activities. Since then, the PRD has been linked to the discovery of explosives in Jakarta and several members of the party have been arrested in connection with this. Most recently three PRD activists were detained by military in March 1998 and reportedly beaten and given electric shocks immediately after their arrest prior to being handed over to police custody.
Background information
Since January 1998, over 300 peaceful political activists have been taken into custody in Indonesia amidst a climate of increased repression surrounding the March Presidential elections when President Suharto was returned for a seventh consecutive term. This has resulted in an increase in the number of activists held in incommunicado detention. In addition, several are known to have been tortured or ill-treated in military custody and denied access to human rights lawyers or their families.
In February, five student activists from West Java were held for two days in incommunicado detention by the military and ill- treated. Two other activists, Pius Lustrilanang and Desmond J Mahesa (see UA 46/98, ASA 21/07/98, 11 February 1998 and follow- up) have both been missing since early February and are believed to be held in military custody.
| Economy and investment |
Tokyo -- Japanese commercial banks are likely to write off for fiscal 1997 ending Tuesday around 200 billion yen in loans to private companies in Indonesia that have been hit hard by the nation's economic crisis, banking sources said Monday.
As of the end of June 1997, Japanese banks had some 23.1 billion dollars in loans to Indonesia's private sector, according to the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements.
Of this total, around one-third of these bank loans are for Japanese companies operating in Indonesia and many are guaranteed by their parent companies in Japan, the sources said.
The Japanese banks plan to set aside provisions for around 10-15 % of the balance to prepare for possible loan losses, mainly for local companies, they said.
Japanese banks and the Indonesian government have considerable differences in views about how Southeast Asian private-sector debts should be handled.
The Indonesian government is seeking a moratorium on repayment of the principal portion of private-sector loans for several years, while the banks are hoping to limit that period to around six months.
Major Japanese banks have decided to opt for write-offs, given the wide gap in viewpoints, and also partly because massive loans to crisis-hit Asian countries are considered one of the factors behind their low credit ratings.
Although a breakdown of the balance of loans has not been published, industry sources estimate the largest Japanese bank creditor is the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which held around 3 billion dollars in such loans.
Other banks such as Sanwa Bank, Sumitomo Bank, the Industrial Bank of Japan and the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan are also known to be major creditors.
Jakarta -- Only 180 of 800 Indonesian companies have responded to official requests for detailed information on their debts, State Enterprises Minister Tanri Abeng was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying..
Disclosure of such information would now be a "compulsory requirement" as the country tries to restructure the private sector's massive foreign debt, Abeng said.
Private-sector foreign debt was estimated at 73 bln usd at the end of last year.
Abeng said more information is necessary during continuing talks with the International Monetary Fund on ways of rescheduling the overseas debt that has crippled the country's ecomony.
He said Indonesia has formulated a plan in its talks with the IMF but declined to confirm whether it would be modelled on a Mexico-style solution used in 1983.
Peter Hartcher -- Indonesia will cut itself off from the global economy if it fails to win back the financial support of the International Monetary Fund, according to an economic adviser to the new Vice-President, Dr B.J.Habibie.
The adviser, Mr Umar Juoro, said the costs of continuing to operate in the world economy were too great for a weakened Indonesia to bear alone.
"In order for this regime to survive, they have to retreat from the open economy, if the Soeharto Government fails to persuade the IMF to resume its $US43 billion support package," he said.
And Mr Juoro said that even though the IMF was showing new flexibility in its negotiations with Indonesia, the situation was fraught because rational policy making had broken down in Jakarta.
"Indonesia's biggest problem is for the Government to come up with consistent policies, and I don't think they can. Because the influence of the First Family's interests is too great," he said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
"The role of Tutut [President Soeharto's eldest daughter,Mrs Siti Hardijanti Rukmana] is very important in giving guidance to the President. She seems to have more influence over economic policy than the central bank governor or the Minister for Finance.
"I think that Soeharto will make her his successor.
"This kind of cronyism gives a very negative impact to domestic and foreign investors." The President brought Tutut into the new national Cabinet as Minister for Social Affairs.
Until now, allies of Vice-President Habibie have believed that he was the anointed one. But Mr Juoro said that "when Habibie saw the announcement of the Cabinet on TV, he looked very disappointed and sad because many of the members are very close to Tutut."
Tutut's new portfolio will put her in charge of aid to the poor, giving her "a chance to win over the hearts of the common people". She has stood down from active management of her big toll-ways company but retains ownership.
Mr Juoro said he believed that President Soeharto had "no exit plan -- he wants to die in office and he will make sure power shifts to a family member, most likely Tutut".
"Many of us would prefer him to step down because it would make it easier for us to make reforms. I think Indonesia will gradually withdraw from the international economy, with a lot of policy flip-flops along the way."
Mr Juoro said there were many costs for Indonesia to remain as an open economy, costs which were insupportable with a weakened rupiah and without IMF support:
"We have dwindling foreign exchange reserves -- two weeks ago they were supposed to be $US16 billion, but we don't know how much of that is liquid. "It costs us $US5 billion to $US6 billion to service the government debt, and there are many imports which need to be financed. The Government has to subsidise medicines, which have a high import content, and food imports.
"There are a lot of foreign exchange expenses. This regime, economically speaking, will not be able to survive.
"It needs money also to sustain elite support, money for the military and the bureaucracy and the political elites. At the moment, there is no big crack in the elites, they stand with Soeharto.
"The biggest threat to Soeharto is how cohesively he can sustain elite support and particularly how much money the family is willing to spend. When the elites are united, social unrest can cause instability but it cannot bring down the regime.
"But if they are divided, this can be a problem. Money is very important to keep the military's support for the regime and also the bureaucracy. Tax and oil revenues are not up to expectations. They can no longer put the squeeze on the big Chinese business interests. So where will the money come from?
"The IMF money is very important to the regime."
The IMF has suspended payments to Indonesia because the Government was failing to meet the conditions agreed in January. Negotiations are continuing this week to try to find some basis for the resumption of IMF support to Indonesia.
The $US43 billion IMF package includes funds subscribed directly and indirectly by Australia and a broad coalition of other countries.
Mr Umar Juoro is senior economist with the Centre for Information and Development Studies in Jakarta, a think-tank closely associated with Dr Habibie. He is also the executive secretary of the Indonesian Institute for National Development Studies, which is associated with the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Ginandjar Kartasasmita. Mr Juoro, 38, studied economics in Germany's Kiel Institute of World Economics and in the Philippines, he took his master's degree in political economy at Boston University, and also graduated in physics from Indonesia's Bandung Institute of Technology.