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ASIET NetNews Number 22 - June 15-21, 1998
East TimorGolf club greens as peasants strike Soldiers fire in the air to quell protests
Political/economic crisisLatest protests heighten tension Habibie offers to free rebel leader Deaths, detentions, and missings continue Innocent man's blood brings Dili to the boil Students meet MPs, push for referendum Referendum would split Timorese-Indonesia Army says Timor integration legal Timorese visit human rights commission Belo backs special status push
Labour issuesNo more credit, it's now cash and barter Shortages worsen as rupiah slumps 30% Riots break out in three Indonesian towns Rupiah's fall helps undermines debt accord
Human rights/lawSurabaya dock strike exacts costly toll Air catering service workers hold demo
PoliticsRights body to probe Aceh mass killings Marsinah killed by Sidoarjo military Families of disappeared go to ICRC Court clears two accused in student deaths Komnas HAM confirm abuses, will return
Arms/armed forcesMegawati's camp denies chapter takeovers Thousands attend anniversary of Sukarno Officer tied to '91 massacre appinted Soedjonos dismissal puzzling I'm no billionaire, Soeharto tells lawyer Now dictatorship is out, real politics is in Probe into use of funds for reforestation Habibie, the army, power brokers & students
Jakarta likely to pass law banning protests Military threatens firm action
Indonesian army in political retreat
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- Poor Indonesian farmers have sabotaged a luxury golf course in West Java, planting crops on greens and carving the word "reform" on the fairway.
The farmers were taking revenge on the Cimacan Golf Club for the meagre compensation they received nine years ago when the land was taken from them, the Kompas newspaper reported yesterday.
It said the peasants planted cassava and bananas on the greens on Monday and that 50 caddies lost their jobs after damage to the course forced the club to close. It carried a front-page photograph of slogans carved into one fairway with the words "reform", "people's land" and "we are taking what is ours". Like many land disputes during the later years of former president Suharto's 32-year rule, the farmers received paltry compensation for land they had worked for generations.
The newspaper said the farmers in Cimacan were in 1989 given the equivalent of US$630 (HK$4,870) for the 31 hectares they had worked since 1961 by the golf course owner, PT Bandugn Asri Mulya.
"The police will not pull out the cassava plants. The farmers have promised not to increase the planting area on the golf course, but everything concerning the dispute must be discussed," local police chief Lieutenant- Colonel Panjang Yuswanto was quoted as saying.
Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta -- Indonesian troops fired in the air to disperse rowdy protesters in Central Java on Monday after they stoned shops, residents said.
They said the protest began as a peaceful demonstration to demand that the local mayor resign.
Defying an appeal by Indonesia's powerful military chief General Wiranto last week for people to stop demanding resignations of government officials, protesters have taken to the streets with such calls across the nation's most populous island of Java.
Indonesians have been using their new-found freedom since the resignation of former president Suharto last month to push a wide range of long-suppressed claims against government officials accused of corruption.
"The protesters want the mayor of Tegal and the regent of Tegal to resign," a shopkeeper in the town of Adiwarna in the Tegal regency told Reuters by telephone in what has become a familiar refrain in the country.
"In the past the protests have been done by university students, but today I think they were just common criminals out for a bit of looting," the shopkeeper, describing Monday's most violent incident, said.
"Fortunately, the soldiers of the 407 Battalion stationed near the town deployed quickly, firing in the air to disperse the protesters who were throwing stones at shops," she said, adding that perhaps more than a dozen people had been detained.
Police in Adiwarna, about 10 km (six miles) south of the town of Tegal confirmed the incident but declined to provide details. "It was only a small disturbance. Everything's under control now," a policeman on duty said.
Residents in the Tegal regency, about 250 km (150 miles) east of Jakarta, said rumours had been building in recent days that there would be big protests against the two government officials on Monday. Businesses had closed down paralysing the town of 150,000 people, they said.
The official Antara news agency said students at Pancasila Sakti University in Tegal, who have been protesting in recent weeks calling for the regent and mayor to resign, were not involved. It said one person was reported injured in the incident.
However, it quoted the university's rector as saying the campus was attacked and damaged on Monday morning by an unknown crowd of people who arrived on trucks. Antara said troops and police had since been deployed at street corners and the city was tense but calm.
In the capital Jakarta, the almost daily protests against alleged US interference in Indonesia's domestic affairs continued with about 100 people. Other small protests in the capital included a rally by eastern Indonesian residents at the Interior Ministry demanding the removal from office of the East Nusa Tenggara governor, a protest against the leadership of the ruling Golkar party and a Christian demonstration at parliament calling for the repeal of religious laws.
Indonesian youths also demonstrated in front of the Foreign Ministry in support of the integration of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor into Indonesia. Troops with batons had broken up a demonstration by anti-Indonesian East Timorese students at the ministry on Friday.
Surabaya, Indonesia's second city and capital of East Java, was also beset by a number of protests, including one involving thousands of workers from the Tanjung Perak port calling for high wages. Other protests in Surabaya included a demonstration by students outside the local attorney-general's office calling for Suharto to be held to account for his actions during 32 years in office, the freeing of prisoners and lower food prices.
| East Timor |
Jenny Grant, Dili -- Tension rose in the East Timorese capital of Dili yesterday as students entered their third day of protests against Indonesian rule. Two thousand students marched from the University of East Timor to the parliament building where they met legislature officers and demanded a referendum.
Most shops in Dili were shut until late afternoon for fear trouble would break out. Government offices closed early in response to the demonstrations, which have brought around a tenth of Dili's 100,000 population on to the streets this week.
Ethnic Chinese and Javanese shopkeepers say they are taking a wait-and-see approach to the protests. "We are not sure about this referendum," said Heru, a Javanese trader whose shop was closed for business. "We just want to do our business, but the line between us and them is getting wider."
Non-East Timorese are nervous after scores of angry mourners rampaged through Dili General Hospital on Wednesday night targeting patients who were not locals. The mourners were carrying the body of a murdered youth, Herman dos Reis Soares, to the hospital to demand an immediate autopsy.
Soares was shot dead by a soldier outside the town of Manatuto on Tuesday night while gathering firewood. Sources said that when doctors asked the crowd to leave, they ran through the wards ripping out intravenous drips from patients who were not East Timorese. Some patients fled with their families.
Despite the shooting incident and the unprecedented protests that have followed, the usually highly visible military has opted to stay in its barracks. "The military is keeping a very low profile because they are scared that a heavy presence could cause all hell [to break loose]," one source said. However, students said there was an increased number of intelligence officers wearing plain clothes on campus.
Unfounded rumours that two East Timorese students being held in police detention in Jakarta had been murdered were also fuelling anger. The birthday today of jailed resistance leader Xanana Gusmao may also serve to heighten tension this weekend.
Jakarta -- Indonesia's president today offered to release imprisoned East Timor rebel leader Jose Xanana Gusmao in return for world recognition of Indonesian sovereignty over the disputed territory.
In an interview with Australian journalists in Jakarta, President B.J. Habibie said he would also withdraw thousands of Indonesian troops from, and grant special status to, the former Portuguese colony. Details of the offer were presented privately to UN officials by Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.
Habibie announced the proposal to the reporters as Gusmao celebrated his 52th birthday in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he is serving a 20-year sentence for fighting a guerrilla war for independence.
He said the United Nations, Portugal and the world community should now recognize East Timor as Indonesia's 27th province. "We will give Timor special status and we will ... release Xanana," Habibie was quoted as saying by Australian Associated Press.
"But then the former colonial masters (Portugal) and the whole world should stop making problems about East Timor and they should accept East Timor as an integral part of Indonesia. This is what I am going to do to end everything."
Habibie said he had the power to reduce Gusmao's sentence to the time the rebel commander has already served since his capture in 1992. He said he would do so once international agreement to the new plan had been secured.
[According to a June 20 report by Reuters, at a his birthday celebration Gusmao said offers of autonomy were not enough and the problem would not be solved without a referendum for self- determination. He also blamed the armed forces as being behind Habibie's the rigid stance. AFP reported that although journalists barred entry to journalists, around 50 East Timorese students and members of the Youth Association, Impetu, were allowed to visit Gusmao - James Balowski.]
Lisbon -- Hundreds of detentions, "missing" and deaths continued to occur in Indonesia and East Timor in 1997, according to the annual report by Amnesty International (AI).
The human rights watchdog said on Wednesday that in relation to East Timor "tens of people were killed by security forces in suspect circumstances", while previous "missing" cases and extra-judicial executions are still be investigated.
It added that at least eighteen people were condemned to jail sentences despite their peaceful activities in support of the self-determination of the territory, and that seventeen youth had been condemned to one-year jail sentences for "expressing hate against the government" during a demonstration in Dili in last March.
AI denounced and criticised also "arbitrary and deliberate killings by the East Timor National Liberation Army - FALINTIL (territory's self-determination resistance movement)", but added that it could not confirm most of the information it had due to the restrictions imposed by Jakarta to human rights monitors seeking to visit the territory.
Don Greenlees, Dili -- Chanting, singing hymns and waving banners calling for an end to Indonesian rule, 2000 East Timorese paraded through the streets of Dili yesterday in an emotional outpouring over the killing of a 21-year-old local man by a soldier [Other reports have put the number of demonstrators as high as 10,000 - JB].
The phalanx of local residents walked, rode on motor bikes or crowded on to the back of trucks to join in the procession bearing a symbolic wooden coffin.
In the biggest public rally in Dili since President B.J. Habibie took office, the people marched just after midday on the office of Governor Abilio Soares and then on to the provincial legislature before returning to a moving ceremony at the young man's home on a rise overlooking the city.
They were later to make a final journey of several hundred metres from his home for the burial at Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of the November 12, 1991 massacre in which some 200 people are estimated to have been shot dead by the military.
Herman Soares was gunned down by an Indonesian soldier near the village of Obrato, 60km to the west of Dili, early on Tuesday evening. According to his cousin, Olandino Soares, 20, who survived the shooting, the soldier opened fire while Soares was clearing wood blocking the road.
He was initially hit in the leg and when he climbed back into the car to escape he was shot in the chest. Residents in the area were instructed by troops to take him to hospital in Dili, but he died on the way.
The military, who stayed out of sight during yesterday's protest march, apologised to the family, admitting there was "no reason for the shots to be fired". "We have apologised to the family, to the Bishop (Carlos Belo) and to the public in general," said East Timor's deputy military commander, Colonel Mujiono. The soldier who fired the shots claimed he suspected Soares of stealing wood. He has been identified and is likely to face legal action.
But the swift response of the military has failed to appease the anger of many East Timorese, who had hoped President Habibie's offer of "special status" for the territory invaded by Indonesia in 1975 presaged a more low-key approach from the thousands of troops deployed by Jakarta.
Prominent local figures told a raucous crowd of mainly young working men and students that the incident proved nothing had changed in the way Indonesia ruled East Timor since the fall of president Suharto on May 21. "The army continue with their policy of cleaning up all those people against Indonesia," human rights activist Manuel Arbantes said.
Earlier yesterday, dozens of people solemnly streamed into the home of Herman Soares in Jalan Balide to view his body, laid in a coffin on a white tablecloth. A simple wooden cross was placed above his head. Nearby, female relatives wailed in grief. On the street outside, petrol drums were painted with signs saying "Shot dead by ABRI (the armed forces)".
His uncle, John Pedro Soares, said the shooting of an "innocent boy" proved East Timor would only be safe and peaceful when the heavy military presence was finally withdrawn by Jakarta. "They shot him like an animal. It is just like Suharto is still here. Where is the reform? Where are the human rights? We want all the troops to go home," he said.
[Demonstrators also demanded a referendum on independence, the release of Xanana Gusmao, called for Suharto be tried at an international court for "war crimes" in East Timor and that the governor, Jose Osorio Abilio Soares, be held responsible for maintaining the troop presence. An AFP report on June 18 identified the soldier responsible for the killing as Agus Medi (31) - James Balowski.]
Louise Williams, Dili -- East Timor's provincial Parliament met protesting pro-independence students yesterday for the first time and formally accepted their demands, including a call for United Nations peacekeepers to supervise a ceasefire in the contested province.
At least 1,500 students staged an emotional rally in the capital, Dili, before a group of representatives was permitted to meet Members of Parliament -- both actions which would have been immediately crushed by the military during the rule of former president Soeharto. The Parliament pledged to pass on the demands to President B.J. Habibie in Jakarta.
The students gathered on the grounds of the University of East Timor, where they sang mournful songs in their native language, Tetum, about torture at the hands of the Indonesian military and prayed together as onlookers cheered from the streets. Thirty student representatives told the Parliament that they rejected President Habibie's recent statement that he was considering special status for the province, and demanded instead a referendum on independence as well as the presence of UN peacekeepers and human-rights officials to supervise a ceasefire in the 23-year-old conflict. "We want the United Nations to be brought in and to supervise a ceasefire," said student leader Mr Antero Benadicto de Silva, who presented the demands.
"The situation in East Timor is not good. We are under pressure from the military, so we want the UN to come in." He said the presence of both neutral peacekeepers and human rights monitors would convince the guerilla fighters of the pro-independence Fretilin movement to lay down their arms. The students also called for the immediate release of the jailed former Fretilin leader, Xanana Gusmao.
The students later met Bishop Carlos Belo, the Nobel peace laureate, who received their demands but stopped short of publicly supporting the growing student movement. Bishop Belo has warned of "dark forces" attempting to divide the East Timorese as they attempt to seize a new opportunity to win back control over their province, which was formally annexed by Indonesia in 1976 in a move not recognised by the UN.
Some senior East Timorese leaders favour accepting a compromise such as autonomy, which would fall short of the demands by students and Fretilin for a referendum allowing the people to vote on independence or continued integration into Indonesia.
As the bus of student leaders left the university campus, many students agreed they were still afraid of the Indonesian military, which has run the province with an iron fist since the Indonesian military invasion of 1975. "Yes, we are still scared, but now it is time for us to voice the aspirations of the East Timorese people," one student said. Soldiers remained in their barracks, although several police vehicles patrolled the streets.
The regional Parliamentary Speaker, Armindo Mariano Soares, said: "The result of this meeting will be brought to Jakarta for the consideration of President Habibie."
With former president Soeharto no longer in control of Indonesia there are rising expectations in East Timor, as well as growing international and domestic pressure on the Habibie Government, to produce a new solution to the East Timor problem.
Many local East Timorese say they feel more willing to speak out since the removal of President Soeharto's son-in-law, General Prabowo Subianto, from active field command, and the recent military helicopter crash in which the region's 10 most senior military officers died.
[A June 15 report by Reuters said that students would suspend demonstrations demanding a referendum on independence and would wait for the outcome from talks with regional legislators - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said on Monday a referendum on East Timor's future would only trigger a divide among the territory's people. "It will only invite dissension between anti- and pro-integrationists," Alatas was quoted as telling reporters by the official Antara news agency.
Alatas said a referendum was something inappropriate and unacceptable to the majority of the East Timorese who have already decided several years ago to integrate with Indonesia. "Theoretically, a referendum is democratic. But we have to see the historical background and its implications to the present lives of the people of East Timor," he said.
Newly-installed member of the Supreme Advisory Council from East Timor, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, said over the weekend that demands to hold a referendum on East Timor or declare the province independent from Indonesia were impossible things.
"A referendum as a self-determination process in East Timor is a way of committing suicide, as the East Timorese themselves do not have the ability to be self-reliant," he said.
Jakarta -- Indonesia's army chief said on Tuesday that East Timor's integration into Indonesia is supported by the territory's people, countering open calls for a referendum on self determination for the territory.
"All the people of the youngest province of Indonesia continue to want integration," Subagyo Hadisiswoyo told reporters after installing Major-General Adam Damiri as the new commander of the Udayana military region in Denpasar, Bali. The Udayana region covers all the islands from Bali to East Timor. Subagyo said the territory's integration into Indonesia 22 years ago was official and legal.
Thirty East Timorese visited Komnas HAM, the National Commission on Human Rights today to complain about the brutal attack on their peaceful demonstration last Friday.
More than four hundred East Timorese who came to Jakarta to take part in the action at the Indonesian Foreign Minister on Friday are still in the capital and are staying at the secretariat of the Catholic students organisation, PMKRI.
Tapol was informed that they had intended to visit Komnas HAM en masse but were unable to do because troops were on guard outside the building. 'We wanted to avoid any further confrontation with the Indonesian army,' one activist told Tapol. A member of the Commission, Margun, visited the East Timorese later in the day to hear their grievances.
The Timorese plan to visit Justice Minister Muladi later this week to press their demand for the release of all East Timorese political prisoners, including the resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Cipinang Prison, Jakarta.
Louise Williams, Dili -- The East Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo says a "transitional solution" to the protracted Timor conflict must include the immediate granting of special status to the contested province and the release of the jailed independence fighter Xanana Gusmao.
Bishop Belo's statement came after a week of escalating protests in the provincial capital of Dili and in Jakarta, and students here warned they would maintain the pressure on the Government of Dr B.J. Habibie to offer new concessions to break the deadlock in the 23-year-old struggle against Indonesian rule.
Speaking for the first time to the foreign press about Mr Habibie's recent suggestion that he might consider special status for the province, Bishop Belo said: "I would like to see it immediately put into practice. It could be a transitional solution."
However, a "definite solution" to the conflict which the East Timorese say has cost more than 200,000 lives must come "from the people", he said.
Dr Habibie said recently: "We are going to keep East Timor what it is -- an integrated part of Indonesia." However, he also said: "I tell you, I'm really, really honestly considering releasing Xanana and intergrating all the Timorese [guerillas] who are still in the mountains into the society."
Bishop Belo, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with the East Timorese pro-independence spokesman Mr Josi Ramos-Horta, said it was "not proper" for the Catholic Church to broker a solution, but he would be prepared to accept any invitation to take part in new talks.
A solution must be worked out by "political leaders" and the key to a solution was continuing dialogue, he said. The predominantly Catholic East Timorese people regard Bishop Bishop as their leader and his recent call to refrain from violence has prevented clashes in Dili.
He stopped short of specifically calling for Xanana to be brought into negotiations, but said all political prisoners, including Xanana, must be released from prison. The students said they would continue their campaign of protests today to push for Xanana's release and the immediate withdrawal of Indonesia's military forces in the province.
The East Timorese conflict is one of the most difficult for the Habibie Government because more democracy nationally implies more rights for the East Timorese people and a curb on the military's heavy-handed repression.
[According to a report by the news agency Lusa, at a Sunday mass in Dili on June 14, Belo said that a referendum could create division among Timorese and urged the supporters of the initiative to be patient. Lusa quoted him as saying "Maybe we can prepare it ...but they must be aware that we have first to prepare a dialogue" and warning that there were "sinister forces" which were seeking to create antagonism between Timorese. He was also quoted by the Australian as saying that the people patient and wait between 10 to 15 years before voting in a referendum - James Balowski.]
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- Indonesians are tearing up their useless credit cards, withdrawing everything from their bank accounts and learning to live in a creditless economy, said analysts and banks here.
As the rupiah spirals downwards to beyond 16,000 to the US dollar compared to 2,400 a year ago, and as banks fold and letters of credit dry up, people are turning to cash and barter.
"Business is good for me now," said textile retailer Sjaffuddin in Jakarta's Pasar Baru district. "But that's because I operate on cash. The ones that are suffering are the ones who need credit. They closed a long time ago."
Bank credit cards that once gave a drawing limit of up to US$2,900 (S$4,930) now yield under US$500. Even a gold card does not help much, and an officer at a local bank said people were destroying their cards. Those who earn US dollars from joint ventures or foreign firms say they do a roaring trade -- outside the Indonesian banking system -- by swopping dollars with rupiah earners either here or through banks in Singapore.
Mr Hartoyo Wignyowiyoto, an economist with the Asian Pacific Economic Consultancy, said barter is becoming a way out both for big businesses and small farmers.
The giant state oil and gas company, Pertamina, he said, is making do with quasi-barter deals to exchange the country's sweet crude for cheaper crude from the Middle East and China. And rice being one of the country's most valuable basic commodities, farmers are now trading it for soya bean, shoes and other basics.
"It is already happening. It doesn't show up on the state statistics, but it is happening in the case of rice," Mr Hartoyo said, referring to the off-the-books economy sprouting here.
The editor of Bisnis News weekly, Mr Sanyoto, said: "It's going in that direction. It's not there yet but it's on the way and much more so than, say two months ago. "People have no confidence in the banks and it is getting more and more difficult for the central bank to physically supply money. "People are withdrawing from banks, not just transferring, and if they transfer, it is to a foreign bank."
University of Indonesia economist Anwar Nasution said it was "natural" for Indonesians to return to what he called the "old traditional system of cash-and-carry".
In the last quarter of last year, when the bank runs started, housewives panicked "and bought everything in sight and the capital flight from Indonesia started". "We are still in that process," he said. So acute is the crisis that some say Bank Indonesia, the central bank, may collapse.
Louise Williams, Dili -- The battered Indonesian rupiah suffered another sharp fall yesterday, fuelling fears of widespread food shortages and more factory closures as the nation struggles to import even basic commodities such as rice and raw materials for production.
The rupiah hit a low of 16,800 to the US dollar yesterday morning, a drop of more than 10 percent since its close of Tuesday night, and a 30 percent slump this week alone. The plunging currency has dealt a severe blow to the new Habibie Government which is struggling against grim economic forecasts of up to 100 percent inflation and as much as a 20 percent economic contraction.
Earlier this week thousands of hungry people in three central Javanese towns rampaged through the streets, burning shops and businesses owned by the ethnic Chinese minority after a peaceful protest over food prices degenerated into mob rage.
The rupiah has now devalued by more than 66 percent this year alone, and more than 80 percent since mid-1997, when the economic crisis began, meaning price increases on imported items of up to 800 percent.
Many of Indonesia's biggest labour-intensive industries such as textiles, footwear and clothing rely on imported components such as cotton, and last year's devastating El Nin~o drought means rice crops have fallen far short of demand.
With large quantities of rice now being imported the Habibie Government is facing a huge subsidy burden because a rupiah rate of 16,800 would push imported rice prices to close to 5,000 rupiah a kilo, in a highly sensitive marketplace where poverty- stricken communities are struggling to pay 1,200 to 1,500 a kilo.
The rupiah depreciation is also having a devastating impact on the nation's airlines, forcing the cancellation of services as leased jets are repossessed. Indonesia's largest car manufacturer, Astra, which relies heavily on imported components, is to suspend production.
Indonesia's corporate sector borrowed heavily in US dollars ahead of the removal of the rupiah peg in August last year, and most are now technically bankrupt or struggling to meet debt repayments.
Downward pressure spilling over from the decline in the Japanese yen this week was blamed for early losses, but many other South- East Asian currencies remained stable yesterday while the rupiah plunged.
Local industry commentators blamed the rupiah's slide on local demand for dollars, as companies tried to secure dollar stocks to meet debt repayments and the depreciation pushes another rush by ordinary Indonesians to convert their dwindling savings into dollars.
Bloomberg news agency said PT Citra Marge Nusaphala Persada, an Indonesian toll road company controlled by the daughter of former President Soeharto, missed its $US6.3 million interest repayments this week.
A spokeswoman said the company was having difficulty buying sufficient dollars from Indonesia's ailing banking sector. The World Bank and foreign aid donors met earlier this month amid widespread concerns that Indonesia was facing a serious food crisis as imports dried up.
"What we are looking at is not food shortages in the absolute sense, but a significant decline in people's ability to afford basic foods, particularly protein sources and milk, which will have longer-term health implications," one aid official said.
Economists say the severe economic crisis could push as many as 60 million of Indonesia's 200 million people below the poverty line this year, and throw another 30 million out of work.
Jakarta -- Thousands of people have rioted in three towns in Indonesia, damaging shops, houses, vehicles and churches, reports said Tuesday.
In Tegal, Central Java, a mob Monday set fire to two cars, including a police car, and two motorcycles, as well as damaging scores of shops and houses, two banks, a gas station and two churches, the Kompas daily said.
The crowd was angered by the refusal of local university students to join them in a street protest demanding the resignation of the mayor, the report said.
Twenty-seven people from Tegal, 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of Jakarta, and the neighbouring town of Slawi were arrested, including one man caught in possession of a petrol bomb, it said.
In Cianjur, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Jakarta, 15,000 people calling for the head of the district to resign, damaged five shops, a church and two cars on Monday before troops regained control of the situation, Kompas said.
In Tuban, East Java, 600 kilometers (372 miles) east of here, a protest involving thousands of people demanding the resignation of a local subdistrict chief, degenerated into an attack on ethnic Chinese properties. Ten houses were damaged by the stone- throwing crowd on Monday, the daily said.
Protests demanding the resignation of local officials deemed guilty of corruption, collusion and nepotism, have mounted in towns across the country since the government of veteran leader Suharto fell last month.
Darren Mcdermott, Singapore -- The Indonesian rupiah's renewed plunge is undermining a week-old debt-restructuring agreement that already was struggling to win support.
Announced last week in Frankfurt, the agreement outlines a way of restructuring Indonesia's $80 billion in foreign private debt, thus offering breathing room to the nation's cash-strapped companies and its shaky foreign-exchange market.
The pact, signed by representatives of the Indonesian government and 13 international banks, offers a voluntary program to debt- laden companies in which their obligations will be extended by eight years and they receive access to dollars at a locked-in rate. In return, they must resume making loan payments, which almost all Indonesian companies have ceased doing.
But some bankers in Asia who didn't sit on the committee are angry that they still haven't been briefed on the plan. Worse, they think it isn't going to work. Though the program clearly gives creditors the power to veto companies that have money to make payments now from entering the program, they fear that all companies now will argue they need the three-year grace period and five-year extension -- and may threaten not to pay anything at all if they don't get their way.
Liquidate, not resuscitate
"We had a borrower we were trying to persuade to start paying in September because he will have cash flow then," says a Singapore-based banker. "Now he's going to say, 'No, now we don't have to start paying you.' "
It also isn't clear how the plan applies to the substantial number of companies that simply aren't going to survive the crisis. "Even if we give them some breathing room, many of our borrowers will never be able to repay. It's a question of whether we can liquidate them, not resuscitate them," says another banker in Singapore.
Bankers who brokered the deal insist that banks have final say over whether companies are allowed in the program. "If the banks say no, then no rescheduling takes place," says one banker involved in the negotiations. But he concedes that while a bankruptcy system for Indonesia has been promised, it isn't yet in place, and until it is, there is little bankers can do with borrowers who can't or won't pay.
As for information on the pact, this banker says the negotiating committee's three lead banks -- Chase Manhattan, Deutsche Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi -- are spreading the word from their home offices directly to other banks' home offices. "The dissemination process is taking place now," he says.
A 'vicious circle'
The plan also depends on Indonesia reviving its beleaguered banking system -- and fast. With access to working capital now completely dried up, companies are keeping any income they have for use in running factories, paying employees and purchasing raw materials and other essentials, bankers say. "To break this vicious circle you have to keep trade financing coming in, so that an importer once again has 180-day credit instead of having to pay cash for everything," says the banker who worked on the deal.
The accord calls for international banks to hold in place the trade-financing levels, which totaled about $4 billion as of the end of April, this banker says. But equally essential will be the Indonesians' own moves to clean up their banking system, he says.
Meanwhile, the falling rupiah this week is starting to have the opposite effect from what bankers feared -- companies are afraid of locking in an unfavorable dollar-rupiah exchange rate. As it stands, the plan will provide them dollars in exchange for rupiah for the next eight years at a rate derived from the rupiah's strongest levels in the 11 months after the company signs up for the program.
Uncertainty ahead
But with the currency plunging this week and political and economic uncertainty ahead, some companies are calculating they will do better by simply not paying anything until they are able to. The rupiah ended Asian trading Friday around 14,000 to the dollar, weakening from about 11,500 when the deal was signed. Several companies have said as much in recent days, including the automotive giant PT Astra International, which has $2 billion in foreign borrowings.
"Who wants to get the rupiah at nearly 14,000 to the dollar?" concedes a government adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They'd rather just not pay."
Here again, the plan's poor public-relations efforts appear to be undermining it. According to the banker who helped negotiate it, the pact includes an exchange-rate readjustment clause under which, if the rupiah has strengthened after a company has been in the program for two years, it can adjust its rate to reflect that move. Yet few companies appear to know about this.
"I just had someone in my office, an Indonesian company, asking what they should do about this program," said a Jakarta-based banker. "I didn't know what to tell them. Nobody knows anything. If you make an agreement like that you would want as many people as possible to know about it, as many people as possible to support it."
| Labour issues |
Jakarta -- A port workers' strike entered its fourth day yesterday in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city and gateway to East Java province, causing losses of millions of rupiah, according to port officials.
Said an official at the Tanjung Perak port: "The strike is still on today. At least 30 ships carrying goods are waiting to be served. "It is not clear whether an agreement between the workers and the management can be reached." He said he had heard that workers had held talks with port officials yesterday. However, no one had returned to work yet, he added.
The official declined to say what kind of goods had been brought by the waiting ships. It was not immediately clear if any loading or unloading was being done at all.
The workers want their wages increased to 15,000 rupiah (S$1.80) a day from the current 7,116 rupiah. They want working hours to remain the same at seven per day. The management has said it can pay no more than 9,000 rupiah. On Wednesday, the dockworkers, some of them stripped down to their underwear, marched to the regional parliament office in support of their demands for higher pay.
More than US$3.83 billion (S$6.55 billion) of exports or 7 percent of the national total, passed through Tanjung Perak last year. Imports that came in last year were worth US$6.16 billion, or almost 15 percent of the national total.
The strike has cost the port authority, PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III, about US$70,600 in lost income, as two foreign vessels could not be unloaded on Wednesday, said Mr Purwanto, a company official. The companies servicing the dock have lost about 608 million rupiah in fees so far. On Wednesday, 49 vessels were waiting to be unloaded at the dock side, while another 170 were moored in the harbour, Mr Purwanto added.
Jakarta -- Some 300 employees of PT Aerowisata Catering Service (ACS), a subsidiary of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, staged a demonstration at the Garuda building here Tuesday to press several demands, including full payment of old-age allowance to company pensioners.
The demonstrators had gathered in front of the Garuda headquarters building near the National Monument in central Jakarta since 8.30 a.m. About 15 minutes later, seven of their representatives were received by a member of Garuda's board of directors, Technical Director Oka Wiradarma. After the meeting with Wiradarma, one of the workers' delegation members, Aliansyah, said among the 14 demands they had submitted was that Garuda be purged of corrupt, collusive and nepotistic practices, particularly in the holding of tenders.
Other demands were dismissal of Angsana Boga cooperative's executive board, a stop to workers' retrenchment and greater attention to workers' welfare. Aliansyah further said, the workers delegation had also told the Garuda director about irregularities and collusive practices in food material procurement in ACS.
Wiradarma, according to Aliansyah, had taken note of the workers' demands and promised to pass them on to Garuda's board of directors . The Garuda director also expressed the hope that despite the workers' rally, ACS' operations would be conducted without interruption. ACS supplies food and other consumables not only to Garuda but also to other airlines' flights.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta -- The National Commission or Human Rights will soon begin investigating reports that more than 39,000 Acehnese have died in various military operations over the past decade and that 1,000 (of) others are still in military detention in Indonesia's westernmost province.
The commission will set up fact-finding team by the end o this month to probe the allegations, commission member B.N. Marbun said when addressing dozens of Acehnese student who took the reports to commission's office yesterday.
Marbun said the commission planned to meet Minister o Defense/Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto to discuss the current status of Aceh as a military operation region. "We will ask ABRI to pull out all soldiers deployed to crush the separatist rebel movement as well as lift the military operation region status in the province," he said.
Along with Irian Jaya and East Timor, Aceh has been given a special status of military operation region. It enables the army to facilitate the suppression of separatism in the three provinces.
The Aceh students, who called themselves the Aceh Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum, reported that at least 39,000 women in the province were widowed when their husbands were shot to death in military operations between 1989 and 1998. They did not say how they came up with their figures.
Armed Forces spokesman (ABRI) Brig. Gen. A. Wahab Mokodongan told The Jakarta Post that "even simple logic" would say that it was impossible for the military to kill that great number of people. He admitted there were military operations in the province, and that some people might have died because they were caught in crossfire, but "none were shot at deliberately." Those who died were the side effects of the military operations, he said, adding that all of the workers previously detained have all been released.
Yesterday, student Abdul Gani Nurdin said: "Those women's husbands accused of being members of the separatist disturbance group or GPK were killed in sadistic ways. Most of them were executed without trial. Their bodies were dumped in roads to by picked up by passers by. He said thousands of Acehnese were still going missing while others were serving jail sentences in two prisons in Lhokseumauwe, North Aceh, and in the provincial capital Banda Aceh. "The prisoners are serving between eight and 20 years for their alleged involvement in the separatist movement," he said. He added that many women have reported being raped by soldiers while their husbands were being detained.
The students rejected that the victims and those who were missing or jailed were members of the Aceh separatist movement, saying they were peas-ants and mostly illiterate.
Two widows whose husbands were allegedly executed in a 1991 military operation in Pidie, North Aceh, joined the group of students yesterday. They expressed their sorrow and urged the government to investigate the alleged military brutality.
Ti Aminah said her husband, Muniruddin, was abducted by a group of soldiers on April 27, 1991. On May 1, 1991, he was brought home briefly before he was taken away again. On May 7, 1991, he was found dead on a road near their village, Cat Keng, in Bandar Dua district.
Ti Aminah said she herself was interrogated and intimidated by the soldiers, and was told that her husband belonged to the separatist group. "They threatened to kill me if I took (my husband's death) to court," she said.
Ti Aminah, a jobless 26-year-old mother of three sons, said her complaints to the local administration and the military had thus far been ignored.
Juariah, 41, said her husband was "fetched" by a group of men in green fatigues when she was giving birth to her fifth son on May 2, 1991. "On July, 2, 1991, I heard from the local administration that my husband had been given a mass burial along with five others," she said. She added she was made to pay Rp 50,000 (US$5 at the current rate) for the burial. The two widows urged the rights body to investigate "the Aceh genocide" and to ask for ABRI's response to the allegations.
Fahmi Mada, a member of the Aceh NGO Forum, said that more than 1,000 of around 3,000 Acehnese workers deported by the Malaysian government recently have been detained in military and police detention houses in the province for their alleged links to the Aceh separatist movement.
He acknowledged that many Acehnese people had escaped overseas, including to Malaysia, South Korea and Brunei Darussalam because of fears of persecution, torture, arrest and interrogation by local military authorities over their alleged links to the separatist movement.
During the Malaysian authorities' operations to deport illegal migrants, thousands of whom were Indonesians working in plantation sectors, a group of Acehnese refused to be shipped home, citing persecution. Some forced their way into the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees seeking asylum.
Surabaya -- The [truth about the] killing of a worker activist, Marsinah, in 1993 is to be revealed. A source at the East Java police has said that from the results of the investigation of Captain Kusaeri, previously with the Porong military command, Sidoarjo, is that he has admitted that Marsinah was tortured and killed at Kodim (District Military Command) Sidoarjo, on May 5, 1993.
After being killed, her body was dumped in the Nampo village, Saradan, Madiun [East Java]. Marsinah's body was found in Nganjuk [200 kilometres from the factory where she worked] because it was moved by a police patrol who thought she was a vagrant.
Kusaeri, was tried by a military court who charged him, along with nine other defendants including the head of PT Catur Putra Surya (CPS), a watch factory where she worked, with the murder. The other dependents were released by the Supreme Court headed by Adi Andojo, although Kusaeri himself, has admitted to police that he feels victimise on the grounds that he was judged to be at fault.
Yudi Susanto, the director of CPS and eight others, including Mutiari, the CPS personal manager, who was half-way though a pregnancy, were abducted by Brawijaya military intelligence. With the exception of Mutiari, they were all tortured by electric shocks to their genitals, beaten, kicked, forced to eat their vomit and their pubic hair burnt in order to force them to admit to their involvement in Marsinah's murder.
For 19 days they were held at the Kodam (Regional Military Command) headquarters until police informed their families on the 20th day. The police, as usual, did not admit that they were held by Kodam, instead, because they were afraid of Kodam, they said that they were the ones who had arrested the nine suspects.
The police were eventually brought to trial and the judge found against the police for detaining the nine defendants for 19 days without an arrest warrant. In fact, police had never arrested or detained the suspects.
This time, Kusaeri's admission will reopen the Marsinah case. Sources at the East Java police say that they are going to investigate Captain Sugeng, Sargent Karnadi and Corporal Buseri, staff at Kodim Sidoardjo, who had said that it was Kusaeri who tortured and murdered Marsinah. The investigation should also included Lieutenant Colonel Max Salaki, the commander of Kodim Sidoarjo at that time. The brutal investigation by intelligence agents at the Kodam V Brawijaya, in torturing Yudi Susanto and his friends for 19 days, must also be carried out by Kodam Brawijaya.
[Translated by James Balowski]
After failing yesterday to meet members of the Armed Forces parliamentary fraction, the families of five of the "disappeared" visited the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jakarta to seek help. [Altogether nine people are still missing, some since May last year.]
Deputy chair of Kontras, the Committe for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, Dadang Trisasongko escorted relatives of Petrus Bima Anugerah, Suyat, Noval Alkatiri, Giland and Yani Afri to the ICRC office. Relatives of the other four "disappeared" will visit the ICRC in due course.
Speaking on the same occasion, PBHI director, Hendardi said that taking the issue to an international body was perfectly legitimate because domestic agencies had given the impression that they were not doing anything to resolve the problem.
"There's no sign of any concrete action from ABRI, the armed forces, to resolve the question. They haven't said how far they have got or what the difficulties are. If they cant handle the problem, they should say so," said Hendardi.
Dadang said that the ICRC had followed the issue of the "disappeared" since the start and had asked for permission to have a meeting with Andi Arief who is now being held by the Jakarta police, but had not yet received a reply. [Andi Arief was handed over the police on 17 April this year after being missing for nearly three weeks.]
Mrs Misiati Utomo, the mother of Petrus Bima Anugerah, said the ICRC had assured her they would do everything possible to help but they would not be able to explain their methods because these are kept strictly confidential.
Dadang also said that some of the disappeared who had resurfaced would visit the ICRC to give inform about their experiences.
[According to a June 19 report by Amnesty International, Andi has now been granted access to a lawyer and is reportedly being treated well. Amnesty said he remains in custody in Jakarta but it is unclear under what charges. There has been no investigation into his arrest or torture and the military continue to deny that they they were involved - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- An Indonesian military court on Monday agreed not to link two police officers with the fatal shooting of four university students during an anti-government demonstration last month.
But First Lieutenant Agus Tri Heryanto, 29, and Second Lieutenant Paryo, 38, will still face trial for wilfully disobeying or exceeding orders, the tribunal ruled.
The two officers are among 18 members of the security forces facing charges in connection with violence at Jakarta's Trisakti University on May 12, in which four students died from gunshot wounds and others were injured. The killings sparked widespread riots in Jakarta which were a major contributory factor in the resignation of former President Suharto on May 21.
The prosecutor's accusation linking the two defendants with the killings was dropped after the defence argued that it was not possible to connect the two with the deaths. A defence lawyer said the actual perpetrators had yet to be identified.
On the day of the demonstration, the police anti-riot mobile brigade and anti-riot military troops were assigned to maintain order. The court was told that gunshots were heard before the police mobile brigade was ordered to fire. "I heard the sound of gunshots before an order was given to fire into the air," testified Sergeant Cecep Dadang Solehuddin of the mobile brigade. "I don't know from where the gunshots came from or where it was directed at," he said.
Cecep said the company commander gave an order to fire into the air when they heard shouts from the crowd that there was a spy in their midst. "We were ordered to fire into the air as a warning. We fired three shots of rubber bullets," he said, adding the order was given by Lieutenant Agus Tri Heryanto. "After that, the masses became more violent, throwing rocks, bottles and bamboo spears at us. We were then ordered to fire rubber bullets into the air again and stopped on command," he said, adding that the crowd then retreated.
Asked whether the mobile brigade aimed their guns forward, he said: "No. Because in front of us were the anti-riot troops." He said he was given three blanks and 12 rubber bullets when he arrived at the demonstration and no live bullets were issued. After his platoon stopped firing, he said he again heard gunshots. "After we stopped firing, I heard the sound of gunshots, about three or four times, from the front, to my left.
Asked whether the shots were fired by his platoon, he said, "No." The court was filled with police officers and Trisakti University students. Those who could not enter the courtroom watched proceedings on two television monitors outside. The hearing continues on Tuesday.
Asmara Nababan, member of the National Human Rights Commission, Komnas HAM, speaking to the press at Jayapura airport shortly before returning to Jakarta on 15 June, confirmed that human rights abuses as documented in a report submitted to the Commission last month by three church leaders in the region of Timika had indeed occurred [see ASIET NetNews #21].
He said that the moment he and his fellow member of the Commission, Clementiono dos Rais, landed in Timika last week, they visited the villages of Jila and Bela by helicopter and held discussions with the local inhabitants about the reported shootings, acts of violence, the burning of churches and people's homes and the destruction of gardens.
After discussions with villagers in Bela which we visited first, said Nababan, we were taken to see the churches that had been burnt by members of the armed forces at the time. The churches referred to were buildings that were slightly larger than the traditional honai houses, built specifically for the purpose of communal prayer. Some of the houses that had been burnt down by the troops had now been rebuilt and people were living their lives as before.
The Commission members were taken to the grave of one of the victims of a shooting incident.
In Jila, they had discussions with about 400 villagers. There is now a military post, Koramil, and a police office, Polsek in the village. They spoke to several witnesses of the abuses that had been reported. They also met one person who had sustained a gunshot wound during one of the incidents but had survived.
Nababan said that the human rights violations had occurred on such a scale and the area was so extensive and difficult that more than two people would be needed to conduct the investigations. He said that from what they had already seen and heard, they could confirm that abuses had occurred as indicated in the church report.
Because of the scale of the problem, they had decided to return to Jakarta and plan to return to Timika next week with a much larger team so that each of the villages where abuses had occurred could be visited. They promised that their findings would be made known to all the inhabitants of Irian Jaya.
He also said that the villagers they had met had asked for all armed forces posts to be withdrawn. Who do they want to wage war with, some villagers had asked. there are no enemies here.
| Politics |
Jakarta -- Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) executives aligned to Megawati Soekarnoputri have denied giving the order for a series of "takeovers" of party offices in several cities.
Alexander Litaay, secretary-general of the ousted Megawati's PDI leadership, said yesterday his camp was not involved in persuading followers to take over the headquarters of party chapters from supporters of the government-recognized chairman Soerjadi.
"PDI members' actions to take over the chapter (buildings) from Soerjadi's supporters were spontaneous," he told The Jakarta Post. He said Megawati's faction had never issued an instruction to its members to regain control of the chapters nationwide. "It's completely their own initiative and right to retake what belongs to them, which was stolen in 1996."
The action continued yesterday when about 100 Megawati supporters took control of the Central Java chapter's building in Semarang. "We took control of the PDI chapter building without asking for the Megawati PDI leadership's consent," said Sutikno, coordinator of the action. "We took over the building at the request of Megawati's Central Java loyalists."
The apparently spontaneous initiatives were inspired by Megawati's supporters here, who staged a protest in front of the party headquarters in Central Jakarta early this month. They demanded the government return the party headquarters -- site of a violent takeover by Soerjadi followers on July 27, 1996 -- to Megawati's PDI leadership. The move immediately triggered similar actions nationwide.
About 500 Megawati's supporters peacefully took over the PDI's North Sumatra chapter headquarters from the pro-Soerjadi faction in Medan last Saturday. Their colleagues in South Sumatra followed suit and took control over the party chapter's headquarters in Palembang on Monday. Supporters in Riau province conducted the same action earlier this week.
Meanwhile, about 200 supporters of Megawati took over the party's Binjai branch office in North Sumatra Wednesday. On the same day, executives of Soerjadi's camp in Yogyakarta said they were switching their support, effectively dissolving Soerjadi's representation there and handing over the chapter office to Megawati's supporters.
Blitar -- Thousands of people were jostling at the front yard of the late Mrs S Wardojo, the older sister of Bung Karno with the same mother, at Jl Sultan Agung No. 53 Kodya Blitar, Saturday evening (20/6). They came from various places of Indonesia to witness the 28th commemoration of the passing away (Haul) of the first President of the RI, Ir Soekarno, which was attended by some of his daughters, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Rahmawati, Sukmawati, a prominent of the society, Roeslan Abdulgani, the paranormal Permadi, functionaries of the Central Board of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) Haryanto Taslam, Soetardjo Soerjoguritno and a prominent of a non government organization (LSM) Desmond J Mahesa.
Megawati, who first didn't want to be scheduled to give a speech for the public, giving in to the urging of the mass, finally appeared at 22.50, a moment before the reading of the closing prayer. But before, at 20.00, Rahmawati Soekarnoputri gave a speech of half an hour, warmly applauded by the mass.
Megawati who talked briefly asked the PDI members who kept Bung Karno's spirit in their heart, to uphold the nation's unity and integrity. Mega asked to her supporters: "When the mass riots took place, the burning of shops, the murders and the rapes on own people on the last middle of May, is the spirit of PDI people of that kind?" The mass answered at once: "No."
"The difficulties which happen now are impossible to be evaded, we can however find a way out from these difficulties if we have Bung Karno's spirit which appreciates the nation's unity and integrity without favoritism for a certain group or category," she stressed which was answered with yells from her supporters.
In her speech Rahmawati urged the government to remove the legal products of the Provisory Parliament which had caused violations of human rights and made that Bung Karno ended his life as a political prisoner. She urged the government to annul MPRS Stipulations No. 36 and No. 37 which arrested Bung Karno. "Those MPRS Stipulations were exactly implemented on a person who his whole life had fought for freedom of the nation," said Rahmawati which was followed with shouts of approval from the mass.
Mega instructed to the PDI members to remain orderly in guarding peace, after the Haul ended. Not one PDI member was allowed to perform destruction or plundering which could damage the nation's unity and integrity.
The Haul could according to people who admitted that they had often come to witness the ceremony of the former years, this time be called a Haul which was most attended by the citizens. "This is the most extraordinary Haul of Father which I ever saw," said Sutarni (30s) from Papar, Kediri, who sold old newspapers to be used to sit on.
A woman from the village of Bendogerit, District Sananwetan, the location of Bung Karno's grave, who sold Bung Karno's pictures, admitted that she never had witnessed an Haul like now. "Usually in the afternoon, at the climax of the ceremony it starts to become lively," she said smiling, because that evening here pictures of Bung Karno were selling well.
The arrival of citizens from various cities was evident from the traffic of busses, trucks and various vehicles with licence plates from cities like Jakarta, Bandung, Cirebon, Surabaya, even Denpasar. Among them there were groups which admitted to come from Palangkaraya and Banjarmasin. With paper or banners they stated that they were Haul participants. Tens of students used the jackets of their almamater. The Chairman from the PDI from the Jombang Regency, Samsul Haryanto said that they departed with 30 trucks and three busses.
Many identified themselves as PDI Pro Mega supporters with all kinds of attributes like T shirts, headbands, PDI flags and banners containing support for Megawati Soekarnoputri. Their presence was mixed with citizens with the flag and shirts of the Indonesian Nationalist Party of the Old Order. They slept at the porches of the shops, erected a tent at Kebonrojo garden, not far from the grave, or erected a tent near Bung Karno's grave.
From Bandung was reported that after the 28th Haul commemoration of Bung Karno, in Ciwidey, Bandung Regency, hundreds of pro-Mega PDI masses went in convoy to the office of PDI West Java Branch at Jl By Pass Soekarno-Hatta. The office which all this time had a status quo because it was occupied by the PDI Soerjadi version was immediately put with pictures of Megawati at the front wall and banners supporting Megawati.
The action which went orderly also claimed the PDI management under Muchtar Budiana as constitutional and regarded Idi Siswaya as the illegal PDI leadership.
Besides supporting Megawati the mass also demanded that the prominents considered responsible for the 27 July riots, to step down from their function, among others the Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid (former ABRI's Chief of Staff for socio politics) and the Coordinating Minister for Police and Security Feisal Tanjung (former Armed Forces Commander).
Philip Shenon, Washington -- Indonesia's new president, B.J. Habibie, has appointed as a senior military adviser a retired army general who was ordered by a US court to pay millions of dollars in damages for his involvement in a 1991 massacre in which 270 people were estimated to have been killed.
The appointment of the retired officer, Lt. Gen. Sintong Panjaitan, could result in early strains in the relationship between the United States and Habibie, who came to office last month with promises of an improvement in Indonesia's human rights record and in its ties with Washington.
Panjaitan oversaw troops who carried out the November 1991 massacre in East Timor, the former Portuguese colony that was invaded by Indonesia in the 1970s and annexed despite international protests.
In 1994 Panjaitan was ordered by a US District Court judge in Boston to pay $14 million in damages to the mother of a 20-year- old New Zealand man who was among those killed. The suit was filed in Boston by human rights activists after Panjaitan moved there for studies at Boston University.
The general, who was removed from his military post after the massacre, never appeared in court to answer the charges and returned home to Indonesia in 1992 to join the staff of Habibie, who was then technology minister. According to news reports in Indonesia, Panjaitan has had a long association with Habibie and has been appointed to the post of "expert on security and defense."
Michael Ratner, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based group that brought the case against Panjaitan, said his appointment by Habibie "does not bode well for East Timor or for the human rights situation in Indonesia -- it indicates business as usual." Ratner said the United States should "absolutely pressure Indonesia to get rid of this guy -- the idea that a new government in Indonesia that claims to be turning over a new leaf would have this guy as its military adviser is pretty outrageous."
The State Department and the Indonesian Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment on the appointment. A State Department official, speaking on condition that he not be identified, said the department was aware that the general "is presently an adviser to Habibie and has been an adviser for some time."
The Boston lawsuit against the general was brought on behalf of the mother of Kamal Bamadhaj, a university student from New Zealand who was traveling through East Timor and was killed by Indonesian soldiers when he became caught up in the graveyard demonstration. Video of the massacre was smuggled out of Indonesia and showed soldiers opening fire on unarmed demonstrators without provocation.
Jakarta -- Prominent legal practitioners and observers expressed a degree of suspicion yesterday over the sudden dismissal of the attorney general and questioned the motive for making a military officer the country's top prosecutor.
Their views ranged from calls for an open explanation into the matter to suggestions that the move may have been linked to the Attorney General's Office investigation into corruption under former president Soeharto.
Bambang Widjojanto, chairman of the highly respected Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, speculated that it could be Soedjono C. Atmonegoro's "rather independent" nature which led to his dismissal. "There must be an open explanation from the President about his decision, although we know he had the right to do it... But we wonder why, was it because Soedjono's show of independence that he was replaced or was it because he was incapable of performing his duties," Bambang told The Jakarta Post.
President B.J. Habibie replaced Attorney General Soedjono C. Atmonegoro with the head of the Armed Forces prosecutor's office Maj. Gen. Muhammad Ghalib, on Monday. The dismissal occurred during the preliminary stages of the Attorney General's Office investigation into corruption during Soeharto's 32 years in office.
Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung was, after announcing the decision, quick to dispel suggestions that it was related to the corruption probe. However the fact that Soedjono was replaced just three weeks after Habibie retained him in his new cabinet only served to fuel rumors. Soedjono was initially sworn in by then president Soeharto on March 19.
Soedjono appeared sanguine yesterday when ask by reporters about the move. He said he only learned of the decision when he was summoned by Habibie yesterday afternoon.
Bambang questioned the appointment of Ghalib, which he said broke a well-nurtured tradition of the office being led by career civilian attorneys.
"Whoever replaced Soedjono should have been a career civilian attorney," Bambang said while rhetorically asking if perhaps it was because there were no capable people left in the Attorney General's Office that a military man had to be appointed. "I'm worried that it is aimed at 'taming' the office," he remarked.
Lawyer Frank Taira Supit told The Post yesterday that the replacement indicates a sharp behind-the-scenes change of circumstances. "I think Soedjono was either acting too fast or too slow (in the corruption probe)," he remarked.
Political observer Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia maintained that the move to replace Soedjono with Ghalib was only a follow-up move from the military to protect Soeharto and his family. In light of calls for total reform, the latest move is a major setback, he told the Post.
Albert Hasibuan, a lawyer and member of the National Human Rights Commission regards the change as an abnormal event. "One possible reason could be Soedjono's probe into corruption, " he surmised. "What's important now is that what Soedjono has done should be continued by Ghalib."
[Soedjono has denied he resigned over the issue of investigating Suharto's wealth telling Kompas on June 17 that the transfer was "normal". A report by SiaR on June 16 however, said that according to their sources, he was removed by the military to protect Suharto. The source said the military were also displeased with the release of political prisoners. According to a June 18 report by AFP, after being sworn in, Ghalib said he would keep a 35-member investigative team appointed by Sujono press on with the probe into Suharto wealth - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- The former Indonesian president, Mr Soeharto, had denied accusations that he amassed billions of dollars while in power, only holding savings from his salary and pensions, his lawyer said on Monday.
"He told me: I have money and this money I keep in Indonesian banks and the money comes from my salary as a former member of ABRI [the Indonesian armed forces] and as president for 32 years," Mr Yohanes Yacob said.
Mr Yacob, who is leading a team of lawyers to defend Mr Soeharto and his family against accusations of corruption, collusion and nepotism, said in an interview on State television that Mr Soeharto was not the owner but merely chairman of a number of foundations.
Public pressure has mounted since Mr Soeharto's resignation on May 21 for an investigation into the wealth of the former president and his family. Estimates of their wealth range from $24 billion to $68 billion.
Critics have also pointed to scores of foundations that Mr Soeharto chaired or was a patron of. They say the foundations were used by the veteran leader and his associates to amass wealth. "If there are people who are not satisfied, saying that Soeharto has abundant savings in foreign banks and wealth everywhere, if they can find it, people can take it for the interest of the nation," Mr Yacob quoted Mr Soeharto as saying.
Mr Soeharto has not spoken in public since he stepped down, and with the exception of Friday prayers, has remained at his residence in central Jakarta.
"It is not that Soeharto does not want to [speak up], he even really wants to explain the situation to the people, but the Attorney-General has yet to complete his investigation and I think this [Soeharto speaking now] would not be ethical," Mr Yacob said.
The Attorney-General, Mr Sujono Hanafiah Atmonegoro, who was sacked yesterday by Mr Soeharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie, has said his office had a team investigating the wealth of officials and former officials but did not specifically mention Mr Soeharto.
Mr Yacob said he voluntarily undertook to defend the Mr Soeharto family out of faith that the veteran leader was innocent of the charges. He was not seeking remuneration for his services. He has said Mr Soeharto gave him power of attorney over his affairs on June 1 to defend him and his family from the accusations.
His team would tackle the issue on legal, economic and political fronts. "We, the team of lawyers, are to neutralise and straighten out recent reports by the printed and electronic media which I see, hear and analyse and deem to have already handed down a guilty verdict on Soeharto and his family," he said.
Mr Yacob said the team had provided documents, including audited financial statements, concerning the Soeharto-linked foundations to the Attorney-General's office. However, the lawyer did not comment on the scores of companies, ranging from oil and gas to real estate, plantations, television, car-making and toll roads, in which Mr Soeharto's six children have interests.
John Aglionby, Jakarta -- Released from the shackles of dictatorship, Indonesians are seizing their new political freedom with enthusiasm.
Mr Soeharto, the former president who only allowed two carefully controlled minor parties and his own ruling Golkar group during most of his 32 years in power, had scarcely moved out of the State palace when people began forming new political groups.
Two parties, the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and the Indonesian Democratic People's Party, already existed but had been banned and their leaders imprisoned. They are now legalised, and have been joined by many other groups, with a new party appearing almost every day.
The Indonesian Christian Party and New Masyumi are both revivals of religious parties active when the country's first president, Dr Sukarno, allowed multi-party democracy in the 1950s in the country of 205 million people.
Other groups, such as the Indonesian Reform Party and the New Indonesian National Party, are taking advantage of the demand for reform. Some represent specific interest groups. At the weekend two dozen people climbed one of the highest volcanoes in Java to proclaim the United Republic Party, the first green party in the sprawling archipelago of 17,500 islands.
The only conditions the new President, Dr B.J. Habibie, has imposed is that all parties must adhere to the State ideology known as Pancasila and must reject communism. Communists are still blamed for the uprising in 1965, which was put down with the slaughter of up to 500,000 people and the overthrow of Dr Sukarno.
The most controversial of the new organisations is the Chinese Indonesian Reform Party, known simply as Parti, which aims "to defend our rights and create true harmony among Indonesian citizens", according to one of its founders, Mr Ponijan.
Parti wants to end the isolation and ostracism of Chinese Indonesians, who are not allowed to join the armed forces or the Public Service. Ethnic Chinese make up less than 5 percent of the population but are said to control 70 percent of the economy. They are often a target of social unrest, as in the May 13-15 riots in Jakarta which helped to bring down Mr Soeharto, when thousands of Chinese-owned businesses were looted and burnt and in some cases owners were killed or women sexually abused.
Many people fear Parti will perpetuate racial divisions. The chairman of a Chinese-Indonesian Muslim group, Mr Ali Karim, said the group was established "simply out of emotion", and might have "harmful repercussions" on the Chinese by highlighting race issues.
The biggest casualty of the new political era is the ruling party, Golkar. One of its largest affiliates has broken away to form a separate party, claiming Golkar does not represent its members' aspirations. The party's business wing is threatening to follow suit.
The leadership is coming under fire. The chairman and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Harmoko, has been told he should resign at an extraordinary party congress called for the middle of next month. Under Mr Soeharto's patronage, Golkar developed a stranglehold on the electoral system, and the United Development Party and Indonesian Democratic Party were not even allowed to campaign in rural areas.
However, now that Indonesia's millions of public servants are no longer obliged to support Golkar, and corruption, collusion and nepotism are slowly being eliminated, the party's days of power are numbered. Dr Habibie has not set a date for a new general election, but polls are not expected before May, since the Government will take that time to introduce new political and electoral legislation.
The chairman of the committee drafting the legislation, Mr Ryaas Rasyid, said the electoral system would probably combine single- seat constituencies with proportional representation. The aim would be to ensure minorities were represented without repeating the chaos of the 1955 election, when 169 parties contested 257 seats.
The outstanding question is the future role of the armed forces, which are allocated 75 of the 500 seats in Parliament, and are still the most powerful socio-political force in the country, supplying most of the 27 provincial governors. Dr Habibie has insisted he will not alter the military's "dual function", and Mr Rasyid admits his committee has not yet found a solution to the problem.
[Contrary to this report, the PRD has not been unbanned. The requirement that all parties adhere to Pancasila (which was one of the accusations made against the PRD during the trials) and must reject communism is likely to be used as a pretext to maintain the PRD as a banned organisation - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- President B. J. Habibie's government has begun a probe into the alleged use of the reforestation funds to finance businesses owned by former President Suharto's family and associates.
The Jakarta Post on Friday quoted Forestry and Plantations Minister Muslimin Nasution as saying that his office and the Finance Ministry were working together to ascertain whether there was malfeasance in the use of 1.2 trillion rupiah (S$175 million) from the reforestation funds prior to this April.
"During the investigations, I have ordered that further disbursement of the reforestation funds be frozen," Mr Muslimin added.
According to the Letter of Intent with the International Monetary Fund, the reforestation funds, including their interest, should be managed within the state budget and be used to develop forests and rejuvenate critical land.
"We will try our best to reallocate the misused funds to forest development," the minister told journalists after meeting environmentalists and non-governmental organisations (NGO) on Thursday. The environmentalists and NGO leaders saw him earlier to raise their concern over the alleged misuse of the funds.
Money from the reforestation fund comes from a mandatory fee imposed by the government on forest concessionaires to ensure that forests are managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. The size of the fee depends on the volume and type of timber felled.
The newspaper said Mr Suharto, during his tenure in power, issued several decrees ordering the Forestry Minister to allocate reforestation funds to various projects run by his family members and cronies which were not related to forest development.
The daily said that in 1996, Mr Suharto asked the ministry to set aside part of the interest of the funds -- mostly deposited in state banks -- to aid state aircraft manufacturer PT IPTN, which was then chaired by Dr Habibie.
According to earlier reports, IPTN received about 400 billion rupiah, which was later converted into the government's stake in the aircraft company.
Last year, according to audited reports issued by the Supreme Advisory Agency, Mr Suharto also instructed the ministry to set aside about 250 billion rupiah from the funds to help PT Kiani Lestari -- a company owned by timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan -- for its pulp and paper factory.
The newspaper said that urea-pill fertiliser manufacturer, PT Ario Seto Wijoyo -- a company owned by Mr Suharto's grandson, Mr Ari Sigit Harjojudanto -- also obtained about 80 billion rupiah from the fund. Mr Muslimin said he did not know if the funds given to the companies had been repaid.
George J. Aditjondro -- Rays of hope of Indonesia's democracy seem to emerge. Two of Habibie's relatives -- a brother and a son -- have stepped down from powerful public offices, four political prisoners have been released, and promises of a new election law and the repeal of the repressive press censor law have been made.
Is this the beginning of Habibie's glasnost? Or are these manouvres of an Acting President who hopes to be elected in an upcoming free election?
I believe it is more of the latter than the former. Last Wednesday, on May 27, the opposition movement -- spearheaded by triumphant student activists -- launched a two-pronged attack on Habibie in front of two buildings on the busy Rasuna Said Boulevard in Jakarta's central business district.
Earlier in the morning they launched their campaign to investigate the ill-begotten wealth of former President Soeharto and his family and cronies. This took place in front of the multi-storey Granadi building, which houses all fund-raising foundations chaired by Soeharto that control a business empire conservatively valued at $ 10 billion.
At noon, they moved to the Attorney General's office, a few hundreds meters down the boulevard, to launch their campaign for the release of all political prisoners and disappeared persons.
Both campaigns create a double headache for Habibie, who is balancing his acts between the military, Muslim politicians, and the students.
The armed forces commander, General Wiranto has just demoted Soeharto's ambitious son-in-law, Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, to a military academy in Bandung, West Java.
Wiranto is, however, closely implicated in Soeharto's business empire. As armed forces commander, he is the patron of several army fund-raising foundations, the richest one being the Kartika Eka Paksi foundation. Companies controlled by this multi-million dollar foundation have joint ventures with Soeharto's second son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, in forestry, property, and satellite telecommunication. Meanwhile, Wiranto's wife is involved in the multi-billion rupiah foster parent' movement of Bambang's wife, Halimah.
In addition, the Navy, Air Force and Police also back other fund-raising foundations which are involved in other Soeharto family businesses. This explains Wiranto's resistance to the investigation of Soeharto's wealth.
The Army and Habibie's right wing ministers are also reluctant to release all political prisoners, a campaign which now involves the released unionist Dr Mochtar Pakpahan, the former Muslim politician Dr Sri Bintang Pamungkas who leads a new political party, PUDI, former student activist Nuku Sulaeman, and journalist-publisher Andi Syahputra.
Expressing the viewpoint of the Army, which seems to fear retribution for the 1966 massacre of one million peasants, workers and Chinese business people, Justice Minister Muladi stated that former Communist prisoners -- now in their late 70s -- will not be released. And Communists, by the Army's standards, also include the students' banned People's Democratic Party (PRD) and its trade union, the Centre for Working Class Struggles (PPBI).
Habibie's Labour Minister, Fahmi Idris, has driven another wedge in the emerging Indonesian opposition. After the release of Mochtar Pakpahan, Fahmi Idris revoked an earlier decree that banned Dr. Pakpahan's trade union, SBSI.
Nothing was mentioned, however, of PPBI. Far from Jakarta's media spotlight, Dita Indah Sari, the 24-year leader of this radical trade union is serving a six years sentence for leading a peaceful workers demonstration in the East Java capital of Surabaya on July 8, 1996.
Unfortunately, the opposition is deeply divided between its radical and moderate wings. The radicals, including most student activists, PRD and PUDI, want total reform that includes a return of the army to the barracks and a UN-supervised referendum in East Timor.
Meanwhile, the moderates, conggregating around leading Muslim politician Dr Amien Rais, prefer a gradual reform involving a greater political role of Muslims, in proportion to their numbers, without rocking the military boat by questioning the role of the military and the status of East Timor.
Some of Rais' associates have served in Soeharto's former cabinets, and still sit as commissioners in top Indonesian companies which enjoyed perks from Soeharto's rule. Others are his former colleagues in Habibie's Islamic scholars association, ICMI.
During the last fortnight, Rais and his associates have increasingly acted as power brokers between Habibie, the military, and the students.
As long as the students allow themselves to be represented by these power brokers, their hopes for total reform may dissipate into the clouds. And so will the dreams of pro-democracy activists, such as the recently kidnapped and tortured young activist, Pius Lustrilanang, who has since 1991 campaigned for the withdrawal of all Indonesian troops from East Timor.
| Arms/armed forces |
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government is likely to pass a new law soon to ban "disruptive" political rallies and demonstrations which the powerful armed forces (ABRI) say is undermining confidence in the country's economy.
The proposed regulation, which sources said was the initiative of ABRI chief General Wiranto, will give the military "a legal basis to crack down on pro-reform groups causing anarchy" in the capital and 26 other provinces.
"This country will never recover economically if there are political squabblings and daily protests," said a senior government official who was consulted by the military on the matter. "Our aim now is to concentrate on rebuilding the economy and we cannot be sidetracked by all these groups pushing for political reform overnight. "No businessman would want to put his money in an unstable country."
An ABRI source said the new regulation could be passed in a week or two and a team of experts was now deciding the best way to push it through. It could take the form of a presidential decree, but some are sceptical it would be well-received if done that way, and instead want Parliament to debate the proposal before it becomes law.
But the new rules would not give ABRI carte blanche to ban all forms of protest. Said the source: "Political parties and pressure groups are free to demonstrate but they need to get permission and give assurances they will not violate other people's freedom. "This is the practice in most countries, including the United States. So what we are demanding now is nothing extraordinary."
He added that the ABRI leadership was keen on a new law because of "an escalation in protests nationwide". "Street demonstrations in Jakarta brought down Suharto," he said. "People in provinces are now using the same approach to bring down local governors and officials who they think are corrupt."
Analysts believe the proposal was also the military's response to threats by the chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labour Union, Mr Muchtar Pakpahan, to organise nationwide demonstrations unless the government holds a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly. Over the past few weeks, many labourers in Jakarta have gone on strike and staged rallies demanding better salaries and the elimination of corruption.
A three-star general said that there were undisclosed groups trying to bring down the Habibie administration, adding: "They are being engineered for political purposes."
A team of senior military officers, led by ABRI socio-political chief Lieutenant-General Bambang Yudhoyono, has been working for the last three weeks to decide the best way to handle growing unrest in Indonesia since Dr Habibie took over from Mr Suharto on May 21. A source with links to the military said that initial plan was to clamp down on all political activities.
But ABRI officers decided against this "extreme measure which, while restoring stability, could be suicidal for the economy". There were fears of a backlash from foreign countries and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which could withhold aid to the country, battering the troubled economy even more.
A source said: "Some might think that we are taking a step backwards in democratic reform by pushing through this law. "But we are sure many moderates will support it because they know that without stability, there will be no economic recovery -- only chaos for many more months ahead."
Jakarta -- Indonesian military chief General Wiranto on Thursday warned of national disintegration and issued orders to the armed forces to act firmly to safeguard public order and national safety.
"I order the entire ranks of ABRI (the Indonesian armed forces) at all levels to act firmly for the sake of public order and national safety," Wiranto said in a press release issued here. "Halt all violations of laws and regulations, act firmly against criminals," Wiranto told the military.
He said that "certain sides" were systematically muddying the conditions by floating rumors that only made the population more confused and hindered the nation from overcoming the currrent crisis. "The aim of the spreading of those rumors is to weaken the confidence of the people in state institutions, including ABRI.
"If this state of affairs is allowed to continue, the nation will fall deeper into crisis in all fields, and the end result would be unavoidable internal conflicts... which will lead to the disintegration of the nation," Wiranto said.
He also said that following the economic crisis that struck the country in the middle of last year crime was on the rise in the regions. Wiranto however said that whatever "firm action" the military took, they would still act within the confines of the laws. "The government, together with ABRI will not tolerate anyone that engages in activities or movements to disturb the security, stability and public order," Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs, Feisal Tanjung said in a separate press release.
Tanjung warned that there were indications that there was a group of people who wrongly interpreted reforms and was using it as a tool to enforce their will, in disregard of the law and public interest. But he did not give further details or names.
[According to the June 18 Jakarta Post, Wiranto has dismissed speculation that he has ambitions to become the next president. His statement followed calls for him to lead the nation by around 400 religious leaders in East Java - James Balowski.]
Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta -- In the five decades since Indonesia achieved independence following a bloody anti-colonial war, the Indonesian Armed Forces, or ABRI, have played the pivotal role in the country's politics and society. Their role is enshrined in the constitutional doctrine known as "dual function," which allows serving military officers to hold key positions in the government and parliament.
But now, as Indonesia embarks on a new era of democracy after the fall of its longtime autocratic leader, Suharto, the armed forces are looking to reduce their active involvement in politics. Heeding the popular demands for a more open political system -- and perhaps taking a cue from militaries elsewhere around the region -- ABRI is preparing to assume a somewhat diminished profile in the New Indonesia.
"The idea of ABRI now is to readjust its role, to build a new political role sharing," said Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, ABRI's chief of socio- political affairs and the main thinker behind the armed forces' own reform program. "ABRI must participate in developing the nation," he said. "We have to continuously readjust and reposition."
The American-trained general, speaking casually and at length in his office at the sprawling armed forces compound on the edge of Jakarta, reflected on the dramatic changes that have swept this nation in the last three weeks: Suharto's unexpected resignation, B.J. Habibie's unlikely elevation to the presidency, the formation of new political parties, the release of some prisoners of conscience and the flowering of the kind of open debate that would have been suppressed just a few weeks ago. Yudhoyono compared it to the shock of an atomic bomb exploding.
"It happened in the past in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe," he said. "It's happened now in our country. ...I think this is a shock that exists in our country. We have to respond quickly. We have to adjust rapidly."
One such response, the general said, will require the armed forces to begin pulling back from their traditional "dual function" involvement in politics. "In some cases, in some regions, in some roles, ABRI may still influence society directly. But in other cases, and other regions, it may be better to influence indirectly. It's an open chapter."
In the interview, Gen. Yudhoyono said that while ABRI has studied other cases of the move from military rule to democracy, he believed that each country needed to find its own formula. "I do agree that we have to adopt a universal principle of democracy," he said. "But I think the precise method should be adapted to local history, local values, local culture." As ABRI searches for a new role, many analysts believe that Yudhoyono, a sophisticated and worldly officer, is the perfect person to lead the effort. Yudhoyono, along with the armed forces commander, Gen. Wiranto, is believed to represent a new breed of ABRI officer, more professional and in tune with the demands of a changing society. "Bambang Yudhoyono is the leading intellectual in the military," said Harold Crouch, a professor at the Australian National University and an expert on the Indonesian armed forces. Yudhoyono "is very close to Wiranto, and there are several others who are smart and more open-minded. They've been thinking along these lines for a long time. It just so happens they are in the top positions right now."
In Indonesia, the military is also fighting allegations from human rights groups and students that some units may be behind a recent string of incidents, including the kidnapping of more than a dozen political activists, the shooting deaths of four unarmed student protesters at Trisakti University in Jakarta, and widespread riots that left 1,188 people dead. Many, including opposition leader Amien Rais, now say they believe those riots, and attacks on the ethnic Chinese minority, may have been orchestrated by elements of the armed forces bent on sowing confusion and unrest.
There also has been intense speculation that it was the armed forces, and specifically General Wiranto, who gave Suharto the ultimatum that it was time for him to step down. But Yudhoyono disputed the accounts that Wiranto flatly told Suharto to go. What apparently did happen was a more subtle interchange in which the aging president was presented with a stark picture of a capital in flames and a populace that had lost its faith in his ability to govern. Resignation was likely one of several options presented to the president by Wiranto when they talked the night before he resigned -- but it was the only viable option on the list.
"As far as I know, there was no intention of ABRI to seize power or to pose to the president to step down," Yudhoyono said. "But we do have a constitutional channel, a communications channel, to report the reality, what is happening, the true demands and aspirations of the people." Asked specifically if Suharto chose to resign because of Wiranto's assessment that the situation had become untenable, Yudhoyono replied: "In a broader sense, I think ABRI's recommendations were part of the president's decision."
[At a graduation ceremony on June 17, police institute lecturer Dr T.B. Ronny Nitikasbara, said that the police should be separated from the armed forces (ABRI), which is currently made up of the army, navy, air-force and police, who were integrated into ABRI by a presidential decree in 1969. Prompted by issues of autonomy and funding, the idea was proposed earlier in June by the National Human Rights Commission and according to Nitikasbara, negotiations are already underway with high-ranking ABRI officials - James Balowski.]