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ASIET NetNews Number 26 - July 13-19, 1998
East TimorReformist rage reaching local administrators Five PDI offices retaken in Jakarta
Political/economic crisisQuiet on Indonesian integration day Debunking `Integration Day' Xanana: Timorese will overlook the past Exodus on eve of envoy's arrival ABRI issues shoot-on-sight warnings in Dili
Human rights/lawCrisis has only just begun, bank warns Business suffers amid signs of persecution Wiranto warns against looting IMF blueprint to take over economy Speak no evil
News & issuesRacial hatred deliberately unleashed Women's coalition demonstrates over rapes Raped for the `crime' of being Chinese Kopassus arrests but where are the missing
Opposition call for reform coalition Indonesia may outlaw some political parties Golkar's new bureaucrat lineup blasted Andi Arief released
Security tight after looting outbreak
| Democratic struggle |
Jay Solomon, Sleman -- At high noon July 7, 700 Indonesian villagers descended upon this district's local legislature in a noisy convoy of motorcycles, red banners and clove cigarette smoke.
Unsatiated by former President Suharto's resignation in May, they were after the jobs of their village heads and the district's chief administrator. The protesters hoisted their banners, depicting reform slogans, blocked the building entrance and for a couple of hours blustered about the officials' ties to the Suharto family. The officials inside didn't come out; the villagers vowed they'd be back.
Indonesians are headhunting. In a raw outburst of vengeance, this depression-struck nation is seeking political change at every level of society. From the islands of Sumatra to Sulawesi to Irian Jaya, President Suharto's fall has sent the rest of Indonesia scrambling to eradicate all those complicit in the corruption of the past 32 years. If left unchecked, Indonesians warn, history suggests the current urge to purge could get bloodier. "The village heads have been even more arrogant in their [abuse of] power than Suharto," says Suwandi Subrato, a local leader here of Indonesia's United Development Party.
Few tools for restraint
The political backlash has even staunch advocates of reform worried that the situation could quickly disintegrate into chaos. Lacking effective democratic and legal institutions, Indonesian authorities possess few tools to channel the reform spirit and thus prevent it from becoming an exercise of wanton vengeance. In effect, Indonesia's governmental system has now been discredited, implicating vast numbers of those who had anything to do with it during the previous government. "When the people have a chance to take revenge, they will," warns Budi Susanto, director of Yogyakarta province's Legal Aid Foundation.
So unsettled are some leaders here that they've asked for military protection from constituents who have threatened to destroy their homes and property. Others have actually hired "hit men" for security, according to Mr. Susanto.
Warning signs
The signs of potential mayhem are already apparent. Take the plight of Fajar Pribadi, the village head of Ngestihardjo, in Bantul district. Villagers have descended upon his office on two occasions, accusing him of corruption and demanding he resign at once. They charge that he bribed his way into office, misused village funds and fraudulently resolved land claims. The catch, he insists: He's innocent.
"I agree with the villagers' reform goals," Mr. Fajar says. "But they have no evidence [against me]." The reform movement, he adds, is being manipulated by third parties for ulterior motives. The manipulators, he claims, are his political rivals, whom he won't name but says are eager to grab power themselves. "They were drunk and underage," he says of the demonstrators who demanded his resignation. "Many didn't even come from this village... They said they were sent by some unknown 'team.'" To cool things down, Mr. Fajar has held dialogues with his detractors -- while at the same time beefing up his security.
'A dark history'
Indonesia's brief political history -- it won independence from the Dutch in the late 1940s -- offers little solace to incumbent politicians such as Mr. Fajar. In the mid-1960s, after Mr. Suharto came to power following a failed Communist coup, village leaders associated with the Indonesian Communist Party were purged, with many sent to island prisons or to their deaths. "We're worried it could turn into anarchy," Mr. Fajar says, adding that "historically this village has a dark history" of political retribution.
In the nearby town of Banguntapan, village head Abdullah Sajad also is running scared. Villagers there have started questioning the whereabouts of funds raised from village land sales and why some of their land claims have taken so long to show up on official registers. So far, he says, nobody has demanded he step down, but Mr. Abdullah concedes: "I'm worried that's coming." Meanwhile, he says he's making sure "to increase the quality of services to the people."
Herein lies one of Indonesia's greatest challenges in the post- Suharto era: promoting a democratic system with a population unschooled in democracy, or much else. "People were simply taught not to think," says Loekman Soetrisno, a professor at Gadjah Mada University.
Breeding contempt
Moreover, local districts have been forced by the central government to accept village administrators chosen by Indonesia's three official political parties, which has bred contempt, Indonesians say. "Their closeness to the central power encouraged them to treat villages as their own little state authority," says Warsita Utomo, a political analyst at the university. Local officials unilaterally bought and sold villagers' land and imposed fees as they wished, answering only to Jakarta, he says.
Now, with the economy in crisis and the central government weakened, many Indonesians wax almost nostalgically about the discipline and control under Mr. Suharto's rule -- heavy-handed as it was. The transition to democracy, they warn, could be long and painful. "There is already a breakdown in social order -- nothing is controlling and nothing is controlled," argues the influential Indonesian writer Y.B. Mangunwijaya of Yogyakarta. "You might not see things yet on the surface, but underground, it's already on fire."
Jakarta -- Following the retaking of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters by pro-Megawati Sukarnoputri PDI supporters the day before in Jakarta and Sumut [North Sumatra], on Friday afternoon, July 10, thousands of pro-Megawati PDI supporters simultaneously attacked and retook five branch offices in Jakarta. The retaking of the branch offices was lead by the head of the respective branches and involved thousands of supporters and sympathisers.
In North Jakarta, functionaries and thousands of PDI supporters moved from their branch office in Tanjung Priok towards the PDI offices controlled by the [government installed] pro-Suryadi "Puppet PDI" in Cilincing. This was done in each of the districts with simultaneously attacks to take back the offices. Their actions were part of an instruction by the pro-Megawati PDI leadership intended to consolidate the party throughout Indonesia.
Unlike the battle which broke out in the seizing of the Sumut offices, the retaking of the PDI offices in Joglo, West Jakarta, on Thursday, July 9, went flawlessly and without resistance. When around one thousand people entered to clean out the offices, it appeared that it had already been vacated. They began putting up flags and posters supporting the leadership of Megawati.
The retaking were enlivened when scores of women, members of a marching band wearing red shirts with the words "PDI Reform" sung songs of struggle. Local people became involved shouting and yelling their support for the pro-Megawati PDI. Shouts of disapproval at Suryadi and the Habibie government, which was considered "limited reform", echoed continuously.
In Medan, on Thursday July 9, thousands of pro-Suryadi PDI supporters tried to take back the Sumut offices on Jalan Raden Saleh from the hands of pro-Megawati PDI supporters who had seized the offices several days before. During the confrontation, both sides pelted each other with rocks for around one hour. Thirty-three Suryadi supporters -- who are believed to be paid thugs -- were wounded and are being treated in hospital.
According to the head of the pro-Megawati PDI in Sumut, Baskami Ginting, the offices is still under their control. "No one was wounded on our side, except for the attackers who tried to retake the offices", he explained to a SiaR correspondent.
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski]
| East Timor |
Amy Chew, Jakarta -- The 22nd anniversary of Indonesia's annexation of East Timor passed off peacefully in Dili on Friday as the territory's jailed guerrilla leader opened the way for direct diplomatic contact between Jakarta and Lisbon.
Hundreds of troops and police patrolled Dili, capital of the former Portuguese colony, to prevent a recurrence of the violence during anti-Indonesian demonstrations last month in which at least three people died.
In Jakarta, the territory's jailed guerrilla leader, Xanana Gusmao, offered a way out of a diplomatic impasse by saying he agreed Jakarta and Lisbon should be able to establish a form of diplomatic relations while he was still in prison.
"I agree that special interest sections between Portugal and Indonesia can proceed without me being released," he told reporters after meeting U.N. special envoy Jamsheed Marker in Jakarta's Cipinang prison. A diplomat who closely follows East Timorese affairs said Gusmao's comments had a symbolic meaning.
"If they (set up special interest sections), it will be the first confidence-building measure they will have agreed to and it will help the atmosphere when they next meet... It is necessary for them to get some agreement to get a sense of progress being made," he said.
Nations without formal diplomatic ties frequently maintain so-called special interest sections staffed by their diplomats in friendly embassies. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, in a meeting with Suharto in Bangkok in 1996, proposed special interest sections. But this fell through over Portugal's insistence that Gusmao -- serving a 20-year sentence for armed insurgency -- be released.
East Timor's Jakarta-appointed governor Abilio Soares said at a formal anniversary ceremony in Dili that the territory's 1976 integration as Indonesia's 27th province had been the wish of the people to free themselves from Portugal. Soares told about 500 civil servants and representatives of the police and military: "Twenty-two years have passed and East Timor has become and inseparable part of the Republic of Indonesia." Ordinary East Timorese however were noticeable by their absence from the morning ceremony in the square in front of the whitewashed colonial-era governor's office bedecked with red and white Indonesian flags facing the seafront.
Marker said he had discussed with Gusmao Indonesian proposals for a settlement of the East Timor issue, a running sore in Jakarta's foreign relations for two decades. Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl said on Friday the ministry would be interested to see Lisbon's reaction to Gusmao's comments.
East Timor's most vocal anti-Indonesian spokesman abroad, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta, told Reuters in Lisbon from Cape Verde that he backed Gusmao on the special interests idea. "I urge Portugal and Indonesia to proceed as expediently as possible...", he said. There was no immediate comment from Portuguese officials.
Marker arrived in Jakarta on Thursday and reported to Alatas on what he said was an encouraging response from Lisbon to Indonesia's proposals on East Timor. Alatas said U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan had invited him and his Portuguese counterpart to a meeting in early August to discuss East Timor. The exact date had yet to be set.
Marker is expected to visit East Timor before he leaves for New York on Wednesday. But he said his programme was still being worked out. Marker, who is also due to meet Habibie, possibly on Saturday, told reporters after meeting Gusmao he had raised the rebel leaders imprisonment with the Indonesian authorities.
[On July 18, a Dow Jones Newsire report said that more than 300 students demanded self-determination for East Timor held a noisy but peaceful demonstration at the University of East Timor. One of the banners at the demonstration read "Australia and Indonesia -- the East Timor Gap is not yours". According to a July 18 report by AFP, foreign minister Ali Alatas has insisted that Marker should not go to Dili, citing violence when EU ambassadors visited earlier in the month - James Balowski.]
Indonesia has based its claim that the East Timorese have already expressed their desire to integrate into Indonesia on two actions: Balibo Declaration (November 30, 1975) and the Act of Integration (May 31, 1976). Listed below are certain facts which show that these two actions cannot be regarded as justification for integration. These facts will also indicate the commonly used tactics which constitute Indonesian "diplomacy".
Documents written by ABRI's "intelligence"
The East Timorese signatories of both these documents state that they played no part in composing these documents. It is likely that signatories did not sight them until the moment of signing. The documents were written by Indonesians. One assumes that Intel composed them.
The wording of paragraph 4 of the Balibo Declaration suggests Indonesian, and not East Timorese, authorship. "After having been separated from the strong ties of blood, identity, ethnic and moral culture with the people of Indonesia by the colonial power of Portugal for more than 400 years, we deem it is now the right moment for the people of Portuguese Timor to re-establish formally these strong ties with the Indonesian nation"
Documents signed under threats of punishment or death
The signatories to both these documents signed them under the threat of death or other unspecified punishments. Evidence to this effect has been given by Guilherme Maria Gongalves (Apodeti) in the case of the Balibo Declaration, and by Antonio Sarmento in the case of the Act of Integration.
The small number of signatories
Four people signed the Balibo Declaration. Thirty-seven people (according to Indonesian sources), and twenty-eight people (according to other sources) signed the Act of Integration.
The unrepresentative nature of the signatories
Balibo Declaration. This was signed by one representative from each of the four smallest parties in East Timor -- UDT, Apodeti, Kota, and Partido Trabalhista. It was not signed by the fifth and largest party, namely Fretilin. Evidence that Fretilin more fully represented the wishes of the people of East Timor, and that UDT, Apodeti, Kota, Partido Trabalhista, did not represent the people is suggested by these facts:
Act of Integration. This was signed only 6 months after the invasion, at a time when at least 80% of East Timor was under the control of Fretilin, and fighting was intense. Indonesia said that a Popular Representative Assembly had been "elected so as to represent the wishes of the people of East Timor", and that "the process of election was democratic and free from any form of pressure". An election in the Fretilin controlled part of East Timor clearly could not, and did not, take place. Stories from signatories suggest that they were hastily conscripted in Dili, and did not represent anybody.Fretilin had won the local elections in February and March 1975, scoring 55% of the votes. Apodeti polled extremely badly in spite of generous financial support from Jakarta. Kota and Partido Trabalhista did not exist. Fretilin had won the "civil war" and were the de facto government at the time of the Balibo Declaration. The Fretilin military held the powerful Indonesian army at bay for 3 years (1975-1978), suggesting that the East Timorese people supported Fretilin, rather than supporting UDT, Apodeti, Kota and Partido Trabalhista who were collaborating with the Indonesians.
Secrecy surrounded the signing of both documents
There were no observers at the Balibo Declaration. Those attending were the four East Timorese signatories, and a number of ABRI personnel. The signing apparently took place in Bali, and not in Balibo, further adding to the secrecy of the occasion and pointing to the desire of the Indonesians to hide the truth.
Some 40 journalists were invited from Jakarta for the Act of Integration, in order to give validation to the occasion. However the event was stage managed, in order to cover up the coercion involved and the unrepresentative nature of the assembly. The secrecy is apparent in the following facts:
The 40 journalists (both Indonesian and foreign) were flown at Indonesian government expense from Jakarta to Dili and back, in one day. They were allowed to stay in Dili for only three hours. The journalists were not allowed to leave the building where the signing ceremony took place. * They were not allowed to speak to any of the signatories. The ceremony was held in Portuguese, but no interpreting or translation was provided.
Jakarta -- The East Timorese people will overlook the horrors of war for the past 23 years and consider the invasion of their country, by the Indonesians, a "mistake in history" if Jakarta is willing to allow them a stronger say in their own political future, jailed Resistance leader Xanana Gusmao told a seminar yesterday.
In a paper prepared for the seminar entitled "Towards A Peaceful End To East Timor's Problems in the Post-Suharto Era", organised by the Solidamor group in Jakarta -- a network of Indonesian activists seeking a peaceful solution to the East Timor problem -- Xanana said his people are ready for political compromises at this juncture in time, after the resignation of Suharto, to build better ties with the Indonesian people and a democratic Indonesia.
"We are willing to forget the past wounds, the past 23 years of war in order to have a better relationship with the Indonesian people. Let the past be considered as a mistake in history," said Xanana. The speech in Bahasa Indonesia was smuggled out of Cipinang Jail, where he is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring against the Indonesian state, to the Indonesian organisers of the seminar.
However the Resistance leader -- who is also the president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) -- added as a first step the Indonesian government must allow more East Timorese participation in the UN-sponsored All-Inclusive East Timorese Dialogue (AIETD) talks.
"As a start, the AIETD must be intensified with more East Timorese people being able to have their say and exchange views. They must, in the end, be able to discuss the political future of East Timor in that forum," said Xanana.
"I say in the end, because under Suharto the AIETD could not discuss a political solution or political matters. Now things have changed and I hope political matters become the focus of the AIETD," explained Xanana.
The jailed Resistance leader said he wanted his people to be on equal standing with the Indonesians in any dialogue over the political status of East Timor. "If the Indonesian government is open-minded enough to allow the discussions of political matters, with the full participation of the East Timorese, there won't be any winners or losers in the resolution of the East Timor conflict. We will, also, find a face-saving and new way for the Indonesian armed forces [ABRI] in the overall solution," said Xanana.
In an appeal to Jakarta not to scuttle the spirit of the AIETD talks, Xanana urged the Indonesian government not to put forth to the international community that East Timorese delegates from Indonesia were pro-integration and those overseas were against Jakarta and, hence, anti-integration. "Confidence-building starts with small steps and they are important now in finding a peaceful solution to East Timor."
Referring to Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas, Xanana said Alatas had to "realise that he was not representing the East Timorese people but the interests of Indonesia instead." "The time has come for Minister Alatas to realise that he is no longer from the repressive Suharto regime, but a minister in a government which is pro-reforms in Indonesia."
Xanana said there will not be any headway towards a peaceful solution if a referendum is not held in East Timor. "We are willing to compromise and dialogue with all parties concerned to find a solution to the East Timor problem, and at the same time respecting the interests of Indonesia. But for anything substantial to happen, it has to be through a referendum and we are realistic that it's going to happen soon. We have waited for the past 23 years!"
Louise Williams, Jakarta -- Tensions are rising in East Timor ahead of a visit this week of the United Nations special envoy Mr Jamsheed Marker, and tens of thousands of non-Timorese residents are reported to have fled the contested province.
Mr Marker is due in Jakarta tomorrow to assess the recent proposal by the Government of Dr B.J. Habibie to grant "special autonomy" to East Timor in exchange for international recognition of Indonesian sovereignty over the former Portuguese colony.
Although the proposal offers the first chance of a negotiated settlement in decades, divisions are deepening in East Timor, where anti-Indonesian independence groups have been organising large protests, some ending in violent clashes with supporters of Jakarta's rule.
A diplomatic source said non-East Timorese settlers began fleeing the province last week, and Indonesian newspaper reports said 20,000 had fled the provincial capital, Dili, since massive demonstrations during the recent visit of three Jakarta-based European Union ambassadors. Two people were killed by security forces during those demonstrations.
A diplomatic source said: "Our contacts say the fleeing is definitely taking place, and involves everyone who is non-East Timorese."
Under the former Soeharto government, tens of thousands of non- East Timorese government workers and transmigrants were sent into the former Portuguese colony, which was invaded by Indonesian troops in 1975 and annexed the following year.
New settlers have taken control of much of the business sector and the Public Service and their Islamic religion sits uneasily with the strong Catholic faith of the indigenous people of East Timor. There have been sporadic clashes in the past between non- East Timorese settlers, but the exodus goes beyond local conflicts. Sources say gangs are organising the departures, pressuring people to leave businesses and homes.
Military authorities in Dili confirmed the exodus, saying many local business people had begun to move to Kupang, in adjoining East Nusa Tenggara.
Indonesia's Observer newspaper quoted a provincial official as saying an estimated 20,000 people had left Dili since the violent protests during the visit of the European diplomats. Jakarta: East Timorese here say the Australian Embassy is denying them access to make visa applications, forcing them to fill out forms on the pavement outside, while other Indonesian passport holders are allowed access to an air-conditioned room inside.
A Herald representative, an Indonesian, recently accompanied East Timorese-born Virgilio Da Silva Guterres to collect his visa. He was denied access, but she was allowed in. Mr Virgilio said: "This is blatant discrimination. I never imagined that a country which always says it is democratic and is proud of its human values still has this kind of treatment."
A security officer said it was embassy policy to deny East Timorese access, because of cases where East Timorese forced their way in to seek political asylum.
The East Timor International Support Center is deeply disturbed by reports from East Timor's capital, Dili, that shoot on sight warnings have been issued by the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) to East Timorese planning pro-independence protests this week.
UN Special Representative for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker is scheduled to visit Dili tomorrow, July 14. Friday, July 17, marks the 22nd year of East Timor's forceful incorporation into Indonesia as the republic's 27th province.
ETISC received information, this morning, from Dili that the top command of ABRI in East Timor issued the warning that Indonesian troops would not hesitate to use force and even shoot on sight protestors calling for East Timor's independence, in the lead up to "Integration Day". At the moment there are numerous roadblocks, manned by the Indonesian military, on the roads leading to Dili from the outer districts. Seven youths, last night, were arrested by the military in Comoro, a sub-district of Dili.
Nine batallions of ABRI troops are now stationed at Batugade and Balibo, bordering West Timor. These troops were stationed there after some of the families of Indonesian troops left the territory on rumours that there could be a "civil war".
Unconfirmed reports from Dili, today, indicate that the ABRI top command together with intelligence agencies held a meeting on July 8 at the Balai Prajurit to plan the disruption, by force if necessary, the planned protests this week against Indonesian rule. The meeting agreed on the following:
The situation in East Timor, now, is precarious with ABRI set to carry out another Santa Cruz-like massacre without any compunction whatsoever. Because of this we urge the international community to intervene immediately to prevent more bloodbaths in the troubled territory. Comments made, yesterday to The Australian, by the Indonesia-installed East Timor Governor Abilio Soares are also deeply disturbing and are a percussor of things to come in the territory.The planned protest against Indonesia, to be held on conjunction with Jamsheed Marker's visit on July 14, will be broken up with force; Prevent any East Timorese groups campaigning for independence from meeting with the UN Special Representative; If the July 14 protest cannot be disrupted, plans must be made for another action in August; If [Resistance leader] Xanana Gusmao is released, plans must be put in place for his assassination if he returns to East Timor.
In the interview, Soares warned "the military [Indonesian armed forces] will take a tough stand against public protests because of fears that recent violent clashes over the future status of the contested territory could reignite 'civil war'."
He also questioned the "desirability" of early reductions in troop numbers in the troubled territory and has asked Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto to take action in East Timor to avoid anarchy "because the young people are acting without control any more."
From his comments and request to the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) to use force in East Timor, it is clear that the governor has no qualms in doing the bidding of Jakarta to prevent a referendum from being held to determine the future of the troubled territory.
And it seems Abilio Soares has employed the tactic of trying to make the outside world believe that a civil war would ensue if the East Timorese exercise their right of self-determination.
The fact of the matter is that ABRI is the problem in East Timor. In order for any progress to be made on the future of the troubled territory, there must be significant reductions in regular and territorial troops, there, together with a complete withdrawal of all military intelligence agents. Also all civilian para-military groups, sponsored by the Special forces, must be completely disbanded.
| Political/economic crisis |
Jennifer Hewett, Washington -- The amount of poverty in Indonesia is likely to double during the next year, according to a new report from the World Bank which says that no country in history has suffered such a dramatic reversal of fortune. The report's tone signals a far more accommodating approach towards the Indonesian Government's attempt to preserve social stability despite the financial costs.
In contrast to earlier calls by the International Monetary Fund for Indonesia to drastically reduce subsidies, for example, the World Bank said the Government must ensure the availability of food and other essentials at affordable prices.
The report's author, Mr Vikram Nehru, said the level of subsidies was not sustainable over the long term and that they should be better targeted towards the poorer and more vulnerable parts of the population. But the bank also said that keeping rice prices low was of the utmost priority to the new Government. "The Government must do all it can to protect the poor from the harshest effects of the crisis," the report said.
"In particular it must protect the poor against catastrophic shortfalls in consumption and ensure that short-term declines in real income and public spending do not lead to irreversible loses in human capital..." The bank called for labour-intensive public works programs to provide job opportunities for the poor, including a focus on the employment of women. It predicted that the economy could contract by between 10 and 15 per cent this year, with inflation exceeding 80 per cent.
The report warned that such a dire and unprecedented crisis meant the Government had no choice but to seek additional financing from the international community -- about an extra $US8 billion ($12.6 billion) this financial year. "The seriousness and urgency of Indonesia's economic and financial crisis cannot be overstated," the report said. "This has to be reflected in the fundamental nature of the reforms that are pursued and the speed and integrity with which they are implemented. "For its part, the international community must come forward in this time of Indonesia's greatest need with substantial increases in financial and technical assistance."
The bank's past reports on the Indonesian economy are now attracting criticism for their tolerant approach towards the risks and the extent of corruption. Mr Nehru, who recently completed a well-respected report on China's economy, has only been working on Indonesia for the past few months. He said the Government's other priorities should be to deal with the debt problems, to resuscitate the banking system and to improve the general system of governance and transparency in Indonesia's financial and commercial transactions.
But the report warned that the current problems were just the beginning of the crisis. It blamed the extent of the crisis on four main causes:
The rapid build-up of private foreign debt; The flaws in the Indonesian banking system, meaning the banks were poorly positioned to cope with any deterioration; An inadequate system of governance, colouring perceptions of how well Indonesia would be able to manage the problems; Terrible political timing, given the uncertainty about the future of the Soeharto Government and the paralysis of the Cabinet.
Jay Solomon and Wayne Arnold, Solo -- The economists and politicians trying to fathom how many billions of dollars will buy stability in Indonesia would do well to come read the signs here in the seat of the Javanese heartland.
"Real Javan," reads the graffiti painted on the doors of shop after shop. "Muslim Pribumi" (indigenous Indonesian) is another favorite. All along Slamed Riyadi street, the burned-out shells of Chinese-owned stores still stand as reminders of the violence that has brought this city to a halt since mid-May. On those shops still intact are signs advertising the owners' support for reform, and their non-Chineseness, authentic or not.
Ethnic Chinese account for two-thirds of Indonesia's private, urban economy. They dominate the distribution network for food and other essentials, and those who fled took with them their piece in that network. Those who remain hesitate to rebuild, afraid that the violence may not be over.
Crisis still rages
International Monetary Fund officials say the $43 billion pledged last November to help bail out Indonesia was thought to be enough to extinguish the country's financial crisis. The crisis still rages, and now those officials are scrambling to put into place an additional $4 billion to $6 billion in international assistance.
But until Indonesia's Chinese are convinced that staying isn't a grave risk, commerce will languish, trade will break down and food will remain scarce. "The government asks us to come back, and yet they place us in an even worse situation," says Iswahyudya K., an ethnic-Chinese goods distributor here. Like many Chinese across Indonesia, Mr. Iswahyudya is planning his escape abroad, if not for himself, at least for his children. "I don't have the money right now to send my children, but, of course, it's a long-term goal."
Kunto, a local Chinese property mogul, says that more than 600 ethnic-Chinese families have moved from Solo to the more peaceful Indonesian island of Bali or to Australia since May. His salesmen have been receiving scores of offers to sell their properties, both businesses and homes. "I haven't seen any effort from the local government to assuage our fears," he says.
Many ethnic Chinese here worry that the government itself, or at least elements of the military, acquiesced in the May attacks on the Chinese and their property in both Solo and Jakarta that helped trigger President Suharto's resignation.
Fill the Void "Whoever was behind the unrest clearly wanted to shut down the city's economy," says Mudrick Setiawan, Solo chairman of the Muslim-based opposition United Development Party. By removing the Chinese from the economy, other players could fill the void, he reasons.
In recent days, both President B.J. Habibie and armed-forces commander Gen. Wiranto have conceded that unspecified outside forces played a role in instigating the riots and set up a commission to investigate. Seven officers from a special-forces unit were arrested this week on charges of abducting human-rights advocates earlier this year.
That special-forces unit, called Kopassus and headed until shortly after Mr. Suharto stepped down by the former president's son-in-law Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, is also at the center of speculation about its role in the May riots. But it remains unclear whether military personnel will be a focus of the investigation into the causes of the riots. "We're not there yet," an armed-forces spokesman said.
Meanwhile, those who saw the riots in Solo ask why the army didn't act to restore order sooner. One amateur video shows troops standing by as mobs ransacked local businesses. And Mr. Iswahyudya recounts the systematic way the military withdrew as the rioting took hold. He says "outsiders" with crew cuts and walkie-talkies stormed into businesses and reduced them to ashes. "Rioters couldn't do this. It was too efficient," he says.
Nagging questions
Even Solo's top law-enforcement official, Police Lt. Col. Imam Suwangsa, admits to having his doubts. "I don't know why the military wasn't here," he says, noting that the city is just a few kilometers from a regional Kopassus headquarters.
Questions about who, if anyone, instigated the May riots loom large as Indonesia's ethnic Chinese worry that they could become the targets of another outbreak of violence.
Sandyawan Sumardi, a Catholic priest who has led an investigation into the rapes of women during and after the May riots, says he is convinced it was an organized rampage. "I am fearful more violence will be unleashed to fulfill" peoples' political interests, he adds.
Indeed, unease in Solo has been stoked by the sexual assault last week on a local ethnic-Chinese woman. Unlike in Jakarta, where government officials now concede that more than 100 Chinese women were raped in May's unrest, Lt. Imam says this is the first such confirmed incident in Solo since the riots began.
Attempted extortion
Lt. Imam and neighbors of the victim recount four men from East Java being seen in the area of the crime. At home with her brother and maid, the 20-year-old victim had returned to Solo for her wedding when the attack occurred. The police captain said the assailants had attempted to extort money from the family, but in the end, made away with just 25,000 rupiah ($1.74).
President Habibie made a major appeal to assuage Chinese fears Wednesday, promising to be "proactive in giving protection and security to all layers of society."
But doubts remain. "You can consider what's happening an act of genocide," says Frans Winarta, an Indonesian human-rights lawyer who is ethnic Chinese. "There's a plan to take the Chinese out of the economy."
Jakarta -- The Armed Forces (ABRI, warned yesterday it win crack down hard against looters amid growing signs of a breakdown of law and order in some parts of the country.
ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto, who is also minister of defense and security, acknowledged that many people have been impoverished by the economic crisis, with some losing their jobs and others even driven to the verge of starvation.
But these conditions should not be used as a pretext to break the law, he said. "Even if we are in a critical condition, we must never tolerate crime," Wiranto said after attending a meeting with President B.J. Habibie at the State Guest House yesterday.
The three-hour meeting preceded by lunch was attended by Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security Gen. (ret.) Feisal Tanjung, Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono.
Also present were Minister of Information Mohammad Yunus, of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung. Wiranto said he summoned all 10 regional military commanders to Jakarta yesterday and gave them clear orders to contain the rising crime rates in their respective areas. "The plundering of shrimp ponds, plantations, and the takeover of other people's property has been conducted by people in total disregard of the law. They cannot get away with this," he said.
Wiranto stressed the government has been working hard to resolve the problem of starvation through social movements, and "not by allowing people to steal".
With the economic crisis biting deeper and deeper, lawlessness appears to have become the order of the day in some parts of Indonesia. Dozens of traders of Chinese descent were forced to flee on Thursday after mobs attacked their shops and rice mills in Jember, East Java, according to the Suara Pembaruan daily. They looted foodstuffs, electronic goods and spare parts from shops and kiosks in Sempolan, the town's main business center. "We are hungry," they shouted in defiance of troops' appeals to them to stop the looting.
A separate report said hundreds of Chinese-Indonesians were making their way out of the East Java capital of Surabaya yesterday, apparently out of fears of renewed unrest.
On Monday, nearly 2,000 villagers plundered a shrimp pond in Teluknaga in Tangerang, west of Jakarta. Reports said looters were not moved at all by the warning shots fired by police, and instead sang and danced to the tune of the firing. Some even threw mud at a police dog. Police questioned 80 villagers but all were released later.
In Banyuwangi, East Java, thousands of villagers have been plundering coffee beans from plantations in Banyuwangi, East Java, reports said. They said they were starving and were stealing the coffee just to feed their families.
In Malang, East Java, about 1,000 Tirtoyudo farmers destroyed the state-owned Kalibakar cocoa plantation. The demonstrators said the government should return the land to them, because they were forced to abandon their land many years ago.
Even the huge ranch of former president Soeharto in Tapos, Bogor, has not been spared from attacks. Hundreds of farmers from nearby Cibedug have forced their way onto part of the 750-hectare Tri-S Tapos ranch, demanding the right to till the land. They claimed that it was very unjust that they should be barred from farming the land when they were suffering from food shortages. They have also threatened to sue Soeharto for seizing their land in 1970s without any compensation.
Informed sources said Soeharto's family have deployed more guards -- at a price -- to protect all their properties across the country to prevent possible attacks against them. "In the past they took their protection for granted. Now they have to be more financially generous to people to ensure their own safety," one reliable source said yesterday.
When asked to comment on the attack on Soeharto's Taposranch, Wiranto said the military would accord protection to everyone. "The ownership is legal," said Wiranto, who has vowed to protect the safety and the good name of the former president.
Sharon Ayling -- Under extreme duress, Indonesia agreed June 25 to accept terms dictated by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for receiving outstanding payments on a $43 billion loan.
Like so many countries oppressed by centuries of colonialism and imperialism, Indonesia has fallen deeply into debt. In the 1990s, the international banks participated in a lending frenzy to Indonesia to the tune of $130 billion. While the prosperity lasted, the imperialist lenders garnered huge profits off the sweat of millions of low-paid workers.
Now, as the Indonesian economy plummets in a general capitalist crisis in Asia, the IMF has stepped in to take over.
The IMF-Indonesian agreement is a clear example of how the imperialist banks, with the IMF acting on their behalf, have become the main vehicle for the exploitation of the oppressed countries.
The agreement, which amounts to a direct takeover of the Indonesian economy by foreign capital, is the result of six months of arm-twisting negotiations. The 17-page document issued June 24 by the IMF, called a "Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies," details point by point how this takeover is to be accomplished.
IMF forces Indonesian economic surrender
The purpose of many of the IMF dictates is to pave the way for future debt rescheduling agreements between Indonesia's heavily indebted companies and the foreign banks. The banks restructure their loans in exchange for equity ownership in the firms.
Under its "investment and deregulation" section, the agreement removes a 49 percent limit on foreign investment in companies listed on the Indonesian stock exchange. The list of activities closed to foreign investors is reduced, restrictions on foreign investment in retail and wholesale trade are lifted, and restrictions are eliminated on the importation and sale of wheat, wheat flour, soybeans, sugar and garlic.
Under "monetary and banking issues," the agreement eliminates all restrictions on foreign ownership of banks and their branches. It dictates international audits of all banks, the privatization of state banks, the closing of nonviable banks, and the transfer of weak banks to a restructuring agency controlled by "teams of foreign bankers."
The "privatization and public enterprises" section dictates that a review be conducted with the help of the World Bank of all 164 public enterprises in preparation for their privatization. The first 12 to be privatized include two telecommunications firms, two mining companies and a cement company.
Under "fiscal issues," the agreement raises prices and eliminates subsidies on rice, sugar, wheat flour, corn, soybean meal and fishmeal, cancels 12 government-funded infrastructure projects, discontinues government support for the national car and aircraft industry, and phases out restrictions on imported motor vehicles.
Under "foreign trade," tariffs are reduced or eliminated on all food items and nonfood agricultural products, import restrictions are abolished on all new and used ships, and export taxes are reduced on raw materials such as logs, rattan and minerals.
Economy still heading for disaster
The signing of the IMF agreement has not allayed the fears of US investors. The July 5 Washington Post warned that the Indonesian "economy is heading for a disaster. Commerce has come to a virtual halt. The banking industry is hardly functioning. The IMF is still struggling to find a remedy for the loss of 80 percent of the value of the currency."
With an inflation rate of 80 percent, food prices are skyrocketing. Many poor families are down to one meal a day. What is the government doing about it? On July 5, B.J. Habibie, the long-time crony of former dictator General Suharto who was installed as president in May by the military with US blessing, made an emergency appeal asking the people to fast twice a week. Habibie has pledged to fully cooperate with the IMF takeover.
The number of people living below the poverty line has increased to nearly 80 million, according to a July 3 report from Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics. This is nearly 40 percent of the population, up from 11 percent last year. The poverty line is set at 52,470 rupiah ($3.50) a month for individuals. The World Bank predicts Indonesia's unemployment will quadruple to 20 million this year, not counting more than 50 million under-employed.
Indonesian workers fight back
Indonesian workers are fighting back against these assaults, with hundreds of strikes and thousands marching daily in all the major cities. In Surabaya, the country's second-largest city, 5,000 dock workers at the Tanjung Perak port refused to load ships for five days in June. They won a pay raise. The dock workers are now paid about 63 cents per day, up from 47 cents. However, that's not enough to buy even a pound of dry milk powder. In Bekasi, just east of Jakarta, at least 26 striking steelworkers were wounded June 30 when soldiers opened fire with rubber bullets.
An article in the June 28 New York Times Magazine entitled "Bottom-Fishing Time?" warned US investors that "Indonesia's troubles run deep, and what looks like an opportunity today may become a disaster in the not-too-distant future.
"Indonesia could well be in the early moments of a two-stage revolution. ...Czarist Russia was a promising emerging market and a friend of the United States before its October Revolution. Indonesia could yet emerge as a world-class foreign-policy and economic headache."
Marcus W. Brauchli, Jakarta -- For a generation, the World Bank considered this sprawling archipelago's rise from poverty its great triumph. Now Indonesia's unraveling is raising questions about the World Bank's long forbearance of the regime of former President Suharto.
A shattering economic reversal, sped by Asia's downturn and the political crisis that ended President Suharto's 32 years in power, is returning as many as half of Indonesia's 200 million people to destitution. In some villages, they are unable to afford food and could face malnutrition. Banks are on the ropes, and the national airline is canceling aircraft orders.
It is a historic setback, in the words of the World Bank's top official here. And no less for the bank than for Indonesia. Not only did the development agency lend money and credibility to Gen. Suharto, but critics say it tolerated and in some ways may have inadvertently stoked the corruption and economically corrosive practices that increasingly characterized the Suharto regime in recent years.
Accounts of current and former Indonesian officials and World Bank employees show that:
"Morally, we now see the World Bank has done the wrong thing, as have many Indonesians," contends Mubyarto, an adviser and former vice minister of the National Development Planning Board. Like many Indonesians, he uses only one name.The bank, at the government's insistence, softened reports on Indonesia's economy, reports that helped the government win better ratings and draw in capital. When the economy got dicey last year, this capital fled, undermining Indonesia's currency. The World Bank lent $307 million to replenish the capital of state-run banks, which then channeled much of that money to companies run by Mr. Suharto's cronies. It was the failure of those same companies to repay earlier loans that had necessitated the state-bank recapitalization. World Bank officials knew corruption in bank-funded projects was common, but never commissioned any broad reports tracking how much money was lost to it -- in part, some bank officials say, because they feared having to confront the government. The bank went along with government estimates that showed epic improvements in living standards, despite indications the numbers were inflated. A majority of Indonesians long were clustered only a shade above the international $1-a-day poverty standard. Now a majority are well below it.
Officials of the World Bank -- which supports poorer countries by lending for development projects -- concede they should have pushed harder to shore up weaknesses in a country that was a top client. The bank lent Indonesia more than $25 billion over three decades. "We were caught up in the enthusiasm of Indonesia," the Washington-based bank's president, James Wolfensohn, told critics in Jakarta earlier this year. But, he added, "I am not alone in thinking that 12 months ago, Indonesia was on a very good path."
Now, the bank's soul-searching has begun. "In every country that we operate in there is a tradeoff between, shall we say, being pure and helping people," says Dennis de Tray, a University of Chicago-trained economist who has run the nearly 150-person World Bank mission in Jakarta for four years. "We deal in the real world. ...We have to decide every morning when we wake up, are we doing more good than harm?"
The balance, for a long time, seemed positive. Indeed, there is no question that the World Bank's development efforts, particularly in early years, helped wrench Indonesia toward modernity. From 1975 to 1990 its installed electrical capacity soared 18-fold, the number of telephone lines rose sevenfold and miles of paved roads grew sixfold, according to Adam Schwarz, author of "Indonesia: a Nation in Waiting." Health care and literacy continued to lag, but, thanks to aid from the World Bank and other groups, they were improving.
Now, the bank estimates the Indonesian economy may shrink as much as 15 percent this year. Some private economists say it could shrivel to its size in the 1970s in dollar terms.
Mr. de Tray says it isn't clear what the bank could have done differently, short of the "nuclear-bomb option" of cutting off all support. The bank, owned in part by its clients, is traditionally reluctant to cut a country off. Moreover, bank officials say, Indonesia's economic and political weight makes it hard to muscle. "We can kick Kenya around, or Costa Rica," says one senior bank official in Jakarta. "You can't kick Indonesia around."
Asked if he could recall the bank's ever blocking projects because of corruption by Suharto interests, Mr. de Tray says on two occasions he was able to protest against corruption in World Bank-backed projects and get them righted.
The fact was, in the 1990s, few major projects escaped Mr. Suharto's family or friends. When the World Bank objected in 1992 that only one bid, from a Suharto relative, had come in to develop a power project, the government reopened bidding. Another bid came in, from another Suharto relative, and contracts for two power plants were drawn up.
Inside the bank, though, economists argued that corruption could be viewed as a kind of tax on an otherwise sound economy. "I think they really believed it," says Scott Guggenheim, a project manager at the bank's Jakarta office. After all, "the economists' argument is almost unbeatable; how do you argue with 8 percent growth?"
It wasn't until 1997 that the World Bank, in public documents, "used the C-word" -- corruption -- according to Mari Pangestu, an economist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta and a past consultant to the bank. She says her earlier work for the bank was "sanitized" before publication, particularly to remove critical references to the government or its officials. "I've written reports where, when I've gotten it back, I hardly recognized it," she says.
| Human rights/law |
John McBeth, Jakarta -- Down a narrow side street in a crowded East Jakarta suburb is a small nondescript office marked by a white banner with a red cross. Inside, Father Sandyawan Sumardi is playing host to yet another group of people he simply calls "the victims." They've been streaming into his office since May 14, when organized mobs in the capital went on a rampage of looting, arson and rape that targeted Indonesia's tiny ethnic- Chinese community.
Shocked Indonesians are still struggling to understand the mayhem that raged virtually unchecked for most of that day and continued over the next two. Some think it was a spontaneous explosion caused by long-smouldering resentment over economic disparity. But others like Sandyawan believe the orgy of organized violence stemmed from a conflict among key Indonesian power-holders that drew on racial hatred. "This was not about ethnicity," says the reed-thin Catholic priest softly, his eyes red-rimmed behind his spectacles. "It was an intra-elite conflict that needed victims."
Sandyawan, whose Jakarta Social Institute works in some of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, is better placed than most to make that judgment. Soon after the riots broke out, he dispatched small volunteer teams across Jakarta to help people in trouble and, just as importantly, to record what they saw. Those eyewitness accounts, some from inside borrowed ambulances, have been catalogued in a comprehensive report sent to the state- appointed National Commission on Human Rights. One key observation: The violence was premeditated and organized, not spontaneous.
The findings by Sandyawan's teams have put renewed pressure on both the government and the military to not only explain the circumstances behind the mid-May looting and rapes, but also to account for earlier incidents of violence -- the fatal shootings of four student demonstrators at Jakarta's elite Trisakti University on May 12, and the abduction and torture over the past year of more than 20 pro-democracy activists, 12 of whom are still missing.
Connecting up the dots has become everyone's preoccupation. "The disappearances and the shootings are connected to the same group in the armed forces, and the shooting and the riots are connected in terms of cause and affect," notes Marzuki Darusman, deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights. He believes, though, that others were also involved in the rioting.
A link has already been drawn between the abductions and the military -- remarkably by the armed forces itself. An internal fact-finding mission has concluded that Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces, was involved in at least nine of the kidnappings (including those of five activists still missing). Announcing the arrest of seven Kopassus officers, the military indicated in a July 14 statement that what began as an effort to root out radicals among pro-democracy activists had gone badly astray. Although the military didn't immediately release their names, sources close to the armed forces say one of those arrested was Col. Charuwan, commander of Kopassus Group 4, the covert arm that works closely with military intelligence. Charuwan is a loyalist of Lt.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of former President Suharto.
Certainly old practices take time to die. Those looking for improvements in the quality of justice have criticized the way riot police appear to have been used as convenient scapegoats for the Trisakti shootings. And although Jakarta has finally conceded there were organized groups behind the riots and the rapes, witnesses and victims alike have been subjected to the same sort of harassment that marked the Suharto years.
Marzuki says the instigators are sending women photographs of their rapes as a warning to keep silent. Numbed by the testimony he has heard and cross-checked himself, the former legislator from the ruling Golkar party told the Review: "This is the first time we are describing a violation in Indonesia as a crime against humanity -- the codeword the United Nations used for ethnic cleansing in Bosnia," where the majority Serbs sought to systematically eliminate the Muslim minority.
Investigations into the incidents have been progressing slowly. But with Kopassus being fingered for the disappearances, the blame for almost everything that occurred during Suharto's final days as president is likely to fall even harder on the head of Prabowo. The latter headed Kopassus for two years before taking over as commander of Kostrad, the Army Strategic Reserve, a post from which he was sacked just days after Suharto's May 20 resignation. He is now commandant of Bandung's Staff and Command School, a low-profile position.
Gen. Wiranto, the armed-forces commander, has since been weeding out Prabowo associates from the military's ranks, leaving insiders wondering whether the other shoe has yet to drop. Among those axed has been Maj.-Gen. Sjafrie Syamsuddin, Jakarta's regional commander and a former Suharto bodyguard, who was transferred to a position in charge of territorial affairs.
Whatever the truth of Prabowo's involvement, a consensus is emerging both inside and outside the military that the Trisakti University killings and the subsequent violence were deliberately staged to show that Wiranto was incapable of maintaining law-and-order while Suharto was on a state visit to Egypt. The Trisakti incident may also have been designed to sabotage a reform dialogue Wiranto had initiated with student activists.
Given the mystery surrounding the other events, the activist abductions are perhaps the easiest to explain. Because of the circumstantial evidence available to investigators, analysts believe the abductions were aimed at cowing opposition to Suharto, timed as they were between the general elections in May 1997 and the March 1998 session of the People's Consultative Assembly that re-elected the former president.
A source close to the military says that when investigators visited Kopassus headquarters in Cijantung outside Jakarta, they found a Group 4 detention centre -- which may have been used to hold some of the activists -- had been levelled about a month earlier. According to the source, now that the pressure is on, the military appears resigned to cleaning up its own house. Now, it is trying to restore a measure of confidence not only in itself, but in the way Indonesia is viewed from abroad.
Prior to the military's announcement, the civilian Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, known as Kontras, had implicated four separate military commands in the abduction conspiracy, an indication that the kidnappers were acting under a central authority. Because it had been implicated in similar acts in the past, suspicion has centred on Cijantung-based Kopassus Group 4.
For Wiranto, the dilemma seems to be just how far up the chain of command he should allocate blame. As the victims' relatives clamour for accountability, the decision has become harder because some of the missing might well be dead. Sources close to the military say Wiranto might even decide to call a military honour board if suspicion falls on an officer of general rank. One of the last times such a board was convened was after the 1991 massacre in Dili in East Timor. Maj.-Gen. Sintong Panjaitan, the regional commander, was sacked over the incident even though he wasn't present when troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.
Apportioning of blame for the fatal shootings at Trisakti has been fuzzier. Although human-rights groups are convinced trained snipers killed the four students, the blame so far has fallen on 18 policemen, two of whom are already on trial for breaches of procedure by losing control of their men and allowing them to fire on unarmed students. No one, however, has been charged with the deaths.
Human-rights lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who represents the two lieutenants, says the investigation was directed only at the police right from the start. "There was never any intention to get to the bottom of the case," says Buyung, who was allowed to meet his clients only eight hours before the trial opened. He adds that the military knows "it might endanger the unity of the armed forces and could become very complicated politically." Wiranto has denied these allegations and says investigators are still looking for "additional facts" to determine the involvement of other parties in the shootings.
So far, there's no physical evidence linking anyone to the crime. All four dead were buried without an autopsy, a surprising omission in itself. Two weeks later, one of the bodies was exhumed and a bullet extracted. It came from a Steyr, an Austrian-made assault rifle that police carried on May 12. But a high-ranking police officer, who spoke to the REVIEW on condition of anonymity, says the retrieved bullet still hasn't been matched to any of the weapons collected at the scene. Nor has a second bullet found inside a campus building. He says a third slug dug out of a wounded student has disappeared.
The officer insists that the 18 police suspects, including 12 members of an elite anti-bomb squad, each carried three blank rounds and 12 rubber bullets in their rifle magazines -- but did not have live ammunition. "This is a political decision, not a judicial decision," he says. "They don't want the army to be involved."
The students themselves were unaware live rounds were being fired. The fatal shots appeared to have been aimed at the tail end of the demonstration when almost everyone was back inside the campus. All the victims were hit in the head or upper body, indicating the presence of snipers firing from a nearby flyover or other high vantage points. The students can't confirm police sightings of 10 mystery men, carrying Steyrs and dressed in police uniforms, jogging along the opposite end of the flyover soon after the shootings.
Local activists also suspect the military was behind the organized rioting that occurred a few days later, simply because it's the only group with the organizational muscle to pull it all off. "It's difficult to believe that a government intelligence network which has long been monitoring the movement of its citizens is so impotent and unreliable that it couldn't protect all those lives," says Sandyawan, the Catholic priest.
Some analysts suggest the deliberate targeting of ethnic-Chinese properties and women was an exercise in ethnic cleansing that spun out of control, leaving 1,200 people dead in burned-out malls and supermarkets. President B.J. Habibie, human-rights and religious leaders, almost everyone except the military itself, are now satisfied that organized groups were responsible for much of the May 14 destruction, which began in Chinatown's Glodok district and spread as far as the Chinese-owned Lippo Karawaci Mall, 25 kilometres away. There, remote-camera tapes showed six truckloads of men breaking into banks, cash dispensers and silversmiths -- then inviting in thousands of looters. Only hours beforehand, soldiers and police guarding the mall had been ordered to withdraw. Who gave the order to leave remains a mystery.
The story was the same in other places. Sandyawan's report lists 10 incidents where groups of 8-16 young men, some dressed in high-school or college uniforms and others sporting short hair and military boots, screamed anti-Chinese slogans as they led mobs in the looting and arson. "They were professional groups who were well prepared and had obviously planned everything beforehand," says Sandyawan, noting that witnesses saw some of the men carrying radios and pistols.
At two department stores, men who emerged from cars carrying cans of petrol started fires and ran upstairs with the looters. Hundreds died. One of the worst death-tolls was in East Jakarta's Jatinegara Plaza, where Sandyawan claims tear gas was fired into the ground floor, as flames consumed the upper floors.
Equally horrific was the systematic violence perpetrated on ethnic Chinese in the street and in their homes. Sandyawan's team has recorded at least 180 rapes, some committed in front of terror-stricken families. Many Indonesians have refused to believe the stories. "What we're up against is a wall of scepticism, which shocks us as much as the crimes themselves," says human-rights commissioner Marzuki. "This should be a soul- searching time for Indonesians."
But so much is puzzling. Why didn't the army move more swiftly to crush the riots, waiting instead until almost nightfall before putting armoured vehicles and soldiers on the street? The authorities have proffered no adequate explanation. A general recalls coming across a well-dressed young Indonesian directing men armed with crowbars to break into a shop in Central Jakarta's Sabang shopping centre. "In hindsight," he says now, "I suppose we should have arrested him."
There's also been no satisfactory explanation for why Wiranto and the military leadership flew to East Java for a divisional parade on the morning of the riots, even though trouble had already erupted in the central business district the previous night. They should have known there was a security vacuum in the capital: Most police had been confined to barracks because of tensions over the Trisakti killings, and some key Kostrad and police units were in Medan, where they had been deployed to quell riots some weeks earlier.
Lt.-Gen. Prabowo Subianto's responsibility for May's tragic events, as well as his motives, are open to conjecture. One thing is certain, though: He might well be facing his toughest test for survival, even as Wiranto emerges stronger after weeks of careful consolidation. Military sources say Prabowo's relationship with the armed-forces chief is cold and may become frostier if investigations are allowed to take their course. Says one experienced observer: "If you listen very carefully, you can hear the sabres being sharpened in the back room."
Prabowo's relations with his father-in-law and the Suharto family are no better, even though he continues to live a stone's throw from the Suharto residence. The day after Suharto resigned, he told Prabowo during a face-to-face meeting that he considered him a "troublemaker." The family, for its part, criticized the young general for not ending the student occupation of parliament, which became a powerful symbol of the reformist struggle around the world.
Prabowo privately protests his innocence. His defence: The responsibility for troop deployment in Jakarta rested with the regional commander, in this case Sjafrie, a close friend. A Western military expert agrees that for "operational purposes" this is indeed so, but he says it still leaves company and battalion commanders in a serious quandary. As he puts it: "If a three-star general writes your proficiency report and he orders you to put troops into a certain area, are you going to do it?"
Jakarta -- Some 80 women of the Indonesian Women's Coalition for Justice and Democracy (KPIKD), on Friday (17/7) staged a demonstration in front of the Department of Defense & Security on Jalan Merdeka Barat, Jakarta. Besides demanding a rendering of account concerning the women who have become rape victims, they also demand the same as well as an explanation regarding the riots of 13-14 May last.
Before coming to the Defense Department around 13.00 hours local time, they paraded around the National Monument, carrying banners demanding that the Minister of Defense & Security/Armed Forces Commander be willing to be held morally responsible for the cases of rape during the riots. The group of women consisted of housewives, young girls, nurses and activists of various NGOs.
This KPIKD group was stopped by military district personnel in front of the offices of the Minister Coordinator of Politics and Security. However, after negotiations with the security and the Department of Defense, three representatives of the KPIKD, namely Ita F Nadia, Chusul Mariah, and Titi Soentoro, were allowed to enter the Defense Department. They were received by the public relations bureau chief, Col. FX Bachtiar, and the general information head, Lt. Col. Panggih.
KPIKD spokesperson Julia I Suryakusuma stated in the meeting that the group considered the Armed Forces to have failed to carry out their function as guardians of safety, and that the public now even associates them with terror, intimidation, torture, abduction, rape and even murder by members of the military. The confidence of the society in the Armed Forces is thus worsening.
The statement of position of the KPIKD, read out by coordinator Chusnul Mariah, and addressed to the Minister of Defense, concerned the rendering of account by the Armed Forces regarding the actions of sexual violation of women. They submitted the results of the preliminary investigation of the Volunteers Team for Humanity - Division of Violation of Women, which records 168 victims of sexual violation, twenty among whom have died since the riots in mid May 1998.
The KPIKD signalled the role of a network of planning and perpetrators who set up a systematic and organized assault, as a modus operandi which also applied to the wrecking and burning, as well as the rape and sexual violation of Chinese women. Colonel FX Bachtiar who received the statement of position, promised to pass it on soon to Minister of Defense/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto.
John Aglionby -- Lisa's parents are amazed she is still alive. On June 18, a week after her ninth birthday, this Chinese-Indonesian girl who lives 20 miles outside the north Sumatran city of Medan chose to walk home from school rather than wait for her elder sister Martha.
She never made it. Less than 400 yards from her house a man on his motorbike stopped and offered her a lift. She accepted but the man named Yudi, drove straight passed her house without stopping. He took her instead to a nearby sugarcane field and raped her before taking her back to his hoouse 50 miles away.
There, with the knowledge of his wife and three children, he kept Lisa who is less than 4 ft and weighs only three and a half stone, incarcerated her for six days. "Lisa does not remember being raped again but she says Yudi drugged her seven times during that time and on each occasion she woke up in great pain," Lisa's mother Ekki, said, "We are convinced she was raped again and again."
Early on June 24, Yudi returned Lisa to her home. She spent the next 10 days in hospital. Even though she led the police to Yudi's house, she is afraid to go home and is staying with friends, along with her mother and two sisters.
Martha said Lisa's ordeal was not an isolated case. "Hundreds of Chinese women have been raped or assaulted around here since May and the rapes are still going on." Only a couple of days before, a 56-year old Chinese woman had been raped.
The sexual terrorism of the Chinese community in and around Indonesia's third largest city began in early May when riots broke out after several protests against the then President Suharto. While the lootings and burnings of Chinese properties stopped after a week, the rape of women of the minority that is hated and envied for its economic success has continued. Yet only five women have reported being raped or sexually assaulted.
Sabaruddin, the head of the Medan branch of the Indonesian Advocacy Association, said there were three reasons why more people had not come forward. "They are too shy because of the stigma; they don't know where to report because they don't trust the police and there are no women's support groups; and they are afraid of being terrorisewd again." Another reason why more people are not campaigning to end the atrocities is that, unlike in Jakarta where many women were raped and killed in riots in May, only one rape-linked death has been confirmed in Medan.
"She was a 17-year-old schoolgirl who was kidnapped in a taxi while going home with a friend," said a Chinese woman who asked to remain anonymous. "The friend managed to escape but this other girl was taken away." She was found unconcious a few days later, her body covered in Arabic graffiti and her vagina full of broken glass and nails. "She was so badly injured and so badly traumatised her mother asked the doctors to end her life," the woman said, adding that other women had probably died but their fates would never be known.
"Many of the Chinese here are Buddhist and they have to bury their dead the same day. This is more important for them than to keep the body and report the case to the police." "They are targetting rich and poor alike", said one of Martha's friends. "They just seem to hate us and want to keep us living in fear."
Four other Chinese women have moved into the same house as Ekki and her daughers. They rarely go out and never alone. The front door is locked and protected by metal grilles. Few Chinese women are seen on the streets.
The police have formed a team to investigate the rapes but no one in the Chinese community expects results. "Even though we knew where Yudi lived, we had to go to the police twice and pay them before they acted," said Yusuf Suci, a businessman friend of Lisa's family, who helped after the ordeal.
The attack on Medan's Chinese collunity eclipses even the events of 1965. The hundreds were killed in Medan during a countrywide purge of communists and, by association, Chinese, in the wake of a failed coup blamed on the Communist Party.
Chinese-owned shops and businesses are also attacked. In Galang, 25 miles from Medan, a mob attacked 42 shops owned by Chinese Indonesians, stealing and damaging goods. "The mob only left the clothes I was wearing," said Siau Lie, the own of an electronic goods shop.
On Saturday three chicken farms outside the city were attacked. All the hens were stolen and the buildings burned. Ong Akui, who owned one of them, said: "It seems that want to drive us away but we have nowhere to go. So was have to stay her and live in terror and poverty."
Major-General Syamsu Djalal announced earlier this week that seven officers of the army's elite corps, Kopassus, have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a number of activists since mid-1997. He said that five lower and middle- ranking officers had already been charged and that two others, a colonel and an officer of higher rank, were still under investigation.
The announcement has grabbed the headlines because this is the first time ever that the armed forces leadership has taken firm disciplinary action against its normally untouchable elite corps. It has taken the festering internal conflict within the armed forces between its commander in chief, General Wiranto, and the Kopassus leading light, Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, to a new level of intensity. Immediately after the downfall of Suharto, Prabowo was removed as commander of the army's strategic command, KOSTRAD and appointed head of the Army's staff and command college, the first time he has held a position without being in command of troops. But the announcement begs much more crucial questions concerning the fate of the twelve missing men: where are they and are they still alive?
According to press reports, the ABRI investigation team set up by the Military Police has visited locations suspected of being used by the abductors. This would suggest that the whereabouts and fate of the men are already known so why has this not been revealed and why have the men not been released? Why have their families not been relieved of the agony through which they have been living, in some cases since April last year?
There are other serious questions about ABRI's handling of the matter. Major-General Syamsu announced that the officers would be charged in military courts for "exceeding procedures", a convenient cover that has been repeatedly been used in cases where members of the armed forces are faced with legal action for killing or other violations against civilians; this goes back to the charges against the low-ranking officers tried in connection with the Santa Cruz Massacre in East Timor in November 1991.
But as Hendardi, director of PBHI, the Institute for Legal Aid and Human Rights, has pointed out, no procedures exist under the laws in force for the armed forces to arrest people so how can they be charged for "exceeding procedures"?
The Military Police have also refused to divulge the names of the seven officers, claiming that this would violate the principle of the presumption of innocence. Such a precaution is never taken when civilians are arrested.
Several members of Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission, have also raised serious questions about ABRI's announcement. Deputy chair, Marzuki Darusman has pointed out that the measures cannot be restricted to action against individual officers of the corps because it raises the question of the role of the elite corps itself. As many people, especially in East Timor, know to their cost, Kopassus officers and men are a law unto themselves, with their own intelligence gathering units, detention and torture centres and have been responsible over the years for hundreds and possibly thousands of unexplained kidnappings, disappearances and deaths.
Another Komnas HAM member, Professor Soetandyo Wignyosubroto, responded to Major-General Syamsu's announcement by saying that the facts about the elite corps' involvement was a "public secret", hence it contained nothing new. It was far more important, he said, for the lives of the missing men to be saved and for them to be returned to their families. "No less important," he went on, "is the need to reveal who is the person responsible for these disappearances".
Few commentators expect General Wiranto, the armed forces commander in chief, to allow the investigations to incriminate Lt.General Prabowo, who was commander of the elite corps when the disappearances began, as this might test the cohesion of the armed forces to breaking point. Yet it is clear that such a policy could not have been unleashed without orders coming right from the top.
According to the most recent information from KONTRAS, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, twelve political and human rights activists are still missing, of whom six disappeared in April and May 1997, while the others disappeared in February, March and May this year. A human rights lawyer, Desmond Mahesa, who recently re-surfaced after being held by unknown assailants for more than three months, has testified that he met three of the twelve in the place where he was held.
While contradictions within the armed forces are now being resolved (or not, as the case may be), TAPOL believes that the top priority is the fate of the missing men themselves and the question of sanctions against those responsible.
[On July 14, Kompas reported that according to ABRI spokesperson Major General Syamsul Ma'rif, the kidnapings were a result of a "procedural error" in an order issued to deal with a number of "radical activists" and that "along the way the men got out of line" - James Balowski.]
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Soekarnoputri and Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, in a unique gathering, yesterday called on the government to form a coalition with reform leaders to lead the nation out of the economic crisis.
A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting stressed the need to quickly resolve the crisis and said that the government could not do this alone. "We call on the leaders of Indonesia, both inside and outside the system, to together formulate an agenda for political, legal and economic reform," said the statement which was read out by economist Hartojo Wingnjowijoto. The 90 minute meeting of the three influential figures was held at Abdurrahman's residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.
Abdurrahman is chairman of the 30 million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Moslem organization, Megawati is the ousted leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), and Belo is Bishop of Dili and a renowned government critic.
The three leaders suggested that all elements of society should be involved in drawing up the reform agenda so that it would represent a form of national consensus. "A consensus would improve the people's confidence in the country and the nation. "Other countries would also respect Indonesia's determination to prepare itself for the challenges of the 21st century," they said.
Speaking about the government's efforts to settle the economic crisis, the three leaders said in their statement that the government had failed to free the people from the burden of the economic crisis. "The people's trust and the international community's confidence in the state's capability to bring the nation out of the crisis is still low," the statement said.
The meeting, which attracted both local and foreign journalists, did not include outspoken government critic Amien Rais. The reason given for Amien's absence seemed to reveal, rather than hide, the fact that the Muhammadiyah leader was simply not invited. Abdurrahman claimed that Amien was a very busy man and "very difficult to contact".
Abdurrahman also balked at the suggestion that the gathering signified a formal political coalition between the trio. He maintained that the meeting was only part of a moral movement.
In a separate development, a group of retired Armed Forces (ABRI) generals of the 1945 and Post-1945 generations, members of three Golkar elements Kosgoro, SOKSI and MKGR and pro-reform activists yesterday announced a plan to establish a National Front aimed at promoting the people's sovereignty and social justice.
A press statement signed by the former commander of the Army Strategic Reserves (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. (ret) Achmad Kemal Idris, a copy of which was made available to Antara, said that the idea to establish the new organization was reached after a meeting attended by 37 retired generals and representatives of the three Golkar wings.
"The National Front is intended to help mitigate the impact of the prolonged economic crisis and ease misery and social unrest, both of which are dangerous to national unity," the statement said.
Signatories to the statement also included former defense minister Edi Sudradjat, former speaker of the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly M. Kharis Suhud, former secretary of development supervision and operations Solichin G.R and former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin.
Golkar figures who signed the statement included Kosgoro chairman Bambang W Soeharto (no relation to the former president of the same name), MKGR chairwoman Mien Sugandhi and Golkar young generation figures Didiet Haryadi and Indra Bambang Utoyo.
Jakarta -- An Indonesian minister said some political parties which have sprung up in recent months will not be legally recognised, the Jakarta Post reported on Thursday.
The government will not allow parties whose membership is limited exclusively to ethnic, religious or societal groups such as ethnic Chinese, tribal groups and women, the newspaper quoted Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid as saying.
"At the moment we haven't banned any, but later they will be selected in accordance to the regulations which apply," Hamid was quoted as saying. Earlier this month, Hamid said the government would not limit the number of political parties allowed to operate in Indonesia.
Since former president Suharto resigned on May 21 amid mounting calls for political reform and the country's worst economic crisis in decades, more than 30 parties have registered with the Home Affairs Ministry in anticipation of new laws expanding the number of parties allowed in Indonesia.
Before Suharto's resignation, only three political parties were legally recognised -- the ruling Golkar party, the Christian- nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party and the Moslem-oriented United Development Party.
New, less restrictive laws on elections, parties and the structure of the legislature are expected to be sent to parliament for deliberation by the end of the month. President B.J. Habibie has promised to hold general elections in the middle of next year and a presidential election by the end of 1999.
[The following is a list of new political parties registered with the Director General of the Department of Home Affairs as of June 29. Posted by Gerakan Sarjana Jakarta (Jakarta Scholars Movement, GSJ).]
Indonesian National Christian Party/Partai Kristen Nasional Indonesia Indonesian Islamic Union Party/Partai Syarikat Islam Indonesia Indonesian National Party/Partai Nasional Indonesia Indonesian Women's Party/Partai Perempuan Indonesia Indonesian Human Movement Party/Partai Gerak Insan Mutaqin Indonesia United 1945 Social Society Party/Partai Uni Sosial Kemasyarakatan 45 People's Sovereignty Party/Partai Kedaulatan Rakyat Indonesia People's First-Rate Party/Partai Rakyat Prima Party of the Indonesian People's Struggle/Partai Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia Indonesian Tionghoa Reform Party/Partai Reformasi Tionghoa Indonesia Indonesian Muslim Society Party/Partai Umat Muslimin Indonesia Indonesian Workers Party/Partai Pekerja Indonesia Indonesian National Reform Party/Partai Reformasi Nasional Indonesia Indonesian Diversity Party/Partai Bhinneka Tunggal Ika Indonesia (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika - Unity in Diversity, Indonesia's National Slogan) Republican Party/Partai Republik Indonesian All Workers' Solidarity Party/Partai Solidaritas Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia Farmers' Prosperity Party/Partai Kemakmuran Tani Poor People's Party/Partai Rakyat Miskin Fishers People's Party/Partai Rakyat Tani Nelayan Informal Sector and Unschooled Youth People's Party/Partai Rakyat Tani Usaha Informal dan Pemuda Putus Sekolah Indonesian Association of Independence Supporters Party/Partai Ikatan Pendukung Kemerdekaan Indonesia Indonesian People's Party/Partai Rakyat Indonesia Indonesian Islamic Party/Partai Islam Indonesia Reform Leaders Party/Partai Pelopor reformasi Supporters Reform Party/Partai Pendukung Reformasi All Indonesian Workers Union Party/ Partai Serikat Buruh Seluruh Indonesia Love of Christ Chinese Reform Party/Partai Reformasi Cinta kasih Kristus Kebangsaan Neighbourhood and Local Council Party/Partai Rukun Tetangga dan Rukun Warga
Jakarta -- Observers have blasted Golkar's huge executive lineup, saying it was comprised of people affiliated to the government and that it was too big thus making it too cumbersome to meet with the swift challenges of the future. "Just look at the lineup, it is still government-oriented," social observer Mochtar Buchori told The Jakarta Post yesterday. Mochtar was referring to the executive lineup of 137 members which was announced by Golkar's new leader, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung, late Saturday.
Four active ministers -- State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Agung Laksono, Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris, State Minister of Housing, and Settlement Theo L. Sambuaga and Minister of Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises Adi Sasono -- are among the 14 deputy chairpersons.
Agung, Abdul Gafur and Aulia Rahman who were deputies in the previous board were among those who retained their posts. By comparison, the previous executive board under Harmoko had a "mere" 45 members.
Mochtar said that in general the lineup did not reflect the promised-reform spirit heralded by Golkar. "They are parts of the Soeharto regime ...How come they're all now changing their "attire" and calling them, selves true reformists?" Mochtar chided.
Mochtar also criticized the huge lineup and believed it would be sluggish in anticipating the ever-changing sociopolitical environment. "Is it realistic to draw up such a huge hierarchy amid the growing calls for an agile modern organization?" Mochtar asked, adding that a large lineup would make it difficult to make fast decisions.
After unveiling the lineup late Saturday night, Akbar said it was a consequence of political accommodation toward his rival nominee, former minister of defense and security Edi Sudradjat, and his supporters. "We want to accommodate members who did not support us," Akbar said, referring to those who might have voted for Edi during Saturday's election.
Even one of Golkar's new deputy chairman said he was surprised at the size of the executive board. "Such a huge amount of members in the lineup is uncommon in a political party ...Its management will be very complicated," Marzuki told the Post yesterday.
But what seems more surprising is that Marzuki, who is deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, only knew of his appointment from media reports. Up to yesterday, Marzuki said, neither Akbar nor the four representatives from regional chapters who were charged with drafting the lineup had contacted him regarding the appointment.
Golkar figure and former minister of youth and sports Hayono Isman also expressed some surprise at the size of the executive board, but accepted it as a means of accommodation. "You have to admit that it was a tight and tough race, so he (Akbar) had to take into account the wishes of Edi's camp (in selecting the board)," Hayono said Saturday night.
He further supported the view that "Edi's people" were placed on the second line of the board. "Yes, it is interesting isn't it? We can't deny that many still want to see how Akbar does ...Personally I'd give him six months (to prove himself)," Hayono said, adding that during that time the new chairman must show his commitment to reform. "If he fails, I'm afraid Golkar cadres with different perceptions than him would seek their own way," he remarked.
Andi Arief, who heads SMID, the student wing of the People's Democratic Party, was released on Tuesday [July 14] and has now returned to his parents' home in Lampung, South Sumatra.
Andi Arief was kidnapped from his sister's home on 28 March and held for eighteen days in an unknown location. He was then handed over by his captors to the Jakarta police who announced that he would be charged in connection with an explosion at a house in Tanah Tinggi, Jakarta.
The police have consistently refused to reveal the identity of the security forces who handed him over, thus prolonging the difficulties in exposing the forces responsible for dozens of disappearances.
According to Antara Tuesday, following his release, Andi Arief immediately returned to Lampung and is now back with his parents.
The Legal Aid Institute in Lampung has been given power of attorney by the family to handle the case of Andi's kidnapping, including suing those responsible for his three-week disappearance. The Institute was planning to hold a press conference yesterday to divulge more about what happened to Andi.
Andi was kidnapped on 28 March and taken, blindfolded to a location in the vicinity of Jakarta where he was held for almost three weeks. Most of the time he was kept blindfolded and was therefore unable to identify any of his captors. In an blatant attempt to cover up for those responsible for the kidnap, the Jakarta police even alleged that their arrest warrant dated back to 28 March, a claim vigorously denied by Andi Arief himself.
Jakarta -- Coffee beans are travelling under armed guard in Indonesia amid growing looting, traders said yesterday.
About 500 to 1,000 tonnes arrive daily at the trading centre of Bandar Lampung in armed convoys, a trader in the Sumatran town said. "At least three trucks will travel at the same time from the plantations to Bandar Lampung. A van of armed guards also accompanies the convoy. They don't dare to travel alone," he said. "Coffee beans are always transported in armed convoys now to prevent robbery. Looting still occurs in plantation areas.
"Threats of robbery are still there but traders have taken every precaution possible." The trader said it would be useless to ask the police to help because they would ask for money. The beans affected came from three provinces -- Lampung, Bengkulu and South Sumatra -- which together accounted for about 70 per cent of Indonesia's coffee output.
Soldiers and police were deployed after a weekend bout of looting at a state- run coffee plantation in Jember, East Java province. Hundreds of people looted the state-run coffee plantations Perusahaan Daerah Perkebunan (PDP), taking at least 15 to 20 tonnes of beans each day, residents said. "About 400 people came to the plantations to pick up coffee beans, but things have returned to normal today," police said.
Indonesia is one of the world's main producers of coffee, cocoa, palm oil and rubber. Local prices of these commodities have risen because of the rupiah's massive depreciation. But only coffee has been targeted by looters. Unlike the other commodities, it is an item commonly found in the homes of ordinary Indonesians so tracing looted beans is difficult. Some of the beans are believed to be re-sold to exporters.