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ASIET NetNews Number 28 - July 27-August 2, 1998
East TimorMegawati supporters demonstrate
Political/economic crisisA spy on every corner Student leader gunned down in Dili Future clouded by economic questions Xanana meets with captor Troops leave, hope for East Timor Troops leave, but will be replaced Jakarta details partial autonomy for Timor Horta appeals to international community
Human rights/lawUS officials paint gloomy picture Main points of donors' statement on aid
News & issuesNumerous atrocities coming to light in Aceh Reports on rape of Chinese need evidence Bodies at Biak 'may be shooting victims' 600 raped in Aceh over past seven years PBHI rejects govt fact-finding team on riots New law restricting street demonstrations
Arms/armed forcesConfusion reigns over missing activist Habibie: I'm not a king. I'm just like you Reforming zeal, how real is it? PRD activists forcibly evicted from prison Clashes during July 27 commemoration Irian Jaya leaders demand autonomy
Military reassesses its role
US urges restraint by Indonesia army
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta - The July 27 incident is already two years past, but the Minister of Home Affairs, Syarwan Hamid, continues to be asked to take responsibility for his involvement in engineering the overthrow of Megawati Sukarnoputri as chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). This afternoon on Wednesday, July 29, around one thousand Megawati sympathizers, coming together under the group called the Megawati Support Group (Kelompok Pendukung Megawati, KPM), demonstrated against Hamid at the Department of Home Affairs on Jalan Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta.
Lead by Dr Ciptaning, KPM held an orderly action with number of posters and banners which criticised Hamid and supported Megawati's leadership. In their press statement, KPM asked for the July 27, 1996 incident be fully investigated and those responsible be questioned and tried. They also called on the present government to act immediately on the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on the [July 27] tragedy.
"If the Habibie government does nothing it means that this government is an extension of Suharto, alias New Order Part Two. Mega's criticism is correct, that this reform is only skin deep", said one of the KPM members during their speech.
Demonstrators also criticised statements by the Minister of Political and Security Affairs, Faisal Tanjung and the former Minister of Home Affairs, Yogie S. Mamet, who they consider to have rewritten history. Last Monday (27/2), during the commemoration of two years since the July 27 tragedy, Tanjung told the press that Megawati herself knew she would loose [a leadership challenge] so she refused to attend the Medan Congress [which "elected" the government backed Suryadi as chairperson of the PDI - JB] in mid-June, 1996.
Mamet defamed [lit: blasphemed] a pro-Megawati PDI functionary, Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno as having "lost his mind" just because Soetardjo said that Mamet must also be held responsible for the tragedy which according to Komnas HAM, resulted in five deaths and 16 missing. "Try the Suharto, Tanjung, Mamet and Hamid quartet as the masterminds behind the July 27 tragedy", shouted the demonstrators.
Hamid's involvement in the engineering of Megawati's overthrow was especially transparent, furthermore the pro-Megawati PDI General Secretary, Alex Litaay, has said that Hamid repeatedly tried to persuade him to defect from the Megawati camp and join in the Suryadi camp in organising the Medan congress.
Chapter one of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute's annual report titled: "1996: A Year of Violence, a Portrait of Human Rights Violations in Indonesia", carries written documents -- including correspondence -- which clearly show involvement/intervention by the military in each district of each region in the form of intimidation of the chairs of pro-Megawati branchs in order to make them attend the Medan congress being organised by Suryadi. At that time, the head of the military's department of social and political affairs was Hamid and the armed forces commander was Tanjung.
[Translated by James Balowski. On July 31, the Jakarta Post reported that the Megawati faction will contest the elections next year under their old banner rather than establish a new party. At a press conference, PDI leader Roy B.B. Janis said he was confident Megawati would triumph if she was allowed to reach out to rural areas adding "I can say we have 40 to 50 million members and supporters nationwide".]
| East Timor |
Jenny Grant, Dili -- East Timorese are either watching or being watched. Residents say the "Mauhu", the network of spies linked to the military, are monitoring every office, home and church in the troubled territory. At night markets, they swarm to overhear private conversations, keep tabs on locals and offer foreigners free motorbike rides in exchange for scraps of information.
East Timor's military commander, Colonel Tono Suratman, says there are only 60 intelligence agents working for the military in East Timor. "We need them to collect information to keep the peace," he said at Dili Harbour this week as he farewelled 400 departing troops. But human rights groups put the number of spies in Dili alone at about 5,000.
"They run a big surveillance operation in Dili," said Mr Aniceto Guterres Lopez, director of the Rights Foundation. "There are people everywhere who carry guns and act like military but do not wear uniforms."
Groups such as Alfa, Gada Paksi, Hali Lintar, Saka and Sera operate security networks, which locals claim are sponsored by the military, in all districts. Human rights groups say they have been involved in illegal detentions, harassment of pro- independence activists and even extra-judicial killings. "They are not Indonesian military but they are organised to carry out military-style actions very quickly," said Mr Lopez, whose group is the only legal aid organisation in East Timor. Most spies are looking for money, security and status in a wild-west territory where there are few jobs and even fewer security guarantees. "Their hearts are not really in integration," said Mr Lopez. "They are doing it for the money."
The pro-independence movement has its own powerful clandestine network. John, the deputy head of the clandestine civil resistance in the Liquica district west of Dili, says 23 years of occupation has not dampened their spirits. "They've tried but they cannot break our clandestine operation," said John, who claims supporters in every village supply food, medicine and safe houses for the guerillas in the mountains.
The military says there are only 200 Falintil guerillas left in the forests, but the clandestine network claims there are three times that number. "They would die without us because we meet them every day with supplies," said John, who claims he has been arrested himself and tortured with electric shocks.
He said to prevent the network from being infiltrated, supporters used code ranging from eye contact to sounds. The network has four levels, with Portuguese names, to parallel the structure of the Indonesian administration. Those at the lowest level, known as Celcom, report to the Nurif or village command every month. Reports from East Timor's 13 districts are then handed to the head of the clandestine network in Dili every two months. Despite troop reductions in East Timor, the spy game will go on. Residents whisper to foreign journalists, and want to talk only in safe areas out of earshot.
"No-one is safe to speak," said one student at the University of East Timor, whose chances of finding a job as an agriculturalist are slim. "There are spies everywhere. It's our only growth industry."
Sydney -- Three Indonesian secret police (SGI) thugs in civilian clothes gunned down East Timorese student leader, Pedro Arazjo, 24, outside his home in Dili early on Thursday, according to Timorese separatist leaders. Family members told how the three gunmen banged on the Arazjo family home door in the Dili suburb of Bairro Pite at about two o'clock in the morning. As Pedro Arazjo stepped outside, they mowed him down with a fusillade of nine shots.
They then radioed waiting police to take Arazjo's bullet riddled body away. Late tonight, police were refusing to return the body to his grieving family.
The President of the Timorese Democratic Union, Joco Carrascalco, tonight called on President B.J. Habibie to order the instant arrest of the three assassins and to take immediate steps to stop the bloodshed. "If President Habibie is genuine about peace in East Timor, he will immediately condemn this killing, order the arrest of the assassins, and have them tried openly under civilian law for the crime of murder. "He will also order an immediate end to the terror in East Timor and he will make that order stick.
"If he does not do that, we will know he either cannot or will not do it. Either way, we and the world will know just how genuine President Habibie is and whether he is truly the President of Indonesia or just a puppet in the hands of the faceless men of the army and intelligence services." Mr Carrascalco said the hearts of Timorese all over the world were with Pedro Arazjo's family tonight. "He was a young man who had shown exceptional leadership qualities in the recent peaceful anti-Indonesian demonstrations. President Habibie should have been seeking him out to talk to him about a peaceful solution in East Timor. "Instead, assassins mercilessly gunned him down on his own doorstep."
Andreas Harsono, Dili -- The most likely transition from being only a "province" of Indonesia to being either an independent state or an autonomous area would pose enormous challenges for the relatively small East Timor.
All sectors would face the same basic questions. How to pursue development while ensuring the economy grows rapidly enough to provide job opportunities and generate incomes? How to achieve long-term growth and promote social welfare? Many Indonesian economists and officials point out that the area is relatively fertile but has an underdeveloped agriculture-based economy; they worrythat an independent East Timor would only join other small and poor island-states in the South Pacific.
Another crucial problem for the East Timorese is human resources. The former Portuguese colony, which was taken over by Indonesian troops in 1975, has less than two dozen East Timorese doctors. Indeed, it has more economists, lawyers, engineers or journalists, but questions remain about how well trained those are.
"When Sukarno declared Indonesia's independence in 1945, many people also asked the same question. Sukarno just went ahead and today Indonesia has many doctors or whatever," says student leader Lamberto Viana of East Timor University in Dili, referring to Indonesia's founding father and first president Sukarno.
Viana says that pro-referendum East Timorese have set up teams to discuss various technicalities such as the armed forces and economy. "If Indonesia could do it, why couldn't we? Number one, you have to have the territory and the people. Other issues will follow [that lead]."
"Our country is small. But it is large enough to feed 800,000 people," says Metta Guterres, the assignment editor of the Suara Timor Timur daily, the only newspaper in East Timor, adding that the East Timorese, for instance, are prepared to take over businesses from Indonesian immigrants who may be leaving the area.
Guterres has his reason to study the region's retailing. According to Indonesian economist Mubyarto of the Gajah Mada University, more than 90 percent of street commerce, and almost 80 percent of large- and medium-sized businesses, are in the hands of Indonesian immigrants.
But advocates of close ties with Indonesia like East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares and social worker Florentino Clementino argue that joining Indonesia -- which controls the western part of the island of East Timor as well as other surrounding islands -- will strengthen the economic foundation of East Timor.
The Indonesian government, according to Indonesian statistics, has channeled around $2.5 billion between 1975 and 1996 into the East Timor economy. The results have been quite surprising. The average economic growth in the area was a very healthy eight percent per year between 1980 and 1992. Gross domestic product per capita has increased from $60 in 1975, during the Portuguese rule to $80 in 1991.
The Indonesian government has also constructed 1,400 kilometers of new roads, giving the territory a total of 3,795 kilometers of roadways that link all districts and sub-districts within the capital, Dili. In stark contrast to the Portuguese colonial rule, Indonesia has built 579 primary schools, 71 high schools, one new polytechnic school and Viana's university.
Critics say the infrastructure's development mainly helps to mobilize Indonesian troops in the area. Other question whether economic development, however modern, is worth the suffering of the East Timorese. Is it worth countless instances of torture, killing, kidnapping and rape?
The London-based Timor Link newsletter published in June a report on the economic outlook for an independent East Timor. The report noted that the Indonesian effort has failed on the grounds that it mostly advanced Indonesian immigrants, created environmental degradation and produced monopoly ownership of former Portuguese coffee plantations.
Coffee, East Timor's most reliable export commodity, was until recently under the control of a military-backed company, PT Dhenok Hernandes Indonesia. But now big coffee plantations left by the Portuguese-owned Sociedade Agricola Patria e Trabalho and the smaller plantations have been monopolized by ousted Indonesian president Suharto's cronies and children.
The report suggested that East Timorese macroeconomic policy should be based on a "phased export-oriented economy" to overcome such problems. That policy has three priorities. First, it should permit land reform and agricultural expansion to revitalize the country's agriculture base, which includes coffee, cocoa, cashew and sandalwood trees. The expansion should also also include rice and maize agriculture as well as fishing in the Timor waters, the report said.
Secondly, an independent East Timor should develop sugar plantations. The third priority of the report is the development of a manufacturing and industrial base similar to those of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, oil and gas from the internationally-disputed Timor Gap zone should also be placed on the agenda. Petroleum reserves in the area located in waters north of Darwin, in northern Australia, have been estimated to be be between 500 and 700 million barrels, and there are 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas.
It is estimated that 29 million barrels will be produced over the next four years, whose output will flow to both Indonesian and Australian oil companies. If the oil were to be sold at $13 per barrel, it would generate an annual revenue of nearly $100 million.
Anti-Indonesian organizations demand that until an internationally acceptable resolution of the East Timor conflict is achieved, the funds currently destined for Indonesia should be placed in a special trust fund for the people of East Timor.
"The East Timorese people will continue challenging the unjust arrangements of the Timor Gap treaty," Nobel laureate and East Timor spokesman Jose Ramos Horta said in late July. "They will undertake all necessary legal actions ensuring them a just share in their natural resources. They will do their utmost to recover the proceeds of the exploitation of their natural resources that may be misappropriated by others."
"Xanana and other leaders have their plans. We're not worried at all," says student leader Antero Benedito da Silva, referring to East Timor's most popular leader, Xanana Gusmao, who is currently serving a jail term in a Jakarta prison.
Viana, although he admits to not knowing all the numbers, says that it won't be difficult to build East Timor's economy. "We could cooperate with other foreign countries," the student leader says. "East Timor is a part of the international community. It has an abundance of natural resources. [Yet] it's difficult to feed less than one million people here."
Jakarta -- Jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao met Thursday in a Jakarta jail with Theo Syafei, the man who arrested him, to discuss the future of the former Portuguese colony.
In the hour-long meeting Xanana, who requested the dialogue Wednesday, proposed that a United Nations peacekeeping force step into the troubled territory which was unilaterally annexed by Indonesia in 1976. Xanana also told the retired major general that he felt a referendum was needed for East Timorese to determine their own fate, Syafei told reporters outside the East Jakartan Cipinang prison after the meeting.
"Xanana still asked for referendum because it could give the East Timorese the right to integrate with Indonesia, seperate themselves or other alternatives," Syafei said.
Hendardi, Xanana's lawyer and the executive director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, said the jailed leader had asked for Thursday's meeting to suggest some changes in the territory. "Xanana initiated the dialogue because East Timor cannot stay the way it is now ...So the initiative was to give input to ABRI (the Indonesian armed forces) and the government," Hendardi said.
"The bottom line of the discussion was Xanana's proposal to put the UN troops in East Timor with ABRI still intact in the territory as a "tolerant force" ...whose job is still to maintain peace and order," he added.
Syafei, who at the time of the arrest was the regional military commander of East Timor, indirectly responded that the heavy presence of the some 12,000 Indonesian armed forces personnel in the territory had failed to solve the problems there. "If ABRI had the answer to the problem, the situation should have improved and there should have been more security and order," he added. Xanana further proposed that Syafei act as an intermediary between the East Timorese and the ABRI.
Hendardi, who was also present at the dialogue, said Xanana's selection of Syafei as the middleman must have been because "he (Xanana) thought the man (Syafei) knows enough and knows in depth about East Timor." A previous initiative by Xanana to initiate a dialogue with the Indonesian army in East Timor broke down, but since then Indonesia's new president B.J Habibie has offered the territory autonomy.
[Major General Theo Syafei, then a colonel, was appointed commander of East Timor in December 1991 following the removal of Colonel Warouw in the wake of the Santa Cruz massacre. After his own removal from the post, he was sidelined into one of the army's educational institutions. He later became a member of Parliament but was "re-called" for speaking out of line - James Balowski.]
Sander Thoenes -- Customers at Maria Olandina Alves's little bamboo eatery get a spoonful of outspoken views on the latest news in East Timor included with the meal.
Ms. Olandina can be a little more outspoken now that the government of Indonesia has eased its grip on the region, half of a small island just north of Australia that it occupied in 1975. Indonesia 's new president, B.J. Habibie, is offering the Timorese limited autonomy, has released political prisoners, and is withdrawing 1,000 troops this week as a gesture of goodwill.
But Olandina and many of her compatriots remain skeptical. "These troops can leave from Dili and land again at Los Palos," she says, recounting how earlier military ships had pulled out with great fanfare from one port and pulled in at the next. Few Timorese say they believe the military claim that only 11,000 troops and police will remain on the island after the 1,000 have left.
"In theory, we are free," she says as her daughter brings in steaming plates of fish, fresh from the ocean nearby. "But when can a Timorese stand in the street and scream whatever his heart tells him? The reality is still difficult."
The sudden change in Indonesia 's position on East Timor, after two decades of insisting that it was nothing more than its 27th province and cracking down hard on Timorese who disagreed, is expected to break years of deadlock in talks with Portugal, which still claims the country as its colony. The United Nations has never recognized Indonesia 's claims to East Timor. More important perhaps, it has sparked a flurry of political activity here and encouraged its rival factions to unite and press for more concessions.
Last Saturday, the five main parties, including the rebel movement Fretilin and one group that favors integration with Indonesia , called for more extensive autonomy than President Habibie had offered and insisted it be followed within five years by a referendum on independence or integration within Indonesia .
"We'd like to have a referendum at once, but that could lead to bloodshed," says Ano, a Fretilin member who revealed only his nom de guerre as he rode around Dili at night in a dark taxi to avoid Indonesian intelligence agents, who still detain and harass Timorese activists. "Under autonomy, we can change the local government, prepare ourselves, and see if we are still united enough to become independent. But we won't accept a permanent autonomy."
This counteroffer puts pressure on Indonesia and Portugal to reach some agreement when their foreign ministers meet at the United Nations in New York Aug. 4. Diplomats say that Mr. Habibie, who has ruled out a referendum, is unlikely to give in much more any time soon but has put himself on a slippery slope by talking about "special autonomy" without explaining how much autonomy that entails.
Pressure for change
Another sign of the changing tide: Many of Indonesia 's local allies are jumping ship and now call for a referendum as well. Manuel Carrascalao, a former member of the local parliament who switched sides two years ago, says Indonesia had a chance to win the hearts and minds of the Timorese in the early 1980s, but lost much of the goodwill it created by starting a military terror campaign in 1987.
The Indonesian military leadership has changed but is unlikely to give up easily on what has become its training ground for young generals, as well as a lucrative business: The military dominates the export of coffee and the imports of consumer products. Diplomats and Indonesian analysts say Habibie is not strong enough yet to overrule them, even if he wanted to.
Mr. Carrascalao warns that high hopes for change could spark new violence if they were dashed by Jakarta. "We want a peaceful solution, but if we can't succeed we can't stop the guerrillas," he says. "The students are quite hot-headed too. If they don't get what they want they could get quite extremist."
The guerrillas have been remarkably restrained in recent years, inflicting only occasional damage to military operations. Collaborators like Martinu, a businessman who set up a paramilitary gang, the Ninjas, who terrorized the streets of Dili at the instructions of one Indonesian general, have been left free to operate. Some Timorese, interviewed on the streets, say they would accept limited autonomy, provided it was real, even if they would rather have independence.
Most say they would push for a full break with Indonesia , however, and interpret Habibie's offer as a sign that more concessions can be extracted. "If we don't get what we want, we don't need to use force," says Olandina. "We can use diplomacy. There, we have the moral high ground. We do very well there."
Staying on the map
For a people of only 800,000, the predominantly Roman Catholic East Timorese have been very successful at drawing international attention and support for their cause. Although some 200,000 people died in the fighting and ensuing starvation, the case had been all but forgotten when footage of a massacre of more than 100 Timorese at the Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991, smuggled out by a journalist and broadcast worldwide, brought East Timor back into the limelight. East Timor's Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo, and Jose Ramos-Horta, spokesman for Fretilin, received a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for their efforts to unify the Timorese and plead for their cause abroad.
When Indonesia 's army pulled out the first 398 soldiers Tuesday, it was clear that Indonesia, too, was more concerned about the outside world than the Timorese people and the 200 guerrillas who are left in the mountains. While the Timorese found out about the withdrawal only in the morning newspapers that day, a hundred foreign and Indonesian reporters, as well as some diplomats, were flown in to watch the ceremony on the docks of Dili.
While Timorese students have been allowed to protest occasionally, the main newspaper has become more critical, and the Ninjas have disappeared, military patrols have increased and Indonesia's secret service still keeps an eye on public gatherings. The government publicly embraced a suggestion by UN officials earlier this month to organize a dialogue in villages between officials and local activists. But many district chiefs have failed to show up or banned the meetings altogether.
Olandina, for one, was detained twice in the past month, in the midst of all the talk about reforms. "We are not lords of our own lands," she says. "But some day we will be."
[Contrary to the statement that "the Ninjas have disappeared", a number of different sources have reported that Ninja activity is in fact on the rise again - James Balowski.]
Indonesia began its much publicised troop withdrawal from East Timor yesterday but the army immediately announced they would be replaced.
As 398 special forces and commandos sailed away to Jakarta, the military commander in East Timor, Colonel Tono Suratman, said 800 military doctors, teachers and engineers would soon arrive. Nor did he rule out recalling the troops. "It depends on the situation. We're still hearing about terrorising and intimidation against the people," he said.
The local police commandeer, Colonel Timbul Silaen, said he would request hundreds of reinforcements. "The withdrawal of troops means the police will be playing a more active role in maintaining public order, and the numbers are not enough," the state Antara news agency quoted him as saying. The Indonesian police are part of the armed forces.
Colonel Suratman said the new arrivals would not replace the elite combat troops, some of which he accepted were guilty of human rights abuses, but would work in community development projects.
Six hundred more soldiers are to leave within a week, but observers say that until yesterday there were 12,700 Indonesian troops and police in the former Portuguese territory that Jakarta invaded in 1975 and then annexed.
Military analysts believe there are 250 armed rebels fighting for independence in East Timor's hilly interior. "We want to see more [troops] go," said Filomeno Hornay, dean of agriculture at the University of East Timor. "But we have to try to maintain security ourselves. If there's chaos, it's useless for them to withdraw."
Indonesia's president, B. J. Habibie, says the pullout is part of his commitment to give the territory greater autonomy. The foreign minister, Ali Alatas, is to explain the proposal to the United Nations and the Portuguese foreign minister in New York next week.
[On July 30, the South China Morning Post reported East Timor police chief, Colonel Timbul Silaen, as saying two additional companies of anti-riot police will be sent to East Timor. Although human rights workers acknowledge that the police have a "slightly better reputation", they say that it will actually increase the military presence on the streets and that police have their own detention centres where torture was not uncommon - James Balowski.]
Michael Richardson, Manila -- As Indonesia withdrew nearly 400 troops from East Timor as a goodwill gesture Tuesday, the country's foreign minister laid out details for the first time of a plan to give "wide-ranging autonomy" to the disputed territory.
In an interview, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said he would start negotiations on the proposal in New York next week with his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United Nations.
Speaking on the sidelines of talks in Manila between a group of Asian, South Pacific, North American and European foreign ministers, Mr. Alatas said that the aim of the negotiations was to find "a mutually acceptable end, a final solution," to the problem of East Timor.
Although Mr. Alatas held out the prospect Tuesday of "complete internal self-government" for East Timor within Indonesia, he appeared to rule out the possibility of a referendum in the territory under UN supervision to determine whether its people want independence, continued integration in Indonesia or association with Portugal.
"There is no way that there can be an independent East Timor, or no way in which East Timor can live independently by itself, surrounded by 17,000 islands of Indonesia, right smack in the middle of our archipelago," Mr. Alatas said, adding: "It's impossible, impossible. They would be highly dependent and always have great difficulty in scraping a living. There would always be tensions and difficulties."
He said that even if, "against all the odds," a referendum was held in East Timor, there would have to be a losing group of voters as well as a winning group. "If there was independence, do you think the loser would accept it?" he said. "We don't believe so. They would go back to the mountains. We run the risk of going back to square one -- civil war, like in August, 1975 -- if we follow the referendum route."
Still -- despite Jakarta's concerns about self-determination in East Timor and the precedent it could set for other parts of the sprawling, and now economically stricken, archipelagic nation to seek separate statehood -- there is evidently enough that is new in the Indonesian offer to warrant substantive negotiations with Lisbon under UN auspices.
Mr. Alatas said Tuesday that he had presented a detailed proposal recently to Mr. Annan. "His initial reaction was quite positive," Mr. Alatas said. "He thought it was a very important step forward." As a result, Mr. Annan sent a UN envoy, Jamsheed Marker, to Portugal and then to Indonesia and East Timor for consultations.
Mr. Alatas said that the autonomy offer for East Timor would give the territory power to control everything except foreign affairs, external defense, and monetary and fiscal policy. Under the proposal, the East Timorese could elect their own government and regional legislature that would have power over such areas as immigration, internal security, and educational, religious and economic policies, he said. Mr. Alatas said that with autonomy, the government of East Timor would determine the composition of the internal security force.
One potential sticking point of the plan outlined by Mr. Alatas was the minor role it appeared to give in the negotiations to the Timorese resistance council headed by Xanana Gusmao and another prominent East Timorese leader, Jose Ramos-Horta, who lives abroad for fear of arrest by Indonesian authorities if he tried to return to East Timor.
[On August 1, Dow Jones Newswires said in the lead-up to talks at the UN the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ali Alatas, has again ruled out a vote on independence for East Timor. Alatas told reporters that autonomy was the best hope for peace saying "It is the best solution, rather than a referendum that could create old conflicts and trigger a civil war there". - James Balowski.]
Lisbon -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ramos Horta in Lisbon last week appealed to the inernartional community to "verify" Indonesia's announced troop withdrawal from his troubled homeland. Ramos Horta said the international community should check on the announced withdrawal of troops before believing it.
"Such declarations have been made in the past and did not constitute the truth because they only meant withdrawal of Indonesian troops from one place (in East Timor) to another, Ramos Horta told the media in the Portuguese capital in reaction to Jakarta's announcement that it planned to withdraw 1,000 troops from the half-island off northern Australia.
Ramos Horta also said that in the past the announced withdrawal of troops from East Timor usually just were "simple troops rotations from one island to another." Ramos Horta is the exiled vice-president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance.
A spokesman for the Indonesian armed forces last week announced the withdrawal of 1,000 troops from the East Timor later this month.
"There will be a troops withrawal from East Timor on Tuesday morning," the spkesman said, adding the port of embarkation would be Dili, capital of East Timor. "This is the first (withdrawal), others will follow," the military spokesman said. However, the officials was unable to give a date for the next contigent to leave East Timor.
Indonesian President B. J. Habibie last month promised a "gradual" troop withdrawal from the former Portuguese overseas province. The spokesman for the Indonesian armed forces also said the departing troops would leave for the island of Kalimantan and Java, adding that those staying would be "needing in a civil affairs, such as doctors and (other) medical staff." The spokesman also said that an official ceremony would be held in Dili in the presence of journalist to witness the withdrawal of the 1,000 soldiers.
According to the military observers, there are between 10,000 and 15,000 Indonesian troops in East Timor. However, the Indonesian armed forces maintain that the number amounts to "only" 8,000 soldiers, claiming that increasing numbers are recruited among the local East Timorese population. Manuel Carrascalao, who heads the Movement of Unity and Reconciliation of the People of East Timor, told Lusa in Sydney regarded the announced Indonesian troop withdrawal as "nothing more than a bluff." Carrascalao made the remark by the telephone from Dili last week. Portugese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said in Lisbon last week that a "significant reduction" in the number of Indonesian troops in East Timor was needed, not just the announced withdrawal of 1,000 troops.
Guterres also said "there exist no sure information (on the announced troop withdrawal) because Indonesia has voiced contradictory views" (on the situation in East Timor).
The Portuguese prime minister described a significant reduction in troops in East Timor, the release of impresoned armed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao and other political prisoners, as well as other confidence-building measures, as "important elements" to get the mediation process about East Timor moving.
Guterres also said that the problem of East Timor was "very complex," stressing that a referendum on East Timor's right of self-determination was the only "definitive solution" toi the issue. However, Guterres also said that certain "interim solutions" were possible as long as they would lead to a solution to the East Timor problem through an internationally supervised referendum on the issue of self-determination.
| Political/economic crisis |
Carol Giacomo, Sydney -- Conditions in financially embattled Indonesia are expected to worsen significantly by the year's end, according to US and Asian officials. Some of the estimates go far beyond current projections, fanning fears that the world's most populous Moslem nation faces starvation and could implode.
The World Bank has projected that Indonesia's economy would contract by 15 percent this year but new US estimates put the figure as high as 30 percent, US officials said. An Asian diplomat put the projected decline in gross national product at 25 percent. Indonesia's inflation rate has climbed to about 80 percent but US officials see that figure going over 100 percent, while unemployment probably will be at 25 percent.
The new numbers lay behind repeated expressions of concern in recent days by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defence Secretary Wiliam Cohen on separate trips to Asia. Cohen, in Sydney with Albright for annual US-Australia security talks, flies to Indonesia on Friday for talks with military and political leaders.
Albright has spoken publicly of "the potential for social unrest" in Indonesia and said she was "very concerned about the social safety net" there and in other countries of the region.
An Asian diplomat said US estimates seemed a bit gloomier than others "but any of these figures are horrible." He said he expected at least 20 million Indonesians to be unemployed by year's end and called that figure "a blow out, a huge increase in unemployment." Albright, also speaking on Australian television, said 100 million Indonesians -- half the population -- is living in poverty.
Growing concerns about the social impact of the financial crisis have caused many countries, like Australia and the United States, to press the IMF to boost Indonesia's social safety net. Albright this week stressed a US commitment to "see that the urgent humanitarian needs of the Indonesian people are met."
US and Asian officials said in addition to political and economic reforms, Indonesia must move quickly to encourage ethnic Chinese to reinvest their capital in the country. Ethnic Chinese have faced increasing attacks, including a riot and gang rapes of Chinese women in May that are now said to have been part of an organised campaign against this minority.
"Our estimates are that 70 percent of Indonesia's capital is in the hands of ethnic Chinese who didn't flee the country physically but have withdrawn their capital," Wilcox said. "What we believe Habibie has to do or the Indonesian government has to do is regain the confidence of those people to allow them to bring their capital back to Indonesia," he said.
Without that, it will be "extremely dificult" for Indonesian authorities to successfully refloat their economy, he added. Habibie must "stand up and tell (ethnic Chinese) we will protect you," officials said.
US officials said ethnic Chinese control Indonesia's infrastructure but because of tensions, the intra-island transport system and distribution system have been interrupted. Within two months, the country will face "profound problems of starvation and desperate malnutrition," a US official said.
Paris -- Here are the main points of the statement issued by the World Bank after some 30 donor countries and international organisations agreed here on Thursday to provide 7.9 billion dollars to Indonesia:
"Indonesia's international donors today pledged to back the Jakarta government's commitment to extensive reform with 7.9 billion US dollars in disbursements for the Indonesian fiscal year 1998/99, a significant increase over last year's sum.
"This amount, together with exceptional financing of more than six billion US dollars that has already been arranged, matches what is required to fill the 1998/99 budget gap identified in the Indonesian economic program."
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance, and Development, Dr. Ginandjar Kartasasmita, said "that his government was 'very serious' about achieving economic reform and sound governance as well as being intent on providing urgent social safety assistance for the poor.
"'We are racing against time to meet the needs of the people,' he told the meeting, stressing that Indonesia was striving to become the world's third biggest democracy while putting its economy in order.
"Donors joined the Indonesian government in underlining the need for better governance and increased monitoring to create a new climate of openness and transparency. The government also committed itself to the full involvement of civil society in implementing social programs at a time of urgent humanitarian need."
The managing director of the World Bank, Sven Sandstrom, said that "an enduring commitment to the reforms on which the government has embarked is required to sustain international support and produce, in time, the recovery we all desire."
Broad agreement was reached in five key areas:
Delegates said "a strong working partnership had developed to meet the challenges Indonesia faces". They said: "Donors agreed to meet again next year and reserved the option of holding an interim meeting in six months to review specific elements of government reforms and donor assistance, if circumstances warranted it."Concern to see speedy and effective implementation of reforms and a restoration of confidence within and outside Indonesia, including that of private investors. Recognition of the complexity of Indonesia's situation, with widespread readiness to help and a desire to work with the government in a flexible manner so as to achieve the best possible design and targeting of assistance. Urgent need for improved quality of information on the state of the economy and the country's growing social crisis, to strengthen coordination and management of assistance and make the best use of resources. The need for greater stress on good governance, including equal protection for all citizens, transparency of information and elimination of corruption. The need for full participation of civil society in implementing policy reforms and social programs.
| Human rights/law |
Many hundreds of people in Aceh are now coming forward to give evidence of disappearances, killings and torture during the time the region has been designated as a 'military operational district'. The following information is taken from a report in an Acehnese daily, Serambi Indonesia, 29 July 1998:
In one particular region of Aceh, the number of missing persons, victims of violence and discovery of corpes has now reached 1,679. No fewer than 359 cases were reported in a single day this week. Many of the complaints have been presented to a local human rights organisation, Forum of Concern for Human Rights, FP HAM, which has a team of volunteers touring in the area to gather information.
The Forum was quoted as saying said that they had received 213 complaints from Panton Labu, Jambo Aye in North Aceh alone. The local legal aid institute also received 100 complaints while 24 cases were reported to the East Aceh legislative assembly.
104 of the 213 complaints received by FP HAM were of disappearances, 54 were of the discovery of bodies of people who had been taken away by the security forces and 55 were of people who had been subjected to torture. All told, the Forum has so far received 466 complaints of disappearances and the use of violence. The team has said that it will continue to visit districts where many atrocities are believed to have occurred. It said that many people had been terrified of speaking about the cases because they feared for their personal safety, particular in the district of Tiro. Syaifuddin Bantasyam said that the mood has now changed and many people are coming forward to testify.
The newspaper also reported that five local NGOs including Walhi, the environmental organisation, the local legal aid institute and the local branch of KONTRAS (Committee for Disappearances and Against Acts of Violence) have issued a five-point statement calling for those responsible for the atrocities be called to account, for the local military commanders to be called to account and for a Military Honour Council to be set up to investigate the matter.
They also demanded that former governor of Aceh, Ibrahim Hasan, be put on trial for being the person who asked the armed forces to increase their presence in the region, thus establishing the designation of 'military operational district' in 1991.
[On August 1 AFX-ASIA reported that KONTRAS has urged the military to investigate whether 14 bodies discovered floating in a South Sumatran river may be those of still-missing activists. KONTRAS Deputy Chairperson Munir said the bodies were found in Way Umpu river in Lampung between July 6 and 18. "The bodies, all were male adults with no identification, showed signs of torture", he said, adding that police had been "somewhat hesitant and not accommodative" in the investigation - James Balowski.]
Jakarta - Reports on the rape of Chinese Indonesian women during the widespread rioting last May have been baffling the people as these reports lack proof, an observer here has said.
Without evidence, these reports will only reflect systematic efforts by certain quarters to discredit the Indonesian government and people, Eddy Noor said Wednesday. They could also mean vengeance for losses suffered by the people as a result of the riots, he added. Noor said he is thus urging the government to gather proof from the people, including non-governmental organizations (NGO), in response to demands for a probe on the alleged rapes.
Reports on the rape of many Chinese Indonesian women at the height of the May 13-14 riots emerged several weeks after the incident that led to the downfall of former president Soeharto. The rapes reportedly occurred as rioters damaged, burned and looted buildings, including banks, offices, department stores and traditional markets.
Noor warned that the reports on the rapes could not be completely true and that they could be used by certain parties who could exaggerate them. "It could be a setup by parties who want to take revenge as a result of the riots. These parties could be using the mass media to achieve their mission and disrepute the government and the nation," he said, stressing that the reports have not been supported by credible evidences.
Legislator, Lukman Harun (Golkar), shared Noor's opinion, saying that the Indonesian and foreign press could have been trapped into exaggerating issues on the May riots to discredit the country in the international community. "If a rape case really exists and evidence shows it, the case must obviously be handled and people who committed the rape must be punished. But we cannot ignore the need to get evidence. We need evidence to prove (the rapes)," Lukman said.
Both Noor and Lukman said the reports sounded exaggerated to them as the rapes reportedly occurred on streets, in taxis and stores. "In fact, at the time when the riots were happening, people were uproarious and were crowding everywhere. So how could a person have an urge for sex?" he said.
Jakarta -- Church officials and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed their belief yesterday that a number of bodies found recently near Biak island, Irian Jaya, might be related to the military's shooting on pro-independence activists earlier this month.
John Rumbiak of the Human Rights Advocacy Team for Irian Jaya -- which is under the auspices of province's three main churches and Jakarta-based NGOs -- said there were "strong indications" that the bodies found or sighted by locals were related to the July 6 shooting incident in Biak Kota.
Rumbiak rejected claims by local authorities that the bodies might be victims of the July 17 tidal swells in Papua New Guinea (PNG) who were washed ashore to Irian Jaya. The distance from Biak to the border of PNG is 600 kilometers.
"There should have been autopsies and the Papua New Guinea Embassy should have been notified. They (the local authorities) didn't do this," he said. "This raised suspicion of something fishy going on ...and we suspect that it has something to do with the Biak case," Rumbiak said.
Military personnel opened fire July 6 on some 500 pro- independence activists hoisting officially outlawed West Papuan flags in Biak. The National Commission of Human Rights and the Armed Forces said one activist died in the incident. He was identified as 27-year-old Ruben Orboy.
Rumbiak's team -- which was established by the Irian Jaya Biblical Christian Church (GKII), the Indonesia Christian Church and the Irian Jaya Archbishop -- said yesterday at least nine people were still missing.
Local newspaper Cenderawasih Pos reported the finding of at least 15 decaying bodies Monday and Tuesday washed ashore in Biak Timur. A fisherman, identified only as YY, 32 -- who talked to The Jakarta Post from Jayapura -- claimed to have also seen six bodies adrift in nearby waters July 9 and July 11. He also claimed that some of the bodies had bullet wounds. An 18-year-old student who identified himself as WS claimed to have been a survivor of alleged military abuses that day.
The Post was unable to reach Irian Jaya regional military command spokesman Lt. Col. Herry Risdiyanto, or Armed Forces (ABRI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif, for comment.
Also yesterday, Antara reported that two noted Christian women activists had urged members of a fact-finding team from the House of Representatives in Jayapura until this weekend to uncover the truth over the killings in the Biak Numfor regency.
Accompanied by heads of the Irian Jaya Biblical Christian, Synod Rev. Herman Saud and Jayapura Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar, Beatrix Koibur-Rumbino of the Irian Jaya Christian Women's Congregation and Agustina Iwanggih of the Synod also called for the release of at least 180 people arrested following the July 6 unrest. The local newspaper said the bodies had already been buried.
Agustina also called on the rights commission, which sent a fact-finding mission to Irian Jaya from July 14 through July 16, to again probe the case.
Antara also reported that Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar did not believe that the seven bodies found in Biak Timur on Monday had been tsunami victims. He encouraged the House to help reveal the identities of the bodies, which were buried without postmortem examinations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been denied access to the province to visit victims of the Biak incident, Antara reported yesterday. "We've filed our proposal to the Indonesian government via the foreign affairs ministry but have yet to receive a reply," ICRC spokesperson Sri R. Wahyu Endah was quoted as saying.
Banda Aceh -- Non-governmental organisations (NGO) have told a parliamentary group investigating violence in this autonomous Indonesian region that some 600 women had been raped over the past seven years, many allegedly by the military.
Mr Abdurrahman Yakub, an executive at the Banda Aceh Legal Aid Foundation, said 625 women in Aceh were raped and tortured between 1990 and last year and that some cases involved military personnel, a source said yesterday.
A victim identified as Ms Nurhayati told the investigating team at the Aceh Ulemas (Muslim religious teachers) Assembly: "I was stripped naked and given the electric shock treatment by Kopassus members." Kopassus refers to the military's special forces unit.
An NGO member identified as Soraya, 38, referring to riots in Jakarta in which hundreds of ethnic-Chinese women were gang- raped, said: "Don't just look at the May 13-14 incident in Jakarta alone. The cases that went on in Aceh are graver and greater."
The seven-man fact-finding team headed by Mr Hari Sabarno is charged with investigating the situation in areas under military operational control, the official Antara News Agency said.
The army has been deployed for decades in Aceh, home of the separatist "Free Aceh" drive for a Muslim state. The greatest number of rape cases occurred in 1990 and continued until April, the NGOs said, adding that the rapes had involved soldiers from various units. Victims in Aceh who met the team on Monday urged the government to pay more attention to human-rights abuses in Aceh.
A joint report by NGOs, the administration and the military showed that some of the 1,670 people listed as missing between 1990 and last year had turned up dead.
[On August 1 AFP reported that the governor of Aceh, Syamsuddin Mahmud, has requested the withdrawal of troops and a lifting of the region's status as a military operational area (DOM). The request was made in a letter sent to Habibie and a number of government officials dated July 29. In the letter he said the DOM status had been abused by the military to commit "excesses" and that "If this situation continues, the Acehnese people would always be haunted by fear and insecurity" - James Balowski.]
In a statement issued on 24 July 1998, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) has strongly criticised the Indonesian government's decision to set up a fact-fidning team to investigate a series of crimes, in particular the crimes which occurred during the riots in Jakarta on 13 - 15 May this year.
PBHI Director Hendardi said that the fact-finding commission as constituted was in contravention of the principle of impartiality which means that it is fundamentally flawed. Impartiality was the critical factor in any such investigation, the statement said, so as to ensure that it works strictly independently. Such a principle can only be safeguarded if the fact-finding team is set up by a third party including neither the perpetrators nor the victims. The May riots occurred because the government authorities failed to carry out their task of protecting the people, a failure which is usually referred to as 'violence by omission'.
In such circumstances, the government and in particular the Armed Forces (ABRI), should play no part in fact-finding investigations because they are the very ones that have to be investigated. Their inclusion means that the fact-finding team is by definition not independent.
The PBHI also strongly criticised several NGOs for agreeing to be members of the fact-finding team. Their involvement in no way makes the team independent. On the contrary, by agreeing to collaborate with this investigation, these NGOs have sacrificed their own independence which requires them to engage in the work of controlling the activities of government. This is very regrettable, the more so because it is solely because of the sterling work done by such bodies as the Volunteer Team for Humanity that the atrocities perpetrated in May have come to light and been widely disseminated at home and abroad. It is precisely because of this wide public concern that the government has been compelled to take responsibility. It is the duty of the government to bring the perpetrators to justice. The task of NGOs is to remain outside in order to carry out their task of controlling and correcting the government.
In conclusion, the PBHI declared that it therefore rejects the fact-finding team set up by the government and states that it is unwilling to collaborate with this body. It continues to insist that an independent fact-finding team should be set up by civil society to investigate the crimes against humanity perpetrated when four Trisakti students were shot dead on 12 May and during the riots on 13 - 15 May and stresses the importance of involving United Nations human rights monitoring bodies in these investigations.
Jakarta -- Indonesia has issued a law governing where and when street demonstrations can be held, the official Antara news agency reported on Saturday. It said President B.J. Habibie signed the decree on freedom of expression on Friday.
Under the law, groups planning street demonstrations have to ask for police permission three days in advance if the number of demonstrators is likely to exceed 50. Demonstrations are banned in front of the presidential palace, places of worship, military installations, hospitals, harbours, airports, train stations and other transport hubs. Demonstrations are also banned on public holidays and after dusk.
Antara quoted Justice Minister Muladi as saying the law was issued because of a series of protests in recent months which often got out of control.
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- The leaders of 11 political groupings have formed an opposition forum to prevent a victory by the ruling Golkar party in the next elections in 1999, newspapers quoted leaders of the political groups as saying. "A Golkar victory should be prevented, Golkar should the halted, rather than let the state be ruined," Ridwan Saidi, head of the Masyumi Baru Party, said.
Saidi and the leaders of 10 other parties have set up the Forum Komunikasi Partai-Partai Pro-reformasi Total (Forum for the Communication of Pro-Total Reforms Parties), Kompas said. The forum, in which all member parties are equal, will implement programs agreed on by the members, Saidi said.
Sri Bintang Pamungkas, a former lawmaker who now heads the United Democracy Party of Indonesia (PUDI), said the forum is not a coalition or a merger of the parties, but an institution for cooperation between the members. The other participants are the National Democrat Party, The Commoner's Party, the Islamic Brethen Party, the Economy Party of the People of Indonesia, the Indonesian Nationalist Party, the Murba Party, the Marhaen People's Party, the Indonesian Workers' Party and the Alliance of Indonesian Democrats Party.
[On July 8, representatives from nine farmers organisations in North Sumatra announced the formation of the Indonesian Farmers United Federation (Federasi Serikat Petani Indonesia, FSPI). In its founding statement FSPI said that it was a manifestation of the commitment and consistency of the struggle by farmers for reform is based on religious belief, solidarity, independence, democracy, non-violence and non-discrimination. FSPI's first campaign will be to assist farmers in Lampung, South Sumatra, whose harvest has failed - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- Mystery surrounds a missing student activist who apparently turned up alive and well in the southern Philippines, with officials and his family saying he may not be the man they are looking for.
The Indonesian military in Jakarta and consulate in the Philippine city of Davao said an Indonesian activist earlier reported as missing was being sheltered in the consulate. A consulate staffer said an activist identified as Herman Hendrawan was staying there. "But he's not here right now. Maybe he's downtown," he said.
Indonesian military spokesman Major General Syamsul Maarif said Mr Hendrawan had reported to the consulate in Davao on Monday. He said Mr Hendrawan had told a consular official that he had been in Davao for two months "to calm himself".
The Indonesian Legal Institute in Jakarta was trying to confirm the report with the consulate in Davao but failed to establish whether the man was the missing Mr Hendrawan they have been trying to locate.
Munir, deputy chairman of the Legal Institute's Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said he had spoken to the Davao Hendrawan on the phone yesterday but the person, although he had the same name, admitted that he was a "different Herman Hendrawan". "I am a kidnap victim but not the one you're looking for," Mr Munir quoted Mr Hendrawan as saying. "Please don't bother me." Mr Munir said the Mr Hendrawan in Davao claimed he was a Siliwangi University student from West Java, while the missing Mr Hendrawan on the commission's list was a student from East Java's Airlangga University.
The still-missing Mr Hendrawan, an Airlangga political science student, was last seen on March 12 at a press conference in the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta. He disappeared with two other students, both of whom have since resurfaced.
[According to the People's Democratic Party (PRD), one of their members named Herman Hendrawan was disappeared in March. According to a August 1 report in Kompas, PRD member Feisol Reza (who was also kidnaped and later released by the military), who spoke with Herman, doubted it was him. Herman has admitted that he is also known by the name of another missing person the Kontras are still looking for, Hendra Hambali - James Balowski.]
When he took the reins from Suharto in May, B.J. Habibie was generally viewed as a short-term, transitional President. Since then, he has confounded the skeptics by spearheading political reforms that depart radically from the policies of his predecessor. But with an economy in reverse and government institutions breaking down, the challenges facing Habibie are enormous, including creating a functioning presidency. When his staff tried to call his motorcade, they found his mobile phone was dead because the bill had not been paid. In a wide-ranging 100-minute talk in Jakarta with correspondent John Colmey and reporter David Liebhold, Habibie spoke of his values, answered his critics and explained his goals. Excerpts:
Time: What is your vision of democracy for Indonesia?
Habibie: Everything -- whether it's democracy or economy or justice -- is derivative from the pure human-rights values. [But] you should know that every human being has culture. For example, everybody needs, let's say, 1,500 calories a day. O.K., we agree that these are the human-rights values. But the way they take their calories is their culture. The Germans like sausages, the Americans like steaks, the Japanese like sashimi, the Indonesians like chicken. I don't have the right to insist that the Americans have to take their calories the way I do. That is insulting the values of human rights.
Time: So how does this relate to Indonesian democracy?
Habibie: I have to start from the basic value of human rights. The first decision I made, only 27 hours after I became President, was the composition of my cabinet. This was done while taking into account two extremely important values: taking care of the poor and the economy. I decided to isolate the Bank of Indonesia. That was never done before. I don't want [the central bank] to be interfered with by the President, by a minister, or anybody else. The next thing I did was order the release of political prisoners; I gave criteria [for their release], based on human rights.
Time: Even within your Golkar party, many would like to remove you. Why?
Habibie: I don't know. Why don't you ask them? I believe that every second, every minute I'm here is important for the future of my country. I'm not a king: I don't want to be exclusive. I'm just like you. I want you to feel that I'm just your neighbor. I'm not sitting here taking something; I'm here to give something back. One thing is sure: whoever becomes President after me, it won't be easy for them to be exclusive.
Time: Are some in the military unhappy with the changes under way?
Habibie: No. The military in Indonesia was born out of people's power. The military gets its budget from the people and is always integrated with the people.
Time: Would you trust a military figure to lead the country now?
Habibie: I never make a distinction between military and non- military people. Whoever becomes President must be the best son of this country.
Time: Given your years in the government and relationship with President Suharto, many critics claim your presidency is a continuation of the New Order.
Habibie: There are two ways of making history: from within the elite -- or from the outside. Being inside doesn't mean you're a puppet. Suharto was in the mainstream of the Sukarno era, but that didn't mean he did everything Sukarno told him. I'm in the mainstream of Suharto's period. It doesn't mean I'm going to do what he wants me to do. But if you are outside the mainstream, how can you ever accumulate experience? If you have never been in the cockpit, how can you ever be acquainted with the instruments for flying the airplane?
Time: Some worry that the government doesn't feel the plight of the people.
Habibie: The people have enjoyed sustained economic growth for almost two-and-a-half decades. Suddenly, a year ago, we had that financial disaster. Now what has happened since that time? The former President established three organizations, all dedicated for the economy. These must be balanced with at least one or two agencies for the reformation of political life. This was not happening, and this might be one of the reasons the IMF and all the multilateral organizations were hesitating -- because they have the right to worry about risks.
Time: Do you think the IMF has got it right in Indonesia?
Habibie: Yes, yes. Look, the IMF has learned a lot while helping a lot of countries, including the United Kingdom. We could enjoy the accumulated experience of the IMF with other countries. I believe in the spirit and the attitude of the IMF.
Time: You have long been viewed as an advocate of heavy state spending.
Habibie: I'll tell you the real story. I was asked to create strategic industry in my country, to bring self-confidence to the people of Indonesia. To bring them the confidence that they are as good as the Americans, the Japanese, the Chinese or the Europeans in technology. I was asked by the former President and the parliament to perform something that the people could be proud of, and say, "Hey, we are just the same as they are." The task was to build a modern, sophisticated airplane of our own design. That task was given to me in 1974, when I was 37 years old. So, I tried to make that happen. And, thank heaven, it happened. The airplane, for the US or for Europe, is just an airplane. But it's not just an airplane. It's the awakening of the people of Indonesia.
Time: Why are some political prisoners still in jail? For example, labor activist Dita Sari is serving a six-year sentence for advocating what appears in the press every day.
Habibie: I have given the criteria for releasing political prisoners to the military, to the Justice Ministry, to the cabinet. First, they must not belong to a party which tries to undermine the constitution. Second, they must not belong to a terrorist organization, any such organization that is not allowed to exist in Indonesia based on the law. And third, they must not be criminals. I also asked the authorities to release prisoners systematically, not under pressure. I didn't want them to do it based on emotion. And I have asked the Justice Minister to report to me every week.
Time: Do you like this job?
Habibie: I have to accept any job given to me, and I have to like it. Because if you don't like a job given to you, you will be frustrated and get a headache. I don't want to disappoint the people, because they honored me with the job and I have to pay back with honor.
Time: Will you be among the candidates in next year's presidential election?
Habibie: I don't know. I have only one thing in mind and that is to bring back the dynamism of our economy.
Time: Do you think there are any important differences between Western and Asian concepts of human rights?
Habibie: No, no. The difference is in its translation and implementation, like what I told you: 1,500 calories -- how you take it. Is it different? No.
London -- During the past week, the Habibie regime has announced two measures which it hopes will persuade the international community that it is dedicated to upholding human rights and to a switch in policy towards East Timor. On Friday 24 July, the Justice Minister Muladi announced the release of fifty political prisoners. On the same day it was announced that one thousand Indonesian troops would be withdrawn from the occupied territory of East Timor on Tuesday, 28 July.
It is no coincidence that these announcements came just days before the international aid consortium for Indonesia is to hold its annual meeting. Habibie's moves have already succeeded in bringing the Dutch back on board. In 1992, Suharto declared that he wanted no more aid from the Dutch because of their criticism on Indonesia's human rights record. Now the Dutch are satisfied that Indonesia is changing direction and moving towards democratisation and better human rights.
However, as we will show below, Habibie's measures are not quite what they seem and are more than likely to be part of a diplomatic offensive to persuade the country's ever-faithful multilateral and bilateral donors to support Indonesia's gravely battered economy.
The CGI's 1998 Meeting
The major Western backers of Indonesia will meet in very different circumstances this year when the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) convenes in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, 29 and 30 July, to determine aid commitments for the forthcoming year. This meeting of Indonesia's multilateral and bilateral aid donors will be dominated by the economic crisis and its social effects, but this year it cannot again avoid the fundamental issue of political reform.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the CGI, chaired by the World Bank, has bankrolled the Suharto regime to the tune of more than $5 billion in financial assistance each year. Massive loans were granted with total disregard for the regime's contempt for democracy and human rights and its lack of transparency and accountability. Yet no remorse has been shown by the donors for helping to keep Suharto in power for so long and for ignoring the corrupt foundations on which economic growth was built.
Even now the World Bank's Country Brief on Indonesia, updated in June 1998, stubbornly proclaims Indonesia's remarkable economic development success over the past decade' and repeats the controversial mantra about a decline in poverty from 60 per cent. to 11 per cent. of the population -- about 28 million people -- between 1970 and 1996.
Although the Bank acknowledges that poverty may now double to affect around 50 million people, Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that 95.8 million people, about 48 per cent. of the population, will be living below the poverty line by the end of the year. This represents a regression to the poverty levels of 1976.
The right of the World Bank to retain the chair of the CGI is questionable. For some time, analysts have criticised the Bank's poverty figures and its tolerance of corruption in its own projects, but a devastating critique of World Bank policies in the Wall Street Journal on 14 July suggested that the Bank is also partly to blame for the disastrous economic crisis. Critics argued that as well as lending money and credibility to the Suharto regime, the Bank may have stoked corruption by covering up the problems of nepotism and collusion in its annual country reports produced for the CGI.
In the past, aid commitments at the CGI were largely concerned with project aid, but this year a much larger proportion will take the form of programme aid to help balance the state budget. Some of the additional $4 to $6 billion which the IMF says will be needed to top up its $43 billion bail out may be provided by the CGI's multilateral donors, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Donors must now recognise the need for aid to be conditional on political as well as economic reforms. Without substantive reforms by the Habibie government there will be no end to the crisis. There is already conflicting evidence as to whether Habibie is really committed to reform
The latest batch of releases
The releases announced on 24 July included fifty names, making this the largest wave of releases since Suharto's fall from power on 21 May. Excluded from the release programme are those held for alleged involvement in the events of October 1965 and the Indonesian Communist Party, those seeking to undermine the ideological basis of the Indonesian state and those allegedly involved in criminal activities.
The sixteen political prisoners in Cipinang Prison have strongly criticised the release programme for being avowedly discriminatory. It will exclude thirteen men who have been in prison for more than thirty years, all of whom are elderly and most of whom are suffering from chronic ailments. On humanitarian grounds alone, the release of these men should be given top priority.
More than thirty of those released on 24 July were convicted in connection with a messianic movement in East Java centred around the figure of the late President Sukarno. In addition, five officers charged with desertion, apparently supporters of the same movement, have also been released.
The remainder include four members of the radical political party, the People's Democratic Party (PRD), leaving the other eight PRD prisoners behind bars. Two journalists included among the 50 were in fact released in July 1997. Two others, a former MP and a publicist, were not in detention at all; the charges against them were lifted.
More than two hundred political prisoners still remain in Indonesian gaols. The largest groups by far are the East Timorese (well over 120), West Papuans (at least two dozen), Acehnese (at least 55) and Islamic prisoners (at least 30). So far 15 East Timorese have been released, most of whom had already served their sentences anyway.
The Habibie government still has a long way to go before releasing even one half of the political prisoners it inherited from the Suharto regime. As the 16 prisoners in Cipinang Prison stressed, the post-Suharto government can only be true to its reform-minded claims if it releases every single one of those victimised by Suharto.
Will troops in East Timor really be reduced?
Few people in East Timor give credence to the announced reduction in the number of Indonesian troops in East Timor scheduled for 28 July. There will even be a ceremony to mark the occasion to which foreign journalists have been invited. Two weeks ago reinforcements were brought in to the territory in advance of the anniversary of so-called "integration day" on 17 July. Could it be that those departing on 28 July will be none other than the troops which arrived there two weeks ago? In any case, troops in East Timor are rotated every six months.
Since Suharto fell, the pressure on Indonesia for a substantial reduction in the number of troops in East Timor has mounted. The European Union Trioka mission stressed this in its recommendations following its visit in late June and Bishop Belo is insistent on the need for a reduction, proposing that UN troops be brought in to replace the Indonesian troops.
A reduction in the size of the forces of occupation cannot be left to Indonesia, nor can the ceremonial departure of troops be accepted as a real change in troop deployment. There must be independent monitoring of the reduction, a task which only the UN can handle.
A properly-supervised withdrawal of Indonesian troops from Indonesia must be part of the preparation for a referendum in East Timor, giving the long-suffering people of that country the right to determine its future status.
How reform-minded is the Habibie government?
In the past few weeks, governmental decrees have introduced serious restrictions on democratic freedoms in Indonesia. The Information Ministry will now require all journalists to be registered members of a professional association. The Interior Ministry will require new political parties to comply with certain conditions. Thus for example, parties will not be allowed to be gender-exclusive or open only to certain ethnic groups, such as the persecuted Chinese minority.
Last week, President Habibie enacted a Presidential Decree seriously restricting the right of people to demonstrate. Advanced notice will have to be given to the police and rallies will not be allowed in the vicinity of the presidential palace, military installations, airports, train stations and other "vital objects". Anyone planning to hold demonstrations will need to state in advance the number of people involved, the route and the length of time. Human rights groups, lawyers and NGOs have condemned the decree as an insult to the reforming demands of the pro-democracy movement that forced the dictator Suharto from power, and are calling for its repeal.
Bilateral and multilateral donors meeting in Paris this week should be warned that supporting the Habibie Government means supporting a government that is betraying the demand for political change. By closing their eyes to these danger signals, the CGI member states and institutions will be condoning a government that is slipping ever more rapidly into the authoritarianism which distinguished the previous regime, giving little hope for a solution to the economic woes now bedevilling Indonesia.
Jakarta -- Two People's Democratic Party (PRD) political prisoners who receive an amnesty from President B.J. Habibie, Wilson bin Nurtiyas and Ken Budha Kusumandaru, were forcibly evicted from the Cipinang Prison, Jakarta. To remove the two, who refused to be released, the Cipinang Prison authorities had to saw through a padlock which Wilson and Ken Budha had used to lock themselves into a cell.
This was related by Ken Budha and Wilson on Monday, July 27, in a press statement at the Jakarta Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI). The forced release was carried out after efforts at a compromise failed to satisfy Wilson and Budha. The Cipinang authorities sawed thorough the padlock owned by the PRD activists at around 2am. Accompanied by the song "Darang Juang", which was sung by all of the PRD political prisoners, Wilson and Ken Budha were evicted from the prison at around 3am this morning.
Ken Budha and Wilson explained that they had rejected the amnesty given to them by the government and demanded that Justice Minister Muladi come to the Cipinang prison to explain the criteria used to determine which political prisoners were to be released. However their request was not fulfilled.
They added that efforts to negotiate for the release the two was also made my the Director General of Prisons, Thahir Abdullah on Sunday, at around 10pm, who met with the chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko. No agreement was reached however.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Yogyakarta -- Clashes broke out here Sunday between followers of opposition politican Megawati Sukarnoputri and a rival party after some 30,000 Megawati supporters had held a peaceful rally, witnesses and police said.
The violence, in which several people were injured and two motorcycles burned, erupted in a face-off with members of the rival Moslem-oriented United Development Party (PPP), the witnesses said. Residents said PPP members, whose office is opposite the Yogyakarta headquarters of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) which Megawati once headed, emerged from their building late in the afternoon.
The PDI rally in this central Javanese city was held to mark the anniversary of the 1996 government-orchestrated ousting of Megawati as leader of the PDI. The move prompted a riot in Jakarta in which five people were killed, 149 wounded and another 74 went missing, according to human rights groups.
Jakarta -- The Irianese community in Jakarta called on President B.J, Habibie yesterday to grant immediate autonomy to their home province and accused the central government of failing to bring prosperity to their territory.
Leaders of the Irian Jaya community also demanded a change in the name of their province to West Papua, saying that Irian was not a name but an acronym for Ikut Republic Indonesia anti-Nederland (Join the anti-Netherlands Republic of Indonesia). "We want the government to grant autonomy to Irian Jaya in the form of 'one nation, two systems'," they said in a petition signed by 100 leaders of the Irianese community in Jakarta.
Their demands did not stop at autonomy. "We, the people of Irian Jaya will abandon the unitary state of the Republic Indonesia and become an independent and sovereign state if human rights violations continue in Irian Jaya, or if the country begins to head toward a political system dominated by certain groups or religions," they said.
They urged Habibie to open a dialog with church and community leaders in Irian Jaya to gain an insight into their aspirations. Their statement contradicted the government's claims that Irian Jaya's status as an integral part of Indonesia was settled by a UN-sponsored plebiscite in 1962.
The government statement was issued in response to violent clashes between student protesters and soldiers in Jayapura and Biak in which one student died earlier this month. The students were calling for a referendum on Irian Jaya's future status.
The statement was issued by the Association of the Irian Jaya Community in Jakarta, an organization headed by Yorrys Th. Raweyai, who is also a leading figure in the Golkar-affiliated Pemuda Pancasila youth organization Other signatories to the statement include A.L. Marani, who in 1963 took part in the campaign to free Irian Jaya from the Netherlands and unify it with Indonesia, as well as numerous scholars and religious leaders.
Activist David Obadiri told a media briefing that "Papuans" -- he refused to call them Irianese" -- were not demanding autonomy or a separate state because they hated Indonesia. "We love the country so much that we have given up all our government posts, from the highest to the lowest, (to outsiders). We have given up our gold deposits, and even our dignity," he said.
Extensive gold deposits are mined by PT Freeport Indonesia, an affiliate of the giant American mining company Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc, in a huge copper mine in the interior of Irian Jaya. The Irianese community leaders said their "Indonesian brethren" had consistently violated the human rights of the people of Irian Jaya. Quoting church sources, Yorrys said that as many as 200,000 Irianese had been "eliminated" over the past 35 years.
Other groups and leaders in Irian Jaya also pressed for changes in the status of their province yesterday. The Association of University Students of Irian Jaya in a statement received here called for "a separation from the Republic of Indonesia and the formation of a nation called 'West Papua"'. The statement was signed by Marthinus A. Werimon, Ronald R. Tapilatu Johanis R. Ronsumbre, Max R. Krey, John L. Randongkir, and Magdalena Okoseray.
Theis Eluay, chairman of the Irian Jaya Community Foundation, endorsed the call for a dialog with Habibie, but stressed that the majority of the people in Irian Jaya wanted no less than full independence. "We could hold an international dialog if necessary," Eluay told the Post by phone from Jayapura.
Abdul Gafur, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives who is heading an investigation into this month's clashes, said from Jayapura that the recent spate of unrest was more a reflection of discontent at the frequent injustices suffered by the people of Irian Jaya, rather than a genuine desire for a separate state, Antara reported.
[According to Tapol, on July 24 a number of NGOs, including LINGKAR 21, the Biological Science Club, the Amungme council LEMASA, FOKER Irian, YALI Irian, WWF Indonesia, the environmental organisation WALHI and others, held a demonstration outside the Ministry for Mining and Energy in Jakarta. The demonstrators were calling for the Lorentz National Park in West Papua to become a World Heritage site, for an end to all mining within the conservation area and for respect for the native inhabitants - James Balowski.]
| Arms/armed forces |
Jakarta, Cindy Shiner -- Defense Secretary William S. Cohen arrived here tonight on his first visit to Indonesia since violent upheavals in May ended three decades of authoritarian rule and forced the military to come to terms with its role in a freer and more modern society.
Cohen is scheduled to meet with President B. J. Habibie and Defense Minister Gen. Wiranto, who is also the armed forces commander in chief. Absent from the list is Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, whom Cohen saw in January on his last visit here at a martial arts demonstration by the elite Kopassus unit that Prabowo led at the time.
Prabowo enjoyed close ties with the US military, which gave his troops special forces training, prior to his fall from grace after being implicated in the abduction and torture of more than 20 political activists earlier this year. Twelve of them are still missing. Wiranto himself acknowledged in local newspaper reports today that he still knows "nothing of their whereabouts and whether they are still alive or not."
Cohen is likely to find that, unlike his previous stops in Indonesia, when soldiers felt like the proud backbone of the government of then-President Suharto, they now are demoralized by the kidnapping scandal, hamstrung by an economic crisis and challenged by the prospect of widespread social unrest at a time when its resources and reputation have bottomed out.
"The public mood is certainly for a change, but on the other hand, the armed forces realize they will have to reformulate and reposition themselves in making their role acceptable rather than imposing on the community and public," said Marzuki Darusman, deputy chairman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights.
The prospect of upheaval in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, triggers deep concern in the West, not only on a humanitarian level but also in strategic and economic terms. Forty-six percent of seaborne trade for Japan, China and Australia passes through the straits of Indonesia, which if disrupted would indirectly affect the US economy. About 67 percent of the energy supplies needed by China and Japan pass through the same waters of the archipelago, situated where the Indian and Pacific oceans meet.
Analysts say it is in the interest of the West to do its utmost to make sure stability is maintained here. The economic crisis that began last year has not only pushed up the crime rate, resulting in scenes of sporadic looting and of machete-wielding farmers occupying land they say was taken from them, but it has also hampered the military's ability to keep itself fit.
Military sources say the defense budget has been cut by almost 30 percent, forcing the armed forces to cancel an order worth more than $430 million for 12 SU-30 fighter planes from Russia. It has also deferred payment on at least eight Russian Mi-18 helicopters.
While the military has scaled back its purchase of new equipment, it is focusing on providing its more than 400,000 soldiers and police with sufficient salaries and food to head off discontent in the ranks. The average soldier or police officer earns less than a maid working in a foreign household. "An Indonesian soldier is not well paid, not well fed, not well equipped and maybe not well educated," said one army officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. "These are our difficulties, and we are still trying to improve ourselves."
Military observers say it is unlikely that Indonesia will request financial aid from the United States, as a matter of pride, but it would likely welcome any assistance offered, including training. Special forces training by the United States was suspended earlier this year after reports that Kopassus troops might have been involved in the kidnapping and torture of political activists.
The Indonesian military traditionally has enjoyed a dual function in security and politics. Military leaders have said they are willing to reform the institution but only on a level that will allow the armed forces to continue to maintain stability. Military representatives currently hold 10 percent of the country's 500 parliamentary seats.
"The political role of the army has been increasingly challenged by many rising civic groups in Indonesian society," said one senior government official. "So the army became a victim of its own success in providing the political stability that made possible the economic growth of the past 25 years. But as a result of that growth there emerged groups of people, urban people, who began to question not only the longevity but also the legitimacy of the army's role."
Indonesians have become increasingly bold in their criticism of the military by openly taunting soldiers and police and trying to bring them to task for alleged abuses committed by a minority within their ranks. "I'm not happy to be a soldier now, not like before," the army officer said. "But it's my country, so I should improve my organization. I hope the will to improve the organization will counter all the opposing ideas."
The military has appointed an Honorary Council to look into the disappearances of political activists and has detained five Kopassus troops. Two others are under investigation. Prabowo reportedly also has been questioned.
Not only has the military been implicated in the abductions, but a number of police officers, who are part of the armed forces, are on trial for the May shooting deaths of four student protesters at Trisakti University. The killings triggered two days of rioting that claimed more than 1,000 lives and nearly leveled the capital's Chinatown district. Human rights groups say 168 ethnic Chinese women and girls were raped during the riots as part of a campaign to terrorize the minority group, which controls as much as 70 percent of the country's private wealth.
In a sharp departure from previous years, the government has set up a fact-finding team to investigate who might have been behind the rioting. "The armed forces used to try to cover all the bad things that we have, but now we try to be open," the army officer said.
There is widespread suspicion that the violence in May was organized by rogue members of the armed forces with links to organized crime. There are several theories floating around about a possible motive, including a belief that the chaos was meant to set the stage for Prabowo to grab power from his father-in-law, Suharto. But Suharto resigned peacefully and his vice president, Habibie, took his place.
In the meantime, Defense Minister Wiranto has moved to consolidate his power, replacing several top officers with loyalists. He quickly sidelined Prabowo, a longtime rival, by removing him from the top of the army's strategic command unit and appointing him as the head of a military school in Bandung.
Military sources say the scandal over the abductions, the Trisakti shootings and the rioting has created divisions within the armed forces. There is speculation that Prabowo could implicate other senior military officers in the kidnappings and that it would be against their interests to bring him to trial.
Differences also have emerged between the government and the military over the pace of reform. Army officers were reportedly upset when Habibie released a number of political prisoners the military considered a threat to national stability. "Maybe it's good for him, his own popularity, but it's not good for the people," the army officer said. "We are conscious of unity of this nation. What he has done up to now is not strategic steps. But we will still support him."
Sydney -- The United States is encouraging Indonesia's military to exercise restraint as the embattled Asian country copes with financial meltdown and social unrest, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday.
"We are working with them as best we can, certainly at the economic level and financial level, but also maintaining some military-to-military contacts to encourage the military to exercise the kind of restraint that is going to be necessary in these times of stress," he said.
Cohen was interviewed along with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation "Lateline" television show. The two US officials are in Sydney for two days of annual talks with their Australian counterparts. Cohen will then head for talks with government officials in Indonesia Friday, while Albright returns to Washington.
Cohen said that General Wiranto, commander of the Indonesia's armed forces (ABRI), and "others" -- whom he did not specify -- have exercised restraint so far. "But it is something that we feel very strongly about, that strong consideration has to be given for the protection of human rights and to make sure there is no abuse of military power against the Indonesian people," he said. So far, Cohen added, "it seems to be a democratic process underway," with new elections scheduled for next spring.
Albright, in the same interview, said 100 million -- half the population -- was now living in poverty in Indonesia. Food distribution is a great problem "and we don't want unrest to come as a result of the lack of food," she said.
US President Bill Clinton has directed that 1.5 million tons of food be delivered to Indonesia, including 500,000 tons now and the other million in segments so as not to upset commodity markets, which is of concern to Australia, Albright said.
Cohen said the important thing was to "get the economics right first (in Indonesia) so that you can have a stable social environment." "If the economy starts to come back and people feel secure that they are going to be well fed and have an opportunity for prosperity in the future, that will tend to stabilize the situation," he said.
Then, "investors will feel comfortable in coming back to a country that has rule of law and not the law of rule, that has an open transparent type of investment opportunity," Cohen said.