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ASIET NetNews Number 30 - August 10-16, 1998
East TimorActivists protest arrests in Burma Activists defy protest ban PRD ban revoked, Budiman to be freed
Political/economic crisisABRI in East Timor: will they ever leave? Students urge release of Xanana Indonesia accepts observers in Timor Timorese parties call for self-determination
Labour issuesThousands ransack village chief's house World Bank takes aim at tax debtors Public debt rescheduled after partial default Quiet after attacks on Chinese shops
Human rights/lawFreeport strike drags into fourth day
News & issuesLocals intimidated after discovery of graves Aceh's Skull Hill has many gory tales to tell More political prisoners to be released
Arms/armed forcesPolice arrest 16 alleged instigators of riots New parliamentary members swarn in Military seeks help to weed out rumorongers Fearful chinese flee Indonesia NGOs statement latest moves in Aceh Talk of separatism amid economic boom New parties list Habibie spells out plans for elections
Council points finger at Prabowo Prabowo under fire Armed forces coming under fire ABRI gives itself a facelift
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- A group of some 20 Indonesian activists Tuesday picketted the Myanmar embassy here to demand the release of 18 activists, including three Indonesians, arrested by the military junta in Yangon.
Two of the arrested Indonesian activists were from the Pijar pro-democracy group. The activists condemned the arrests and shouted demands for Yangon to release the detainees, arrested in Yangon Monday, and respect freedom of expression. They also waved banners reading "Release all political detainees," and "Halt the demilitarizatrion of Burma," before dispersing peacefully.
The Myanmar junta Monday arrested the 18 foreign activists for distributing pro-opposition leaflets ahead of the anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising in the country. On Monday, the junta said in a statement in Yangon that the 18 would face trial for allegedly seeking to incite unrest.
The detainees were six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians, two Filipinos, and one Australian, the junta said. Ten of them were men and eight were women. The three Indonesians were identified as Pijar activists Suleiman Heikal and Christian Evert, and Fajri, of Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists, the Republika daily said.
[On August 14 the Jakarta Post as reporting the three Indonesian activist would not be charged quoting Indonesia's Ambassador in Rangoon, Poerwanto Lenggono, who told the Post "I guarantee they will not be charged". According to the state news agency Antara, they are to be released soon - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- A coalition of political activists protested at the presidential office here Thursday against new regulations restricting public demonstration and putting key installations including the palace off-limits, witnesses said.
Carrying banners reading "Don't repress the people" and "The danger of the old order" the men, women and student protestors were shoved back from the front fence of the white walled palace coumpound which also houses the presidential office, by mobile police, an AFP reporter said. Armed green beret troops directed traffic around the demonstrators, but did not intervene, the reporter said.
The new regulations were issued last month as a spate of demonstrations erupted throughout the capital and in the country's major cities following the fall of former president Suharto on May 21. Most of the protests have been to demand reform of old laws and a redress of long-standing grievances against Suharto-era regulations.
The places put off limits under the laws, which also require prior notification, and in the case of large numbers, prior permission, include the presidential palace, places of worship and military installations.
On Monday, August 10, the State Administrative Court (PTUN) in Jakarta announced the success of a People's Democratic Party (PRD) demand challenging the decision to ban the PRD issued by the Minister of Home Affairs, Yogie S. Memet last year. The decision is therefore no longer valid and the status of the PRD as a banned party has been withdrawn.
Meanwhile news is circulating (the truth of which must still be checked) that the chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, will be released on August 17 [Independence Day]. Other prisoners to be released are Xanana Gusmao and the chairperson of the [PRD affiliated] Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle, Dita Sari.
It is a tradition in Indonesia for the government to give a "gift" to political and criminal prisoners on August 17. The gift can be amnesty, abolition or rehabilitation.
The withdrawal of the banned status of the PRD is empty talk if there are still PRD members in jail, or threatened with being jailed (hunted) and the PRD is not allowed to be a participant in the general elections. This means that there are still many task which demand hard work!
We cannot just be satisfied with the success of the PRD in being unbanned. The state was forced to make this decision because of the current situation.
The great intensity of the people's struggle for total reform has forced the government to make democratic concessions such as allowing the formation of political parties, the release of political prisoners, the withdrawal of the law requiring a licence to publish and the most recent decision to unban the PRD. The regime had to make these concessions because they themselves do not wish to be included [in the demands] by the demands of the reform movement as has happened to the Suharto family.
But remember, this concession is only cosmetic. Internationally the regime may be seen as democratic, but authoritarian character still exists. The "democracy" of the regime can pulled back at any time if they have the opportunity.
The recent regulations on the freedom to hold demonstrations, which is extremely repressive and curbs [the rights] of the people, is a very clear example. The authorities will always look for opportunities to wipe out democracy. This must not make us drop our guard [lit: fall asleep].
For us what is important is find ways so that mass actions by students, workers and other people again become vigorous and involve large numbers of people. Only through this mass pressure will the demands for democracy be won. Without real mass strength, the people's demands will be ignored!
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski. On August 12, Kompas reported that the Minister of Home Affairs, Syarwan Hamid, has said that the government accepts the decision annulling the ban and that the PRD could register as a political party under the new laws which are to be submitted to parliament. He did insist however, that the PRD must have the state ideology Pancasila as its philosophical basis. This suggests that the law requiring that all organisations have the same "philosophical basis" in their constitution will not be repealed or revised.]
| East Timor |
Actual troop numbers in East Timor since 1975 are not known, but two patterns are apparent: Indonesia has always claimed to have fewer troops in East Timor than actually are there and Indonesia has regularly said that it is reducing troop numbers in East Timor -- for the sake of suggesting that there is no military problem -- but at the same time has actually maintained troop numbers, or in fact increased them.
There are 30,000 to 40,000 Indonesian armed forces personnel in East Timor at the moment. This includes the army, police, airforce and a small number of naval personnel. It has been independently verified that there are 15,000 armed forces personnel in Dili alone (Dili population: 110,000). If the figure of 40,000 military is correct, and the total East Timor population of 800,000 is correct, then there is one military person for every 20 civilians! Do not believe the often quoted figure of 12,000 total ABRI in East Timor.
Current troop reductions
1. 155 army officers with specialities in health and mental counselling. Being positive, these officers may be treating people in Dili public hospital. If this is true ABRI will probably advertise this altruistic act. Being realistic the officers are probably going to treat ABRI' s own personnel in Dili military hospital. (Why not take the troops home and treat them in Java?).It is said that 1,000 troops have left East Timor recently. We saw pictures of them on television, boarding troop carriers. However troops are leaving and arriving in East Timor every 3 months as part of the army's rotation of troops policy, so it is impossible to tell whether this is an actual reduction or whether fresh troops will replace them, as has been the case for years. ABRI never tell the truth about troop numbers (see point 1 above), so there is every reason to disbelieve this current claim. It is likely that ABRI will also give false figures to President Habibie and Ali Alatas. Who can ever know the actual numbers -- except ABRI? Supposing there IS an actual reduction of 1,000 troops, this still only amounts to 1,000 out of 40,000 (or to be kind, 30,000). It must be stressed that the figure of 12,000 (probably promulgated by ABRI) is totally false. Simultaneously with the departure of 1,000 troops came the arrival in East Timor of 263 new army and police personnel. Is this in accord with the troop reduction claim? These personnel are said to consist of:
2. 108 personnel from the police's special mobile brigade. These men are the SAS of the Indonesian police, the macho men who play it tough on the streets of Dili and Baucau.
Will troop numbers be reduced in the near future
The following quote from the 5 August 1998 Press Conference of UN Secretary General at UN Headquarters will answer this question. Those parts which are italicised (by me) give the clue.
Question: The withdrawal of troops has begun in East Timor. At what point do you think you will be able to say that all the forces will be withdrawn?
Mr Alatas: Well, we have been talking in Indonesia about reduction of forces because, to a certain extent -- like in all other regions of Indonesia -- there may always be a residue of forces there, but in a much reduced form. This is what is happening now. The first reductions have taken place. They will continue gradually in stages and, of course, always taking into account the security conditions and the security needs of the region.
Clearly Indonesia intends that ABRI will remain firmly entrenched in East Timor during this current period of negotiations, and, during all elections in East Timor. If East Timor is granted autonomy, as a special case -- which is Indonesia's aim -- ABRI will be there as the controlling force. Why? Because, as Ali Alatas said above, they need to "take into account the security conditions (in East Timor) and the security needs of the region". It is ABRI who will be the force behind any future elections; it is ABRI who will safeguard the future security of the autonomous province of East Timor! ABRI's two main weapons -- force and bribery -- will become entrenched in East Timor for all time.
One of East Timor's prime demands must be the total withdrawal of ABRI as a pre-condition for progress in negotiations.
Jakarta -- Some 100 East Timorese students from different universities in Indonesia protested Friday demanding the release of jailed rebel leader Xanana Gusmao and a referendum for the troubled territory.
The protests took place consecutively at the justice ministry and the UN headquarters here, and ended peacefully after officials in both places personally accepted a petition handed over by student representatives. Dozens of policemen watched closely as the students, wearing black head bands labeled "referendum", waved banners reading "Referendum is the best and democratic way", "Free Xanana" and "total withdrawal of Indonesian forces".
The students, members of the "East Timor Students and Youth Association" or IMPPETTU, urged Jakarta to agree to a referendum under UN supervision to allow the people of East Timor to decide their own future.
The Indonesian government has promised East Timor autonomy, a pledge which has drawn Portugal into talks, but it has rejected the possibility of a referendum, saying it will only trigger bloodshed. Foreign ministers from Jakarta and Lisbon last week agreed in New York to take steps to speed a solution, including closer involvement by East Timorese.
"We're not against the dialogue but we want to be part of it," one protestor said. "The talks should involve Xanana and regard him as our national leader." UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said recently Xanana had "an important part to play" in negotiations over the future of the former Portuguese colony.
Senior officials from both Portugal and Indonesia are scheduled to meet again in New York by the end of September to discuss Indonesian proposals for "wide-ranging autonomy" for East Timor excluding foreign affairs, security and finance.
Gustavo Capdevila, Geneva -- Indonesia's government showed concrete evidence of its policy for gradual liberalisation on the human rights front, signing a co-operation agreement with the United Nations (UN) human rights entity.
The technical co-operation agreement signed between the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Jakarta guaranteed access of international officials to the disputed territory of East Timor for the next two years.
Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, applauded the agreement and declared she was confident the convention would allow the most pressing human rights concerns in Indonesia to be tackled.
The agreement signed Thursday between the High Commissioner's office and Jakarta stated the personnel for the project "will have access to all parts of Indonesia with the aim of evaluating the primordial necessities." "It is understood (the agreement) includes facilitating access to East Timor," specified the document.
While the Portuguese-Indonesian negotiations are underway, the agreement signed in Geneva Thursday will allow UN officials to evaluate the human rights situation in the disputed area. The convention, signed by Robinson and Indonesian ambassador in Geneva, Agus Tarmidzi, established co-operation formulae for the promotion and protection of human rights.
For two years, the High Commissioner's Office will co-operate with the Indonesian government and will help in the execution of technical co-operation programmes. Technical co-operation will cover the areas of the Indonesian national plan of action for the promotion and protection of human rights and the strengthening of national capacity in this field.
The UN will similarly offer collaboration in human rights education, to the National Indonesian Human Rights Commission and in strategies for bringing about the right to development and economic, social and cultural rights.
[On August 14 Lusa news agency quoted Jose Ramos Horta as describing the agreement as "derisory" and of "no interest at all" to East Timor. Horta said he was against the accord because it only provided for "technical co-operation" and not for a special UN mission investigating human rights abuses. He added that access of UN observers was "just a verbal commitment" - James Balowski.]
Sydney -- The five East Timorese political parties in East Timor have made a combined call for self-determination for their people and set out a plan to end the illegal Indonesian occupation and annexation of their country.
The five, UDT, Fretilin, Apodeti, Kato and Trabalhista, rejected out of hand any notion of East Timor being incorporated into Indonesia as some kind of autonomous province. The World President of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), Joco Carrascalco, said tonight UDT had vigorously promoted self- determination for the East Timorese people during last week's talks in New York between Portugal and Indonesia under the auspices of the United Nations.
In the course of those talks, Portugal agreed to discuss, without prejudice, the Indonesian proposal that East Timor be incorporated into Indonesia as an autonomous province. Portugal's position sounded alarm bells for East Timorese who fear a replay of 1975, when Portugal publicly supported self-determination in East Timor while secretly negotiating an agreement which opened the way for the Indonesia invasion.
Mr Carrascalco said the declaration by the five parties was the authentic voice of East Timorese. "It is vital for everyone outside East Timor who is involved in these issues to listen to the people actually living there under the daily oppression of the brutal Indonesian military regime," Mr Carrascalco said.
"We must support them in every way we can. One of the first steps they, and we of UDT around the world, propose is the release of Xanana Gusmco and the participation of East Timorese in the talks on East Timor's future. It is heartening to see the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan's, support for this."
Mr Carrascalco said it was a measure of the fortitude of the East Timorese that after 23 years of brutal repression and genocide in which 200,000 innocent East Timorese people have been killed, the five political parties still exist and have put aside their differences to openly challenge their oppressor.
In 1974, UDT and Fretilin were contending for power, Trabalhista, the Labour party, and Kota, the traditional monarchist party, were diamentrically opposed, and Apodeti was campaigning for integration into Indonesia.
[On August 10 Annan called for Gusmao's release "sooner rather than later" in order to let him play a full role in the debate on East Timor's future. "He may be the last to be released, but what is important is that they [the Indonesians] are not rejecting the idea that he has to be released," he said, adding that "He has a role to play and one can even now talk to him about the discussions,", referring to promises to allow greater access to Gusmao - James Balowski.].
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- Around 2,000 villagers in the central Javanese town of Cilacap went on the rampage after their village chief refused to meet them when they came to protest his alleged corruption, reports and police said Friday.
The home of village chief Edwin Subadi, 48, and a nearby village hall were damaged by the crowd after Subadi, claiming he was ill, refused to meet around 2,000 protesting villagers, the Jakarta Post said. No casualties or injuries were reported.
Subadi, who was accused of embezzling 75 million rupiah (some 5,700 dollars), managed to escape the attack on his house with his family members and office employees.
Cilacap police chief Lieutenant Colonel Andi Lolo that the situation was under control after dozens of officers secured the area, the Post said. Lolo told AFP by telephone that no arrests had been made. "The villagers were packed outside (the house where Subadi also had his office) ...the damage was mostly broken windows, caused by them pushing not throwing stones," Lolo said. "It's quiet now, the family has returned to their house," he added.
S. Karene Witcher, Jakarta -- A unit of the World Bank aims to be among the first creditors to push a troubled Indonesian borrower over the brink by using Indonesia's new bankruptcy law.
The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's private-sector funding arm, plans to move against at least one, and possibly two, delinquent corporate borrowers as soon as new bankruptcy courts open for business later this month. "We're going to test the law," vows G.K. van der Mandele, an IFC debt specialist recently posted to Jakarta. Somebody, he says, has to send a signal to recalcitrant borrowers that "if you don't play ball, this is what will happen."
The IFC is more used to helping improve lives in developing countries than inflicting pain. But in a twist of fate, Indonesia's dire financial situation is, in essence, forcing the IFC to kill part of the patient to save the whole.
Ready for a fight
Indonesia is racing to implement the new law as part of conditions attached to a $43 billion bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund. Its purpose is to provide some means of clearing the overhang of bad debts by giving creditors a way to collect at least some of their loans, and, ultimately, to engender confidence among international lenders to reopen credit lines, by laying down ground rules.
There has been a bankruptcy law on the books in Indonesia since the early 1900s, but it is largely ineffective and seldom used. A special commercial-bankruptcy court has been established to preside over cases. Just how well the groundbreaking law will work, however, is uncertain. Among other things, there is a shortage of qualified lawyers and accountants, not to mention experienced local judges, to administer such complex commercial matters. What's more, a lack of professional indemnity insurance in Indonesia to protect the receivers and administrators from personal lawsuits threatens to complicate the court's start-up.
Nevertheless, people familiar with the situation say frustrated lenders, mostly foreign rather than Indonesian, are mustering their forces. "The cannons are loaded," says David Edmonds, an attorney who is a consultant to the Makarim & Taira S. law firm in Jakarta. "I have almost no doubt they will be fired."
If the court manages to do its job, some people worry that the social and political implications could be grave. Most of the companies likely to be pushed into bankruptcy belong to ethnic- Chinese Indonesians, who may view the move as one more reason to walk away from Indonesia. And because well-heeled foreigners are the most likely buyers of distressed assets as companies are broken up, that could provoke an antiforeign backlash. More importantly, the liquidation of busted companies would put more Indonesians out of work, exacerbating an already volatile social situation.
"It hasn't hit people yet how the unemployment" rate is going to climb, says the IFC's Mr. van der Mandele, whose two cases alone -- if they are successful -- will put 2,500 jobs at risk. Still, he says that as a lender, "you can't just sit back and wait to see when" these businesses might revive. The IFC has lent to or invested in a wide range of Indonesian businesses, including chemicals, textiles, tourism and financial services.
Two options
Under the new law, debtors and creditors have two options. One is a kind of breathing space, where a debtor can petition the court to grant a suspension of payments to creditors. That gives a company's directors time to work out a debt restructuring plan with creditors, but under the supervision of a court- appointed administrator. Any failure to get creditor cooperation along the way triggers bankruptcy proceedings.
The other option allows creditors to ask the court to immediately start bankruptcy proceedings and appoint a receiver to sell or liquidate the company. Creditors also can move against individuals, such as Indonesian tycoons who signed personal guarantees on corporate loans. State-owned enterprises are fair game, too. But Indonesian banks and securities concerns are off- limits, and can only be dealt with by government regulators.
So far, 16 people have qualified as kurators, who can act as receivers or administrators. This week, 60 more candidates will undergo an intensive training program in the hope of qualifying. How many kurators will be sufficient is anyone's guess. Timur Sukirno, a lawyer who is chairman of the newly created Indonesian Receivers and Administrators Association, thinks several hundred will be needed, or maybe even 1,000. All he knows for sure is that with Indonesia's floundering companies owing $80 billion in foreign debt, "We're going to be busy." With a host of complex details yet to be worked out, doubts about the law's practicality are growing. Still, Mr. Sukirno contends that in a sense the law already is biting, because it has scared a lot of debtors who otherwise "don't want to answer the phone" into negotiations with their lenders in recent days.
Meanwhile, a fleet of 32 judges has undergone intensive training courses. But, says Michael Dwyer, a partner at international accounting firm KPMG, who coached a session, "I'm not sure how much they took in." Despite proponents" best intentions, Mr. Dwyer adds, "I'd be skeptical about [the law] forcing a bankruptcy in the short term."
Keeping up the pressure
"The key to it all," contends Cliff Sanderson, who oversees Ernst & Young's new insolvency practice in Jakarta, is "whether the judiciary will do what it's supposed to do" and make the tough calls. Without a sign that the bankruptcy court has teeth, he warns, the recent momentum toward debt talks will dissipate.
Steps have been taken to try to make the fledgling commercial court more efficient, and less vulnerable to the corruption that has riddled Indonesian courts to date. For instance, judges will face tight deadlines to render decisions, and their judgments immediately will be posted on an Internet site to boost transparency. The commercial court's rulings can be appealed directly to Indonesia's Supreme Court, but that court, too, has to issue its verdicts quickly. Proponents also argue that international scrutiny will help police the process.
Further, talks are afoot to raise judges' salaries, which would lessen temptation, says Gregory Churchill, an American lawyer and longtime Jakarta resident who has been advising the IMF on the new law's formation and expects it to have ramifications far beyond Indonesia's debt morass.
"It's a wedge within the judiciary" to modernize it and clean it up, says Mr. Churchill, who adds that he senses a growing "degree of enthusiasm" among the commercial-court judges for their role as reformers. Still, given the ingrained vagaries of Indonesia's justice system, he adds, "I'm not going to be naive and say there won't be problems."
Jakarta -- Indonesia has begun rescheduling repayment of its public debt, its top finance minister said Tuesday, as bankers and business confirmed it had failed to meet repayments for the first time in its history.
On at least three payments, the central Bank Indonesia managed to cover the interest due by Monday's deadline but not repayments on the principal, said a French banking source directly involved in the transactions.
The central bank told banks involved, who were not given any advance warning, it had received a letter from Finance and Economics Minister Ginanjar Kartasasmita instructing it to only make partial repayments.
"We have started to reschedule our sovereign debt," Ginanjar confirmed late Tuesday. "We were informed by the IMF, and when we visited the Paris Club, we were informed we could start (debt rescheduling) immediately, by the end of July," he told AFX-Asia, an AFP-affiliated financial news service.
The top finance minister confirmed he would go to Paris next month to work out the modalities and procedures governing the rescheduling. "It is not a new matter and it is something which has been agreed upon with international financial institutions," he said, adding: "It is a known factor already incorporated in the budget passed a few weeks ago."
A European economic analyst said: "The Indonesian government seems to have anticipated the results of the negotiations on re- scheduling its public debt and has decided to go ahead unilaterally." A European banking source said that as far as his bank is concerned, nothing final has been reached with regard to the rescheduling.
He said the loan in question was granted to the finance ministry by a consortium of three banks, at least one of which was French. "Let's say it's a half-truth," the source said of Ginandjar's comments. "But we were not told in advance. They [the Indonesian government] have gone ahead of schedule -- the mechanisms were to be confirmed later," he said.
Ginanjar said in July that Indonesia would not be able much longer to meet its repayment deadlines and added it had won the agreement of several creditors to reschedule its public debt. One of the possibilities raised was for Indonesia freezing capital repayments while still meeting the interest.
The first hints Indonesia was seeking to renegotiate its public debt, which it had scrupulously honoured, came at the end of February.
Banking and diplomatic sources said Jakarta made the first overture to Germany during the visit by its finance minister, Theo Waigel. The new Indonesian President, B.J. Habibe, who at the time was the chosen deputy to then president Suharto, personally pleaded Indonesia's case, verbally and in writing, to the German minister, the sources said.
The possibility of renogotiating Indonesia's debt was explored at a high level in conversations in Jakarta with the ambassadors of the Group of Seven industrialised nations -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
It was the first time the Indonesian government, grappling with an financial crisis which has brought the economy to its knees, has defaulted on an installment on its national debt estimated by banking sources at 35 to 39 billion dollars.
Indonesia's private sector debt has climbed to more than 80 billion dollars as the country suffers its worst economic crisis in decades. The collapse of the rupiah which lost nearly 80 percent of its value against the dollar in a year has made it impossible for Indonesia to pay its debts as the country has become technically bankrupt.
The International Monetary Fund has put together a 46-billion- dollar rescue package to help bail out the stricken country, where more than 40 percent of the population already live below the poverty line set at just four dollars a month per person.
Despite the crisis, Indonesian officials have several times said they would not apply to the informal Paris Club of creditor nations which studies the situation of a country no longer able to meet its obligations. The Paris Club ensures the state involved can no longer negotiate its public debt bilaterally and guarantees that all creditors are treated on an equal footing.
To apply to the club is an official admission by a government that it can no longer honour its financial commitments, something which would be considered as a "humiliation" by Indonesia, once considered one of the Asian tigers and a model of economic development.
Jakarta -- Shops were back in business in the small West Java town of Labuan on Thursday, a day after hundreds of people attacked three ethnic Chinese-owned shops there, police said there. "All shops are open again today, including the Ayung, Babah Java and Nang Tung shops," said Corporal Unang of the police in Labuan, a sleepy town on the southwestern coast of West Java.
The three shops had been attacked by a mob on Wednesday following a brawl between a staff at the Babah Java shop and a customer over the high price of cigarettes. "People started to attack the Babah Java shop, damaging the shop and taking some of the goods there and two shops nearby were also attacked later," Unang said.
Onlookers gathered in front of the store suddenly burst into the shop and started looting staple goods such as sugar, coffee, cooking oil and flour, the Kompas daily said. "Things happened so fast. We had actually closed the store but people got through anyway. They broke the door open by force," store keeper Tono, 30, was quoted as saying by the daily.
Unang said four people were arrested following the attack and were still under questioning by police officers who had come from Pandeglang, the main town of the district that includes Labuan. No one was injured during the incident, Unang said.
In a separate incident of violence late Wednesday, a mob of thousands ransacked a nightspot area in Cilegon, an industrial centre near the West Java town of Serang, Indonesia's Kompas daily reported Thursday. The 5,000-strong mob burned down a discotheque at the Mitra Sono Hotel and set three cars on fire, Kompas said.
Residents in Cilegon have expressed disapproval at the presence of night entertainment centres in the area which they said were used for prostitution. Fifteen rooms of the hotel, where the discotheque was located, and a van driven by two officers from the Kopassus elite corps were also damaged. The local police said there were no reports of injuries. Security forces managed to restore order in about two hours. No arrests were made.
The attacks took place a day after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie assured a group of Christian social activists in Jakarta that the state was obliged to protect its own people and that the government had taken important steps to enhance the respect and protection of human rights.
"We do not recognise discrimination among our own citizens based on race, ethnicity and religion. All citizens stand equal in front of the law and the government," he said on Wednesday.
The ethnic Chinese minority, a mere three percent of the population but dominant in the economy, has been the main target of mass violence in recent years, including the brutal May riots here and in several other Indonesian cities.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta -- A wildcat strike by some 5,000 workers at one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, PT Freeport Indonesia, dragged into its fourth day Thursday with no sign of a breathrough, the company said. "We're hopeful, but there's no breakthrough yet," a Freeport spokeswoman in Jakarta told AFP, adding that negotiations were continuing.
Freeport also issued a statement saying it was concerned over the strike in the remote province of Irian Jaya, which is costing the company some 6,500 tonnes of copper concentrate production daily. The statement sought to "clarify rumors" that Freeport's US parent company had promised the striking workers a 50 percent pay raise, then demnaded that they settle for 10 percent increase.
"Freeport McMoRan (Copper and Gold), management in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, never made a promise of a 50 percent pay increase for the workers," the statement said. It added that the striking workers, who are asking for a 100 percent pay hike, had received a 40 percent salary increase in increments since the economic crisis hit the country last year.
Local news reports here have quoted the striking workers as saying the 50 percent was promised, but that only 10 percent was awarded. The company statement said the some 13,000 workers employed in Irian Jaya by Freeport had been also been awarded special bonuses since October 1997.
It did not mention the salary levels of some 3,000 workers for subcontractors in the area, some of whom are involved in the walkout. Freeport said it was continuing negotiations with the help of central and provincial government officials and union represenatives at the Grasberg site of the giant copper mine, which also has the world's second largest reserves of gold.
On Wednesday the parent company said there had been no violence or property damage in Grasberg, but that it had been forced to suspend all mining and milling operations. It denied that the port was affected, saying "shipments of concentrates are being made from the inventory."
[On August 14 Dow Jones Newswires reported that the workers had agreed to return to work. According to AFX-Asia, workers have also gone on strike at the Grasberg copper mine, which produces 700,000 tonnes of concentrate a year. No other details were reported - James Balowski.]
| Human rights/law |
Lhokseumawe -- Local residents and human rights officials in Indonesia's Aceh province said yesterday anonymous groups had sought to intimidate them since the discovery of mass graves in the area, the site of a separatist insurgency that peaked in the early 1990s.
On Thursday, Aceh residents found two new mass graves in a forest about 16 kilometres from a highway linking the provincial capital of Banda Aceh to the north Sumatran capital of Medan. The sites are about 10 kilometres from an area known to residents as "skeleton valley", where 10 other mass graves were found.
Residents told a reporter that unknown men had come to their homes and warned them not to speak to reporters or members of non-government organisations (NGOs). Witnesses said local government officials in the town of Biereuen, 60 kilometres west of Lhokseumawe, were stopped by a group of masked men who demanded to know whether they were NGO officials.
They also said that a separatist flag was raised in front of a school in Peudada town, 80 kilometres west of Lhokseumawe, but was immediately pulled down by residents. Peudada residents said they did not know who had flown the Free Aceh flag.
Yang Razali Kassim -- In a recent gruesome cover story on the situation on Aceh, the Indonesian weekly magazine Gatra recounted the case of a man who was brought at gunpoint by a soldier to a hill in Aceh. Teungku Ayub was given a live demonstration of what could happen to rebels: a fellow villager, tied to a tree, was shot dead and his body left to rot.
The incident took place in 1990 on what has come to be known as Bukit Tengkorak, or Skull Hill. It was the Indonesian military's way of dealing with the Free Aceh separatist movement -- Gerakan Aceh Merdeka -- and its sympathisers.
According to Gatra, this wasn't the only such incident during a black period from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Another villager who had his father abducted by the security forces tried to find him at Skull Hill. There he stumbled upon corpses, some with their rotting flesh eaten away by wild dogs. There were also villages known as kampung janda -- villages of widows -- because their husbands had disappeared: either abducted, killed or had simply fled into the jungles. Skull Hill isn't the only place where dead bodies could be found. In Oct 1990, Reuters reported of another killing field in Alue Ie Mirah in East Aceh.
The atrocities in 1990 could have been the peak of a military crackdown on Free Aceh which saw the province -- it has a proud history fighting against the Dutch -- turned into a daerah operasi militer or military operations area. The move saw the despatch of troops from ABRI, the Indonesian Armed Forces, to the area. Many Acehnese fled to neighbouring countries, in particular to Malaysia.
But in the reform era that has followed the fall of President Suharto, ABRI has taken on a different face, as seen in investigations on former Kopassus (special forces) senior officers, most noticeably, Lt-Gen Prabowo Subianto, the son-in- law of Mr Suharto, in connection with missing students. Last Friday, in a move that captured headlines in Jakarta, ABRI chief General Wiranto flew to Aceh and apologised to the Acehnese people for abuses that may have been perpetrated by elements of the military.
General Wiranto then revoked the status of Aceh as a military area, ordered troops to be pulled back to Jakarta within a month and pledged possible amnesty for political prisoners linked to Free Aceh. "On this day, as commander of ABRI and with the blessings of the President, I declare that the security of Aceh will be fully returned to the people of Aceh," Gen Wiranto announced to thunderous applause by the locals.
Gen Wiranto's move on Aceh is important, especially in the context of the current drive to bring to account all those who may have been implicated in the abductions of the activists. Sadly, despite the scale of the atrocities in Aceh, international media attention on the Aceh question has been lacking. Even as human rights groups now focus on missing students and other recent atrocities, they should not forget the Acehnese tragedy.
[On August 10, Agence France Press said that the governor of Aceh has reportedly set up a team to probe human rights violations, including disappearances during military operations. The team, which includes local public figures and members of NGOs, police and the state attorney's office, was set up a day after the Wiranto, pledged that troops would be withdrawn - James Balowski.]
Yogyakarta -- The Indonesian government is set to free more political prisoners soon, Justice Minister Muladi disclosed here on Monday.
He said to be released would be prisoners who had behaved well in jail or who had been victims of repressive acts of the former government. "Beteen 75 and 100 political prisoners will be freed," he said adding that their exact number could not yet be confirmed because identification was still going on.
"The release will be carried out in conjunction with National Independence Day (August 17)," he told the press. Muladi said the move would be made solely upon the spirit of reform with the aim of creating a better national life. He denied there had been any pressure from any quarters.
Speaking about a government regulation on demonstrations (Perpu No 2/1998) which had drawn widespread public criticism, Muladi said the regulation was still being discussed in the House of Representatives (DPR) so there was still opportunity to have corrections made to it. "The government's basic thinking in the regulation is that the right to hold demonstrations should be protected by law but they must always in orderly manner," he said.
Muladi said the government would be open to receive any complaints about details of the regulation. "In principle, it is the DPR and the people that have to be active in refining it. Don't hastily reject it," he said.
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- The police have arrested 16 people accused of instigating riots in May that caused the death of more than 1,000 people, reports said. "The arrests of the suspects was a follow- up to suspicions that there were intellectual actors (outside masterminds) behind the riots," the Kompas daily quoted the head of the Jakarta Police Information Office, Edward Aritonang, as saying.
The 16 people were accused of having incited others to burn and loot at 10 different sites in the greater Jakarta area, including residential and business areas, police stations, department stores, banks and traditional markets.
"I cannot yet answer whether or not there were (indeed) intellectual actors, because the police work according to the law. I can answer that only when there is solid proof," he said, adding 20 more suspects were on the police "wanted" list. The police have filed cases against three of the 16 suspects at the Attorney General's office. Prosecutors are to press charges against them.
Jakarta -- House Speaker Harmoko swore in yesterday 38 new members of the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly (DPR/MPR), including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo and former Jakarta military chief Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, as part of the preparations for the special MPR session in November.
Antara quoted Harmoko as saying yesterday that all vacant legislative positions in the 1,OOO-seat MPR would be filled before the session commences Nov. 10. The MPR will convene to prepare for the general election scheduled by the middle of next year. Legislators appointed in the poll will meet in December to elect a new president and vice president.
President B.J. Habibie, through Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid, will submit drafts of three political laws to the House soon after the legislature opens its sitting session next Monday. The draft laws are on general elections, political parties and the structure and function of the MPR DPR and provincial legislative councils (DPRD).
Of the new MPR members, 16 belong to the Regional Representatives faction and 21 to the Armed Forces faction. In addition, I Made Gusti Ngurah Bagus replaced I Made Bandem in the MPR ad hoc working committee II in charge of MPR decrees. Ad hoc cornmittee I oversaw establishment of Broad Guidelines of State Policies.
Also sworn in yesterday were Achmad Rustandi from the Indonesian Democratic Party, filling the seat left vacant by Hari Sabarno, a member of the Armed Forces faction promoted to MPR deputy chairman; H Ismunandar as member of the MPR working committee, replacing R. Sudaryanto who has been appointed a member of the Supreme Advisory Council, and Prof Lilik Hendradjaja, replacing HZB Palaguna of the Regional Representatives faction. Golkar faction's Philips Wona from remote Irian Jaya province, who failed to take his oath last July 24 due to transportation problems, joined yesterday's ceremony.
Lively debates are expected once the bills reach the House because the documents are said to introduce significant changes to the repressive political system put in place by former president Soeharto. Among changes sought are:
Also yesterday, Harmoko said the working committee of the MPR would decide whether former president Soeharto would be asked to present an account of his leadership during the MPR session.Multiparties: The existing regulated three political organization system will be changed, and a genuine multiparty system expected to be introduced. Contesting and non-contesting political parties: Only parties with a certain amount of popular support will be allowed to contest the general elections. Others will remain free to operate as a party but not to have candidates in the poll. Financial accountability: Each party must submit regular reports audited by public accountants on its financial status, including sources of support. Reports will be submitted to the General Elections Commission. Audited reports must be submitted before and after elections. Representation: Armed Forces' representation, which was reduced to 75 from 100 in 1995, will be further reduced to 55. The DPR members will be 550 and MPR will be 700. ABRI/Civil servants: Armed Forces personnel and officers will not have the right to vote, be elected or join a political party. Civil servants will remain eligible to vote but will not be permitted to seek election or join a political party.
"The agenda of the special MPR session will be discussed by the MPR working committee," he said. "Just wait for the results of the meeting of the MPR working committee... Both old and new members of the committee may have opinions or suggestions."
Jakarta -- The city military is soliciting help from foreign groups in its effort to identify people spreading rumors on the Internet of renewed riots in the capital.
"To detect (those responsible for) rumors on the Internet, we've asked the assistance of foreign parties," Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djadja Suparman told media after attending the 32nd anniversary of Jakarta's First Air Defense Regiment at its headquarters at Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
The two-star general refused to elaborate on what he meant by "foreign parties", but said a joint investigation was ongoing. "We have not yet detected the rumormongers. The investigation will take quite a long time and there will be many people to testify. "So, please be patient," Djadja said. Rumors have it that unrest will occur ahead of the August 17 Independence Day celebration.
President B.J. Habibie, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Feisal Tanjung and National Police Chief Lt. Gen. Roesmanhadi joined the chorus of top officials attempting to promote a sense of calm Wednesday. They appealed to people not to be stirred by baseless rumors.
Despite the assurances, many appear to be bracing themselves for the worst as word-of-mouth speculation has sown widespread anxiety. The Armed Forces also flexed its muscle as it gathered 12 500 personnel from police military, air force, marines and civilian forces in what it described as a routine check on preparations for the independence celebrations which will include several state ceremonies.
Security has been noticeably strengthened this week with fully armed soldiers patrolling the capital in trucks and guarding public buildings. Security in particular areas has also been beefed up. The spots include Habibie's private residence on Jl. Patra Kuningan in South Jakarta, former president Soeharto's home on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta and state offices and buildings. Residents have also been asked to tighten security in their respective neighborhood and business areas.
According to Djadja, his men have also worked together with the police to bust those responsible for stirring anxiety through distribution of provocative leaflets. He added, however, that nobody had been caught in the investigation. Djadja urged Jakartans to help out by providing information which might help security officers apprehend the rumormongers.
In another related development yesterday, Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid urged the parties spreading rumors to cease forthwith. "People have suffered enough here. Please stop spreading those nasty rumors," Syarwan told reporters after being summoned by National Police detectives following his recent complaint over several media reports on his alleged role in the bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party's headquarters two years ago here.
Syarwan added the rumors exacted a huge toll in lost business. "Because of these rumors many people have left the country. Worse, the rumors also discourage bussiness-people to continue their activities here. "Well, rich residents may still have a great deal of money. But what has happened to the poor people? How can they continue their lives?"
According to National Police Detective Corps Commander Maj. Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, his personnel has also been ordered to investigate the rumors, which have spread throughout the country. "These rumors have been circulated for about a month. We have carefully analyzed them but so far we found that they were only groundless rumors." But police, he added, were still tracking down those responsible, whose only intent was to stir up insecurity and discomfort among Jakartans.
Although police consider the rumors to be phony, security officers have taken measures to anticipate any possible disturbances, Da'i said. "We're closely monitoring the current situation and at the same time seeking the perpetrators, who have transmitted the rumors via leaflets and the Internet." Da'i added: "We urge residents if they find such leaflets not to distribute them. Tear them up, if necessary, because the rumors have caused a huge loss to our country."
Greg Torode, Jakarta -- Ethnic Chinese are starting to flee Indonesia amid threats of rape and rioting surrounding Monday's Independence Day celebrations. Travel agents said flights on Sunday and Monday to Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were almost full. Many Jakarta Chinese said they were preparing to move their families from houses into hotels.
In the port of Surabaya in southern Java, hundreds of Chinese were crowding the airport seeking tickets. Others queued for passports, Reuters reported. One young student said that when she asked for her change from a bus driver she was told: "Do you want to be raped? Wait, you will get your return on the 17th."
One terrified northern Jakarta resident said his family had been receiving anonymous threats over the telephone for weeks, warning of dangers ahead. "I took my wife and children to Singapore during the May violence and I wish I could have stayed," he said. "This time I cannot afford to go. I'm trying to find a hotel where we might be safer. You cannot imagine the fear all Chinese are now living under. You can't even live in your own house in the city of your birth." Some calls involve threats that Chinese men will be castrated.
President Bacharuddin Habibie and military chiefs have denied spiralling rumours of unrest and violence, insisting people must not pay heed to leaflet campaigns and Internet gossip. "Let us jointly fight the rumours spread by irresponsible people," said Mr Habibie, who replaced president Suharto in May within five days of the worst rioting in Jakarta in 30 years.
The violence left more than 1,100 people dead as mobs torched and looted Chinese homes and businesses despite a vast police and army presence. Ethnic Chinese women were raped.
Chinese Embassy counsellor Duan Zengoi told the Post yesterday that diplomats were monitoring the situation. They were prepared to offer emergency help and visas for ethnic Chinese people should trouble erupt. "We made our concerns to the Indonesia Government very clear after the last rioting and we will be continuing to talk to them about the situation," he said. "We hope all sides can work together for better relations."
Chinese community leader, businessman and academic Jusuf Wanadi warned there was little that could be done to ease fears as long as Mr Habibie and other Suharto cronies were in power. "No one trusts this Government, that's why there is all this fear," he said. "There is no way the Chinese will feel secure unless there are real investigations and real justice. So far there is nothing."
Chinese make up an estimated six to seven million of the 200 million population, many in families that date back generations. In West Java yesterday, soldiers fired warning shots as mobs attacked shops owned by Chinese and torched a nightclub.
Fourteen non-governmental organisations in Aceh have issued a joint statement in response to the decision announced two weeks ago by the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, to end Aceh's status as a military operational region, to withdraw non-organic troops from the region, and to make an apology for the past actions of Indonesian troops in the region.
While welcoming the steps taken by Wiranto as a mark of ABRI accepting responsibility for the brutal behaviour by its troops towards the innocent people of Aceh, including abductions, torture, rape, the burning of people's homes and seizure of people's property, the NGOs made the following demands:
[The statement was signed by: LBH Banda Aceh, FP HAM Aceh, Forum LSM Aceh, CDI Aceh, LEuHAM, SMUR, YAB, FOPA, Kontras ACEH, BP2SM, CORDOVA, Walhi Aceh, PKBI Aceh, YAPDA Lhokseumawe and Kontras Jakarta. In a separate statement on August 13, a number of Acehnese NGOs released the names of 34 people who have been abducted since the beginning of 1998. It also said that troops should not be withdrawn until investigations about the disappeared have been completed - James Balowski.]That the ABRI leadership take full responsibility under law for the inhumane treatment of the people of Aceh, and make public the names of persons who were involved; That the ABRI leadership rehabilitate the good name and reputation of the people of Aceh by ending the 'GPK' stigma attached until now and paying compensation for the material losses they have suffered; That the withdrawal of non-organic troops should be open and transparent, specifying the number of troops from each unit withdrawn; With regard to the apology or request for forgiveness, it is not enough just to ask for forgiveness as this should also include concrete actions to contribute towards the living costs of the families of the victims who have suffered at the hands of officers who acted beyond the pale; We totally reject his decision to replace the "GPK" label with the "GPL" label which simply represents a new kind of stigma that could be used to legitimise activities favouring the interests of certain groups or individuals; The statement made by the Minister-Coordinator for Political and Security Affairs (General Feisal Tanjung) to the effect that the Aceh case is an internal matter unrelated to international concern for human rights violations reflects an erroneous attitude of a top government official, ignoring the fact that Indonesia is part of the international community, meaning that all actions should respect the standards agreed upon by the international community, not least the human rights abuses in Aceh.
[This article was forwarded to Joyo without date and publication. The journalist writes frequently about Indonesia for The Guardian (UK).]
John Aglionby, Manado, North Sulawesi -- The authorities at Bitung harbour have a problem they are not sure how to solve. Boats are queuing up to dock at the main entrepot to north Sulawesi in such numbers they cannot all be accommodated at once.
"We have doubled the workforce but we still cannot cope," explained dock foreman Danny Lumintut as he supervised the loading of locally-made soap on to a vessel bound for the Philippines.
At the neighbouring berth a gang of dockers stripped to the waist were sweating profusely as they hurried to unload a consignment of copra that had just arrived from the nearby island of Ternate. Across the wharf dozens of men were loading the same commodity onto a 200-metre-long Chinese tanker heading to Rotterdam.
"This time last year about three boats a month left for the Philippines," said Mr Lumintut. "Now it is averaging 13 or 14. All that is preventing it being more is that the demand for exports is greater than that for imports and businessmen don't want their ships to be sailing around empty."
Creating this oasis of prosperity in Indonesia's -- and indeed East Asia's -- economic morass is Sulawesi's wealth of cash crops, primarily copra, spices, sugar, cacao, coffee and prawns. In the last month, as the harvest season has got into full swing, the economic crisis that has seen Indonesia's currency depreciate more than 80 per cent in the last year has left Sulawesi's farmers at a loss over what to do with their newfound wealth. The phrase now on everyone's lips is: "Crisis, what crisis?"
"Of course my expenses have risen on account of the crisis," explained Sendy Sumarau, a 28-year-old copra farmer who lives 20 miles outside the city of Manado. "But my income has soared so much more that my profit is still three to fours times what it was last year."
With the country's banking system one of the worst victims of the financial turmoil, most people are either saving money at home, or spending it on consumer goods that have suddenly become very cheap. A local cacao farmer was recently reported as buying a king-size refrigerator even though his village has yet to get electricity. He said he would use it as a wardrobe until his village is connected to the local grid.
Televisions are also proving popular. "During the World Cup we could barely keep up with demand," said Jane Manua, who helps her parents run an electronic goods shop in Manado's market. "Even though prices have doubled [in the last year], everyone was buying TVs and satellite dishes."
The latest Indonesian government statistics say 40 per cent of the country's 200 million people are living below the poverty line but, unlike in Java where the number of destitute is skyrocketing, beggars are a rare species on the streets of Manado. For every family, particularly in North Sulawesi, has a few acres of their own. Businessman Gus Kairupan grumbled his 94-year-old mother was deserted by her two carers for a fortnight last month after their parents ordered them home to help gather the clove harvest.
"These servants have more land than most middle-class families in Java," he said. "This year they will have more money than most people in Java." He added that people also used their land to grow staple foodstuffs. "So most people in North Sulawesi only have to buy three of the nine basic essentials, flour, oil and sugar. This means they have not been hit so hard by price rises of goods such as rice and eggs."
Many of the boats leaving Bitung for the Philippines are also loaded with clothes and household goods. "Our neighbours are just cleaning out our shops," said Hary, a marketing executive for one of the local retailers. "We have to keep prices down so locals can afford them but what is happening is that foreign wholesalers are coming in. "Even though they are buying at retail prices it still cheaper for them to come here and to ship it home than to buy from their regular suppliers."
One of the few sectors still struggling in Manado is tourism. Foreign visitor arrivals to Indonesia almost dried up following the widespread social unrest in May that led to the downfall of former autocrat Suharto and tourists are still staying away from north Sulawesi, despite it having some of the best diving in the world and tropical rainforests containing unique flora and fauna.
To restimulate the industry, a dozen hoteliers, diving operators and travel agents formed their own marketing association three weeks ago. Angelique Batuna, the group's secretary, explained they are now marketing north Sulawesi as a destination in itself. "We are not mentioning Indonesia at all because that scares people off," she said. "Even though there was no trouble here in May and we are 2,500 kilometres from Jakarta, foreigners know so little about Indonesia they think the whole country is dangerous. So we are getting people to think North Sulawesi not Indonesia."
This aversion to things Indonesian is not confined to the tourist industry, according to Ms Sumarau, the copra farmer. "About 50 per cent of the people around here are now talking seriously about separatism. We have had enough of propping up Java and want to exploit our full potential."
Under Indonesia's first two presidents, Sukarno and Mr Suharto, Indonesia's resource-rich outer islands were forced to send more than three-quarters of their wealth to Jakarta and often saw less than 10 per cent of it in return. The third president, B.J.Habibie, promised greater regional autonomy shortly after he came to power in May but has taken no concrete steps whatsoever.
Mr Kairupan agreed with Ms Semarau. He said many older people could still remember 1958 when North Sulawesi briefly seceded from Indonesia over the same grievances as people are airing now, lack of administrative autonomy and unequal distribution of national wealth. "It is still only talk at the moment," he said. "But if Jakarta gives so much as a whiff of autonomy to somewhere like East Timor you can bet the government will be hearing from us."
[It should be noted that the reference to the 1958 succession attempt in fact refers to a coup staged by right-wing military commanders in 1956. The CIA assisted with supplies and equipment and one US pilot was shot down by national forces, captured and put on trial. In February 1958, they announced the formation of a Revolutionary Government of Indonesia but despite its name, they were very much a counter-revolutionary grouping. In the areas under their control, prison camps were one the first things to be built and thousands communists and leftists were imprisoned. They were eventually defeated following a civil war with army units still loyal to Jakarta - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- The mass media has recorded the establishment of 56 new political parties since government restrictions were lifted in the aftermath of Soeharto's resignation. Some have been registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs and some have not.
The English version of party names in the following list are The Jakarta Post's translations. Party leaders' names have been printed where two or more parties have chosen the same name.
[On August 11 Dow Jones Newswires reported that a discontented faction within the Islamic mass organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), plans to set up a new political party to rival the "National Awakening Party" setup by NU chair, Abdurrahman Wahid. NU official Yusuf Hasyim said the new party, Nahdlatul Ummah, will seeks to stop the country from becoming another Turkey ruled by secular political elites - James Balowski.]Partai Kristen Nasional Indonesia; Indonesian Christian Party) Partai Syarikat Islam Indonesia; Indonesian Syarikat Islam Party) Partai Nasional Indonesia (led by Bachtiar Oseha Cholik); Indonesian National Party Partai Perempuan Indonesia; Indonesian Women's Party Partai Gerakan Insan Mutakin Indonesia; Indonesian God Fearing People's Party Partai Uni Sosial Kemasyarakatan '45; '45 Social Union Party Partai Kedaulatan Rakyat Indonesia; Indonesian People's Sovereignty Party Partai Rakyat Prima; Prime People's Party Partai Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia; Indonesian People's Struggle Party Partai Reformasi Tionghoa Indonesia; Chinese- Indonesians Reform Party Partai Umat Muslimin Indonesia; Indonesian Moslem Party Partai Pekerja Indonesia; Indonesian Workers Party Partai Reformasi Nasional Indonesia; National Reform Party Partai Bhineka Tunggal Ika Indonesia; Indonesian Unity in Diversity Party Partai Republik; Republic Party Partai Solidaritas Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia; All-Indonesian Workers Solidarity Party Partai Kemakmuran Tani Nelayan; Prosperous Farmers and Fishers Party Partai Rakyat Miskin; Poor People's Party Partai Rakyat Tani Usaha Informal dan Pemuda Putus Sekolah; Farmers, Informal Traders and Dropouts Party Partai Ikatan Pendukung Kemerdekaan Indonesia; Independence Vanguard Party Partai Rakyat Indonesia; Indonesian People's Party Partai Islam Indonesia; Indonesian Islamic Party Partai Pelopor Reformasi; Reform Leader's Party Partai Pendukung Reformasi; Reform Supporter's Party Partai Serikat Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia; Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union Party Partai Cinta Kasih Kristus Kebangsaan; Christ's Love for the Nation Party Partai Rukun Tetangga dan Rukun Warga; Neighborhood Party Partai Kedaulatan Rakyat Indonesia (PKRI); Indonesian People's Sovereignty Party Partai Murba; Proletarian Party Partai Pembaharuan Indonesia (led by Ignatius Santoso); Indonesian Restoration Party Partai Reformasi Indonesia (PRI); Indonesian Reform Party 32. Partai Pendiri Partai Rakyat Indonesia (BP-PRI); Party of Founders of the Indonesian People's Party Partai Kesatuan Umat Indonesia; Indonesian United Believers Party Partai Pembela Rakyat Jelata; Common People's Defenders Party Partai Aliansi Demokrat Indonesia (PADI); Indonesian Democrats Alliance Party Partai Nasional Indonesia (led by Mrs. Soepeni); Indonesian National Party Partai Nasional Bangsa Indonesia; Indonesian Nation National Party Partai Unggulan Indonesia; Indonesian Supremacy Party Partai Amanat Penderitaan Rakyat; People's Aspirations Party DPP Federasi Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia; Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union Party Partai Perjuangan Pelajar dan Pekerja; Students and Workers Struggle Party Partai Republik Indonesia; Indonesian Republic Party Partai Nasional Demokrat (PND); Democrats National Party 44. Partai Satu Bangsa; One Nation Party Partai Pembaruan Indonesia (led by Candra Kuwati); Indonesian Restoration Party Partai Persatuan Warga Negara Indonesia; United Indonesian Citizens Party Partai Mutiara Indonesia; Indonesian Pearl Party Partai Keadilan Sosial Marata Saruk- ruk; Social Justice for All Party Partai Bulan Bintang; Moon and Star Party 50. Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB); People's Awakening Party Partai Pengemudi Indonesia; Indonesian Drivers Party Partai Uni Demokrasi Indonesia; Indonesian Democratic Union Party Partai Kasih Bangsa; Love the Nation Party Partai Musyawarah Kerja Gotong Royong; MKGR Party Partai Amanah Bangsa; People's Mandate Party Pergerakan Tarbiyah Islamiyah; Tarbiyah Islamiyah Association
Jakarta -- Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has for the first time in an interview laid out his basic criteria for political parties to qualify to take part in the elections he has promised the nation.
"I have to prepare for the elections," Habibie told the South Korean conservative daily Chosun Ilbo in the interview on Saturday, regarding his current top political priority. He said the criteria, which are still under study, are designed to "make it possible for any man, any group" to take part in the fresh parliamentary polls he has scheduled for May next year.
Habibie, who took over from ex-president Suharto who stepped down amid mounting public pressure on May 21, has partially eased restrictions on political parties. Some 60 parties have sprouted since May, but their recognition is pending a lifting or modification later this year of the Suharto-era law restricting the number of political parties to three.
Habibie said parties eligible to take part in the next elections should have representation in at least 14 of the country's 27 provinces. They must each have the recommendation of one percent of the voters, or about 1.2 million people with every man authorized to recommend one party only.
He said that each party was allowed to accept a maximum of 100,000 rupiah (eight dollars) in contributions from one individual and 50 million rupiah (4,000 dollars) from one company. "If they fulfill these conditions, then they would be invited to contest the elections," Habibie said.
The elections are held to form the country's two legislative bodies, the People's Representative Council (DPR) and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) which meets every five years to pick a president and a vice president.
Habibie's proposed schemes would bring up the number of elected legislators at the DPR to 90 percent from the current 85 percent, while at the MPR the corresponding figures would be 70.2 percent compared to the current 42.5 percent. The next DPR will have 50 members more than the current 500 but the military's presence will be cut to 55 from the present 75, Habibie said. Under the prevailing laws, the members of the military do not vote or run in elections but are allotted a certain number of seats.
Habibie said that 420 members of the DPR should be directly elected while another 75 would part of the "proportional representation", or the allotment of seats to diminish wide seat disparities between the parties. The MPR membership, currently at 1,000, will be slashed by 300 seats, he said.
The MPR will be composed of the DPR membership and another 81 to represent the regions and 69 to represent non-political groupings, but he said the number of representatives per region, three or five, had yet to be decided. "The 69 will be personalities from the society suggested by the DPR (to the president.) They may be movie stars, scientists, businessmen," Habibie said.
In the current system, the parliament is composed of the 500 DPR members, 251 presidential appointees are alloted between the DPR factions, another 149 are appointees representing the regions and 100 are picked by the president to represent non-political groupings.
Under Habibie's proposed timetable, the current MPR will convene in November to issue the neccessary laws for the elections and the polls will be held in May 1999. The resulting MPR is hoped to be able to convene before the end of next year so that they can pick a president and a vice president to run the country for five year begining January 1, 2000. Habibie, in the interview, made it clear that he hoped "the people" would consider him as a candidate for the presidency, but as a second and final term.
[On August 9, AFP reported that a group of Moslem students and activists launched the "Justice Party" at the Al Azhar mosque in South Jakarta. Headed by Nur Mahmudi Ismai'il, 36, a graduate of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture who now works as a researcher, the party's charter said that the party was a part of the "Order of Reform" which followed Suharto's "New Order" - James Balowski.]
| Arms/armed forces |
Jakarta -- The abduction of political activists were not ordered by the Armed Forces' (ABRI) top brass, but were carried out because of then Army Special Force (Kopassus) chief Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto's interpretation of his superiors' instructions, the Officers Honor Council (DKP) concluded yesterday.
Council chairman Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo told a media conference that Prabowo's instructions were only to "monitor" the activists' moves, especially in Jakarta. "It was Prabowo's own interpretation which led to the decision to kidnap the activists," Subagyo said after chairing a hearing of the seven- member council with Prabowo at the Army headquarters on Jl. Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta. Prabowo had reportedly acted on his own initiative and had been given autonomy by his superiors to maintain stability with whatever means he deemed necessary.
Subagyo, also the Army chief of staff, however, said the council would still need to cross-check Prabowo's testimony with those of other officers and witnesses.
Subagyo denied speculation that there had been two different orders -- each given by then Armed Forces commander Gen. (ret.) Feisal Tanjung and Army chief of staff Gen. Wiranto -- regarding the military campaign to control the activists, a situation which led to confusion on Prabowo's part. "That's not true," he said. He said the questioning would continue today, but did not indicate who would appear before the council.
Riding in a dark green Land Rover, Prabowo arrived at 8:20 a.m. at the Army headquarters in full uniform for his questioning. The hearing, which was held in closed chambers started at 9 a.m. and ended at about 3:30 p.m. A horde of reporters, both foreign and domestic, were prevented from entering the compound and had to wait across the street.
Also testifying as witnesses yesterday were Col. Chairawan the former chief of Kopassus' Group of Intelligence Operations, and members of the Armed Forces fact-finding team, including its chief, National Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Syamsu Djalal.
Other team members testifying were assistant for intelligence affairs for the Armed Forces chief of general affairs Rear Adm. Berty Ekel; chief military prosecutor Maj. Gen. Timur P. Manurung; and assistant for security affairs to the Armed Forces chief of general affairs Maj. Gen. Marwan Paris.
Prabowo, together with his successor Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwopranjono and Col. Chairawan, is now under intensive investigation by the ABRI initiated council for his alleged role in the kidnappings and torture of political activists.
Many of the activists critical of former president Soeharto disappeared in the run-up to the general session of the People's Consultative Assembly last March. Analysts said the mission was an all-out campaign to maintain Soeharto's power. The Assembly reelected Soeharto for a seventh consecutive term at the time.
Some of those missing have since reappeared. One by one, they have come forward to tell of their ordeals. In each case the activists were made to suffer torture often used by the military to extract confessions. Only nine of the missing activists, however, have returned home. The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), which is conducting its own investigation into the abductions, believes that 12 others are still missing.
[On August 12 Associated Press quoted Army chief of staff, General Subagyo Hadisiswoyo, who heads the tribunal, as saying "Prabowo has admitted wrongdoing, and will take responsibility". Subagyo did not say whether the troops accused of kidnapping were under Prabowo's command at the time - James Balowski.]
Cindy Shiner, Jakarta -- There are two legends in Javanese culture about what happens when a man marries the daughter of a king: The groom could be like Jaka Tingkir, who killed his father-in-law and established a new kingdom. Or he could follow the footsteps of Ageng Mangir, who attempted several coups against another sultan and ended up dead.
Today Indonesia is watching the story of former President Suharto and his son- in-law, Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto. Hashim Wahid, a businessman who has known Prabowo since kindergarten, said he asked him once in jest: "Who do you want to be? Jaka Tingkir or Ageng Mangir?" The response? "He just slammed the door in my face and never talked to me again for 12 years."
Since Suharto was forced from power by student protests and widespread rioting in May, sources close to Prabowo say the former president has refused to speak to him and considers him a traitor. Prabowo, 46, a mercurial and ambitious soldier, is suspected of involvement in some of the events that led to the end of Suharto's 32-year rule, including the abduction and torture of political activists. He appeared before a military Honor Council Monday to answer questions about for his alleged role in the abductions and could face disciplinary action.
Derisively referred to among his peers as a "golden boy" who rapidly rose through the ranks to become the army's youngest peacetime lieutenant general, Prabowo represents both the excesses of the former military-backed government and today's soul-searching by an institution trying to maintain its dignity and redefine its role at a time of democratic reform.
His questioning by the military council is widely seen as a way of putting the Indonesian armed forces on trial. The military is under pressure to investigate its alleged abuses, and blaming someone so closely identified with Suharto as Prabowo helps make it seem that a break has been made with the past.
The public fascination with Prabowo is intense. His face, accented by his special forces red beret, has been splashed on the cover of magazines for the past two weeks. "He's the most charismatic, enigmatic, unusual and weird guy I've ever known in my life," said a defense analyst with long experience in Indonesia. "He's also laudable and detestable... Pick an adjective and it fits."
Depending on whom you ask, Prabowo is either the fall guy for misdeeds committed by the Suharto government and the military, or he is a power-hungry fanatic who misjudged the forces he might have been up against if he chose to take on his father-in-law. In the end, perhaps Javanese history will have a new legend -- the fall from grace of both the king and the prince.
Prabowo has kept his silence in public and declined to be interviewed for this article. "To be fair, I think there's more to it than just Prabowo here," said Marzuki Darusman, vice chairman of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights. "I'd say he's a keeper of secrets, and he might be predisposed to reveal a few if forced to."
Local newspapers reported last week that a group of retired generals has called on the Honor Council to investigate the possible involvement of Suharto, who was the commander in chief of the armed forces, in the abduction of the activists. An investigation is already underway into the wealth he amassed during three decades in power.
"I think [Suharto] knew about [the kidnappings], but I don't think he would order initiatives such as this," said a senior government official. "The old man does believe in a need for the Indonesian army to be a real people's army because, after all, he's from the generation [of independence from the Netherlands] who believed in the need of a guerrilla army based on the support of the people."
Some people say that while Suharto might not have ordered Prabowo to abduct political activists -- a practice that human rights groups say has been widespread for years in rebellious provinces such as Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor -- the former president might have indicated that was his wish and Prabowo could have carried it out to win his favor.
Although Prabowo gained status and power by marrying Suharto's daughter, Siti Hediyati Harijadi, or Titiek, a successful businesswoman, he comes from one of Indonesia's most prominent families. He is the son of Soemitro Djojohadikusumo, a widely respected economist who fled the country in the 1950s after being accused of supporting a rebellion.
During his early years, Prabowo lived in England and Switzerland. He adopted the Western approach of tackling problems head-on, and this later put him in frequent conflict with Suharto, a master of the subtle Javanese style of getting his way. When Prabowo's family returned from Europe, he enrolled in the military academy as a way to pursue his ambitions and to win respect on his own terms.
"It was probably the most prestigious profession then, back in the '70s," the senior government official said. "Later on, with the opening of the economy in the mid-'80s, he began to find that the army officer corps' official social status had declined relative to the emerging new professions, particularly in the modern economy: banking, accountancy, law, architecture." By that time, Prabowo had spent 10 years fighting in East Timor, which was waging a guerrilla war for independence from Indonesia.
Prabowo's commitment to the armed forces deepened with US training courses at Fort Benning, Ga., and Fort Bragg, N.C. By 1995, he had risen to commander of a special forces unit, known as Kopassus, and forged close links with the American military. Reportedly assisted by funds from a brother, Prabowo increased the size of Kopassus from 3,500 to 6,000 and provided extra pay and plots of land for homes to his troops. His fellow officers resented his meteoric rise. Others worried that he was seeking to create a private army and consolidate his power base.
Prabowo also used his political influence as the son-in-law of the president to bypass the chain of command to secure equipment for his special forces soldiers, purchasing it from governments or dealers in France, Britain, the Czech Republic, Australia and Jordan, according to diplomats and defense analysts.
The British Defense Ministry was so impressed with Prabowo after he became head of Kopassus that it intervened to help him get an export license for six armored Land Rovers, according to the Times of London.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, the secretary of state for defense, George Robertson, said: "The head of Kopassus is General Prabowo, the son-in-law of President Suharto. The general is recognized as an enlightened officer keen to increase professionalism with the armed forces and to educate them in areas such as human rights." According to one defense analyst, Prabowo brought the first international Red Cross team to Indonesia to teach his troops about humanitarian and human rights law.
Kopassus also received training from elite US forces, but that was suspended after reports surfaced that Kopassus soldiers were suspected of being involved in the abductions of activists.
Over the years, with allegations of human rights abuses in East Timor, Irian Jaya and Aceh, the military's reputation had begun to slide. Prabowo, it was said, was eager to prove that if the military was no longer revered, he would command respect through force. He developed a reputation for treating his troops brutally and became known for anti-Chinese and antisemitic rhetoric.
In the final days of Suharto's rule, Prabowo was suspected of trying to engineer a takeover of the government. Sources close to him say his offer to send troops to the capital to quash rioting directed at ethnic Chinese was rejected by more senior military commanders. There was suspicion that Prabowo, or people close to him, had organized the rioting to create an excuse for a crackdown.
"The idea that was presented to me was that Prabowo would come trotting up on a white horse and spreading joy, peace and security in his wake," the defense analyst said. "If so, it was a hell of a gamble, and it backfired."
Ian MacKenzie, Jakarta -- Indonesia's armed forces, who have traditionally regarded themselves as the defenders of the country's unity and stability, are under unprecedented fire as they emerge from the shadow of the former president Suharto's regime. Last week was a black one for the armed forces, known by the acronym ABRI:
"ABRI is in a very difficult position because of the uncovering of many misdeeds during the time ABRI was under Suharto," political commentator and military historian Salim Said told Reuters. "It seems that society now is demanding clarity of response from ABRI as to why this kind of thing happened in the past."An investigation opened into the possible involvement of the former commander of the elite Special Forces (Kopassus), Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto who is Suharto's son-in-law, and two other senior officers in the kidnapping and torture of political activists; An army investigation identified eight soldiers as suspects in the fatal shooting last month of a student during a pro- independence rally in the remote eastern province of Irian Jaya; Mass graves were reported in the far western province of Aceh on Sumatra island amid accusations of army atrocities in quelling a separatist insurgency in the early 1990s.
Said and military sources place the blame for the behaviour of the military on Suharto himself, and on a polarising Cold War rigidly anti-communist ethos which is only now starting to dissipate.
Suharto himself resigned on May 21 and was replaced by his vice- president B.J. Habibie after riots jolted Jakarta and other major centres amid a crippling economic crisis and mounting demands for political reforms. "The armed forces were really used by the Suharto regime to maintain and perpetuate his own power over the past 32 years," said Salim Said said.
ABRI commander General Wiranto, a former Suharto aide who is regarded as a highly professional soldier widely respected among the military, has been shuttling around the sprawling archipelago in a bid to control the damage. In Aceh on Friday, he ordered an end to a decade-old military operation and the withdrawal of combat troops -- and publicly apologised for any suffering its 3.5 million people may have experienced in army hands.
On Saturday, Wiranto -- who is also defence minister -- was in the central Javanese city of Solo appealing to the people to help the military ensure security and stability. "Security is not the responsibility of ABRI alone. Security is the responsibility of all the people of Indonesia," he said.
Foreign military observers say the size of the armed forces is relatively small and thinly spread in a country as vast as Indonesia -- some 17,500 islands stretched for 5,000 km (3,120 miles) along the equator. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies puts the size of the armed forces at 461,000, a figure that includes 177,000 police who are technically under ABRI.
ABRI has also started to withdraw troops from East Timor, a running sore in the side of Indonesia's international relations since it invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year. The invasion came after Portugal abandoned the territory. President Habibie has offered East Timor's 800,000 people a wide measure of autonomy and talks on its future now are finally taking shape.
Military sources say ABRI, which had regarded the territory as its particular fiefdom and a source of combat experience and medals fighting an insurgency, is now ready to quit an arena that no longer provided any distinction.
Political and military analysts say ABRI now is unpopular in many parts of the country, partially due to its dramatic failure to prevent or halt the May riots, in which at least 1,200 people died in Jakarta alone, and to its association with the corruption and nepotism of the Suharto era. Military sources say morale is very low, within the army at least, a victim of low pay aggravated by the nation's devastating economic crisis, and by the anger of ordinary people.
Suharto himself was commander of the Kostrad special reserve, the army's main combat force, during an abortive coup attempt blamed on the now-banned Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) in 1965. He used the coup and its violent aftermath to take power from the country's late founding president Sukarno and consolidate his position as the country's leader for the following three decades. He carefully manipulated ABRI promotions and postings to his own ends.
Thousands of PKI members were killed or thrown into jail, where some still languish. Political sources said any hint of a communist revival brought down the heavy hand of military intelligence on the suspects in a rigid Cold War response.
At the same time, some sources say, the military was equally fearful of any rise in Islamic fundamentalism and the extreme right that might endanger the unity of a disparate nation of 200 million people made up of some 300 distinctive ethnic groups.
The ghosts of the past are likely to haunt the military for years to come unless Wiranto can make a radical break with the years under Suharto.
ABRI has consistently been accused of killings, torture and other human rights abuses in its areas of operation, particularly East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya. "Wiranto is in a very difficult position in how to deal with all these simultaneously," said Salim Said. "Wiranto should make it clear that what happened in the past, that the force used by the (Suharto) regime to victimise its own people, was wrong, and that such a thing will never happen again," he said.
Carmel Budiardjo -- Three events in the past couple of weeks point to a new strategy by the ABRI leadership in projecting a different image for the armed forces in post-Suharto Indonesia:
Although Suharto's removal from power has not brought about a major shift in the nature of the regime, it has given people everywhere the courage and the opportunity to give vent to their pent-up anger and frustrations about abuses perpetrated over the past 32 years. This has led to revelations about bestialities perpetrated by the armed forces in all parts of the country, particularly in the so-called Red Alert or "rawan" areas like West Papua, Aceh and East Timor. ABRI's image has truly been torn to shreds.The decision to withdraw a thousand troops from East Timor and replace them with army doctors, teachers and engineers; The decision to withdrawn "non-organic" troops from Aceh, leaving security there in the hands of the territorial troops and the ulamas, the local administration and informal leaders, and; The announcement that new troops drafted into Irian Jaya (West Papua) will not be armed but will be equipped with spades, hoes and other agricultural equipment.
In such circumstance, ABRI needs to speak to its domestic audience as well as to the international community at a time when the catastrophic economic legacy from Suharto has made the economy totally dependent on yet more money from abroad in the form of credit and investment. What we are now witnessing is a strategy from ABRI to give itself a facelift, to give itself a more civilised image. Western powers who have an enormous stake in preserving their economic interests in Indonesia -- a huge market but even more important, an abundant source of natural resources -- are only too ready to grasp at signs of change in ABRI's role to something more gentle, more civlised.
Civic Mission - Dwi-Fungsi in another garb
All the signs are that ABRI is now returning to its pre-1965 strategy of Civic Mission, which it undertook with the encouragement of Washington. Civic Mission was a policy of entering the countryside to perform functions such as road- building, digging wells, assisting local communities in agricultural production, in other words performing what would appear to be innocent, non-combative functions with which no one could disagree. The task in those days of course was to counteract the role of the communist party, the PKI, and its mass organisations, in particular the peasants union, the BTI, both of which had won enormous following in the Indonesian countryside, particular in parts of Java, Bali and North Sumatra.
Today, ABRI's strategy is to re-instate its Civic Mission, concentrating now on the country's "trouble-spots", East Timor, West Papua and Aceh where liberation or seccessionist movements have gained popularity because of the depravities perpetrated by what has been seen in all these regions -- not only in East Timor -- as an army of occupation.
One could argue against what ABRI now plans to do at the level of the exposing the futility of, say, sending doctors and teachers to East Timor, even, according to one report, sending medical personnel to provide "counselling" to traumatised East Timorese. It is widely known that Timorese, especially women, have a deeply ingrained mistrust of Indonesian doctors and hospitals with stories abounding of forced sterilisation, mysterious deaths of young children in hospitals and so on. As for "counselling", the very idea of army officers trained as psychologists counselling East Timorese is ludicrous. And why should Timorese look to the army to supply teachers, only to reinforce the indoctrination of Timorese with the state ideology or teach Indonesian history through the eyes of the power-holders while disrgarding East Timor's own history?
Or to claim that West Papuans need army agronomists to help them improve food production is laughable. In many parts of West Papua, in the Baliem Valley for instance, tribal people have developed a highly sophisticated system of garden cultivation which needs no help from army officers trained in whatever system of cultivation they might bring.
But the more fundamental point is that Civic Mission is not a legitimate task for the armed forces. As in the early 1960s, Civic Mission is a strategy aimed at intelligence gathering, a form of counter-insurgency that is now being foisted on people in these three regions while continuing to do everyhing possible to destroy the liberation struggles. What Wiranto now plans to do is to dress ABRI's dwi-fungsi up in new clothes.
We must bear in mind at all times that insofar as a state needs armed forces, it is solely for the purpose of defending the country against foreign aggression. There can be no second function -- dwi-fungsi -- for ABRI to perform.
If there is the need for agricultural extension to help villagers, or road-building, or the provision of medical personnel, this is the task of the civilian authorities, not the armed forces. Moreover, the terms of such assistance from the centre should be negotiated with local communities and not foisted on them by an undemocratic force like ABRI.
GPK now called GPL
What does Wiranto think he will achieve by abandoning the term GPK -- Gerakan Pengacau Keamaan -- as the designation in Aceh for the Free Aceh Movement and replacing it with GPL, "L" standing for "liar" or "wild"? It is not unlikely that this new term will now be introduced in West Papua and East Timor for the OPM and FALINTIL.
Whatever the term (and I personally find it difficult to understand what the difference is between the two terms), the intention is to brand the liberation struggles as terrorist. But, we should ask, who are the real terrorists? Having read the powerful indictments of members of the armed forces that have come to light in Aceh in the past few weeks, people will have no difficulty identifying the terrorists in Aceh. Here, as in West Papua and East Timor, it is state terrorism that has reigned supreme and it is ABRI that have behaved as terrorists -- and with impunity. As one woman in Aceh yelled, when asked by a member of Parliament whether people were afraid of the GPK: "We are not afraid of them, we're afraid of ABRI!"
The aim clearly is to drive a wedge between the community at large and the liberation struggles. People will still have good reason to fear that any activity they undertake in support of legitimate demands against the state or state enforcement agencies will mean being labelled as GPL with all the risks that involves.
By announcing that ABRI would retain a label for the liberation struggle in Aceh, Wiranto revealed indisputably that whatever the cosmetic changes he has introduced, the prime target of ABRI's presence in the region is the Free Aceh Movement. Counter- insurgency is still the strategy.