ASIET NetNews Number 43 - November 8-15, 1998

ASIET News and analysis

Indonesia in revolt

Simultaneous student action in 16 cities

Jakarta on the `edge of chaos'

Five die in street protests

Police beat democracy demonstrators

Media show anger at military muscle

The time is up for the old regime

Rebels hold two soldiers hostage

One thousand commemorate massacre

Killing continued after Dili massacre

Freedom dream dies at dawn

The rapes: what really happened?

Australian premier backs Habibie

Suharto criticizes Habibie over clashes

Habibie takes tough line on protests

Excerpts of decrees endorsed by MPR

Impact of assembly's reform vote unclear

Opposition calls for August elections

Clashes feared

Details of special assembly meeting

Indonesia's black death

One million abortions a year, says specialist

Three homes razed as rival gangs clash

ASIET News and analysis

Indonesia in revolt

[The following is a summary of developments in Jakarta as of Friday, November 13, which was prepared by ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor). Notes on news developments on November 14 are included at the end of this document.]

At least seven dead and more than 300 seriously injured has been the cost of finishing the stage managed meeting of the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) and pushing through decrees confirming the doctrine of the Dual Function of the Armed Forces. Among those killed are 5 university students and one high school student.

Ida Nuraini, a woman leader of the PRD and member of its central leadership council, was shot in the head with a rubber-coated bullet and now is in a serious condition in a Jakarta hospital. There are unconfirmed reports of two activists from the Megawati Supporters Committee (KPM) also killed.

Other PRD student activists were also unaccounted for as of late evening November 13. (see appeal in box) The deaths and injuries were caused by unrestrained shooting into the crowds of peaceful protesters by troops under the orders of Armed Forces Chief Wiranto. In the November issue of the establishment daily newspaper, Kompas, the shooting was described as "membabi buta", like that of a blind pig. This is confirmed by the reports from field activists from the PRD received by Green Left Weekly.

The MPR finished its deliberations on Friday May 13 without altering the role of the military in the political system established by General Suharto in 1965. The 1,000 member body, comprising mostly people appointed or approved by Soeharto with a few new names appointed by Habibie, approved the doctrine of the Dual Function of the Armed Forces. 55 armed forces officers will be appointed to the Indonesian parliament. The military structure that runs right down into every village remained untouched. The timetable for elections and a new sitting for the MPR remains intact, guaranteeing Habibie the presidency until at least December, 1999. The elections will be organised and implemented by the Habibie-Wiranto regime itself. The appeal by the so-called moderate opposition leaders, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Amien Rais and Abdurahman Wahid for an independent election committee have been ignored also.

But there is only one reason that this body of Soeharto-Habibie appointees was able to finish its stage-managed deliberations. That reason was 30,000 troops. 30,000 troops were mobilised into Jakarta to defend the MPR building from being occupied by more than 500,000 students and Jakarta urban poor and white collar workers.

Without the thousands of troops ringing the parliament building, the tear gas, the water cannon, the tanks and the armored personnel carriers, there is no doubt that the MPR would have been occupied and the Habibie-Wiranto regime would have fallen. The Habibie-Wiranto regime now rests only its support from the military and the military's willingness to use violence against the people. The regime stands condemned and isolated from its people. More confrontations will follow.

Students united More than 150,000 students mobilised on November 12 and 13. These mobilisations drew in hundreds of thousands of workers, urban poor.

Indonesian state radio, Radio Republic Indonesia, was reporting one million people mobilised on the streets on November 12. Similar sized mobilisations took place on November 13.

The massive mobilisations were the result of a new level of unity achieved by the student movement in Jakarta in recent weeks. At the end of October a new alliance was formed, called AKRAB. AKRAB brought together all the major student activist, and organised worker, urban poor and political activist groups supporting the demands for a complete abolition of the military's role in politics and a rejection of the legitimacy of the MPR. AKRAB comprised FORKOT, FAMRED, FKSMJ, PRD, KOMRAD, KOBAR, Komite Pendukung Megawati (KPM) and FORBES. (See box for brief descriptions.) . It organised a demonstration of about 20,000 people in the first week of November. The success of this joint mobilisation further strengthened the cooperation between these groups so that an overall plan and proper coordination could be established for the protests during the MPR session.

Assembly and rally points were established in the eastern. western, southern and northern sectors of Jakarta with marching routes into the city centre area of the parliamentary buildings. The students were determined to raise their major demands for an end to any role for the military in politics, the rejection of the MPR and the formation of a transitional government to hold free elections.

There was also a new consensus that the students should call on the other sectors of the Jakarta population to join the mobilisations. This broke the divisions that had previously existed between those who supported a student alliance with the non-student masses and those opposed it. In the May mobilisations a majority of the FORKOT mobilising committee had voted against involving non-student masses. This time the student movement was unanimous. As a result as students moved along the main thoroughfares, the neighbourhood communities were encouraged to join the demonstrations. Over November 12 and 13, hundreds of thousands joined the students.

In the eastern sector of the city, PRD, KOBAR, KOMRAD, KPM and FAMRED mobilised their forces and students from campuses in the eastern sector. On November 12, by the late afternoon, it was estimated that between 500,000 and 1 million people were moving along the streets. Large numbers also joined in the eastern mobilisations, under the coordination of FORKOT.

Marshals were assigned along the route to protect shops owned by Indonesian Chinese as well as banks. One lane was kept open so some traffic could pass.

The huge mobilisations over the two days took place with almost no damage to property, driving home the lesson that the urban poor masses would not resort to rioting if a clear political direction was given to the mobilisations. Residents along the mobilising routes also supplied drinks, food and money donations to the students.

More masses were drawn to the student side each time students came under physical attack. From November 11, the army, apparently without the agreement of the police, mobilised several thousand paid thugs armed with sharpened bamboo sticks, to help them in defending the parliamentary area.

In the first clashes between these thugs and students, the students fought back. On seeing some of these clashes, the Jakarta urban poor poured out of their neighbourhoods, sometimes armed with air rifles or their weapons, and defended the students against the thugs. In all cases, the gangs of thugs quickly retreated.

The sight of thugs being thrown into battle against ordinary people soon draw criticism from a wide range of community figures. From the army's side, the so-called "professional soldier", General Wiranto, defended the deployment of these untrained, paid thugs with the words "why should anybody criticise people who just want to make things safe?". But the police quickly distanced themselves from these gangs and they were ordered back to their villages. As this occurred rumors spread that the paramilitary groups of the rightist Moslem group, FIRKAN, associated with the Star and Crescent Party, were to be mobilised against the students. According to PRD activists, this was stymied when the head of the paramilitary group of the more moderate Nahdatul Ulama (NU) organisation headed by moderate oppositionist Abdurahman Wahid, threatened to mobilise its forces in defence of the students. NU youth activists, influenced by Moslem liberation theology style thinking, were also active in the student mobilisations, especially in FAMRED.

Neighbourhood communities also mobilised again on the evening of November 13 and were shot at indiscriminately. Many of the hundreds injured were among these mobilisations.

On the evening of November 12, between 7.30pm and 10,00pm, a pitched battle took place between about 15,000 students and the masses of troops defending the MPR building. The 15,000 had broken through blockades on the eastern and western approaches to the MPR and had got to the gates of the MPR grounds.

Charge and counter charge took place between the students and the soldiers.

Scores of students were injured. Three waves of charge and counter charge also occurred in the area of the eastern approach. But the worst military violence took place on late afternoon and evening of November 13. This was when the mass indiscriminate firing of rubber coated bullets at crowds of students and urban poor took place in all sectors of the city.

In many areas where the military attacked, both the masses and students fought back with rocks, other projectiles and molotov cocktails. Apart of the new consciousness among the students that was evident as soon as November 11 was that they would fight back if attacked or if force was used to try to stop their advance on the parliament building.

Student protests also occurred in other cities. In Solo, students occupied the local parliament. In Yogyakarta, the state radio station was occupied. Demonstrations also occurred in north Sumatra.

The new active solidarity between students and masses combined with an increased level of organisation and militancy now represents a real threat to the regime over the coming months.

Attempts to stifle militancy The most moderate of the student groups is the FKMSJ. FKMSJ organised an operation on November 10 and 11 virtually kidnapping moderate opposition leaders Megawati Sukarnoputri and Amien Rais for a meeting with Abdurahman Wahid from the NU and so-called liberal ruling party figure, Sultan Hamengkubuwono. The FKMSJ students had hoped that these four would demand the hand over of government power to a presidium of these leaders. But instead the four issued a mealy mouthed statement essentially recognising the MPR session but calling on it to make sure that elections were carried out in May and a new government formed within three months after that. They called for the elections to be organised by an independent body. They called for the military's role in politics to be phased out over 6 years.

Disappointed by this statement many FKMSJ students deserted the meeting and joined the street demonstrations, mobilising several thousand students, especially on November 13.

On November 13, Amien Rais made an explicit appeal to the students to halt the mobilisations on the grounds that any indications of chaos would give the military an excuse to seize power.

On November 13, Faisal Reza, the newly elected chairperson of the Central Leadership Council of the PRD, held a press conference to reject the statement issued by Megawati, Amien Rais, Abdurahman Wahid and Sultan Hamengkubuwono. "The statement gives us nothing and is out of step with the peoples demands," he said at the press conference in Jakarta on November 13.

"Their statement legitimises the MPR which is made of Soeharto appointees.

The MPR has not ended the military's role in politics. The decree of corruption only mentions Soeharto in passing. There was no firm decision to hold Soeharto to account for the crimes of massacre in East Timor, Aceh, Tanjung Priok, Lampung and other areas". Faisal Reza also confirmed that the PRD would continue on the path of extra-parliamentary mass action protest.

Additional notes - November 14

Masses of students and people now fill a 2 kilometre stretch of tollway outside the gates of the national parliament. More waves are still arriving. It is likely that they will stay outside the parliament overnight.

Student and movement leaders are giving speeches and keeping peoples spirits up. It appears that the popular mobilisation is now being centred outside the parliament. It is expected that mobilisations will continue on Sunday 15 November. Initially the students tried to keep separate from the masses but by late afternoon, they had integrated.

TV and radio stations have dropped all other programmes and are broadcasting only messages of condolences for the dead students or criticisms of Wiranto and the military.

Many radio programmes are announcing that the mobilisations are being organised by the PRD.

It is reported that opposition leaders, such as Megawati Sukarnoputri and Amien Rais, are gathered at the house of Abdurahman Wahid. The opposition grouping has been joined by Andi Arief and Feisal Reza from the PRD.

President Habibie has issued a statement that the demonstrations are part of an attempt to overthrow the government and has issued an order for the armed forces to take action against the demonstrators. There are rumours of impending arrests of opposition leaders.

Minister for Politics and Security Feisal Tanjung has threatened students with "Armed Forces guns" if they continue to demonstrate. * At the same time, it appears that troops under the command of KOSTRAD have been withdrawn from Jakarta. Most places are now being guarded by the marines. Immediate past Defence Minister, retired general Edi Sudrajat, has called on soldiers not to obey orders to act against the students.

Outbreaks of rioting (burning of shops) in the early afternoon have been contained by the students or by neighbourhood residents.

Forum Kota - City Forum (FORKOT) a cross campus activist coalition that was established in May this year and was one of the two student coalitions that organised the occupation of the parliament in May. It includes supporters of Megawati but also activists, for example, from the more radical nationalist Murba Party. Its strongest base is on the Christian University of Indonesia (UKI). It has no base on the University of Indonesia. The PRD also has a presence in FORKOT. They are united in an anti-militarist framework. Many FORKOT students are hostile to Amien Rais. Along with the PRD, FORKOT has been attacked by rightist groups as communist.

Front Aksi Mahasiswa untuk Reformasi Damai - Student Action Front for Peaceful Reformation (FAMRED) FAMRED broke away from FORKOT and is based on a large number of smaller campuses. It has a radical anti-militarist orientation. Young activists from the Nahdatul Ulama, influenced by liberation theology style Moslem thinking, are influential in this group.

Forum Kommunikasi Senat Mahasiswa Jakarta - Jakarta Student Senate Communication Forum (FKSMJ). This has been the most moderate student group, led by students who had been operating within the formal student "representative" institutions established by the regime a few years ago. They have been gradually radicalised and have now adopted the demand for an end to the military's role in politics. They also demand the formation of a governmental presidium.

Komite Mahasiswa and Rakyat anti Dwifungsi ABRI - Student and Peoples Committee against the Dual Role of the Armed Forces (KOMRAD). KOMRAD is a militant student organisation with both an anti-militarist and anti-capitalist platform. It is under the political influence of the PRD but has non PRD members.

Komite Buruh untuk Aksi Reformasi - Workers Committee for Reformation Action. KOBAR is a worker student formation formed after May by students radicalised at the University of Indonesia. It now has a strong worker base in factories in Tangerang industrial area outside Jakarta, North Jakarta and the city of Bogor outside Jakarta. Since May it has organised several worker mobilisations that have been violently suppressed by the military.

Komite Penduklung Megawati - Megawati Supporters Committee (KPM is mainly an urban poor based organisation of militant supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri. Increasingly disenchanted with Megawati's moderate politics, they formed their own organisation in several cities. KPM includes people with a clear leftist orientation.

Forum Bersama - Joint Forum (FORBES). This is the organisation with the smallest activist base. It is under the influence of the political groups PIJAR and ALDERA, some of whose members have already joined the so-called moderate parties, such as Amien Rais's National Mandate Party.

In addition to these more organised forces, many single campus based groups mobilised for actions on November 12 and 13, including students from Trisakti University, where three students were shot dead in May.

Democratic struggle

Simultaneous student action in 16 cities

Jakarta -- The bloody tragedy at the Semanggi bridge apparently has sparked even more extensive action than the previous days. On Saturday (14/11) action took place in 16 cities, namely Medan, Bandung, Bogor, Surabaya, Yogya, Samarinda, Jember, Pontianak, Ambon, Ujungpandang, Solo, Purwokerto, Bandjarmasin, Denpasar, Semarang and Padang. Generally these actions condemned the bloody incident, asked for the resignation of armed forces commander General Wiranto and accountability of regional representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly.

Those student actions appeared to be uniform. Besides targeting locations such as the Regional Parliaments, the majority also came to the headquarters of the highest local military establishments in their respective towns, to lower the flags to half-mast. In Medan, Denpasar and Pontianak, they used the airports as locations to draw attention to their demands.

Apart from some damage and three persons sustaining injuries -- two students and a policeman -- at the Polonia airport in Medan, generally the actions did not cause riots, looting or damage at all.

Action by 10,000 Medan students joined in the North Sumatra Student Reformation Action Forum, started at the Regional Parliament building and moved to the Polonia airport by motorbike, bus, truck and on foot. After being stopped for an hour by security troops, altercation and stone-throwing, the crowd was able to enter the airport, and gathered in the middle of the airfield at 13.55 hours. Part of the crowd ascended the stairs of parked aircraft, and some even climbed on top of the fuselages. All flights were cancelled. The students made speeches, prayed and sang to commemorate the students who had died in Jakarta.

The situation at the airport gradually came under control around 17.30 hours after the students went back to campus. As a result of the action, a number of airport lights were broken, the ground handling aerial was wrecked, aircraft engines were tampered with, and food-and-drink stalls in the building damaged.

In Denpasar a sit-down action by some 300 students lasted two hours, drawing attention from thousands of foreign tourists. Airport activities were not interfered with and flight schedules were normal.

In Pontianak, hundreds of students unfurled banners and posters in the VIP room in an action lasting from 10.00 to 11.45 hours. The intention was also to meet the regional Assembly members expected to return that day. They did not and the students were persuaded to return to campus.

A crowd of 20,000 students went into action at two locations in Bandung. Part demonstrated at the West Java regional parliament building, another part tried to enter the Siliwangi military headquarters, without success, and then paraded around town.

In Yogya thousands of students from various higher education institutes and youths paraded around town, stopping opposite the Pamungkas military resort headquarters to convey their demands through the government radio station.

Thousands of students also demonstrated in Padang, Semarang, Purwokerto and Solo. In Padang the students walked towards the Yudha Sakti battalion headquarters and the Wira Braja military resort headquarters, where they failed to take down the flag. They also broke all the windows of the West Sumatra branch office of the Functional Group.

In Semarang the crowd gathered on the Pancasila field. After praying they pulled out banners of the Functional Group and those inscribed with "Armed Forces". At the Governor's office they spread flowers and lowered the flag to half-mast.

A crowd of demonstrators in Solo expressed protest by burning a camouflage jacket. In Purwokerto students walked from the Universitas Soedirman campus to the square and the military district headquarters. The action of concern lasted from 09.00 hours until the afternoon.

Thousands of students of the Bogor Agricultural Institute and Universitas Pakuan took to the streets to show their dissatisfaction with the results of the Assembly Special Session, and in condolence at the death of their fellow-students in Jakarta. In Surabaya students of various campuses went to the Grahadi Building in convoy escorted by marines and police. On the way they pulled down the flag at all government offices. Actions also took place in Samarinda, Banjarmasin and Jember. Likewise in Ambon.

In Ujungpandang students forced the pickets at the Wirabuana military headquarters to lower the flag to half-mast. Reportedly the Hasanuddin airport which was paralyzed for five hours on Friday, has been restored to normal. The "7 November Declaration" Forum of Heads of Universities has declared 7-14 November as days of mourning on campus.

Jakarta on the `edge of chaos'

Louise Williams -- Tens of thousands of anti-Government protesters marched on Indonesia's symbolic Parliament building today as security forces looked on. Elsewhere in Jakarta, rioting and looting broke out in at least four parts of the city.

Witnesses said the march on Parliament was peaceful and included students. It was the first time troops had let so many protesters get near parliament after a week of pro-reform demonstrations. Today's protest march followed a night a violence in which at least 12 people were killed and hundreds injured in assaults by security forces on civilian demonstrators overnight.

Marines escorted the first groups of student protesters marching on the Parliament early this afternoon, where an occupation by students in May forced the resignation of former President Soeharto.

Key opposition figure Dr Amien Rais warned that Jakarta was on the "edge of chaos" as angry mobs burned and vandalised military and police vehicles in at least three locations near central Jakarta. The Australian embassy warned Australian citizens to exercise "considerable caution" and avoid demonstrations. Mobs were looting shopping centre near the city centres, and worsening violence was expected later tonight.

Behind the scenes President B.J. Habibie was scrambling to assemble his Cabinet for emergency talks but political analysts raised doubts over whether he could survive the escalating crisis. Two scenarios were being widely discussed; either a take over by a coalition of opposition reformist leaders sympathetic to the students or the imposition of martial law.

Influential Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid condemned the military's actions and announced his 40-million strong Nahdatul Ulama was prepared to "continue the students' unfinished struggle".

"The armed forces' members, who are supposed to be valiant, should stop the use of violence for the fulfillment of the personal ambitions of certain individuals." He was referring to the military's determination to crush the students' protests which were demanding an end to the military's role in politics as well as the trial of former President Soeharto for both corruption and human rights abuses during his 32years in power.

A former Soeharto Government minister turned reform leader, Sarwono Kususmaatmadja, broke down in tears when he heard of the deaths and announced: "With this incident the Habibie Government has lost any legitimacy it had. It has lost the moral right to govern, it can only stay in power by force."

The brutal assault by army and police officers on the Atma Jaya Catholic University on Friday night, provoked widespread public condemnation of the military, and navy Marines were moved into the sensitive frontline positions to try to quell public rage over the actions of riot troops.

The attack on about 20,000 students and onlookers began around 8.30pm on Friday night as a "special session" of the 1000-member People's Consultative Assembly was due to close, after signing a series of decrees dismantling the authoritarian political system of former President Soeharto.

But out on the streets, as students were beaten and shot with rubber bullets and doused with water cannon and tear gas, the scene was more reminiscent of the harsh security approach of the former Soeharto Government than the supposedly reformist stance of the Habibie adminstration.

The Jakarta Post ran banner headlines proclaiming "Black Friday" and scores of disturbing photographs of troops beating and shooting protesters. "I had tears streaming down my face and a pain in my heart when I saw the TV reports. They say they are a new regime, but they are just the same, we as so, so angry," said Jakarta resident, Dodi.

Analysts said the Marines were brought in today because of the navy's relatively good reputation as a professional and politically neutral force, compared to the poor human rights record of some military and police units who were used by former President Soeharto to maintain political control.

Rumors that the marines were preparing to split from the military and side with the students could not be confirmed. In one area of central Jakarta the Marines were forced to protect a police mobile brigade from an angry mob hurling rocks.

From Chinatown, a huge pall of smoke was rising late today, raising fears that rioting against Indonesia's wealthy business minority was underway. Local radio was reporting numerous incidents of attacks on shops and vehicles by angry mobs.

Five die in street protests

Louise Williams, Jakarta -- Five people were reportedly killed and scores injured after riot troops and tanks rammed student lines in at least three locations in Jakarta, but tens of thousands of protesters armed with rocks and sticks continued to ring the parliament in a tense stand-off late last night. An ABC TV crew was beaten with sticks by security forces. They were not seriously injured, but their camera was smashed.

Witnesses said tanks charged thousands of students in the main city thoroughfare and opened fire with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon, forcing protesters into the campus of the Atma Jaya Christian University. A witness reported six truckloads of riot troops charging a crowd of about 15,000 students and bystanders, firing into the crowd from their trucks.

Witnesses said three people -- two students and a bystander -- had been killed and at least 23 injured in the assault. Local radio reported that troops killed two residents at Chawang in East Jakarta, where local people were also facing riot troops. The radio said that at least one Indonesian journalist had been shot dead.

At the elite housing area and shopping area of Senayan, at least 30 university students were shot by riot troops and hundreds more beaten. Red Cross teams were treating victims on classroom floors at the nearby Moestopo University. About 8,000 students were still facing riot troops outside and student representatives said they were meeting to decide whether to attempt a new push towards parliament.

The protesters were calling for President B.J. Habibie to step down and challenging the legitimacy of the People's Consultative Assembly, which was meeting to draw up new political laws for the country. President Habibie was due to preside over the closing ceremony of a four-day "special session" of the assembly.

On the western approach to the parliament thousands of angry local residents were walking towards police lines, gathering rock and sticks, and shouting insults at security forces.

As well as last night's reported deaths, two students are believed to have died yesterday morning from injuries sustained on Thursday night. One police officer was also reported to have died after Thursday's violence and at least 120 students were being treated in hospital.

The 1,000-member People's Consultative Assembly was due to sign 12 decrees late last night which will dismantle Mr Soeharto's authoritarian political system and make way for democratic elections next year.

However, student protesters and thousands of members of the public who have joined the marches this week are challenging the legitimacy of the assembly, because it was formed under Mr Soeharto and is dominated by his former political allies. Early this morning local radio reported student leaders were calling on members of the public to join them in central Jakarta to make a new attempt to march on parliament. The reports put the crowd at 100,000.

In Ujung Pandang, the capital of the island of Sulawesi, some 200 students yesterday protested against the assembly meeting by occupying an airport runway, officials said.

Police beat democracy demonstrators

Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta -- Troops opened fire with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon here today to disperse thousands of chanting, flag-waving student demonstrators who were trying to take their demands for political reform to the barricaded gates of the country's parliament building.

Dozens of people were reported injured in the melee, which began when students tried to break through a police cordon. Some students were beaten by policemen wielding bamboo sticks, and some were taken to hospitals after apparently being hit by rubber bullets. A number of policemen also were injured by flying stones in the most serious violence seen here since last May, when widespread disorder ended with the ouster of President Suharto.

As the heavily outnumbered police and security forces battled the students outside, the 1,000 assembled legislators inside the arc-roofed parliament building raced to complete an overhaul of Indonesia's authoritarian, military-dominated political system and to bring to book those responsible for its excesses. A final decree, due Friday, is expected to open an investigation into Suharto's wealth and to lay out an accelerated schedule for elections next year.

But the pace of the delegates' efforts clearly was being dictated by the chaotic events on the rain-soaked streets, with the students -- not politicians or soldiers -- setting the terms and the timetable for the country's transition to democracy. Since a campus-based democracy movement last spring led to Suharto's overthrow, the students have emerged as a potent political force, unwilling to see their reform agenda hijacked by the remnants of a discredited ruling elite.

One member of the assembly, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, an adviser to President B.J. Habibie, conceded in a television interview that "the demonstrations outside are greatly influencing the mood of assembly members, including members of Golkar [the ruling party]. I think most Golkar members realize that they have to listen to the voice of the students. Otherwise, no matter how peacefully the assembly passes, the decrees will be rejected."

The students aimed their protest at the assembly because its 1,000 delegates consist primarily of former Suharto stalwarts and cronies, a contingent of 75 members of the armed forces and a few new members appointed by Habibie, a longtime Suharto protege with no independent power base. The students question whether these assembly members are fully committed to reform and whether political holdovers can represent Indonesia's new aspirations.

Today's protests were the largest this city has seen since Suharto was forced to step down in May, after more than 30 years in power. More than 20,000 students from various universities are believed to have taken part, and they converged on the parliament grounds from different points around the city, some coming in bus caravans, others on foot, with many waving red and white Indonesian flags and some wearing headbands and blazers in their school colors.

Their ranks were swelled along the way by throngs of supporters, including unemployed youths from the surrounding slums. The huge procession brought downtown traffic to a standstill, and the main toll road to the airport was closed. Businesses and shops shut down and workers were sent home as a fear of looming violence and rumors of fresh rioting swept through the city.

The demonstrations were largely peaceful until the students reached the parliament grounds, where they were met by a phalanx of heavily armed security forces -- police on the front lines, soldiers in the rear. As the sea of students surged against the plastic shields of the first police perimeter, the troops responded with tear gas, powerful bursts from a water cannon and volleys of rubber bullets.

Reports here said that the troops were ordered to use only blank cartridges and rubber bullets in their automatic weapons. The military is particularly sensitive about fatalities since the shooting deaths last May of four students at Jakarta's elite Trisakti University triggered nationwide outrage.

It appears that the assembly delegates are set to accede to at least some of the students' demands, with Golkar making an about-face on several key issues.

All assembly factions now say they agree that the decree to be issued Friday should include a statement condemning the corrupt practices of the past and calling for an investigation of the old regime. The factions also seem to agree that the role of the armed forces in parliament should be gradually reduced and eventually eliminated, with only the timing of this remaining in question.

The factions still must decide, though, whether to postpone next year's legislative elections from May -- when Habibie repeatedly has promised to hold them -- until July, a delay that would be certain to inflame the students. Government officials say such a delay would be purely for technical reasons, but the students are likely to see it as an attempt by Habibie and Golkar to cling to power.

Media show anger at military muscle

Jenny Grant -- In one of the ironies of Indonesia's tightly guarded National Assembly meeting, 150 local journalists staged a protest on the front steps of the parliament yesterday, angry over military violence against the press.

Police have closed the 16-lane toll road in front of the parliament for two days to prevent thousands of students entering the area following clashes on Wednesday. The military has camped out in the grounds and turned the parliament perimeter into a fortress.

But it was journalists bearing full accreditation with access to the venue who took over the stairs of the assembly for an hour and waved banners denouncing violence against media workers.

The journalists were angry three of their colleagues were beaten up by soldiers when covering a student protest that turned violent on Wednesday. "Journalists are not criminals!" yelled the protesters, some of them recording their demonstration to report later as news.

Farouk, from the Java Post newspaper, said the soldiers had ignored the identity cards all journalists wear to cover the assembly and street protests. "We have to give the military chief a deadline to instruct the military to protect journalists and to give an open apology through radio, press and television," he said to cheers. Armed Forces chief General Wiranto visited the injured journalists in hospital and apologised for the harm the military caused them.

In light mockery of the hundreds of student demonstrations they have covered this year, the reporters yelled out for free tubs of water and demanded a negotiating team be set up. A confused military intelligence officer videoed the protest and said he didn't know how he could use the information.

The time is up for the old regime

Louise Williams -- Inside Indonesia's imposing Parliament building the remnants of former President Soeharto's political elite were preparing to sign their own political death certificates as tens of thousands of protesting students outside bayed for their blood against lines of riot police.

When massive student demonstrations and riots forced Soeharto to step down six months ago, he handed over to close friend then vice-president Dr B.J.Habibie. Mr Soeharto's 1,000-member People's Consultative Assembly was then charged with dismantling his authoritarian political system at a four-day "extra-ordinary session" this week to make way for democratic elections next year.

Inside the committee rooms Mr Soeharto's former political allies were preparing significant changes to Indonesia's political laws, including the scrapping of the emergency powers Mr Soeharto bestowed upon himself, an end to subversion laws used against his political opponents, the phasing out of the armed forces' dominant role in politics, the redistribution of wealth, and even a decree on corruption which could see the former president tried for abusing political power for the economic gain of his family and friends.

As protests on the street grew bigger and more violent every day, Mr Soeharto's old friends from his dominant Golkar group, which ruled Indonesia for 32 years, were attempting to re-invent themselves as "reformists". By Thursday night students were battling with riot police only hundreds of metres from the Parliament gates, 120 people had been injured, one student and one police officer had been beaten to death and several students had been shot and seriously injured.

Significantly, thousands of ordinary people joined the students on the streets in the pouring rain, attacking riot troops with rocks as tear gas filled the narrow lanes of their working-class suburb.

Much of the students' anger is focused on the legitimacy of the assembly itself: how is it that a body formed under Mr Soeharto, and with no democratic right to rule, is entrusted with Indonesia's political future? Mr Soeharto's children and other clearly nepotistic and corrupt appointees were replaced ahead of the session, but essentially the assembly remains a remnant of the Soeharto regime. More specifically, students are seeking an immediate end to the role of the armed forces in politics and a decree which will force Dr Habibie to prosecute his former political mentor for corruption. Ultimately, though, the students are challenging the legitimacy of Dr Habibie and hope, through their return to the streets, to force his Government to give way to an opposition coalition, just as they led the protests against Mr Soeharto in May. Dr Habibie defiantly announced he would stay in power until December 1999 under a timetable to be set by the assembly, which schedules national elections for May or June and presidential elections for December next year.

His insistence follows public calls by key opposition leaders for an accelerated presidential election, and there has been a blizzard of rumours that ambitious politicians or military officers plan to use the student protests to bring Dr Habibie down.

However, in a statement televised nationwide, the Armed Forces commander, General Wiranto, warned that the "military and the people" would take "stern" measures against those attempting to break the law -- a reference to the students.

By yesterday it seemed clear that the "extraordinary session" would fail to meet the students' demands and that the signing of Indonesia's new political principles scheduled for early this morning Australian time could mark the beginning of a new phase of political protests, rather than defusing political tensions.

Within the assembly, the dominant Golkar group was this week moving fast to distance itself from Mr Soeharto and his policies. Just ahead of the session, the respected Human Rights Commissioner and former Soeharto critic, Mr Marzuki Darusman, was conscripted to lead the faction in an attempt to project a new, clean image.

Reacting to pressure from opposition politicians and student protests, Mr Marzuki, announced that Mr Soeharto may be named in the decree on corruption and that armed forces was no longer a "permanent" fixture in Indonesian politics, but would be phased out.

Earlier this week four key opposition leaders -- the pro- democracy figurehead Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, the leader of the largest Islamic organisation, Mr Adburrahman Wahid, the former head of the second-largest Islamic organisation, Mr Amien Rais, and the Governor of Yogyakarta, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X -- issued a list of demands for the "extraordinary session". These included a limit to the military's role, Mr Soeharto's accountability for corruption and presidential elections three months ahead of schedule. The assembly accepted all points except one - the rescheduling of the election.

Mr Rais earlier argued that if the assembly failed because of massive demonstrations chaos would ensue. The group of four argued that the only legitimate means of removing Dr Habibie from power was the holding of democratic elections.

Like the Golkar hopefuls inside the Parliament building, the opposition outside was effectively setting the stage for its own election campaigns next year and has no stake in encouraging the students.

Of the 1,000 members of assembly 575 were appointed under Mr Soeharto and the remaining 425 elected in polls manipulated to favour the ruling Golkar group. In democratic elections parties banned from participation under Mr Soeharto, such as Ms Megawati, are expected to sweep the polls.

"By passing the decrees they are signing their own political death certificates -- they know that," said Mr Andi Mallerangang, one of the members of the team drafting the new political legislation. "We are entering coalition politics, that is for certain," said Mr Marzuki, acknowledging the formal end of Mr Soeharto's political system and the turbulent power struggle that lies ahead.

East Timor

Rebels hold two soldiers hostage

Jakarta -- Troops in the troubled Indonesian territory of East Timor were hunting for rebels who killed three soldiers and were holding two hostage, reports said Thursday.

East Timor military chief Colonel Tono Suratman said the troops were searching an eare in Alas sub-district, 200 kilometres (124 miles) south of here, the Jakarta Post daily said. "ABRI (the Indonesian armed forces) will continue to hunt down the guerrillas. As long as they do not surrender, we will attack and arrest them," Suratman told journalists.

A gang of 50 men attacked a police post in Alas on Monday, killing three soldiers and abducting 13. One of the rebels was also killed. Suratman said the raiders, who had taken firearms and ammunition from the post, released 11 soldiers on Tuesday.

The military knew where the rebels were and would attempt to persuade them to surrender, he said. "If they do not heed us, then we will attack them."

Monday's attack also left one of the attacker dead. The victims was identified as a local youth known to be troublesome. The killings brought the number known killed in East Timor in the past two weeks to six soldiers and four civilians.

One thousand commemorate massacre

Lewa Pardomuan, Dili -- East Timorese on Thursday marked the killings of scores of unarmed protesters on this day in 1991 with tears and renewed anti-Indonesia sentiment in the former Portuguese colony.

Mourners burst into tears as students staged a play portraying the massacre at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, where Indonesian troops opened fire on unarmed demonstrators seven years ago.

"In this place, there were many East Timorese youths who gave up their chests to be shot by the Indonesian soldiers... and to be crucified by the bullets. East Timorese have recorded this as part of their history," a former guerrilla member, Mauhudu, told the crowd in the local Tetum language. "We should unite to continue their struggle... for self-determination," said Mahudu who said he spoke on behalf of the Fretilin guerrilla movement.

About 1,000 people from various districts in the territory gathered at the cemetery to remember the dead in a ceremony held for the first time at the spot itself. They brought flowers, banners showing pictures of jailed Fretilin guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao and shouted "Viva Timor Leste (East Timor)."

Mourners later lay wreaths at a wooden crucifix inside the cemetery. "I am so sad... I just can't speak," one survivor of the massacre said in tears as she stood nearby. There was no sign of increased police and military presence in Dili, where tension usually rises ahead of the anniversary.

In Canberra, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the number of Indonesian troops in East Timor was too high and should be substantially reduced to pave the way for a lasting peace. "We think the troop numbers, whatever they are in East Timor, are still too great and that it would be helpful to the process of reconciliation in East Timor to reduce the numbers below their current level," he said in an interview to Reuters Television.

In the past, commemoration of the Santa Cruz massacre was restricted to homes and the East Timor university compound because the heavy military presence would discourage people from visiting the cemetery.

Students cancelled an anti-Indonesia protest on Thursday, in line, they said, with instructions from Xanana. Instead, they held the play in front of the cemetery, which featured the sounds of cries and machine guns. Many players and spectators were openly sobbing by the end.

East Timorese also held a candlelight vigil at their homes on Wednesday night to remember the dead. The territory's charismatic Bishop Carlos Belo held a mass at a chapel in his beach-front residence on Thursday. He declined to speak to journalists. Belo earlier urged people in the predominantly Catholic region of 800,000 to remain calm.

Killing continued after Dili massacre

Lisbon -- A Portuguese former governor of East Timor said Saturday that the 1991 massacre by Indonesian troops at a Dili cemetery was followed days later with more bloodshed, with 50 people shot dead and 100 buried alive.

Mario Carrascalao was governor of East Timor when Indonesian troops fired into a crowd of peaceful pro-independence demonstrators at the Santa Cruz cemetery in November 1991, killing around 50 people, according to official tolls.

He told the independent Portuguese weekly Expresso that after the massacre, around 100 people held in the cemetery by Indonesian forces were shuttled out in two army trucks and buried alive in a rubbish tip on a road outside Dili. Some 50 others were shot dead at approximately the same time, on the banks of the river Bemos into which their bodies were thrown, the governor told Expresso.

Carrascalao, who is currently advisor to Indonesian President B.J. Habibie on East Timor, said he remained silent over the killings, judging that it was "not the time to open new inquiries" which could derail UN-sponsored talks between Lisbon and Jakarta regarding the Timorese territory.

Human rights/law

Freedom dream dies at dawn

Four months after scores of Irian Jaya villagers were allegedly brutalised and murdered by Indonesian troops for raising an independence flag, the stories of the survivors begin to surface, Lindsay Murdoch reports.

For four days the striped "morning star" flag of the West Papuan independence movement fluttered on top of a 35-metre water tower at Biak's jetty. It was a powerful symbol of defiance, prompting the arrival on the windswept coral island, just off New Guinea, of hundreds of Indonesian troops.

Villagers sang and danced into the night, celebrating what they believed was their escape from 35 years of Indonesian repression. The people of Biak have traditionally seen themselves as great warriors and they collected Molotov cocktails and spears to defend their new land and lives as independent West Papuans.

Church leaders, fearing a bloodbath, convinced them to hand over the weapons, promising that God would protect them. The villagers pledged on the Bible, however, to defend the morning star to the death.

Emboldened by international calls for East Timor and Irian Jaya to break away from Jakarta's rule, the independence leader, Dr Filip (Yopy) Karma, declared before hundreds of people on July 2 that the people of West Papua would stand united and "live or die" under the flag. "We, the people of West Papua, declare that the Republic of Indonesia cannot interfere in the affairs of West Papua," vowed 39-year-old Dr Karma, a provincial government employee.

The July flag-raising in Biak and several other Irian Jaya towns, including the capital, Jayapura, marked the anniversary of a July 1, 1961, proclamation of independence of West Papua. The Indonesian military had learnt of arrangements to raise the flags and sent a memo to police stations warning of a "rash of OPM-led pro-independence actions". (OPM is the acronym for the Free Papua movement). The memo warned of elements inside and outside Indonesia wanting to destabilise the country and fuel anti- Indonesian sentiments.

The flag raising in Biak on July 2 had turned violent, fuelling anger among the Indonesian security forces on the island and prompting orders to bring in troops from Ambon and other provinces. After a local military commander had, in his words, tried to "give guidance and direction" to the demonstrators, the crowd had turned on soldiers and police, apparently wounding 13 troops, two of them so seriously they had to be airlifted out of Irian Jaya.

Still, the mood beneath the flag at the water tower on the evening of July 5 was festive. A new demand by military commanders to leave the area was ignored and they settled in for the night. The attack came at 5.30 the next morning.

Most of the about 200 people at the tower were asleep when the soldiers opened fire from four sides. "They treated the people like animals," one of the villagers later told Australian teacher Paul Meixner and his wife, Rebecca Casey, who were awoken in their nearby house by the gun shots.

The soldiers fired low and many of the villagers were shot in their legs and arms as they scrambled to their feet and ran for their lives. Some wounded were shot again as they tried to crawl to their homes. Others were dead before they knew what was happening. A woman sleeping next to a villager was shot in the chest. "She asked me to help ... she was just drooping," the witness told the Australian couple in a video-recorded interview.

Rebecca Casey says witnesses told her of blood and dead bodies around them. Dr Karma was shot at point blank range in the elbows and knees and rifle-butted in the head after falling to the ground, two witnesses told her. Dr Karmawas dragged off to jail and faces life imprisonment on charges of rebellion.

Human rights and church groups who have investigated the massacre and the military's subsequent abuse of the survivors have failed to establish how many people were killed, raped, tortured or thrown into the sea from two Indonesian navy ships, never to be seen alive again.

But they agree the atrocities were among the worst commited by the military in the former Dutch territory now known as Irian Jaya since it became part of Indonesia after a sham United Nations-sponsored referendum in 1969.

They have gathered evidence that they say disproves claims by the Indonesian military that only one or two people were killed when soldiers went to disperse the crowd and take down the flag. They also have evidence that bodies washed up on shores were not victims of the tsunami that swamped the Papua New Guinea coast 900 kilometres away two weeks later, as claimed by Indonesian authorities. Many of the bodies were washed up before the tsunami hit and were almost certainly those of people rounded up on Biak.

When the shootings started, locals rushed to the house where Mr Meixner and Ms Casey were staying and told them to stay inside. Over the next few nights, until the couple were forced to leave the island, villagers came to them and gave graphic accounts of the military's reign of terror.

Rebecca Casey says that in the hours after the shootings, about 200 people, some of them wounded and others who only came into Biak town to get petrol and rice, were taken to the docks. "They were forced to crawl along the road while the soldiers rifle- butted, kicked and walked on them," she says.

"They were forced to lie by the docks and look at the sun for two hours while soldiers marched on their stomachs and faces. After further beatings they were then forced to crawl along the road to the cells. The whole town was blockaded and there were no people on the streets. Everyone stayed in their homes and many did not leave them for days. There were about 28 men to a cell and many people became sick from the unsanitary conditions." Witnesses say that prisoners could not lie down and were forced to urinate and defecate where they stood. Some were school children. Witnesses told the couple that some villagers were tied and repeatedly dunked into the sea from the jetty, apparently a form of torture to get them to name independence movement leaders. Others were bashed and, under the threat of further violence, sent to spy on independence supporters.

The couple believes that at least 20 people were killed in the initial shootings and more than 100 wounded. "What happened was an absolute outrage," Ms Casey says. "The soldiers opened fire without warning. The wounded taken to hospital were denied treatment and relatives were not allowed to see them."

Ms Sidney Jones, of the United States-based organisation Human Rights Watch, says in a soon-to-be-released report that according to witnesses five civilians lying prone on the ground were deliberately shot. She says the body of one man who died in hospital after being shot in the head had not been returned to his family one month later.

Ms Jones quotes a young man who was in the crowd when the shooting started as saying the army loaded the dead, wounded and others on to a truck that was driven into the jungle. He and 10 others were let off and taken to navy headquarters where he was held for five days. He had no idea what happened to the dead and wounded.

Investigators from the Indonesian Council of Churches, who have released a report into the killings, quote two witnesses saying they were forced to throw human corpses into shipping containers. They name four of the possible victims. After the shootings people were too scared to be seen talking with the Australian couple and Mr Meixner was forced to abandon his English classes.

Before the couple left the island and returned to Australia they kept hearing disturbing stories about prisoners, the wounded and others being taken away in two navy ships that had brought the soldiers to the island. "There were two theories," Ms Casey says. "One was that they were being taken to Jakarta where they would be jailed and the other they had been dumped at sea."

Australian student Mr Andrew Kilvert sensed something terrible had happened when he arrived at Biak five days after the shootings. He was already rattled, having seen soldiers brutally put down pro-independence demonstrations in the provincial capital, Jayapura. One student had been shot dead. A police intelligence officer also died after mobs turned on him during street demonstrations in which Free Papua supporters paraded the Morning Star. At the airport in Biak, family members were weeping and soldiers were everywhere. In town a lawyer told Mr Kilvert that he had been representing some of the protesters, who had by then disappeared. The man was afraid but wanted the outside world to know what had happened.

According to the lawyer, 24 people were killed on the morning of July 6. But many more died when soldiers went from house to house shooting people. The wounded could not get medical care and were hiding in homes and churches. Some died because of lack of medical help. Women had been raped on the back of army trucks, the lawyer claimed.

The Indonesian human rights group Kosorairi says that in the Irian Jaya town of Sorong "women had been thrown in the back of a truck and stripped naked and jumped onto by the soldiers and one died due to internal bleeding because she was pregnant".

Mr Kilvert says the lawyer's most shocking information was that 139 people, including women and children, had been taken out to sea on two navy ships. "He told us that they couldn't have been taken very far because one of the frigates had just returned and had only been out of port a day or two."

Locals became alarmed when bodies started washing up. The Christian Evangelical Church in Biak has documented the finding on 11 July -- six days before the tsunami -- of 23 bodies in offshore fishing nets. Another 21 bodies, most of them men, were found on July 13 in the same area. On July 16 the bodies of two young women were found naked near a village east of Biak. On July 25 the bodies of three women, a boy and child were found washed up at Opiaref village. The mother was still clutching the child.

Reverend Phil Erari, of the Independent Council of Churches in Jakarta, says an investigation by his organisation uncovered almost unbelievable crimes commited on at least one of the navy ships. One witness testified that several bodies were cut up and put into bags.

According to two children who escaped by jumping into the sea and swimming away, women were undressed and raped on the deck, Rev Erari says. The children listened to people screaming for help. The council's 14-page report says: "These two children are key witnesses for the missing persons case. Another witness also described how he was miraculously saved. He was put in a plastic barrel and thrown into the sea. This witness is ready to testify under oath."

When bodies began washing up on or around Biak, the Indonesian military insisted they were from the tsunami. Church investigators have documented the discovery of 70 bodies. Rev Erari says 10 to 15 of them were almost certainly from the tsunami. The rest were apparently Biak victims. Sidney Jones says the bodies of 33 men, women and children were washed ashore from July 27. She reports: "There were unconfirmed reports from local people that some of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and one was wearing a Golkar (Indonesian) T-shirt, giving rise to the belief that at least some of the bodies might be those of shooting victims.

Activists have questioned why bodies from the tsunami only showed up in Biak and nowhere else. There are many other places along the Irian Jaya coast closer to Papua New Guinea than Biak. On the other hand, reports in the local newspaper Cenderawasih Pos, quoting military sources, stated that some of the bodies were tattooed with marks found only among PNG natives, and that other artefacts, including school books and a map washed up with the bodies, suggested strongly that they were tsunami victims. A medic who helped bury the bodies reported that one had washed ashore with the remains of a house. All were buried quickly, however, without proper autopsies, so the cause of death remains uncertain."

Dr John Rumbiak, of the Human Rights Advocacy Team for Irian Jaya, a group backed by churches and Jakarta-based, non- government groups, says the fact authorities in Irian Jaya did not notify PNG of the bodies "raised suspicion of something fishy going on". Local groups and church leaders are urging that the bodies be exhumed as part of a full investigation.

The military's violent response to the flag raising is likely to boost Irian Jaya's independence movement rather than crush it, diplomats and experts say. In October a series of pro- independence demonstrations took place across the province. Many government buildings were burnt to the ground.

Up to 20 people, including Mr Filip Karma, have been charged with rebellion or treason and face life imprisonment. If convicted they will not be the first. In 1989 a former civil servant, Dr Tom Wanggai, 52, was sentenced to 20 years' jail after raising the Morning Star flag. He died later in a Jakarta jail. An Irian Jaya specialist, Dr George Aditjondro, who spent five years living in Irian Jaya and now lectures at the University of Newcastle in NSW, says that although the independence movement is portrayed by Indonesian authorities as being a small group of OPM savages with bows and arrows in the jungle, it has wide support among indigenous students, intellectuals, civil servants and villagers.

Dr Aditjondro says the success of the student movement in Jakarta in ousting President Soeharto in May has encouraged people to renew their struggle for self-determination. In the euphoria following President Soeharto's resignation anything seemed possible, including an independent state in the western half of the island of PNG.

People had seized upon a recent letter several members of the United States Congress had sent to Indonesia's President, Dr B.J. Habibie calling, among other things, for talks on the political status of East Timor and Irian Jaya.

Many wrongly interpreted this as the most powerful country in the world backing their independence. According to Rebecca Casey, locals believed that if the Morning Star flag flew over Biak for more than 72 hours, as it did in July, they had obtained their independence. When people were singing and dancing in their traditional way in the hours before the massacre, they believed their new millennium had begun.

Dr Aditjondro says that among 240 different tribes in West Papua, as he prefers to call Irian Jaya, the people of Biak are the most dominant, with a long tradition of contact and trading throughout neighbouring islands. "Biak is the heartland of West Papuan independence feelings. This is probably why the military acted with such brutality against the demonstrators."

The military claims 24 people were wounded and one or two killed when it broke up the Biak crowd, and has announced a fact-finding team to investigate. Its mandate and composition are unclear. Initially the military denied any deaths or the use of live ammunition.

Growing calls for a full and official investigation, independent of the military, coincide with proposed talks between President Habibie and community, church and student leaders from Irian Jaya early next year.

For decades the Irianese have complained of being treated like second-class citizens in their own villages. One-third of the province's 1.5 million people are settlers from western Indonesia, who dominate trade and commerce. The Irianese want the talks to focus on "aspirations towards a peaceful settlement of the political status and human rights violations in Irian Jaya".

But a foreign priest living in Irian Jaya has told friends in Australia that while the attitude of the Indonesian military is very bad, efforts to co-ordinate an Irianese political agenda are weak. "There is not yet a generally accepted forum which can voice the issues properly and take a stand respected by all."

After sending representatives to Irian Jaya recently, the Indonesian Council of Churches reported Papuans demanding "freedom and liberation from the Indonesian Government, which they regard as more cruel than Dutch or Japanese colonialists".

Rebecca Casey and Paul Meixner have just moved to Sydney, where Ms Casey started a new job in marketing this week. "I can't believe there hasn't been an outcry about what happened," she says. "But it is not too late."

Indonesia's long, hard road to the truth

Appointed secretary of the fact-finding team in July, she now says, following the publication of its report last week, that there is not enough evidence to conclude that the rapes were organised.

That intuitive instinct to blame the military translates less well into proof. Up till now, there has been no evidence directly implicating the military, or everyone's favourite rogue general, the sacked Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, in the mass rapes.

What has emerged so far is a hotch-potch of innuendo and isolated, second-hand accounts. Father Sandyawan Sumardi, the Catholic priest who first brought global attention to bear on Indonesia with detailed reports on the May riots, and who continues to press for a full accounting by the government, is said to have in his custody a couple of young men who claimed they were trained at a military base to wreak havoc during the riots.

Drugged, bruised and bleeding, they ran literally into the priest's arms in the chaotic aftermath of the riots as they fled separately from their alleged trainers, activists close to him said.

Another activist, who lost a wife and two daughters when rioters looted and burnt his shophouse, says he met an Islamic kyai (religious scholar) who told of hearing a confession from a contrite Kopassus special forces soldier who said he had commanded a unit which instigated the looting orgy in Lippo Karawachi mall in west Jakarta.

The soldier, remorseful after discovering that seven members of his own family had died in burning malls elsewhere, claimed he knew of two other units, comprising gangsters imported from eastern Indonesia and assorted military school drop-outs, whose jobs were to "burn and rape" in his area.

The activist says he has no reason to doubt the kyai's sincerity. They were both mourning loved ones at the mass graves for victims of the riots in mid- August, the 100th day after the riots, when the kyai poured out his woes. "I told him that if he did not tell the press and the fact-finding commission about the Kopassus man, he would have to pay for his sins in hell." The kyai subsequently testified before the commission. When a local magazine Tajuk published a detailed account, the military threatened to sue.

Fact-finding team chairman Marzuki Darusman, asked about the veracity of the kyai's account and that of the two "drugged" youths, says they were among the mass of data his team considered worthy of verification. The final report makes no reference to these events. But one ethnic Chinese volunteer is impressed that team members are even prepared to listen. "We Chinese think that if the Indonesians believe these stories, then the riots must have been something awful even for them."

You are not wanted here

Whether there were only 85 verifiable cases of rape and sexual assault, and not 168 as first claimed by human rights advocates, the message for Indonesia's Chinese community is crystal clear: "You are not wanted here." The anti-Chinese dimension "really comes out in the rapes", says Mr Marzuki, speaking in his personal capacity before his team finished its three-month probe last month. "Once you establish the scale of the rapes and a pattern emerges, it is not difficult to conclude that systematic terror was intended to leave an impact on the Chinese community to make them leave or put them on notice."

And tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese have left, for Singapore, Australia, Hongkong and elsewhere. For them, the rapes were the last straw. "Our pride is hurt," says Indonesian Chinese business leader Sofyan Wanandi. "It is something insulting to us. The trauma is such that families will keep quiet and just leave."

In the weeks following the first revelations, he has had to relocate five of his managers abroad to placate their frightened wives; more remain on waiting lists. His own wife, he admits, has been pressuring him to leave, too. "We're not an open society. Some fathers will rather kill their daughters than tell people they've been raped. We can almost accept them killing us. But rapes... It is most sensitive. We can't accept it." Still, "enough is enough". Anger has accompanied fear. "It is time to fight back," he declares.

The top 10 per cent of the Indonesian Chinese community might be able to leave. But 90 per cent of them have neither the skills nor the capital to resettle elsewhere. It is for this 90 per cent "who can't go" that community leaders must begin examining how they can convince society at large that the Chinese here are also Indonesians.

Among the options: joining forces with Muslim political parties to convince their grassroots that the Chinese can "change their attitude", that they are prepared and willing to integrate. This strategy should also "neutralise politicians" who might otherwise pick on the Chinese as scapegoats to whip up support or deflect anger away from themselves, he reckons, careful at the same time to stress his belief that it is only a "small minority" who want to force the Chinese out.

But whether this small minority is a military unit headed by Lt- Gen Prabowo, as the fact-finding team contends, or not, they certainly used to devastating effect the anti-Chinese sentiment that is so deep-seated among Jakarta's urban poor that many allowed themselves to be mobilised to terrorise the Chinese in their midst, to steal and destroy their properties even as others in the community gave them sanctuary.

The only question here is whether they also raped Chinese women as a primal act of conquest. Did a number of individuals spontaneously, and independently in their own corners of Jakarta, decide that they should act out their hatred of ethnic Chinese by raping the womenfolk, to contaminate the bloodline, so to speak? Or were those paid to start the riots also given licence to rape and harass women as an added incentive, much like Moroccan soldiers fighting with Free French forces in Italy in 1943 were offered mercenary terms, which included licence to rape and plunder in enemy territory.

Sociologist Julia Suryakusuma, who specialises in the study of sexuality, notes that "historically, rape is commonly used as an integral part of humiliating and demoralising the enemy in war situations. The rape of a nation's women signifies the rape of the nation's dignity".

Mass rapes have been documented in Bosnia, Cambodia, Liberia, Peru, Somalia and Uganda. Further back in history, there was the Rape of Nanjing in 1937 by Japanese forces and their enslavement of "comfort women" throughout the countries they conquered. But Indonesia is not currently in a state of war, she points out, making the mass rapes in May "particularly galling and horrific".

Whatever answers history later provides, the May violence has also led many middle-class Chinese Indonesians to ask a more personal question: Who are we, we non-Chinese-speaking people who long ago gave up our Chinese names and customs to merge better into society at large?

Old grudges coming to light

Television personality Anton Indracaya is determined to give his three children opportunities to learn Chinese, the mother tongue he does not understand. "I'm ashamed. I speak better French, German, Italian than Chinese." The British-trained PhD in psychology is also the public relations manager for Indonesia's acclaimed national badminton team, whose key players are ethnic Chinese.

He recalls being in Hongkong for the Thomas Cup a week after the riots. Olympic champion Susi Susanti, who is Indonesian Chinese, had just lost her final match. Walking back to his hotel in tears as he wondered how his fellow citizens back home would react to the loss, he suddenly thought: "We're fighting for Indonesia abroad. But back home in Indonesia, we're afraid for our lives."

Although determined to stay on in Indonesia -- "I can't choose where to live. I'm not Sofyan Wanandi" -- he will no longer demand of his children, now aged three, 12 and 18 years old, that they live in Indonesia too when they grow up. "It's just not fair on them," he says, remembering the nine rape victims he has seen, one a nine-year-old.

Along with a number of middle-class Chinese Indonesians, he now spends much of his time trying to help fellow Chinese victims of the May riots, many of whom were already struggling to eke out a decent living when their homes and businesses were destroyed.

Although a militant tone sometimes enters into their discussions on the institutional discrimination they face, these ethnic Chinese volunteers prefer to keep a low profile, leaving the shouting to their better-established indigenous counterparts. "Our objective is to help victims, not publicise numbers," says one Chinese woman, who gave up a career to work full-time with a rescue group. But she also senses "a spirit of unity" now that did not previously exist among Jakarta's disparate Chinese communities, separated as they are by socio-economic class, place of residence and ancestral origins.

"We need to use the opportunity," she says. Opportunity to reach out to the larger community to accept them and to press for better protection for and the removal of discriminatory policies against themselves.

The largely indigenous-run non-government groups (NGOs) are certainly using the adverse global publicity generated by the May riots and mass rapes to press for much-needed political and social changes. Whatever their original impetus -- women's rights, labour rights, press freedom, Islamic resurgence, clean government, Aceh, East Timor, Irian Jaya -- the NGOs tend to agree on one issue: It is time ABRI got out of politics.

If the May atrocities can be pinned decisively on ABRI -- regardless of whether a small coterie of generals or an entire unit is implicated -- then perhaps the powerful institution can be shamed and pressured into relinquishing its stranglehold on Indonesian politics so much more readily in the hope of achieving national reconciliation.

As it is, widespread belief in its culpability for the May riots does not even need the imprimatur of the official fact-finding commission to translate into conviction that ABRI is responsible for all the abuses thousands of Indonesians from Aceh to Irian Jaya have suffered for close to three decades. Nor will it quench the thirst for retribution and compensation.

As Mr Marzuki puts it, the "resentment of 25 years" is now coming to the surface. "Old issues are coming out with the euphoria of freedom. People are finding ways to express their grievances." The only snag so far: "We're not used to resolving matters decisively or definitively. We always do things half way, glossing over or sweeping under the carpet. Eventually the past catches up with us again. There must be a way of discontinuing past practices," he says.

It now remains to be seen whether his fact-finding report will succeed in prodding ABRI and the current political leadership to find the courage and the imagination to meet the demands of justice.

The rapes: what really happened?

A fact-finding team issued a report last week confirming that gang rapes did occur during the May riots in Jakarta and that the upheaval could be linked to senior military figures.

The investigation had to overcome cultural taboos, official denials and silence from its victims. Indonesia Correspondent Susan Sim, who spoke to two rape victims, reports.

Jakarta -- Her left foot stops its nervous tap long enough for her hands to show where they tried to stab her. "Here," she says, pressing the right side of her abdomen where the scar is, her face scrunched up in concentration.

The aluminium rod did not penetrate her there. But it did elsewhere, with so much force that it tore into her vagina and urinary tract, rupturing both. "I felt it go right," she says, miming the movement of the rod. "The doctors say I can still have babies," she adds, as her new friends look away. (We are going to send her to an overseas hospital for a complete check-up, "Auntie Polly" whispers.)

Lina (not her real name) is 20, but looks barely 16 in her slim, almost adolescent frame. She was raped by three men on the afternoon of July 2, in a house in the rich, Chinese-dominated Jakarta suburb of Sunter.

The undergraduate had just taken a shower and was asleep in her room when she felt a hand groping her. As she stirred, another hand was clamped over her mouth. Other hands held down her arms and legs. They tried to turn her over. "But I struggled and fell on my back. So they stabbed me in the front. They looked like builders... in their 30s. They didn't say anything."

She thinks the attack lasted 15 to 20 minutes, but now she recollects it as a quick blur of activity. "I must have fainted because I couldn't breathe with that hand over my mouth. "When I woke up, they were gone. I felt pain when I tried to get up. Very bad pain."

She spent a month in hospital as doctors operated to repair her reproductive system. Now three months later, the only visible scar is on her right hand, where the rod cut into a finger as she tried to stop her rapists from stabbing her. It was a flat, L- shaped aluminium rod, like the edge of a table, she insists, annoyed when one of her minders describes it as a curtain rail.

Her new aunts and uncles are from a loose network of social workers and concerned souls who, horrified by the violence that shredded families and communities here in May, are now trying to help the victims, especially the women gang-raped then.

As Lina lay in her hospital bed, unwilling to involve her widowed mother in her trauma -- "the story will become too long if I tell her" -- these strangers adopted her and began planning her rehabilitation. In a foreign land. One of them, 44-year-old Chairul, lost his wife and two teenage daughters when a mob burnt his shophouse in Jakarta's Chinatown. Out helping other victims in another area then, he later returned to find his wife's body on a dining room table, a daughter under a bed and another in a closet.

Lina reminds him of his lost daughters. "It's a shame she's got no father to help her like a father should," he says, feeling guilty, too, that he was not at home to help his own family when the mobs struck. Now, his gas supply business disrupted, he devotes most of his time to locating rape victims and finding them safe houses. Like Lina, who calls him "papi", Dutch for Daddy.

"She has to leave Jakarta because the police are harassing her," Aunt Polly, an activist with an ethnic Chinese rescue group, takes up the story. "They want her to say the two men they caught are her rapists so they can close her case."

The week before, in mid-September, Jakarta police had brought the two men, apparently construction workers picked up in Sunter, to the scene of the crime to re-enact the rape on her. "We wouldn't let them see her because it is too risky. Other victims have disappeared," she says.

She believes Lina's rape is not an isolated, spontaneous act of crime but, like those which occurred during the May riots, part of efforts to terrorise the ethnic Chinese community in Indonesia. For unknown to Lina, the owner of the house in Sunter she was staying in at the time of her rape had received a letter two days earlier threatening unprintable atrocities against Chinese men and women. The anonymous letter was also received by many other ethnic Chinese households.

A joint fact-finding team appointed by the government agrees that Lina's case appears to fit a continuing pattern of sexual violence in the aftermath of the May riots. The riots which swept Jakarta then were the high-point in an escalating pattern of violence which led to the resignation of President Suharto, it says.

In the report issued last Tuesday, the team said it could confirm the gang- rapes of at least 66 women, the majority of whom were ethnic Chinese females raped in their homes or workplace in the presence of onlookers. Fourteen of them were also tortured. Another 10 women were attacked sexually but not raped during the three days of anarchy.

Although the team could not ascertain if the rapes were "premeditated or mere excesses of the riots", it concluded that nine cases which occurred before and after the unrest here "were linked". These included two rapes in Jakarta on July 2 and two in Solo on July 8. Lina is now officially a statistic in the quest to discover the truth behind the May riots.

Accusations and counter-claims

Gina is not. Like perhaps countless others, she has been too ashamed to tell anyone about her gang-rape on the night of May 13. Until recently.

From one of the Eastern Indonesian islands, 21-year-old Gina (not her real name) was working in a Chinese restaurant in Roxy, west Jakarta, when a crowd of men sporting short hair, singlets and boots broke in. "I tried to run. I said I'm Muslim even though I'm not. But they caught me and raped me." There were four rapists.

To this day, she cannot talk about what they did to her. Neither has she been to see a doctor. "I have no money. I'm too afraid to tell anyone. And I'm too ashamed to go home. In my hometown, if a women is raped, she is shunned."

One month after the rape, Gina sold some jewellery and bought a train ticket to Bali to begin life anew, where I met her in her new workplace. No one knows how many other Ginas, non-Chinese women raped in Chinese-owned establishments, there are; they could have been among the first rape victims when the looting and plundering first erupted in Roxy and other Chinese-dominated areas in West Jakarta on the night of May 13.

But most reports, including the fact-finding team's, suggest that ethnic Chinese women were the primary victims of the May rapes and sexual harassment. Some accounts even describe how several would-be rapists released their victims when the women said they were Muslims, not Chinese.

Others, like the Internet story of Vivian, with its claim that her rapists invoked the name of Islam, have added religion to the ugly brew of racial animosity already borne out in the mob's usual choice of targets: Chinese- owned shops and homes.

Leaders of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, the 35- million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have already gone on record to express their fear of sharpening racial and religious polarisation as a result of such rape accounts.

"The Muslims have been cornered, because it was reported that the rapists yelled the words 'Allahu Akbar' before they raped their victims," a mailer advertising an NU-organised public forum in August said. "This barbarian action will never be done by people who fully understand and practise the religion," it added. Still, it noted, "since the Jahiliyah era (the age of ignorance before the arrival of Islam), the act of raping women has been assumed to be the most effective way to conquer certain races".

The fact-finding team's conclusion: "No facts have been discovered about the aspect of religion in the sexual violence." It declined to confirm suspicions, voiced by some human rights advocates, that the rapes were symptomatic of an ethnic cleansing operation, like in Bosnia. Nor, it indicated, could it say definitively that the rapes were merely the anomic actions of hooligans taking advantage of chaotic times.

The notion of a Serbian-style masterplan to drive out the Chinese through the rape of its women is one that many Indonesians -- scholars, legislators and blue-collar workers alike -- have difficulty dealing with.

The adamant rejections by ABRI chief General Wiranto and other senior government officials of the validity of the rape accounts have also contributed to a murky climate where fear now jousts with outrage to undermine the credibility of those documenting the violence.

Sifting fact from fiction

Adding to the confusion is the bandwagon effect that has turned rape into a cause celebre in a society well-known for its susceptibility to rumour-mongering and completely Asian in its shunning of rape victims as stains on family honour. Outrageous tales of continuing gang-rapes of young Chinese girls in shopping malls have fuelled hysteria, making it even harder for objective observers to sift fact from fiction.

Damaging, too, have been the slew of pornographic photos of alleged rapes and graphic accounts from supposed victims posted on the Internet; the anonymity and instant global reach of the Net proving far too malleable to those out to dramatise the Indonesian rapes for their own reasons. "There's more mystery than reality," says noted political scientist Mochtar Pabottingi of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lipi). "I'm reluctant to say there were organised rapes as portrayed until I see hard facts."

Still, troubled by the suggestion in some accounts of a religious vendetta at work, he corrects himself the next day. He does not doubt the rapes occurred.

"But non-societal forces like criminals must have been involved," he says tentatively. Drug-crazed gangsters, "Pavlov-trained" convicts, "cold-faced" military types -- these were the rapists someone unleashed in Jakarta in mid-May.

And subsequently silenced, hence the corpses, minus their hands but still wearing military boots, which turned up on the beaches of Pulau Seribu off Jakarta in July. Figments of a public imagination turned voyeuristic?

Invoking a cruel mastermind was the only way Dr Rosita Noer could come to terms in July with the viciousness of the attacks that left two young sisters she examined mutilated so severely. She learnt of their ordeal from an ethnic Chinese member of a government committee for the assimilation of minorities that she chairs. The family had already gone into hiding when she received the call on May 15.

Taking security precautions "like a spy", the medical doctor- turned-entrepreneur visited the family and persuaded the sisters to let her examine them. "I was shocked," she says, closing her eyes as she recalls the details. "The intestines were punctured. The damage to the womb... Can you imagine what pain they were in? How can human beings do that to two sisters? They asked me, 'What have I done wrong?'

"I can only hope that disclosure will help bring to court whoever organised this, whoever gave the orders for this." The girls' family declined her offer of medical aid. They died of infection one week after the gang rapes, aged 18 and 20.

In all, Dr Noer, one of the first few non-government activists to call attention to "hundreds" of mass rapes during the riots, says she saw six rape victims, although "the others were too ashamed" to let her conduct a medical examination.

Convinced that the rapes were perpetuated to create mass terror, she theorises that the rapists were trained either by deprivation or conditioning. "Psychologically, men can be trained to rape. Like Pavlov trained his dog to work for its meals." And although she counts many generals among her friends, she says it is only natural that suspicion falls on rogue military elements. "You and I can't train people to shoot, burn so many shops, rape, loot, sexually harass women. Who knows military techniques?"

News & issues

Australian premier backs Habibie

Canberra -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Saturday he had faith in Indonesian President B.J. Habibie implementing the reforms necessary to pull his country out of crisis.

"There's a lot of social strain, the living standard of that country has plunged and there are tens of millions of Indonesians living below the poverty line, so it's a potent cocktail for discontent and civil disturbance," Howard told SBS television.

"We had hoped with the new administration that there would be some progress towards a more open society and that has plainly happened," he added, as thousands rampaged in Jakarta and unrest spread across the country following a night of violence in the capital which left at least 11 dead.

"Dr Habibie has gone further than many of his critics suggested. I don't want to jump to conclusions on the basis of what has occurred over the last few days. "Obviously it is disturbing but we are still maintaining a sense of optimism and hope about the future in Indonesia."

He said he did not believe the latest conflict was as serious as the May troubles, which killed more than 1,000 in Jakarta and unseated veteran leader Suharto, but any civil disturbance was worrying and deaths were regrettable.

"Certainly Dr Habibie has surprised a lot of people with what he's done," Howard said. "He's gone further with East Timor than many people suggested and I just hope he keeps the momentum going, but it is a difficult situation."

Suharto criticizes Habibie over clashes

Jakarta -- Fallen Indonesian president Suharto has criticized the government of his successor, B.J. Habibie, for failing to prevent the bloodshed here by talking to the students holding daily protests in recent days, a report said Saturday

"Why was the government unable to overcome the problem with students? The government should have asked them to hold talks," Suharto was quoted as saying by his half-brother, Probosutedjo.

Probosutejo told the Antara news agency the former president, who stepped down in May amid rising public pressures and widespread violent rioting, was shocked when hearing of the bloody clashes. "I stepped down last May to avoid bloodshed, but unfortunately it happens now," Suharto was quoted as saying.

"This happened because students' aspirations were not heard and appreciated. If they had respected them, the problem could have been overcome," Suharto said. Suharto also said the government and the armed forces leader needed to apologise for the incident and quickly settle the problem in order to prevent further bloodshed, but mobs took to the streets Saturday, burning and looting in new outreaks of violence.

The former president also said he hoped a government probe into his wealth would be completed as soon as possible to lay the matter to rest. "He hoped the government would directly investigate Suharto's fortunes in order to make it clear to the public," Probosutejo said of the 77-year-old ex-leader.

Habibie takes tough line on protests

Seth Mydans, Jakarta -- Faced with a huge student protest and a wild outbreak of rioting and arson, President B.J. Habibie said Saturday that he would take "firm action" to curb what he called subversive movements that threaten the country's stability.

On the day after soldiers killed at least eight demonstrators and wounded more than 100 others, tens of thousands of students and poor people filled a highway Saturday in front of the parliament building in what seemed an unfocused and unguided outpouring of discontent.

Their protests were supported by an unlikely ally: former President Suharto. "I resigned from my position to avoid bloodshed," Suharto was quoted by his half-brother, Probosutedjo, as saying. "Why does the government now cause bloodshed?" He said Habibie's government should apologize and listen to the demands of the protesters.

Later Saturday, in an echo of the riots that helped shake Suharto from office in May, residents of poor neighborhoods attacked shopping malls, banks, car dealerships, police stations and Chinese-owned shops in a surge of looting and vandalism. One police officer was reported to have been beaten to death.

But in contrast with the riots six months ago, troops and fire engines took action to quell the riots and douse the flames. Their ability to bring the first outbreaks of violence under control Saturday appeared to confirm suspicions that the earlier riots had been allowed and even instigated by elements of the military. In a statement to the nation, Habibie took a tough line against the demonstrators who had protested against a parliamentary session he had organized last week and had called for his resignation.

In a response that recalled the attitudes of his mentor, Suharto, he said the protests had revealed the presence of "subversive movements and actions that are endangering the unity and cohesion and the fundamentals of the life of the nation and state." He said he had ordered the military to "immediately take firm action." Soon afterward, the governor of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, announced a curfew over the weekend for the capital city from 10 p.m. until dawn.

A Western diplomat said it was unclear what groups Habibie might have in mind, or whether he or his military advisers were using accusations of subversion, as Suharto did, as an excuse for a crackdown.

Throughout Saturday, the military calmed the growing crowds of demonstrators with a tactfulness that contrasted with the sheer rage the soldiers had exhibited when they gunned down students Friday night. The key element, Indonesians said, was that most of the crowd control was handed over Saturday to the marines in their pink berets, a seasoned force that enjoys unique respect among the people. "Hooray for the marines," the students shouted Saturday morning, along with, "Down with Habibie."

The crowd of students and supporters swelled to as many as 50,000 during the day and was permitted to fill a highway outside the front gates of the now-empty parliament building. They sang and chanted into the night as the marines stood guard between them and the gates.

Even as they gathered there shortly after noon, plumes of black smoke were rising above the city's northern Chinatown and other poor areas. Ethnic Chinese residents and their shops and homes were particular targets of the May riots, in which nearly 1,200 people died and hundreds of buildings were looted, burned and vandalized. The rioting Saturday was less widespread, but at times the mobs of looters were so large that soldiers could only stand by and watch.

Military tents were burned in a park near the parliament building and an army truck was burned near the University of Indonesia.

At the Atrium shopping center, young men hurled rocks through the building's glass walls from a nearby highway overpass, which carried a red and white neon exhortation reading, "National Discipline." They smashed the windows and lobby of the Atrium Hotel at the back of the shopping center, forcing the evacuation of dozens of foreign guests. "This is a warning to Habibie about what could happen when the masses are angry," said Hariono, 19, a local resident, standing among a row of trees that had been uprooted from a median by rioters.

But it was at the Atrium that the contrast with last May was particularly noticeable. A cordon of marines moved through the crowd, clearing the area around the building, and a military jeep patrolled the newly empty streets urging people to return home. "It's time for prayer," repeated a soldier with a megaphone, as dusk fell. "Go home and don't cause any more damage. You know it will cost a lot and will take a long time to rebuild."

Excerpts of decrees endorsed by MPR

Jakarta -- The following are excerpts of the 12 decrees adopted by the Special Session of the People's Consultative Assembly on Friday.

The decree on the amendment of the Assembly's internal rules stipulates that following the planned elections in mid 1999, the Assembly will choose its own leaders who will be separate from those of the House of Representatives. In the past, Assembly leaders automatically held top posts in the House.

The Assembly leadership will consist of a speaker and a maximum of five deputies picked from political parties with large numbers of seats and in accordance with the "national political configuration".

The decree also makes it obligatory for the president to attend a session to hear the Assembly's respond to his or her speech of accountability. In the past the president's presence at this session was not compulsory.

The decree to revoke the 1983 Assembly decree on referenda opens the wider possibility of amending the 1945 Constitution in the future. According to the 1983 decree, followed up by the 1985 Law on Referenda, a referendum must be held before the Assembly can review the Constitution.

The decree to revoke the March 1998 decree on the State Policy Guidelines (GBHN) adopted during the General Session of the Assembly in March. It was replaced by a scaled down document to cover the period up to the Assembly's next general session, which is due in the middle of next year.

The decree to revoke the 1998 decree granting the president extraordinary powers, which in March handed then president Soeharto the right to declare a state of emergency and to do anything necessary to maintain security and stability in the country.

The decree to revoke the 1978 Assembly decree on the Propagation and implementation of Pancasila (P4) rules that the government must stop the compulsory P4 propagation program. During Soeharto's 32-year tenure, the program was compulsory for students, government officials and workers in the private sector.

The Assembly also added a chapter to the original draft decree on the right to information.

The decree on general elections was adopted after a vote in Friday's final plenary session. With the new decree, the Assembly agreed that a general election will be held by next May, or June at the latest. It also stipulates that the election will be organized by a independent election committee whose members will comprise of representatives from political parties, non- governmental organizations and the government.

The decree limiting the presidential and vice presidential terms in office stipulates that both president and vice president can only hold office for a maximum of two five-year terms. According to Chapter 7 of the Constitution, the president and vice president hold office for an initial term of five years, after which they can be reelected for an indeterminate number of times. Sukarno and Soeharto, the country's two previous presidents, held office for 22 years and 32 years respectively.

The decree on the principles of developmental reform in light of safeguarding and normalizing life of the nation will serve as the broad outline of state policy for President B.J. Habibie's government until the next general session of the MPR, which will convene in mid-1999. The decree stipulates the objectives of developmental reform in economic, political, legal, social and cultural fields.

In the economic field, the decree stipulates that the current economic crisis must be resolved and that reform measures must support efforts to this end. The agenda for management of the economic crisis is very similar to the program of reform already agreed to with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It includes a number of unquantified targets such as stabilizing the rupiah's exchange rate at a reasonable level, managing interest rates and inflation, bank restructuring, food security and resolution of the private sector debt problem. The reform agenda embodies the structural reform measures already adopted within the IMF bailout program.

The political reform agenda covers the promulgation of new political laws which are conducive to fostering the process of democratization and will facilitate the convening of a fair, direct and free and general election by secret ballot in mid- 1999. It also includes provisions to check government power, introduce good governance and adjust the military's dual function in accordance with its new paradigm.

The agenda for legal reform deals with how to create a clear-cut division of authority between the judicial and executive branches of the government and contains clauses designed to ensure supremacy of the law and protect basic human rights.

The most notable points on the agenda for socio-cultural reform are the social safety net programs covering education, employment and health, and the preparation of legal instruments, an infrastructure and programs of action to foster ethics in business, professions and public administration.

The decree on the administration or regional autonomy, management, distribution and harnessing of natural resources in a just manner to strike a fiscal balance between provincial administrations and the central government within the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia. This decree stipulates that the administration, distribution and exploitation of natural resources shall be conducted in a just manner to improve the welfare of local people and the nation as a whole. The fiscal balance between the central and provincial governments is to be set with respect to the potential, size and population of each province and local people's income levels.

The decree on human rights requires that all state institutions enforce and esteem and that the president and the House of Representatives (DPR) ratify all of the United Nations (UN) conventions on human rights. It requires the issuance of a law to give the National Commission on Human Rights the legal authority to monitor and report on the implementation of human rights conventions. The current Commission was established by presidential decree in January 1994.

In July, President B.J. Habibie instigated a five-year National Action Plan on Human Rights in an attempt to improve Indonesia's much condemned international image on rights issues. The government has yet to ratify several UN treaties, including the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The decree on good governance free from corruption, collusion and nepotism instructs the government to investigate and deal firmly with former and incumbent government officials -- including former president Soeharto -- their families and cronies as well as businesspeople suspected of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

The decree stipulates that officials shall publicly disclose their wealth before and after their appointment and shall be willing to have their wealth audited by an institution set up by the head of state to perform this task. The institution will be staffed by representatives of the government and the people. The decree also requires amendment of the anti-corruption law to enhance the drive to combat graft.

The decree on political economy within economic democracy stipulates, among other things, that: National economic development is designed to create a broad base of small and medium-scale enterprises (SME) and to foster mutually-beneficial Linkages between cooperatives, SMEs, large companies, and state enterprises.

The implementation of economic democracy shall seek to avoid the concentration of economic assets and forces in the hands of a small number of people and companies. Cooperatives and SMEs, as the main pillar of national economic development, shall be given as many opportunities, incentives and assistance as possible, without ignoring the role of big business and state enterprises.

National land use shall be organized in a just manner and the concentration of land use rights and land ownership in the hands of a few individuals or companies shall be prevented in light of efforts to enhance the strength of cooperatives, SMEs and the people at large.

Banks and financial institutions shall give top priority to cooperatives and SMEs while continuing to work within the principle of sound business management. Bank Indonesia as the central bank shall be independent and free of interference from the government and all other parties and shall be accountable for its conduct. Foreign borrowing by the government shall be approved by the House of Representatives within the annual state budget and foreign debts shall strengthen, and not burden, the national economy.

The private sector shall be fully responsible for its foreign borrowing, but the borrowing shall be closely monitored by the government in a transparent manner.

Economic democracy for workers shall be brought about through labor participation and freedom of association in line with the law and through issuing shares in the ownership of employing enterprises.

Impact of assembly's reform vote unclear

Michael Dorgan, Jakarta -- In the worst day of violence since riots brought down President Suharto in May, about a dozen people were killed Friday and hundreds more injured, many critically, as security forces attacked tens of thousands of student demonstrators.

The crackdown came after three days of protests against a special session of the national assembly, which had been called to lay the framework for a democratic government. Students were convinced it would fall far short of that goal. The session did produce a slate of reforms, but as it drew to a close Friday night the most conspicuous outcome was mayhem.

"This is nearing civil war," warned reform leader Amien Rais. "We are now being tested as a nation to solve this problem with a feeling of brotherhood and nationality." There was little brotherhood on the streets. The relative restraint soldiers and police had used to hold protesters at bay throughout most of the four-day special session dissolved on the final day. They attacked the demonstrators with a fury, using water canons, tear gas, batons and rubber bullets.

By early today the violence had subsided but there were no assurances the worst was over. Sirens still screamed along Jakarta's streets. Reports began to filter in of widening unrest nationwide.

A squad of marines, who have a reputation of being sympathetic to the reform movement, had moved onto a downtown campus to protect students from attacks by police, and there were reports of exchanges of gunfire. Another squad of marines was leading a march of students to the parliament building.

Troops from the Strategic Reserves Command, trained in urban warfare, had moved in to secure the downtown area, while elite Special Forces troops had taken over control of protecting the presidential palace.

Poor people in West Jakarta reportedly were stopping cars and robbing those inside, which could signal a beginning to the kind of looting and arson that damaged or destroyed more than 5,000 buildings and left 1,200 people dead in May.

Among those fleeing the city will be large numbers of ethnic Chinese, who were the victims of much of the violence in May. All outgoing flights were booked. Meanwhile, students mobilized for a massive demonstration after burying their dead today.

Trouble everywhere

The unrest is not confined to Jakarta. News reports said protesters had occupied the provincial capital in Medan and were waiting to intercept assembly members returning from Jakarta. And demonstrators reportedly took over the airport in the South Sulawesi city of Ujung Pandang for six hours Friday, demanding that they be given airline tickets so they could join the protests in Jakarta. The central business district of that city of several million was nearly destroyed last year in riots that targeted ethnic Chinese.

Demonstrations also were reported in Yogakarta, Salatiga and Bandung, all of which are cities on the island of Java.

General Wiranto, head of Indonesia's armed forces, urged people to remain calm. "There are a lot of rumors about what is happening in Jakarta," he said Friday. "But I feel the situation is safe and under control."

But reform leader Rais indicated that he believes some rumors to be true. "I don't know what's behind the scenes, but there must be a number of people who want this scenario," he said Friday evening. "How do we calm down the masses? Even those who wanted this out-of-control situation can't control it anymore."

Friday, violence started about 3:30 pm on the capital's main thoroughfare at Atma Jaya University. After blocking several thousands of students who were trying to march to the parliament, troops ordered them to disperse. When the students refused, the security forces attacked.

As snipers fired into the crowd from rooftops, wave after wave of soldiers and police charged into the crowd, beating and shooting people, sometimes at point-blank range. Many broke ranks to chase protesters down side streets or alleys, attacking anyone in their path. In one instance, soldiers chased students into a hospital and shot them. Students responded by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails as skirmishes continued there and elsewhere late into the night.

The Jakarta Post reported today that four of the people killed were members of the 150,000-strong pro-government youth militia armed with clubs and spears that had been put on the streets earlier in the week, allegedly to defend the assembly. They were beaten to death by neighborhood mobs in East Jakarta, the newspaper said. But most of the victims were students killed or injured by police and soldiers.

At one hospital alone, witnesses said a steady stream of ambulances had delivered about 80 gunshot victims by the time the special session concluded at 9:30 pm with a speech by President B.J. Habibie, who took over in May after serving as Suharto's vice president.

No refuge

A woman in the hospital at that time said some fleeing students had sought refuge there, but troops followed them inside and shot them. "They don't care anymore whether it's students, journalists -- they've just lost control," she said. A National Police official said police and soldiers had used only rubber and plastic bullets, but even those can be fatal at close range.

Habibie, in his televised speech, praised the People's Consultative Assembly for being "so open in capturing the aspirations of the people."

But he had to be helicoptered in to deliver the speech because demonstrators clogged the streets outside the parliament building. It was not clear how the 1,000 members of the assembly would get out of heavily guarded parliament building after they convened their session.

Nor was it immediately clear just what the assembly had done in its efforts to lay the foundation for a democratic government. House Speaker Harmoko, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, recited the titles and numbers of the approved resolutions in a rapid-fire delivery in the televised conclusion of the special session. He did not explain their content.

The 12 approved resolutions apparently were similar to the proposals drafted before the session began. Among them were a measure calling for elections in May, and one limiting the president to two terms. Another called an investigation into the hidden wealth of Suharto and his cronies, though it was not clear how vigorous the probe would be. Still another measure ordered a gradual reduction in the government role of the military, which now has 75 appointed seats in the assembly. But it did not specify how great the reduction would be and when it would occur.

The government, in an attempt to demonstrate its commitment to reform, made a remarkable disclosure about an investigation launched several months ago into the wealth of Suharto, who is widely suspected of having amassed a huge fortune during his 32 years as president.

Attorney General Muhamad Andi Ghalib announced that Suharto has private accounts in 72 national banks. "I'm not playing around," he said. "I'm committed. I'll invite Suharto today to ask him where the money is." Whether the student protesters accept such gestures as evidence of genuine reform remains to be seen. But given the brutal treatment they received Friday, it seems unlikely.

Opposition calls for August elections

Jakarta -- Indonesian opposition leaders yesterday issued a joint declaration calling for a presidential election in August next year, three months ahead of President B.J. Habibie's timetable.

The politicians -- Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, Mr Amien Rais, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid and Sultan Hamengkubowono of Yogyakarta -- made the call in an eight-point manifesto read out at Mr Abdurrahman's home.

Their other demands, issued after a meeting with reformist student leaders, included a phasing-out of the military's role in politics over six years, decentralisation of power to the provinces and an independent election-monitoring body. They also called for a "thorough" probe of the alleged wealth accumulated by former President Suharto during his 32 years in power and the disbanding of vigilante forces recruited by the military.

Other opposition figures at the meeting included former Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, owner of the Medco business group Arifin Panigoro, former Golkar secretary-general Rachmat Witoelar, businessman Setiawan Jodhi, and retired General Kemal Idris.

East Timorese Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, who was invited, said he could not attend, but sent a letter which was read out to journalists. In it, he said he agreed with four basic proposals, namely that:

the present government should be declared transitional;

free and democratic elections should be held;

a new Constitution should be drawn up;

and the political role of the military should be reduced.

Clashes feared

Jakarta -- One day before the MPR Special Session (SS) in Jakarta, Monday (9/11), the group of supporters and opponents of the SS are competing in mobilizing masses and frictions start between the two masses with different aspirations.

It is feared that wider clashes will occur, either between the SS supporters and the opponents or between the masses and the security apparatus, if all parties don't attempt to avoid violence.

The mass of students who reject implementation of the SS, also demand ex President Soeharto's trial and revoking of ABRI's dual function. Both demands emerged during the mass demonstrations which occurred simultaneously at at least eight towns beside Jakarta.

In a series of demonstrations in Jakarta, two students were noted seriously wounded and eleven others lightly wounded due to clashes with the Mobile Brigade when demonstrating in front of the Supreme Court Building. Students from the Indonesian Technological School for Higher Learning (STII) demanded that the SC revoked BJ Habibie's oath as president. The two seriously wounded students, Rajab S Asmara and Harry had to be driven to the Emergency Room of Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital. Since the morning masses of SS supporters were already on the alert at places which were expected as locations for demonstrations of students masses which opposed the SS. First, to avoid clashes with the self made security forces, the students planned to demonstrate at the Proclamation monument. But it proved that the place was already controlled by SS supporters. Evenso with the location at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM). The student mass which opposed the SS continued however their demonstrations.

At one action the SS supporters also climbed on six open trucks, one of which read: "Self Supporting Security's City Patrol", threw stones to the campus of Unika Atma Jaya (UAJ) while shouting anti student yells. Due to the intifada one Isuzu Panther car had its glasses broken but there were no wounded. The UAJ rector Thomas Suyatno had the opportunity to protest the security forces as they were evaluated lacking efficiency in avoiding that intifada.

Blockade of the apparatus

Thousands of students associated in Forum Kota failed to near the MPR/DPR building as they were blocked by the security apparatus at the toll road entrance in front of the Metro Jaya Police HQ. Their wish to move either to the MPR/DPR building or the Proclamation monument was refused by the apparatus so that they held an oration on the busses parked and closing the toll road and the artery road from Cawang to Semanggi. The students also closed the toll road from Semanggi to Cawang. A white billboard which read: "Reject the Special Session of '98, Form Indonesian Nation Committees." placed by them to stop all vehicles. As a result, not only traffic from Cawang to Semanggi stuck, but also from Semanggi to Kuningan/Cawang. Hundreds of cars from both directions could for about two hours not move.

After being hindered by the barricade from the apparatus, the Forum Kota students passed in a convoy of 28 busses the main roads of the capital. The route which they passed was Jl Gatot Subroto -- Jl HR Rasuna Said -- Jl Otto Iskandar Dinata -- campus UI Salemba. the convoy had the opportunity to let the traffick stuck where they passed. The convoy arrived at the UI Campus at around 19.00 WIT.

At the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle hundreds of students from Universitas Jayabaya and Institut Ilmu Sosial dan Ilmu Politik (IISIP) Jakarta demonstrated for the annulment of ABRI's dual function, the revokal of the single principle and the trial of Ex President Soeharto. If those demands were met, they were willing to support the SS.

Mass mobilization of students in a big amount was concentrated at Jalan Diponegoro after the Proclamation monument was under control of the opposing mass. Thousands from the Students and People's Committee Against the Dual Function (Komrad), the Student Action Front for Reformation and Democracy (Famred), the Joint Forum (Forbes) and the UI Big Family demonstrated at Jalan Diponegoro.

Various banners and posters against the ABRI dual function, rejection of the SS, and the alma mater flags of various universities were flown and mixed with the masses. Against sunset the mass moved to Jalan Salemba while singing the "Armed Forces" march in the student's version. The apparatus had the opportunity to block them at the Jalan Raya Salemba corner. A great part of the students entered the campus of UI Salemba while another part stayed on the road.

Thousands of students finally spent the night at Kampus UI Salemba and Kampus UKI Jalan Diponegoro. They used the two campuses and both sides of the road in front of it as base for their movements.

Jakarta relaxed

Starting 22.00 WIT at the parking area at the Medical Faculty (FKUI) at 4, Jl Salemba, Central Jakarta, preparations were seen to welcome the holy reflection of Heroes Day. At least hundreds of pro-democracy students from various universities will attend the reflection at the FKUI building.

Scheduled to give an oration at that program are KH Said Aqiel Siradj, YB Mangunwijaya, Sandyawan Sumardi and Ratna Sarumpaet. At the Kampus Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI) Jl Diponegoro which is opposite the FKUI.

The monitoring by Kompas since 20.00 till 00.00 WIT showed that a number of main roads were relaxed with only one or two cars passing. Such view was seen around Jl Salemba Raya, Jl Senen Raya, Jl Matraman Raya, Jl Kwitang, Jl Prof Dr Satrio, Jr HR Rasuna Said, and Jl Sultan Hasanuddin. Guarding by the security apparatus was remarkable around the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the area of Medan Merdeka, the highway cloverleaf and around the area of the MPR/DPR building.

Try Soeharto

As was also reflected in Jakarta, at least 8 other cities (Bandung, Yogyakarta, Samarinda, Lampung, Jember, Semarang and Ujungpandang) occurred youth and student demonstrations, Monday (9/10). As their colleagues in Jakarta they demanded Soeharto's trial and removal of the ABRI dual function.

Around 3000 students representing various state and private universities of Padang demanded that the MPR SS made a stipulation about the Forming of a Monitoring Team of the General Elections Implementation.

The statement was conveyed at the Governor's office. Almost at the same time was conveyed a statement from various mass organizations stating their readiness to make the MPR SS a success and stating their readiness to create a conducive atmosphere. The statement was formally received by the Regional Secretary of W Sumatra Achiyarli A Djalil.

The two almost controversial statements caused almost a clash between the two parties. The students asked the other party not to speak on behalf of the people of W Sumatra. "We, students of West Sumatra don't feel to be represented by that engineered statement," a student said at the free forum. The accusation of engineering was rejected by the Chairman of the Regional Managing Board of the Indonesian Youth National Committee Asnawai Bahar.

The students also demanded removal of all MPR Stipulations which were not in accordance with the reformation spirit, and to stipulate the limiting of the presidency for maximum two office periods and full autonomy for the regions. The statement was named Andalas declaration.

In Bandung, Yogya and Samarinda the Indonesian Moslem Action Students Unity (KAMMI) and the Fraternity of Moslem Youth Forum came to the local House to convey their statement. The Reformation team of the Regional House of West Java made a special platform for the speeches of the demonstrators. They called their statement Ultimatum Gazibu.

In Yogya the KAMMI started at the Regional House of Representatives then went to the Radio Republik Indonesia Nusantara II and then made an oration at the Great Building. While in Samarinda the KAMMI demanded settlement of Moslem cases like the cases of Tanjung Priok, Haur Koneng, Banyuwangi and Aceh.

While in the afternoon at the parking place of the Segiri Sport Building in Samarinda, the Deputy Governor of East Kalimantan led the roll call of alertness of around 1,000 youth of E Kalimantan. They stated their support for the MPR SS, the General Elections of 1999 and the MPR General Session of 1999, while inviting all parties to maintain security in their respective places. Before, 10 House members of the F-PP and F-PDI launched a boycott against the plenary meeting of the Regional House of Representatives of E Kalimantan which discussed support for the MPR SS and the coming General Elections.

Building a Tent

The most unique demonstration was probably in Lampung by 4,000 farmers from all corners in Lampung who called themselves the Council of Lampung Farmers (DTL) and the Group of Students, Pupils and People of Lampung (KMPPRL). They erected a tent for lodging at the front yard of the governor's office of Lampung. They marched 15 km from Universitas Lampung to the Governor's office. Besides the demands similar like the other regions they rejected Habibie because he was not elected through general elections.

In Jember there were three demonstrations. One by about 40 students at the Regional House and Regional Govt demanding Habibie to step down. The second by about 100 citizens from the village of Kedung Piring, the Regency of Tegalbesar, demanding the release of five suspects of the murder of black market practitioners. The third was performed by the student Unej who is associated with the GMNI organization. which is already going on for two weeks.

In Semarang the demonstrations were staged by various student organizations while in Ujungpandang hundreds of demonstrators demanded total reconciliation of all components of the nation while the Students Forum and Guards to Save the Constitution asked removal of the ABRI Dual Function and Pancasila as the single principle.

While citizens from foreign descendants in Ujungpandang hoped that the SS would produce a decision to implement the General Elections ultimately next ear, as they needed certainty of law and security in order to be able to live and to enterprise.

Details of special assembly meeting

Jakarta -- Indonesia's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), will hold a special session on November 10-13 to decide Indonesia's election timetable and ratify new, more democratic political laws.

The 1,000-member assembly comprises Indonesia's 500 members of parliament (MP) and 500 appointed military and civilian officials. Around half of the appointees were picked during the rule of former President Suharto, while the rest were replaced by new appointees since President B.J. Habibie took power in May.

Parliament is made up of 425 elected members and 75 members directly appointed by the military. The MPR has the power to issue decrees which supersede any law passed by parliament. The MPR usually meets every five years to choose Indonesia's president and vice president, but this time it will be debating 12 draft laws on political reform.

The most important draft decree to be discussed involves the rescheduling of parliamentary elections to next year from 2002. Habibie has promised elections next year to make parliament more representative, followed by another MPR session in December 1999 to choose a new president.

The other key decree under discussion would limit the maximum amount of time a president and vice president could serve to two five-year terms. Suharto was elected for a seventh term in March before resigning in May amid a deepening economic crisis, mass protests against his rule and an explosion of rioting.

Other decrees to be discussed include:

The annulment of a 1998 decree giving extraordinary powers to the president. The annulment has won the support of all factions in the MPR, who say the president does not need such powers.

Granting greater autonomy to Indonesia's regions.

Granting authorities the responsibility of promoting and upholding human rights.

A draft decree on "politics in democratic economy," which seeks to promote small and medium-sized enterprises and narrow disparities in society. The draft decree bans monopolies and regulates foreign loans.

A clean government decree designed to tackle corruption. It proposes all government officials disclose their wealth and have it audited.

A draft decree on assembly meeting rules, which would change the rules governing the assembly and stipulate that the assembly's working committee operate throughout its five-year tenure, rather than for just three months currently.

Development reform guidelines, stipulating the issues the government should focus on up until the next MPR session in December 1999.

Lifting of the 1983 decree on referendums, which would allow changes to be made to Indonesia's 1945 constitution.

The annulment of a 1978 decree on promoting the state ideology of national unity, Pancasila. Critics have said current programmes for promoting Pancasila need to be improved.

The PDI faction represented in the MPR is the official branch, rather than the breakaway faction headed by opposition figurehead Megawati Sukarnoputri which does not have official recognition. Opposition leaders like Megawati and Amien Rais do not hold seats in the MPR.

Indonesia's black death

As terrorised villagers turn to murder, the May riot findings have fuelled fears that disgraced Indonesian special forces are running death squads, reports Louise Williams.

The victims were dead, their heads had been severed, but the crowd was not satisfied; so it dragged the battered corpses along the rough rural roads, the naked bodies dangling from ropes behind motor bikes. Earlier the mob, in the Javanese city of Malang, had impaled one head on a large bamboo pole and paraded the trophy through town, under the grey shadow of a wet season rainstorm. On the same day last month, about an hour by car to the south, another mob went on the rampage, but the two corpses there were publicly burned.

Last weekend three policemen were beaten to death on the nearby island of Madura, and in West Java this week a young woman was beaten, stripped, hanged and set alight in Serong, a rural town about 90 minutes' drive from Jakarta.

In the past three months about 200 people have been murdered or lynched by angry mobs, in a campaign of terror which began in the port town of Banyuwangi in East Java, the gateway to the resort island of Bali.

At first, security forces claimed the black clad "ninja killers" were targeting practitioners of "black magic" or witchcraft who were visiting doom upon poor rural towns reeling from the hardships of Indonesia's economic crisis. Unable to stop the slaughter, military and police looked on as locals took up knives, sickles, sticks and guns to form vigilante squads and unleash revenge.

But now an even blacker scenario is emerging: that the killings are part of a political conspiracy to sow fear and create chaos which will slow the pace of democratic reforms in Indonesia.

This week, a leading political figure, Amien Rais, claimed that former President Soeharto and his loyalists were behind the brutal murders. They wanted, he argued, to use spreading terror to distract a hungry and angry populace from seeking revenge over vast wealth accumulated by the Soeharto family during his 32-year rule.

Equally possible, he said, was the desire of the armed forces to use the instability to move back into the dominant position it had under the Soeharto regime, in the name of securing the country against such threats.

Indonesian politics has long been laced with conspiracy theories. But this week one of the most damaging of recent times was confirmed by the Government-appointed fact-finding team investigating the May riots, and now questions are being asked publicly about possible links between the terror campaign and some of the same actors on the political stage.

The team concluded that the riots which engulfed Jakarta and provincial cities were not spontaneous acts of violence by an embittered populace.

Certainly, the bitterness was there. The economy was collapsing, members of the pro-democracy movement were being plucked from streets to vanish into secret torture and detention centres, the political pressure cooker of President's Soeharto's rule was ready to explode. But the team found that the conspiracy went right up to the "highest decision-making levels". Two key serving generals of the Indonesian military -- one the then commander for Jakarta, the other the then commander of the Strategic Reserve -- were named this week in the report as either provoking the chaos or failing to protect the city, where at least 1,200 people died.

And among those provocateurs who came with iron bars, molotov cocktails and petrol to wreck and burn thousands of shops, malls and houses, then invite the bitter populace in to loot, were "elements of the armed forces". The riots report paints a disturbing picture of a splintered military, dogged by dangerously politicised factions acting outside the chain of command.

The violence, the report concluded, was "geared towards the creation of an emergency situation which would require the invocation of extra-constitutional powers in order to keep the situation under control". Thus, Soeharto and his military allies could crush the political reform movement. The human suffering and fear seemed beside the point.

The fact-finding team confirmed an alarming link between politics and violence in Indonesia. But perhaps more worrying is the reality that a new brutal round of political manipulation may be under way in the form of the campaign of murders and lynchings across Java.

Rais said: "I am very sure Soeharto's hand are involved... Soeharto and his cronies want to fight back, they don't want reforms to run smoothly, they want to use the terror to distract the people from issues like Soeharto's wealth. A few respected figures have already indicated that a similar link may exist here, too. If this proves true, the seeds of national disintegration that even now are stirring may grow to threaten the unity of the nation."

The story of the killings which began in East Java is terrible. The victims were supposedly practitioners of black magic. Then came the killings of members of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation, which had formed a political alliance with pro-democracy figurehead Megawati Sukarnoputri. Several local officials in East Java claimed members of the military were involved. The Commission for Victims of Violence, a human rights organisation, found signs of organisation: the assassins were outsiders who came with maps and appeared to be trained.

So terrified were the people of the rural areas that vigilante squads were formed and the lynchings began. But locals say the victims of the mobs are not real "ninjas", but lunatics mysteriously dumped on the streets. The man whose head was paraded through Malang was a drifter suffering from mental illness.

In the weekly Detak magazine's latest issue, a deserter from the elite special force, Kopassus, tells of a training school for killers and provocateurs in West Java. Kopassus forces featured heavily in the May riots conspiracy, and the riots report this week recommended that Prabowo Subianto, the son-in-law of Soeharto, be brought before a military court over his role in the kidnappings of pro-democracy activists ahead of the riots. Prabowo has been dismissed by a military honour board.

The former Kopassus officer claims the shadowy school recruited men to provoke the May riots and, more recently, about 200 trained paramilitary officers to launch the terror campaign in East Java. The idea, he says, was to get through to Bali to disrupt Megawati's political congress last month, but security was too tight and her support too strong on Bali. Instead, he says, they settled for "butchering the sorcerers" in Banyuwangi, the large port town where ferries cross to the tourist island of Bali. "The idea was to create chaos," he says.

This week, as Jakarta filled with tens of thousands of troops ahead of the "special session" of the People's Consultative Assembly to rewrite restrictive political laws, Governor Sutiyoso told residents not to fear the massive military presence. "I am quite sure that these "ninja' killers will be scared off should they see such tight security. If they were to see very light security, who is there to stop them?" he said, immediately raising the prospect of the fear campaign reaching the capital.

One diplomat warned that Prabowo, and the largely discredited Kopassus he once commanded, would not accept the kind of humiliation and blame present in the riots report. "I think there is some kind of Kopassus role in the East Java killings. I wouldn't put it past these guys to inflame conflict now they are out of the system and discredited." Said another: "What the riot report does is validate the conspiracy theory, and that may be applied later to other issues."

However, the political scientist Arbi Sanit dismissed both conspiracy theories and said the riots were part of the clash between the reform movement and the status quo. In Java, he said, the killings were a result of a split in society between Islamic leaders and believers in the traditional forms of magic.

"During an economic crisis the split intensifies. The political system here doesn't work as a problem solver so the people find their own solution. But, these splits can be used for political gain, for one person to make his political enemies look bad."

Environment/health

One million abortions a year, says specialist

Jakarta -- The number of abortions in Indonesia had reached an estimated one million cases a year, most of them carried out on teenagers, an expert told a medical meeting yesterday.

The Antara news agency quoted specialist Wimpie Pangkahlia as saying at a conference in Bali that the number of unwanted pregnancies indicated problems in sex education, partly because officials did not know how to tackle the issue. One problem was the easy public access to pornography and explicit sex through videos and films and through the mass media, even though such moves were illegal, he said.

Antara did not elaborate on the source of the figures given by Dr Pangkahlia for Indonesia, where mass family-planning programmes are considered successful, but abortion clinics are illegal. Abortion offences carry a maximum four-year prison team under a law which says that a pregnancy may be terminated only if it endangers the mother's health.

News reports last month said, however, that a baby boom loomed over the next few years as the price of contraceptives had soared five-fold because of the economic crisis. The reports said many of the 25.6 million active participants in Indonesia's family- planning programme -- out of more than 33.7 million couples -- were struggling to cover the cost of daily necessities and did not see contraceptives as a priority.

The prices of birth-control devices, especially injections and pills, have skyrocketed as 80 per cent of their raw materials are imported. Government statistics indicate that 96 million Indonesians or almost half of the country's 200 million population will not be able to afford food or other necessities by the end of the year because of the economic crisis.

Miscellaneous

Three homes razed as rival gangs clash

Jakarta -- A violent battle between rival Jakarta neighborhood gangs ended with a huge fire in the early hours of Sunday.

Youths from Menteng, Central Jakarta, and their opponents from Manggarai, South Jakarta, commenced their sporadic battle at 4:00 pm on Saturday, hurling stones at one another. But they soon took a break for some spiritual guidance at local mosques. "Naturally there was a pause in the fighting at 6:00 pm so they could take some time-out for evening prayers," said Johannes, a local resident.

When the prayers finished at 8:00 pm, the youths leapt back into the fray, with several of them putting down their stones in favor of knives, iron bars and air rifles. Two young men from the Manggarai gang, Rosyid (21) and Nurdin (22), were shot in the chest and sent to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Central Jakarta, to have the bullets removed. Johannes said two Menteng youths were also badly injured. One had his fingers chopped off by the rival gang, while the other had his stomach sliced open with a piece of sharp steel.

By 10:00 pm the gangs needed a rest and declared a three-hour truce. The fighting resumed at 1:00 am on Sunday, with several molotov cocktails being hurled about. Most of the action took place at Jalan Tambak in Manggarai, as youths from Menteng's Tang Tuyul village joined the assault.

Having anticipated the use of molotov cocktails, the gang members had hoses and buckets at the ready to extinguish any fires. But a massive blaze erupted after youths from the villages of Menteng Jaya and Magesin, hurled molotov cocktails at Tambak Seberang village in Manggarai. At least three houses were incinerated in the ensuing blaze on Jalan Tambak.

The warring youths ceased their violence after realizing that the residents of the three burning houses were not involved in the battle. Feeling guilty about starting the fire, the gang members joined forces to save all the furniture from the houses, and evacuated the residents.

The fire brigade was called shortly after 2:00 am, but fire engines didn't arrive until 3:00 am, by which time the three houses had been gutted. The gangs cursed the fire brigade for being late to arrive, while concerned local residents cursed nearby police for not having intervened in the warfare.

Residents of Tambak Seberang said laid back police and security officials had sat under awning tents, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes from the time the fight began until it finished.

"They should have been on the alert at railway line which divides the two warring regions. If they just see the war from a distance, then how can they stop it? Or do they amuse themselves by watching the atrocious scene?" asked the Tambak Seberang village head.

After the battle had finished, hundreds of local residents and the rival gangs joined forces to chase the idle police out of the area. "Get out of here, you sons of the devil! We don't need you!" the residents yelled as they chased the police away.

Firefighters were also pursued by an angry mob that hurled stones at them, threatening to kill them. They were eventually saved by a kindly shop owner on Jalan Tambak who hid them in his store.