Democratic struggle

Students to halt protest during Ramadan

Agence France Presse - December 21, 1998

Jakarta – Two major Indonesian student groups have said they plan to halt their almost-daily street protests during the Moslem fasting month that began Sunday, a report said here Monday.

The City Forum (Forkot) and the Jakarta Student Senates Communication Forum (FKSMJ) were considering other forms of protests during the fasting month, the Indonesian Observer said.

The two groups were among those in the forefront of the daily student demonstrations that have rocked the capital in the past months, mainly to demand the trial of former president Suharto and the scrapping of the military's role in politics.

"We will instead conduct compassionate actions, such as distributing essential goods," FKSMJ activist Fauzan was quoted as telling broadcaster Surya Citra Televisi. "We will keep moving, but in a calm atmosphere. We are still thinking about the form of the actions," Forkot activist Ridwan said.

The comments came after Indonesian leaders, mostly Moslems, called on students to ease up on street protests in the Moslem fasting month. Moslems account for more than 90 percent of Indonesia's 202 million people.

East Timor

Marker says meeting with Wiranto as helpful

Jakarta Post - December 23, 1998

Jakarta – Visiting United Nations (UN) special envoy Jamsheed Marker said he was pleased with his meeting with Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto here Monday which can be useful for future dialogs on the East Timor issue.

"I had a good and very intensive meeting with Gen. Wiranto ... I'm very confident that this will help push forward the process of dialog," Marker told journalists after the meeting. "The general relayed to me his appreciation, and gave indications of what the Indonesian government can also be doing," he said, adding that he hoped to have a meeting of senior officials in New York in January. He said he discussed with Wiranto all aspects of the East Timor situation.

The United Nations has been sponsoring tripartite talks between Jakarta and Lisbon to find an internationally acceptable solution to the question of the former Portuguese colony which was integrated as Indonesia's 27th province in 1976.

Marker, the UN Secretary General special envoy for East Timor, has been in Indonesia since Tuesday, and arrived back in Jakarta Sunday after a two-day visit to Dili. There he met with Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo along with leading pro- integration and pro-referendum figures.

The result of his discussions will be reported to the UN Secretary General and used as input when Indonesian and Portuguese officials resume their dialog. Before leaving here Wednesday Marker is also scheduled to meet with President B.J. Habibie and Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.

Since Habibie took over the presidency in May, Indonesia has come out with a new approach to the East Timor issue saying it is willing to give the youngest province a special status with wide ranging autonomy. However Jakarta remains adamantly against a referendum.

When asked by journalists about the referendum question, Marker said he was not surprised at Indonesia's position. "That has always been the position of the Indonesian government. And the dialog we are continuing in New York is based on that position. I am not either surprised or disappointed," he said.

Protesters

When asked about the much reported protests, which saw pro- referendum protesters occupy the Dili airport runway at the end of his two-day visit in the province, Marker said there was no problem at all.

"I was not taken hostage at Dili airport. I left the city very happily," he asserted. Some 500 East Timorese protesters led by Forces Armadas Libertacao National da Timor Leste (Falintil) group stormed Komoro airport in Dili Sunday.

They broke the security cordon and forced their way on to the runway. Marker was airlifted by a military helicopter to the neighboring East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital of Kupang. The protesters reportedly intended taking Marker as hostage until their demands for a referendum were met.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Alatas here on Monday regretted Sunday's incident. "The incident has proved to our guest that the group, who committed such an irrational act, is not tolerant towards other people," Alatas told reporters after a monthly coordinating meeting on political and security affairs.

He, however, was confident that the incident would not influence Marker's judgment on the East Timorese issue. "I believe this incident will not create a negative impact on Indonesia's image as Marker has visited East Timor several times," he said.

East Timor Governor, Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, also expressed regret over the incident. Abilio called on all East Timorese to express their opinions through legal channels as rallies often disturb daily life in the province.

Resign

In a related development, rumors were rife in Dili Monday that Governor Abilio Soares had resigned. Abilio himself however denied the rumors saying he was merely taking a month's leave.

"It's been some time since I took my leave. So from Dec. 22 through Jan. 22 I won't be in Dili to celebrate Christmas. I'll just wish people a merry Christmas and a happy new year," Abilio said.

In Jakarta, Director General for Regional Autonomy and Public Administration Ryaas Rasyid of the Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed Abilio was only taking a brief sabbatical. "No, he's not resigning, he is just taking leave," Ryaas told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday.

When asked about Abilio's deputy, Johannes Suryo Prabowo, who has submitted a letter of resignation, Ryaas said he has received the request. "It will rest on President Habibie whether to grant the request ... If rejected he would have to continue in service as a vice governor," Ryaas remarked.

Horta agrees with transition period leading to referendum

Lusa - December 18, 1998

Helsinki – Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Jose Ramos Horta said in Helsinki on Thursday he agreed with jailed East Timorese former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao's proposal for a transition period leading to a referendum on self-determination in his occupied home land.

"The question of time is not that important, the referendum can be held in three or 10 years from now, because this is a matter for negotiations within the efforts of the UN secretary-general," Ramos Horta said in the Finnish capital at the start of a two-day visit.

Gusmao proposed in a special interview with LUSA in the Cipinang prison in Jakarta earlier this week that East Timor be given a 10-year transition period leading to a referendum on self- determination. Gusmao also told LUSA that East Timor was not ready for immediate independence.

Ramos Horta also said he believed that the outcome of elections in Indonesia next year could change Jakarta's official position on the problem of East Timor. "We are going to win this war, if Indonesia likes it or not," Ramos Horta said, adding the current political situation was "totally favourable" to the East Timorese resistance movement.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner also said the Indonesian people were "tired of war in East Timor," because of which it was likely they would recognise East Timor's right of self-determination in a matter of months. Finland will hold the EU presidency in the second half of next year.

Ramos Horta, vice-president of the National Timorese Resistance Council (CNRT), had a 1 1/2 hour meeting with Finnish Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen about the situation in East Timor on Thursday Ramos Horta is scheduled to meet with human rights activists and government and opposition leaders during his two- day stay in Helsinki, including President Martti Ahtisaari.

[In a separate report on the same day, Lusa quoted the first vice-president of FRETILIN, Mari Alkatiri, as saying that he agreed that a transition period before independence was needed but considered that 10 years was "long" - James Balowski.]

Marker airlifted amid protests at airport

Agence France Presse - December 20, 1998

Dili – A special envoy of the UN secretary general was airlifted by helicopter from the Komoro airport here Sunday as hundreds of protestors stormed the terminal, witnesses said.

Some 500 people, mostly students but also other civilians, some of whom held machetes, stormed the airport and broke through two security cordons as envoy Jamsheed Marker was waiting to board a commercial flight to Denpasar.

The protestors were at the head of a column of thousands more who travelled to the airport in a convoy of trucks, buses, cars and motorcycles to see Marker off after a two-day visit here. Marker was driven to a helicopter and flown off as the mob began to break glass windows at the airport and force their way into the VIP lounge.

A Merpati Nusantara Airline airplane, which arrived at the airport from Denpasar, Bali, and was to take Marker and other passengers back to Denpasar, only taxied for a few minutes on the runway before taking off again as the mob began to stream into the taxiway.

A Merpati official said the airplane headed for Kupang in West Timor and would return later in the day if the security situation allowed it. Military sources the aircraft would return to pickup Marker and other passengers, adding that the UN envoy was taken to the nearby military airbase.

But Dili district military commander Lieutenant Colonel Endar told AFP that Marker was flown directly to Kupang and will take another flight there to Denpasar. "The Danrem (the East Timor military commander) ordered for the helicopter to pick Marker and his delegation up and fly them to Kupang," Endar said, refering to Colonel Tono Suratman who heads the East Timor military command.

Police and soldiers reinforcement were sent to the airport to disperse the mob and, about 60 minutes later, order had been reestablished there. The mob, "a mixture of students and civilians", had been dispersed and no arrests were made, Endar said.

Crowds rally to greet UN envoy in East Timor

Agence France Presse - December 19, 1998

Dili – More than 1,000 pro-independence residents of East Timor rallied in the capital Dili Saturday, preparing to greet the UN secretary general's special envoy on the territory Jamsheed Marker.

Riding on buses, trucks, motorbikes and taxis, the protestors circled through town. They sang songs and called for a peaceful solution for the former Portuguese colony, witnesses said. "Let us protest in peace," "(Indonesian) Soldiers, leave our homeland forever," "Let the UN hear from the people," they yelled.

At the governor's office representatives from student groups and the East Timor National Resistance Council met local officials including East Timor military commander Colonel Tono Suratman.

The council representatives demanded that Marker stay in Dili. There were rumours that he might hold planned meetings with government, military and church leaders outside the capital for fear that demonstrations could degenerate into riots.

Late in the morning Marker was reportedly on his way to Dili from the Indonesian island of Bali where he held a closed-door meeting with the regional military commander overseeing East Timor Friday. He was due to arrive in the neighboring Indonesian provincial capital of Kupang and be taken by military helicopter to Dili.

Marker arrived in Indonesia Tuesday for a nine-day visit. He met Wednesday with two top generals, the head of the military intelligence agency and the head of the military's territorial affairs.

On Thursday Marker met in Jakarta with jailed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, who has signalled he would accept an Indonesian offer of autonomy as a step towards self- determination. Xanana also pledged his support for continuing UN-sponsored talks to find an autonomy formula for the troubled territory.

Marker, whose East Timor visit is due to last for two days, declined to comment on reports of increased Indonesian military activity in several districts of East Timor. He said his mission is "to find a political solution," not "fact-finding."

There has been a resurgence of attacks by independence supporters on Indonesian troops, including one on a military outpost in Alas sub-district last month. Reports of alleged military violence, though not confirmed by a visiting International Committee of the Red Cross team, prompted Portugal briefly to suspend the autonomy talks last month.

Political/economic crisis

'Third party' behind bloody Kupang riots

Jakarta Post - December 21, 1998

Jakarta – Rights campaigner Benjamin Mangkoedilaga said on Saturday that an investigation into recent unrest in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, revealed that it was not a spontaneous eruption of outrage over earlier unrest in Jakarta.

Instead, it was determined that a "third party" masterminded the attacks against mosques and properties of the Muslim community in the predominately Catholic region, Benjamin said in Bandung.

The new member of the National Commission on Human Rights was quoted by Antara as saying that witnesses reported the presence of strangers in their neighborhoods just before the rioting broke out. "The strangers wandered around in the sites of the rioting," said Benjamin, while "most Kupang residents claimed they did not know how the unrest began. They learned about the rioting after it spread.

"There's no indication that the unrest was in retaliation for the tragedy. in Ketapang" he said. Ketapang, West Jakarta, was the scene of unrest in which 14 people were killed late last month when residents attacked churches. "What we have, instead, are indications that the (Kupang) unrest was plotted so that it looked like an interreligion conflict," he said.

Benjamin described how the people he spoke to did not bear any grudge toward people of other faiths or ethnic groups. He also said that Muslims who lost their homes were given shelter by Catholic missionaries, while the damaged mosques were repaired with the help of the Catholic community.

President B.J. Habibie met with some officials and community leaders from East Nusa Tenggara on Friday in Jakarta where they agreed that the rioting was triggered by attempts to use religion to pit one group against another.

"The torching of places of worship in Kupang was not caused by religion, race or ethnic-related issues but by attempts to use religion to pit one group. against the other and to commit an act of deception," East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Tallo said after the meeting with Habibie.

The Kupang riots on Nov. 30 followed a procession initiated by four Christian youth organizations to memorialize the Nov. 22 riots in Ketapang in which numerous buildings were also damaged. At least 11 places of worship were set ablaze and more than a dozen houses, a haj dormitory, government offices and school buildings were extensively vandalized in the Kupang riots, causing material losses of nearly Rp 30 billion. Police claim they have strong evidence linking eight people to the Kupang riots.

Aceh in turmoil after sexual harassment by soldier

Waspada - December 22, 1998 (slightly abridged)

Seven government offices were seriously damaged and seven people -- four soldiers and three civilians – were seriously injured when hundreds of people flooded into Lhokseumawe early Monday morning.

The troubles came to a head at around 2.30am following an incident in which a soldier pulled the prayer robe of a young married woman from Dayah Tuha village who was on her way to the mosque for evening prayers.

Thousands of people descended on Bayu village, about 15 kms east of Lhokseumawe, the place where the incident occurred. The security forces were unable to hold the huge crowd back. They blocked 15km of the Medan-Banda Aceh highway with electricity poles that were lying by the roadside about to be installed by the PLN, and burnt tyres.

Traffic along the highway was blocked for 14 hours and eventually the traffic was re-directed to the road running parallel to the Pipeline of Mobile Oil.

The government buildings seriously damaged included the Koramil (military command) command post, a police headquarters, a sub- district office, a village centre, a religious affairs office and the Lhokseumawe district court in Bukit Rasa.

The crowds halted all vehicles including public transport and private cars, looking for members of the armed forces. They burned the Honda Accord vehicle of Major Harahap and Rp600,000 in cash belonging to the major who is a senior officer at the Liliwanga military command – Korem, as he was on his way home with his family. The seriously and lightly wounded included the major and other soldiers, as well as the major's wife.

The atmosphere in Lhokseumawe remained very tense throughout Monday. Many shops remained closed and local people stayed home. Few dared to venture out to the mosque for evening prayers.

Mobs pelt churches on eve of Ramadan

Agence France Presse - December 21, 1998 (abridged)

Jakarta – A mob of more than 1,000 people attacked three churches, a Catholic school, a clinic and scores of houses near here on the eve of the Moslem fasting month, a report said Monday.

The mob first attacked some 30 houses in the Harapan Baru residential area in Bekasi, some 18 kilometres east of Jakarta late on Saturday, pelting them with stones, the Indonesian Observer said. The crowd, who were shouting "fire, fire" then attacked the Saint Albertus Catholic church there, breaking window panes and the entrance gate. But hundreds of police and military personnel arrived and prevented them from inflicting further damage.

The mob then moved to a Protestant church some 200 metres (yards) away, also pelting it with stones, before attacking another Protestant church in the neighouring area of Pondok Ungu, the Observer said. They also attacked the Flora Catholic school and a private clinic there, smashing doors and windows.

The Bekasi police chief, the only person authorized to issue detailed information, was not reachable early Monday. His staff said he had gone to report the incidents to the Jakarta police headquarters. Jakarta's police spokesman was also in a meeting with the Jakarta police chief, his staff at police headquarters said.

The reason for the attack was unknown but a church warden at Saint Albertus speculated it might have been related to the US and British attacks on Iraq.

The air strikes took place as government and religious leaders, including Moslems, called for respect for other religions and their places of worship, especially during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan that started on Sunday.

Meanwhile, reports from Samarinda, the capital of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on Borneo island, said an angry mob burned a car and two motorbikes belonging to traffic control police Saturday night.

The mob action was triggered by anger over the death of an 18- year-old in a police chase in Loa Janan near Samarinda, several hours earlier, and the failure of the police to move the body for more than two hours, the Media Indonesia daily said.

Samarinda police chief Lieutenant Colonel Tommy said the victim, a suspected criminal, had been hit by a bus when fleeing on a motorbike from a policeman who approached him. The East Kalimantan mobile brigade and security personnel from the local military police were deployed to quell the riot, media reports said.

Labour issues

Indonesia to ratify three more ILO pacts

Agence France Presse - December 23, 1998

Jakarta – The Indonesian government on Wednesday signed a letter of intent with the International Labor Organization (ILO) pledging to ratify three more human rights conventions.

The letter was signed at the presidential palace here by Labor Minister Fahmy Idris and ILO Jakarta office director Iftikar Ahmed, with President B.J. Habibie as witness, the ILO said in a statement.

The signing follows Habibie's move in June to sign the ILO convention on the Freedom of Assocation and the right to organize, as part of reforms adopted after the fall of former president Suharto,.

The three new conventions would oblige Indonesia to abolish forced labor, ban employment of underage workers and prevent discrimination in the workplace.

If the three are ratified by parliament, Indonesia would become the first country in East Asia to have adopted all seven of the ILO's core conventions, the statement said.

Hike in regional minimum wages set

Jakarta Post - December 23, 1998

Jakarta – The government plans to increase regional minimum wages by between 10 percent and 20 percent next April.

Syaufii Samsuddin, director general of industrial relations and labor standards at the manpower ministry, said on Tuesday that almost all provincial offices of the ministry had proposed an increase in minimum wages. Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris was expected to announce the decision on an increase in January.

"This increase is expected to raise optimism among workers in the coming year," Syaufii said. He acknowledged the financial difficulties many firms were facing, but said that not all would be unable to pay at least the minimum wages.

Syaufii said the government would also decide upon the minimum w ages in sectors which were considered able to pay workers higher than the minimum wage levels. "Aceh proposes raising minimum wages in eight sectors and North Sumatra proposes hikes in seven sectors, including agriculture, food and beverages, and electronics," he said.

Last April, the government raised regional minimum wages by an average of 15 percent. A 10 percent increase for a single worker in Greater Jakarta (Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi), for instance, will increase the minimum wage to Rp 218,350 from Rp 198,500.

The ministry rules that companies requiring permission to delay increasing their workers' salaries should forward their requests to the ministry within three months of the new ministerial decree on minimum wages taking effect. The ministry will, if necessary, audit the companies making such requests before deciding whether they can delay increasing salaries.

Regional minimum wages refer to the lowest wages in small-scale companies, while minimum wages for sectors are higher. The director general said that despite numerous labor unions only the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation (SPSI) had been recommended by the government to represent workers in negotiations on pay increases with their employers.

"New labor unions have yet to be allowed to negotiate with managements because the company unions have yet to register with the government," he said. Ministerial Decree No. 5/1998 requires all new labor unions, including branches in provinces and regencies, to register with the government.

Syaufii also called on companies to pay annual bonuses to workers who celebrate Christmas before Dec. 25, and to those who celebrate Idul Fitri before Jan. 10.

"According to the government regulation, companies are obliged to pay a bonus equaling one-month salary plus allowances as annual bonuses to their workers. Companies failing to comply with the government ruling will be punished in accordance with the 1969 labor law " he said.

Syaufii said no companies had requested exemption from the ruling on annual bonuses. He said that last year, 87 companies were allowed to defer paving annual bonuses to their workers. Fourteen companies' requests were turned down. He also said workers who were dismissed 30 days before Christmas or Idul Fitri were entitled to an annual bonus.

Syaufii also appealed to companies to help provide transportation facilities to workers who wanted to travel to their hometowns to celebrate Idul Fitri and to ensure that they would return to Jakarta on time. "Transportation facilities would benefit not only workers but also help them to return to their workplaces on time," he said.

Human rights/law

What did mobil know?

Business Week - December 25, 1998

There are days when Teungku Bintara wonders how he ever survived. For six months in 1990 and 1991 he languished in a military prison camp in Indonesia's Aceh province. One day, Bintara, then the headman of a nearby village, was put inside a room whose walls were splattered with human blood and hair. During an interrogation that left him blind in the right eye, Bintara claims an Indonesian army officer whipped his scalp with a frayed cable, burned his pubic hair with a match, and held live electric wires to his genitals and temples. Another time, the officer threatened to execute Bintara if he did not disclose the name of a Muslim separatist guerrilla leader, despite Bintara's insistence he didn't know him.

Bintara's gruesome experience unfolded only a few hundred yards from the chemical plants and white storage tanks of P.T. Arun, a liquefied natural-gas (LNG) producer in which Indonesia's state- owned oil monopoly, Pertamina, holds a controlling 55% stake and Mobil Corp. owns 35%. At the time of Bintara's detention, the plant employed 1,800 workers and was frequented by several Mobil advisers. Human rights groups have documented Rancong as a known torture site. But Mobil says it was not aware of any such activity. Bintara claims he saw fellow inmates in the Rancong camp being tortured and then tossed "like dogs" onto trucks.

Terrible tales

Today, all that remains of Rancong is a crumbling cluster of row houses. But what happened at Rancong and throughout Aceh eight years ago is very much a live issue in Indonesia. Since the fall of strongman President Suharto in May, a stream of witnesses such as Bintara have come forward with tales of atrocities committed by Indonesia's military.

The events occurred during a three-decade campaign to suppress a guerrilla movement that sought independence for Indonesia's westernmost province. The survivors' tales raise questions about what Mobil knew and when. On Oct. 10, a coalition of 17 Indonesian human rights organizations issued a statement asserting that Mobil and P.T. Arun are "responsible for human rights abuses" during the military operation in Aceh.

The groups allege Mobil Oil Indonesia, Mobil's wholly owned subsidiary, provided crucial logistic support to the army, including earth-moving equipment that was used to dig mass graves. One such grave excavated in the village of Bukit Sentang contained at least a dozen bodies. Another allegation is that security forces seized a local Mobil employee on company property without a warrant. That employee has not been seen since.

Mobil and Pertamina flatly deny allegations that they knew of any human rights abuses in the Aceh area in the early 1990s. "I can frankly say that we have no knowledge of that happening," says Neil Duffin, executive vice-president for production and exploration of Mobil Oil Indonesia (MOI). Pertamina Public Relations General Manager A. Sidick Nitikusuma says that "incidents connected to human rights violations were beyond Pertamina and MOI's authority and knowledge." The Indonesian army, which is helping excavate the graves, officially says it regrets any suffering. But it has not said the bodies uncovered were its victims.

News of these incidents is breaking into the wider world. US Ambassador to Indonesia Stapleton Roy discussed the allegations on Nov. 3 in Jakarta with visiting Mobil Chairman Lucio A. Noto, who denied knowledge of any misuse of Mobil equipment or facilities. A State Dept. official told Business Week that the US government has "expressed concern" about the allegations and is calling for Indonesian authorities to conduct a "full investigation." "The US continues to monitor the situation," the official said. "Allegations of abuses should be investigated by the country concerned."

The controversy is likely to grow as more graves are opened and bodies found. Indonesian human rights organizations and government officials, who now are receiving some help from the military, say they so far have identified 12 mass graves. One grave is on Pertamina-owned land that is less than three miles from a Mobil gas-drilling site. Whether this site contains human remains will be known when the government exhumes it next year. So far, officials have unearthed remains in 6 of the 12 sites. Other suspected graves in close proximity to Mobil operations, such as at Rancong, have not been investigated. Indonesian human rights commission member B.N. Marbun estimates that at least 2,000 Acehnese torture victims – most of them civilians – are buried around the Aceh area.

Turmoil

The discoveries typify the ethical issues that a growing number of multinationals must confront after years of doing business in Third World dictatorships. While there is no legal precedent for holding companies legally accountable in troubled circumstances, there is debate on what moral responsibilities multinationals have overseas.

To find out what happened, Business Week conducted a five-week- investigation of the allegations against Mobil. The probe included three trips to the Aceh area and dozens of interviews with torture victims, government officials, residents of villages near the mass graves, and local and foreign contractors who worked for Mobil and P.T. Arun. Business Week also spoke with several Indonesians who worked on Mobil facilities in Aceh. Mobil answered written questions and allowed a tour of the Aceh facilities. Mobil representatives accompanied a Business Week reporter to alleged grave sites. Finally, Mobil's headquarters in Fairfax, Va. provided detailed responses to questions from Business Week's reporters and editors.

This probe uncovered more than a dozen sources who either witnessed atrocities or came upon their aftermath. Two contractors say they told local Mobil managers that they had found human body parts close to Mobil sites, for example. And a former Mobil employee says rumors of massacres and of reports that Mobil equipment was being used to dig graves were frequently discussed at workplaces and in a company cafeteria. Yet there is no clear evidence that Mobil's top management had direct knowledge of such reports.

Peaceful purposes

Mobil does say that it loaned the army excavators and supplied troops with food and fuel on occasion for three decades. But it insists Mobil managers had no record that the army was using this help for anything but peaceful purposes. Mobil also says it has no record of the army using its maintenance facilities or other buildings, as human rights groups allege. Instead, Duffin says, Mobil was told that any equipment used was "for projects beneficial to the community," such as building roads. If facilities and equipment were used for other reasons, he adds, "I don't believe we can be held responsible." On Nov. 5, Noto said at a press conference in Jakarta: "If anything happened because somebody used the equipment in a wrong way, I'm sorry about that." Noto added that Mobil had "no control over that."

In a letter to Business Week, the company describes the ambiguities of its situation. "Did we know we were operating in the middle of a conflict? Of course we did, and so did the world. ... [But] based on our inquiries and search of records, no reports from Mobil's national employees on the alleged mass graves and other military human rights abuses in the area were brought forward to Mobil's management in Indonesia." Mobil says if it had known of abuses associated with its operations, it would have protested aggressively.

Mobil also points out that it does not own any of the facilities in its own oil-and-gas operations in Aceh. All real estate and buildings where Mobil and P.T. Arun operate are owned by Pertamina. Also, most of the equipment used by Mobil in Indonesia is either leased from outside contractors or owned by Pertamina. At its $3 billion LNG venture, meanwhile, Arun's Pertamina- appointed management had control of the property.

Those interviewed in Aceh argue that the military operation was too big and talk of killings too widespread for the company not to know. "There wasn't a single person in Aceh who didn't know that massacres were taking place," says H. Sayed Mudhahar, a former top government official in Aceh. "From children to the elderly to the mentally ill, everybody was afraid." In the early 1980s, before the killings, Sayed had been a public relations manager for P.T. Arun. Faisal Putra, an attorney in Lhokseumawe who intends to file a suit against Mobil on behalf of victims, agrees: "The crimes occurred over a long period of time. Mobil Oil cannot utter the words, 'We didn't know."'

Yet many ambiguities remain. Several Acehnese victims and witnesses identified by human rights activists as Mobil employees later turned out to be contractors. Almost everyone interviewed in Aceh declined to speak on the record. Their explanation was that, because Mobil and P.T. Arun so dominate the economy in Aceh, they feared they would not be able to find good jobs or win more contracts if their names were used. Others feared military reprisals.

Whatever actually occurred, the Indonesian government's campaign to quell separatist unrest dragged Mobil into a morass. The separatist rebellion traces its origins to four centuries of fierce Acehnese resistance against Dutch colonial rule. After Indonesia declared independence in 1945, Aceh's fight for autonomy was crushed by then-President Sukarno. Aceh plunged into wrenching poverty.

Combat troops

Then came Mobil Oil's accidental discovery in 1971 of one of the world's richest onshore reserves of natural gas, estimated at 14 trillion cubic feet. The oil-and-gas industry quickly became the most important source of revenue for the central government in Jakarta, much to the resentment of Acehnese. Most of the top jobs and contracts went to ethnic Javanese. Despite dire local poverty, less than 10% of Aceh's wealth is invested back into the province, says Adinan Hashim, head of Aceh's Economic Planning Agency.

Following the opening of Mobil's P.T. Arun LNG joint venture in 1976, a guerrilla movement declared independence. Suharto sent troops into Aceh when villagers rioted and clashed with hundreds of settlers from Indonesia's main island of Java and started to block roads.

As violent clashes increased, troops started pouring in from Jakarta in May, 1990. Over the next few months, the force had reached thousands of soldiers and included the feared Army Special Forces with their signature red berets. "All of these new people coming in needed logistical support, so they went to all of the companies and began commandeering facilities," says former Aceh official Sayed. One such facility was Rancong, a vacated housing development for construction workers and Mobil employees at P.T. Arun.

The forces set up a base camp at an army facility known as Post A-13 in Landing, the site of Mobil's Arun gas field and a few minutes' drive from a Mobil airstrip and a housing compound known as Bachelor Camp.

Soon afterward, witnesses say, evidence of the military's gruesome handiwork was strewn everywhere. While traveling in late 1990 along a road leading to a Mobil oil well known as D2 – 19 miles southeast of Landing – a damage-claims inspector employed by a Mobil contractor came upon a vacant sugar plantation. Pigs were feeding on something in what appeared to be a bulldozed pit with dirt pushed over it. "They were obviously human bones," says the inspector, who spoke on condition his name not be used. "The pigs were rooting down there on a hip bone, around the white knobbly part." Javanese settlers in the area told him the army had rounded up and executed Acehnese villagers in retaliation for an attack on the settlement. The inspector says he informed a Mobil manager, who did not make a record of the incident. "The army is not somebody you argue with," explains the inspector. Mobil says it has no knowledge of the incident.

Dump truck

Along the same road a few months later, another Mobil contractor was part of a team testing soil samples outside of Dusun Cermai, a village of 600 people living in wood shacks with dirt floors, and about 2 1/2 miles from D2. As an excavator shoveled a mound of earth into a dump truck to be transported to a nearby Mobil construction site, the truck driver noticed a shoe lying on the ground. He jumped out of the cab, picked up the shoe, and collapsed in shock. It was attached to a severed human leg. The inspector reported the incident to a Mobil heavy-equipment supervisor at the construction office. "He had no reaction," says the contractor. "At that time, it was normal not to say anything, just keep quiet." Mobil says it has no records or knowledge of such a report.

This discovery was made near an area that was notable for its deep, wide crevices created by seismic activity. The locals have since named it "Skull Hill." The reason, they say, was hard to miss. The stench of rotting human flesh on Skull Hill could be smelled half a mile away. When Bil Maruf, headman of Dusun Cermai, went bird-hunting in the area one day, he found three corpses next to bulldozer tracks. Skull Hill is on a large expanse of land that Pertamina had acquired for Mobil to develop, although Mobil was not using the property at the time, says Jon W. Loader, Mobil's Asia public-relations manager. Still, a former Mobil employee and two current Mobil contractors say that company employees traveled that road every day in 1990 and 1991.

Around the same time, rumors spread of massacres in Bukit Sentang, a village about 15 miles away from Skull Hill. In 1991, Mobil used heavy equipment to widen a road that passed through the village, according to a former employee of Mobil's planning department who used the road to reach a Mobil-operated gas field farther south. "Every time I drove out there, the subcontractors stopped my car," says the source. "They said, 'No, don't go out there. Don't you know the army is killing people and burying them in mass graves with Mobil equipment?"' This became a topic of lunchtime conversation at Mobil's Bachelor Camp mess hall, but it never went into an official report, he says. Mobil says it does not know of its equipment being used in that area.

Yusuf Kasim, a local farmer, knew the grounds well. He says the army paid him $4 a night to stand guard over a borrowed excavator to prevent anyone from siphoning fuel from its tank. He says he watched soldiers execute 60 to 70 blindfolded Acehnese men at a time with M-16 rifles, shooting them in the back so they tumbled face-first into a mass grave across the rice field from his house. He claims he recognized one victim, Sulaiman, as a Mobil contractor. Sulaiman had been held at the army barracks at Post A-13, which is across the street from a Mobil well. "The bullets didn't kill Sulaiman, so the soldiers ordered the backhoe operator to cut him in half with the shovel," Kasim recalls. Mobil says it has no knowledge of the man or the incident. In late August, the National Commission on Human Rights disinterred human remains at Bukit Sentang in a somber ceremony. An Aceh- based human rights group photographed villagers removing an intact pair of blue jeans from a skeleton.

Vanished

Sulaiman was hardly the only Acehnese who disappeared. On July 10, 1990, an army officer walked into the office of Mobil's production department and walked out with T. Abdullah Baharuddin, a nine-year Mobil employee. A colleague later told his widow, Hasnidar, then nursing their one-month-old son, that the officer had first asked permission from Baharuddin's superiors but had no arrest warrant. So she complained to Baharuddin's boss and to a Mobil public-relations manager. More than a year later, on Aug. 21, 1991, Hasnidar finally received a letter from Mobil a year later. It said that Baharuddin's employment had been terminated and that he was to receive $3,500 in severance pay "in line with existing company policy." Detainees released from Rancong later told her they had seen Baharuddin there. Explains Loader: "Mobil did inquire through appropriate government channels of Baharuddin's status and learned that he had been detained by the authorities for security reasons." And Mobil points out that no company can stop lawful arrests on its premises.

P.T. Arun also says it had little control over Rancong once the military commandeered the facility in 1990. "They said they need to use our facilities for 'security purposes.' We could say nothing," recalls a Pertamina official familiar with the plant. "They were the army." The army even asked P.T. Arun to donate sarongs – local garments – so that prisoners could wear them while praying at a company mosque. On Fridays, P.T. Arun employees prayed alongside pale, gaunt prisoners, he adds.

Given how tense the situation was, it is fair to ask what a company in Mobil's predicament should have done. If Mobil had witnessed human rights abuses in Aceh, the company says it would have protested such abuse to Pertamina and to Jakarta. It also says it would have referred issues involving potential criminal conduct to appropriate authorities. This is in line with what ethics experts suggest. "Any time a corporation is in the middle of human rights violations, it needs to say something," says Human Rights Watch Executive Director for Asia Sidney Jones. "They don't have to be public about it."

But say the worst is true – that Mobil knew of the killings and did nothing. In terms of a company's legal responsibility, US law is murky because there is no precedent. The Alien Tort Claims Act allows US companies to be sued for wrongful actions committed overseas. In the last few years, human rights organizations and foreign victims have filed suits in US courts seeking damages for activities by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria, Unocal in Burma, and Texaco in Ecuador. The cases remain in the courts.

Meanwhile, Mobil's operations are going strong in the Aceh area, and its business there remains a lifeline for the struggling Indonesian economy. And as the country painfully examines its past, all those in Aceh – villagers, soldiers, and corporations -- must come to grips with a terrible legacy.

[By Michael Shari in Lhokseumawe, Indonesia, with Pete Engardio and Sheri Prasso in New York.]

Jakarta admits to rape cases in May riots

Agence France Presse - December 21, 1998

Jakarta – The Indonesian government, following up on the results of a government-set probe team into the violent May riots, Monday admitted 76 rapes had been committed, but denied they were organized, a minister said.

State Secretary Akbar Tanjung told journalists at the Merdeka palace the government's own checks had found 52 cases of rape, the same number as reported by the team, and 24 others that had been accompanied by violence, compared to the 14 found by the team. The government also found four cases of sexual harrassment, the same number as found by the team, Tanjung said.

It was the first time the government, which first sought to deny the rapes, most of them of ethnic-Chinese women and girls, had commented on findings of the quasi-government team released last month.

"According to our investigation, there was no evidence of rapes that were done in an organized way," Tanjung said. "And the victims were from various ethnic groups," he added. Tanjung said the figures were results of "a follow up by the government on the recommendation of the Joint Fact Finding Team."

Following an international furore over the savagery against ethnic-Chinese during the May riots the government in July commissioned the joint fact finding team to check rape allegations. It was comprised of representatives from the government, the attorney general's office, the police and non- governmental organisations.

Tanjung spoke after Habibie met with seven senior officials – five ministers, the attorney general and the national police chief – who officially commissioned the team.

Major General Marwan Paris, an assistant to the defence minister, who spoke on the same occassion, said rape cases had been reported in the cities of Jakarta, Surabaya in East Java, Solo in central Java, Medan in North Sumatra, Palembang in South Sumatra and in Lampung province in southern Sumatra.

"From the 52 rape victims, the cases of 15 have been processed ... while the rest are still under investigation," Paris said. He said of 15 cases which are currently being processed in view of the possibility of building a legal case, three were based on the victims' direct testimony, nine according to testimonies of medical doctors who had treated the victims and three from the testimony of the victims' parents.

The fact finding team in November said it had directly or indirectly verified 52 victims of simple rape, another 14 victims of rape accompanied by violence and a further 10 victims of sexual attacks and four of sexual harrassment.

The team had also pointed to possible involvement of an army unit headed by a son-in-law of former president Suharto, now retired lieutenant general Prabowo Subianto.

"Based on the recommendation of the Joint Fact Finding Team, the government deems it necessary for a further investigation of the members of the Kopassus who were involved in the abductions to see how far Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto was involved," Tanjung said.

He was referring to the abduction of at least 24 activists earlier this year when Prabowo, who is married to a daughter of fallen president Suharto, commanded the Kopassus elite special forces. Nine of those abducted have resurfaced and have spoken of torture. One has been found dead while the rest are still missing. A military council in September found members of Kopassus were implicated in the abductions.

Armed Forces Chief General Wiranto later that month said Prabowo would be given an early retirement while two other senior officers of the unit will not be given "operational" postings. The team also found the May the unrest was linked to a meeting held at Kostrad, the army strategic command headquarters on May 14. Kostrad was then under the command of Prabowo.

"On the recommendation regarding the meeting at the Kostrad headquarters, there is a need for information to be sought from those who were present there," Tanjung said.

The riots in Jakarta, one of the most violent the city has witnessed, took place on May 13-15. They left massive devastation and over 1,000 people dead, mostly looters caught by fires in buildings.

News & issues

Government approves recruitment of 40,000 militia

Associated Press - December 23, 1998 (abridged)

Jakarta – The government has approved a military plan to recruit civilians to help police fight crime in Indonesia, an official said Wednesday. Minister of Information Yunus Yosfiah said 40,000 civilians would be recruited in January and would be trained in all military training centers across the country.

He said Armed Forces chief General Wiranto has reported the plan to a meeting of Cabinet ministers dealing with security and political affairs. "The government has given its approval to the plan," Yosfiah said after the Cabinet meeting, presided over by President B.J. Habibie.

Yosfiah said the recruits would undergo four-month training until April. "Their task is to help the Indonesian police in safeguarding the people's environment, especially during the meetings of the People's Assembly,' Yosfiah said. He reasserted that the civilian militias would only help police instead of "defending the state."

Military chief Gen. Wiranto had suggested the controversial plan following near-daily protests in Jakarta and other cities mainly by students pressing for swifter democratic reform. Under the plan, as many 200,000 young, unemployed people might eventually be recruited for the group, dubbed "Ratih," an acronym for "Rakyat Terlatih," or trained people. They would be equipped with sticks, riot shields and handcuffs and will have powers of arrest.

Government critics and human rights activists have criticized the plan to establish a militia, arguing that the deployment of thousands of young men in the streets would only exacerbate unrest. There are fears of more unrest as newly formed political parties jostle for influence ahead of general elections scheduled for June.

Justice Minister Muladi has said that the government has drafted a law, to be submitted to Parliament next month, that would allow their formation.

Prabowo suspect in abductions

Sydney Morning Herald - December 23, 1998

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's President, Dr B.J. Habibie, has ordered prosecutors to target Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, the son-in-law of deposed president Soeharto, over the abductions of at least 24 political activists earlier this year.

But the leading Indonesian newspaper Kompas reported yesterday that General Prabowo, who was honorably discharged from the armed forces last week, has been granted permanent residency in Jordan, indicating he will not return to Jakarta to face the allegations.

Dr Habibie's order followed the release of a government report that also found General Prabowo may have played a key role in provoking riots in May that led to the killing of more than 1,000 people, left many areas of Jakarta burnt and looted and forced Mr Soeharto to resign.

The report, prepared by a team led by Mr Marzuki Darusman, the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, found the May unrest was linked to a meeting held at the army's strategic command, Kostrad, on May 14. Kostrad was then under General Prabowo's command.

The report has renewed speculation that General Prabowo wanted to provoke civil chaos and unrest and use it as an excuse to widen his own power through a military crackdown.

After the release of the report, which was commissioned amid international outrage over violence against ethnic-Chinese during the May riots, Dr Habibie ordered that 11 members of General Prabowo's Kopassus elite forces be immediately put on trial over the abductions and torture of activists opposed to Mr Soeharto's 32-year rule.

The State Secretary, Mr Akbar Tandjung, said that Dr Habibie, once a close friend of the Soeharto family, wanted the trial of the soldiers to establish General Prabowo's involvement or otherwise in the kidnappings. Nine of the kidnap victims have spoken of torture, one has been found dead and the rest are missing.

Dr Habibie has also ordered the Justice Department to press ahead with investigations into the killing of six students at Jakarta's Trisakti University in May, which sparked widespread riots.

Early this week Dr Habibie distanced himself from attempts to include Mr Soeharto in talks aimed at ending student protests and religious and racial violence across the country.

The fact-finding report, released on Monday night, forced the Government to admit that 52 mostly ethnic Chinese women and teenagers were raped during the May riots. Investigators found also that another 24 women had been violently abused and four sexually harassed.

However Mr Tandjung said there was no evidence the rapes were part of an organised campaign and said the victims were from various ethnic groups. But the investigators found many of the women had been gang-raped. Prosecutors said of the 52 confirmed rapes criminal evidence had been gathered in 15 cases and investigations were under way in the others.

Indonesian foreign affairs officials were trying yesterday to check the report that General Prabowo had obtained residency in Amman.

The Government has decided to postpone plans to form a civilian militia to boost security, The Jakarta Post reported. The plan outraged protesters and human rights activists who argued the deployment of thousands of young men in the streets would only exacerbate unrest.

The proposal was reportedly delayed while the Government prepared to draft a law, rather than just a decree as originally planned, that would allow the formation of the civilian militia.

Up to 50 political prisoners to be released this week

Agence France Presse - December 21, 1998 (abridged)

Jakarta – Indonesia will release between 40 and 50 political prisoners, including East Timorese, later this week but top East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao will not be among them, a minister said Monday.

The figures were announced by Justice Minister Muladi after accompanying President B.J. Habibie for a meeting at the Institution for the Implementation of the Law, Human Rights, Democracy, and National Political Strategy, the official Antara news agency said.

"Xanana's release is related to the East Timor issue," Justice Minister Muladi said, explaining why he was not to be among those freed. Muladi did not give details or the identities of those to be released but said they would all be freed under a presidential pardon or following a reduction of their sentences. The release should bring to the number of political prisoners freed since the fall of president Suharto in May to about 150.

On November 12, Cooperatives Minister Adi Sasono said the government was planning to release some 100 political prisoners in the following weeks. "We'll be freeing those imprisoned for differences of opinion but not those who have killed," Sasono said then.

Soliders accused of abducting activists to face trial

Agence France Presse - December 22, 1998

Jakarta – Eleven members of the Indonesian armed forces will face a military court Wednesday, charged with involvement in the abduction and torture of political activists, a rights group said Tuesday.

Munir of the Commission for Victims of Violence told AFP that he learned of the trial date from a subpoena sent by the military prosecutor to a former abductee asked to testify at the trial Wednesday.

The 11 suspects, from the elite Kopassus special forces and including seven non-commissioned officers, are suspected of involvement in the abduction and torture of at least 24 activists earlier this year.

Three of their superiors, including a son-in-law of former president Suharto, have already received administrative sanctions from the head of the armed forces on the advice of a military council probing the abductions.

President B.J. Habibie on Monday pledged that the government will continue with its probe into the extent of the involvement in the abductions of Suharto's son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, who headed Kopassus at the time of the kidnappings.

Prabowo was honorably discharged from the armed forces in August. Two other senior officers of Kopassus were barred at the time from ever holding an operational position in the armed forces. The military says the three senior officers might face court martial if evidence against them emerges during the trial of the 11 soldiers.

At least 24 activists were abducted early in the year in the run-up to a general session of the People's Consultative Assembly to elect Suharto for a seventh consecutive term. Nine of the abducted victims have since resurfaced, one has been found dead and 13 are still listed as missing, Munir said.

Munir however expressed doubts that much would come out of the current court case, saying that the military court "will not go into the depth of the matter, since the top-level officer giving the order" for the kidnappings was not on trial.

[On December 23, AFP reported that the trial, held at the Jakarta Military High Court in East Jakarta, opened with the military prosecutor reading out the charges against the defendants, seven of them non-commissioned officers. The tightly guarded courtroom was packed with people, including human rights activists and journalists - James Balowski.].

Moslem leader defends meeting with Suharto

Agence France Presse - December 21, 1998

Jakarta – A popular Moslem leader has defended a weekend meeting with fallen Indonesian president Suharto against mounting criticism, saying the veteran leader still had a strong influence on the nation's political life, reports said Monday.

"We asked Suharto, as someone who has a wide following, to order his followers to restrain themselves," Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying.

Many have questioned his motives in the unprecedented meeting with Suharto at his mid-town Jakarta residence on Saturday. Others have professed themselves perplexed over Gus Dur's attempts to include Suharto, the target of almost-daily student protests, in a national dialogue to cool the turbulence in Indonesia since Suharto resigned under pressure in May after 32 years in power.

The Saturday meeting was the first time since Suharto's fall that he had been openly approached on what Gus Dur called "the state of the nation." "I do not care whether I am suspected of maneuvering or not maneuvering," said Gus Dur, who heads the nation's largest Moslem group, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU.)

As part of a national reconciliation dialogue, he has already met with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who represented the civilian bureaucracy, and Armed Forces Chief General Wiranto, who represented the military bureaucracy, he said.

Habibie, Suharto's successor and protege, has hailed the move by Gus Dur as "good," the Jakarta Post said quoting State Secretary Akbar Tanjung. According to Tanjung, Habibie also gave his stamnp of approval to Gus Dur's drive to get a national reconciliation dialogue going to help the nation through its problems. But, according to Tanjung, he himself had no plan to meet with Suharto.

Gus Dur was quoted by Kompas as saying that "Habibie does not reject (a meeting with Suharto) but he only wants to meet Suharto as an individual." He also said that his approaches to Suharto should in no way affect the current probe into alleged corruption and abuse of power by the former president during his tenure. Suharto should still be brought to justice, he said, and his case dealt with according to the law.

Gus Dur's detractors have expressed fears his move may divert the focus of legal proceedings against Suharto, and some have accused him of harboring political ambitions. The Moslem leader has been at the forefront of efforts to establish a national reconcilation dialogue to combat waves of rising violence in the country and try to ease the standoff between reformist students and the establishment, most of whom are old Suharto appointees.

He first mooted inviting Suharto to join the dialogue early last week, saying he still commanded the loyalty of many.

Several commentators have blamed some of the outbursts of violence in the country, including a wave of attacks on churches and mosques, on Suharto loyalists working behind the scenes to try to distract the nation from the investigation into his wealth. The commentators have offered no proof of their allegations.