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Hundreds of students demonstrated outside the Aceh regional assembly -- DPRD -- calling for a referendum expressing their deep disappointment with the central government's failure to call human rights violators in Aceh to account.
During the demonstration which was attended by students from IAIN Ar Raniry, the state university Unsyiah and a number of private universities and colleges, the students destroyed the front door of the assembly building and damaged the interiors of several rooms.
The 500 demonstrating students expressed their disappointment with the assembly for failing to reflect the aspirations of the majority of people in the province of Aceh.
Demands for action to be taken against the perpetrators of human rights abuses that occured during DOM have been made repeatedly since the era of reform began but nothing whatever has happened. To this day, no action has been taken on the part of the government to bring to trial the military personnel who murdered, tortured and raped Acehnese, and committed other brutalities.
A statement read out by Tarmizi, coordinator of the action, said that the long-drawn-out problems in Aceh cannot be resolved by the Indonesian Government because of all the political conspiracies which invariably favour the central government.
The students' spokesman said that for the past few decades, the people of Aceh have been a soft target for the power-holders while the people have done what they could to defend their rights.'The Acehnese now say that we have had enough because our demands have never been met by the government of the republic.'
The statement went on to say that the abuses perpetrated by the military during the years of DOM and the Red-Net Operation (1989-1990) had wounded the people of Aceh deeply and had wounded the dignity of Muslims around the world. There had been thousands of casualities yet the central government had never taken a stand on the matter. The result is that many people at the grassroots had become involved in riots and there had been splits within the ranks of the Acehnese elite.
Now things have got even worse with the launch of Operasi Wibawa '99 which is using similar methods as DOM, resulting in yet more casualties. The republic's power-holders have betrayed the Acehnese people's loyalty towards the Republic of Indonesia and regarded everything we do with suspicion, the statement said.
These bitter facts have compelled the people of Aceh to adopt a firm attitude towards the Republic of Indonesia. Speaking on behalf of the Acehnese people, intellectuals on the campuses demand that the central government hold a referendum as quickly as possible to test the opinion of the people on whhether they wish to remain part of Indonesia or not, said Tarmizi.
At a meeting the day before with the regional military commander and high-ranking officials in the province, community leaders including religious teachers, university personalities, youth and students said 'Goodbye' to the Republic of Indonesia, giving vent to the same attitude.
In the past few days, Waspada's own investigations show that the question of a referendum has been the central talking-point everywhere in the province.
The student demonstration at the assembly building lasted about three hours after which the demonstrators dispersed, leaving behind a number of posters and banners calling for a referendum. Neither the chairman nor the deputy chairman of the assembly was in the building at the time.
Jakarta -- In one of Indonesia's first student protests of 1999, a small group of activists demonstrated Thursday against the arrests of two students on kidnapping charges.
Some 30 students gathered outside the South Jakarta District Court, where the two suspects face trial for allegedly abducting and torturing a plainclothes policeman at a Nov. 27 rally.
Since their protests helped oust authoritarian President Suharto in May, students have kept up demonstrations for swift political reform, as well as a trial of Suharto on corruption charges. Students have refrained from protesting over the past month, in deference to the Islamic holy fasting month of Ramadan, which ends Jan. 18. Campus protesters plan to resume rallies after a week of post-Ramadan holidays.
Rudi Simatupang and Edward Taurus, the students accused of kidnapping the police officer, were arrested in a raid last month by security forces at Jakarta's Christian University. They were accused of forcing the officer into a taxi, roughing him up and releasing him several hours later on the side of a road.
A hearing in the case had been scheduled Thursday, but only the lawyers for the defendants turned up in court. In a separate case, 11 elite soldiers have been charged in a military court with kidnapping pro-democracy activists in the last months of Suharto's 32-year rule.
Atika Shubert, Lhokseumawe -- Muhammad, a 20-year old villager near the town of Lhokseumawe, was shot in the leg last week during the Indonesian military's latest campaign to quell separatist ambitions here in the restive province of Aceh. His grandfather, M. Yayah Bin Ajis, 60, suffered three broken ribs and a rifle butt to the head when soldiers prevented him from taking Muhammad to the hospital.
Leaning against each other for support, they listened to the advice of a backer of the separatist Free Aceh movement. "We must always fight against this," he encouraged the bleary-eyed victims, who nodded slowly in agreement. "They come here like the Dutch colonialists to take our riches and destroy our lives. We can't let them do this anymore."
For Indonesia's military it is a nightmare: A resurgent separatist movement and violent attacks on military personnel just as the country is struggling to complete its first peaceful transition of power.
The end of former president Suharto's repressive 32-year rule in May opened a path to democracy but it also opened a Pandora's box of regional grievances, triggering political unrest across the diverse island nation.
Rebellious regions like Aceh are wearing dangerously thin the military's traditional role as the last defense against national disintegration.
Rich in natural resources and steeped in Muslim fundamentalism, Aceh was known for its fierce resistance to Dutch colonial rule and harbors one of Indonesia's most enduring separatist movements. The military installed a "military operations area" to quell the Free Aceh movement, which, until the early 1990s, conducted a guerrilla campaign to fight for the region's independence from the central government in Jakarta.
In August, human rights groups discovered several mass graves and other evidence supporting accusations that the Indonesian military used such tactics as mass executions, torture and rape to subdue separatist sympathizers.
In a bid to change the military's image, the armed forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, apologized for the military's "operational excesses" and ended military control of Aceh, at least on paper.
In its place, Wiranto sent Col. Johnny Wahab as the region's new military commander to establish law and order -- with a smile. "I use a persuasive method," Wahab said, opening his doors to anyone who wants to stroll in and talk. "They may shout 'I want a Free Aceh!' but I shout 'I want a Free Aceh too!' and I ask them to be patient. It's not the right season. You can't have your coffee until the beans have been harvested."
Patience is running short. Last week, eight off-duty officers returning home for the holidays were attacked and killed by vengeful mobs. The military reacted swiftly, pinning the blame on a local separatist leader and raiding suspected hideouts in several villages.
The raids sparked anti-government rioting and in the course of a weekend, 17 civilians were killed, most of them shot or beaten to death while in detention. According to Wahab, however, the murders were not the work of frustrated villagers but a plot masterminded by Ahmad Kandang, an enigmatic community leader active in the Free Aceh movement.
In the military's version, Kandang terrorizes villagers into kidnapping military personnel and forces women and children to act as human shields against the military raids, leading to civilian deaths.
In response, the military has surrounded seven villages suspected of holding the elusive rebel leader only to find that villagers station themselves in front of the machine guns, daring soldiers to shoot innocent civilians.
On Saturday at dawn, Indonesian military raided nearby villages again, and four people were beaten to death while in custody. Today, 30 soldiers were arrested for the beating deaths of the four villagers, military officials announced.
The situation has become so tense that villagers, suspecting any foreign face in the village to be a military spy, held a knife to the throat of a local journalist and threatened to kill anyone they did not recognize.
Human rights workers in Aceh, say that the military is wasting its time and making a bad situation worse. While separatist activities are on the rise, the Free Aceh movement remains too weak and scattered to pose a serious threat to national unity, according to Yacob Hamzah head of the Legal Aid Institute in Lhokseumawe, the center of recent violence.
Hamzah said the military should address villagers' demands for compensation to gain the respect of the people of Aceh before charging after a community leader like Kandang. "People don't believe in the military because there is no law, only the military's law," Hamzah explained. "The people may want to stay in the Republic of Indonesia but they want to see justice first."
Nonetheless, Wahab said he feels that some of his "peaceful, persuasive methods" are having a good effect. After talking to a group of Aceh residents about Kandang and the Free Aceh movement, Wahab said he was overwhelmed by the positive response. "They were shouting, 'We won't take Kandang's terror anymore!' " he said. "They hugged me and kissed me. They were so excited, I thought to myself, 'I could replace Ahmad Kandang! Maybe they could even love us.' "
Slipping in to Kandang's stronghold just outside Lhokseumawe shows otherwise. Hasan Udin, 24, a Free Aceh member, screens journalists and tells them the people of Aceh will never love the military. Like Wahab, Hasan is also working hard to convert locals to his cause, having arrived only two months ago, fresh from a five-year exile in Malaysia, where he fled after his father was shot dead by Indonesian soldiers.
"Ahmad Kandang will fight for the people so they can be independent from Indonesia," Hasan declared. "He listens to the desires and needs of the people -- something the military and government have never done."
Hasan is not the only new Free Aceh arrival to the town of Lhokseumawe. Several other young men, most with personal grievances of their own, have flocked to the Free Aceh movement, going so far as to fly the banned Free Aceh flag on the main highway through town. Indonesia's military quickly tore the flag down and pelted the surrounding neighborhood with rocks and abuse, demanding that all Free Aceh sympathizers come out and face them.
Caught in the middle, many people avoid both the Free Aceh and the military whenever they can, hoping only for an oasis of safety. Fifty yards from where the Free Aceh flag used to fly, a 47-year-old schoolteacher looked out through the remaining shards of his front window through which angry soldiers had hurled a volley of rocks.
"I won't look a soldier in the eye, and I never even looked once at that flag," he said. "Sometimes it's the military yelling for you to come out and surrender and sometimes it's Free Aceh. Either way, I won't come out. I'm staying inside my house to protect my children."
Jakarta -- Women activists and scholars, demanding a greater say in politics, are urging that at least 30 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives be allotted to women legislators.
Led by journalist Herawati Diah and psychology professor Saparinah Sadli, the activists grouped under the Women for Election Awareness Movement aired their views during a meeting with Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid on Monday. The meeting occurred during Abdurrahman's open house for women at his residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.
In the meeting, the activists urged Indonesian women only to support political parties whose list of legislative candidates was composed of at least 30 percent women. The group also urged the support of "political parties which promote women's causes".
Also among the women in the group were journalist Toeti Kakiailatu, Titi Sumbung and welfare activist Kardinah Soepardjo Roestam. The group also boasted the support of women activists from organizations such as Fatayat NU of Nahdlatul Ulama and the Indonesian Bishop Council.
Only 108 out of the 1,000 seats in the People's Consultative Assembly are held by women as of November 1997. In the Reform and Development Cabinet there are only two women ministers out of a total of 36 ministers: State Minister for Women's Affairs Tutty Alawiyah and Minister of Social Services Justika Baharsyah.
"Why only 30 percent?" Abdurrahman, known as Gus Dur, asked the activists. He added that the proposed figure was realistic for the present because of the generally lower level of education among Indonesian women. Education was important in lifting the position of women in society, he added.
The activists also aired their concern over social and political developments, including recent unrest and the sexual abuse of women during the May riots here.
Following the report of the fact-finding team formed by the government to investigate the May riots, the government last month acknowledged that 76 women had been violated but denied the team's conclusion that the riots were in any way organized. Abdurrahman said he doubted whether the facts of the riots would ever be known.
Saparinah, a member of the Joint Fact-finding Team and chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, repeated earlier statements that it was difficult to verify the exact number of rapes. "The victims of rape only wanted to talk to the few people they trusted," Saparinah said.
Separately, Arnold Purba, representing Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa and eight other organizations, shared the results of a workshop on ethnic, religious, gender and social class discrimination. Arnold said that the public expected a democratic and fair state which protected their interests without discrimination.
The groups also demanded that decision makers ratify the UN Convention on Racial Discrimination and thoroughly investigate riots with ethnic, racial and religious overtones.
Jakarta -- Student movement groups have vowed to take to the streets of the capital again shortly after the Idul Fitri holidays to voice their strong objections to this year's planned general election, their leaders said Monday.
During the rallies, the groups also intend to continue restating their irrevocable demands particularly regarding the trial of former president Soeharto, the establishment of a transitional government, an end to the Armed Forces' dual function and the resignation of President B.J. Habibie.
Speaking in a media conference, the student leaders, representing at least nine major student organizations, jointly pledged that they would only stop raising their demands on the streets when a "New Indonesia" is established.
The meeting at the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) in Cawang, East Jakarta, was attended by leaders of -- among other groups -- the Big Family of the University of Indonesia (KBUI), the Jakarta Front, the Communication Forum of Jakarta Student Senates (FKSMJ) the City Forum (Forkot), the Independent Front of Gunadarma University Students (FIMA), the Collective Forum (Forbes) the Committee of Students and People for Democracy (Komrad) and the Students and People Forum (Fomara). The representatives grouped themselves together as the Committee of United Students (KMB).
"Essentially, we are demanding a new government and a new system," Mohammad Sofyan alias Ian from the Committee of Students and People for Democracy told the media briefing. The students planned also to encourage the general public to join their street protests. "We don't have money. We don't even have media to draw public attention to our demands. So our choice of action is to take to the streets," City Forum spokesman Eli Salomo said.
According to the student leaders, they wanted Habibie to step down to give way to a transitional government which would take his place and prepare for a credible general election. They said they strongly rejected the scheduled general election in June this year as they believed that it would not be carried out freely and fairly.
"The main problem is that the current government and legislators were elected under defective laws. How can we expect them to hold a free and honest election?" asked Indra Parindrianto of the Jakarta Students Senate.
His colleague Eli added: "We don't believe the current government and legislators can alter their behavior and become more democratic in the space of only a few months.
So, we believe that the election will not bring about a democratic government as it's organized by people from the former regime." Therefore, the student leaders said they would collaborate with the ordinary people in order to pursue their hopes of a New Indonesia.
To reach this objective the students said they had organized "political education ' courses for the general public. particularly the common people, on general politics and the country's current political issues.
"We don't agitate people. We want them to have political awareness," said Ian, a student from the Institute of Social and Political Sciences (IISIP). "The people for instance would likely form their own mass organization in which they could exercise their own authority. It was of course impossible to have such an organization under the former regime," he added.
But the courses, the students said, would not prevent or seek to deter participants from voting in the upcoming general election. "We want the people to exercise their rights, including the right to vote. Either they want to participate in the election or they want to reject it, but there would not be any force from us," said Eli, a student of the National Institute of Science and Technology (ISTN).
To begin with some student groups have already initiated social research in the residential areas neighboring their campuses. Suma Mihardja from KB-UI stated that his group had set up a body called the Salemba People's Committee (KRS) which consisted mostly of youngsters living near their campus at Salemba Central Jakarta.
"We discuss with these people
and give them lectures on politics. We teach them to analyze the current
political situation and explain to them the political maneuvers used by
the government and the reasons why we keep on protesting. We hope they
can pass on their knowledge to others," he said.
| East Timor |
Jakarta -- East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares stressed that he would not resign, despite growing calls for his resignation on the part of prominent local public figures who rallied around the local House of representatives yesterday.
"No, I will not [resign]. Now disburse," the governor bellowed to dozens of supporters yesterday. His supporters, came to welcome Abilio at Comoro airport in the provincial capital of Dili, after the governor's meeting with President B.J. Habibie in Jakarta yesterday. The people gathered at the airport had earlier arrived in three trucks and were keen to express their support for the governor and appealed for him not to resign.
East Timor Military Chief Colonel Tono Suratman, who accompanied the governor from Jakarta, also stressed that Governor Abilio would not resign. "There is not going to be a new governor of East Timor," Suratman stressed. Asked about the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) stance in relation with the growing calls to Abilio's resignation, Suratman said that ABRI always supported the East Timor Administration.
Previously, a reliable source indicated that demands for Abilio's resignation had been masterminded by the military, alarmed by a number of overtures made by the governor, to pro-referendum groups. The source also stated that ABRI Commander, General Wiranto, disliked the governor on account of his close friendship to the disgraced former Army Strategic Reserve Command chief, Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto.
Speaking about his meeting with B.J. Habibie, Abilio said that the president had asked him to seek clarification from the East Timorese legislative body, about the demands of those groups calling for his resignation. "At my meeting with the president, he told me to seek clarification from the DPRD over the resignation demands," he was quoted as saying by Antara. Governor Abilio expressed readiness to meet with legislators as well as those people calling for his resignation.
Meanwhile in Dili, a growing number of public figures in East Timor, yesterday gathered at the province's House of Representatives (DPRD I) building, demanding the resignation of Abilio. A local group of activists, led by Manuel Carascalao and Fransisco Carvalho, met with DPRD speaker, Armindo Soares Mariano, and expressed their wish that the legislative body request a replacement for Abilio from the central government.
In their statement, the prominent East Timorese representatives said that since becoming governor in 1992, Abilio's term in office had been marked with a steady and uncontrollable increase in corruption, collusion and nepotism in the provincial administration.
A reliable source in the province however, suggested that the calls for Abilio's replacement had in fact, been masterminded by the military, following a number of statements issued by Abilio, expressing a willingness to consider a pro-independence referendum in the region.
Abilio is also believed to be a close friend of former Army Strategic Reserve Commander Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, discharged from the Army after being implicated in the kidnapping of several political activists.
"[During Abilio's term as governor], we have witnessed a number of conflicts between integrationists and independence supporters. We've even seen civil servants and military personnel calling for independence and that's not on!" a Timorese demonstrator said yesterday.
They also explained that conflicts between people of differing opinion, often sparked cases of deadly violence in the former Portuguese colony, disrupting efforts to seek a comprehensive solution to the ongoing problems faced by the islanders.
Abilio's adversaries yesterday, seemed keen to dismiss any of the governor's accomplishments. Aside from being friend with Prabowo Subianto, and listening to independence supporters, Abilio is also blamed for allowing economic development to benefit a number of areas in the region, while ignoring others.
The statement calling for the governor's resignation yesterday, said that the people of East Timor people had quickly become disillusioned by Abilio when he was still relatively new to the job. "Give an opportunity to another figure who is committed to the improvement of people's welfare," it stated. It recommended that either Mario Viegas Carascalao, Tito dos Santos Baptista or Armindo Soares Mariano, replace the beleaguered governor.
Local house speaker, Armindo Soares Mariao, said that the DPRD would accommodate all of society's aspirations. "The people's wish is a fact. There is no engineering in this case. Power is in the hands of the people," he stressed. Armindo said that the resignation demands would be presented to the central government, as well as demands supporting Abilio's position. The DPRD will also summon Governor Abilio to explain the situation more clearly.
Comment by Hamish Mcdonald -- Could Alexander Downer be playing a deep double game with the Indonesians? Could he be luring them into agreeing to an act of self-determination by encouraging their hopes that it will result in some autonomy formula without East Timor leaving Indonesian hands?
Behind this smokescreen, could Canberra finally have grasped that, after some 100,000 deaths and yet more chicanery about troop withdrawals, the Timorese will not agree to anything that doesn't include the option of leaving Indonesia?
On second thoughts, no. Even at this stage, Mr Downer is leaving Jakarta plenty of room to manoeuvre and fiddle with the process, and therefore the result, by saying a plebiscite need not be the means of self-determination.
Indonesian operatives will already be dusting off the manuals of the 1969 Act of Free Choice in the former Dutch New Guinea and the 1974-76 integration of East Timor to see how "traditional practices of consultation and consensus" (read intimidation and bribery) can achieve the desired effects.
Far from manoeuvring Jakarta towards the decent thing, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade seems to be acting as it has done for the past 20 years, as voluntary PR agency for the Indonesian Government.
Senior DFAT officials will continue to move effortlessly from their departmental careers to their post-retirement consultancies introducing businessmen to Indonesian officials.
One such official even accepted a gong from the Soeharto government, to be conferred on retirement (department rules forbid officers from accepting foreign decorations during service).
None of the department's recent actions suggests a "historic" shift in approach: its referral of new information about the Balibo killings back to Mr Tom Sherman, despite widespread criticism of his 1996 report; the military attachi's cursory visit to look at the Alas massacre allegations; and Canberra's silence on recent military activity in Timor. Jakarta will have to be pushed a lot harder to move from its existing position even towards Mr Downer's modest goals.
So far, the Habibie Government is trying to get the Timorese factions to agree to a deal on autonomy as the final resolution of the issue. The reality is that without a truly historic amount of reform in Indonesia itself, promises of autonomy mean nothing. For one thing, the Armed Forces would have to abandon its cherished "dwi-fungsi" (dual function) doctrine, under which it asserts the right to interfere in any activity of government.
Rather than hastily dismissing possibility of independence, after an unexplained and wholly secret process of review, Mr Downer might do better to get his department, and other agencies like the Office of National Assessments and Defence Intelligence Organisation, to explain their thinking to Parliament and the Australian public.
The inquiry into Australia's policies on East Timor, which starts next month in the Senate Committee on Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, gives anideal platform for a long overdue discussion.
Even the Opposition, under its foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton, has grasped the nettle and declared a willingness to break with the Timor policies of past Labor governments (earning Mr Brereton a flaming row with the former foreign minister Gareth Evans late last year).
Why do they think that removal of East Timor, added by conquest in 1975, might unravel Indonesia? Why, especially since the end of the Cold War, should Australia worry about the emergence of another small impoverished State across our northern sea boundaries, in addition to all the others?
Greatest mystery of all: why is a true-blue Adelaide Liberal like Alexander Downer still so staunchly reinforcing the biggest and most tragic policy failure of the Whitlam government?
Maputo, Jan 14 (Lusa) - Mari Alkatiri, first vice-president of Fretilin, told Lusa in Maputo on Wednesday that while being "ambiguous" Australia's new policy towards East Timor amounted to a "substantial change." Alkatiri made the statement in reaction to the Australian government's announcement earlier this week that it was now supporting East Timor's right of self- determination as an integral part of Indonesia.
Alkatiri also said that Australia was now able to become a "facilitator" for contacts between the East Timorese resistance movement and the Indonesian government, as well as between the Indonesian Armed Forces and Falintil, the armed wing of the East Timorese resistance to Indonesia.
Alkatiri said Australia's position was "ambiguous" because it failed to recognise East Timor's right of independence, adding political developments in East Timor should lead to the end of Indonesia's "illegal occupation" of East Timor.
Louise Williams, Jakarta -- The Indonesian military will today begin sending more than 100 refugees camped in the East Timorese capital of Dili, who fled ongoing security operations around their villages, back to their homes.
But hundreds more say they will not move because they remain fearful of civilian militia units recently armed by the military to join the campaign against pro-independence guerillas.
Refugees have been arriving in Dili over the past few weeks, saying they have fled a terror campaign by new groups of armed civilians, formed by the military to boost efforts to crush pro- independence guerillas from the Falantil movement.
The Dili office of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnasham) said more than 100 people would be repatriated to the central mountain area of Cailaco tomorrow where military representatives would hold a ceremony with the local people, promising the safety of the returnees.
But a Komnasham representative, Mr Florentino Sarmento, said he doubted the agreement would hold in the current tense environment. "A general makes a promise of safety, but the reality on the ground is that people attack each other, so it doesn't work," he said.
About 300 people from the northern coastal district of Liquica said yesterday that they would not return home and would remain camped at the home of a former East Timorese governor, Mr Mario Carrascalao. "There are many people being armed by the military and setting up posts throughout the province, and the people are scared," said Mr Manuel Carrascalao, the ex-governor's brother.
The policy of arming civilians to boost the military's efforts has attracted vehement criticism from human rights groups. Under former president Soeharto many of the worst human rights abuses in East Timor were committed by civilian militia groups aligned with the military.
The Armed Forces Commander, General Wiranto, recently announced that tens of thousands of young men would be recruited for new militia units across the country, to assist the military in maintaining security in the face of increasing lawlessness, rioting and looting.
When Mr Soeharto resigned in May last year, the militia units in East Timor were disarmed and new hopes emerged for a peaceful settlement to the 23-year-old conflict in the former Portuguese colony. However, the re-arming of the militia began as early as November last year and, despite a much publicised withdrawal of combat troops, military reinforcements were secretly landed under the cover of night.
Mr Sarmento said hundreds of new militia members had been recruited, mostly armed with long knives and other local weapons such as slingshots. "The military has deliberately created a scenario of war between the militia and the people, to justify their presence in East Timor," he said.
One refugee, Mr Slavia de Santos, said: "I ran away because these people [militia] threatened me and told me not to come back - I am too scared to go home." Contacted by telephone, Mr de Santos said eight people had been injured by members of the militia gangs near his village.
Despite hopes for a peace settlement under the Habibie Government, the conflict in East Timor appears to have intensified, with more attacks by Fretilin on Indonesian soldiers and police and the formation of the militia and continued operations by Indonesian troops.
Lincoln Wright -- Risking possible friction with Jakarta, the Labor Party has backed a policy of funding an autonomous or independent East Timor using Indonesia's share of the oil and gas revenue from the Timor Gap.
Oil analysts have forecast that the annual revenue from the Gap's Bayu-Undan oil and gas field could reach $100 million a year after 2002, revenue Labor sources said could finance an independent East Timor government.
Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Laurie Brereton, raised the stakes yesterday on the Howard's Government's historic announcement that it would support greater autonomy and an act of self-determination for East Timor.
After an isolated and controversial 20-year recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty, Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said the Federal Government had made a significant adjustment to its East Timor policy.
The official line on East Timor was now to support a substantial period of autonomy for the troubled province, followed by an act of self-determination that would help to reconcile the conflicting parties.
But Mr Downer made it clear that the Australian Government would still prefer that East Timor remained part of Indonesia. He did not specify exactly what "autonomy" would entail, nor explain what method the East Timorese could use to determine their future, but he mentioned 10 years as a possible period of autonomy before a referendum.
Unlike the Labor Party, Mr Downer has not called yet for a referendum, and made it clear the Government for now still recognised Indonesia's sovereignty over the province, and independence would be a second-best outcome.
Labor's policy is for Indonesia to hold an internationally monitored referendum. A more controversial position is that Labor seems to be strengthening the momentum for formal independence by pushing for the transfer of Indonesia's oil and gas revenue from the Timor Gap to East Timorese groups.
This would provide crucial funding and collateral for international loans to a fragile and newly formed East Timor government. Labor sources said yesterday that a Labor government would rewrite the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty if East Timor became independent.
However, Mr Downer said a referendum entailed the risk of civil war, and the Government's preference was still for East Timor to remain part of Indonesia, albeit with more autonomy, but if there was a vote for independence, so be it. "If you just thought the solution to the East Timor issue was to hold a referendum tomorrow, all I can say is I think it would cause more bloodshed than solution," he said.
Defending his Government's decision to support East Timor remaining within Indonesia, Mr Downer played down concern about the economic benefits of the Timor Gap Treaty, and openly doubted "how much anybody will get from the Timor Gap". Ministerial sources, as well, said there was a concern that a referendum in the current political climate of military repression would not reflect East Timorese opinion.
Mr Downer's move, which some see as a response to the Labor's Party's changing policy on East Timor, has been greeted positively by East Timor activist and Nobel prize winner Jose Ramos Horta.
Indonesia reacted bitterly yesterday to the Government's decision, as a damaging new rift emerged between the two countries. An Indonesian Government spokesman said it could have an adverse impact on international negotiations under way aimed at finding a solution to the East Timor problem.
Sydney -- The Australian government announced Tuesday it will press Indonesia to grant East Timor an act of self-determination in a policy shift which East Timorese activists immediately said does not go far enough.
In what Foreign Minister Alexander Downer described as an historic policy shift, Canberra will support a measure of autonomy for the former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia following its 1975 invasion, but remnains opposed to independence.
East Timorese activists in Australia welcomed the move as a positive step, but said the people of East Timor must be allowed to decide in a referendum if they want limited autonomy or fully-fledged independence. Human rights activist and former Fretilin jungle fighter Jose Gusmao described the policy of supporting self-determination but opposing independence as "a contradiction in terms."
Canberra's new position on East Timor follows an internal review of East Timor policy ordered by Downer to take account of the changing political structure of Indonesia where President Suharto was ousted last year.
Downer said the policy had received a mixed response from the Indonesian government. "We do want to do what we can to encourage the Indonesian government to come to a successful conclusion in negotiations with a whole range of different parties in East Timor," he told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"In the end some sort of act which is going to bring a sense of ownership of the process to the people of East Timor I think is going to be an important conclusion to the process, be that in 10 years time or whatever the period might be."
He said there were a variety of competing views on the issue but Canberra believed that a completely independent East Timor would have the potential to fracture Indonesia itself. "And this is a very delicate time now for Indonesia, so we don't want to encourage the fracturing of the Indonesian state."
Australian Coalition for a Free East Timor spokesman Andy Alcock said the international community could suspect Australia would assist Indonesia to conduct a bogus act of self determination similar to what occurred in West Papua (now Irian Jaya) in 1969.
"Its opposition to independence for East Timor at the same time as it says it is lobbying Indonesia for an act of self determination advertises to the world that the present Australian government is not very committed to democracy, peace and justice in the South-East Asian region either."
[The following is the text of a report by Portuguese radio on January 8.]
The Timorese resistance has put an end to the controversy over a letter from a commander who accused Xanana Gusmao [jailed Timorese resistance leader] of treason. In an interview today with RDP international [this station], the guerrilla leader, Taur Matan Ruak, reiterated his complete loyalty to Xanana. He said that the position of the Falintil's [East Timor National Liberation Armed Forces] number two did not reflect the position of the resistance. In a letter, revealed by the Socialist Party of Timor, Commander Lere said that Xanana had betrayed his brothers-in-arms by advocating a special autonomy for the territory within Indonesia. But today Taur Matan Ruak denies any change in the resistance's stance.
[Ruak] It is Commander Lere's personal position and it does not reflect the position of the army [guerrilla movement]. We have always, from the outset, fought under the leadership of Commander Xanana Gusmao and we respect and support him fully. I know Commander Lere very well. He said [changes thought], in fact about a month ago he spoke to me, asked me what would be our position if Commander Lere - sorry Commander Xanana - voiced opinions which did not reflect the aspirations of our people, and I told him, I told him that Commander Xanana had always been respected by our people. And in difficult situations he had led us here and it would not be now that he would bow before the Indonesians. [End of recording]
As for the autonomy transition period, Taur Matan Ruak said this was a matter for the negotiations between Portugal and Indonesia.
[Ruak] Everything will be discussed at the negotiating table, so I do not want to say any more. But in principle I accept totally Commander Xanana Gusmao's opinions. [End of recording]
In the interview, Taur Matan Ruak also said that Indonesia was strengthening its military presence in the territory: another six battalions, about 3,000 men, have arrived since Christmas.
[Ruak] From 23rd December
until 4th January a total of six battalions have arrived. Three landed
in (Laga?) and three others landed here near Dili. It is difficult to find
their (location?) but they include the 144th, 145th battalions, [word indistinct]
group five and three other battalions whose number and composition we do
not know yet.
| Political/economic crisis |
Greg Earl, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Government has warned domestic critics it would be courting disaster to back away from a 300 trillion rupiah ($50 billion) bank recapitalisation program which is about to begin.
The Government-funded plan has come under strong criticism this week from parliament members who say it is too expensive and economists who say it should be more targeted. But after many delays, concrete details on how the country's devastated financial sector may be resuscitated have started to emerge with a new law on an independent central bank, new prudential regulations and a plan to sell the bank recapitalisation bonds to the central bank rather than the market.
And the Government has had a timely reminder about the fragility of the recovery program, with the rupiah suddenly falling sharply to trade around 9,100 on Friday to the $US, compared with a budget full-year average projection of 7,500. The currency has been buffeted by new fears of political instability, a year after the unit plunged after last year's budget, and also the depreciation of Brazilian currency.
The Government plans to recapitalise the State banks and development banks by the end of the month, which will allow them to begin restructuring debts.
As part of the clean-up, the central bank this week tightened the net open position allowed for foreign exchange positions to 20 per cent of bank capital from 25 per cent. But the legal lending limit to non-affiliated companies had been allowed to increase to 30 per cent of capital from the existing 20 per cent in an acknowledgement of the weaker capital position of banks. It will progressively be returned to 20 per cent.
At the same time, the central bank said it has repaid nearly all outstanding trade finance debts of local banks to foreign banks under an agreement reached several months ago to restart the trade credit system. Under the deal the repaid foreign banks are meant to maintain their trade finance exposure to Indonesia at the same level as last April in what will be a significant test of sentiment towards Indonesia as it moves towards a tumultuous election.
The Government sought to boost its reform credentials this week by unveiling a new law on central bank independence which will confine the institution to monetary policy management and overseeing the payments system. Subsidised credit creation and bank oversight will move to new institutions and the Government will only have the right to put its views to the bank at a monthly meeting. But Bank Indonesia is being called on to do one final rescue mission and buy the bonds issued to recapitalise the banks, which will save the Government from a failed effort to sell them in the market.
Finance ministry officials say the central bank will buy the bonds in instalments to avoid an excessive impact on the money supply. In a bleak assessment, National Development Planning Minister Mr Boediono said that if the Government closed all bad banks not only would it bear a large deposit insurance burden but the few remaining banks would not be able to service the economy.
Clashes among residents from several villages in the district of Sabbang in LUWU regency which have killed at least three people and injured dozens more continued on Thursday.
The unrest which started on Monday forced at least 400 residents from the warring villages, Dandang, Pompaniki, Kampung Baru and Kalotok, to seek refuge in the LUWU capital of Palopo, about 550 kilometers north of the provincial capital of Ujungpandang, on Thursday.
It was earlier reported that five people had been killed but so far only three have been identified -- Husein, 18, Hasdil, 18, and Rahim, 22. At least 87 homes were set on fire in the clashes on Monday and Tuesday.
Local police however said on Thursday that they had been able to contain the conflict after at least 300 Mobile Brigade personnel were deployed to the area. A truck full of military personnel sent to secure the area had an accident in which four were injured.
The cause of the fighting was still not clear but Wirabuana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Suaidi Marasabessy suspected on Thursday that the rioting was triggered by inter religious and ethnic tensions. Another local officer had suggested "revenge and drink."
Meanwhile in Ujungpandang, authorities seized at least 336 pieces of military certified 7.62 millimeter ammunition from the house of a resident, Daeng Tutu, on early Thursday. Suaidi said that the ammunition was ordered by someone in Palopo. He suspected that the ammunition would be used in the clashes between residents of the warring villages. Residents and security personnel said that warring parties had armed themselves with homemade firearms and an assortment of crude weapons.
Suaidi admitted that ammunition of the type confiscated once belonged to the armory of the Armed Forces (ABRI). However he said that he still could not confirm whether the ammunition was from an ABRI arsenal as the matter was still under investigation.
Suaidi was in the provincial capital along with South Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Mudji Santoso on Thursday to brief the local legislators about the latest situation in LUWU.
Suaidi added that the authorities had also found a location on Wednesday suspected to be a "factory" for the assembly of homemade firearms in Toraja, some 330 kilometers north of Ujungpandang, He said that security personnel since Wednesday had been raiding houses in the warring villages to search for homemade firearms and sharp weapons.
Monday's unrest was the latest incident in a long-standing dispute between the villages. Since last August, 26 people have been killed, 119 more injured, and at least 395 houses have been set on fire.
Jakarta -- The country's crippled rupiah tumbled again on Friday to hit an intraday low of 9,300 against the U.S. dollar as stock prices plunged 1.5 percent for the third consecutive day.
Financial analysts said fears of a global financial crisis following Brazil's devaluation of the real on Wednesday had put a damper on trading in most emerging markets, including Indonesia's which is currently struggling to shake off its worst-ever financial crisis in three decades. '"The main concern for our financial market is still Brazil," a senior dealer with a joint venture bank here said.
The rupiah, which opened at 8,800/8,900, quickly broke through the 9,000 level in morning trading to bottom at 9,300 against the American dollar, its lowest level since November 5. Persistent attacks from offshore, led by Singapore and Hong Kong operators, continued to weigh down the local unit.
The rupiah managed to claw back to below the 9,000 level to end its Friday trading at 8,975 after certain state-owned banks unloaded dollar reserves to support the rupiah. Friday's close was 3.5 percent lower than Thursday's close of 8,675.
"The rupiah managed to recover as some offshore players, who bought the dollar at 8,700 the previous week, cashed in their profits when it hit 9,300 on Friday," another dealer said. "I think some people used Brazil's currency devaluation as a scapegoat to attack the rupiah to gain profits." he added.
The rupiah surged to around 7,800 to the dollar early last week after the government announced its l999/2000 state budget. Some traders, however said the central bank did not sell off large amounts of dollars through state banks on Friday, as it has done in recent weeks, by converting its International Monetary Fund- brokered dollar loans into rupiah. One analyst said he suspected the central bank running out of dollars, and in no position to fight the fierce market, which was aggressive in pulling down the rupiah.
"We do not know exactly what the reason was, but even if Bank Indonesia converted its dollars to rupiah, this would have been consumed by the huge demand for dollars," the analyst said.
Bank Indonesia Governor Sjahril Sabirin and the Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry, Ginandjar Kartasasmita, said that the currency woes in Brazil, which rocked the global financial markets, also led to the fall of the rupiah. "We remain alert on (this matter)," Ginandjar said.
The rupiah's drop battered share prices in the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX), with the main price gauge -- the JSX Composite Index -- shedding 1.5 percent to close at 402.40 points -- up from the day's low at 397.89. A total of 291.40 million shares valued at Rp 699.70 billion changed hands. Decliners outdistanced advancers 61- to 23 with 82 stocks remaining unchanged.
Stockbrokers and analysts said that persistent massive sell-offs ahead of the Muslim Idul Fitri holiday had forced most investors to discard all their portfolio holdings. "Investors think that there is no use holding stocks during the holiday, " Suhendra, an institutional sales broker with Trimegah Securindolestari, said. Stockbrokers said that trading activity subsided on Friday as some traders and local investors had already left town for the holiday.
The head of research at Mashill Jaya Securities, Edhi S. Widjojo, said the sentiment in the battered local exchange had not improved with most investors still anxious about the country's political and economic mess. "Investors are still scared to reenter our market," he said, pointing out that most people did not see any reason to invest during this period of turmoil.
Bandung -- West Java Police Chief Major General Chairuddin yesterday said his office would deploy sharpshooters along coastal roads to protect travelers during the post-Ramadhan festivities of Idul Fitri.
Dozens of snipers will assist hundreds of existing security forces dressed to save millions of motorists from possible attacks, looting and theft, he said.
The sharpshooters will be posted in areas deemed vulnerable to robberies and attacks on commuters, Chairuddin told reporters in the West Java capital of Bandung. "The deployment is of course in line with existing legal procedures and the need [for protection], so travelers can feel secure," he said.
Every year, millions of Indonesians spend the Lebaran holidays a week before and after the Islamic holy month of Ramadhan to celebrate Idul Fitri with families in their hometowns and villages. A huge exodus of people is expected to go home on the northern coastal Pantura highway that links Jakarta and East Java. Land Transport Director General Santo Budiono has said the police marksmen would patrol on motorcycles.
An estimated 17 million people are expected to visit their home villages in Indonesia during the holiday period. About 16 million will go by land, 673,000 by sea and 326,000 by air. Lebaran kicks off on January 19 and many travelers, especially those from Jakarta, began the exodus last weekend.
The military earlier warned that soldiers would crack down on criminals and rioters if they threatened the safety of others. Measures included orders to shoot looters on the spot. Riots and looting have broken out in many parts of the country in recent months, and political, ethnic and religious tensions have also led to violence.
Meanwhile in East Java, police yesterday caught red-handed six thieves who operated along Pantura highway in Tuban regency. "We have launched a balloon operation. In Tuban, we have arrested six persons who have committed six robberies. Material evidence we found includes textiles and tires," East Java Police Chief Major General Mochammad Dayat was quoted as saying by Antara in Surabaya.
It's late on Saturday afternoon, but the man who runs the fourth-largest nation on earth isn't anticipating any weekend relaxation. I have the mentality of a bicycle, says President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie of Indonesia. If I stop, I fall.
Recently, the Presidential bicycle has been tottering wildly following the brutal military response to student anti-government riots. And the small and dapper Habibie displays an almost frenetic manner as he fields wide-ranging questions from Asia Inc.
Habibie is only the third person in 53 years to sit behind the Presidential desk in Jakarta's magnificent whitewashed colonial- era Merdeka Palace. The first, Sukarno, was 44 when he took office and kept the job for 22 years. The second, Suharto, moved in when he was 46 and stayed for three decades until being forced out last May.
Now, at age 62, Habibie has been thrust into the hot seat knowing he has no hope of coming close to such a lengthy period in office. Some think he will have done well to last until the mid- 1999 elections. Although, as an Asian ambassador put it: He's done better than most people thought.
Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong described Habibie's job as the toughest in the world. And give or take running Russia, he is probably right. Habibie has had to battle inflation nudging 80 percent, unemployment topping 20 million and an economy shrinking by 15 percent a year. Jakarta's Chinatown still bears the blackened scars of last May's riots. As Asia Inc went to press, political and social unrest continued to simmer dangerously. On top of all that, the former research and technology minister labors under the burden of being the discredited Suharto's chosen heir, having resisted until late in the year demands for a proper investigation into how Suharto acquired his fortune.
Yet during a 90-minute interview with Asia Inc Editor-in-Chief William Mellor and Managing Editor Peter Comparelli, Habibie appeared surprisingly confident. Excerpts:
Asia Inc: There has been much talk of the ethnic Chinese who have fled Indonesia, taking their money with them. Yet you seem ambivalent about them coming back. Why?
Habibie: I am a democrat. For me there is no Chinese society in my country. They are all Indonesian. We are more than 400 ethnic groups. One of these ethnic groups is the Chinese descendants here. Maybe 7 million people out of 210 million. That's only 3.5 percent. They cannot read Chinese. They cannot speak Chinese. They do not even feel Chinese. If people talk like that, there would be no America, no Australia. If you are a Canadian of Italian descent, you will never feel comfortable if people treat you as an Italian. You are proud of your country, Canada. Why should people suddenly in this case make my nation into many nations?
Asia Inc: But is it fair to say that some Indonesians have left because they feared for their security and are staying away because the people who started the riots have still not been punished?
Habibie: No. No. No. No. The people who make the criminal thing are criminal and I condemn them. Any criminal action ... has to be punished. That is for sure. If you are not going to do that, my goodness, anarchy will blossom.
Asia Inc: And the Chinese capital flight?
Habibie: There are many [types of] Indonesian capital gone out, not only from the ethnic Chinese. Maybe ethnic Sumatran, Javanese or Buginese. I do not care. It is their business. Aburizal Bakrie [chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry] told me he had such questions in Hong Kong. There are 7 million Chinese in Indonesia. Maybe there are 170,000 who went out. But there are more than 3 million Indonesians who are working outside the country and there is a lot of capital flow in and out because we have an open banking system. If that is the case, 170,000 out of 7 million is nothing. I cannot say it is the end of the world. Asia Inc: The economic situation appears grim. How will you attract investors back?
Habibie: What is happening today is not because of something I decided yesterday. What happens today is still based on decisions that were done 6 months before. The first thing I have done as president of Indonesia is to separate the Bank of Indonesia from the cabinet. [Also] multinational companies are coming to this country for investment. Over $4 billion is in the pipeline in the last four months from three oil companies alone, upstream and downstream activities, $2.4 billion of it in Java, $1 billion in Irian Jaya and $600 million in Natuna for gas to Singapore. So the factors are in the right direction and all these decisions are starting to blossom after a lead time of six months.
Asia Inc: You sound confident.
Habibie: Of course. Agribusiness is booming because of the low rupiah, coffee, cocoa, fisheries, furniture. The problem we have is in the cities, mostly caused by overbuilding by the construction companies. What we are facing is not an Indonesian crisis. The world today, 40 percent of the GDP of the world, is facing a kind of crisis. Look at Japan. The GDP is decreasing. Look at Russia. Look at South America. Look at some Asian countries. Out of that 40 percent, the GDP of Indonesia is just 1.2 or 1.3 percent. So I should not dramatize the situation.
Asia Inc: We have heard that people in the country are looting fields for crops because they are hungry.
Habibie: Not true. I have just had a case in the cabinet where a minister said, I would like to report that a child of nine years old has been taken to the hospital because of a sickness that is the beginning of starvation. I asked him how many children in the village were affected. He said only one. Are you crazy? Do they not think that maybe the parents do not take care of the child. You cannot make a conclusion if one thing happened in that village and that village has half a million people. What kind of scientific approach is that?
Asia Inc: So they have enough to eat?
Habibie: Of course. You know, the country people have never been better off than they are today. Why? For the first time, they are free to adjust to the market price to sell their crops. Before, the price was regulated and that pushed down the price to the farmer. Now they are free to sell their crops to attract the best price. And more than 50 percent of Indonesians are still farmers.
Asia Inc: A number of big Indonesian corporations are on the brink of bankruptcy. As a proponent of free markets, will you let those companies go under? Habibie: I will do everything to prevent that. But I have to play based on the rules of the game of the market-oriented economy. I advised all those companies in June, Please, you have money, hire US lawyers, US specialists, and give them one instruction: to find out whether your company will survive in the United States, yes or not. If the answer is you could not survive because it is not according to the rules of the game of a market-oriented economy, where there are anti-monopoly and anti-trust laws and other things, you'd better put the second question: What do you suggest I do to survive? And you'd better follow [the advice]. Why? Because another six months from now, I will have that American system, a market-oriented economy.
Asia Inc: Would you like to run for a second term?
Habibie: I solemnly believe that the first president and the second president were surrounded by brokers. The first president was surrounded by political brokers. The second president was surrounded by political and economic brokers. And both sets of brokers contributed to their fall because they distorted information. Because of that I am going to create for Indonesia a system in which the power will not be in the hands of one man. I am going to create the supremacy of the law. This power will protect every human being in this country. There will be no brokers around the president. And we will take care that any president only serves two terms, like in the US, and there will be a balance of power between the president and the parliament.
Asia Inc: The World Bank has estimated that 20 percent of its funding to Indonesia has disappeared as a result of corruption.
Habibie: I really don't know. I never had a letter from the World Bank.
Asia Inc: Do you agree there's corruption in the system?
Habibie: There's corruption in any system, even in Japan or the UK or any society. Since the first days of the human race there has always been corruption. We are going to fight against this corruption. It's not possible to make the whole country free of corruption. But we are going to make the supremacy of law.
Asia Inc: So there are no new cronies?
Habibie: No. I have two sons in Germany. One is 35, the other 32. The younger one of my sons runs a small civil engineering company. He tried to tender for business in Indonesia. He lost.
Jakarta -- Indonesia could lose US$5 billion in foreign investment due to political and security problems, Investment Minister Hamzah Haz was quoted as saying yesterday.
The Bisnis Indonesia daily reported that around US$5 billion in foreign investment approved last year had shown no signs of being invested. "If there is no sign of project realisation until early next year, the investment letters would be cancelled," Mr Hamzah said.
He said investors were concerned about Indonesian political stability and security problems, so many chose to stay on the sidelines and postpone their projects. He added that the riots and unrest that have rocked Indonesia for several months had added to pressure on investors to halt their projects.
Indonesia faces mounting unrest and crime as a devastating economic crisis pushes millions into unemployment and deepening poverty. Meanwhile, The Asian Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that the uncertain economic and political outlook in Indonesia was making foreign companies nervous about making further investments crucial to helping to revive the country's crippled economy.
The paper said a report released on Monday noted that escalating social unrest, over-optimistic government economic forecasts and eroding confidence in the government itself were among key concerns cited by chief executives and senior financial officers of foreign joint-venture companies as major obstacles to investment.
The report's results were based on a survey conducted by Sydney- based Indonesian Global Advisors of the attitudes and outlook for 1999 of foreign joint-venture partners operating in Indonesia. Foreign joint-ventures involve an international company in partnership with an Indonesian firm.
The survey is based on interviews of chief executive officers and chief financial officers from 28 companies interviewed in the last week of November, the paper said. The findings add to what many already know: that foreign confidence in the prospects for Indonesia's economy has virtually disappeared.
Indonesian Global Advisors added that the two clients who commissioned the survey had decided against pursuing an acquisition in Indonesia for the foreseeable future.
Jakarta -- At least 39,800 hectares of plantations were looted during 1998, causing an estimated material loss of around Rp 196 billion (about US$26 million), a senior official of the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations has said.
"Most of the looted plantations are oil palm and rubber plantations, the majority located in North Sumatra and East Java," Director General of Plantations Agus Pakpahan said on Tuesday.
He added that the loss was calculated by taking into account the volume of the commodities produced by the plantation firms which had been looted. The figure excluded any loss that had resulted from damage to and arson of facilities.
Looters have hit hundreds of thousands of metric tons of oil palm fruit, latex, cocoa beans and other items as w ell as destroying plantation facilities such as vehicles, processing plants and even employees' houses Agus said.
The plantation security personnel were usually outnumbered by the looters, he said. Agus added that a big plantation company in North Sumatra had to deal with an average of between 30 and 50 cases of looting per month in 1998.
He said that calls from the plantation firms to the authorities for security reinforcements had gone unheeded. "The government will solve these problems and will continue to improve the security of plantation firms," he said.
The country is facing the worst economic crisis in its history. The number of poor has soared, and cases of rampant theft and looting have also increased greatly in certain pockets of the country.
The looters, mostly people from villages neighboring the affected plantations, plundered the plantations because they consider that the firms have contributed nothing to the improvement of local welfare, Agus said.
Agus also said that his office is currently investigating an alleged case of collusive practices in the licensing of 33 plantation firms.
Agus said that 33 plantation companies, whose concessions cover 303,000 hectares, had allegedly obtained their licenses to convert forests into plantations through KKN, a local acronym for corruption, collusion and nepotism practices. "We are currently trying to find evidence demonstrating the alleged violations in the licensing procedures, " he said.
Agus, however, declined to reveal the names of the suspect KKN- connected plantation companies. but said that most of them operated in East Kalimantan, North Sumatra and Riau provinces.
Jakarta -- This city is facing the prospect of buckling under the strain of a number of serious social problems resulting from sharp increases in the number of jobless people and a continuing influx of migrants, a government official has warned.
According to Sabar Sianturi, the chief of the Manpower Ministry's Jakarta office, growing numbers of the unemployed, coupled with the continued arrival of migrants from other parts of the country, would cause formidable problems unless the city administration took immediate action.
"On the one hand, the number of jobless is expected to continue to rise, while on the other hand more and more people from other cities and islands will continue to come here in search of a livelihood," a Jakarta Post report on Saturday quoted him as saying on Thursday.
Mr Sianturi said that, according to data compiled by his office, the number of unemployed people in the city was thought to be around 825,000. He said the actual figure could be much higher. He also said that although official data put Jakarta's population at 9.6 million, the true figure could be double that.
Mr Sianturi said that around 60 per cent of the city's actual population had no permanent jobs or were unemployed, while last month alone, 300,000 migrants from other cities arrived in the capital in search of work. "Now most intersections in the capital are swarming with beggars and street singers and the crime rate in the city is on the rise," he said.
He admitted that massive job losses resulting from the ongoing economic crisis and rising prices of basic commodities had left many people facing destitution. "The situation is like a ticking timebomb. It could explode at any time over the coming months..." he said, adding that rioting could be sparked by mounting frustration over the absence of signs of an economic recovery in the near future.
Mr Sianturi urged the city administration to take action to help minimise the worst affects of economic hardship and unemployment. He said that the government should act to stop the influx of migrants.
Andrew Marshall, Jakarta -- The Indonesian rupiah dropped more than five percent against the dollar on Wednesday on regional weakness, fears of fresh domestic unrest and wrangling over the new budget.
The rupiah's sudden fall sent tremors through the stock market, where a firmer currency is crucial for scores of debt-ridden firms. The bourse fell 3.92 percent to 419.10 points. By the end of Jakarta trading the rupiah was quoted at 8,550/8,650 to the dollar, after trading as low as 8,650, its lowest in more than two months.
Dealers said the rupiah's problems were set to continue. "Support at 8,600 has been taken, I don't see anything standing in the way of 9,000 now," said one trader at a European bank in Jakarta.
The rupiah had a brief respite after central bank governor Sjahril Sabirin pledged to step in to help the currency recapture the 8,000 level. But there was no sign of intervention, and the decline soon picked up steam again.
Dealers said the rupiah's slide had been sparked by a general weakening in regional currencies against the dollar as investors cut back on their positions amid concerns about a deepening financial crisis in Brazil.
"The initial cause was probably Brazil," one said. "Later, when Bank Indonesia said it would intervene the rupiah firmed to 8,300, but because there was no action from Bank Indonesia the market recovered its positions."
Dealers and analysts said numerous other worries had contributed to the rupiah's decline. "There have been things building up for a few weeks, and maybe today, given the relatively strong dollar, was the day to take advantage of that," said Clifford Tan, forex strategist at Warburg Dillon Read in Singapore.
"The primary concern is about what happens after Ramadan is over. What will happen to the pace and the fervour of political protest across Indonesia? That's issue number one."
Indonesian students have vowed to resume mass anti-government rallies after the Eid al-Fitr festival on Tuesday and Wednesday which marks the end of the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan. A series of bloody clashes between security forces and students came to a halt last month when students stopped their protests for the Moslem fasting month.
Analysts said a battle between the government and parliament over Indonesia's 1999/2000 budget had also rattled markets. Parliament said this week the government should cut the amount of money it is spending on the crucial bank recapitalisation scheme and revise some budget estimates.
"The parliamentary infighting over the budget -- that's new for Indonesia, given that it was a rubber-stamp body in the past," Tan said. "In other countries like Mexico the political cost of paying for these large recapitalisations has often become quite a large issue."
Dealers said concerns that the beleaguered armed forces could disintegrate was also weighing on the currency. Bank Indonesia has been converting $5-15 million a day of aid and loan money into rupiah in recent months, giving a significant boost to the currency.
Analysts said the thin market meant Bank Indonesia intervention could be relatively effective, but warned the funds to be converted into rupiah could soon start drying up. "They have to (defend the rupiah), but we think that the trend is going to be more for a depreciation," said Mangal Goswami, economist at ABN AMRO in Singapore.
"Official aid money is going to taper off, the current account is going to fall.... These are all factors that are going to go against the rupiah."
Jakarta -- Thousands of villagers went on a rampage in Indonesia's South Sumatra, torching vehicles and houses after four suspected thieves were beaten to death by residents of another village, witnesses said on Monday.
They said around 3,000 people in Labuhan Mariggai region in Sumatra's Lampung province some 135 km northwest of Jakarta stormed a neighbouring village on Saturday, setting fire to cars and looting buildings.
The unrest erupted after the killing of four men suspected of masterminding a string of motorcycle thefts in which several people have been murdered.
"The robberies have been going on for months but police have not been able to halt it. On Saturday angry locals in Polosari questioned four strangers in the village," one local told Reuters by telephone.
"They beat the alleged masterminds to death which sparked anger from residents in Gunungsugih where the men came from and that's when the brawl broke out." Police were not immediately available for comment.
Violence and crime have flared across Indonesia in recent months as the nation wrestles with its worst economic and political crisis in decades. Last week two people were killed in Karawang town, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of Jakarta, when police opened fire on angry locals who went on a looting spree.
There were also reports of weekend unrest in the Jakarta satellite town of Tangerang and the West Java town of Sukabumi. Media Indonesia reported that hundreds of angry locals in Sukabumi, 90 km south of Jakarta, attacked a local government office after they could not find cheap basic commodites in a special market as promised by the government.
In Tangerang, on the western outskirts of Jakarta, hundreds of people attacked a village head's house after he refused to distribute cheap rice supplied by the government, the Jakarta Post reported.
Violence has also been simmering in the restive province of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. Four people were reported killed at the weekend after being beaten by members of the security forces during a dawn raid to try to capture a rebel leader. More than 20 people have been killed in the province in recent weeks.
Jakarta -- Army troops patrolled the streets of Karawang town east of here Saturday a day after rioting and looting left two dead when police opened fire to stem the violence, residents said.
"It's not settled down yet. There are lots of army troops out on the streets," a security guard at a Bank Central Asia office in Karawang, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Jakarta, said by telephone. The bank, like others in the town, was shut, the guard told AFP.
He said that while people were on the streets, buses were not running and the only public transport was pedicabs and motor- cycle taxis. A resident source identified the army troops as from the West Java command and said police were absent from the streets.
Police spokesmen were unavailable for comment, but the private SCTV television quoted Karawang district police chief Lieutenant Colonel Achmad Hidayat as saying 58 youths had been detained for questioning. SCTV put the number of seriously injured at 14, with a further 15 slightly injured in Friday's violence.
A security guard at Karawang hospital, Dedeng, said 31 people had been treated, two of whom had died and with 10 suffering serious injuries from bullets or rocks. Dedeng said an 18-year-old youth died of a gunshot wound in the chest when police troops opened fire to try to control the mobs, while a second man had died after suffering gunshoot wounds to the legs.
He identified the second victim as Udin bin Sali, a shopkeeper. "He was just passing by on his way home, he was not involved in the riot at all," Dedeng told AFP.
At the private Dewi Sri hospital, an information office clerk, Nunung, said the hospital had treated five riot victims as outpatients and admitted two others, one of whom had already been released.
The day-long riot Friday, the worst in Indonesia since the start of the year, degenerated into looting and vandalizing of shops and churches. Police fired several times in attempts to control the mob.
The violence erupted after a mob of thousands gathered early in the day and moved to attack the local police station. The station was pelted with rocks, and the crowd, dispersed with warning shots fired into their midst, regrouped nearby and began to pelt shops and businesses.
The crowd rampaged down the main shop-lined streets, stoning buildings, including three churches, smashing flower pots, and dragging furniture into the street and burning it.
Hundreds of shops, showrooms, malls and shopping centres, four police posts and a sub-district police station were damaged by the mob, Colonel Hidayat told the Antara news agency. One car was also set on fire, the private radio Sonora said.
Lieutenant Colonel Saleh
of the national police information office in Jakarta said Friday the trouble
had started Thursday over the rumored harsh ticketing of a driver of a
motorcycle taxi. The protests swelled during Thursday, simmered during
the night, then erupted again Friday.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta -- Some 3,000 workers at a tile factory in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, held a massive protest yesterday to press their demands for Idul Fitri bonus payouts. The workers also demanded that members of the firm's internal cooperative be sacked, because they always "squandered" the obligatory contributions of the staff.
Representatives of the workers said they were afraid that PT Mulia Glass, which is based in Bekasi's Cikarang district, would fail to pay them the equivalent of one month's salary for Idul Fitri.
The demonstration proceeded peacefully, but cautious directors of the firm called the Bekasi Police chief and said they were afraid that staff might destroy the factory, which is one of the biggest producers of ceramics in Indonesia.
The police chief sent 150 officers to the factory at 7:30am, just 30-minutes after the demonstration commenced. The police were later backed up by a strong contingent of military personnel. Locals said the demonstration caused sever traffic congestion on surrounding roads leading to Jakarta.
Bekasi Police Chief Lieutenant Colonel Rustam Ramdja said he hoped that any future demonstrations would also be peaceful, because the factory is worth billions of rupiah. He said the police and military personnel were sent to the factory to take "preventative measures" in case the angry workers decided to run amok.
Once the factory was securely
guarded by police and military officials, the firm's board of directors
met with the workers. President Director Dodi Priambodo promised to come
through with their bonuses, and also pledged to pay the workers for overtime.
| Human rights/law |
David Liebhold, lhokseumawe -- On the northwestern tip of Indonesia, the proud people of Aceh have been dreaming of independence for nearly 100 years. Last week they got tired of waiting. In the northern hamlet of Kandang, residents erected barricades and set up checkpoints around town, fearing for their lives as the Indonesian armed forces searched for leaders of the Free Aceh separatist movement. "ABRI is not allowed in here anymore," declares resident Sopian Ramli, using the Indonesian acronym for the armed forces. "We will have our own government!"
In reality that prospect -- a grail coveted ever since the Dutch finally took control after a bloody 35-year war of conquest in 1908 -- remains as distant as ever. But some 20 soldiers and civilians have been killed in Aceh in the past two weeks, and the outbreak of violence bodes ill for the future of the tiny province. Just four months ago, after the fall of Indonesia's longtime leader Suharto, the military felt comfortable enough to apologize for its past abuses in Aceh and to withdraw hundreds of troops from Sumatra's northernmost province. The recent bloodshed indicates how little has changed -- a warning that reverberates across the tense, far-flung archipelago.
According to some estimates, more than 6,000 troops remain in Aceh, and they are at the heart of the most recent violence. In late December, Acehnese began enlisting in citizens' militias to defend themselves against so-called "ninjas" -- the shady, black- clad assassins blamed for scores of murders in Indonesia over the past six months. On Dec. 29 one such militia pulled 18 off- duty soldiers and police off a bus in Lhok Nibung, East Aceh. Seven of them could not produce civilian identity cards; six of their bodies were later found, covered with knife wounds. A day later, two marines were abducted by another mob. Hundreds of troops were rushed to the province to hunt for the missing men and for the perpetrators.
Dubbed Operation Authority, that mission led to further violence last week. On Jan. 3 in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe, a crowd angered by the army's brutality and indiscriminate arrests burned government offices and a police station. Troops, claiming to have taken fire from rebel snipers, blasted away at the crowd with live ammunition. By week's end 11 civilians had died of gunshot wounds received during the crackdown, and a familiar sense of fear and outrage had resurfaced in the province. All around Lhokseumawe, residents complain that troops have been conducting nightly raids to arrest young men. In response, the entire village of Kandang has taken to sleeping outdoors along the main street. "ABRI is cruel," explains a local. "They come into people's homes and beat them. They don't ask questions."
Such heavy-handed tactics help explain Aceh's unhappiness with Jakarta. A rise in guerrilla activity led authorities to declare the province a Military Operation Zone in 1989, joining the ranks of East Timor and Irian Jaya. The subsequent deployment of thousands of additional troops marked the beginning of a reign of terror. A fact-finding team set up by the provincial government last August found that 1,021 people, mostly unarmed civilians, died in counter-insurgency operations in the early 1990s, and 864 "disappeared." Non-government organizations say the number of dead and missing exceeds 4,000. "The military operation was not just about fighting the insurgents," says Ibrahim Adam, a farmer from Cot Girek village who has been crippled since being shot and beaten by the military in 1992. "It was about wiping out our people." Last August, following student-led protests and revelations of torture camps and mass graves, the military operation was formally ended. Armed forces chief General Wiranto issued an apology for atrocities committed by the military, and in October the central government donated $325,000 to compensate the victims of human-rights violations. Yet so far not a single soldier has been brought to book for crimes in the province.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, many Acehnese suspect ABRI had a hand in the recent unrest. They note that the Lhok Nibung kidnappers were not locals and that rebel leaders deny involvement in the incident. In December, they say, a vehicle carrying three soldiers was found to contain complete "ninja" outfits. "We believe that the goal of all this is to provide a pretext for ABRI to return to Aceh, and for past human-rights abuses to be covered up," says Dahlan Rahman, chairman of the Muslim students association in North Aceh, who notes as well how much money the all-powerful military once squeezed from the resource-rich province.
The charge points toward the more fundamental divide between Aceh and Jakarta -- a lingering sense that local resources are being exploited solely for the benefit of the center. The province possesses one of the world's largest reserves of oil and gas, but almost all the proceeds go to the state-owned oil company, Pertamina. The region is also rich in gold and other metals, and has potentially lucrative agricultural, forestry and fisheries sectors. But in all these fields, too, profit has mostly been drained from Aceh by Jakarta-based firms. As in Irian Jaya, the wealth produced per inhabitant in Aceh is among the highest in Indonesia, while per capita income is among the lowest. "The people see that Aceh is rich in resources," says Iqbal Farabi, a lawyer and human-rights activist in the provincial capital Banda Aceh. "Why must they be poor?"
Acehnese anger is intensified by both a strong Muslim identity and a history of resistance: even after succumbing to the Dutch, the province rose up again in the 1950s, joining several other regions in rebellion against the chaotic Sukarno regime in Jakarta. In a poll conducted late last month in Banda Aceh, 49% of respondents -- mostly students and academics -- said there was a danger that Aceh would secede from Indonesia if the province's human-rights grievances were not addressed. "We will resist until death," says Kandang's Sopian. "It's not just this village, it's all Aceh." But such ardor remains unfocused. Many Acehnese continue to pledge loyalty to Hasan Tiro, the great-grandson of Tengku Chik di Tiro Mohamad Saman, a famous martyr of the Netherlands-Aceh war. Yet after founding a modest guerrilla movement, Hasan fled Indonesia in 1979 and now lives in Sweden. Since 1983 he has led a government-in-exile with several of his self-styled "ministers." His foreign minister lives in Singapore, and his military commander is thought to be in Malaysia.
More worrying is the absence of a viable leadership to channel the frustrations of residents -- a problem that extends far beyond Aceh, and that could prove particularly troublesome as the first post-Suharto elections loom in June. The Acehnese lack respected figures who might guide them to independence or anywhere else. The student movement is fragmented and even the ulema (Islamic teachers), who have traditionally been respected spokesmen for the Acehnese, have lost their influence after years of collaboration with the authorities. "There is no one to lead this wounded people," laments Banda Aceh activist Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, noting that the vacuum leaves Aceh vulnerable both to separatists and to army manipulation. He could well be speaking of the whole of Indonesia.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta -- Indonesia's military said on Wednesday it would court-martial 27 soldiers accused of torturing to death civilians in the restive province of Aceh.
"There were 27 suspects and four witnesses. The suspects were from different forces in the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), the witnesses were all police," Lhokseumawe military commander Johny Wahab told Reuters by telephone.
Military officials and human rights groups have said that last week troops attacked and tortured villagers who had been detained in a raid on an Acehnese village suspected of harbouring separatists. Four people were killed and 20 injured in the attack in the industrial town of Lhokseumawe on the northern tip of Sumatra, some 1,600 km (1,000 miles) northwest of Jakarta.
Armed forces chief General Wiranto said the incident would be thoroughly investigated and he expected a fair, open trial. "The brutal action by soldiers is upsetting the military. I hope the court would roll on as soon as possible in a fair and open process," Wiranto told reporters after a cabinet meeting.
The head of the armed forces in parliament, Lieutenant-General Hari Sabarno, said talk of a split within ABRI was unfounded. "The soldiers were acting outside the military command, therefore they were being undisciplined. The incident does not show a split within the military," he told Reuters.
Asked whether the incident was the result of conflict among senior officials in ABRI, Sabarno said: "No, I don't think there are conflicts of interest among the officers."
Indonesia's rupiah currency weakened on Wednesday partly on concern that the events in Aceh were a further sign the military was in danger of splitting apart.
On Wednesday Wiranto called on Indonesians not to spread rumours which could worsen the situation. "Do not turn the heat up. We must prevent this (conflict) turning into a political commodity for certain groups," he said.
Troops in the staunchly Moslem, resource-rich province are hunting an alleged separatist leader called Ahmad Kandang, whom they accuse of masterminding attacks on police and the military. The detainees who were attacked last week were netted in a raid on a village by troops searching for Kandang.
In late December a mob of machete-wielding villagers dragged off-duty soldiers off a public bus. Six were tortured and killed and two other soldiers are still missing. On January 3 civilians were killed when security forces and separatists exchanged gunfire during a protest by a mob which attacked government buildings near Lhokseumawe. Human rights groups say 17 died while the army puts the toll at 11.
The New York-based Human Right Watch said on Tuesday that the military must cease its operations in the province. "The cycle of violence will not be stopped by sending more troops with unlimited authority to search homes and unlimited powers of arrest," it said in a statement.
A separatist movement has been simmering for years in the province, fuelled by claims that Jakarta gives little in return for plundering the region's natural resources. Separatist protests have gained momentum in a number of parts of the Indonesian archipelago since the downfall of former President Suharto in May after a 32-autocratic rule during which any attempts to break away from Jakarta were swiftly crushed.
Jakarta -- Two activists kidnapped in the last months of the Suharto regime Tuesday refused to testify about their ordeal at the court martial of 11 soldiers charged with the abduction of scores of political campaigners.
But a third witness, politician Haryanto Taslam of the Indonesian Democracy Party of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, agreed to give his testimony.
Aan Risdianto, 25 and Desmond Junaidi Mahesa, 33, both of whom have told the press of being tortured and threatened with death if they spoke out, followed the steps of two other activists, who declined to testify to the same court last week.
Taslam, Rusdianto and Mahesa were among 23 activists abducted and detained for weeks by unidentified men in early 1998. Only nine of them resurfaced. One was found dead and 13 others remained missing.
"I cannot yet testify ... what is certain is that I am not yet mentally prepared to testify, even more so under oath," Risdianto told the court. He said he could not do so until he knew the whereabouts and fate of the 13 missing people.
The trial of the 11 members of the elite Kopassus special forces unit on charges of abducting the nine has been blasted by rights groups as a ploy to cover up the involvement of top military officers and for failing to include charges of torture.
The National Commission on Human Rights has called for the court martial to be halted saying it appeared designed solely to protect the military high command and make scapegoats out of the accused, seven of them junior officers. The military prosecutor has said the 11 accused acted on their own initiative.
Risdianto and another activist, Nezar Patria, were grabbed by four plain-clothed men at night from the apartment they shared on March 13, frogmarched downstairs, blindfolded and manacled and driven to an unknown destination, Patria told the court last week.
Mahesa, 33, in refusing to testify, said he too first wanted information on the missing and said he did not recognize any of the defendants. "How can I be expected to testify, to aggravate or lighten the charges, for people that I do not know," Mahesa told the court, adding he had met with three of the 13 missing activists while detained at an unknown location.
He also protested that although a military council probing the abductions last year found three senior Kopassus officers, including Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, a son-in-law of former president Suharto, guilty of involvement, the officers had not been summoned. Prabowo, who headed the Kopassus at the time of the abductions, was last heard of in Jordan.
Chief military judge Colonel Santoso accepted the refusals, but said the two would be summoned to testify in the future.
Taslam told the court he was abducted by two men in East Jakarta on March 8, taken to an unknown location handcuffed and blindfolded and detained there until his release on April 16. But he was questioned only twice about his political activities and treated well, he said.
He added he could not recognize any of his captors because he was kept blindfolded in their presence. "Before my release I was asked to agree not to return immediately to Jakarta but to go to Surabaya (East Java) first and to tell anyone who asked that I had been touring the regions for the party," Taslam said.
When freed, he was driven around blindfolded for about three hours before being dropped at an airport in Bandung, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) southeast of here, from where he flew to Surabaya using a ticket given to him by his captors. Unlike previous witnesses, he said he was not tortured. "The only inconvenience was that I felt robbed of my freedom," he said.
Santoso asked the 11 accused, standing ramrod straight in their trademark red berets, if they had any comment on Taslam's statement. Each answered the witness' testimony "has nothing to do with me." The trial was set to resume on Tuesday.
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The nation's greatest living writer, imprisoned by former president Suharto, is trying to reclaim the house taken from him 33 years ago. So far, he is having little luck.
"It feels like just more spite and revenge against me," said Pramoedya Ananta Toer from the house in which he has spent years under house arrest.
When Pramoedya was arrested following an alleged communist coup attempt in 1965, the military at the time simply annexed the home where he and his wife had lived for six years. Throughout Pramoedya's harsh 14-year imprisonment on remote Buru Island, his wife Maemunah Ananta Toer moved her home from relative to relative. Stubbornly, she kept her house ownership papers safe.
Years passed, during which the much-acclaimed novels now known as the Buru Quartet were published abroad and talk began about when the writer would win the Nobel Prize for Literature. His writing is impassioned, on themes of nationhood, colonialism and repression -- enough to be branded a communist by the Suharto regime.
Pramoedya was also a member of a leftist cultural group in the mid-1960s called Lekra, and some other writers still resent the power he wielded then. The Suharto government that had him imprisoned also banned all of his major works and forbade him any public life. Unsurprisingly, it also refused to receive Pramoedya's claim to his former home.
But following the fall of Mr Suharto last May, Pramoedya and his legal adviser hoped a more positive verdict could be reached. President Bacharuddin Habibie had promised openness and the call on the streets was for "reformasi". However, the Pramoedya case was last month again rejected -- apparently on procedural grounds.
The court suggested the claim for Pramoedya's house should be directed towards the retired military figure who first occupied the house, the Ministry of Defence and the Jakarta military commander.
"So far," lawyer Rustam Arozal lamented, "the actual problem of the house itself has not been examined". The writer's case was not unique, he said. Several other past activists had also yet to reclaim their properties.
Serambi-Jakarta -- Kontras, the Commission for Missing Persons and to Combat Violence, believes that ABRI, the armed forces, must take responsibility for the assault on detainees during which four persons died. The incident must be thoroughly investigated, said Munir, the director of Kontras in a press conference in Jakarta.
The Commission believes that in order to prevent the situation in Aceh from deteriorating even further, Operasi Wibawa '99 ("Asserting Authority" Operation '99) must be halted and more democratic means must be found to resolve the question of Aceh.
"The facts show that the increase in the number of troops in Aceh has only made things worse" said Munir, who was accompanied at the press conference by Acehnese students from two student organisations, Karma (Acehnese Student Committee for Reform) and Somaka (Student Solidarity for Aceh).
Operasi Wibawa '99 which was launched by ABRI has been a severe psychological shock, causing uncontrollable mass hysteria, said Munir. "This is evident from the attack at the weekend by fifty soldiers on detainees being held at the KNPI building," said the Kontras director. The operation has resulted in other excesses as well, such as the looting of property belonging to civilians and acts of terror against the civilian population, he added.
The number of civilian deaths during the ten days of the operation prove that this is not the way to resolve the crisis in Aceh. "On the contrary, it has created new problems, reopened old wounds and provided the potential for yet more political violence by the state like that which gripped Aceh during the period of DOM -- its designation as a military operational zone," said Munir.
Kontras said that the social disturbances now occurring in Aceh have resulted from the failure to take firm action regarding the human rights violations and the political violence that was practiced during DOM. "The recent events in Aceh have turned the region once again into a hotbed of political violence," said Munir.
Students attending the press conference said that Aceh was now living under DOM Mark-2. The killing of civilians in Aceh, said Ruslan of Somaka, was a serious matter for the entire nation. "It's a question of ABRI-civilians relations," he said. He warned that if the military operations in Aceh were not halted, ABRI could soon be confronted by Acehnese students in all parts of the country.
Saiful Bahri of Karma who arrived in Jakarta a few days ago said the situation in Aceh is now extremely tense; the civilian population is overwhelmed by a great fear.
Referring to the person named Ahmad Kandang, Saiful Bahri said that people in Aceh knew nothing about this man. "We are all very surprised at the sudden emergence of this name and claims that he had been able to build a stock of sharp implements without any counter action from the security forces," said Saiful Bahri.
Angela Tresnasari, Jakarta -- Indonesia's military said on Monday it had arrested 30 soldiers in the restive province of Aceh for beating to death and torturing suspected separatist rebels at the weekend.
"I say this firmly -- I cannot justify what happened on Saturday. I will investigate the incident thoroughly and send the suspects to the military court by the end of the month," Lhokseumawe military commander Johny Wahab told Reuters.
Military officials and human rights groups said on Sunday that four people died after troops attacked villagers who were detained in a raid on a village suspected of harbouring rebels. Yakob Hamzah of the respected Lhokseumawe Legal Aid Institute said three people were still missing after the incident and 26 in hospital.
"We are not sure if the three people are missing or killed. We cannot find them in the hospital. So, we are still searching for those three," he told Reuters. "There are about 26 people in hospital who were badly injured while three of them are in a critical condition."
Troops in the staunchly Moslem, resource-rich province have been hunting for an alleged separatist leader called Ahmad Kandang, who they accuse of masterminding a recent upsurge in attacks on police and the military.
Wahab said the armed forces early on Saturday raided Kandang village near Lhokseumawe, an industrial town on the northern tip of Sumatra some 1,600 km northwest of Jakarta, to try to capture the separatist leader.
He said rebels fired at the troops during the raid and used women and children to shield themselves. "We did not shoot back because of the women and children," Wahab said.
Kandang was not found, but Wahab said 40 people suspected of being his followers were detained for questioning and many of them were carrying pistols and other firearms. Yakob said these detainees were later attacked and tortured by soldiers.
In late December a mob of machete-wielding villagers dragged off-duty soldiers off a public bus. Six were tortured and killed and two other soldiers are still missing.
On January 3 several civilians were killed when security forces and separatists exchanged gunfire during a protest by a mob of thousands who attacked government buildings near Lhokseumawe. The Legal Aid Institute says 17 died, while the army puts the toll at 11.
Jakarta -- The government is scheduled to repeal the Subversion Law next week in response to fierce public criticism and in order to bring the Criminal Code into accordance with the recently approved anti-torture convention.
Antara quoted Romli Atmasasmita, the director general for laws and legislation at the Ministry of Justice as saying in Bandung on Saturday that the move was the government's response to strong public protests of the subversion law, which when applied, often trampled on human rights.
Romli was speaking at the launch of the book titled Thoughts on Laws on Entering the 21st Century which contains 39 works by legal experts and analysts.
He told a audience of law experts, including former foreign minister Mochtar Kusumaatmadja and Sri Soemantri Martosoewignjo, that under the New Order regime in particular, the mere suspicion of subversive activities was enough to lead to detention for more than one year.
Romli, who is also a criminal law expert at Padjadjaran University, said the practice was a gross violation human rights. The repeal of the subversion law, he said, is also associated with the government's approval of the Anti-Torture Convention. In anticipation of its implementation, he said, the government was also revising the criminal code in accordance with the convention.
Next week, the government will also place on the House of Representatives' agenda bills on a clean government free from collusion, corruption and nepotism; human rights; arbitration; consumer protection and a revision of the bankruptcy law.
Also next week, Romli added, the Ministry of Justice is scheduled to submit a presidential decree to the State Secretariat on the establishment of a commission to audit the wealth of government officials.
Comprising government officials and members of the public, the commission will be installed by and be accountable to the President. It will also answer to both to the State Audit Board and the House of Representatives. Romli said that by virtue of the decree, the commission will be authorized to audit the wealth of the President Cabinet members, legislators and governors, before, during and after their respective terms of office.
He added that the current Development Reform Cabinet which only had one year to carry out its programs, had been working on 44 draft laws 80 percent of which were initiated and drawn up by the Ministry of Justice at a cost of Rp 11 billion in the 1999/2000 fiscal year. Among these bills was one dealing . with the establishment of a militia and one regulating the 1999 general election and political parties.
Under the political parties bill, he added, the parties will be required to report to and register with the Ministry of Justice rather than with the General Election Institute or the Ministry of Home Affairs as was the practice in the past.
Jakarta -- Indonesian troops raided a village suspected of harboring a separatist leader holding two military hostages in troubled Aceh province Saturday, arresting 37 residents, the military said.
But the separatist Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) leader Ahmad Kandang again eluded the raiders and they found no trace of the hostages in Kandang village near Lhokseumawe, Lhokseumawe district military chief Colonel Johnny Wahab told AFP by phone.
Wahab said the troops clashed with local residents who tried to prevent the them from finding the separatists. "The troops were trying to find two soldiers kept hostage by the separatists but the villagers tried to prevent them," added Wahab.
The villagers had been coerced to protect the separatists with threats of burning down their houses if they did not, he said. Wahab said two villagers were injured in the clash but there were no deaths.
The army has blamed the separatist group for instigating the kidnappings of the two soldiers and for the murder of seven troops in a separate ambush in an upsurge of violence in the province earlier this month.
On Sunday the military also raided three villages including Simpang Kibre village, some 20 kilometers from Lhokseumawe. In those raids at least 17 people killed and scores wounded but Aceh Merdeka leader Kandang was not found.
The fresh raid came a day
after a National Commission on Human Rights team had left the province
following a three-day fact- finding tour.
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- Several former high-ranking military and government officers, staunchly critical to the Habibie government, are set to officially launch a new political party in Jakarta today.
A ceremony marking the party's launch will be held at 9:00 a.m. at the Manggala Wanabhakti Building in South Jakarta. Hundreds of invitation letters, signed by PKP's Declaration Committee Secretary Tatto S. Pradjamanggala, have been delivered to prospective guests.
Retired General Edi Sudradjat and other former cabinet ministers, including Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Siswono Yudohusodo and Hayono Isman, are among those who are set to found the Justice and Unity Party (PKP). Insiders explained that former vice-president Try Sutrisno had expressed an interest at becoming one of the party's founders, but modestly declined to confirm his support for the new party.
Other retired generals founding the new political party include former chairman of the House of Representatives Wahono, former deputy Army chief Suryadi, former intelligence chief Eri Sudewo, former head of socio-political affairs Bambang Triantoro, and former East Java military commander Saiful Sulun.
Ahead of the party's launch on Monday, Try Sutrisno, who heads the Association of Retired Armed Forces Officers (Pepabri), appeared in East Java alongside Edi and Hayono and a number of other PKP founding members.
Though Try swore that his visit to East Java was to give him a chance to meet Pepabri officials in the province for consolidation, many suspicious analysts believe that the tour may have also been used to drum up PKP support ahead of June's general election.
Some analysts have warned that the formation of the new party could pose a significant threat for Golkar in this year's general election, as most of its founders are former top officials in the ruling group. The PKP could chisel into Golkar's support at the next election, which it is hoped, will be both democratic and fair.
Edi Sudradjat, a former defense and security minister, was the leading opposition figure to Akbar Tandjung in the Golkar leadership battle last year. Edi was nominated by Try and a number of Golkar loyalists, as a candidate to lead Golkar in the next election, but was defeated by Tandjung, who is the current state/secretary minister.
Jakarta -- The Jordanian ambassador yesterday said former president Soeharto's reviled son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, who is suspected of engineering a series of kidnappings and mass riots, had never applied for citizenship in his country.
The remark contradicted a statement last month by Prabowo that he had rejected an offer of Jordanian citizenship. Jordanian officials in Amman earlier said that Prabowo, who has been embroiled in the abduction of political activists while Soeharto was still in power, had been granted honorary citizenship.
However, Jordanian Ambassador Luay Al Khashman said his government had no record of an application for citizenship from Prabowo, who was in Jordan when the reports first emerged. "The case was only press reports which were not true," he was quoted as saying by AP after a meeting with President B.J. Habibie.
Eleven members of the Army's Kopassus special forces are on trial for the kidnappings that took place in early 1998, shortly before Soeharto was forced to relinquish power after mass riots and protests against his 32-year ironhanded rule.
Prabowo was a commander of Kopassus at the time and admitted wrongdoing to military investigators. He was dismissed, but has not been charged. Thirteen activists remain missing, and are widely believed to have been slain by the military.
Under Habibie, the military has pledged to pursue those implicated in human rights abuses, but many analysts doubt whether the masterminds of state-sanctioned violence will ever be brought to justice.
A government-backed panel of investigators has implicated Prabowo in last year's May riots that killed 1,200 people in Jakarta in the days before Soeharto's downfall.
Critics have suggested military hard-liners, such as Prabowo, provoked the violence to justify a crackdown on government opponents. In a letter to the media, Prabowo has denied he engineered the riots.
Jakarta -- The ruling Golkar party's insistence that civil servants be allowed to join political parties is caused by a "sinking ship syndrome", because it sees the bureaucracy as its only lifeboat, says a political analyst.
Andi A. Malarangeng says Golkar should wise up and realize that it still has an abundance of resources that will allow it to win the June 7 general election,
The main problem is that Golkar worries it won't be able to get enough votes if civil servants aren't permitted to join political parties, he told reporters on the sidelines of a discussion on the political bill in Jakarta yesterday. "Golkar does not understand that it still has excessive funds, a solid network, and many figures," he asserted sternly.
Malarangeng, a member of Home Affairs Ministry's team that drafting the political law, said the government is now trying to persuade all factions that a "win-win" solution can be achieved.
He said Golkar has exerted too much energy in discussing the issue, and must realize it has plenty of options to attract voters. "This indicates that Golkar is lacking confidence," he said.
Many analysts predict that Golkar's most likely chance of winning the general election is by bribing or threatening voters, which it did in previous polls. In every election held since 1971, civil servants and their families were coerced to vote for Golkar.
District administrations were warned they would not receive any funds if their constituents failed to vote for the ruling party. Even senior students at state schools were told they would certainly fail their exams if they didn't select Golkar. Analysts say these sort of schemes imbued Indonesians with an acceptance of corruption and political manipulation.
Jakarta -- Some 25,000 police will be deployed in the Indonesian capital to keep order during the Moslem Eid-el-Fitr holiday next week, a report said Thursday.
"We are deploying 25,000 personnel to safeguard security in the capital area druing Lebaran (Eid-el-Fitr)," Jakarta police chief Major General Nugroho Jayusman said, according to the Media Indonesia daily.
Moslems account for some 90 percent of the 202 million population of Indonesia and Eid-el-Fitr marks the end of the Moslem fasting month. Jayusman said the personnel will mainly be deployed to guard land, air and sea transport terminals and patrol residential areas.
Many Moslems return to their home town for the holiday and the massive annual exodus to rural areas causes a major headache for transport authorities.
Jakarta -- "Deep mistrust" among factions and government representatives has been blamed for the House of Representatives' failure on Tuesday to notch up any progress in its deliberation of the political role of the country's 4.1 million public servants.
A source close to the deliberation described how legislators from Golkar and the United Development Party (PPP) -- under pressure to complete the reading of three political bills by a Jan. 28 deadline -- lobbied intensively with government representatives over the question of whether civil servants should be allowed to join political parties.
"There's a high level of mistrust among them," the source said, pointing out how the deadlock could not be broken for days because factions refused to budge.
"Golkar is now a cornered rat due to public pressure in this case ... we have to find a loophole to save the deliberation process while giving Golkar a chance to bow out without losing any face," the source said.
Golkar insisted that public servants be allowed to join parties, while the United Development Party still insisted they should be neutral Golkar has recently shifted its stance, showing itself willing to have the question dropped altogether from the bills, as long as it is later regulated in another piece of legislation.
PPP is willing to have the issue dropped, but still demands that a presidential decree is issued banning civil servants from politics. It insisted the government supported this alternative. The government has not commented on PPP's assertion.
The source said the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction is seen as a likely broker in the bargaining process because it has the capability of "stabilizing" matters and of lending dynamics in political developments.
"PPP and PDI should let Golkar win its proposal on electoral districts but Golkar should give way in its battle over civil servants' political role," the source said. suggesting a way out.
On electoral districts, PPP and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) argued for proportional representation in voting for House legislators to be conducted at the regency level, while Golkar argued that it be done at the provincial level.
Meanwhile, parties that are not represented in the House of Representatives (DPR) contributed to the ongoing debate.
On Tuesday, the rector of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University, Ichlasul Amal, defended Golkar's argument in favor of allowing civil servants to join parties.
"Why does PPP insist on having civil servants banned from politics when it actually has the chance to win the civil servants' support?" he said. Also from Yogyakarta, Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the ancient city's governor and hereditary ruler, on Saturday also backed Golkar's stance. He only warned civil servants not to bring along their "different political aspirations" to work. "That could be dangerous," he said.
Rubiyanto Misman, rector of the Jenderal Soedirman University in Purwokerto in Central Java, was among those to attack Golkar's position. "If Akbar Tandjung visits a village, how will local officials know whether to treat him as Golkar chairman or as the minister/state secretary?" he asked.
Criticism also came from parties not included in the House of Representatives, namely the People's Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Crescent Star Party (PBB) and the Muslim Community Party (PUI). Most of them united in their call for civil service neutrality in order to ensure a free and fair general election.
PKB's deputy chairperson Chofifah Indar Parawansa said: "The bureaucracy can be neutral only if it is not linked to a socio- political function. It should operate its public service function only."
To allow bureaucrats to perform their career professionally without being burdened by a socio-political function which has been the case for over 30 years -- PKB suggested the Indonesian Civil Corps (Korpri) be dissolved.
PUI chairman Deliar Noer reminded Golkar to let the bureaucracy be true public servants. "After 30 years the civil service needs to be made neutral and that means not allowing them to join political parties."
PBB deputy chairman Hartono Mardjono also expressed the same demand. "We agree with PPP that civil servants must not become members or executives of political parties," Hartono said.
PAN chairman Amien Rais -- himself a civil servant -- also wanted the bureaucracy to be neutral. "I myself will quit as a civil servant because there is a bigger interest that I have in fulfilling my role as a party chairman," Amien said.
Legislator Abu Hasan Sazili of Golkar -- who also chairs the DPR's Special Committee deliberating the bill -- stayed firm on the organization's stance. "What's important is not to herd the civil servants to support Golkar," he said after meeting with a delegation from the National Coalition group led by playwright Ratna Sarumpaet. The group also pressed Golkar to alter its stance over the issue.
Jakarta -- A professor at the state-run University of Indonesia (UI) Wednesday took off his blue government-issue shirt at a campus here to symbolize the teaching staff's break from the ruling Golkar party.
"We have agreed that civil servants must be neutral. If we should involve in a political party, we'd rather have our own political party," said dentistry professor Roi Pralestya Budi.
It was the first time since the fall of former president Suharto in May that any group had rejected the KORPRI (corps of Indonesian civil servants') uniform, which during the Suharto years symbolized their support for Golkar.
Budi said he was acting on behalf of some 50 members of the UI teaching staff and those of the neighboring state-run Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital in a ceremony in front of the main building of the university's school of medicine. The shirts, worn on ceremonial occasions, would be donated to the poor, he said.
The professor told journalists that the country's some six million civil servants, and their families, must now be independent of any political parties in serving the people.
"You can imagine how many votes Golkar gets every election if every family (with an average of five members) votes for it," he added. He said he expected other civil servants to follow suit. The student-backed KORPRI-shirts-off campaign has collected 50 shirts from the staffs of the university and hospital, including that of former university rector Dr. M.K. Tajuddin, Budi said.
During the rule of former president Suharto, who stepped down in May last year, civil servants and their family members were obliged to vote for Golkar, helping the party to a landslide victory in every general election.
The government of Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie, has said the military and civil servants can now be politically neutral, saying they should concentrate on their duty to serve the people.
However, Golkar, fearing that it will lose many of its traditional votes, is fighting in parliament for civil servants be allowed to join political parties, claiming that barring them would deprive civil servants of their civil rights.
The battle this week reached the top levels of government, with State Secretary Akbar Tanjung, who is also Golkar chairman, in a stand-off with Cooperatives Minister Adi Sasono, who has refused to campaign for Golkar for the upcoming June 7 elections, despite Tanjung's orders to do so.
Jakarta -- A controversial Indonesian minister has broken ranks with the ruling Golkar party ahead of general elections in June, raising speculation he has his own political ambitions, sources and reports said Wednesday.
Adi Sasono, minister of cooperatives and small and medium sized enterprises, told newspapers and television he had declared himself a "non-active member" of Golkar after refusing to campaign for the party in the June polls.
Sasono, best known for his advocacy of a "people's economy" to replace the conglomerate-driven years of the Suharto regime, also denied he was forming a new political party to branch out of his own.
"Where is the logic? I don't even campaign, how am I going to build a party. So the request to be a non-active member (from Golkar) is really because I have to concentrate in the people's interests," Sasono was quoted by the Media Indonesia daily as saying.
Sasono claimed Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie, understood his decision to be a non-active member of the party and concentrate on his ministerial duties.
But the Panji weekly magazine said Sasono was believed to have sponsored the creation of the new People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) which aimed at targetting supporters from the underprivileged he champions.
Nasir Tamara, a member of the Indonesian Moslem Scholars Association (ICMI) which Sasono used to chair, viewed Sasono's resignation as an active Golkar member as a "preparatory step" for him to enter a political party.
Nasir said Sasono was testing the political waters by circulating reports of a party under his leadership, and was awaiting the public's response. "In Indonesian political culture, as in every political culture, anyone who wants to create a political party should test the waters," Nasir added.
He said Sasono's decision to distance himself from Golkar was part of an effort "to keep his hands free so he could do whatever he wants."
"But if Adi Sasono decides to run, I find him to be a more than qualified person as a political leader," Nasir said, adding he believed the new party would easily garner at least 15 percent of the votes in the next election in June.
"He would get the support of people who are dissatisfied with the Moslem and other nationalist parties."
Following the resignation of former president Suharto in May, 1998, Habibie lifted a Suharto-era ban on political parties other than three officially recognisd by the administration, leading to a rush to form new parties.
But the some 120 parties which have mushroomed since then are now awaiting legalization and rulings by parliament on requirements for them to qualify to run in the polls.
Jakarta -- Thousands shouting "Long Live Mrs. President" turned out Sunday to hear opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri launch her campaign for Indonesia's first elections since the fall of Suharto.
In a fiery speech, Megawati, daughter of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, warned that if the government rigged the June 7 polls it could trigger a repeat of the May violence that left more than 1,000 dead.
"If in the upcoming elections, the government does not act fairly -- it is feared an even greater catastrophe (than May) will occur," Megawati said told the crowd. Should the poll be rigged, "it will be very difficult for any side to calm the people's anger, which could erupt in the most devastating form."
Some 3,000 people, dressed in the trademark red of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI), filled a field outside Megawati's home, and an estimated 7,000 more packed adjacent streets and alleys, an AFP reporter said.
Though billed as the 26th anniversary of the PDI, Megawati, in a 12-page address, made no bones she was delivering her first major campaign speech -- railing against fallen president Suharto's ruling Golkar party, which is battling to hold power in the June 7 polls.
"With election time drawing near, we sense the existence of parties who want to create riots and disturbances ... with the aim of declaring a state of emergency and cancelling the elections to prolong the existing status quo," Megawati said.
"Let me tell you that we in the PDI-S (Struggle) have given you (the government and Golkar) an early warning.
"We have pointed out clearly who will be held most responsible should that disaster ever happen," said Megawati, 52, whose father was put under house arrest by Suharto in 1966.
She criticised Golkar for "defying reform and pro-democracy measures" by allegedly using its Suharto-era habit of mobilizing the civil service and the army to retain power.
When Megawati was ousted from the PDI leadership in a rigged party congress, massive riots broke out in Jakarta that left at least eight dead and scores missing and wounded. She later formed the breakaway PDI-Struggle.
The mass PDI-S meeting Sunday came a day after Golkar itself began priming itself for the June 7 polls by setting up a 480- strong campaign management and strategy team. The team, selected for their "loyalty and consistency", was installed by Golkar general chairman Akbar Tanjung at the party headquarters here Saturday in anticipation of a "strong challenge" in the polls, the state Antara News Agency said.
"God willing, Golkar will be able to win the hearts of the majority of the people and emerge victorious," Tanjung told the meeting of the central executive board.
After winning every election in Indonesia since 1971, with massive backing from the military and the civil service, the 36- million-member Golkar has been trying since Suharto's fall in May to fight defections and clean up its image. In its first post- Suharto congress in November, Golkar removed Suharto from its board of patrons and booted his children and closest conies out of top positions on its board of directors.
In June it will face a far more open, but divided, field, with some 15 out of the 120 parties that have mushroomed since Suharto's fall in May expected to qualify to stand candidates.
Megawati's PDI-S and the National Awakening Party (PAN), headed by Moslem intellectual Amien Rais, are among the strongest contenders, according to opinion polls.
The June elections will result in a new parliament, or lower house, and the formation of a new People's Consultative Assembly which would, under President B.J. Habibie's timetable, select a president before the end of 1999. Megawati, Rais and Suharto's hand-picked successor, Habibie, have all said they will run for the presidency.
Jakarta -- The Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) now has volunteers in 62 cities in 22 provinces, its secretary general, Mulyana W. Kusumah, said on Thursday. Mulyana told The Jakarta Post that he could not give the total number of volunteers because registration was still in progress. In September, Mulyana told reporters that the committee, first set up to monitor the 1997 elections, had 9,000 volunteers in 47 cities in 14 provinces. Ideally, Mulyana said, the committee would deploy around 300,000 volunteers to monitor polls in the country's 324 regencies. "There should be at least 100,000 monitors," he added. In easily accessed areas, he said, one volunteer could cover four to five polling stations by using, for example, a motorcycle, while in remote areas one volunteer per polling station was needed.
Mulyana, a lecturer at University of Indonesia, said the committee needed Rp 6 billion to monitor the polls in the country's regencies in the upcoming election slated for June 7. Universities have also recently established independent monitoring networks. One of these watchdogs is the University Network for a Free and Fair Election, established last month by universities and colleges in several provinces. A similar network of universities and colleges will be established soon, with its main objective to monitor the polls in Central Java. "KIPP welcomes the recent establishment of private poll monitoring groups because in the present relatively open political situation the role of such bodies is important to institutionalize democracy," the committee executives said in a letter to the Post on Thursday.
On Thursday, Mulyana said that donors from Europe and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had committed an unspecified amount of funds to the committee. USAID is also enabling the committee to send six of its volunteers to the Philippines next week to join an apprenticeship program with the Philippines National Movement for Free Elections. Mulyana said another party, the United States-based National Democratic Institute, was supplying KIPP the funds to establish branches and training centers, as well as providing technical assistance to the committee. Training for monitors has begun in Jakarta and will soon continue in areas outside the capital. All training sessions must be completed before March, to give the committee enough time to finalize preparations for the June 7 poll, Mulyana said. He added that while the draft of the new election bill recognizes private poll observers, more details would be needed to ensure formal acceptance of the monitors.
KIPPs establishment in 1996
was met with reluctance by the government, and while the committee was
not banned, its presence was not paid attention to, he said. Mulyana said
that the committee had already begun to monitor the deliberations in the
House of Representatives on the new political laws, including the bill
on elections. Among its activities, KIPP has worked with other groups under
the Consortium of National Legal Reform to draw up alternative drafts of
the political bills. Further actions will be taken in line with the election
schedule, such as the monitoring of electorate registrations and the selection
by election organizers of which political parties will be eligible to contest
the polls, he said. Mulyana called on other monitoring networks to work
with KIPP in setting basic standards of what constitutes an election violation.
The committee was founded by around 40 activists in March 1996, including
Goenawan Mohamad, Nurcholish Madjid, Permadi, Adnan Buyung Nasution and
Mulyana. Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis was not involved in founding the committee
as reported on Thursday.
| Arms/armed forces |
Jakarta -- The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), currently experiencing its lowest level of popularity, is likely to get up to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, according to the latest deliberations of new political bills.
The House factions are still debating the number of seats to be granted to military personnel, but most legislators are apparently willing to maintain ABRI's strong presence in parliament.
Leaders of all four factions have agreed the military could be given between 35 and 40 seats, despite mounting protests against ABRI's political role, private television network SCTV reported last night. The ABRI faction said it would accept how ever many seats it is allocated by the House, adding the most important thing is for the military to play a significant role in parliament.
ABRI officials denied the allocation of between 35 and 40 seats is an effort to preserve its powerful influence in the House. They also denied that ABRI would function to keep the ruling Golkar party in power when the nation goes to the polls in June.
ABRI argued that giving 40 seats to the military would enable it to be present in each of the new House subcommissions. Parliament has agreed to form 40 subcommissions, in which each House faction must have at least one representative. Political analysts say the establishment of the subcommissions was nothing but a sly effort to ensure that ABRI got at least 40 seats in the House.
Budi Harsono, chairman of the House's working committee, said giving ABRI "about 40 seats" reflects the aspirations of all members of the committee, considering military's significant political role. "However, the number could be reduced based on future agreements ... and the decision is not yet final," he said. Under the new political bills, ABRI could be granted at least 55 seats in the House, with its representatives to be appointed by President B.J. Habibie.
Many opposition politicians and students have voiced strong opposition to the military's political role in the House. Critics say ABRI should abandon its dual function, because the military merely serves the corrupt interests of the wealthy elite.
The National Awakening Party
(PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), among the favorites for the
June election, say ABRI must terminate its political role within six years.
Students say they will resume protests against the military at the end
of this month, and won't stop demonstrating until ABRI goes back to the
barracks.
| Economy and investment |
Have you ever heard of the rumor that the ethnic Chinese, who comprise less than 4% of the Indonesian population, but control 70% of that country's economy? Well, according to a Chinese- Indonesian priest who visited the Philippines recently, many journalists fell for it without even checking the facts.
"It is true that even under the anti-Chinese sentiment of the Dutch colonial rule, many Chinese were able to survive and to prosper. There is at least an image that Chinese are rich and control the economy. Yet for me it is a question why most of the newspapers write '3.5% of Chinese in Indonesia is in control of 70% of the economy'," said Sulawesi (not his real name), a priest involved in the campaign against human rights abuses in Indonesia. "The truth is Suharto and his cronies together with several Chinese cronies under his control dominated the economy."
Quoting research done by an Indonesian expatriate, Mr. Sulawesi said the source of the alleged fallacy is an Australian study that discounted all government and foreign listed companies when it tallied Indonesian companies.
"Many companies were not listed (in the Australian study). From the listed companies, they did not count government and multinational companies," he said.
The insight was provided through research done by George Aditjondro, who in his paper describes himself as a former business news reporter in the 1970s and 1980s, and presently teaches Sociology of Corruption at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
According to Mr. Aditjondro, the myth -- that the Chinese constitute only 3.5% of the population, but control 70% of Indonesia's economy -- "has been repeated and repeated so often now by the world press, that everybody -- including those sympathetic to the plight of Chinese Indonesians -- seem to believe it."
He traces this myth's provenance to a 1995 study of a foreign affairs and trade department official named Michael Backman. Otherwise an excellent research, Mr. Aditjondro said the study entitled Overseas Chinese Business Networks in Asia claimed that Chinese-Indonesians controlled about 73% of Indonesia's listed companies "by market capitalization." Thus by end-1993, they reportedly controlled about 68% of the country's "top 300 conglomerates and nine of the top 10 private sector groups."
But unfortunately, those who came across the Backman study reportedly failed to note what the phrase 'market capitalization' meant, which, quoting from the same, amounted to "control by market capitalization has been determined after listed firms controlled by governments or foreigners are discounted."
Mr. Aditjondro therefore concludes that the ethnic Chinese did not control the Indonesian economy, especially if one were to exclude from any listing companies such as Freeport McMorRan, which supposedly controls top revenue earner PT Freeport Indonesia, Inc. and Coca Cola Amatil, and state-owned oil firm Pertamina.
If excluded, noted the sociology professor, then it would appear that ethnic Chinese -- notably former Suharto associate Liem Sioe Liong -- controlled the economy.
Looking into the nine private sector groups supposedly owned by the ethnic Chinese, Mr. Aditjondro said the Australian study listed them thus: Salim, Sinar Mas, Danamon, Gajah Tunggal, Astra, Lippo, Dharmala, Barito Pacific, and Ongko Groups.
The sociology professor then sampled two of these to show who really owned what. The Salim Group, for one, is reportedly controlled by Liem Sioe Liong, two pribumi relatives of then President Suharto, and Ibrahim Risyad, an Acehnese associate of one of Suharto's cousins. This cousin named Sudwikatmono, along with two of Suharto's siblings, namely Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana and Sigit Harjojudanto reportedly controlled Bank Central Asia, which recently went under following Suharto's resignation.
On the other hand, Sinar Mas Group, while controlled by Chinese- Indonesian Eka Tjipta Widjaja, maintains ties with a real estate firm controlled by Suharto's stepbrother Probosutejo. Sinar Mas, the study also noted, maintains joint ventures with Salim in the chemical industry, and with companies of the Timsco Group controlled by President Habibie's brother Timmy. If true, this undoubtedly lends credence to the observation that the transition from Suharto to Habibie could not have been easier. Mr. Aditjondro noted that even new Golkar party chief Akbar Tanjung maintains shares with some of Salim's and Sinar Mas' firms.
Meanwhile, Bimantara, which was the only pribumi-controlled group out of the 10 top private holding firms, is reportedly controlled by one of Suharto's son Bambang Trihatmojo. But due to a minor lapse on the part of journalists, said Mr. Sulawesi, this information was lost in the process. And those 'caught' holding the bag were the minority ethnic Chinese.
"Unfortunately, the CEOs of many of the listed companies are Chinese. So they conclude that these are Chinese-owned. For some it is true since Chinese own 60% of the shares of a company. But they are all under the control of Suharto," said the activist priest.
Of course, another multinational institution that has a lot of say with regard to where the Indonesian economy should proceed -- and which also dealt with Suharto in the past -- is likewise invisible to the ordinary pribumi ransacking the hapless retailer's store next door. After all, the International Monetary Fund, said Mr. Sulawesi, has exacerbated the crisis last May with its unpopular and anti-poor conditions for the financial rescue package of about US43 billion.
The Chinese-Indonesian priest knows too well that his parishioners do not have the slightest inkling that this behemoth institution -- which has caused national economies to grow or go under -- exists. "For simple people, it is easy to blame the Chinese retail store owner next door when they suddenly can't afford to buy their children's milk."