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ASIET Net News – 7 - February 15-21, 1999
East Timor| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- Scores of Indonesian students held a vigil at a university here Sunday to mark 100 days after the violent shooting of student demonstrators late last year.
"This moral movement will become the basis for continued student actions in the streets to unveil the truth of the Semanggi tragedy," a student, Delfi, from Kertanegara University told some 150 students at Atma Jaya Catholic University in downtown South Jakarta.
The Indonesian military opened fire on hundreds of protesting students on November 13 near the Semanggi traffic flyover and the adjacent Atma Jaya campus that left seven students dead. Fourteen more people were killed during the protest.
The memorial event, sponsored by the Students for Reform and Democracy Forum (Famred), which unites students from dozens of Jakarta universities, was attended by some 50 pedicab drivers.
"This is part of the political realization efforts for the public," Delfi said of the invitation to the drivers.
"The efforts to unveil the Semanggi tragedy cannot wait for the political will of General Wiranto as the military commander," the student activist added.
The demand for a more transparent investigation into the shooting was part of the student struggle "towards a more democratic Indonesia," Delfi said.
On Saturday some 50 Famred students attempted to walk from the Gambir railway station in Central Jakarta in separate groups to the nearby military police headquarters but were blocked by soldiers and police.
The military police, who are investigating the incident, have so far said they have been unable to identify who shot the students.
The student movement in February of 1998 began campaigning for the exit of former president Suharto, who stepped down in May after 32 years in power. Since May, the students have pushed for Suharto to be brought to trial for his alleged crimes in office and for the military to give up its role in political life.
Jakarta -- Dozens of students protested at the Indonesian military headquarters and the National Strategic Planning Board Thursday over the military's role in politics and alleged corruption in the use of foreign loans.
Some 50 students from the Jakarta Students' Communication Forum rallied at military headquarters to press demands that the armed forces quit politics before the June elections.
"Revoke the socio-political role and the posting of military in civilian posts for the sake of democracy," said one large poster. "ABRI (the armed forces) should return to the barracks," read another.
More than 50 soldiers and police later pushed the protestors across the street, but there was no violence, witnesses said.
Armed reinforcements arrived at the military headquarters but after 40 minutes of chanting and yelling slogans, the students disbanded without incident.
Student groups have said they fear the June 7 general election cannot be fair as long as the military continues its political role.
Nine students from the Democratic Student Forum picketed the National Strategic Planning Board for half an hour before they were admitted to meet representatives.
The students demanded to know whether foreign loans to pay for social safety net programs had been corruptly diverted.
"Activate the use of Social Safety Net funds for the development of the small people," read a banner held by the students as dozens of anti-riot troops armed with batons looked on.
Hidayat Syarif, who handles the social program, invited the students inside for a dialogue. "We fear the loan has been corrupted because none of the little people in the villages or in urban areas have received any of the billions of dollars in loans. If it's not going to be properly used, then return it," one of the students told Syarif. Syarif said the government had used the loans to help education, health and job programs. He denied any funds had been diverted and challenged the students to prove that any money had gone missing.
The international community has earmarked a sizeable portion of the 46 billion dollars in bailout funds for Indonesia for social safety net programs. But this week press reports alleged that much of the money had not reached the groups for whom it was meant.
The Indonesian Observer Wednesday quoted the strategic planning board director Budiono as saying only 40 percent of safety net funds had reached their intended recipients due to what he called technical hitches.
Budiono said there were "a
few dozen cases" of leakage but these were insignificant compared to the
thousands benefiting from the loans.
| East Timor |
Jakarta -- Indonesia's minister of economy, industry and finance has clarified Jakarta's position on the Timor Gap, a potentially oil-rich offshore region, saying that "if East Timor chooses to separate from Indonesia, then the Gap region will automatically belong to East Timor".
Ginandjar Kartasasmita was cited Thursday by the Antara news agency. He said that the controversial Timor Gap Treaty would be on the agenda of an upcoming ministers meeting between Australia and Indonesia, to be held from Feb. 23 to 25 in Bali.
Kartasasmita added, however, that the upcoming meeting would only focus on technical details of the current treaty, under which Ausralia and Indonesia agree to jointly exploit the underwater resources of the Timor Sea between the half-island of East Timor and northern Australia.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Mines and Energy Minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto confirmed Thursday that Indonesia continues to invest in oil prospecting in the Timor Gap.
East Timor has been occupied by Indonesia since 1975, though Jakarta now says it will withdraw from the territory if the East Timorese reject a proposal for enhanced autonomy.
Che Guevara once said that a crucial problem for armed guerrillas was the ability to survive and keep a check on their bevahiour. This humane aspect of the guerrilla struggle is an integral part of the 23 year struggle of the Falintil guerrillas.
With a handful of weapons and a small number of men, Falintil has been able to confront offensives by an army with the backing of land, sea and air forces and equipped with advanced weaponry. A major aspect of guerrilla warfare is support from the people.
So how has Falintil been able to survive?
Until now the Indonesian media and pro-Indonesia foreign journalists have depicted Falintil as "security disturbers" (GPK) -- the term used by the Indonesian military -- and not an armed movement struggling for freedom and independence. This is very one-sided and subjective. The fact is that no Indonesian journalist has ever reported their struggle in the bush. Suara Pembaruan therefore decided to visit Falintil. The negotiations were lengthy and complex but after spending a week in Dili, and with the help of the Timorese resistance council, the CNRT and Solidamor, our journalists received permission to proceed.
Early one morning, we set out for Los Palos accompanied by a CNRT board member, a courier and others. After a five-hour journey by car, there was a one-hour walk to a village through thick jungle. We met many villagers along the way, guiding us and informing us of the security situation. These people, who support the guerrillas with food, medicine and carrying letters, knew all about the recent movements of the army. After another three-hour journey on foot, we reached our destination, not a regular Falintil base but a temporary position.
There we met Tito da Costa, 49, deputy chief of staff, known by his nomme de guerre, Lere Anan Timor whose area of command includes Los Palos, Iliomar and Laga. He and his twelve-man had been in this location for two days.
They had set up their tent on a steep, strategially-located hill, armed with M-16s and M-15s. There was a woman there too, to cook the food. They hardly looked as if they were fighting a war. They had plenty of food, a tape-recorder and a radio to listen to broadcasts from Portugal, Australia and the BBC as well as Indonesian broadcasts. They even had a very advanced satellite phone, enabling them to communicate with all parts of the world. No need to know where this equipment came from, but this is what enables them to keep contact with other Falintil units spread out across the country.
All their clothes, footware, watches, everythingthey have has been taken from Indonesian soldiers who were killed or taken captive. Their weapons and ammunition are also almost all from the Indonesian army.
As we got chatting, it was obvious that they were not the fierce people we had imagined. Their hair was long and their faces unshaven, but they were not physically intimidating. To describe them as inhuman is simply unfair.
"We're just ordinary people, with our own fears. We want to be friends," said Lere, when asked why the Indonesian government calls them "disruptors".
Most of them have been in the bush for many years, some for as long as 23 years and during all that time, they have never left the bush. They called us "comrades" and said that the Indonesian people were not their enemies. "All we want is freedom and independence," said Lere.
After nearly 25 years of violent friction between Jakarta and East Timor freedom fighters, the suddenly frank dialogue between the rival sides in recent days has been remarkable. It started when President B.J. Habibie commented in late January that he would recommend to Indonesia's next legislature that East Timor be granted independence if an offer of autonomy was rejected. Three weeks later, the discussion has progressed to how rival factions in the territory can be disarmed and whether East Timor would ever join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Key Timorese independence figures have acted swiftly to grab the reins of their suddenly invigorated movement before it veers out of their control. Foremost among these: Xanana Gusmao, the rebel leader who has recently been transferred to house arrest aft er six years in a Jakarta prison; Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize; and Belo's co-peace prize winner, exiled rebel spokesman Jose Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta recently spoke with Asiaweek's Yenni Kwok about the prospects of an in dependent East Timor. Here are excerpts:
On Indonesia's all-or-nothing offer of autonomy - versus independence:
I am not much persuaded by Jakarta's statements because many promises have been broken over the years. [But no matter what anyone says] independence for East Timor is irreversible. I am campaigning more strongly than ever to reject the autonomy proposal. [Jakarta] does not deserve a second opportunity.
On East Timor's future:
The ideal scenario is for Indonesian troops to pull out by Jan. 1, 2000, as Habibie promised. If the East Timorese people reject autonomy, [administration of the territory] should be handed over to the United Nations. We would not jump to independence rig ht away. Anyway, Indonesia is not exactly a model of stability. I find it mind-boggling to think we would fear Indonesia's withdrawal if its only [legacies] are war, abuse, humiliation, rape, corruption and mismanagement.
On the post-independence fate of pro-integrationists and Indonesians in East Timor:
Xanana [Gusmao] recently spoke with many pro-integration leaders. They fear reprisals. I promise these people that I will be with them because they are now the most vulner able. I always side with the underdogs. They can be assured that they have Xanana and me as allies.
On whether the East Timorese can forgive the Indonesian government:
I don't underestimate the problems; [the legacy] from Indonesia is a culture of violence. Revenge is easy, but forgiveness requires courage. With all due respect to copyright laws, let me quote Bill Clinton: "If you ask for forgiveness, you have to be pre pared to forgive others." The resistance movement is not blameless. We must have humility and courage to say it wasn't only Indonesia that instigated tension in 1975.
On his personal relationship with Gusmao:
I communicated with him regularly long before Suharto's collapse. We are like political twin brothers. I have been abroad for 23 years, and I don't have the legitimacy that he does. I also get along very well with Bishop Belo. These two men, Bishop Belo a nd Xanana, are extraordinary gifts for East Timor.
On his return to Indonesia and his future in East Timor:
I will definitely return. Xanana wants me to go to Jakarta as soon as possible. I am waiting for official clearance. As for a future role, I already told Xanana and my colleagues: I don't want any formal role in government. I can contribute by running a d iplomacy school to train future diplomats of Timor. I can give lectures. [Laughs] I can write for Asiaweek.
On the economic viability of an independent East Timor:
Don't underestimate the commitment of the Portuguese. They are more than willing to pay half or two-thirds of our budget [estimated at $100 million]. We can get $5 million from the United Nations and $5 million from the European Union. These are very cons ervative estimates. We also have assurances and support from Canada, from the U.S. and many others. Even if Australia is too scared, too stingy - fine, they can keep their money. Indonesia keeps saying that East Timor cannot survive economically as an ind ependent entity. [This is] patronizing. After 23 years, we have developed our own networks of friends who are more than willing to invest in and support us. And is Indonesia in a position to lecture anyone on economic feasibility? With his zigzag economy theory, I don't think I would trust Habibie running our economy. I'd rather have Imelda Marcos running a shoe store in Dili.
On possible membership in ASEAN:
In the near term, the most important relationships for us are Australia and New Zealand. As much as Australia has shown a lack of support, ASEAN has not been much better. On the ground, we have tremendous popular support from the Philippines and Thailand. I presume if Myanmar and Cambodia can become ASEAN members, East Timor can make it too.
Stephen Vines, Hong Kong -- Britain has offered to send troops and money to East Timor for a United Nations-sponsored peace- keeping force. The troops would be deployed in the event of an Indonesian withdrawal, which might take place by the end of this year.
News of the offer was given by Jose Ramos-Horta, overseas spokesman for the Timorese resistance, in an interview with The Independent yesterday in Hong Kong. He said Derek Fatchett, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Asia, had written to Xanana Gusmao, leader of the Timorese resistance, two days ago.
According to Mr Ramos-Horta, Britain is one of the first powers to pledge support for a force which would help the former Portuguese colony prepare for independence. The letter was delivered by Britain's ambassador in Jakarta to the house where Mr Gusmao is being held after his release from prison a week ago.
"I'm very confident that the United Kingdom would be a major contributor to Timor," said Mr Ramos-Horta. He had special praise for the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, and the Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, who, he said, were "very sensitive towards East Timor and very aware that they have to make up for Britain's arms sales to Indonesia".
Mr Ramos-Horta also noted Mr Fatchett's close involvement in the Timor issue, saying he had visited Mr Gusmao three times in the past year.
Next week talks are due between the foreign ministers of Portugal and Indonesia and Jamsheed Marker, the UN Secretary-General's special representative. They are trying to reach agreement on how the Timorese people will be consulted on plans for autonomy.
"We remain poles apart on this crucial issue," Mr Ramos-Horta said. "Jakarta refuses to have a referendum on self- determination." This is supported by the Portuguese and most UN members.
Indonesia is saying that if the Timorese reject its proposals for a degree of autonomy within the Indonesian state, they will pack up and leave by the end of the year.
Jakarta has been supporting paramilitary gangs which have started raising the temperature in Timor. It is for this reason that a UN-sponsored peace-keeping force is being considered.
Besides Britain, there have been pledges of support from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Nordic countries. Portugal has even promised to underwrite the entire operation if necessary.
The United States has yet to commit itself, although Stanley Roth, Assistant Secretary of State responsible for East Asia, is in close touch with Mr Ramos Horta and Mr Gusmao. There are fears that a rapid end to the 23-year Indonesian occupation of East Timor would give way to chaos.
Mr Ramos-Horta says he is working to shore up international support for a new independent state and to enlist a high-powered team of international economic advisers. The team will be chaired by Eric Hotung, a Hong Kong tycoon, and will include the financier George Soros.
Hong Kong -- Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta said on Friday he had received commitments from Portugal and other Western nations to help finance East Timor's transition to independence.
Horta dismissed arguments that the troubled province would not be able to survive as an economic entity if it is cut loose from Indonesia, saying the main problem would be how to absorb the funds. "Portugal is prepared to bankroll a United Nations operation if necessary," he told reporters on a brief stopover in Hong Kong.
"The United Kingdom is also prepared to commit troops and funds to a peacekeeping force in Timor and I have had commitments from all the Nordic countries and Brazil," he said after returning from talks with Timorese tribal leaders in the Portuguese-run territory of Macau.
Horta said Portugal had promised aid of up to 300 million US dollars to help finance a transitional authority, as well as pledges of aid and other assistance from private companies and organisations.
"We do not have a problem in looking for funds, but we are conscious at the same time that we have to develop our own resources and economy because we do not want to be an aid- dependent economy," he said.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it a year later in a move never recognised by the United Nations.
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has offered the province wide- ranging autonomy, but in a surprise turnaround has said he will consider full independence if the offer is refused.
But the possibility of independence has sharply raised tension in East Timor, with senior politicians and pro-independence leaders warning of civil war if the province is summarily cast adrift.
Horta said he envisaged a United Nations-run transitional administration for between three to five years to keep the peace and help East Timor build up its democratic institutions.
But he also played down the threat of civil war -- a fear raised earlier this week by fellow Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo.
"Yesterday I heard of violence between pro-independence and pro- integration forces," he said. "I tell you frankly, the so called pro-integrationist movement accounts for about 0.5 percent of the country. They do not have either a social or political base. "In the next few weeks the pro-integrationist movement will fizzle out," he said.
Horta met Macau governor General Vasco Rocha Vieira during his trip and plans to return to both Hong Kong and Macau in March to drum up investment support among the Chinese business community here.
"He [Vasco] promised as soon as possible he would lead a business delegation to East Timor," Horta said. "If we manage to arrive at a point where our armed groups lay down their weapons I believe in the next three to six months we can have many business delegations visiting the territory." Horta said the territory could be particularly attractive because as a former European colony it could export goods tariff-free to the European Union.
Canberra -- Australian diplomats in Indonesia have warned in a series of confidential diplomatic cables that an independent East Timor would collapse into chaos and violence, according to a newspaper report on Friday.
The Melbourne Age newspaper said the cables warned that as many as 15,000 people could flee their homes in East Timor if the territory won independence from Indonesia. The cables predicted an escalation of violence, a breakdown of basic services and economic collapse, the newspaper reported.
It said the documents also showed Australia expected to have some military involvement in East Timor and was working closely with the United States and Canada on its aid response.
One of the cables, written by an official of the government aid body AusAID, said the Timorese resistance movement expected to put "active guerrillas" and exiles into administrative, technical and professional positions in a new government.
That cable, sent to Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Australia's defence and intelligence organisations, warned a non-East Timorese exodus would have dire consequences for the economy and services.
"We understand that only one doctor is East Timorese and the vast majority of technicians staffing government-owned water, power, postal and telecommunications are non-East Timorese," the newspaper quoted the cable as saying.
It said non-East Timorese controlled 75 percent of the formal economy. "Private investment ... is expected to dry up in the short term," it said. "Prices are expected to increase, particularly given that East Timor is a net importer of goods and reliant on a non-indigenous transport infrastructure."
Aid to the province would have to focus on the need to staff essential positions and stockpile food, medicines and equipment to help them, it said.
One of the cables also indicated that Australia may not wish to take the lead role in a coordinated aid effort, a statement which conflicts with Downer's official comment this week that Australia would have "no choice" but to take the primary role.
Downer will travel to Indonesia next week where he will meet with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie and detained East Timorese guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao. He said on Thursday the meetings would allow him to canvass a wide range of opinions on East Timor.
The Australian government has said it will support independence for the province, although it would prefer it became an autonomous state within Indonesia or there was at least an orderly transition period to independence.
Indonesia has said it wanted to resolve the issue by January next year and said it will consider granting independence if an offer of special autonomy is rejected.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year in a move not recognised by the United Nations.
Atika Shubert, Dili -- Civil war, 23 years of Indonesian military occupation and more than 300 years of Portuguese colonialism have bequeathed an unexpected boon to the tiny territory of East Timor, and one that may be the key to its hotly debated independence: some of the world's most sought after coffee beans.
Indonesia abruptly announced this month that it would consider cutting East Timor loose as early as next year.
But the viability of any future independence may hang on the territory's prospects for economic self-sufficiency, and that, in turn, will be based largely on coffee, its primary export.
While years of political strife have devastated the population of this half-island nestled in the eastern wing of the Indonesian archipelago, armed conflict has shielded East Timor's rich coffee fields from the intrusion of modern pesticides and fertilizers because those areas have been inaccessible.
As a result, East Timor's certified organic coffee is sold for as much as 40 percent more than other Arabica beans, according to the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters.
Furthermore, East Timor's unique volcanic soil and ideal altitude provide for a full-bodied coffee coveted by connoisseurs of gourmet blends.
According to East Timor's former governor and head of agricultural development, Mario Carascalao, the region's coffee production could provide as much as 50 percent of East Timor's current budget of approximately $100 million, becoming the cornerstone of its economic autonomy.
"In the event of independence, I believe East Timor will experience difficulties for two to three years. But rehabilitation of our coffee plantations could result in profits of up to $50 million," Carascalao said.
Such are the high hopes placed on the humble Hibrido de Timor coffee bean, which is generating almost as much anticipation as the high-level talks next month on East Timor's political future among Indonesia, the United Nations and Portugal, the UN- recognized administrator of the territory.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975, replacing many of the Portuguese-run export businesses with Indonesia's military- controlled equivalents.
Portuguese colonialists earned a considerable profit from Timor's coffee mainly by keeping wages low and imposing a strict monopoly, but failed to develop the territory's other natural resources.
In 1991, Indonesia's Timor Gap treaty with Australia went into effect, projecting profits of as much as $ 2.2 billion for oil extraction from East Timor's seabed.
Although Indonesia has yet to decide what will happen to the contract if independence becomes a reality, independence activists already have made plans to appropriate Timor Gap profits for their own use.
In addition to hiding guerrilla separatists, East Timor's rolling hills also hold marble quarries "for every color in the rainbow," said one dealer, making the territory a potential supplier to Australia, Indonesia and its Asian neighbors.
Tourism also has the potential to be a big money earner. Investors already have approached East Timorese officials on the prospect of making the predominantly Roman Catholic territory a gambling haven for Indonesia's rich and famous in the midst of the world's largest Islamic country, where gambling is illegal.
Former governor Carascalao said he knows just the right place for a casino where guests can sunbathe on pristine beaches, sip afternoon tea on lush hilltops and gamble the night away after a meal of grilled lobster and Portuguese wine. "Why would you go to Monte Carlo if you had all that right here?" Carascalao asked with wide smile.
However, East Timor still faces many obstacles. Violence between pro-integration and pro-independence groups is on the rise, scaring away investors and directing foreign aid to more immediate humanitarian concerns.
Oscar Lima, an East Timorese real estate developer, abandoned his luxury hotel project located on East Timor's northern shore of white sand and untouched coral reef. "No one wants to come here knowing civil war could break out any day," he noted.
The territory also faces a labor shortage. Human rights groups estimate that 100,000 people -- one out of every three East Timorese -- may have been killed by armed conflict, starvation or disease as a result of the ongoing violence.
To build up its industries, East Timor's small population of 800,000 may have to import labor -- ironically from its closest neighbor and occupying power, Indonesia. All of this, however, hinges on the success of East Timor's biggest money earner.
If coffee can be used as a base for East Timor's other industries, Carascalao said, than the tiny territory may have a shot at independence and economic self-sufficiency.
Real-estate developer Oscar Lima is already selling off prime pieces of Timorese beachfront to invest in coffee plantations. "It's the one sure thing," he said.
Carascalao couldn't agree more. Inviting guests into his home, he serves diminutive cups of strong East Timorese coffee and offers refill after refill.
After taking a deep whiff of the coffee's aroma, he said, "It's a taste we hope the whole world will get to know a lot better in the future."
Balibo -- Thousands of pro-Indonesian East Timorese vowed Friday to defend the troubled territory's integration with Indonesia.
"Integration for us is an independence that will lead the East Timor people to prosperity," said a declaration issued during the rally in Balibo, a town near Bobonaro, which is 165 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Dili.
About 10,000 East Timorese, including veterans and young people, attended the demonstration held near Integration Monument, the site where pro-Indonesian leaders signed a declaration to join Indonesia in 1975.
Indonesia invaded East Timor that year and formally annexed it in 1976, but the United Nations still considers Portugal the official administering power of the former Portuguese colony.
"We, the veterans, supporters of integration, local figures and [the] young generation in Bobonaro, vowed to support the integration until the last drop of blood," said the declaration, which was read out loud by Francisco Soares Pereira, a youth leader. Hundreds of security personnel stood watch during the rally, which ended peacefully.
The demonstrators expressed support for an Indonesian offer to grant greater autonomy to East Timor, but strongly opposed holding a referendum on the future of the troubled territory which could lead to independence.
Jakarta has recently offered to consider independence for East Timor if its people reject the autonomy proposal. Those in attendance at the rally urged Indonesia not to abandon East Timor in order to prevent a new civil war from flaring up.
Jakarta -- Indonesian police in the troubled province of East Timor will open registration for a second batch of 250 civilian militiamen to assist its operations there, the Antara news agency said Saturday.
Antara quoted the spokesman of the East Timor police, Captain Widodo as saying in Dili, East Timor, that the second registration for "Keamanan Rakyat" (People's Security or Kamra) for East Timor will open on March 1. A total of 250 civilians will be recruited, he added.
Police there have already recruited 250 Kamra members who were now assisting to maintain security and order in six of the 13 districts in East Timor.
"They are not equipped with firearms but are only using equipments such as handcuffs, batons, whistles and shields," Widodo said.
The Kamra members receive a monthly wage of 200,000 rupiah (22.6 dollars) each. Another two recruitment waves, each of 250 men, will follow in the future, Antara said.
The children of East Timor, far from being the hope for the future, may be the problem. Louise Williams travelled to a country suddenly on the verge of independence to find a generation schooled in violence.
Zaimito sits slouched on the edge of a rusty metal drum, a thick iron pole clutched tensely in his fist, a makeshift sign announcing his roadblock across one of the muddy lanes of the ramshackle outer suburbs of the East Timorese capital of Dili.
The weapons of his teenage friends are much the same: bits of wood, rusty bicycle chains, old harvesting knives, displayed with bravado as the black pigs and scruffy dogs wander in and out of the puddles. Under the punishing tropical sun, the earth steaming with the previous night's rain, members of Zaimito's gang are "securing the suburb" and spoiling for a fight.
Zaimito insists he wouldn't strike the first blow, but his friends are ready to face an attack. More than anything else he would like to go up into the jungles to join the Fretilin pro- independence guerillas and fight a real war against the Indonesians. But nowadays there are too many volunteers, so he has to be satisfied with his authority on the streets.
There is a funeral this morning and no-one is going to school. The day before, another gang attacked in the name of Indonesia, their thick-bladed harvesting knives festooned with red and white ribbons, the colours of the Indonesian flag. The police opened fire. His neighbour was shot dead through the head. A large handwritten sign hangs across the barricade, accusing the police; the walls behind are scrawled with graffiti, condemning Indonesia's rule of terror in East Timor.
Zaimito is 19, too young to remember the Indonesian invasion of 1975. He speaks Indonesian as well as his native Tetum, he likes Indonesian television, he acknowledges the new roads and the public services, he has stood many, many times to attention in front of the Indonesian flag. Yet he still hates the Indonesians.
The daily language of his peers is filled with frightening, violent Indonesian words which mean to wipe out, to annihilate, to destroy and to kill; not just to end a life but to inflict pain in the process. In this same suburb, Bairo Pite, five years ago 13- and 14-year-olds wrecked their school in a riot which took four days to quell. The mainly Muslim Indonesian teachers retaliated by burning their Catholic East Timorese students' rosary beads and wooden crosses.
Now, the tables have turned with Jakarta's announcement that independence may come as early as next year. A Catholic priest says: "Students beat teachers, yes, that is true. Teachers are too scared to fail a student because there will be retaliation."
So scared are the Indonesian teachers that this week they were holding exams in the courtyard of a convent, seeking the protection of the Catholic Church from the students' displeasure if the tests were too hard. Many teachers are already fleeing and few will stay if independence is granted, leaving only a skeleton staff in the entire high school system.
To their own elders this new generation, which has grown up knowing only Indonesian rule, is now rebellious beyond reason, lacking the cultural brakes on violence they might have learnt if their identities as Timorese had been maintained.
At school they have learnt that success comes only through rote learning and obedience and subjugation to a false history of Indonesia's role as the saviour of the East Timorese. On the streets they have learnt only that there is no justice for their people, no punishment for the military abuses. And in the cities they have learnt there are only lowly jobs for the Timorese, no matter how hard they study. The Indonesian migrants run most of the businesses and will always employ their relatives first.
But, ironically, it is the generation which has suffered the least physical deprivation and which is too young to remember the worst bloodshed of the war, between 1975 and '79, that is now the most lost.
A Catholic teacher says: "Kids who don't know what is it like to be at war take a day off school to throw rocks at the military. The young people have learnt that you can get what you want if you are tough enough, even a diploma. Nowadays, you resolve everything with a machete."
Dr Benjamin Corte-Real, a linguistic and education expert from the University of East Timor, says that for the East Timorese political leaders who are trying to shape their vision of a tiny, independent nation, the lost generation is a "time bomb".
"We will have trouble dealing with the younger generation because they have learnt that by bullying they can even pass at school," he says. "They will demand things that are beyond our capacity and if they are not prepared to accept hardship in the first few years of independence then they may turn against their leaders."
Against this tide a small nucleus of student activists from East Timor's single university are working on their own political plans for reconciliation, not revenge, in the hope that they can pull East Timor's youth in the right direction.
And at a political level, all the players in the increasingly fractured political leadership are mouthing the right slogans: reconciliation, not civil war.
But on the street the language is violence. And, of course, there are two sides: there are those East Timorese who have benefited the most and want the Indonesians to stay. With the help of the Indonesian military armed civilian militia units are being formed in the villages to defend the status quo, swinging their knives and sticks at their own self-styled roadblocks, "arresting" those with long hair on suspicion of Fretilin activities.
And it is the angry youth who do not remember the terror of the first years of the war against Indonesia that will fight a new civil war now being stoked by the opponents of independence.
The official Indonesian Government statistics for East Timor tell a positive story of education and development. Unlike the former Portuguese colonial government, which restricted access to education to only a minority of local people from the upper echelons of the tribal hierarchy, Indonesia provided education for all.
Dr Corte-Real says: "There was an abrupt increase in the number of schools, they spread out everywhere, but the enthusiastic spirit which went along with the education drive carried with it an ideological ingredient: to turn the Timorese into Indonesians as quickly as possible and to make the Portuguese look bad."
Many of the teachers, says another expert, were poorly trained and poorly paid. To maintain the facade of success, the Indonesians passed the children year after year, even though some entrants into high school could not yet read or do simple maths.
In East Timor, as elsewhere, success meant obeying and memorising, not engaging in creative, challenging thought or analysis. In Timor, students suffered the added burden of being forced to acknowledge a false history about their own lives.
Outside the schools -- with their new concrete-block classrooms and muddy parade grounds set around the flagpole -- the war went on. By the mid-1980s the Fretilin forces had been reduced to perhaps a couple of hundred, tens of thousands of people had died and those suspected of stepping outside the rules disappeared or were arrested.
Parents, says Dr Corte-Real, didn't dare tell their children about the past in case they challenged the teacher at school and threw the entire family under the suspicion of the military intelligence officers who ruled even the smallest villages. Within the Indonesian curriculum was the official version of the military invasion, which told the children that the Indonesians had come to save the nation from chaos and the East Timorese people had invited them in.
"It was only when the children were old enough to trust that families started to talk, and then they only trusted their immediate family," Dr Corte-Real says.
As a boy, Antero Bendito da Silva lived in the jungle on Mate Bean, the mountain of death, forever homesick for his village in the foothills, forever hungry and frightened, forever exhausted by the day-long walk to the stream to fetch water.
One day, he says, he and his friends were leaning down over the water when the first bullet hit. When the body fell in they were horrified because the water ran red. So they quickly pulled the body out and waited for the blood to drain away and then took the precious water and scuttled off into the trees.
Antero spent three years of his childhood living like a fugitive, running with his family and hundreds of others from the Indonesian military, trapped on the mountain of death, which rises along the spine of East Timor. His mother died giving birth to his sister. His sister survived only to toddle off into a ravine. His father disappeared, and so his aged grandmother was left with the four surviving children. Antero and his friends carved make-believe guns out of wood and trained in their children's army for a battle they never fought.
When the starving family surrendered to the Indonesian forces, the other children taunted them as "grasshopper eaters" and "children of the Fretilin". Then, when he started school, Antero learnt a new reality: the official version of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 which belied the tragedy of his life. Quietly he progressed, making fifth grade by the age of 13, when most of the primary school children were teenagers because of the disruption of the war.
"In the jungle I went to the Fretilin school and learnt about how to continue the struggle and I belonged to the children's army; we never fought anyone, but it distracted us from the pain of our lives," he says. "What I remember most is always feeling this longing homesickness for our past life.
"But the situation in the jungle was really critical; we were starving, we were being bombed. I saw huge rocks explode and trees upturned with people under them; I saw one whole family buried alive and heard them crying for help but there was no way we could dig them out."
The families who lived in the jungle were eventually forced to surrender to the Indonesians in the village. "We were so scared when we came down we did not even dare to look the Indonesians in the eye," Antero says. "We were just told to pass our exams and join the boy scouts. Little by little I realised how important it was to be secretive."
Antero is now the leader of East Timor's student movement, is fluent in English, Indonesian, Portuguese and Tetum, and is one of the few youth representatives invited to international political consultations on the future of the disputed province. Next month he will travel to Norway to receive the youth award equivalent to the junior Nobel Peace prize.
A big smile breaks across his face. He is 31, he says, and still an undergraduate, having started elementary school at the age of 12. "In East Timor, perhaps we will have to redefine what is youth," he laughs.
Eight months ago Antero led the first student demonstration into the local parliament. Now, the students have their own office, with a couple of plastic chairs and a phone. Up the hill the National Resistance Council for an Independent East Timor -- dominated by Fretilin -- has offices as well, after decades underground.
"In the past we didn't know who we could trust," Antero says. "I began to learn English and joined the English study club; it wasn't until much later I realised everyone belonged to the clandestine movement. I remember one discussion, exactly 10 years ago, about how one day Jakarta would be destroyed and so we had to prepare, to send out students to universities outside to get a higher education."
The room is full of tragic pasts. Siko, too, lived in the jungle, carried in his mother's arms as a new baby. His earliest memory, at the age of three, is holding an old white T-shirt out on a stick and surrendering to the Indonesians. His uncle and brother are now mad, he says, after being tortured with electric shocks. His own hand bears the scar of a bullet wound. At 13, he says, he worked at an abattoir from 1am until dawn so he could afford to go to school.
"At that time," he says in fluent English, "my friends were starting to earn a little money and they said, 'Why don't you give up school and buy clothes or a motorbike?' But we had lost everything in the past and I knew that education was something that could never be taken away from you."
Two days, two funerals. Zaimito and perhaps 20,000 of the residents of Dili walk across the damp city this week to the Santa Cruz cemetery, site of the massacre of November 12, 1991, when Indonesian troops opened fire on mourners burying a supporter of the independence movement.
But on Tuesday there is only silence as the thousands bend their heads in prayer. Slowly a brilliant green praying mantis rocks its way up the cross at the head of the grave, gusts of breeze breaking through the heavy humidity that hangs over the pungent frangipanni trees, the tall, wild grass and the corn stalks pushing up between the crowded graves. Then the earth is scattered on the coffin, handful after handful, and those in the procession come with their candles, many weeping for a young victim of war they thought was ending.
In Maubara the next day the candles are burning around another body, another young man, aged 18. Maubara is the home of the Besi Merah Puti (the Iron Red and White), a new pro-Indonesian group which wants Jakarta to stay. The boy, they say, was stabbed by the Fretilin, calling us over to look at the wound first-hand. The Fretilin, they say, terrorise the village, demanding food and money.
The politicians in Dili say that this it not possible, that this is not Fretilin policy. But this is a war and there are abuses on both sides.
Around the youths are their weapons, a similarly ragged collection of knives and spears and chains. Zakeus, 19, says: "My elders have told me that when the Portuguese were here there was only education for the elite; when the Indonesians came we had schools." His leader reminds him to answer in Indonesian, not Tetum, as a matter of pride.
Today, they have a letter which claims to be a message from Fretilin: "We love you, join us in the forests. But if you don't we will come to the village and kill you and your family."
Zakeus says he is not afraid but he would like a gun, not just a spear. "If the Indonesians go, we will fight the Fretilin ourselves," he announces bravely to his friends.
And if the Indonesians do go abruptly, there will be no school at all for these teen-agers. About 90 per cent of the high schools are staffed by Indonesians. There is no agreement on what will happen next. The local Tetum language is oral, not written, and not sophisticated enough for education. Indonesian is already being rejected by one side for political reasons. Only the old remember Portuguese.
One Dili-based expert says: "Yes, there are problems with the Indonesian school system, but it is better than nothing; it is a structure. Under Portugal there was nothing. If the Indonesians go quickly it will be just another disaster for this generation who have already suffered enough."
Jakarta -- The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said here Wednesday he had appealed to Indonesia to allow it to immediately step up its presence in East Timor, citing disturbing new tensions there.
Clashes, signs Indonesians in essential services were leaving and refugees fleeing armed militia, all spelled an urgent need for a "humanitarian mobilization," Cornelio Sommaruga told a press conference here.
"The situation is certainly very tense there ... because of the provocations ... a very sad situation. Our reaction is that we will have to cope with some urgent human [needs] but we will have to have more personnel," he said.
Sommaruga said he had made the appeal to Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas at an "intense" 90-minute long meeting earlier Wednesday. Alatas, he said, had been "very sensitive" to the request and promised to consult with his colleagues in the government.
"I hope the paper [the new agreement] will be signed at a later stage," he said, without saying what numbers of reinforcements might be needed. On the figures requested, he would say only: "We have to decide according to the evolution of the situation."
The ICRC currently has five foreigners stationed in East Timor, where tensions have risen dramatically since Jakarta on January 27 made a bombshell announcement it was prepared to consider granting independence to the former Portuguese colony it invaded 23 years ago.
Sommaruga said the presence of increased numbers of civilian militia armed by the Indonesian government since the announcement had "already affected" humanitarian operations in East Timor.
The civilian population, he said, was "somewhat afraid" of the militia which had resulted in population movements of thousands of refugees. "Even if it is not huge ... it is certainly a problem," he said.
He added he had aired his worries over the militia to Alatas and to military commanders concerned with East Timor while in Bali Monday during an unsuccessful attempt to reach East Timor, which was thwarted by bad weather.
"We have a lot of sad experiences in the world of paramilitary groups that cannot be controlled any more," he added.
Sommaruga said he had also devoted "a lot" of his talk with Alatas to the threatened exodus of thousands of Indonesians and pro-Indonesians from East Timor, describing the issue as one of the "major preoccupations" of the ICRC.
He cited the example of the Indonesian medical staff of the main government hospital in Dili, who three weeks ago had been scared off by attacks, and had all appealed to be sent home.
In addition he said there were "increased population movements because of the increased presence of the militia, the army and guerrillas," and clashes between pro- and anti-Indonesians as recently as this week in which people had died.
Sommaruga, who is making his first visit to Indonesia since 1993, said he was scheduled to meet with Indonesian armed forces chief Wiranto on Thursday and with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie on Friday.
Jakarta -- Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas on Wednesday assured investors they would not lose out if East Timor became independent and the Timor Gap oil agreement had to be renegotiated.
"If East Timor finally becomes independent, this matter would have to be renegotiated because the Timor Gap is just south of East Timor," Alatas told journalists at the state Palace.
"I am sure [a renegotiation] can be reached. I think it will not disadvantage investors, and I think we will be able to discuss the best way out," Alatas said.
Indonesia has floated the possibility of letting go of the troubled former Portuguese colony it annexed in 1976 if an autonomy proposal for East Timor is rejected by its people. The autonomy outline is being finalised in talks with Portugal and the United Nations.
President B.J. Habibie has said that by January 1, 2000, Indonesia should not be burdened anymore by the matter of a settlement of the East Timor problem.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Sunday it was possible that the Timor Gap treaty, which covers the control of offshore oil and gas reserves, and to which Australia and Indonesia are the main parties, may need a review if East Timor becomes independent.
"Our own position is not dramatically altered by that but there could be a need for change in negotiations," he said.
In December 1989, Indonesia and Australia signed an agreement on the joint exploration of the Timor Gap where they have overlapping border claims.
The agremeent, that came into force in 1991, splits the 35,000 square kilometre sea bed, believed to be potentially rich in oil an gas, into three zones. Indonesia and Australia each control one zone while the third and largest is jointly administered with a 50-50 income split.
The contracts awarded so far, involving Mobil, BHP, Woodside, Shell, Phillips, Boral Energy, Marathon and Enterprise, have been for the jointly operated zone.
Jakarta -- A teenager died in a violent clash between pro- independence and pro-Indonesian youth groups in the troubled territory of East Timor, the second victim of such clashes there this week, a report said Wednesday.
A pro-Indonesian youth identified as Juanico Gomes, 18, a high school student in Liquica west of the East Timorese capital of Dili, was killed during a clash on Monday with a youth group wanting a referendum on self-determination for East Timor, the Antara news agency said.
"The victim died of stab and slash wounds after being mobbed by tens of pro-referendum youths," East Timor's deputy military chief, Colonel Mujiono was quoted by Antara as saying.
Juanico, Mujiono said, had mustered about 10 of his pro- Indonesian friends to secure the release of another youth, Paulino da Silva, who had allegedly been held captive by pro- referendum youths in Fatubou village in the Liquica district.
The two groups clashed with spears, machetes and arrows and Gomes was fatally wounded during the fight. Da Silva was also wounded and was currently under treatment at the Wira Husada military hospital in Dili some 32 kilometres east of Liquica. Gomes will be buried in Liquica later Wednesday, the agency said.
Gomes died a day after a pro-independence youth, Benedito de Jesus Pires, 25, was shot during a scuffle between pro- independence and pro-Indonesian groups in Dili on Sunday during which Indonesian security personnel intervened.
Pires was found dead with a shot to his temple during the incident on Sunday and tens of thousands of mourners took part in his funeral in Dili on Tuesday. The circumstances surrounding Pires' death continued to remain confused, and police have pledged to investigate the incident.
Pro-independence youths have since accused Indonesian police of firing the fatal shot, while police said the shot could have been fired by anyone. But they pledged to punish any police found to have fired the shot.
Tension between groups for and against integration with Indonesia has increased markedly since Jakarta aired the option of a free East Timor on January 27.
[The following is a transcript of interview by ABC radio, Asia Pacific's Peter Mares.]
Evidence that Indonesian authorities are indeed honouring their pledge to allow jailed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao free access to the international media.
Earlier, Mr Gusmao spoke directly to Asia Pacific's Peter Mares by phone from the house where he is detained in Jakarta.
He said he saw no evidence that the Indonesian military, ABRI, was ready to disband pro-integration militia groups that it has equipped with weapons -- and Mr Gusmao expressed concern that his repeated appeals for the disarmament of all factions in East Timor are not to being heard. He says there can be no settlement in East Timor, until peace is established in the territory.
President Habibie has offered wide-ranging autonomy to East Timor within the Indonesian republic -- and he says the territory will become independent, if the people of East Timor reject this option.
The big question is just how the East Timorese people themselves are to be consulted. Xanana Gusmao believes that a referendum is still the best option.
Gusmao: I think that in principle we still defend the referendum as the democratic and fair way to know what the East Timorese people want and it is in principle our position. Because if all East Timorese are crying out to say that each part has the majority, we will prove in this act.
Mares: So the referendum will prove what the majority wants in East Timor?
Gusmao: Yes, I think it is the best way to do that.
Mares: However, Indonesia has ruled out a referendum, is there some other way, some other form of consultation that would be acceptable to you?
Gusmao: I think so, I think that if we try to find out a mechanism that can prove the representativeness of the decision in a democratic way, I think that it is possible
Mares: Have you got suggestions as for how that could be done?
Gusmao: I cannot say anything, because we are trying to find the solution or to find a possibility to help the United Nations to consider.
Mares: Many East Timorese leaders such as Bishop Belo who is currently in Australia have warned against the risks of sudden independence for East Timor. Do you see risks in sudden independence?
Gusmao: I don't think so, I don't think so because we are fighting 23 years and we know well our political control over the population and the problem the threat of war, it is, I can say it is just a bluff from some people, irresponsible people that claim that it would be a civil war. I already said that if each East Timorese thinks about the need to put an end of the violence, all of us can work together to achieve the peace in East Timor. But our appeals seem not to be heard by the integrationist part and by the government and we already said that we are ready in any time to surrender the weapons, together with the East Timorese armed by ABRI, under the supervision and control of a United Nations peace keeping force. We have to create a peaceful atmosphere in East Timor before talking about the solution. It is I think it is the positive and the mature attitude that we ask from everybody who are concerning about this situation in East Timor.
Mares: Do you see any evidence however that the Indonesian military are ready to pull out of East Timor or that they are ready disarm the pro-integrationist militias that they have provided with weapons?
Gusmao: What we are trying, is to pursuade the occupation authorities to think about the problem of the civilians, or the armed civilians. If the Indonesian government has decided to let East Timorese people decide over its own future I think that the first step -- the first and the most important step is to think about how to stop the violence, how to stop the provocations, how to stop the military hostilities. Till now, we don't have any evidence that ABRI is ready to do something in this direction.
Mares: So you have not had any signs in your meetings with Indonesian officials, you haven't had any sign that the Indonesian military is ready to withdraw or ready to disarm the gangs that it has supplied with weapons?
Gusmao: You are right and we are trying to appeal, we are appealing to the international community to help us, not us the "independentiste" faction, but to help the East Timorese people and to find out the mechanism to send to the territory a small body of peace-keeping force. To us, if we start to disarm all factions, it would be the conditions sine qua non, to stop violence and to look for a peaceful situation in East Timor.
Mares: Are you concerned that the Indonesian military may deliberately seek to destabilise an independent East Timor?
Gusmao: I think that we cannot isolate the East Timor issue, or the situation in the territory, from the overall situation in Indonesia and I think that ABRI is pretending to create the situation to pursuade public opinion that the East Timorese people are not ready to decide its own destiny.
Mares: Over the weekend, popular Indonesian presidential candidate Megawati Sukarnoputri told a rally of 100-thousand supporters in Jakarta, that she believed East Timor should stay with Indonesia.
When I asked Xanana Gusmao about her comments, he described Ms Megawati as the leader of a party which had struggled for democracy for more than thirty years during the rule of former President Suharto.
He said he could not imagine that she would not respect the fundamental rights of the people of East Timor.
Gusmao: I cannot imagine that the leader of a well known democratic party that was fighting in the New Order era, cannot respect the fundamental right of all the peoples in the world, cannot respect the principles of democracy. I supppose that the problem is just a simple political game by arguing the legality of the present Indonesian government and the legitimacy of the statements from President Habibie. I wish I am right but I don't think it would be the position of a democractic leader who fought a three decades era of injustice, of undemocratic rule and I think that Megawati would be aware that the East Timor issue would be a stone in her shoes.
Mares: So do you think that Megawati's comments are really posturing for the forthcoming elections in Indonesia?
Gusmao: Maybe, I wish that is the problem.
Mares: Is your aim then to get a deal on East Timor's future before those elections in June?
Gusmao: It depends on our efforts to create the fundamental conditions. Now I can't say more than that it would be better, the East Timorese people not to participate in the next Indonesian general elections.
Mares: It would be better if they didn't participate in the elections in East Timor -- why not?
Gusmao: Because if East Timorese don't accept alternative one, automatically East Timorese people would face the alternative two.
Mares: You mean if they don't accept the offer of autonomy that President Habibie has made, then automatically they would become independent?
Gusmao: Yes it is they said, and I think that we have to decide before the Indonesian general elections I think.
Mares: That question of autonomy or independence must be decided before the elections?
Gusmao: I think yeh, it has to be a concensus between all parties involved in the negotiating process, but in my opinion, if we get a decision from East Timorese people, if East Timorese people decide to accept the alternative one, East Timorese people can participate in the Indonesia general elections.
Mares: So if the East Timorese people accept autonomy as part of Indonesia, then the election should go ahead?
Gusmao: Yes
Mares: But if they reject autonomy, then there should be no elections?
Gusmao: Yeh, it is my opinion, it is the best way to solve the problem.
Mares: Assuming for a moment that East Timor will become independent, how can you go about healing the wounds in East Timorese society, healing the splits and the very real splits between people that have been on different sides of politics in East Timor?
Gusmao: I understand this question, I understand the fears, not only from the East Timorese but from Indonesian society also and from the international community, but I have to say you that we know well the political conditions in East Timor and we believe that we can assure, to all East Timorese citizens that an independent state would assure the right of each East Timorese to live and to have the opportunity to participate fully in the national reconstruction.
Mares: What about Indonesian settlers in East Timor, what guarantees can you give them about their safety in an independent East Timor?
Gusmao: It is a very sensitive issue and in the present situation we assure them that nobody would be injured, would be killed, would be expelled from East Timor. But sincerely, frankly, we have to say to them, to the transmigrants, that for the interests of our people we cannot accept the transmigrants there who are occupying areas owned by our population and we would coordinate with the minister of transmigration program, Mr Hendropriyono, to see how to get them back to Indonesia.
Mares: So you think that transmigrants who have come to East Timor will have to leave?.
Gusmao: Yeh, we cannot promise the paradise in East Timor to the Indonesian migrants and settle our own people in the mountains.
Mares: Would any Indonesians be allowed to stay in East Timor?
Gusmao: Yes of course. Our independence is not a closed independence but an open independence and our door would be open to everybody.
Mares: What kind of state would an independent East Timor be, what kind of system do you envisage?
Gusmao: A multi-party, parliamentary system and a free-market system to in general terms. I am not the right person to answer this question in economic terms because I am only a guerrilla and it is also not my decision by it would be the decision of every component of the East Timorese society.
Mares: What role would Falantil, what role would the guerrilla movement play in an independent East Timor?
Gusmao: We are committed that an independent East Timor would not have any more army, but Falantil would be the symbolic army to remember the heroism and determination of a small group of guerrillas who fought bravely to achieve independence and we will maintain ourselves as a symbolic army until we die.
Mares: What do you mean by a symbolic army?
Gusmao: Symbolic army because we will not have any weapons in East Timor as a part of our commitment to the future of our country, of our generation and a commitment to peace in the world.
Mares: And what role can Australia play in particular at this time?
Gusmao: At this time, I think the important, important, important one Australia can play is to firstly ask to the Indonesian government to dissolve the civilians who have been armed to disturb, to intimidate the population, and show the disposition to contribute to achieve a peaceful situation there, because without peace there would not be any solution in East Timor. We have to persuade the international community that it is urgent and necessary to achieve peace by a ceasefire and disarmament controlled by the United Nations Peace Keeping force as a first and important step to a just and democratic solution in East Timor.
Jakarta -- Indonesia will sponsor East Timor as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the troubled territory opts for independence, a senior official said here Tuesday.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, foreign affairs advisor to President B.J.Habibie said it would be "in Indonesia's interests" if the former Portuguese colony joined the regional grouping.
"It is not in our interests if a country in the area is not in tune with the others," Anwar told a journalists' seminar here, adding the "spectre" that a foreign power would estabish as base there was a thing of the past.
"There is no real fear any more that a foreign power will have a base in East Timor. This consideration was a concern in 1975, [but] this specter is no longer relevant," she added.
Moreover, she said "The influence of a small and poor country will be limited. It is more a country which needs help and assistance, than a country which might dictate."
In 1975, Indonesia, with the tacit blessing of the United States at the time of its debacle in South Vietnam, invaded the former Portuguese colony where Marxists and communists had considerable influence at the time.
ASEAN now groups nine countries of the region: Burma, Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Anwar also rejected the idea that eventual independence of East Timor could set a "bad example" for other restless Indonesian provinces, notably Aceh in North Sumatra and Irian Jaya.
"The problem of East Timor has a different history. Aceh, Irian Jaya ... we proclaimed independence together. East Timor was a different case, a colonial backwater, totally useless, they joined us 30 years later."
"There is no risk of a spillover," she added, making no reference to the fact that Irian Jaya, which shares a land border with independent Papua New Guinea, did not join Indonesia until the 1960s. Separatist groups are both active in Aceh and Irian Jaya.
Considered close to Habibie, Anwar is believed to have been party to Jakarta's abrupt January 27 about-face on the question of East Timor, which Indonesia annexed a year after the 1975 invasion.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas meanwhile said Habibie's announcement last week he wanted to see a free East Timor by January 1 was not a deadline.
"This is not a deadline, but a hope that starting in the year 2000, we would be freed of the burden of a settlement of the problem of East Timor," Alatas said according to the Antara news agency.
He called the date a "peg" for a time where Indonesia will no longer be hampered by the question of a settlement on East Timor. "We do not want to be burdened by the problem of East Timor as of January 1, 2000," Habibie said last week.
Alatas also said Lisbon, which is still regarded by the United Nations and most states as the official administrator of East Timor, would abide by the decision of the people of East Timor -- whether they chose independence or autonomy under the Indonesian flag.
The broad autonomy package is currently being finalized between Indonesia and Portugal in talks held under UN auspices.
"There are still one or two matters that need further negotiations and the plan is [the next talks] will be held on next March 9 and 10," Alatas said, adding the package was expected to be completed by April.
The government said last month it would suggest to the new legislature to be formed following elections in June that it let go of East Timor if the autonomy package was rejected by the people of East Timor.
Alatas said a mechanism to determine whether the scheme was accepted or rejected by the people of East Timor will still have to be discussed with the UN and Portugal, but again ruled out a referendum.
"We will still have to come forward again to discuss this matter, because, a referendum to decide whether it [the autonomy] is accepted or rejected, is not the best way," he said.
Jakarta -- Some 50,000 people Tuesday attended the burial of a 25-year-old man shot dead during an incident between pro- independence and pro-Indonesian youths in the East Timorese capital of Dili, a report said.
The mourners marched in procession singing hymns through the streets of Dili, escorting the coffin containing the body of Benedito de Jesus Pires, 25, to the Santa Cruz cemetery.
Pires was found dead with a shot to his temple during the incident on Sunday, the Suara Pembaruan evening daily said.
The procession was peaceful, with participants singing church hymns, although sporadic shouts of "Long live East Timor" and "Long live independence" could also be heard, the report added.
Tens of thousands of other people watched the procession pass from schools, offices and shops which had quickly closed in anticipation of possible violence.
Indonesian security forces were present along the route of the procession but no incidents were reported, the daily said. The body was buried at Santa Cruz, with a priest from the Dili Roman Catholic diocese officiating.
The circumstances surrounding the death continued to remain confused, and police have pledged to investigate the incident. Locals have said a group of pro-Indonesian youths had visited a resident's house in Bairropite, a residential district in Dili, and opened fire several times with what appeared to be warning shots. This panicked the villagers who armed themselves with bows and arrows, spears and knives.
When word spread that the youth had been killed, rumors circulated that groups of armed people "from the forest" would attack Bairropite, which is occupied mostly by Indonesian settlers from outside East Timor, Antara said. Hundreds of youths armed with assorted weapons were standing guard in the neighbourhood, it added.
Pro-independence youths have since accused Indonesian police of firing the fatal shot, while police said the shot could have been fired by anyone. But they pledged to punish any police found to have fired the shot.
Tension between groups for and against integration with Indonesia has increased markedly since Jakarta aired the option of a free East Timor on January 27.
Jakarta -- The newly-launched Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) lashed out at President B.J. Habibie for calling East Timor "a burden" and called on the nation to let go of the troubled territory. Chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri made the call in a gathering of 120,000 supporters marking the formal establishment of PDI Perjuangan -- named thus in order to differentiate it from the government-backed PDI under Budi Hardjono -- at Senayan Stadium in Central Jakarta here on Sunday.
"We became very sad upon hearing that East Timor, the so called burden of this nation, will be set free on Jan. 1, 2000. It is not right to set the East Timorese up as an object of government interest ... namely to merely run away from an obligation," Megawati noted.
Habibie said on Thursday that by next year he wanted an independent East Timor in order to free Indonesia from the burden posed by the province. "The burden is not East Timor, Aceh or Jakarta. The burden is when the people's sovereignty is being overridden by power," Megawati reiterated.
"Mixed statements from bureaucrats are only aimed at blurring the actual problems and responsibilities and lead people to further confusion and only trigger chaos, " Megawati charged.
Her advisor, Kwik Kian Gie, said after the gathering that Habibie's administration did not have the right to decide on independence for East Timor. "It is the right of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), not Habibie " Kwik said.
"If he said he wanted to make a suggestion on East Timor to the assembly, he's completely crazy. Why? Because the first item on the agenda of the MPR is to replace him".
"He cannot make the suggestion to the assembly after his replacement, can he? I think he made a tremendous mistake here. East Timor is a national problem, not a matter of a budgetary burden," he said.
However, Kwik said Habibie did not have a political interest in East Timor. "He just does not comprehend the matter ... he may know a lot about planes but nothing about statesmanship."
A referendum is also not a good option he added. "What happened there was huge mismanagement of a province. That we have to work on," he said.
When asked about mounting demands for East Timor's independence, Kwik said that claims of such a call had never been backed up by effort to gauge what the East Timorese really wanted.
"Who wants East Timor to be free? Is it the silent majority or the vocal minority? So far the ones we've heard calling for freedom are Ramos Horta who doesn't even live in East Timor and Xanana Gusmao who has been living six years away from there.
"I've heard reports from 12 branches of our party there ... they do not wish to be freed," Kwik said.
Separately, Antara reported Saturday the government will allow a reasonable period of transition if the people of East Timor choose independence with the help of international support.
"We don't want to be accused of being as irresponsible as Portugal which left East Timor in the lurch years ago," presidential advisor Dewi Fortuna Anwar, said in an interview with the news agency.
Meanwhile a 25-year-old man identified as Bendito Bernardo Pirres of Bairopite village in East Dili district, East Timor, died after being shot in the head Sunday, Antara reported.
Karen Polglaze, Jakarta -- Indonesia would be solely responsible should civil war break out in East Timor, a member of Indonesian President BJ Habibie's supreme advisory council said here today.
Former East Timor governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao also scorned criticisms that East Timor would be a burden on its neighbours, including Australia, should it become independent.
Carrascalao, a founding member of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) political party in 1974, was one of the leaders who in 1976 made the Balibo agreement. Indonesia claims the document is an expression of the East Timorese people's wish to integrate with the republic.
Carrascalao, who said they acted at the time in the belief that they were doing the best thing for their compatriots, acknowledged that those leaders did not have the people's mandate for the agreement.
Carrascalao has also changed his mind in the wake of Indonesia's announcement that it will recommend that its highest legislative body release East Timor should its offer of autonomy within the republic as a final solution fail to be accepted.
"I never fought for independence, but I'm not going to refuse it," he told an Indonesia Australia Business Council lunch in Jakarta. I'm going to do everything in my power to prove to the Indonesian government that we can survive as an independent East Timor."
Carrascalao's UDT launched the ill-fated coup in August, 1975, which led to the civil war, the departure of the administrators of colonial power Portugal, and eventually, the invasion by Indonesia in December that year.
Fears of a new civil war have intensified since Indonesia's offer, but Carrascalao said it was up to Indonesia whether violence was the result of the 27th province's release from the republic.
"We had a civil war in East Timor in 1975 because we had weapons from Portugal," he said. Those weapons have gone. All the weapons we have in East Timor now are from Indonesia. So, it depends on Indonesia. If Indonesia wants a civil war in East Timor, we are going to have a civil war."
A former agriculture department official, Carrascalao said East Timor was able to produce enough food to feed its population. In addition, there were significant resources, such as gold, oil, gas and marble which could be exploited to fund the budget of an independent nation.
Carrascalao said that Dili was closer than Sydney to Darwin, and tourism had vast potential. This included the possibility of tapping into Asian gambling in the mainly Roman Catholic half- island territory casinos did not contravene religious strictures as they did in mostly Muslim Indonesia.
Carrascalao travelled to East Timor after long-serving president Suharto resigned on May 21, to hear views on the future of the province.
He said 3,000 people attended a meeting there, 40 spoke, and only one of the 40 was in favour of integration - East Timor Governor Jose Abilio Soares.
Carrascalao believes that Indonesia will release the province given that most East Timorese will not opt for autonomy. "Once you state an alternative like this, it means the first alternative has been left behind," he said.
Australia recognises Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, but the United Nations does not. Should Indonesia release the province on January 1, the UN would recognise Portugal as the administrator.
In talks between Portugal
and Indonesia, Portugal has proposed it continue, under UN supervision,
the decolonisation process interrupted in 1975 with East Timor expected
to become fully independent after two years.
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- After more than two weeks of investigation directly following the unrest, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has concluded that the January 19- 23 Ambon riots were, as widely suspected, engineered.
"The facts after the riot showed the activities of several non- local political interests. It could be predicted from the pamphlets and documents that were distributed amongst the people with such issues that incited religious conflict," said Kontras' coordinator Munir in Jakarta yesterday.
He continued, the making of the riots was exploited by Ambon's inter-religious conflicts which happen there almost every year. "The conflicts usually don't take a long time. They could always handle and finish the conflicts by themselves peacefully," said Munir, citing the events of March 3, 1995, and February 21, 1996, which were soon snuffed out.
"The engineer seemed like he knew this situation very well and made this vulnerable issue the trigger to a bigger and broader riot," Munir said, refuting the government explanation that the unrest was sparked by fighting between a public vehicle driver and a thug.
"The riots were triggered by grudges which were built upon since December in telephone threats and deployed pamphlets. The pamphlets said that religious followers would be attacked by followers of another religious group," Munir revealed.
On the riots, Munir said that strange occurrences were evident. Eyewitnesses said a number of rioters, suspected as provocateurs, yelled strange expressions which were not popularly used in Ambon. "Not to mention that they also cursed such names as the People's Democratic Party (PRD), Ratna Sarumpaet and Amien Rais. I think whoever the engineer is, he wanted to use the riots to discredit those names and to give advantages to a certain political elite in Jakarta," Munir said.
Munir noted much unusual behavior in Kontras' investigation into the Ambon riots -- the mobilization of strangers before the riot, pamphlet messages, people with guns, and walkie-talkies (HTs) and cellular phones were used during the riots.
"We knew strangers were involved and used in both sides of the conflicting parties. Eyewitnesses also said they saw people armed with pistols and sometimes communicating with others by HT or cellular phones in the middle of the carnage," Munir explained.
Concerning the inflammatory message in the pamphlets he said, "The pamphlet itself was so wrong. The message was written in an Arabic font and was incorrectly translated into English".
With reference to the location, the facts conclusively showed that the riots were well organized. "Starting from the build-up of prior conditions, the use of potential local conflict and provocateurs who used sophisticated communication instruments and guns, it proves that the mastermind was really determined to make the riots an unqualified success," Munir said
Munir also noted many instances of unusual treatment by the armed forces who were supposed to secure the situation and guarantee the safety of both sides after the riots. "They carried out a lot of stupid acts and were also slow in their action in Ambon, just like previous riots in Java," he said.
He cited an example that happened on February 14. At about 3.00am electricity in Kariu village went out. Thirty minutes later a house located between the villages of Kariu and Kailolo suddenly burned down. The police who were guarding the darkened Kariu village then opened fire with their guns and made the citizens of both villages believe they were under attack. "This action, with or without purpose, was very dangerous and could have caused further riots," Munir stressed.
On last Sunday's Haruku riots, Munir suggested it was an example of the security forces' ineptitude in handling the riot which had only created more victims.
"From twelve casualties, ten of them died by live bullets, one by poisoned arrow and one was burned. The casualties were caused more by the apparatus than the riot itself," said Munir.
Jakarta -- The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Faisal Tanjung, said that it was not inconceivable that civil emergency law would be instituted if rioting was to continue. Even so, according to Tanjung, President Habibie still refused to decide on initiating emergency law despite a number of his ministers supporting the idea.
"Indeed there has been a proposal to initiate civil emergency laws. Be that as it may, there is no need for them at this moment. But, it is possible that if rioting was to continue, the laws could be enacted," Tanjung told journalists at his office yesterday.
Tanjung said that during the Cabinet Meeting on Politics and Security held at the Presidential Palace on 27th January, a number of ministers, including himself and Justice Minister Muladi, had suggested that the president institute the Civil Emergency Laws. Republika sources state that the minister for transmigration, A.M. Hendropriyono, and the minister for defence and commander of the armed forces, Gen Wiranto, were among ministers with similar suggestions.
"A suggestion came from Mr Muladi and six other ministers, including me. But the president said: "It will not help for us to go there. We must first exhaust our options to ensure public order'," said Tanjung.
As a member of the cabinet, Tanjung accepted the president's decision, even though as a career soldier he understood that ABRI (Armed Forces of the Republic of Indonesia) would rather handle the situation armed with expanded authority. But "because that was President Habibie's opinion, we all answered: yes sir! [preceding two words received in English]" , he said while raising his hand to his forehead in salute.
Tanjung agreed that there were many reasons as to why a civil emergency had not been declared. "There are many factors, including the fact that the world would see Indonesia as an unsafe place. There are also domestic considerations supporting the need to persist with civil order. And we are working towards that end."
But the former armed forces commander continued by saying, "It is not inconceivable that should this current situation continue, the laws may be instituted because under a civil emergency we can take more immediate action. A civil emergency can be put in place locally in a certain place or across the whole nation for a brief time, then later withdrawn when the situation recovers."
The basis for the civil emergency laws valid in Indonesia is Law No 23/Prp/1959. According to this law, the president/supreme commander of the armed forces can declare part or all of Indonesia to be in a dangerous situation to the extent of civil emergency, including where security or public order in part or all of Indonesia is threatened by rebellion, unrest, or natural disaster sufficient to raise concern over the ability of the normal infrastructure to overcome the problem...
Jakarta -- Panicked Indonesian security forces shot a nun in the neck on Thursday as they tried to disperse a crowd in the eastern spice islands after a bomb blast, police and witnesses said.
The violence flared about 1.00am when a homemade bomb exploded in Ambon, the scene of Christian-Moslem rioting last month that killed more than 100. "When the people heard the explosion, they panicked and ran towards a military barracks for shelter," a local reporter said.
But police and soldiers firing warning shots were unnerved by the stampede, with many of the people still carrying the machetes and spears they use on neighbourhood security patrols. "They panicked, too, they shot into the people," the reporter said.
The nun remained in hospital in Ambon, police Lieutenant Peter told Reuters by telephone from the city, 2,300 km east of Jakarta. Peter said the city was tense but quiet. There were no reports of any injuries from the bomb blast, or of any others being shot.
Jakarta -- At least 13 people were killed and 43 injured when troops and police opened fire to quell fresh Moslem-Christian clashes in Indonesia's troubled eastern province of Maluku on Sunday morning, residents and reports said.
The state Antara News Agency quoted the head of Haruku island sub-district, Suwardi Koli, as saying the death toll on the island had reached 11 and 43 had been injured.
Antara said two more victims had died in hospital on the neighboring island of Saparua and the bodies had been returned to Haruku. Nine more of the injured were in intensive care, it said.
A local journalist, speaking to AFP by phone from neighbouring Ambon island and citing local police, also put the death toll at 13. He said most died of gunshot wounds when police from the mobile brigade and soldiers, obeying "shoot on sight" orders for riots, opened fire to quell the violence.
Eight of the dead were from mainly Moslem Pelauw, three from Kailolo village, also predominantly Moslem, and two from the Christian village of Kariuw, he said.
Another 43 were injured when police and troops tried to prevent mobs attacking houses Sunday morning, he said. But 30 houses in the Christian village of Kariuw were burned before the violence was quelled.
The trigger for the attacks was the burning of a Christian house Saturday, he said. "Tensions between the residents of the two villages (Kariuw and Pelauw) had been mounting since last night," he said. "Kariuw villagers had already been evacuated after a house belonging to a resident there was burned by an unidentified group."
Koli confirmed that 30 houses
had been burned but said the situation was under control. The reporter
told AFP that troops had fanned out and were guarding neighbouring villages
to prevent the riots from spreading. Police could not be be reached for
comment.
| Aceh/West Papua |
Jakarta -- An Indonesian military court on Monday sentenced four soldiers to between 24 and 30 months jail for torturing civilian detainees in Aceh province, a report said. Lieutenant Colonel P.J. Piter, chief judge at the court martial in Banda Aceh, the Aceh capital, also ordered the four soldiers discharged from the armed forces, Antara news agency said. Prosecutors had sought a seven year jail term.
But defendant Amsir was sentenced to two years jail while Manolam Situmorang was sentenced to 26 months, Manuhun Harahap to 28 months, and Effendi to 30 months.
The panel of judges said the four were all guilty of torturing detainees.
The defendants and other soldiers allegedly tortured about 40 villagers detained at a building belonging to a youth organization in Lhokseumawe, 300 kilometers east of Banda Aceh last month. Five of the detainees died and 19 others were hospitalized with serious injuries.
The judges said the defendants would be thrown out of the army because their behavior had damaged the image and integrity of the forces.
The military tribunal has already sentenced Major Bayu Najib, a former battalion commander and the soldiers' superior, to six and a half years prison over the killings. He was also dismissed from the army. Reports said the military would court martial 23 more soldiers over the same case.
The civilian detainees were arrested during army raids to hunt the alleged leader of a separatist group suspected of holding two soldiers as hostages. The raids followed the killing of seven soldiers and the abduction of two military officers in late December in Aceh.
The Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) movement has been fighting for an independent Islamic state in the province Aceh since the mid- 1970s.
East Timor should be example for West Papua: spokesman
Agence France Presse - February 18, 1999
United Nations -- Indonesia's offer of independence to East Timor after 20 years should set an example for Irian Jaya, West Papua, a spokesman for a pro-independence movement said Thursday.
John Ondawame, international spokesman for the Free Papua Movement, told reporters "we would like to see the Indonesian government's new policy towards East Timor be repeated again in West Papua."
Jakarta's sudden change of position on East Timor last month "is a positive direction towards some sort of political change in East Timor, as well as, we hope, in West Papua," he said.
Irian Jaya's Free Papua Movement has been fighting for an independent West Papua state in the former Dutch colony of Western New Guinea since it became an Indonesian province in 1963.
But unlike the situation in East Timor, where the United Nations continues to recognize Portugal as the administering power, the United Nations recognized Indonesia's sovereignty over Irian Jaya in 1969.
Two weeks ago Jakarta, in a surprise move, offered independence to East Timor, which like Irian Jaya is beset by separatist violence, if wide-ranging autonomy proposals are turned down.
"We believe in a peaceful process," said Ondawame, adding that "the political status of West Papua should be discussed widely" among the people in the state and the Indonesian government.
Ondawame is in the United States to raise public awareness about the fate of the two million people of Irian Jaya. He said that he wanted to inform the US public about human rights abuses by multinational companies acting in cooperation with the Indonesian military.
Ondawame, who is based in
Australia, met with the UN's permanent representatives in New York and
planned to see US congressional and state department representatives in
Washington.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta -- The basic minimum wage in Indonesia's 27 provinces is to be raised an average 16.1 percent from April 1, reports said Friday.
However, companies that could not afford the raise should apply for a postponment, the director general for industrial relations and labour supervision, Syaufii Syamsuddin, was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying.
Syamsuddin said that despite the rise, the wage level would still only cover about 80 percent of the basic physical needs of a single worker. "The purchasing power of workers continues to weaken and the labor situation will further decline if such a decision is not made," he said. The increase was intended to slow the drastic decline in real wages since the onset of the economic crisis in 1997, he said.
The minimum wage applies to laborers who have worked for less than a year with a company, and who work 40 hours a week.
The highest percentage rise was for Riau province in Sumatra, where the minimum standard was raised 25.3 percent to 218,000 rupiah (24.8 dollars).
The lowest rise was for the province of Bengkulu in Sumatra, a mere 2.39 percent increase to 150,000 rupiah (17 dollars). The minimum monthly wage in Jakarta will be lifted 16.4 percent to 231,000 rupiah (26.25 dollars).
Under the new rates, the highest minimum wage level would be for the Batam industrial zone on Batam island, at 290,000 rupiah (33 dollars) after a 7.4 percent increase, followed by Jakarta then eight districts in West Java where the standard was set at 230,000 rupiah (26.1 dollars.)
Wages in the troubled territory of East Timor were raised 15.5 percent to 183,000 rupiah (20.8 dollars), in Irian Jaya the increase was 15.1 percent to 225,000 rupiah (25.6 dollars), and in another troubled province, Aceh, wages were raised by 16.3 percent to 171,000 rupiah (19.4 dollars).
The government, which announces wage increases every year, raised salary levels by an average of 15 percent last year, but following resistance from companies as the Indonesian economic crisis began to bite, the were only implemented on August 1, rather than April 1.
Surabaya -- After days of mass protests by workers demanding better working conditions, the owners and management of a giant electronic and household gods factory in Indonesia Thursday announced it was willing to meet the demand of employees.
An executive of PT Maspion told some 10,000 workers gathered at the company's main plant in Sidoarjo, just south of the East Java province capital of Surabaya, that the company was caving in and had agreed to meet the demands, a witness said.
The official who did not identify himself, said the agreement had been reached between the management and representatives of the local labor union early Thursday following lengthy negotiations.
Most of the workers who had gathered in front of the plant, ready to take to the street again Thursday, dispersed after the annoucement, the witness said. Trucks of police and marines, deployed there since early Thursday, remained on standby, they added.
The company said in a statement that negotiators agreed to raise by 25 percent the daily bonuses given to Maspion workers at its five factories in and around Surabaya to cover escalating prices from 2,000 rupiah per person per day to 2,500 rupiah.
The statement, read to workers, also said the raise, effective April 1, would lift the lowest monthly wage for employees with less than one year's service by 7.3 percent to 220,000 rupiah (about 25 dollars).
The company pointed out that before the raise, the lowest pay for any employee in the Maspion group was already 38 percent higher than the government-set minimum industrial wage.
The decision, the official said, was taken by the company despite its losses due to falling sales amid the country's economic crisis. "We are still committed to sign and implement the agreement in order to provide employement to our employees and also to keep the factory running," the official added.
The protestors had held daily rallies in the past five days, involving up to 20,000 workers from the company's five factories. They also protested at the local parliament in Surabaya and the governor's office.
At least 20 workers were injured Wednesday when soldiers and police fired warning shots and tear gas and mounted a baton charge to stop them entering the city, witnesses said. Five workers were arrested, the Media Indonesia daily reported.
Surabaya -- More than 10,000 workers gathered outside a large electronics and plastics factory in Surabaya, East Java, Thursday as their campaign for better working conditions entered its sixth day.
The protesters packed the road in front of the Maspion factory forcing the closure of the main route south of Surabaya leading to the industrial satellite town of Sidoarjo. Trucks of police and marines were seen in the area, but stayed on the sidelines, the witness said.
The protesters said they again planned to try to reach the governor in Surabaya to urge his to press the company for improved conditions.
At least 20 workers were injured Wednesday when soldiers and police fired warning shots and tear gas and mounted a baton charge to stop them entering the city, witnesses said. Five workers were arrested, the Media Indonesia daily said.
The protestors are demanding a pay raise, improved meal allowance, and bonuses and severance pay based on length of service. They also want the management to meet a promise to build a small mosque on the factory premises.
Maspion president Alim Markus
has said it was difficult for the company to meet the demands because of
the current economic crisis which had affected company sales.
| Human rights |
Jakarta -- An Indonesian soldier Thursday told a military court here that more than nine activists had been kidnapped by troops in the last months of the Suharto regime.
Captain Fauzami Syahrul Multhafar told a military tribunal nine had been held in solitary confinement at a former storehouse in an isolated east Jakarta location used as a detention center, but that there were other victims taken elsewhere.
"It is so in the data [that our unit had], but they were not there," he said, when asked by the judge whether more than the nine people had been kidnapped by the special forces unit of which the defendant was a member.
The defendant, however, said he could not remember the names of the others outside the nine they are accused of abducting -- Desmon Mahesa, Haryanto Taslam, Pius Lustrilanang, Aang Risdianto, Andi Arif, Nezar Patria, Faisal Reza, Mugianto and Waluyojati.
The two other defendants questioned by the court Thursday -- Captain Yulius Silvanus and Captain Nugroho Sulistio Budi -- admitted to either taking part in the actual kidnapping of the nine activists or to interrogating them.
Budi, who was tasked with interrogating the activists, said no torture had been used, and contrary to what the activists have charged, he said those interrogated were neither blindfolded nor handcuffed. It was the interrogators who had their faces hidden, he said.
A total of 11 soldiers from the elite Kopassus special forces unit are currently facing a court martial over the kidnappings of the pro-democracy activists.
The activists were seized by unidentified men. Some were held in solitary confinement for weeks and some said they were tortured. Nine of them have resurfaced, one was found dead and 13 are still listed as missing. Most were warned never to talk of their ordeal.
All the defendants were members of a special team headed by one of the defendants, Captain Bambang Kristiono. Kristiono is due for questioning when the court resumes Tuesday.
The abudctions took place ahead of a general assembly which reappointed veteran leader Suharto as president for his seventh consecutive term on March 11. Suharto resigned in May last year amid mounting public pressure and large scale riots.
At the time the Kopassus unit was under the command of one of Suharto's sons-in-law, now-retired lieutenant general Prabowo Subianto.
Press reports in August said Prabowo had admitted during a two- week investigation by the military's Officers Honorary Council that he ordered the kidnappings. The officers' council discharged Prabowo and two other officers for their role in the abduction and torture of activists.
Jakarta -- Four junior Indonesian army officers undergoing a court martial for a series of kidnappings admitted on Tuesday abducting political activists in the last months of the Suharto regime.
The admission of the four from the elite army Kopassus special force followed confessions by three other soldiers to the same court last week that they were involved in kidnapping pro- democracy activists.
The activists were seized by unidentified men. Some were held in solitary confinement for weeks and some said they were tortured. Nine of them have resurfaced, one was found dead and 13 are still listed as missing. Most were warned never to talk of their ordeal.
Captain Fauka Nurfarid, Captain Jaka Budi Utama, Captain Dadang Hendrayuda and Captain Untung Budiarto, answering questions from the military prosecutor, admitted taking part in the abduction of between three to six people.
The nine kidnapped activists who have resurfaced are Desmond Mahesa, Pius Lustrilanang, Harianto Taslam, Faisal Reza, Aan Risdianto, Nezar Patria, Mugianto, Waluyo Jati and Andi Arief.
All four defendants also said the abductions were part of an operation by a team codenamed "Mawar" (Rose) headed by another defendant, Major Bambang Kristiono. He has yet to be questioned.
Nurfarid said the Mawar team was formed in mid-1997 to check on members or suspected members of the outlawed People's Democratic Party and other radical groups planning to scuttle a session of the People's Consultative Assembly in March 1998.
The assembly re-elected Suharto as president for his seventh consecutive term on March 11. He resigned in May that year amid mounting public pressure and major rioting.
Three other defendants, all captains from the same team, told the military tribunal last week they had each taken part in an operation to abduct eight of the activists.
On Tuesday Captain Dadang Hendrayuda admitted interrogating all nine activists but denied torturing any of them. He also said, that contrary to the victims' testimony in court, they were not blindfolded or handcuffed during their questioning.
"It was I who had my face covered and was dressed in a medical outfit so that the witnesses could not recognize me," Hendrayuda said.
At the time the Kopassus unit was under the command of one of Suharto's sons-in-law, now-retired lieutenant general Prabowo Subianto.
Press reports in August said Prabowo had admitted during a two- week investigation by the military's Officers Honorary Council that he ordered the kidnappings.
The officers' council discharged Prabowo and two other officers for their role in the abduction and torture of activists. The court will resume on Thursday.
Jakarta -- An Indonesian church group has accused police of opening fire on unarmed villagers during the latest outbreak of Moslem- Christian violence to hit the eastern province of Maluku.
The accusation was made as President B.J. Habibie said Monday that the recent religious clashes in the country had their roots in economic problems.
At least 20 people were killed, 37 seriously injured and about 100 houses burned in violence on Haruku island in Maluku on Sunday, a national police spokesman said.
The Communion of Churches in Indonesia said in a statement the shooting in Haruku by the police mobile brigade -- part of the armed forces, or ABRI -- had been unwarranted.
"On Sunday, 14 February 1999, around 9:30am, a sudden attack by ABRI personnel took place against a group of civilians passing through Waimital hamlet, 30 minutes from Hulaliu village, Haruku island," the release said.
It said the shooting, in which five were killed, had come without warning, and there had been no ban on passage through the area or any roadblock. "The ABRI personnel seem to have intentionally trapped the civilian group and slaughtered them with shots from hidden locations," the church group said.
Four people died on the spot and one later at a hospital in the neighbouring island of Saparua. Another was reported to be in critical condition at the same hospital, it said.
Although the church group did not say where the civilian group came from, it said the slaughter took place after the mainly Christian village of Kariu was attacked by mobs from Pelauw, a mainly Moslem neighbouring village.
"The violence, brutal and provocative actions by these ABRI personnel were practically done openly ... this condition clearly will not help efforts for reconciliation and rehabilitation currently being done by the society," said the statement.
The state Antara News Agency on Sunday quoted the head of Haruku sub-district, Suwardi Koli, as saying 11 people had died at that time -- eight from Pelauw and three from Kailolo village, which is also predominantly Moslem. Antara said Sunday that two more people who died in hospital were from Kariu.
The church group said some 20 houses had been torched in Kariu. The trigger for the attacks was the burning of a Christian house Saturday, Koli has said.
Habibie Monday said the continuing economic crisis was the root cause of the recent series of religious and ethnic conflicts.
"We are certain that the roots of all the tension were not conflicts between communities of believers," he said in a speech at the presidential palace for the opening of a press forum.
"The root of the problem lies more in economic problems, social jealousy, and even several incidents of a purely criminal nature which grew into a problem between religious communities," he added.
Susan Sim, Jakarta -- Institutional discrimination is still visible in Indonesia because the government has not removed its legal basis, human rights activists said as they took issue with President B. J. Habibie's recent statement that he has abolished all discriminatory policies here.
"In many quarters, his statement would be seen as a misleading statement," National Human Rights Commission chairman Marzuki Darusman said.
"Social discrimination is certainly visible here. I think in fact his statement brings out another dimension, which is whether or not we ourselves are a racist community. We have to address ourselves to this question more now than ever."
The Habibie government, despite early pledges to dismantle a system of active discrimination against the eight million to 10 million ethnic Chinese, has done nothing, the deputy chairman of the ruling Golkar charged, adding: "The government just wants the problem to go away on its own. It has not ... laid the legal basis for getting rid of discriminatory policies."
Officials say the inertia is as much symptomatic of Dr Habibie's administrative style -- he believes issuing a decree can resolve problems -- as the fact that the practices are a gold mine for the bureaucracy.
For example, ethnic Chinese are required to obtain citizenship certificates before they can apply for identity cards even if they were born here and their lineage date back generations.
The ID cards, issued free to any other Indonesian, is the lifeline to documents like a driving licence, passport, bank credits, university places and job interviews. The documentation process also requires layers of security screening and authentication, and commands hefty fees.
"In 1978, I had to pay 300,000 rupiah to get my citizenship certificate authenticated so I can get an ID card," said lawyer Frans Winarta, who counts himself a seventh generation Indonesian.
"You can imagine how many million rupiah we have to pay now for that certificate book. And each time we move house, we have to pay some more to record the change of address. When our children are 18, we have to go to court and get separate citizenship certificates for them."
And although ID cards are no longer supposed to carry special identification codes for ethnic Chinese, officials have since devised a numbering system "so they can still tell", he said.
The President did issue a decree last September instructing all officials to "end the usage of the term pribumi and non-pribumi" and provide equal treatment and service to all -- regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. Yet, not all ministers, much less lower-ranking officials, have seen the decree, campaigners say.
Meanwhile, unwritten quotas
in state universities and the civil service discourage ethnic Chinese from
applying, Mr Winarta said. "These are the most difficult to combat because
they are informal barriers to entry," he said, adding that getting unfair
laws repealed was only the first step. So long as the Chinese are considered
foreigners here, there will be no peace."
| News & issues |
The fact that many Indonesians look in quite a jovial mood these days does not mean that the devastating economic crisis has ended. They simply say they have a jocular topic in their daily conversation: the leakage of a telephone conversation between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General Andi M. Ghalib about, among other things, the investigation into former president Soeharto's alleged corruption.
The truth of such a scandal is always questionable, but the fact that Habibie has ordered a probe into the leak shows that the conversation did take place despite Ghalib's denial. Most people who listened to the conversation played by private station ANtv on Thursday said they were convinced that these were the identifiable voices of the two important personalities.
In the age of high technology, presidential conversations are frequently recorded in many modern countries. The question now is why the security agency at the palace has been so careless in securing the secrecy around the head of state. Is it part of its nationwide failure, which is apparent, among other things, in the prevention of the fatal riots which have taken place in many areas since last year?
However, while the investigation is underway, perhaps, one thing is for sure, and that is that the person or persons who bugged the conversation must have an adequate technological capability and the distribution seems to have been politically motivated.
In this case, security during Soeharto's presidency was tighter so that no such disgrace ever took place. And had it happened, no element of the mass media would have been bold enough to report it, as Panji Masyarakat did this week. But the biweekly magazine looked careful enough in its publication of the transcript of the palace conversation and indeed had earlier tried to obtain confirmation from Ghalib, but the latter refused to talk. In its fastidiousness Panji also talks of "the voice sounding like Habibie's or Ghalib's" in leading readers to the conversation.
Anyway, the freedom of the press granted to the nation by the government has been demonstrated in ironic fashion for some of the authorities who still have to learn the vast spectrum of democracy. A free press always looks like a stained mirror for a scarred face.
On the other hand, the recording also speaks another truth about the Soeharto investigation. It clearly confirms the public belief that the questioning of businessmen Arifien Panirogo and Sofjan Wanandi at the same time as the Attorney General's Office was busy investigating the disgraced dictator forms part of an effort to switch public attention from the probe into his case.
So far the people have been inclined to believe that the Soeharto probe is just a farcical show of the government's sincerity. Ghalib's remarks claiming Soeharto's innocence in this case reflect poor logic.
We are of the opinion that Habibie should bear in mind that the way the game has been played is a blatant obstruction of justice and is in contempt of the order of the People's Consultative Assembly, the country's highest constitutional body, to investigate the cases of corruption and crony capitalism, especially those which involve Soeharto. Moreover, the President has also reportedly told Muslim scholars here that he will not bring his predecessor to justice. The farce will surely anger law-abiding Indonesians and eventually provoke the establishment of a "people's court".
This time the attorney general should also be careful in denying his role in the conversation because there is a high tech device now capable of detecting the timbre of one's voice. When needed, this probe should be carried out by independent investigators.
The issue sounds very problematic but the people do not necessarily share Habibie's headache because, as Panji has reported, there are more recordings of palace conversations now being distributed. So Indonesians have more soothing and entertaining stories to look forward to.
Jakarta -- Underscoring its high-profile role in the country, the Indonesian military has warned it would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt upcoming elections and told workers that instead of staging protests, they should help maintain security and order.
A Jakarta Post report yesterday said Defence Minister and armed forces (ABRI) chief General Wiranto had made it clear on Friday that he would not tolerate any attempt to foil or disturb the June general election and presidential election later this year.
The general said ABRI would take all necessary measures to ensure free, just and fair elections.
"The success of the two national agendas is the only gateway for the nation to leave the current crisis and enter the 21st century," he said at Bandung.
He also reiterated that ABRI would remain neutral during the election process and accept the result, whatever it was.
Meanwhile, Brawijaya Military Commander Major-General Ryamizard Ryacudu told protesting workers at household-goods maker PT Maspion to postpone their demands for pay rises and better working conditions.
The Indonesian Observer yesterday quoted him as saying that they should be happy enough to be employed amid the country's worst economic turmoil in decades. "Millions of people in East Java are unemployed. They should be grateful and delay their demands until the economy recovers," the major-general, who oversees security in the province, was quoted by Antara as saying.
He called on protesting workers to help maintain security and order when the nation is facing tough times as a result of the crisis.
"In these difficult conditions, let's jointly maintain order and not make others unhappy," he said sternly.
"If Maspion increases the wages of its workers, it will affect small-scale companies that can't afford to do so."
For eight days, Maspion workers have been demanding higher wages as well as more food and transportation allowances. They have clashed several times with security forces.
On Wednesday, police arrested at least five people in a clash between security forces and protesters in the biggest rally so far. Troops accused the five of instigating the demonstration.
The major-general, who is former Vice-President Try Sutrisno's son-in-law, warned other workers and activists not to join further protests by Maspion workers.
He said bigger demonstrations could worsen the situation and may provoke workers from other companies in East Java to take to the streets.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta -- A transcript of an alleged telephone conversation between President Bacharuddin Habibie and Attorney- General Andi Ghalib published yesterday suggests the graft investigation focusing on ex-president Suharto is a farce.
The transcript of the conversation, allegedly taped on December 10 -- the day after Mr Suharto was interrogated, was published by the reputable weekly magazine Panji.
It says Mr Ghalib told the President the interrogation went for three hours. Mr Ghalib reportedly said: "If it only went for two hours, people would say 'what the hell kind of drama is this'."
The Attorney-General is alleged to have told Mr Habibie that Mr Suharto wanted them to pursue some sort of investigation to avoid "rough public justice".
"After we summoned him, his blood pressure has gone down," Mr Ghalib supposedly said. "Sir, people's reaction has returned to pity him. This is a good start."
The magazine did not say how it obtained the recording and editors said they were still checking its validity.
The head of the People's Movement Concerned for State Wealth, Kastorius Sinaga, said it appeared to show executive interference in a judicial process.
"It clearly shows the intervention by the President into law enforcement," Mr Sinaga said. "We expected this under the New Order, but not in the reform era."
He said if proved true, the recording showed the investigation into Mr Suharto's assets was pure theatre. "They want to defend the social image of Suharto," he said. "There is no progress, it is just being played out in the newspapers."
Mr Ghalib's investigation team says it has found no evidence that Mr Suharto illegally amassed wealth.
The publication of the alleged conversation comes a day after the Deputy Attorney-General for Intelligence Affairs, Major-General Syamsu Djalal, was replaced after only five months in office. He had been privately critical of the slow pace of the Suharto investigation.
The recorded conversation was distributed on a cassette along with another conversation, allegedly between Mr Habibie and the chairman of the ruling Golkar party, Akbar Tandjung.
University of Indonesia political scientist Arbi Sanit said military intelligence agents might have recorded the conversations. "But it is not the work of a layman," he told the magazine. "It's possible people in intelligence or telephone technicians did this." Presidential adviser Dewi Fortuna Anwar said she doubted the validity of the transcript.
But Mr Habibie ordered the military yesterday to investigate the alleged phone tap. "We need to take action because that's against human rights and privacy," State Secretary Akbar Tandjung quoted Mr Habibie as saying.
[On February 20, the Jakarta Post reported that Armed Forces chief, Wiranto, will initiate an investigation into the authenticity of the phone conversation. Wiranto said there was a possibility that the conversation was "engineered". Ghalib has insisted that the voice in the recordings is not his and that he could not recall ever having such a conversation with Habibie. On the same day, the Singapore Business Times reported that former minister H.S. Dillon -- now a member of the National Commission on Human Rights -- has called for the president to be impeached over the recordings on the grounds that Habibie abused presidential powers - James Balowski.].
Jakarta -- About 500 people rallied outside the attorney general's office Wednesday in a protest against a corruption investigation of former President Suharto.
The protesters said Suharto, who quit last May amid riots and protests against his authoritarian rule, was innocent and had been framed by his opponents. Suharto, 77, has denied any wrongdoing.
State prosecutors are investigating allegations that Suharto enriched his family and associates at state expense during 32 years in power. They have lost some of their wealth and influence because of Indonesia's economic crisis and the new government's efforts to curb graft.
Student protesters who helped oust Suharto staged noisy demonstrations last year to demand an immediate trial of the ex- army general. They said his successor and onetime protege, President B.J. Habibie, was too beholden to Suharto to conduct a serious probe.
The pro-Suharto protesters, many of them from poor neighborhoods in Jakarta, waved banners and chanted slogans while four truckloads of anti-riot officers looked on. The rally was peaceful.
Some of the demonstrators said organizers rounded them up with buses and told them they would be paid 15,000 rupiah to participate.
Organizer Abu Aufan, a neighborhood youth leader, said the government should be clear about whether it plans to prosecute Suharto or not.
"We demand that the attorney general's office make an announcement about the Suharto case on whether he should be punished or not," said Aufan, who organized a similar protest at the office earlier this month.
The investigation of Suharto started five months ago, but no charges have been filed. Habibie has said he wants the investigation to be finished before parliamentary elections on June 7.
Jakarta -- Opposition presidential hopeful Amien Rais has called on several Indonesian parties, mostly Moslem, to unite to prevent the return of current President Habibie to power later this year, newspapers reported Thursday.
Rais, in a meeting of ten newly established parties here late Wednesday, urged them to consider a coalition, which he said was needed to defeat the remnants of fallen president Suharto's government in the polls scheduled for June 7, the Jakarta Post daily said.
"What should be understood is that we complement each other," Rais was quoted by Kompas daily as telling the meeting.
Rais, the leader of his National Mandate Party (PAN), predicted that without opposition unity, Suharto's handpicked successor President B.J. Habibie could become the country's third elected president.
The June 7 polls would result in a new People's Consultative Assembly, which would then choose a president on November 10. Votes from two thirds of the 700 MPs in the MPR are needed to select a new president.
"It is estimated that ... Habibie could gather 313 votes out of the 470 needed to become president," Rais was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia daily.
In June political parties will compete for 462 lower house of parliament seats, with military appointees taking the other 38 seats. In the MPR they will join 200 appointees from the regions and provinces.
Rais charged that Habibie could win 238 votes easily from regional representatives and the military through "money politics and lobbying," the Post said.
After taking over the presidency the day Suharto stepped down May 21 last year, Habibie abolished the Suharto-era law restricting the number of political parties to the three. Since then more than 120 parties have sprung up.
The Golkar, with the assured votes of millions of public servants and their families as well as the military, repeatedly returned Suharto to power in successive elections since 1971.
Rais said a possible coalition between PAN and the popular Indonesian Democratic Party Struggle (PDI Struggle) led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the politician daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno would also be possible. But the two parties alone, he said, would be insufficient to prevent a Golkar comeback.
A further coalition with the Moslem United Development Party led by current Investment Minister Hamzah Haz, the National Awakening Party led by Moslem leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, and the Moslem Crescent Star Party led by Yusril Ihza Mahendra would be needed to offset the balance against the old government, he said.
Neither PAN nor PDI Struggle are Moslem parties, but PAN with Rais as a former head of the Moslem Muhammadiyah group garners heavy support from the majority Moslem Indonesians.
Jakarta -- The ruling Golkar party will nominate incumbent President B.J. Habibie as its candidate for Indonesia's upcoming presidential election, a party official said Monday.
Theo L. Sambuaga, a chairman of the party, which served as a political vehicle of former President Suharto for three decades, said the formal nomination of Habibie would be announced prior to parliamentary elections on June 7. The presidential election is scheduled for early November.
Sambuaga said the party hopes to win 40 percent of the total votes, a drastic decline from the 70 percent it gained in the last election in 1997, when Suharto won a seventh term.
Suharto, who ruled the world's fourth most populous nation with an iron grip for 32 years, stepped down in May amid national rioting for his removal. Habibie assumed the presidency in his place.
Some 200 parties have been created since Habibie began dismantling strict Suharto-era political controls.
Jakarta -- Indonesia's military police have failed to identify any soldiers who opened fire during a student protest in Jakarta three months ago in which 13 people were killed, an official said Monday.
"Up till now the military police have not been able to find the shooters in the Semanggi incident," military police chief Major General Djasri Missin told a press conference.
He said that during a three-month inquiry military police had run ballistics tests on bullet fragments, some pulled out of the 13 victims killed near the Semanggi intersection in South Jakarta on November 13.
Hospitals, student and rights groups put the death toll at 13 and said seven of the victims were students. Missin, without explanation, put the number of deaths at eight -- five students and three others.
The military has investigated 378 weapons out of the 920 used by the 30 companies of men from the military stationed around the area on the night, now known as "Black Friday," he said.
The students were protesting against a special session of the country's highest legislative council that was ruling on revising election laws before the first general elections since the resignation of president Suharto in May 1998.
The students charged that the members of the council were supporters of Suharto and unfit to rule on the political future of the nation.
Missin said the military police inquiry had run into dead ends from its initial leads but the investigation was continuing.
Missin also could not confirm earlier theories suggesting that hidden sharpshooters from outside the military may have shot the victims. "I have not yet been able to confirm whether the shots came from security members or from outside [the military]," he added.
Jakarta -- President BJ Habibie yesterday revealed, for the first time, military movements launched by Lieut.-Gen. [ret] Prabowo Subianto on May 22 last year following the downfall of former President Soeharto, Prabowo's father-in-law.
In an impromptu speech delivered before participants of the 2nd Asian-German Editors Forum at the Merdeka Palace, the president said he received a report on the troop concentration from Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander/Defense Minister General Wiranto.
"He [Wiranto] said, troops under the command of -- I don't need to conceal his name now -- General Prabowo, were concentrated in a number of places, including in the proximity of my house [in Kuningan, South Jakarta].
"Since I was also concurrently the highest commander of the Armed Forces, General Wiranto sought my advice on what to do. I said he [Prabowo] should withdraw the troops," the president said.
He added that he later on asked Wiranto whether his decision was right. "It is correct, Mr President," the president quoted Wiranto as saying.
The president said that the conversation took place a few hours before he announced the composition of the Development Reform cabinet. He said he was determined that Wiranto should stay in his post as the Minister of Defense. The President acknowledged that he eventually met with Prabowo but did not disclose the substance of their talks.
Soeharto was forced down on May 21, 1998, amid the country's worst political and economic crisis in decades. On the same day, Dr Habibie took office. Riot-torn Jakarta was then overwhelmed by rumors of coup attempt by the once all-powerful military. News of a major split in the military prompted by "rivalry" between Prabowo and Wiranto also helped in the deterioration of the political situation.
Prabowo, then head of the Army Strategic Reserves Command, was one of the most powerful men in uniform and led the unit dubbed an "Army within the Army" and also had loyalists in the Special Forces Kopassus which he had headed previously.
"I took the oath of office at 9:05am Some time past midnight, at exactly 1:32am, I held a briefing with all cabinet members, except the minister of defense. "In the morning, just before going to the palace, he [Wiranto] said he received a report on the concentration of troops under Prabowo."
The president then ordered Wiranto to sack Prabowo from his post and transferred him to a non-combat position in the Army Command School in Bandung, West Java. It was only one day after the long-ruling Soeharto stepped down. Maj.-Gen. Johnny Lumintang then took charge of the post for 17 hours, before he was succeeded by Maj.- Gen. Djamari Chaniago.
The ever-savvy Prabowo was dismissed from his military duty months afterwards on account of his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of political activists during his tenure as head of Kopassus.
A son of economic guru Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, the polyglot Prabowo has been reportedly living in Amman, Jordan, to represent the business interests of his brother Hashim.
[On February 19, Agence France Presse reported that in a written statement, Prabowo said that he had deployed troops around Habibie's home to protect, not threaten him. "It is clear that the deployment of troops was in fact to secure and ensure the security of the president and vice president, who later became president", the statement said - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- The Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) has decided to participate in the 1999 elections. The Chairperson of the Central Leadership Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (KPP-PRD), Faizol Reza, announced this at a press conference held in the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on Tuesday afternoon, February 16.
This decision was taken at a National Working Meeting of the PRD held during February 13-14. The PRD assessed the current situation as a transition period from a militarist capitalist dictatorship to democratisation or to the opening up of democratic space.
According to Faizol, the people were now in a position to wage both spontaneous and organised resistance if they considered that state policy was against their interests or aspirations. "This is a period of transition from dictatorship to genuine democracy." said Faizol. While the PRD will participate in the coming elections, the PRD maintained its accusation that the government was not serious about carrying out elections that would genuinely help solve the economic and political crisis in Indonesia. The PRD accused the government of primarily seeking legitimacy in the eyes of foreign investors and international donor agencies. The PRD could see that the moderate opposition was succeeding in taking advantage of objective conditions to win broad support for the coming elections. The PRD thinks that many people will support these parties in the coming elections.
Faizol expressed his concern about the rise of "money politics" or the use of the tactic of divide and rule among the people as a means of parties trying to win the elections.
However even though the elections will be carried out under such undemocratic conditions, the PRD assesses that the elections will provide an important momentum in the political dynamics of the country. The PRD is also of the view that the elections can be a good opportunity for the political education of the people.
Budiman Sujatmiko, the General Chairman of the PRD who is still imprisoned in Cipinang Prison, stated via Faizol that the PRD did not want to become just an electoral machine. "We want our party to be a school for politics for the people. Budiman stated that there must be a political catalyst operating in the midst of the false consciousness that now dominates among the people. Because of this the PRD has decided to register and participate in the coming June elections.
Faizol stated that the PRD now had 14 Regional Leadership Committees. The PRD also stated that had a number of Town Leadership Councils in the 14 provinces.
The PRD stated that the conditions were not yet appropriate for elections in Aceh and Irian Jaya. The PRD was of the view that a State of Military Operations were still in effect so that there would be no possibility for the people to express their opposition to the authorities. The PRD reaffirmed its support for a referendum in East Timor.
[Translated by Max Lane, ASIET National Coordinator]
Jakarta -- More than 100,000 supporters of Indonesian opposition politician Megawati Sukarnoputri crowded into a south Jakarta stadium Sunday to endorse her candidacy for the presidency.
The huge crowd, most dressed in the party's trademark red, packed the 120,000-seat Senayan sports stadium, shouting their endorsement for Megawati to lead them to victory in elections on June 7.
Undeterred by drizzling rain, the crowd overflowed into the surrounding sport complex as streams of flag-waving supporters, some in convoys of motor-cycles and buses, streamed into the complex throughout the day, witnesses said.
At the rally the party announced for the second time that Megawati, daughter of the country's first president Sukarno, would be their candidate for the presidency following the June polls.
The rally, officially called to launch the new logo of her Indonesian Democracy Party (Struggle) or PDI-S, marked the beginning of what is expected to be a turbulent campaign period leading up to the polls, the first since the fall of president Suharto in May of last year.
Audi Tambunan, chairman of the rally's "Declaration Committee," told journalists he estimated that the overflow crowd numbered 300,000 people, but the estimate could not be officially confirmed.
Megawati, manouvered into political but not popular disgrace in the last years of Suharto's regime, is considered one of the leading candidates for president, who will be chosen by the newly-elected parliament before the end of the year.
More than 100 parties have
sprung up since the fall of Suharto though fewer than 30 percent of them
are expected to qualify for the polls.
| Economy and investment |
Andrew Marshall, Jakarta -- Indonesia is in the grip of an economic paralysis that cannot be broken until its debt-ridden, capital-starved companies can escape the straitjacket of their ruinous foreign liabilities.
Private-sector debt is estimated at $80 billion. Scores of firms have stopped servicing their debt and some are refusing even to talk to creditors. With their debts unresolved, companies are unable to gain access to fresh funds and many are unable to operate. Working capital and inventories are deteriorating fast.
A foreign adviser working closely with Indonesia's government on debt restructuring says he estimates the cost of this deterioration at $7 million a day. He says around 60 percent of large Indonesian companies are technically bankrupt.
If the stalemate between debtors and creditors persists, much of Indonesia's corporate sector will be unable to resume functioning and a broad recovery can never take root.
There is also the risk of fresh unrest as paralysed companies lay off workers, adding to Indonesia's mounting unemployment. Some 20 million people are estimated to have no work while millions more have virtually none.
Furthermore, the longer the impasse continues the more damaging will be the deterioration in capital suffered by Indonesian firms, and the harder Indonesia's eventual recovery.
To combat the problem the government has launched the Jakarta Initiative, which offers a set of suggested principles for voluntary debt restructuring deals between creditors and debtors as well as help in facilitating negotiations.
A source at the Jakarta Initiative says more than 110 companies have enrolled so far, with foreign debts totalling $13.3 billion, around 19 percent of all corporate external debt.
But enrolling is just the first step, and deals so far have been few. The source said nine deals had been agreed in principle and a further six standstill agreements had been reached.
A few blue chips have reported progress. Bakrie & Brothers says it is close to a deal that will give creditors 80 percent of a holding company grouping its best-performing assets in exchange for writing off Bakrie's billion-dollar foreign debt. But most companies remain stuck in a stand-off with creditors. The following is a summary of the main obstacles to resolving the corporate sector debt problem.
Bankruptcy law
Indonesia's new bankruptcy law, introduced last August, is widely regarded as a farce.
Hardly any companies have been declared bankrupt. Many bankruptcy suits have been thrown out on dubious legal grounds. Critics say Indonesian judges have not yet mastered the law.
Few creditors wish to push companies into bankruptcy -- they would only get back a fraction of their loans.
But analysts say an efficient bankruptcy law is an invaluable bargaining chip for creditors to force recalcitrant debtors to the table and try to strike a deal. Without it, there is little creditors can do to break the debt stalemate.
Debtor attitudes
Debt-equity swaps are regarded as the most promising blueprint for restructuring. Creditors would be given an equity stake in debtor companies in exchange for the corporate debt they hold. Bakrie's proposed deal follows this model.
But few of the tycoons who own Indonesia's debt-ridden conglomerates are willing to give up control to creditors. Analysts say many refuse to face reality and are avoiding making a deal, in the hope that an alternative escape route may emerge.
Some debtors have even suggested that Indonesia's economic crisis is an act of God which should allow them to declare force majeure and avoid honouring their contracts with creditors.
Uncertainty
Uncertainty hangs over Indonesia's political and economic landscape. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for June, followed by the choice of president in November. Crime and unrest have flared across the troubled country.
The next six months could see Indonesia begin a tentative recovery if it gets through the elections unscathed, or collapse into fresh chaos and political uncertainty.
The climate of uncertainty makes debt agreements even harder, analysts say.
Many debtors and creditors would rather wait until Indonesia's future becomes clearer before striking a deal.
Creditor attitudes
Analysts say most deals will have to involve substantial debt forgiveness. But creditors remain reluctant to agree. Sources in the Jakarta Initiative team say that of the three main groups of creditor banks -- US, European and Japanese -- it is the Japanese who are proving the most reluctant to make concessions to try to strike deals.
Many would prefer to wait and hope Indonesia's situation improves than make deals now that involve booking large losses.
Individual creditors are wary of being seen to be the first to give in and offer debt forgiveness. They also fear setting a precedent -- if they offer forgiveness to one firm other indebted companies could begin to clamour for a similar deal.
Popular backlash
The debt restructuring process could also be derailed by a popular, nationalistic backlash which could be exploited by indebted firms and politicians fighting for support in Indonesia's increasingly democratic political climate.
If foreign firms are seen to be taking control of Indonesian companies, and then breaking them up or laying off workers, resentment could build up quickly. Foreign banks successfully pushing domestic firms into bankruptcy could also stir up anger.
Given Indonesia's uncertain political climate, creditors face the risk that the debt restructuring process could spark unrest, or could be halted by a new, more nationalistic parliament.
The sale of a government stake in state-owned cement firm Semen Gresik illustrates the power of nationalistic economic interests in Indonesia.
The government signed a deal with Mexico's Cemex to allow it to take 51 percent of Gresik. The decision was greeted by mass protests by Gresik workers and attacks from several politicians inside and outside the government. In the end, the government backed down. Cemex was allowed 20 percent.
Jakarta -- Indonesia's Parliament passed a law aimed at stamping out monopolies, cartels and other restrictive competitive practices.
The antimonopoly law, which must be ratified by President B.J. Habibie before it comes into force, will regulate mergers and acquisitions, and limit the amount of market share one company can attain.
The law marks a sea change in Indonesia, where large conglomerates traditionally held monopoly positions in many segments of business during former President Suharto's 32-year rule. The International Monetary Fund, which is leading a bailout program for Indonesia, urged the country to implement legislation on fair competition and monopolies.
The new law would prohibit one company from holding more than 50% of national market share and two or three companies from holding 75% of the market between them. Also, the law would prohibit a majority shareholder in a company from holding shares in other companies active in the same business so that the combined market share is 50% or more.
The law is potentially significant for many large companies that now control more than 50% of a market. State-owned companies are exempt from the law. It will come into force a year after its approval by Mr. Habibie, while companies will have a further six months after that to comply.
Trade and Industry Minister Rahardi Ramelan stressed that the law isn't designed to stamp out big business, but to make the market more of an even playing field. "We are not anti big business, but these big companies must be fair and not use their strong positions to impede the developments of small companies," he told a parliamentary plenary session.
Large conglomerates, many of them controlled by ethnic Chinese Indonesians, blossomed under Mr. Suharto's rule, with many holding monopoly positions in large business segments.