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ASIET Net News 8 – February 22-28, 1999
| East Timor |
Jakarta -- Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he discussed with East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao ways to reduce the violence in the province.
"I am certainly very impressed by the commitment of Xanana Gusmao to the most important process in East Timor, which is reconciliation," Downer told journalists yesterday after meeting Gusmao, who is under house arrest in Central Jakarta.
Downer called Gusmao "one of the central figures to ensuring a smooth and stable transition in East Timor to a new status." Gusmao's lawyer Hendardi, speaking separately, said discussions between Downer and Gusmao were focused on the recent violence in East Timor and the reconciliation process.
"A settlement [in East Timor] can be started with a first phase, that is the disarmament of all sides in the conflict, both the guerrillas and armed civilians," Hendardi said about the agreement between the two men.
He said they discussed a "consultation process" between Australia and Gusmao concerning the options offered by the government of Indonesia but he did not elaborate.
"The Australian government will be happy to help East Timor through this period of transition. The Australian government will be happy to help East Timor in whatever it chooses, between autonomy and independence," Downer said.
He had earlier been quoted by leading Indonesian politician Amien Rais after a meeting as saying Australia was also prepared to financially assist East Timor during the transition period. Gusmao, according to Hendardi, also aired his proposal for a UN police force.
Dili -- After being dogged by waves of conflict, East Timorese figures from both the pro-integration and pro-independence sides yesterday signed the Peace Declaration of the East Timorese for Peace Association (KOTBD) in Dili, witnessed by Tamrad Samuel, representing the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker.
On Samuel's left sat pro-independence figures including David Dias Ximenes, deputy chairman of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT); Leandro Isaac, CNRT politics and security coordinator; and Ma Huno and Ma Hudu from Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor). On Samuel's right sat pro-integration figures including East Timor Governor Abilio [Soares]; Alexandro Boromeo, who was a signatory to the [1975] Balibo Declaration; and Elias Carceres, head of the East Timor branch of the National Family Planning Coordination Agency.
The founders, patrons and advisers of KOTBD include Xanana Gusmao, Mauhunu, Mauhudu, and David Dias Ximenes from Fretilin; Salvador JX Soares, Gil da Costa Alves, and Abilio Soares from Apodeti (Timor Democratic People's Association); Mariano Lopes da Crus and Ir [academic title: engineer] Mario V Carrascalao, both of whom are from UDT (Timor Demoratic Union); Bishop of Dili Carlos Belo and Bishop of Baucau Basilio do Nascimento; the commander of the Military Area Command 164/Wiradharma, Col Tito Suratman; and East Timor Provincial Police Chief Col G.M.T. Silaen. There were 25 signatories to the declaration...
[The following is a translation by US based human rights activist, John Rossa, of reports from the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission in Dili, East Timor.]
On February 19, 1999, the pro-integration group held a rally in Balibo. It was led by Joao Tavares, former Bupati of Bobonaro for two terms and leader of the para-military squad, Halilintar, and by the Area Leadership Conference (Muspida) of Bobonaro to popularize the autonomy plan.
On February 21, 1999, the Halilintar squad arrested and brutalized some residents of the town of Atabae as they were returning home from church and shopping in the bazaar. At least six of the victims have been indentified. They are all from the Bobonaro district:
After the attack and arrest, the Halilintar squad, armed with automatic weapons, began patrolling at night in Atabae and its environs.
On February 21, members of the Besi Merah Putih, which is operating throughout the Liquica district, returned to action by checking travelers on the roads in their region. They were searching for anyone appearing to be a pro-independence activist.
On February 22, at midnight members of Besi Merah attacked Guico village, Maubara sub district, Liquica district. The residents defended themselves. Three members of Besi Merah were killed and five others were seriously injured. The identities of the injured are not yet known but a joint team of Yayasan HAK, Lustitia et Pax, and Caritas has been sent to investigate the incident. The security forces intervened in the conflict to defend the Besi Merah Putih squad.
It is confirmed that 18 people were arrested by security forces in Vatuvou village in Liquica district. Two people challenged the security officials who supported Besi Merah Putih. The security officials agreed to put down their arms and to fight with their bare hands. One of the two men then seized a weapon and six magazines of bullets. He ran away from the scene of fighting and his whereabouts are unknown as of this time. The other man was arrested and brutalized. He is now in the Liquica police station along with 17 other detainees.
The following names are 18 men who are still in detention. All of them are from villages in Maubara sub-district, Liquica District:
Jakarta -- Two pro-Indonesian East Timorese militia leaders Thursday sent a blunt warning to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer threatening the lives of Australian diplomats and journalists.
"It is better to sacrifice an Australian diplomat or journalist to save the lives of 850,000 East Timorese," said the warning, faxed to news agencies including AFP here during a visit by Downer.
Downer told Australian journalists later that "it was not the most pleasant letter I have received," adding that he would take the matter up with Indonesian authorities before his departure early Friday.
"We are not going to leap and dance with every threat made to us," he said, adding that he had met here earlier Thursday with pro-Indonesian representatives, some of whom had been "very aggressive."
"I don't think they were very happy with my explanation" that at the end of the day they would have to accept the opinion of the majority of the East Timorese people, he said.
The one-page faxed warning was signed by Cancio Lopes de Carvalho and Eurico Guterres, who identified themselves respectively as the commanders of the Mahidi and the Aitarak paramilitary groups.
They called East Timor "a victim of Australia's vendetta against Indonesia, a victim of the dirty game by Australian myopic and deceitful journalists."
"Therefore the 13,000 to 15,000 pro-integration paramilitary group is willingly looking forward to meeting and facing any Australian hypocrites, deceivers and political mercenaries including the pro-independence Australian peace-keeping force -- DAY and NIGHT," it said.
The fax, though proclaiming that it was from "the hills of East Timor," was sent from a hotel in Jakarta. A staff member at the hotel said the two were currently meeting with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie.
Presidential palace sources said they understood that Habibie, who met for an hour with Downer earlier in the day, was scheduled to meet some pro-integrationist figures at his home later Thursday night. But that could not be officially confirmed.
Australian journalists have been quietly warned to expect hostility from pro-integrationist groups in East Timor, and on Wednesday two Portuguese journalists visiting Dili were beaten up and threatened at gun point by pro-integrationists.
Karen Polglaze, Jakarta -- Australia and Indonesia now shared policy positions on the troubled territory of East Timor, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Jakarta today.
Speaking after a meeting with Indonesian President BJ Habibie, Mr Downer said that he was heartened by the discussion and that Mr Habibie had carefully thought out that steps that lay ahead in resolving the problem of East Timor.
As tensions remain high in the disputed half-island, Mr Downer once again refused to commit Australia to providing troops for a peacekeeping force should it be determined that intervention were necessary.
Ahead of a meeting later today with jailed resistance leader Jose Xanana Gusmao, Mr Downer appealed for restraint on all sides of the debate. "I think now the positions of Australia and Indonesia on this issue are very close," he said.
"I think the president has thought very carefully about the step ahead. I think provided responsibility and restraint in East Timor is exercised, the problems of East Timor can be resolved successfully according to the wishes of the people of East Timor."
Mr Downer said it would be preferable if there was disarmament in East Timor. Reports in today's English language Jakarta Press say that everyone in East Timor is now armed with either guns or machetes.
"In the meantime there, of course, has got to be a resolution of the political status of East Timor and the level of distrust based on a very sorry history is still high and it is going to take some time I think to achieve the confidence that's really necessary in East Timor."
Mr Downer arrived in Jakarta after two days of talks between delegations of Australian and Indonesian ministers in Bali.
During his trip to Bali, Mr Downer met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas to discuss the future of East Timor which Indonesia foreshadowed could be released from the republic should the East Timorese people reject Indonesia's offer of autonomy for the province.
Nusa Dua -- Indonesia has agreed to allow Australia to reopen a consulate in East Timor as part of a push to settle the future of the troubled territory, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday.
Downer, who is taking part in talks with senior Indonesian Cabinet ministers on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, said Australia would provide "generous assistance" to East Timor whether it stays part of Indonesia or becomes independent.
He said Australia, which neighbors East Timor, would also be willing to help it cope during any transitional period.
Australia is also asking the United States, Japan and the European Union to set up an international diplomatic contact group on East Timor to work through relevant issues and perhaps coordinate aid.
Australia closed its consulate in East Timor's capital, Dili, in 1971 when the half-island territory was still a Portuguese colony. Indonesia invaded four years later and declared East Timor its 27th province in 1976.
"The Indonesian government is prepared in principle to allow us to proceed with the opening of our consulate," Downer said after he met Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas. Downer was unsure when the consulate would be operational but said the timing "would be in the not too distant future."
Indonesia has offered to grant East Timor independence if its people reject an autonomy offer now being negotiated with Portugal through U.N.-sponsored talks.
Recently, Australian Prime Minister John Howard raised concerns about a possible aid burden for his country should East Timor's people press for independence after more than two decades of guerrilla warfare and human rights abuses by the Indonesian military.
Despite this, Downer said Australia wouldn't limit its aid contribution. "We're prepared to provide generous assistance to East Timor whichever direction it goes," Downer said in reference to the alternatives of autonomy or independence.
Downer is scheduled to visit Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, on Thursday, where he is to meet President B.J. Habibie as well as jailed East Timorese resistance leader Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao, who was recently transferred from prison to house arrest.
Derek Fatchett, a minister of state in the British Foreign Office, said Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao and others suggested an election for an "embryonic national assembly" with candidates for and against autonomy for the former Portuguese colony controlled by Indonesia.
The assembly would then decide on autonomy, which it would likely reject in favour of independence, and thereby avoid a direct referendum that Indonesia vigorously opposes.
"It is seriously being considered (and) will be part of the next round of UN discussions between the Indonesians and Portuguese," Fatchett told a group of reporters on Wednesday.
He also echoed earlier calls from Portugal and said the UN should begin preparing for a major role during the territory's expected transition to independence.
The United Nations has been conducting talks between Indonesia and Portugal on an autonomy package expected to be completed when the two sides meet March 9-10. It is to be presented to the Timorese, who are expected to reject it, as a majority are believed to prefer independence.
The current impasse is over how the Timorese would make known their opinion of autonomy -- a setup that would give them internal political control over their affairs but leave defence and foreign relations in Jakarta's hands.
Jakarta strongly opposes a referendum or any other kind of vote, fearing civil war might break out and that other regions of its sprawling archipelago might also seek to break away.
Fatchett said Gusmao, whom Indonesia recently released from prison and put under house arrest, envisioned a lengthier process toward independence than might be feasible. "I feel events are going to move very quickly and we are going to have to be on top of those events," he said.
He said the UN should be planning, along with Portugal, to take over East Timor if Indonesia, which invaded the territory in 1975, fulfils its pledge to relinquish control once the autonomy package is rejected.
But he said he did not think a UN peacekeeping force would be needed if administrative structures and other civilian entities were set up quickly.
"Gusmao is talking in terms of building in the political process so you move toward some kind of government of national unity," he said. "That is the right definition of political leadership. Whether you can translate that on the ground, that is going to be the real challenge."
Geoffrey Barker, Bali -- "We have crossed the Rubicon. We are relaxed ... We have put every card on the table. There has been a sea change in the Indonesian position. We are not afraid."
Mr Ali Alatas, the veteran Indonesian Foreign Minister, wants Australians to understand that Jakarta is prepared to give East Timor whatever it wants to resolve as quickly as possible the problem of the former Portuguese colony which, he said, was "thrown into our lap".
If the East Timorese opt for autonomy within the Indonesian republic, "that will be fine with us"; if they choose independence, that too will be fine with Jakarta.
For almost an hour on Wednesday night Mr Alatas answered questions on East Timor from Australian journalists attending the Australia-Indonesia joint ministerial meeting. His performance was a tour de force of diplomatic persuasion, sometimes impassioned, sometimes cool, always controlled, never dull.
Despite advancing age and a perception the end of his long diplomatic career may be in sight, Mr Alatas is a class act in front of cameras in his black, yellow and white batik shirt. He listens intently and gives detailed answers without evasions.
He said it was too soon to reveal how Indonesia would ascertain the wishes of the East Timorese, although he insisted that Indonesia still opposed a referendum on East Timor.
Mr Alatas left no doubt that Indonesia's $US100 million a year financial support for East Timor would cease immediately if the province opted for independence -- a message leaving no doubt that Australia and other willing countries would face a substantial aid bill for an independent East Timor.
"The minute that separation happens, East Timor will become Portugal's baby again and the UN's," he said. "We will pay for our own army to be withdrawn; we will pay for our regional government to be withdrawn. But if they decide the time has come for the parting of the ways, then East Timor reverts to its original position as a non-self-governing territory under the UN with Portugal as its administering power.
"Don't ask us how that's going to be funded because it's not our business any more. Right? I mean, let's think clearly and logically: it's not our business any more to be held responsible."
Mr Alatas said Indonesia was offering East Timor the best of both worlds: a high degree of autonomy and freedom within a major nation. If it wanted to be a small and weak independent country, that was its business.
Mr Alatas conceded that Indonesia had made mistakes during the past 24 years in East Timor, the worst being the 1991 Dili massacre. "But we also put a lot of development money in there," he said.
Mr Alatas said Indonesia was concerned at the possibility of violent civil strife in East Timor if it opted for independence. "If there is one country vitally interested in East Timor not relapsing back into violence, it is our country -- even more than Australia," he said.
But Mr Alatas added that in East Timor "memories are very long ... there is a lot of vengeance and the vengeance runs deep". He said achieving reconciliation would be "a very difficult process in East Timor".
Jakarta -- East Timorese guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao will be allowed to leave the Jakarta residence where he is kept under house arrest for talks on the future of his bloodied homeland, an Indonesian official said on Wednesday.
"Xanana will be allowed to attend East Timorese talks between pro-independence and pro-integration figureheads which would be held in a neutral place outside his house," Indonesia's Ambassador at Large for East Timor, Lopez Da Cruz, told Reuters.
"We have notified Xanana and he has agreed to attend the meeting," Da Cruz said. Da Cruz added the meeting would be held as soon as possible but did not give a specific timeframe.
"Looking at Xanana's status it would be best to have the meeting in Jakarta," Da Cruz said when asked whether the meeting would take place in East Timor or not.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas told Reuters earlier this week that Gusmao would be eventually freed whether East Timor chooses to remain with Indonesia or become independent.
President B.J. Habibie wants the East Timor issue resolved by January. This means Gusmao, jailed for 20 years in 1992 for leading pro-independence rebels, could be released as soon as next year.
"Then he would be able to go back to East Timor, if he so desires, to take part in the setting up of an autonomous province in East Timor," Alatas said.
Special UN troops are likely to be sent to East Timor in March to disarm pro-integration and anti-integration civilian groups. It is evident that as long as arms are in the hands of civilan groups, shooting and killings will continue.
This was stated by the Indonesian chief of police Drs Silaen, quoting remarks made by Tamrat Samuel, a special UN envoy representing Jamsheed Marker, just before his departure from Dili.
Silaen went on to say that the police in East Timor would assist the UN troops in disarming the civilian groups. All ABRI forces are likely to be withdrawn from the territory with the exception of the police and Kamra (so-called people's security forces).
The armed groups likely to be monitored include Mahidi, Aitarak and Gardapaksi [all para-militaries], as well as Falintil.
Conditions in Dili continue to be extremely tense on Thursday. Every five metres along the main roads, pro-independence youths were blocking all the roads, armed with rocks, barbed wire, crowbars and sticks. They stayed out in force throughout the night. They burnt tires in Audian, East Dili. Government employees and schoolchildren were unable to reach their offices and schools the next morning because of the groups of young people along the roads.
There were sounds of gunfire from the security forces early in the morning but there were no casualties. They were believed to be warning shots to get the young people to leave. During the past two days, at least four pro-independence youngsters have been shot dead and member of the armed forces was beaten up.
On Wednesday, a schoolboy aged 18, Francisco da Conceicao de Ornay, was shot dead outside his home at 3.30pm while a student named Joaqim de Jesus, 24, died at midnight after being treated for several hours at a private clinic. The third victim was named as Sergeant Mario who was beaten to death by pro-independence youths.
The deputy military commander Colonel Mudjono said that a soldier, Sergeant Dominggos Berek, was beaten up by pro- independence youths as he was leaving a friend's house.
After this happened, a large crowd of youths quickly gathered. They moved in the direction of a truck that was passing by. Two of the youths jumped onto the moving truck and tried to force the people in the truck to hand over their weapons. As the truck passed a local army post, several people jumped out and fled into the army post.
Soldiers rushed to the place where the incident had occurred but they were surrounded by youths armed with a vareity of implements. The troops fired into the air but the youths refused to retreat. Someone in the crowd who was holding an M-16 fired it in the direction of the troops. Then a shot rang out and Francisco fell to the ground.
Sergeant Mario da Costa tried to help the troops break through the crowd and ran to the barracks of Company B. He was chased by the crowd and killed later that night.
[On February 26, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported that a score of Australian citizens, including an 11-person humanitarian aid team, departed East Timor on February 25 for security reasons, following threats by pro-Indonesia paramilitary groups. The Australian embassy in Jakarta ordered the aid workers to leave and advised its nationals to avoid travel to East Timor. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told journalists on the same day he had also received threats against Australians - James Balowski.]
[The following is a statement by the President of the CNRT, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, Commander of Falintil on Indonesia orchestrated violence in East Timor.]
Jakarta -- Once again we are being forced to shed tears of blood, but each drop of blood must motivate us to fight for peace!
We are faced with a great challenge. A new scenario has been placed before us on this difficult and painful path to freedom.
The ones who brought war to East Timor are now sitting back comfortably with their arms folded whilst inciting criminals to practice violence. Our enemies today are paid assassins who have launched a political campaign in support of integration, intimidating and killing people so as to impose autonomy as the final solution.
The "civil war" which they propagate is part of the campaign of terror and murder in support of autonomy, exposing Presiden Habibie's "good intentions" and ABRI's "goodwill" in the search for a solution to the problem of East Timor.
When the Jakarta government pays for the travel and hotel reservations of criminals and government employees to give the impression that a large number of people are demanding the retention of the status quo and asking for weapons to "wage war", we discern the hand of military intelligence who are refusing to accept the psychological defeat implicit in leaving East Timor.
When civilians are armed and form gangs like Mahidi and Merah Putih, we discern the hand of ABRI bent on creating instability.
As commander of Falintil, I hereby declare that we want peace but if ABRI wishes to continue the war, our fighters are ready for another 23 years of war.
As commander of Falintil, I herewith issue a final appeal to President Habibie. If he wants to continue the war, he should immediately inform the world that everything he has said since 28 January is nothing more than "political theatre".
The Indonesian Government must discard, once and for all, the methods used by the New Order and take responsibility for the blood and lives spilt in East Timor. Jakarta wants the world to think that the East Timorese dont understand each other and are killing each other, so as to justify ABRI's continue presence in East Timor.
For the past 23 years, we have waged resistance against the Indonesian military's invasion and occupation. We were forced to fight this war in order to achieve peace which can only be assured by total independence.
At the present juncture, we are, as we have always been, advocates of peace and of a genuine reconciliation between the East Timorese. We have made some progress but the assassins in the pay of military intelligence are trying to destroy our efforts in an attempt to force us to bend and submit to their deceptive, murderous methods.
I can understand why the people of Dili and all the people of East Timor want to rebel, but we must remain steadfast and firm in our struggle for peace.
We must let the true enemies of peace reveal themselves. We must hold back our tears and bear the pain because our tears and pain are cementing peace in East Timor.
To all those who are in favour of integration and who are in favour of independence and who today feel a sense of revulsion at the violence being organised and sanctioned by the Habibie government, the aim of which is to pit us against each other, I say: Please remain calm.
I appeal to the people of Dili not to panic but to form vigilant groups in the suburbs and to refrain from responding to provocation. Let us teach the Indonesian generals that the people of East Timor are politically mature and well versed in the attempts by the New Order to divert us from our determination to create peace in East Timor.
In conclusion, I convey my condolences to the relatives and friends of Francisco Conceicao Hornay and Joaquim de Jesus.
I appeal to the relatives of Mario da Costa to understand that his death occurred as a consequence of the deceptive, murderous games being played by those who don't want peace to prevail in East Timor.
[The following is a statement by Nobel Peace Laureate, Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, on Indonesia orchestrated violence in East Timor.]
Sydney -- There is abundant and well documented information concerning the Indonesian instigated violence in East Timor. Gangs of youth, unemployed, common criminals and drug addicts as well as Indonesian Muslim extremists are armed and given money by the authorities. Often, directly supported by soldiers, they launch murderous attacks against civilians in many parts of the country. Attacks have occurred in Turiskai, Same, Ainaro, Viqueque, Balibo, Atabae, Maubara, Liquica.
In spite of the fall of the dictator Suharto, and the positive pronouncements by President B.J. Habibie, old habits die hard. A culture of lies, deceit, arrogance, violence and corruption, deeply ingrained in Indonesia, is also it's legacy in East Timor.
Even though the Republic is thoroughly bankrupt, the Indonesian authorities are continuing the same policies of arrogance and violence against the people of East Timor, causing more suffering among our people and wasting the scarce resources provided to them by the international community.
The World Bank, IMF, and the rich industrialized countries continue to waste tax payers money to fund a country literally ruled by criminals. There are other countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia more deserving of international assistance.
Serbian ethnic cleansing in Bosnia pales by comparison with the savagery of the Javanese in Catholic East Timor, Christian West Papua and Muslim Aceh.
The Indonesian military have been directly implicated in the religious and ethnic violence in recent past. Mob violence is planned by the military, sometimes directed at Christians and ethnic Chinese, and other times directed at Muslims as it happened in Ambon and Kupang. A pattern of army instigated religious and ethnic violence is emerging not only in East Timor but in many parts of Indonesia.
The Suharto clique is directly implicated in destabilizing the entire region with its ill gotten fortune. An international criminal court should be established to try Suharto. His fortune stashed away overseas should be immediately frozen. An international warrant should be issued against Suharto and his son-in-law Gen. Prabowo.
The East Timorese resistance has exercised utmost restraint since the fall of the Suharto regime. But our patience is running out. We keep our options open as to our next course of action if the situation continues to deteriorate.
Time and again, the East Timorese resistance leadership has proposed an end to all armed activities in the territory. It has called for a permanent UN presence in the territory to monitor the situation. A UN peace keeping mission in the territory is now a matter of urgency.
I have proposed the creation of a safe heaven in East Timor where resistance fighters would assemble under international humanitarian protection. Indonesian troop presence should be scaled down and the remaining forces confined to designated areas.
All of the above has been rejected by the Indonesian side. Instead of reducing the number of troops in territory as it has been urged by the UN Secretary-General, US Administration, EU and Australia, the Indonesian authorities have increased the number of troops in the territory now numbering well over 20,000.
A militia of at least 1,000 criminals have been trained and armed to terrorize the civilian population. Many of the these criminals are not native East Timorese but rather are radical Indonesian Islamic youth members.
We reject as blatant hypocrisy the latest "proposal" by the Indonesian military commander in Dili that all armed groups should be disarmed -- the East Timorese Resistance Armed Forces (FALINTIL) and the gang of criminals -- while the Indonesian army would remain intact in East Timor.
The FALINTIL is as legitimate an army as those armies of national liberation that fought for independence in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe to mention a few.
The Indonesian army is in the same role as the racist white South African army in Namibia or the racist army of the white minority regime in Rhodesia. It is preposterous to say the least that such a gang of criminals should pretend to be a neutral force between the FALINTIL and the armed gangs on Jakarta's payroll.
Jakarta has always underestimated the East Timorese capacity to resist. We are determined to resist with all means at our disposal and we will not refrain from looking into means to increase the costs to Indonesia.
I find it hard to swallow that a country so thoroughly mismanaged, bankrupt, sunk under the weight of corruption and all sorts of crimes, a country so dependent on international hand- outs to feed its millions of starving people, should aspire to the status of a colonial power.
Indonesia should leave by January 2000 as President Habibie desires. No tears will be shed by the East Timorese people. When they finally leave, they will leave behind a country thoroughly destroyed, a society profoundly traumatized by its 23 year savage colonization, a culture of violence, corruption and lies that were alien to the East Timorese traditional society prior to 1975.
Beginning in January 2000, the UN should take over the Administration of the territory for a period of up to five years. With Indonesia relinquishing its claims to the territory, the door is wide open for the UN to move in and help prepare the territory for statehood.
The small group of "pro-Indonesia" elements should not fear an independent East Timor. They will realize that in an independent East Timor they will be real citizens of a proud country. In Indonesia they have been and will always be lackeys. Their own honor and self-esteem will be restored.
Doomsday comments about how East Timor would descend into civil war if the Indonesian army were to suddenly leave is like suggesting that Jews would start killing each other if Hitler had not slaughtered them first. The same doomsday scenarios were predicted by most commentators in regard to South Africa in the months preceding the establishment of black majority rule. These patronizing and racist comments ignore the role of the Indonesian army in East Timor in the last 23 years and the on-going campaign directly orchestrated by Jakarta to destabilize the territory.
The Indonesian army is not the "stabilizing force" as some commentators write. It could have been, it could be and it still has a chance to redeem itself. But the reality is that far from being a element of stability and the glue of the country's unity, the Indonesian army is in fact the most dangerous and destabilizing force in the archipelago.
Another argument is that East Timor is not viable economically. Is Indonesia viable? Yes, it is, thanks to an IMF bail-out package of over US$40 billion. It is viable, thanks to a US$10 billion package offered by tiny Singapore. It was viable as the World Bank, ignoring massive corruption and fraud, poured into Suharto's coffers more than US$20 billion over the past 30 years. East Timor will not need this amount of "generosity".
Commentators refer to Indonesia's "billions" poured into East Timor. We invite the Jakarta government to launch an audit into how these so-called "billions" were actually spent. We also would like an international audit into the tens of millions of dollars looted from our people's wealth -- our fine arabica coffee, sandal wood, marble, fisheries, that became monopolies owned by the Suharto family and the generals who invaded East Timor.
It would also be necessary to list the items carried away into ships anchored off the Dili harbor during the first days of the invasion in 1975. Refrigerators, cars, motorbikes, bed frames, mattresses and even doors and windows were carted away by the Indonesian soldiers sent into East Timor to "liberate" East Timor, Genghis Khan style. Trucks and cars were driven away into West Timor. The local Dili warehouse was emptied of millions of gallons of beer, wine, soft drinks, construction equipment.
The result of these audits would be most interesting indeed and would once and for all discredit Jakarta's claims and of its apologists that Jakarta poured "billions" into East Timor!
If any shame is left, if any sense of honor is there, if any sense of duty to the Republic is felt by the military hierarchy, there is chance for them to show it, leave East Timor now without causing more suffering to our people and shame to the Republic.
Dili -- Several thousand pro-independence supporters marched solemnly Thursday in East Timor's capital of Dili with the bodies of two activists who were slain in a clash.
Violence between rival groups has escalated in the former Portuguese colony since Indonesia offered last month to consider independence for the territory if the East Timorese reject an autonomy offer.
In a confrontation Wednesday, separatist activists stabbed to death a soldier and gunmen fired on the crowd, killing two people. Witnesses said pro-Indonesian armed civilians were behind the shootings.
On Thursday, thousands of youths paraded in the streets with the caskets of the slain pro-independence activists, Joaquim De Jesus and Francisco De Concecao. Some carried machetes and other weapons.
Funerals were scheduled for Friday in Santa Cruz cemetery, where Indonesian soldiers fired on pro-independence demonstrators, killing dozens.
In a written message to his supporters, separatist rebel chief Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao urged that the funerals be held quickly in order to head off the risk of more violence. Gusmao is being held under house arrest in Jakarta.
"East Timor's people want peace, but if the Indonesian military continues their violent actions, then [the pro- independence movement] is ready to face them like in 1975," Xanana said in the statement.
Col. Timbul Silaen, East Timor's police chief, appealed for restraint. "There's no need to kill. It's time to respect one another," Silaen said.
There were no reports of violence in Dili on Thursday. Security forces persuaded residents to dismantle barricades they had set up around the site of Wednesday's clash.
Dili -- Four people have been killed and five wounded in separate incidents in the East Timor districts of Maubara and Balibo, a top East Timorese resistance official told Lusa Tuesday.
Manuel Carrascalao is a member of the National Political Commission of the Timorese National Resistance Council (CNRT). He said that in Maubara, west of the capital Dili, three persons died and five were wounded in confrontations between local residents and a paramilitary group.
A different militia killed a village chief named Mendes in Balibo Tuesday, Carrascalao said. Mendes had reportedly refused to attend a meeting organized by the group.
Armed civilian militias favoring integration into Indonesia have become increasingly active in East Timor since January, when Jakarta announced it would withdraw from the territory if the East Timorese reject a proposal for enhanced autonomy within Indonesia.
Kasa -- About 1,500 pro-Indonesian demonstrators rallied Monday in East Timor to voice their support for autonomy and rejection of independence for the troubled territory.
Tensions have been rising in the former Portuguese colony amid fears of an escalation in fighting between groups that want to stay part of Indonesia or break away from it.
The fresh turbulence has come in the wake of Indonesia's offer to relinquish control of East Timor if its people reject an autonomy offer now being crafted in UN-sponsored talks.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it a year later, unleashing human rights abuses and a separatist rebel war.
The gathering in Kasa village, 2,100 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, was the second meeting organized by the Unity and Justice Forum, a pro-Indonesian group of East Timorese. A similar rally in the town of Balibo drew 10,000 people.
Autonomy "is the only option that can guarantee safety for the East Timorese in the future," said rally organizer Constantini Magno.
Nemecio Lopes de Carvalo, chief of Kasa village, accused independence supporters, including jailed rebel chief Xanana Gusmao, of imposing their opinions on others rather than promoting dialogue.
Indonesian authorities have often said that a referendum on independence could lead to civil war between rival factions.
Dili -- At least 250 members of the People's Security (Kamra) force who have just completed their training will be posted in six police districts (Polres) in East Timor, a police spokesman said.
East Timor Police spokesman Capt. Widodo DS said here Saturday the Kamra personnel would be distributed district-wise as follows: 100 men in Lautem, 57 in Baucau, 30 in Aileu, 29 in Liquisa, 30 in Ambeno and four in Viqueque.
Graduates of the next Kamra training program would be assigned to seven other police districts in the province, Widodo said.
"The Kamras do not carry fire arms but only handcuffs, a wooden stick, a shield and whistle," he said, adding that they would each receive a salary of Rp200,000 a month.
East Timor's Police were planing to recruit 1,000 people to be trained as civilian guards in four 250-man batches, he said.
"The civilian guards are needed to assist the regular police in performing their public duties which are getting more and more difficult with the increasing demands from the public," Widodo said.
Recently, thousands of people
hailing from outside East Timor left East Timor again as tensions between
pro-integration and pro-independence groups among the East Timorese people
rose following the Habibie government's announcement that it was considering
letting East Timor go if its wide autonomy proposal was rejected.
| Political/economic crisis |
Ambon -- About 700 people Friday held protests against security shootings on civilians here as Moslem-Christian violence that has so far claimed at least 18 lives entered its fourth day.
"We do not want to see reckless shooting of people again," said a woman who identified herself as Nelly, one of the group gathered outside the Maluku police headquarters in the riot-torn eastern Indonesian city.
The protesters had earlier Friday demonstrated at the nearby provincial military headquarters, then marched in an orderly fashion to the police building.
"Do not shoot the people any more," the crowd shouted, while others accused the police and army of shooting "innocent people" while leaving those guilty of violence untouched.
The protesters where unarmed and mostly Christians. Although noisy, they were not violent and did not cause any damage during their demonstration. Maluku police chief Colonel Karyono was scheduled to address the crowd, police officers at the headquarters said.
Christians have accused soldiers and police of being partial in the conflict, with most of the shooting victims of the past days being Christians.
"They [the security forces] appear to be one-sided, shooting our Christian brothers while letting Moslems, who had clearly started the bombings, go unpunished," said high school teacher Stanley Lawalata amid the noisy yells of the protestors at the police headquarters.
The demonstration came amid persistent violence around the Batu Merah area early on Friday. At least six shots were heard early on Friday from the Ahuru area, residents said, while smoke was also rising from the Moslem area in Batu Merah Dalam.
"I cannot approach the fire yet, but people here have told me that several fuel bombs had been thrown to houses in the Moslem quarters while it was still dark this morning," a local journalist trying to approach the area said.
Crowds armed with cutlasses, spears and arrows were preventing outsiders, including the police and soldiers, from entering the quarters.
Another resident said he had received reports from relatives that violent incidents were erupting in several areas around the Bay of Ambon, including on the way to the airport.
Shops, businesses and schools remained shut and there was no public transport on the streets of the city.
The renewed violence broke out in the Batu Merah Dalam area on Tuesday with fuel bombs thrown on several Christian houses from an adjacent hill.
At least 18 people have been killed since and over 100 houses torched, police have said, adding that at least four people had been killed on Thursday alone.
Residents said the death toll that day was higher because the violence was spread out over several areas.
Jonathan Head, Ambon -- One man has been killed and seven injured on the Indonesian island of Ambon after the security forces opened fire during renewed inter-religious fighting.
The clash broke out after two Muslim-owned houses were burnt down in the city of Ambon.
In Jakarta, a senior Indonesian military officer, Agus Wirahadikusumah, has warned that the armed forces no longer have sufficient resources to contain the unrest breaking out across the archipelago.
The latest outbreak of violernce came after two houses in a Muslim neighbourhood of Ambon were set ablaze by a home-made bomb. It should only have been a minor incident, but in today's highly charged atmosphere things quickly got out of control.
Swords and spears
Gangs of Muslim youths wearing white headbands and wielding swords and spears blocked the road to the airport. They were in an extremely emotional state, despite efforts by the army to calm them down. Just 50 metres away neighbouring Christians gathered, equally well-armed, wearing red headbands.
They attacked a car trying to get through their road block, smashing the windows and injuring a mother and child inside. The Christian youths then surged forward.
They were pushed back after the security forces let off a hail of gunfire. I saw one police officer lose control of himself and fire his revolver into the crowd. Several people were hit. One man's bleeding body was carried away by the by now hysterical Christian youths.
Conspiracy theories
It is impossible to understand where such violent emotions come from. Each side has its conspiracy theories involving sinister, well-funded forces from outside.
But the truth is that many of Ambon's young men seem to want to fight. During a recent so-called reconciliation meeting in a church one irate Christian demanded that the soldiers take off their uniforms and let the Ambonese finish the job themselves.
A police officer told me that morale was now very low throughout the armed forces. "We too are Christians and Muslims," he said, "how long will it be before we see divisions appear within our own ranks?" For now there is little the security forces can do in the face of such bitter religious hatred.
Thousands more Muslim immigrants are preparing to leave Ambon. Those staying behind say they are ready to fight to the death to defend themselves.
Jakarta -- Shoot-on-sight orders were issued to police as the death toll in fresh violence between two ethnic groups in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan rose to five when a mob attacked a police post, reports and police said Wednesday.
Two more badly mutilated bodies were found late Tuesday, the Kompas daily said, bringing the death toll of the violence that has spread to three sub-districts in Sambas district to five since Monday.
The deaths could not be immediately confirmed with the police in Singkawang, the main town of Sambas district. "It is quite possible but so far we have not received the report about the new findings [of bodies]," police Corporal Syamsu told AFP.
However, he confirmed a mob had attempted to attack the subdistrict police station in Tebas, the main town in the subdistrict of the same name where the violence initially broke out on Monday.
"It was already late yesterday [Tuesday] when a mob appeared and started to pelt the Tebas sub-district police post with stones, asking that the people seeking refuge there be turned over to them," Syamsu said.
He declined to give further details other than saying scores of villagers, mostly women and children, had holed up at the police station since Monday fearing attacks on their homes. The Kompas daily said police had fired warning shots to disperse the attackers.
West Kalimantan police chief Colonel Chaerul Rashid was quoted by the daily as having ordered officers to shoot on sight anyone trying to stir unrest in three sub-districts -- Tebas, Pemangkat and Jawai.
Police in Singkawang on Tuesday said the violence was between members of the Madurese ethnic group, orginally from the island of Madura off eastern Java, and the local Malay community.
Police said four people, including one member of the Madurese ethnic group, suspected of starting the violence had been detained.
Kompas said police also launched a search for weapons in the three sub-districts from late on Monday. They seized hundreds of weapons and several fuel bombs.
Syamsu said shops, businesses and schools remained closed in Tebas but a few shops had reopened in the two other subdistricts. Hundreds of police and soldiers have been deployed in the area, he said.
The trouble started when one one of those now detained refused to pay the fare on a public transport vehicle in Tebas on Sunday. The fare collector, from the Malay community, insisted that he pay.
Rudi later went to the collector's village of Semparuk and attacked him with a sickle, seriously wounding him, police has said.
The local Malay community responded by torching 20 houses in Tebas in the early hours of Monday. Another 18 houses were torched as violence spread to the two neighbouring subdistricts of Pemangkat and Jawai.
A mob also attacked a cabin housing road workers and killed two people there. A third man found dead in Tebas is also believed to have been killed by a mob.
Tebas, 145 kilometres north of the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak, witnessed an outbreak of violence in January between the ethnic Madurese and Malay communities in which three people died.
Ambon -- Boats carrying hundreds of refugees left a riot-torn Indonesian town today after deadly fighting between Muslims and Christians. At least 24 people have died in unrest in the region this week, a newspaper reported.
There were no reports of fresh violence in the city of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, and security forces escorted the few private cars that ventured onto the roads.
Religious violence swept many neighborhoods in the city on Tuesday and Wednesday, with mobs battling each other with swords, bows and arrows and gasoline bombs. Soldiers fired on the rioters repeatedly in an attempt to disperse them.
The death toll in rioting this week on two Maluku islands has risen to 24, said the Jawa Pos newspaper, citing its reporters on the scene.
Sixteen people died in the city of Ambon, which is situated on an island bearing the same name, the newspaper said. Another eight were killed in the neighboring island of Saparua.
More than 150 people have died in several Maluku islands this year in the worst rioting since the downfall of Suharto. Ambon is 1,400 miles east of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and is located in what was known in Dutch colonial times as the Spice Islands.
Today, many shops in the city were closed and fearful traders stayed home. Because of the scarcity, prices of fish and vegetables have risen between three and five times.
Thousands of residents, including children and elderly people, have fled the coastal city aboard chartered boats, said Hans Noya, an official at the local office of the ministry of religion.
In the rioting last month, more than 3,300 houses and two dozen churches and mosques were burned. Rioters burned hundreds of other houses in Ambon this week.
Jakarta -- A mass fight between two neighbouring villages in West Java left one man dead, eight others injured and more than 100 houses damaged, a report said here Monday.
The fight between people from Danamulya and Kedungsana villages in the Cirebon district on the northern coast of West Java erupted on Friday, the Suara Karya daily said.
Some 200 youths from Danamulya attacked the neighbouring village of Kedungsana in the early hours of Friday, injuring two local youths. A second attack was launched by the same attackers a few hours later but was thwarted by Kedungsana villagers.
A third attack, which then involved about 500 villagers from Danamulya took place on Friday afternoon, leaving six other villagers from Danamulya injured and a 60-year-old man dead, slashed with a machete, the daily said.
The attackers also burned one rattan warehouse, damaged about 100 houses in Danamulya and took away scores of chicken and goats.
The two villages have long been enemies and violence between the two has broken out three times since mid-February, the daily said. District police have been deployed in the area to prevent further fighting.
Jeremy Wagstaff, Legok -- The inhabitants of this flyblown hamlet are angry. They are angry about rising prices, the lack of jobs, and lingering government corruption, says village headman Effendi bin Musa. They are even annoyed with the ineffectiveness of Mr. Effendi himself, he concedes. But what really made the feathers fly was the price of chickens.
Last month, several hundred villagers, including some children and pregnant women, descended on the Cempaka Pam poultry farm on main street and spent the day looting. They waded across paddy fields, pushed down the main gate and climbed over wobbly fences, then made off with an estimated two to six chickens apiece, the farm's foreman says.
The reason? The farmowner looked like he was going to break with tradition, Mr. Effendi says, and not distribute cheap chickens and eggs ahead of an annual religious festival. "I sympathize with the people," the headman says, and "besides, I don't want to become a target myself."
Sweeping phenomenon
This may look like a strictly local squabble, far removed from the big-city sit-ins against President Habibie in Jakarta, and last month's killings among Muslims and Christians on the eastern island of Ambon. But it is part of a sweeping phenomenon in Indonesia's countryside that suggests social breakdown there is crossing a new threshold. Nationwide, police tick off a list of cocoa plantations, shrimp farms and teak forests that have been raided in recent months, over issues such as disputed land ownership and perceived heavy-handedness by officials. In central Java, one priest reckons that every plantation in his parish has been plundered.
Incidents like the Legok spree have ramifications echoing in Jakarta, an hour's drive from the chicken farm. The countryside is home to nearly half of Indonesia's work force. It is also home to some of the few industries -- cocoa and palm oil, for instance -- that are surviving and sometimes thriving amid the economic crisis.
Of course there have been angry outbursts in the countryside before. Last July, some 2,000 hectares of East Java coffee farms were looted, forcing farmers to appeal for military protection (farmers blamed local gangs). And earlier last year, a group of farmers in the mountains of West Java invaded a golf course and planted banana trees and cassava; a decade earlier, they had been evicted from the land. But those early incidents were relatively isolated.
Traditionally, villagers are slower than city dwellers to take law into their own hands. For one thing, it is hard to go on an anonymous looting spree when everybody in town knows you. But it is more than that. For decades, by controlling government jobs and spending down to the lowliest decisions, the old regime of former President Suharto maintained rigid control over the fabric of rural life. Jakarta had a hand in nearly everything: Choosing the village headman, getting villagers to use cement instead of mud in building their homes, even what kind of rice they could plant. The result: an obedient community steeped in resentment.
Now that fabric is coming loose. "People were bitter before, but now they feel stronger. Power has gone from the top and has been released everywhere, " says Indonesian anthropologist Bambang Rustanto.
Nationwide disintegration
The disintegration is already having nationwide effects. Along Java's main northern highway, so many trucks have been robbed while passing through the rice fields and villages bordering it, that police are under orders to shoot suspected hijackers on sight.
It is also changing the way villages like Legok work. Village headmen -- an elected post that is part mayor and part government watchman -- have been kicked out of their jobs by the hundreds by dissatisfied villagers since former President Suharto stepped down last May. In the district of Tangerang, around Legok, for instance, the homes of four headmen have been attacked in the past month alone.
Mr. Effendi says he hasn't felt those kinds of job pressures. He still walks proudly through the village, swapping greetings with locals and patting their children affectionately. But he is feeling the pinch. For example, he notes that villagers often traditionally look to him for financial help. But his main source of official income (a 10% commission on any land sales in his village) is drying up. No one has exchanged land in the past six months, he says.
"People see me as someone who can solve their problems," says the 34-year-old father of three. "I'd like to help, but I can't, as I have to survive myself," he says. "I'm confused."
When things do get out of hand in the countryside, it is usually provoked by something minor. In Legok, farm foreman, Arimun (who like many Indonesians uses only one name), got the first whiff of trouble when locals started hanging around his gate ahead of the festival of Idul Fitri, a key Islamic date when a month of fasting ends in elaborate feasting. The 3,000 or so inhabitants of Legok and two nearby villages were accustomed to receiving chickens cheap, since the factory -- the only village business that employs more than a handful of people -- was set up 20 years ago. "They started yelling at me, 'When will you start selling us chickens? If you don't we'll attack the farm,' " Mr. Arimun recalls.
In the early hours of the day of the spree, off-duty policeman Sgt. Sonani, who moonlights as a security guard at the chicken farm, turned up outside the front gate at the request of his boss. The presence of the stocky man with the gold wristwatch and tinted glasses would usually have been enough to intimidate residents. But this time, witnesses say, it didn't help.
When one youth -- no one seems willing or able to say who -- decided to scale the two-meter brick wall, the dam broke. "It was the one guy that made the others follow," says Mr. Effendi, who that morning had decided to take up a position at a food stall across the mud-track road.
Free-for-all looting
With that, it degenerated into a free-for-all for much of the day. Sgt. Sonani was left sprawling in the dirt after being jostled, scratched and heckled.
One of the few villagers to admit participating in the spree is Sobih, an out-of-work driver who says he joined only reluctantly. "From having my first-born to having my 13th child, I've not stolen a thing," he says in his house, a stone's throw from the farm. But "when I saw everyone coming out with chickens under their arms, I worried there weren't going to be any more to buy. So I helped myself to four."
Family members and neighbors crowding round the door nod sympathetically at his tale. But unfortunately Mr. Sobih, who looks at least a decade older than his 34 years, was too slow. Emerging from the farm around noon, he says he was stopped by Sgt. Sonani and asked to put down the chickens, which he did. He claims Sgt. Sonani gave him a kick anyway. (The policeman declined to comment, but other witnesses agreed with Mr. Sobih's account of the incident.)
The kicking galvanized the looters, several witnesses say. They resumed their spree in earnest, despite the arrival of a truckload of soldiers around that time. "They were still at it at four o'clock," Mr. Effendi says.
Mr. Arimun, the farm foreman, worked out that 1,450 of his 8,000 charges were missing. A month later police said they have made no arrests. "There were hundreds of people who stole our chickens. It might be hard to catch all of them," says one of the farm owners.
Still, everyone involved finds someone to blame. The village headman says the farm owners broke an unwritten contract to help the villagers, who Mr. Effendi says have had to endure the "smelly" farm. Mr. Arimun also criticizes his bosses -- they were "arrogant," he says. But he also blames the villagers. "It's not because they're poor or starving. They're just lazy, and take advantage," says Mr. Arimun. He himself hails from another part of Java.
Good intentions
The farm owners blame themselves: They were too generous before, they reckon. "Our good intentions lead to crime," says one of the owners, who goes by the name of Johnny. He confirmed that cheap birds were being phased out this year.
Police take a more evenhanded view. "People aren't afraid of the security apparatus, as they will do anything to eat," says Jakarta police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis.
Yet it isn't that black and white, even in Legok. There isn't enough work for men like Mr. Sobih, who watches the trucks he used to drive rumble past him every day to a sand mine several kilometers down the road. But there are some jobs for young women. A few kilometers in the other direction, a factory that manufactures shoes for Nike just hired 1,000 women. It reinforces the message in several recent World Bank studies, which have suggested that Indonesia's rural areas may be better equipped to cope with the downturn, thanks to dollar-earning export commodities and dismantling of government monopolies on some agrarian industries.
A week after the Legok looting spree there isn't much left to see of the session: a few dented and vacant chicken coops, some fence planks askew, a number of chickens running around the neighborhood which may or may not have come from the farm, and plenty of feathers.
But there has been other
fallout. Villagers now can buy five broken eggs for 1,000 rupiah (11 US
cents) -- before the riot they got only three -- and the farm owners have
drawn up a list of villagers deserving charity, Mr. Effendi says. "It should
be enough to keep things quiet until next year," he says.
| Aceh/West Papua |
Jakarta -- Community leaders from the far-eastern Indonesian province of Irian Jaya met President B.J. Habibie on Friday, some asking for independence for the resource-rich western half of New Guinea island.
But the 100-strong delegation was split, with some members instead pushing for autonomy within Indonesia instead.
"We told him we preferred to be independent," pro-independence leader Tom Beanal told reporters after the meeting. "During 35 years with Indonesia, we are not given happiness, instead we are killed and shot."
Pro-independence activists in Melanesian Irian Jaya have taken heart from mainly Asian Indonesia's offer to consider independence for East Timor.
But Irian Jaya governor Freddy Numberg said the province needed a wide range of autonomy instead to help develop the local people, many still living a stone-age lifestyle.
"The development in Irian should be coupled with developing the people so that Irianese can be the masters in their own land," he said.
Pro-independence protests have been mounting in Irian Jaya since the resignation of former president Suharto last May amid a ravaging economic crisis.
State Secretary Akbar Tanjung said that Habibie believed independence was not the option preferred by the majority of the Irianese people and that he understood calls for more autonomy.
Canberra -- Irian Jaya's expectations of self determination had been raised by a softening of Indonesia's stance on East Timor, a leading church official said today.
Executive member of the World Council of Churches, Clement John, said he had perceived a definite change in expectation in a recent trip to Irian Jaya.
Asked if the East Timor situation had increased hopes of a similar change for Irian Jaya he said: "Very much so, definitely".
"The expectations have really [increased] among the people that the same would apply to Irian Jaya," he told SBS radio.
A cross section of people he had met during his visit had wanted self-determination.
"The reason behind that is that people feel they have been exploited and abused by Indonesia.
"They feel they have been discriminated against and therefore the only way out of that for them is the right of self- determination."
Exploitation of Irian Jaya had been going on for years as it was rich in resources. "They have benefited very little and most of the profits have gone to other parts of Indonesia, " he said.
The World Council of Churches delegation had heard of the detention of people and of beatings by security forces, he said. "We also heard stories about innocent civilians being injured as a result of violations by the army," he said.
The council was calling for a national dialogue between Irian Jaya and Indonesia, which was supposed to have been held last year.
"We have recommended the special dialogue should go ahead because this provides a peaceful avenue for resolution to finding a solution to the demands of the people of Irian Jaya," he said. "They need to be heard."
Yusuf Puteh, the chair of the East Aceh Human Rights Forum (FP-HAM Aceh Timur) said his organisation believes that dozens of bodies are still lying at the bottom of Arakundo River, victims of the killings in Idi Cut on 3 February.
He said local people were disappointed by the unsatifactory nature of the investigations by divers from the company PT Arun who were sent to find bodies in the river. "We are initiating our own investigations and have five volunteer divers who will try to find the bodies of the missing people."
At the time of the Arun investigations, they offered to dive but were not allowed to do so, which aroused suspicions among the local people. "We hope the local authorities will assist us in these investigations," said Yusuf.
The local military commander, Colonel Wahab, as well as the local chief of police both denied claims that people are still missing. "No member of the public has reported any missing people to us," they both said separately.
But Yusuf Puteh said that local people were still in a state of trauma following the massacre by the security forces. "Don't expect anyone to go and report anything to the security forces. They are still as scared as if they had seen a ghost," he said.
The only way to lay this controvery about the number of missing to rest, he said, is for further investigations to be undertaken in the river.
"The local government and the military haven't yet given any figure for the number of missing people." According to the human rights group, there have been reports of altogether thirty missing people from members of the public. Lukman Hakim, another member of the group, said the names of the missing people would soon be made available to the authorities in Banda Aceh.
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.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta -- More than 1,000 workers at an Indonesian household appliances company were laid off after staging a nine-day protest in the eastern city of Surabaya to demand pay rises, legal aid officers and press reports said Wednesday.
Some 500 sacked workers Tuesday went to a local legal aid office to complain about their dismissal, but police allowed only ten of them in and sent the rest home, the Kompas daily said.
Director of the Surabaya Legal Aid Institute Indro Sugianto told AFP there was a dispute between the workers and the electronics division manager, who he said had not allowed the workers to say their Moslem prayers.
"That dispute had been settled by SPSI (labor union) and they could start work on Tuesday," Sugianto said.
But on Tuesday the workers saw a factory announcement demanding they applications if they wanted to go back to work, he added
Kompas quoted Suharto, the head of public relations at appliance manufacturer PT Maspion, as saying the workers had been absent from their jobs for 22 days.
They violated a labor regulation by leaving work for more than five consecutive days, Suharto said, citing a ministerial labor decree. Sugianto said the company had no grounds to fire the workers, adding it should have obtained permission from the central labor dispute dettlement office (P4P).
"As long as there's no permit issued by P4P, the working relation [with the company] is still in effect," said Sugianto.
According the Republika daily, the company fired the workers because the electronics division in which they worked was closed down.
"The company also demands we sign a statement not to stage demonstrations again," laborer Saeful was quoted by the daily as saying.
After days of mass protests by the workers, the owners and management PT Maspion, a giant electronic and household goods producer, last week agreed to meet employees' demands.
The company said in a statement that negotiators had 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 (about 22 cents) per person per day to 2,500 rupiah.
The statement 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 protestors held daily rallies in the for nine 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 during the protests when soldiers and police fired warning shots
and tear gas and mounted a baton charge to stop them entering the city,
witnesses said. Reports said five workers were arrested.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta -- An Indonesian rights groups on Wednesday alleged that a military court martial of 11 officers was being rigged to avoid prosecuting a son-in-law of former president Suharto, a release said.
"From the ongoing trial process it is evident that the judge and the prosecution have not carried out their functions as tools of the law," a Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) statement said.
The release said the military trial of officers from the Kopassus special forces on charges of abducting nine pro- democracy activists in the last months of the Suharto regime was conducted to avoid prosecuting Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, who during the kidnappings headed the force. Prabowo is married to one of Suharto's daughters.
"Based on the facts we concluded that the legal proceedings against the 11 Kopassus defendants ... is no more than a legal play to eliminate the responsibility of Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, who was most responsible for the operation," it added.
The release, signed by committee members Bambang Sugiyanto and Ori Rahman, came a day after the highest ranking of the 11 accused officiers told the court that he had set up a team of soldiers on his own initiative to abduct the nine activists.
The accused, Major Bambang Kristiono, said he set up the team to investigate "radical groups" allegedly seeking to disrupt the convention of the country's highest legislative assembly in March 1998 which was to re-elect Suharto.
"Following military chain of command it would have been impossible for a mid-ranking officer to carry out a special operation without a superior's order," the release said, especially as it had continued for months.
The rights groups charged that neither the judge nor the prosecutor had ever pursued questioning of the witnesses beyond their given statements.
The nine activists were the only ones to resurface out of 23 activists who went missing early last year. One was later found dead and the 13 others are still missing.
Press reports in August said Prabowo had admitted during a two-week investigation by the military's Officers Honorary Council that he had ordered the kidnappings.
The officers' council discharged Prabowo and two other senior officers for their role in the abduction and torture of activists. The court martial will reconvene on March 9 to hear sentencing demands by the prosecution.
It was the second time the
commision had condemned the court martial as a farce. In January commission
head, Munir said it was "impossible" given the rigid hierarchical nature
of the military for the 11 accused to have acted on their own.
| News & issues |
Bandung -- Student leaders agreed on Sunday after a three-day meeting to support the upcoming general election, which they have deemed unfair for being based on defective political laws, as they said to call off the election would lead to more trouble.
A total of 163 student leaders from 63 colleges and universities across the country conceded their stance may appear ambiguous, but said it was the best compromise given the wide differences of opinion they brought to the meeting at the Bandung Institute of Technology.
Delegates from outside of Java, for instance, saw the issues of regional autonomy and the curbing of military operations as more urgent than the elections. They also believed the most pressing problem was preventing disintegration.
As for the elections, Shoni Hamdani, of the Yogyakarta Teachers Training Institute, said: "How could it be fair if the military has already been given 38 seats at the House even before the contest begins? It's not even certain yet that parties contesting the elections will be able to get that many seats!" Among the issues that the students agreed on was their opposition to the military's presence in the legislature.
They disagreed on whether students should establish poll watch groups. Opponents to this idea said that monitoring the elections would be an endorsement of the exercise.
"However, we agreed that individual universities should decide their own course on the matter," he said. "[Some of us] agreed we could not accept the elections, but neither would we hinder it." The students agreed to set up what they called an "anti-violence network", and to continue pressing the political parties to build a new, democratic Indonesia free from any "Soehartoist elements".
Abdul Salam Sembiring from Medan, North Sumatra, said students would always support campaigns to form a new and democratic Indonesia, as long as the campaigns were peaceful and orderly. "That's what the people want, too," he said.
Meanwhile, the coordinator for the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel), Berlian Indriansyah, said also in Bandung that elections would be the gateway to a better Indonesia.
Berlian was quoted by Antara as saying the elections were now no longer a government responsibility but that of the nation, including the students.
Berlian, who is a student at the University of Indonesia's school of dentistry, said students should be involved not only in monitoring the elections but also educating the public.
Berlian said Unfrel has been working with various organizations such as the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) and the Independent Elections Monitoring Committee (KIPP) to prepare students for the poll monitoring activities.
Various universities have established their own poll watchdog groups, including the Indonesian Rectors Forum, which is in the process of recruiting 450,000 students and lecturers for the purpose.
Jakarta -- Former Indonesian president Suharto is to sue popular reform politician Amien Rais and two other people for defamation, a report said Saturday
"Pak Harto (a popular appelation for Suharto) can no longer stand it, being insulted by those figures," Suharto lawyer Muhammad Assegaf was quoted by the Media Indonesia daily as saying.
"Pak Harto feels his good name has been sullied and the best way out is to bring this [case] to court."
Assegaf said in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday that the suits would be directed against Rais, academic George Adicondro and economist Christianto Wibisono.
Rais has repeatedly accused Suharto of corruption, graft and collusion while he was president. He has also claimed members of Suharto family have offered him huge sums of money to draw him into their political sphere.
Adicondro, currently holding a research post at a university in Australia, has accussed the former president and his family of having plundered the country during Suharto's 32 year rule and listed many of their possessions abroad.
Wibisono, who moved to the United States following anti-ethnic Chinese violence here last year, has claimed he has evidence that Suharto's wealth here and abroad ran into the billions of dollars.
Assegaf said plans to take the three to court had been discussed by Suharto and a team of lawyers. "Suharto will demand the legal accountability of these individuals who have accused him," Assegaf said, without saying when legal action would be filed.
But Assegaf said he would not handle the suit against Rais because he was a member of the advisory council of the People's Mandate Party (PAN) headed by the politician.
Jakarta -- Minister of Defense/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto said on Tuesday he would summon Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, former chief of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), to question' him about a meeting at Kostrad headquarters one day after violent rioting in the capital.
He also told legislators that Prabowo, also former commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) and son-in law of former president Soeharto, could be brought to court for his involvement in the abduction of activists if required by the ongoing trial of 11 Kopassus members.
"I will call him (Prabowo) immediately to ask for his clarification of the May 14 meeting to let the public know whether it had anything to do with the rioting or not," he told the House of Representatives Commission I for defense and security
The commission urged him to summon Prabowo as soon as possible. Legislators said the public was confused over allegations that Prabowo was closely linked with the riots, despite the denials he sent through friends from Jordan, where he is now staying.
Noted businessman Hashim S. Djojohadikusumo, Prabowo's younger brother, has insisted there was nothing secret about the meeting, which was a "very normal meeting among friends".
Gozali Abbas of the United Development Party (PPP) raised questions about Prabowo's whereabouts. "We do not know whether he has escaped Indonesia. Many newspapers have reported he is in Germany and many others reported he is in Jordan. Why does he stay overseas while facing many problems at home?" A presidential spokeswoman, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, had earlier raised similar questions regarding Prabowo.
The ABRI commander said Prabowo could be brought to trial for his involvement in the abduction of political activists. "If the [ongoing] trial of 11 defendants proves that Prabowo was involved in the abduction, the latter will be brought to court," he said. Gozali has spoken of public amazement that the results of the Officers' Honor Council's inquiry into Prabowo's role in the abduction case had been separated from the ongoing trial, which Wiranto denied.
Wiranto repeated his explanation of the concentration of troops around the President's residence and the State Palace last May. President B.J. Habibie has said they were under the command of Prabowo. He had told a meeting of German and Asian editors that he had ordered Wiranto to disperse the troops.
His spokeswoman, Dewi, refuted Prabowo's statement regarding the deployment of troops. Prabowo said he aimed to protect the President, while Dewi said Habibie and his family had felt threatened.
Wiranto told the House: "There was no coup attempt at that time. While there has been speculation over Habibie's remarks to the editors' gathering, Wiranto insisted the statement was made to show that despite the unstable situation, ABRI was committed to remaining loyal to the 1945 Constitution.
Jakarta -- A son of former President Suharto has been charged with corruption, along with a former senior official and another businessman, an Indonesian official said Monday.
The case was handed over to prosecutors on Friday, said Antonius Sujata, a junior attorney general for special crimes. Prosecutors have seven days to decide whether they have enough evidence against the men to proceed to trial, Suyata said.
"They are charged with corruption," Suyata said. "If found guilty, the three could face a maximum penalty of 20 years."
The charges against Hutomo Mandala Putra, popularly known as Tommy Suharto, involve a 1997 land deal. The first in Suharto's family to face charges, though the regime was accused of rampant cronyism, he denies any wrongdoing.
The charges stem from a multimillion-dollar deal involving a real estate swap between the state logistics agency, called Bulog, and Goro, a private company partly owned by Tommy Suharto. The other two suspects are then-Bulog Chairman Beddu Amang and Goro President Ricardo Gelael.
Under the transaction, Goro built a retail center on land owned by Bulog in an affluent residential area of Jakarta. But Goro allegedly failed to give 63 hectares of land to Bulog, in violation of the agreement.
Sujata said violation of the agreement has cost the state 96 billion rupiahs, or about $10.6 million.
Jakarta -- The Indonesian authorities registered 141 Indonesian political parties in the first stage of filtering down numbers for the country's key June 7 national election, reports said Friday.
Seven other parties failed to complete all registration requirements by Thursday's deadline, Justice Ministry registration committee spokesman Bambang Wijono said, according to the Jakarta Post daily.
Next, a team of 11 public figures will check the parties' eligibility, looking into details such as the headquarters address, party constitution, leadership and membership around the country.
To qualify for the first general elections since the fall of former president Suharto last year, the parties must have branches in at least 14 of Indonesia's 27 provinces and in at least half of the districts in those provinces.
Included in the parties that got through the first test was the People's Democratic Party whose leader, Budiman Sujatmiko, is currently jailed for subversion. The party was outlawed under the Suharto government.
The Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle, headed by leading opposition politician Megawati Sukarnoputri, which was not recognised by the Suharto government, also qualified.
President B.J. Habibie, who took over when Suharto resigned last May, pledged elections on June 7 that will eventually lead to the appointment of a new president for a five year to start on January 1, 2000.
The June polls have been touted as the country's first fair and honest elections in decades.
The Suharto government allowed only three parties to contest elections. The others mushroomed almost overnight after Habibie scrapped the three party restriction.
[On February 23, Agence France Press reported that the Minister of Home Affairs, Syarwan Hamid, has speculated that the number of parties meeting all the requirements to take part in the elections would only be around 30 - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- After a meeting between three [government] bodies on Wednesday afternoon (24/2), the State Intelligence Coordinating Body (Bakin), the Department of Justice Political Party Registration Council (Depkeh) and the Political General Directorate of the Department of Home Affairs (Depdagri), the People's Democratic Party (PRD), has been officially registered as a political party.
The head of the Central Leadership Committee of the PRD, Faisol Reza, who was contacted by Pembaruan on Wednesday night confirmed that the PRD has been registered as a political party. However he explained that because the decision was may by the three special [government] bodies it sets a bad precedent for the development of democracy in the future.
Prior to the decision, the PRD held a press conference in the Depkeh waiting room over the Depkeh assessment that the PRD is still using political terms of the Old Order, such as progressive revolutionary and people's social democracy.
Faisol, who was accompanied by the head of the PRD's Department of Propaganda, Wilson, and lawyer Danil, said that in the era of reformasi Depkeh must accommodate different viewpoints. The basis of using Old Order terms was only a camouflage and political manipulation to prevent the PRD for from becoming formally and legally registered.
Faisol also explained that last year the PRD had already won a suit against the decision by the Minister of Home Affairs to ban the PRD as a political party.
Faisol himself predicted that the government, through the bureaucracy, will continue to try to create problems and even ban the PRD from participating in the coming general elections.
"There is a significant possibility that they will play around in the National Election Committee (KPU) in the next stage [of deciding which political parties are eligible to participate in the elections]", said Faisol. Nevertheless, the PRD will continue to try to participate in the general elections.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Pressure is mounting on President B.J. Habibie to clarify the substance of an alleged telephone conversation with his Attorney-General over investigations into former leader Suharto's wealth, as a senior opposition figure called for a parliamentary probe which could lead to impeachment proceedings.
As controversy raged over the conversation's authenticity, analysts said that Dr Habibie's continued public vitriol over the practice of phone tapping and the admission of a senior adviser that the phone call may be real offered fodder for the President's critics now crying for blood.
Mr Zarkasih Nur of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party (PPP) was the first to fire the opening salvo by calling on Dr Habibie to account for his actions.
The country's leading daily Kompas yesterday quoted him as saying that Parliament had the right to ask the President to explain why he had not adhered fully to a decree by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to investigate Mr Suharto. "What is the point of having such laws if we do not use them?" he said.
Others joined the fray but they pushed an even harder line by calling for impeachment proceedings.
Former Golkar legislator Sutradara Ginting said Parliament could call on the MPR to hold a special session to impeach the President if it found his explanation unacceptable.
Prominent activist Hendardi of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association went further by calling on the MPR to establish a special commission to investigate Dr Habibie's alleged abuse of power.
He was quoted in local papers yesterday as saying: "The investigation must be conducted fairly and in an open manner under the supervision of an independent body like the United Nations. If later proven guilty, President Habibie must face dismissal."
But the armed forces faction in Parliament downplayed such suggestions. Its leader, Lieutenant-General Hari Sabarno, said Dr Habibie could be impeached only if his policies were flawed and against national interests.
The furore over the alleged taped conversation broke out last week after the Panji Masyarakat weekly magazine ran a cover story carrying a transcript of a telephone conversation between Dr Habibie and Attorney-General Andi Ghalib.
The transcript indicated that the two were trying to make a probe into the alleged abuse of power by Mr Suharto easier for the ousted leader. In the same vein, they talked of possible legal action against three businessmen critical of the government.
The chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council and presidential adviser, Mr Baramuli, threw some light on the matter by confirming that a conversation did take place although he did not elaborate on its substance.
He did indicate, however, that military intelligence personnel might have been involved.
The military-link appeared to be gaining ground among political observers who say the "phone leak" could have been linked to the dismissal of former intelligence chief of the A-G's office Maj-Gen Syamsu Djalal.
[On February 27, the Straits Times said that in a tacit acknowledgement that it was his voice, Habibie told a senior aide that his comments were merely an expression of concern for Suharto's health. Dewi Fortuna Anwar told the Indonesian Observer "I've checked with Mr President himself. All he meant was that the interrogation should not take more than three hours because the person being questioned is an old man. What if he suddenly fainted, or even worse ... had a heart attack or something? It was just a consideration of his health. Nothing more than that." Anwar also said that the implication that there was a conspiracy to whitewash an official corruption probe into Suharto was "totally unreasonable". On January 25, the state news agency Antara, quoted presidential advisor, A.A. Baramuli, as saying "He (Ghalib) did not deny his conversation with the president. What he said was the conversation was not exactly like that, he said that he did not remember all (of the conversation) as (they both talked about many things)" - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- It is truly difficult to differentiate the Suharto New Order with the Habibie "Reform" Order. This was demonstrated when the Department of Justice Political Party Registration Council (P-4 Depkeh) delayed accepting the People's Democratic Party (PRD) registration [to participate in the July 7 general elections], Tuesday, because of the use of terms -- which according to P-4 Depkeh -- are from the period of the Old Order.
A number of terms were contended such as "Peoples Social Democracy" and "Progressive Revolutionary", which were considered by P-4 Depkeh as "leftist". Because of this, on Wednesday afternoon at 11am, the P-4 Depkeh team will hold a consultation [on the matter] with the Political General Directorate of the Department of Home Affairs and the State Intelligence Coordinating Body (Bakin).
According to one member of P-4 Depkeh, H. Mohammad Zein, the PRD had actually fulfilled all of the administrative requirements, however because of the terms they used, [their registrations] has been delayed as P-4 Depkeh wanted to "consult" with a number of "competent" government bodies. "It would be better, for example, if they used terms which were based on "consultation" in accordance with [the state ideology] of Pancasila", he said.
The actions of P-4 Depkeh disappointed PRD activists. According to PRD activist Faisol Reza, the arguments being used by P-4 Depkeh to reject the PRD's registration are like using the paradigm and forms of thinking of the Suharto Order which used terms such as "New Order" and "Old Order".
"This proves that the paradigm of the Habibie regime in managing the state is still the same as the Suharto regime", he said. As well as the PRD, a similar thing was experienced by the Indonesia Party (Partindo) which used the term "New Emerging Forces" in its constitution.
Meanwhile, sociological linguistic expert, Dr Dede Oetomo, said that in principle P-4 Depkeh should not be able to become a censorship body which take issue over terms used by political parties which are being registered. If they contest particular terms, that means that Depkeh is arbitrarily making an interpretation of meaning of language.
"This is just like the New Order government in shackling the political activities and critical thinking of pro-democracy activist. Do the members of the team still think they are living in the Suharto era"?, he said.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Jakarta -- Politicians, public figures and university rectors in Central Java have recommended that parties be permitted to campaign on campuses in the run-up to the June 7 general election.
The agreement was reached in a discussion at Amanda Hotel in Bandungan city over the weekend. It was attended by representatives of 112 universities in the province.
Rector of Semarang's Diponegoro University Professor Eko Budihardjo said campaigns on campuses must involve political analysts to ensure that bland propaganda is avoided.
He said parties must not invite huge numbers of supporters to join campaigns on campus. The mechanism of each campus campaign will be determined by each university's leaders, Antara reported.
"This aims to prove that campuses can be good referees for political parties contesting the election," said Eko.
Participants at the meeting agreed the government should be neutral in the election. Also, they said parties must not use public facilities or funds for the campaign period, which commences in early May.
The meeting said 25% of campaigns should be the noisy carnival atmosphere-type rallies attended by thousands of supporters, while 75% should be dialog campaigns.
Rectors said violence must be avoided during the campaign period. They said any violence would be the culpability of all people, whereas parties would be held responsible for any conflict.
Eko said parties wishing to campaign on campuses are banned from raising negative issues or badmouthing certain individuals. If that's the case, analysts say there won't be much to talk about, because Indonesia is chock full of negative issues.
Touching on the issue of money politics, Eko said 24 parties that have registered with Central Java's Socio-political Department have pledged not to buy votes.
As for ballot counting, the rectors said it must be witnessed by representatives of all election contestants, as well as election monitoring bodies.
The meeting called on the mass media to give the public political education, rather than create sensational news. The press should take part in election monitoring efforts, said the rectors.
Eko said the media should also set aside space for unbiased reports on the election, which is supposed to the nation's first fair and democratic poll in decades, even though some opposition figures are still languishing in jail. The campaign period will be held from May 8 to June 6.
Ujungpandang -- Regional police chiefs in Indonesia will be sacked if they defy an order from Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander General Wiranto to shoot rioters and criminals on the spot, says an official.
National Police Chief General Roesmanhadi yesterday said all military personnel must obey all instructions issued by their superiors.
"The shoot on the spot order is a must for all police officers in Indonesia, as it will boost the National Police's dignity," he said in South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang.
Roesmanhadi said wild demonstrators and rioters need to be shot because they tend to damage public facilities, burn down police stations and threaten political stability.
Vandalism by angry mobs over the past 12 months has left 80 police stations torched and hundreds more damaged.
"We cannot let them do it again. Apart from jeopardizing our officers, they also endanger citizens. I think enough is enough. They are already out of line, so I've ordered my troops to obey what the ABRI commander said. It's for the sake of national safety," Roesmanhadi said.
He claimed the shoot on the spot order is allowed by a 1990 United Nations convention, which stipulates that police must be granted necessary authority to conduct their work.
Commenting on recent riots in various areas of the sprawling archipelago, General Roesmanhadi admitted they are related because the same modus operandi has been used to spark them.
"The provocateurs enter the area a few months before the riot. They're like a reconnaissance group for a company and they start searching for potential conflict points in the area. If they find one, they'll encourage it to become the trigger of the riot. If they succeed, then they move on to make [riots] in another place."
Indonesia has been plagued by a wave of violence in recent months, much of it involving organized religious and ethnic riots, killing hundreds of people.
Officials have blamed the riots on "unspecified instigators", who many analysts believe are linked to former president Soeharto. However, the corpulent ex-leader has denied all allegations.
Analysts say the main riot instigators could be two officials of the Pemuda Pancasila youth group - Yorrys and Yapto.
Cities that have borne the brunt of recent religious riots between Muslims and Christians include Ambon in Maluku, Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, as well as Ketapang neighborhood in Jakarta.
Roesmanhadi warned that provocateurs will be targeting South Sulawesi, Bali, East Java and North Sumatra, to instigate more riots.
"Based on data and analysis [those areas] ... are the most vulnerable to further rioting ... I therefore come here to remind all sides to remain alert and avert provocation by instigators," he said.
He claimed it's difficult to capture provocateurs, due to a lack of evidence found by military authorities. The police chief argued that provocateurs "disappear" and leave the scenes of incidents soon after violence erupts.
"They set up a modus operandi one or two months before the incidents. They are in place to sow the seeds of division and to set the date for the riots, then they just begin to launch provocative actions," he added.
Analysts say the military could capture the instigators if it was serious about stopping the riots. Recently a group of provocateurs was kicked out of Pekanbaru, Riau province, for planning to incite a mass riot.
Police never bothered to
arrest the youths, who were allegedly from Pemuda Pancasila. Also many
Pemuda Pancasila youths were allegedly detained when leaving Ambon after
the January mass riots, but police officials are yet to clarify the matter.
| Miscellaneous |
On 28 January 1999, Parliament adopted three laws to replace the five political laws promulgated in 1985. The laws are about the elections, political parties and the composition of the parliament, the people's consultative assembly and the regional assemblies.
Under the new laws, the Indonesian people will vote for their members of parliament whose task it will be to adopt laws after the coming to power of a new administration. But, the fact that the members of the present parliament who drafted these laws were elected under Suharto casts doubt on the fairness and neutrality of the forthcoming general election which is scheduled to take place on 7 June 1999.
We present below some of the more critical and important aspects of the election and the possibility for creating a democratic society by means of these elections.
The political structure
Under Indonesia's political structure, eligible political parties will contest for seats in the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat -- DPR (Parliament) while members of the DPR will automatically become members of the Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat -- MPR (People's Consultative Assembly). The DPR will have 500 seats and the MPR will consist of the 500 DPR members plus 200 government appointees -- 135 regional representatives and 65 representatives of social and mass organisations. The MPR will elect the president and vice president and decide on the Broad Guidelines of State Policy (Garis Besar Haluan Negara). There will also be elections for the provincial and district assemblies.
The system
The election will be based on a multiparty system. However, the vast majority of parties that have been set up will not be eligible to take part for reasons explained below. It will be held under a system of proportional representation at the provincial level. According to the law on the election, to be eligible to take part in the elections, a party must have branches in at least nine provinces, and in half the districts in each of these nine provinces. Dozens of parties will not meet these conditions.
Each political party will compete in the 27 provinces with their own candidate lists for national seats (DPR), provincial seats (DPRD-I) and district level seats (DPRD-II). Voters will elect by piercing the symbol of their party.
The contesting parties
The new laws seem to open new possibilities for every Indonesian to take part for the first time since 1955 in a democratic election. The laws do not stipulate formal limitations on political parties for participating in the election. But, under procedural regulations accompanying the laws, the number of parties eligible to take part will probably not exceed 15, although more than 150 parties now exist.
The voters
All Indonesian citizens above 17 will have the right to vote (married people under 17 will also be allowed to vote). According to the latest figures (based on the 1997 election) 124.7 million out of a population of more than 210 million people will be entitled to vote.
The organisation of the elections
Until the beginning of March, the Lembaga Pemilihan Umum -- LPU (The General Election Institute) headed by Minister of Home Affairs was responsible for handling preparations for election (such as determining the election schedule). From then on, the organisation of the election will be taken over by a new body, the Komite Pemilihan Umum -- KPU (Election Committee), composed of government officials and representatives of the parties which are eligible to take part.
As from 1 March, the KPU will be responsible for the conduct of the election. The KPU will be in charge of voter registration, the nomination of candidates, campaign arrangements, the polling and counting the votes at the polling stations.
The timetable
The armed forces
The worst defect is the designation of seats in the DPR for ABRI, the armed forces. ABRI's insistence on retaining these seats is a manifestation of the army's dwifungsi or dual function, giving it a social and political role as well as being a force for the country's defence. The dual -function is the main obstacle to democracy in Indonesia. Under the new laws, the armed forces, whose members will not be entitled to vote in the elections, will occupy 38 DPR seats with full voting rights, leaving 462 seats for the political parties which contest seats. This means that the 38 ABRI seats in parliament will represent the equivalent of 9 to 10 million votes!
In the provincial and district-level parliaments, the armed forces will occupy ten per cent of the seats without contesting in the elections. At present, the armed forces occupy half of the nation's governor positions, while forty per cent of district heads are from ABRI. By retaining seats the regional assemblies they will be able to influence appointments of governors and district heads.
The second abuse of democracy is the appointment of two hundred members to the MPR by the present transitional government. There will be 135 seats for regional appointees and 65 for community and social groups. This gives plenty of leeway for ABRI and Golkar (the government party which holds the vast majority of seats in the present parliament) to promote their own appointees, so as to be able to have undue influence on the election of the next president.
Participation
The third serious defect is the exclusion of ethnic and local communities from participating in the election of national and regional parliaments. The stipulation that parties must have branches in at least one third of all provinces means that local or ethnic groups will not have their own representatives in parliament. For instance, Acehnese or Papuan political parties will not be able to participate in the elections. The new laws are seriously skewed in favour of Java-based, nationwide parties. In a country of such ethnic diversity as Indonesia, this is a grave drawback. The same rules will also apply to the provincial and district assemblies which will be rendered incapable of representing the local communities.
Discrimination
Under the new laws, civil servants are barred from joining political parties without the approval of their superiors. Any civil servant who joins a political party must take leave of absence, while being entitled to draw his or her basic pay for at least one year, which can be extended to five years. Civil servants who failed to report membership of a political party will be fired. This regulation was fiercely contested because the small parties in Parliament recognised that it would benefit Golkar, the party which most civil servants are likely to join. Ultimately, it was the Golkar line that prevailed.
Another problem is that during the Suharto era, the Election Committee set up a Tim Penelitian Khusus -- Litsus (Special Investigation Team) to screen party candidates for alleged communist influence. Anyone alleged to be a communist or their descendant or close relative was disenfranchised. This time, Interior Minister Syarwan Hamid said that there was not enough time for the Election Committee to create screening bodies so the task was given to each party, without making it clear whether the government intends to abolish this discriminatory policy or not. As things stand, it would appear that the parties allowed to contest in the elections will be expected to screen their own members for any alleged communist background. Former communists and their relatives will have the right to vote but not to be elected.
Fairness
It is too early to determine whether the electoral process will be truly free and fair for all political parties which are deemed to comply with the criteria. Although the government will allow independent observers to monitor the elections, it will be difficult for such bodies to cover an election that will take place in 300,000 polling stations, especially in the more remote parts of the country where cheating or vote-buying could occur without drawing much attention. Besides, government domination over the administration of the election process such as voter registration, nomination of candidates, voting and counting of votes in the polling stations from top to bottom also raises the prospect of manipulation and fraud. There is also the possibility of money politics being practised by the ruling party to buy votes or use bribery to influence people to vote for Golkar. Another spectre hanging over the election is the use of violence to intimidate voters. Violence which became part of the state culture under Suharto is now over-shadowing political and social life in Indonesia on a frightening scale. The eruption of violent incidents as the elections draw near could seriously jeopardise Indonesia's first post-Suharto general election.