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ASIET Net News 15 – April 12-18, 1999
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- Indonesian police forced hundreds of anti-government and anti-military protesters away from a state-run radio station on Tuesday. At least five students were seriously injured, witnesses said.
Witnesses said about 500 students in the West Java capital of Bandung were blocked in front of the RRI station after marching to protest the ruling Golkar party and the military. Bandung is 110 miles southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
"Golkar has to be disbanded and ABRI [the military] should stay out of socio-political affairs of state," said a student who identified himself only as Bambang.
In Jakarta, hundreds of other students protested outside the Parliament on Tuesday, urging Indonesians to boycott the June 7 general election, which they claim will not be fair or democratic.
About 800 university and high school students gathered in two groups near the legislature. They were blocked by several hundred troops.
There were no reports of violence. However, a major road outside the Parliament was closed, causing a downtown traffic jam. Tuesday's protest was the biggest in Jakarta for many weeks.
Demonstrations by tens of thousands of students in May last year led to the resignation of authoritarian President Suharto, who had ruled the world's fourth-most populous nation for 32 years.
Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie, has called the June election and promises it will be the freest ballot held since 1955.
Forty-eight political parties are to contest the election, compared with only three officially sanctioned parties permitted during Suharto's era.
Students are still unhappy about the scope and pace of political change, however. They have demanded that Habibie resign and a transitional government be put in place to enact sweeping political reforms.
"We reject the election because it is only a way to maintain the status quo," said Samin, a protest organizer. "We also demand Habibie step down because he has proved to be incapable." One banner unfurled at Tuesday's protest said: "Reject Election, Reject Habibie."
In a related development, an imprisoned political activist remained in a Jakarta hospital on Tuesday, continuing a hunger strike to protest the election.
Budiman Sudjatmiko, general chairman of the People's Democratic Party, and six other officials of the party launched the hunger strike seven days ago. Budiman was hospitalized on Monday.
Nurul Hidayati, Jakarta - The hunger strike by Budiman Sudjatmiko and his friends has finally ended. On the advice of the doctor who is treating them, the chairperson of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and his other colleges, ended their action on Tuesday, April 13.
Budiman, Pranowo and Kurniawan are still being treated at the Kramatjati Police Hospital in East Jakarta. They will [continue] to be treated for the next 2-3 days. After that they will be returned to the Cipinang Prison.
Meanwhile the other four who were on a hunger strike at Cipinang Prison have also stopped their action.
Although they are still very weak, Budiman has received a number of journalists for interviews. From the interviews [it was clear that] Budiman could still state his arguments. He protested the statement by the Minister of Justice, Muladi, who likened a hunger strike with suicide. Muladi's statement was made to journalists last Monday at the national Parliament.
"We did not go on a hunger strike to kill ourselves. This action was aimed to ensure that the elections would be free and fair", explained Budiman. Aside from that, with this action it was hoped that the government would soon release the PRD activists who are still in jail. The hunger strike began on Tuesday, April 6.
[Translated by James Balowski]
Jakarta -- Three jailed Indonesian politicians were in a critical condition in a police hospital Tuesday after staging a week-long hunger strike, their lawyer said.
"Until late last night, the condition of Budiman [Sujatmiko] was very bad ... he is being fed intravenously in hospital," lawyer Johnson Panjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid Council said.
Sujatmiko, the head of the once-outlawed People's Democratic Party and PRD members Ignatius Pranowo and Jakob Eko Kurniawan have all been admitted to the police Kramatjati hospital.
Four other members of the party have joined them in the hunger strike which began on Tuesday of last week.
Officials of the Cipinang prison in East Jakarta allowed two of the strikers to be taken to hospital Sunday, and Budiman was rushed there Monday after he vomited blood.
Panjaitan said the jailed members of PRD, which was outlawed as subversive under the government of former president Suharto, were striking to demand that the government hold fair and honest general elections.
The elections, the first since the resignation of Suharto in May, 1998, are scheduled for June 7.
"They demand that the election process is carried out fair and honestly and without violence. That also includes not having ministers campaigning in the elections," Panjaitan said.
Justice Minister Muladi dismissed the strike as "weird," the Jakarta Post daily said. "His demand is weird. [The poll] has not yet happened, we are all fussing about the issue ... just how could we meet such a demand?" the Post quoted Muladi as saying. "Free and fair is a sure thing. And I ... am risking all to make it happen," he added.
"Budiman said that the goverment treats the elections like a project. With ministers allowed to campaign and doing much of if before the allotted time, this is already a breach in a fair election, that is just one aspect of it," he added.
Panjaitan said the justice ministry had ignored his clients' demands. "They have paid no attention whatsoever," he said. He identified the other four hunger strikers as Suroso, Petrus Aryanto, Garda Sembiring and Anom Astika.
Two physicians brought to Cipinang jail by Panjaitan on Sunday had suggested that Kurniawan, Budiman, Pranowo and Suroso be hospitalized immediately, the lawyer said.
"Especially Suroso who has also been coughing blood, but the prison itself has to make a recommendation [to the correctional facilities administration] for him to be taken to hospital. I guess they won't do it until after they collapse first," Panjaitan added. Panjaitan also said Astika also had a kidney condition.
The government of President B.J. Habibie has legalized the PRD, and it too is contesting the June 7 polls. Budiman, who is serving a 13-year sentence on subversion charges, has rejected a presidential pardon, saying he should instead receive a complete amnesty, as he had committed no crime.
Jakarta -- Entering the sixth day of a hunger strike at the Cipinang prison, five leaders of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) are in a critical condition. Two of them had to be rushed to hospital.
At around 6.25pm, Ignatius Pranowo and Jakob Eko Kurniawan were rushed to the Kramatjati Police Hospital. Both of them are being treated in the emergency ward. The chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, Petrus Haryanto, and Suroso are also in a critical condition but are continuing their hunger strike.
The PRD leaders have been on a hunger strike since Tuesday, April 6, demanding honest and fair elections. Their lawyer, Johnson Panjaitan, told Media last night that his clients will continue the hunger strike until there is a response to their demands.
Pranowo and Kurniawan have been in a critical condition since Friday and are vomiting blood. According to Panjaitan, the prison doctor was late in examining his clients although they had been contacted by prison staff [as early as] Saturday. Two volunteer doctors -- Setiawan and Widodo -- arrived at the Cipinang Prison on Sunday afternoon.
Dr Widodo has advised them to end the hunger strike but Budiman, who blood pressure continues to fall, said that they would continue the hunger strike. Panjaitan said that Budiman is suffering a liver complaint.
Information obtained from the Police hospital said that Pranowo and Kurniawan are receiving infusions and hospital staff said that they are extremely week. A press release by the Central Leadership Committee of the PRD, which was received by Media yesterday, described the chronology of the hunger strike. Entering the fifth day of the hunger strike, Saturday, their condition was already critical. Budiman was unable to rise from his bed, Pranowo was vomiting blood and Kurniawan was suffering pains in his stomach. From 9pm Saturday until yesterday, Pranowo's and Kurniawan's health has worsened.
Panjaitan said that the prison doctor must take responsibility for his client's condition. He explained that on Saturday the prison doctor had already been contacted by prison staff, however the doctor was not prepared to go to the prison. "I deeply regret that the prison doctor was late in handing my clients [case]", he said.
Meanwhile Cipinang Prison staff, contacted by Media last night, explained that although Budiman's condition had already reached a critical stage, there was no order to take him to hospital.
Budiman, according to prison staff, was not prepared to be treated at the police hospital. He asked to be treated at the Cikini or Carolus hospital, but this was not agreed to.
[Translated by James Balowski]
| East Timor |
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- The Portuguese colonialists who ruled East Timor for more than 400 years are fondly remembered for introducing Timorese to the art of the siesta.
Between noon and 3pm most towns and villages close for business. But tomorrow few people in the capital, Dili, will be asleep. Mr Eurico Guterres has seen to that. A statement from the East Timor Pro-Integration Centre, based in Dili, declared this week that Mr Guterres will lead a so-called "invade Dili" rally of more than 10,000 people.
According to the statement, the rally and several others planned over the weekend are "just intended to prove who really is the majority" in East Timor: people who want East Timor to remain part of Indonesia or those who want independence.
If the rallies go ahead they will be a blatant act of provocation of a predominantly Catholic population still in shock over last week's massacre of up to 62 people who had sought refuge at the Liquica church and priest's house west of Dili.
Sporadic killings have continued every day throughout the territory since the massacre, with pro-independence guerrillas loyal to Jose "Xanana" Gusmao responding to his call to take up arms to stop Timorese being "slaughtered by animals".
Pro-independence activists and human rights investigators in Dili urge outsiders to take a look at the background of the leaders of the pro-integration push, like Mr Guterres, who seem determined to sabotage a scheduled vote in July on an Indonesian offer of wide-ranging autonomy for 800,000 Timorese and may even provoke a civil war.
According to the Foundation for Legal and Human Rights based in Dili, Mr Guterres formed a crime gang in 1988 and is known as the leader of gambling rackets in Dili. The gang has close links to Indonesian security forces in East Timor although that was not always the case. In the early 1990s Mr Guterres was detained by authorities on suspicion of involvement in a plot to kill former President Soeharto.
After his release he became a member of a group strongly opposed to independence which was set up by the Jakarta-appointed governor, Mr Abilio Soares, with the support of the Indonesian Army's Special Forces, Kopassus, then under the command of Mr Soeharto's son-in-law, Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto.
Mr Prabowo and his father in-law are now disgraced figures in Indonesia. Mr Prabowo is living in exile, apparently afraid to come home because of allegations he was responsible for human rights abuses when he was one of Indonesia's most powerful generals.
After Indonesia announced in January the possibility that East Timor could become independent if the people reject the autonomy package, Mr Guterres vowed to stop it happening. His gang was re-named Aitarak, meaning "Thorn".
Aitarak has some unsavory allies. Mr Guterres has announced his fighters will be joined in Dili this weekend by members of the Besi Merah Putih, which translates into Red and White Iron. Red and white are the colors of Indonesia's flag. It was this gang who attacked the Liquica church in the worst violence in East Timor since the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in Dili.
The Besi Merah Putih are under the command of Manuel de Sousa, who also has strong links to the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI). The Liquica massacre was the worst atrocity committed by Mr de Sousa's thugs but not the first. In February the gang, accompanied by Indonesian soldiers, attacked a village in the Liquica district called Guiso, arrested and then tortured women and children.
According to Indonesian and international human rights groups, the escalating violence since January is directly attributable to the actions of anti-independence civilian militias, many of which were given weapons by ABRI and acted with the open support of district and sub-district military commands.
Ms Sidney Jones, the executive director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said this week that before a ballot could be conducted in East Timor, "the militias have to be disarmed and some kind of security provided". But she adds: "The Indonesian army cannot provide that security; it is hardly perceived as impartial."
The big unanswered question is how far up the chain of command does support for the militias go? Most Western diplomats in Jakarta are giving the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, the benefit of the doubt. But an alternative possibility is also cause for alarm: he has lost control of his troops in a far-flung province.
Peter Cole-Adams -- No strategy is less flattering to a government than playing a waiting game. The appearance of impotence is unbecoming and, if the wait ends in failure, downright humiliating.
John Howard and Alexander Downer are locked into just such a wait-and-pray approach to the East Timor issue. With the security situation in the territory deteriorating, they have invested all their hopes in a United Nations-sponsored process, which is supposed to allow the East Timorese people to decide their future in July. This means they have also invested a lot of their own credibility in the capacity and willingness of the Indonesian Government to maintain security and a semblance of fair play.
Just at the moment, this seems a perilous gamble, and Downer and Howard know it. A note of impatience has crept into their tactful rhetoric, although it has fallen well short of the anger that critics thought appropriate after last week's killings in the East Timor town of Liquica. Indonesian soldiers are reported to have participated in, or at least done nothing to prevent, the violence.
Howard said he hoped the Indonesian Government did not have a sinister agenda ("I prefer to believe now it doesn't," he added), and admitted to a "worry about discipline in sections of ABRI [the armed forces]". Downer said flatly the Indonesian military was not providing sufficient security and called on it to act impartially.
Privately, senior Government sources say that, while they believe President Habibie is sincere about offering the East Timorese autonomy or allowing independence, they fear the Government and the ABRI chief, General Wiranto, have little control over some military elements in East Timor and at the regional command based in Denpasar, Bali.
They suspect Jakarta of being disingenuous in its response, or lack of it, to repeated Australian representations on the issue of disarming the East Timor militias. "In their hearts they think the pro-integrationists need a capacity for self-defence," said one source.
Despite these doubts and fears, and the mounting mayhem in East Timor, Canberra insists there is no sensible alternative to the process put forward by the UN. The next test of that is due on April 22, when the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal meet at the UN in New York.
If they agree on the autonomy proposal that Jakarta is to present to the East Timorese, the way will theoretically be clear to start sending a substantial confidence-building UN presence to help organise and monitor some form of ballot to discover whether the East Timorese want to remain part of Indonesia or be independent.
The role of the UN team, which would involve Australians, would be essentially civilian, although it might include some soldiers or police with specialist qualifications. Preparations are well advanced and the hope is that, once the UN people are on the ground, tensions will ease.
Downer is adamant there is no chance the Indonesians will accept an international peacekeeping force in the territory, at least not unless and until it opts for independence.
As he put it recently: "If you want to send a peacekeeping force you have to have [a country] willing to receive it, otherwise you are going to declare war on them ... Indonesia does not, at the moment, want such a force and would not agree to one."
By Thursday, he was adding a firm rider. Given Indonesia's rejection of any international interference in what it regards as internal affairs, he argued, Jakarta must accept its responsibility to act impartially to restore security in East Timor.
However, apart from stamping its diplomatic foot a little more emphatically, and offering to contribute to the proposed UN presence, the Australian Government gives no sign that it has a Plan B should the security situation in the territory deteriorate to the point where a ballot is not feasible.
A senior official admitted privately this week that this could happen and warned that, if it did, Indonesia, beset by problems elsewhere in the archipelago, might simply walk out, leaving the East Timorese to a civil war.
There is another scenario: instead of packing their kitbags, the local ABRI troops, with or without Jakarta's blessing, might back the pro-integrationist militias in waging all-out war on pro- independence guerillas to ensure that the territory (or at least the part adjoining West Timor) remain part of Indonesia. After all, a lot of their colleagues have died there.
Either way, it doesn't bear thinking about. But Australians may yet have to.
"The Indonesian Government and Armed Forces (ABRI) are failing to protect East Timorese pro-independence supporters despite warnings of attacks by paramilitaries in East Timor, this weekend", Amnesty International said.
Following a rally of some 1,500 paramilitary members in the streets of Dili, capital of East Timor, attacks have been carried out on the homes of pro-independence supporters.
Among those targeted have been Manuel Carrascalao, former member of parliament, and Leandru Ishac, deputy head of the political wing of the East Timorese resistance, the National Council of East Timorese Resistance (CNRT).
Several refugees seeking shelter in Manuel Carrascalao's house are known to have been killed by the paramilitary units in the assault. Although the precise number of those killed is not clear ABRI have reportedly admitted that eight people have died. Two foreign journalists were threatened and beaten as they tried to escape from the assault.
"If there was ever any doubt about the complicity of the Indonesian military in the pro-integration paramilitary activities in East Timor, its refusal to act to stop the attacks this weekend confirms its role", said Amnesty International.
There are now grave fears for the safety of pro-independence supporters, human rights monitors and journalists. The Indonesian Armed Forces must be pressured to act to stop the violence by the paramilitary units.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas is due to agree with the Portuguese Government on an autonomy package for East Timor on 22 April at the United Nations in New York.
"It is difficult to see how Indonesia can continue to negotiate on the autonomy package in good faith when its forces are allowing paramilitary units to wage a campaign of terror on the population of East Timor", said Amnesty International.
Amnesty International is calling for immediate disarming and disbanding of paramilitary units and the deployment of UN human rights monitors to East Timor.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- A confidential Australian embassy report on the killing of East Timorese civilians in the town of Liquica concludes that allegations of a massacre are plausible and accuses the Indonesian military of colluding with militia forces in the lead-up to the incident.
The report prepared by two Jakarta-based diplomats also confirms the military failed to take steps to stop the killings in the grounds of the Catholic church in Liquica on April 6 despite being present in some numbers.
Evidence of a direct role by military personnel in the attack at the church and in violence outside Liquica the previous day is only circumstantial, according to the report, but includes gunshot wounds from weapons of a type issued to the military.
The report, handed to Alexander Downer on Wednesday, strengthens the case for Australia to take a tougher line with Jakarta to improve security in East Timor and exercise greater control over the military.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has called on the Foreign Minister to release the report and be more assertive in pushing Indonesia to disarm militia groups and ensure the military act in accord with President B.J. Habibie's policy on East Timor.
Although diplomats have qualified their findings by pointing to the lack of genuinely independent sources, they found enough testimony and evidence of a substantial number of killings to warrant a detailed and impartial investigation. But they avoided using the term "massacre".
Their conclusions lend some credibility to claims by the Bishop of Dili, Carlos Belo, of a Liquica church death toll in excess of 25. Other human rights groups have produced the names of up to 50 people they say died in the churchyard. The Indonesian Government puts the toll at five.
The quick disposal of bodies and an attempt to remove bloodstains and cover up bullet holes at the house of Liquica's Catholic priest has made it difficult to confirm the death toll and gather evidence.
The Australian diplomats -- a military officer and civilian bureaucrat -- visited Liquica four days after the attack and interviewed numerous witnesses, activists, government officials and military commanders.
They found the military co-operated with the pro-integrationist Besi Merah Putih (Red and White Iron) militia in the lead-up to the attack, including with transport and logistical support.
During the attack on the church, the diplomats confirmed security personnel stood behind the mob of militia, firing their weapons in the air which increased panic among those villagers taking refuge.
They argue the 80-odd personnel in and around the town did not take up opportunities to restrain or head off the brutal attacks by militia on villagers. Local military commander Lieutenant Colonel Asep Kuswanto was said to be in the town but not actively involved in the events at the church.
But the report's conclusions will bolster claims by a variety of observers that the military is actively sponsoring the campaign by militia and paramilitary groups to keep East Timor a part of Indonesia.
In the wake of the attack, the Indonesian Government agreed to set up an independent commission to help solve the conflict and promote human rights. It has invited independent observers, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to investigate the violence.
But the ICRC claims threats by the militia have prevented Dili- based staff from assessing the humanitarian needs or investigating the violence.
Diarmid O'Sullivan, Dili -- Tensions are rising in the East Timorese capital, Dili, as thousands of pro-Indonesian militiamen pour in for a show of force today. At dusk yesterday the streets were empty as people hurried home to avoid militia patrols, some escorted by Indonesian soldiers.
Three hundred men, armed with sticks, were on parade outside the governor's office. A man in a scarlet shell-suit was inspecting them from the back of a jeep. These men were preparing to defend Indonesian rule. All of them are Timorese.
The man on the jeep, Eurico Guterres, leads one of several pro- Indonesian militias which have sprung up in East Timor since late last year. The militiamen say they want to defend society against the violence of pro-independence guerrillas. Many people believe they are paid stooges of the Indonesian army.
Questioned by reporters, Mr Guterres' answers turn into a populist rant against the Timorese political elite, particularly those leaders who support independence. "They go to Macao or America and get the pretty girls and come back with enough to buy a Feroza or a Vitara [types of car], then they say they're pro- independence. The people must seize all of them and bring them to justice."
Anyone seen as an enemy of Timorese integration with Indonesia has been threatened by the militias, and some people now hang the red-and-white flag of Indonesia outside their houses to try to ward off the militiamen.
The militias draw support from some of the thousands of Timorese civil servants and businessmen with a vested interest in Indonesian rule, imposed by force in 1975. Some of these men had relatives murdered by left-wing Timorese guerrillas at that time. They are afraid that after independence, they may be targeted again.
"[The militias] have to take over Dili, because this is where all the people of influence are," said Manuel Carrascalao, a local grandee who used to support Indonesian rule but now advocates independence.
Mr Carrascalao is one of the few spokesmen for independence who has not gone underground. He spends the time in his shuttered villa in Dili. He seems unworried by the threats. "I don't think they can kill me that easily," he says.
The militiamen say they are volunteers, defending East Timor from the guerrillas of the detained independence leader, Xanana Gusmao. Two of their men were kidnapped from a Dili bus terminal on 5 April and have not been seen since, they said.
But if they are on the side of the people, why is everyone terrified of them? "The people who are afraid are those who are guilty," says a young militia officer, standing next to Mr Guterres. "If they're not guilty, why are they afraid?"
Some East Timorese believe many of the militiamen were forced to sign up. "They are given drugs so that they don't even know who their parents are," said one hotel worker in Dili.
The militias have been blamed for dozens of killings this year as Indonesia and Portugal, the former colonial power, discussed East Timor's future with the United Nations. The East Timorese were due to vote on independence in July.
The worse the violence, the less chance the vote will go ahead. This would suit nationalist elements within the army which do not want to see East Timor break away. The worst reported atrocity was in Liquica, west of Dili, 10 days ago, where as many as 50 people may have been murdered by militiamen. The official death toll is seven.
The Indonesian army says that Mr Guterres' group are auxiliaries who will work with the police to keep public order. Colonel Tono Suratman, the local commander, said: "For 23 years we've worked to keep East Timor secure. But as you know, there aren't enough police." But one militia officer said: "We're not working for the government. We're here to defend the people."
Mr Guterres put things more forcefully. In a statement issued this week, he called on people to "destroy the disturbers of integration [with Indonesia] to their very roots". For anyone who does not support Indonesian rule in East Timor, the message is clear.
Jakarta -- The Nobel laureate Roman Catholic Bishop of Dili, Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, said Saturday he was scrapping a planned peace mass Sunday in the wake of a deadly rampage by pro-Indonesian militia in the East Timorese capital on Saturday.
"We are cancelling the plan to hold a peace mass on Sunday because the security situation and conditions in Dili are becoming increasingly uncontrollable. Victims have even already fallen," Belo was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.
The mass had initially been scheduled to be held at the Tacitolu field west of Dili where Pope John Paul II celebrated mass during his visit to East Timor in October 1989. A Belo aide in the East Timorese capital of Dili confirmed the report on the decision.
Belo had said that the mass, which was to have included members of all warring factions in East Timor, had been planned at the request of Eurico Guterres, the leader of the Aitarak (Thorn) pro-Indonesia militia.
But Guterres, addressing some 1,500 pro-Jakarta militia on parade in the front of the governor's office here earlier Saturday, said his militia would launch a purge of pro-independence supporters from the administration.
He was at the head of the convoy of militia criss-crossing the town, firing shots into the air and attacking the houses of known pro-independence activists.
The East Timor military commander said that 13 people had been killed in the violence, while in Jakarta, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, former governor of the territory and now member of the Supreme Advisory Council, said reports he had received from Dili spoke of at least 30 deaths.
Dili -- They lay hugging the floor, screaming and weeping in terror as the shots and rocks blasted through the windows at the front of the house, trapped and unarmed.
They were 30 of the some 126 refugees from earlier violence who had been camping for months in the spacious backyard of prominent East Timorese pro-independence leader Manuel Carrascalao's house in the East Timor capital Dili.
At the front of the house, beyond the smashed windows, were the attacking pro-Indonesian militia, at the back high walls which cut off all avenues of escape.
By the end of the Saturday the fate of the refugees was unclear -- local residents described around 20 bodies strewn on the lawn in front of the house and another four in a garden next door.
An AFP journalist and a French radio journalist were inside the house at the time of the attack. They were roughed up at gunpoint and marched off when they walked out the house shouting above the noise of the firing that they were foreign journalists.
Only a handful of the terrified refugees managed to escape in the confusion to the nearby house of Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximines Belo, where Manuel had been in talks with Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews.
In Jakarta Mario Viegas Carrascalao, Manuel's brother and a member of Indonesia's Supreme Advisory Council, confirmed that his nephew 18-year-old nephew Manuelito had been shot dead in the house. The AFP journalist was the last person to see him alive.
Mario said he had learned that the militia rounded up the refugees and carted them off to an unknown location. "This is the usual method when they want to get rid of people without leaving any evidence," he said.
The Carrascalao house was not the only target of the some 1,500 militia who criss-crossed the deserted city streets in trucks throughout the afternoon, targetting houses of known independence activists, trashing a newspaper office, the office of a human rights group, burning some buildings and beating up their occupants.
One foreign journalist who rode with the convoy for two hours described the grisly hunt, which went on for hours unchecked by police or military, all of whom stayed in their barracks.
"They stopped in front of targetted houses, started shooting, then burned them. At least five people they just set on and beat them. It looked as if two of them were beaten to death, I don't know," he said.
He said that as they drove past the military and police barracks in the city, they exchanged "high fives" with the troops inside. "How many did you kill today," asked one soldier, according to the journalist who speaks fluent Indonesian. "We put two to sleep, but we are not finished yet," one of the militia yelled back as the truck roared off on another mission.
On Friday, Manuel Carrascalao told the AFP correspondent in Dili: "They will probably put rifles in the ruins of our house so that they can say we attacked them. You can see for yourself that the only thing that could be used as a weapon here are the kitchen knives."
He and other pro-independence activists, who have learned to live with death threats from the Indonesia army-backed militia, had plenty of warning of the attacks.
Threatening leaflets distributed days earlier had list of names, and swore to "clean" the city of pro-independentists, enough to intimidate all but the toughest.
At nightfall, the few foreign journalists in Dili found themselves with their film confiscated under threat of militiamen carrying wooden staves, and the hotel was ordered not to serve them food.
Outside the city was eerily silent and dark, all shops shuttered and no one on the streets. There is not a soldier to be seen, the AFP journalist said.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- The United Nations is planning a military-style operation to support its supervision of a scheduled July vote in violence-racked East Timor that includes the use of helicopters, aircraft, field hospitals and 70 four- wheel drive vehicles.
The scale of the planning indicates the UN could deploy several hundred people in East Timor before the vote on Indonesia's offer of autonomy for the former Portuguese territory. With the Australian Government expecting to play a key role in the UN contingent, many of them are likely to be Australians.
Details of the planning emerged yesterday when the Northern Territory Government advertised for Australian businesses to register their companies with the UN, opening the way for them to tender for contracts to supply goods and services for the operation.
The advertisement said facilities would be needed to enable sick or injured UN personnel to be evacuated to Darwin, which the Government hopes will become the staging post for the UN operation.
The Northern Territory's Department of Industries and Business said in the advertisement that the UN had advised its initial requirements for East Timor included temporary housing, power plants, military-style food rations and barges to transport supplies.
A department spokesman, Mr Gary Clements, said from Darwin the advertisement was a proactive move to alert companies to the potential of the UN operation although it was still early days.
Despite growing violence in East Timor, the UN planning excludes the use of armed peacekeepers, which Indonesia insists will not be needed to secure the vote. The violence, including the massacre of up to 60 unarmed villagers at a church at Liquica last week, has fuelled fears the vote will have to be abandoned.
After talks in Jakarta, Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Laurie Brereton, warned today that East Timor could plunge into civil war unless the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) disarm paramilitary groups in the territory which oppose independence for Timor, and allow peacekeepers before the vote.
But Mr Brereton said Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, told him yesterday that ABRI, not foreign troops, would be responsible for maintaining security in East Timor while it still remained part of Indonesia.
The President, Dr B.J. Habibie, has promised that East Timor could become independent if Timorese reject the autonomy vote.
Mr Brereton, who also yesterday met the pro-independence leader, Mr Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, said the Howard Government should use its influence with Jakarta to pressure ABRI to disarm the paramilitary groups blamed for provoking violence in a strategy to sabotage the vote.
He said the Australian Government merely "talked in whispers" to the Indonesian Government despite a unique relationship with Jakarta built up over years.
Mr Brereton said there was ample evidence that ABRI had armed paramilitary groups blamed for provoking bloodshed in East Timor.
Mr Brereton called on the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, to release the findings of a report into the Liquica massacre by officials of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. Mr Downer has received a copy of the findings but his spokesman said yesterday it would not be made public.
Mr Brereton described the Liquica killings as a "second Dili massacre without the television cameras", a reference to the killing of hundreds of mourners at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili in 1991.
Dili -- Armed pro-Indonesian militias are enforcing a reign of fear in the East Timorese capital Dili where terrified residents increasingly feel abandoned to their fate.
In the past 48 hours the militias, who oppose any attempt by the former Portuguese colony to break away from Indonesian rule, have distributed threatening leaflets aimed at intimidating independence activists.
The text calls on all houses in the city to fly the Indonesian flag. It demands that all local officials who do not favour the continued integration of East Timor with Indonesia be sacked and stripped of all benefits.
The leaflet also calls on the population to denounce anyone showing any sympathy for the independence movement so that the "current unfavourable situation can be rectified".
Other more threatening leaflets have also appeared. One trumpets a military-style plan dubbed "Operation Total Clean-up" which carries a list of people to be beaten up and outlines a series of steps to be taken before mid-May to crush pro-independence sentiment.
It opens with the words "Greetings Red and White" -- a reference to the colour of the Indonesian flag and the name of the militia blamed for a massacre outside a church in the town of Liquisa last week.
Many prominent pro-independence figures in the city have received death threats from the militias, but have nonetheless refused to hide or flee Dili for the safety of the mountains. "All we can do is put our trust in God," said one, echoing the grim mood here.
Leandro Issac, a senior official with the East Timor National Resistance Council, called on the international community and the United Nations to take urgent action to end the campaign of intimidation.
The militiamen, trained and supported by the Indonesian army, on Friday rehearsed for a major show of force set for Saturday. Local authorities have abandoned all pretensions of neutrality which is the Jakarta government's official position in what it terms an "inter-Timorese conflict". The parade was staged on the esplanade in front of the governor's palace and tents and chairs were provided for those invited.
A curfew comes into force at nightfall, with no one able to enjoy a stroll along a seafront bordered with giant mangroves. The beach restaurants have disappeared. Even by day only half the stores or market stalls operate amid soaring prices.
The headquarters of the resistance council, opened less than three months ago in a residential area, have been shut for three days. They opened amid a wave of optimism after President B.J. Habibie declared that Indonesia could offer East Timor independence if its people refuse autonomy within the country.
People should be asked to give their views and the process should be finished before the end of the year, he added. Now that timetable seems to be been totally overtaken by events.
"There have been more deaths here than in Kosovo," said Issac, who urged the international comunity to pile the pressure on Indonesia. "At least the international community should have representatives here to witness what is happening," he added.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it a year later in a move not recognized by the United Nations. Some 200,000 East Timorese are estimated to have been killed by conflict and famine since then.
Lindsay Murdoch and Mark Dodd, Jakarta -- Pro-Indonesian forces vowed yesterday to stage an "invade Dili" rally in the East Timorese capital on Saturday after Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao refused to back away from a call for his supporters to take up arms to defend themselves.
Mr Basillo Araujo, a spokesman for groups opposing independence for East Timor, said his supporters would also protest at a public Mass scheduled for Sunday by the head of the Catholic Church in the former Portuguese territory, Bishop Carlos Belo.
Gusmao yesterday accused the Indonesian military of deliberately derailing peace talks on the troubled territory's future and said supporters should take up arms and protect themselves from pro- Indonesian paramilitary violence.
"This strategy, aimed at blocking the New York negotiations, has been built on the blood of the defenceless people of East Timor," Gusmao said in a statement released by his lawyers yesterday.
"I am obliged to continue to ask that the defenceless people of East Timor refuse to allow themselves to be slaughtered like animals, although I know that no-one will stop the murderous bullets, although I know that ABRI (military) will keep on supporting the militias."
His comments defied a threat by the Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi on Monday to move Gusmao out of de facto house arrest and back to jail if he did not publicly retract an earlier call for East Timorese to defend themselves. Gusmao's statement came as the first comprehensive investigation into last week's alleged massacre of villagers at Liquica, west of the East Timorese capital Dili, detailed 62 killings and 14 disappearances over two days.
The foundation lists the names of 57 people killed on April 6 when Indonesian security forces and a paramiltary group surrounded the church before attackers wielding machetes and bows and arrows went on a killing spree after the firing of tear gas. Five others had been killed the previous day.
It cited witness reports that on the morning after the attack six trucks took the bodies along a road west of Liquica to a lake where they were to be dumped.
The foundation also details a massacre at Ermera, 35 kilometres south-east of Dili, last Monday, saying it had information 14 people had been killed.
The Indonesian armed forces has confirmed a shoot-out in Ermera on the same day but denies the massacre claim. It says its soldiers had been attacked by pro-independence guerillas. PETER COLE-ADAMS reports from Canberra: The Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General Frank Hickling, yesterday flatly rejected any move to reorganise the defence force to specialise in peacekeeping.
"I have seen the results of a peacekeeping culture in several armies in recent years," he said. "Those are not the kind of army that this country needs. They are not the kind of army that will earn the respect that are the foundation of successful peacekeeping. And they are not the sort of army that I want to be part of."
General Hickling told the National Press Club that the army's focus must remain the delivery of war-fighting capabilities. "To aim at anything less would be an insult to our people in uniform and a betrayal of the nation," he said.
Christine Tjandraningsih, Jakarta -- Indonesian military officials rejected claims Friday troops are planning to initiate violence in East Timor to scuttle a scheduled autonomy plebiscite for the territory and upcoming ministerial talks in New York.
A military statement released Friday said, "The Indonesian Armed Forces has no interest in any disturbances, instability or bloodshed in East Timor, for these will directly affect the well-being and safety of the East Timorese people and also the armed forces personnel stationed there."
The statement was made in response to a comment by Ana Gomes, head of the Portuguese interest section in Jakarta, which said the armed forces are "determined to undermine the Indonesian government's position announced on Jan. 27 and seek to boycott a UN consultation in East Timor."
The interest section serves the functions of an embassy between Portugal and Indonesia because the two countries have no full diplomatic ties.
The military statement said the accusations were "baseless," "false" and "wholly speculative. The accusation made by the head of the Portuguese interest section is wholly speculative and without a shred of evidence," the armed forces statement said.
"Such behavior runs counter to the spirit and task of her mission, which is to cultivate confidence and develop better relations between two countries," it continued.
The armed forces also urged Gomes "to refrain from making wild accusations against the armed forces and to cease from entertaining false personal suspicions."
"It is precisely this kind of attitude that would do harm and pollute the atmosphere of the peace process in New York and on the ground in East Timor," it said.
Dili -- A clash between Indonesian soldiers and pro-independence guerrillas today left three people dead, including the brother of one of Indonesia's top diplomats and a key negotiator in East Timor's conflict, the military said.
News of today's fatalities came as jailed rebel commander Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao said he would reimpose a cease-fire by his guerrilla forces.
Gusmao, who is under house arrest in Jakarta, made the pledge to visiting a senior US diplomat, Stanley Roth, who also held talks with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie.
Gusmao has accused the Indonesian military of arming anti- independence militias to derail a UN-sponsored peace process. Roth, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, told a news conference that Indonesian officials had denied that this was government policy.
Nevertheless, Roth said Indonesia had an obligation to ensure "that paramilitary groups are not allowed to conduct acts of violence and to kill and intimidate people."
Also today, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas submitted a proposal for autonomy for East Timor to Habibie. Alatas plans to present it at talks next in New York with officials from the United Nations and Portugal, East Timor's former colonial master.
The United Nations hopes to hold a vote in July to determine whether East Timorese people want autonomy within the Indonesian state or full independence.
The issue has polarized the half-island territory and many fear rising violence between groups either for or against independence could stop the ballot going ahead.
The military said rebels shot dead army Sgt. Belarmino Lopez da Cruz when about 50 guerrillas today ambushed three military trucks near Manututo, 37 miles east of East Timor's capital, Dili.
The dead man was the younger brother of Francisco Xavier Lopez da Cruz, Indonesia's ambassador at large for East Timor. Four other troops were wounded. Lt. Col. Sulistyo, chief of military district in Manatuto, said troops shot dead two rebels in the attack.
Gusmao, who is under house arrest in Jakarta, told Roth he would be willing to join a peace council proposed this week by Habibie to end the bloodshed in East Timor.
"He made it clear that he was favoring peace and reconciliation and that he would instruct his commanders to once again cease any military operations," Roth said.
Last week Gusmao raised the ire of the Indonesian government when he called for a popular insurrection against anti-independence militias accused of attacking and killing civilians.
The Indonesian military, meanwhile, said it had canceled plans to arm more anti-independence civilians to combat rebels fighting for independence in the troubled region.
Col. Suhartono Suratman, the territory's military chief, said about 50,000 civilians would be trained by the army as volunteer guards, but an earlier plan to arm them would not proceed.
"Regarding the existing situation, they would be trained to guard villages in all districts ... but they would not be armed," Suratman said. He did not give any reason for the cancellation. Suratman announced in December that civilians in 440 villages would be armed as a "people's defense force."
John Aglionby, Dili -- East Timorese paramilitaries loyal to the Indonesian government took their campaign of fear into the centre of the capital, Dili, for the first time yesterday as the civilian governor admitted that anarchy was "erupting everywhere" across the territory.
In a display meant to intimidate the city's population, 350 members of the Aitarak militia paraded in front of the Portuguese colonial-era office of the governor, Abilio Soares, for two hours with wooden staves and imitation firearms.
"We're here to guard this town," their commander, Eurico Guterres, told them. "We don't want to make trouble, but if the pro-independence groups come here and attack the people, don't hesitate. Go to the warehouses, take the guns and kill them," he bellowed.
One of his lieutenants, Matteus da Carvallo, said later that the local government was going to pay the paramilitaries to begin patrolling the city.
Few people on the streets of Dili welcomed the new law enforcers. "We don't want them, they'll just make life worse for the people," a taxi driver, Manuel Tosca, said.
For the last four months more than a dozen such paramilitary groups have killed dozens of people across the territory annexed by Indonesia in 1976. Evidence is mounting that they are really part of an Indonesian army campaign to destabilise United Nations-sponsored negotiations seeking to find a peaceful solution to East Timor's status.
The population is supposed to vote in July on whether to accept wide-ranging autonomy status under Indonesian sovereignty, or to go for independence.
Mr Soares told reporters yesterday, however, that the ballot could not happen for the foreseeable future because "anarchy is erupting everywhere. The police and soldiers cannot control the situation."
Emma Tinkler, Sydney -- Provocateurs from within the ranks of the Indonesian military had incited violence in the nation's troubled provinces, Australian missionaries said today.
Uniting Church workers, who recently returned from Ambon, Timor and Irian Jaya, called on the Australian government to raise the matter with the Indonesian government and pour more aid into the country.
Reverend John Barr, who supports calls for a United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, said the army was actively involved in supporting breakaway pro-independence civil military groups in the province.
"While [Indonesia's armed forces chief] General Wiranto is claiming that the military are there to protect the people, it's obvious that they are actually there to sabotage the peace process and to sabotage any move towards independence," Rev Barr said.
"I would go as far as to say that I think the Indonesian military are actually supporting a form of state terrorism within East Timor and the groups that they have set up are really similar to death squads."
Reverend Bill Fischer, who spent time in Irian Jaya and Joy Balazo who worked in Ambon, laid direct blame on the Indonesian military for the deaths over the years of hundreds of thousands of supporters of independence, and for inciting religious violence. They called on the Australian government to be strong in demanding the curbing of military forces in the troubled islands.
"I think it's very important for the military to restrain themselves to what would be the normal role of security forces," Rev Fischer said.
"I think the Australian government should be saying that the military should be taking a neutral position to ensure that free elections can occur, and that people who are political leaders of any persuasion are not intimidated by arrest or ... by other means.
"Our prime minister, the leaders of our government and our foreign minister need to speak forthrightly so that there can be fairness and justice in our neighbouring country."
Rev Fischer said the Uniting Church in Australia would be asking the government to provide further humanitarian aid to the region.
"The Australian government ... needs to take substantive responsibility particularly if the situation continues to worsen in Indonesia," he told AAP.
"I think we've got no choice
as a country [but] to take responsibility. It may be one of our biggest
tests as a nation in how we respond to Indonesia in these next months ahead."
| June 7 election |
Jakarta -- Hundreds of Indonesian students shouting "revolution," massed outside parliament here Tuesday to protest June 7 polls and demand the government of President B.J. Habibie step down.
Hundreds of others, who marched towards the parliament without notifying the police, were disbanded by force four kilometres before reaching their destination.
Baton wielding soldiers and police charged into the loose group of some 250 students who had marched from near the University of Indonesia in Central Jakarta toward the parliament, a witness said.
About 50 of the marchers were hauled aboard two police trucks and taken to the Jakarta police headquarters as the students began to disperse shortly before dusk after rallying there for about two hours.
The students rode in a convoy of buses along the city's main avenues brandishing national flags on their way back to the university.
In the avenues and streets outside the parliament complex, a further 300 students from the private Trisakti university student group Kamtri rallied. Dressed in their blue university jackets, they demanded a transitional government be formed, charging Habibie's government was illegitimate.
Another 500 from the Forum Kota student group rallied 500 meters from the main parliament gate, faced by 200 anti-riot troops, an AFP reporter said.
The Forum Kota students, in a statement, called Habibie part of "the illegitimate government selected in a dirty election during the Suharto government in 1997."
"Election: solution or illusion," read the headline of the statement.
Tuesday's student protest was the biggest in the capital since March 4, when some 2,000 students, also demanding Habibie step down, were involved in bloody clashes with riot police.
"We don't believe the 1999 general elections can solve the [country's] problems. We demand the formation of a democratic transitional government in order to have a free and fair election," a Kamtri statement said.
The Trisakti students chanted and screamed behind the high tollway fence that barred their crossing to the front gate of the parliament.
Indonesia's students, in the forefront of the demonstrations that helped topple Suharto in May of last year, see the Habibie government as an illegitimate extension of the Suharto government, but they have been divided on whether or not to support the June 7 elections, which will be followed by the selection of a new president.
Jakarta -- Comments by ex-president Suharto expressing doubt about whether Indonesia's June 7 elections will be free and fair show he does not believe in democracy, the deputy chairman of the election commission said Thursday.
"His political concept is based on authoritarianism. He does not believe in democracy," Adnan Buyung Nasution said on television.
In an interview published Wednesday by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, Suharto said he doubted the elections, the first since his downfall in May last year, would be fair. He said the increase in the number of political parties from three during his rule to 48 now would cause problems.
Nasution, who is also a human rights lawyer and a staunch critic of the former president, said Suharto's statement sounded as if he was urging people to boycott the elections. "He should refrain from making such a statement, ... just when we [the election commission] are lauching a drive to lure people's enthusiasm to vote," Nasution said.
He said the veteran leader was worried by the people regaining their political rights and freedom of expression. "He got used to the notion that everything should be on command, as a form of political regimentation," Nasution said.
Earlier Marzuki Darusman, head of the ruling Golkar party's parliamentary faction, said Suharto's doubts indicated that his regime was trying to make a political comeback.
"We should understand that it's a feedback from the old regime in its attempt to return to political life," Darusman was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.
In the interview, the first with a foreign publication since his downfall, Suharto also blamed politicians and "hasty reforms" for fanning the flames of unrest and cited fears of a return to communism.
Darusman, also chairman of the national commission on human rights, said the former strongman's statement was "a criticism from a former president who still has problems with the Indonesian public.
"Golkar should move more quickly than the remnants of the old regime," he said. Suharto was Golkar's top patron while he was head of state. Darusman said Suharto's statement could be seen as a warning for the present government to do better that the previous one.
Suharto faces a probe into the alleged fortune accumulated during his 32 years in power -- estimated by the US magazine Forbes to amount to at least four billion dollars. He has described this figure as "ridiculous" and challenged anyone to find accounts under his name in foreign banks.
Suharto was replaced by his protege B.J. Habibie, who has pledged to make the polls the most democratic and free in decades.
Philip Bowring, Jakarta -- The communal horrors of East Timor, Ambon and West Kalimantan are real enough. But they no more describe Indonesia than Kashmir, Bihar and Assam describe India. More remarkable is how stable the heartland, Java, now seems after 18 months of political and economic crisis and the battle of 48 parties for votes in the country's first open parliamentary election June 7. It could be the calm before another storm. Some electioneering violence is inevitable, if only because of the size of crowds that can be generated on a densely populated island. But despite the excitement of elections, and despite regional, religious and income divides, there is an air of normalcy.
The main players have moved toward the center to broaden their appeal and prepare the way for future alliances. The poll will be inconclusive, so coalitions are inevitable. One such player has been Amien Rais, head of the Muhammadiyah Islamic organization and of the PAN, or National Mandate Party. Previously feared by secularists and Chinese, he has shifted from a strongly Muslim and redistributionist agenda to one broadly attractive to the urban middle class - and even backed by Chinese money.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding leader, President Sukarno, is saying little about policy, but her Indonesian Democratic Party is widely tipped to emerge as the largest party and has been developing links to military figures and professional, secularist rebels from the governing Golkar party.
The strongest force at work at the grass roots is not ideology but simply a desire to participate. For every member of the old elite who fears elections and wants to see them disrupted, there are at least two who want the vote to show that the nation is capable of political development.
Suspicions that the elections might be rigged or popular will might be thwarted by the military still exist. There is evidence of high-placed stirring in Ambon. In remoter areas, Golkar may use the government machinery in its favor, although in any case it will fare better in areas outside Java, which have been less affected by the economic crisis. There is concern that even if Golkar genuinely does well, the masses of Java who demand real change will take to the streets.
In theory, a big Golkar showing could thwart change. Add in the 38 military seats in the 500-member Parliament and most of the 200 indirectly elected and appointed seats in the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly - which selects the president - and Golkar could remain in control.
In practice, however, that seems unlikely. Golkar itself is factionalized, with different groups - Islamists, liberal secularists, upholders of the status quo - having different ideas on whether to support the election of President B.J. Habibie. Moreover, the electoral commission, which oversees the election, has a broad base and has established an independent reputation.
There are dangers that some groups will use violence to disrupt the democratic process. A bigger danger may be that horse trading and money politics at the consultative assembly will deliver a president whose support is broad-based but derived from compromises that make weak government inevitable. Such a government may fail to live up to demands for reform.
The most ardent reformers are themselves divided into the secular and Islamist camps represented respectively by the Indonesian Democratic Party and PAN. Islamist parties, and even the Indonesian Democratic Party, are themselves multihued and interleaved with strands of nationalist, statist and free-market thinking.
Battles for economic interest will be intense, but divides are not all along party lines. There is a unique opportunity for the government, which is having to bail out the banking system, to acquire bankrupt assets on behalf of the mostly indigenous people. But that would mean the destruction of many of the groups, Chinese and indigenous, that prospered under President Suharto.
None of the main party leaders is offering detailed economic proposals. Few may appreciate the extent of the problems to be faced. The economy may be bottoming out, but the debt burden will hobble all governments for years to come -- not a bright prospect for Indonesian democracy.
The run-up to the election reveals a society developing its political system under intense economic pressure. Despite the recession, most politicians have an international outlook, and have a stake in ensuring that the economic and social gains under Mr. Suharto are not erased by political turmoil.
Indonesia is trying to progress to the point where unity is fostered by participation, not authoritarianism. Weak consensus government would be a problem, but a lesser problem than the violent divides so often forecast for the post-Suharto era.
Jakarta -- At least nine students were injured and 62 arrested in a number of rallies held across Java on Tuesday to oppose the June 7 general election. The arrests were made following a clash between students grouped in the Indonesian University Big Family (KBUI) and riot police who were attempting to disperse the protesters on Jl. M.T. Haryono in East Jakarta.
Five of the students, including two women and a high school student, were beaten when they resisted arrest. They are currently being treated at St. Carolus Hospital in Salemba, Central Jakarta.
Another four protesters were injured when police blocked some 200 students grouped in the United Society Coordination Forum (FKMB) from entering state radio RRI in Bandung, West Java. The students were attempting to broadcast their opposition to the upcoming polls the Armed Forces dual function and President B.J. Habibie's administration.
Fery, a student activist in Bandung, said the anti-government rallies across Java were part of an agreement reached during a recent meeting of student groups in Bali.
In Yogyakarta, an anti-election march was jointly organized by the Gadjah Mada University senate council, the Student Solidarity for People's Sovereignty and the People's Struggle Committee for Reform. No violence was reported, but the march caused traffic jams across the town.
Students grouped in the KBUI were attempting to march to the House of Representatives to join fellow protesters when the police blocked their way and asked them to disperse.
A member of the KBUI Renato, said the police, dispatched from Jakarta Police Headquarters, encircled the students and forced them onto military trucks.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis defended the arrests, saying the students violated law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression by not notifying police prior to holding their protest. Under the law any group intending to hold a rally or demonstration must inform the police of the intended route three days beforehand.
The students arrested were sent to the city police detectives for questioning. They could be charged with breaking the law on freedom of expression, Lubis said.
Over 300 students from the City Forum and Trisakti University marched along main thoroughfares toward the House under the close scrutiny of security personnel
Carrying guns or batons, the troops, who appeared to outnumber the protesters, prevented the students from reaching the House by blockading the area.
There were no signs of tension or anger among the troops despite persistent yells and songs from protesters intended to insult the security forces. The soldiers looked at ease with some of them listening to music on the radio or sleeping in their trucks.
The students approached the House from opposite directions in convoys comprising dozens of minibuses. They groups planned to meet in front of the House, where the students from the KBUI were to join them. As the convoy passed through the city, many residents were seen giving the students thumbs-up signs and water.
The protesters accused President B.J. Habibie's government of being a discredited heir of Soeharto's regime and of being incapable of holding a free and fair general election.
"We don't oppose the election as a democratic mechanism, but the government which is holding it. We don't believe the 1999 polls can solve the country's problems.
"We demand the formation of a democratic, transitional government in order to have a free and fair election," the students said in a statement.
As they made their way to the House, the students sat on top of the buses singing songs. The sometimes yelled, "revolution until we die". The rally caused traffic jams on the nearby toll road and parts of Jl. Gatot Subroto.
Jakarta Police's chief of command and operation control Col. Soenarko said a total of 2,000 officers were deployed to keep the students in order.
When asked why security forces did not disperse the students for failing to notify the police before holding their rallies, Soenarko said such a move was impossible because the protesters outnumbered the police.
"How can we disperse them if their numbers are more than ours," Soenarko said. After around two hours, the students peacefully dispersed, but one of them said: "Tomorrow we shall return".
Despite the students' opposition to the election chairman of the National Elections Committee Jacob Tobing shared his optimism that at least 70 percent of the 130 million eligible voters in the country would participate in the polls.
Two Britons deported for election coverage training Agence France Presse - April 13, 1999
Jakarta -- Two BBC contract employees have been expelled from Indonesia for training journalists on election coverage without proper visas, a report said Tuesday.
Britons Michael Brian Mant Harrison and Anthony John Howson were lecturing in sessions conducted by the Association of Indonesian Broadcast Practitioners in Pekanbaru, Riau, when arrested by immigration and police officials on April 8, the Suara Karya daily said.
They had been contracted by the BBC under a British-funded program for electoral assistance to Indonesia coordinated by the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UNDP office here said. They flew out of Jakarta on Monday, the daily said.
"They have to seek the proper required permits if they want to return to Indonesia," director for Supervision and Action of the immigration office, Zaman Nurmatias, was quoted as saying.
Zaman said Harrison and Howson arrived in Indonesia under a visa-free entry for tourists, but conducted activities which needed journalistic visas and recommendations from the foreign ministry and the information ministry.
On June 7, Indonesia is to hold its first general elections since the fall of former president Suharto. The UNDP has coordinated more than 80 million dollars in foreign aid for the elections, including the training of monitoring bodies and journalists.
The British consulate here could not immediately confirm the expulsions, but a source close to the training program told AFP the two had been relying on the UNDP for details on what visas to obtain but received no advice.
They planned to apply for
the proper visas in neighbouring Singapore and return to Indonesia to continue
the program, the source said.
| Political/economic crisis |
Ambon -- Sixty-four more bodies of those killed in recent riots in eastern Indonesian islands have been found, bringing the death toll to at least 177 in the clashes that started March 31, an official said Thursday.
The bodies, found in forests on Kei Besar and Kei Kecil islands, were believed to be victims of fighting between Muslims and Christians that happened April 3-4, said South Maluku regent Hussein Rahayaan.
"They were not among the victims who were counted earlier," Rahayaan said in a telephone interview from Tual, the regency's capital on Kei Kecil, about 2,800 kilometers east of Jakarta.
Efforts were under way to bury them, including calling on villagers to bury their own families, he said.
The official Antara news agency reported that residents of the region feared the possible outbreak of fresh clashes. Most villagers were hesitant to leave their villages, and the conflicting parties remained suspicious of each other, it said.
Jakarta -- Bitter ethnic clashes between Madurese settlers and local Malays and Dayaks erupted for the fifth consecutive day Thursday in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, police said. Rival mobs fought with homemade guns and torched each others' homes in the province's Sungairaya sub-district.
"Until now the situation here includes torching of homes ... it has been going on since morning," duty officer Burhanudin at the local police office told AFP by phone.
Burhanuddin said the two groups were fighting with crude weapons in Sungai Rukmajaya and Sungai Keran hamlets, where Madurese settlers and the local ethnic groups lived side-by-side before hundreds of Madurese fled during the peak of the ethnic riots there last month. An ethnic Malay man was shot and wounded on Wednesday and 16 Malay-owned and three vacant Madurese homes were torched that day.
"A backup force has been sent to help out in the situation here," Burhanuddin said, adding that the reinforcements numbered about 100. "But it's really difficult for the troops to control them because the clashes take place in hamlets and the mobs scurry into their homes as soon as troops arrive," he added. Firefighters could not take their trucks into the hamlets because of the narrow streets, he added.
A man died of stab wounds on Tuesday and nearly a hundred homes have been torched since Sunday when the first of the clashes in Sungairaya broke out.
Violent clashes pitting the Madurese migrant community against Malays and Dayaks erupted in mid-January. The violence has spread throughout the western Sambas district in the province on Borneo island. A mass campaign of violence against Madurese settlers has included beheadings and ritual cannibalism, with over 200 people killed and about 29,000 driven from their homes.
Jakarta -- Ethnic clashes between Madurese settlers and ethnic Malays and Dayaks flared up again Tuesday in Indonesian Borneo, which has been rocked by months of savage unrest, a military source said.
A duty military officer in West Kalimantan's Singkawang district said the clashes erupted after a Madurese mob set fire to more than a dozen Malay-owned homes in the Sungairaya sub-district hamlet of Sungaikeran Tuesday morning.
"They torched Malay homes in Sungaikeran at around 6:00am," duty officer Hari Marso from the Sambas district military post in Singkawang told AFP by telephone. He said there had been no reports of casualties in the ongoing clashes.
"The situation is ongoing ... it is mob against mob," he said. "In fights here they usually use sharp things like machetes and some makeshift weapons," he said, adding that security forces from both the police and military had been sent to the area.
Second Sergeant Risdiyanto of the Sambas district police in Singkawang confirmed the clashes were taking place. "All I can say is that torching of houses is now taking place in Sungaikeran hamlet in the Paritbakau area of Sungairaya," Risdiyanto said.
Violent clashes pitting the Madurese migrant community against local Malays and indigenous Dayaks erupted in mid-January following trivial disputes between individuals.
The violence has spread throughout the Sambas district and resulted in a campaign against Madurese settlers involving mutilation, burning, beheading and ritual cannibalism.
Madurese properties including homes and farmland have also been destroyed in the weeks of violence, which has prompted some 29,000 Madurese settlers to flee their villages or be evacuated by the authorities under military guard.
In the Pemangkat and Tebas sub-districts, Malays and Dayak have set up scores of road blocks, checking all passing vehicles for any Madurese men, the Surya Citra Televisi private television station said.
The check points were set up on Monday after an attempted attack on a hospital in Singkawang over the weekend by Madurese youths, who had been looking for Malays treated for injuries following a clash with security forces a few days earlier.
On Tuesday, a convoy of 17 trucks carrying some 1,500 Madurese settlers safely reached Singkawang from Sambas town, duty officer Masro addded.
Local Dayak and Malay leaders
have begun accompanying the refugee convoys, alongside security forces,
to prevent attacks on the way to holding centres in Pasir Panjang, just
north of Singkawang, and in Pontianak, the main city of the province.
| Aceh/West Papua |
Jakarta -- A presidential advisory group and students on Tuesday called on Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to fullfill his promises to the people of troubled Aceh province, including dragging past human rights violators there to court.
The calls were made by a 19-member team of advisors to the president on Aceh and by a group of Aceh students who attempted to enlist the help of the parliament in pressing Jakarta to act on its promises.
Habibie made the promises to the people of Aceh, home to a separatist movement kept under control for the past 10 years by a heavy-handed military presence, during a visit to the far northwestern province last month.
"We told him (Habibie) that after the president's visit there, the people of Aceh are awaiting the realization of what he promised in Baitulrahman," team head Usman Hasan told journalists after meeting with Habibie at the state palace.
The former ambassador to Mexico and ruling Golkar party deputy chairman, was referring to the Baitulrahman mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, where Habibie met with local representative during a brief visit to the province in March.
He then promised to rebuild houses, schools and buildings damaged during the decade of anti-rebel military operations, as well as compensate and help the victims of the operations and their families. He also pledged to bring soldiers and officials to court for human rights violations there.
Habibie assured the team, composed of Aceh public leaders, intellectuals, academics and students, that all his promises would be acted upon and that the rebuilding of houses was underway.
"But what is foremost, what people are really waiting for, is legal action against human rights violators," Hasan said.
"If this legal action on the human rights violators during the military operation is not launched, all that has been done physically will be meaningless."
Indonesian soldiers have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including scores of arbitrary executions, torture, rape and destruction.
A similar call was made by a group of some 60 students who attempted but failed to demonstrate at parliament Tuesday to demand enforcement of the law in Aceh and the trial of the human rights violators and both civilian and military leaders responsible for those violations.
"This enforcement of the law will be the reference point for the people of Aceh by which they can judge whether the government of this republic can provide protection, equal rights and respect of human rights in Aceh," a statement issued by the student group said.
The group, from the Student Solidarity for the Aceh Case, said Aceh people were awaiting "concrete actions that can be seen and felt by the population," and not mere empty promises.
The students were prevented from approaching the parliament complex by a unit of soldiers and police some 200 metres before the gate of the complex.
"Damaged houses and buildings have begun to be repaired, but the rebuilding of the people's broken hearts remains the main thing and this needs to be quickly addressed," Hasan said.
He said Habibie had reiterated his government's determination to meet his promises to the Acehnese, including taking rights violators to court. The team had data on the violations, he added.
The students also pressed for a referendum in Aceh, to determine whether the people there wanted to stay with Indonesia or secede. "For that, as a preparation, we will gather people's opinion through a referendum, that will be organized and funded by the people of Aceh themselves," the students said in their statement.
Calls for a referendum had also been the main war cry of students protesting in Banda Aceh hours before Habibie's arrival there last month. The students clashed with security forces, leaving more than 10 injured, some hit by rubber bullets.
The staunchly Moslem province of Aceh is home to the Free Aceh movement which has fought for an Islamic state in the resource- rich region since the mid 1970s.
Lhokseumawe -- Thousands of school students went on the rampage Thursday in three towns in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province to demand a referendum on self-determination, witnesses said.
The junior and high school students ripped national flags and state emblems off government offices in Lhoksukon, Baktya and Syamtalira Arun.
The young demonstrators, still in their school uniforms, painted the word "referendum" on the streets and tried but failed to enter the local military and police offices in the area. The military stood by apart from stopping the protestors taking the emblems from police and military offices.
On Tuesday thousands of students and other youths had taken to the streets of this main city in North Aceh to protest at the tearing down of street banners calling for a referendum. Such banners have blossomed throughout the province in the past month.
Aceh is the scene of a separatist movement kept under often brutal control by the military for the past 10 years.
On Tuesday a presidential advisory group and students in Jakarta warned President B.J. Habibie to fulfil his promises to the people of the province and bring past human rights violators before the courts.
The call was made by a 19-member team of advisors on Aceh and by a group of Aceh students who tried to enlist the help of the parliament in Jakarta.
Habibie made the promise during a visit last month to the province on Sumatra island. He also promised to rebuild houses, schools and buildings damaged during the decade of anti-rebel military operations, as well as compensate the victims of the operations and their families.
Troops have been accused of widespread human rights violations, including scores of arbitrary executions, torture and rape. The Free Aceh movement has fought for an Islamic state in the resource-rich region since the mid-1970s.
Sigli -- The security authorities in Pidie District continued with an operation Wednesday to pull down referendum banners which have been hung across the main provincial highway from Banda Aceh to Medan and along district roads in Pidie. According to witnesses, the banners were removed very early in the day.
In Keude Panteraja, district of Trienggadeng Panteraja, Pidie, the security forces moved in to disperse dozens of local residents who were daubing the word Referendum on the walls. The atmosphere turned ugly and there was almost a clash.
Crowds of people have also been flagging down passing vehicles on the Banda Aceh-Medan highway and asking for contributions towards buying cloth and paint to popularise a Referendum.
Pro-Referendum groups of people were dispersed by the local army chief of staff, Major Ahmad Ismanto, together with troops from other units. He said his objective was to stop people from carrying out activities along the highway.
However, the people ignored the order to disperse and the word Referendum in large letters could still be seen on a bridge crossing the highway in the region of Panteraja.
As the atmosphere became tense, negotiations were held between the security forces and the local people, with Major Isnanto saying that they refused to disperse. Eventually, he said, they undestood why they were being asked to disperse.
Another military officer
said that the activities being undertaken by local people were undermining
public order, especially when carried out late at night. He also said that
people were not allowed to flag vehicles down and ask for contributions.
He said that besides being reprehensible, such activities were in contravention
of Acehnese customs and behaviour.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta -- The Indonesian military will court-martial a colonel who allegedly promised a Suharto-linked foundation a huge sum if he were reelected as a local government official, a report said Wednesday.
"The military high court has already agreed to court-martial Sri Roso, maybe the case will begin to be heard next week," the head of the Diponegoro military command which oversees security in Central Java, Major General Bibit Waluyo, was quoted by the Suara Karya daily as saying.
Colonel Sri Roso was head of the Bantul district in the Yogyakarta special territory in central Java when he was widely reported by the press to have had promised one billion rupiah (then about 417,000 dollars) to a foundation controlled by then- president Suharto.
The promise, allegedly made in a letter in 1996, was on condition that he be re-elected for a second five-year term in 1998. "It is only the letter promising the one billion rupiah that we can prove so far," Waluyo said, adding that the court martial will be held in Jakarta. Sri Roso was removed from his post in February by the home minister.
A local journalist who first reported Sri Roso's pledge of money was murdered in August 1996. Syafruddin, 33, died after three days in intensive care in Yogyakarta after being beaten by two strangers who visited his home.
Police arrested a man they accused of killing Syafruddin but many saw him as a scapegoat. A court in 1997 cleared the man of all charges.
The National Commission on Human Rights has said police violated procedures in investigating the case and arresting the man, Dwi Sumaji.
Sumaji was given large amounts of alcohol at a local resort hotel and offered a prostitute before police arrested him, the commission said. He testified that police offered him money and a better job if he admitted to the killing.
Since the fall of Suharto in May last year armed forces chief General Wiranto has ordered all active military men who are also provincial officials to chose whether to keep their civilian posts or stay in the military. Scores of high provincial officials were military officers under Suharto, a factor seen as helping him sweep provincial votes in general elections.
Jakarta -- Indonesian has scrapped its draconian subversion law but introduced similar articles against sabotage and the spread of Marxism and Leninism to the criminal code, reports said Thursday.
The House of Representatves axed the anti-subversion law on Wednesday and brought six new articles into the criminal code, the Jakarta Post daily said.
The law covering subversion "was a pliable and multi- interpretable law ... a panicky regulation which was prone to human rights violations," Justice Minister Muladi said.
The new articles include govern crimes endangering the state ideology, ban the spread of Marxism/Leninism, and act against sabotage of either state or military installations or the distribution of basic essentials.
Muladi said they accommodated elements of the 36-year-old subversion law which were still relevant and not previously covered by the subversion law.
The subversion law, which carried a maximum penalty of death, was widely used under the government of former president Suharto to clamp down on dissent and budding unrest.
Human rights and legal activists have repeatedly called for the law to be repealed. The expanded criminal code now provides up to 20 years imprisonment for violations of the six new articles.
Under the subversion law, suspects could be detained for a year while the criminal code restricts the period for questioning to 60 days.
Since Suharto stepped down last May, the government has begun comprehesive reforms of the country's economy, judiciary and political landscape.
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Jakarta's legal community is unimpressed by the charging of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.
Although counted as a significant step in that it represents the first actual criminal charge lodged against any member of the Suharto family, most lawyers say the chance of a serious trial and sentencing of any Suharto under the present Government is negligible.
Several lawyers contacted simply laughed at the suggestion that the charges laid will result in any delivery of justice against alleged corruption at the top in Indonesia.
"Nothing will happen," said one lawyer with long experience in Jakarta. "I just dismiss it as a game being played, which won't go anywhere."
Public demands that the Suharto family, particularly the ex- president himself, be prosecuted for robbing the nation have been largely sidelined by the Habibie Government.
A surreptitious recording of an alleged phone call between President Bacharuddin Habibie and Attorney-General Andi Ghalib did not help matters, as it implied the Government's concern was to protect Mr Suharto and his family as much as possible.
This particular charge against Mandala Putri had legal merit, noted Indonesian lawyer Hamid Awaluddin, as the land deal focused on by the court was at least questionable.
"But my question is: why prosecute this case and leave cases like that about the national Timor car project [controlled by Mandala Putra] alone?" Mr Awaluddin said.
Many of a range of potential cases against the family seem to be "disappearing", he added, while another lawyer noted that the mere laying of charges left the court system a very long way away from change.
No new commitment to rule of law or fair distribution of justice has occurred since public pressure arose for fundamental change in the administration of law in Indonesia in the wake of Mr Suharto's resignation from the presidency last May.
Last week, the 11 elite Kopassus [special forces] troops convicted for abducting nine political activists last April were finally sentenced to jail. But whereas the charges allowed for sentences of up to eight years jail, the longest given was 22 months.
This was the first and only sentencing of members of the ruling elite since the change of president, and human rights and legal experts could only conclude that the "old" ways of manipulating the courts to serve the rulers were alive and well.
Jakarta -- In the first case of its kind in Indonesia, people in the oil-rich province of Riau have sued President B.J. Habibie for 22.5 billion dollars in compensation for lost oil revenues, reports said Tuesday.
The first hearing in the class action suit was held Monday in a court in the Riau city of Pakenbaru, the Kompas daily said.
Co-defendants were Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the state oil company Pertamina, PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia -- a subsidiary of the US Caltex Petroleum Corporation -- and the minister of home affairs, Kompas said.
But only two of the defendants showed up for the hearing -- PT Caltex and the local office of the mines and energy ministry -- represented by their lawyers.
Riau province on the island of Sumatra is home to Indonesia's giant Minas oil field, which is operated by Caltex and produces some 750,000 barrels of oil a day, or about half Indonesia's daily crude oil output.
Tabrani Rab, representing the plaintiffs, "the people of Riau," is chairman of the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies in the province and has in the past aired the possibility of an independent Riau.
"We will summon other defendants, including President Habibie. If they still fail to show up, the trial will still be convened," presiding judge T. Simanjuntak was quoted as saying by Kompas.
In their suit, the plaintiffs said Habibie, who took office in May of last year, had ordered the minister of mines and energy to exploit oil in the province, in cooperation with Caltex and Pertamina, which resulted in a revenues worth 2.004 trillion rupiah (2.3 billion dollars).
Habibie, they said, had promised in July last year to give a 10- percent share of the revenues to the plaintiff within two months. But until now, almost nine months after he made the promise, they have not received their share, they said.
Their primary demands were for Habibie's policy to be declared a "mistake" and a halt to oil exploitation by Caltex and Pertamina. A secondary demand was freedom for the province to exploit local natural resources, or to form an independent state.
The issue of revenue sharing between Jakarta and the provinces is now before the national parliament in the form of a bill which has been harshly criticized by reformist economists for not going far enough.
Foreign oil companies, who work in Indonesia on an 80-20 profit sharing basis, say that their contracts stipulate that part of the 80 percent handed to Pertamina is earmarked for provincial development, but that it never leaves Jakarta.
The people of the remote
province of Irian Jaya, home to one of the world's largest copper and gold
mines operated by PT Freeport Indonesia of the United States, have been
clamoring for years for a share of the mine's revneues.
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- Indonesians will be able to study and write about communism for the first time in more than three decades, but promoting Marxism-Leninism will still land them in jail, reports said Tuesday.
"Based on academic freedom and in respect of the principle of freedom, any academic research on those teachings is not banned," the Indonesian Observer quoted Justice Minister Muladi as saying.
Speaking at parliament, the minister, a former rector of the state Diponegoro University in Semarang, Central Java province, also said it would be acceptable to study communism at home, as long as noone preached it or published books about it.
But if a student wrote a thesis on the subject, it would be up to his university to decide whether or not it could be published, Muladi told legislators engaged in reviewing the country's criminal code.
The Observer did not however publish any comments by Muladi on whether universities would allow lecturers to teach the theory of Marxism-Leninism.
Under the 32-year-long regime of former president Suharto, which ended last year, communism and its teaching were strictly outlawed, with even possession of books on the subject liable to jail sentences.
Suharto outlawed the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), once the world's second largest after China, in the wake of an abortive 1965 coup which was blamed on the PKI and catapaulted him to power.
In the wake of the coup some 500,000 communists were killed, by official counts, and some 700,000 party members and those affiliated with organizations with party links were jailed for years.
A list of six articles of the criminal code currently under revision at the parliament, published by the Observer, showed any student wanting to study communism would be treading a dangerous line on the edge of the law.
The articles stipulate 20 years imprisonment for anyone wanting to replace the state ideology Pancasila -- five democratic principles which also encompass belief in God -- with communism.
Publishing teaching on communism is punishable by 12 years imprisonment, publishing communist teachings which spark mass unrest 15 years, following the teachings of Marx and Lenin 15 years, and organizing people under communist teachings 15 years.
The definition of communism and Marxism-Leninism in the criminal code encompasses "the teachings of Karl Marx, which were also adopted by Russian leaders Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung and others -- which consist of teachings that contradict the religion and values of the state Pancasila ideology."
Jakarta -- The corruption probe into former Indonesian President Suharto could drag down his successor President B.J. Habibie, the Indonesian Observer newspaper on Monday quoted one of Suharto's lawyers as saying.
"If the Suharto probe continues, President Habibie will become the next suspect because he is also a former minister of the Suharto cabinet," the paper quoted lawyer O.C. Kaligis as saying.
The Attorney-General's office is investigating allegations that Suharto corruptly amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune during his autocratic 32-year rule.
The former general was forced to stand down last May amid widespread civil bloodshed and the country's worst political and economic crisis in three decades.
His lawyers have formally asked the government to call off the investigation, saying it had failed to uncover any evidence of corruption.
The investigation has failed to locate rumoured overseas bank accounts and only about $3 million has been found in Suharto's Indonesian accounts, which he says he saved from his salary and from the rent from two houses he owned.
Kaligis said under Indonesia's legal system, it was inappropriate for a former president to be tried or punished just because he was responsible for state policies that in retrospect were considered faulty.
Suharto's policies had been
considered by his cabinet ministers -- including Habibie -- before being
implemented, he said.
| Environment/Health |
Fires burning in central Sumatra have once again blanketed Singapore in a haze that has pushed up pollution levels in the city-state famed for its "clean and green" image. Parts of Malaysia have also been affected.
Satellite pictures showed "hot spots" in the Indonesian province since Monday, with winds blowing the smoke to Singapore and sending the pollutant standards index up to 74, the highest in months.
The Malaysian peninsula was also "very much in the path of the haze," said Emmanuel Nabet, of satellite operator Spot Asia.
Fires of such size and intensity have not been seen since March last year and could have been started by plantation and logging companies. With the rainy season over, the companies are no longer hampered by wet weather.
Health warnings would only be issued if the index reached 100, the Environment Ministry said. Although the haze was likely to remain for the next day or two, environmentalists said the conditions were expected to improve with a change in wind direction.
Fires raging in East Kalimantan
and Sumatra forests and brushlands during 1997 and 1998 resulted in staggering
health and tourism losses in Indonesia and the region.
| Arms/Armed forces |
John Haseman, Jakarta -- The recent outbreak of serious ethnic violence in Indonesia's Borneo province of West Kalimantan has underscored the difficulties Indonesia's armed forces face in trying to maintain domestic stability in a period of unprecedented political change and economic crisis.
Defence spending cuts as a result of Indonesia's economic crisis have severely eroded military readiness. "Frankly speaking," an army officer told Jane's Defence Weekly concerning security operations in West Kalimantan, "we are badly under-funded."
Violence between West Kalimantan's native Dayak and Malay communities on the one hand and the transmigrant Madurese lasted more than two weeks late last month before security forces and combatants ended most of the killing. Roving bands of rioting locals badly outnumbered Indonesian army and police forces. Reinforcements were slow to deploy to the province.
Only six infantry battalions are regularly assigned to the expanse of Indonesia's four Kalimantan provinces. The Military Resor Command, headquartered at West Kalimantan's provincial capital, Pontianak, probably had only two assigned battalions totalling less than 1,200 men. Police forces in the province numbered less than 800.
Beset with religious rioting in far-away Maluku Province that required reinforcement from the Army Strategic Reserve Command, the army had few troops available to send to West Kalimantan and, more importantly, available strategic transportation resources were stretched thin. Some 2,000 extra army, marine and police forces eventually deployed to Pontianak from elsewhere in Kalimantan and from Java as strategic airlifts became available.
A military source estimated that the air force C-130 Hercules fleet's operational readiness rate last month was "considerably" lower than 50% because of a shortage of spare parts and delayed aircraft maintenance.
Criticism of the army has multiplied in the past year after revelations of major human rights violations during past military operations in Aceh, East Timor and Irian Jaya.
Under such pressures, the army is criticised as "gun shy" in asserting force to end communal violence because of the fear of more criticism in the event of civilian casualties.
"They say we are wrong if we use force against rioters to prevent further damage, but then they say we are also wrong if we don't use force and the damage is greater," a senior officer said.
As the 7 June national elections approach, the likelihood of political unrest will be even higher. The armed forces and newly- independent national police will face greater challenges in maintaining security.
Gerry van Klinken -- For all his sometimes clownish mannerisms, President Habibie has in many ways been Indonesia's Gorbachev. He rode the crest of a wave of political creativity generated by the massive protests of last year. But now that wave has spent much of its force.
The army-backed Liquica massacre in East Timor last week represents a conservative backlash, in which failed Soeharto-era ideas are being put forward as real solutions once more. Habibie has been mocked as a Soeharto protege. Yet under him press freedom has flourished, labor unions have sprung up freely and almost all political prisoners have been freed. He has talked with dissatisfied Irianese and Acehnese community leaders. And he has foreshadowed independence for East Timor.
However, on the single most important Soeharto legacy -- military privilege -- he has made little headway. In this Habibie is not alone. Virtually the entire political establishment has agreed that, unlike last year's demonstrators, they don't want the military out of politics now. Not one of the major parties -- despite their long opposition to Soeharto -- have placed an end to the privilege of organised violence at the top of their political agenda.
Such a loss of political nerve is now becoming apparent in East Timor. The Liquica massacre, in which at least 25 people died at the hands of a military-backed militia, could well be a message to that establishment from armed forces commander General Wiranto. The message: no more experimentation with the future of East Timor.
Last month a high-level United Nations delegation visited East Timor to begin preparations for the poll in July or August on East Timor's future association with Indonesia. According to reliable reports, the delegation had great difficulty getting to see Wiranto even briefly as it passed through Jakarta on 25 March after its visit to East Timor.
The Far Eastern Economic Review noted last month that Wiranto is relying more on retired General Benny Murdani, the architect of the East Timor tragedy. Officers seen as Murdani proteges have been favored in recent promotions. Murdani told a visiting academic in January that he disapproved of Habibie's conciliatory autonomy offer for East Timor. He believed that in "four to five months" the armed forces, ABRI, would be ready to crack heads once and for all in East Timor. Tough talk for a man supposedly long out of power.
Wiranto's message on East Timor, if I have read it correctly, may unfortunately fall in good soil in Jakarta. Indonesia may yet prove to be a reluctant decoloniser. Eager to depict Habibie as a lame duck, presidential aspirant Megawati Sukarnoputri says she opposes the Habibie initiative offering independence if the East Timorese reject an autonomy offer. She wants the matter decided by a freshly elected parliament, in which she has made it clear she will oppose independence. Abdurrahman Wahid has been similarly unhelpful. Amien Rais is the only prominent party leader with an open mind on East Timor.
The reason for the hawkishness among political prominents is not difficult to find. Unrest around the vast archipelago in recent months, whether engineered or not, has had the predictable effect of stimulating nostalgia for Soeharto's security approach. The conservative view that Indonesia is perhaps too violent to be democratic may be gaining ground in influential circles. The Habibie-sponsored political process over East Timor has triggered copy-cat demands in Aceh and Irian Jaya, where until now the word referendum had never been heard.
Frequently aired anxiety over Indonesia's possible "disintegration" has dampened the creativity of last year, leaving the hawks to offer their already failed policies with renewed assurance. In East Timor, those policies mean once more backing violent militias to give the impression of a civil war, in which ABRI is the essential disinterested peacekeeper.
The new conservative ascendancy is not easy to challenge from abroad. The UN process, for all its goodwill, remains dependent on Indonesia. Australia has a security treaty with Indonesia that makes it impossible to pit Australian soldiers against Indonesians in defence of the Timorese.
All this does not mean East Timorese self-determination is now out of the question. There are many reasons for hope. But it does mean the decolonisation process will be slower and messier than was thought just a few weeks ago. Habibie said in February he would like to see the East Timor issue resolved by 1 January 2000. Unless Indonesia's political movers and shakers rediscover their creative nerve, that magic date is likely to pass with no joy for the Timorese.