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ASIET Net News 16 – April 19-25, 1999
East Timor
| Democratic struggle |
Jakarta -- More than 1,000 of Jakarta's urban poor staged a mass demonstration here Thursday accusing the government and the World Bank of abusing social safety net funds.
The huge crowd, with colorful hats and posters made of recycled trash, sang, danced and shouted slogans against corruption at a main traffic roundabout in the city center, before heading down a main avenue towards the National Planning Board.
Grouped under the banner of the Urban Poor Coalition, they handed out leaflets to passersby challenging the World Bank to reveal its fund disbursement criteria, and charging officials with lining their own pockets with the funds.
"Stop the social safety net program," and "We will work without the Social Safety Net," read some of the posters, while others charged that the program was merely increasing the country's debt burden.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have earmarked millions of dollars of a 34 billion dollar bailout for Indonesia for the growing army of poor, hardest hit by the current economic crisis.
But many have rejected the payouts, charging that they receive what is left at the bottom of the pot after officials down the line have skimmed of the cream, and that some district chiefs are charging exorbitant interest.
Jakarta -- The parents of some 70 students who went missing after taking part in a major pro-independence rally in the troubled province of Aceh on Thursday went to the legislature for help, a rights activist said.
Director of the Iskandar Muda Legal Aid Foundation, Yacob Hamzah, said police arrested around 250 students taking part in the mass rally in Lhoskeumawe on Tuesday. They had been among the some 10,000 students who rallied outside the headquarters demanding the release of their friends who had been arrested during a similar rally the previous day.
"There are about 250 students still arrested at the police headquarters ... About 70 parents were seeking to know whether their children had been arrested or not," Hamzah told AFP by phone.
"They just want to have some certainty, if their children are arrested, then they want to see their arrest warrants and the children," he added.
The student protestors had rallied for three days since Sunday during which they flew the bright red Aceh separatist flag. The police first arrested 24 students Monday for raising the flag in a convoy around the city.
Tuesday's arrest came after security opened fire to disperse the protesters as they approached the local police headquarters. The shooting left three killed, a teenager highschool student, an eight-year-old boy and a policeman.
The police were also questioning 50 civilians who had been in the crowd during Tuesday's rally. The Kompas daily said that some of the questioned civilians were reportedly seen with bruises.
"If they turn out innocent
and only happened to be trapped among the students during the bloody Tuesday
afternoon rally, then they would be released immediately," North Aceh police
chief Lieutenant Colonel Iskandar Hasan was quoted as saying.
| East Timor |
Tommy Ardiansyah, Dili -- Indonesia's military Sunday rejected the blame for bloody violence that killed dozens of people in the disputed territory of East Timor, accusing pro-independence groups instead.
The killings sparked international outrage, with most foreign governments blaming Jakarta for failing to control loyalist militia who rampaged through Dili Saturday attacking pro- independence leaders.
Indonesian media, quoting local police and military officials, reported at least 20 people dead, mainly pro-independence activists and civilians.
The armed forces (ABRI) put the death toll at 12 and blamed the bloodshed on groups seeking independence from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and whose rule is not recognized by the United Nations or most of the international community.
"The incident started with a disturbance from the anti- integration side, who blocked a convoy of thousands of pro- integration supporters and opened fire," ABRI said in a statement.
"As a result, the convoy panicked and searched for those responsible. But when they could not find the shooters, they became mad and searched for pro-independence leaders who they blamed for the trouble."
ABRI said 12 pro-independence supporters were stabbed to death in ensuing battles, adding that several people from both sides were injured.
But witnesses, including a Reuters cameraman and photographer, said the trouble started when Jakarta loyalists went on a rampage, firing at random and seeking out independence leaders after a rally outside the Jakarta-appointed governor's office.
Witnesses said troops were involved in an attack on the house of at least one prominent independence leader, Manuel Carrascalao, whose teenage son was shot dead.
Police and troops stood by as militiamen fired volleys of shots at the rally in a show of force.
Militia leader Eurico Gutteres urged his followers to cleanse the territory of independence supporters.
"Starting today, I command all pro-integration militias to conduct a cleansing of all those who betrayed integration. Capture and kill if you need," he told the rally.
Dili was calm Sunday, with markets opening as usual and church services going ahead without incident.
People were out on the streets and there was no sign of militiamen. There were also virtually no police or troops on the streets.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement he "strongly deplores these new acts of violence and regrets the apparent inability of the Indonesian authorities to control the violence by the militias and protect the civilian population."
Annan is brokering talks between Jakarta and Lisbon over the fate of the former Portuguese colony.
Foreign ministers from both countries are due to meet in New York from Thursday, but the latest bloodshed casts doubts over their efforts to give East Timorese a ballot to choose between independence and more autonomy within Indonesia.
Mark Riley, New York -- Indonesia is believed to have gutted the proposed statute of autonomy for East Timor, removing many of the major components and increasing the likelihood of continued clashes in the strife-torn region.
The final round of meetings on the proposed autonomy ballot is still expected to go ahead at the United Nations this week, despite the Dili massacre by pro-Indonesian militia at the weekend.
The Indonesian delegation had been granted an extension to consider the original autonomy proposal and will present its suggested amendments in New York this week.
The Herald has learned that the Indonesians are planning to demand significant changes, including that the Indonesian armed forces (ABRI) retain a presence on the island.
The Indonesian amendments would allow an East Timorese police force to operate, but with stronger links to the Indonesian police. It is also understood that Jakarta will insist it retain control over East Timor's natural resources.
As well, Indonesia is expected to reject key sections of the autonomy proposal that would allow East Timor to have its own flag and state emblem.
It is further understood that Indonesia will reject components that would have allowed East Timor to be represented in international organisations under its own name.
This would also prevent an autonomous East Timor from having its own football team, or seeking to participate in international sporting competitions in its own colours.
The Indonesian and Portuguese ambassadors to the United Nations will meet with their senior officials over two days before a final proposal is considered at a meeting on Friday between the respective Foreign Ministers and the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan.
Several sources familiar with the process suggest the Indonesian amendments would make the autonomy package unacceptable to the majority of East Timorese and expect the planned vote in July would be defeated.
Some believe the Portuguese will agree to the Indonesian amendments because they know this will damn the proposition to failure and increase the likelihood of a move towards total independence.
However, diplomats believe this could prompt the armed militia groups in East Timor to intensify their terror campaigns, which have already resulted in dozens of deaths in a series of massacres.
The greatest concern in the halls of the United Nations this week is that the situation could dissolve into one of all-out civil war and that Indonesia might simply walk away and leave the East Timorese to fight it out.
As Mr Annan prepares for the final round of talks, he has directed his staff to map out plans to ensure security in the region for the planned ballot and beyond.
Discussions are being conducted behind closed doors on a variety of contingencies that include possible military involvement by Australia and other countries.
"The problem is that Indonesia would have to first agree to allowing foreign troops into East Timor, and there is no certainty of that," one official said.
"And then, they could only disarm the militia if the militia agreed to be disarmed. Otherwise, the whole situation could dissolve into a quasi-Kosovo."
Jenny Grant -- The Indonesian military not only turned a blind eye to Saturday's militia attacks in Dili but had prior knowledge of the planned targets at the most senior level, diplomatic sources claimed yesterday.
The sources said the militia attack was discussed at a senior security co-ordination meeting in Jakarta last week. The meeting, held at the Cilangkap armed forces headquarters in Jakarta, was attended by military chief General Wiranto, Udayana military commander Major General Adam Damiri and East Timor military commander Colonel Tono Suratman, the sources said.
Witnesses said what few police and soldiers were on the streets calmly waved the militia trucks on. "Some of them were even smiling as the attacks were under way," said one witness.
Yesterday, militiamen were allowed to roam through areas of Dili and surround people's homes, unchecked by conventional forces.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would contact President Bacharuddin Habibie about "growing evidence" that Indonesian troops failed to prevent the militia killings.
"You would have to wonder whether these pro-integration militiamen are not getting some kind of permissive response from the Indonesian Army," Mr Howard said.
Police have arrested only six members of the Red and White Iron militia, which is being held responsible. A source in Dili said: "We dismiss arrests of low-level thugs as a way of excusing what General Wiranto has laid out."
The military is keen to stay in East Timor, despite Mr Habibie's offer in January of independence if autonomy is rejected by the people.
Jakarta -- Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi and jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao on Monday agreed there had been no call for war in the troubled territory against Jakarta.
"It appears that there was a misunderstanding" of Gusmao's statement on April 5, which had been widely reported by the Indonesian press as a call for war against Indonesians in East Timor, Muladi said.
Speaking after a 35 minute meeting with Gusmao, who had been summoned from his hoome where he is under house arrest to the justice ministry, Muladi said Gusmao had explained that his statement was not a call to war, and that the rebel leader remained committed to the peace process.
Muladi last week threatened to return Gusmao to a high security prison if he failed to retract his reported statement, made through his lawyers last Monday, if in fact he had declared war on the Indonesian authorities.
Gusmao, who was moved from jail to defacto house arrest in February, said that his statement had been misrepresented by the media.
"We have explained it all, we pledged our commitment to settle [the East Timorese question] through peaceful means, through reconciliation," Gusmao told a press conference after the meeting, with Muladi on his side.
"I explained that my statement was not an incitement to war against Indonesia but just for self defence, and this has been misinterpreted," he added.
Muladi said: "Self defence anywhere cannot be stopped. It is a human right."
Gusmao reiterated his preparedness to hold dialogue with others, including the pro-Indonesian faction in East Timor.
"I am calling on my friends who are pro-integration, to return to the path of dialogue to reach a peaceful settlement in East Timor," he said.
Gusmao's lawyer, Hendardi, had said last week there was nothing to retract in the statement, saying part of it had been taken out of context.
Indonesian officials, including the military, have blamed Gusmao's statement for the recent spate of renewed violence in the troubled territory.
The Falintil, the armed wing of the pro-independence East Timorese movement, which Gusmao still heads, has stepped up attacks on pro-Indonesian target in East Timor, while armed pro- Jakarta militia have launched mass attacks on pro-independence supporters, which have left scores of dead.
Tension has risen between the two camps in East Timor following Jakarta's surprise offer in Janmuary to let go East Timor should the population reject autonomy under Indonesia in a vote this summer.
Dili -- At least eight people and possibly as many as 100 have died in attacks by pro-Jakarta militias on pro-independence supporters in East Timor, a local priest told Reuters Friday.
"From Monday to tonight, eight people have been killed," Father Hilario said by phone from Suai, 200 km southwest of the East Timor capital Dili. His comments follow similar charges by a former governor of the territory, Mario Carrascalao.
"We don't know exactly. I think more than 100 [have died]," Hilario, adding the pro-integration militias had used guns and knives. Carrascalao, quoting his own contacts in Suai, said that the fighting was continuing Friday.
The clashes come despite Thursday's cease-fire between East Timor's warring factions ahead of talks between Indonesian and Portugal in New York on the impoverished territory's future.
Human rights groups say spiraling violence in the former Portuguese colony has killed more than 40 people so far this year.
Indonesia has said it will allow the territory to go independent if it wants, after 23 years of often brutal military rule which few countries in the world recognize.
[The following report was received today from Fortilos and posted on the conferences in Bahasa Indonesia: Translated by Tapol.]
Some 150 paramilitaries who were trained by ABRI in East Timor to attack pro-independence activists arrived in Jakarta by ship on Friday 16 April.
These pro-integration forces plan to take action against certain East Timorese now living outside the territory, including student activists and political leaders. According to reports they plan to take action against certain people in Jakarta and various parts of Java.
Among their targets are the former government of East Timor, Mario Viegas Carrascalao (who now resides in Jakarta), a number of centres used by East Timorese students and youth in Depok, Pisangan-Jatinegara and Rawasari. [According to a report from UDT sources in Australia, Mario Carrascalao has already gone into hiding.] They also plan to stage an assault on the detention house on Percetakana Street in Jakarta where the East Timorese resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, is now being held.
The para militaries who include members of Besi Merah-Putih (Red-and-White Steel) and Mahidi are divided into two groups one of which is being accommodated in Ragunan, a hotel usually used to accommodate athletes. This group has linked up with the well- known hoodlums leader Hercules (who is from Timor) and Captain Eusebio Belo, an army officer who now works with the army intelligence unit, BIA.
The second group is being accommodated in Kelapa Dua, Cimangis, Bogor which is the location of the headquarters of Brimob, the police special forces.
According to our sources, Captain Eusebio Belo has been supplied with a large sum of money to recruit a militia force from among hoodlums from Eastern Indonesia, for use in East Timor. The armed forces is believed to have supplied a billion rupiahs to arm and equip these gangs and supply them with pocket money.
Several people who travelled on the same ship and who disembarked at Benoa, Bali and at Surabaya, have confirmed the presence of the paras, couldn't say how many they were.
Timorese students in Java are urged to be on guard and to do everything to prevent untoward things from happening. There is reason to believe that they may start taking action in the very near future though nothing is yet known about what form this may take.
According to one source, they are likely to launch an attack on the house where Xanana Gusmao is being held.
Human Rights Watch charged that the government of President Habibie could have prevented the violence in East Timor on Saturday by acting earlier to disarm pro-Indonesia militias. The organization called on Indonesia's major donors to make further disbursements of World Bank adjustment loans conditional on verifiable progress by the Indonesian government in disarming the militias and prosecuting those responsible for the violence.
Militia violence has escalated steadily since January 1999, causing thousands of villagers to be displaced and several dozen people to be killed. In the most recent incident, at least twelve and as many as eighteen people were killed in Dili on April 17 when militias attacked the home of independence activist Manuel Carrascalao, killing his son and many others who had sought refuge in the house.
"There was ample warning that these militias, backed by local civilian and military authorities, would attack pro-independence targets, but the government in Jakarta did nothing," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "Now it's a question of whether Indonesia's major donors will put the necessary pressure on Jakarta to disarm the militias and get an international presence in East Timor as quickly as possible."
Jones noted that there was also a medical crisis, with the Indonesian government holding up assistance by international humanitarian agencies, both in the form of additional doctors as well as badly needed medical supplies. The crisis has been caused not only by the exodus of non-Timorese healthcare professionals, following some well-publicized attacks on non-Timorese doctors, apparently by independence supporters, in February 1999, but also by the sharp increase in violence, with more victims than most local clinics can accommodate.
"Since appeals have not worked, it is time to exert some economic pressure, and adjustment loans are a useful tool," said Jones. At the July 1998 meeting of donors collectively known as the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), the World Bank agreed to make several major loans to Indonesia, totalling more than US$3 billion, only $1 billion of which has been disbursed. In an upcoming meeting in May, the Bank board will have to approve two loans, the social safety net adjustment loan (SSNAL) and the public reform structural adjustment loan (PRSAL). Human Rights Watch urges executive directors of the Bank from CGI countries to vote to delay approval of these loans until the government has taken concrete steps to disarm the militias in East Timor.
"Both of these loans have laudable goals, but the Indonesian government's unwillingness to control these militias raises doubts about its willingness to undertake other difficult policy steps," said Jones. She said a delay in the loans might give the Habibie government an incentive to take action.
Human Rights Watch cited the following evidence of the lack of political will of the Habibie government to curb the violence in East Timor:
The violence in East Timor on April 17 was sparked by a rally of an estimated 3,000 pro-Indonesia militia members on the grounds of the East Timor governor's office in the capital, Dili. The rally was attended by the governor, Abilio Soares, senior military officers, and the district heads of East Timor's thirteen districts. Eleven of these districts have their own civilian militia ostensibly established to defend communities against guerrilla attacks but in fact to fight individuals and organizations supportive of independence. Some are of long standing, dating back to the 1970s, while others were only formed after the Habibie government's January 27, 1999 announcement that if the East Timorese people rejected the government's offer of autonomy, the government would consider the "second option" of independence.
The most notorious of the new militias are Besi Merah Putih (Iron Rod for the Red-and-White), the militia responsible for the carnage in Liquica, East Timor, on April 5 and 6 in which dozens of people, many of them displaced people fleeing from violence, were killed in a church compound; Mahidi (an acronym for Live or Die for Integration with Indonesia), a militia formed in late 1998, which operates around Ainaro and Suai; and Aitarak, which operates in Dili.
The older militias include Halilintar (Thunderbolt), operating in Bobonaro district, and Saka, a paramilitary group operating in the Baucau area since 1983. Halilintar is the oldest of the pro- government militias, dating back at least to 1977. It was dissolved in the 1980s, only to be resurrected in 1995 by a man named Joao Tavares, whose men have frequently joined Indonesian troops in counterinsurgency operations in the area around Atabai, Maliana, Cailaco, and Balibo.
Eurico Gutteres and his militia, Aitarak
The man who reportedly organized the rally and who has repeatedly issued threats against organizations perceived as supporting independence was Eurico Gutteres. Gutteres has been a leading figure in Gardapaksi (Youth Guard for Upholding Integration), an organization formed in July 1995, supposedly for training unemployed East Timorese youth in occupations such as furniture- making and automobile repair but in fact to counter pro- independence youth groups. Gardapaksi members were reported to receive military training and non-lethal equipment from the Indonesian army special forces, Kopassus, and included youths who had been arrested for pro-independence activities who were subsequently released on the condition that they become informers. Gutteres now heads the Dili-based militia called Aitarak, formed after the Habibie government's announcement of the "second option." Two days after that announcement, on January 29, Gutteres was involved in an incident in Dili in which he and other pro-Indonesia forces meeting inside the Hotel Mahkota fired on pro-independence youths who had reportedly tossed a grenade at the hotel. Gutteres then proceeded to drive a van full of weapons to the house of Manuel Carrascalao, the target of last Saturday's attack, and threaten independence supporters who had sought refuge at his house. No action was taken at the time to disarm him or even to discourage him from making threats.
On February 20, Gutteres and Tavares were leading speakers at a rally in Balibo, East Timor, where they vowed to fight a civil war if East Timor moved toward independence. A reporter from The Age, in Melbourne, Australia, reported that some of the youths attending the rally reported being paid by local military and civilian officials.
On February 25, Gutteres was one of two militia leaders who sent a threatening letter to Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, warning that pro-integration paramilitary groups would willingly "sacrifice" Australian journalists and diplomats to "save" East Timor. The letter, and Downer's reaction, were widely covered in the Indonesian and international press. An Agence France Presse release noted that the letter was faxed from a hotel in Jakarta where Gutteres and the other militia leader were meeting with President Habibie. (1)
Throughout March and April, the threats by Gutteres and other militia leaders increased against pro-independence groups as well as Dili-based human rights organizations and journalists associated with the Dili newspaper, Voice of East Timor. (The newspaper's office were sacked by militia members after the rally on April 17, with much of its equipment destroyed.)
Militia activity increased after Xanana Gusmao, the guerrilla leader and likely president of an independent East Timor who is under house arrest in Jakarta, issued a statement on April 5 calling on Falintil, the East Timorese guerrilla army, to take all steps necessary to defend the people of East Timor against "the unprovoked and murderous attacks of armed civilians and ABRI [the Indonesian military]." The statement was widely interpreted as an order to the rebels to resume the guerrilla war against the Indonesian army and only increased the bellicosity of the militia groups.
As noted, the Besi Merah Putih militia attacked a church in Liquica the next day, on April 6, killing dozens, although the Indonesian military has only acknowledged a death toll of five. A clash between Falintil and Indonesian security forces reportedly took place in Ermera on April 5, followed by further clashes there on April 10 in which a pro-independence member of the district council was shot and killed.
On April 13, four days before the militia rally in Dili that ended in armed attacks on pro-independence groups, Eurico Gutteres, citing Xanana's "declaration of war," issued an appeal to "ordinary people" to join the defenders of integration in order to "wipe out the disturbers of integration right down to their roots." The appeal called for the resignation of all civil servants who were less than fully supportive of the pro- integration government they worked for. Gutteres signed himself "War Commander of the ProIntegration Forces, Sector B Commander."
The Ainaro militia, Mahidi
Also seen written as Mahidin, this militia has the support of Indonesian ambassador-at-large Francisco Lopes da Cruz and has terrorized the civilian population around Ainaro district.(2) In late 1998, according to Yayasan HAK, a local human rights organization, pro-government youths were summoned by the district military command in Ainaro and requested to form the basis of an unarmed civilian militia that would help provide security in the run-up to the June 1999 parliamentary elections, in line with a national directive. Because local arrangements for this national militia were not yet finalized, however, the youths in question joined together in Ainaro town to form Mahidi, ostensibly to defend the district from guerrilla attacks. They were led by Cancio Lopes de Carvalho, the man who co-signed the letter threatening Australian diplomats and journalists. According to Yayasan HAK, they set out to recruit youths and other people from every village in Ainaro district, with a security post to be established in each village. Tension with local independence supporters increased as a result, and on January 3, Mahidi members shot two students in the village of Manutasi, Ainaro, after a peacemaking effort the students had initiated went badly awry. In the latter part of January, the militia was reported to be working with the subdistrict military command in operations in Zumalai, Covalima district. By April 1998, press reports estimated that Mahidi had 2,000 active members and 500 firearms; a local human rights organization estimated membership at 1,000 and thirty-seven firearms.(3) It held a pro-integration rally in Zumalai on April 11 attended by top military and civilian officials of the district. Eurico Gutteres and Joao Tavares, militia leaders from Dili and Ainaro respectively, were also present. One delegation of about 500 people were reportedly fired on with arrows and bullets as they set out to attend the rally, apparently by Falintil.
The Liquica militia, Besi Merah Putih
The Besi Merah Putih militia appears to have been organized in late 1998 as a self-defense force against possible Falintil attacks. Initially armed with only arrows and spears, it claimed by early February to have a membership of 2,890 people and was going on joint patrols with the Battalion 143 of the Indonesian army.(4) One of its founders, Joaquim dos Santos, denied receiving any aid or equipment from the army but did acknowledge regular "consultation" with Battalion 143.(5) Besi Merah Putih has been responsible for dozens of incidents in the Liquica area, culminating in the attacks on April 5 and 6 that left dozens dead and the April 11 attack on the convoy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. Eyewitness accounts from both attacks indicate that troops from the Liquica district and Maubara subdistrict military commands were present at the time of the militia attacks and far from trying to prevent violence, provided active support to their operations. Besi Merah Putih was one of the militias involved in the attack on Manuel Carrascalao's house on April 17.
Other militias
Other militias are also linked directly to civilian and military authority structures. The militia in Lautem district in eastern East Timor is called Tim Alfa and is led directly by the district head, Edmundo da Conceicao. Almost all of its 300 members are armed. The Saka militia in Baucau is led by Sgt. Joanico da Costa of the army special forces, Kopassus, and most of its members worked as guides or logistical support for the army; da Costa was reportedly involved in the capture of Xanana Gusmao in 1992.(6) Other militias include Makikit, in Viqueque; ABLAI (an acronym for "I Will Fight to Preserve the Mandate for Integration") in Manufahi; AHI (an acronym for "I Will Uphold Integration") in Ailiu; Naga Merah in Ermera, and Laksaur in Covalima. All of the groups are coordinated under a central front organization called Forum Persatuan Demokrasi dan Keadilan, or the Forum for the Association of Democracy and Justice, led by the district head of Dili, Domingos Soares.
A credible local newspaper, the Jawa Pos, reports membership in the militias as follows (Human Rights Watch has not independently verified these numbers):(7)
Militia Membership Arms
Saka 970 250 Tim Alfa 300 300 Makikit 200 100 ABLAI 100 70 AHI N.A. N.A. Halilintar 800 400 Aitarak 1,000 100+ Mahidi 2,000 500 Laksaur 500 100 Naga Merah N.A. N.A. Besi Merah Putih 2,000 N.A.
Footnotes:
The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) is seriously concerned about the further acts of violence and the deaths of civilians in Dili, the capital city of East Timor, on Saturday, April 17. This most recent spate of acts of violence and killings occurred after a rally for pro-autonomy sympathisers had been organised by the Dili based Aitarak, led by Eurico Guterres. This incident follows in the wake of the Liquica massacre two weeks previously when a large number of East Timorese (exact numbers still to be confirmed) were killed and many wounded at the hands of the Besi Merah Putih para-military group.
At the finish of the ceremonial part of the rally the militias moved off in different directions, some towards Kolmera and others on to the East Timor University campus (UNTIM). One group passed by the CNRT office where shots were fired into the air. Vehicles belonging to the militia stopped outside the house of Hemenegildo das Dores (killed by the military in Manatuto in 1998) and set about to burn the house down. Two cars belonging to his family were also burned.
An ETHRC source has reported further details of the brutal shootings and attacks at the home of Manuel Carrascalao, a leading figure in GRPRTT (reconciliation movement) and CNRT. Manuel (Manuelito) Carrascalao, 18 years, was brutally killed by militia. He was shot in the left temple and the bullet went through to the back of his head. Twice two militiamen stabbed Manuel in the stomach. One used a samurai sword and the other a smaller sword. Each time, the swords penetrated through to Manuel's back. He was stabbed another time from the back, which followed through to his left shoulder. It was reported that he died instantly. The dead body was not able to be located at first but after requests were made by Bishop Belo and Manuel's family members to Colonel Tono Suratman, Manuel's body was returned by the police. He was buried in the garden of his brother, Jose Manuel in Comoro. The police prevented the family from burying him at the public cemetery of Santa Cruz because the militia was in control of the cemetery.
Carmelinda Guterres aged 89, the great aunty of Manuel, is believed to have been killed during the attack on the house. His cousin, Marcelina Carrascalao, is also believed to have been killed. Neither of the bodies have been seen and therefore confirmation is still being sought.
Three youths have been identified as sustaining serious injuries at Manuel's house. Marito (Micky), 18 years, was stabbed twice in the right hand and twice in his side. Joao Junior Cairo Alves, 18 years, was struck in the head with a sword and fell to floor. Victor dos Santos Lay, 19 years is the other youth identified.
The attack on Manuel Carrascalao's house was brutal and unexpected. It is reported that 143 refugees from neighbouring districts of Alas, Liquica, Maubara, Turiscai and Suai were in the house at the time of the attack. More than 50 of them were forced to go to the police headquarters. The refugees were not able to escape because the militia had blocked off all of the streets. It is believed, but still to be confirmed, that the number of those killed will exceed more than the 12 "official" reported deaths. An ETHRC source has reported that after the rampage and killings at Manuel Carrascalao's house, the militia celebrated into the night with a party.
Outside the Hotel New Ressende Inn, Dili, Afonso Mendonca Araujo, 18 years, was struck in the head with a sword and fell to the ground. He was returning home from work but was forced to take the route past the hotel when the attack occurred.
A militia group that had moved on to Becora after the rally passed by the Taibesi military company (745). At Becora civilians were brutally shot at and houses burned. Manuel Pinto, 45 years, from the village of Bahu was shot by bullets when he stepped off the bus from Baccau at the Becora bus station. He was taken to the Policlinic Motael in Dili but later died at 6.15pm after losing a lot of blood. Manuel Pinto's body was returned to his family for burial in April 19. Sebastiao Martins, 21 years, was also shot and sustained severe injuries to both legs. He later received medical treatment. Also at the bus station, 16 kiosks were burned, 2 motor bikes stolen, a mini-bus burned, 2 karoke machines and a video player were taken away. Goods that were being sold there were taken away by the militia. It was also reported that approximately $6,300 (Aus), belonging to Mateus (no surname) was stolen.
Metiaut village was another area where the militia ran rampant. Civilians were victimisd, shot at and injured. Four youths, who were on the beach talking, were approached by militia members and took their guns and pointed them at the youths. They were told not to run away but they defied these orders and dispersed into different directions. It was at this point the militia started shooting. Joao Baptista, 18 years and a student at SMU Negeri lll in Dili, was shot in the leg and fell to the ground. Manuel Gama, 18 years, student at SMU Catholic School (Dharma Bhakti) was shot in both arms and the bullets went through his stomach. Agapito Ximenes, 23 years, was shot in the calf of the left leg then the bullet went through to his right calf. Carlos da Silva, 20 years, was shot in the stomach and another bullet hit and broke his hand. All four youths received medical treatment.
On Sunday, 18 April, the shootings by the militia were continuing and an ETHRC source has confirmed that the bus station at Becora was the scene of another attack. Augusto da Silva, 45 years, was shot in both hands while he was watching this incident.
The military, BTT143, (Territorial Batallion) together with troops from Company C 745, Becora, were reported as continuing the shootings on Monday, 19 April. Further details regarding the above two incidents are being gathered.
Background to Killings
The 17 April pro-autonomy rally began at 10 am outside the front of the East Timor Governor's office where ceremonies were staged for a number of militia groups which had come to Dili from different areas. These groups included Halintar (Atabe), Dadurus (Maliana), AHI (Aileu), Ablai (Same), Mahidi (Ainaro), Laksaur Merah Putih (Suai), Besi Merah Putih (Maubara), Makikit (Viqueque), Saka (Bacau), Jati Merah Putih (Lospalos). Also in attendance were the military and military commander, police representatives, the Governor and pro-autonomy civilians. In the morning Members of ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces) forcibly woke local civilians, including old people and transmigrants, in order for them to attend the ceremonial part of the rally.
Joao da Silva Tavares (Pro-Integration War Commander) delivered the first speech. Eurico Guterres, in his emotional speech to the militia, called ..."from today, 17 April 1999, I order all militias of pro-integration to clean up the traitors of integration, arrest and kill them", Eurico Guterres will be responsible.
The ETHRC is continuing to make inquiries about the killings and will issue progress reports when claims can been confirmed. This is difficult at present as many of our sources are afraid to attend work because their organisations are targets for attack by para-military groups.
Hamish Mcdonald -- Well-placed sources in Jakarta have supplied what could be the jigsaw pieces that make sense of the puzzling Indonesian policy on East Timor in recent months.
The leadership of the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) were not consulted about and still do not agree with President B.J. Habibie's announcement on January 27 that independence was the alternative if the East Timorese rejected an offer of wide autonomy within Indonesia.
The military will never give up East Timor, the sources said. Dr Habibie, the well-known maverick, was simply talking impulsively.
Former president Soeharto, under whom Jakarta carried out its laborious process of subversion, invasion and annexation of then Portuguese Timor in 1974-76, was also infuriated by the sudden policy switch by his longtime protege, Dr Habibie.
Mr Soeharto is still said to command the loyalty and respect of the overwhelming majority of the ABRI senior officer corps, despite efforts by a reformist group to bring the military into line with an era of more democratic politics. The sources are close to Mr Soeharto and his loyalists.
The ABRI commander and Defence Minister, General Wiranto, straddles this uneasy combination, but is himself a Soeharto appointee.
Dr Habibie's January 27 policy switch certainly was a surprise. After a routine Cabinet session on political and security affairs, first Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah and then Foreign Minister Ali Alatas emerged to say the East Timorese would be offered "regional autonomy plus" and if they rejected that, Indonesia's highest representative body would be ask to "release" the territory later this year.
International pressure, notably that from Canberra on the self- determination question, was cited as the reason.
The account helps explain why the Indonesian military stepped up the campaign of fear by its sponsored pro-integration militias, why Foreign Minister Alatas subsequently resisted so hard the idea of a plebiscite in East Timor (conceding it at UN discussions on March 12), and why the choice put to the Timorese will not be autonomy or independence, but autonomy yes or no.
It explains the latest pressure in Dr Habibie's Cabinet to pull back from the independence offer, the reported watering down of the autonomy package, the defiance of world opinion by unleashing the militias in Dili itself while a foreign minister from the European Union was in town and only five days before the next UN-sponsored talks.
It should put paid to the "rogue element" theory, blaming the militia activity on unreconciled officers in ABRI's Udayana Command.
What are the immediate goals of this campaign, aside from trying to cow the independence movement?
Most probably, to poison the UN-sponsored diplomatic and political process on which Jakarta has been carried along since Dr Habibie's decision. To provoke Portugal in particular into withdrawing from negotiations, so that Jakarta can suspend its side of the deal.
If this is the case, the response from Canberra must be to keep Lisbon in the diplomatic game, to clinch agreement on the terms of the autonomy offer (however implausible in its likely acceptance), and to get a UN presence on the ground as fast as possible.
David Jenkins -- As East Timor descends into a new round of violence and savagery the time has come for searching questions to be asked of President B. J. Habibie and his sometimes unfathomable Defence Minister, General Wiranto.
Let there be no mistake. The militiamen who went on a weekend rampage in Dili, killing at least 20 supporters of independence, are creatures of the Indonesian army.
With each new atrocity in Timor it is becoming increasingly difficult to argue that local Indonesian army officers are off on a frolic of their own, acting against the wishes of their superiors outside the province.
They are not. That is not the way the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) works. Local commanders are doing precisely what their superiors -- or a significant number of them -- want them to do. In doing so, they have taken East Timor closer to the precipice.
Who is to blame for the latest unrest? The military officer immediately responsible for East Timor is Colonel Tono Suratman, a Kopassus (Special Forces, the red berets) officer who heads the local Korem (Military District) command.
For a time, Suratman was said to be making a genuine attempt to bring East Timor's warring factions together. But he has now thrown his weight decisively behind the militias, arming them and providing them with logistics support.
Suratman's immediate superior is Major General Adam Damiri, who heads Kodam IX, the Bali-based Udayana military region. Damiri's career took off under two powerful red beret officers, both of whom have since fallen from grace.
He was chief of staff of the vital Jakarta military garrison when that command was headed by Major General Syafrie Syamsuddin, a former Soeharto bodyguard and presidential favourite.
He was hand-picked by Soeharto's son-in-law, Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, to command the 1st infantry Division of Kostrad, one of two key units in Indonesia's 27,000-strong Army Strategic Reserve.
If history offers any guide, Suratman and Damiri could be in for the chop before long. There are two reasons.
In 1991, when Indonesian troops ran amok in Dili, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians, Soeharto, responding to international pressure, cashiered the Dili commander and the Udayana commander, neither of whom had done anything particularly wrong on that occasion. It is difficult to see how Habibie can do less, although he, of course, has none of the authority that Soeharto had over ABRI.
Second, and more ominously, there are signs that Suratman may have lost control in Dili, or be on the verge of losing control. That, in ABRI circles, is a cardinal sin. Few ABRI officers have surrendered control of city and seen their careers prosper.
In short, ABRI may have been too clever by half. Why would the army have embarked on such a dangerous course?
One plausible explanation is that East Timor remains an emotional no-go zone for senior Indonesian officers. These men are reluctant, after so much ABRI blood has been spilt there, to see East Timor slip the surly bonds of Indonesian control. They would rather a festering sore than an independent East Timor.
That said, it may not be simply a matter of ABRI bloody mindedness. Army officers profess concern for the wellbeing of the many non-Timorese settlers, and those East Timorese who have done Indonesia's bidding over the past 24 years.
Another explanation is that Wiranto is trying to curry favour with key political leaders, from whose ranks a new president is likely to emerge following Indonesia's June 7 general election. Politicians like Megawati Sukarnoputri have no wish to wave goodbye to East Timor. Wiranto, it is argued, will need the goodwill of the politicians if he is to look after ABRI interests.
In Jakarta these days, some argue that Habibie, as an interim leader, has no right to "give East Timor away." The army can afford to ignore Habibie's autonomy vote, they say, because they know the next president will sympathise with their actions.
Some experts, it is true, are in less of a hurry to blame Wiranto for the mess in East Timor. As one source puts it: "The jury is still out on Wiranto. He was a reluctant draftee on independence for East Timor. But there are forces in the Udayana command he can't control. Besides, he may have bigger fish to fry."
Whatever the explanation, Wiranto has so far exerted no control at all. That can only mean, critics charge, that he is giving tacit support to the bloodletting.
Then there's Habibie. He may have even less control over ABRI. He may be influenced by men like General Feisal Tanjung, a red beret Timor veteran who now sits in cabinet as Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs.
But Habibie is also Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. If ABRI has created a Frankenstein monster in East Timor, then it is Habibie who must bear ultimate responsibility for the consequences.
There was a huge paramilitary rally in Aileu, one hour from Dili. Several journalists travelled with Basilio do Araujo.
There have been some strange developments here. Over the week, Basilio and paramilitary leaders have been saying publicly they wanted the Indonesian troops to leave East Timor! It seems during Saturday's paroxysm of violence in Dili, Eurico Guterres shouted at East Timor commander Tono Suratman asking him to leave the territory.
When Basilio was questioned about this, he answered that they wanted to show the world that East Timorese supported continued integration with Indonesia and they were not doing it just because of fear of ABRI troops. He wants ABRI to leave in the period leading up to and during the scheduled vote on autonomy in July. After a vote in favour of autonomy, Basilio wants the Indonesian troops back.
On the surface this seems very odd -- the least stupid! It is clear that almost everybody wants independence and wants to do away with Indonesian rule. Xanana and other independence leaders have assumed that the pro-Indonesia thugs and groupings will dissipate or even vanish once ABRI troops left.
But herein lies the overwhelming fear! The paramilitary leaders think they have and will further develop a large enough, well- armed force to hold sway over a majority of the people here for a limited time even without the troops. They certainly have momentum and they have forced and bought paramilitary involvement by the thousands. The area west of Dili, north to south, has seen numerous pro-Indonesia rallies and people are afraid to oppose them even verbally. They have set-up checkpoints on many of the roads in this area.
There is a chilling prospect of a war, later this year, between the paramilitaries and the numerically larger but ill-armed independence forces.
The paramilitaries' strongholds can easily be supported by Indonesia from West Timor. This puts many pieces of the puzzle together: economic interests (the western slice is the richest), the military destabilisation analysis and the recent statements by Basilio. If this becomes increasingly likely, the independence movement will have to begin more serious preparations to fight en masse.
Also there are rumors of growing splits among the military in Dili. Yesterday and last night, some soldiers shot in the air to scare off paramilitary groups hunting former pro-integration, now pro-independence activists. The Air Force in particular is seen least willing to give the paramilitary groups license to kill.
Paul Kelly -- Indonesia's President B. J. Habibie yesterday gave his personal word of honour that he was prepared to give East Timor independence.
He revealed to a delegation of Australian editors that he wanted five nations -- Australia, the US, Germany (representing Europe), Japan and The Philippines -- to be involved in East Timor under a UN umbrella to ensure self-determination.
Dr Habibie said he had raised this initiative with John Howard. It would not involve troops, but personnel and support to make self-determination a success. He insisted Indonesia would be responsible for security.
"If the people of East Timor decide for separation, we will do everything to make it happen in peace," Dr Habibie said in a 75- minute meeting with the editors.
"We will separate in peace, in honour, as friends, and we will leave as neighbours and we will assist within our capabilities. It is moral, it's no problem, okay."
Australian editors, in Jakarta for a meeting with Indonesian editors, were told on Monday that the mood in the Habibie Cabinet was overwhelming resentment at "unfair" international pressures on Indonesia over East Timor and an impulse to cut the province loose if the situation deteriorated.
Dr Habibie's comments reveal that he is prepared to pressure the armed forces over East Timor.
It is widely believed in Jakarta that the tactic of the army under its commander, General Wiranto, is to delay the East Timor process until a "a new political climate" is established in Jakarta.
"I have no problem with the military; they are professional people and they understand," Dr Habibie said. But he claimed that the "retired ones and some politicians" were a problem.
He said a top-level meeting with Australian Government leaders in Bali next Tuesday was aimed at strengthening Indonesia-Australia relations and developing the relationship with the Australian public. While East Timor was the cause of the meeting, it would not dominate the agenda.
Mr Howard said yesterday he looked forward to "useful and constructive discussion on ways to bring an end to the terrible violence" in East Timor.
In Dili last night, security forces moved to restore calm ahead of a visit by armed forces commander General Wiranto. They arrested 15 people yesterday after a weekend of violence that claimed at least 20 lives.
Dr Habibie assured the delegation in Jakarta yesterday that he would not let the security situation in East Timor stand in the way of the "sovereignty of the people".
Asked about the sentiment in East Timor on self-determination, he said: "I believe only in one thing. They should get the chance to make their self-determination for their future. I have one belief, I don't care, I don't care, I only have one care, they should not be tortured or suffer any more."
Dr Habibie said he wanted the East Timorese to accept a ceasefire, to lay down arms, and that this "must be done immediately". But he distinguished between laying down arms and forcing disarmament of pro-integration militias.
"It's almost impossible for him [General Wiranto] to disarm them. That is why I have instructed them to lay down their weapons. If I want to disarm them, oh, they get mad. So I say, 'Cease fire, lay down your weapons and work together for a self- determination'."
Dr Habibie strongly supported the close military relationship between Australia and Indonesia and said that it was not under threat. Asked about Mr Howard's response to his "five nations" initiative, Dr Habibie said: "It was positive, he understands."
Dili -- Leaders of warring factions in the troubled Indonesian territory of East Timor on Wednesday signed a peace pact witnessed by Indonesia's military chief and East Timor's two bishops.
In the document, signed at the residence of Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, the groups pledged to "stop hatred, intimidation, and terror and try to help create peace."
They also pledged to help the government of Indonesia, the national Commission on Human Rights and the Roman Catholic church in promoting the respect of human rights and law in East Timor.
Signing the document from the pro-Indonesian camp were Domingos Soares who heads the Forum for Democracy and Justice, and Joao Tavares, the commander of the militia force. The pro-Independence camp was represented by Leandro Isaac, coordinator of the National Resistance Council of East Timor (CNRT).
Also signing the document were Jakarta-appointed East Timor Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares, East Timor military commander Colonel Tono Suratman, East Timor police chief Colonel Timbul Silaen and a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, Joko Sugianto.
Indonesian Armed Forces Chief General Wiranto and bishops Belo and Basilio do Nascimento also put their signature on the document.
"I think this is a peace agreement and not a ceasefire ... the main content of the document is stopping the violence," a leader of the pro-Indonesian camp, Basilio Araujo, said.
By implication, the pact demanded the laying down of arms, Araujo told journalists after the signing ceremony which was attended by 100 local dignitaries.
The ceremony, held in an area where Belo usually celebrates mass at his residence, was loosely guarded by a few soldiers and members of the military police.
It was not clear whether jailed rebel leader and CNRT president Xanana Gusmao, currently under house arrest in Jakarta, would also be asked to sign the document.
[On April 20 the Lusa news service reported that The United Nations Security Council debated the question of East Timor for the first time since April 1976. The report also said that Portuguese Foreign Minister, Jaime Gama, has reiterated appeals for an "effective United Nations presence in East Timor, not only to stabilize the situation but also to prepare for the democratic process in the territory" - James Balowski.]
Jakarta -- The East Timor pro-independence movement on Thursday claimed that the Indonesian military had conducted attacks on bases of rebel forces in two districts, just a day after it committed itself to halt all violence in the troubled territory, a report said.
The head of the Region III command of the Falintil, the armed wing of the East Timorese pro-independence movement, Falur Ratelai, told the Solidarity for Peace in East Timor (Solidamor) that soldiers had attacked Falintil bases in the districts of Aileu and Manatuto.
He said the attacks were conducted by some 1,200 personnel from the army Batallion 301 that had been in the area since April 12
The soldiers were attacking bases in Remexio in Aileu district, and in Soibada, Barique and Laclubar in Manatuto district, as well as conducting house searches in local villages, Ratelai was quoted as saying in a Solidamor press release.
The report could not be immediately confirmed with the military in Dili, Aileu and Manatuto, with telephone communications to Aileu not functioning.
East Timor military commander, Colonel Tono Suratman, was signatory to a peace pact between the pro-Indonesia and pro- independence camp sealed in East Timor on Wednesday.
Each of the two camps were represented by two signatories. Representing the local authorities were Suratman, East Timor police chief Colonel Timbul Silaen and Jakarta-appointed Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares.
The signatories of the pact pledged to lay down their weapons and support efforts for peace and reconcialiation in the former Portugeuse colony which has been rocked by fractional violence in the past weeks.
Tension between pro- and anti-Indonesian groups has risen in East Timor following jakarta's announcement in January that it could let the territory go if the people there rejected autonomy under Indonesia in a poll to be held in July.
The decision by the Habibie regime in 1998 to offer "the widest possible autonomy", including a separate electoral system, flag, and so on, was a retreat by the Habibie regime from the position of Suharto who refused any kind of autonomy.
The decision by Habibie in January to announce that the East Timorese would have the opportunity to reject or accept the autonomy proposal and would be "granted independence" if they rejected autonomy was a retreat by the Habibie regime from its former position of autonomy as the "final solution" to the East Timor problem.
Both these retreats were a result of the mounting pressure on the Habibie regime resulting from the escalating protest movement in East Timor, particularly by the East Timorese student movement. The East Timorese student movement had been conducting consistent mobilising campaigns throughout most of 1998. The Habibie regime was also under pressure on other fronts within Indonesia itself facing massive student protests in November, 1998, increasing self-determination protests in Aceh and escalating social tensions in many parts of Indonesia such as Ambon and Kalimantan.
Pressure on Habibie reduced
During the first part of 1999, the pressure on the Habibie regime and ABRI was lessened for a number of reasons. Firstly, the so- called mainstream rivals of President Habibie, namely Megawati Sukarnoputri, Abdurrahman Wahid, and Amien Rais have not engaged in any activities whatsoever that would have increased pressure on Habibie and ABRI to move forward on a peaceful self- determination process. In fact, Megawati and Wahid have made statements stating that they supported the continuing integration of East Timor in Indonesia thus reducing pressure on Habibie and ABRI.
Only the radical student movement, which adopted a pro-self- determination position at a national assembly of students in Bali in March, East Timor solidarity NGOs and the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) have taken clear pro-self-determinations stands. In East Timor, as an act of good faith and an indication that the East Timorese resistance did not want to cause difficulties for Indonesia in a period of social and economic crisis, all actions that may be seen as confrontation with Indonesia had been stopped. The regime and ABRI have taken advantage of this act of good will by the East Timorese resistance.
With the victories for the East Timorese movement during 1998 and in January 1999, it is also fair to say that an euphoria developed which has perhaps resulted in a lessening of public protest and pressure campaigns and a diversion of many groups outside of Indonesia towards the issues of humanitarian assistance and economic reconstruction.
Xanana Gusmao on political solidarity
In an interview with the Australian newspaper Green Left Weekly in March Xanana Gusmao emphasised the need for continuing political solidarity as a priority:
"It is crucial for people overseas to maintain pressure on the Indonesian government to keep up political solidarity. While it is good that people are preparing to provide aid for East Timorese economic development, the solution to the East Timor issue is not with us yet." Neither Habibie nor ABRI are genuine democrats or supporters of self-determination. Whatever retreats they make, they make in order to safeguard their own interests and only when under pressure.
As soon as pressure is taken off, they show themselves ready to resort to the most brazen acts of open terror, brutality and cruelty as exemplified in the massacres in Liquisa and in the house of Mr Manuel Carrascalao and as exemplified in the whole history of the Indonesian occupation.
Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) therefore:
[The following summarises a report from Yayasan HAK which was circulated in Bahasa by Fortilos.]
1. With regard to the casualties at Manuel Carrascalao's house, we have spoken by phone to a neighbour who said that yesterday, 17/4, he was able to count eighteen corpses, but there could have been more as, besides men, women and children were also in the house. In a quivering voice -- because his home was full of security officers -- he said that after the house was attacked, the security forces came and blocked the road outside the house and prevented anyone from passing. That evening several army trucks arrived and took away the refugees who had survived and those who were injured to an unknown destination. He thought that the corpses were also removed. As yet, we have no information about where the victims and refugees are and there have been no burials reported in any of the known cemeteries or prayers said for the dead. It seems that it will be the same as what happened after Sanata Cruz in 1991 and Liquisa on 6 April 1999, that the bodies will be buried in concealed graves to eliminate all traces. Manuel Carrascalao himself is still taking refuge in the Bishop's house while his home is heavily guarded by the police.
2. At 10 am today, the pro-integration militia were active in Becora, where they killed two people and injured several others with gunfire. The incident began when local residents were startled by the appearance of a vehicle and a motor-bike both full of militia, driving from west to east. As they drove past Becora market, they started firing into the air. People in the vicinity panicked and fled in all directions for protection. Nothing is yet known about what exactly happened to result in the deaths and injuries.
3. On Sunday, 18/4, we were told by people who had just arrived from Maliana that about seventy people living in Cailako have been murdered or have disappeared. This came after an attack on a pro-integration leader from the Bobonaro district named Manuel Soares Gama on 13/4. As previously reported, Falintil made an attack on a vehicle on 13/4 in Cailaco sub-district, district of Bobonaro, killing Manuel Soares Gama and several of his followers. In response to this attack, troops from the local military command, Kodim, under the leadership of Kodim commander Lt-Colonel Burhanuddin, shot dead five local residents in the presence of local administration chiefs (Muspida). During the next few days, Kodim troops along with members of the Halilintar militia rounded up and killed a number of local residents who were suspected of collaborating with FALINTIL.
ABRI commander General Wiranto said that East Timor is still part of Indonesia and that any violations of the law by either side are intolerable. Asked about the entry of UN forces, he said this would happen at the appropriate time, ie when a decision has been taken regarding the option that is being offered.
He denied that conditions in Timor were tense and said that everything was under control. The army and the police there were under orders to keep things in order and to prosecute those who break the law.
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas that the conflicts were part of a longstanding conflict between the pro- and anti-integration groups and it would not influence the tripartite meeting at the UN later this week.
Monday evening Justice Minister is due to meet Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao at his Department when he will ask Xanana to retract his statement regarding war (sic). He denied that Xanana would be returned to prison because this would be a setback, but said he could speak harshly to Xanana.
The atmosphere in Dili appears to be calm though all shops are closed and the markets are quiet, while schools are not functioning.
The governor presided over a ceremony in which he inaugurated civilian security guards (Pam Swakarsa) for Dili district, which included members of the Aitarak militia.
In Becora, pro-independence youth gathered together while many residents evacuated to a safer place. The security forces have been unable to gain control of the area because the roads are blocked by pro-independence groups who want to seek vengance against pro-integration groups. In Dili proper the streets are being patrolled by Brimob. The police chief admitted that his forces were still unable to take charge in some areas because the roads are blocked.
Manuel Carrascalao, speaking
from Bishop Belo's home said he lamented the violence at his house and
the death of his son. Why had they killed him and not me, he said, because
I am the one involved in politics.
| June 7 election |
Jenny Grant, Jakarta -- The People's Democratic Party has nominated three missing people to run as parliamentary candidates for the June general election.
Announcing the move yesterday, party chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko described the men -- Petrus Bima Anugerah, Herman Hendrawan and Suyat -- as three of its best cadres.
The three young students have not been seen since they were allegedly kidnapped by special military agents as part of a covert operation to silence opposition activists in the twilight of former president Suharto's rule.
Speaking inside Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he has served two years of a 13-year term for subversion, the 29-year-old Sudjatmiko, who has just finished a one-week hunger strike to press for a free and fair election, said the party's nominations were serious.
"By doing this, we will warn the Government that they have kidnapped some of our best members," he said. "They were really our leading cadres and we miss not having them to work for the elections."
Mr Anugerah, a 25-year-old philosophy student, has not been seen since March last year. Mr Hendrawan, a political science student at Surabaya's Airlangga University, disappeared on March 12 last year after giving a news conference at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation office. Suyat was kidnapped by five uniformed soldiers from a friend's house in the village of Kalijambe in Central Java a month earlier.
The People's Democratic Party has also illegally nominated a number of its jailed members, including Sudjatmiko, as parliamentary candidates. By law, prisoners lose their right to vote and run for the legislature.
The only Indonesian political leader to ever run a party from jail, Sudjatmiko has no telephone or typewriter. Twice a week he attends a committee which is organising the party's election campaign. He denies he is frustrated by the process.
"We hope to win at least five per cent. We will be relying on students, former nationalist figures and ex-political prisoners to vote for us," Sudjatmiko said.
Jenny Grant, Yogyakarta -- The scene would have been impossible at the last elections. At a high-level meeting in a university campus, a long-haired activist told the city's Attorney-General that his monitoring group had found irregularities in the voter registration process.
The activist, Aloyisius Wesnuhardana, then turned to the city's police chief and asked him how he planned to protect his team of volunteer election monitors.
Both men gave respectful answers to the former chemistry student who only two years previously had failed to get an election monitoring project off the ground under the Government's highly manipulated New Order electoral system.
Now Mr Wesnuhardana's Independent Committee for Election Monitoring is leading the push in the Central Java city Yogyakarta that analysts say is the political barometer of the nation.
"So far we have found parents who registered for their children and election officials who registered people before they had the proper forms," said the activist, who aims to have 1,000 monitors working under him by June 7.
Election supervisors in the special region of Yogyakarta have already found evidence of manipulation in the electoral system, and now they are not afraid to talk about it.
By far the worst violation is in the village of Gunung Kidul, where poll officials handed out voting cards to people before they registered.
"We don't know how many cards because we don't have access to the records," Mr Wesnuhardana said. He maintains that such misdemeanours could favour the ruling Golkar party, which has told villages in the Imogiri area that the highly respected Sultan of Yogyakarta supports it. That could swing the balance away from other parties.
Vice-chairman of Yogyakarta's election committee Mohammad Mahfud said the problems had so far only been administrative and could be fixed. He said the main stumbling block was timing.
"We don't have enough time to organise these elections. Voter registration forms were late coming from Jakarta and the financial system is still unclear," Mr Mahfud said.
On the streets, Yogyakarta's 3.2 million residents appear keen to cast their ballots in the elections.
Thousands of brightly coloured flags flutter above the Dutch- style rooftops of this slow-paced city. Election banners dominate the more than 50 university campuses in what is essentially a student town.
The smiling face of the Sultan beams down from a giant billboard in the main commercial district.
Hardojo, the driver of a dokar, or horse-drawn carriage, said he had already enrolled to vote on June 7. "This time, our vote will mean something," he said laughing.
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta -- The ruling Golkar party is among Indonesia's most unpopular organisations, and even the sight of its official yellow colour is enough to elicit violent reactions from many people.
But the chances of the party, which used to be headed by President Suharto, cannot be disregarded in the run-up to general elections in June.
Political analysts say it may still win in the elections, Indonesia's first democratic vote in four decades. And that, they add, may mean more unrest in already volatile Indonesia.
Many instances of unrest and violence have been blamed on long- simmering ethnic and religious conflicts. But some analysts say their root lies in Indonesians' growing frustration with the way the nation is run and their unmet expectations of political change since Suharto fell from power in May 1998.
While many Indonesians had hoped that Suharto's exit would mark a new beginning, the former president's protege, Bacharuddin J Habibie, succeeded Suharto and Golkar remained in control.
Disappointed Indonesians therefore see the June 7 polls, their first since Suharto stepped down, as their next chance at effecting change.
But a recent survey by the Institute of Public Affairs reveals that the party that has dominated Indonesian politics for more than three decades is expected to secure 20 percent of the votes -- a formidable figure compared to what the other parties are predicted to get.
Analysts say while Golkar is still in the basement as far as public sentiment is concerned, the opposition parties are simply too small and lack a nationwide network to seriously challenge Indonesia's most powerful political organisation.
The Institute also says that if Golkar wins most parliament seats, it will be due mainly to coalitions among parties believed to be affiliated with it, such as the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction led by Budi Harjono, the People's Sovereign Party (PRD) and the Justice Party.
But observers say a Golkar win would not sit well with Indonesians who have greeted the party's recent political rallies with unbridled hostility, and may result in more upheavals.
In at least three major rallies held by Golkar across Java this month, people attacked the party's supporters.
During a rally in Purbalingga, for instance, men wearing yellow shirts were forced to remove them while similarly clad women had to seek refuge in police stations to escape being harmed by an angry mob.
Golkar convoys traveling across the country have also been stoned, and cars carrying Golkar officials and supporters overturned and set ablaze.
Observers say such reactions are understandable since Golkar has yet to be held accountable for three decades of corruption and human rights abuses committed by government officials and military officers.
Said a recent editorial in the 'Tempo' newsmagazine: "Golkar was like an athlete who constantly practised doping. He bites ears of opponents, but had always been allowed by [an] unjust referee [to continue] in an unqualified match."
"Now there is supposed to be a decision that suspends it from taking part in the next competition ... [but] Golkar goes ahead with its past sins," it added.
Golkar, meanwhile, has pinpointed supporters of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, head of her own faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party, as being the instigators of many of the attacks.
Some in fact say Megawati, daughter of Indonesia's late first President Sukarno, is said to be facing dwindling popularity because of the actions of her followers.
Comments one local politician: "People came to realise that she is unable to control her own people, lead her own organisation. How can she lead the nation?"
But observers trace the hostility of Megawati's supporters to the July 1996 attacks on her headquarters by military-backed factions who wanted a pro-Suharto rival to head the party and to head off a challenge from Megawati.
"The present violent practices are actually the fruit of what Golkar taught [people to do] in the past," says one government critic. "It is only logical that Golkar now 'enjoys' the fruit."
All this makes Rubiyanto, a professor at the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, say that Indonesian politicians are simply not yet prepared to deal with genuine democracy.
He noted: "The present escalation of violence only shows that political groups prefer the use of force in obtaining their goals."
"I am not sure that the 'democratic groups would be willing to accept [a Golkar] victory in the upcoming elections, even if it were fair," he added.
Noted scholar Nurcholish Majid says Indonesia suffers from political immaturity and a misconception of democracy. "The key [in] democracy is willingness to accept others," said Majid. "It means all parties should be ready for compromises."
He adds that part of Indonesia's problems stems from the perception that the Habibie government should not be in power at all. "Not only is this government transitional," said Majid, "many view this as not being a legitimate transitional government."
The political expert says this is why it is crucial to "make the next election a success". But to bring that about, Majid says all parties must learn to restrain themselves from violent practices and accept the results of a democratic process.
Observed Majid: "It is the whole nation that will suffer if the elections fail."
Heri Akhmadi, director of Institute of Public Affairs, says changing old habits is hard. "Suharto-ism is still vividly there. It is a much more difficult task to eradicate Suharto-ism than to simply oust Suharto."
"Suharto-ism is a personality, which has turned out to be also a political, social, cultural and economic system. It has been deeply rooted in our behaviour. Long-term measures are needed to eliminate it," Akhmadi said.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- Deposed president Soeharto, accused of massive corruption and cronyism during his 32-year rule of Indonesia, yesterday attacked the ruling Golkar party he created, saying it has been ruined by vested interests.
Referring to leaders of the party preparing to contest the country's first free elections since 1955, Mr Soeharto said "they have left the state and national interests behind" and were without vision or programs. "The result is chaos," he said.
In an interview likely to fuel fears that radical groups loyal to the former president are provoking religious and communal strife ahead of the poll, Mr Soeharto also called for a stronger role for the armed forces, refused to rule out again taking power and criticised the release from jail last month of alleged communist military officers jailed after a 1965 coup which resulted in him becoming president.
Analysts said the comments, published in a weekly newspaper called Siar, will increase tensions in Golkar as it prepares to nominate Dr B.J.Habibie, who replaced Mr Soeharto amid bloodshed last May, as its priority candidate for president at the June elections.
Golkar sources also made clear yesterday that the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, would be nominated as Dr Habibie's vice-presidential running mate when the new parliament meets with regional and other appointees to choose a new national leadership.
The nominations, passed at a closed-door Golkar meeting earlier this week but still awaiting formal approval, are a blow to anti-Soeharto members pushing for the nomination of the reformist party chairman, Mr Marzuki Darusman, and the Sultan of Yogyakarta, the scion of Indonesia's grandest royal family.
The stigma of association with Mr Soeharto's now discredited rule has prompted the defection of many of Golkar's leading figures, including former vice president, retired General Try Sutrisno. The Minister of Co-operatives, Mr Adi Sasono, is facing the sack after apparently courting a new party.
The Minister for Information, Mr Yunus Yosfiah, warned this week that Indonesia's problems would increase unless the Government stopped practices that became rampant during Mr Soeharto's rule, including preferential treatment for military officers and other people close to the Soeharto family.
Mr Soeharto, 78, who lives as a recluse in a heavily guarded house in Jakarta, said the armed forces were now "cornered" and did not have the confidence to do anything -- an apparent reference to the violence in provinces including East Timor, Aceh, West Kalimantan and Ambon.
"In the end they think if they do something they will be blamed but if they don't do anything they will be blamed too," he was quoted as saying. Mr Soeharto called for the military to become stronger. "The government of Indonesia needs a stronger [military] because it has to maintain stability and carry out development," he said.
Dr Habibie promised last night he would do all he could to prevent the Balkanisation of Indonesia: "I don't want to be remembered as the leader who let this country disintegrate."
Jakarta -- Chairman of the Jakarta Provincial Elections Committee (PPD I) Djafar Badjeber announced on Friday that campaign activities in the city for the June 7 general election were scheduled to start on May 19.
He said the opening date would be marked by a joint parade of all the 48 parties' flags from Monas Square and the official hoisting of the flags at 108 spots around the city.
A total of 15 days will be allocated for campaign activities starting on May 20, he said. The period is divided into three rounds with nine to 10 parties designated to campaign on each day.
"It means that each party will be given three campaign opportunities: first at the district level from May 20 to May 24, second at the mayoralty level from May 25 to May 29 and the final at the provincial level from May 31 to June 4," he said.
"There won't be campaign activities on May 30 as we should respect Buddha's Day of Enlightenment, which falls on the day."
He added that PPD I was still finalizing the roster of which parties would campaign on the designated days.
He explained that each party was free to decide on the form of its campaigning, but "the only forbidden one is the street rally'.
The schedule has been prepared in line with the regulation of the General Elections Commission for the campaign period from May 19 to June 4.
Djafar said that on June 5 all parties would be asked to remove all attributes -- including flags, stickers and posters -- from public places.
He also said PPD I would request that major parties not campaign on the same day to minimize the possibility of clashes among their supporters.
Parties scheduled to campaign on the same day would be expected to make an agreement among themselves on the sites and schedule, he said.
Djafar admitted it would be difficult to guarantee there would be no clashes during the campaign period because encounters between different parties' supporters would be unavoidable.
"That's why we have repeatedly urged each political party to be responsible for their supporters. We have thought about penalizing parties whose supporters are involved in clashes.
"There is a possibility that a party with delinquent supporters will be disqualified from holding campaign activities in the next round," he said.
PPD I data showed on Thursday that 4.63 million Jakartans, or 82.76 percent of total eligible voters, had registered for the polls. PPD I official Mulyono told The Jakarta Post that the figure was final because registration was closed on April 18. However, another registration period will be open from April 30 to May 4.
Of the 4.63 million registrants, 555,245 are in Central Jakarta (77 percent of those eligible in the mayoralty); 755,901 in North Jakarta (82.64 percent); 993,654 in West Jakarta (89.45 percent); 1.3 million registrants in East Jakarta (80.01 percent) and 1.03 million in South Jakarta (83.82 percent).
Jakarta -- Although the official election campaign period is still a month away, political parties across the country have moved their electioneering activities into high gear.
In some cities, motorcades of party supporters in colorful uniforms and bandanas snaked through small streets and major thoroughfares. No fatalities or violence has been reported over the past three days from electioneering, which is officially scheduled for May 19 through June 4.
However, there were some reports of harassment. The Suara Pembaruan afternoon daily said on Sunday a dozen members of ruling Golkar Party's security force were harassed in thc Central Java town of Boyolali as they returned from a gathering with party chairman Akbar Tandjung.
They were blocked by a group of unidentified people on Jl. Merbabu, and were allowed to go after being forced to remove their party uniforms, the newspaper said.
Akbar and a number of party executives were in Boyolali for a reading of the Koran to mark Islamic New Year, the first day of Muharram on Saturday, which was celebrated on Sunday
The Jakarta Post's correspondent in Boyolali witnessed the arrival of Akbar's convoy -- comprising about 2,000 people, far lower than the expected 20,000 -- at Sonolayu stadium, and said the supporters were jeered at by locals.
When Akbar waved to the crowd, most people responded by showing the finger sign of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) led by popular politician Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Tension was felt when some people in the crowd shouted to Golkar's security personnel -- numbering over 1,000, according to provincial task-force commander Bambang Raya -- "You're thugs". Bambang said the security force included members of Golkar's youth wings AMPI, PPM and FKPPI.
In his speech, Akbar said: "Yes, indeed there are people intimidating us, but don't be afraid to stand up to them. I am here, and no riots have broken out as some press reports said would happen if I came."
Akbar was referring to strong opposition, voiced by various parties, to his planned visit to Central Java, following a clash between Golkar members and supporters of PDI Perjuangan. However, Akbar's convoy chose an alternate route to continue their journey to Surakarta, another central Java town, reportedly to avoid mobs.
No mass gathering was held by Golkar in Surakarta, following widely reported rejection by locals, Antara reported on Saturday.
Another incident took place in East Java's capital of Surabaya. A confrontation between supporters of the United Development Party (PPP) and the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Party, was reported by ANteve on Sunday. No injuries were reported.
The news agency also reported electioneering by PPP in West Java's capital of Bandung and Jakarta, the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) in Jakarta, PDI Perjuangan in Jakarta, the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI) in Central Kalimantan's capital of Palangka Raya and the National Democratic Party (PND) in Lampung.
Meanwhile, at least 24 of the 32 parties represented in Cirebon West Java, held on Saturday a joint street rally, calling for peaceful campaigning, the news agency said.
In Bandung on Saturday, influential Madurese figure Alawy Muhamad of PPP's board of advisers called on Muslims across the nation to unite and vote for PPP
"If PPP wins, the party will strive to introduce Islamic teaching into the life of society," he told a crowd of hundreds. A street convoy followed after the gathering, but no violence occurred, Antara reported.
In the Pasar Minggu area in South Jakarta, the chairman of the Jakarta chapter of PDI Perjuangan, Roy B.B. Janis, officially opened 70 "command outposts" scattered across the city. As many as 2 500 have already been established in Jakarta, he was quoted as saying.
The outposts, usually small bamboo huts painted red, are placed at intersections and street corners as bases for supporters to gather or conduct party activities.
Also in Jakarta, thousands of supporters of PDR gathered on Saturday in the Senayan indoor sports stadium to declare the establishment of the party.
Press reports have linked PDR to Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Adi Sasono. Party chairman Latief Burhan denied there was a connection, the news agency said.
In Lampung, PND announced on Sunday Megawati's elder brother, Guntur Soekarnoputra, was it's candidate for president.
In Palangka Raya on Saturday,
PUDI chairman Sri Bintang Pamungkas introduced the party's political platform
for "total reforrn".
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- A mob attacked a Roman Catholic complex in the predominantly Moslem province of South Sulawesi, throwing fuel bombs that burned several buildings just hours after a blast at a main mosque in Jakarta, police said Tuesday.
"The fuel bombs were thrown at around 9pm yesterday (Monday)," Captain Siswo of the South Sulawesi Police said from Ujung Pandang, the provincial capital.
An office of a Catholic foundation, a dormitory, a pastor's residence and a youth meeting hall in Kare, on the outskirts of Ujung Pandang, had all been burned, he added.
It was the first attack on a Christian complex since a blast rocked Jakarta's main Istiqlal mosque on Monday afternoon. The church in the same complex was burned down during attacks by Moslems there earlier this year.
"According to reports four people have already been arrested in relation to the incident," Siswo said, declining to elaborate.
In Ujung Pandang, a woman who answered the telephone at the main cathedral said several soldiers and police had been dispatched to guard the building since early Tuesday.
In Jakarta, a company of police were also on standby at the main cathedral just across from the Istiqlal, and troops were guarding at least one other church, witnesses said.
Indonesia is the world's largest Moslem nation with over 90 percent of its some 202 million people following Islam.
Indonesian official and public leaders, both Moslem and Christian, have issued repeated calls for calm following the Istiqlal blast and urged people not to fall prey to incitments to violence.
Jakarta -- Security forces mistakenedly opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Madurese migrants and local Malays in Indonesian Borneo killing four people and injuring three others, an official said Monday.
The incident Sunday happened when a group of security forces arrived in Karimunting village in the troubled Sambas district following a report of a dispute between Madurese and Malays in a Madurese neighbourhood.
They opened fire prematurely, a local official said. "There was a misunderstanding by the security when they saw Malays and Madurese together in a Madurese neighbourhood ... and four people were killed," Burhanudin, an official at the Sungairaya sub- district told AFP by phone.
The Antara state news agency reported however some homes had been torched before the shootout between the security forces and residents armed with homemade muskets.
"There were shootings among the security and the mob who had been attacking. Four people were killed from the crowd in the incident," West Kalimantan police chief Colonel Chaerul Rasyid was quoted by Antara as saying.
Three of the victims were Malays and the other a Madurese man. The bodies and the three injured were taken to the Dr. Aziz Hospital in Sambas district's main town of Singkawang.
"They might have gone outside (standard operating) procedures, but all that is currently being investigated by the police," Burhanuddin said, adding several were being questioned by police.
The shooting brought the death toll to five in the Sungairaya district since the first clashes there broke out two weeks ago. Almost 100 homes have been burned.
Violent clashes pitting the Madurese migrant community against Malays and Dayaks erupted in the Sambas district in West Kalimantan province in mid-January.
The violence, most of it directed against Madurese settlers there, has included beheadings and ritual cannibalism, with over 200 people killed and about 29,000 driven from their homes to refugee camps.
Jakarta -- Security forces fired warning shots when hundreds of students demanding a share of oil earnings stormed a Caltex Indonesia housing complex on Sumatra island Tuesday, wrecking cars and smashing office windows, sources said.
Students from the local Riau University and the Institute of Islamic Studies damaged almost 30 cars along with a club and a hotel in the complex and smashed office windows with rocks, one source said.
"Students from universities in Riau protested to demand a 10 percent share of oil revenues," Budi Arief, the telephone operator at the Caltex complex, told AFP by phone from Rumbai.
Rumbai is on the outskirts of Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, on Sumatra island.
Caltex public relations officials were not immediately available for comment. But spokesmen have said the company contract provides for much of the 80 percent share of the oil it gives to Jakarta to go to the province. Caltex produces almost half of Indonesia's 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a day.
A resident said they had been warned of the protest. "The students came at about 11.30am ... it was a planned event and there had been news that they were going to protest. But ... it was pretty scary."
A nurse at the Caltex hospital said nine protestors were admitted. She said they had been beaten by the police but their injuries were not serious.
Parliament is debating a bill on revenue sharing with the provinces, but it has come in for sharp criticism from economists who warn that more concessions must be made.
Tual -- Police fired shots Friday to disperse battling mobs of Christians and Muslims in eastern Indonesia, witnesses said. At least seven people were killed.
The rioting in Tual city was the latest outburst of religious unrest in Maluku province, where more than 300 people have died in fighting this year. Dozens of churches and mosques have been burned.
Residents said by telephone that Christian attackers hurled gasoline bombs at homes and fought Muslim gangs with spears and knives. Some Muslim women took part in the fighting.
Witnesses said they saw the bodies of five Muslims and two Christians. At least 19 people suffered bullet or knife wounds.
"I saw two men who were killed by knives and arrows," said a witness who requested anonymity. He said police tried to disperse the rioters by shooting at their legs.
The military has struggled to contain frequent outbursts of unrest in Indonesia over the past year. Religious and ethnic tensions, economic hardship and disputes over the course of Indonesia's transition to democracy have fueled violence since the downfall in May of authoritarian President Suharto.
Most of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslims, but Maluku province has a large Christian population.
Jose Manuel Tesoro and Tom McCawley -- "We were hunted like pigs." That's how Madurese farmer Amidi describes being driven from his West Kalimantan home recently. After his house went up in flames and one of his neighbors was decapitated, Amidi, his wife and child fled into the jungle. A mob of ethnic Dayaks chased them with hunting dogs. The terrified family hid out, eating snakes and bats, before being rescued by soldiers and taken to a refugee camp.
So it goes in Indonesia. Since strongman Suharto was deposed nearly one year ago, the lid has blown off a cauldron of simmering resentments. Every day brings new reports of unspeakable acts. On the lush island of Ambon, a Muslim brags off-handedly how his friends burned Christian houses, while a Christian stabs her finger into a map of the city. "This has to be bombed," she says, pointing to a Muslim neighborhood. Across the Banda Sea in Dili, capital of East Timor, marauding militias have been murdering pro-independence supporters. On April 29, violence returned to Jakarta when a bomb exploded in the Istiqlal mosque, located a few hundred meters from the presidential palace. Not long after, a bomb threat was called in to the nearby cathedral while, 1,400 km away, a church in Sulawesi was set ablaze.
Sometimes it seems the entire nation has gone mad. In fact, tens of millions of Indonesians live in peace. Yet even those not personally threatened by the lynchings, beheadings and beatings are painfully aware that Indonesia has come to be seen as the most violent nation in Southeast Asia -- more so even than Cambodia.
How to explain this eruption of murder and mayhem? Post-Crisis economic desperation plays a role, of course. Not surprisingly, all kinds of crime are up. And people everywhere use times of national upheaval to settle old scores. Besides, ethnic clashes are no real surprise in as polyglot a nation as Indonesia. But in truth, much of the violence can be blamed on the policies of Suharto's New Order government -- because even as the strongman kept a lid on the tensions that threatened to tear Indonesia apart, he systematically destroyed the social architecture that allows a nation to resolve conflicts.
Suharto relied heavily on the armed forces to protect those in power. "Laborers, street sellers and farmers know personally how violence was used to protect the interests of the elite," says Munir, who heads the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras. Jakarta's glittering skyscrapers are built on land grabbed from ordinary citizens who often were forced off their property. Suharto's West Java ranch was built on hectarage now claimed by more than 600 farmers.
Using the army as an instrument of control impoverished institutions that manage conflict in other nations. Like the courts, which the elites bent to suit their interests. In Indonesia, the "law is like a spider's web," says Anton Medan. "It can catch little insects, but a big rat will tear it apart." In other words the police come down hard on ordinary people but let the big guys go. Medan should know. He is a former gangster who claims he had a general on the payroll.
If the law was malleable, so were local authorities and traditions. In truth, says anthropologist Stephanus Juweng, "this brutality is quite out of Dayak tradition." He explains that there was no established way to resolve the tensions between Dayaks and Madurese. Although hostilities have erupted nine times since 1968, authorities repeatedly submerged them. When the Dayak-Madurese clashes broke out in 1997, Juweng says, the local government rushed through a "peace" process that had both sides shake hands -- but did nothing to address the actual roots of the resentment.
Much of the communal animosity stems from the government's transmigration policy. Since the 1960s, tens of thousands of people have been sent from crowded Java to less-populated regions. In West Kalimantan, Dayaks and Malays gripe about the Madurese settled there under the program. "The only way to solve the problem is for all the Madurese to leave," says Linus, 19, a choirboy. "They are violent and aggressive."
The family-planning program also has spawned resentment. It makes sense in Java. But in Irian Jaya, locals see it as a ploy to reduce the indigenous population so more Javanese can move in. The trouble, says political scientist Sujati Jiwandono, is that while the Suharto regime aimed to achieve "national unity through uniformity," it imposed the policy by force.
In today's Indonesia, no one can impose that unity or uniformity -- especially not the military, which has proved to be wholly unprepared for the sheer ferocity of change post-Suharto. In West Kalimantan, the troops' main role has been to evacuate frightened refugees, rather than go after the perpetrators. "The army used to randomly take people away," says Andi, a local. "Now they are too scared." A soldier in a refugee camp explains: "To be honest, this is beyond us. We are undermanned and underfunded." In Ambon, soldiers bulldoze gutted buildings as if their main duty is to clear the ring before the next round.
Moreover, the armed forces' legacy of using criminal and paramilitary groups to do their dirty work has prompted many to believe that the violence is being encouraged to tilt power toward one party or another. There are "forces at work who want to preserve the status quo," warns Medan. According to conspiracy theorists, these "forces" range from Suharto to rogue generals to gangsters seeking profit in troubled times. Government and religious leaders appealed for calm after the mosque bombing; most believe its aim was to stir up trouble between religious groups. When Munir's Kontras group tried to bring soldiers to trial for abducting activists, his offices were attacked by men supposedly recruited from Jakarta slums. Businessman Des Alwi is convinced troublemakers make money off local unrest. He draws a direct link between Ambonese toughs sent home after being involved in religious-related rioting in Jakarta last November to the outbreak of Muslim-Christian hostilities in January. He says "organized anarchy" pays well.
One does not need conspiracies to see that the violence is a product of massive failures: failure to institute a system based as much on law as order, failure to be sensitive to local tensions, and failure to put lives of citizens ahead of power. For the killings to stop, says Munir, the leadership must "learn that the military is not a medication to be used to make people submissive and that government is not a business of repression."
Many Indonesians are hoping that the June 7 elections will lead to a more progressive government that recognizes the role for official channels that people can use to release resentment without resorting to guns or machetes. Sadly, the past 15 months have served only to deepen stereotypes and misunderstandings -- making the healing process that much more difficult.
The longer the country stays on this path, the harder it will be to get off. "Muslims don't want to live with Christians," says Adhy, a Christian student from Central Sulawesi. In West Kalimantan Dayak and Malay families express fear of the Madurese that their brethren are driving out. "We're afraid they'll seek revenge," says Manap, a teacher. "We want them to leave." Separation could bring peace. But not a permanent one.
[With additional reporting
by Dewi Loveard]
| Aceh/West Papua |
Lhokseumawe -- Two people were killed when police in the Indonesian province of Aceh opened fire Tuesday to disperse thousands of pro-separatist students, residents said.
They said around 10,000 junior and high school students had arrived in Lhokseumawe, the main town in the district of North Aceh on Sumatra island, in dozens of trucks to demand the release of 24 students arrested in a protest Monday.
Yacob Hamzah of the Iskandar Muda Legal Aid Foundation said a high school student and a member of the police mobile brigade were killed.
A hospital employee said the policeman had been shot in the head. It was unclear whether he was shot by mistake by one of his own men or by an outsider.
Apart from the dead, the employee said a seven-year-old boy was brought in with a gunshot wound in the chest and an 18-year old high school student was shot in the shoulder and the arm.
"There were thousands of students ... police fired when they had reached the police headquarters in Jalan Medan Aceh at around 2pm," one resident said.
Students and residents of Lhokseumawe had launched mass street protests since Sunday after authorities tore down banners calling for a referendum on self-determination for Aceh.
Protesters also carried the red Aceh separatist flag. "The flag is now flying from many, many homes today," Hamzah said.
Lhokseumawe -- Residents Monday raised separatist flags over their homes in several villages of Indonesia's northern Aceh district, a day after the flag figured prominently in a mass rally here, a witness said.
In the colorful rally on Sunday hundreds of people including scores of young children paraded through the city's main avenue for several hours, cheered by hundreds of onlookers.
"This was the first time ever that the independence flag has been openly displayed," a resident said. "Today [Monday] most homes in the villages in the northern Aceh district are flying the separatist flag," he added
The flag has a bright red background contrasting with the white crescent and star symbol trapped between two thick black horizontal stripes.
The children in Sunday's parade wore red headbands bearing the same symbol and mounted large flags on the backs of bicycles. "People were overjoyed and welcomed the flying of the flag, widely seen here as a symbol of independence," the source added.
A few police officers stood by and largely ignored the yells of some students who demanded a referendum on self-determination, he said.
The staunchly Moslem province of Aceh is home to the Free Aceh movement which has fought for an Islamic state in the oil-rich region since the mid-1970s.
President B.J. Habibie, in his first visit to the provincial capital Banda Aceh in March, promised an inquiry into human rights violations during the ten years the province was under virtual military control. He said civilian or military offenders would be taken to court.
Habibie has brushed aside calls for a referendum on self- determination in Aceh. Separatist sentiment has been strongest in districts where the military conducted heavy-handed operations against rebels for a decade until last year.
Discontent at the central
government has also been fuelled by complaints that it is exploiting the
region's natural resources, including its oil and gas reserves, without
little of the profits going to Aceh itself.
| Human rights/law |
Hong Kong -- The trial of 11 members of Indonesia's elite special force found guilty of kidnapping pro-democracy activists was a farce designed to protect high-ranking soldiers, one of the nine who was captured and tortured said here Tuesday.
"The trial was not fair ... only those of lower ranks were blamed," said Raharja Waluya Jati, who was held by Kopassus troops for six weeks last year.
"It ignored the matter of motive and the involvement of Prabowo," he said, referring to then Lieutenant General Prabowo Subianto, a son-in-law of former strongman Suharto, who was head of Kopassus when the abduction took place. It was Prabowo himself who was behind the kidnapping," he told reporters.
A military council found Prabowo had been involved in the abduction and torture of activists, but he was given an honourable discharge from the army and escaped further punishment.
In a verdict handed down earlier this month, a military court sentenced 11 Kopassus members to sentences of between a year and 22 months in prison, although six of them were allowed to remain in the army.
The court martial was derided by human rights activists as a "face-saving exercise" by the military and they pointed out that the highest-ranking soldier charged was only a major.
Jati, in the territory as part of an eight-nation speaking tour organised by the Asian Human Rights Commission, said the outcome of the trial conflicted with the details of the kidnappings which indicated they were part of a larger design.
"The person behind it must have been more than a major because the kidnappings happened over a wide area and over a long period of time, which in the military means it had to be organised at a high level," he said.
Jati was beaten, strangled, burned with cigarettes and tortured with electric shocks by masked interrogators after being abducted in March last year.
Only nine of the 23 activists kidnapped in the last months of the Suharto regime have resurfaced. One was later found dead and 13 others are still missing.
None of the 11 Kopassus men were charged with torture despite detailed accounts of such treatment from most of the nine victims who survived, nor were they questioned over the kidnappings of the other activists.
Jati, a member of the People's Democratic Party which was banned in the Suharto era and relaunched two weeks ago, was pessimistic about the general election planned for June.
He said it would be held under political laws that were not democratic and in an environment where the armed forces had free rein to interfere. The spectre of money politics was also likely to place a role, he added. "I an see a lot of things to indicate it will not be a free and fair election," he said.
Jakarta -- Indonesia's Parliament passed an anti corruption law Thursday that requires government officials to declare all their assets to a supervise commission set up by the president.
The new bill, endorsed during a plenary session of House, will apply to all government officials including the president.
After being signed by B.J. Habibie, the new bill would give a six-month transition period for government officials to report their personal assets to the special commission.
The independence commission would audit assets of any civil servant who would be installed as a government official.
All factions in the parliament agreed that the law "was badly needed in order to create a clean and respective government."
Those violating the law would face a maximum penalty of 12 years in jail and pay a fine of one billion rupiah ($1.1 million).
Sofyan Lubis, spokesman of the ruling Golkar party noted that the new law would also cover officials from strategic posts including president, cabinet ministers, leaders of parliament as well as highest institutions and senior officials.
"These posts are very prone to corruption, collusion and nepotism, and the this law is aimed at combatting such practices," he said.
Minister of Justice Muladi who represented the government, said the law guarantees the people's rights to get, give and look for" information on governance.
Muladi noted that government officials were unable to carry out their duties optimally under 32-year authoritarian rule of former President Suharto who was forced to resign last May.
Suharto himself has been questioned by government lawyers over allegations of corruption.
The government has revealed
that corruption under the Suharto government has resulted in a total of
$571 million between 1993 and to October 1998.
| News & issues |
Jakarta -- Indonesia's House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill which will grant greater autonomy to the governments of the country's 27 provinces and their sub- regencies, witnesses said.
The bill, passed in a plenary session, was endorsed by all four factions in the parliament -- the United Development Party, the ruling Golkar party, the Indonesian Democratic Party and the Armed Forces.
Ryaas Rasyid, a home affairs ministry staff expert, told AFP the law covered autonomy in fields of politics, administration, finance, personnel and organization of local governments.
"The vision is similar to that of a federal state, but the form is different," Rasyid said. "In a federal state, regional governments leave [some of] their affairs to the central government, it's the other way around," he added
Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said the law does not include defense and security affairs, foreign affairs, judicial, monetary, fiscal or religious affairs, which will remain in the hands of the central government.
It also excludes the thorny issue of revenue sharing between the central government and local governments, which will be regulated in a separate law. Rasyid said local governments would have greater authority regarding investment policies.
"Although foreign affairs remain with the central government, it will make local cooperation with foreign investors easier," Rasyid said.
The new law will take effect two years after its endorsement by the president, and the pending completion of new sub-regulations, Hamid said.
"As soon as it is endorsed, I will form a working group to draw up an implementation schedule, and to study organizational structures," Hamid said.
He said his ministry would coordinate with other ministries to study the needs of regional governments.
People in provinces rich with natural resources have expressed their increasing discontent with the central government's exploitation of their regions' natural resources without fair revenues shares.
Public debate on the sidelines of the bill -- which are broad outlines with little detail -- has been fierce, with those against saying it will hasten the breakup of the Indonesian nation.
Those saying it does not go far enough, argue that continued discontent with heavy handed central rule, would do more to strengthen local breakway movements.
Two Indonesian provinces -- Irian Jaya and Aceh -- have active separatist movements, while discontent over revenue sharing is growing in the oil-rich province of Riau and several other regions.
Robert Garran -- Former Indonesian president Suharto is likely to emerge as one of the most prominent corporate players in Indonesia in coming years, thanks in part to political protection from President B.J. Habibie, a new book claims.
Michael Backman, a business consultant and former Foreign Affairs Department economist, said yesterday it was likely that the Suharto conglomerates were in better shape now than most other Indonesian companies.
They rarely paid for what they acquired and had low US dollar debts relative to their assets, Mr Backman said at the launch of his book, Asian Eclipse: Exposing the Dark Side of Business in Asia.
A significant proportion of the Suharto family wealth was given to it by foreign investors, Mr Backman says in his book. He says he has identified 1251 Indonesian companies in which Suharto family members have a significant interest.
"The Suhartos probably aren't unusually nepotistic; it's simply that they had greater opportunities than most," Mr Backman writes.
"Using one's public position to provide private benefits to oneself and one's immediate family is a fundamental part of what Indonesia is today."
He says this is the result of absurdly low civil service salaries, a culture that encourages such practices and the lack of a well-resourced political opposition.
Two investigations of Suharto family wealth by the Habibie Government had revealed little, Mr Backman says, in part because the Suhartos had been careful to link up with as many foreign businesses as possible.
"Seizing the assets of the Suhartos would also have meant seizing the assets of foreign investors" and doing so would have been "lethal" for the Government, Mr Backman says.
He lists 66 major US, Australian, European, Japanese and Korean companies that have joint ventures with the Suharto family. Among Australian companies with Suharto links is Indochina Goldfields, owned by Suharto's middle son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, which in turn has a controlling stake in the Australian-listed Emperor Mines.
Bambang also has a joint venture with listed company Cityview Energy Corporation, and their jointly owned Western Simenggaris Petroleum is registered in Western Australia.
A director of the company for almost a year until last June was Bul Bul Salim, the Suharto family driver.
Sudwikatmono, a cousin of
Suharto, also has interests here through his part-ownership of the Hong
Kong-based First Pacific Group, which owns Australian real estate company
First Pacific Davies.
| Arms/Armed forces |
Dini Djalal in Ambon, Pontianak and Jakarta -- It seemed like what passes for normal at an Indonesian checkpoint. The soldiers were more brusque than usual, but they were on a dangerous detail -- frisking people for machetes in strife-torn Ambon, the eastern island racked by murderous sectarian strife.
The arrival of three dozen officers from the Police Mobile Brigade (or Brimob) -- apparent reinforcements -- suggested something was brewing. But the police weren't looking for troublemakers: The score they had to settle was with the army. "They weren't coming to help," says a police officer. "They came to fight." Soldiers had detained an off-duty Brimob officer for carrying a pistol -- and his heavily armed colleagues had come to rescue him. If journalists hadn't been present, says the police officer, it could have turned violent.
The roiling brew that is political and ethnic relations in Indonesia hardly needs yet another explosive element. But the simmering animosity between the two largest security forces -- the army and the national police -- only serves to exacerbate tensions.
Growing lawlessness has pushed police resources to the brink, while army intervention in policing duties has widened long- standing rifts. In January, Brimob officers tussled with soldiers after a riot in Jawai district, West Kalimantan. That scuffle was minor compared to an incident on September 30 last year in Pontianak, the provincial capital. There, a petty argument ended with a cavalry unit storming a police station with an armoured personnel carrier, killing four officers. The provincial police chief, Col. Chaerul Rasyidi, dismissed that incident as a "youth brawl." But senior officials, including armed-forces commander and Defence Minister Gen. Wiranto, are taking the animosity more seriously. On April 1, the police became a separate unit, freed from the control of the armed forces, known as ABRI. The question is: Will an independent police force end the infighting? Or will it put the police in an even tougher spot -- between an angry public and a demoralized army heavy-handedly asserting authority?
Wiranto has acknowledged that splitting the two services is a gamble during this turbulent time. But, he added: "The militaristic reputation of the police must be abolished." Reform promises include a return of the police's oft-forgotten mandate: "To serve and protect." Currently, army training of the police drills into them to a less friendly doctrine: "Kill or be killed."
Yet there are signs that the handover of police control from the armed forces to the Defence Ministry may be cosmetic. Indeed, as Wiranto is also defence minister, one observer joked that the ceremony itself -- a symbolic handing over of the police flag from ABRI to a Defence Ministry official -- could have been shortened if Wiranto had simply handed the flag to himself.
Even among those who will carry out the changes, little is known about how the separation will unfold. Wiranto concedes that until new legislation passes, a process he hopes will be completed in two years, existing laws still apply. Even the national police chief, Gen. Roesmanhadi, can offer few clues to the reorganization, other than details about redesigning uniforms.
But the police will need more than new hats and badges, say observers. Its ill-equipped officers are stretched thinly through Indonesia's 13,000 islands; some outposts make do with only a few motorcycles. The police complain that funding is scraped from the bottom of the army's coffers. That's a far cry from the old days: A former police chief, retired Gen. Awaloedin Djamin, remembers when the police prospered under its own ministry (Brimob was the republic's first official uniformed force). But when the then police chief sided with President Sukarno after the 1965 coup, incoming President Suharto folded the police into ABRI. They've been subordinate to the military ever since.
Inter-service animosity is legion, but clashes are often played down. "We fought all the time in the 1960s, usually about women," Djamin jokes. Yet the fist fights reflect deep structural rivalries. The police gripe that the army allows only its officers to head ABRI, even though theoretically the armed-forces commander can come from other uniformed services. Army superiority is envied, and many police admit they first sought to be soldiers. "I signed up for the army," says one Brimob lieutenant, "but the psychology tests showed I was more suited for police duty." That could be taken as a compliment; army recruits are chosen for their willingness to kill.
That's not to say that Brimob isn't deadly. Recruits are hardened by three months of torturous army training which, says a graduate, "would make you cry." Crawling on hot asphalt is just one of the severe tests that continue within the units. "I'm kicked, slapped, and beaten all the time," a corporal moans. The police officers are paid a pittance -- $25 a month at best -- for their hardship, and few can look forward to promotions.
Accusations of brutality hurt these rank-and-file officers; they argue that they are taught little else. Ironically, their rivalry with the army, whom they accuse of even rougher treatment, is making them less aggressive. "We will only shoot if we have no choice," says one police lieutenant. Civilians support police claims that soldiers are too combat-ready. "Soldiers treat us as if they're in war," says Johan, a human-rights activist in Ambon.
One way to reform the police is to shape it into a civilian body under the command of either the president or the interior minister. If the police chief answered to the president instead of the ABRI chief, says Clementino dos Reis Amaral of Indonesia's Human Rights Commission, he would have "more guts" to stand up to the army.
But the police apparatus is no match for the army's, whose grip extends down to the village level. Its 187,000 personnel pale in comparison to the army's 240,000 troops. Ideally, the police force should be double the current national ratio of one policeman per 1,250 people. In some remote areas, one officer serves a community of 5,000. The army, meanwhile, is stretching its reach, with plans for restoring military command regions in hot spots such as Aceh and Maluku, the troubled island province that includes Ambon.
That police inferiority complex became most acute in Ambon during the past three months of bloody rioting. There, the army assumed control of security, but stopped short of declaring an emergency. This was unconstitutional, says Djamin. The army defends its move, saying it didn't declare an emergency because it would have restricted people's freedoms. But the Ambon riots spiralled out of control. By the time military reinforcements arrived, 200 people had died. Yet the police took the heat: The chief and his assistant were sacked and the Brimob commander was replaced.
Police accuse the army of orchestrating tensions in Ambon. "Why did the army wait two months before coming in and confiscating weapons?" asks a police sergeant rhetorically. "So they can look good while we look bad." The police wanted to confiscate arms at the start of unrest, he adds, "But the orders never came. It's all political games." The army privately denies the allegations.
Senior police officers fearing army reprisals keep tensions quiet, and order their underlings to do the same. Ambon's current police chief won't even comment on the security situation there, saying that only the army commander is authorized to make statements. Lower-rank officers heed the pecking order, but one sergeant says resentment is building. "We know we're being humiliated and sacrificed," he says, "but all my superiors can say is, let the people judge us."
So far that judgment has been harsh, and not without cause: Brimob are the storm troopers often seen pummelling demonstrators. But the public is beginning to understand the unenviable position the police are in. The sentencing of Brimob officers for the fatal shooting of students last May elicited protests from students claiming the bullets came from military sharpshooters. Brimob officers say they were scapegoats.
Wiranto hints that he senses
the grievances, and is working out ways to unify his forces even as he
formally separates them. Recently a new crack anti-riot squad, known as
the PPRM, carried out its first operation dousing fires in West Kalimantan
without incident. The units comprise Brimob officers and combat troops
trained together in Jakarta. Lt.-Col. Johnny Usman, the new force's assistant
commander, proudly said: "Friction exists between anyone, not just between
soldiers. But ABRI acts as one," momentarily forgetting that he's a police
officer, and no longer in the army.
| Miscellaneous |
Jakarta -- Preliminary police investigations showed that the Monday bombing of the Istiqlal Mosque here was linked to a group calling itself the Mujahidin Islam Nunsantara Movement, police said yesterday.
Jakarta district police chief Major-General Nugroho Djajusman said it had been determined that 13 people in its custody were from the group which was based in Bogor, not far from here.
The 13 were detained in connection with the bombing of the Plaza Hayam Wuruk shopping complex in Jakarta South last Thursday.
The bomb used in the mosque incident was the same as that used at the plaza, Maj-Gen Nugroho said, adding that police were looking for the leader of the group, Usman Amir, 40. Usman's photograph was distributed to the media here in an effort to locate him.
Besides the Hayam Muruk and Istiqlal, the extremist group was also said to be planning to bomb several other targets.
Maj-Gen Nugroho said police identified one of the accused in the Istiqlal case from information provided by witnesses.
The explosion ripped apart several offices on the ground floor of the mosque and injured several people.