Indonesia/East Timor News Digest No 34

Jakarta -- Hundreds of members of the Riau Farmers Association (SPR) yesterday demonstrated outside the main branch of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) in Pekanbaru city, demanding the disbursement of Rp6.7 billion (US$805,000) in rural assistance loans. The farmers marched to the BRI building after rallying at the provincial legislative assembly.

SPR secretary Eva Dewiwati said the farmers desperately need the loans because the planting season is fast approaching and they have to buy seeds and pay for tilling costs.

She said the association recently met with President Abdurrahman `Gus Dur' Wahid, who directed BRI to disburse the loans. "Gus Dur had instructed that the farming credits be disbursed soon to enable the farmers to do their activities," she was quoted as saying by Antara. Eva said the farmers have fulfilled all of the requirements stipulated by BRI.

A BRI official said the bank can't disburse the loans because an instruction order sent by the Cooperatives Ministry, the government body that oversees rural assistance loans, is somewhat garbled. By noon yesterday the farmers were still staging a sit- in outside the BRI branch, but journalists had started to disperse.

East Timor

Peace stirs a new nation to work towards a prosperous future

Sydney Morning Herald - August 26, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- It had been a bad few hours. Tempers were starting to fray. Some people wept. As gunfire echoed around the besieged United Nations compound in Dili, hope that the madness would soon end turned to despair. Then a remarkable thing happened. At 3.15am, probably the darkest hour of a long night, Pedro poked his tiny head into the world.

I was dozing two metres away on the concrete floor of a makeshift hospital. Pedro didn't cry too much, so as not to wake me. But instead of opening my eyes to the crazy-dog militia, as we called the killers over the razor-wire fence, I saw a beaming Joana Remejio nursing her just-born son on a piece of cardboard laid on the floor. "I am very happy that my baby is alive," she said.

That was 12 months ago. I met Pedro again the other day. He personifies the world's newest emerging independent state, East Timor. He's a little fat, having been pampered by the outside world in his first few months, has a cheeky smile and is on the make.

Or at least his father is. "Pedro was born in United Nations territory, therefore he should have a letter proving he has world nationality," says Rodrigues Remejio, a carpenter who has set up shop in a ransacked house in Dili.

Twelve months after East Timor was looted and burned and hundreds of Timorese killed, Indonesia's madness has moved on. Like Pedro, East Timor is growing out of the ashes.

It took a few days upon returning to Dili to notice a new trait among the territory's people, who suffered 24 years of repression under Indonesian rule and 450 years of benign neglect by Portugal.

Many people may be living under plastic, lacking basics like pots, pans, chairs and tables and may not have access to doctors, schools, lawyers or accountants, but they're smiling. In mist- shrouded villages deep in the mountains, along the pot-holed streets of Dili, in freshly painted corner shops, on the island's lovely beaches, most Timorese are smiling. It was never like that before.

Jose Ramos Horta sits in an air-conditioned office in the former UN compound preparing to open a school for diplomats. East Timor has none. The Nobel Peace laureate says his impoverished state has tremendous potential to be self-sufficient in agriculture.

"If you fly across the country you see some fantastic valleys with great potential. It reminds you of some of the biblical passages about the promised land."

But he does not have grand ambitions or illusions about the problems facing East Timor, one of the world's 10 poorest countries. "If we can arrange to live in peace, if our people can reconcile without hatred or violence, if we can achieve a significantly reduced level of malaria, if we can prevent joining Indonesia in terms of prostitution and drugs, if we can eliminate illiteracy, if we can respect human rights and avoid becoming like Liechtenstein, or having a coup like Fiji ... it will work."

What will the new East Timor be like? Some of the policy advisers in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Canberra predict the emergence of a chronically aid-dependent state where rival members of the elite are at each other's throats, corruption is endemic and the government cannot deliver basic services.

There are even fears East Timor will eventually become disenchanted with the Western world and align itself with despotic states, creating a haven for terrorists or drug traffickers on Australia's doorstep.

An Adelaide businessman, Gino Favaro, sips beer in the waterfront garden of his Hotel Dili, where this time last year the thugs of Jakarta's army threatened to open the stomach of his young Indonesian wife if he did not leave East Timor.

"You wait. This place will take off," he said. "It needs to be a tax haven, a Swiss banking set-up ... it will be low taxation and open for foreign investors. The place will boom. Tourism will be the biggest industry. There will be at least one casino and eco- tourism will be strong."

Favoro, the deputy head of Dili's chamber of commerce and a long-time resident, says that in 10 years East Timor will be an upmarket Bali with five-star resorts. "You will be able to sit in a luxury hotel built in the mountains in the middle of a coffee plantation and sip cognac by the fire into the early hours. "People who don't know the Timorese say they are lazy. But these people are hungry for knowledge, hungry to learn."

Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, the bearded former guerrilla leader who spent eight years in Indonesian jails, will almost certainly be the first president of the world's newest state. He also has no illusions about how difficult it will be to build a nation from scratch.

"We are very concerned about a lack of political knowledge," he said. "Democracy, human rights, justice ... our concern is to the put together knowledge to create a civil society." East Timor has no experience in democracy or self-rule.

Gusmao is also deeply worried about the lack of skills and training among his people. The Indonesians did not allow the Timorese to have a professional class. Among the 800,000 population there are only 35 doctors, none a specialist or surgeon. Half of them are foreigners working for the UN or international agencies.

There are few engineers or tradespeople. There are nowhere near enough secondary school teachers or university lecturers. The UN discovered there were only 59 lawyers in the territory. None had court experience because the Indonesians who fled last year ran the judicial system. Schools, courts, clinics, hospitals and the civil administration will have to be rebuilt out of the destruction.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian UN official appointed East Timor's transitional administrator, says foreign assistance in key positions will be needed for years. "We desperately need to upgrade the skills of the Timorese. Capacity building is a major problem."

Dili looks like a boom town. Friday night, and the DownUnder hotel bar is packed. The Australian manager grumbles about a 10 per cent tax imposed by the UN but business is good. He has vaguely heard that the hotel was the former headquarters of the most feared militia group, Aitarak. It is where the group's leader, Eurico Guterres, used to kill and torture. But who cares now? There are no ghosts of the past here: the level of music would drive them away.

BMWs and Volvos ply the streets. People from all parts of the world rush to work carrying laptops and mobile telephones. Others sit in the open-air Cafe Dili sipping lattes, gazing at two passenger liners which house hundreds of UN staff, and pleasure cruisers bobbing on the morning tide near the rusting hulk of an Indonesian Navy landing barge.

But the big-spending UN staff have created a false economic bubble that has fuelled inflation. Food is too dear for the average Timorese. Fuel prices jumped 30 per cent in one month. Lack of jobs and unfulfilled expectations about the UN have provoked riots.

Under the Indonesians the public service accounted for a staggering 20 per cent of the economy. The new public service being planned by the UN will be one-third the size, and the wages on offer do not reflect the rising cost of living. A World Bank report acknowledges that the scale and shock of the UN spending does not match the distortions that come with it. "It's a very big bubble. UN spending accounts for 20 per cent of GDP," said Sarah Cliffe, chief of the World Bank's mission in Dili.

The bank has given small loans to each village to be spent at the discretion of elders. But the population of Dili is still double what it was before last year's violence, creating hardship and social problems.

Despite the presence of armed UN peacekeepers and police, unemployed gangs of youths still fight on Dili streets. The UN has traced some of the worst trouble-makers to a breakaway group of Gusmao's former guerrillas.

The lure of the UN money has attracted hundreds of entrepreneurs, many of them Australians, who have opened restaurants, supermarkets, hotels, car hire firms and other businesses that will suffer, if not collapse, when the UN operation winds down and Timorese take control.

An estimated 75 per cent of Timorese are subsistence farmers, eating hand to mouth. Few of them have so far benefited from the arrival of the UN.

The UN's development co-ordinator in East Timor, Finn Reske- Nielsen, says the UN's artificial economy is a serious problem. "There has got to be a development strategy aimed at economic development for the short to medium term," he said. "And agriculture must become the mainstream of that."

A former Jakarta-appointed Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, says the territory's coffee production should double in the next two or three years. "We have the best coffee in the world," he said. "At the moment 48,000 hectares of plantations are being worked. That is nothing. We can easily go up to 100,000 hectares, and that will create a lot of jobs for a lot of people."

During Indonesia's occupation huge tracts of fertile land were not farmed because of the security situation. De Mello says experts have told him that, given limited quantities of fertiliser and high quality seed, East Timor could quickly become self-sufficient in rice and maize.

More than anything else, East Timor's economic viability will depend on talks with Australia over oil and gas revenues from the Timor Gap, the resource-rich seabed between the two nations. But Gusmao has asked Timorese and UN planners not to factor a big windfall from Timor gap royalties into their calculations.

"East Timor has a lot of potential in the areas of tourism, agriculture and fishing," said Mari Alkatari, the Minister for Economic Affairs in the country's transitional cabinet set up by the UN. "It would be bad for us to create a sort of cargo-cult mentality where all our thinking is on the Timor Gap," he said. "If money comes from oil or gas in the Timor Gap it will be a bonus but we won't be counting on it."

Ramos Horta says the Timor Gap's potential is linked to development of industry in the Northern Territory. "Yes you have to be realistic about that," he said. He cites some estimates that East Timor will receive more than $200 million in oil revenue and $300 million from natural gas in the Timor Gap within a few years.

He predicts the negotiations with Australia will greatly favour East Timor. "The Australians will tell you they are being most flexible," he said.

"Without negotiating the sea boundaries, we believe Australia will agree with our basic principle that the middle line in the exclusive economic zone is the boundary. This means that at least 90 per cent of revenues from the Timor Gap would come to East Timor."

One of Gusmao's biggest worries is security for his people, especially after a recently stepped up campaign by pro-Jakarta militia to destabilise the border between East Timor and Indonesian West Timor.

But he shows a remarkable ability to forgive Indonesia, developing a warm relationship with its reformist president, Abdurrahman Wahid, who has apologised to East Timor for atrocities committed by Indonesia and has promised to disband the militia.

Gusmao realises how important it will be for East Timor's future to have good relations with its giant neighbour and to be able to put aside the lingering hatred.

"If you really want peace, if you really want stability, we have to put everything behind us," he said. "If not you will live under some kind of spell. You cannot see the future. You cannot work towards the future."

Isn't that tough? "Yes, of course, yes. But we learned during 24 years that we can win despite the odds being against us. They were killing our people ... but we found the better way was to ... bring them to our side. They joined with us in the jungle. They died like heroes with us."

Gusmao plans to create an army of perhaps 3,000 to 5,000. The core of the ranks will be his former guerrilla fighters, who have been bored and restless since they came out of the mountains last September and October. "We will feel nothing without a sense of security," he said.

Carrascalao says there are many in Indonesia "who want to create instability so they can say Indonesia's rule was better". "Why do you think they destroyed everything when they left? They didn't want to leave anything behind to make it easier for the Timorese ... they formed the militia groups to create a situation conducive to civil war."

The Carrascalaos are one of the most prominent of only 20 to 30 families that make-up East Timor's political elite. It will be mostly from the existing elite families that Timorese will elect members of a constituent assembly at UN-supervised elections, to be held possibly between August and December next year.

Joao Carrascalao, Mario's brother, who is Infrastructure Minister in the transitional cabinet, says there is a determination among East Timor's emerging politicians to establish a government of national unity, involving all the significant parties, for several years. "Things could easily go back to the fighting of the mid-1970s, especially if people don't have a strong vision of unity," he said.

The main political parties that have re-emerged are Fretilin, the revolutionary group once headed by Gusmao that fought for independence, and the UDT, whose fighters assisted the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor. A new centre-right Social Democratic Party was formed last week with the Gusmao's blessing . It aims to offer an alternative to what it calls "revivalism of the past".

A Western diplomat monitoring East Timor said: "Normally it is a recipe for disaster to expect former enemies to work together. But one factor brought them together: the behaviour of Indonesia after the invasion."

A small group of Timorese leaders surrounding Gusmao are anxiously waiting to take charge of their new country. But in interviews none of them underplays the enormous challenges. They speak candidly about the difficulties solving issues such as land ownership. Thousands of properties are in dispute.

Foreign investors will lack the confidence to spend money until they are settled. Some claims date back to the Portuguese days.

Questions fundamental to East Timor's future are being argued passionately. What should the national language be, Portuguese or English? Should there be a presidential system, like Indonesia's, or a parliamentary system based on the English model?

People are deeply traumatised. In Dili, a group of women with newborn babies seek counselling; they want to know whether they should baptise their babies, conceived during rapes by Indonesian soldiers. When Gusmao goes into towns or villages he tells his people to be patient, to understand that independence did not suddenly arrive with the departure of the Indonesians. "I tell them to be humble, to accept that we are not perfect."

UN officials and diplomats in East Timor say the emerging state is lucky to have leaders such as Gusmao and Ramos Horta. But strains are already taking their toll. Gusmao has angered some party leaders by denouncing what he calls their inappropriate ambitions for power at a time East Timor needs national unity.

"[Gusmao] has his faults like everybody else, but he understands his own limitations," said a Western diplomat based at a Dili mission. "He cares deeply about the fate of his people. He has an ability to listen and compromise. He will be able to tap an enormous amount of international goodwill for his new country."

Like most East Timorese. Maria Lourdes de Sousa, 40, has a horror story. At the height of last year's rampaging by pro-Jakarta militia she had to run the gauntlet of mobs to reach West Timor with her lawyer husband and four children.

The militia were hunting her because she had worked for the UN. At a checkpoint thugs tried to drag her two-year-old son from the car. "I held on and held on ... it was frightening," she said. The boy still carries the scars.

Several weeks ago, days before she gave birth to her fifth child, she sat for an exam to select 50 trainee diplomats. "I never imagined I would ever be a diplomat, but I passed," said the face of the new East Timor.

Robinson grilled about Timor justice

OneWorld News Service - August 23, 2000

Daniel Nelson, Dili -- Economic and social rights are as important as traditionally defined human rights, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson emphasised on her recent visit to East Timor. But many people in what will soon become the world's newest independent country made it clear they had a more pressing priority: justice for past wrongs.

Robinson stressed her message about the need for a range of rights in her first appearance in the shattered capital, Dili, now slowly recovering from the catastrophic three weeks of murder, rape, arson and destruction and general mayhem inflicted by the Indonesian army, police and local anti-independence militias after the Timorese voted against continued Indonesian rule in a UN-supervised referendum in August 1999.

The meeting she was addressing was held in the capital's museum, a rubble-strewn shell of a building, one room of which had been swept clean of dust earlier that morning. It is typical of the entire country: 80 percent of the territory's buildings were burnt or damaged in the September mayhem, and about 300,000 people were forced to flee their homes.

The Timorese want justice for those responsible. Many also want redress for the previous 24 years of Indonesian repression, which began when Jakarta ordered an invasion of the territory soon after Portugal suddenly ended its 400-year colonial regime.

A frequently quoted estimate is that at least 200,000 people died as a result of Indonesian rule -- approaching one-third of the population. Several members of the audience at Mary Robinson's public meeting made it clear that this was as big an issue as the post-election violence. Robinson carefully deflected this demand, explaining that though she was aware of "the terrible crimes committed down the years", for which she thought a Truth and Reconciliation Commission might be the best remedy, the UN was concerned only with the events of last September, because the destruction had occurred while the UN was in charge.

She also faced criticism for her insistence on sticking to the UN line that the establishment of an international tribunal for the worst perpetrators was a last resort. It was up to the administration in East Timor -- the UN now, and after elections next year, an East Timorese government -- and to Indonesia to try those responsible. Only if that approach failed to deliver would the UN consider an international inquiry.

Few Timorese, however, have the slightest faith in Jakarta's willingness to pursue those responsible: not only was the violence organised and guided by Indonesia, they point out, but the policy was engineered at very high levels. Will Jakarta really be prepared to take on senior army officers? Robinson refused to budge. It was important, she argued, to recognise that Jakarta was changing. The Suharto dictatorship had ended, and an elected government was in power; it had to be given a chance to prove its credentials and to enable Indonesia to take "full ownership" of its crimes.

It was also "appropriate and right to allow a country the right to jurisdiction over its nationals." Jakarta had promised justice for those responsible, and a special law was being drawn up to deal with "perpetrators of serious crimes." She admitted she was not satisfied with the legislation as it stood, "but there's a continuing possibility to influence and strengthen the draft to make it more credible."

Ok, responded a questioner, but how long would Indonesia be given before the UN decided its intentions were not serious? The question is unanswerable, though she did again point out that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself had stated that the establishment of an international commission was being held in as a possibility, in case it proved necessary.

Towards the end of the meeting, she again repeated the importance of cultural and economic rights, and of women's rights. But few picked up on it. Of course, the Timorese want a better standard of living, and freedom to be themselves. But for the moment, a burning demand for justice for the terrible wrongs of their recent history is uppermost in their minds.

Another issue is missing from this passionate debate. What about those responsible for the political climate that enabled Indonesia to invade, and then to maintain its rule, by repression, including killing and torture.

The Indonesian government was able to pursue this policy because, effectively, influential Western governments sanctioned it to do so, or, at best, turned a blind eye to the excesses.

Australia, now so enthusiastic in East Timor's reconstruction, officially recognised Indonesia's annexation. Britain sold jets to the occupying army. The US put geopolitical considerations above people's freedom.

When the Cold War ended, supporting "our son of a bitch" rather than "their son of a bitch", as a Washington policymaker once crudely expressed it, was no longer paramount.

It was the tacit support of the West that created an environment in which Indonesia's ruthless policies flourished, and human rights abuses were ignored. Indonesia had impunity.

Human rights thinking has moved beyond individual liberties, to take in a broader approach, as Mary Robinson rightly explains. And nothing excuses individual crimes, such as torture. But until those responsible for turning human rights from rhetoric to reality recognise the role played by high-level international policies in the interests of realpolitik, governments will often feel free to ignore human rights.

Daniel Nelson is Dispatches Editor with OneWorld.net, and is currently working with the United Nations in East Timor.]

UNHCR mission attacked in West Timor

Agence France-Presse - August 22, 2000

Jakarta -- Suspected militiamen attacked a UNHCR mission in Indonesia bringing aid to a refugee camp in West Timor on Tuesday, badly beating up three of its members, a UN official there said.

"It was totally without explanation," UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) officer Adelmno Risi told AFP by phone from the West Timor capital of Kupang.

He said the small mission, which counted a Lebanese national among its members, had been handing over non-food aid to refugees at the Naen camp near the town of Kefamenanu, midway between Kupang and the border town of Atambua on Tuesday.

One man in the crowd suddenly rushed at them wielding a machete and hurling abuse. Men who had minutes earlier been shaking hands with the UNHCR group then started stoning the mission and chased them for 500 meters, beating them as they caught up with them, he said. A village chief in Naen saved the group by jumping in the abandoned UNHCR jeep and rushing to their aid.

"One staffer was beaten several times in the head, and the other had his hand beaten quite violently and he's having problems now with moving it," Risi said adding that both had been released from hospital after treatment.

The mission's local driver was held in a building by the suspected militia, threatened and kicked in the face for 20 minutes before he managed to escape with a broken nose, he added.

Asked if the attackers were East Timorese militia, Risi replied: "It's possible ... to be honest a militia doesn't have to have militia written on his head to be identified."

The attack came as another UN agency in West Timor said it had suspended repatriation of East Timorese refugees over land from Indonesia-controlled West Timor until September 5, citing harrassment and "sensitive dates."

"Basically there are some 'red letter' days we are trying to avoid," Jose Remigio of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) told AFP by phone from Kupang.

Remigio cited two anniversaries -- of the August 30, 1999 ballot in which East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, and the subsequent September 4 announcement of the results of the vote.

He said that, anyway, repatriation had been made impossible by militia road blocks set up between the squalid refugee camps in the north of West Timor and the border with UN-administered East Timor.

The militia, who waged a scorched-earth campaign after the East Timor vote, fled west when international troops arrived and now control the camps. Remigio said they were using the road blocks to try to stop traders selling scarce fuel across the border.

The IOM, which along with the UNHCR, pulled most of its personnel out of the border town of Atambua due to militia threats earlier this month, also faced losing its office there, Remigio said.

In the wake of the independence vote, some 250,000 East Timorese fled or were forced at gunpoint out of the former Portuguese territory which had been occupied by Indonesia since 1975. Since then, some 180,000 have returned.

Under pressure to dismantle the camps because of a growing number of border incidents in which two UN peacekeepers in East Timor have been shot dead, Indonesia has pledged to move those who want to stay in Indonesia away from the border and allow those who want to return home to do so within three months.

Jose Ramos Horta: `CNRT will cease to exist'

Green Left Weekly - August 23, 2000

Vanja Tanaja, Dili -- Speaking at a meeting of the just weeks-old East Timor Press Club on August 12, Jose Ramos Horta, vice- president of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT) said that the CNRT would cease to exist "in six to 12 months' time".

According to Horta, "political parties will have to take over" the role so far played by CNRT. "There is no role anymore for `resistance'; it has served its purpose", he said.

Horta told the audience that those without a political party inside the CNRT, such as himself, Xanana Gusmao and Mario Carrascalao, were not afraid of relinquishing the power they currently have as senior members of CNRT.

Speaking for Gusmao and himself, Horta said they would continue to monitor the work of parties, particularly during the campaign period. He expressed concern about the possibility of a return to the days of chaos and civil war between Fretilin and the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) in 1975. "We have waited for 24 years for this moment, so let us do it right", he said.

Horta paid tribute to the role of the existing political parties -- Fretilin, the UDT, the Socialist Party of Timor and the Christian Democratic Party -- in the victory won by East Timor's people against Indonesian occupation.

In response to what he called "East Timor's rumour mill", Horta defended the CNRT against charges that it was divided and fractious. He pointed out that the CNRT was unlike many resistance organisations in other countries, which, once in power, tended not to include those who had previously opposed the resistance. He cited the African National Congress and Nicaragua's FSLN as examples.

Individuals who hold senior positions in the CNRT or in the transitional cabinet and who were part of the Indonesian administration include Mario Carrascalao (former governor of East Timor) and Mariano Lopes da Cruz (former district head of Maliana and deputy head of the regional parliament). Lopes da Cruz is inspector-general in the transitional administration.

Sources in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor have said that elections are likely to take place in the second half of 2001, to commence around August. It is still unclear whether the people will elect members of a parliament or a constituent assembly.

Addressing the issue of regional alliances, Horta confirmed that both ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and the South Pacific Forum were attractive options. He praised the ASEAN governments' contributions to rebuilding East Timor and emphasised the need for good relations with these countries, whose economies are important.

Horta did not mention how such government-to-government relations might affect relationships with the "people's movements" for democracy in some of these countries.

Four days after Horta's Press Club address, Lusa news service reported that a new centre-right political party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD), will be launched in early September, with Carrascalao and Horta at its head.

Carrascalao told Lusa that the PSD "will be one more option for those who do not have one and for those who do not feel mobilised for the period of reconstruction". He added that the party will include "about 10" leading personalities. The report also stated, "The new party would seek support among people tired of `the revivalism of the past' of the historic Fretilin and UDT".

New law 'risk to Timor trial'

South China Morning Post - August 22, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Government ministers admit they were caught off guard by a constitutional amendment which appears to provide legal protection to the generals and other military officers behind last year's violent rampage through East Timor.

Prosecutors say they will name all those officers being held responsible tomorrow, with the view to an eventual trial.

International perceptions of Indonesia's ability to mount a credible trial have been shattered by the constitutional change. "The article definitely disturbs our efforts," Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab said. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will find it very difficult to explain the article to the world in the midst of our effort to avoid an international tribunal."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, insists such a tribunal must be called if Indonesia shows itself unable to prosecute offenders.

Human Rights Minister Hasballah Saad also expressed regret about the amendment which, along with promising protections such as the right to life and freedom from oppression, also promises freedom from prosecution for crimes committed when laws against such acts did not exist.

Legal experts are divided as to whether the amendment would prevent prosecutions of charges such as crimes against humanity in the East Timor case. Some say Indonesian law has always held murder, kidnapping and torture to be illegal. Crimes committed in the past could still be prosecuted now, they say.

Others note that whatever legal precedent is eventually established, the constitutional amendment makes the kind of trial envisaged by the international community over East Timor atrocities much more difficult to achieve.

"What is needed is a political consensus between the Government and the House to open such a possibility," Mr Hasballah said. The newly amended Article 28 (I) of the 1945 constitution stipulates "... the right to not be punished under the retroactive principle is a human right that cannot be modified".

"I cannot understand the background for the Assembly to draft those words in the first place," Mr Shihab said. "But I guess there should be some exceptions to this article so we can still continue with the trial. Maybe we should find a way to maintain the ongoing cases which need to be solved, otherwise it will be very difficult to avoid an international tribunal."

Amnesty International believes apparent attempts to shield perpetrators of past human rights violations "would effectively render all the recent efforts to end impunity in Indonesia meaningless". Human Rights Watch said the actions of the People's Consultative Assembly members in passing the amendment were irresponsible.

It said the amendment would mean that if and when the Attorney- General's Office succeeded in bringing officers who orchestrated the Timor destruction to court, they would be tried for murder, while their East Timorese followers could face heavier charges of crimes against humanity. "Crimes against humanity are so serious that non-retroactivity doesn't apply to them," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

'Shadowy' unit blamed for conflicts

South China Morning Post - August 21, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The upsurge in fighting on the border between East and West Timor is the latest sign that the Indonesian military's special forces remain outside the control of the Government, Jakarta-based diplomats say.

Amid rising concern at the concessions to the military granted in last week's constitutional amendments, Western diplomats and political analysts admit their hopes for military reform and good behaviour regarding East Timor are being frustrated. At the same time, they note that Jakarta's recent promises to close refugee camps in West Timor are vague and misdirected.

It is now clear, diplomatic sources say, that the military's Kopassus special forces unit is acting as dangerously and independently as ever, stoking conflicts from one end of the country to the other.

"We know they are operating in Irian Jaya, the Maluku Islands and Aceh, as well as interfering in East Timor from West Timor," said a diplomat with intelligence duties. "There is obviously a plan afoot, look at the map. As to who exactly is involved, that's easy. The current heads of Kopassus units in these places are [working with] retired generals who were in those places before."

Reports from the separatist-inclined province of Irian Jaya say fresh numbers of Kopassus men have arrived there, sparking fears of new conflict.

Kopassus-backed militia activity inside East Timor -- which next week celebrates a year outside Indonesian sovereignty -- has provoked the sharpest international condemnation. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has again called on Indonesia to stand by its word to pull its men out and help return those East Timorese trapped in militia-run camps.

The United States Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Gelbard, is outraged by the militia activity. "[It] demonstrates to my Government that the Indonesian Government is still not prepared to take control of the situation. That is something Indonesia must do if it is to achieve the necessary long-term support for its own situation."

Other diplomats support his position, and say they are caught in the same bind as a year ago regarding whether the military's top brass in Jakarta is aware, able or willing to tackle the problem. "Jakarta doesn't seem to realise that this issue alone has stalled improvements in relations across the board with all of us," said a Western diplomatic source. "This goes to the highest level in Jakarta."

The anger of diplomats who have long supported Indonesia reached a new pitch following the killing of two peacekeepers from New Zealand and Nepal in East Timor. Up to 300 rounds of ammunition were fired by the attackers in the incident in which the Nepali died, indicating a level of arms and ability attributable to the involvement of the shadowy Kopassus, sources say.

The militias are operating out of refugee camps for East Timorese in West Timor, which Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab has promised will close soon.

Craig Sanders, head of UN High Commissioner for Refugees operations in West Timor, believes that if force is used to close the refugee camps "we could see a meltdown". He added: "It could also spark a reaction by the militia ... the thugs have proven that they can unleash violence."

Kopassus numbers about 6,000 soldiers. Its missions include anti-guerilla activities and intelligence gathering. Its members were involved in the assassinations of dissident activists and leaders of East Timor's independence movement during the Suharto era. Kopassus is regularly blamed for abductions, torture and unexplained acts of violence in Aceh, Irian Jaya and the Malukus.

UN, Gusmao outline the shape of things to come

Sydney Morning Herald - August 21, 2000

Mark Dodd, Aileu -- Fighters from the former guerilla resistance force Falintil, in their first move out of forced cantonment since the United Nations entered East Timor, will join UN peacekeepers in hunting down pro-Indonesian militia launching cross-border raids.

A senior Falintil commander said a small force, fewer than 100 men, would soon be sent to the border with West Timor to provide intelligence and act as a liaison.

"They [Falintil] want to go to the border," another source in the pro-independence National Council of East Timorese Resistance said. "They know the people and the mountains there, and they can move fast. The PKF [UN peacekeeping force] with all its modern equipment has not stopped some militia from reaching as far as Baucau."

The plan to rejoin the territory's defence came as the chief UN administrator here, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, signalled that Falintil would be recognised as the legitimate founder of the country's new self-defence force. He also hinted at increased co-operation between the UN peacekeepers and Falintil.

Mr Vieira de Mello said the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, in a letter several months ago to the independence leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, had formally recognised the Falintil's role "in the present, past and future of this country".

Mr Vieira de Mello issued a blunt demand that pro-Indonesian militias stop their cross-border violence and warned that former militia leaders would face prosecution for war crimes. "They are not many and we know them. One by one they will be made accountable for their past and recent crimes," he said.

In another sign of the emerging political face of the new East Timor, Mr Gusmao yesterday resigned as Falintil commander-in- chief in a formal parade at the force's cantonment here in the mountains south of Dili.

Standing before ranks of Falintil fighters, Mr Gusmao gave his last speech in uniform. His voice faltering with emotion, he said: "I was your commander but I learnt from you how to make war. I learnt from you how to serve the national cause and I learnt from you forgiveness and the spirit of reconciliation."

He recalled bleak times such as his capture by Indonesian forces in 1992 and the period when Falintil's total strength dwindled to 150 armed rebels.

But he praised the new commander, Taur Matan Ruak, for rebuilding the force to more than 1,500 men under arms. In a gibe at the UN, he apologised for the poor living conditions of the troops at the cantonment.

Falintil needed new heroes to participate in the struggle for East Timor's reconstruction from the ashes of last year's militia violence, Mr Gusmao said.

Mr Vieira de Mello hailed Mr Gusmao's decision to resign his military role as "confirmation that from today there is a separation of military and political power in East Timor -- an affirmation of one of the basic principles of democracy".

Mr Gusmao earlier attended an open-air memorial Mass held by Bishop Carlos Belo. Sitting at the front with Mr Gusmao were his 26-year-old daughter, Zenilda, from his first marriage, and his new Australian wife, Ms Kirsty Sword. Falintil may also have made history of a sort by becoming the first guerilla army to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. The medal was handed to Mr Gusmao and Commander Matan Ruak in Aileu by the veteran independence advocate Mr Jose Ramos Horta, who was awarded the prize in 1996 jointly with Bishop Belo.

Mr Ramos Horta promised to use his share of the $1.3 million prizemoney to be spent on micro-credits for East Timor's poor. He appealed to other countries to contribute.

Newest nation sets a course for democracy

Sydney Morning Herald - August 22, 2000

Mark Dodd, Dili -- Almost a year since voting to end Indonesian rule, East Timor is about to launch into open politicking about the shape of its independent state once the United Nations interim administration ends.

The UN is to draft legislation allowing political campaigning for the first democratic parliamentary elections next year.

At the opening of a landmark national congress here yesterday, the head of the interim UN administration, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, admitted there was growing impatience by political parties to play a bigger role in the transition to independence and beyond.

"We shall soon have to prepare a draft regulation on political parties which will identify the minimum requirements for a political party to be registered and the basic code of conduct for parties to follow," he said.

"This is vital now. By setting the legal boundaries of political party activity, the current impatience that many parties are showing can be released into constructive, democratic and non- violent political debate." The eight-day congress convened by the main independence grouping, the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), aims to ensure a smooth passage for the transition to independence and democracy within two years.

Mr Vieira de Mello used the opportunity to attack pro-Indonesian militias and their supporters as having "lost touch with history". To resounding applause from the audience of about 500 he said: "They are and will be made ever more irrelevant here and in Indonesia. They belong to the past when irrational violence and force of weapons, not arguments, prevailed. They were the bitter fruit of darkness, and they shall return to it." The CNRT president, Mr Xanana Gusmao, appealed for national unity and support for a national agenda.

He said unlike Indonesia, East Timor would pride itself on the quality of its democratic process. "In the past Indonesia talked a lot about democracy and [political] partying. That is not how I want to do it. We will do it with quality," he said.

Nobel laureate and CNRT vice-president Mr Jose Ramos Horta said he had full confidence in Mr Gusmao's leadership. "I believe the CNRT will change in its structure, become more lean, more functional, I hope rejuvenate to bring in a younger generation and that the political parties themselves take over the leadership of this process from now until independence," he said. This was also a theme picked up by Dili's Bishop Carlos Belo, a co-Nobel laureate, who called for a more functional CNRT that was more relevant to new challenges.

"Timorese resistance? Who are we resisting?" he said. "We [the Catholic Church] support this congress and pray to God that we will hear fruitful thoughts and contributions for the wellbeing of East Timorese." He also referred to recent attacks on UN peacekeepers by pro-Indonesian militias and indirectly accused Jakarta of continuing its support for them. "If the militia come into East Timor, I ask, who is supporting the militia? Think that way, they'd better leave now," he said.

The US head of mission in Dili, Mr Gary Gray, said East Timor's democratic processes appeared to be on track. "We obviously want to see a strong commitment to the democratic process and constitution building and I think we're hearing that so far from all the key people," he said.

The congress opened in Dili's dilapidated stadium, spruced up for the occasion. In addition to 460 delegates from East Timor's 13 districts, guests included diplomats, aid agency representatives, the leaders of all eight main political parties, women's and youth groups, the Church and two senior commanders from the Falintil armed wing.

Government/politics

World bodies declare support for new Cabinet

Straits Times - August 26, 2000

Jakarta -- Multilateral lenders including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have vowed to support the new Cabinet, particularly the new economic ministers, in their effort to accelerate the country's economic recovery.

The IMF's Jakarta representative, Mr John Dodsworth, said that the Fund expected to be able to discuss immediately the overall economic reform programme with the new economic team.

"We extended our support to the new economic team and indicated to them that the IMF is there to serve its members and we would like to work in harmony," he said in a joint press conference with the new economic team, WB, ADB and Bank Indonesia.

The WB and ADB have financed in large part the current 2000 state budget while the IMF has pledged to provide the current administration with some US$5 billion in loans to help finance the country's three-year economic reform programme. The Fund has so far disbursed a loan of some US$730 million and it is expected to disburse another US$400 million later this month. But when asked whether the Fund remains committed to the schedule, Mr Dodsworth said: "We still have to discuss it again."

The markets reacted negatively on Wednesday to the new cabinet of President Abdurrahman Wahid and particularly to his choice of economic ministers.

The focus of controversy was the appointment of Mr Priyadi Praptosuhardjo as the new finance minister. Mr Priyadi, a close friend of the President and former director of Bank Rakyat Indonesia, was initially chosen to lead the bank but did not make the mark due to past mistakes he had made in the industry.

The appointment of Mr Rizal Ramli as the new Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Cacuk Sudarijanto as Junior Minister for Restructuring of the National Economy, and Luhut Pandjaitan as Trade and Industry Minister has also created concern because the three are known as Abdurrahman loyalists.

The rupiah immediately dropped by around 5 per cent late on Wednesday to Rp 8,365 to the US dollar following the announcement of the new Cabinet. But Mr Rizal reiterated his earlier statement that the negative sentiment would disappear once the economic team proved they were a solid team.

Gus Dur delivers on promise to Megawati

Straits Times - August 26, 2000

Susan Sim, Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid warded off the prospect of a crumbling Cabinet as he and his allies worked yesterday to project an image of a unified and working leadership.

Building on the mood of "emotional reconciliation" he created with a well-covered visit to the home of his discontented Vice- President on Thursday night, he defused a resignation threat by some of his ministers with a personal appeal yesterday that they stay on.

He also sought to co-opt a potential challenger to his spiritual authority -- Sultan Hamengkubuwono X of Yogyakarta -- by offering him the chairmanship of the Council for the Defence of National Culture, a new body that will address the threat of national disintegration, sources said.

The sultan, considered by Javanese as the symbol of their moral centre, paid a call on Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday, hot on the heels of People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais. He indirectly confirmed widespread belief that she was aggrieved she had not been consulted on the Cabinet selection by revealing that she was shown the list just one hour before its announcement.

As a survival tactic, Gus Dur had promised to delegate the daily running of government to her. He formalised that yesterday with the issue of a presidential decree tasking her "to help the President carry out the implementation of government policies and, especially, to execute daily technical duties".

The six-article directive, effective for the remainder of his five-year term, also made it clear that there was no transfer of authority. Ms Megawati would be signing "policies that have been approved by the President".

Although not written into the decree, Mr Abdurrahman had also said earlier that decision-making would be shared with the two coordinating ministers or Menko.

Yesterday, one of them, economic czar Rizal Ramli, sought to portray an image of a cohesive team by calling on Ms Megawati at home to discuss how he and the Menko for security, politics and social affairs, Lieutenant-General Susilo Bambang Yudhuyuno, would "report to the Vice-President".

Despite widespread domestic criticism of his new economic team, Mr Rizal, also picked up an endorsement from Washington, with US ambassador Robert Gelbard defending the much-vilified Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo as having the makings of a fine minister.

MPR marked by collaboration between `reformers' and Golkar

World Socialist Web Site - August 24, 2000

The annual two-week session of Indonesia's Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) from August 7 to 18 witnessed growing collaboration between Golkar, the political machine of the former Suharto military dictatorship, and the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), led by Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Only 10 months ago, Golkar and the military used their numbers in the last MPR to prevent Megawati becoming President and install Abdurrahman Wahid. Last Friday, in one of the final acts of the session, they supported a decree instructing Wahid to formally transfer the day-to-day running of the government to Megawati.

The PDI-P won 34 percent of the vote in last year's election, presenting themselves as reformers and playing upon the popular illusions that Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's first president Sukarno, was an opponent of the old regime. At this MPR session, the PDI-P functioned as the driving force behind legislation that revamps the political role of the military and protects those who enforced and benefited from Suharto's 32-year rule.

Among the most significant is Clause 28 I (1), an amendment to the 1945 Indonesian constitution specifying what rights are upheld by the state. Containing a phrase that translates as "the right not to be prosecuted based on a law which can be applied retroactively," the clause amounts to constitutional immunity from prosecution for crimes committed by state and military personnel under Suharto.

The human rights group, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), immediately denounced the MPR in a statement to the press: "The MPR members cannot say they lack knowledge of human rights affairs or are not aware of the clause's impact. The article was deliberately made so as to benefit certain people. This is all about protecting the political position of the military."

Prosecutions over the military's complicity in last year's militia violence in East Timor and atrocities against advocates of a separate state in the oil-rich province of Aceh are now in doubt. Moreover, as long as Clause 28 I (1) stands, it rules out bringing Suharto and his inner circle to trial for the 1965-66 coup, during which an estimated 500,000 Communist Party members and supporters were slaughtered, the murder and torture of democratic and labour activists in the subsequent decades and the more recent shootings of students during anti-government demonstrations.

Suharto is scheduled to appear in court next week, not on human rights charges, but on corruption allegations that he channeled some $US570 million from charities into his personal wealth. As with Chile's Pinochet, he has pleaded ill-health to avoid any trial.

With vocal PDI-P support, the MPR also passed legislation that extended the right of the military and police to maintain their 38 non-elected seats in the lower house of parliament, the DPR, until 2004, and their representation in the MPR until 2009. Ending the political role of the armed forces was a central demand during the 1998 anti-Suharto protests.

A Golkar spokesman dismissed the outrage of student organisations and democratic campaigners. "The existence of the military and the police is not a matter of like and dislike. The two institutions, with their guns, are needed to maintain security and handle the country's defense."

The constitution has been amended to define the role of the military as defending "national integration" and to stress that Indonesia is a unitary state "based on an archipelagic concept ". These amendments flow from concerns in the ruling elite at an MPR decree granting special autonomy to Aceh and Irian Jaya, and greater powers to all provincial governments from next January 1. Both PDI-P and military legislators warned that instead of undermining separatist agitation, such concessions could, in fact, fuel demands for a federal-type state structure or outright independence from Indonesia. Where such struggles do erupt, the military has been constitutionally empowered to crush them.

Colonel Syarifuddin Tippe, an army commander in Aceh, responded on Monday by stating that a three-month truce had failed to stop separatist activity and that the government should declare a state of emergency to enable a military crackdown. This prompted Rosita Noer, head of an Independent Commission on Aceh, to warn that the province was "only one step away from an East Timor situation."

Out of similar concern for the maintenance of the Indonesian nation state, the PDI-P and Golkar prevented any vote in the MPR on a proposed constitutional amendment, sought by some Islamic parties, that would compel Indonesia's majority Muslim population to adhere to Islamic law.

Known as syariah, such an act would undermine the secular character of the constitution, raise fears of Islamic fundamentalism and strengthen separatist sentiment in non-Muslim regions.

The two parties also blocked an amendment calling for direct presidential elections, as opposed to the selection of the President by the MPR.

Factional dealing in the parliament, not a vote by the general population, will continue to determine who holds executive power.

Behind the coming together of the PDI-P and Golkar are the interests of the major sections of the Indonesian ruling class, as they attempt to maintain control amid a staggering social and political crisis that extends across the Indonesian archipelago.

The currency and stock market have barely recovered from their collapse during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. The Indonesian government is still dependent upon loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international agencies to shore up the crippled banking system and meet interest payments on its $US134 billion debt. In exchange, it is being compelled to carry out a sweeping restructuring of the economy in the interests of transnational corporations and investors and slash the limited social spending on health, education and subsidies for the poor.

Under the banner of eliminating Suharto era "crony capitalism", the IMF has dictated the dismantling of obstacles to foreign competition and investment such as monopolies, nationalised industries and trade barriers.

Large numbers of firms have been bankrupted, shattering the personal fortunes of significant sections of the business elite and middle class in Indonesia.

The next stage of IMF-dictated restructuring, spelt out on July 31 by Wahid's former economics minister, involves the fire-sale of over 20 bankrupt large corporate groups and banks, the downsizing of the public service and the recovery of "off-budget funds" raised by government agencies, including the military. Preparations are underway for the privatisation of the state- owned airlines and ports, as well as oil, telecom, electricity and plantation corporations. More areas of the economy will be opened up to foreign investment.

However much Golkar and the PDI-P resent and fear subordination to the IMF, they have no alternative program. While sections within their ranks are seeking to slow down the pace of restructuring, they have little choice but to implement the IMF demands if Indonesian big business is to receive the international financial backing and investment it needs to revive the economy.

A factor in the turn by Golkar toward supporting Megawati's elevation is the lack of investor confidence in Wahid and his political capacity to push through the IMF's measures. In May, with Wahid's presidency under criticism from numerous quarters, the rupiah slumped 10 percent to 8,760 to the US dollar and is still hovering at around 8,300--a quarter of the value before the Asian crisis.

After its precipitous 13 percent contraction in 1998, the economy is registering only small growth. Unemployment stands at 30 million and living standards are half the 1997 level. Enormous social tensions, and the weakening of the centralised state since Suharto's fall, are being exploited by separatist and religious demagogues seeking to lay claim to portions of the national wealth previously dominated by the traditional ruling elite in institutions like Golkar and the military.

The MPR session indicates the basic orientation of the new alliance between Megawati and Golkar. Its first priority is to rely on remaining illusions among the Indonesian masses in Megawati to preserve the unitary state. If that fails it will turn directly to the military.

The new Indonesian Cabinet assessed

Straits Times - August 25, 2000

It is no dream team, but can President Abdurrahman Wahid's new Cabinet save his presidency from an early death? Many of the Jakarta elite do not think so, judging by yesterday's negative coverage in the Indonesian media. Devi Asmarani and Marianne Kearney of The Straits Times Indonesia Bureau highlight the good and the bad.

No divided loyalties, ergo less interference by Gus Dur: Solidity and personal loyalty to the President are the new team's strongest qualities.

Observers, politicians and business people said the new Cabinet, which critics have dubbed a cronies ensemble, could improve the performance of his 10-month- old administration, given that they should be able to work with each other better than the previous one.

With fewer political party figures, and more professionals with personal links to the President, the government would appear more solid and coordinated, they said.

"I don't think there is anything wrong with having an "all the President's men's Cabinet'," said legislator Arifin Junaidi from the Naitonal Awakening Party (PKB). "The last Cabinet was not unified because there was double loyalty and ministers who were more loyal to the party brokers who got them their job than to the President," he told The Straits Times. Many of the ministers who managed to keep their job had assured their loyalty to the President, he said.

In the economic team, three names -- economic czar Rizal Ramli, Finance Minister Priyadi Praptosuharjo and Junior Minister of National Economic Restructuring Cacuk Sudarijanto are closely associated with the President.

They are expected to cooperate better, with less intervention, than Mr Kwik Kian Gie's previous economic team, which since early this year had seen their authority undermined by the teams of presidential economic advisers.

Being largely handpicked choices of the President, this new batch of ministers is also unlikely to suffer the humiliation of having the media ask if they are the latest subjects of the President's wrath whenever he launches into vague accusations of graft by his "larger family".

Many old faces, less breaking-in time required: There is some continuity assured as the President retained two-thirds of the previous Cabinet.

That the President retained two-third of the previous Cabinet members and appointed only eight new faces is at least an assurance that there will be a continuity of policies already in place.

Many of the ministers -- Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmaatmadja, Foreign Affairs Minister Alwi Shihab and Industry and Trade Minister Luhut Panjaitan -- are among those who got to keep their job. Others remained in their post, albeit with a new name.

Social commentator Wimar Witoelar said the President tried to keep the damage as little as possible by not removing too many people from the Cabinet. He drew an analogy: "Keep your bad teeth as long as they are not completely rotten, because it is painful to have your teeth pulled."

According to PKB's Arifin, a member of the President's inner circle, some of the ministers had requested to the President that they be posted in the same ministry if they were reappointed again so they did not have to start all over at the new post.

The structure might just work: Tighter line-up and clearer job descriptions will prevent police overlapping.

A number of ministries in the previous 35-member Cabinet were eliminated, merged into other ministries, or renamed as part of the restructuring process to make a slimmer team.

This move, the work of three of his ministers, has generally earned praises as it dissolved some ministries, like the youth affairs and sports, which for long has been regarded as "superfluous". With a tighter line-up and clearer job descriptions, the government hopes to end policy overlapping, the legacy of bloated Cabinets.

Minister of State Apparatus Ryaas Rasyid will oversee the merging and dissolution of the departments so they would not create massive unemployment, by employing some of the staff at other ministries.

Yet this will likely not calm the thousands of employees of the dissolved and merged ministries, who fear that their fates will be unclear for a while until the lengthy process of bureaucratic reforms is completed. In the process, the government may be subjected to street protests organised by the jobless civil servants, like late last year, when President Abdurrahman Wahid dissolved two ministries.

New Cabinet faces strong opposition

Jakarta Post - August 24, 2000

Jakarta -- The new Cabinet has been criticized as having ministers lacking in competence and being poorly supported by major political parties.

People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais gave a thumbs-down on Wednesday to President Abdurrahman Wahid's new team, saying it was even worse than the old one in terms of the quality of its personnel.

"I'm surprised that Gus Dur was not smart enough to learn from past experience. It's regretful that he has wasted his last chance," Amien told reporters in Yogyakarta, referring to Abdurrahman by his popular nickname.

"I cannot hope too much from the new Cabinet, due in part to its failure to accommodate major political parties like Golkar, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and others." Abdurrahman's government came under fire at the recently concluded MPR Annual Session for its failure to cope with the protracted economic crisis and the threats of national disintegration.

The appointment of Prijadi Praptosuhardjo as minister of finance was an example of Abdurrahman's tendency to give room for cronyism to live in the country, Amien said.

"Pak Prijadi twice failed to pass a fit-and-proper test for a position at a state bank. How can we entrust the management of 116 state enterprises to him? I'm afraid his arrival at the ministry will incite anger among his subordinates," he said.

The top job at the ministry of finance was formerly held by Bambang Sudibyo, who is Amien's trusted man at the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Amien also criticized Gus Dur's choice of Muhammad Mahfud M.D. as the minister of defense to replace Juwono Sudarsono, who, like Mahfud, is a civilian. "When we are suffering crises in security and defense affairs, Gus Dur named Pak Mahfud, who is my junior. I think he fits the minister of justice more than his position now," Amien said.

Amien also said Abdurrahman had misplaced Rizal Ramli. Amien said the President had not consulted him when drafting the structure of the new Cabinet, not to mention its makeup.

Golkar, one of the major factions at the House of Representatives, concluded the Cabinet lineup reflected the strong wish of President Abdurrahman to treat the party as an opposition one. "President Gus Dur is positioning Golkar as an opposition party. No problem and Golkar will remain critical of the government," Syamsul Mu'arif, chairman of the Golkar faction at the House, told The Jakarta Post by phone from Paris.

Syamsul, along with House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, was stopping over in the French capital en route to an International Parliament Union (IPU) meeting in the United States.

He said Golkar was not disappointed with Gus Dur's decision not to reappoint party cadres Bomer Pasaribu and Mahadi Sinambela. Golkar's support for the Cabinet, he said, would depend on its performance.

"We will just wait and see how effective the new Cabinet is in running the government. We will take action if the Cabinet performs worse than in the past," he said.

Akbar recently said that apart from having professional competence, the new Cabinet should reflect the political constellation in line with the outcome of the 1999 general election.

Several PDI Perjuangan legislators told the Post under condition of anonymity they were upset by the new Cabinet lineup, and pledged their preparedness to emerge as an opposition party. But chairman of the party's faction at the MPR, Sophan Sophiaan, played down the discontent among his party cadres, saying it was better to give the President a chance for another year.

The party's voice in the Cabinet now is represented by Sonny Keraf and Bungaran Saragih, who were named state minister of environment and minister of agriculture and forestry respectively. "We are not disappointed. It's a presidential prerogative," Sophan said. He said that Gus Dur had taken professionalism rather than party support into account when forming his new Cabinet.

Sophan questioned Abdurrahman's choice of Prijadi as finance minister, but quickly added that the President had the right to choose who he wanted. Deputy chairman of Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB), Taufiqurrahman Saleh, saw the new Cabinet lineup as an effort by the President to build a strong system relying on people rather than party support. He also called on the public to give the new Cabinet a chance to prove itself.

Criticism also came from political observer Ichlasul Amal of Gadjah Mada University, who said Abdurrahman could have done nothing apart from compromise when selecting his ministers. "Compromise was almost unavoidable due to the President's inability to deal with pressures from political parties," he said.

He speculated that Abdurrahman was trying to ease pressure from the House over the alleged misuse of State Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds and financial assistance from the Sultan of Brunei to help the government settle the Aceh problem. "It's a dilemma for Gus Dur to recruit only professionals to the Cabinet," he said. He suspected political parties were looking for ministerial posts to help them raise funds to cover their daily organizational needs, particularly in the run-up to the 2004 general election.

Political analyst Aribowo of Surabaya-based Airlangga University was also skeptical, saying the President had failed to live up to people's wishes to see him recruit individuals with integrity and competence to ministerial posts. "Instead of accelerating economic recovery, the new Cabinet lineup will create new problems," Aribowo said.

He said the lineup reflected Abdurrahman's preference for listening to advice from his close confidants. The appointment of Prijadi was one of many examples of Abdurrahman's stubbornness, he said.

Aribowo predicted bitter rivalry between the President and Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri on one hand and the President and major political parties on the other, due to Abdurrahman's failure to reserve adequate seats for the Megawati-led PDI Perjuangan and the Golkar Party, which between them hold 273 of the 500 House seats. Aribowo said he was sure the fact that Megawati failed to turn up for the Cabinet announcement was a sign that the Vice President did not welcome the new lineup.

Another observer, Hermawan Sulistyo, highlighted the President's option for Mahfud as the minister of defense. "He has never shown an interest in defense issues," Hermawan said of Mahfud, a professor of constitutional law at the Indonesian Islamic University in Yogyakarta.

Hermawan said given his educational background and close ties with Gajah Mada University, Mahfud would be expected to collaborate with the Center for Defense and Peace Studies at Gajah Mada University which is chaired by education minister Yahya Muhaimin. "Yahya is well-accepted by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and through Yahya, Mahfud may accommodate TNI's interests," said Hermawan.

Political analyst from the University of Indonesia Arbi Sanit said Abdurrahman's government would face strong opposition from major political parties under-represented in the new Cabinet. "President Abdurrahman Wahid has fulfilled his promise to recruit professionals, but he can no longer rely on political support from either PDI Perjuangan or Golkar," Arbi said.

He suggested that Abdurrahman handle the strong opposition by keeping the Cabinet solid and clean and encouraging the ministers to take more initiatives. He hailed Abdurrahman's decision to pick Mahfud as the defense minister, saying civilian supremacy over the military must be maintained.

Separately, Ikrar Nusabakti, a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) predicted a gloomy future for the Cabinet. Ikrar said it would face difficulties in coping with economic and financial problems because the President appointed new faces, whereas the old tandem of Kwik Kian Gie and Bambang Sudibyo had already found their form.

"Of course, these choices will upset the market and I am afraid the rupiah will start to weaken," he said. Ikrar criticized Abdurrahman's failure to put the right people in the right places. "Why should foreign minister Alwi Shihab be maintained while people know he has done nothing for the past ten months in office?" he asked.

Lean and loyal

Associated Press - August 24, 2000

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid unveiled a new slimmer Cabinet to tackle myriad problems, ranging from separatist unrest to economic woes and corruption.

It has two coordinating ministers, 16 ministers, five state ministers without ministries and three junior ministers

Lt-Gen Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, chief political minister: The quiet 51-year-old is known widely as a progressive army academic and a confidant of the President. His move to the post makes him one of the main Cabinet decision makers, and is a huge step up from his previous and first post as minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. Known as one of the architects of the military's own internal reform programmes, he was an advocate of moves to disassociate the armed forces from the powerful political role they once played. He recently led negotiations in an attempt to get the family of former President Suharto to return some of their allegedly ill- gotten wealth and was involved closely in drafting the new Cabinet list. The Indonesian Military Academy graduate holds a master's degree in management from Webster University in the United States.
Mr Rizal Ramli, chief economics minister: The 47-year-old heads the national food agency Bulog. A former student activist and outspoken critic of economic policies under former President Suharto, he ran the Econit Advisory Group, an economic think-tank specialising in industry and trade, before joining the government earlier this year. He has shaken up old, shady practices at Bulog, introducing greater transparency to one of the most corrupt government bodies. A graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology, he also holds a PhD in economics from Boston University in the US.
Mr Priyadi Praptosuharjo, finance minister: A relatively low- profile banker, he is Mr Abdurrahman's most controversial appointment. He was recently the President's choice to head state-run Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), but failed a central bank "fit-and-proper" test, disqualifying him from the job. The test determines a banker's past behaviour and performance, especially in relation to whether that person has been involved in any violation of banking rules. Financial markets have already expressed concern over his appointment, fearing he may be tainted by politics. He spent most of his career at BRI, which was tasked with giving credits to small-scale businesses and farmers.
Dr Mahfud MD, defence minister: The low-profile civilian academic at the Law faculty of the Islamic Indonesian University in Yogyakarta is also a surprise choice. His area of study has been constitutional law. But political analyst Arbi Sanit said he would be suitable because he had extensive contacts with the military over the years. As Indonesia's second civilian defence minister, Dr Mahfud will continue the long process of establishing civilian authority over the once powerful, but now sometimes reviled, military. He has said that unless brought under control, restiveness in remote but resource-rich Irian Jaya province could create more problems than East Timor, the former Portuguese colony which broke from Jakarta's rule last year.
Mr Purnomo Yusgiantoro, energy and mineral resources minister: The deputy head of Lemhanas, the military's think-tank, is a surprise choice for an important ministry, but he does have previous experience. He once served as an adviser in the ministry and has represented Indonesia in dealings with Opec. He will head the country's vast natural resource base, which contributes billions of dollars in foreign exchange earnings.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs: Lt-Gen Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Coordinating Minister for Economics: Mr Rizal Ramli.
Minister of Home Affairs and Automony: Lt-Gen Suryadi Sudirja, retained.
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Dr Alwi Shihab, retained.
Minister of Defence: Dr Mahfud MD.
Minister of Finance: Mr Priyadi Praptosuharjo.
Minister of Religious Affairs: Mr Muhammad Tolchah Hasan, retained.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry: Mr Bungaran Saragih.
Minister of National Education: Mr Yahya Muhaimin, retained.
Minister of Health and Social Welfare: Mr Achmad Sujudi, retained.
Minister of Transportation and Telecomunications: Lt-Gen Agum Gumelar, retained.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration: Mr Alhilal Hamdi, retained.
Minister of Industry and Trade: Lt-Gen Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, retained.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources: Mr Purnomo Yusgiantoro.
Minister of Justice and Human Rights: Professor Yusril Ihza Mahendra, retained.
Minister of Settlement and Territorial Development: Ms Erna Witular, retained.
Minister of Culture & Tourism: Mr I Gde Ardhika.
Minister of Maritime and Fisheries: Mr Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, retained.
State Minister of Women's Role: Ms Khofifah Indar Parawansa, retained.
State Minister of State Apparatus: Mr Ryaas Rasyid, retained.
State Minister of Cooperatives and Small Business: Mr Zarkasih Nur, retained.
State Minister of Environment: Mr Sonny Keraf, retained.
State Minister of Technology: Mr Muhammad As Hikam, retained.
Junior Minister of Forestry: Mr Nurmahmudi Ismail, retained.
Junior Minister of Rapid Development of Eastern Indonesia: Mr Manuel Kaisiepo.
Junior Minister of National Economic Restructuring: Mr Cacuk Sudarijanto.

How long will the new Cabinet last?

Business Times - August 24, 2000

Many hope to see the new team last the full term, but early signs are discouraging, says Yang Razali Kassim

What a way to start off a new Cabinet. President Abdurrahman Wahid has been insisting that he and his vice-president remain the best of friends; it's the media that's been making things up, he charged.

But Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri was nowhere in sight when the new line-up was announced yesterday. And what did the president say? "She's gone home to take a bath."

If Gus Dur, as the president is popularly known, had meant this to show his great sense of humour, it didn't really work. The media was not impressed. And the president was more prickly than he normally would be.

Clearly, the heat from the tussle over the Cabinet must have been too much for Ms Megawati. If taking a bath was more important than standing by the president in a show of unity, something is certainly not right.

This new Cabinet actually has much going for it. Expectations, and sympathies, are high -- not just in Indonesia but also internationally.

But the signal yesterday was not a pleasant one. Can anyone be blamed for seeing this as an early sign of trouble ahead? Would it be too much to ask how long this new Cabinet will last?

It's not difficult to see why Ms Megawati was upset. This was supposed to be her Cabinet. She has behind her the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which was convinced Gus Dur could not on his own deliver the economic recovery the country badly needs. Indeed, he is under obligation to pass some of the stewardship to Ms Megawati; his failure to do so could actually lead to his impeachment.

But this clearly was not to be. For none of her top men got into the key positions she wanted, especially the economic portfolios. Kwik Kian Gie did not end up with the powerful post of coordinating minister for the economy; neither did Laksamana Sukardi get the finance minister's post.

Instead, the two positions have gone to men of the president's own picking -- Rizal Ramli, Mr Kwik's rival, and Priyadi Sapto Suhardjo, a controversial friend of Gus Dur's of many years.

As if this was not enough, Gus Dur got his way with several others. A good example is the other key position -- the coordinating minister for politics and security -- which went to another supporter, retired general Susilo Bambang Yudoyono.

Indeed, far from handing the whole Cabinet over to the vice- president, Gus Dur has packed it with several of his own men, or people sympathetic to him, like

Marzuki Darusman, who keeps his job as attorney-general, and Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, who also retains his maritime affairs ministry.

It's like giving Ms Megawati her new authority with the right hand and taking it back with the left. With no one to count on in the Cabinet she is supposed to lead, Ms Megawati will have a hard time fulfilling her MPR-mandated duties as the new driver of the government.

Gus Dur, of course, has a good excuse: the vice-president is just as incompetent as he is, he would say, and would need a few good men around her. Trouble is, the few good men aren't hers. It wouldn't be surprising if she sees this as a cunning move by the wily 60-year-old half-blind president to make it tough for her to deliver in her new role. So why should she fall for it?

Ms Megawati's decision to stay away from the announcement yesterday was a calculated move to keep her distance from the line-up. Should the new Cabinet fail, she wouldn't want to be associated with it. It's her way of telling the 700 members of the MPR who have just supported her: Don't blame me if anything goes wrong. With this inherent tension built into the new team, the new Cabinet is not likely to run a smooth course ahead. It might even end up with yet another reshuffle.

Even if the new Cabinet surprises everyone with unexpected punch and panache, it will be a Cabinet that would probably face a hostile legislature where Ms Megawati's men dominate, and where anti-Gus Dur sentiments still run high. The only thing that will help is results, and more results -- especially on the economic front. But this won't be easy -- unless he does a miracle, holds his tongue and takes his hands off the Cabinet.

With the newly-assertive MPR giving him at most one more year, or at worst three months, to prove himself, he needs to make the most of the second chance that the MPR has given him.

But the burden of delivery will fall also on two key men. Dr Rizal must help turn the economy around while Gen Yudhoyono's tough job is to keep the separatists at bay while snuffing out the burning embers of ethnic and religious divisions.

Both are equally difficult missions. The question is, who would be blamed if they fail -- the president, or the vice-president or the two key ministers? The tougher of the two tasks falls on the shoulders of Dr Rizal and the new finance minister Priyadi.

Gus Dur's problem is that Mr Priyadi has a negative name in the market. He didn't even make it through the central bank's "fit and proper" test for the job of chief executive officer of a state-owned bank. Gus Dur's incessant campaign, or stubbornness, to still use him, despite criticisms, could be the seed of the president's own undoing.

The new Cabinet has been preceded by a tough tussle for control of the economic team. This is not surprising as the success or failure of the team would have a serious political backlash on either Gus Dur, or Ms Megawati or both.

But it is significant that the tussle was also between the pro- International Monetary Fund (IMF) school of economic thinkers, led by the once powerful players like the Berkeley-trained technocrats and their younger disciples, and the more nationalis- tic or "pro-sovereignty" economists, like Mr Kwik.

But Mr Kwik's absence from the new team does not mean the dominance of the pro-IMF thinkers. For Dr Rizal is known as a toughie too, inspired by the apparent success of Malaysia in turning around the economy without IMF assistance.

The problem for him is that the whole drive towards economic recovery has already been tightly defined -- and controlled -- by the Fund. Although he is no fan of the IMF, he, like Mr Kwik, is also shrewd enough to accept that the Fund cannot be so easily wished away, at least not just yet.

But if he had his way, he would almost certainly want to kick out the IMF. Dr Rizal is no stranger to fights; he's been in jail for protesting against Suharto. With Dr Rizal's rise as the key economic planner for a major regional player like Indonesia, is South-east Asia moving closer in the direction of greater independence of the IMF?

Even if this is so, this is not necessarily bad if the new Cabinet could give Indonesia a new resolve to be truly strong economically. This in turn would be good for the region if it could lead to more stability. So, after weeks of high drama, the new Cabinet line-up is finally in place. But the difficult task of pulling Indonesia out of its current morass is only beginning.

If there's good news for Gus Dur from the new Cabinet, it is that it's packed with his people, or at least politically neutral professionals. Gus Dur must make the most of this while he can. Can he?

Gus Dur packs new Cabinet with his men

Business Times - August 24, 2000

Shoeb Kagda -- President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday unveiled a new Cabinet tilted strongly in his favour, catching many observers and market analysts off guard. They had expected some concessions towards Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who, in recent days, had become more strident in pushing her claim to power as well as having a say in the running of the country.

Financial markets reacted negatively to the new Cabinet line-up, because Ms Megawati, in essence, has been left out in the cold despite the president's willingness to share power with her recently. This, analysts said, does not bode well for the political climate.

The rupiah shed most of its gains over the past few days, plunging nearly 5 per cent to 8,355 against the US dollar after the announcement.

The main concern, analysts said, was a possible political backlash against the new Cabinet given that the top posts were filled by the president's allies and friends and a lack of confidence in the economic team.

Mr Abdurrahman named two confidants as his key ministers -- the ambitious retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as chief political minister and respected economist Rizal Ramli as top economics minister.

While the two appointments were widely expected, his choice for finance minister, banker Prijadi Praptosuhardjo, drew negative comments from observers, who labelled the appointment as controversial. A very close ally of Gus Dur, as the president is popularly known, Mr Prijadi had recently failed a central bank "fit and proper" test to head state-run Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).

Mr Abdurrahman, answering questions from journalists, however defended his choice of finance minister saying: "I know [Prijadi] very well because I have observed him for 16 years."

The president also promoted the head of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra), Cacuk Sudarijanto, as a junior minister for economic restructuring, while keeping retired general Luhut Panjaitan as trade and industry minister.

The new economic team, said market analysts, is unlikely to break with the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) economic recovery programme although Mr Rizal has been critical of some of the Fund's policies in the past.

An independent thinker who was jailed for his strong criticism of the government of former president Suharto, Mr Rizal was appointed to head the State Logistics Body (Bulog) earlier this year.

The IMF's Indonesian representative praised the choice of Mr Ramli to run the economy. "He has always struck me as a very capable and practical person. I think the market will react positively," John Dodsworth said.

Umar Juoro, from the Centre for Information and Development Study, however, noted that Mr Rizal could move to limit the IMF's role in economic management in Indonesia although "he will not risk losing his job by undermining the IMF". He added that the new team could work well together under Mr Rizal as the new ministers were all loyal to the president and there was no personal rivalry between them. "There are several good people in the team but with Prijadi as minister for finance, it could be highly controversial."

He also warned that unless the new ministers "scored a big economic success soon", they would face a hostile Parliament as the other major political parties were now all aligned against the government.

Mr Rizal and his team would have to tackle several economic issues immediately: revamping the moribund banking sector; creating a better investment climate to facilitate sale of assets currently under Ibra's control; and tackling the huge problem of outstanding corporate debt. Having promised to hand over the day-to-day running of the government to Ms Megawati, it was all the more surprising that her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDIP), did not secure any of the key economic portfolios.

In fact, palace sources told The Business Times that she had quarrelled with the president and left the palace just before the Cabinet announcement. The cabinet list was instead read out by Cabinet Secretary Marsilam Simanjuntak in a live broadcast.

"[She] was in a hurry to have a bath," joked Mr Abdurrahman, when asked why his vice-president was not present. But the joke was lost on market analysts who saw it as a bad omen for the start of the new government on whom high hopes have been pinned.

"Everyone is starting to wonder why Megawati did not make the statement if this is a Cabinet she has to work with," said Andre Cita from Kim Eng Securities. "There is no one in the Cabinet who is close to her which spells trouble for the government."

The sensitive post of attorney-general went back to widely- respected Marzuki Darusman, while Gus Dur named academic Mahfud MD as defence minister and Purnomo Yusgiantoro, the mines and energy minister. Mr Purnomo, a civilian, is currently deputy head of the military's think-tank Lemhanas.

The Cabinet, to be sworn in on Saturday, has shrunk from 35 ministers to 25, as the president has combined a number of ministries such as home affairs and regional autonomy as well as agriculture and forestry. It will also mark a radical change in the way the government will be run.

Apart from giving a greater role to his vice-president, Mr Abdurrahman has effectively split the Cabinet into two groups -- one covering economics and the other politics and security. Each will have an overall minister-in-charge.

Wahid shakes up and streamlines his Cabinet

Sydney Morning Herald - August 24, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday appointed a retired army general and an economist to key posts in a streamlined Cabinet he hopes will pull Indonesia out of nearly three years of economic, civil and political turmoil.

The reshuffle will see Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, serve as chief political minister with wide powers, while Mr Rizal Ramli becomes the top economics minister. They will report to the Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, who will assume control of daily government business.

Mr Wahid cut the Cabinet from 35 members to 26 and trimmed many government departments. He announced the radical changes after coming under enormous pressure for failing in his first 10 months in office to clear up the country's political and economic mess.

Mr Prijadi Praptosuhardjo, a close friend of Mr Wahid who failed a recent central bank "fit and proper test", has been appointed Finance Minister.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab, retains his post despite wide speculation he would be moved. This is bad news for Australia. Mr Shihab has emerged as a strong critic of the Howard Government and has stressed that restored relations with Canberra will depend on economic benefits for Indonesia.

Mr Marzuki Darusman will remain Attorney-General, a high-profile and difficult job that includes responsibility for bringing former president Soeharto to court on graft charges, and trying Indonesians responsible for last year's violence in East Timor.

The new Defence Minister, Mahfud M.D, is a civilian academic. The Mines and Energy Minister, Mr Purnomo Yusgiantoro, is the deputy head of a military think-tank.

The Interior Minister, Mr Surjadi Sudirja, has been reappointed, and the new Law and Human Rights Minister, Mr Yusril Ihza Mahendra, stays on in a new merged portfolio as Law and Human Rights Minister.

The Trade and Industry Minister, Mr Luhut Pandjaitan, has been reappointed, as has the Transport and Communications Minister, Mr Agum Gumelar.

The new ministers will be sworn in at a ceremony tomorrow and sit in Cabinet on Monday. Their priorities will include completing the 2000 Budget and preparing for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in January.

Mr Wahid has already made clear the Government will remain committed to economic policies agreed with the International Monetary Fund, which has arranged for $US40billion to bail out the collapsed economy.

Government administration in effect collapsed last month ahead of the annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly, the top legislature, which castigated Mr Wahid's often erratic style of leadership.

He placated the 700 assembly members, some of whom argued for his impeachment, by promising to devolve more power to Ms Megawati. Mr Wahid has said that while Ms Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's first president, Dr Sukarno, will be in charge of the daily running of government, he will retain overall authority.

Under pressure from politicians, Mr Wahid has disbanded two key economic advisory groups, the National Economic Council and the National Business Development Council.

Indonesia: None of it happened

Green Left Weekly - August 23, 2000

Max Lane -- The current session of Indonesia's parliament, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), began with much criticism of President Abdurrahman Wahid by politicians and threats that he would be deposed, forced to appoint a prime minister or made to surrender significant power to vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri. None of it happened.

Wahid remains president and his new cabinet will be announced on August 24 or 25. He remains at the centre of Indonesia's governing structures.

He did announce to the MPR that Megawati would be given more governmental tasks but emphasised that she would still be responsible to the president. Under the constitution, the formal function of the vice-president is that of an assistant to the president.

Some politicians threatened to have the MPR pass a decree making Megawati head of government and Wahid head of state. This did not happen either. Megawati's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle opposed the MPR formalising a new status for her. It acted under Megawati's instructions that the party keep within the constitution.

Wahid announced that the number of ministers in the new cabinet would be trimmed and that its new structure, though not its membership, would be devised by three coordinating ministers.

The MPR's attacks on Wahid were a reflection of the struggle between the main parties, all of which have been represented in the cabinet, to increase their influence in the government. This struggle will continue during the next four years until the next general elections. The outcome of the struggle to change the balance of power inside the cabinet will become clearer when the new cabinet line-up is announced.

As the factional struggle unfolded, it became clear that many major decisions were to be postponed. Several changes to the constitution now will not be considered for another year.

It seems that the mooted repeal of the ban on the "spreading Marxism-Leninism" has been dropped after all parties, except Wahid's National Awakening Party, indicated they would oppose it.

All parties, except the rightist Star and Crescent Party, supported the Indonesian military (TNI) and police maintaining 38 representatives in the MPR until 2009. There were several student protests outside the MPR against this.

The TNI had a victory with the passing of an MPR resolution which precludes army officers from being tried for past human rights violations. This proposal was rejected when discussed in the commission stage, but mysteriously reappeared in the final version of the resolution.

The one setback for the TNI was the new requirement for the armed forces commander-in-chief and police commander to be vetted by the House of Representatives before being appointed by the president.

Still to be voted upon, but likely to be passed, is a new law that will decentralise government administration and introduce a federal system. Specific percentages on revenue derived from the exploitation of natural resources are to be allocated to the lower levels of government. It is estimated that between 30% to 40% of civil servants will move from working for the national government to the regional government.

The one topic that received almost no discussion was Indonesia's social and economic crisis. Wahid did refer to it in his state of the nation report, emphasising the social breakdown that was occurring. However, nobody in the MPR questioned the basic thrust of the Wahid government's implementation of International Monetary Fund-prescribed austerity, deregulation and privatisation.

Concern was focused on correcting Wahid's "style of governing" and the need for a better "economic team" in cabinet to more effectively implement IMF policies.

Regional conflicts

Luwu riots leave police bewildered

Jakarta Post - August 27, 2000

Malangke -- Police said on Saturday they found it difficult to arrest perpetrators of unrest in Luwu, while the burning of residents houses in two districts continued.

Luwu Regency Police chief Supt. Anjaya told The Jakarta Post here that the rioters launched a guerrilla-like attack on eight villages in Malangke and Baebuntah districts. Malangke is 450 kilometers north of the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar.

"The attackers were armed with homemade weapons, including pistols and cannons. They attacked from various directions and move like well-trained troops," Anjaya said, confirming that at least 210 houses had been burned down.

He said he was sure the attackers, who were garbed in black, were residents of the neighboring villages of Tenda Biru and Layar Putih. The terrain of the area, which has rivers and swampy land, made it difficult for police officers to chase the rioters, he added.

Unconfirmed reports said the villagers wanted to take revenge for relatives who were killed by the residents of the two districts during earlier unrest.

Almost 100 security personnel, consisting mostly of police troops and Army members from the Sawunggaling Military District Command, have been deployed to stop the attacks, Manggabarani said. He said the officers would shoot on sight anyone found instigating riots.

15 years ago Locals say sectarian clashes in Luwu regency first erupted in 1985. Since then subsequent clashes have taken place almost every year, until January this year when then Wirabuana Military commander Maj. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusuma took appropriate and impartial steps to deal with the violence.

During prolonged violence from January 1998 to January 2000, at least 28 people were killed and 350 houses and public facilities destroyed by fire.

Agus had all residents in Luwu disarmed before holding discussions with the opposing groups. Those found guilty of participating in clashes were arrested and brought to court. The violence eventually stopped.

However, fresh violence erupted on August 18, months after Agus was transferred away from Sulawesi. A fight between groups of teenagers at a wedding reception led to fierce brawls among villagers. No fatalities have been reported.

Local authorities apparently tried to tone down reports of the conflicts between Muslims and Christians in Luwu. South Sulawesi Police deputy chief Sr. Supt. Jusuf Manggabarani said three days ago that everything was under control and that the violence was not linked to religion.

On Friday and Saturday, the Post observed hundreds of houses in Caning village in Malangke district were still burning. Riots have also affected neighboring villages, forcing thousands of people to seek refuge in the town of Amasangeng, the capital of West Malangke district.

Civil emergency in Maluku islands may be extended

Agence France-Presse - August 25, 2000

Jakarta -- The state of civil emergency in Indonesia's Maluku islands, torn by warfare between Muslims and Christians, should be extended for another month, the national police chief said Friday.

"The state of civil emergency needs to be extended because the security forces in the area do not yet have full control," General Rusdiharjo was quoted by the afternoon Suara Pembaruan newspaper as saying.

The state of emergency in the islands, where some 4,000 people have died since the violence erupted in January 1999, was imposed on June 27. It expires at the end of this month.

Rusdiharjo was speaking during a visit to the Malukus capital Ambon. "But this all depends on what decision is made after an evaluation process. In my opinion things are already quite good. There are no more riots, and when there are, they're on a small scale," the police chief said.

Malukus governor, Saleh Latuconsina, was also reported Friday to be in support of extending the emergency. "I believe the civil emergency is still needed," the Media Indonesia quoted Latuconsina as saying.

The emergency status -- imposed in both Maluku and North Maluku provinces -- allowed the authorities to impose a curfew, limit the size of public gatherings and confiscate weapons carried by civilians.

Both dailies said Rusdiharjo was in Ambon to hand over 1.3 billion rupiah (154,000 dollars) to Ambon-based police troops whose dormitory was destroyed by mobs in June. Six people were killed in the attack, including the deputy chief of the elite police mobile brigade. The Maluku police chief says 131 officers deserted their posts following the attack.

Both camps accuse Indonesian soldiers and police of taking sides in the conflict. In general the police have been accused of siding with the Christians, and army units with the Muslims.

The alleged partiality of security personnel in the Malukus has already sparked calls for foreign peacekeepers, but the government has flatly ruled out any foreign intervention.

Killings have continued despite the state of emergency and tension between the Muslim and Christian communities has remained high. Both sides openly carry firearms on the streets.

After violence which erupted in Ambon, quickly spread to other islands in the Malukus, and has driven more than half a million from their homes, acording to official figures.

Fresh unrest hits South Sulawesi

Tempo - August 23, 2000

Makkasar -- Fresh sectarian violence hit Luwu regency, South Sulawesi. Masses clashed sporadically between Monday, August 21, until today, August 23. Gunfire volleys were heard in Luwu, located 600 kilometers north of Makassar. Two other settlements were burned.

The unrest first broke out in Lamasi district, where two houses were burned. Rioting spread to the districts of Sabbang, Baebunta, and Malangke, and the hinterland districts around Bone Bay. Two settlements in the Teteuri and Mangkallang areas of the Sabbang District were also burned. As a result, residents fled to nearby villages. At least 90 buildings, including six prayer houses, two schools, and a mill, were burned. Luckily, nobody was injured.

Ambe Aco, a of resident of Teteuri, clarified the areas controlled by the two groups. Muslim from the Danta, Teteuri, Mangkallang, and surrounding districts occupy the East. They have joined forces with the people of Lembanglembang village in Sabbang district. Meanwhile, Christians gathered in the West. If the security forces take no serious action, Ambe worried that the fighting spread to the capital of the four districts. "The police must localize the fighting immediately. The destruction of a religious building easily cause aother conflict," he said.

Meanwhile, police and military personnel from the Luwu Police and Luwu Milittary Command were stationed in the troubled areas. Although the security forces have a heavy burden in the field, units led by Superintendent Anjaya have entered the affected areas. "It is dangerous in the area where we stationed units. Therefore, we are moving slowly," a member of the Luwu Police force told Tempo today.

Religious turmoil within Indonesia nears center

Wall Street Journal - August 24, 2000

Jeremy Wagstaff, Manado -- One day in December 1998, a hearse pulled into the graveled courtyard of the Saint Joseph Catholic church in this port city on the island of Sulawesi. Two men slid a white coffin out of the back of the car and hauled it up the steps to the church door.

Suspicious, several teachers who happened to be meeting at the church confronted the strangers, according to St. Joseph's priest, Yus Tatangi. One pried open the coffin to find a statue of the Virgin Mary lying inside. The horrified teachers called the police.

Outside Indonesia, such an incident might have been dismissed as a prank. But in a predominantly Muslim country in the midst of political and economic upheaval, it could well have sparked a riot. Indeed, St. Joseph's parishioners believe that was the intention: Within minutes of the coffin being discovered, a firebomb was thrown at a nearby mosque. In the market, rumors spread that the mosque had been burned down. "It could easily have gotten out of hand," says Mr. Tatangi.

Manado's neighbors haven't been so lucky. In the year and a half since the incident, most of northeastern Indonesia -- an area the size of Thailand -- has been sucked into ethnic, communal and religious conflict, leaving thousands of people dead and half a million homeless.

Shadowy players

Seemingly trivial incidents have often triggered the unrest: In the spice port of Ambon, a gang fight over a bus fare; in the remote village of Kao on Halmahera, a feud over a district boundary; in Poso, three days drive south of Manado, a drunken brawl. But behind the violence, many Indonesians believe, are power plays by shadowy national and local players stirring up grievances for their own political ends. Suspects range from loyalists of ex-President Suharto, forced out of office in May 1998, through generals resentful of President Abdurrahman Wahid's efforts to clip the military's wings, to local politicians eager to exploit the chaos to extend their reach.

Whatever its causes, the protracted violence is the worst Indonesia has seen since the 1960s. And while political leaders in the capital Jakarta, 2,000 kilometers to the southwest, have mostly viewed it as a sideshow, the unrest is beginning to affect relatively safe havens such as Manado.

Whether or not the trouble spreads, places like this predominantly Christian city are already showing signs of sectarian stress, increasing the probability that Indonesia's distant conflicts could creep closer to the country's political center.

Perched near the end of a narrow, 600-kilometer-long peninsula in the north of Sulawesi, Manado has become a sanctuary for tens of thousands of refugees -- mostly Christians -- fleeing religious strife in other eastern Indonesian islands. And after months of uncertainty, some are getting restless: In May, a soccer match between refugees and local sailors ended in a chair-throwing brawl. Local compassion for the refugees is wearing thin; the city now only extends one food delivery a day to their camps, compared to three a few months ago.

With parts of Sulawesi already charred by communal violence, trouble in Manado would jeopardize the whole of Indonesia's third-largest island. This week, Mr. Wahid attended a symbolic peace ceremony in Poso as part of efforts by regional governors to heal some of the communal wounds.

"If Manado goes, you can kiss goodbye to Indonesia," says John Kalangi, a Manado native and Christian activist. That's by no means inevitable. Many residents play down the possibility of unrest, pointing to a history of religious harmony in the city. Lucky Sondakh, university lecturer and adviser to his brother, the provincial governor, is more interested in doing business: Japan has just lifted a security restriction on its nationals visiting Manado, and the province plans to sign a tuna-catching agreement with the nearby Philippine port of Davao. "We believe we are more civilized," he says. "Maybe that's arrogant, but that's what we believe."

Eroding calm

But such faith has proved unfounded elsewhere. Ask the residents of Ternate, a volcanic island a short plane ride across the Molucca Sea, which had been largely untouched by violence since its days as the center of the world clove industry in the 17th century. When mainly Muslim refugees started arriving from nearby islands late last year, Ternate's calm gradually eroded, especially when copies of a typewritten circular, purporting to be a call to arms by local Christian leaders, appeared in the local market.

No one knows who circulated the letter. Among those suspected are local politicians or landowners seeking control of lucrative mines in neighboring Halmahera. Others point to a long-simmering rivalry between the sultanates of Ternate and nearby Tidore.

Whatever the case, tempers quickly flared into violence. In three days in early November, as many as 100 people died. On December 28, a crowd gathered outside the palace of the Ternate sultan, who was resented by some Muslims for his close ties to Christians. In a peace deal brokered by another sultan, businessman Gahral Syah, he was forced out and later left the island.

In the months since, Sultan Syah, a Muslim, has tried to reconcile the two sides. But with most of eastern Indonesia still traumatized by the killings or embroiled in continuing violence, he's fighting a losing battle. Homes, shops, offices and churches are occupied by Muslim refugees and daubed with anti-Christian graffiti.

While there has been little fighting in recent months on Ternate itself, that's because all the Christians, including nine members of the district parliament, have fled to Manado. "During our history we've been attacked by Spaniards, Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. But there was no tragedy like this," says local Muslim parliamentarian Syaiful Bahri Ruray. "This conflict has destroyed the harmony of the past."

Confronting the hatred

On a recent visit to a Manado hospital, Sultan Syah is confronted by the results of the religious hatred. Christian refugees from a bout of fighting in June on the island of Halmahera, parade their injuries. One woman's jaw is disfigured; a Muslim had jammed an automatic rifle in her mouth and pulled the trigger. A teenage boy is dotted with bandages from machete blows; most of one hand is gone. Curly-haired Yeskel Bahang is in tears, explaining how Muslims killed his nephew in front of him after years of peaceful coexistence. "I couldn't do anything," he says. "I understand," the sultan says softly.

Such deep sectarian divisions have yet to emerge openly in Manado. But there are signs that animosity between Christians and Muslims lurks near the surface. The same day as the sultan's visit, the calm of the hospital is shattered when a truckload of Muslim youths arrive, bursting into the intensive-care unit to check rumors that one of their friends was knifed by a Christian. Nurses and other patients look on nervously as the angry young men mill around the lobby until police arrive. The commanding officer approaches the gang leader, reassuring him that the culprit will be arrested. He lays a calming hand on the man's shoulder, and the 40-strong gang gradually disperses.

With Manado's refugee population growing by the day, it's getting harder to keep things calm. "Our fear is that the refugees are going to start something," says Dr. W. Walla, a Protestant leader who visits the camps twice a week to monitor the refugees. "Who knows whether among them will be a provocateur?" It's this nightmare that some Manado Christians are trying to pre-empt.

Some want to absorb the refugees into local life as quickly as possible. For example, a band of young doctors from the hospital has bought land to set up refugees as farmers. And businessman Michael Adiloekito has opened his experimental mushroom farm to refugees.

Others are taking defensive action. Mr. Kalangi, the Christian activist, is trying to prepare fellow Minahasans (as Manado Christians are known) for a possible invasion by Muslim warriors. A former oil worker in his 30s, he claims to have 200 recruits in each subdistrict in the city. On route to a meeting where he hopes to elicit support from veterans of the region's revolt against Jakarta in the late 1950s, he gestures at the hills above Manado. "This was where the rebels held out for years," he says. "We could do the same, if necessary."

Limited impact

But Mr. Kalangi's message has only limited impact on the meeting itself. Around a wooden living room in the lakeside town of Tondano, 20 or so elderly Minahasans sip tea and listen bemusedly. One former civil servant objects mildly to the recruitment drive. "This is no time to worry about being primordial. Don't be ashamed," retorts Mr. Kalangi.

Mr. Kalangi's fears may be alarmist. There are no signs of any imminent invasion by Muslim outsiders. But Manado and its environs reflect the same combination of factors that made conflict in surrounding islands possible.

With the fall of authoritarian President Suharto, local politics has taken on a life of its own: Elections and greater autonomy have thrown up new leaders, not all of them sensitive to balancing the local ethnic and religious mix.

In Manado's province of North Sulawesi, the change has upset the religious balance in favor of the Christians, who for the first time in years, occupy the key posts of governor and deputy governor. This has prompted some Muslim politicians from the province's other main town, Gorontalo, to demand their own province. Coming months will determine whether such political divisions are stoked into open hostility in Manado. But those who have survived the past year's violence aren't optimistic. Gretje Watimure, 43, sits in a spartan room in Manado talking fondly of her home in a leafy lane behind Ternate's main hospital, now boarded up and occupied by Muslim refugees. She knows she may never see it again. Does she feel safe now? "We've heard that once they clear all the Christians out of there, they'll come here," she says.

Rin Hindryati contributed to this article.]

Indonesia's far-flung 'holy war' in Ambon

Christian Science Monitor - August 23, 2000

Dan Murphy, Yogyakarta -- At a humble mosque on the gentle slopes below one of Indonesia's largest volcanoes, Ja'far Umar Thalib, commander of a Muslim militia accused of terrorizing the Maluku islands, explains what jihad means to him.

"It does not just mean war. In the Koran there are 13 types of jihad," he says, as a dozen disciples clad in flowing robes gather in a loose semicircle around him. "Sometimes it means peaceful struggle. Sometimes it means doing good works. Sometimes it means a fight against Satan, and sometimes it means a fight against infidels."

So, which kind of jihad is being fought in Maluku, 1,000 miles from his sleepy base? A slow smile spreads across his face as he strokes his wispy beard and answers, "All 13 at once." Mr. Thalib is a member of a Muslim minority that has been increasingly vocal in Java's heartland since the fall of strongman Suharto two years ago. Mr. Suharto viewed almost all Islamic political activity as a threat to his regime and suppressed it. But since then, previously unknown preachers, who favor Islamic law, have emerged.

In cities throughout Java, they've closed bars and discos, and terrorized citizens they consider enemies of Islam. Thalib may be the most extreme example. Though he likes to insist that the Laskar Jihad, some 3,000 self-declared "jihad fighters" he has dispatched to Maluku since April, are there only to build mosques and homes, the fact remains that their arrival signaled a new and bloody chapter in an 18-month-old conflict that is reverberating with disturbing national and international implications for Indonesia.

Their presence has turned what had been primarily a local conflict between Christians and Muslims into a proxy war for Indonesia's tiny -- but growing -- band of Muslims that want sharia, or Islamic holy law, applied in this sprawling and diverse nation. They see international conspiracies to "Christianize" Indonesia behind everything from the 1999 liberation of East Timor to the country's ongoing financial crisis.

With every day that he and his militias are allowed to remain in Maluku, the logic of international calls for intervention may grow. Indonesia's own National Commission on Human Rights has recommended that "international cooperation" be considered. The region has been under a civil emergency since late June, but in the past few months Muslim fighters, often with the aid of regular Army soldiers, have gained the upper hand over local Christians in Maluku and North Maluku provinces, once known as the Spice Islands.

Christians have been effectively cleansed from Ternate, the North Maluku capital. In Ambon, the capital of Maluku, 12 Christian villages were attacked from the end of July to mid-August. "This is no longer a nation of law," thunders Alexander Manuputty, an Ambonese Christian who recently led a delegation to the US to plead with Congress to intervene. "The government is standing by while we're being slaughtered. It doesn't mean anything to be a Muslim anymore."

Thalib and his followers insist that there is an international campaign -- spearheaded by the US -- to create a Christian republic in the heart of Indonesia to weaken the nation. Secretary of State "Madeleine Albright already has permission from the US government to break apart Indonesia," claims Ayip Syafruddin, who acts as Thalib's No. 2.

Diplomats and human rights investigators say the ability of Thalib to go to and from Maluku on commercial flights (he had just returned from Maluku when he met with the Monitor) is troubling, because it indicates the government's promises to remove the Laskar Jihad from the situation have been half- hearted, at best.

The freedom with which the Laskar have been able to act has terrified non-Muslims and fueled the belief that military officers -- angry at the erosion of their power and prestige since the fall of Suharto in 1998, are supporting the conflict as a way of warning civilian politicians to preserve the military's political role. Last week, efforts by legislators in Jakarta to have the military's guaranteed seats in parliament revoked were abandoned.

Though Thalib's base near Yogyakarta is often described as a Muslim boarding school, or pesantren, it's little more than a few ramshackle buildings and a mosque. Millions of Javanese children receive their educations in pesantren, but there are no children and no classrooms in evidence here. Thalib laughs when asked about the children, and says his is a "pesantren for adults." Despite the unconvincing setup, no one seems willing to act against the Laskar Jihad. When President Abdurrahman Wahid issued orders in mid-July for the Laskar to be forcibly removed from Ambon, Mr. Syafruddin threatened reprisals against "Christian posts" on Java, which was widely interpreted to mean churches. The government backed off. Syafruddin says 1,300 fresh Laskar were dispatched August 6.

That Thalib's headquarters, a peaceful spot less than 10 miles from the Javanese court city of Yogyakarta, is the nerve center for a movement accused of killing hundreds in the past few months at first seems hard to believe. Aside from a few rusty swords in a shed and a punching bag in a dusty courtyard, there are few signs of martial activity.

Still, Thalib claims to be a veteran of Afghanistan's war of independence against the Soviet Union, and the Laskar Jihad have behaved with a surprising degree of discipline. And one of his most powerful weapons to date has been the written word. In a barnlike building here are two high powered computers that drive the Laskar Jihad Web site, which reports on successful attacks on "extremist" Christians, the conversion of Christians from defeated villages, and the dispatching of fresh warriors to Maluku to carry out their "humanitarian mission."

Aceh/West Papua

Kontras: TNI/police worst violators of humanitarian pause

Detik - August 24, 2000

H Dharmastuti/Swastika & AH, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) are said to be the worst violators of the Humanitarian Pause in Aceh. Unknown armed groups are second on the list, with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) ranked last.

This information was revealed by research done by the Commission on Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and was announced at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) building in Central Jakarta yesterday.

Kontras coordinator, Munarman, stated that the TNI and Police have committed 70 violations, the unknown armed groups have committed 18 violations, with GAM committing only five.

Munarman said that the number of violations shows that Humanitarian Pause in Aceh is not effective. Kontras recorded 29,324 civilians being victimised. This number is comprised of fatalities, disappearances, evacuations and casualties during the cease-fire. The TNI and Police had 28 casualties, and GAM had five casualties.

"It is wrong if they say security officers are not armed. The officers had been recorded as performed 17 military operations, 13 armed contacts and 12 sweepings," said Munarman.

Aceh rebels using truce to set up `shadow government': TNI

Agence France-Presse - August 22, 2000

Jakarta -- A three-month truce in Indonesia's restive Aceh province enabled rebels to set up a "shadow government" across almost two-thirds of the province, a government commander based there said, arguing the truce must not be extended.

Colonel Syarifuddin Tippe, commander of one of the two military districts in Aceh, cited the creation of a shadow government in an interview late Monday as the main reason why the truce should not be extended. A state of civil emergency should be declared instead, he told AFP.

Colonel Tippe was in the midst of three days of talks with government officials in the capital Jakarta Tuesday to assess whether the truce, officially called a "humanitarian pause", should be extended. The truce -- signed between the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government in Switzerland in May -- came into effect June 2 and will expire September 2.

Acehnese say it has reduced but not stopped the violence in the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where the GAM has been fighting for an independent state since the 1970s.

Tippe, arguing against an extension, claimed, without explaining, that under the truce "while the number of deaths had decreased, the quality had increased."

But more alarming for the government, he said, was the separatists' takeover of village administrations. "GAM members have put themselves in the positions of village heads in 61.1 percent of villages," compared to 4.8 percent before the truce.

"This is the most dangerous [aspect] because it's not visible. The village people are too scared to report them to the authorities," Tippe said. "They've created a shadow government."

But a GAM spokesman in the district of North Aceh denied the separatists were controlling villages, and argued that the truce should be extended. "We have never controlled villages because our headquarters are in the forest and far from residential settlements," GAM deputy commander for the North Aceh subdistrict of Pasee, Abu Sofyan Daud, told AFP.

Tippe said the truce agreement had also enabled the separatists more freedom to influence villagers in Aceh. "As we know the village is the base of GAM to influence the people."

GAM's Daud however replied that it was "natural" for villagers to sympathize with the separatists. "They know that the Indonesian government has always deceived them and that we are trying to free them from Indonesian occupation," he said.

"Any village heads who refuse to follow the Indonesian government do so of their own accord because ... they've already seen many village heads killed by the military," Daud said.

Tippe said the Indonesian military saw "very little advantage" in prolonging the truce. "In my opinion it is time to apply the civil emergency law," he said, adding that he was urging officials in Jakarta to do so.

But the military's call for a state of civil emergency has already drawn sharp criticism from rights groups in Aceh, as well as GAM. "Under civil emergency status the military will torture more Acehnese people and more people will be killed", said Daud.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KONTRAS) said a civil emergency would be a "step backwards" for Aceh. Aceh's KONTRAS co-ordinator Aguswandi said he suspected the military was "unhappy with genuine efforts by the government and GAM to continue the humanitarian pause".

Muhammad Nazar of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) agreed. The military's call for a civil emergency showed it "doesn't want to see the Aceh problem resolved through dialogue."

On Monday the state-funded Independent Commission on Atrocities in Aceh warned the province was in danger of becoming another "East Timor", which seceded from Indonesia last year after a 25- year fight for independence.

Three killed in clash over Papuan flag

Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 2000

Jakarta -- Three people were killed and seven others injured yesterday when police clashed with a crowd defending a separatist flag hoisted in the Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.

Police said the clash broke out after about 500 people hoisted the separatist Morning Star flag outside a church in the coastal oil town of Sorong.

"We opened fire using rubber bullets after they attacked us," the Sorong police chief, Superintendent Charles Victor Sitorus, said by telephone. "We received a report about the flag hoisting from the local priest. Then we sent our personnel to the scene, but we were attacked by the mob."

He said three civilians were killed in the shooting, but insisted that only rubber bullets had been used. Four police and several civilians were wounded.

A staff member at Sorong's state hospital said the three dead had all suffered bullet wounds, while some of the injured had wounds inflicted by blunt objects and arrows. "The three people from the Emanuel church incident this morning are now in the morgue, while seven others, including several policemen, are being treated at the emergency ward," he said.

Indonesia's Antara news agency said some of the crowd had fired arrows and attacked the police with stone axes and other rudimentary weapons, forcing them to open fire.

Jakarta has allowed the raising of the Morning Star flag in specific Papua locations on condition that it only be alongside, and lower than, the Indonesian flag.

In May and June it also allowed the holding of a pro-independence Congress of the Papuan People in the capital, Jayapura. The congress issued a resolution saying that the western half of New Guinea island, which borders Papua New Guinea, had been independent since it was declared a West Papuan state in 1961.

The congress demanded that Jakarta recognise Papua's independence, saying that a United Nations-conducted "act of free choice" vote in 1969, which led to the former Dutch territory becoming part of Indonesia, was unrepresentative.

The clash in Sorong came a day after separatist leaders had threatened to wage all-out war against the Jakarta government if their calls for independence remained unheeded.

The chairman of the pro-independence Presidium of the People of Papua, Mr Theys Eluay, condemned the Indonesian national assembly for recommending that the Government not tolerate separatism and ban the raising of the separatist flag. He argued that the incorporation of Papua into Indonesia had been achieved by military force and a fraudulent vote.

President Abdurrahman Wahid pledged at an annual session of the People's Consultative Assembly, which ended last Friday, not to tolerate separatism in the vast Indonesian archipelago. He told MPs that Papua would instead be accorded special broad autonomy before the end of the year.

Aceh peace pact seen as a failure

South China Morning Post - August 22, 2000

Vaudine England -- The Independent Commission on Aceh, which has helped bring soldiers and officers to trial over human rights abuses in the strife-torn province, said in its final report that the Government's current deal with separatist rebels was a failure, and that a threatened crackdown risked an East Timor- like crisis.

"With the authority the Government had from the Humanitarian Pause [deal], they didn't even manage to enforce a ceasefire," said the commission's Dr Rosita Noer yesterday.

"If the Government doesn't want to see Aceh becoming a second East Timor, then they should solve things through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Pause has only created more hatred and made things worse, there is a failure of confidence. We're only one step away from an East Timor situation."

The deal also came under fire from a senior military commander yesterday. It was not working and the Government should declare a civil emergency in Aceh, Colonel Syarifudin Tippe said, echoing similar recent comments from the country's Foreign Minister. Clashes had subsided since a ceasefire was declared in June, Colonel Tippe said, but rebels were gaining the upper hand in a psychological war.

The Aceh commission's report concludes that violence increased three-fold in Aceh in the three-month period of the agreement, signed by the Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels in Geneva, Switzerland, in May.

"Our recommendations were not well taken by the Government," Dr Noer said. "So of course the state apparatus are asking for a state of civil emergency. But as we can see, they can't even enforce this in the Maluku Islands. In Aceh too, civil emergency will make no difference."

The Government and GAM negotiators agreed last week in Geneva to extend the Humanitarian Pause by another three months.

Labour struggle

Medan paralyzed by massive public transport strike

Jakarta Post - August 22, 2000

Medan -- Some 10,000 public transportation drivers paralyzed the North Sumatra capital on Monday with a city-wide strike. The strikers, who were demanding cheaper spare parts, subsidized fuel and an end to illegal fees, brought business and social activities to a virtual standstill.

The strike was initiated by the Drivers and Owners of Public Transportation organization (Kesper) here. It is expected to last until Wednesday.

The town, which woke up to bomb blasts outside a church on Sunday, was tense. Police questioned on Monday five witnesses in connection with the blast, but have not made any arrest so far.

The striking drivers demanded the police take stern measures against gangs of youths and officials who they allege collect illegal fees from them in 77 places across the city.

"At every point [on a journey] we have to pay extra money, with each driver having to pay levies of between Rp 5,000 and Rp 10,000 per day," Kesper chairman Manahan Hutagalung said at a meeting between 20 driver representatives and Medan Police chief Sr. Supt. Hasyim Irianto at the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) office.

Illegal levies in the city are rampant, with those collecting them, ranging from members of official organizations to thugs, able to extort money from drivers with no one stopping them, he said.

The strikers also demanded the police provide security guarantees against crimes, such as robbery and assault, committed by thugs along their routes. "We also want the authorities to lower the prices of spare parts and ensure that fuel prices are subsidized by the state," Manahan added.

The meeting, however, failed to reach an agreement. "We plead with Kesper to resume operations as usual. As for handling of the hoodlums, our personnel have been stationed in areas prone to crimes across the city for four days," Hasyim said, warning that the strike may lead to chaos. North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin made an overnight call on the drivers not to strike but it went unheeded.

Thousands of people, including employees and students, were stranded as a result of the strike. Crowds were seen waiting in vain for buses near housing complexes in Marsubung, Hervetia and Mandala Medan. It is uncertain whether school activities will continue for the next few days.

The city's yellow or red minivans were notably absent from the streets, as were buses and taxis. The only means of transport were pedicabs and motorcycle taxis.

Police and military trucks along with a fleet of 40 state-run Damri buses were used to transport stranded commuters. "Some of our buses were intercepted by a group of people around 5am when they were about to leave the station but now the police are escorting them," Damri chief Bambang Sugiharto said.

Other bus companies have been asked to help carry commuters with a police escort, Supt. Surya Dislan of the city police road traffic unit said.

Meanwhile, at least 10 people were injured when a brawl between youths from Jl. Aksara and Jl. Pukat broke out early Monday morning. Several kiosks were set alight and dozens of houses on the two streets were vandalized by mobs, a local reporter said. The victims were taken to Dr. Pirngadi General Hospital. Police later successfully dispersed the rival gangs. Tension ran high throughout the day in the city with most residents preferring to stay at home.

Human rights/law

Lawyers to use amendments to save military from prosecution

Agence France-Presse - August 23, 2000

Jakarta -- Lawyers defending Indonesian military officers accused of human rights violations in East Timor have vowed to use a controversial constitutional amendment to save them from prosecution.

"Yes, definitely, I will take advantage of the new article to help my clients," Mohammed Assegaf, one of 15 lawyers defending officers linked by Indonesian rights investigators to the violations in East Timor, told AFP.

The country's national assembly last Friday ratified an amendment to the 1945 constitution, which prevents an individual from being prosecuted under laws that did not exist when a crime was committed.

The amended article 28(I) states that the "right not to be prosecuted under laws which are applied retroactively" was one of several "human rights which cannot be diminished in any circumstance." The amendment created an uproar among local and international rights groups, who fear it will be used to prevent the prosecution of military officers for human rights violations in East Timor, Aceh and elsewhere in the archipelago.

Much of their anxiety has focussed on violations during the bloodshed that followed East Timor's vote to break away from Indonesia last year.

Pro-Jakarta militias, believed to be backed by Indonesian military officers, went on a rampage of killing and destruction and forced hundreds of thousands of East Timorese to flee their homeland after the August 30 vote.

An inquiry by Indonesian rights investigators linked more than a dozen senior military officers, including the then armed forces chief General Wiranto, to the rights violations. However no human rights law existed in Indonesia when the violations were committed.

But Assegaf said he foresaw a problem in Indonesia's legal system if the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives (DPR), passes a law to establish a human rights tribunal, because in international law such tribunals override questions of retroactivity. The proposed law is still being discussed in the 500-seat DPR.

Assegaf said he saw the constitution as overruling any law passed in the "Absolutely, the constitution is stronger. It is the foundation of our law," he said. "And the amendment means it is no longer possible to try someone retroactively," he added.

Another member of the officers' defence team was more circumspect. "We will wait and see who the attorney general names as suspects in the East Timor case first," said Yan Juanda.

"We need to look closely at several aspects of the amendment and how they relate to international legal principles, especially those pertaining to international human rights tribunals," he said. "If our clients are only indicted as suspects under criminal law, the question of retroactivity won't be an issue because the criminal code is not something new," Juanda added.

"However if they are charged with crimes against humanity, with human rights crimes, we will be considering article 28(I)." The attorney general's office is preparing to try military officers linked with East Timor rights violations under Indonesia's criminal code.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson has said that if the Indonesian legal system does not bring those blamed for the Timor violence to justice, she will call for an international tribunal. Late Tuesday Attorney General Marzuki Darusman was handed a final list of Timor suspects, drawn up by the 79-member investigation team.

A third lawyer Mulyadi defending the officers said it would be "easy" to defend his clients under the criminal code "because the criminal code only recognises the "commission" of a crime, i.e. whoever 'commits' a crime, not who ordered the crime." "So it will be difficult to find the higher ranking officers guilty as they didn't commit the crime themselves -- most of them weren't there." Mulyadi also said he would not hesitate to use the new constitutional amendment if his clients were to be charged with human rights violations. "I will do anything to defend my clients, including invoking Article 28(I)," he said.

Mulyadi said he was also confident his clients would walk free if they were tried for crimes against humanity. "It will be a long and difficult trial to prove that crimes against humanity were committed in East Timor by our clients," he said.

UN warns on rights abuses loophole

Sydney Morning Herald - August 25, 2000

United Nations -- A recent amendment to the Indonesian Constitution might force the United Nations to hold an international inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor, a spokesman said.

Until now the UN had believed Jakarta "would undertake a serious and credible investigation" of crimes committed before it handed the territory over to UN administration last year, Mr Fred Eckhard said on Wednesday.

But last Friday, the Indonesian national assembly amended the 1945 Constitution to prevent an individual from being prosecuted under laws that did not exist when a crime was committed.

The amendment created an uproar among local and international rights groups, which fear it will be used to prevent the prosecution of military officers for rights violations in East Timor, Aceh and elsewhere.

Lawyers defending Indonesian officers accused of rights violations in East Timor have said they will use the amendment to save them from prosecution.

"We'll have to see what happens with this idea for an amnesty," Mr Eckhard said. "But if it were to go forward, I think that would probably force us to reconsider our position concerning the need for an international investigation of these abuses."

Indonesian authorities had said they would carry out "an internal review of the excesses of the military and the militia in East Timor", Mr Eckhard said, adding that the initial feeling of the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, was that "we should let Indonesia deal with it".

He said Mr Annan believed the Indonesian Attorney-General, Mr Marzuki Darusman, "who had been previously a human rights activist in the country, had good credibility in the human rights community, and that they would undertake a serious and credible investigation".

A preliminary Indonesian inquiry named the former armed forces chief, General Wiranto, as "morally responsible" for the bloodshed that left more than 600 dead after East Timor's vote for independence last year.

This month, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, said the UN would unilaterally call an international war crimes tribunal if Jakarta failed to bring the perpetrators of the Timor violence to trial. This week Mr Darusman was handed a final list of Timor suspects, drawn up by the 79-member investigation team.

The Constitution's amended article 28(I) states that the "right not to be prosecuted under laws which are applied retroactively" was one of several "human rights which cannot be diminished in any circumstance".

Mr Mohammed Assegaf, one of 15 lawyers defending officers linked to the violations in East Timor, said he foresaw a problem if the House of Representatives (DPR) passed a law to establish a human rights tribunal, because in international law such tribunals override questions of retroactivity.

The proposed law is still being discussed in the 500-seat DPR. But Mr Assegaf said he saw the Constitution as overruling any law passed in the DPR. "Absolutely, the Constitution is stronger. It is the foundation of our law," he said. "And the amendment means it is no longer possible to try someone retroactively."

Another member of the officers' defence team, Mr Yan Juanda, said if his clients were indicted under criminal law, retroactivity would not be an issue. "However if they are charged with crimes against humanity, with human rights crimes, we will be considering article 28(I)."

Hired thugs may have kidnapped activists

Indonesian Observer - August 24, 2000

Jakarta -- A leading human rights watchdog says four missing activists from the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) may have been abducted by hired thugs or assassins.

Four student activists went missing after participating in a hunger strike at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) building on August 14. They were reportedly taken away inside an ambulance by security personnel and dropped off outside the General Election Commission headquarters on Jalan Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta.

Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Munarman yesterday accompanied 14 relatives of the missing activists during a meeting with National Police spokesman Brigadier General Dadang Garnida on Jalan Trunojoyo in Blok M, South Jakarta.

Munarman said the masterminds of the abductions could be powerful businessmen who built up vast fortunes by using devious methods to seize properties from traditional land owners during the corrupt regime of ex-president Soeharto.

"It's possible that thugs were hired by some of the tycoons who took land away from locals during the Soeharto era. They may have feared the activists would help the people to reclaim their properties," he told detikcom.

The four missing students are Usep Setiawan, Idham Kurniawan, M. Hafid Asdam and Anton Sulton. All are from Padjadjaran University, except Sulton, who is enrolled at the Bandung Law Institute.

When the students were first reported missing, police official Setiyanto said the activists had asked to be dropped off outside Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta. But police thought that was a bad idea, because many MPR members were staying at that hotel, with the Indonesian taxpayer picking up the bill.

After allegedly being left on Jalan Imam Bonjol, the activists have never been seen again. Munarman said it's possible that hired thugs had been kitted out in police uniforms in order to trick the students and any witnesses, and to put the police in a difficult situation. He said authorities must investigate the possibility that illegal land owners played a role in the kidnappings.

Siti Qomariyah, the mother of Anton Sulton, appealed to police to take the abductions seriously and find the activists.

Earlier, police officials claimed the students had faked the kidnappings in a bid to tarnish the reputation of the MPR. Secretary General of National Committee of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Asmara Nababan has said police evacuated the students from the MPR, so they should be held responsible for their fate.

"The police were the last persons who saw them [the activists], so they can't say they have done no wrong if the students are still missing," he said. He said National Police Chief General Rusdihardjo could be sued.

During the final months of the Soeharto era, the military often kidnapped and tortured pro-democracy activists. Some were never released and are presumed to have been killed. State judicial institutions have never bothered to seriously probe the fate of the missing activists.

On August 23, Detik reported that one of the activists' houses was broken into on August 22 ransacking the house and taking some documents - James Balowski.]

Pattern emerges in abduction of activists: Kontras

Detik - August 21, 2000

Hestiana Dharmastuti/Hendra & LM, Jakarta -- The blame for the disappearance of four activists from the parliament grounds is being laid in many quarters. This time, Jhonson Panjaitan and Munir of the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras) have stated that there are similarities in the case with the forced disappearances of democracy activists in the final days of the Suharto regime.

Speaking in the lobby of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (YLBHI) building Monday, Munir and Jhonson said that many people were to blame for the crime. They made a point of shifting the focus of allegations from Chief of Parliamentary Security, Superintendent Setiono, to the Chief of Jakarta Police, Nurfaizi, Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tanjung and Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, Amien Rais.

"Nurfaizi, Amien and Akbar must take responsibility for the abduction of the four agrarian activists from Bandung. Because it was they who made the agreements on security at the Annual Session," Munir said.

As reported widely, the four activists from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform on a hunger strike were removed from the parliament grounds on Monday night. They were demanding that agrarian reform be prioritised in the annual session.

Jhonson, the chief legal advisor for the Consortium for Agrarian Reform, said the abduction was intended as a kind of shock- therapy because the four were leaders of an organisation struggling for the rights of peasants.

Munir added that there was a clear pattern in recent cases and that the Chief of the Jakarta Police, Nurfaizi, had been suspected of involvement in other similar cases. Several years ago, before former president Suharto was ousted on the tide of a popular uprising, Nurfaizi was also under suspicion in the disappearance of Andi Arief and other leaders of the pro- democracy movement.

Kontras is also investigating these cases and believes that the activists were abducted by one arm of the security forces and then handed over to more convert arms such as the Army's Special Forces, or Kopassus.

"Suspicions are growing clearer because Nurfaizi's explanations bear a striking resemblance to his statements in previous cases," Munir said. "The abduction pattern is also the same. There's an instrument which took them and then handed them over to another," he added.

Munir also rejected claims by Naifurzi that the activists are in hiding. This was not possible he said because their commitment to their organisation was high and the suggestion was simply unreasonable.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Consortium, Dianto Bahriadi, said the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais must take responsibility because the abductions occurred at the Assembly building.

Members of victim's family were also present at the YLBI offices, namely Euis Nurfaidah, Usep's wife, M Hafis' mother, Adham R Afiat, and Anton Sutan's mother, Siti Komariah as well as his elder brother Idham K Yun Primawan. They asked for the police to provide information on their whereabouts and hoped that they would soon be returned.

Indonesia's killing fields are Soeharto's worst legacy

Sydney Morning Herald - August 21, 2000

Scott Burchill -- In his first lecture on Indonesian soil after being banished for 26 years, Professor Benedict Anderson spoke about the bewildered expression on the faces of his Indonesian students over the years at Cornell University whenever he asked them "who in Indonesia today do you admire and look up to?"

Anderson regards the inability of his young Indonesian students to name their national heroes as a terrifying indictment of a deformed political culture, dominated in recent years by monsters such as Soeharto, Murdani and Wiranto.

The same question posed to young Australians would have elicited a similar response. In the Australian media, Indonesia has been a regular source of bad news. This is not entirely surprising, given the brutality and corruption of the Soeharto dictatorship and the occupation of East Timor.

But why have we not heard about the inspiring and courageous dissenters who, at great risk, resisted the New Order regime? Why did they remain anonymous when their counterparts in Eastern Europe -- the "refuseniks" -- were so publicly lauded in the West? The answers to these questions tell us much about our own diplomatic culture.

While Alexander Solzhenitsyn was feted in the West for his indictment of Stalin's gulags, Indonesia's Pramoedya Ananta Toer never appeared on the radar screens of Western political elites. The author of the acclaimed Buru Quartet and The Mute's Soliloquy, the second of which recounts his horrific experiences while incarcerated on the island of Buru from 1969 to 1979, wasn't the kind of political prisoner that interested Washington or Canberra during the Cold War -- he was a man of the Left.

No-one who has read Pramoedya's memoirs would be under any misapprehensions about the true nature of the Soeharto regime, which probably explains why his books never found their way onto the shelves of the Jakarta lobby in Australia: for them, Soeharto's crimes were always a case of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

Similarly, Carmel Budiardjo's detention without trial (1968-71) and her efforts to free her fellow political prisoners, detailed in Surviving Indonesia's Gulag, was unlikely to be reviewed by those promoting the closest possible relationship between Canberra and Jakarta.

Budiardjo also founded an organisation called Tapol to campaign on behalf of Indonesia's prisoners of conscience; remarkably its name and cause are almost unknown in Australia.

There are hundreds of others with lower profiles who work with extraordinary courage to account for the crimes of their country's leaders. These remarkable people deserve Australia's support, but are unlikely to ever receive it.

Pramoedya, Budiardjo and thousands more were not only the victims of a cruel regime, they shared another unfortunate fate. They had the misfortune to be the political prisoners of a government ideologically allied to the West. By definition they became invisible.

Soeharto was not only anti-communist, he was also admired by politicians in Australia for bringing "stability" to the region. Over 32 years Soeharto's "stability" took a minimum of 800,000 lives and possibly as many as 2 million in both Indonesia proper and East Timor, a record as vile as Pol Pot's and infinitely worse than Saddam's or Milosevic's.

A reckoning is due, if not immediately. An editorial in The Jakarta Post in April puts this and Soeharto's coming corruption trial in their proper perspective: "If the goal is to show that justice will be upheld in this country, then surely corruption, as bad as it is, is the least sinful misdeed that Soeharto committed during his 32 years of tyrannical rule.

"What about the atrocities, from the summary executions of suspected communists to the killing of people in East Timor, Irian Jaya, Aceh and Tanjung Priok? If the Government wants to show that justice and the rule of law prevail in this country, then these and other heinous crimes committed during his reign should be the reasons for the prosecution of Soeharto. Not corruption."

A growing number of courageous Indonesians are no longer frightened of speaking and confronting the truth. They are the real heroes of their country. To find them, however, our leaders will need to stop consorting with "the elite ... that implemented fascism and ran the country by terror", as Pramoedya put it, and focus their attention on those Indonesians struggling against enormous odds to restore pride and honour to their country.

Scott Burchill is a lecturer in International Relations at Deakin University.]

News & issues

Urban poor endure dismal conditions

Interpress News Service - August 25, 2000

Jakarta -- In a slum of West Java's Kiaracondong district, hundreds of families live on the border of death. With their shacks just an arm's length from the railroad tracks, husbands, wives and children are at risk each time a train rumbles through.

Accidents happen, after all, and there is no telling when the next derailment -- which could lead to a train ramming straight into the houses -- will be, or when a child will stray onto the tracks and into the path of an oncoming train.

But as more and more rural migrants flock to cities across the country, impoverished urban communities are rising up in places that offer only the most precarious of living conditions.

According to the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), slumdwellers now make up 39 percent of the population of Jakarta. In Bandung, the figure is 52 percent. Fernandez, a worker with the UPC, says these numbers alone should prompt the government to make room for the urban poor in its development plans. "Gone is the practice of displacing poor people," she says. "They should be included in the development process."

So far, however, officials have not done anything to ease the housing crunch. In the meantime, Indonesian slumdwellers are trying to make the most out of almost nothing.

The 1997 regional economic crisis, which forced tens of thousands of Indonesians out of work, has swelled the ranks of the unemployed and worsened the conditions of the urban poor. And although Asia has generally recovered from the slump, the recovery has been uneven, with Indonesia lagging behind, says the Asian Development Bank.

At the Kiaracondong railway community, families live in houses that total about 12 square meters each. They buy 50-liter cans of potable water for 200 rupiahs (two cents) and keep clean at the public MCKs -- bathing, washing and toilet facilities -- that all have a manual water pump. Three of the 20 MCKs were set up the local government while the rest were built by the residents themselves.

For electricity, the houses are hooked up to the legal connections of nearby well-to-do homes. Railway residents say each of the better-off homes can "serve" seven to 10 slum households at a time, charging about 5,000 rupiah (70 cents) each a month.

The land occupied by the slumdwellers is actually owned by the state train company. No one knows for sure if the company is charging the people living there, but residents say they do pay "occupation" fees. Ahyar, 41, who says he inherited the house he is living in from his parents, remarks: "All I know is that I have to pay some money to our village head every year. They said it was for the space I used."

To cover all these expenses, most of the families in this community have at least one member driving a pedicab. According to Sahdi, a 43-year-old father of four, they hire the pedicabs from local businessmen. After forking over the "hire fee," he says, a pedicab driver can still manage to take home about 5,000 to 10,000 rupiah (70 cents to $1.40) a day.

Sahdi sounds unconcerned when asked about the safety of his children, especially his two boys aged 7 and 5, who spend most of the day playing by the side of the tracks. He says: "My children and other children here know when the train will come. Nobody has been hit by a passing train."

Aman, a longtime resident of the nearby Sukapura village, says there was once a wire security fence running parallel to the tracks that kept people out. But as more people came in the area, the wide empty space between the fence and the tracks soon found itself hosting huts of families. As years passed, the fence itself disappeared.

Verania, a researcher at the AKATIGA Center for Social Analysis, says two factors made it possible for such an unsafe public space to be "converted" into a residential community. "For one," she says, "the state train company is understaffed so it doesn't have people to control the huge empty spaces along the tracks in Java. For another, local authorities let the slums in because they got money from the residents."

She says riverbanks in cities that are supposed to be open public spaces are seeing the same thing happening. These spaces are under the jurisdiction of a local water authority. Houses in the riverside communities, however, are designed to be "portable," so that families can easily relocate them when the river overflows during the rainy season.

Says Aisyah, a 46-year-old riverside resident: "Whenever floods come, we just take our things, dismantle this house and move to higher places. When the water subsides, we return and set up the house again." Unlike those living beside railway tracks, riverside residents do not have MCKs to use. Instead, the river itself is their toilet and laundry.

Verania says that cemeteries in the cities have yet to be overrun by living occupants. But she adds that it may only be a matter of time before that happens. As it is, there are already cemeteries that have shacks on the fringes. "The process is a bit similar," she says. "At the first stage, they occupy margins of the cemetery compounds. In time, they will move forward to the center."

25,000 Soeharto followers threaten to storm trial site

Indonesian Observer - August 25, 2000

Jakarta -- Pro-Soeharto protesters threatened yesterday to bring around 25,000 people to the Agriculture Ministry building in Ragunan, South Jakarta, the planned site of the former president's trial slated for August 31.

Field coordinator of the so-called "United Muslim Movement," which hails from the poor district of Tandjung Priok, North Jakarta, Syarifudin Saimudi, said if the government carries out its intention to try the ailing five-star general on August 31, the organization will orchestrate a 25,000-strong demonstration.

Saimudi yesterday led a peaceful rally of some 300 youths outside the South Jakarta district court to protest the decision to bring former dictator Soeharto to trial for corruption next week.

It was the first-known pro-Soeharto protest to take place since the former leader fell from power amid mass student protests in May 1998. The demonstrators marched to a parking lot at the South Jakarta District Court waving banners lauding Soeharto's contributions to economic development.

The South Jakarta court on Wednesday ordered the ageing strongman -- reportedly in poor health -- to appear in person in court next Thursday. He faces charges of misappropriating US$571 million from the state by funneling money from the huge tax-free charity foundations he ran, into the businesses of family and friends.

The group carried banners, one of which read "Sukarno and Hatta -- Proclamators -- Soeharto -- Father of Development," referring to the country's founders, and to the Soeharto years which followed.

The youths yelled to onlookers that Soeharto had made "a tremendous contribution" to Indonesia's development during his 32 years in power. "Soeharto should not be put on trial," an unidentified leader of the group told journalists after the 30 minute demonstration.

In the two years since his fall from power, students and reformists have staged scores of protests at Soeharto's downtown home, demanding his immediate trial.

Soeharto's trial is scheduled to be held at the agriculture ministry, some 1.2 kilometres southeast of the court, for reasons of security and space, police have said.

Soeharto, now 79, could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but the country's first democratically-elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid, has pledged a complete pardon -- on condition he first stand trial.

Unemployment reaches 37 million

Xinhua - August 23, 2000

Jakarta -- The number of unemployment in Indonesia has reached 37 million, a senior official said.

The existing program for jobless eradication was inadequate, Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare and Poverty Eradication Basri Hasanuddin was quoted Wednesday by the Jakarta Post daily as saying.

"The program has not worked due to lack of coordination," Hasanuddin said here at a seminar, adding that last year's unemployment figure stood at 36 million.

Meanwhile, Director General of Manpower Placement and Development Tjepy F. Aloewie said that several ministries have already had good programs. "The target is to implement the programs together with good coordination, especially in the regions. The programs have to absorb a lot of workers," he added.

Hasanuddin also said Tuesday at an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian nations) meeting on poverty eradication held here Tuesday, that the poverty in Southeast Asia needs a greater attention and must be uprooted soon.

The minister said that "there must be a joint network on this( poverty eradication) among ASEAN countries because the ASEAN must work together to improve the people's welfare."

National Police to get assistance from US

Indonesian Observer - August 24, 2000

Jakarta -- US Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard and National Police Chief General Rusdihardjo yesterday signed an agreement to provide training, technical assistance and equipment to enhance the professional capacity of the police force.

The US Embassy in a statement said the agreement aims to promote police practices within Indonesia consistent with internationally recognized standards of democratic policing and human rights.

The grant also provides support for the strengthening of Indonesia's capacity to detect, investigate and counter narcotics trafficking from and through Indonesia. According to the statement, the value of the items included in the agreement is slightly in excess of US$1.7 million, to be disbursed over a period or three years.

The assistance includes: training to be provided by senior US law enforcement officials; training in management and democratic policing issues; support for police training academies, including computers; and use of non-lethal material in crowd control management, including shields, helmets and batons. No firearms or munitions are involved in the agreement, nor is training in the use of firearms.

Gelbard noted that "the US has made a long term commitment to assist in the reform of Indonesia's justice sector".

"We recognize that the Indonesian National Police is a key participant in reform worthy of our support. In a democracy, the people have a right to express their views openly and the police have a responsibility to provide personal security and protect property. Appropriate responses by the police safeguard the rights of all concerned," he said.

The agreement is designed to enhance the ability of the police to provide a rapid and appropriate response in the face of threats to public order. Progress will be measured by the police's ability to carry out more effective planning, supervision, investigations, operations and other functions, while respecting human rights and the rule of law.

The Suharto family are down, but may never be out

Melbourne Age - August 24, 2000

Michael Backman -- Three years ago, Ari Sigit was on the cover of Indonesian magazines trumpeted as Indonesia's business whiz kid. Today, Mr Ari's name tends to be linked more to drugs, sex scandals and cancelled contracts than to alleged business prowess. What happened in the intervening period? His grandfather, Mr Suharto, resigned as president.

Last month Mr Ari's wife, Gusti Maya Firanti Noor, was arrested. She was picked up in a Jakarta carpark while in possession of the drug crystal methylamphetamine. Back in the good old days when Mr Suharto was still in power, she almost certainly would not have been arrested and if she was, a well-placed phone call would have fixed things up. But not any more.

The iron fist of the law, though, is still being delivered in a velvet glove. Not for Maya the usual detention at the Pondok Bambu Womens Penitentiary in East Jakarta. No, she was allowed to stay in a room at the police station where she was first detained.

The Suhartos now find themselves caught between two competing forces. One is that they are still very rich and are able to buy themselves some measure of protection by greasing the right palms.

There are also many other officials and their families who accumulated huge wealth from corruption and nepotism, and do not want to see recriminations against the Suhartos for fear of their own positions.

The opposing tendency is that President Abdurrahman Wahid needs to be seen to be doing something to bring the Suhartos to justice.

Although Mr Suharto has not been president for more than two years, his arrest on corruption charges this month came only days before Indonesia's parliament was due to meet for its annual assessment of President Wahid's performance. The timing was more than just a coincidence.

Mr Ari and Ms Maya's slide backwards mirrors the gradual humiliation of the rest of the family. Mr Ari, like most of his relatives, grew ridiculously wealthy while Mr Suharto was president. He had amassed 28 companies in his Arha Group by the time his grandfather resigned as president. He was then just 27 years old.

Among his business schemes was the infamous Bali beer monopoly, whereby he conspired with the local governor to make it illegal to sell alcoholic beverages on Bali unless it first had a tax stamp attached that was acquired from his company.

He also attempted to monopolise the lucrative birds nest trade across Indonesia and the trade in imported traditional Chinese medicines. Then in 1997, he came up with a scheme to force all Indonesian schoolchildren, all 26 million of them, to wear school shoes that could only be bought from another of his companies.

That one caused such an outcry that Mr Suharto himself had to intervene to stop it. Other companies were awarded government contracts to make telephone boxes, print school textbooks, reclaim land and to construct tollroads, water pipelines and bridges.

One company, Arha Bali Semaranta Rafting, operated whitewater rafting in Bali. It came to grief in 1996 when several tourists drowned on an expedition it had organised, amid claims that it had cut corners on safety to reduce costs. Mr Ari's talents for business knew no bounds. In 1998 he revealed plans for his own consumer label that was to be called Sexy. The first Sexy boutique was to be opened in Jakarta by the end of the year. Its shelves were to be stocked with Sexy clothes designed by none other than Mr Ari.

A chain of Sexy cafes, Sexy soft drinks, and Sexy beer were also on the drawing board. But the economic crisis ended such ambitions, as did Mr Suharto's resignation.

With Mr Suharto gone from power, Mr Ari's contracts with the government were cancelled. The most significant was a multi- million dollar contract to build a toll bridge between the islands of Java and Madura. Mr Ari was down, but he was not out.

Last year, he was linked to the pirated video CD trade in Jakarta and has had to deny persistent rumors that he controls Jakarta's thriving ecstasy trade. To compound the unpleasantness of it all, Indonesia's media took advantage of the post-Suharto glasnost to publish lurid accounts of Mr Ari's affair with a 16-year-old television soap actress with whom he had an illegitimate daughter. The daughter was later taken to be raised by Mr Suharto's eldest daughter Tutut and in late 1998, the child's mother, much to the delight of local tabloids, filed a lawsuit in a Jakarta court to attempt to get access to her daughter.

Mr Ari's father Sigit, too, has had troubles. He is under investigation and several companies linked to him have had various government concessions and contracts cancelled. Widely regarded as the black sheep of the family with gambling and alcohol addictions, he played no active business role.

Nonetheless, he managed to amass significant stakes in at least 115 Indonesian companies largely because other business people, including many American and Japanese multinationals, that wanted to curry favor with Mr Suharto would cut Mr Sigit in on a deal by giving to him free stakes in their local companies. He also happened to be the passive partner in several business ventures by Bob Hasan -- Mr Suharto's golfing and fishing buddy.

Mr Hasan, meanwhile, languishes in the office of Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman in a cell that Mr Marzuki will only say is of minimum conditions. He has been there for several months pending investigation into his alleged fraud and misappropriation. It is an ignominious end for the man who just three years ago was featured in Forbes magazine's billionaires list.

So, the temperature on the Suharto clan and cronies is being turned up. But the king hit is yet to be delivered. It probably never will be. Instead, we can expect a slow chipping away whenever it suits President Wahid. Having the Suhartos on tap to face charges, or investigations, whenever he needs a political distraction, suits his political purposes. Fortunately for President Wahid, the Suhartos are a big family.

Indonesia's economic woes wreak havoc on family ties

Dawn/InterPress Service - August 22, 2000

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta -- Indonesia's still floundering economy has thrown many families across the country into throes of despair and wreaked havoc on relations between husbands and wives.

In rural communities especially, husbands laid off work are not only getting desperate by the second to find jobs, many are also taking out their frustrations on their wives. Complains Oyah, a 37-year-old housewife in Tangerang: "If I ask my husband for some money, he would react angrily instead of just saying he has no money."

"Inharmonious relations between wives and husbands has downgraded the quality of families," says Dr Teddy Hidayat, a respected psychiatrist here.

He adds that the problem of making ends meet is the primary cause of tension, which only grows and becomes "a psychological problem" for the whole family. If not addressed, he warns, such tension will not be confined in the family but will become a social problem marked by violence.

Since 1997, when Indonesia was hit hard by the Asian economic crisis, thousands of businesses in the country have shut down, putting many out of work. Indonesia's continuing political and social unrest have not helped any in enticing foreign investors back into this South-east Asian nation of 220 million people. Likewise, the economy remains in the doldrums despite recovery from the 13 per cent contraction it suffered a few years back.

Hidayat acknowledges that at present, there are no reliable figures regarding domestic violence. He attributes this to the unwillingness of the victims of abuse to speak up. "A wife who was hurt after being slapped on her face by her husband, for instance, would just go to the doctor for medical treatment [for any physical injury], then the case is settled," he says.

But he adds, "Domestic violence is something lying underground in our society. Very few of the spouses go to psychiatrists for psychological help." Hidayat says anecdotal evidence is indicating an increase in domestic violence. Some psychiatrists in Jakarta and the nearby city Bandung, in fact, have been reporting that more and more women are coming to them to complain about being targets of spousal abuse.

The divorce rate is also on the rise in several major cities in Indonesia. But couples who choose to stay together despite their increasing frustrations problems are seeing their lives get more complicated each day.

"My husband still goes to work every day," says Fatimah, a 34- year-oldm garment factory worker whose husband is an electronic company employee. "But there are no jobs to do at his workplace. He is just in a countdown to the day of his firing."

Fatimah says they have two sons and a newborn baby. She and her husband had agreed not have another child after the two boys and had practised family planning. But when the economy hit the skids three years ago, Fatimah says her visits to the family planning clinic became less frequent. She says simply, "Contraceptive practices are getting more and more expensive."

Other families are cutting down on expenses for food and entertainment. Cita, another housewife in Cipatat in West Java, says she has been making "adjustments" in her family's daily menu. "We normally had beef everyday," she says. "Now we have it only once a week."

Cita says that instead of beef, she now has 'tempeh' (soybean cake) and salted fish. At least, she says, she has maintained her family's nutrient intake. Cita also says that her family used to go to a restaurant at least once a month, usually after payday. Nowadays, she says, "we go out for a meal in a restaurant once in two months."

"We also used to have picnics and go out of town for a vacation every month. Now we have it only once in three months," she says. Cita knows her family is still lucky. In other areas, families have been forced to reduce the frequency of their daily meals, eating perhaps just once a day instead of three.

Still others have been keeping their children out of school as a result of the reduced family incomes. According to the Ministry of Culture and Education, the number of primary school dropouts has soared by 10.27 per cent this year. Dropouts in junior high school have reached 643,000, up from 365,000 in 1998. Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin said recently, "The total number of dropouts have now reached 75 per cent."

Some families, however, are trying to keep their coffers from emptying entirely by launching small enterprises. Usually, the laid-off husbands, using their separation pay, take charge of the business. Wives who work are expected to help out in the business once they arrive home.

While some observers laud such efforts to cope with the effects of the economic downturn, others worry that the women are now spending less time attending to their children as a result.

Megawati: get rid of Arifin Panigoro

Detik - August 22, 2000

MMI Ahyani/BI & AH, Bandung -- Hundreds supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) have staged a protest in Bandung. Calling themselves the West Java Community Movement Against Phony Reformists, they demand the dismissal of the PDIP faction leader at the House of Representatives, Arifin Panigoro. Their protest was staged as the Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri opened a Geological Museum in Bandung on Tuesday.

The protesters also demanded that Megawati, as the Chairperson of PDIP, remove all remnants from the New Order regime who have managed to infiltrate the party. According to Supriyadi, this includes Supriyadi. "Arifin claims to be a reformist, when in fact he is a wolf in sheep's clothing," he said.

Supriyadi also accused Arifin of using PDIP to safeguard his business and himself. As the owner of well known oil company, Medco, he is trying to hide behind PDIP to get away from the debt collectors. "His business was prosperous under the Suharto and new order regime. Now using his booty from the past, Arifin is trying to control the PDIP," Supriyadi said angrily.

Supriyadi elaborated further, saying that at the present moment Arifin has established a political power base, and has been trying to control the political scene in West Java. There is a rumor circulating lately that Arifin will be running for the governor's position for West Java.

Based on those observations, Supriyadi and his colleagues will try to get Megawati's attention, to express their concern for PDIP and to demand Arifin's removal from his current position and the withdrawal his membership.

AJI condemns the Raid on the student magazine Arena

Tempo - August 22, 2000

Yogyakarta -- The Yogyakarta Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) condemned the violence committed against activists and the office of the university student magazine "Arena", Dema, Sena, and the Islamic Religious Endeavor Corps (Kordiska) of Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic Institute (IAIN). Raihul Fadjri, the Chairman of AJI Yogyakarta, stated that the violence resembles other incidents against the press and that these acts are contrary to the freedom of the press. He also asserted that such violence constitutes a criminal act that requires legal action.

Raihul also predicted that the violence committed by those carrying religious banners would backfire on the perpetrator's religions. Therefore, AJI urged people to avoid actions that manipulate community groups for political purposes. AJI also urged the Rector of IAIN Sunan Kalijaga University to take action against such violence. IAIN's student senate also condemned unwanted intervention in campus affairs, particularly when involving violence and theft.

Many activists condemned the raid of the IAIN Sunan Kalijaga Student's Press Institution ARENA office on Friday, August 18 by armed groups in the name of the Islamic Protection Front of Yogyakarta (FPIY). The incident injured two students on their heads and feet. FPIY also seized a computer, videocassettes, magazines, and newspaper clippings. They also removed ARENA and SEMA nameplates. Before leaving, the attackers demanded the immediate removal of the office located near the campus mosque. If this demand was not met, they threatened to burn the office.

According to Okta Rijaya, the Chairman of IAIN's student senate, the incident occurred after the Friday prayer. Around 100 people, wearing turbans and boots and carrying clubs, knives, swords and machetes, pounded on the office door of Arena, Sema and Kordiska. They forced the door open and raided the premises. Several students in the office were forced to admit to being "communist- affiliated" left-wing activists. Those unwilling to confess were beaten.

The students reported this incident to the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) on Friday night. Afterward, they met IAIN University rector at his residence. Meanwhile, two security officers reported a growing security threat on campus. A large crowd armed with weapons had returned to the university. They demanded the closure of the ARENA office. Prior to this incident, the student's press institution was often terrorized and several armed groups were reported to roam around the campus carrying weapons.

Environment/health

Family planning still proses problem

Jakarta Post - August 26, 2000

Jakarta -- The family planning (KB) program in Indonesia has long been perceived as a birth control measure, but ignores the reproductive health of women, who are the backbone of the nationwide movement.

Speaking at a seminar on family planning, State Minister of the Empowerment of Women and chief of the National Family Planning Board Khofifah Indar Parawansa hailed the success of the program in significantly reducing the growth rate to 2.79 children per family from 5.6 since its inception 30 years ago.

"Ironically, the program lacks attention to the reproductive health of women, resulting in a towering maternal mortality rate and abortion cases," said Khofifah, who is expecting her fourth child in October. According to the Ministry of Health's Director General of Community Health, Azrul Azwar, the maternal mortality rate in Indonesia had reached 373 women per 100,000 births, topping the list among member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"Another problem is abortion. There are about 2.3 million abortions performed each year in Indonesia," said Azrul, who also spoke at the seminar. He said most of the abortions were unsafe, resulting in a death rate of between 35 percent and 50 percent.

Abortion is generally illegal in the country, but article 15 of Health Law No. 23/1992 stipulates that "a certain medical measure", which could mean abortion, can be performed in an emergency situation to save the life of a woman and/or her fetus.

That emergency medical act, however, must be approved by a team of health experts, performed by authorized specialists and use medical facilities which are approved by the mother or her family. "But what about cases of incest, rape or contraceptive failure? We should consider that," Azrul said.

A team at the Ministry of Health was now working on a proposal to "legalize" abortion, he said. "But it's not exactly legalization, we don't encourage abortion at all. It means that we have to provide safe abortion," Azrul said, adding that an abortion procedure costs up to Rp 3 million (US$375).

When asked if the proposal would go against religious values, Azrul said that even in Islamic countries like Tunisia and Turkey abortion was justified under certain conditions. "Malaysia also allows abortion in case of incest and rape," he said. In countries that legalize abortion like the Netherlands, there is almost a zero case of death due to good quality service, monitoring and supervision, he added.

Residents occupy marble quarry

Jakarta Post - August 26, 2000

Maumere -- At least 2,000 people from 12 villages in the district of Molo Utara have been occupying a marble quarry in the town of Soe, South Timor Tengah regency, since August 12.

The residents said that the quarry, operated by PT Karya Asta Alam, has damaged the environment and contaminated the only water source available to the locals for their daily needs. No detailed information was given as to when the quarry started operating.

The 2000 people are residents of the villages of Lelobata, Netpala, Netokoko, Leloboko, Boven, Fatunasi, Pidaepono, Tuten, Tobo, Tune, Sabot, and Ajobaki. Juleta Baun, an activist from the Sanggar Suara Perempuan Foundation, a nongovernmental organization dealing with women's issues, told The Jakarta Post by phone that the residents had destroyed the workers' camp after the workers and their boss, reportedly an Italian, had earlier left the site.

Juleta's foundation is now advising the local residents in the dispute. The residents' group, which refused to hold a dialog with South Timor Tengah regent Wilem Nope, plans to send 20 representatives to meet with the East Nusa Tenggara governor on August 28.

"They want to urge Governor Pieter A. Tallo to urgently halt the quarrying activities, or else they will continue occupying the site," Juleta said. She said that due to the pollution of their water source, the villagers had had to find another water source located farther away from their homes.

The existence of the quarry has been proven to bring bad luck, she quoted the residents as saying. The quarry operated by PT Karya Asta Alam is located in Netpala village, some 28 kilometers east of the town of Soe.

According to Juleta, there are four companies involved in marble quarrying in the South Timor Tengah regency; PT Karya Asta Alam, PT Kawan Setia Pramesti, PT Soe Indah Marmer and PT Arta Marinduta. Their operations cover a total of 350,357 hectares, she said.

Minister of the Environment Sony Keraf has reportedly sent an official letter to the governor asking for clarification about the marble companies' operations.

Arms/armed forces

An entrenched Indonesian army

Wall Street Journal - August 25, 2000

Barry Wain -- The way most reports had it, the Indonesian military ambushed unarmed politicians in the final hours of People's Consultative Assembly deliberations in Jakarta last week. They somehow persuaded or coerced the civilians into agreeing that officers be allowed to sit in the assembly until 2009, instead of 2004. They also inveigled the stunned members to accept a change in the nation's Constitution that will protect the army brass allegedly responsible for atrocities committed last year in East Timor.

Taken together, many commentators said, the measures amount to a major blow to the democratic forces that toppled former President Suharto in 1998 and opened the way for the first free election in more than 40 years. The maneuvering further showed, they said, that the military was trying to stage a comeback after being shunted aside in the running of the country.

But what actually happened, as the annual session of the highest constitutional body closed, wasn't immediately clear. Now that the dust has settled, it is obvious that the military, while trying to protect its interests, has made no attempt to reassert itself nationally. And while the constitutional amendment will make it hard to hold the top generals accountable for the bloodshed in East Timor, it won't prevent the prosecution of those who carried out the killing.

President Abdurrahman Wahid's government, which took over in November, has made a reasonable start in establishing civilian control of the military, known as TNI. In two shuffles of the military leadership and commands, Mr. Wahid has promoted reform- minded officers without provoking serious resistance. As part of its own reform program, the TNI has agreed it won't appoint officers to the national and regional legislatures after 2004, when the next elections are held.

But demilitarizing Indonesian society won't be easy because Mr. Suharto used the TNI as the backbone of his authoritarian regime. Military officers, both active and retired, served as cabinet ministers, provincial governors, district chiefs, bureaucrats in the central and regional administrations, heads of state corporations, supreme court judges and ambassadors. Since early last year, about 4,000 officers have been required to resign from the armed forces if they want to continue holding civilian posts.

Indonesia is undergoing such an upheaval that it is often difficult to know what a single action portends. For example, when Maj. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah was removed this month as head of Kostrad, only six months after taking over the army's strategic reserve, some analysts saw it as a blow to reform, since he has been the most outspoken advocate of change in uniform. But contrary to that line of speculation, he was almost certainly ousted because Mr. Wahid came to accept the view of fellow senior officers that Maj. Gen. Agus acted unprofessionally by washing dirty linen in public, while probably harboring political ambitions as well.

In the 700-member People's Consultative Assembly, the contending political factions, none with a firm majority, didn't need to be threatened to show some sympathy for the military. Amidst the uncertainty, they remained acutely aware of the wisdom of not alienating a group that holds 38 seats -- down from 75 under Mr. Suharto -- notwithstanding their previous demands for an end to the TNI presence by 2004. Members adopted a decree -- by the traditional method of consensus without a vote, though a couple of Muslim politicians did protest -- stating that the TNI can stay in the assembly until 2009 "at the latest." It is important to note that a decree isn't a law. It can be amended or reversed, logically at next year's session of the assembly. Even as the decree stands, it doesn't say the military must remain for another nine years. Further, no number of seats is specified. "I would expect that there will be a lot of public pressure to reduce the numbers," says Harold Crouch, who represents the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in Indonesia.

More significantly, the role of the TNI wasn't incorporated into the Constitution, as was proposed at one point during assembly committee discussions. That would have given functional groups that don't have the right to vote in general elections or be elected to public office -- code for the military and police -- ongoing representation in the assembly. Had that clause been inserted into the Constitution, it might have been difficult to remove in future.

The constitutional amendment that raised a ruckus contained a passage on human rights, including the right not to be prosecuted "based on a law that can be applied retroactively." While the concept of retroactivity is lifted from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is considered legitimate, it has implications for TNI rampages over the past decade in East Timor, Aceh, and West Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.

Some activists immediately interpreted it as blanket immunity for past human rights abuses by the military. But in truth it always has been a crime under Indonesia's Criminal Code to murder, assault, rape, loot and damage property. No new law is needed to prosecute soldiers in the field who physically perpetrated abuses.

However, the amendment may impinge on forthcoming human rights legislation, whose key elements provide for so-called crimes of omission -- failure to use authority to prevent the commission of crimes -- and for retroactive application in the case of gross abuses. It is these provisions that threatened former TNI commander Gen. Wiranto and other senior officers. So, unless they left a trail of written orders, it seems that they will escape after all, much to the consternation of local and international critics.

The issue of civilian control of the military will be tested with the pending revision of the 1982 law that gives the TNI a social-political, as well as a security, role, according to Marcus Mietzner, an armed forces specialist and researcher. Many civilians and even some senior officers want to eliminate the dual function and turn the TNI into a professional force charged with defending the country from outside aggression, leaving internal security largely to the police. The pace of military reform will depend on how the law is overhauled.

Although the military has accepted a drastic reduction in its political activities, many people suspect it is reluctant to leave the political arena altogether. A draft just produced by the Department of Defense, designed to promote debate, suggests that the discussion is going to be long and difficult. Mr. Mietzner, who has read the paper, says it opens with the provocative statement that the TNI is to remain responsible for defense matters, both external and domestic.

Indonesian commanders losing control of troops

New York Times - August 22, 2000

Seth Mydans, Jakarta -- Top military commanders have won a skirmish in Parliament to slow their retreat from political influence. At the same time, they seem to be losing control of many of their troops in the field.

Since the forced resignation in May 1998 of President Suharto, who used the army to enforce his dictatorship, the military has given ground steadily to an overwhelming nationwide demand for its withdrawal from politics.

But without the strong control of Mr. Suharto, military experts -- as well as Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono -- warn that in some places the chain of command has broken down. As a result, some rogue units are fighting their own small wars and pursuing their own economic interests.

With the close of a special parliamentary session last week, attention focused on a back-room maneuver by the military's legislative bloc that allowed it to hang on to a few of its allotted seats for an extra five years, until 2009.

The concession drew an outcry from critics for whom the political withdrawal of the military is important to ending the abuses of Mr. Suharto's 32-year rule.

But military experts said the concession seemed a mostly token move, probably amounting to a dozen or so seats -- down from the military's current 38 seats and from the 75 they held under Mr. Suharto in the 700-seat legislature.

In fact, military influence throughout Indonesia has already been sharply reduced. Serving officers can no longer hold the political and administrative positions through which they virtually ran much of the country.

And apart from some renegades and influential retired generals, for most officers the main dispute now is whether to seek rapid or gradual reform, the experts said.

Indeed, said Salim Said, a political scientist who studies the armed forces, many officers, particularly in the younger generation, oppose the extension of the military's role in Parliament and continue to lobby against it.

More worrisome, the experts said, the weakening of central control has contributed to military abuses in the religious fighting in the Maluku islands, the separatist wars in the provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya, the continuing tensions along the border of East Timor and a number of other places.

"There's no chain of command in Ambon," a Western diplomat said, referring to the main city in the Malukus. "In a way, the president does not have control of the military. We are almost seeing the beginnings of a breakdown in the state if this were to happen in many places. The same thing is happening in West Timor."

It was unsettling to many people last month to see President Abdurrahman Wahid reminding a military gathering of the fundamentals of their duty: "You must obey your commanders and your commanders have to obey the supreme commander, and that is the president."

The breakdown in the chain of command in the Malukus "is one of the most serious problems we are facing," said Mr. Juwono, the defense minister. "We have problems with ambiguous loyalty at various levels of the police and the military, simply because they have been there too long and have become participants."

Military reform has two aspects, said Harold Crouch, an Australian expert on the Indonesian military. "One, withdrawing from politics, is going reasonably well," he said. "The second is professionalization of the armed forces, and that is a different picture. What Indonesia desperately needs is a professional force especially trained for dealing with ethnic, religious and that sort of violence, and that is precisely what they don't have."

The problems are in military training and in poor pay and supplies, he and other analysts said. The Maluku islands are a clear example, where military units have taken sides in the conflict and in some cases are fighting each other. According to current estimates, more than 4,000 people have died since January 1999 in a local war between Christians and Muslims.

"The problem there is that the military is not well equipped and the commanders cannot control their troops if they cannot provide for them properly," said Mr. Said.

Because of their low pay and poor supplies, Mr. Crouch said, the military in the Malukus has been broken into small units that are billeted with local residents. "If the Christian side attacks a village and some Muslim troops are there, naturally they'll fight, and vice versa," he said.

But the problem runs deeper, to the low pay that has caused the Indonesian military to live off the land as it carries out its nationwide political and security roles. Local commanders run businesses and protection schemes and are deeply involved in illegal logging, mining and other activities.

And individual soldiers hire themselves out in all sorts of jobs, Mr. Crouch said -- "illegal, semi-legal, a-legal and occasionally some legal jobs like bodyguards."

Now with conflict erupting around Indonesia's archipelago, the military is being called on increasingly to act as a peacekeeping force. "So you send them into a real battle zone and they are just not prepared for that sort of thing," Mr. Crouch said. "They are still thinking, 'How can I make more money? I'll sell my bullets to people, or something.' When you send in peacekeeping troops and they go selling their arms to the combatants, what do you do?"

Beyond selling weapons, the military continues to be involved in abuses around the country, partly, he said, because it is the only way they know of asserting their authority.

"In the first 30 years of Suharto, they didn't care," he said. "If there was a problem, shoot them up, beat them up, torture them, kill them, it didn't matter. There was no investigation. It even goes back to Dutch colonial times. If one of your people gets shot, you go to the nearby villages and burn a few houses and shoot a few people."

This has given rise to one of the strangest elements of military jargon to be found here, "emotion" as it refers to military activities.

In East Timor, in Aceh and in the Maluku Islands, when troops have run amok, their commanders have shrugged their shoulders at the strange ways of fighting men and explained, "Oh, they have become emotional."

To Mr. Crouch that is one of the most telling signs of the lack of professionalism in the Indonesian military, from top to bottom. "Professional troops might have emotions," he said, "but they keep them inside. That is the job of professional troops, not to become emotional."

What is most troubling, he said, is that their senior commanders seem to find the emotions of their men a satisfactory military explanation for mayhem.

Economy & investment

Indonesia seeking way out of debt spiral

Dow Jones Newswires - August 24, 2000

Mia Trinephi, Hong Kong -- While Indonesia's debt has reached unsustainable levels, the government's immediate options to restructure its debt remain limited, analysts say.

The new cabinet formed by President Abdurrahman Wahid will have to reassure markets and prove its determination to go forward with financial and economic reforms before Indonesia may tap the debt market again.

Indonesia needs private capital inflows, but foreign investors will stay out until the government succeeds in regaining confidence through its economic reform program and political stability.

Some analysts welcomed the reshuffle but noted that the new cabinet members are unknown to the public. Despite an initial hostility that sent the rupiah to the ground when Wahid announced his new cabinet, analysts say that the new Indonesian rulers should be given a chance.

"Certainly, the old cabinet was largely ineffective" and the challenge before "the new cabinet is to change this situation," says William Belchere, head of economics and fixed income research at Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific. "However, the market reaction suggests that investors are not yet convinced whether or not the new grouping will make much of a difference," adds Belchere.

"Patience is a must" when dealing with Indonesia, advises David Fernandez, head of Emerging Asian economic research at J.P. Morgan.

But Indonesia doesn't have the luxury of time, considering that its external debt currently represents 90% of the country's gross domestic product and observers say that the ratio is increasing, meaning that debt is growing faster than the economy.

"The level of Indonesia's debt is not sustainable," says Dominique Dwor-Frecaut, fixed income research analyst at Barclays Capital Asia Ltd.

What are the options? That's what the government, its advisers and international institutions are trying to work out, but right now they're stuck. J.P. Morgan, for instance, has been advising the Indonesian government for years and "continue to work on various debt management solutions," Fernandez says.

Indonesia was back on the international debt markets talk this week with a potential Brady bond-style plan. The rumors were quickly denied by the World Bank, which supposedly supported such a bond. "The ideas are quite preliminary," says J.P. Morgan's Fernandez. "Indonesia is not in the position to do anything close to a Brady exchange when one looks at the structure of its debt," he explains.

When Latin America defaulted, the US offered to issue Brady bonds which consisted of a debt exchange collateralized with the purchase of zero-coupon bonds financed through additional funding from the International Monetary Fund, explains Dwor-Frecaut. Brady bonds are also backed by US Treasurys. One problem with an Indonesian Brady is that a large part of the external debt that still needs to be restructured is private debt.

The government's total debt, domestic and foreign, already amounts to $134 billion, of which $65 billion are domestic bonds issued last year to recapitalize Indonesia's banking sector.

After the government managed to reschedule $5.8 billion of debt with the Paris Club of creditor countries in April and is still waiting for the London Club of creditor banks to accept the rescheduling of $850 million in foreign commercial loans, it seems unlikely that it would be willing to take on the additional burden of private debt.

Another solution is to tap the Japanese market with a Samurai bond. Considering Indonesia's current selective default rating from US credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's Corp., analysts say that any non-guaranteed issuance on the US market is impossible, unless Indonesia pays the price.

"The Samurai market seems to be more friendly and a Samurai bond is definitely an option," says Warren Mar, head of Asian fixed income research at BNP Paribas. However, a Samurai "might still be difficult until the political environment shows sustained improvement," unless Japan guarantees the Samurai, says Belchere at Merrill Lynch.

But before any Indonesian international debt issuance materializes, the government has to work out its domestic bankruptcy laws, dispose of nonperforming loans taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, go on with its privatization program and corporate restructuring.

IBRA, which has to dispose of 600 trillion rupiah of nonperforming loans it took over from ailing banks, is also looking for innovative ideas. To achieve those goals, Indonesia needs foreign investment. And we're back in the vicious circle.