Indonesia/East Timor News Digest No 43

Nurul Hidayati/BI, Jakarta -- Despite the political instability and the ongoing conflicts that threatened the integrity of Indonesia, the Youth's Pledge taken by inspiring youths during the Dutch colonization in 28th October 1928, still play a major role as an adherent in holding the country intact. On Saturday thousands of Jakarta's youth under various auspices and groups would go on the streets to commemorate the event.

It was announced that youth movement groups such as City Forum (Forkot), Students Action Front for Reform and Democracy (Famred), Greater Forum (Forbes) and so on would stage a major rally on the streets of Jakarta . One of their schedules includes the march toward Cendana, a prestigious suburb in the heart of Jakarta where former president Soeharto resides.

At the Universitas Indonesia, the most sought after institution in the country, a public stage has been erected by students for a variety show and people's event. A number of prominent figures apparently have been invited to the event and one of them including Laksamana Sukardi, a former minister in Wahid's cabinet who had been dismissed under inconspicuous reason.

The latest information compiled was that, thousands of students from all over Jakarta are ready to be mobilise. Their first point of meet would be at the Proclamation Monument in Central Jakarta.

Welcome, protesters

Straits Times - October 27, 2000

It was a surprise for a small group of demonstrators marching near the home of former Indonesian President Suharto yesterday to demand that he be put on public trial. After years of brutal clashes in the streets, the police greeted them with a smile and a welcome banner, instead of the usual riot shields and tear gas.

The banner, strung up between two palm trees, read: "Welcome participants of the demonstration. The police are ready to serve and protect you. But if you become anarchic, we will take stern action."

Jakarta police spokesman Lt-Colonel Nur Usman said the sign was part of a new conciliatory policy to allow legitimate political street protests, but not violence.

Students march on embassy in Jakarta

Associated Press - October 25, 2000 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Hundreds of Islamic students protested Wednesday in front of the US Embassy in Jakarta, which suspended some services after receiving what was described as "a credible threat." Waving banners reading "Kill Jews" and "Israel, you are a devil," nearly 300 protesters chanted and denounced what they consider US support for the Jewish state.

Embassy spokesman Karl Fritz said the consular and visa services would be discontinued until Monday because the embassy had received "a credible threat." He refused to elaborate. However, the embassy will remain open and its consulate will serve US citizens as usual, he added.

Jakarta has seen almost daily Islamic protests since the upsurge in violence in the Middle East began nearly four weeks ago. The US embassy is often targeted because of the United States' perceived bias toward Israel.

About 85 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim, making it the world's most populous Islamic nation. It has maintained close ties with Palestinian groups since the early 1960s and has never recognized the Jewish state.

East Timor

Militia leader claims threats of expulsion to East Timor

Agence France-Presse - October 26, 2000

Jakarta -- Former East Timorese militia boss Eurico Guterres on Thursday accused Indonesia's attorney general of endangering his life by threatening to expel him to his former homeland.

Guterres, the former leader of the once-feared Aitarak (Thorn) militia in East Timor, told journalists from his detention house here that Attorney General Marzuki Darusman had made the threat recently.

Backed by the military, Aitarak and thousands of other pro- Jakarta militias fled to the Indonesian-ruled West Timor when international troops arrived to halt their orgy of violence after East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence on August 30 last year.

"When I was arrested, Marzuki Darusman told me that I would be sent back to East Timor," Guterres told journalists at his police-provided witness protection house.

Darusman was not immediately available for comment on the charges, but the attorney general said two weeks ago that Jakarta would not allow Guterres to be questioned in Dili by prosecutors from the UN Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) on his alleged role in the post-ballot violence.

Darusman, who had made the statement following a consultation meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid and security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the meeting concluded that Guterres would "remain in Jakarta."

Guterres is being held in a police safe house after the South Jakarta district court on Monday ordered police to release him on the grounds that he had been improperly arrested, and his lawyers said he needed police protection.

He had been arrested in a hotel here on October 4 for allegedly ordering his men to snatch back weapons surrendered to police in Atambua, a West Timor border town near East Timor.

In his brief safe house press conference Guterres also accused the United States, Australia and the United Nations of plotting to assassinate him. "Why do the US, Australia and the UN hold such a vindiction against me? So much that they even want to kill me ... it does not solve the problems in East Timor," he lamented.

He also pleaded to police for his immediate release, saying that he had to return to his villa in the West Timor capital of Kupang where his wife and children live. The Kupang court will hear an appeal next week in an illegal weapons case in which Guterres was cleared earlier this year.

East Timor-based prosecutors have implicated Guterres in two massacres there in April last year and have formally asked Indonesia to hand over Guterres. He is already under investigation by Indonesian prosecutors as a suspect in one of the two April 1999 massacres.

New Zealand troops kill Timor fighter in gun battle

New Zealand Herald - October 26, 2000 (abridged)

New Zealand soldiers killed a third militiaman yesterday during a close-range gun battle in East Timor and shot at another in a separate skirmish. No New Zealand soldiers were injured in the fights, which took place three hours apart about 6km northeast of Suai, near the West Timor border. The militiaman is the third killed by New Zealand troops in about a month, and the fourth killed by UN peacekeepers.

The senior New Zealand officer in East Timor, Brigadier Lou Gardiner, said the first gunfight, just after midnight New Zealand time, started after New Zealand soldiers saw a militia group approaching their position "in a manner that indicated an aggressive intent."

The militiamen were armed, and firing began when they came within about 20m of the New Zealanders. "It was a quick exchange ... We initiated a contact, there was return fire and the firefight was over fairly quickly. "It was fairly close range and, as is fortunate in these circumstances, we haven't received any casualties."

Soldiers found the militiaman's body at daylight, lying where the shooting began. He had been armed with a military-style SKS assault rifle and wore camouflage pants and a green shirt,

In the second exchange of fire, close to the first, a single militiaman was shot at but escaped. Brigadier Gardiner said there was no indication that any other militiamen were injured.

He was unsure of the exact location of the exchange but said the terrain around Suai ranged from flat plains on the coast to rugged hills further inland. Militiamen had been sighted on other occasions over the past three days.

Under the rules of engagement, militiamen moving in a military formation and openly displaying arms can be fired upon without warning. "We knew this militia group was in the area and certainly knew they were moving towards the border over the last three days," said Brigadier Gardiner. He said the militiaman's body had been taken back to Suai with the soldiers and would be identified. "All the police processes will take over. Obviously, whenever there's a death there will be a full investigation."

Militia leaders plead for international protection

South China Morning Post - October 26, 2000

Vaudine England -- Four East Timorese militia leaders have sent a second letter to the United Nations, the Pope and governments pleading for international protection and accusing their colleagues in the Pro-Integration Armed Forces (PPI) of threatening their lives.

The letter, dated October 21, is entitled "Another Desperate Plea for Legal and Security Guarantees and International Protection". It claims that some militia leaders are being paid by "special interests (you know who)" to betray the movement which fought for East Timor to stay integrated with Indonesia.

Joanico Cesario, Cancio Lopez de Carvalho, Domingos Perreira and Nemecio Lopez de Carvalho, the signatories of the letter, also wrote on October 14 that they feared being killed by Indonesia's armed forces (TNI), and wanted to trade secrets for safety. They said leaders of the related Union of Timorese Warriors (Untas) had terrorised them for writing the first letter, specifically blaming Untas secretary-general Filomeno de Hornay, Untas deputy political affairs officer Mario Viera and PPI commander Joao Tavares.

"They threatened to ban us from Untas. We believe that these Untas officials were given money and facilities to threaten us," the letter reads. "We know that there are certain parties with special interests (you know who) who financed the activities of Mario Viera and Joao Tavares, who have sold out the idealism and besmirched the spirit of our struggle.

"We also confirm that we will no longer surrender our weapons to the security forces because we feel we are being treated unjustly and inhumanely," the letter states.

Given the threats, the letter writers ask the President of the United Nations Security Council to take action against 25 named leaders of the pro-integration movement if "anything should befall us".

Hayden hits East Timor `frolic'

The Age - October 25, 2000

Tony Parkinson -- Australia's role in the emancipation of East Timor was an ill-considered "frolic" that could easily have led to military humiliation, former governor-general Bill Hayden said last night.

Saying he was deeply uneasy about the outcome for the people of East Timor, the former Labor foreign affairs minister used a speech in Hobart to defend the policy of successive Australian governments in accepting Indonesia's incorporation of the province, and to praise the achievements of former President Suharto.

He ridiculed the Howard Government's 1998 policy switch in favor of a free East Timor as "a good idea on a comfortable Canberra afternoon" and said it had carried far too great a risk of a long military entanglement with pro-Jakarta forces.

"We were lucky in East Timor that the situation didn't escalate to the point where it could have exhausted and humiliated us," Mr Hayden said. "Frankly, the Americans saved our bacon. We should remember that before we embark on any other thinly thought- through frolic like that one."

Mr Hayden warned that a diminishing US presence in South-East Asia, and a more volatile regional outlook, would mean Australia had to tread carefully, and should refrain from trumpeting over the success of its action in East Timor. "We Australians have to come to terms with the sobering reality that we are really quite a small country ... a tendency for big talk, big noise, might be our undoing," he said.

Mr Hayden's speech at the University of Tasmania was his second controversial intervention in the national debate in the space of a fortnight, following his criticism of the findings of the stolen generation inquiry.

Lamenting what he called the "savage jolt" to relations between Australia and Indonesia, he said Australians should be thankful for the "phenomenal advances" of the Suharto years in bringing greater stability to a highly fragmented regional neighbor.

On the contentious issue of Australia's East Timor diplomacy, he stood firmly behind the Whitlam government's decision in 1975 not to resist Indonesia's military takeover of the former Portuguese colony. "Gough Whitlam's policy on Australia-Indonesia relations was generally right, and that policy was the right one for Australia through the succeeding years up until fairly recently," he said.

Mr Hayden said the portrayal of Australia's stance as one of appeasement towards Suharto reflected a media debate characterised by "intellectual sloppiness as well as blatant dishonesty". He said the only policy alternative -- "to send a couple of Australian warships offshore from East Timor" -- would have risked the "imbecility" of direct military confrontation. Mr Hayden said this would have attracted no support from the region, or the United States.

He said the Australian debate on East Timor policy had since been distorted by the media's obsession with what he described as the legend of how five journalists were killed by Indonesian forces at Balibo in October, 1975. Mr Hayden said he found nothing in the official documents of the time to support the view that the Whitlam Government and Australian diplomats had prior knowledge of the threat to the lives of the journalists. Mr Hayden said although he sympathised with the families of the bereaved, he suspected the continuing controversy might be linked to a potential damages action against the government.

This claim was rejected last night as "repugnant" by Shirley Shackleton, wife of one of the journalists killed, Greg Shackleton. "This has never been about money, actually," she said.

Rights body calls for halt in refugee registration

Agence France-Presse - October 24, 2000 (slightly abridged)

Jakarta -- Human Rights Watch called Tuesday on Indonesia to stop registering East Timorese refugees for repatriation or resettlement, saying there were no safeguards for them to chose freely whether they wanted to go home or not.

A 47-member government task force was sent to West Timor on October 13 to begin preparations for the re-registration of some 130,000 refugees still stranded on the Indonesian half of Timor island, according to the home affairs ministry.

The New York-based rights group in a statement recieved here, said it understood the team had begun the re-registration process on October 19. But Indonesia's chief political, security and social affairs minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday that the re-registration process would not begin until early November, ahead of the planned visit by a UN Security Council delegation on November 13. Yudhoyono said the process would enable the refugees "to choose freely whether to return back to East Timor or stay in Indonesia."

But Human Rights Watch urged donors funding the repatriation and resettlement effort to wait until "the development of an impartial and fully transparent registration procedure that meets standards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)."

The UNHCR pulled its staff out of West Timor in early September after the murder of three of its staff there by former pro- Jakarta East Timorese militia, thousands of whom are in West Timor.

"Everyone wants a quick resolution of the refugee crisis, but unless the refugees can express their wishes without intimidation or pressure, the process will have no credibility," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said.

The statement urged the Indonesian government to adopt safeguards against militia intimidation of the refugees over their choice of whether to return to East Timor or not.

The rights group suggested including the drawing up of a neutral questionnaire "free of loaded questions," a draft of which could be reviewed by international humanitarian agencies, local church and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the United Nations.

Political organizations, such as the Union of Timorese Warriors (UNTAS), which groups the former militia, should be excluded from the process lest they influence the survey, it added.

Officials in UN-administered East Timor (UNTAET) should also prepare a fact sheet explaining and detailing what returning refugees can expect when they get back. The Indonesian government should also prepare a similar fact sheet, it said.

Former foes seek path to peace

South China Morning Post - October 25, 2000

Vaudine England, Surabaya -- The first talks in months between East Timorese independence leaders and West Timor-based anti- independence groups took place in Surabaya yesterday to discuss ways to reconcile the former combatants. The informal meeting took almost two days to arrange but, once it happened, it looked like a family reunion.

Hugs and news about relatives were exchanged, as were details about how to heal the bitter divide between those East Timorese who fought Jakarta for decades and those who believe East Timor should still be part of Indonesia.

Paulo Assis Belo and Francis Soares of the National Council of Timorese Resistance met five leaders of the Union of Timorese Warriors, or Untas, at a Surabaya hotel.

West Timorese businessman Ferdi Tanoni brought the conflicting sides to the East Javanese capital in an effort to kick-start a resumption of contact after the murder of three foreign United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees workers in Atambua, West Timor, on September 6. Those murders, blamed on pro-Indonesian militia groups, resulted in the evacuation of all UN staff from West Timor, bringing reconciliation work and the hoped-for repatriation of East Timorese refugees to a near-halt.

There has been contact between individuals of the once-warring sides, but this informal meeting of representatives of the two organisations marked an important step in the search for peace, observers of the meeting said.

"I think it's important. It's certainly the first contact since the Atambua [killings], if not since the ballot", in which East Timor chose independence from Indonesia on August 30 last year, said N. Parameswaran, chief of staff for the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (Untaet).

"This reconciliation process is a process, it's not a one-day thing, but we will carry this exchange forward," he said. "There are a lot of pressures on both sides and we have to be patient."

Focus of the talks was on how members of Untas and other pro- Indonesian groups could return safely to East Timor. On Monday, Untas secretary-general Filomena Hornay said in Surabaya that 100 per cent of his people wanted to go home, but only if their political rights and safety were guaranteed.

The talks come a week after four other pro-Indonesian militia members issued a letter pleading for United Nations guarantees in return for secrets about who ordered the militias to carry out the violence and destruction of East Timor after the independence vote.

Jakarta's recent incarceration of militia leader Eurico Guterres in the capital has set off a chain of confusion and frightened reaction among all who fought against independence. One diplomat observing the Surabaya talks said now was the time to exploit the divisions in order to get as many former militia as possible back to East Timor to face justice.

Assurances were given to leaders of Untas in Surabaya that they are welcome to compete peacefully in the politics of East Timor and that the newly formed National Council, East Timor's government-in-waiting, has seats reserved for the anti- independence camp.

The new president of the 36-seat council is Xanana Gusmao. Also in Surabaya, the visiting Speaker of the provincial legislature of Kupang, West Timor, Daniel Woda Palle, said conditions for the 130,000 refugees were deteriorating and would be much worse within a week or two when the rainy season began.

"These refugees have been the outcome of a political turmoil. Portugal, Untaet and Indonesia should be responsible for it. Do not cast the burden on NTT [the provincial] administration alone. We are exhausted," Mr Palle said.

Timor's stolen children abandoned

The Age - October 25, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Semarang -- Nersia Emaculada De Nercio sits on the edge of a bed in the dormitory of an orphanage she shares with dozens of other children in central Java. She clutches the tattered photographs that are now the only link she has with her family, somewhere hundreds of kilometres away in the squalid refugee camps of West Timor.

Asked about her parents, seven-year-old Nersia proudly holds up the photographs. She says her father's name is Anthony; she cannot remember her mother's name.

Nersia is one of 130 East Timorese children taken from their parents in the camps of West Timor in the violent aftermath of the Indonesian withdrawal from East Timor last year and placed in poor orphanages in Central Java.

Humanitarian investigators and other sources have told The Age the children were relocated by pro-Jakarta Timorese who plan to indoctrinate them as political activists to push for East Timor's reintegration with Indonesia.

Investigators believe the children are among as many as 1000 separated from their parents at the height of the violence in East Timor last year and later from refugee camps in West Timor. Investigators fear many of the children have been forced to work in Indonesian factory sweatshops, plantations or as prostitutes.

The Age has found 130 of the children -- aged six to 17 -- living in primitive orphanage shelters under the supervision of caring Catholic nuns and volunteers who struggle to provide food, clothing and medicines to look after them.

The children, many of them deeply traumatised, have been told they will not be able to return to Timor to see their parents for three years. Even then, they would have to return to Java to continue their education.

In one of the orphanages 57 boys are living in one room under a leaky roof. Twenty-three girls are packed into three rooms in a tiny house. For 80 children there are only four toilets and several cooking pots.

Parents in the West Timor camps were persuaded their children would receive a better education in Java. They agreed for the children to go at a time of chaos and fear for the future, UN officials and humanitarian workers say.

Some parents have complained to the UN that documents were thrust on them to sign. The arguments of the men who arranged the separations were similar to those used by white Australians to separate Aboriginal children from their parents early this century. The separations go against the spirit of UN conventions protecting children.

The children, weeping and distressed, were left without prior arrangement with Catholic Church officials in the Central Java city of Semarang in November and on Christmas Eve last year after travelling from West Timor by passenger ferry.

Nuns at the orphanages say many of them suffer nightmares and are deeply unhappy. But the orphanages are managing to provide the children with a basic education and care despite an acute lack of resources. The church fears the children will be politically manipulated and has tried to restrict visits by the men who brought them.

Brother Paulus Mudjiran of the Semarang Catholic bishop's office said the church felt trapped because it did not want to get involved in East Timor politics. "Our job is just to care for the children," he said. "We are quite aware that others may have plans for the children. In order to minimise any political manipulation we try to minimise contact between those who brought them and the children." The men who arranged for the children to leave their parents are closely linked to pro-Jakarta militia responsible for violence and intimidation in the West Timor camps.

One of them is Octavio Soares, a prominent Timorese student activist based in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta. Speaking by telephone from West Timor, where he is visiting the camps, Mr Soares said yesterday he arranged for the children to be sent to Java so that they could get a proper education.

"They lost everything in the war," he said. "They lost their country. I just don't want the children to lose their future. To be honest, I was in a blank when I brought the children to Java. Fortunately, some nuns agreed to take care of the children, it was just a spontaneous idea. Don't get me wrong. I did this for strictly humanitarian purposes."

Mr Soares denied he intended using the children for political purposes or to train them to be militia or soldiers to fight for the return of East Timor. "That's naive, so stupid," he said. "If I have such a bad intention, why did I not buy weapons in the first place instead of spending the money on transportation and study for the children?"

Mr Soares said he wanted to provide an education for at least 1000 Timorese children. "They will be given proper education for at least nine years so that they will become a full and better person who can fight for their own political rights when they grow up."

Mr Soares said he planned to bring more Timorese children to Java. "The plan has been delayed because I still need to obtain formal permission from the parents. I don't want to be accused of kidnapping other people's children. So many parents want me to bring their children to Java for study, but I do not have enough money to support them."

Mr Soares said he obtained money to bring the 130 children to Java from the Indonesian Government-sponsored National Foster Parents' program (GNOTA). The program was launched by former president Suharto's daughter-in-law, Halimah Bambang Triatmodjo.

Mr Soares is a nephew of the former Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares, who faces charges over last year's violence and destruction. Abilio Soares' wife chairs the GNOTA program for East Timor.

Many pro-Indonesian Timorese groups have not given up hope of East Timor again becoming part of Indonesia. Militia leaders continue to demand that parts of East Timor be partitioned and returned to Indonesia so Timorese who voted against independence can live there. "There is a plan for East Timor to come back to Indonesia even if it takes 20 years or more," a source who knows Octavio Soares said. "The plan is to use these children to help that cause."

Francisco Tilman, 12, told The Age at Saint Thomas' orphanage 50 kilometres south of Semarang that he was unhappy and missed his family, especially his five-year-old sister Juleta. He never got the chance to say goodbye to her. "Octavio [Soares] got mad when I said I wanted to go home," Francisco said, looking away and fighting back tears. "I wrote a letter to my parents but they never replied."

Humanitarian workers believe many of the children's parents do not know where their children have been taken. Most of the letters the children have written to their parents have gone unanswered.

Alda Pereira, 13, who is also at Saint Thomas' orphanage, said she greatly missed her family. "I can only see them after three years," she said. But Alda's father, Agabioto Dos Santos, pleaded in a June 16 letter for her to be brought home. "If the child does not want to stay there it is better to ask the orphanage to return her to her parents," Mr Dos Santos wrote in the letter that reached Alda. "Please, we want our child to come back to us."

Sister Maria Francine, a nun at St Thomas', said the children have had difficulty settling down. "When it was raining and there was thunder one of them yelled to the rest, `Get down.' They all dived under tables," she said. Some of the children were suffering malaria, tuberculosis and other illnesses when they arrived. "Many still talk in their sleep in their language [Tetum]," the nun said. "Often they yell and scream and fight each other."

But last weekend, during a rare two-day stay at a church camp, the children of Saint Thomas' were worried about 13-year-old Paulina Soares. A friend from another orphanage told her that her father, a former East Timorese soldier, had died two months ago. She became hysterical and refused to eat. She stared sadly into space as other children tried to engage her in games and other activities.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose representatives have twice visited the children, revealed after being contacted by The Age on Monday that it wants to contact the parents and arrange for the families to be reunited.

But the withdrawal of UN and other international aid workers from West Timor after the September 6 killing of three UN staff has frustrated the plan. "The principle of family unity is central to this," said Peter Kessler, the UNHCR's spokesman in Dili. "The UNHCR will support efforts to reunite these children with their families in either West Timor or East Timor."

An unknown number of the children's families who were in West Timor have returned to UN-ruled East Timor. Six families have contacted the UNHCR in Dili and asked for their children to be brought from Java. The UN has confirmed they are among the 130 children in the Java orphanages.

Mr Kessler said that because the UNHCR could not now work in West Timor, where 120,000 people in the camps are being held virtual hostage, Indonesian aid workers with access were being asked to try to track the families of the children. The UNHCR would also try to trace other parents who had returned to East Timor, Mr Kessler said.

Soni Qodri, a Jakarta-based humanitarian worker and investigator, told The Age that Indonesian non-government organisations believe up to 1000 children have been separated from their parents and brought from East and West Timor to various parts of Indonesia.

"We fear many of them are being mistreated, such as being forced to work in sweatshop factories, plantations and prostitution but evidence is difficult to obtain," he said.

Two months ago Mr Qodri went to an orphanage in the East Java town of Situbondo where he heard East Timorese children had been taken. It was early morning when he arrived, Mr Qodri said, and no supervisors were about. He asked a boy about seven where he was from. He replied, "East Timor."

But another boy, aged about 12, came up and punched the younger boy. "You are from Kupang," the older boy said, referring to the West Timor capital. The younger boy was then dragged indoors. Later, supervisors at the orphanage denied any Timorese children were there.

The UNHCR has been told the Jesuit Refugee Service has traced 16 East Timor children to an orphanage in the Indonesian province of Kalimantan. Mr Qodri said it was wrong for any children to be uprooted from their parents no matter what the circumstances.

"The children have been taken from their families and culture and are under the influence of others," he said. "UN agencies and the Indonesian Government should immediately take steps to trace the parents and reunite these families. I am very concerned these children will fall victim to certain political groups."

Stop the Howard government's Timor oil grab!

Green Left Weekly - October 25, 2000

In August 1975, as the Suharto dictatorship was preparing to invade East Timor, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Woolcott, sent a cable to Canberra urging compliance with Indonesia's plans to annex East Timor.

He wrote: "It would seem to me that this Department [of Minerals and Energy] might well have an interest in closing the present gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia than with Portugal; or independent Portuguese Timor. I know I am recommending a pragmatic rather than a principled stand but that is what national interest and foreign policy is all about."

What followed was 25 years of Australian government complicity in an illegal and brutal military occupation of East Timor by Suharto's military. More than 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives to famine, war and slaughter. Tens of thousands more suffered torture, rape and other forms of terror. All throughout this period, Australian governments -- both Labor and Liberal -- led Suharto's backers in defending and recognising the invasion and occupation.

This policy helped Canberra to squeeze a good deal for itself out of the Suharto government. The Timor Gap Treaty gave Canberra exploration and taxation rights over oil and gas resources which rightfully belonged to East Timor. In 1989, the world witnessed Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans and the Suharto dictatorship's foreign minister Ali Alatas raise champagne glasses to the treaty as they flew over the killing fields of East Timor.

Canberra received this concession from Jakarta in return for its morally and politically bankrupt support for Jakarta's invasion of East Timor.

The Australian government secured a treaty that established a "zone of cooperation" between Australia and Indonesia. Australia and Indonesia were to jointly manage resources exploration in this area and share taxation imposed on companies working in the region.

But under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, none of this area falls into Australian territorial waters. UNCLOS determines that in the Timor Gap situation, the seabed boundary should be an equidistant median line between Australia and East Timor. If this were applied, the whole of the current zone of cooperation would fall in East Timorese territory. Most of the current oil exploration is inside the zone of cooperation.

Now that the East Timorese people have driven out Suharto's military and are on the way to independence, the treaty is recognised as a document with no validity, if it ever any had in the first place. Negotiations have begun between Dili and Canberra (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor -- UNTAET -- cabinet ministers Mari Alkatiri and Peter Galbraith) on a new treaty between East Timor and Australia.

And the Howard government still wants its blood money from the Timorese people's oil! Canberra wants the East Timorese to accept the zone of cooperation as it currently stands, with Canberra getting a 50% share of royalties from the area.

Australia has no legitimate rights over these resources. Indeed, Canberra bears a moral debt to the East Timorese for 25 years of complicity in the destruction and terrorisation of their country.

The Democratic Socialist Party calls on the Australian government to:

1. unconditionally recognise a seabed boundary equidistant between East Timor and Australia, as it already does in relation to ocean resources above the seabed;

2. immediately declare to UNTAET and the Timorese that if the Timorese people decide, for whatever reason, they wish to keep the zone of cooperation, Australia will require no royalties. This is part compensation for the damage done by 25 years of complicity in Suharto's war against the East Timorese people;

3. immediately announce a commitment to hand over to an independent East Timor all royalties already collected from the zone of cooperation

Don't let Howard get away with squeezing the East Timorese people again. Start campaigning now by writing to Australia's foreign minister and UNTAET. Join Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) and help build pressure on Canberra.

Australia bleeds Timor for oil

Green Left Weekly - October 25, 2000

Jon Land -- While little has been revealed about the discussions during the first formal round of negotiations between the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and Australia on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty, the Australian government has made its position clear: it does not think that the terms of the treaty should change significantly (if at all) and it thinks that the most important issue regarding the oil- and gas-rich Timor Sea is "the maintenance of investor confidence".

According to statements from UNTAET and East Timorese negotiator Mari Alkatiri, each side presented their "point of view" at the talks, which were held in Dili, October 9-11.

Alkatiri indicated that the main issue raised by East Timor was the delineation of the maritime boundary, while the Australian proposals centered on the question of royalties.

Head of the Australian delegation Michael Potts commented that the talks "clarified themes and positions".

As present, the treaty is not considered legal or binding by either UNTAET or representatives of the East Timorese. They argue that the treaty is in contravention of international norms and laws relating to maritime boundaries (specifically, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) and that, consequently, East Timor is entitled to all the territory north of the half-way point between East Timor and Australia (the southern most boundary of the "zone of cooperation" represents this median line).

Unequal divide

The Australian government is remaining tight-lipped about the talks and what it might propose before the next round of negotiations. However, before and during the first round, government ministers re-stated their opposition to any changes to the treaty that would transfer a greater share of royalties to East Timor and categorically ruled out the adjustment of the maritime boundary.

On October 4, Democrat Senator Vicki Bourne asked industry, science and resources minister Nick Minchin what position the government would take into the negotiations and about the implications in regard to international law. She said: "The usual way to divide resources in cases such as the Timor Gap is via a dividing line half-way between the two coastlines".

Minchin replied that the negotiations are "not a matter for public discourse" and that "there are assertions about what international law may now say in relation to these beds [oil and gas fields], but I am not going to engage in speculation about what may or may not be the position we take in those negotiations".

He also trumpeted a two-year, $700,000 per annum funding project to train East Timorese in "administration and policy development in relation to the Timor Gap". This is chicken-feed compared to the anticipated tens of millions of dollars worth of royalties from the oil and gas reserves that the Australian state has illegally secured access to. These resources rightfully belong entirely to the East Timorese.

Australia has already received close to $6 million in royalties from the Timor Gap. This money should be returned immediately to East Timor, as a small step towards a much larger compensation package from the government and Australian-based companies that profited from a special relationship with the Suharto dictatorship, the cornerstone of which was successive Australian governments' formal recognition of Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor.

Blackmail

Minchin's refusal to answer directly Bourne's question is not surprising. He knows full well that the government's position is legally weak and morally bankrupt.

The Coalition government wants this dispute resolved with as little public scrutiny as possible because it fears a public backlash against its position; a reasonable fear given the strong sympathy amongst Australia's people for the plight of devastated East Timor.

Comments made by foreign minister Alexander Downer on October 9 implied that if negotiations result in a reduction of royalties to Australia from oil and gas exploration in the zone of cooperation, the government would reconsider its overall aid package to East Timor. Downer told reporters, "The extent to which East Timor itself is able to get the royalties, or a share of the royalties, the size of its share, plays into the overall size of the aid program in East Timor".

Another theme running through the government's argument has been the bogey of reduced investor confidence in the Timor Sea due to uncertainty over the future of the Timor Gap Treaty. East Timorese representatives, however, have publicly stated on numerous occasions -- including at forums and meetings involving representatives of oil and gas companies -- that they support current and proposed developments in the Timor Sea and do not envisage imposing higher taxes or implementing statuary requirements other than those presently in place.

By pursuing its own interests in relation to the Timor Gap, the Howard government is denying East Timor access to resources that will play a vital role in the future development of East Timor. In doing so, Australia is undermining the East Timorese people's ability to exercise fully their right to self-determination.

UN says militia infiltrate deeper into East Timor

Reuters - October 22, 2000

Michael Perry, Sydney -- Pro-Jakarta militia in Indonesian West Timor have abandoned hit and run attacks on East Timor and begun infiltrating deeper into the territory, the United Nation's senior official in East Timor said on Monday.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, in Australia for celebrations to mark the United Nations' 55th anniversary on Tuesday, said he would raise the issue with Australia to ensure UN peacekeepers in East Timor had the military capacity to deal with the militias.

It is believed the UN wants Australia, which supplies the bulk of UN peacekeepers, to be more flexible with the rules of engagement in East Timor. "There has been an obvious change in the tactics by the militia since late July," de Mello told a news conference in Sydney before heading to Canberra for talks.

"Until then they would launch very short, hit and run, cross border attacks against UNTAET [United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor] positions in East Timor and then run back to West Timor and seek sanctuary," he said.

"In the last two and a half months there have been deeper infiltrations by groups, varying from five to 30 men, who have reached sector central." The towns of Alas and Same are in this area and are 30-40 miles south-southeast of the East Timor capital Dili.

"Some [militia] have been there for several weeks and we are obviously concerned that this might represent a new trend," del Mello said.

UN prepares for infiltrations

Indonesia supported the militias in a failed bid to influence the outcome of last year's UN-brokered ballot in East Timor, in which Timorese overwhelmingly voted to end Jakarta's rule.

The militias went on a rampage of violence but were forced to retreat into West Timor, where they have terrorized East Timorese stranded in refugee camps.

De Mello said UNTAET must be ready for any increase in militia infiltrations in coming weeks. "I will take advantage of my visit to Canberra to make sure Australia helps us create a maximum reaction capacity," he said. "We must be ready for the hypotheses of new infiltrations coming in the weeks and we are just getting ready for it."

De Mello plans to meet Australian Prime Minister John Howard, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and defense force chief Admiral Chris Barrie on Tuesday.

UN calls for real disarmament

The UN and other international aid agencies pulled their staff out of volatile West Timor after militias butchered three UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workers in the border town of Atambua on September 6.

De Mello said the United Nations would not decide whether it was safe to return until after a Security Council visit to East Timor, and hopefully West Timor, starting November 11.

Moves by Indonesia to disarm the militias have been slow, but de Mello said in recent days there were signs the Indonesian military (TNI) and police had become tougher on militias.

"There are indications that measures are being taken, certainly more drastic than had been the case until recently," he said. "How effective they are is impossible for me to say."

Indonesian police say 1,256 homemade weapons have been confiscated, but only a small number of military guns seized. "I am not referring to homemade shotguns, I am referring to combat weapons, the old G3s of the Portuguese army, SKS, M-16, rocket launchers, hand grenades and ammunition," he said.

De Mello welcomed the detention of notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres, but called for more arrests. "Disarming and disbanding is meaningless until the criminal militia commanders are actually detained," he said.

Court orders militia chief be freed

South China Morning Post - October 24, 2000

Vaudine England, Surabaya -- A court yesterday ordered the release of East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres, who was originally arrested without a warrant and was seeking police protection because of actions issued against him overseas.

Police said Guterres had already been moved out of police detention and placed under house arrest in a witness protection building. "The court rules that the arrest of Eurico Guterres by police is illegal and that the demand by the plaintiff that he be released should soon be granted," Judge I Dewa Gede Putra Jadnya said. Chief Political and Security Affairs Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said later that police were appealing the decision.

Jakarta's seeming inability to prosecute known militia leaders for their role in last year's East Timor violence was one of the subjects aired at an unusual meeting which opened yesterday in Surabaya, eastern Java.

Pro-Jakarta politicians and militia supporters, members of West Timor's government-in-waiting, diplomats and observers from the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (Untaet) have been brought together at the colonial-era Majapahit Hotel in Surabaya by Kupang-based businessman Ferdi Tanoni.

The talks are an effort to restart the dialogue that collapsed in the wake of the murder on September 6 of three foreign UN High Commissioner for Refugees staff in Atambua, West Timor. Participants are looking for ways to handle the 120,000 East Timorese refugees still in West Timor and for ways to persuade militia members to participate in East Timor's politics peacefully.

"We at Untaet realise that at the end of the day this is a problem between Timorese and Timorese," Untaet's senior observer at the Surabaya meeting, N. Parameswaran, said. "We can only create conditions conducive to discussions but in the end, the Timorese need to talk it out amongst themselves."

Mr Tanoni also announced the formation of a new foundation, Yayasan Peduli Timor Barat, to care for the people of West Timor who are hosts to the East Timorese refugees and the armed militia who control them. He hopes members of East Timor's government-in-waiting, led by Xanana Gusmao, will join the meeting for its second day.

But the potential freeing of Guterres promises to cast a pall over efforts to bring international agencies back to West Timor, despite the new dialogue. At the time of last year's pro- independence ballot in East Timor, Guterres promised to transform the territory into a "sea of fire" rather than allow it to gain independence.

Just over a year later, he arrived at the Jakarta courtroom flaunting a red and white head-scarf, to match Indonesia's flag, highlighting his apparently continued devotion to the anti- independence cause.

Last week, subordinates from his organisation in West Timor said they no longer trusted their paymasters in the Indonesian armed forces and wanted to trade secrets for safety with the United Nations. They say they fear Indonesia's shadowy elite forces will spark conflict between militia groups so militia members can be picked off easily by their own.

Such "cowardice" is decried by Guterres. He said he deserved to be freed because police failed to show a warrant when they arrested him. He does not fear retribution. "I am ready to face punishment and even death if it will resolve the nation's problems," he said.

Mr Yudhoyono said an appeal by police against the freeing of Guterres would be in line with Indonesia's commitment to the ideals of "the supremacy of the law, fair trial and, of course, the overall interests of the nation".

National police spokesman Brigadier-General Saleh Saaf said Guterres was still under arrest. "If a detainee requests the postponement of his detention, police can agree to three alternatives -- either city arrest, house arrest or release. We decided to give him house arrest rather than release him."

Labour struggle

Protesters resume blockade at Caltex Riau

Detik - October 25, 2000

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/GB, Jakarta -- Caltex operations in Bengkalis, Riau, on Sumatra island, have been halted once again by disgruntled locals demanding employment at the oilfields. The situation seems to be deteriorating further as Caltex workers told the Riau Legislative Council that the company has discriminated against them in wage and contractual matters.

On Tuesday, 200 contract workers representing around 20,000 workers at the Bengkalis operations spoke before Commission V of the Provincial Legislative Council which deals with labour issues, amongst other things. The workers were largely represented by A Simbolon, leader of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI) at Caltex.

He said the discrepancy in wages between Indonesians and foreigners at Caltex was incredibly wide and asked the Council to take measures to ensure the gap was lessened. They also said that Caltex and many of its contractors had not fully employed workers who had successfully fulfilled their trial period. While after three months the company was supposed to fully employ workers, some had worked for over a year on contracts which did not offer the existing benefits of full employment.

L Sitepu, Head of the Commission, expressed regret that Caltex's Director had not attended the hearing. "If only the staff come, how can the problems be resolved? We ask the staff not to come again if they are not invited. We only invited the Director," he said rather peeved.

On Wednesday at the oilfields site, Caltex was coming under renewed pressure from the locals of Sungai Rangau village who have been negotiating for over a month to resolve their grievances. Hundreds of local villagers took to the streets and marched to the oilfields, eventually resuming their blockade so that all traffic in and out of the site was completely stopped. Two vehicles reportedly owned by one of Caltex's contractors was torched by the irate protesters.

As previously reported, several weeks ago, 75 locals petitioned Caltex management for employment but their request went unnoticed until they returned with supporters and occupied five oilfields at a cost of Rp 2 billion per day per oilfield to Caltex. They also seized around 37 vehicles which were all eventually returned. Caltex agreed to hire the 75 but reneged on the deal. While the occupation ended after the negotiations, locals returned to blockade the fields.

Then last Friday, representatives of the locals and company met in talks facilitated by the provincial government in Duri, 120 kms from the provincial capital of Pekanbaru. While Caltex said that it could not employ locals, it promised to devote funds to a community development program to stimulate the local economy.

With labourers protesting, the blockade resumed and protesters venting their frustrations on company property it looks like tougher times ahead for Caltex in Riau despite the proposed CD program.

Prawn farmers demonstrate at presidential palace

Detik - October 24, 2000

Taufik Subarkah/PT & Fitri, Jakarta -- Around 300 prawn farmers from Dipasena Lampung in South Sumatra have staged a demonstration in front of the Presidential Palace, on Jl Medan Merdeka Utara, Tuesday. They are furious over President Abdurrahman Wahd's announcement to postpone the prosecution of Sjamsul Nursalim, the boss of PT Dipasenan.

This is the second demonstration in as many weeks, which Dipasenan prawn farmers have conducted in the capital. Last week 80 Dipasenan prawn farmers demonstrated over local mobile brigade troops misconduct around their prawn farms. They claim that the local troops had been disturbing the farms by steeling prawns and disrupting the farming process.

The three hundred farmers arrived at the front of the Presidential Palace at 10am this morning, and were still demonstrating in front of the Palace at 12.30pm. They are determined not to return to Lampung until there is a response from the government.

While waiting for a reply from the Palace, prawn farmers were seen throwing empty water bottles at the palace, screaming, "hang Nursalim, hang Nursalim," and calling for the immediate trial of Sjamsul.

They were also carrying banners and several posters, calling for the government to settle their case with Sjamsul Nursalim. Several posters also had written on them concerns over President Abdurrahman Wahd's announcement to postpone the prosecution of Sjamsul Nursalim, the boss of PT Dipasenan.

Sidoarjo rocked by rioting workers & PDI-P supporters

Detik - October 24, 2000

Budi Sugiharto/Hendra & GB, Sidoarjo -- Sidoarjo, Surabaya, East Java, was a hot-bed of destructive demonstrations after around 3,000 striking workers from Indonesian electrical goods producer PT Maspion were provoked by hired thugs at the factory and rioted. Later, making their way to the Regency's Council chambers, they came across over 100 rioting political party members destroying the Council's offices.

The 3,000 workers blocked the main roads near the PT Maspion Unit II, Jl Surabaya-Sidoarjo and Jl Raya Sidoarjo-Surabaya, at 10am local time Tuesday. On the street, workers were abused by many motorists caught up in the extensive traffic jam which developed.

The workers became enraged because the management of PT Maspion had hired tens of thugs to intimidate the protesters who continued their demonstration which began suddenly last week with a stop-work walkout. The thugs inside the factory grounds brought sickles and small blades and prevented the workers from entering the factory.

One worker was encircled by thugs who threatened him with their sickles. Seeing this provocative act, the workers took stones from the railway station located in front of the factory and threw them at the factory windows and offices.

Eventually entering the grounds after overwhelming the thugs, they burned down a security building, destroyed files in the building and damaged the security gate on the second floor of the main building at around 11.30am local time. One water cannon mounted on a police vehicle was seen ready in the vicinity of the factory.

As previously reported, PT Maspion's workers are demanding an increase their allowances from Rp 2,000 to Rp 3,000 (US33 cents) for food and from Rp 1,000 to Rp 2,000 for transportation. After meeting representatives of the workers last Wednesday, the company would only agree to an increase of Rp 300 (US3 cents). The workers are also demanding that 7 workers fired for organising the strike be reinstated.

After attacking the offices, the protesters made their way to the Sitoardjo Regency Legislative Assembly to demand the Councilors take up their plight with the factory management.

However, around 100 protesters from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were already occupying the building protesting that eight of the seventeen party representatives had not voted for their candidates in a recent election. One of the eight earlier acknowledged that he had been paid Rp 10 million from Rp 200 million offered by the winning candidate. The protesters later destroyed the gate and threw stones at the building causing extensive damage to windows.

MA Mochtar, former representative of the state-controlled Indonesian Prosperous Labour Union (SBSI) appointed leader of the strike at PT Maspion, demanded that the domestic and international community not buy Maspion's products before the labour matter had been resolved.

He also said their demonstration would continue next Thursday, after a public holiday Wednesday, and that they would occupy the offices of the SBSI for failing to represent their interests.

"Next Thursday we will occupy SBSI's offices at PT Maspion so we can take down their name plate. It's time that the SBSI was disbanded totally," Mochtar said. He also regretted that the security forces at the factory did not arrest the thugs armed with their sickles.

Both demonstrations appeared to have broken up by themselves and it is uncertain if any of the protesters have been detained by the police.

Militant union wins legal recognition

Green Left Weekly - October 25, 2000

Romawaty Sinaga, Jakarta -- Following a long battle, the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI) has finally won legal status as one of the country's 38 recognised unions.

The decision, by the ministry of labour, was based on a new law governing trade unions. The ministry had previously refused registration to the FNPBI-Jabotabek (formerly KOBAR, a member- organisation of FNPBI in Jakarta), thereby preventing the organisation's national registration.

Despite being "illegal", in the 15 months since its founding the FNPBI has doubled in size to now comprise 14 province-based branches.

Its illegality had meant that the FNPBI had, at times, been prevented from playing a role in industrial disputes. Companies and government officials would use its formal status to weaken workers' bargaining position. Being "illegal" also restricted the FNPBI's ability to collect membership dues.

Now the FNPBI has won its legal status it will be easier to finance the organisation, despite a push by the companies to stop its request to set up an dues deduction system.

Even though the Indonesian government has ratified the International Labour Organisation's convention on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, provincial FNPBI branches have always been knocked back whenever they attempted to register.

FNPBI-Jabotabek faced all sorts of obstacles to registration, including the government's claim that its political outlook violated the official state ideology, Pancasila.

FNPBI-West Java (previously known as SBI) struggled for seven months for registration before, finally, a mass action at a local government office forced the issue and the union gained its legal status.

[Romawaty Sinaga is one of the FNPBI's two international officers.]

Government/politics

Jakarta drives off `intruder' US warship

Staits Times - October 28, 2000

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Already testy ties between Washington and Jakarta could suffer further strain following revelations yesterday of a naval incident in the waters around Maluku Islands last week involving two Indonesian warships and an American destroyer.

The Indonesian navy's KRI Rencong and KRI Pandrong intercepted the Tomahawk missile-equipped USS O'Brien on October 21 near Seram Island, and, according to a naval spokesman, "drove the intruder out of our territorial waters".

"American ships that enter Indonesian territory should always ask for permission first, regardless of the reason," Lt-Colonel Ditya Soedarsono of the Eastern Naval Command told the Antara national news agency.

Rear-Admiral Djoko Sumaryono, who oversees naval security for the eastern territories, was also quoted as saying that a vessel owned by an Indonesian businessman had tried to approach the USS O'Brien moments before the interception by the KRI Rencong and KRI Pandrong.

His comments appeared to be aimed at giving weight to charges by some politicians and government officials here, who believe that Washington and other "outside interests" could be promoting unrest in some of Indonesia's troubled regions, including Maluku, Aceh and West Papua.

"But Indonesia has warships that are sophisticated enough to detect the presence of foreign ships trying to enter our waters," Rear-Adm Djoko added.

Antara reported that the presence of the US warship in the area coincided with the working visit of US Consul-General Robert Pollard to Ambon, capital of Maluku, to seek data on recent conflicts in the city.

But US Embassy officials yesterday downplayed the significance of the naval encounter and maintained that the USS O'Brien did not violate any regulations. "It's much ado about nothing," Defence Attache Colonel Joseph Daves told The Straits Times.

Embassy press secretary Karl Fritz added that although the USS O'Brien was in Indonesian waters, it never strayed from international sea channels. He added that the ship went on it way after encountering the two Indonesian naval ships.

Anti-American sentiments have been growing in recent weeks here in the wake of the conflict between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the Middle East as Washington's support for the Jewish state had been condemned by Muslim groups.

Concerns about safety following threats made against the US Embassy prompted the US State Department to announce that it would stop public consular services in Jakarta for the rest of the week.

US Ambassador Robert Gelbard has also been accused previously by legislators of meddling in Indonesia's domestic affairs. In fact, Defence Minister Mohammad Mahfud said that Mr Gelbard tried to influence the outcome of this month's reshuffle of command positions in the army.

Separately, the outspoken Mr Mahfud also suggested last week that US citizen Aaron Maness, who was deported on Monday, was involved in espionage activities in Irian Jaya. "When it comes to defence, security and the country's territorial integrity, I have to speak out for the people's aspirations," Mr Mahfud told reporters.

Reflecting some of the strong sentiment prevailing here against the US was Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina, who said that foreign interference was not needed to resolve any local conflict. The government and the Indonesian military were well able to settle such issues, he told reporters.

Angry Indonesia hits tourists with a Bali tax

Sydney Morning Herald - October 28, 2000

More than 250,000 Australians face paying up to $100 for a tourist visa to travel to Indonesia as relations between the countries take a new dip.

Indonesian authorities admitted yesterday the action was partly aimed at journalists trying to enter the country illegally. While Jakarta has long been sensitive to adverse coverage by Australian media, union criticism of its attempts to quell the West Papuan independence movement this week also brought charges of interference in Indonesian affairs. The Governor of Bali, Dewa Made Berata, made it clear he thought Australian tourists were undisciplined cheapskates -- and was not bothered by the plan to revoke free visas for Australians.

"Bali will be quickly damaged if it is flooded with tourists who love partying but have no money," he said, adding that he preferred Japanese. "Aside from being large in number, the Japanese tourists usually have more money and are more disciplined than the Australians," he told the Jakarta Post.

But the Federal Government will tell Indonesia it risks seriously hurting Bali's tourist trade. About 261,000 Australian tourists travel to Indonesia -- mainly Bali -- every year. Under the visa proposal, they would have to visit consuls or the Indonesian Embassy and apply for a $US50 visa -- close to $100 on the current exchange rate. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, warned yesterday that Australians would favour destinations such as Phuket in Thailand or Malaysia.

Only days after foreign countries pledged $US4.8 billion to help Indonesia overcome its chronic economic plight, anti-Western sentiment is running high in the world's fourth most populous nation. Analysts and diplomats in Jakarta are worried that Indonesian authorities are unwilling or unable to dampen anti- Western feelings, particularly against the United States.

The Indonesian visa plan is partly intended to crack down on the number of journalists visiting the country on tourist visas -- the reason Australian 60 Minutes reporter Richard Carleton and his camera crew were deported last year during their coverage of the East Timorese elections. A spokesman for the Indonesian Embassy, Mr Marihot Siahaan, said journalists would have to apply for a "journalist visa" and it was hoped cases like Carleton's would not be repeated. He added that the new visa system would not only be for Australia but for all countries.

Indonesia was irritated this week at the signing of a memorandum of understanding by the ACTU and West Papuan independence leader Mr Jacob Rumbiak. The ACTU's senior vice-president, Mr Greg Sword, declined to comment yesterday after this fuelled opposition from the ALP's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Laurie Brereton.

But Mr Sword, also ALP Federal president, referred to a speech he made on Tuesday, arguing that West Papuans were ethnically different from Indonesians and had more in common with Papua New Guineans.

But Mr Downer, in Perth yesterday, warned: "If you try to chop West Papua out of Indonesia, believe me, it will be a bloodbath." He added: "... we see the upheaval in East Timor last year and I can tell you that will look very calm and very smooth compared to any secession in West Papua."

The Indonesian Justice Minister, Mr Yusril Ihza Mahendra, announced in Canberra on Thursday that his Government was considering the new visa system. He was quoted as saying Indonesia could earn as much as $US300 million. The proposed fee compares with $60 per visa for Indonesians entering Australia.

[By Andrew Clennell, Lindsay Murdoch, Hamish Mcdonald and Brad Norington.]

Threats add to souring US relations

South China Morning Post - October 27, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab yesterday played down death threats delivered to the US Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Gelbard, the latest in a series of spats between the two countries.

"He [Mr Gelbard] told me there had been bomb threats against the embassy," Mr Shihab said. "He also said he had received death threats. Everybody can make phone calls and it should not be taken seriously. It is as if the relations between the two countries were being disturbed ... Don't let minor problems turn into big ones."

Public services at the US Embassy have been suspended in a partial closure of the compound due to credible threats against it and the specific death threats against Mr Gelbard.

Mulsim groups stage daily demonstrations as a result of perceived US support for Israel, and relations have soured over deteriorating exchanges between Defence Minister Mahfud Mahmoddin and Mr Gelbard.

The ambassador is a feisty straight-talker in a country where obtuse expressions are preferred. His personal style has further fuelled a populist anti-Western campaign mounted by politicians such as People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais.

Talk of Western or Zionist conspiracies has increased in the year since foreign-troop intervention saved East Timor's transition towards independence. Mr Rais recently blamed such conspiracies for most of Indonesia's problems in Aceh, the Malukus, Irian Jaya, East Timor and more.

Mr Mahfud first alleged that Mr Gelbard tried to influence recent military and cabinet reshuffles, and then accused foreign spies of provoking the murders of three foreign UNHCR workers in West Timor on September 6. American support for a recent United Nations resolution castigating Indonesia for the killings also provoked criticism, while the US was seen as hesitant to act over the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians.

Then an American tourist was picked up by police in Wamena, Irian Jaya, for showing photographs of the killings there of Papuan separatists and more than 30 others on October 6. Mr Mahfud claimed that by showing the pictures around, Aaron Ward Maness, of West Valley City, Utah, was trying to whip up support for another foreign intervention in Indonesia's domestic affairs and must be a spy. Mr Gelbard has bluntly denied that claim, and also denied intervening in the deportation of Mr Maness.

Djoko Susilo, a spokesman for the Reform Faction -- a coalition of Muslim-based parties in Parliament -- said Mr Gelbard had worn out his welcome in Indonesia and should be removed.

The US has issued a worldwide travel alert to US citizens to step up security ahead of possible anti-American demonstrations and terrorist attacks amid the tensions in the Middle East.

Australia interfering in Indonesian sovereignty: minister

Agence France-Presse - October 26, 2000

Jakarta -- Indonesia has accused Australia's opposition party of interfering in its sovereignty following a call by the party's president for a self-determination ballot in Irian Jaya, a report said Thursday.

"West Papua or Irian Jaya is part of Indonesian territory, by an act of international law," the state Antara news agency quoted Justice and Human Right Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra as saying.

Mahendra, speaking in the Australian capital, Canberra, was commenting on a memorandum of understanding signed by Australian Labor Party (ALP) president Greg Sword with Irian Jaya separatist leader Jacob Rumbiak on Tuesday.

The memorandum called for the United Nations to organize a plebiscite on the future of the restive province, which is on the western half of New Guinea island bordering independent Papua New Guinea.

Sword is also the vice-president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). "If the Australian Labor Party and Labor Council take it up as a problem, it is interference in Indonesia's sovereignty," Mahendra said.

Citing a 1969 UN-approved vote in Irian Jaya, after which the UN General Assembly recognised it as part of Indonesia, Mahendra said any claims Irian Jaya should not be part of Indonesia "run counter to international law."

Sword's call flew in the face of the ALP's official policy on Irian Jaya and prompted a harsh rebuke by the party's foreign affairs spokesman, Laurie Brereton. "Mr Sword's advocacy of a UN-sponsored referendum has not been well thought through and is unlikely to contribute to any lessening of tension in West Papua," Brereton was quoted as saying in Australia's Age newspaper. He called the move "ill-considered" and a threat to relations between Indonesia and Australia.

Indonesian leaders, still smarting over Australia's high-profile role in East Timor's moves to independence last year, have several times recently accused Australia of supporting Irian Jaya's separatist movement. In response Australian leaders have repeatedly made reasssurances of their support for "Indonesia's territorial integrity."

Indonesian sovereignty over what was Dutch New Guinea was formalised with the 1969 Act of Free Choice, the validity of which is contested by separatist leaders.

Years of neglect by the central government, the perceived exploitation of the province's rich mineral reserves and military brutality have fed anti-Indonesian feelings in Irian Jaya.

Separatist calls have mounted in recent years, peaking with a mass people's congress in June this year in which a resolution was passed demanding Jakarta recognise its independence.

Indonesia deports US tourist accused of spying

Straits Times - October 24, 2000

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Indonesia yesterday deported a United States citizen, accused of spying in Irian Jaya, as the US accused the Defence Minister of whipping up anti-American feelings.

On Sunday, Mr Mohammad Mahfud accused Mr Aaron Maness, 46, of committing espionage in the restless province, now known as West Papua, which has recently been rocked by separatist violence.

However, police investigations into the US tourist had not proven anything more than the fact that he was an illegal overstayer. The US Embassy in Jakarta dismissed the accusation in a statement yesterday.

The accusation was likely to fuel tension between the two countries after previous apparently anti-American comments made by the minister and other politicians.

The embassy also denied Mr Mahfud's charge that US Ambassador to Jakarta Robert Gelbard had intervened in the deportation process of Mr Maness, whom it said was a mere tourist.

It regretted Mr Mahfud's statement "and other recent false charges against the US and its ambassador to Indonesia". "Together these charges suggest a dangerous pattern of disinformation that is creating a climate of anti-Americanism in Indonesia and undermining the warm and close relationship that Indonesia and the US have enjoyed for many years," the embassy said. Mr Mahfud has said on a few occasions that Mr Gelbard was interfering in Indonesia's domestic affairs.

The Indonesian authorities detained Mr Maness after he photographed victims of fierce fighting between separatists and security forces in the remote town of Wamena on October 6, when at least 30 people were killed.

Police spokesman Brig-General Saleh Saaf said he was detained because he had violated his 30-day tourist visa by "doing investigative work during his stay". "At Hotel Nayak, where he was then staying, he was showing the Wamena riot photos to foreign tourists and other hotel visitors," said the police spokesman, adding that the American had sent out the photographs and film using e-mail.

Mr Salman, an immigration officer at the airport, told The Straits Times that the American left the country on a flight at 6.30pm. He was not accompanied by embassy officials.

In an apparent attempt to ease the tension, Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab downplayed the incident, saying that even if Mr Maness was involved in espionage activities "it does not reflect the policy of the US government".

Mr Mahfud, who was appointed in August to replace respected scholar Juwono Sudarsono, has made several controversial statements that have irritated the international community.

On Sunday, he told reporters that Indonesia needed to consider the establishment of a defence pact as a counterweight to the US presence in the region. "If Indonesia, India, China and Japan unite to set up a joint defence pact, the US would be limp," he was quoted as saying.

His statement was countered by other ministers, who said that he was probably referring to "multilateral or bilateral cooperation or technical assistance", but not a security pact. "Everybody knows that, after the Cold War, it's no longer relevant to form a military pact," Coordinating Minister for Politics, Social Affairs and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

[On October 25, Associated Press reported that Shihab has admitted that Maness was not a spy saying: "He [Gelbard] told me that the American, who was suspected as a spy, is actually a tourist. It is normal for a tourist to take pictures and to travel around" - James Balowski.]

Regional conflicts

Uneasy calm descends in riot-torn Borneo city

Agence France-Presse - October 28, 2000

Jakarta -- A tense calm descended on the riot-torn city of Pontianak on Borneo island Saturday after three days of bloody ethnic clashes that killed at least 10 people, reports and the military said.

"Minibuses and cars are starting to fill up the city's main streets, things are starting to return to normal today," Major Sarjono of Pontianak's regional military command headquarters told AFP by phone.

As of Saturday, the fourth day since the first clashes between local Malays and Madurese settlers first erupted on Wednesday, a total of 10 people had died, according to the state Antara news agency, citing its own sources.

The clashes, in which the two sides used primitive weapons, erupted after a minor traffic accident which involved a local Malay motorcyclist and a Madurese bus driver.

The SCTV private television station said police had collected 40 Molotov cocktails, 23 home-made weapons and arrested 10 people in a sweep through the troubled areas of the city Saturday.

Sarjono said inter-island ferries at the Kapuas port -- which faces the military headquarters -- started to run on Saturday. He added that residents had also begun clearing up debris from torched homes and street stalls in most parts of Pontianak.

"People here are beginning to breathe easier," an ethnic Chinese photo studio owner who lives on the main Pattimura street in the city said, attributing the easing of tensions to the arrival of one reinforced mobile police battalion on Friday.

"I have opened my shop today, my neighbors are also doing the same thing. We are glad that the soldiers have arrived," she told AFP. She added that leaders of the feuding Malay and Madurese communities had reached an overnight agreement to end the violence.

The Madurese, an ethnic group from off Java, were the target of violent attacks by Malays, backed up by indigenous Dayak tribesmen, in West Kalimantan in 1999. Some 3,000 people perished in the months of violence there last year and tens of thousands of migrants were displaced. Borneo island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Pontianak clashes could spin out of control

Straits Times - October 28, 2000

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The latest outbreak of ethnic violence which erupted this week in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, may spin out of control as police struggle to control ethnic- Malay gangs who yesterday beheaded several Madurese youths and continued to roam the streets.

Early yesterday afternoon, gangs searching an area where Madurese reside, found four men and hacked them to death. The victims were then beheaded, said a journalist from a local paper.

The journalist added that the police were unable to stop the thousands of youths patrolling the streets as they were outnumbered.

The conflict has been restricted to local ethnic Malay and ethnic Madurese immigrants so far. But residents were concerned that the violence would explode if, as was rumoured, Dayaks from a neighbouring town arrived to help the gangs.

Dayaks, the original inhabitants of Borneo, resent the Madurese because they feel that the government has allocated their land to the Madurese. In 1997 and 1999, the Dayaks assisted the Malays in their attacks against the Madurese.

Social commentators say the conflict, which began with a small traffic accident between a Madurese bus driver and Malay motor cyclist, could easily be inflamed. This is because Madurese migrants have never felt that they have been welcomed by either the indigenous Dayaks or the Malays, or Melayus as they are sometimes referred to here. "The Melayu just want the Madurese to go," said Mr John Bambas, the director for the Institute of Dayakology.

Antagonism between the two ethnic groups has also been exacerbated ever since thousands of Madurese refugees fled to Pontianak 18 months ago from Sambas, 100 km north of Pontianak, following attacks on the Madurese migrants.

Official attempts at reconciliation between the two groups has been difficult. This is because the thousands of Madurese refugees camped in the city's stadium or around the city, have refused government offers to be relocated to areas outside Sambas. On the other hand, the Melayu community in Sambas has consistently refused to allow the Madurese to return.

The Madurese migrants began arriving in Pontianak, Sambas and other parts of Kalimantan 25 years ago. They were brought to the area under a Suharto-era scheme to move Indonesians from overcrowded areas such as Madura and Java to less populated islands.

And like transmigrants in other parts of Indonesia, they are resented. This was because the government provided them with land and housing while the indigenous population in the area often struggled to make a living from farming or had their community land given to the new settlers.

Professor Syarif Ibrahim Al Qadrie, a sociologist from Pontianak University, says relations between the two groups were difficult. "The Madurese are relatively strong willed. If they have a problem, they don't solve it by discussion but with a physical solution," he said.

He added that most of the refugees were very poor and were struggling to survive in the country. The rising crime rate suggested that many had turned to crime to support themselves.

Local leaders were also concerned that the ethnic conflict could be exploited by political leaders. Many have been calling for the West Kalimantan governor to resign and have attacked him over his failure to resolve the refugee crisis.

To quell the violence, Jakarta has sent hundreds of emergency police and began weapon searches. A police brigade of around 600 men arrived yesterday morning.

Streets in Pontianak, the capitol of West Kalimantan, have remained shut and private security guards for shops and businesses are still on alert. Clouds of smoke have also hung over the city as locals burnt Madurese-owned market stalls, cigarette kiosks, and becaks -- three -- wheeled vehicles -- over the last two days.

Until now, police have managed to prevent ethnic Malay gangs from attacking one of the major refugee centres -- a stadium on the outskirts of the city -- where thousands of Madurese have camped over the last year and a half. However, there have been rumours circulating in recent days that the Malay gangs are planning an attack on the refugees there soon and this has raised the level of tension in the city.

Death stalks migrants in Kalimantan

South China Morning Post - October 28, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Beheadings and chopping attacks between indigenous Malays and migrant Madurese in the West Kalimantan city of Pontianak have left at least seven dead, prompting a curfew and shoot-to-kill orders for hundreds of police rushed in by Jakarta.

Reports from the trading town peopled by Chinese, Malays and Dayaks, alongside migrants from the island of Madura, say mobs are coursing through the city as police fail to intervene.

"The situation remains very tense, there are still people massing at the moment, carrying machetes, long knives, homemade guns and other weapons," said police sergeant Ino, from Pontianak. "We hope they will calm down."

"The killings still continue and most of them were quite horrific ... one person was burnt alive," another policeman said from Pontianak, 750km over the Java Sea north of Jakarta. Injured arriving at the city's three main hospitals have suffered amputations, hackings and deep flesh wounds.

In one reported incident, a victim was taken from a police post and hacked and stabbed to death over several minutes as police stood by. At one stage, he tried to get into a police van for protection, but was pushed away from the vehicle by police.

Gangs wielding machetes and sickles guarded their territory. Shops and businesses are closed and neighbourhoods have been burned by angry crowds, which also prevented firemen from putting out blazes. Dozens of stores at the Flamboyan market, all belonging to migrant settlers, have been torched.

"It appears that the Madurese in the camps are now arming themselves, ready to defend against attacks," a source working in the area said. About 14,000 Madurese displaced by earlier rampages are in seven camps dotted around the city, while up to 35,000 others are in relatives' homes.

Pontianak mayor Buchary A. Rahman set a curfew on Thursday night, banning outdoor activities and gatherings between 9pm and 4am. But police and troops have so far been unable to assert control. Their own roadblocks are being over-ridden, while Malays and Dayaks are harassing outsiders at barricades.

"Next time I'll intervene so that any dispute can be settled in the courts, not in the streets -- where ethnic solidarity becomes the issue," Governor H. Aspar Aswin claimed. But soon after he ordered raids to confiscate weapons, warring groups continued a face-off on the streets.

Petrol stations were also closed and fuel has become scarce. Groups of Madurese were seen seeking refuge at the local police and military headquarters. The trigger for the rampage came on Wednesday, when a Madurese bus driver got into an argument with a Malay motorcyclist, leaving one man dead.

The ethnic violence explodes so viciously because of a background of economic and political competition. Though many Madurese have lived in West Kalimantan for two generations or more, their commercial aggression and perceived government perks have sparked rage among local groups.

Indigenous Malays and Dayaks, supported by the large Chinese community, insist they will not accept Madurese in the area or let them on to their land. This is why similar clashes broke out in 1997 and 1998, in which scores of Madurese migrants were hounded from their homes and hacked to death.

The local political scene is also a mess. The alliance of Chinese, Malays and Dayaks is calling for the removal of Governor Aswin. Daily demonstrations to this end at his office have become violent brawls, and the provincial legislature passed a vote of no-confidence in him last month.

At the same time, the Malaysian consulate in Pontianak has been attacked in a long-running row over the border between West Kalimantan and Malaysia's Sarawak. Claims about illegal logging by Malaysians or illegal smuggling of workers from Indonesia have marred relations and produced another focus to fuel local anger.

The fight for Maluku

Asiaweek - October 27, 2000

Amy Chew, Ambon -- It happened suddenly. A group of men armed with machetes and calling themselves Christians descended upon the small Ambon village in Indonesia's farflung Maluku islands. It was a Muslim village. Without hesitation Kojip, a community leader, stepped forward and offered his life in exchange for those of his family and friends. He asked only to be allowed to pray before he died. The mob agreed and took him to a mosque. Kojip, 41, said his final prayers and surrendered his life to God. Then the Christians held him down, slit his throat and chopped his head off. "His blood splattered all over the walls of the mosque and remains there today," recounts Kojip's younger sister, Samu. "If not for my brother, all of us would be dead. He is a hero." Samu now lives in an overcrowded and underfed refugee camp in Ambon, the southernmost main island of Indonesia's shattered Maluku group. Her brother was murdered almost two years ago, but Samu is not going home soon. Though villagers rebuilt about 200 houses, another mob of destroyers turned up soon after. Samu has nowhere to go.

Over the past 21 months there have been only two constants apart from death in Maluku, the old Spice Islands once lauded as the perfect example of Indonesians' ability to live in religious harmony. One is that despite some sustained lulls in fighting between Christians and Muslims, the partly tribal, partly economic, mostly religious violence keeps flaring. The second constant is the military. Most commentators believe that generals, retired or active, backed youth gangs accused of lighting the original fuse.

Reform-minded officers concede that foot soldiers, local or imported, took sides, transforming a communal melee of machetes and spears into a sustained carnage of guns and grenades. The entry to the fray of the paramilitary Islamic Laskar Jihad (holy war army -- which is trying to stir trouble and undermine the presidency of embattled Abdurrahman Wahid -- is said to have been both funded and directed by rogue forces. Maluku has become a crucible from which the New Order of old president Suharto is staging its fightback. And Maluku is where they just might win.

"We keep on being slaughtered here," says Agus Wattimena, who leads Christian paramilitary forces on the islands. While no one knows for sure, an estimated 10,000 people from the Maluku population of 2 million have died and about 500,000 are now displaced. The casualties on both sides are said to be about equal -- at least they were before the Laskar "preachers" arrived, toting guns suspected to have been supplied via the southern Philippines. Adds Agus: "What else can we do but seek help from outside? We cannot rely on the Indonesian security forces."

Four months ago the Christian community formally called on the United Nations to intervene on the islands -- a notion quickly rejected by Wahid. Last week a delegation from the European Union arrived to begin its own investigation.

From the bloated refugee camps on nearby Sulawesi, the risk of contagion is spreading. "My biggest worry is the disintegration of the country," says the naval commander in Maluku, Brig.-Gen. Djoko Sumaryono. Lt.-Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah, an outspoken reformist and former chief of the army's elite Kostrad force, thinks the violence was deliberately fostered, but is now out of control: "I am very sure the designer of the situation is in shock at the results. The security forces can do little."

Nobody supposes that the security forces can forge a peace anyway. Notes Human Rights Watch Asia: "The near-universal belief is that the violence in Ambon is one of a number of outbreaks of unrest around the country deliberately instigated by people loyal to former president Suharto, his family, a group of disgruntled army officers, or all of the above." What people really want, then, is for their president to gain control of the "rogues." Wahid speaks of the delicacy of the situation -- trying to harness the military without tipping the country over into social disintegration.

Trying to rein in the malcontents while maintaining the strong, well-disciplined force that Indonesia needs. Trying to empower those loyal to his reform agenda without further demoralizing and angering those long familiar with being the law. Yet while this sophisticated Javanese shadow play is performed, the Maluku slaughter continues.

"Wahid has to be careful," says a presidential palace source. "He cannot move too much or too soon, otherwise it will backfire." The source estimates that Wahid has the support of 90% of both the navy and the airforce. But from the army, which comprises more than half of Indonesia's military, backing is less than 50%. "A demilitarization which is too fast could lead to remilitarization," the source adds. "When his support in the army passes 50% and he consolidates his power, he will be able to take firm action." Djuanda, a foreign ministry staffer and former naval intelligence officer, bluntly disagrees: "Gus Dur [Wahid] cannot control the violence in Maluku or elsewhere because the military persons in this game are too strong."

Yet Maluku also encapsulates a terrifying truth: Wahid might not have control over the army, but the army also cannot control itself. Suddenly cut loose from their benefactor Suharto, the security forces are as disoriented and insecure as many of their countrymen. Military men say a huge problem in Maluku is that the intelligence network is fractious, untrustworthy and unable to deliver reliable information. Says Djuanda: "In the army, there is no one strong general. The commanders are fighting with each other. As a result, their men are vulnerable to being instigated, influenced or paid to commit crimes or wrongdoings." The proof of these claims can be found in Ambon, the main flashpoint of the Maluku mess. The eponymous main city has been reduced to a rubble where children amuse themselves with broken guns or mortar shells that were once military property. Snipers, many of them police or military deserters, pick off those who try to breach the patchwork of Christian and Muslim enclaves.

And divisions within the islands are hardening to a point almost beyond repair. When security forces first arrived in Ambon to try to separate the warring factions, the result was even more conflict. Predominantly Muslim members of an elite Kostrad unit dispatched from nearby Sulawesi were accused of siding with Muslim vigilantes and using excessive force against Christians. Muslims charged that the police force also was acting with bias.

Commanders have been placed and replaced. The present head of security is a Hindu, appointed especially to ensure some neutrality. Former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono confirms that the police and Kostrad men took opposite sides in the beginning, adding that local soldiers also became involved "because they had families who had been killed." Many of those "organic" forces were shipped out. But their replacements are forced to shelter in gutted or partially destroyed shops and offices. They collect water from a community pump and often rely on locals for food. "As such, when a riot breaks out these soldiers take sides with the villagers who fed them," says a senior officer.

There were terrible military mistakes, as well. One unit of troops dispatched to Ambon was a construction battalion, trained to rebuild war-torn areas, not to quell violence. "When the soldiers got here, they were upset to find that they had to fight," says an Ambon military source. "They were also scared. They could not separate the warring parties. One or two of them vented their frustration by shooting at the people."

Officers also must contend with the Laskar Jihad, a largely ad hoc group of Muslim agitators, whose arrival in May merely underlined Wahid's shaky authority. The president gave express orders that the fighters not be allowed to leave Java. Yet they not only succeeded in boarding ships to Ambon, they were allowed to disembark with their weapons once there. Maluku Muslim leader Abdullah Soulissas says the jihad is providing only moral support. But according to former minister Juwono, the funding for the Laskar Jihad came from Jakarta. "It was a mixture -- former cabinet ministers, senior officers and generals who served under Suharto," he says. "But the difficulty was getting legal evidence to apprehend them." Juwono believes many of the fighters have been recruited from Indonesia's growing lake of 37 million unemployed. "If you have the money, you can always instigate or foment a demonstration, whether it's for two hours or two days, two weeks or two months," he says. "Money does talk." Christians claim soldiers are switching to the white robes of the Jihad to cover up their activities.

David, a 28-year-old Christian, leads a small band of teenagers who patrol the frontlines near his ruined Ambon village. A mob armed with grenades, mortars and guns descended on his home late last year. He says they called themselves Muslims, yet were soldiers foremost. "I saw them with my own eyes," he recounts. "The soldiers put on white Muslim garbs and then launched the attack using standard military weapons. After that they got Muslims from the local community to loot and set fire to the houses." David says his aunt and uncle were killed as they tried to escape and their bodies were mutilated. He saw a friend hacked to death, then decapitated. "The mobs impaled his head on a stick and paraded it round the village."

Can the war end? Will Wahid win? Agus, the former Kostrad chief, is himself a depressing example of how little control the president maintains. When Agus began exposing corruption in a bid to clear out army rogues, Wahid was apparently forced to appease his generals by relieving him of his post. So does Agus see a solution for Maluku? "If we are able to cut the external influence from Ambon and able to develop the importance of human relationships, I am very sure, some day, there will be peace," he says. Some day.

Bad Times, Worst Times

December 1998, Jakarta - About 200 Ambonese Christian youths are deported to Ambon after a fight against Muslim Ambonese gangs over control of territory in a red-light district.

January 1999, Ambon - A disagreement between a Christian bus driver and a Muslim passenger spills over into a street brawl. In rioting that follows over the next two months, between 200 and 1,000 Ambonese are killed. Ambon city divides into patchworks of guarded religious enclaves. Local militias patrol with machetes.

March 1999, Ambon - The government sends an elite army force from Sulawesi to restore order. Christians claim the soldiers side with the Muslims, while Muslims claim the police force favors the Christians.

July 1999, Halmahera - Fighting spreads north to the predominantly Muslim main island of Halmahera Ripples of conflict engulf the minor islands all around Maluku.

January 2000, Haruku - Frustrated security forces fire on rioting civilians. About 300 men wearing white robes use machine guns and grenades to level a Christian village.

April 2000, Jakarta - Members of the paramilitary Laskar Jihad agitate for support for Maluku Muslims. Some Muslim leaders back their call. Laskar chief Jafar Umar Thalib goes to the presidential palace at the head of a mob carrying swords and spears. President Wahid sees him in his office, then expels him after a few minutes.

May 2000, Ambon - Orders from Wahid to prevent the jihad from reaching Maluku are ignored. About 3,000 armed fighters arrive in Ambon and Halmahera, then take control of Ternate island.

June 2000, Jakarta - Justice Minister Jusril Mahendra defends the jihad, saying members have a right to travel freely. The government declares a state of civil emergency. About 300 refugees drown when a ferry from Maluku to Sulawesi sinks.

July 2000, Surabaya - Wahid rejects a plea by Maluku Christians for the United Nations to send a peace-keeping force." -- would have risked the "imbecility" of direct military confrontation. Mr Hayden said this would have attracted no support from the region, or the United States.

Five killed, four injured in ethnic clashes on Borneo

Agence France-Presse - October 26, 2000

Jakarta -- At least five people were killed and four injured in renewed clashes between local Malays and settlers in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo on Thursday, reports and the military said.

The casualties brought the total known killed and injured since the clashes first erupted late on Wednesday over a minor traffic accident in the capital city of Pontianak to six dead and eight injured. The accident involved a Malay motorcyclist and a bus driver from Madura, off east Java.

Thursday's fatalities were identified by the state Antara news agency as two unidentified men in the city's Sungai Jawi area and three others near Pahlawan street. Antara also said that four men suffering various injuries had also been admitted late Thursday to the state Sudarso hospital.

West Kalimantan police chief Brigadier General Atok Krismanto was quoted by the SCTV private television as saying that he had instructed his men to carry out a shoot to kill orders -- if needed -- to stop the fighting. Huge columns of smoke could still be seen from many parts of Pontianak until late Thursday, Antara said.

Earlier on Thursday, military police First Lieutenant Hadiono told AFP from Pontianak that "one man died in a skirmish following the accident" on Wednesday, which also injured two civilians and two policemen. "Street stalls which had been abandoned by the Madurese were also set on fire from around 6pm until midnight," he said, adding that the victim's identity was unknown.

Pontianak had been "under control" early on Thursday, Hadiono said, but fighting erupted again just before midday between the two feuding ethnic groups in the Sungai Jawi Dalam area of the city. A male nurse, who identified himself only as Iwan, at the Sudarso state hospital told AFP a Madurese man was admitted at around noon with injuries to his chest and face.

First Sergeant Ismail of Pontianak military police told AFP that joint security troops had set up road blocks in the city's main streets. He said four of Pontianak's main markets were closed and that many Chinese-owned businesses had also downed their shutters. "The city is still quite tense, everybody prefers to stay inside their homes ... but we're still on guard," Ismail said.

The Madurese, a hardworking but aggressive ethnic group, were the target of violent attacks by Malays, backed up by indigenous Dayak tribesmen, in West Kalimantan in 1999. Some 3,000 people perished in the months of violence there last year and tens of thousands of migrants were displaced. Borneo island is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Police intervene to stop ethnic clash in Borneo

Straits Times - October 26, 2000

Pontianak -- Indonesian riot police fired blanks to keep apart two feuding communities yesterday after a row erupted between locals and migrants in the western part of Borneo island.

By mid-afternoon, police in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak were stationed between local Malays and migrants from the island of Madura, off Java.

The two groups of about 200 each, wielding machetes, swords, sickles and homemade spears, were just 25 metres apart. Witnesses said the confrontation began after a minor accident in which a bus driven by a Madura migrant clipped a Malay motorcyclist.

Pontianak's streets were largely deserted as residents, fearing the tense stand-off could ignite a repeat of previous bloody ethnic clashes, cowered in their homes. It was also a Muslim public holiday throughout Indonesia.

Elsewhere, clashes between Christians and Muslims flared up in Indonesia's troubled Maluku Islands, killing at least seven people. A Muslim cleric, Malik Selang, of Ambon's main Al-Fatah Mosque, said six Muslims had been killed in Monday's fighting in Kairatu, a town on Seram Island. A soldier was also killed.

The violence started when a Muslim group ambushed a bus carrying Christians on the island, 2,300 km east of Jakarta, he said. As many as 17 houses were burned before soldiers fired on the Muslim attackers. Christian gangs also joined the fighting. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the Malukus since sectarian fighting erupted in January last year.

Aceh/West Papua

Separatist flag 'will keep flying' in south

South China Morning Post - October 28, 2000

Chris McCall, Merauke -- West Papuans will not let the separatist flag be brought down in the south even if their leaders agree, their regional chief says.

Januarius Wiwaron's vow came amid heightened tension in the vast southern district of Merauke, where separatist Papuan Guards killed a non-Papuan migrant earlier this year. At about the same time, a pro-independence Papuan was shot and killed by police during a demonstration.

Mr Wiwaron estimated 1,000 copies of the banned Morning Star flag were still flying in the district. With more than 300,000 people, it covers virtually the entire area south of the central Jayawijaya mountains.

The price of bringing the flag down would be chaos, he warned, blaming Jakarta politicians for inconsistent and confusing statements. "It is just like children with a kite. Let it go up, let it go down. But the Papuan people say -- no, it is not a kite," said Mr Wiwaron, regional chairman of the Papuan Panel.

Since non-Papuan migrants were slaughtered in the hill town of Wamena earlier this month, tension has grown in Merauke town, which also has a large migrant community. Some migrants have started making home-made weapons to defend themselves in case of attack, despite assurances they are safe from separatist leaders.

Mr Wiwaron said the flag was unlikely to come down on orders from separatist leader Theys Eluay, who hails from the north. "The people say no. The traditional elders say it has gone up, let it stay up. They will still reject it. It would mean the Papuan people have lost and we cannot be independent. It stays up until we get independence -- that is what the people say. They are stubborn. In Merauke town maybe it can be brought down. But if it is, later there will be chaos."

Despite a crackdown in Wamena, the separatist flag is still flying freely in Merauke town. Police have issued four separate deadlines for it to come down, the most recent on October 19 when a province-wide deadline was issued. So far none have been met.

In the vast southern plains of West Papua, the Morning Star flag was still flying in virtually every village, Mr Wiwaron said, generally at the offices of cultural associations and at the homes of village heads.

Mr Wiwaron said there was an understanding that separatists would discuss the issue with police again in the first week of December. However, he predicted another delay and said there would definitely be no agreement before Mr Eluay met President Abdurrahman Wahid to discuss the issue. "They must meet," Mr Wiwaron said.

Three rebels shot dead in Indonesia's troubled Aceh

Agence France-Presse - October 25, 2000

Jakarta -- Indonesian forces shot dead three alleged rebels during armed clashes in the troubled province of Aceh in north Sumatra, as separatist representatives seek a team to probe the escalating violence there, reports said Wednesday.

A raid by three platoons of security forces on a suspected rebel headquarters in Cot Baro Tepi Raya village in the Glumpang Tiga subdistrict of Pidie district on Saturday led to a clash during which three suspected rebels were killed, the state Antara news agency said.

One of the victims was Teungku Yahya, the deputy commander of the rebel command in Pidie, according to a release from the national police cited by Antara. Security forces also confiscated one M-16 automatic rifle, one revolver, ammunition for grenade launchers, one grenade and several home-made bombs.

Violence between government and rebel forces has continued unabated despite the extention of a three-month truce last month. Representatives of the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) separatist movement (GAM) who are monitoring the truce have called for a team to investigate into the continuing violence in the territory, Antara said.

"We think such a team in Aceh is necessary in order to know the real violators of the second Humanitarian Pause in the province," GAM's spokesman for the Security Modality Monitoring team, Nasrullah Dahlawy, was quoted by Antara as saying. The "Humanitarian Pause" is the official term for the truce, which is now extended until January.

Dahlawy said the team should not only monitor but should also assess and make conclusions about the violence. He cited a similar team in Kosovo which was popularly called "Verification Mission", manned by foreign civilians to monitor any conflict. "This is quite good for Aceh at present."

Members of the "Aceh Verification Mission" could come from "neutral countries," -- countries who have not stated their position on the Aceh conflict, Dahlawy suggested.

"The team may find those who fire first, kill people, burn schools and government offices and others," he said. But vice chief of police operations in Aceh, Superintendent Yatim Suyatmo, dismissed the proposal as "not too urgent." "I think it is not the right time to accept the presence of foreigners in Aceh, as their unbiased attitude in doing the job is still questionable," Suyatmo said.

GAM has waged a guerrilla war since 1976 for an independent Islamic state in Aceh, a resource-rich region on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Military brutality during a nine-year long government operation that ended in 1998, and the perceived exploitation of Aceh's oil and gas reserves by Jakarta has fed separatist sentiment in the province.

Separatists and police point finger over riots

South China Morning Post - October 26, 2000

Chris McCall, Wamena -- Separatist leaders in Irian Jaya'stense Baliem Valley say they are under police pressure to accept sole responsibility for bloody riots this month, but have so far resisted. Their claim came amid a military build-up in the valley ahead of December 1, the date Irian Jayans regard as their independence day.

The valley's top separatist leader said he prevented two colleagues from signing statements that could have been interpreted as admissions of guilt. They would probably have gone to jail if they had signed. "I objected. I said you cannot," said Obed Komba, the region's representative on the Papuan Presidium Council.

Mr Komba said he had to sign a declaration stating he was willing to go to jail if his colleagues -- Murjono Murib and Yafeth Yelemaken -- absconded or failed to bring in the alleged perpetrators of the October 6 violence. "I said I would take responsibility because I want independence," Mr Komba said.

The riots, which Papuans said were triggered by a police attempt to remove the separatist Morning Star flag, left dozens dead.

Mr Komba said the other two men believed facts about the riots would clear their names, adding he told them police failed to follow correct legal procedures. The three men have been repeatedly interrogated and are expected to report almost daily to police in Wamena, the valley's main town.

Some 17 Papuans have been arrested over the riots, many over gruesome killings of non-Papuan migrants, but no police officers have been investigated. Human rights monitors have demanded an impartial probe, with action against the killers on both sides.

Security posts of the Papuan Guards, a pro-independence militia, have been torn down since the riots, while hundreds of police and military reinforcements have been flown in. Tourist numbers have plummeted, while travelling around the valley has become increasingly difficult.

"In the villages, it is calm but they are starting to be scared because the Papuan Guards' posts have been taken apart and very many security forces have come in from outside," Mr Komba said.

Jakarta wants the separatist flag lowered across the province, arguing it violates Indonesian sovereignty. Papuans, however, say they have not given up hope for independence for what they call West Papua. They say many of the flags will be raised when separatist leader Theys Eluay gives the order.

The main test of wills could come on the key anniversary. "On December 1, the flag will fly if there is an order from the Presidium. Because we were scared, we have hidden them," said one community leader.

To avoid further violence, Mr Komba and others signed a security agreement. Despite Papuans' suppressed anger over the document, which they see as biased against them, their leaders insist they have not renounced the right to hold political discussions and demand independence. "We say freedom is at the price of death. It is simply non-negotiable," Mr Komba said.

`Independence, or death'

Straits Times - October 25, 2000

[Who is a Free Aceh rebel, how does he operate, and what fuels Aceh's separatist war? Lee Kim Chew visited the guerilla bases in the strife-torn north Sumatran province to find out. This is the first of three articles.]

It was a perfect day for a shoot-out -- clear, bright, and bloodless thus far. The first shots fired in anger that morning in the wooded hills of rural North Aceh came from an ambush which the guerillas of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had set up for Brimob, the Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade.

The encounter was short and sharp, as the rebels used hit-and-run tactics. They withdrew when the security forces poured in reinforcements. The score this round: one Brimob police killed, along with a villager caught in the crossfire.

This was just one of many skirmishes the security forces have had with the underground GAM since the so-called "humanitarian pause" was declared in July to stop hostilities as peace talks in Geneva between the two sides got underway.

Aceh, stuck in a separatist war, is into a new bout of blood- letting. According to the police, 74 people have been killed in the violence in the past 10 months, adding to the thousands of casualties over the decade.

Tension is high in the hot spots. In Lhokseumawe, Brimob, backed by the military, patrol the streets in heavy, fortified trucks, ever ready to shoot. The troops, mostly Javanese, are in hostile and dangerous territory. They carry guns wherever they go. All police posts in the province are fronted with sandbags and roads are barricaded to slow down sneak attackers. Few people travel at night.

People in Aceh have grown used to reprisals, arson, abductions, murders. In Ulee Gle, Pidie regency, what used to be 150 shops smouldered in ruins after Brimob torched them in retaliation against a GAM attack on a police post.

Even the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, is not spared, and small incidents add fuel to fire. A fusillade of shots followed by machine gun fire shattered a quiet afternoon last Tuesday near the campus of Syah Kuala University. In its wake, two cows grazing by the road dropped dead.

"Brimob shot them," a bystander said. "Even the cows are not spared." The jumpy troops had apparently shot the cattle out of frustration. Said a resident: "Sometimes they just shoot into the air to frighten the people. Some of the shooting incidents are staged. They raise tension, give them a pretext to occupy Aceh. "We don't know when this war will end. Acehnese talk about independence and Jakarta talks about autonomy. The Acehnese people are not interested in autonomy."

Fighting between the GAM guerillas and security forces has intensified as both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire. Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud charged the rebels with committing treason, and Jakarta's lawmakers are thinking of imposing "civilian emergency" in Aceh to give the security forces more powers to put down the rebellion.

Just as Jakarta's tough response will make things worse as the separatist war hots up, GAM's violent campaign is unlikely to turn the tide in favour of Acehnese independence. More likely, GAM's hardline stance will stiffen the military's determination to use even more force in Aceh. What is President Abdurrahman Wahid up against?

GAM, an underground movement, is led by Hasan di Tiro, a self- exiled Acehnese leader living in Sweden. The GAM guerilla fighting for independence is invariably a local-born Acehnese, locally educated, intensely Islamic and he nurses a visceral hatred for what Acehnese call "Javanese imperialism".

Take Mr X, a chain-smoking, weather-beaten local chieftain who speaks in Acehnese twang with his beady eyes closed for concentration. "No one in Aceh believes what the government says," he railed. "The Javanese kill Acehnese. They've committed atrocities against us and violated our rights. We are a repressed people."

He insisted on total anonymity for the interview. "No name, no pictures, no place," he said. Not even his nom de guerre. "It's dangerous. Things are a bit hot now." In his black songkok, hangout long-sleeved shirt, sarong, and fake Gianni Versace sandals, this GAM operative is your everyday Acehnese.

Said Mr X: "Acehnese don't want anything from the Javanese central government. We think of nothing else but the day when we will win our freedom. "Aceh has suffered a lot. The government takes all it can and gives little in return. Whether it takes 10 years or 100 years, Acehnese will continue to fight for independence."

What if Mr Hasan accepts the special autonomy that Jakarta is offering? "Then we Acehnese will kill him," he said without hesitation. Is this incendiary separatist talk for propagandistic effect, or does it reflect the depth of his alienation? Probably both.

Anti-Jakarta sentiments are palpable and widespread in Aceh. Mr Hasan, who is engaged for the first time in political talks with Jakarta to seek a solution to the Acehnese problem, is as much GAM's leader as he is a captive of the movement he founded in 1976.

Mr X often delved into Acehnese history during the interview. "We've fought the Dutch. Now we fight the Indonesians. We are not afraid," he said. He is 60 years old.

Tengku Salahudin, a GAM commander in North Aceh, is 35. A marked man for the security forces, he seldom leaves his district. What is he fighting for?

"To take back our country from the Javanese," he replied. "It's independence or death." That is a political slogan. "No," he insisted. "There cannot be peace without independence. That's the choice of all Acehnese." This is jihad (a holy war)? "No, this is a struggle for statehood," he said.

If he died fighting, he vowed, his children would continue his struggle. His eldest child is six years old. This is the hardcore which Jakarta has little hope of winning over.

Some estimate that about one tenth of the 3.5 million Acehnese are die-hard GAM supporters. On the other side of the divide, about the same number are pro-Indonesia.

Banned flags removed in battle of wills

South China Morning Post - October 25, 2000

Chris McCall, Wamena -- Police in Irian Jaya's remote Baliem Valley say they have removed all separatist Morning Star flags from the troubled region. Police chief Superintendent Daniel Suripatty vowed the flags would stay down permanently.

Anyone raising the symbol of West Papuan independence would face legal action for violating Indonesia's sovereignty, Superintendent Suripatty said.

In Jakarta, President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday met the leader of the Irian Jaya independence movement, Theys Eluay, to discuss rising violence in the remote province. It was the first such meeting since 32 people were killed in violence that erupted after police using chainsaws hacked down poles flying the separatist flag in Wamena.

Mr Eluay, who left the meeting after 20 minutes, said: "There are still differences of opinion between Gus Dur [Mr Wahid's nickname] and the people of Papua."

Getting the contentious flags down in at least one major area is a victory for the authorities in a battle of wills. It follows an influx of police and military reinforcements into the valley after violence broke out on October 6 when police first tried to lower the flag in Wamena. The move prompted an angry backlash from indigenous people, who fought running battles for hours with arrows and spears.

After slow initial progress in the wake of the riots, the last of the flags was taken down at the weekend in the remote village of Tiom. A total of 29 Morning Star flags were removed in Wamena itself and many more in the surrounding districts. Under an agreement reached earlier this year, the separatists were allowed to fly just one of the flags in each district.

"We banned it," said Superintendent Suripatty, blaming the pro- independence camp for not sticking to the earlier agreement. "Twenty-nine is too many. Now they cannot fly one."

Jakarta is insisting the flag must come down across the province, although the police extended an October 19 deadline amid fears of new violence. On the island of Yapen, an area where particularly large numbers of the Morning Star flags are flying, the local police chief has set his own deadline of next Tuesday.

Almost three weeks after the fighting, Wamena remains calm but tense, with obvious distrust between the indigenous people and the migrants. Riot police with assault rifles can now be seen throughout the town, where the Indonesian flag now flies alone.

Police are still interrogating almost daily the senior pro- independence leaders, who have signed a form of "agreement". But many Papuans are unhappy with what they see as a one-sided deal.

Their leaders admit they felt pressured into signing it for the sake of preventing more bloodshed. The agreement obliged them not only to ensure the flags went down and stayed down but also to "guarantee" there was no further violence.

Superintendent Suripatty said the move was necessary. "Are they happy with peace or happy with chaos?" he said, adding that the separatist leaders were being questioned because they were responsible for the violence. "They said Papua was independent and it is not yet," he said. The police chief said officers were prepared for December 1, the day West Papuans regarded as "independence day".

Migrants trapped in Irian Jaya hinterland

Agence France-Presse - October 23, 2000 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Some 65 migrants were trapped in a hinterland town in Indonesia's separatist province of Irian Jaya after thousands of local tribesmen prevented them from leaving, a report said Monday.

The migrants were not under detention but were not allowed to leave Tiom, a town some 270 kilometres west of Wamena, the Kompas daily said, quoting three teachers who had managed to slip away.

An officer on duty at the police station in Wamena declined comment, referring queries to the police chief, but he could not be reached. The teachers had slipped through the siege on Tiom hidden in the back of a truck driven by a local resident, Kompas said.

They said that thousands of tribesmen, armed with bows and arrows, spears and stone axes, had surrounded Tiom and practically imposed town arrest on some 65 migrants there. "We were banned from going anywhere," said Hendrik Maurius, one of the three who escaped.

He said that the tribesmen had also threatened to kill all the migrants in Tiom if Indonesian security personnel attempted to forcefully lower the Morning Star separatist flag raised there. Those still trapped in Tiom were mostly teachers, government employees and members of the security forces and their families, they said.

Kompas said that the administrative and military chiefs of the Jayawijaya district, which covers Tiom, had attempted to land there by helicopter on Saturday but had to fly back to Wamena because of local hostility.

Members of the presidium of the pro-independence Papua Counicl had also attempted to land in Tiom using a small aircraft but were prevented by a hostile mob on the ground.

The men who escaped said a group of armed tribesmen was guarding the Tiom airstrip following rumors that members of the Papua Council presidium were to land there to bring the Morning Star down.

Indonesian security minister blasts Papua separatists

Agence France-Presse - October 23, 2000

Jakarta -- Indonesia's top security minister on Monday defended the actions of police who shot dead separatist supporters during a protest in remote Irian Jaya province 17 days ago, sparking riots that killed 31 people.

"The police acted proportionately to the unrest," Coordinating Minister for Political, Security and Social Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, told a luncheon with foreign journalists here.

"There was some sort of resentment against the police action, which caused casualties among the police, and also the indigenous people organised within the [pro-independence] Papua Taskforce," he added. Police opened fire on pro-independence Papuans protesting against the removal of Morning Star separatist flags in the hinterland town of Wamena on October 6, killing four.

Another two died from bullet wounds during later clashes between the police and the pro-independence supporters, hospital and human rights sources have said.

The shootings enraged members of the Papua Taskforce, a pro- independence civilian paramilitary organisation, who with residents from surrounding hills, then attacked police and migrant settlers, killing 25 of the settlers.

Yudhoyono also lashed at the Papua Council and its Presidium, the bodies now spearheading the independence push, for abusing the government's trust and for seeking the support of Pacific nations.

He said the bodies had swayed from their original role of helping the government to implement wide-ranging autonomy for the province. "Unfortunately the trust given by the government has been misused and these establishments have been used to proclaim the independence of Papua," he said.

Yudhoyono said the Papua People's Congress last June had "made it known that there is an intention to declare the independence of Papua on December 1, 2000." "The members of the Papua People's Council have gone to several foreign capitals to rally support and assistance for their aspirations for independence," he said.

"Cooperation has been initiated with several Pacific countries such as Vanuatu and Nauru who have in turn supported the independence of Papua at the UN's millennium summit."

Yudhoyono called the Papua Taskforce, claimed by its leaders to have tens of thousands of members, the "embryonic armed forces of independent Papua."

The Indonesian cabinet has adopted a new intolerant approach to expressions of separatism in Irian Jaya since the Wamena riots, declaring a ban on the Morning Star flag within a week of the incident. Yudhoyono repeated the cabinet's position on the flag, calling it a "political symbol of an independent Papua."

He was speaking as separatist leaders tried to arrange a meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid to obtain his direct instruction concerning the flag.

The cabinet ban is a reverse of the tolerant approach initiated by Wahid in December last year when he declared the Morning Star could be flown, provided it was alongside and below the national Indonesian flag.

In August this year, Wahid told the 700-seat national assembly he would not tolerate separatist moves in the province, pledging broad autonomy instead. Yudhhoyono said special wide-ranging autonomy would be implemented in Irian Jaya on May 1 next year.

The central government's perceived exploitation of the province's vast mineral resources, years of neglect and the dominance of commercial life and the civil service by migrant settlers have fed separatist sentiments there.

Independence leaders have made increasingly vociferous calls for secession in recent years, peaking with the June congress in which they demanded Jakarta recognise that Papua had been independent since 1961.

They say a UN-conducted "act of free choice" in 1969, which led to the former Dutch territory becoming part of Indonesia, was unrepresentative. About three-quarters of Irian Jaya's roughly 2.5 million population are indigenous Melanesians, spread across 253 predominantly Christian tribes.

Another four dead, including a child, in Aceh violence

Agence France-Presse - October 22, 2000

Banda Aceh -- At least four civilians, including a five-year-old child, were killed and three others seriously injured in the latest violence in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said Sunday.

The five-year-boy and a man were killed by stray bullets during a shootout between rebel separatists and Indonesian security forces following a landmine explosion in the Pidie district on Saturday, Pidie police chief Heru Budi Ersanto said.

The police truck hit the landmine while on the main state highway between Beureuneun and Tiro in Pidie district on Saturday, but there were no casualties, Assistant Superintendent Ersanto said.

Troops dispatched to the area to look for the assailants came across a group of rebels and a shootout ensued in which the two victims were killed and three others were seriously injured.

All the victims had been working in a field near the shootout or were passing by when they were shot, residents said. The injured were rushed to the general hospital in Banda Aceh.

Ersanto said that the troops were attacked first, while local rebel spokesman Abu Razak claimed that a group of rebels on motorcycles inadvertently ran into the soldiers. No rebels or troops were killed in the shoot out. Four civilians were later arrested over the landmine.

"They are only detained for questioning and if they turn out not to be linked [to the landmine] we will return them to their families," Ersanto said.

Meanwhile, in the North Aceh district, two civilians, including a member of the Aceh Merdeka (GAM) separatist movement, were shot dead by security forces in two separate incidents on Saturday.

One man was shot in Madan village, in the Samudra Geudong sub- district while another was shot dead in Buloh Blang Ara in the Kuta Makmur district, Aceh police spokesman, Superintendant Yatim Suyatmo said.

In Buloh Blang Ara, a police patrol shot the rider of a motorcycle during a roadchek. "When he [the motorcycle rider] was stopped, the victim resisted and a fist fight broke out with Corporal Unang. But then Kadir [the victim] pulled a handgrenade out of his trousers and the the personnel shot him and he was hit in the chest" Suyatmo said. The victim died on the spot, he added.

But Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki, the spokesman of the joint committee for security modalities, one of the two committees set up to oversee an extended three month truce between the rebel and government forces, said the victim was a motorcycle taxi driver.

At the road check, the driver's license and motorcycle documents were confiscated and the driver told to return to after dropping his passenger, Amni said. But he was tortured for some 30 minutes, before taken to the back of the military station there and executed, said Amni, a GAM representative on the committee.

On the incident in Madan village, Suyatmo said that the victim was shot as he tried to run away when he met a police patrol there. Warning shots were fired in the air, but as the shots went unheeded, "the security personnel were forced to shoot the victim," he said. The GAM deputy commander for the area, Sofyan Daud told AFP that the victim was a GAM member but that he was shot while he was having coffee at a roadside stall.

In another incident, the empty office of the public prosecutor in Bireun in East Aceh was early on Saturday torched by unknown men, residents there said.

GAM has waged a guerrilla war for more than 20 years for an independent state of Aceh, a resource-rich region on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Military brutality during a nine-year long government operation that ended in 1998, and the perceived exploitation of Aceh's oil and gas reserves by Jakarta has fed the separatist sentiment.

Jakarta and the rebels in mid-September agreed to prolong a truce by another three months. But it has so far failed to reduce violence.

Hush, as 'Great Leader' arrives

South China Morning Post - October 23, 2000

Vaudine England -- Excitement pervaded the airport at Sentani, near Irian Jaya's capital Jayapura. As tourists and missionaries tried to collect their luggage, suspense rippled through the crowd of indigenous Papuans.

Black-garbed members of the pro-independence militia, Satgas Papua, formed two lines, shouldering aside anyone in the way. All at once they sprang to attention and saluted, as a hush fell over the arrivals hall.

It was an example of the adulation accorded to members of the Papuan independence movement, and particularly to the self-styled "Great Leader of the Papuan people", Theys Eluay.

Born on November 12, 1937, into the leadership of the Sentani tribe, he has been present at most key moments in his land's history. His wife belongs to the Ohee clan, which took the provincial government to the High Court a few years ago over a land dispute. Mr Eluay was a signatory to the 1969 "Act of Free Choice", through which 1,000 hand-picked tribal elders signed their approval of Irian Jaya as an Indonesian province. That Act is now the target of Mr Eluay's and his colleagues' ire.

Turning his back on this collaborationist past, he recanted in a long interview in the Cenderawasih Post, of Jayapura, in November 1998. "How could we fight before? We had nothing in our hands," he said. "If we fought we would have been finished. Now everything is different."

Mr Eluay was a member of the provincial parliament, representing Suharto's Golkar party for several terms. He retained power on the provincial customary council. Just before the June 1999 election, he announced he was resigning from Golkar and would start a West Papuan Party, which has yet to materialise.

Mr Eluay's support for Papuan freedom has since become more vocal. On December 1, 1999, he announced the "inevitability" of Papuan independence and focused the growing independence sentiment on flag-raising ceremonies. The flag still flies on the pole at his home in Sentani.

He has been arrested and detained from time to time. At the June 2000 Independence Congress in Jayapura, Mr Eluay was elected president of the newly formed Papua Presidium, a group of indigenous leaders keen to moderate between the independence movement and Jakarta.

Many Papuans and observers wonder how to judge Mr Eluay. They note that his best friend seems to be Yorrys Raweyai, deputy chairman of Suharto's social control and thuggery organisation, Pemuda Pancasila. They wonder where the money is coming from to pay for the flags, t-shirts and uniforms for the Satgas Papua run by Mr Eluay's son, Boy Eluay.

The ambivalence contributes to the fears of rights activists and others that a conflict is being deliberately stoked in Irian Jaya in order to justify a crackdown.

Amid fears that the Papuan leadership can be easily divided and manipulated by Jakarta, Mr Eluay is the firebrand of the independence cause. "If the [Indonesian] Government uses violence, go ahead. We will not. The world will see who will use violence. Only the wrong use violence," he said.

Human rights/law

`Bob' Hasan in bank probe

Reuters - October 25, 2000

Jakarta -- Indonesia signalled its intention to crack down on bosses of failed banks yesterday, naming timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan and two other businessmen as suspects in probes over the collapse of their financial institutions.

Hasan, former President Suharto's golf buddy and already on trial for graft, was named over the suspected misuse of US$1.3 billion in emergency credits extended to his now defunct bank, the Attorney-General's spokesman Yushar Yahya said.

The three join another leading tycoon and major debtor to the state, Syamsul Nursalim, who on Monday was declared a suspect in a similar probe over the collapse of Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia (BDNI).

Many former owners of failed banks were close to Mr Suharto. The banks received nearly 200 trillion rupiah from the central bank in a largely failed attempt to prop up the sector at the height of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.

"Bob Hasan is a suspect over the suspected misuse of liquidity credits worth 12 trillion rupiah," Mr Yahya said. He said Nursalim had been named a suspect over losses to the state of 7.2 trillion rupiah caused by the central bank liquidity credits being funnelled to BDNI, which was part of the Gajah Tunggal Group he heads.

The other two lower-profile businessmen were Samadikun Hartono of Bank Modern and Wiryatim Nusa of Bank Umum Servitia. Both banks have also been shut. Of the four, only Hasan is in detention.

PRD chariman demands supreme court intervention

Detik - October 24, 2000

Djoko Tjiptono/Hendra & GB, Jakarta -- Chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) Budiman Sudjatmiko met the National Ombudsman Commission and then went to the Supreme Court to protest the handling of the party's case against 13 high ranking military and civil officials who blamed the PRD for the 27 July 1996 incident.

As reported widely, on 27 July 1996 supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri, now Vice President, were violently attacked by hired thugs backed by military and police at the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). The supporters had been holed up in the building for around one month after Megawati was ousted from the PDI leadership in an internal party `coup' orchestrated by the New Order regime of former president Suharto.

The PRD, formed by student activists in 1996, were drawn into supporting Megawati along with many other activists at the time because of the government sponsored `coup' and her standing as an `opposition' leader.

At least 5 died in the riots that ensued in Jakarta and an unknown number of others `disappeared' in the following weeks and months. The government then launched a smear campaign against the PRD, claiming they incited the riots and were communists. Budiman and many other party members were later jailed for three or more years on `subversion' and other charges.

The Party has since began proceedings through the Central Jakarta District Court against the 13 considered most responsible, including the former and present governors of Jakarta, Suharto and numerous other military commanders.

Budiman along with five members of the People's Defendant and Democracy Team representing the PRD felt the case had been handled in a most unprofessional and questionable manner and took their complaints to a higher level on Tuesday.

During his meeting with Antonius Sujata from the National Ombudsman Commission, Budiman said he was actually worried that the handing down of the Central Jakarta District Court's intermediate decision in the upcoming session on October 26 could harm the PRD. The decision was the result of a clumsy and suspect process which indicated the court's disinterest in upholding the law.

At the Supreme Court, Budiman told reporters that the government had defiled his name and the PRD by accusing them of triggering the 27 July 1996 riots. He also said they were compelled to plead their case at the offices of the Ombudsman and Supreme Court because they felt the judge had passed an irrelevant and misleading judgement in the last hearing of the case. They demanded the Supreme Court issue an instruction to the Central Jakarta District Court to pick up its act and uphold the law.

In the last hearing, the PRD had asked to present the testimony of an expert witness and of those directly involved in the occurrences of that fateful day before the court. However, the judges ruled that there was no grounds for this.

According to Paulus R. Mahulette SH, a member of the Democracy Team, just because they said there were no grounds did not mean that the accounts could not be presented before the court.

"In our opinion, with this matter not being formally regulated, it doesn't mean that it can't happen. And it must be noted that in a most important way, the regulations governing these matters are no longer suitable under the present circumstances. This is just a hand-me-down from the old colonial system. In addition, in our opinion, the Supreme Court has the authority to ask for information and give instructions to courts at all levels of the judicial system," Mahulette said.

"We came here only wanting the Supreme Court to discuss whether it is possible to present an expert witness in this case," Budiman said. Budiman and the legal team were welcomed by junior head of the Supreme Court for Criminal cases, MS Kartasasmita SH.

News & issues

Just another riot

Far Eastern Economic Review - October 26, 2000

Michael Vatikiotis -- Friday, around 3pm, and a tannoy rudely blares from a wall inside the US embassy in Jakarta. "There is a large demonstration outside the embassy at this time," squawks the speaker. "There will be no entry or exit from the embassy ..." Trapped.

Downstairs, a marine melee is in full swing. Thickset young men from the cornfields of Iowa and sidewalks of Detroit thunder around fully armed in heavy green battledress. A monitor inside the marine bunker displays the scene outside the embassy gate: Something is burning, and an angry-looking crowd of people dressed in flowing white robes is chanting slogans.

"If one of them comes over the gate, we'll have to deal with them," a political officer in the embassy says ominously. She, like the other Americans, doesn't take such demonstrations lightly. "We remember the assault on our Pakistan embassy where we lost people."

For the ordinary people of Jakarta, the endless round of protests, rallies, crackdowns and occasional bombings are less a threat and more a tiresome inconvenience. They have turned this once mildly chaotic city into an urban roller coaster, where the unexpected lurks around each corner.

"I'm fed up with these demos," says the friendly hotel doorman. He's having an easy day because a strike by recently fired hotel workers is blocking access to the lobby. Outside the hotel, the strikers appeal for support: "Please have sympathy with us and don't visit the hotel," calls out one.

To avoid trouble in this city, it's vital to watch the news. The day former President Suharto's corruption case was thrown out of court, the streets were virtually deserted after 3pm. A wise move. Violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Suharto outside his residence in leafy Menteng left one person dead. Many people blamed President Abdurrahman Wahid for telling students to go ahead and stone Suharto's house. Television viewers saw a policeman firing a tear-gas canister at point-blank range at the head of a protester. Soon after, Wahid warned the students to respect the law.

Little wonder that there is trepidation on the part of foreign visitors, as the empty hotel lobbies and coffee shops and the lay-offs attest. Visitors won't be encouraged by the news that one radical Islamic group, the Front to Protect Islam, is targeting US citizens for kidnap off the streets in the wake of Israel's crackdown on Palestinian protesters in the Middle East.

It's not much safer indoors, either. In the early hours of a Saturday morning last month, rowdies showed up outside two of Jakarta's more popular late-night watering holes in the Tanah Abang district. They smashed up one of the bars and threatened some of the foreign guests, saying that the establishment was open after hours. Many revellers were hurt in the scramble to the exits.

But for all the gloom in Jakarta, some people are taking heart from renewed signs of life in the economy, with the potential to ease social tensions. The bars and cafes are filling up in the upmarket Kemang district of south Jakarta, where patrons can afford to watch a salsa band all the way from Colombia. In central Jakarta, the Plaza Indonesia shopping mall is abuzz with shoppers on Saturday afternoons. For central bank Governor Anwar Nasution, though, this frothy consumption only indicates that the rich elite is burning up some of the cash it accumulated during the economic crisis when bank deposit rates soared.

For the less well-off, though, little seems to have changed. "The crisis may be over for the rich, but it is still very much a part of my life," says one struggling Jakartan.

Now that prices of essential goods have gone up, along with the price of fuel, people may begin to lose their sense of humour about the demos. They may even join a few.

Wealth audit body asks for high pay, fancy cars

Straits Times - October 27, 2000

Jakarta -- Indonesia's newly established State Officials Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) has requested high salaries and luxury cars for its members, but the government is likely to turn the proposal down, a state minister said.

State Apparatus Minister Ryaas Rasyid said on Tuesday that the commission had proposed to the government a monthly salary of 30 million rupiah (S$6,300) per month and a luxury Toyota Crown sedan per member.

He simply could not "imagine" how the two-month-old KPKPN could request something like that amid the economic crisis, he said. "The state secretariat is expected to turn the proposal down," he added.

The minister said such high salaries are not a guarantee that the new commission would work effectively and its members would not be involved in corrupt practices. The minister said the salary of members of the new commission should be around 12 million rupiah per month.

This is still higher than the salary of a Cabinet minister. "I am paid only 10 million rupiah per month," he said. He also suggested that the government provide modest cars, like Toyota Kijang minivans or others of the same class, to avoid sparking envy among other government agencies or committees.

The commission was appointed by President Abdurrahman Wahid early last month to fulfil one of the preconditions of obtaining the next loan disbursement from the International Monetary Fund.

Its composition has become a subject of controversy after the President decided to appoint only 25 out of the 45 candidates approved by the House of Representatives, on the grounds of efficiency, despite protests by the legislative body. The move has been accepted with disappointment by the House members.

Commenting on a proposal by the House that the commission membership be expanded, the minister said the House should maintain flexibility in evaluating the commission's performance. "The government should maintain the current size. But, if it is considered inadequate to handle its tasks, the commission should be expanded," he said.

The House has called on the government to increase the new agency's membership from the present 25 to 45 to make it more effective in carrying out its mission.

Radioactive material stolen in Java

Straits Times - October 25, 2000

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Dangerous radioactive materials have been stolen from a factory warehouse in Java, the Indonesian Nuclear Energy Control Board (Bapeten) said yesterday.

It said 21 units of radioactive sources containing Cobalt 60 and Americium and their containers were found missing last Friday from Krakatau Steel's radioactive warehouse in Cilegon, West Java, some 100 km from the capital.

But the board was notified about the disappearance only on Monday. "The materials emit radiation that is very dangerous to people's lives," the board said in a press statement. The materials have a radioactive level of some 2,000 times the acceptable level of exposure for people, it said.

Public warnings were immediately issued, urging people not to handle the radioactive materials and to inform the authority if they knew its whereabouts. Police are currently investigating the disappearance and whether the state-owned Krakatau Steel had violated regulations on securing harmful products.

The radioactive materials are used in the quality control process, as they are able to withstand the high temperatures needed for smelting. The radioactive units are 31 cm long and shaped like radio antennae. Each has a diametre of 0.6 mm. The units are kept in gray lead tubes, each about 60 cm long, with a 20 cm diametre.

The board said the container in which the radioactive units were stored was clearly marked with the radioactive symbol and written warnings of danger. Police spokesman Brigadier-General Saleh Saaf said the thieves might have intended to steal the lead container and had no idea that it contained such dangerous material.

Bapeten Chairman Mohammad Ridwan said he suspected the thiefs had probably left the Cilegon area by now. "We urged everyone, recyclers -- dealers, buyers or processors -- to be cautious with the radioactive materials and report to the authority if they know of their whereabouts," he said.

2.6 million civil servants to be transferred: Minister

Jakarta Post - October 24, 2000

Bandung -- Before the law on regional autonomy is implemented in January next year, more than 2.6 of the 4.2 million central government employees will be transferred to provincial administrations, a minister said on Monday.

"It's not really difficult because we will only need to change their status from central government employees to provincial administration employees," State Minister of Administrative Reform Ryaas Rasyid said here. He said most of the civil servants to be transferred were former employees of ministries which had been dissolved or merged.

The government under President Abdurrahman Wahid has dissolved two ministries -- the ministry of information and the ministry of social affairs. It also merged the office of the state minister of regional autonomy and the ministry of home affairs; and the office of the state minister of human rights affairs and the ministry of justice.

Ryaas said a draft on the transfer had been submitted to the President for approval, but it had not yet been signed because of political considerations. "The President is very cautious about the impact of the transfer since itinvolves a large number of people. He is considering the political impact of the relocation. "I just give technical advice. If he [the President] wants, the decree could be signed this month," he said.

He said that although the total number of civil servants was only 2 percent of the country's total population of more than 200 million, the civil service needed to be restructured through the transfers. He said the transfer would involve civil servants of various ranks and positions, including the government's top echelon of officials.

As many as 250 top-echelon officials, 500 second-echelon officials and more than 2,000 officials who hold structural positions will be transferred, he said.

"If they refuse to be transferred they can stay in Jakarta without any structural positions," Ryaas said. He said the planned transfer had been discussed with various parties and had, so far, received no objections or complaints.

Besides the transfers to provincial administrations, the civil servants also will be moved to state enterprises and even to police headquarters as administrative staffers, he said. "The police force is planning to redeploy officers currently assigned to administrative duties to become professional police officers. So they need new employees to replace them," he said.

Anti-Gus Dur protesters start rallying on streets

Jakarta Post - October 24, 2000

Jakarta -- Some 800 people from seven Islamic organizations staged a rally in front of the National Police Headquarters on Monday, urging the police to immediately solve various high- profile crimes, particularly those allegedly related to President Abdurrahman Wahid.

The protesters from, among other groups, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), the Hizbullah Front, and the Indonesian Muslim Workers Brotherhood (PPMI), arrived at the site in 24 minibuses and several trucks.

PPMI chairman Eggy Sudjana was among the protesters who took part in the rally concentrated at the side of busy thoroughfare, Jl. Wolter Monginsidi,in South Jakarta. The gathering was so large that it blocked the street, forcing police officers to redirect the heavy traffic.

The rally was peaceful with some of the protesters unfurling banners bearing demands for the police to probe cases related to Abdurrahman, also known as Gus Dur. "Solve the Bulog scandal. Solve Ariyanti case," one of the banners read, referring to the Rp 35 billion State Logistics Agency (Bulog) scandal and the alleged extra-marital affair of the President with housewife Ariyanti Sitepu.

The protesters also demanded former National Police chief Gen. Rusdihardjo be tried for the bloody takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro on July 27, 1996. Rusdihardjo was Assistant to National Police chief for Operational Affairs at the time.

The protesters also condemned Gus Dur's decision last week to ask prosecutors to delay legal proceedings against three prominent businessmen and largest state debtors. A few minutes after the rally began, seven representatives of the protesters were invited to meet National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoroin his office to air their demands. The protesters dispersed after the one-hour meeting with Bimantoro.

Several minutes later, a group of some 300 FPI members, believed to be the same people who had just demonstrated at Bimantoro's office, arrived at the Governor's Office complex on Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan in Central Jakarta. According to sources at the Governor's Office complex, the FPI members, without warning or apparent reason, began pelting the building with stones launched by slingshots.

One security officer suffered a minor injury after being struck by a stone. In the 15-minute action, protesters broke down the front gate and damagedthe ornamentation. They left the scene shortly after the arrival of several police officers. The police allowed the demonstrators to leave without attempting to detain any of them.

Separately, thousands of protesters -- with different causes -- flooded the House of Representatives compound. The first rally, held by people who claimed to be residents of Cijantung, East Jakarta, accused top army officers of manipulating documents related to their land which they had purchased several years ago.

Currently, the land is used for the Army Special Forces Headquarter and several units of the army. The protesters threatened to occupy the Jagorawi highway near the site if the House failed to help them get their land back. Another rally was staged by people from Bangka and Belitung islands in Sumatra, demanding a quick process for the islands to become a separate province as the bill establishing the province has been submitted to the House.

The last rally of the day came from youths of the Democratization Watch and Law Awareness Society Movement, asking for the government to take serious action against practices of corruption, collusion and nepotism in the country.

Environment/health

Level of abortion alarming

Indonesian Observer - October 23, 2000

Jakarta -- Abortion is on the rise in Indonesia, especially among unmarried women, and has now reached an alarming level, a family planning group said yesterday.

Data collected by Indonesian Family Planning Association (PKBI) shows that 3 million Indonesian women had abortions last year. Of that number, 600,000 were unmarried. PKBI head Azrul Azwar yesterday said the high number of abortions is partly due to a lack of knowledge in Indonesia about contraception.

The prevalence of terminated pregnancies has also been attributed to social traditions, especially in West Java, where many people feel that if a woman has not managed to find a husband by the age of 20, she must not be beautiful or sexy enough to attract young men. In order to boost their chance of getting a husband, many young women will consent to sex with a man, hoping he will marry them. But all too often the women fall pregnant and are dumped by the guy.

Azrul said he has sent a proposal to Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin, requesting that sex education be included in curricula of elementary, junior and senior high schools. Head of the Education Ministrys quality human development department, Soeharto, said the ministry agrees with the proposal.

He said sex education and lessons on morality will be taught to school students, to discourage them from fooling around and creating unwanted pregnancies. With the intrusion of lax Western moral standards through films and the Internet, the government fears the incidence of casual sex will increase next year, and thus the number of abortions will also rise.

But Soeharto is optimistic that sex education and lessons on religion and morality will enable the government to reduce the level of abortion.

Economy & investment

Moody's raises debt-deposit ratings of eight banks

Agence France-Presse - October 27, 2000

Jakarta -- Moody's Investors Service said Friday it had upgraded the debt and deposit ratings of eight Indonesian banks, reflecting improvements in their financial fundamentals and in Indonesia's external position. The deposit ratings of the eight banks were raised to Caa1, according to a Moody's statement received here.

The banks affected were Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Bank Tabungan Negara, Bank Danamon Indonesia, Bank International Indonesia, Bank Pan Indonesia and Bank Bali.

The long-term debt ratings of Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Danamon Indonesia were upgraded to B3 and the long-term debt rating of Bank Tabungan Negara was upgraded to Caa1, it said.

Moody's also upgraded the financial strength rating for Bank Danamon Indonesia to E-plus from E, and said it had placed under review for possible upgrade the financial strength ratings of Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Bank Pan Indonesia.

The outlooks for the ratings of Bank Tabungan Negara and Bank Bali were changed to positive, it added. The upgrades of the debt and deposit ratings "reflect improvements in Indonesia's external position, the predictability of banks' access to foreign currency liquidity in a timely manner," and in the fundamental financial position of the banks themselves, it said.

But Moody's made it clear in the statement that the Indonesian banking system, which nearly collapsed in the 1997 financial crisis, was far from out of the woods. "Moody's cautions that the potential for further political and social instability continues to depress confidence levels, with ramifications for foreign currency liquidity, and that this continues to constrain bank ratings," it said.

Moody's also noted that the restructuring of Indonesia's banking sector had formed a key element of the government's measures to restore economic stability. The government, it said, had guaranteed all bank obligations and, in cooperation with the IMF and World Bank, engaged in a bank restructuring and recapitalisation program equivalent to some 60 percent of GDP.

"Efforts to tighten bank regulation and supervision have also met with some success. However, the banks' operating environment remains poor," it said. "Reform of the legal system has made little progress. Consequently the pace of corporate debt restructuring has been very slow, lowering likely recovery rates," it said.

The statement added that the deterioration of banks' asset quality has continued, and that the economic recovery is still fragile. "Furthermore, the extreme expense of the government's bank recapitalisation program remains a political issue, raising the possibility that cost-reduction measures could be introduced that will burden newly recapitalised banks," it said.