Indonesia/East Timor News Digest No 49

Dili -- Four East Timor advisory Cabinet members who threatened to resign backed down Saturday after a meeting with the UN administration of the former Indonesian province, saying they were satisfied they will receive more power in the future.

"We succeeded in discussing the system and how to move to a new system that can really achieve an effective administration for East Timor with a fuller participation of East Timorese," Cabinet member Mari Alkatiri said after a four-hour meeting at the residence of UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The United Nations is overseeing East Timor's transition following a UN-sponsored referendum last year in which its people voted overwhelmingly for freedom from Indonesia.

The advisory Cabinet, set up in July to give local people experience so they will be ready when the UN steps aside and the territory becomes independent next year, includes four UN staff members and five East Timorese.

Alkatiri and three of the other East Timorese -- Anna Pessoa, Filomeno Jacob and Joao Carrascalao -- said in a letter to Vieira de Mello last week that they were "caricatures of ministers" with "no power, no duties, no resources to function adequately."

After Saturday's meeting, Vieira de Mello stressed the United Nations had never before been responsible for both governing a territory and handing over power to a future independent government. "We're inventing something new," he said.

International staff in East Timor's temporary government are subordinate to Cabinet members, a situation Vieira de Mello conceded may have contributed to discord within its ranks. "There might be isolated cases where individuals, even unconsciously, may not have accepted the fact that they are subordinate to East Timorese Cabinet members," he said.

Also Saturday, military officials said an Australian soldier in East Timor's 7,500-member UN peacekeeping force was injured when the weapon he was cleaning accidentally went off, military officials said Saturday. His condition is serious but not life- threatening.

Questioning of soldiers over East Timor opposed

Jakarta Post - December 9, 2000

Jakarta -- The Army has vowed not to let the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) question its soldiers over human rights abuses in the former Indonesian province last year.

Deputy Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Kiki Syahnakrie told reporters duringa break of the fast gathering at Army Headquarters here that the questioning lacked a legal basis as the government had never consulted the House of Representatives about its agreement with UNTAET on the joint investigation into the East Timor atrocities.

"We will never hand over our soldiers for questioning conducted in the interests of UNTAET," said Kiki, the military commander in charge of restoring order in East Timor when the government imposed a state of emergency on the territory last year.

Based on a memorandum of understanding it signed with Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab in February this year, UNTAET began an inquiry on Thursday into 19 military and police officers, three civilian staff membersand a former official as witnesses in connection with the violence that followed an overwhelming vote for independence in East Timor in August 1999. The planned questioning failed to materialize because none of the witnesses appeared at the Attorney General's office, the venue for the questioning.

Earlier on Friday, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung urged the government to revoke the joint agreement, saying it would raise worries at home. "UNTAET's planned investigation must be canceled because Indonesia has no treaty on such an investigation with East Timor," he told The Jakarta Post. He said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was not binding on the grounds that it had never been brought before the House.

Separately, Armin Aryoso, chairman of House Commission II on home and legal affairs, concurred and said the House would immediately meet with Attorney General Marzuki Darusman to discuss the possibility of halting the questioning.

"Indonesia has no objection to UNTAET's investigation into the 1999 bloodshed in several districts in East Timor but it (UNTAET) has no authority to question Indonesian citizens because the territory has been separated from Indonesia and it cannot interfere in our internal affairs," Armin said. Yasril Ananta Burhanuddin, chairman of Commission I for defense and security affairs, said the MOU was strange and uncommon because its substance was as detailed as that of a treaty. "An MOU is generally not binding," he said.

The team of lawyers for the military and police officers who have been declared suspects in the East Timor case also opposed UNTAET's investigation, saying the MOU was not binding. "Our clients have the right to reject the questioning because the MOU, which is lower status than an agreement or a treaty, is not binding," Adnan Buyung Nasution, coordinator of the lawyers' team, told a press conference on Friday.

In a bid to clear up the controversy, Marzuki asserted that the questioning would be conducted by an Indonesian team of investigators, with the UN investigators only providing materials and accompanying their Indonesian counterparts.

"The witnesses' testimonies will then be used by the UN team to complete their investigation of the violence in East Timor," Marzuki told journalists at his office. "There has been no summons issued by UNTAET nor is there a plan to hand over the witnesses to UNTAET," he added.

Marzuki further said he would explain the matter to the Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the witnesses' superior officers.

Of the 22 officers and former staff members, nine are from the Army and ten from the National Police. The nine Army officers include Lt. Col. Asep Kuswani, former chief of the then Liquica military subdistrict, Lt. Col. Bambang Sungeste, former chief of the then Oecussi military subdistrict andLt. Col. Komiso Mira, a former member of the then Oecussi military subdistrict's staff.

The 10 police officers include Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, former chief of the then East Timor provincial police, Lt. Col. Adios Salova, former chief of the then Liquica police precinct and Lt. Col. Gultom, former chief of the Dili police precinct while the three former civilian officials are Filomeno Misquita Da Costa, the former Oecussi regent, Basilio de Araujo, aformer official in the governor's office, and Francisco Noronha, a former member of the medical staff in a clinic in Lolotoe subdistrict.

Witnesses of Eest Timor mayhem to be queried

Jakarta Post - December 7, 2000

Jakarta -- A joint investigation team, comprising of officials from the Attorney General's Office and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), will start on Thursday the questioning of 22 people as witnesses over human rights abuses in East Timor last year.

Prosecutor Umar Bawazier of the Attorney General's Office said on Wednesday that all of the witnesses had earlier been questioned by the Office's special team, including a list of 22 suspects who allegedly violated human rights after the UN-sponsored ballot on August 30 1999.

"The initiative for the questioning was taken by the UNTAET as the administration has its own perspective on the human rights abuse cases in East Timor. The investigation team established by the attorney general willserve as a facilitator," Umar told a media conference.

"The questioning will be held here and we have summoned five people for Thursday's questioning. Our [Attorney General's Office] team will merely convey the questions which will be provided by the other team [UNTAET]," he said.

Umar said only one Indonesian investigator and one UNTAET investigator -- each accompanied by an interpreter -- will carry out the questioning of each of the first five witnesses. "The UNTAET investigator will accompany our investigators and will make arecord of the questioning," he added.

The first five witnesses are former Liquia police chief Supt. Adios Salova, former military commander of East Timor capital of Dili First Lt. Frans Sermale, former East Timor police chief Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, former East Timor police mobile brigade chief Ass. Supt. Joko Purwanto and former Oecussi police chief Supt. Wilmar Marpaung. Adios Salova and Timbul Silaen are the suspects for 14 cases of human rights violation in five separate incidents in East Timor.

Other suspects were high-ranking military officers and prointegration militia members, including militia leader Eurico Guterres who is also going to face trial for allegedly instigating the attack of a police office in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, last September.

The Indonesian government and UNTAET had signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in legal and human rights-related matters which will allow both sides to obtain mutual assistance for the investigations. The cooperation will include assistance to present the witnesses for questioning and to carry out the arrests; the exchange of documents and related information; and efforts to facilitate the transfer of witnesses.

Earlier, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said UNTAET had asked for his office's assistance to summon nine witnesses in connection to a September 10 human rights abuse case which took place in the enclave of Oecussi, on the borderline of East Timor and the neighboring East Nusa Tenggara province.

"UNTAET has new findings in the Oecussi case, which have yet to be examined by the Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights [Komnas HAM]. So, the case will not be among the cases we are handling, which have been produced upon the rights commission's recommendation," he said.

Last year, 18 mass burial places were discovered in the enclave, possibly containing more than 50 people. There was also the remains of more bodies at the bottom of a lake in the area. Reports said the people were massacred on September 10 while leaving the camps of prointegration East Timorese who had lost the direct ballot to theproindependence group.

East Timor: Australia's oil and gas grab exposed

Green Left Weekly - December 6, 2000

Jon Land -- Australian domestic demand for natural gas is projected to steadily increase over the next decade, with the fields off the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory -- especially those in the Timor Sea -- being the alternative source to the diminishing reserves in central Australia and Bass Strait.

Industry bodies such as the Australian Gas Association (AGA) are lobbying the federal and state governments to increase the use of natural gas in power generation, arguing that it is a cheap and environmentally friendly alternative to coal. The AGA wants state governments to adopt a model similar to the Queensland government's Cleaner Energy Strategy, which proposes that by 2005, 13% of the state's electricity be produced from natural gas.

The expected increase in demand for natural gas means that the two main gas fields in the Timor Gap, the Bayu-Undan and the Greater Sunrise fields, will be highly lucrative investments for Phillips Petroleum, Santos, Inpex, Petroz and Kerr-McGee, and British Borneo, which are involved in the Bayu-Undan field, and Shell, Woodside and Osaka Gas, which control the Northern Australian Gas Venture (NAGV), in Greater Sunrise.

Gas supplied by NAGV and Phillips will be used by the Canadian- based company Methanex for a huge methanol and synthetic gas plant to be located near Darwin, the first of its kind in Australia.

Feasibility studies

Phillips and the NAGV have conducted extensive feasibility studies on the supply of Timor Gap gas to the energy market in the NT and eastern Australia.

Woodside has established a special division for the task of expanding its operations.

In March, Pulse Energy was formed, an initiative of United Energy, Energy Partnership, Shell Australia and Woodside. Pulse Energy will have access to up to 10 million energy customers in eastern Australia from January 2001, providing Australia's first large-scale combination of electricity and gas services (with gas in the medium term supplied by Woodside from Timor Sea reserves).

There are also high hopes that gas from developments in the Timor Gap will supplement the gas export trade, of which Australia is a world leader. Woodside is heading the China-Australia Terminal Consortium (a joint venture with Chevron and BHP) which has linked up with the Korea Gas Corporation in a bid to develop a US$500-600 million liquid natural gas receiving terminal and pipeline network based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzen.

According to Woodside, the Guandong project is "expected to set the scene for China becoming a major LNG [liquid natural gas] importer in the future" and that the "consortium also brings with it the support of the Australian government, the Western Australian and Northern Territory governments, making it a formidable bid".

Timor Gap windfall

The energy exploration companies with interests in the Timor Gap are recording record profits and if the Australian government gets its way the people of East Timor will be denied control over their oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Through the illegal Timor Gap Treaty it signed with the Indonesian government, the Australian government hopes to pocket royalties that would otherwise belong to East Timor.

While a date has yet to be set for the next round of negotiations on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty, there has been no indication that Canberra is prepared to accept either a change in the maritime boundary between Australia and East Timor in line with international norms (along the mid-way line between the two states) or a fairer redistribution of the royalties.

Given the extent of the profits and investments at stake, the companies operating in the Timor Gap have been surprisingly quiet following the first round of talks held in October between the United Nations, East Timorese representatives and the Australian government.

Green Left Weekly emailed and faxed Woodside, Santos, Petroz and Phillips asking their views on the Australian government's position concerning the Timor Gap. Given that the East Timorese leadership has repeatedly stated it wants the projects to go ahead and have promised not to increase the tax rate or levies upon exploration, what does it matter if East Timor gains sovereignty over the oil and gas fields these companies currently have operations in? So far, there has been one "no comment" reply.

As the people of East Timor struggle to rebuild their lives and their nation, it remains the case that a major obstacle to achieving full independence and self-determination is the big- business oriented foreign policy of the Australian government.

Jakarta's men face arrest over killings

South China Morning Post - December 4, 2000

Joanna Jolly, Dili -- Arrest warrants could soon be issued for middle-ranking Indonesian military personnel suspected of involvement in crimes against humanity in East Timor last year.

East Timor's chief prosecutor, Mohamed Othman, said last week the United Nations' Serious Crimes Unit was finalising investigations into five cases of violence last year involving 140 suspects, including middle-ranking Indonesian military officers. Arrest warrants will be issued for all those accused.

"You have, in these forthcoming indictments, the people who did the actual killings and also the commanders who are responsible for these attacks," Mr Othman said. "We think in these five cases we will be able to reach definitely the district military leadership, maybe the regional, maybe the bupatis [local mayors] involved."

The first five cases include the attack in April last year on Liquica church, the murder of nine clergy and an Indonesian journalist near Los Palos in September and an attack on Maliana police station in which about 50 independence supporters were killed after the UN-sponsored referendum last August.

Mr Othman said the strategy behind proceeding with these cases was to investigate a range of suspects with different levels of responsibility for the violence. He said he hoped this eventually would lead to prosecutions against senior Indonesian generals who have been implicated in the violence.

"You could charge someone higher up for the conduct of subordinates so we think that if we first put into the docks those who are the district commanders, then it is definitely logical that you will go higher up," he said.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed in April by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet) and the Jakarta Government, Indonesian nationals can be extradited to East Timor to face trial.

But Mr Othman said that in reality it may be difficult to bring suspects to East Timor, especially if they were already being investigated by the Indonesian court system.

Indonesia is conducting its own investigation into the violence in East Timor last year through the Attorney-General's office in Jakarta. To date no indictments have been made, although a list of 25 possible suspects has been released.

Labour struggle

Workers strike to demand higher bonus

Detik - December 8, 2000

Muchus Budi Rahayu/Hendra & BI, Solo -- Around 350 laborers from a textile company PT Sariwarna Asli, Solo, Central Java have staged a strike action their employer. They are demanding a 200% increase for their Christmas and Ramadhan allowance (THR) on top of their basic salary. This bonus is compulsory bonus given in the lead up to the religious celebrations.

They arrived in drove and commence their protest at the entrance of the factory at Jl Cokroaminito, Solo, Friday. Five representative laborers have been negotiating with the company's management. Supposed this negotiations failed then, protestors' next avenue to express their plan is at Solo Municipality Legislative Council.

During the negotiation, the protestors outside were sitting in- groups. The security forces also present at the scene to anticipate unwanted disturbances. Thus far, it has not been any report of violence created during this protest.

Meanwhile the company claimed that the workers strike is illegal. The company also threatened that those who skipped the day would not received their daily pay.

Government/politics

Syahril back at the helm of central bank

Straits Times - December 7, 2000

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Governor Syahril Sabirin reclaimed the helm at Bank Indonesia yesterday after a six-month detention period, escalating the three-way power tussle between President Abdurrahman Wahid's government, the Parliament and the country's central bank.

He has promised, with his reinstatement, to consolidate the bank which over the past few months has been battered by his suspension, recent parliamentary inquiries into its activities and the en-masse resignations of five deputy governors. "I have to evaluate the developments of the past five months, but I hope the rupiah will stabilise and strengthen," he said.

Mr Syahril's return takes place at a critical juncture as Parliament is in the midst of debates over how to revise regulations governing the central bank. The administration is also currently pushing to remove the governor and place its own candidates at the head of the bank.

Government officials yesterday predicted that there would be no smooth sailing in the foreseeable future for Mr Syahril, who still faces corruption charges and a possible life sentence over his alleged involvement in last year's 546 billion rupiah (then S$121 million) Bank Bali scandal.

"This release merely follows legal procedures. Syahril Sabirin has many problems," said presidential spokesman Adhi Massardi, referring to the expiry of prosecutors' non-extendable detention orders on Tuesday.

Although prosecutors had yet to set court dates for Mr Syahril, Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman indicated that this spell of freedom would not last long and pledged a speedy transfer of the case to the Central Jakarta court.

But Parliament, which narrowly missed the government's deadline yesterday for deciding on new regulations for the central bank and appointing its new leaders, may ultimately hold the key to this messy saga.

Legislators initially stuck by Mr Syahril when the Attorney- General first pressed charges in June. They gave sympathetic press statements, made public visits to his detention cell, and criticised the administration for attempting to meddle in the central bank's affairs.

Legislators also dragged their feet and rebuffed the administration's demands for a new team to be placed in Bank Indonesia before Mr Syahril's release date. The tactic was meant to ensure the embattled governor's return to the hot seat.

But critics have charged that the entire process of deciding how and who will occupy the top floors at Bank Indonesia might turn into a highly political circus if Parliament has its way.

Senior economist and former adviser to President Abdurrahman, Ms Sri Mulyani, recently warned that Parliament might be seeking to weaken the fiscal policy regulator altogether and place the bank under its direct control. Various MPs have rejected that criticism and have said that their drive to simplify the removal process of central bank governors is aimed at improving accountability at the institution.

But political parties, including Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), may already have their own candidates to replace the top leaders in Bank Indonesia. Rumoured to be at the top of PDI-P's list are former ministers Kwik Kian Gie and Laksamana Sukardi, as well as Mr Theo Toemion, who heads the special commission tasked with revising Bank Indonesia rules.

As for Mr Syahril, he will probably face a fairly clear, albeit bumpy, road as government prosecutors have so far been unable to win convictions against two other key defendants in the Bank Bali case.

Regional conflicts

Bombs rock Christian procession in Ambon, two killed

Agence France-Presse - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- Home-made bombs were thrown into a Christian procession in Ambon city, capital of the riot-torn Indonesian province of Maluku Wednesday, killing one soldier and injuring at least seven others people, doctors and the military said. Another man, a Muslim, was killed and four wounded during clashes that followed the bombing, the state Antara news agency said.

"One soldier was brought here dead, with multiple wounds from fragments of a home-made bomb," First Sergeant Rusad of the military hospital in Ambon told AFP. "Three other soldiers were also injured by splinters from bombs but they only have superficial injuries," Rusad added.

A 27-year-old Muslim man was shot dead during clashes between Muslim mobs and soldiers following the bombing incident, the state Antara news agency reported Wednesday. Four other Muslims were wounded in the clashes, Antara said, adding that they had been taken to the Al-Fatah hospital in Ambon.

The bomb attack in the A.Y. Patty area in downtown Ambon earlier on Wednesday had also injured four civilians. One was wheeled in with his right foot blown off at the ankle while another had splinters in his backbone, a doctor at the state Haulussy hospital's emergency ward said. Two other men were lightly injured, he added.

The Haulussy hospital staff said that according to reports from people who brought in the victims, at least two home-made bombs exploded among a procession of Christian men.

The four wounded civilians had been among the Christians who were heading to a local security post to conduct a mass there. Their chanting had drawn hostile reactions from Muslims in the area who started to gather, prompting security personnel to intervene and protect the procession. But the bombs blew up shortly after the security personnel arrived, the hospital staff said.

The conflict between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands, previously known as the Spice Islands, has left more than 4,000 people of both faiths dead and a trail of destruction.

In June, Jakarta imposed a state of civil emergency in the Malukus and the North Malukus, which allowed the governors to declare certain areas closed or under isolation, but it has so far failed to rein in the violence. The clashes have created more than half a million refugees, many of whom have fled to other islands and provinces.

16 renegade mobile brigade policemen captured

Tempo - December 5, 2000

Ambon -- The Maluku Police Chief, Brig. Gen. Police Firman Gani, announced an investigation into the capture of 16 renegade Mobile Brigade policemen. The Joint Battalion members seized the policemen in the Kairatu district of western Seram Island in Central Maluku.

Firman told the press in Ambon yesterday, December 4, that the police are coordinating with other institutions in the investigation.

At least 9 people have died during rioting that erupted in Kairatu on November 27. A joint battalion of Air Force special force (Paskas) units, Marines, Army special force (Kopasus) units, Mobile Brigade policemen, and intelligence agents reportedly attacked a rioter command post in Gemba village in the Kairatu district.

According to Firman, about 20 Mobile Brigade policemen from Company B assisted the rioters during the joint battalion attack. During the pursuit of the renegade police officers, the joint battalion forces captured sixteen men while five others escaped with their automatic guns.

Security forces have begun an intensive interrogation of the Mobile Brigade policemen at a location kept secret to avoid a new conflict.

Meanwhile, the Pattimura Military Command Chief, Brig. Gen. TNI I Made Yasa, said security conditions in Kairatu district have been stabilized. However, security forces in the area remain on high alert.

According to Made Yasa, some members of the security forces want the bloody conflict in Maluku to continue. Moreover, even the smallest incident may ignite a large problem in the fragile region.

Christians report Malukus slaughter

The Age - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- Muslims have slaughtered 93 Christians since last week on a small island of the Maluku chain for refusing to convert to Islam, a church activist said yesterday quoting a survivor.

"The forced Islamisation of Christians in Kasiui Island has been continuing since last week and by Saturday, a total of 93 people have been killed for refusing to convert into Islam," said Sammy Weileruni, a lawyer with the Maranatha Christian centre in Ambon, the Malukus capital.

Mr Weileruni said a man who escaped from Kasiui on a boat arrived in Ambon yesterday and had given him the information. Kasiui is a small island in the Watubela island group east of Ambon Island. The man, a teacher, told him that when he left on Saturday, 763 other Christians, fearing for their lives, had accepted to convert to Islam.

The victims were among some 3000 people from four villages on the island who fled into the jungles following a mass attack by Muslims on November 28 in which eight villagers were killed.

The attackers, including Muslims from the neighboring Gorong island group, pursued the villagers. Those they captured were forced to convert or they were killed.

"The only help was a boat, requisitioned by the rulers of the state of civilian emergency [the governor's office] in Ambon, sent to Kasiui with a crew of 20," Mr Weileruni said, deploring the lack of reaction from Indonesian authorities since he first reported the slaughter last week.

The boat could not accommodate all those who wanted to leave Kasiui, "and the Muslims were also angered that they had come to pick up Christian refugees," he said. The boat left for Ambon carrying only the teacher who was allowed on board to join his wife in Ambon. His children were allowed to join him.

The Maluku Islands, previously known as the Spice Islands, have been torn apart by almost two years of Muslim-Christian conflict, leaving more than 4000 people dead and over half a million refugees.

The sectarian violence was sparked by a dispute between a Christian public transport driver and a Muslim in Ambon city in January 1999 that quickly degenerated into fights that spread to other islands. In June, Jakarta imposed a state of civil emergency in the Malukus but has so far failed to rein in the violence. Both sides have accused security forces of taking part.

The Britain-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide said last month that Muslim militant forces, many of them from outside the Malukus, have threatened that "there will be no church bells ringing in Ambon by Christmas". Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina said last week that some 1300 militant Muslim reinforcements from Java island were in the islands.

Aceh/West Papua

Irianese separatists attack timber company, two dead

Agence France-Presse - December 9, 2000

Jayapura -- Two lumberjacks were killed and two critically injured in an attack on a timber company base camp Saturday in the troubled Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, rights groups said here.

The attack, which military sources said was believed to be the second hit-and-run attack this week by Papuan separatist rebels, took place one kilometer inside the Indonesian side of the border with Papua New Guinea.

A human rights worker who visited the victims of the mid-morning assault in Jayapura general hospital quoted one of the wounded men as saying many more wounded had fled into the jungle. "All the victims suffered arrow, spear and axe wounds," Christian Torrey, a monitor for the Institute for Human Rights and Advocacy (Elsham), said.

Earlier reports by the state Antara news agency had said only one person had died in the attack, in the Skouw area about 75 kilometers from the provincial capital of Jayapura.

In the first attack this week, on Thursday, the separatists hit a market place and police station on the outskirts of Jayapura, killing two policemen, one whose head was split with an axe, and a Papuan security guard.

In the aftermath of the attack police rounded up 99 people for questioning, but the province police chief said Saturday all but three had been released. "We've released them all, only three remain," Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas told an AFP reporter in Jayapura.

Wenas declined to comment on the identities of those detained after Thursday's bloody pre-dawn attack on the Apebura police post, 15 kilometers from the center of Jayapura.

But Papuan students and staff of Elsham told AFP most of those held were students dragged from their hostels near the police station on Thursday morning. At least four of those detained died at the hands of police, including two reportedly beaten to death.

Abepura residents had said that as the attackers, who were armed with bows and arrows and machetes, fled into the hills behind Abepura, they could be heard yelling to pursuing police that they were returning to the hostels.

Autopsies were carried out at the Jayapura state hospital Friday night on the bodies of three of the four detainees who died. Elsham advocacy coordinator Albert Rumbekwan told AFP all three had been identified as students, two aged 22 and one aged 17. Two had been beaten to death and one had a bullet wound to the chest, Rumbekwan said.

Wenas said students and residents had said earlier that Thursday's attack had been carried out by "Satgas Kotega" -- pro-independence civilian guards from the highland Dani tribe.

Jakarta poured more than 1,000 fresh troops into Irian Jaya, which makes up half of the island of New Guinea, ahead of the December 1 anniversary of an unrecognized declaration of independence by Papuans.

Hard-line OPM members vowed to step up their attacks when on December 2 at least seven people were killed when independence supporters ran amok in the coastal town of Merauke in a dispute over the Morning Star flag there.

Irian Jaya, a former Dutch colony, is home to a native Melanesian population of 1.8 million people, most of them Christians, plus another 700,000 settlers from other parts of Indonesia.

Student beaten to death in police retaliation for attack

Agence France-Presse - December 8, 2000

Jayapura -- A student was beaten to death in custody here Friday, bringing to four the number of people killed in retaliation for an attack on Indonesian police in the troubled province of Irian Jaya, the victim's fellow students told AFP.

Ori Dorongi, 19, a student from the central highlands' Nduga tribe, died in custody at 2am after repeated beatings by police, Notun, a fellow student from the Ninmin dormitory said. "He was bashed and died in the police cell," Notun said.

Dorongi was one of 99 people, at least 50 of them students, arrested by police in the hours following Thursday's attack on a marketplace on the outskirts of the capital Jayapura, in which two policemen and a security guard were killed and several shops set on fire.

Enraged police immediately swooped on several dormitories in the hills above the marketplace housing hundreds of students from the central highlands.

Crack troops stormed the dormitories, beating students with rifle butts, shot and chased students fleeing through gardens on the slopes behind, and barged into private homes in search of those hiding, witnesses said.

Police have admitted killing three people in the process, shooting one dead and killing two others with "other methods." Neighbours and students witnessed police stab two male students after dragging them from the Imi dormitory and beating them until their faces were "totally destroyed" at dawn on Thursday.

"I saw them throw the students into the police truck and stab them in both sides of the waist with bayonets," resident Fred Nobay told AFP. Still lying in the morgue of Jayapura General Hospital on Friday were two bodies, beaten beyond recognition, with stab wounds in their waists, medical staff said.

Armed police raided Imi dormitory, three kilometres uphill from the Abepura market, again on Thursday night, rounding up and beating 21 people including the neighbourhood (RT) head Yopi Koirewoa, witnesses said.

"Police hiding behind the wall pounced on us as we emerged from the dormitory to survey security at 10.30pm," Koirewoa told AFP. "They kicked and beat all of us in the face with rifle butts ... and forced us into their truck. They made us lie on the floor so we couldn't be seen."

Rachmat Marsuara and a fellow neighbour, emerging from their homes after hearing cries for help, were surrounded by police and forced to the ground at gunpoint. "They made us crawl along the ground for 25 meters as they kicked me in the back. The commander asked us what our business was. From our crawling position we told him 'You've got the RT in the truck, let him go.' They let him go and took off," Marsuara told AFP.

"Blood was pouring from all our faces," Koirewoa, a heavily bandaged gash above his eye, said. "They had us stretched out on the ground as they kicked and stuck rifles in our necks, like we were no longer human beings."

Provincial police chief Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas and Sihombing denied police had made any further raids or arrests overnight. "We only conducted patrols," Wenas told AFP, saying police were still holding 62 people arrested yesterday for questioning.

However police at the Abepura police station on Friday admitted they had rounded up more than a dozen people in an overnight raid. "We took about 15 people from a place up the hill about three kilometers from the marketplace last night," a Brimob policeman told AFP.

Police have blamed Thursday's attack on hardline independence fighters from the central highlands. Asked why police were holding so many students, Brigadier General Wenas replied "Whether they're students or not is of no interest to us."

Deputy Jayapura police chief Assistant Superintendent Alex Sambe told journalists Thursday he believed students had given the orders to kill police.

Gus Dur wants release of leaders in Irian Jaya

Jakarta Post - December 8, 2000

Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid called on the police on Thursday to release Irian Jaya pro-independence leaders currently in detention so that dialog between Jakarta and locals in the troubled province could resume.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with Abdurrahman at Merdeka Palace, secretary of the Irian Jaya chapter of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) Karel Phil Erari said Abdurrahman was "surprised" when he found out that "his order to release PPC (the Papuan Presidium Council) leaders had not been carried out by the provincial police chief".

"Gus Dur said he instructed police to free them by December 5, so that the dialog [between the government and pro-independence supporters] could resume," he said referring to the President by his nickname.

Theys Eluay and several other pro-independence supporters were arrested by police last week. He said the arrest "could indirectly be considered as an attempt to provoke Irianese people to put up resistance".

Karel said his meeting with the President on Thursday was aimed at expressing concerns about the deteriorating situation in Irian Jaya. Also present on Thursday were national legislators from Irian Jaya province Simon Patrice Morin and Lukas Degey, both from the Golkar Party, and Irianese community leader Michael Menufandu.

Karel said "political and security developments on the ground have shown that the central government is intent on creating preconditions for imposing repressive measures [in the province]." "The strong indication of this approach is that troops have been mobilized and leaders of the Papuan Presidium Council have been arrested," he said in a four-page statement distributed to journalists after the meeting.

Karel said Irianese leaders deplored that there had been "systematic attempts by a certain group of political elite from the central government to create a climate that would legitimize the imposition of civil emergencyor even martial law in Papua".

"These people have been exploiting the President's green light [to the Papuans] to raise the Morning Star flag as an issue of disintegration to discredit the President," Karel said in the statement.

"The hoisting of the Morning Star flag should not be blown out of proportion as an impending sign of disintegration because the Papua problemis actually only a problem of injustice," Karel said.

"We, therefore, call on the central government to immediately set up a commission to facilitate a dialog between the central government and local people to seek solutions to the Papua problem," Karel said.

Police declare war after deadly attack

Sydney Morning Herald - December 8, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta and agencies -- Many expected the attack, but not the savagery of it. Wielding axes, they split open the head of the first policeman they saw in a police station on the outskirts of Jayapura, the capital of West Papua.

Another was killed as the attackers, after a crackdown on the troubled province's independence movement, turned on Indonesian settlers with spears, arrows, axes and Molotov cocktails, setting homes and businesses on fire.

"We declare war on them," the local police chief, Assistant Superintendent Alex Sampe, told Agence France-Presse yesterday as his officers started rounding up truckloads of Papuan students and activists, kicking and beating them as they were arrested. Nearly 100 people were arrested, the official Antara news agency reported.

Observers fear that West Papua has plunged into a cycle of violence that may threaten the Freeport copper and gold mine, Jakarta's biggest taxpayer.

It is also feared that violence will escalate in Aceh, the staunchly Muslim province at the opposite end of the Indonesian archipelago, after the Defence Minister, Mohamad Mahfud, warned this week of a military campaign to wipe out the Free Aceh Movement. "If we act firmly and forcefully for just a short while we might convince the rebels that a dialogue is the best way to settle the problems of Aceh," he said.

But critics of the Government said big military operations in the past had only sent the independence movement underground and won it more popular support.

In Jakarta, critics of President Abdurrahman Wahid say the crackdown on separatist movements across the country mirrors the dark days of repression under the former dictator Soeharto.

Pro-independence leaders are being rounded up and jailed, and Amnesty International says it has documented increasing intimidation of human rights defenders in Aceh. "Serious and widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture and unlawful killings, are continuing in Aceh during operations by the Indonesian security forces against the armed opposition group, the Free Aceh Movement," Amnesty said.

A promise by Mr Wahid this week to introduce Islamic law in Aceh is unlikely to stem resentment towards Jakarta. "Apathy is very deep," said Mr Sofyan Hamzah, chief cleric of the Baiturrahman mosque, in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. "The Government has such low credibility."

The Jakarta Post said in an editorial yesterday that the arrest last week of six Papuan leaders, including Mr Theys Eluay, "bore all the hallmarks of the Soeharto regime". The newspaper warned that if people were convicted and sent to jail for preaching peaceful methods in their struggle for independence "the Government will no longer be able to take for granted international support for Indonesia's territorial integrity".

A presidential spokesman, Mr Wimar Witoelar, was quoted as saying the Wahid Government was concerned about the Indonesian military's build-up of troops in Aceh and West Papua. "It's really hard not to allow the military to do anything," he was quoted as saying.

West Papuan human rights activists and church officials blame the latest violence on the security forces and on Mr Wahid, who has cut off contact with independence leaders and reneged on a promise to allow the separatist Morning Star flag to be flown.

Hardline separatists, angry at an agreement signed by moderate independence leaders to lower the flag after December 1, have vowed to attack Indonesian security forces and any settlers seen aiding the troops.

Mr Wahid had accepted an invitation to visit West Papua on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a presidential palace spokesman said yesterday.

Observers in Jayapura warn that the situation in the province is set to worsen after police announced they intended to summon for questioning two more independence leaders, Mr Thom Beanal and Mr Willy Mandowen. Both men are moderates who advocate a peaceful struggle to end decades of repression.

Split in Irian Jaya independence forces

Straits Times - December 7, 2000

Marianne Kearney, Jayapura -- Just six months ago, Irian Jaya's diverse tribal and ethnic groups gathered for a historic Papuan congress and agreed to struggle for independence together. Today, however, the various pro-independence groups in Irian Jaya or West Papua led by the Papuan Presidium are fracturing along tribal lines.

The presidium itself -- established to negotiate for Papua's autonomy without violence -- is now being suspected of colluding with the government to rob Papuans of their independence.

While villagers are keen to explain that they all support the main independence group -- they followed the presidium's orders not to raise the Morning Star flag after December 1 -- they argue that the traditional means of warfare is the only way now to obtain independence. "It shouldn't be delayed. We've already waited a long time. With all these soldiers arriving we'll be killed so it's better we're free quick," said villager Yulius Kapojo.

Mr Yulius, like most other villagers, expected the presidium to declare Irian Jaya's independence on its original 39th anniversary on December 1 which has never been recognised by Jakarta. However, that never came about and now even members of the Satgas Papua, a pro-independence militia originally organised by the Papuan Presidium, say they want a new leadership.

In Jayapura, the leader of the People's Penis Gourd Association (Koteka), also said the group has had enough with negotiation and is preparing for war. Mr Lusi Kartoit, the group's organiser, said they and the Papua Freedom rebels (OPM), who have been fighting a low-level guerilla war since 1962, have lost faith in the Papuan Presidium which they accuse of only trying to make money from the negotiations.

According to him, their brothers in the highlands, the OPM, have been preparing all week for war and have sent messages to villages throughout the Baliem valley and around Jayapura to begin guerilla-style attacks.

Meanwhile, a band of Papuan separatist rebels have also established refugee camps on the Papuan New Guinea and Irian Jaya border. Busloads of people have been arriving at Indonesia's only land border post with Papua New Guinea every day for the past five days, bringing their belongings and setting up camp in an attempt to attract attention to their cause and create a humanitarian crisis.

But the Indonesian government yesterday said it would disarm main rebel groups in Aceh, Irian Jaya, West Timor and other provinces in a nationwide disarmament programme if peaceful talks failed to resolve problems.

Currently, like the Presidium leaders, even the villagers have been suspected of abandoning the independence cause. "We're afraid that some support autonomy because they are looking for money to survive," said Mr Enos Haluk in a highlands village.

While the future of autonomy remains unclear, it seems certain that there will be more violence as more and more frustrated independence groups prepare to declare independence while the government toughens its stance against the separatists.

Irian Jaya refugees blocked by rebels at PNG border

Agence France-Presse - December 5, 2000

Muara Tami -- Scores of refugees fleeing feared clashes between separatists and troops in Irian Jaya were Tuesday camped at the Indonesian province's border with Papua New Guinea (PNG).

A senior Indonesian police officer at this border post 75 kilometers from the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura, said 200 people had arrived since rebels of Irian's Free Papua Movement (OPM) had closed the border on December 1.

"It's not the PNG authorities who have closed the border but the OPM. They are controlling the situation," Captain Bram Tahaime told AFP. Tahaime's subordinates had earlier said that PNG authorities had closed the border.

The captain said the OPM had shut off all border traffic, and that PNG border officials "are waiting for some Indonesian officials to come and resolve the situation."

Families from the Dani tribe, who had been living in the capital of Jayapura, had been arriving at the checkpoint in groups of 30 to 40 since November 29, said corporal Rob Alwi, one of two guards at Muara Tami. "Every day more come. We had a bus carrying 30 turn up this morning ... This has never happened before," Alwi told AFP.

Alwi said there were now 200 refugees spread across three makeshift tent camps, one on the Indonesian side of the border, one in the neutral zone between the two countries and one just over the PNG borderline.

On Monday PNG Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta said his government would respect Indonesian sovereignty over Irian Jaya, despite cultural links to fellow Melanesians living under Jakarta's rule.

Morauta also said PNG had reinforced security along its border following the Indonesian security crackdown against independence supporters over the weekend.

Seven people were killed in the southern Irian Jaya town of Merauke during a riot over the raising of the separatist Morning Star flag, six of them native Papuans shot by Indonesian troops.

"We want to assure the government of Indonesia that while we will do our best, there are certainly likely to be overflows into our side of the border," Morauta said. "We try not to encourage them to come across but we may be forced to provide refugee status."

The refugees told border officials they were trying to avoid "unwanted incidents" in Jayapura around the anniversary of an unrecognized declaration of Papuan nationhood on December 1, 1961, said Muara Tami immigration official Silas Drunyi. "They're all scared and it's not very safe here," Drunyi told AFP.

He said tension was high at the crossing because police pulled down separatist Morning Star flags on Monday. On the declaration anniversary, OPM guerrillas based in PNG crossed the border and raised the Morning Star directly in front of the immigration post.

A blanket ban on the flag ordered by Jakarta took effect on December 2. However police at this deep jungle border post were unable to remove it before Monday because hundreds of tribal West Papuan separatists armed with primitive weapons were guarding it, they said.

"We were totally overwhelmed in strength. There are hardly any police here," Corporal Yulius Rumpampono told AFP. "If we'd pulled it down, they would have gone on a rampage with their bows and arrows." After lengthy negotiations, police removed the flag," he said.

Muara Tami, surrounded by towering jungle, is a four hour-drive from the PNG base of the guerrilla Free Papua Movement (OPM), led by hardline commander Matheus Wenda. Rumpampono said: "It was Matheus Wenda's men here. It was too dangerous for us to take them on."

He added the independence fighters and refugees were disappointed journalists had not seen the Morning Star aloft. Two Indonesian television reporters who approached them on Tuesday morning were beaten up.

Several of the OPM members, dressed in green and black camouflage, strutted round one of the camps, shouting obscentities at the journalists. "Go home, go home, I'll burn you, I'll use a bullet," yelled one of the rebels.

Irian Jaya hardliners threaten guerrilla warfare

Agence France-Presse - December 3, 2000

Jayapura -- Frustrated hardline separatists in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province have threatened to use guerrilla warfare to resurrect their campaign, after police stepped up a crackdown on their activities.

Leaders of the central highlands-based Penis Gourd Council of Elders (DMK), introduced by Papua Presidium deputy leader Tom Beanal as "the hardline members of the presidium," said their approach from now on would be two-pronged.

"We will use guerrilla tactics through the Free Papua Movement (OPM), and dialogue with the central government through the Papua Presidium," Petrus Tabuni, a district leader of the council, told AFP. "The OPM, from hideouts in the jungles, will attack Indonesian soldiers and any non-Papuans who conspire with them to hide them or their weapons," Tabuni said.

He said that should the soldiers hide within the population, the OPM and the DPK fighters, named after the traditional male outfits of the Dani tribe, would not only target soldiers but also all non-Papuans. "Us Dani people tolerate non-Papuans, but brutal military actions anger the Papuan people which can cause them to kill anyone including civilians."

Hans Yoweni, district commander of the OPM in Bonggo, 120 kilometres west of here, declared his disgust at the presidiums moderate approach. He told a rights monitoring organisation on Saturday that he was preparing to launch attacks before year end.

"He said the OPM, who started the struggle in the beginning, feel that theyve been left out by the presidium," John Rumbiak, head of the Institute for Advoacy and Human Right (Elsham) told AFP. "He said that for us the flag as a symbol of our political aspirations, we dont allow it to be pulled down, but it happened. So he said I will consolidate and I will fight ... before the year 2001."

Both the DMK and OPM oppose an agreement struck between the presidium, police and the provincial government on November 9 to restrict the separatist Morning Star flag to flying in five places only across the province, also known as West Papua.

"We fiercely disagree with pulling down the flag but we were forced to accept it on Friday night because the police got tough and people would have died. So we gave in to stop people dying," Tabuni said.

Rumbiak called the agreement a "tragic decision, detrimental to the whole independence struggle". "It has created a very shaky situation. It is being used now by the government to clamp down on political activities," he said, citing Saturdays fatal police shooting of six independence supporters after they raised the Morning Star in the southern border town of Merauke.

Provincical police chief Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas said police opened fire on the supporters because they violated the agreement, which took effect on Saturday.

"These killings will create more frustration among the people. Im really scared there will be an escalation of conflict after this," Rumbiak said. "When the people are frustated the hardliners will step in, and my fear is that not all of them are pure. Many of them collaborate with the security forces to create trouble," he said.

Rumbiak said the November 9 agreement had also widened a rift between moderates referred to as the "coastal people" and hardline elements in the central highlands referred to as "highlanders."

Beanal and fellow presidium member Willy Mandowen insist conflicts over the agreement have been ironed out. "You have seen us arguing with each other. But we are one," Beanal told journalists on Saturday night.

Rumbiak however says the conflict was still simmering, fuelled also by human rights abuses committed in the highlands by Papuan soldiers recruited by the Indonesian military from the coastal districts of Biak and Serui. "The seed of conflict has already spread, between the presidium and the radicals from the provinces central highlands," he said. "The situation now just needs a trigger to explode."

Police move on separatist militia

South China Morning Post - December 4, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Dozens of separatists in the disputed province of Irian Jaya were rounded up yesterday as officials hardened their crackdown on dissent.

At least 45 indigenous Papuans were arrested as police tried to clear out the Arts Centre in the capital Jayapura, used by the pro-independence Satgas Papua militia as its base.

The arrests followed the shooting dead of eight Papuans in the southern border town of Merauke on Saturday and the killing of two more in western Fakfak. In each violent incident, indigenous Papuans armed with bows and arrows faced police and soldiers in full riot gear with guns.

Rights observers said the violence over the weekend was an inevitable by-product of the widespread frustration felt over the control exercised around Friday's celebrations of a failed 1961 declaration of independence.

Although independence flag-raising ceremonies passed peacefully on Friday, police and troops maintained a heavy presence and enforced the final lowering of the flag that night.

Witnesses report that many ordinary Papuans had not expected the flag to disappear and are close to losing faith in the Papua Presidium, which negotiated a November 9 deal with the local government for the flag to stay down and for the Satgas headquarters to be dismantled.

"I saw the situation in the [central Jayapura] Imbi Park, around midnight," said John Rumbiak, head of the Els-HAM Centre for Human Rights advocacy and Information. "So many of them were dissatisfied, some were hysterical, crying and wailing. They were shouting 'How dare you take our flag away'." As the message sank in, more Papuans gathered at the Arts Centre on Saturday and overnight, leading to the police operation at 4am yesterday when riot police with sticks and batons broke in. Scuffles broke out between Papuans and police, with broken windows adding to the debris as the 45 people arrested were taken away.

Some protesters sobbed as their flag stopped flying. "We allowed them to lower it to protect our people's safety," said Katerina Yabansubru, a senior pro-independence activist. "It is only a symbol. It doesn't mean our freedom struggle is over."

But such subtleties do not convince the masses. "Many ordinary Papuans don't understand the deal which the Papua Presidium made with the Government to lower the flags. They say it was made without consultation of their wishes," Mr Rumbiak said.

The Presidium was formed during the Peoples' Congress held in Jayapura in May and June and represents a more moderate voice for independence in the hope Jakarta might negotiate with it to ensure a peaceful transition. But an increasingly hardline central Government has refused to open formal dialogue and, in common with critiques of its behaviour in the past, is busy imposing its own reality in Irian Jaya through both repression and promised development plans.

This approach risks leaving the Presidium out in the cold, when it has been Presidium leaders who have sought to lower passions and promote inter-racial harmony alongside political talks.

Rights observers say the danger is that more radical alternatives for Papuan passions exist and could become more popular. "These frustrated people can be provoked or manipulated very easily, especially to make conflict between Papuans and migrants," Mr Rumbiak warned. A representative of the Operasi Papua Merdeka, the guerillas aiming to achieve independence by force, warned at the weekend that his organisation also disagreed with the deal to keep the flags down. "Our military wing will consolidate and will take action," he was quoted as saying. "Just you wait and see."

Mr Rumbiak said: "Most of the journalists are leaving town now and that leaves me worried." He said it was typical government behaviour to wait for the limelight to shift away before beginning a more serious crackdown on separatist sentiment.

In Fakfak, again after a flag was lowered, riots saw two men killed by police, bringing the death toll to 10 in two days. Seven others were arrested and 70 members of the Satgas Papua militia were declared fugitives by local police.

Two wounded during attack on Aceh governor's residence

Jakarta Post - December 10, 2000

Jakarta -- Two men were wounded in an attack Saturday evening on the residence of Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh located on Jl. SA Mahmudsyah in Banda Aceh. The two victims are Hilal Hasballah, head of the West Aceh Public Works Office, and his driver, Ismail, Antara reported Sunday.

The attack occurred at around 7.15pm when the governor was hosting a fast-breaking dinner for Forestry Minister Nur Mahmudi. The minister was in Aceh for a two-day visit. The attackers, believed to be members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), threw a hand grenade into a door of the front porch and then sprayed bullets into it. They fled in a blue Kijang van after security guards fired back. Earlier report by Antara said one of the guests was wounded in the attack.

Hasballah was on his way home to Lam Ara in Keutapang from a fastbreaking gathering in Banda Aceh when the attack occurred. He was passing in front of the governor's house when the attack occurred and was hit by a shrapnel from the grenade. His driver sustained a bullet wound on his back.

Aid workers tortured, killed in Aceh

South China Morning Post - December 10, 2000

Reuters in Jakarta -- Three Indonesian humanitarian volunteers attached to a Danish-sponsored rights group have been tortured and shot dead in Aceh, underscoring the growing threat to aid workers and civilians in the rebellious province.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused plainclothes security forces of torturing and then summarily executing the three on Wednesday on a road near a village in North Aceh. A fourth aid worker managed to escape, while one patient, a recent victim of torture, was also killed.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty said initial reports indicated members of the elite Police Mobile Brigade were involved, along with soldiers. Police in Aceh, where rebels have fought an independence war for decades, denied the accusations, saying the three aid workers were killed by separatists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The killings follow the murder of a leading Aceh human rights activist several months ago and an upsurge in bloody clashes between soldiers and rebels that have made a mockery of a ceasefire agreed in June.

"This is all GAM's doing. Most of the time they commit crimes, turn around the facts and make us look like the bad guys," Aceh police spokesman, Kusbini Imbar, said, adding there were indications the three had been tortured.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty said that after a vehicle carrying the aid workers was stopped on Wednesday, the three were tortured, then lined up along the road and shot in the head.

"The Indonesian government is allowing its security forces to target humanitarian workers in Aceh, just as it allowed militias to target such workers in West Timor," the two international rights groups said in a statement obtained on Saturday.

"The international community should be every bit as outraged over these executions as they were over the brutal killing of three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) workers in September, and take equally firm action."

Foreign governments and the UN slammed Indonesia over the UNHCR murders, carried out by members of pro-Jakarta Timorese militias who killed hundreds of people and laid waste to much of East Timor when the territory voted for independence last year.

The three aid workers killed in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, were local volunteers of an organisation called Rehabilitation Action for Torture victims in Aceh (Rata), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty said. Danish diplomats in Jakarta were not immediately available for comment, and RATA officials could also not be reached.

Independence demands have simmered for decades in Aceh, where the military has waged a brutal war against rebels and the central government has exploited the province's natural resources, including its reserves of oil and gas.

Highlighting the headache Aceh poses to the beleaguered government of President Abdurrahman Wahid, a separate local human rights group said more civilians had been killed in violence there this year than in any year in the past decade.

The Forum for Concern for Human Rights, quoted by the official Antara News Agency on Saturday, said 676 civilians had been killed in violent acts so far in 2000. "Hundreds of victims died in violent acts such as gunshots, grenade explosions, torture, stabbings, hackings and burnings," Antara quoted the group as saying. It added that 124 police and military personnel had been killed, along with 41 rebels.

While it was unclear how many civilians had been killed this year as a direct result of the rebellion, the figures underscore the depth of violence in Aceh, home to four million people out of Indonesia's 210 million.

'Widows' in deadly fight for freedom

Sydney Morning Herald - December 9, 2000

Jacqueline Koch, Banda Aceh -- Demur and modestly veiled in scarves, young women circulate through Aceh's coffee shops, food stalls and open markets.

Youth and gender shield them from suspicion as they listen to snatches of conversation and note who meets whom. Most are in their early 20s and not yet married, but they are known as the inong bale, or widows.

They are trained in military operations, to fire weapons and gather intelligence; they are the reserve force and the eyes and ears of GAM, the Free Aceh Movement which launched its struggle to gain independence from Indonesia in 1976.

After 24 years of conflict, women in this far north-western province of Indonesia are increasingly responding to the violence that surrounds them. Emerging from traditional Muslim roles, they have become leading activists, politicians, human rights defenders and rebel fighters.

Cut Nur Asyikin is known as the Lion of Aceh, and is the province's First Lady. A mother of five and a devout Muslim, she is an indefatigable soldier fighting to stop military aggression against civilians. Her role as political activist is imbued with her personal commitment to her people.

Travelling the circuit of refugee camps, she distributes food, supplies and moral support. At the hospital, she is a regular, visiting wounded civilians, digging into her purse for money to help the family pay medical bills.

Since president Soeharto was ousted in 1998 and after broken promises of reform, Acehnese demands for a referendum on independence have grown more insistent. The political elite in Jakarta, accustomed to reaping the profits from Aceh's substantial natural gas and timber resources, has resisted, and the violence has flared again.

A recent "humanitarian pause" in the fighting appears to have broken down completely after the death of 51 people en route to a pro-independence rally last month.

In the mist-shrouded hills beyond the capital, Banda Aceh, 250 women attend a lecture on international human rights laws in a makeshift meeting hall. It is the nucleus of an extensive separatist military camp, carved out of the tropical forest.

The inong bale enlist for a month-long induction in military operations and intelligence gathering. They also learn pro- independence ideology, international human rights laws and further their Islamic education. "Then we return to our villages, or start our university studies, but if our people need us we are ready to defend them," one inong bale initiate says.

Indonesia has repeatedly tried to wipeout GAM separatists using military repression. In 1988 Soeharto classified Aceh as a special military operations region, disguising a long-running and brutal military crackdown. Conservative estimates put the civilian death toll at 5,500.

Thousands were wounded, imprisoned or disappeared. Investigations by Indonesia's Human Rights Commission over the past year have uncovered dozens of mass graves and torture houses used during this period. Scores of women were targeted by military personnel, raped, sexually abused and mutilated. Wives were often arrested as "bait" to trap husbands and sons.

Last month 600 people attended a human rights victims' congress in Banda Aceh. Some arrived in wheelchairs or hobbled on crutches, others were carried by family members. Many women came alone.

Rasyidah was 19 years old when soldiers burst into the family home, savagely beat then killed her mother, who they suspected was a rebel sympathiser. Rasyidah and her pregnant sister were imprisoned in the rumah geudong, or torture house, where they were repeatedly raped, beaten and tortured. When she was released five months later, Rasyidah returned to find her home had been burnt to the ground. She remains confused and easily disoriented, the result of severe beatings to her head.

Last spring, Ms Cut Nur became the only woman on GAM's five- member Humanitarian Pause Monitoring Team. Her position involves exhaustive meetings, reviewing and verifying incident reports.

"Our province is rich, but our people are poor,"she says. "All of Aceh's wealth benefits Jakarta, while the Acehnese don't have enough to eat. We have lost too much to give up our struggle for freedom."

GAM Peurlak war commander sentenced to 2.5 years in prison

Jakarta Post - December 8, 2000

Jakarta -- The Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) Peurlak war commander, Sahrul bin Idris, 35, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on Thursday by the Medan District Court.

Presiding Judge NK Simatupang said Sahrul was convicted of illegally possessing an AK-47 weapon with 150 bullets, thus violating article 1 of Law No. 12/1950 on Civil Emergency.

Besides Sahrul, the district court also handed down its verdict against two other GAM members, Badruddin Jaffar, 23, and Saifuddin bin Hasan, 24. Each got one-and-a-half years imprisonment for illegally possessing an AK-47 weapon.

The district court's verdict against the three GAM members was lighter than was demanded by prosecutors, who demanded three years imprisonment for Sahrul and two years imprisonment each for Badruddin and Saifuddin.

After hearing the decision, Sahrul became angry and kicked the defendant' chair. He said he could not accept what he considered to be an unjust decision. Simatupang then ordered security personnel to bring Sahrul to the court's detention cell.

Sahrul's lawyer Dinas Tarigan contended that the arrest of his client on July 13 was against the cease fire, or the humanitarian pause as it is officially called, signed by the government and GAM representatives. But he did not say whether his client would appeal the decision.

Rebels step up attacks in Aceh

Agence France-Presse - December 8, 2000

Aceh -- Separatist rebels have stepped up attacks on military and police installations in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, leaving three people dead.

A police private was shot dead on Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire after suspected separatist guerillas launched a grenade at a police post in Bireun district in northern Aceh, while another policeman was seriously injured in the fighting. A local commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Darwis Jeunib, said his group was responsible.

In a separate incident, a policeman gunned down an unidentified man who tried to attack him with a machete in Jeumpa sub- district. A ticket attendant at the bus station in East Aceh was also shot dead on Tuesday night.

Troops execute three humanitarian workers in Aceh

Agence France-Presse - December 7, 2000

Banda Aceh -- Indonesian security forces have killed three humanitarian workers and a torture victim they were escorting in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, a rights activist said Thursday. The three were among four volunteers for the Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims in Aceh (RATA) who were ambushed by a convoy of police and soldiers while travelling from the Tanah Pasir area of North Aceh on Wednesday, RATA chairman Nurdin Abdurrahman said

The group were returning to Lhokseumawe from Tanah Pasir, where they had picked up a torture victim for medical treatment, he said, quoting the fourth member of the group who escaped. "They were hauled to a Brimob [anti-riot police] truck and taken to Cot Matahe subdistrict," Abdurrahman said.

The three volunteers and the patient were later executed but the fourth managed to escape and reported the ordeal to the local Red Cross, he said. The bodies of the victims were collected by Red Cross volunteers and subsequently buried by their families in North Aceh. Aceh police spokesman Superintendent Yatim Suyatno said he had not received any report on the killings,

In August, a US-based Acehnese human rights campaigner, Jafar Siddiq Hamzah, who heads the New York-based International Forum for Aceh (IFA), went missing in the North Sumatra city of Medan. His body was found later outside the city.

The reported killing of the humanitarian workers came after Acehnese separatist rebels stepped up attacks on military and police installations there, leaving three people dead.

Police Private John Heriadi was shot dead on Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire after suspected separatist guerillas hurled a grenade at a police post in Bireun district in northern Aceh, police spokesman Suyatno told AFP.

Another policeman was seriously injured in the fighting, Suyatmo said. A local commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Darwis Jeunib, said his group was responsible for the attack.

A grenade attack was also mounted on a military post in Pantenlabu, North Aceh, leaving a soldier wounded in the ensuing gunfight, police said.

On Wednesday rebels attacked a military post at Malikussaleh civilian airport in the industrial city of Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, wounding one soldier, Suyatmo said.

In a separate incident a policeman gunned down an unidentified man who tried to attack him with a machete in Jeumpa subdistrict. A ticket attendant at the bus station in East Aceh was shot dead by an unidentifed assailant on Tuesday night.

Two bodies, believed to be victims of violence, were also found in two places in Banda Aceh on Wednesday night, hospital staff said.

Supporters of the rebels in Aceh, an Islamic stronghold in Indonesia and the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, are embittered by nine years of harsh military operations against the GAM, and Jakarta's syphoning off of the region's abundant natural resources.

The GAM and Jakarta have agree to resume talks in Europe some time this month to seek a political settlement, but have yet to set a date.

Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid has flatly ruled out independence for the province but has instead promised broad autonomy by next year.

Wahid is due to visit Aceh on December 19 to inaugurate the implementation of Islamic Sharia law and hand over 10.5 million dollars in aid for the staunchly Muslim province.

West Papua: Independence supporters defy authorities

Green Left Weekly - December 6, 2000

James Balowski -- Despite a massive presence by Indonesian troops and stern warnings from Jakarta and local police, thousands of West Papuan's on December 1 peacefully celebrated the 39th anniversary of their self-declared independence from Dutch rule with prayers, peaceful ceremonies and a speech from the police chief. However, nine West Papuans were reported to have been killed on December 2 by Indonesian forces.

The December 2 South China Morning Post reported that 10,000 West Papuans gathered in the provincial capital of Jayapura under the gaze of hundreds of police and riot troops, who had been told to use force to protect the nation's "integrity" if necessary.

According to West Papuan leaders, an extra 21,000 Indonesian troops, police and special branch officers were in the province for the celebrations.

In a statement released on November 30, Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid said that any action to secede will "certainly be halted". Police and soldiers in Jayapura had been given orders to shoot any separatist who produced a sharp weapon.

The South China Morning Post said pro-independence supporters began gathering at sunrise on Jayapura's the main street, where a cultural centre had been taken over by members of the pro- independence Sagas Papua (Papua Taskforce). Many heckled the more moderate leaders when they refused to read out the 1961 unilateral claim of independence from Holland.

In a provocative move by Jakarta in the days before the protests, independence leader Theys Eluay, who heads the Papua Presidum Council, and four other council members were detained by police. They are expected to be held until December 20, as provided by the Indonesian constitution.

Earlier on December 1, at least four flag-raisers were arrested by police for "insulting" the Indonesian flag by raising a Morning Star flag that was larger and flying higher than the Indonesia flag next to it.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that there was a "surreal stand-off" in Jayapura as Indonesian police with riot shields, padded uniforms and automatic weapons stared grimly at independence supporters, who yelled, "Merdeka, merdeka [independence]". Heavily armed police and soldiers stopped and searched travellers. Thousands of Indonesian settlers have fled the province, fearing attack.

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) agency reported that more than 2000 independence supporters, hemmed in on three sides by scores of armed anti-riot police, shouted "Hallelujah", sang hymns and danced beneath the flag, which independence leaders had agreed would be lowered at sunset.

After an hour of tense negotiations, Jayapura police chief Lieutenant Colonel Daud Sihombing said he would not force the flag down at the agreed time.

Earlier he had warned of "consequences" if it stayed aloft but pro-independence supporters refused, declaring they were ready to die in defence of the flag.

Chief negotiator Tony Infandi pleaded with the crowd to accept the police orders, but was drowned out. AFP reported that when Infandi returned to continue negotiations, he told Sihombing that he had exhausted all efforts to persuade the independence supporters to comply. "I've tried everything, but all of them, even women and mothers are telling me they are ready to be slaughtered."

Jubilant independence supporters shone a spotlight on the Morning Star, fluttering next to a frayed red and white Indonesian national flag.

Shortly before 11pm, police finally lowered the flag. AFP reported that when the flag came down, many of those left in the park started to flee, even though the armed Indonesian riot police, who had circled the park all day, had gone.

While the December 1 celebrations passed generally peacefully due to the large size of the mobilisations, Indonesian troops killed two men in the western town of Fak Fak.

On December 2, Indonesian forces opened fire in Merauke, killing six pro-independence supporters and a taxi driver. The Morning Star flag was pulled down at sunset on December 1 by the town's pro-independence leaders, as had been agreed with the authorities. However, an angry crowd, reportedly unhappy with the flag's removal had gathered the next day. The BBC on December 2 reported that "many people" in Jayapura were also unhappy with agreement to pull down the independence flag at sunset across West Papua.

Sagas issued a statement on December 2 reporting that 23 independence advocates had been seized at 3am by Indonesian troops.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, police fired teargas to disperse some 300 West Papuan students who staged a pro-independence rally outside the US embassy. AFP reported that at least three students were injured as the police beat them for waving the Morning Star flag. When the students refused to move, the police fired a volley of tear gas and arrested at least seven.

Fifteen killed in Aceh violence

Jakarta Post - December 6, 2000

Banda Aceh -- At least 15 people have been killed and five others injured in separate violent incidents here following the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)'s 24th anniversary on Monday, the security forces and residents said on Tuesday.

On Monday, hundreds of GAM rebels took part in ceremonies simultaneously held at 30 places across the province to mark the movement's anniversary. Hundreds of Acehnese had been helping the rebels hoist thousands of GAM flags in their localities since Sunday evening and, on Monday morning, they assembled at mosques to pray for peace in the ravaged province.

The commemorations were held in defiance of the police who had warned that they would take stern action against those involved in separatist activities in the province.

However, the situation in the capital of Banda Aceh was calm on Monday as residents said that hundreds of GAM rebels assembled at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, while, at the same time, soldiers also gathered at the Teuku Umar military command post, some 200 meters away from the mosque, to pray for peace in the territory. The mosque and the military compound were only separated by the Krueng Aceh river.

In his speech, the Teuku Umar Military commander Col. Syarifuddin Tippe asked his soldiers on Monday to adopt a more humane approach towards local residents.

In other parts of Aceh, GAM deployed its rebels within a radius of five kilometers to safeguard ceremonies, while the security forces launched separate operations to hamper separatist activities. The violence linked to the celebration of the movement's anniversary has claimed at least 15 fatalities since Monday.

North Aceh Police Precinct chief Supt. Abadan Bangko said four died and five others were wounded when GAM rebels initiated separate attacks against patrolling security personnel in Nisam, Matangkuli and Tanah Pasir districts here. He said the gunfight that broke out in Nisam had killed one soldier and injured a civilian, while two people were killed and four others were injured in Matangkuli.

Separately, North Aceh GAM Commander Abu Sofyan Daud said his fighters were forced to launch an attack against the security forces as the latter were shooting at local residents and set fire to 35 houses in the area as they got closer to the site where GAM was holding its ceremony. Similar violence also broke out in Setia Bakti district in West Aceh, killing six people, the security task force chief of the 133rd infantry battalion Lt. Col. Bambang Prasetio said. He identified the fatalities as GAM rebels who ambushed a military patrol.

Meanwhile, West Aceh GAM spokesman Abu Tausi claimed that the security forces had fired shots at unarmed residents, who had nothing to do with GAM, mainly because the troops thought they had hoisted GAM flags in the area.

Separately, a security forces patrol also killed two unarmed residents ofManggeng district in South Aceh and three others in Peurelak district in East Aceh as they tried to flee from the security forces.

In Jakarta, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf confirmed on Tuesday that GAM rebels attacked the security forces in Matangkuli district, North Aceh, and launched a shooting attack in Peurelak district, East Aceh, on Monday morning.

The security forces, he said, had also defused two homemade bombs planted on the road connecting Banda Aceh and the North Sumatran capital of Medan. Saleh said six rebels were killed in an exchange of fire, following the removal of GAM flags in Setia Bakti district, West Aceh.

Security personnel also found a grenade launcher, a live grenade, four homemade firearms and one unregistered van at the scene, he said. He added that at least three members of the security forces were killed in the violence that erupted over the past two days. The latest violence occurred on Monday in Cok Mambon, Nisam district, North Aceh, killing a marine officer and severely injuring another.

In an unrelated development, after organizing the Mass Gathering for Peace (SIRA RAKAN) on November 11, the organizers are holding another event called the International Solidarity Week on Aceh Human Rights Violations (Persikab HAM Aceh) which runs from December 4 until December 10 and is designed todraw international attention to the Aceh problem. A member of the organizing committee, Muh. Taufik Abda said that representatives had been sent to various European countries to garner support from non- governmental organizations concerned with human rights so as to help settle the Aceh problem. Dialogs on human rights, book launchings and advocacy to the press demanding the prosecution of human rights violators would be held to mark the event.

Saleh Saaf also said on Tuesday that police were still waiting for the government to declare GAM a rebellious, separatist movement so that full force could be employed to destroy the armed group.

"Police are still following the government's policy which prefers to settle this problem through dialog. That's why we can act only when we findsomebody carrying a weapon," Saleh told reporters at police headquarters. "There is no political statement saying that the police should unite with the military to destroy GAM," Saleh said.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Military chief Adm. Widodo AS claimed on Tuesday that the military and police had found GAM's headquarters and training camp, but had no intention of launching an attack. "We will not take any offensive or repressive action against them. We do not want to do that," Widodo told a media briefing at Army Headquarters as quoted by Antara.

US urges halt to violence in Irian Jaya

Agence France-Presse - December 6, 2000

Washington -- The United States on Monday bemoaned the latest 'tragic' deaths in Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya province and called on separatist leaders and the Jakarta government to back off from confrontation.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: 'We certainly regret the tragic loss of life. We call on the government of Indonesia and the people of Irian Jaya to exercise restraint and refrain from acts of violence.' He also reiterated US support for the territorial integrity of Indonesia.

Police shot dead six independence supporters angered by the lowering of their flag in the town of Merauke on Saturday, sparking a rampage in which pro-independence backers killed two settlers from other parts of Indonesia.

But while calling for restraint, Mr Boucher criticised the imprisonment of five independence leaders which 'should have no place in today's open and democratic Indonesia'.

The prospect of the vast country splitting up and threatening stability across South-east Asia has caused alarm in Washington and several other capitals.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud hit back at Washington's criticisms of the arrests. Mr Muhammad said the government would press on with a persuasive approach with independence activists in both Irian Jaya in the east and the rebellious territory of Aceh in the north.

'Yes, in those two areas, the government will still use a persuasive approach for now and perhaps for the next few months,' he said. 'But we anticipate actions that may lead to subversion, and we will use any means to prevent them. Everybody agrees that the security forces are charged with tasks to secure and to uphold the law,' he said.

GAM vows to continue to fight for freedom

Jakarta Post - December 5, 2000

Banda Aceh -- Free Aceh Movement (GAM) commander Abdulah Syafi'iled a military ceremony to commemorate the movement's 24th anniversary in Batee Iliek in the regency of Bireuen, Aceh, and pledged to continue the struggle for freedom.

Around 500 people, including members of the GAM female force Inong Balee, attended the peaceful ceremony which included a written address from the exiled Acehnese leader, Hasan di Tiro, read by, among others, Abdullah Syafi'i. The address was translated into Bahasa Indonesia and Acehnese.

A huge GAM flag was displayed at the ceremony, which was tightly guarded by armed GAM militia members. The ceremony started at 7.30am local time. In his statement, Hasan di Tiro, who has been in Sweden since the 1980s, called on the Acehnese people to continue the fight for an independent Aceh, and not submit to colonialist Indonesia.

"I call on you to prepare both material and moral strength so that we candefend the honor of our nation," he said. "The Acehnese people are obliged to wage war against this terrorist state." Di Tiro's statements defy the Indonesian government and military's pledge to prevent any separatist moves.

Indonesia's government has warned that the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia is final and that there is no possibility for Aceh or Irian Jaya to become independent. The government has ruled out Aceh's demand for independence and, instead, offered wide ranging autonomy to the province.

Reports indicated that anniversary ceremonies were held almost simultaneously in 30 areas throughout the province on Monday. In the capital of Banda Aceh, hundreds of people congregated at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh to attend a mass prayer marking the GAM anniversary.

GAM members in the Joint Committee on Security Modality and members of the Joint Committee for Humanitarian Actions Cut Nur Asikin and Kamaruzzaman attended the ceremony at the grand mosque. In his oration, Teungku Amni bin Marzuki, a member of GAM, reiterated the demand for Aceh's separation from Indonesia.

The most emotional moment at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque was when the GAM flag was showered with white flour before being carried from the left to right corners of the mosque. Many people burst into tears during this event.

"The scattering of white flour is called besiju. It expresses our hope that everything will end in a cool situation," a local said. The ceremony at the grand mosque was said to be much 'cooler' than that in Bireuen.

Despite the military and police high alert, Banda Aceh was totally calm on Monday. Daily life remained normal as shops and markets all opened as usual, and public transport operated normally.

Later in the afternoon two armored vehicles and two trucks, carrying army and police officers, roamed the city. Other security force personnel were seen lowering the GAM flag hoisted at the Syah Kuala University campus.

Unlike last year's festivity, there was no GAM flags waving along the Banda Aceh-Medan highway on Monday, however, the flags were seen flying in public buildings and streets in several regencies, namely Bireuen, Pidie, Aceh Besar, North and West Aceh. Residents said they had been secretly helping GAM rebels raise the flags in their districts since late Sunday evening.

Police Special Operation Cinta Meunasah deputy chief Supt. Yatim Suyatmo had earlier warned that stern action would be taken against those who attempted to raise flags other than the Indonesian red-and-white flag.

The North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe, 270 kilometers away from Banda Aceh, was calm on Monday with scores of security officers on alert since Sunday night.

There was no impression that the people were intending to celebrate the anniversary of GAM. Not a single shop was opened down town making the business districts, including those along Jl. Merdeka, Jl. Periniagaan and Jl. Perdagangan, look lazy and idle, Antara reported.

Periodically, private vehicles would cruise through those roads, which are usually busy. The roads looked abandoned without the operation of local transit vehicles. A local said that this year's situation was much better than that of last year, judging from the fact that no gunshots were heard until 3.15pm local time.

The bloody fighting in the province remains unabated despite Indonesian government and GAM representatives having signed an agreement, called the Humanitarian Pause, to ease tension in the disputed territory last May in Switzerland.

The pause was later extended in September but failed to end the violence with GAM continuing its struggle for independence and the Indonesian government vowing to quell any separatist activities in the territory.

Further talks were scheduled to take place on December 5 and December 6, however, GAM has asked for a delay until a date between December 10 and December 15, on the grounds that they were busy with the anniversary festivities in Aceh on Monday December 4.

Jakarta offers Aceh Islamic law

South China Morning Post - December 5, 2000

Agencies in Banda Aceh and Jakarta -- In a bid to ease separatist tensions in the predominantly Muslim province of Aceh, Jakarta said yesterday it would offer Islamic law. The offer came as police forcibly pulled down hundreds of independence flags.

Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh said after meeting President Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta that the President would visit Aceh on December 15 to celebrate the Nuzul-ul Quran, the beginning of the revelations of the Koran. "He will ... declare the implementation of [Islamic] sharia law in Aceh," Mr Puteh said.

Although strict sharia law can include punishments such as stoning and amputation, in Aceh it is more likely to involve the maintenance of more conservative morals and Islamic banks.

In the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, residents hoisted separatist flags to mark the 24th anniversary of the founding of the main separatist guerilla group. Villagers said security forces shot at rebel flags hoisted secretly overnight along main roads in the province before tearing them down.

Police said one officer had been shot to death and another injured in a gun battle with rebels in the north of the province. Security forces also gunned down a motorcyclist on Sunday night in Indrajaya district, east of Banda Aceh, witnesses said. But Superintendent Kusbini, of the joint police-military taskforce, blamed rebels of the Free Aceh Movement for the man's death, saying they had attacked three military outposts during the night.

The exiled leader of the separatist movement, Hasan di Tiro, marked his anniversary by urging followers to keep up the fight for independence. In a message from his base in Sweden, "supreme commander" Tiro, of the Free Aceh Movement, urged rebels not to yield to "colonialist" Indonesia. He said Jakarta was in "political, economic and moral bankruptcy".

Authorities warned they would crack down on any public celebrations marking December 4, 1976, the day when separatists unilaterally declared the province's independence from Indonesia. Since then, efforts by security forces to suppress the insurgents have largely backfired.

Although at least 5,500 people have died as a result of the conflict during the past decade, the separatists have managed to attract wide public support in the province of 4.1 million people.

Rebels maintain that the region on the northern tip of Sumatra island has become a virtual colony of Indonesia's dominant island of Java. They claim Aceh's substantial oil and natural gas reserves have been exploited by Jakarta's political and military elite and that few benefits have returned to the region.

Papua students pledge to strike until independence

Agence France-Presse - December 4, 2000 (abridged)

Jayapura -- Students in the capital of Irian Jaya vowed Monday to maintain their strike until the restive Indonesian province is granted independence.

The pledge came as students removed the barricades they had placed three days earlier ago around the state Cendrawasih University campus in Jayapura.

"We have just declared that we will not study or attend classes again until Papua gets independence," Matheus Maryen of the West Papua Student Solidarity Movement told AFP.

West Papua is the locally used name for the eastern remote Indonesian province that lies on the western half of New Guinea island.

Maryen was speaking after a demonstration by some 500 students at the campus. All activity at the university has ceased since students closed down the campus on Friday, erecting log barricades across gates in a pro-independence protest. Friday was the 39th anniversary of an unrecognized declaration of an independent Papua state.

Maryen said students had agreed to lift the barricades after the University's rector asked them to, however he said they were sticking to their strike. He said the rector had accepted a continuing cessation of campus activity.

All 500 students at Monday's demonstration agreed with the decision not to return to classes until their independence demands are met, Yance Kambu, a youth leader from Manokwari, told AFP at the campus. "This is what all Papuan students across Papua feel," Kambu said after the demonstration.

Both Kambu and Maryen said that the students were expecting independence within two years. "Five years, 10 years, that is too long ... we would rather die than live under Indonesia that long," Kambu said.

Aceh anniversary mood sombre as promises go unfulfilled

South China Morning Post - December 4, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Government has tried to buy hearts and minds in the troubled province of Aceh ahead of the separatists' declaration of independence anniversary today, but few believe the promises anymore.

The Acehnese plan to hold peaceful prayer meetings and quiet celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the declaration of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the village of Banda. Similar gatherings will be held in other villages. Organisers say the security and logistics situation makes the mass transport of people unlikely.

In the absence of viable peace talks and the failure of a Humanitarian Pause agreement to bring even a break in hostilities, the atmosphere in the village is heavy with foreboding. More than 160 people have been killed since the renewal of the truce in September, and negligible aid has arrived for victims of violence as pledged in the agreement.

As with Irian Jaya, which celebrated its own failed independence anniversary on Friday, government forces appear to be pursuing various policies at the same time. Promising money and wide- ranging autonomy with one hand, it threatens heavy crackdowns and the impossibility of independence with the other.

Last month police arrested a leading student activist, Mohamad Nazar, who heads the Sira Centre for a Referendum for Aceh. Senior ministers have also warned GAM rebels that if they refuse to come to the negotiating table they will pursue plans to impose a civil emergency status on Aceh.

Alleged GAM bases have been raided and every few days police or troops are blamed for burning houses or market places in their search for presumed rebels.

Heavy rains and severe flooding have swept across parts of Aceh and West Sumatra, impeding free movement and dampening demonstration plans.

Indonesia President Abdurrahman Wahid claimed the new aid, worth US$10.5 million, had been planned for some time, and that its announcement just before the anniversary was coincidental. But it will be spent on battling the impact of the recent floods across Aceh.

Successive Jakarta governments have promised many things to Aceh, such as the mythical North Sumatra railway and the creation of a free port in Sabang. Nothing has been forthcoming.

If anything, clashes between security forces and GAM rebels have increased, with more lives lost each day than before the truce. GAM representatives have also refused to open a new session of talks on ways to calm the province.

Last year's celebrations were in the flush of euphoria following Mr Wahid's election, with his broad promises ringing in Acehnese ears. There were mass displays of GAM flags and slogans calling for a referendum rang out.

But a year later the mood is more sombre -- few of the promises have been fulfilled, fighting continues and the display of separatist symbols will be likely to attract punishment. "The celebrations will go ahead but of course not like last year because the security situation is not as conducive as last year," said Abu Sofyan Daud, the GAM commander of the Pasee, or north Aceh, region.

Australia stirring up trouble, says general

Sydney Morning Herald - December 4, 2000

Lindsay Murdoch, Jayapura -- A senior Indonesian police officer in charge of the crackdown on West Papua's separatist movement has strongly criticised Australians who support the former Dutch colony gaining independence.

Brigadier-General Sylvanus Wenas told the Herald that if Aborigines claimed an area of land and demanded independence, "Australia would bomb the area and finish them off".

Speaking in Jayapura, shortly after a police raid on a separatist group's headquarters, General Wenas declined to elaborate on Australia's involvement in the resource-rich province. "It's a very sensitive issue. I can't make comments without solid, proven evidence, otherwise it will only make the relationship between the two countries even worse," he said.

Despite repeated assurances by the Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, that Australia supports Indonesia's rule of West Papua, many of Indonesia's political and military elite, still smarting from the loss of East Timor last year, believe Australia is secretly plotting to see the province break away.

The Indonesian Government was particularly upset by recent comments by the president of the ACTU, Greg Sword -- also national president of the ALP -- who said West Papuans should be able to hold a referendum on whether they wished to remain part of Indonesia.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Alwi Shihab, earlier this year accused unnamed Australian non-government organisations of inciting violence in Papua.

Human rights/law

Sukarno bodyguard faces trial

Associated Press - December 9, 2000

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta -- More than three decades after Gen. Suharto seized power from President Sukarno, Sukarno's former bodyguard faced a court Friday for challenging the military's official version of the overthrow.

Sukardjo Wilardjito, 73, was arrested after he told a small public meeting that he was present when a group of army generals held guns to Sukarno's head and forced him to sign a document transferring power to Suharto on March 11, 1966.

According to the army and Suharto, Sukarno voluntarily surrendered control by signing the "Letter of Orders of March 11" -- known by its acronym as Supersemar. Suharto interpreted this to mean that he had been installed as acting president.

"This trial is ridiculous," Budi Hartono, an attorney for Wilardjito, said Friday. "We are going back to the days before democratic reforms." For telling what he says is the truth, Wilardjito is charged with inciting public unrest and faces 10 years in prison if convicted.

But if his claim is proven to be true, it could dramatically alter how Indonesians view one of the bloodiest chapters in their history. It would also be an embarrassing blow to Suharto's already tarnished reputation. The former dictator was ousted from office by a pro-democracy uprising in May 1998 and is now fending off charges of massive corruption during his 32- year iron-fisted rule.

The downfall of Sukarno and rise of Suharto came after six generals were murdered on September 30 1965. Within hours of the killings, Suharto used his troops to crush what he maintained was an abortive communist coup.

Over the next two years as many as 500,000 leftists and Sukarno supporters were slaughtered in an army-sponsored massacre that the CIA characterized as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century."

In 1967, Suharto banned public challenges to his official version of the coup, making it a criminal offense. Sukarno died under house arrest in 1970 and since then loyalists have privately denied he ever transferred power to anyone. Wilardjito was arrested in 1967 and spent six years in jail with other former bodyguards of Sukarno.

Wilardjito's attorney, Hartono, says his client has suffered enough and demanded the case be dismissed. He should have never been arrested," Hartono said. "His remarks did not trigger any violence."

State prosecutors in Yogjakarta said they charged Wilardjito on the basis of a Suharto-era law banning public statements that foment anti-government unrest. "We have evidence and witnesses from the police force to back the charges," prosecutor Anton Supedjo said.

Obstacles to protection of human rights remain: report

Agence France-Presse - December 8, 2000

Washington -- As Indonesia lurches further towards democracy, major obstacles remained in the way of ensuring respect for human rights and bringing violators to justice, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a report.

The US-based human rights group said in its annual survey released Thursday that "serious regional conflicts, a weak legal system and delicate civil-military relations posed ongoing obstacles to the protection of human rights."

Acknowledging that "most of the country continued to benefit from increased civil and political liberties," the HRW report noted that "Papua (Irian Jaya), Aceh and the Moluccas (Malukus) continued to experience widespread violations. The government failed adequately to protect the hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Aceh and the Moluccas as well as East Timorese refugees in West Timor."

Human Rights Watch noted President Abdurrahman Wahid had begun to assert civilian control over the military and named a civilian as defence minister, while in some high profile cases generals were questioned on past atrocities. However, the military's dominant role in local government remained and it retained a bloc of appointed seats in the People's Consultative Assembly.

The report noted that in Aceh, while the army, police and the Free Aceh Movement "were all responsible for abuses, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, the violations were disproportionately on the government side."

In Irian Jaya, a pro-independence movement gained pace and major clashes between civilians and security forces occurred, the HRW report said.

The Malukus civil war pitting Christians against Muslims produced the most civilian casualties, it said, noting 5,000 people were estimated to have died from October 1999 to September this year.

"Civilian and military authorities in Indonesia, sensitive to the loss of East Timor and the nationalist backlash it engendered from a wide range of politically powerful groups, rejected any notion of outside assistance in resolving the conflict," it said. Close to 400,000 people were displaced by the Malukus conflict.

In a separate Christian-Muslim conflict in Central Sulawesi, 200 people died and 60,000 were displaced.

Violence by pro-Jakarta militia against refugees in Indonesian West Timor remained high, and even agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were targeted, the report noted.

PDI attack was ordered by superiors: Sutiyoso

Jakarta Post - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- Governor Sutiyoso, a suspect in the July 27, 1996 violent attack on the Megawati Soekarnoputri-led PDI headquarters, insisted on Tuesday that the attack was based on the order of his superiors at the time.

"My answer remains the same, that the takeover of the PDI [Indonesian Democratic Party] headquarters was based on the command of my superiors," Sutiyoso, who was the Jakarta military commander at that time, told reporters after being questioned for about seven hours by a joint police-military interrogation team at the military police headquarters here.

The governor, who together with former Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Hamami Nata, have been named as suspects in the incident, which left at least five dead and 23 people missing. He has persisted in claiming that the bloody attack was simply based on the results of top-level meetings, including a ministerial meeting held two days before the incident. "Those meetings resulted in the July 27 incident," Sutiyoso said quickly and rushed to his car.

According to Sutiyoso, the initiative to take over the headquarters, which had been home to PDI supporters and was a forum for free-speech, started at a meeting in the residence of former president Soeharto on Jl. Cendana on July 19, 1997, and was followed by a briefing, three days later,by the former chief of Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Gen.

Feisal Tanjung at the ABRI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, and a further 'special [ministerial] meeting' took place at the office of the then coordinating minister for political and security affairs on July 25.

During the questioning, the first after he had been named a suspect, Sutiyoso was accompanied by his team of military lawyers, including Col. AB Setiawan, Maj. Nur Azizah, and Maj. Darwin Sagala.

Interrogators from the joint team consisted of Col. Hendroyono, Col. Hendardji, and Lt. Col. Sutarno from the military and Sr. Supt. Surya Dharma, and Supt. Hari Pribadi from the police. A member of the team, who requested anonymity, said the suspect was questioned to find out whether he knew any details of the July, 25, 1997 ministerial meeting at minister Soesilo's office. It's also designed to trace out whether the former city military commander conducted the violent takeover under his own initiative, he explained.

Asked about the result of the questioning, he said the investigation on Sutiyoso seemed to be a 'setback' because the suspect kept on saying that the forcible takeover of the PDI headquarters was decided during the meeting.

His testimony has been different with those already stated by other officials, such as Feisal Tanjung, then home affairs minister Yogie S. Memet, foreign minister Ali Alatas, justice minister Oetojo Oesman, defenseminister Gen. (ret) Edi Sudrajat, National Police chief Gen. (ret) Banurusman Astrosemitro, and former Attorney General Singgih, who all attended the meeting.

"When questioned, they [the other officials] all admitted that they proposed persuasive ways of taking over the party's headquarters," he told The Jakarta Post.

Arrest turns screws on freedom of press

South China Morning Post - December 5, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- A spreading clampdown on media coverage of events in Indonesia's "hot-spots" has been highlighted by the arrest of a Swiss man in the troubled province of Irian Jaya for not having proper documentation.

Oswald Iten, accused of being a journalist working illegally, faces deportation or five years in prison. Irian Jaya police chief Brigadier-General Silvanus Wenas said Iten was arrested on Saturday at a hotel in Jayapura after he covered the anniversary of a declaration of independence.

Iten, 50, smuggled an appeal from his cell, arguing that he was a tourist and had only been taking photos. The Swiss Embassy in Jakarta sent an envoy to Jayapura yesterday to assist.

Separatists in Irian Jaya want independence for the province and have staged a series of controversial flag-raising ceremonies, which have sparked clashes with the Indonesian military. Security has been stepped up and regulations for visiting tourists and journalists tightened.

Unlike the arrest of an American in the highland town of Wamena in October, Indonesian officials are not claiming Iten was involved in espionage. But news organisations fear the arrest signals greater determination on the part of Jakarta to control coverage of the country, especially from designated hot spots such as Irian Jaya and Aceh, where secessionist movements are active, and the Malukus Islands, where communal conflict is continuing.

"It's not a matter of control," Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Sulaiman Abdulmanan said. "We are an open society. But we don't want to be blamed for anything that could happen to foreigners. We don't say that West Papua [Irian Jaya] is a dangerous place. It is a trouble spot and so journalists should know what to do. It's for their own safety."

A diplomat due to fly to Jayapura today was able to speak to Iten yesterday and said he was being held in a local prison with no beds and five other inmates. He said Iten had not been mistreated, but was "surprised" to be in jail for taking pictures.

"For me, this is an issue of freedom of information," deputy chief of mission at Jakarta's Swiss Embassy, Norbert Barlocher, said. "If people can't take pictures in a place then it's fair to say the country has a problem. I could talk to him and he said he had been allowed to go to his hotel to collect his things. He's quite optimistic, not complaining about the conditions. He's just surprised to be put in prison for taking pictures."

Indonesia decrees that journalists covering news events should secure a journalist visa beforehand. This also was the case under former president Suharto, when journalist visa applications could languish in bureaucracy for months and the Government ran a blacklist of banned correspondents.

Since former president Bacharuddin Habibie, these rules have loosened, with journalists able to cover Jakarta unofficially from time to time. When Abdurrahman Wahid became President in October last year he abolished the Department of Information, reducing it to a body with undefined tasks.

For a while after his election there even was talk of abolishing journalist accreditation completely, in line with demands from regional press associations. Now the Foreign Affairs Department has taken over all journalist accreditation duties and issued warnings to Jakarta-based correspondents not to use stories from any visiting correspondents without proper visas. Verbal warnings have been given to visiting journalists with proper visas not to travel to the restive provinces.

News & issues

Locals attack armed FPI members

Jakarta Post - December 9, 2000

Jakarta -- Dozens of local residents at the Pertamina housing complex inTugu Selatan area, North Jakarta, engaged in a brawl with some 50 members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on Thursday night after the latter, armed with daggers and swords, marched into the complex, a police report said. Two FPI members were injured during the clash.

The report said the FPI members had marched around the complex at about 10.30pm with unclear intentions and had been showing a hostile attitude while shouting. The group's actions drew antipathy from local residents who felt disturbed by the group which has continuously launched violent attacks on several entertainment centers in the capital.

"A clash then occurred after the locals threw rocks at FPI members," the report said, adding that the locals had armed themselves with wooden sticks to attack the FPI members.

None of the FPI's executives were available for comment on the attack on Friday, while an FPI member who was contacted by The Jakarta Post refused to give any statement about the incident.

Earlier on Thursday, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said the police would no longer tolerate FPI's unlawful actions such as raiding entertainment centers, damaging the premises and harming their patrons.

700 Kamra's members ransack Governor offices

Detik - December 7, 2000

Maryadi/Fitri & BI, Pontianak -- Up to 700 government sponsored `People's Security Guards' known as Kamra from the West Kalimantan province gathered for a rally that turned into a riot. The protesters ransacked Gubernatorial office in Pontianak, Wednesday after realising that their future was still in limbo.

The angry protesters smashed the windows of the office and ransacked it upon their arrival at 9.15am local time. It was reported that the West Kalimantan governor was not present when the incident took place.

Apparently, Kamra members whose contracts expire on 31 December could no longer contain their frustration about the uncertainty of their fate.

Wearing full uniform and armed with daggers, batons, rocks as well as iron sticks, Kamra members smashed glass windows on the ground floor of the West Kalimantan Gubernatorial office. Not content with the destruction on the ground floor the protesters then moved up to the next floor, where the governor's office is located and turned it over until it ressembled a war zone. Governor's staff tried to prevent Kamra from running amock but were outnumbered. The staff eventually chose to retreat and some fled, fearing for their own safety.

The protesters are part of a 40,000 civilian group recruited by the Habibie Government ahead of the 1999 elections. Their original purpose was to supplement regular forces in the province. Most of the Kamra members are from impoverished and low socio-economic backgrounds who hope to join the Army, Police or public service, once their contract with Kamra has finished.

The legislation, which formalised their existence, UU No 56/1999, only covered one year with the option for a one-year extension, which the government took up last year. As termination of their contracts is drawing closer (31 December 2000), the future of the 36,000 members who have not been recruited by the police, army or civil service remains uncertain. The police have handed the matter over to provincial governments.

Last month West Kalimantan Kamra members also staged a similar demonstration without the violence. Three representatives of Kamra were flown to Jakarta to ask the Ministry of Defense about their future. Unfortunately, the three had to come back with no answers about what their group's future would be.

At the time of this news going on line, the protestors are still continuing with their actions. They are continung to smash and destroy the office building. Representatives from West Kalimantan local administration are yet to meet the protesters.

30 police members who have arrived at the scene of the riots are in no position to stop protesters. They are forced to stand and watch as the building is ransacked.

Just how many provinces make up Indonesia?

Straits Times - December 7, 2000

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- How many provinces are there in Indonesia now? This was a simple question for most Indonesians two years ago -- 27 provinces -- but it will likely puzzle an ordinary Indonesian now.

A top government official, when asked this question recently, was startled for a second before coming up with: 'Twenty-nine? 30? I'm not sure anymore.'

Officially, there are 32 provinces, after the addition of six new provinces since last year and after East Timor voted for independence in last year's ballot.

In practice, however, only 30 of them really exist. Two additional provinces in the eastern-most part of Irian Jaya have received little support from the locals since their establishment by President B.J. Habibie's administration last year.

Only North Maluku, established last year as part of Jakarta's efforts to appease sectarian conflicts in Maluku, has had widespread support.

The birth of new provinces was made possible by a new autonomy law. In the Past two months alone Parliament -- eager to please local constituents -- has approved the establishment of three new provinces.

They are Banten, formerly a regency in West Java; the Bangka and Belitung province, both islands previously part of South Sumatra; and, on Tuesday, Gorontalo, which would cut North Sulawesi in half.

In February, when community groups circulated a draft Bill to establish a Banten province, many were sceptical that it would get any notice by lawmakers. But the House actually deliberated and passed the Bill, and community leaders from other areas -- seeing how easy it was to gain regional autonomy -- began drafting their own.

Of course, it helped that Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy minister Surjadi Soedirdja is from Banten and that some of the lawmakers have publicly revealed their ambition to be elected governor in the industry-rich new province.

But many are concerned that this eagerness has made both Parliament and community leaders blind to the most important aspect of establishing a new province: economic capacity.

Said Mr Andi Malaranggeng, one of the authors of the regional- autonomy policy: "If the establishment of these new provinces follows the requirement stipulated in the law No 22, then they are justified." The law stipulates that in order for a new province to be established, there must be wide support from the local residents and economic potential to support the new provincial administration. Parliament has to secure the approval of the local government and legislature of the mother province before it gives its stamp of approval.

But Mr Andi, now the chairman of the policy committee in the UNDP's Partnership in Good Governance with Indonesia, expressed his concern that emotional and political factors driving the establishment of the new provinces have made economy a "second priority".

Distance has also been cited as one of the reasons for the need to establish new provinces. Making Bangka and Belitung a province would help improve public service to residents in the two islands, which are far off the South Sumatra mainland.

In reality, however, other factors like ethnicity, religion or historical issues have been the real drive behind the decision. Gorontalo, which spreads over some 12 million sq km of land, has a majority Muslim population in the otherwise Christian North Sulawesi.

Whereas the rest of West Java is inhabited by ethnic Sundanese, Banten, a historical port city in the western tip of Java, has a population that is related more to the Javanese in terms of culture, ethnicity and language.

But to the handful of elites pushing for the establishment of new provinces, money and power could be their biggest motivation. Indonesia is gearing towards the start of regional autonomy next year, which means a lot more power will be handed over to the local administration. This explains why there are currently over 100 requests for the establishment of new regencies.

Meanwhile, some places are just too valuable to be released by their provincial government, like the "Riau archipelago province" off inland Riau. The archipelago consists of highly commercial and touristy islands like Batam and Bintan, and the Riau provincial government has refused to approve the establishment of the new province.

Jakarta, too, seems alarmed by this surge of interest in breaking up from the mother province. Said Minister Surjadi: "I hope Gorontalo will be the last new province for a while, and that in the future we will be more selective." He added: "The new provinces were established to improve the welfare of its people. If they failed to do this, they should not hesitate to reunite with their mother provinces."

The new provinces

Banten (formerly part of West Java) Approved: Oct 5, 2000 Area: 8,200 sq km Population: Nine million Economic potential: Steel industry, fishery and port facilities Background: Ethnic Banten unlike the Sundanese who make up the rest of West Java, are more related to the Javanese

Bangka and Belitung (two islands formerly part of South Sumatra) Approved: Nov 20, 2000 Population: 884,656 Area: 16,423.54 sq km Economic potential: Agro-business, fishery Background: The two islands are far from the mainland South Sumatra and the locals feel they do not have historical attachment to the mother province

Gorontalo (formerly a regency in North Sulawesi) Approved: Dec 5, 2000 Area: 844,733 Population: 12,2115.44 aq km Economic potential:Plantation fishery, farming Background: Gorontalo is mainly Muslim, while the majorifty of North Sulawesi"s population is Christian

Jakarta to drop policy that forced resettlement of millions

South China Morning Post - December 7, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Jakarta will cancel its controversial programme of transmigration under which millions of people have been forcibly moved from the crowded islands of Java and Bali to less populated provinces.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Al Hilal Hamdi confirmed the change after meeting President Abdurrahman Wahid on Tuesday. "The inter-island transmigration policy will be terminated next year," Mr Handi said. "But what will be put in place is inter- city transmigration." He said a key reason for stopping the programme was the need to avoid more outbreaks of the sectarian conflict between competing ethnic or religious groups that is scarring several provinces.

Though not spelled out explicitly, one reason behind the end to the policy is the unofficial movement of at least one million internally displaced people, partly a result of transmigration.

Transmigration looked like a good idea on paper when former president Suharto started it, as most of Indonesia's 210 million people live on Java, Bali, Madura and parts of Sumatra, competing for resources presumed to be more abundant on outer islands. But a lack of foresight and faulty implementation rapidly turned it into a human tragedy.

Groups of people unable to make a living or seeking a new life with better opportunities were "encouraged" to take up government offers of land, housing and jobs in places ranging from Irian Jaya to Kalimantan. But many found the government promises hollow, as they were left in inaccessible or infertile areas without infrastructure.

Inevitably the programme was seen as an unsubtle attempt to "Javanise" the rest of Indonesia, sparking tensions in provinces that have long resented Java's stranglehold on economic and political power.

Most difficult was the reception given transmigrants by the indigenous residents. Vicious clashes have broken out as original inhabitants have refused to share limited resources with "outsiders". This in turn has forced many transmigrants to flee their designated homes.

Official figures show at least one million Indonesians are refugees in their own country. They are fleeing communal strife or economic hardship and loading new burdens on to an administration barely able to cope.

40,000 children exploited for sex in Indonesia

Straits Times - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has disclosed that between 40,000 and 70,000 Indonesian children -- 'mostly girls' -- are being sexually exploited commercially and are bonded to child-prostitution networks.

Unicef Resident Representative to Indonesia Rolf Carriere was quoted by the Indonesian Observer as having said that young children without birth certificates were the most susceptible to abuse and exploitation.

'Some 50 per cent of Indonesian children do not possess a birth certificate, although registration of birth is the state's first acknowledgment of a child's existence,' Mr Carriere said in Jakarta recently. 'Such children are more likely to miss out on school and health care and are far more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.'

He told the Observer that millions of Indonesian children lived under difficult circumstances. They were being denied their fundamental rights to basic services and access to information, he said. At least 150,000 impoverished children are homeless, living unprotected on the polluted streets of the country's major cities.

But they are not the only children who need protection. 'So do the six million children aged between six and 15 years that are out of school. Those children either never enrolled in school or dropped out. Many of them are engaged in hazardous or exploitative forms of child labour,' said Mr Carriere.

He said more than 120,000 children were involved in substance and drug abuse, some because of a lack of information, education and services. Furthermore, major political and social upheaval in several provinces had displaced over one million persons throughout Indonesia, and most of them were children and women.

'From the context of a changing society, moreover one affected by a severe economic crisis, has emerged the recognition that there are many children all around Indonesia who, by virtue of their vulnerability and marginalisation, are in need of special protection,' said Mr Carriere.

Many uneducated people, including some Westerners, believed they could get rid of sexually-transmitted diseases by having sex with a young girl, the paper reported.

Holy fast ignites explosive passions

South China Morning Post - December 6, 2000

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The whistle, whine and thump of nightly explosions has rocked Jakarta for more than a week, and some of those incendiary devices have President Abdurrahman Wahid's name on them.

But blowing up firecrackers bearing pictures of Mr Wahid and Golkar party chairman Akbar Tandjung has led to trouble. Firecracker producer Sukarno, of Purwokerta, Central Java, is being held by police after complaints by Mr Wahid's National Awakening Party.

His house was searched and hundreds of firecrackers found, some of them with Mr Tandjung's face on them, although none with Mr Wahid's face were found. Mr Sukarno admitted he had made a couple of Wahid firecrackers but claimed he was only trying to expand his market by giving the public what it wanted.

"I have no other purpose but to sell special firecrackers," Mr Sukarno told the police. He said the cover of a weekly magazine had inspired him to design the explosive political tributes, according to a report in The Jakarta Post.

Mr Sukarno was not charged with libel or defamation of the head of state but with illegal production of merchandise. The fireworks are intended to let off the steam generated by the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. After the sunset breaking of the fast, celebratory crashing noises compete with loud-speaker sermons from mosques.

Mr Sukarno's sense of enterprise also suggests another reason to let off steam -- the public's tiredness with bickering between members of the political elite. The fasting month appears to have put most demonstrations on hold, but the frustrations refuse to go away so easily.

Environment/health

12,000 hectares forest illegally logged

Detik - December 7, 2000

Yogi Arief Nugraha/Hendra & BI, Pekanbaru -- Illegal logging activities have continued to go on in Riau forests South Sumatra. These illegal activities occurred at Air Hitam and Kembang Bunga village; regency of Telelawan, Pekanbaru, and South Sumatra has been cut down illegally by a syndicate using a pulp company's identity. It was believed that up to 12,000 hectares of forest have been illegally cut down.

According to the information gathered by Putri Kemuning, a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO), this illegal logging has been funded by PT Andika Mandalitama, owned by Bengkulu residence identified as Ahai. The logs then transported to a pulp company owned by PT Riau Andalan Pulp Paper (RAPP), a subsidiary company of PT Raja Garuda Mas, owned by Sukamto Tanoto who based himself at Pangkalan Kerinci village, Pekanbaru. To avoid detection, these illicit logs have been transported as a fictious woodchip.

According to Putri Kemuning report there are at least 30 trucks that have been going up and down, fully loaded with the stolen logs, every day. "The plundering have been going unnoticed due to the fact that all responsible officials have been bribed by PT RAPP," said the head of Putri Kemuning leader, Ir Tommy Simanungkalit to Detik, Thursday.

In some location, some heavy equipment could be found. The equipment include eight escavators and two bulldozers being used to cut down the trees in the area. Tommy believed that there is a plan to transform this forest plantation by PT Andika into a palm oil plantation.

Tommy has urged the department concerned to put an immediate end to these illegal activities as well as take necessary steps to reprimand PT RAPP. Meanwhile, the head of Public Relations of PT RAPP, Fachrunnas MA Jabbar was unavailable for comment regarding the accusation by Putri Kemuning. International relations

Downer seeks closer military ties with Indonesia

Sydney Morning Herald - December 8, 2000

The Federal Government has proposed new defence ties with Indonesia after the release on Wednesday of a new Defence white paper called for a bigger regional role for the Australian military.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, told Parliament yesterday that the two sides needed better defence ties because of shared strategic interests. "We do share a fundamental congruence of interests in the security and prosperity of our region," he said.

Australia's controversial military links with the Indonesian armed forces were downgraded last year after Australian troops led the international peacekeeping force to East Timor following Jakarta's violent withdrawal from the former Portuguese colony.

The call for a renewed military relationship came as talks began in Canberra yesterday with five visiting Indonesian ministers including the Foreign Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab.

Mr Downer said yesterday that the two sides needed to overcome remaining friction over East Timor and he echoed assurances in the white paper that Canberra supported Indonesian unity. "Indonesia's territorial integrity, which we fully support, its prosperity and respect for the rights of all its people, is central to the achievement of this objective," he said.

In Jakarta, Indonesia's military commander, Admiral Widodo, has said Indonesia did not have any problem with Australia's defence white paper that advocates the building of a new defence relationship with Jakarta. "That won't be a problem ... Australia is not an enemy or threat to Indonesia," Admiral Widodo told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday night.

But asked about resuming defence contacts that were cut last year, Admiral Widodo said Indonesia would probably take "small steps". "We have to exercise caution on this," he said. "It is indeed our obligation to build and maintain good relations with our neighbour. But the steps to be taken must be considered and most of all realistic."

Admiral Widodo told journalists the white paper gave no clear picture of the form of the proposed defence relationship with Indonesia. He said both countries should first agree on it.

Admiral Widodo said meetings between defence officials and small teams from both countries could now take place.

[By David Lague, Lindsay Murdoch and John Schauble]

Australia and Indonesia talking again

Agence France-Presse - December 8, 2000

Sydney -- Senior Indonesian and Australian ministers sat down yesterday for long-awaited talks marking a thaw in bilateral ties still strained over East Timor. The two-day meeting, originally planned for October but cancelled at short notice by Jakarta, is seen as an important precursor to a visit by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

One senior official said that although no major breakthroughs were expected, the fact that the bilateral meeting was taking place at all was a sign of progress. "The fact that this forum is happening in itself is quite an achievement," he said, adding that the atmosphere had been cordial. "It's a continuation of dialogue between us and one of our most important and closest neighbours. We want to keep the dialogue going."

The five-strong Indonesian delegation is being led by Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab, who said the talks were a positive step forward. "This meeting is a change from a downturn to an upturn in our relationship, and we do hope this will bring a positive outcome not only politically but also in economic matters," he said.

Among nine Australian ministers taking part are Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Treasurer Peter Costello and Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson.

Before the talks started, Mr Downer stressed the fundamental common interests of the two countries and said differences over East Timor had to be dealt with maturely.

"We do share a fundamental congruence of interests in the security and prosperity of our region," he told parliament. "Indonesia's territorial integrity, which we fully support, its prosperity and respect for the rights of all its people are central to the achievement of this objective. We are committed to work with Indonesia to develop the relationship further on the basis of mutual interests and mutual respects."

The government's much-vaunted defence White Paper, released on Wednesday, said a key priority for Canberra was rebuilding its defence relationship with Jakarta.

Australia's defence relationship `not an alliance'

Agence France-Presse - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- Australia's plans for a new and closer defence relationship with Indonesia, should not be seen as an alliance, a senior Australian diplomat said here Wednesday.

The new strategy, outlined in a White Paper released in Canberra Wednesday, would enhance the two neighbours' current "working relationship" in defence issues into "a closer" one, said embassy minister Leslie Rowe.

But Rowe, speaking to journalists at a press briefing on the white paper here, said that Australia would not be "in any sense talking about an alliance relationship" with Indonesia's defence ministry.

"What we are talking about is cooperation, is establishing a good working relationship between the two defence forces ... please don't go away with a sense here that we are in anyway suggesting forming an alliance," he said. "What we are talking here about is a closer working relationship in the future," Rowe added.

The White Paper, citing "lingering misunderstandings" in Indonesia following Australia's recent role in East Timor, said they had hindered "opportunities offered by Indonesia's democratising achievements to establish the foundations of a new defence relationship."

Australia was at the forefront of efforts to send a UN peacekeeping force to East Timor after violence erupted following the UN-brokered self-rule ballot held there in August 1999.

But despite the strained ties, the paper said Canberra also believed that "having a good defence relationship" with Indonesia remains "as important as ever."

"The goverment is committed to working with the Indonesian government to establish over time a new defence relationship that will serve our enduring shared strategic interests," it said -- describing Indonesia as "our biggest and most important near neighbour." The paper also said that Australia would "seek to develop an effective defence relationship with East Timor, as we have with all our near neighbours."

A five-member Indonesian ministerial delegation is expected to go to Canberra this week for talks aimed at improving bilateral ties. The talks -- seen as an important precursor to a planned visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid -- are expected to focus on the worsening conflict in the Irian Jaya province and Canberra's fear that Indonesia is being used as a jump-off point for illegal immigration.

International solidarity

Solidarity conference discusses new challenges

Green Left Weekly - December 6, 2000

Sibylle Kaczorek, Baucau -- On November 26-30, 40 or so members of the Asia Pacific Coalition for East Timor (APCET) met here to discuss international solidarity with East Timor. The international guests were joined by around the same number of East Timorese representatives from local non-government organisations.

The theme of the APCET IV conference was "Building an independent East Timor: empowering the grassroots, consolidating civil society".

Prior to the conference, delegates met with different East Timorese groups, giving them an insight into the current issues and debates.

Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) organised its first solidarity brigade to East Timor. Six members from Darwin spent 10 15 days visiting a number of districts and villages. Three brigade members attended the conference with a better understanding of the problems being faced by the Timorese people.

Based on these first-hand experiences as well as its six years of activism, the conference delegates decided that APCET shall maintain its advocacy role rather than move into the provision of a development aid.

It was argued that APCET's strength since 1994 has been its members' campaign work and activism work in their respective countries. APCET member groups are active in Australia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea.

Campaigns identified for the next period included: the return of all East Timorese in West Timor who wish to; the disarmament and disbanding of the militias; a ban on all military ties with Indonesia; a secure border East Timor and West Timor; the establishment of an International war crimes tribunal; the protection and extension of East Timor's sovereignty over its resources including Timor Gap oil; and opposition to exploitative economic development.

Discussions were guided by APCET members' understanding that real independence for East Timor will only be won once fully democratic and non-exploitative structures are established, guaranteeing the participation in political and economic decisions by all East Timorese.

This is a new challenge for APCET and its members, as ideological positions will increasingly influence the campaign areas. ASIET had to argue strongly for the inclusion of economic demands and emphasised the danger to East Timor's independence if it ends up being dictated to by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and big business.

The conference elected a steering committee, which will be the decision-making body between conferences and national council meetings. Australia's ASIET was re-elected as a member on the committee. The next conference is set for 2002 and a location in West Papua was proposed.

Economy & investment

Next IMF payment to Jakarta in doubt

Straits Times - December 9, 2000

Robert Go, Jakarta -- In a development that might send Indonesia's economy into yet another tailspin, International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials warned yesterday of possible delays to the agency's next US$400 million instalment to Jakarta due to serious questions over the government's reform progress and policies.

The IMF was expected to release the money, which is part of a US$5 billion loan programme it struck with Indonesia earlier in January, before its board of directors go into recess at the end of December.

Agency sources in Jakarta and Washington, however, told The Straits Times that Indonesia's economic team would first need to clarify a number of policy decisions it has made during the last few months before the next disbursement.

Key issues, according to an insider involved in talks with Chief Economics Minister Dr Rizal Ramli's team, include the country's decentralisation plans, corporate restructuring guidelines, asset disposal procedures and the current turmoil at the Central Bank, where the government is charged with trying to undermine Bank Indonesia's independence.

IMF officials said that the agency, which in the past has been accused of exhibiting overbearing attitudes towards Jakarta, now steers clear of micromanagement issues when it comes to dealing with Indonesia and the other countries it has assisted.

But they also indicated that Dr Rizal's team has made slow progress in addressing worries -- previously expressed by the IMF through an October letter to the government -- over implementation of certain key reforms to which Indonesia has committed.

"Our position on the need for greater transparency in corporate restructuring is well known -- decentralisation should be managed carefully -- and we are keeping close tabs on the process of appointing a new management team to Bank Indonesia," said an IMF official in Washington.

Indonesia promised to divest the government's stakes in two major banks, but backed off from selling them in October. And critics have characterised regulations on decentralisation, which kicks in next January, as confusing and contradictory when it comes to questions over how much real fiscal and governing power local administrations would receive from Jakarta.

The IMF and a few leading Indonesian economists have also criticised recent debt-restructuring deals for Texmaco and Chandra Asri, two heavily-indebted companies whose owners are reported to have strong connections to the government.

Perhaps in an acknowledgement that not all is well with the IMF team that arrived on the ground to discuss the next instalment, Dr Rizal told Reuters yesterday that although progress is being made, there is no guarantee that the loan will come through before the end of the year.

University of Indonesia economist and former presidential adviser Sri Mulyani, however, said that the IMF's beef is with the current economic team's apparent lack of focus and leadership.

"The list of things that are making the IMF nervous keeps on growing. And Dr Rizal and his team have not focused on their pledged reforms. There has been no continuation of policies, no consistency, from the technical point of view," she said.

The last time the IMF chose to withhold its cash injection to Indonesia in April, the rupiah and other key financial indicators for Indonesia plunged.

Indonesia Texmaco moved assets pre-takeover

Dow Jones Newswires - December 6, 2000

Simon Montlake, Jakarta -- Texmaco, the country's largest corporate debtor, liquidated or diverted ownership of some of its prize assets around the time it was taken over by the Indonesian government, according to documents reviewed by Dow Jones Newswires.

Evidence that Texmaco shielded assets from the government would add to pressure on Indonesia to revise Texmaco's debt accord, the country's largest-ever debt restructuring. The documents also raise alarming questions about whether politically connected tycoons can emerge from debt workouts still holding valuable assets.

In September, Texmaco and its owner, Marimutu Sinivasan, signed a $2.7 billion debt workout with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency under which Sinivasan pledged to hand over all his assets and repay the group debts over a 12 year period. During that period, IBRA will own and manage Texmaco, a textiles and engineering group, via a new holding company.

The pact was hailed by economics chief Rizal Ramli as a "model" debt restructuring. Indonesian President Abderrahman Wahid has also praised Sinivasan, and sought to suspend legal probes of his businesses.

But three weeks before that pact, and without informing IBRA officials, Texmaco sold its 60% stake in Germany's Trevira GmbH to DB Investor, a unit of Deutsche Bank AG (G.DBK), raising around $120 million, according to people familiar with the transaction.

Texmaco then used $30 million of those funds to pay Credit Suisse First Boston, which allowed it to recover controlling stakes in two foreign companies that had been seized in July by the Swiss bank as collateral for an unpaid loan, according to internal Texmaco documents.

The shares in the two companies -- British garment maker SR Gent PLC and South African textile company Coastal Group - were also pledged to IBRA under the September 30 debt workout.

But, according to documents filed November 22 with the US Securities & Exchange Commission by CSFB, the controlling stakes in SR Gent and Coastal are now owned by Pegasus Assets, a British Virgin Islands registered company.

In the IBRA accord, Sinivasan didn't declare Pegasus as a family or group-owned asset, although he promised to hand over SR Gent and Coastal Group, said an IBRA spokeswoman, Vanda Irawati Arisandi. "According to the [September 30] agreement, Sinivasan should transfer those companies to IBRA as an additional pledged asset," she said.

But it remains unclear why Texmaco would go to the trouble of redeeming the stakes from CSFB with the cash from the Trevira sale, only to see them taken over by IBRA under the debt workout.

Also, before the SR Gent and Coastal stakes were taken over by CSFB in July as collateral for unpaid loans, they were held by Baleine Investments, a Texmaco unit also registered in the British Virgin Islands. Unlike Pegasus, Baleine is on the list of companies declared by Texmaco to IBRA. So ownership of the stakes has effectively passed from a company that was declared to IBRA -- Baleine -- to a company that wasn't -- Pegasus.

Sinivasan declined repeated requests for an interview with Dow Jones Newswires to discuss the transfer of ownership and the sale of Trevira. His spokesman, Joydeep Mazumder, also declined to comment on the matter.

Tom Grimmer, a spokesman for CSFB in Hong Kong, confirmed the sale of the loan collateral to Pegasus, but strongly denied that the bank had helped Texmaco shield these assets from IBRA.

The loan predated IBRA's involvement in Texmaco's debt restructuting and ranked as senior, secured debt, he said. "CSFB foreclosed on these assets in the normal course of business ... [then] we sold the assets," Grimmer said. He said the asset sale was separate from the loan agreement, since the borrower had defaulted and surrendered the collateral.

He declined to give more details about Pegasus, saying it was as a legitimate buyer and that CSFB had verified the source of its funds.

Strong political connections

Sinivasan and his brother, Manimaren Sinivasan, are well know for their high level political connections in Indonesia. Both men were linked to last year's PT Bank Bali (P.BBL) scandal that involved the diversion of state funds to a company controlled by the former ruling Golkar party. The audit of the money trail found that some of the disputed funds had been channeled through Texmaco's bank accounts.

Fears that powerful local businessmen are cutting favorable deals with IBRA has prompted the International Monetary Fund to urge Indonesia to hire outside experts to review the agency's major debt workouts, including Texmaco's.

Provision for these reviews should be included in Indonesia's next letter of intent with the IMF, due later in December, under the fund's $5 billion bailout program, an IMF official said.

Indeed, just days before the Texmaco accord signing, the IMF and World Bank wrote privately to economics chief Ramli urging him to seek a second opinion on the deal and saying it risked being a burden on Indonesian taxpayers.

But Ramli didn't act on the request or bring it to the attention of the powerful Financial Services Policy Committee, which he chairs. The committee approved the Texmaco restructuring on September 30.

The beneficial ownership of Pegasus, which now owns the SR Gent and Coastal stakes, couldn't be immediately confirmed with authorities in the British Virgin Islands. But sources say its sole director is P. Manohar, a senior Texmaco executive.

Asked Monday about his status as director of Pegasus and the ultimate ownership of the company, Manohar declined to comment. "I don't want to talk about it," he said.

It's also unclear what happened to the remaining $90 million that Texmaco received from the sale of Trevira. According to IBRA officials, Sinivasan has subsequently informed the debt restructuring agency that the entire proceeds of the Trevira sale went to creditors of European Fiber Industries, a Texmaco unit based in the Netherlands that was originally used to acquire Trevira in 1998.

But that doesn't appear to be the case for the $30 million paid to CSFB. CSFB originally lent $38 million to Texmaco under an agreement signed in October 1999 by Baleine, CSFB and Icon Systems (ICSI), a US Texmaco shell company that then held the SR Gent shares. Baleine held the Coastal shares via a Mauritius shell company. Baleine pledged the Coastal and SR Gent shares as collateral for the loan.

Baleine then used the money to buy back from CSFB around $125 million of foreign currency notes issued by its polyster unit, PT Polysindo Eka Perkasa (P.PEP). In other words, $30 million of the Trevira proceeds was used in a transaction that apparently has nothing to do with repaying creditors of EFI.

In fact, the motive for buying back the Polysindo debt was to give Texmaco a stronger position in a debt workout which was then under negotiation with Polysindo's private bondholders, owed about $1.1 billion. But that deal collapsed in November 1999 after Sinivasan was accused of misusing around $900 million in state-bank export credits at the height of Indonesia's currency crisis.

One of the charges levelled against Sinivasan by former state enterprises minister Laksamana Sukardi was that export credits were diverted to acquire foreign assets -- including the purchase of Trevira in early 1998. Sinivasan denied wrongdoing, and an investigation by the attorney general was later dropped.

RI set to liberalize forestry industry

Indonesian Observer - December 6, 2000

Jakarta -- The government plans to scrap the 10% import taxes on logs and raise export taxes on the commodity in a bid to liberalize the forestry industry, economics czar Rizal Ramli said yesterday. The plan is in line with the government's effort to tackle rampant log smuggling.

The senior economics minister will ask the Finance Minister and Industry and Trade Minister to lower import duty imposed on logs to zero percent so that the country's timber industry will use both local and imported logs.

"I have asked the Finance Minister to study this possibility. I hope the Finance Minister and the Minister of Industry and Trade can immediately set higher tax for log exports," Ramli said.

He was accompanied by Forestry Minister Nurmahmudi Ismail and Attorney General Marzuki Darusman during the press conference.

On that occasion, Ramli asked Marzuki and National Police Chief Bimantoro to investigate and bring to court a lawmaker by the initial of AR for allegedly committing illegal logging at the Tanjung Puting National Park. Ramli said he has asked for President Abdurrahman Wahid's approval for the probe.

"The Attorney General's Office has had difficulties investigating AR because he has been backed up by some institutions as well as the regional government where the Tanjung Putting National Park is located," Ramli said.

He also said that the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and the government will soon summon forest concession holders who are under IBRA's control. "We will invite them and ask them to sign an agreement, a pledge that they will manage their forest concessions better," he said.

Ramli said the government is well-prepared to help restructure debts of the forest concession holders if they agree to sign the forest management agreement. "But if they don't want to cooperate with us, then we won't lend our hand to help them" he added.