APSN Indonesia News Digest 3 - January 15-21, 2001

Kerryn Williams -- "We see the potential energy among urban poor youth, whose power has been shown many times in Indonesian history. They are brave, energetic and not afraid of new ideas and changes. We are trying to build their trust in the idea that together we can solve our problems and make our hopes come true", Ricky Tamba, general secretary of the Popular Youth Movement (GPK) in Indonesia told Green Left Weekly.

Last June a national youth congress attended by 47 delegates from 11 provinces, representing 20 urban poor organisations, met in Bandar Lampung and launched the new youth organisation.

The GPK is made up of urban poor youth including street singers, homeless and unemployed youth, sex workers, and street sellers. In its first four months, it has established branches in South Sumatra, Lampung, North Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi and South Sulawesi. In addition, there are committees preparing for branches in Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Yogyakarta, with activists in a number of other provinces eager to open further branches in the future.

Currently the GPK's main campaigns are around employment, education, housing and health care for the people, and demanding the trial of former president Suharto for his political, economic and human rights crimes.

Since its formation the GPK has participated in joint actions with Frarob (Anti-New Order Regime People's Front) demanding the trial of former Indonesian president Suharto; solidarity actions with the peasants' struggle in Sulawesi; campaigns supporting fisherpeople in Lampung; and activities to assist workers' campaigns in East Java. Last month the GPK mobilised members from three provinces to take part in a march on the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Indonesian Youth Day.

GPK members have also organised actions with the Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI), the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the National Peasant Union (STN).

Statistics released in September by Indonesian Labour Consultants (ILC) in Jakarta indicate the growing constituency for GPK membership. In 1996, Indonesia's urban poor numbered 7.2 million. By 1998 this had more than doubled to 17.6 million. In 1999 informal sector workers reached 64.4% of the total work force.

Living standards for the vast majority of Indonesians have dramatically declined since 1997. Per capita income went from US$1004 in 1996 to US$596 in 2000. On average the cost of basic goods increased 224.16% between 1995 and 2000.

The current economic policies of the government, imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are set to further entrench poverty for the masses. "The anti-people policies made by the IMF will make unemployment, disease, death, and starvation bigger and bigger every day", explained Tamba.

"The IMF has played the most dominant role in Indonesia along with the World Bank and CGI [the Consultative Group on Indonesia, a body of the main Western donor countries]. They use Indonesia just like other under-developed countries for their capital investment. They exploit the workers and natural resources by their policies. Now they have signed an SAP [Structural Adjustment Program] with the Wahid government; and they push Wahid to implement their neo-liberal policies, such as the recapitalisation of some big banks, and ending subsidies for people's basic needs like fuel, electricity, education, and health care."

The GPK leadership does not believe the Wahid government is capable of solving the problems of Indonesia's youth. While supporting some of President Wahid's democractic reforms, Tamba asks, "How can the Wahid government solve the problems if they don't have any courage to sweep away the New Order remnants? How can they solve the problems if they don't have any programmatic plan? How can they solve the problems if they are just robots of the IMF and World Bank? How can they solve the problems if they don't have any trust in people, especially Indonesian youth, and just rely on elite old phony reformist politicians like Amien Rais, Akbar Tanjung, Megawati and more?"

"If the old politicians can't do it, they'd better resign and let us young people solve the problems. Now or never is the time for Wahid to prove his government can carry out reforms. We say fulfill our demands or we will take over ourselves!"

The GPK is trying to challenge the depoliticisation of young people in Indonesia.

"The elite politicians say there is no need for young people to think about politics", said Tamba. "They say we should study and stay calm because all the state's problems will be handled by them. We should just think about getting a good education, having a `nice paying' job, having a `nice life'. The young people have been marginalised from all political decisions made by the state."

"There will be many attempts by the remnants of the New Order regime and phony reformists to use and manipulate youth. We want the urban poor youth to get organised well, have a democratic organisation, and develop more revolutionary theories, so we can struggle for full democracy in Indonesia and help the workers and peasants to get their rights back", Tamba explained.

The GPK has launched a bulletin called Api (Fire), and to date two editions have been produced. Several pamphlets are also planned, taking up issues of youth struggle, the need for a revolutionary organisation, and rejecting neo-liberalism.

The GPK involves new members through organising within urban poor communities, holding discussions, actions, and giving speeches about revolutionary politics.

The GPK also has plans for establishing urban poor cooperative shops in the future. Tamba described how these will not only assist people in attaining what they need to survive, but will also "inject more consciousness of how the government doesn't care about their living standards, so we have to build a strong organisation and solidarity among the urban poor".

Tamba said that building urban poor cooperatives "is a tactic to build collectivism, and we hope we can get some funds to implement the plan".

Finding the means to fund its activities is just one of many challenges the GPK faces in consolidating its organisation. "There are many technical difficulties like the very big and separate Indonesian geography that we have to organise in, lack of revolutionary theories of how to organise urban poor, lack of human resources, lack of funds", Tamba explained.

"We don't even have a permanent office because we don't have any experience in fund raising, and we still depend on money from our parents, incidental small donations and some money we get from selling books and magazines."

Tamba emphasised that the GPK is keen to develop greater links with youth activists in Australia, to "help in giving an internationalist perspective to our members so we are not alone in the fight against neo-liberalism". He added: "Your struggle in Australia is our struggle too in Indonesia. If we globalise resistance, we will win!"

Golkar and army preparing for comeback

Green Left Weekly - January 17, 2001

Max Lane -- The process of overthrowing the Suharto dictatorship did not go sufficiently deep enough to deliver a deathblow to the political ambitions of the old regime, of Suharto's former ruling party, Golkar, and the armed forces, the TNI. During 2000, they have steadily inched their way back into position and are readying themselves for an attempt to take back their power.

Golkar retains the support of the armed forces, including the police. It has the support of all the largest business conglomerates and thus retains a major source of its financing. As almost all the print and electronic media is owned by these conglomerates, Golkar receives the best press of any party.

The party also retains control of provincial administrations in at least 40% of Java and 60% of the rest of the country. With more fiscal autonomy now granted to the provinces, and therefore more opportunities for corruption, this will further boost Golkar's coffers.

Suharto's former ruling party has even retained, reasonably intact, the social base of support that it developed during the 33 years of the dictator's rule, a social base made up of at least three elements.

The first, and least stable, is the professional classes. The second, and more stable, is the more wealthy and prosperous middle peasants and landowners, especially outside Java where lucrative export crops are grown.

The third element in Golkar's social base is the biggest and the most stable, at least in a majority of provinces. This is the army of hundreds of thousands of petty bureaucrats that inhabit the state apparatus. This is a centralised bureaucracy that extends into every village and into every aspect of life.

The Republic of Indonesia inherited the highly authoritarian and corrupt Dutch colonial state apparatus after independence.

After Suharto came to power, backed by the force of the army, these petty bureaucrats became the main instruments of rule for the dictatorship. They were given uniforms and ranks. The permits and documents, rules and regulations which citizens were subject to multiplied ever further. This included the need for "a letter of clean circumstances" that certified that individuals, as well as their extended family, were free of any connection to the left before 1965.

Thirty years of extended opportunities for extortion with each letter or permit issued created a substantial material base for this social layer as well. In addition, since the Dutch period, the chief village bureaucrats automatically received village rice land as their own on their appointment to office.

It was not surprising, therefore, that for three months after the overthrow of Suharto in 1998, there were mini-revolutions in hundreds of villages throughout Indonesia, in which the village bureaucrats were also deposed. Sometimes they were physically attacked, their houses burned downed or trashed.

Localised and without a broader political perspective, these actions petered out quickly. Even so this layer of petty bureaucrats is conscious that the radical reform demanded by the students in 1998 threatens their very existence. They resent even partial reform, insofar as it has opened up the political space to allow people to organise opposition to their arbitrary rule and extortionate practices.

Elite opposition divided

The other factor that advantages Golkar (and behind it, the TNI) is the political weakness, internal division and, ultimately, the conservatism of Golkar's opponents from within the bourgeoisie. These forces are those organised in political parties such as the Indonesian Democratic Party Struggle (PDI-P), led by Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri; the National Mandate Party (PAN), led by Amien Rais; and the National Awakening Party (PKB), supporting the President, Abdurrahman Wahid.

To start with, none of these parties are backed by any of the big conglomerates, although they are all now wooing them. The social base of these parties is made up of primarily provincial level capitalists and landlords, including some who have just recently begun national operations.

The provincial character of these parties means that their popular support base is localised to areas which have a specific religious, cultural or ethnic composition and the parties reflect that character. As a result, there is a great deal of regional, religious and cultural rivalry between these parties, preventing any real unity against Golkar.

Pressure from the army

Developments in Aceh and West Papua also intersect with the course of development of the general political crisis. By December, the TNI, backed by Golkar and some of the rightist Islamic forces, had established a pro-war position on Aceh and West Papua. In November, the minister for politics and security, General Bambang Susilo Yudotomo, raised the possibility of ending any cease-fire with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and embarking on a policy of military action to disarm GAM.

Since then senior military figures have repeatedly called on the Wahid government to give the go-ahead for a full-scale military campaign against GAM.

Golkar and other parliamentarians who have called for the declaration of a civil emergency in Aceh have backed this.

In regard to West Papua, the military have not yet explicitly called for an all-out military campaign. But they have boosted their military forces in the province, arrested the most prominent leaders of the West Papuan movement, refused to accede to President Wahid's initial call for them to be released, and made several statements that all calls for independence would be treated as sedition and suppressed. Golkar and TNI elements have called for a state of emergency in West Papua as well.

Wahid afraid of the masses

There is an additional major factor that weakens the position of the non-Golkar elite parties, namely, their political conservatism. Representing a section of the urban and rural capitalist class, these parties share many of the same fears of radical reform as do the social forces upon which Golkar stands. Furthermore, the PDI-P and PAN (as well as the other smaller Muslim parties) are seeking support from among the same layer of conservative bureaucrats as Golkar is.

The PKB, the party with which President Wahid is associated, is the only one of the significant parliamentary parties which attempts to show some support for a liberal democratic agenda. This reflects the dominance of the Wahid wing of the party, based on intellectuals, youth and religious scholars under his influence.

But the contradictions of the PKB liberals are most clearly represented in the political weaknesses of Wahid himself. On some key issues relating to democratic rights, Wahid initially took clear and strong stands. He called for repeal of the ban on Marxism and Leninism, saying that such ideological suppression was unconstitutional. He supported a referendum for Aceh. He supported, and even financed, the West Papuan Peoples Congress. Recently, he instructed the release of detained Papuan leaders.

He ordered the disarming of the militias in West Timor and the arrest of the notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres. He agreed to a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations whereby the Indonesian government would ensure that UN investigators could question suspects in human rights violation cases in Indonesia.

In the end, however, he has retreated on almost every stand he has taken. He has withdrawn support for a referendum on Aceh. He has withdrawn his call for the release of the jailed West Papuan leaders. He has not mentioned the repeal on the ban on Marxism for months. Eurico Guterres was released. The TNI has refused to submit any of its officers for questioning by the UN.

Wahid backed down in the face of opposition from Golkar, the TNI, Amien Rais and sometimes Megawati. Wahid's only real option for defending his positions against his opponents is to call for shows of popular support. On most of these issues, the student movement, and certainly radical parties like the People's Democratic Party (PRD), would have been willing to help organise joint mobilisations.

But Wahid has always been afraid of mass action, especially ongoing mass action, as a means of political struggle. As a result, he instead resorts to more and more complicated sets of manoeuvres, and manoeuvres within manoeuvres, sometimes confusing even his own supporters.

Popular support for democratic reform

The weaknesses of the PKB, PDI-P and PAN should not be read as a sign that there is a popular sentiment to surrender the gains made by the anti-dictatorship movement. Popular sentiment is still strongly in favour of the eradication of corruption, collusion and nepotism and of bureaucratic despotism. The people still strongly favour maintaining the rights to demonstrate and to free speech as is reflected in the continuing high number of strikes and protest actions occurring throughout the country.

This still-radical popular sentiment is also why there is constant grumbling from some sections of the ranks of the PDI-P against the apparent closeness between Megawati and the Golkar leadership.

In recent weeks, there have even been splits in some towns within the youth organisations supporting Wahid, between those who want action against Golkar and those who shy away from any mass campaigns.

In other areas, these frustrations among the Muslim youth supporting Wahid have taken the form of independent initiatives, including making public apologies to the Indonesian Communist Party for their organisations' roles in the 1965 massacres. In some cases, there are discussions of joint actions between these groups and the PRD.

The non-party aligned student groups, while less active than in 1999, have also still shown that they can mobilise in force. The most militant clashes between students and the state apparatus have been around the issue of putting Suharto on trial. Any sign of an imminent comeback by Golkar would provoke the mass student movement into action again.

Response by the left

The PRD is attempting to bring together all the various alliances that it has established during 2000. This includes alliances developed in campaigns aimed against Golkar and the army, as well as alliances developed in campaigns against Wahid government policies, such as increases in fuel and transport costs and other neo-liberal economic policies.

The first successful step has been made in this direction with the formation of the National Assembly Campaign (KRN). The KRN has brought together 75 mass organisations, including supporters of Wahid and other elements of the liberal bourgeoisie as well as student and trade union groups, behind the general slogan of fighting Golkar, the TNI and their supporters.

The PRD is aiming to get all these groups to support its plan for national coordinated mass meetings which would discuss and organise ways of fighting the Golkar comeback and of reversing the social and economic crisis.

Coordinated with these mass meetings would be demonstrations marching on Golkar offices, TNI headquarters and the parliaments. They would start at town level and try to snowball to larger cities.

Discussions will soon begin regarding a minimum common platform of demands.

The PRD's proposed demands include calls for: putting Suharto on trial for corruption and crimes against humanity; the formation of a commission to expose the truth of the anti-left massacres in 1965/66; ending of the dual (political and defence) functions of the military; nationalisation of crony and TNI corporations; a 100% wage increase and subsidies to provide cheap health, housing and education for the mass of the people.

Teargas fired as anti-Wahid protests erupt in Jakarta

Agence France-Presse - January 17, 2001

Jakarta -- Police on Wednesday fired volleys of teargas at 2,500 protestors who gathered outside parliament calling on Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to answer corruption charges or step down.

There were no casualties, an AFP reporter said, and the demonstrators briefly fell back before regrouping on a road running past the main gate of the parliament complex.

Shortly afterwards the elite mobile brigade police, among some 800 police camped at the parliament since Monday, changed tactics and allowed the demonstrators, who included university students, into the complex. Each protestor was frisked before being allowed into an enclosure cordoned off by police with barbed wire inside the grounds of the complex.

The demonstrators began massing outside the parliament at around 10am, and later as many as seven groups were seen numbering around 2,500 people, according to journalists.

Many of them were calling on the president to step down. "Dur, step down -- it's not that difficult," read one poster tacked on the barbed wire barricades by a group calling itself the Joint Movement for Anti-corruption". "Step down or be thrown out," read another.

Earlier some of the protestors had said they were not calling for Wahid to go but merely wanted him to answer charges of corruption levelled against him before a parliamentary commission.

"We are not asking him to resign ... we just want the special commission to conduct a full investigation ... we are still giving Gus Dur some time," Indra Gunawan from the People's Solidarity for Democracy told AFP, refering to the president by his nickname.

The commission is seeking to question Wahid over a 3.9 million dollar embezzlement scam allegedly pulled off by his masseur, and the fate of a two million dollar donation from the Sultan of Brunei, which the president claimed was a personal gift.

The allegations of impropriety -- dubbed 'Bulogate' and 'Bruneigate' by the press -- have been seized on by Wahid's critics in the newly-empowered parliament, who are calling for his resignation.

Wahid, the country's first democratically-elected president, on Tuesday said he would refuse to appear before the commission, but was prepared to meet its members outside the parliament.

On a main flag pole inside the complex, some students from the University of Indonesia, Muhammadiya University and Bandung Institute of Technology had raised a huge banner from the main parliament flagpole, reading: "Uncover the new corruption." Other banners read "Gus Dur -- admit your mistakes" and "Support the Bulogate commission."

Jakarta police have had 40,000 men on alert, many of them camped at potential trouble spots around the city, since Monday when the protests had been expected to take place, but failed to materialize.

There was no immediate sign of any pro-Wahid supporters, who last week threatened to descend on the capital en masse if his opponents took to the streets.

Shortly after midday, three members of the commission emerged from the parliament building to address the protestors, who were sitting inside the barbed wire singing, chanting and listening to speeches. "God willing this commission will not bow to pressure," commission chairman Bachtiar Chamsyah said. He added the commission would announce the results of its probe into the two scandals to the parliament on January 24, and to the public at a plenary session of January 29.

However, Chamsyah did not spell out whether the commission had accepted Wahid's proposal to meet its members outside the parliament for questioning, instead of answering their summons.

East Timor

Falintil armed with CDs, not guns

Sydney Morning Herald - January 20, 2001

Hamish McDonald -- Next month the legendary guerilla army Falintil, an acronym for Armed Forces of the Liberation of East Timor, will cease to exist as its remaining active fighters are absorbed into the new army being formed for their emerging nation.

Old fighters, their lungs wheezy from long years in the cloud- wrapped mountains, their bodies showing up healed-over bullets on their x-rays, will be given work in a new fuel distribution company.

But the Falintil name lives on. Tune to 88.1 FM while in Dili, and you'll get Radio Falintil broadcasting a mix of hard and soft rock music, broken up by chatty lifestyle programs being pioneered by a bevy of young hosts.

Midnight on Saturday shows how much the armed struggle is over, and more personal concerns are preoccupying young people who once risked their lives in protest against Indonesian rule.

That's the time Ligia "Merry" Guterres, 23, and Madalena "Nica" Araujo, 25, come on air to read a selection of love letters sent in by listeners in their program given the English-language name Greets Memory.

Portraits of the independence leader Xanana Gusmao, slain Falintil chief Nicolau Lobato, and Metallica look down from the whitewashed walls of Radio Falintil's simple studio in a Dili house.

An old airconditioner thrashes away on the window, occasionally making a lurching noise when the voltage drops. Merry trained in Surabaya to work in a bank, but her day job now is a translator with the Serious Crimes Unit of the United Nations police, working on murders and rapes. Nica runs her own contracting business in the reconstruction of this devastated town.

On this particular night, Merry picks up a letter titled "Kisah sedih dalam hidupku" (Sad chapter in my life), decorated with a heart, and signed "by someone with the initial H".

Merry reads it in a sweet, breathy voice, while studio technician Jo Gusmao, a nephew of Xanana, deftly weaves in bursts of Kenny G's syrupy clarinet piece For Everyone.

Most of the letters are in Indonesian, the language of the educated young here, and come from girls and sometimes boys in the 17-18 age group, say the announcers. They talk of unrequited crushes, and broken-off relationships. Some are clearly group efforts, possibly from gossip sessions around the radio while the parents aren't around.

Occasionally letters get into more serious problems like unplanned pregnancies, family breakups or violence. "But that's another program," Nica says.

Magic man ruffles Gusmao's vision

Sydney Morning Herald - January 20, 2001

Hamish McDonald, Dili -- His full name is said to be Ely Foho Rai Boot, which translates from the main Timorese language Tetum as something like Ely Great Mountain, but he is known here just as "L7".

That was his codename in a clandestine network called the Familia Sagrada, or Sacred Family, during the 24 years that the occupying Indonesian Army tried to eliminate stubborn nationalist resistance in this former Portuguese colony.

Disciplined by a mixture of Catholicism and native lulik or black magic, Familia Sagrada was a vital link between the Falintil guerillas in the mountains and the underground political resistance in the towns. L7 became known as a "pastor" of the network, partly through his mastery of lulik.

L7 handed out charms and spells that were believed to make the recipient invisible to Indonesian patrols and impervious to bullets. Like his former guerilla leader, Xanana Gusmao, he was reputed to be able to turn himself into a tree at will.

But since the Indonesian Army left in October 1999, L7 has become a thorn in Gusmao's side as the former resistance leader makes the transition to statesman, building an entirely new nation virtually from the ground up.

Though so far a minor problem, L7 is being watched closely by political analysts here as an example of how dangerously the remarkable co-operation of East Timor's existing political forces could be upset by the emergence of a nativist radical challenge, with or without outside help.

Parties belonging to Mr Gusmao's coalition, the National Committee of Timorese resistance, or CNRT, are already restive with his opposition to political campaigning, with elections likely about August for an assembly that will decide a new constitution and then become East Timor's first national parliament.

Unease has deepened by Mr Gusmao's public questioning of the effectiveness of the massive United Nations operation intended to get East Timor on its feet.

In a new year speech, Mr Gusmao said well-paid UN staff were too reluctant to hand over senior jobs to Timorese, suggesting that these "masters of independence" were disguising self-interest by setting unrealistic standards.

An edginess has returned to Dili after three outbreaks of violence early this month: an attack by rock-throwing youths on UN cars and staff at a popular disco, another attack on the mosque of Dili's small Muslim community, and a family feud that saw one person stabbed to death.

L7 led a defiant mini-rebellion last June in one of the cantonments where Falintil's remaining 1,500 or so fighters are secluded, while UN peacekeepers have chased out the vestiges of the pro-Jakarta militias set up by the Indonesian military.

He and about 30 supporters seized weapons, and threatened to march out. Mr Gusmao made a special trip to talk him down, successfully, but two or three of L7's group managed to slip out of camp with their guns and make it to the town of Baucau, where they linked up with a shadowy Indonesian-linked group called the Republica Democratic Timor Leste (RDTL).

Despite being placated by the allocation of a vehicle and a job as a Falintil liaison officer with the UN, some sources here say L7 has more recently been throwing his weight around by setting up roadblocks and demanding payments in the hinterland -- though not to the point of staking out territory as his own, which would bring down UN troops and police on his head, UN officials said.

The links with RDTL are the most alarming aspect. This group takes its name from the independent republic proclaimed unilaterally by the Fretilin party on November 28, 1975, and wiped out 10 days later by the Indonesian paratroop and marine seizure of Dili. But it appears to be the latest front for Indonesian subversion, Timorese leaders say.

Mr Gusmao says the RDTL is linked with a group called the Partai National Timor, founded by one of the original Fretilin members from 1975, Abilio Araujo, who was "turned" by the Indonesians during exile in Lisbon.

With funds provided by ex-president Soeharto's family, Mr Araujo was given control of a lucrative backdoor import trade of Indonesian goods via Macau, avoiding a Portuguese ban on Indonesian imports because of the Timor invasion.

"RDTL is essentially a group that came from the PNT," Mr Gusmao said, noting that PNT had been set up by Indonesian special forces general Zacky Anwar Makarim to promote the option of autonomy within Indonesia in the UN-conducted referendum of August 30, 1999. "Suddenly the same people have appeared defending RDTL, which is just to confuse people," Mr Gusmao said.

The group had taken unemployed young people to various districts, including Dili, to stage acts of violence. The CNRT is still looking for the group's source of funding.

A CNRT leader, Mari Alkatiri, who was a Fretilin minister in 1975 before exile in Mozambique and Portugal, also suggested that a front of Timorese nationalism could be used as a subversion technique to bring the territory back into Indonesia. "They will create some radical nationalist group and try to do it -- it is a classic," Mr Alkatiri said. "Through a clear integrationist group it is impossible -- there is no space -- but if some Indonesian generals are preparing some kind of subversion they will use a nationalist group."

Whether groups like RDTL get any space in East Timor's regular politics will be decided soon when the UN sits down with CNRT to work out regulations governing the activities of political parties.

Pro-Indonesian groups based among the 120,000 displaced East Timorese across the border are claiming the right to use the new democratic process to put the option of returning to Indonesian rule. The feeling in CNRT is that they had their chance in the 1999 ballot.

Mr Gusmao's instinct, meanwhile, is to hold East Timor back from party activity, which he constantly equates with "confusion", while recalling the way Fretilin and the conservative Timor Democratic Union (UDT) started fighting in 1975.

In his new year speech he attacked unnamed politicians who took stances "almost contrary to commonsense" to win support, and others who distorted a history "that brought grief and left scars in our souls". Mr Gusmao says his speech was meant to remind politicians "to be aware of the complexity of the process and to avoid rushing to power-seeking".

Like CNRT's other best known figure, Jose Ramos Horta, he has distanced himself from Fretilin, and declares he will not "ever, ever" join a party himself. "Civic education will avoid confusion among the people, and they will prove to political parties they are more mature," he said.

While some Timorese figures, including Bishop Carlos Belo, are suggesting a delay in moving to independence, Mr Gusmao wants to proceed with plans for a transition later this year, barring "technical" obstacles. But analysts say he wants to keep the "non-party" CNRT together, building on its remarkable success in submerging old Fretilin-UDT rivalry at its inception in 1998 and then getting the population to register and vote for independence in the face of horrendous violence.

But some of his senior colleagues think the time has come for East Timor to move again into party activity. "There is a vacuum in the country which could be filled by Indonesian subversion," said Mario Carrascalao, a CNRT vice-president who was previously a UDT leader and later provincial governor for 10 years under Indonesia. Mr Carrascalao recently formed the new Social Democratic Party of Timor.

Fretilin's Mr Alkatiri, who is also within CNRT and a minister for economic affairs in the interim administration, agrees that there is still a task of public education to get a multi-party system accepted. But Mr Gusmao was being pessimistic, Mr Alkatiri said. "I think it is time to start with party political activity. The more we postpone it the worse for East Timor."

East Timor ups stakes in oil treaty talks with Australia

Dow Jones Newswires - January 17, 2001

Jeremy Bowden, Singapore -- East Timor is raising the stakes in talks on sharing offshore oil and natural gas revenues with Australia, according to Australian government sources.

It wants to expand the scope of negotiations to include areas outside the Timor Gap treaty zone, which could add in oil fields generating revenues of almost $2 billion a year. These fields currently fall under Australian sovereignty, despite being much closer to East Timor.

The talks -- which began in October 2000, almost a year after East Timor broke away from Indonesia -- had been confined to the royalty split within the 1989 Timor Gap treaty area, which, before East Timorese independence, divided oil revenues from a 75,000-square-kilometer strip near East Timor between Australia and Indonesia.

Under the treaty, Australia enjoyed generous oil and gas royalty terms. So much so that some political observers accuse Australia of accepting the terms in exchange for recognizing Indonesian sovereignty over the ex-Portuguese colony.

Australia was one of only a handful of countries to acknowledge Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, following its invasion in 1975.

The Australian government sources said East Timor's move complicates the talks, and no more formal discussions are planned at this stage.

Australia's minister for foreign affairs, Alexander Downer, said last year that Australia would be "generous in the negotiations."

But now that the East Timorese want to expand the treaty's area, rather than just boosting their royalty cut inside it, the stakes are far higher, and Australian generosity is likely to be tested.

The move could force the inclusion of major Australian fields such as the Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (A.WPL)-operated, 150,000- barrel-a-day Laminaria-Carollina field, and the BHP Ltd. (BHP)- operated 40,000-barrel-a-day Buffalo field in royalty negotiations. Both are situated just outside the treaty area, along with massive unexploited finds such as Royal Dutch/Shell Group's (RD) Sunrise-Troubadour gas discovery.

Such fields dwarf current production from within the Timor Gap treaty area. Although the treaty area includes some promising finds, the only field currently producing is the 20,000-barrel-a-day BHP-operated Elang-Kakatua stream, which generates revenues of about $200 million a year.

Initial negotiations took place among Australia, UN administrative authorities and East Timorese representatives October 9-11. Since then, Australian government sources say "work has continued informally," but "no date has yet been set for the next round of formal negotiations."

The sources insist that they have a case for a cut of the royalties based on the extent of Australia's continental crust, which protrudes almost three quarters of the way to East Timor. The East Timorese authorities say their claim is based on "a distance criterion," which would leave most of the area under the East Timorese control.

East Timor's bloody 1999 break with Indonesia forced Australia to renegotiate the treaty. But until East Timor becomes fully independent -- it is currently being run by a temporary UN administration -- the existing terms continue to operate under a memorandum of understanding signed last February. Under this temporary arrangement, East Timor gets Indonesia's share of royalties.

East Timor received its first oil royalty payment in September. The payment of A$6 million covered royalties from the Elang- Kakatua fields, located in ZOCA 91-12 of the Timor Gap Zone of Cooperation.

Royalties from within the existing Timor Gap area will rise once production begins at the giant Phillips Petroleum Co. (P)- operated Bayu Undan gas and condensate field, which, like Elang- Kakatua, is located in ZOCA 91-12 of the treaty area. Philips issued initial engineering contracts for the first phase of the field development -- comprising condensate and liquid petroleum gas production -- last October.

Another Australian official pointed out that A$150 million in aid has been earmarked for East Timor over the next four years. This figure could fall if East Timor's revenues from oil royalties rise, particularly if the rise is at the expense of Australian government income.

Timorese journalists commit to establishing free press

Kyodo News - January 13, 2001

Jakarta -- More than 150 East Timorese journalists, gathering at their inaugural congress in the East Timor capital of Dili, have agreed to build an independent, free press in their new country, a press statement issued Saturday by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) said.

The journalists, however, on Friday expressed fears that investigative reports on local issues could cause tension among the East Timorese people as they were not used to a free press after decades of Indonesian occupation.

The Timor Lorosae Journalists' Association (TLJA) that organized the five-day gathering has offered its protection to local media.

The statement issued by UNTAET's Media Unit Department, said the attending journalists, who have been meeting since Wednesday, represent 14 new media organizations formed since late 1999 following a UN-sanctioned referendum in which East Timor voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia.

Currently, there are four radio networks, two daily newspapers and eight other publications in East Timor.

"This is an opportunity for all of us to build a strong, professional base," Virgilio da Silva Guterres, one of the organizing committee members and editor of local magazine called Lalenok was quoted as saying. "The free press will be one of the foundations of our nation," Guterres added.

The journalists also reached a consensus in the gathering -- which was also attended by a number of Indonesian journalists -- to seek membership of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), a Bangkok-based regional association of press advocacy organizations.

SEAPA Chairman Kavi Congtkittavorn, who attended the gathering, welcomed the application for membership, saying, "This is a great way to celebrate the new year."

Meanwhile, Lin Neumann, consultant on Asian issues with the New- York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said, "Your strongest protection is your unity and organization."

"All of us in the profession will do our best to assist your growth and freedom," he added. The journalists also agreed to try setting up a code of ethics despite the lack of experienced journalists in East Timor.

On Saturday, the journalists dedicated a new road in Dili under the name of Avenida da Liberdade de Imprensa (Press Freedom Avenue). A Dutch journalist, Sander Thoenes, was killed on the road by a group of people wearing Indonesian military uniforms in 1999.

On Sunday, the delegates will travel to the rural town of Balibo to inaugurate a memorial to five Australian journalists killed during an exchange of fire between Indonesian troops and East Timor's leftist Fretilin forces in 1975 during the Indonesian invasion of the former Portuguese colony.

The congress is sponsored by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UNTAET, the World Press Freedom Committee, the Freedom Forum, the Jakarta-based Alliance of Independence Journalists and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance of Australia.

Return of the revolutionaries

The Guardian - January 15, 2001

Maggie O'Kane -- The discovery of the bodies of four women murdered with machetes in different parts of the country last summer passed almost unnoticed in East Timor. Yet the Indonesian occupying army, which killed an estimated 200,000 people in its 24 years there, has gone, driven out by the UN cavalry over a year ago.

The tragedy for the women of East Timor is that those killed in the machete attacks were murdered by their own husbands or brothers. In a country with a population estimated at around 720,000 -- roughly the same as that of Leeds -- it is a shocking statistic. After years of a cruel and brutal conflict, the violence learned by the revolutionaries has now been turned on their women.

Domestic violence has soared in the past year, according to Milena Pires, 34, a Timorese political lobbyist funded by the Catholic Institute for International Relations. Last year, 169 cases were documented and domestic violence is now the country's prevalent crime, making up 40% of all offences.

"It may simply be that women are speaking out about it for the first time -- but it is probably the single most important issue facing Timorese women today," Pires says. "In the summer we had our first women's conference and it was the thing that came up again and again."

The problem lies in the tensions that have arisen following East Timor's return to an independent state. In the autumn of 1999, violence erupted throughout the territory following a victory for the independence movement in a UN-organised referendum.

Supporters of the Indonesian regime ran amok and hundreds were killed or forced into camps across the border in west Timor. By the time the Indonesian army had left, almost everything had been destroyed.

After the immediate violence abated, deeper, more lasting tensions were revealed as the men of East Timor's rebel army, the Falantil, returned to the homes they hadn't seen since 1975. When Indonesia invaded, they left their families behind in the towns and on the farms, and headed for the mountains and jungles.

Five hours' drive from the capital Dili, in the Ulimori valley, the battle for an independent East Timor was fought by men surviving on a diet of deer, buffalo, monkey and fruit. On a visit there in the last days of the Indonesian occupation, servile silent women served me a dinner of what looked like grey cannelloni -- buffalo intestines with tomatoes. The year before they had been roasting dog at a camp built entirely of bamboo. Codes of behaviour were strict -- no sex for revolutionaries and the only women present were cooks.

Among the men who joined the fight was Adtik Lintil, who admits he barely saw his wife and children in the 17 years he was with the Falantil. "I don't have any regrets," he says. "We had to fight for what was right." Now, after 24 years of Indonesian occupation, men like Lintil are returning home, to a world that has moved on.

While the men were in hiding in the mountains, Timorese women were either furthering their education in exile or holding the fort at home, just as British women had done during two world wars.

"Women were involved at every level," says Pires, whose own family went into exile when she was nine years old and who subsequently studied sociology and English literature in Australia. "They helped run the camps, sent supplies, smuggled information. And now, as the men come out of hiding, they don't want to return to their traditional roles."

Inevitably there are problems. Last month, five women wearing short-sleeved T-shirts were stoned in the central market of Dili for dressing inappropriately and talking on mobile phones. And only last week, violence broke out on a family beach when a gang of young men attacked two women dressed in bikini tops and sarongs.

"It is a very traditional Catholic society which has been frozen by the years of war," Pires says. "The men are trying to reassert their authority." In the past year, over a dozen organisations have been set up in East Timor to tackle this growing violence towards women. "It is a time when we have to be very, very sensitive," Pires says.

Last week, she was in London seeking support for pro-women measures she hopes to see put in place when the UN hands over to the new East Timorese government next year. Her aim is to help create a society in which 30% of parliamentarians and 30% of public servants are women. The carrot Britain has is money. Pressure from other donor countries, such as Japan, Portugal and Australia, to introduce women-friendly policies has worked thus far and women's groups in East Timor have already succeeded in securing a deal in which local councils are made up of 50% men and 50% women.

Meanwhile, the cost of the UN's current babysitting of East Timor is estimated to be over $700 million, yet there is very little rebuilding going on, no new industry and the country is proving a tough place to run. There may be hundreds of white UN four-wheel drive vehicles on the roads, but only three fishing boats were left in a city that depended on fishing for its survival.

The independent East Timor was left with no electricity, no schools, no universities -- even the saw mill machinery had been ripped out and taken back to Indonesia.

The only jobs are with the UN -- at a daily rate of $5 for locals, New York salaries for its own staff. The only thing being built is a floating hotel in the harbour, commissioned and partially funded by the UN, where its visiting staff can stay at a cost of $160 a night.

The result is 80% unemployment. Men are humiliated at being without jobs in a country in which white foreigners seem to have everything going for them, and their disillusionment has resulted in the rise in domestic violence.

"There is a lot of anger now," Pires says, "as people see that what they were fighting for hasn't happened. Now they just want the UN to go." Even Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, criticised the international community in East Timor during a recent visit to the territory. "There is not that empathy of really understanding how much the people of East Timor suffered," she said.

During the Indonesian occupation, women were separated from their husbands and sons, harassed and often raped. In the refugee camps, populated mainly by women and children, living conditions are terrible, with food shortages, poor sanitation and rampant disease.

Now there is a determination that in the new society being built in East Timor, women will suffer less. Last September, for the first time in East Timor's history, a woman went to court to accuse her husband of violence against her. It's a start.

Oil is more important to us than to Australia: Gusmao

Sydney Morning Herald - January 15, 2001

Hamish McDonald, Dili -- The Australian Government is retreating from its tough opening stance on the oil revenue split in a new seabed boundary treaty with independent East Timor, a senior Timorese negotiator reports.

Separately, East Timor's independence leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, has urged Canberra to consider how much more crucial the contested Timor Sea oil and gas resources are to his emerging nation than to Australia. Mr Mari Alkatiri, a Timorese political leader attached to the interim United Nations administration as economic affairs minister, said he hoped the new treaty could be agreed by July or August, in time to be signed immediately a national government is formed in Dili after elections later this year.

"New ideas have been adopted by both sides," Mr Alkatiri told the Herald at the weekend. "We are closer now to a consensus about dealing with the issues."

Formal negotiations began last October on a replacement for the so-called Timor Gap treaty concluded between Canberra and Jakarta in 1989, which set up a shared zone and saw oil and gas revenues split equally between the two governments.

Since then sizable natural gas fields have been discovered in and around the shared zone, and oil companies have issued the first contracts in a planned multi-billion-dollar network of oil platforms, pipelines and gas-based industries in the Northern Territory.

But the UN administration considers this treaty has no legal standing, as Indonesian sovereignty in East Timor was never accepted by the world body. It proposed a treaty based on principles that would set most of the known petroleum resources entirely under Dili's jurisdiction.

The Howard Government's position, which has not been disclosed but is understood to include retaining the shared zone with a revenue split of 60:40 in Timor's favour, stunned UN and Timorese officials last October.

"The first round was a very hard round for both sides," said Mr Alkatiri, who refused to disclose either party's proposals.

"The Australian side never expected the Timorese side would have prepared their position and would make the claims we did. And from the East Timorese side we never expected that the Australians would come with such a conservative position. It was really a shock to both sides."

Since October, there have been two informal negotiating sessions and a third is possible next month before a second formal round of talks in March.

Mr Gusmao said at the weekend that the former treaty had no standing with the independence movement he heads. "To have a fair treaty, Australia has to consider that we have our perception of the problem, our rights in this issue," he said. "We will respect the rights and interests of Australia, but Australia has to respect our rights and our interests there."

Mr Gusmao, who is expected to become independent East Timor's first president, said the revenues from Timor Sea petroleum would be critical to his country's economic and social development.

"It is more important to us than to Australia -- the new terms of the treaty," he said, adding that East Timor was prepared to accept less Australian aid in the event that it gained a greater share of the oil revenue. "It is preferable that we get it [oil revenue] rather than it goes to Canberra and then comes to us as aid."

Labour struggle

Obstructing labor unions is a crime: lawyer said

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2001

Jakarta -- Employers tend to try to block the establishment of labor unions, and this is a violation of the law, the head of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) labor unit Rita Olivia said on Friday.

"Blocking the establishment of a labor union is a crime as stipulated by Article 43 (2) of the Labor Union Law No. 21/2000. The workers could report it to the police," Rita told The Jakarta Post. Those violating the law could face a jail term of between one and five years, and a fine of between Rp 100 million (US$10,526) and Rp 500 million.

The law also authorizes the police and the Ministry of Manpower to investigate any case involving an attempt to prevent the setting up of a labor union, she said. Hampering a union's activities is also against the law, she added.

LBH Jakarta, which is representing the Shangri-La Hotel Independent Workers Union, will sue the hotel management for violating the law, Rita said.

The Shangri-La hotel has halted its operations following a strike on December 22 staged by the workers, who were demanding better conditions of employment and pay.

According to Rita, the management had hampered the union's activities, including suspending the union's chairman, which then led to the strike. On December 28, the employers reported the case to the police.

As many as 420 members of the union, which is affiliated to the International Union for Food, Hotels and Restaurants (IUF), are facing dismissal because of joining the strike.

Both the workers and the management are scheduled to meet at the office of the Ministry of Manpower on Monday after they failed to reach an agreement during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Rita said her institute was also considering taking legal action against the management of Panin Bank for allegedly harassing union members. She said dozens of members of the Panin Bank Workers Union (SPBP) were reportedly intimidated and asked to leave the union by the management.

Some of the members were transferred to other branches or were faced with dismissal while others were threatened that their salaries would not be increased if they remained members of the union, she said.

LBH Jakarta, which is representing the union, has invited the management to discuss the issue but the invitation has been rejected, Rita said. The bank's management could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Meanwhile, LBH's vice director Surya Tjandra said that employers or management preferred to discuss labor disputes with workers through the offices of the Ministry of Manpower as the ministry officials often took the side of the employers.

The Shangri-La hotel management had earlier refused to discuss the dispute with the workers in a bipartite meeting excluding Ministry of Manpower officials. "In many cases, the ministry will often defend the employers. So, the employers are able to easily dismiss their workers," Surya said.

He said in that in the Shangri-La case, the union found a bill stating that the hotel management had spent Rp 5 million on "manpower fees". Both the hotel management and ministry officials denied the charge.

Aceh/West Papua

Judges flee Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2001

Banda Aceh -- The implementation of law in Aceh has almost come to a halt as many judges have fled the province because of security concerns.

Three of 18 district courts in Aceh's 13 regencies -- in Sigli, Bireuen and Tapaktuan, have no judge at all. Two district courts have three judges -- the minimum number required to form a panel of judges, while the other courts have only one or two judges each, an official at the Banda Aceh High Court, Teuku Darwin, was quoted on Friday by Antara as saying.

He said that judges in Calang district court, West Aceh, will also leave soon because of the worsening security situation in the troubled province.

The "exodus" of judges started two years ago. Mid last year the high court proposed the appointment of new judges in the province. The Supreme Court agreed and appointed 38 new judges. But after a few months, they left because of security reasons. "They said they could not work because they were worried about the lack of security," he said.

Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh has reportedly asked the Supreme Court to send new judges to help the judicial process function in Aceh.

Rebels hold 18 hostages, after seizing 7 negotiators

Agence France-Presse - January 19, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Separatist rebels in remote Irian Jaya have seized seven negotiators trying to win the release of 11 abducted plywood workers and now hold 18 people hostage, police said Friday.

The seven, including two Korean nationals, were captured on Thursday when they travelled to a remote jungled area to negotiate with the rebels, a policeman at the provincial police headquarters in the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura said. The rebels seized the 11 plywood workers, including a South Korean, on Tuesday.

"According to the police report the hostages are [now] three Koreans, two native people and the rest are migrants" from other Indonesian provinces, the officer, who indentified himself only as Agus, told AFP. He said the two captured South Korean negotiators worked for plywood firm PT Tunas Korindo, which employed the first batch of hostages.

Police and military chiefs from the district of Merauke on Friday travelled to the jungled area near the border with Papua New Guinea to try to restart negotiations for the release of all 18 hostages.

"The police and military chiefs are in Asiki to seek the release of the hostages," First Brigadier Robert Wogono of the Merauke district police told AFP by telephone.

The first 11 captives, 10 Korindo workers and their South Korena manager, Kwon Oh-duk, 49, were abducted on Tuesday at the company's mill in Asiki, a jungled area close to the border with neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

A Korindo worker in Asiki told AFP by phone that the company had not been contacted by the hostage takers, a local separatist group led by Willem Onde. She also said she had no information on the fate of the hostages, nor had she heard about the kidnapping of the negotiators.

The Tempo weekly said the Willem Onde group was estimated to have a force of 500 men operating near the border with Papua New Guinea and the southern boundary of the Jayawijaya mountain range.

Unconfirmed reports have said the kidnappers were asking for a ransom of one million dollars, the pull-out of an Indonesian police unit from the area and a halt to logging. But police have not confirmed those reports.

On Thursday Irian Jaya military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel R. Siregar told AFP from the provincial capital Jayapura that police in Merauke were in charge of facilitating the negotiations.

"The thing is, this case is purely a conflict between PT Korindo and locals, not with the government," Siregar said. "We are still trying to find out the root cause of the problem but what is clear is that there is a conflict there between the company and the local population."

The Media Indonesia daily, quoting a correspondent for the newspaper's affiliate, Metro TV, said 16 policemen from the elite mobil brigade unit and a company of army soldiers had been flown to the hostage area by plane.

Aceh rebels want to be paid for every gun surrendered

Straits Times - January 19, 2001 (abridged)

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is demanding 30 million rupiah (S$5,700) for each firearm they give up. Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud said this condition had stopped the process of disarmament.

"We just received the demand from the GAM members. If they agree to hand in their guns, they want 30 million for each surrendered gun. They argue that the guns were expensive," he said.

Both Mr Mahfud and the Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the rebels must disarm over the next two weeks or face a crackdown.

However, GAM security spokesman Nashiruddin Ahmad denied that GAM had ever demanded money for a weapons buy-back, although he confirmed that the cost of an automatic rifle was approximately 30 million rupiah.

"That is one of the biggest lies he has ever made. It's a ceasefire, not a surrender. There has been no agreement about weapons," he said.

He also admitted that many of the weapons had been bought from Indonesian soldiers or police. GAM's rebel commander, Teungku Abdullah Syafi'ie has, in the past, boasted that obtaining weapons was as easy as buying water. According to foreign diplomatic sources, other weapons are bought from Thailand, and shipped or transported down the Malaysian coast.

Indonesian kidnap drama: Real or fake?

Straits Times - January 19, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The kidnapping of 12 hostages, including a South Korean businessman, in Indonesia's troubled Irian Jaya province, is suspected to be a "fake" one, staged to discredit the separatist rebels.

Local non-government groups are suspicious because the Free Papua Movement (OPM) commander credited with the abduction, Willem Onde, has close ties to Kopassus, an elite army unit, as well as to the Korean timber company PT Korindo, for which all of the twelve hostages were working for.

"We're suspicious about this abduction because everytime Onde goes to Merauke he stays with Kopassus," said Mr Aloi Renwarin, Vice-Director of Legal Aid group ELSHAM. Mr Aloi also said he doubted that OPM has actually kidnapped anybody because it had a surveillance hut built by the Korean company.

Police spokesman Zulkifli said the rebels were demanding US$1 million (S$1.74 million) in compensation for the logging operations and that the company cease operating in the area.

However a spokesman for the company said the rebels had not contacted the company. There are doubts over whether a special police and army investigation team had yet made contact with the rebels.

According to staff from the Merauke police station, the team left the city yesterday for the site of the kidnapping located 400 kilometres away, and was still to report back.

Mr Onde has long been suspected of being a collaborator of the Indonesian army. But in a recent interview with weekly Tempo, he denied working for the Indonesian army, saying that the rumours about him were designed to turn Papuans against him. On the other hand, this is not the first time the OPM has used hostage taking to attract international attention.

Augustinus Rumansara from World Wide Fund for Nature said the kidnapping might have occurred because many Papuans opposed the South Korean company for discriminating them against the Indonesians and for insufficient land compensation.

US supports Indonesia's policies on troubled Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- While expressing support for a united territory of Indonesia, United States Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S. Gelbard offered on Wednesday to help ensure the agreement between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government a success.

"Certainly the United States is preparing to participate in a serious way in any economic development and reconstruction plan, although the security problem [in Aceh] is difficult.

"The most important [part] of the agreement is its implementation. And we are very much preparing to help. I'm sure other governments are, too," Gelbard told reporters after a meeting with Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the latter's office on Wednesday.

The Ambassador was referring to the agreement made between the Indonesian government and GAM during the recent five-day forum in Geneva.

"We always feel in great pain when we see tragedies, such as in Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya. I went here [to Susilo's office] for some hope, some optimistic answer. We've been offering assistance in anyway the Indonesian government feels it will be appropriate," Gelbard said.

He said that the United States has been giving technical military assistance, including anti-terrorism, to help the Indonesian government cope with the separatist problems.

Gelbard said that the United States also supported Indonesia in handling the separatist movement in Irian Jaya.

"You should read history. The United States played its role in the 1962 negotiation to include Irian Jaya as part of Indonesia. So, we've played a very important role in Indonesia's history. Of course, we support its integrity," he said.

Separately, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said the government would conduct operations to restore order and security in Aceh.

"There are village and regency administrations which have failed to perform their functions because they have been under GAM's control," Mahfud said after a limited meeting on political, security and social affairs, chaired by Susilo. He also said that security forces would conduct operations against civilians possessing arms.

Meanwhile, the Aceh People's Council (MMA) urged the House of Representatives on Wednesday to prioritize the deliberation of the draft special autonomy law for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

"There should be substance that guarantees the preservation of the traditional culture of Acehnese and establishment of a democratic, transparent and accountable local government in the province," Ismail Hasan Metareum, chief of the council steering committee, told with House Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

The council also urged the government to establish a National Commission for Aceh to organize holistic measures to solve the problems of the province.

The council further asked the government to avoid any kind of military operation in the province as it would create more distrust among the people of Aceh towards the government.

Separately, Indonesianist Herbert Feith of the Australian National University, who is also a visiting lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta said on Wednesday that the government should be able to set up a form of autonomy that gives both Aceh and Irian "significant power sharing".

"In the long run there should be a new formulation on the autonomy given to both provinces. For example, like those implemented in Hong Kong, which is part of Mainland China, or those imposed in England.

"Both provinces must be given greater authority and bargaining positions so that they can fully accommodate their needs," Feith told a dialogue on Aceh and Irian held at Teater Utan Kayu in East Jakarta on Wednesday.

Meanwhile in Aceh, at least six people were killed on Wednesday, two days after a new truce between government troops and separatist rebels took effect. A GAM rebel, identified as Nurdin, was killed in North Aceh during a gunfight, Police Cinta Meunasah Operation deputy spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr Yatim Suyatmo said.

In restive Pidie regency, Sulaiman Daud, a Mutiara Barat district chief, was shot dead by gunmen at his house in Cot Usi village, Adj. Comr. Restu Mulia of Pidie Police said.

GAM spokesman Abu Razak, however, denied the killing was done by rebels. "The district chief have been good to us and we wouldn't have the heart to execute him," Abu Razak said.

Three other unidentified bodies were found in East Aceh on Wednesday. And in Aceh Besar, a man named Syukrizal, 28, was killed during a police sweeping operation at Tingkem village in Darul Imara district.

Police also unearthed on Tuesday skulls and bones of two people, believed to be killed by GAM, near Cut Ali Air Base in South Aceh. "We are trying to identify the remains as we suspect there are about 14 bodies buried here," Adj. Comr. Moh. Ali Husein said.

Unofficial data recorded that the incidents brought the casualties in Aceh to 79 people this year, most of them civilians.

Mass grave discovered in South Kluet district of Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- South Aceh Police found a mass grave with 14 bodies, three of which were suspected to be those of the missing researchers from the Bandung-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), in Tebangan village, South Kluet district, an officer said on Wednesday.

Spokesman for Cinta Meunasah operation Snr. Comr. Yatim Suyatmo said a team of forensic police would soon be deployed to identify the bodies in the grave.

Antara news agency reported that two of the 14 bodies were exhumed by local police on Tuesday, one of which has been identified as one of three researches who were reported missing in the area since September, 1999.

The three missing CIFOR researchers have been identified as Budiawan Prasetyo, 35, Ating Gumelar, 26 and Herdian, 26. They were alumnae of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture. A field staff of Leuser National Park, Indrusman, 43, who accompanied theresearch team was also reported missing.

The four were believed to be killed during a massive raid, allegedly by the separatist Free Aceh Movement armed group, in the area.

Yatim said police received reports from locals about the mass grave which was situated only one kilometer west of Cut Ali airfield in South Aceh or around 534 kilometers south of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.

Aceh: 'The fervour of resistance continues'

Green Left Weekly - January 17, 2001

Pip Hinman -- Acehnese activist Kautsar has been struggling for his people's right to self-determination for some years. In 1998, he helped to form Student Solidarity with the People (SMUR), the main Acehenese student-led popular movement for independence. He was instrumental in organising the huge anti-Suharto demonstrations in Aceh in May 1998 and in December 1999 he played a leading role in organising a two million-strong pro-referendum rally.

Invited to attend the recent Democratic Socialist Party congress, Kautsar told Green Left Weekly that SMUR is campaigning around three main demands: a referendum with the option to choose independence or remain a part of Indonesia; a full investigation and international trial of human rights perpetrators; and the withdrawal of all Indonesian troops from Aceh.

The Acehnese struggle, Kautsar said, is based on the "commitment, spirit and consistency of the hungry and oppressed". The struggle for national self-determination is not a narrow nationalist one, he said. Rather, SMUR believes it's important to infuse the national struggle with an internationalist outlook. "We must not close our eyes to the condition of people's movements struggling for national liberation elsewhere in the world."

Kautsar emphasised the need to develop closer links with democratic forces in Indonesia. Since 1999, SMUR has been collaborating with the People's Democratic Party, the only Indonesian party campaigning for a referendum in Aceh.

The struggles in Aceh and West Papua are connected to the Indonesian people's struggle for real democratic rights, Kautsar said. "We have the ability to force economic and political concessions from the government because its repression in Aceh and West Papua illustrates to all Indonesians the naked exploitation of capitalism."

Violence escalates

Political violence in Aceh is escalating despite the extension last week of the "humanitarian pause" cease-fire between Jakarta and the armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Kautsar said that at least 30,000 more Indonesian troops have been sent to Aceh in recent weeks.

"Extra-judicial killings, disappearances, rape, seizure of property, burning people's homes and erroneous propaganda about what is really happening in Aceh continues to be carried out by the Indonesian government. Since 1950, governments have been trying to stop the people's resistance to the economic and political injustices."

Kautsar cited a number of factors contributing to the conflict in Aceh.

"Historically, there was a revolutionary struggle against Dutch and Japanese colonialism. After that Sukarno continued the repression as did the Suharto regime which turned Aceh, which is rich in natural resources, into a region of great suffering.

"This was not just because of the exploitation of Aceh's resources from which the Acehenese people receive no benefit, but also because Aceh became one of Indonesia's most backward provinces. Some elements in the bureaucracy and the political elite are demanding a larger portion of these benefits, a view which accommodates to the demand for special autonomy status."

Any decision about the status of Aceh must be resolved democratically Kautsar stressed. Many intellectuals, NGOs, religious leaders and teachers are now demanding a referendum with the option of independence and that the perpetrators of human rights violations be tried, that the military leave Aceh and that the victims of the violence be rehabilitated.

"The antipathy of Acehenese towards the Indonesian government grew in a latent way during former President Suharto's New Order era. When Suharto was toppled, there was a fleeting hope that the perpetrators of military violence would be tried", Kautsar said.

However, the Habibie government ignored the wishes of the Acehense people and violence erupted again in 1999 with the Wibawa and Sadar Rencong I and II military operations aimed at suppressing the people's movement which had become more militant. As the Indonesian government's repression increased, GAM was forced to develop its armed wing to defend its activists. But Kautsar said civilians were the main victims of the state violence. "The military claimed these civilians were GAM supporters. Then people began to realise they had no choice but to resist given that they were being accused of doing so anyway."

Conditions have only deteriorated under the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid, Kautsar said. "The character of the conflict and lack of political will on the part of Indonesia to address the suffering in Aceh has only increased people's desire to choose independence as a solution to the conflict."

Kautsar described recent steps to resolve the conflict as "increasingly absurd".

"The so-called 'humanitarian pause' agreed to by GAM and the Indonesian government has had no significant impact on the violence. Uncertainties and delays in dialogue between the two sides have created greater uncertainty over the democratic and human rights situation."

The recent month-long extension to the "humanitarian pause" does not end the danger of the government declaring Aceh a civil emergency or marshal law which would lead to even more violence. "Whatever happens", Kautsar said, "it will never diminish the people's struggle. Rather, each military action in Aceh will only spread the fervour of resistance."

Ceasefire unlikely to reduce violence in troubled Aceh

Straits Times - January 17, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- While President Abdurrahman Wahid gave his backing for another ceasefire between Acehnese rebels and the government, analysts said the bloodshed over the past few days indicated that neither side was prepared to take the truce seriously.

Last week, the exiled leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government agreed to a one-month extension of the ceasefire during talks in Geneva. The truce was originally set to end on January 15.

"His response is to fully support the content and the follow-up of the Geneva meeting," said presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar, referring to President Abdurrahman's attitude towards the provisional agreement.

The Defence Minister yesterday showed an increasing willingness to use negotiation rather than military might to solve the conflict, saying a military operation was unnecessary.

But few people expect the ceasefire extension to work as the police, armed forces and the GAM rebels have been involved in attacks over the past few days in which at least 30 civilians and troops have been killed.

One analyst said there would be little reduction in violence over the coming weeks as the military and police do not believe there is need for talks with the rebel forces and are gearing up for an attack.

"The military and police believe they can beat the uprising militarily and that they don't need to sit down at the table with GAM," he said.

In the absence of any fixed agreement about how the moratorium will be implemented, or any fines for violating it, both the government and the GAM rebels are interpreting it according to their own agenda, while ordinary Acehnese fear a showdown is imminent

GAM spokesman Amni bin Ahmad, for instance, said that both GAM and Indonesian security forces should be restricted to their barracks with the truce. However, the police were out in full force yesterday, launching an operation to collect all weapons owned by civilians.

With the weapons search, large sections of Aceh virtually closed down as ordinary Acehnese feared the search was just a pretext for hunting down rebels, said Faisal Ridha of the Information Centre for a Referendum.

"Everybody here knows police try and use the law as reason to search suspicious houses, but in fact they don't even have permits for such searches," he said.

He said a raid against the rebels a few days ago, in which at least 1,000 troops participated, resulted in the burning of dozens of houses, with 12 civilians being killed.

A GAM member monitoring the truce, Nasiruddin bin Achmad, accused the armed forces of launching an offensive near a GAM base on Sunday, killing at least one civilian. They also accused the military of killing 28 people over a three-day period last week in north Aceh. But Mr Nasiruddin admitted that GAM "went on the defensive" and attacked a convoy of troops.

In its defence, the armed forces and the police alleged that GAM has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, prior to the latest moratorium.

As one foreign diplomat noted, "the lack of progress in the humanitarian pause over the last six months indicates the lack of willingness on both sides to implement a moratorium on violence."

[On January 16, Agence France-Presse quoted presidential spokesperson Wimar Witoelar as saying "His [Wahid's] response [on the provisional agreement] is to fully support the content and the follow up of the Geneva meeting ... He [Wahid] agreed on a condition where negotiations could take place" - James Balowski.]

Police quiz four over Irian Jaya separatist activities

Agence France-Presse - January 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian police in easternmost Irian Jaya province have questioned four people including a woman cleric over separatist activities, a report said here Tuesday.

The four, who have not been detained, were named as the deputy secretary of the pro-independence Papua Council Presidium, Agustinus Alua, pro-independence activist Willy Mandowen, and two women, Beatrix Koibur and Reverend Ketty Yabansabra, the state Antara news agency said.

The head of the Papua Justice Defence Team, Hendrik Tomasoa said the four were questioned at the Irian Jaya police headquarters on Monday as "witnesses", Antara reported.

Alua and Mandowen were both questioned over their involvement in the declaration of a free state of Papua during a ceremony at the house of pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay in Sentani, north of the provincial capital of Jayapura, on November 12, 1999, Tomasoa said.

Eluay and four other Praesidium leaders have been under police custody since early December with police preparing charges of subversion against them for advocating a split from Indonesia.

Alua and Mandowen were also questioned about their roles in the Papua Convention in Jayapura in February 2000, the Papua National Congress in late May and early June and the pulling down of the "Morning Star" separatist flag on December 1, 2000.

Koibur was questioned about her part in the November 12, 1999 declaration, her participation as a coordinator at the Papua Convention, her involvement in the Papua Congress and at the flag pulling down ceremony.

Yabansabra was quizzed for having led a mass during the independence declaration at Eluay's home and for her presence during the flag removal ceremony.

Yabansabra told journalists she served mass purely as a clergyman and there was no political motive. In June during a Papua Congress, the pro-independence Papua Presidium called on the Indonesian government to recognize a 1961 declaration of independence by Irian Jaya.

The people of Irian Jaya, otherwise known as West Papua, declared independence on December 1, 1961.

Eight years later the former Dutch colony became a part of Indonesia under a UN-sanctioned act of free choice, a process that Papuans say was flawed.

Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has said Jakarta will not grant Irian Jaya independence, whose people are largely Melanesian Christians, but promised to give it broad autonomy instead.

International help needed, say rebels

South China Morning Post - January 16, 2001

Chris McCall, Banda Aceh -- "Let our people go quickly or Indonesia will suffer the same fate as Yugoslavia." That was the dire warning from separatist rebels, as the Indonesian province of Aceh began a new truce yesterday.

The ceasefire began badly, after gunfights between the security forces and the separatist Free Aceh rebels broke out on Sunday around the city of Lhokseumawe.

Police spokesman Senior Commissioner Kusbini Imbar said at least five people had been killed in incidents around the province on the eve of the truce. Among them were two policemen and two soldiers, along with a man whom police shot dead and claimed was a rebel. One of the policemen had been shot dead by an old friend while watching television. The "friend" had taken his weapon, Mr Kusbini said.

The North Aceh district police headquarters in Lhokseumawe also came under attack as did a joint military and police post in the area.

The rebels accused the security forces of killing at least 27 unarmed civilians in a wave of raids in the area at the weekend. Lhokseumawe remained partially cut off yesterday, although efforts were under way to clear the roads of trees placed across them.

In Banda Aceh, rebel spokesman Nashruddin Ahmad insisted that it was impossible for the rebels and Jakarta to solve the problem together. He said the international community needed to get involved. Jakarta has stubbornly resisted any such idea on the grounds it would be an attack on its sovereignty. "If Indonesia is not willing to welcome that with an open mind it is going to disappear. If not in a very short time I believe Indonesia will no longer exist, precisely as happened in Yugoslavia after Tito [post-war leader Josip Tito]. Yugoslavia -- Tito. Indonesia -- Suharto. It is a society that does not have a government. They cannot run the country. They can only ruin the country," he said.

Mr Nashruddin scoffed at suggestions that rebel leader Hasan di Tiro could be invited to lead an autonomous provincial administration within Indonesia, saying the rebels would reject it.

Government/politics

I can win political civil war, says Wahid

South China Morning Post - January 19, 2001

Vaudine England -- President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday brushed off calls for his resignation from students and lawmakers, saying his opponents were the tools of "those who are hungry for power".

In an exclusive interview, Mr Wahid said the military leadership was behind him and he had never doubted his ability to win what he called the country's "political civil war".

"I do not feel threatened at all," he said, adding that, contrary to reports of his imminent political demise, he was willing to run for re-election in 2004 if his country needed him.

On Singapore, Mr Wahid said he respected the city-state but again accused it of greed and manipulation.

His policy to build an Asian Axis in foreign policy was doing well, he said, and Indonesia had won world respect in its new role of finding peaceful solutions to problems.

Indonesia is plagued by two violent separatist rebellions -- in Aceh and Irian Jaya -- and by communal warfare in the Maluku Islands.

Mr Wahid faces investigation from Parliament over alleged involvement in two financial scandals, and has come under mounting criticism for the perceived weakness and instability of his administration.

Asked what conclusion outsiders should reach about his country, Mr Wahid said: "They can see for themselves here. Don't rely on press reports -- they only stress bad things. Good things are not reported.

"The second thing is that if the people don't go to Indonesia they will be left behind. It's up to them. I don't mind. If they are left behind don't blame me, because we have done so much.

"As for law and order, we will improve that. Our problems of 50 years cannot be solved in one year. We are improving the law and securing a peaceful situation and also tackling the security problem. It will take time, maybe half a month more, not more."

Amid police reports that the 18 Christmas bombings at churches across the country were carried out by men trained by the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan, Mr Wahid made the clearest statement yet of his belief that extremist Islamic groups in Indonesia were being used by his political opponents.

He denied knowledge of any international links, but said he believed the terror was masterminded by individuals from the armed forces and not by the military as an institution.

He said: "Many activities of the extremists in using violence ended up in the terrorism of the bombings on Christmas Eve. It's a sign of another thing, that Indonesia is more democratic and more moderate. So now more people express this kind of moderation.

"Because of this, the fanatics, the extremists are afraid that things will not go their way. Because of this they do what they did now. But this is a sign of the successful policy of moderation. It's clear, because of the announcements, the leaflets and so forth, that Islamic groups did the Christmas Eve bombings.

"But who ordered them, that's different. It's for political purposes. So in a sense those Muslim militants were used by people who are hungry for power ... military personalities, yes, but not the hierarchy, not the military as an institution."

Mr Wahid said it was the Government's task to put the genie of militant Islam back into the bottle. "Despite whatever you say about them, they are limited in numbers, they are limited in everything, they don't have resources. They are used only by those politicians who are hungry for power. They are misled by the process of modernisation but used by the power-hungry politicians."

He expressed faith in the allegiance of his Vice-President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, who leads the largest bloc of votes in Parliament.

"Megawati herself stated to me that she would not be doing the constitutional coup. She has as big a stake in this governmental system, in this democratic system, as anybody else. So that if there are people who try to use her name, don't believe them. See for yourself -- ask her."

As for the violence that continues in many parts of the country, from neighbourhood vigilantism to separatist rebellions, Mr Wahid said that was the price of democratisation.

"The United States had 800,000 dead in the Civil War. Did that make the United States weak? No. They continued. So also Indonesia. In Europe, 35 million people were butchered in World War II. But the people improved their lives and made corrections. So also in Indonesia.

"There is no need for us to be pessimistic or dismayed. Of course we are against violence, but that doesn't mean we should not be idealistic about the future."

Asked if he likened his position to fighting a civil war, Mr Wahid agreed he was up against the "status quo", meaning groups aligned to the former Suharto regime.

"That's a civil war in which sometimes power is used and people are used. But mainly it's a political civil war.

"To establish democracy is not easy. There are forces which would like to maintain the status quo, to retain their power, of course, and that's why we are in this position.

"But I think soon, it will be easier. We will be talking about that. Mao Zedong had to put 12 million people to death when he occupied Beijing. That's the price to be paid."

Nearly blind, a diabetic and a stroke victim, Mr Wahid is a revered Muslim cleric and intellectual who his detractors say is a weak administrator. But he says doubt does not enter his mind.

"I have never any doubt, never. Because I know the situation despite whatever the people say, in the media, among the elite."

Mr Wahid agreed it would be "suicidal" for him if former President Suharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra were to evade imprisonment for corruption.

On the run for more than two months, Hutomo was now in a general's house in Jakarta, Mr Wahid said. "We know where he is now and we will detain him soon."

Mr Wahid claimed peace was at hand in Aceh, where the daily death toll approaches half a dozen, and in Irian Jaya, where independence activists took six people hostage two days ago.

"You will not find the logic and I'm not concerned. I have my own logic. I have to tread the way for a balanced approach, to extremist people on different levels and from different groups."

Akbar dismisses call for probe into alleged scams

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung rejected calls by the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction for an investigation into an alleged financial leakage in the July 2000 House rehabilitation projects and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference last September.

Akbar said he was not involved in the management of both projects. "The PKB faction is allowed to propose the establishment of a special committee to investigate the alleged leakage in the two projects and to present them as a political issue. But, the proposal must be made in accordance with procedures at the legislative body," he said here on Wednesday.

Kholiq Achmad, secretary to the PKB faction, said on Tuesday that his faction would propose the establishment of a special committee to investigate the alleged leakage in the rehabilitation project of the House/People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) housing complex in Kalibata, South Jakarta, and the September 2000 IPU conference. The rehabilitation project cost Rp 14 billion (US$1.4 million) and the IPU conference cost a further Rp 21 billion.

Akbar said he was not involved in the management of the two projects because they were directly handled by the House's Secretariat General.

He said the proposal was part of a systematic move by certain groups to discredit him, the Golkar Party and other critics of President Abdurrahman Wahid, including Amien Rais, chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN). "A number of Golkar cadres in several regions have also received murder threats if Gus Dur is forced to step down," he said.

Meanwhile, Sri Sumaryati Haryanto, secretary-general of the legislative body, admitted that the IPU conference's expenditures had risen from the initially forecasted Rp 15 billion to Rp 21 billion because the House had to also pay for taxes required for the organization of the conference.

"We are ready to be audited and all expenditure during the IPU conference is accountable," she said. Edo Wasdi, the House's deputy-secretary general, said the rehabilitation project of the legislator housing complex was carried out in accordance with existing procedures.

"No financial leakage has happened in the project and the project's implementation has also been fully reported to the House's general affairs department (BURT)," he said.

Mega party clean-up

Straits Times - January 15, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Indonesia's Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to clean up her Indonesian Democratic Party-Perjuangan (PDI-P), amid allegations that corrupt MPs within its ranks sold their votes to rival parties in local polls across the country.

Angered by recent media reports detailing just how expensive the alleged vote-buying was, she took the unusual step of announcing the sacking of 28 PDI-P cadres on Saturday and warned that more heads would roll soon.

At a gathering of 3,900 legislators in Jakarta ahead of her party's 28th anniversary, she warned them against indulging in "money politics" or accepting bribes.

"Many are of the opinion that they are representing the public and not the party ... Upon listening to such reports, I have questioned some of them and wanted to slap their faces," she said. "They thought that they had gained their seats from the sky, not through the party."

Local legislators are not elected directly but are chosen by their party according to a complex representational system for each district.

In districts such as Central and East Java, as well as Sumatra, Ms Megawati's PDI-P swept into power in the 1999 national election and holds the majority of seats in local parliaments there. Yet it has consistently been losing local mayoral and regency elections in these areas.

For a party whose widespread appeal is based on its image as an honest break with the corrupt parties of the Suharto era, the corruption allegations circulating over the last year have been damaging. However, this is PDI-P's first attempt to stamp out the practice of money politics.

Kalimantan legislator Subagio Anam said Ms Megawati's firm stance against corrupt or unruly legislators had been prompted by media reports in local papers as well as foreign publications, including The Straits Times.

The reports highlighted how her party had been losing district and regional elections because PDI-P legislators had allegedly been bought off or refused to vote for candidates endorsed by Ms Megawati.

In East Java, one local PDI-P parliamentarian admitted he accepted 10 million rupiahs (S$190,000) as part of a 200-million-rupiah package to vote for a candidate from President Abdurrahman Wahid's Nation Awakening Party (PKB), Tempo magazine reported in an expose on corruption within the PDI-P.

In another district, PDI-P and PKB members reportedly accepted 100 million rupiahs each to elect a Muslim candidate as the Mayor of Mojokoerto. The candidate won despite his party holding a handful of seats in the legislature, where the PDI-P and PKB are in the majority.

Other candidates -- who also allegedly tried to bribe politicians but with smaller amounts of 70 million rupiah to 90 million rupiah -- were so angered by the failure of their efforts that they filed complaints with local police in an attempt to regain their money.

Mr Pramono Anung Wibowo, the PDI-P deputy secretary-general, said many party legislators would be discharged for "selling" their votes in the election of regents and mayors in Medan and North Lampung in Sumatra, as well as Semarang, Klaten and Sragen, all in Central Java.

Time to defend national unity: Indonesian VP

Agence France-Presse - January 14, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri Sunday told 100,000 supporters of her Indonesian Democracy Party- Struggle (PDIP) that national unity was at stake and called on them to defend its integrity, but without violence.

"PDIP should consolidate the party, to continue and safeguard the purity of reforms and prevent the disintegration of the nation and the state," Megawati said at a mass gathering to commemorate the party's 28th anniversary at the Senayan main sports stadium.

"There is one fundamental thing that should always be remembered and upheld together, that the unity of the state and the nation stands above all," she said.

Since the fall of the iron-fisted government of former president Suharto in May 1998, Indonesia has been experiencing rising separatism and communal violence in several provinces.

"In these last few years, we have been facing really heavy challenges which could possibly threaten our existence and future as a nation. We are in the phase of survival of the nation, the existence of our nation is currently being tested," Megawati said.

She said that the nation's problems were not the responsibility of a single group but of the whole nation. "I am calling on all components of the nation to safeguard the unity and cohesion of this free nation," she said.

She also said that the level of violence and terror experienced by the country in the recent past had now reached a dangerous level.

She cited the Christmas Eve bombings at churches and clergymen's homes across Indonesia that left 18 people killed. She called the bombings "crimes against humanity that cannot be justified by whatever reasons."

"Let us say, from now on, to say 'No' to any attempt at using violence and terror. Let us free this nation from the traps of violence and terror," she said. She called on party members and supporters to oppose violence.

PDIP was a splinter group of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) set up as a fusion of several nationalist and Christian parties in 1973.

It was a faction loyal to Megawati who was ousted from the PDI leadership in 1996, two years ahead of her term, by a government-orchestrated party congress.

The PDIP took on its present identity in February 1999, to differentiate it from the PDI which had been permitted by Suharto's hand-picked successor BJ Habibie to retain the name and also take part in the 1999 general elections.

Despite the PDIP gathering the largest number of legislative seats in the 1999 elections, Megawati was elected vice president, behind President Abdurrahman Wahid.

At the rally, Megawati lashed out at Wahid's critics whom she said had been quick to deride the young government's performance. "Transition is not an instant process. It is a very long process ... It demands political patience from us all," she said.

Without the patience and the willingness to work together, she warned that Indonesia could slip back into old authoritarian and repressive practices.

The anniversary celebration was also attended by Wahid, House Speaker Akbar Tanjung and Wahid's staunch critic, National Assembly Chairman Amien Rais.

Thousands had thronged the south Jakarta sports stadium, hours before the ceremony began, many coming from elsewhere in Java and from Sumatra. Outside, an equal number of people paraded on the main thoroughfare, reminiscent of the mass street rallies of the 1999 election campaign. More than 3,500 police, soldiers and PDIP security corps patrolled the area.

Regional conflicts

Four die in Malukus

South China Morning Post - January 20, 2001

Associated Press in Jakarta -- Four people have died in fresh violence in Indonesia's troubled Maluku islands, a Muslim cleric said on Saturday.

Soldiers on Saturday shot dead two Muslims travelling by speedboat across the harbour off the provincial capital Ambon, said Malik Selang from the city's Al-Fatah mosque. He said two more Muslims were also killed by security forces on Friday night. At least ten people were injured in both incidents, he said.

Military and government officials confirmed gunbattles had occurred but gave no further details. "We have witnesses to testify that the soldiers killed them [the four men] even though there was no rioting or unrest," Mr Selang said.

The violence comes less than 48 hours after the Indonesian military announced that the 17 battalions currently based in the province would be reduced to four by February.

The islands have been enjoying a period of relative calm. Government officials hope the violence, which has pitted Christians against Muslims since January 1999 and killed more than 5,000 people, has abated.

The region, 2,600km east of Jakarta, was known as the Spice Islands in colonial times. On Friday people from both faiths marked the second anniversary of the beginning of the clashes with services of commemoration.

Sectarian tensions in the area first erupted in 1950, when the Christians -- many with ties to the Dutch colonial administration -- proclaimed an independent Republic of the South Moluccas. The uprising was eventually crushed by Indonesian forces.

Up until two years ago the region of around 2 million people was held up as a model of communal harmony.

Meanwhile, in Irian Jaya province, a separatist leader imprisoned in Indonesia's troubled Irian Jaya province has been temporarily released from jail and admitted to a hospital, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Theys Eluay underwent an operation on Friday in the provincial capital Jayapura after suffering prostate gland and cardiovascular problems, Arum Siregar said.

Eluay and four other leaders of the separatist Papuan Presidium Council were arrested on December 1 ahead of pro-autonomy rallies. They have been charged with subversion, which carries a maximum 20 year prison sentence.

Siregar said Eluay was no longer in critical condition but may be flown to Jakarta for further treatment if doctors deem it necessary.

Police and army officers have been negotiating with rebels holding 17 people, including three South Koreans, captive in a remote corner of the province, security officials said.

Ambon paralyzed again with bombs, rumors

Jakarta Post - January 20, 2001

Ambon -- The Ambon capital of Maluku was paralyzed on Friday in the wake of the commemoration of start of the bloody conflicts that have gripped the Malukus for the last two years.

The situation was quiet in the morning, but about noon local time, an explosion rocked the area of Pohon Pule and Jalan Baru, close to Silo Church in downtown Ambon, which was gutted on December 26, 1999. Pohon Pule and Jalan Baru demarcates the border of Christian and Muslim areas.

No fatalities were reported in the incident, but terrified residents opted to stay home and roads were deserted as rumors of renewed rioting circulated across Ambon the past few days.

"We urge people to stay calm and not to engage in any activities that can instigate the gathering of crowds," Pattimura Military Commander Brig. Gen. I Made Yasa said on Thursday night.

Muslims were performing Friday prayer at the Al Fatah Grand Mosque at noon, while Christians were gathering at Maranatha Church in Sirimau district across from the gubernatorial office for afternoon mass in commemoration of the two years of violence.

Several other incidents recorded on Thursday left two people severely wounded from gunshot wounds.

Gunmen in a speed boat from the Yos Sudarso port at Waehaong area sprayed bullets at a passing vessel, Rafi, on the way from Galala port to Benteng. The shooting, which took place around 5 pm Thursday, wounded a crewman on the Rafi named Yongki Sahetapi, 25. The boat sought refuge at a floating marine post and the passengers transported safely to Benteng port.

At about 10am on Thursday in Suli village of Salahua district, Ambon island, a local named Paulus Suitela, 50, was shot in the forehead while walking to his plantation job. Both victims were treated at the Halong Naval Hospital, about seven kilometers east of Ambon.

On Friday, school and business activities were halted as most people went home early. Hundreds of commuters, however, were stranded in ports such as in the Nusaniwe port, the Galala ferry port in Sirimau district and the Yos Sudarso port, because water transportation operators halted their activities at 10am.

Meanwhile, security forces tightly guarded conflict-prone areas in Tanah Lapang Kecil, Batu Gantung, Pohon Pule, Trikora, Diponegoro, AY Patti, Karang Panjang and Ahuru, as well as Gala and Suli, and the border of Batu Merah-Mardika districts.

The bitter and bloody conflicts between two religious camps were triggered by a minor criminal incident at the border of Batu Merah and Mardika on Jan. 19, 1999, when a local public minivan driver got in a fierce dispute with a hoodlum migrant who tried to extort money.

The fray quickly degenerated into violent communal clashes that have continued for two years.

The driver, a local Christian named Yopie Leoharis, and the hoodlum, a Muslim named Nursalim, were both sentenced to three months in jail in a trial about four months after the incident.

Official reports indicate that the two-year sectarian conflicts have claimed no less than 5,000 lives and forced thousands to flee the archipelagic provinces. More than half of Ambon's 350,000 residents have fled their homes due to the continuing violence.

However, a prominent scholar handling Maluku conflict resolution claimed on Friday that no less than 8,000 people have died during the two years of violence.

"The five-year war in Bosnia left some 10,000 people killed but in the Malukus, within only two years 8,000 have died and 350,000 others have fled," sociologist Tamrin Amal Tomagola of the University of Indonesia said while addressing a special media briefing on Maluku in Jakarta.

He said that the number of Lasykar Jihad Muslim warriors in Maluku have decreased from some 6,000 to around 2,000 personnel due to financial shortages.

"The government should have taken further steps against Lasykar Jihad. They should realize that the group has slandered the government. I'm very concerned with the Lasykar Jihad commanders' preaching on the use of violence," Tamrin said as quoted by Antara.

"Meanwhile, Southeast Maluku is relatively free from conflicts since the locals rejected the arrival of outsiders," he added.

Tension escalates in Poso: Police

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2001

Makassar -- The South Sulawesi Police sent 300 personnel from its Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit to the restive regency of Poso in Central Sulawesi following an escalation in sectarian tension, South Sulawesi Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofyan Jacob said on Tuesday.

With the sending of the 300 personnel to Poso, 100 officers who have been posted there for six months would be recalled, Sofyan said.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post after leading the ceremony to mark the departure of the 300 personnel here, the police chief said that tension in the town of Poso had been intensified with sporadic violence reported.

Reports from Poso said on Wednesday that the situation in Poso had been worsening since early January.

Locals said that one night hundreds of masked people garbed in black intercepted a Kijang van with eight people in it heading toward Tentena, some 70 kilometers from Poso. The unidentified assailants said they were suspicious that the Kijang was carrying explosives. They let the people continue their journey after damaging the van.

Last week, a number of unidentified people stopped a public bus in Poso. They then vandalized the bus belonging to NV Haji Kalla before allowing the driver to proceed.

Another incident took place on January 15 when another group of people intercepted a speeding Kijang van, saying that the van was probably carrying bombs. The van was also damaged. No fatalities ensued from the incidents.

The latest violence took place on Tuesday when a man who was working with seven other men on a river project was shot by unidentified snipers.

Local police confirmed the report, saying that Ngardiman was shot in the chest by a handmade gun. The police did not identify the attackers.

The recent unrest has forced hundreds of Poso residents to seek refuge mostly in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi.

Conflicts between Christians and Muslims have rocked Poso for years. The feud started sometime in 1985, but serious attempts by the military and police to deal with the violence have been undertaken since the May 1999 outbreak of bloodletting which continued until early 2000. At least 300 people have been killed in the Poso sectarian conflicts.

At least two people were arrested for their involvement in the deadly riots. One of them, Cornelis Tibo is facing trial in Palu for masterminding the mayhem.

Police fire warning shots outside Sulawesi court

Associated Press - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- Police fired warning shots at stone throwing protesters outside a trial of three Christians accused of provoking bloody sectarian riots in central Indonesian, news reports said Thursday.

Two officers on duty at the district courthouse in Palu, central Sulawesi island, were injured in the incident, state news agency Antara said. Police dispersed the crowd which demanded the trio's ringleader, Fabiunus Tibo, be sentenced to death.

Earlier state prosecutors told the court how Tibo had led an attack on a Muslim boarding school last year.

At least 400 hundred people died on the island in fighting between Muslim and Christian gangs in May. Several villages were also destroyed. Palu is about 1,600 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.

Most of Indonesia's sectarian bloodshed has been in the eastern Moluccan islands where approximately 5,000 people of both faiths have been killed during the past two years.

Human rights/law

Court begins trial of BI governor

Jakarta Post - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- The Central Jakarta District Court commenced the trial of Bank Indonesia (Central Bank) governor Syahril Sabirin on Wednesday regarding his alleged involvement in the disbursement of Rp 904 billion (US$96.2 million) of Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) funds to Bank Bali.

Chief prosecutor Y.W. Mere said Syahril was responsible for endorsing the disbursement of IBRA's money to Bank Bali. He said Bank Indonesia and the Ministry of Finance had ruled that the loans to Bank Bali were not covered by the government's guarantee scheme.

"However, the defendant ordered one of his directors, Erman Munzir, between February 1999 and June 1999 to disburse the money to Bank Bali," Mere told the hearing, presided over by Judge Soebardi.

He also said that the funds were extended for the purpose of covering a loan that the now-defunct Bank BDNI had owed to Bank Bali, but was unable to repay at the time it was taken over by IBRA. It later became apparent that Rp 546 billion (US$58.8 million) of the money had been paid to factoring firm PT Era Giat Prima (EGP) as a "commission" for helping secure the repayment of loan installments.

"His action caused not only financial losses to the state, but also undermined public trust in the country's banking system," he said.

The prosecutor said Syahril had violated Article 1 of the 1971 law on corruption prohibiting the enrichment of oneself or others at the expense of the state. The Article carries a maximum punishment of a life prison sentence.

He also accused the defendant of having violated Article 55 of the Criminal Code for abusing authority and conspiring with others to commit a crime.

In response to the prosecutors' indictment, Judge Soebardi granted defendant Syahril permission to read out his personal statement contesting the indictment, despite the prosecutors' protests.

"I have never imagined being seated as a defendant, nor as a witness in this courtroom. Since my childhood I have always been careful in making decisions and taking steps so that I would not do anything wrong.

"But, this trial is a reality that I have to go through as a way to prove that I've done no wrong," Syahril said while reading out his personal statement.

He said the indictment was groundless as it had been prepared by the prosecutors upon speculative assumptions.

The defendant said Bank Indonesia issued the letter ordering the disbursement of the funds after receiving verification of Bank Bali's financial condition from IBRA. Furthermore, the verification, which was required to cover BDNI's loan as claimed by Bank Bali, would no longer be held by Bank Indonesia as BDNI has since been taken over by IBRA.

A team of seven lawyers, led by Muhammad Assegaf also read out their defense statement against the prosecutors' accusations.

Assegaf said the case was not a pure legal matter as it has arisen from President Abdurrahman Wahid's political motives to terminate Syahril as the central bank governor.

"Based on a recorded conversation between Syahril Sabirin and Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, it's obvious that the President had pressured the Attorney General to force Syahril to step down," he said. "This trial is a consequence of Syahril's rejection of the President's wishes," Assegaf told reporters after the hearing.

The prosecutors have also named former Bank Bali director Rudy Ramli, former Minister of Investment and State Enterprises Development Tanri Abeng, businessmen Setya Novanto, Firman Soetjahja and Irvan Gunardwi, and former Supreme Advisory Council chairman A.A. Baramuli, as other suspects in the case.

Meanwhile, businessman Djoko S. Tjandra and former IBRA deputy chairman Pande Nasorahona Lubis were acquitted of all charges related to the Bank Bali scandal in August and November last year.

The case drew public attention when it was learned that EGP was owned by people closely connected with a small group in the Golkar Party who were responsible for the reelection of then president B.J. Habibie, who eventually lost his bid to remain in power in October 1999.

Syahril, who has been detained by the Attorney General's Office for over five months, was installed by then president Soeharto as Bank Indonesia's governor in February 1998, replacing Soedradjad Djiwandono, who is also being questioned at the Office for his alleged involvement in the Government Liquidity Support Fund (BLBI) case.

Syahril was reappointed by Habibie when Bank Indonesia became an independent central bank.

President Abdurrahman Wahid has been demanding the resignation of Syahril since he took over the country's leadership late last year. Syahril has continued to disregard Abdurrahman's demands.

Presiding Judge Soebardi adjourned the hearing until next Wednesday, when the court will hear the prosecutors' counter statement against the defendant's personal statement and the defense lawyers' statement.

Indonesian author acquitted of Suharto slander

Agence France-Presse - January 17, 2001

Jakarta -- An Indonesian court has dismissed a case against an author charged seven years ago with insulting former president Suharto by suggesting that the former dictator masterminded a 1965 coup blamed on the then-Communist Party of Indonesia.

The Jakarta Post quoted South Jakarta District Court presiding judge Muchtar Ritonga as saying he agreed with a prosecution request to drop all charges against the 67-year-old author, Wimanjaya K. Liotohe.

"... there are no legal grounds for continuing with the case," Ritonga was quoted as telling the court Tuesday, adding that the book was published when there was no freedom of expression under Soeharto.

A ban of the book Prima Dosa (Prime Sins), a compilation of newspaper articles, was revoked by the Attorney General's office after Suharto's fall in 1998, which made the charges groundless, the prosecutor had argued.

Suharto had publicly announced that the book, written in 1993, was a personal affront to him as it suggested that he masterminded the 1965 coup attempt. It was banned in January of 1994. Two of the author's other books, Prima Duka (Prime Sorrows) and Prima Dusta (Prime Lies) -- also satirically critical of Suharto -- were banned in November 1997. Those bans too have been lifted.

Wimanjaya first went on trial in January of 1998, only months before Suharto's fall in May, facing six years in jail -- the maximum term for insulting the president.

The court put the case on hold, until it was reopened this month. "I am happy with the verdict, which reflects that there is now legal certainty in the country," Wimanjaya was quoted as saying.

In the wake of the 1965 coup, Suharto outlawed the Communist Party of Indonesia, then one of the world's largest, and all communist teachings.

He also presided over a bloody purge of communists which left at least 500,000 dead by official count and hundreds of thousands more jailed.

News & issues

Bombs at TMII provided by fugitive Tommy: Police

Jakarta Post - January 21, 2001

Jakarta -- Police said on Saturday a woman arrested at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) on Friday in the possession of three bombs admitted she received the bombs from Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the fugitive son of former president Soeharto.

They also said they had uncovered a number of clues that pointed to Tommy's possible involvement in the Christmas Eve bombings.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf said here the woman, 33-year-old Elize Maria Tuwahatu, alias Baby, revealed during marathon police questioning that she received the bombs from Tommy, who has been in hiding for three months.

"Based on our preliminary investigation, there are some similarities between the bombs [found in the possession of Elize] and those that exploded on Christmas Eve," Saleh said at National Police Headquarters.

Saleh said Elize admitted to meeting with Tommy on Jl. Cilacap in Central Jakarta on January 14. He said Elize, accompanied by an acquaintance, Lisa, arrived at the meeting in a Timor sedan and received the bombs and three checks for Rp 25 million (US$2,632) each from the billionaire businessman, who arrived in a Kijang van.

During police questioning, Elize said she cashed the checks at two separate banks the following day, Saleh said. The checks carried Tommy's name and signature, he added.

"At that time, Tommy's accounts had not yet been frozen. We will check with the banks on Monday." Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said on Friday all of Tommy's accounts at Indonesian banks had been frozen by the central bank.

Saleh said police also would investigate five cellular phone numbers belonging to Elize.

He said Elize's testimony had been crossed-checked with Lisa, who admitted to witnessing the meeting between Elize and Tommy.

Police said Elize was arrested on Friday as she was giving two plastic bags containing the three bombs to a man in Yogyakarta Hall at Taman Mini.

Police also took into custody Elize's mother Sonya and her driver following a raid on her house on Jl. Suwiryo in Menteng, Central Jakarta, near houses belonging to the Soeharto family.

During the raid, police seized firecrackers and documents that Saleh said might lead to an investigation into Tommy's possible involvement in the Christmas Eve bombings in seven cities, including Jakarta, that claimed at least 18 lives.

President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered Tommy's arrest for his alleged role in the bomb blast at the Jakarta Stock Exchange building in September of last year. Tommy denied he was involved in the bombing and was never arrested.

Saleh said Sonya acknowledged that her only daughter had a close relationship with Tommy, who has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for graft.

Besides Elize, who has been officially detained, police also declared Sonya a suspect and are investigating her for keeping the bombs in her house.

According to State Emergency Law No. 60/1951, the illegal possession of firearms, explosives and weapons carries a maximum punishment of death.

Saleh said the bombs seized at TMII resembled those used in the Christmas Eve attacks.

He said each of the three bombs seized on Friday were destined for three separate locations: the Attorney General's Office on Jl. Sisingamangaraja and the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Directorate General of Taxation on Jl. Gatot Subroto, all in South Jakarta.

According to the police investigation of the TMII bombs, one of the plastic bags contained seven sticks of dynamite weighing a total of 2.1 kilograms, a five-liter can of thinner, a switch, a dry cell, two detonators and 150 nails.

The other bag contained two packages. One contained eight sticks of dynamite, a can of thinner, a watch that functioned as a switch, a dry cell, a detonator and steel nails. The other contained two sticks of TNT, a watch that functioned as a switch and a dry cell.

A source close to an independent team investigating the Christmas Eve bombings said on Friday Elize bore a resemblance to a woman described by witnesses who is believed to have planted a bomb at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Matraman, East Jakarta.

Police have arrested six people in connection with these bomb attacks.

Saleh said the arrest of Elize was made based on information provided by a psychic identified as Ki Joko Bodo. "Ki Bodo is now in our protection. His information could help prevent future explosions that could kill many people," he said.

Police sources said Ki Bodo, a resident of Lubang Buaya, East Jakarta, was approached by Elize four days before her arrest. They said she offered him Rp 1 billion to plant the three bombs at the government offices.

Ki Bodo, who claims to be one of dozens of psychics used by Soeharto, told his friends, including a police officer, of Elize's offer. The police then sent a undercover officer to TMII to make "a deal" with Elize before her arrest.

Bombings after 1998 have not been resolved

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2001

Jakarta -- The political history of bombings in Indonesia took a sharp turn after the 1998 May riots, in which all of the cases involving bomb explosions have never been solved, the Indonesian Forum for Peace (FID) secretary Munir said on Thursday.

"While investigating the December 24, 2000 Christmas Eve bombings we studied the political history of bombings in the country," Munir told reporters on the sidelines of a discussion regarding the Aceh and Ambon conflicts.

"It turned out that bombings have taken place since 1971, but the cases have always been solved by the state, and the culprits were arrested," Munir said, adding that most of the explosives used during that period were traditional devices.

But after the May riots in 1998, none of the bombings were ever resolved, Munir said.

He said that after May 1998, the pattern changed. The explosives being used were far more sophisticated, targets more significant, and none of the culprits ever caught.

The December 24 Christmas Eve bombings in nine cities across the country killed 18 people and injured more than 100 others.

It is recorded that in the period after May 1998 there were six bombings, in 1999 nine bombings, and 20 more explosions occurred last year, he said.

"None of these cases were resolved. The authorities only captured the field operators, but never the mastermind. I wonder why the state is getting weaker in handling such acts of terrorism? Maybe there are political changes that must be observed," he said.

Munir said that FID never associated the names of nine generals with the Christmas Eve bombings. "Up until today we haven't found any connection with the bombings. We have received all information but it has to be clarified and carefully probed first. Most of those allegedly involved, however, are civilians."

He further stated that a dispute arising from President Abdurrahman Wahid's statement in Newsweek, which mentioned the names of two retired army generals, Hartono and Prabowo Subianto, "will only side to the favor of those military generals and others who are allegedly involved in the bombings".

"Public opinion about the dispute has already formed, believing that Gus Dur's statement was a blunder," Munir, who is also foundation chairman of the commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said.

The latest findings by FID on the Christmas bombings revealed that the explosives used in the incident are "very specific, unique and non-traditional, and come from limited sources", he said.

"Not all of the nine cities have a potential communal or religious sentiment, so this is not about such primordial conflicts. The arrested suspects, such as in Bandung and Medan, were not connected but they conducted organized, similar operations at the same time. So, basically, we have to find out who is organizing these field operators," Munir said.

Most of the captured suspects in relation to the Christmas bombings are only civilian field operators, he added.

Meanwhile in Bandung, 51-year-old Djua, the wife of Haji Aceng, a key suspect in the Christmas Eve bombing in Bandung, eventually met her husband for one hour, which ended at 6pm on Thursday.

The closed-door meeting took place at the office of West Java's deputy chief detective corps Adj. Sr. Comr. Tatang Somantri. Djua refused to talk to reporters and quickly left the building in a red Honda Civic sedan.

Journalists, however, were banned from seeing another suspects, named Iqbal, 40. "Both Aceng and Iqbal are physically okay but they are still in shock and too embarrassed to meet people," Tatang said.

Police to break into more sections of Tommy's residence

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2001

Jakarta -- In yet another desperate attempt to locate the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, police announced plans on Thursday to drill and break into at least three other spots in his house.

Despite having found nobody in the air-conditioned and well- furnished underground bunker in Tommy's house, police refused to eliminate the possibility that the fugitive, a billionaire businessman, could be hiding somewhere in or around Jl. Cendana in the leafy Menteng area of Central Jakarta, where Soeharto and his children live.

"Geo-radar detectors have indicated the existence of bunkers in an area of Tommy's house which police have marked as C-12. The new spots include the middle of the nursery, and one in front of a salon belonging to Tommy's wife," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf told reporters on Thursday.

Saleh added that geo-radar signals had also indicated the existence of passageways behind the walls and beneath the bunker. "Police will most likely break down the walls of the bunker. We have to check everything," Saleh told reporters.

There have been reports of interconnecting bunkers beneath the adjoining residences of the former first family.

The fact that fishing and automotive equipment mostly filled the 28 cupboards fixed to the walls of the bunker did not diminish the fact that the bunker could have been used by Tommy as a hiding place, Saleh said.

"So, Juan Felix Tampubolon [the Soeharto family lawyer] may call the bunker a rich man's cellar. But, that bunker could be used to hide and live comfortably by anyone's standards," Saleh added.

Among the toolkits, three bullet-proof vests were also found in the bunker.

Meanwhile, the National Police have issued separate police summons for both Juan Felix and Tommy's wife, Ardhia Pramesti "Tata" Regita Cahyani, to appear on Monday at city police headquarters for questioning as suspects in connection with having provided the police with misleading information.

"Both are scheduled to be questioned on Monday as suspects, for obstructing a police investigation. They lied to us, and gave us wrong information about the bunker," Saleh said.

He added that both would be questioned under Article 216 of the Criminal Code for obstructing the police from performing their duty, which carries a maximum jail term of four years and two months.

Tommy's family members and lawyers had been insisting for months that no bunker would be found in or around Jl. Cendana. Tommy's elder sister, Siti Hardijanti "Tutut" Indra Rukmana, had gone so far as to announce via the Soeharto family mouthpiece, Adj. Comr. Anton Tabah, former president Soeharto's bodyguard, that a reward of Rp 200 million would be given to anybody who could prove the bunker's existence.

When asked about this, Saleh said: "All of you [reporters] should immediately go now and remind her of her promise." "As for Anton, he has been dealt with separately by National Police Headquarters, and has been transferred from his present position as Soeharto's bodyguard to another division."

Separately, city administration spokesman Muhayat noted that no permit or license had ever been issued by the administration for any (underground) storage room when Tommy's home was being constructed.

"The owner never informed us of this. The administration could have issued a special license for a basement, which would function as a storeroom, but not a bunker," Muhayat told reporters at City Hall.

He said Tommy could be charged with violating City Bylaw No. 7/1991 on housing construction, which prohibits houses in the capital from having "secret rooms".

Chinese call on Gus Dur to lift unfair laws

Straits Times - January 17, 2001

Jakarta -- A group representing the Chinese community in Indonesia yesterday met Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to ask for help in removing discriminatory legislation against the ethnic group.

The delegation asked for an official watchdog body, which monitors the Chinese community, to be abolished. It also asked that a decree banning the importation of products with Chinese characters be revoked.

The group's spokesman, Mr Tan Swie Ling, said: "We believe that this body and many other decrees legitimise discrimination towards the Chinese minority in Indonesia."

Ethnic Chinese make up about 3.5 per cent of Indonesia's 203 million people. Their success in business and commerce has generated resentment among many indigenous Indonesians, and they are often targeted in riots.

According to Mr Tan, Mr Abdurrahman welcomed the group's demands and promised to take action.

'Generals not linked to bombings'

Straits Times - January 17, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Indonesian police yesterday denied reports that they were investigating the involvement of former army generals in the Christmas Eve bombings, linking the fatal attacks that killed 19 people instead to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The police also told a press briefing yesterday that they had so far arrested six more men linked to the explosions and the bombing attempts at church premises in nine cities on December 24, bringing the total number of suspects in police custody to eight.

The latest revelation came amid speculations that retired army officers were behind the explosions.

In an interview with Newsweek Magazine, President Abdurrahman Wahid said former special forces commander Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto had complained that he and former army chief General Hartono were under police investigation for the bomb attacks. The President commented that the police would have to prove the speculations.

But police spokesman Saleh Saaf said yesterday: "We have never mentioned anything about the two generals' involvement in the bombings." Furthermore, he said none of the eight suspects currently in police custody came from a military background.

The chief detective from the North Sumatra police force, Mr Iskandar Hasan, said the three men recently arrested in Medan, North Sumatra, were linked to GAM.

One of them, a car mechanic named Eddy, who is the alleged maker of 15 bombs found in the province, reportedly travelled regularly to Aceh and has previously been on the police search list for involvement in violence in Aceh, he added.

Two men arrested with him had allegedly delivered the bombs hidden inside cookie tins. Only one of the 15 bombs exploded on the night before Christmas, as the police managed to defuse the remaining 14.

Two other suspects, Aceng and Iqbal, were apprehended at 4.30 am in Brebes, Central Java, in a welding shop that was supposedly used to build the bombs. With the arrest of these two suspects, a total of four people have been arrested for alleged links to the Bandung explosion. Another one was still at large, said West Java Police Chief Detective Sardjono.

Four people died in the reportedly accidental explosion in the welding shop in Bandung. In Jakarta, a man was arrested after the police found some bomb-making materials at his home. Mr Saleh said police have found links between the Medan and Bandung suspects.

He said Eddy was found after the police traced his number through the phone of one of the suspects who died in the Bandung explosion. "At his home, we found materials to make explosives, and Eddy admitted that he had bought those items from stores in Medan to construct bombs," he said.

"He admitted that he had been paid 159 million rupiah to make those bombs by a person with the initials P.O.," Mr Saleh added. Eddy was paid the equivalent of S$28,620. P.O. and three other unidentified suspects of Medan bombings are still at large, Mr Saleh said.

Meanwhile, Presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar said yesterday Mr Abdurrahman had never "alleged the two once-powerful generals of masterminding the bombings". "He was only commenting on the reports of what has long been public speculations," he explained.

Arms/armed forces

Army's Special Force to be reorganized

Jakarta Post - January 19, 2001

Jakarta -- The Army's Special Force (Kopassus) will be reorganized to meet the demands of security environment in the future, a senior military officer said on Thursday.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said the elite force would slim its organization and decrease the number of its personnel as well.

"This reorganization will make Kopassus a more effective force," Endriartono told to the press after being inducted as an honorary member of the elite force at the Kopassus headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta.

He dismissed speculation that the reorganization plan was the result of intervention by other countries. "No, it's not true. The decision came purely from Army Headquarters," he said.

The Army chief was accompanied in the media briefing by Kopassus chief Maj. Gen. Amirul Isnaini and the Kopassus group commanders.

With the reorganization, Endriartono said, the 7,000 Kopassus personnel which are distributed in five groups will be reduced to only 5,000 in three groups. "The remaining 2,000 personnel will be transferred to other forces in the Army," he said.

The Army chief said the reorganization was based on the Army's prediction that in the next 10 years to 15 years, the country would face greater domestic security threats rather than regional ones.

"Domestic security affairs are the responsibility of the police. Meanwhile, Kopassus, as a special force, will only dispatch its troops when other forces can not handle the security situation, or when the target of an operation is very strategic and difficult to execute," Endriartono said.

He said the reorganization concept for the elite force had been completed at the Army headquarters level. "We are now waiting for the approval of the Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters," Endriartono said.

In 1996, the elite force was expanded from four groups to five groups. Group I, located in Serang, Banten province and Group II, located in Kartosuro, near Surakarta, Central Java comprise combat troops. Group III in Batujajar, Bandung, West Java, is responsible for education and training. Groups IV and V, located in Cijantung, East Jakarta, are responsible for intelligence and anti-terrorist operations, respectively. The 1996 reorganization also promoted the Kopassus chief from brigadier general to major general.

"The new Kopassus structure will include two combat groups, one intelligence group, a smaller anti-terrorism unit and a Kopassus Training Center" Endriartono said.

He said Kopassus' Combat Group I and Group II would be located in Serang and Kartosuro, respectively, while the intelligence Group III will be located in Cijantung.

The new Anti-Terrorism Unit, to be situated in Cijantung, will report directly to the Kopassus chief, while the Kopassus Training Center will be situated in Batujajar.

Endriartono said that due to the special tasks of Kopassus, Army leaders had decided the rank of the Kopassus chief would remain a major general.

Democratic reforms stall as generals stage comeback

Associated Press - January 18, 2001

Jakarta -- The generals are back. With civilian leaders mired in political infighting and unable to tackle Indonesia's mounting crises, the army brass -- on the defensive since the ouster of the dictatorship it backed for 32 years -- is reasserting its dominance in the country's politics.

Some even speculate that army officers were behind a string of deadly bombings across the country on Christmas Eve, which President Abdurrahman Wahid labeled an attempt to destabilize the government by inciting Muslim-Christian clashes.

With support from lawmakers, army commanders have blocked Wahid -- the country's first elected president in 45 years -- from implementing democratic reforms, including asserting civilian supremacy over the armed forces.

"It turns out that Wahid's reforms were an illusion," said Julia Suryakusuma, an Indonesian political analyst. "All they managed to do was to melt the tip of the iceberg, but the rest of it has remained unaffected." During his decades in power, ex-President Suharto -- himself a five-star army general -- used the army to crush any opposition. In return, it got a free hand to build a commercial empire that reaches into every sector of the economy.

But when Suharto fell amid pro-democracy protests, the army was on the defensive because of revelations of its widespread human rights abuses and its role in the destruction of East Timor after the province's people voted for independence in a UN referendum.

Early in his administration, Wahid seized on the army's troubles and appointed the first civilian defense minister in decades. He angered traditionalists by reducing army dominance over other branches of the military and promoting navy and air force officers to top posts previously reserved for army generals.

He also sacked the powerful security minister, Gen. Wiranto, Suharto's old military chief, on suspicion of involvement in East Timor's destruction, and had the national police removed from the army chain of command. But 14 months into his term, Wahid is struggling to maintain his grip on power.

On Wedneday police fired warning shots and tear gas at some 3,000 people demonstrating outside parliament to demand his ouster, and tensions have arisen between Wahid and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He has also failed to revive Indonesia's moribund economy or to stem bloody separatist uprisings, and his government is bogged down in political scandals. Critics accuse the president -- who is 60 and half-blind -- of indecisiveness and erratic behavior.

Amid such uncertainty the generals have begun to claw their way back into the forefront of politics through a loose alliance of anti-reform groups.

According to foreign diplomats -- who spoke on condition of anonymity -- these include sections of Megawati's political party, Suharto's former ruling party, and some Muslim groups. Possibly illustrating the improving ties, Megawati has started wearing uniforms at military functions.

"Senior officers are tired and disappointed with [Wahid]," said Salim Said, a prominent political analyst close to the military. "They were expecting strong leadership, but now, with all the problems, they have had enough and they would like another leader -- a new patron for the armed forces." The army, which appears to be ignoring orders from the Wahid-appointed armed forces commander, navy Adm. Widodo Adi Sutjipto, has been demanding that his position revert to the army in the future.

The army traditionally regarded itself as the guardian of Indonesia's unity. It easily defeated efforts last August to remove it from Indonesia's 450-member legislature, where it retains 38 seats.

Perhaps most telling among the evidence of the army's resurgent power is that the prosecution of generals accused of human rights violations -- including Wiranto -- has all but ground to a halt.

Speculation in the media pointed to some military elements as responsible for the Christmas bombings, noting only the military had the logistics to carry off attacks in nine cities on one day. Eighteen people were killed in the blasts.

Despite their increasing assertiveness, however, army hard-liners have not consolidated their hold on the military.

Analysts say many generals remain undecided and air force and navy commanders are increasingly resisting the old guard. According to a senior military intelligence officer who declined to be identified, the army command is split into three factions. Two want to keep the army meddling in politics to a greater or lesser extent, and a third -- the smallest faction -- is made up of true reformers.

Salim confirmed that the power struggle pitted "status quo" forces against a smaller reformist faction, with the rest of the officer corps waiting to see who would prevail. "As usual," he said, "the majority are people in the middle, the opportunists."

International solidarity

Protesters demand Canberra end military links

South China Morning Post - January 20, 2001

Associated Press in Sydney -- Protesters seeking independence for the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh called on Saturday for Australia to cut military links with Jakarta to protest alleged human rights abuses.

More than 100 pro-independence demonstrators made the demand at a protest outside the Australian Department of Defence in downtown Sydney.

Student activist Kautsar, visiting from the province, said reports of religious and racial infighting in the region were false. "In Aceh it is a conflict between the people and the Indonesian government ... not an ethnic and religious conflict -- that is a lie," said Mr Kautsar, who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

Protest organiser Muhammad Dahlan said the Australian government needed to send a clear message to Jakarta, which he accused of orchestrating a campaign of human rights abuses by the Indonesian military in Aceh. The Australian government did not immediately react to the protest.

International relations

US seeks Australian lead on Indonesia

The Age - January 19, 2001

Gay Alcorn, Washington -- The new Bush administration wants Australia to take the lead in dealing with Indonesia's problems of violence and political instability, according to incoming secretary of state Colin Powell.

The former general's remarks about the importance of the Australia-US alliance delighted Australian officials in Washington, but they are likely to anger Indonesia, which already resents Australia's role in the region.

Australian officials interpreted Mr Powell's comments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as meaning the Bush administration would rely on Australian advice and intelligence about Indonesia, rather than indicating any US ignorance of Canberra-Jakarta difficulties or suggesting a reduction in US involvement in Indonesia.

Mr Powell left unclarified whether his remarks meant that Australia should deputise for the US in its relations with Indonesia, a position Indonesia would resist strongly.

Mr Powell and President-elect George W. Bush have emphasised that regional allies must take greater responsibility for regional problems. Mr Powell's comments could create new problems for Australian diplomats working in the hypersensitive political environment of Jakarta.

There was no immediate official reaction in Jakarta, but Indonesian political commentator Salim Said gave a taste of the reception that Mr Powell's comments may get in the political elite circles.

"I think this will not be positive because this will put Australia in a stronger position, vis-a-vis Indonesia, whereas we need an equal partnership," said Professor Said, a political scientist at the University of Indonesia. "It makes it hard to repair the bad relations [that] have been going on for many, many months."

Under the so-called "Powell doctrine", US troops should only be used swiftly and decisively for clear national interest goals, rather than for incremental strategies or for humanitarian missions. There was no clear indication from Mr Powell about when humanitarian intervention would be justified.

"We need friends and allies to help us as we look at the security challenges in the new century. In the Pacific, for example, we are very, very pleased that Australia, our firm ally, has played a keen interest in what's been happening in Indonesia," Mr Powell told the Senate committee.

"And so we will coordinate our policies, but let our ally, Australia, take the lead as they have done so well in that troubled country. "

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would provide advice and guidance to the United States about Indonesia. Mr Downer said Australia had long wanted the US to understand the importance of Indonesia and to develop a strategic policy. But Mr Downer said he did not believe Mr Powell was pre-empting a stronger role for Australia in Pacific defence.

Mr Powell acknowledged the concern about the future of Indonesia, saying it was a hugely important country that needed careful attention from the new administration.

Mr Powell said that if countries such as Australia had "direct interest" in local problems such as East Timor, then America "can just give them support, help them, give them financial support, provide whatever logistic support they need ... rather than America feeling it has to respond to every 911 [emergency] call that's out there".

The Australian Government at the time criticised the Clinton administration for its initial reluctance to get involved in East Timor and later for not providing troops.

Mr Powell was questioned on why in March, 1999, he supported military sales to Indonesia, later scuttled because Congress was concerned about human rights abuses, particularly in East Timor.

He said that at the time he thought it was a "reasonable sale to make. And I did not directly relate it to the circumstances in East Timor ... every nation has the right of legitimate self- defence, and if they don't buy it from us, they have many other sources".

Economy & investment

Jakarta privatisation a flop, says ex-minister

Straits Times - January 19, 2001

Shefali Rekhi -- The man behind the reforms and privatisation efforts of Indonesia's state-owned enterprises has criticised his government for the slow progress in its privatisation process.

Mr Tanri Abeng, who left office as the Minister for State-Owned enterprises in October last year, said: "There has been no privatisation at all since I left, not a single new inflow since then. Politics has derailed the privatisation programme completely and today it is a total failure," he said.

Mr Abeng, who is now busy setting up a new Global Leadership Institute in Bali, was discussing this and other issues in an interview with The Straits Times yesterday. He is in Singapore on a three-day visit to promote his third book, entitled Indonesia Inc.

He said that if the original programme had been followed through, the Indonesian economy would have been in a better shape with inflows of about US$4 billion to US$5 billion. Instead, total inflows between March 1998 and October 1999 -- when he was in charge -- were only worth about US$1 billion, he said..

The number of state-owned firms experiencing some reforms was limited to five against 159 in the country, he said.

"It is damaging the Indonesian economy while the state-owned enterprises continue to be inefficient," he said. "There is no generation of fresh capital, no contribution for fiscal deficit. And worse, instead of moving forward the government is moving backward."

Elaborating, Mr Abeng said the new ministry created for handling the privatisation during his time had been disbanded and the portfolio brought under the Ministry of Finance.

In a short span of three years, three new ministers had been appointed to the post. Similarly, the team of professionals nominated to handle the privatisation had been changed thrice.

He felt greater damage was being done by the absence of a move to regroup the 159 companies into 10 strategic sectors to build on their synergies and enhance their competitiveness. This was a key recommendation made by his team.

He, however, admitted he too was to blame in part for the current state of affairs. He said: "I was doing the privatisation in a very business-like way. I did not manage the political issues well." Analysts, however, believe that his privatisation programme suffered from discrepancies as well.

In his book, published by Times Publishing and to be officially launched in Indonesia later, he discusses at length his country's experiment thus far with the privatisation process and suggests corrective measures. It was to set the record straight, with a hope that someone would take note, he said.