Democratic struggle

Student groups trade slurs on planned rally

Jakarta Post - March 11, 2001

Jakarta -- Student groups traded accusations on Saturday of being used by the political elite ahead of the massive antigovernment rally planned on Monday.

The Forum for Action of Reform and Democracy (Famred) and the City Forum (Forkot), two student groups in Jakarta, accused Student Executive Boards (BEM) of several universities in Java and Sumatra of being used by the political elite as a political vehicle to topple President Abdurrahman Wahid.

"BEM's antigovernment demonstrations and its political support for the present move to topple the President is strong evidence that the students have been used by certain groups in the political elite to fight for their interests," said Adian Napitupulu, chairman of Forkot, in a discussion on student' movements here.

Conversely, Sigit Adi Prasetya, chairman of ITB's BEM, accused Famred and Forkot of being behind the President because they declined to fight against the rampant corruption in the present regime. "If they are consistent with the moral movement of the students they should also oppose the corrupt government," he said.

Napitupulu said the antigovernment movement launched by students from the University of Indonesia, Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and many private universities and institutes has been contaminated by vested interests of the political elite.

"Students grouped in the Student Executive Board should fight for truth and justice and take the people's side, instead of the political elite," he said, citing that many students from Forkot have been jailed and suffered injuries in fighting for the peoples' interests, especially justice seekers, workers and the poor.

Famred concurred, saying that the Golkar Party, the main supporter of the former New Order regime, should be held responsible for the political instability, the stagnant reform and the absence of the supremacy of the law.

"We call on all citizens to set up a revolutionary court to dissolve Golkar and try its figures who committed numerous sins during the New Order era," Anton, chairman of Famred, said in the meeting.

Adian and Anton opposed BEM's plan for a mass rally because such an action would deepen the divide among students. "The mass demonstration will benefit Amien Rais and his group and create a deep divide between the students and the people and such action will not win the support of the public," said Adian.

Yet, Taufik Riyadi, chairman of University of Indonesia's BEM, insisted that BEMs would go ahead with their planned rally on Monday. He claimed around 200,000 students would stage a demonstration near the presidential palace.

BEMs will also take advantage of the rally to protest against the government's plan to gradually increase fuel prices, starting April 1. Details of the price hike will be announced on Monday.

Meanwhile, the planned demonstration has sparked mixed reactions.

Sukadi, a bus driver of PPD bus company told The Jakarta Post that all drivers from the company support the students' call to oppose the government's plan to increase the fuel price.

"We have been told to park all buses from our 14 depots in front of the office of Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications on Jl. Merdeka Barat on Monday," Sukadi said.

Anisah, a state senior high school student at Bukit Duri, Manggarai district, South Jakarta said students at her school would join the rally.

Zulkarnaen, a teacher at a private high school in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, also supported the rally. "I cried and thanked God when Gus Dur was elected president, but months later my feelings changed toward him since he could not control his statements," he said.

Chairman of Indonesian Islamic Boarding School Cooperative Body (BKS-PP) KH Cholil Ridwan also supported the students' campaign. "As long as it is without violence, I support them," he told the Post.

Labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan, however, called upon workers on Friday to shun the students' call to strike because this would crumble the industry, which would make the workers themselves suffer.

Students call for mass strike against Gus Dur

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- Some 1,000 activists grouped in the University of Indonesia Student Executive Body (BEM-UI) began a campaign on Friday for a general strike on Monday to put pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, to resign.

In their motorcade from the UI campus in Depok, West Java to the university's old campus in Salemba, Central Jakarta, the students distributed leaflets urging students from other universities, school students, lecturers, teachers, professionals, ulemas, workers, farmers, drivers, parents, political observers, public figures and non-governmental organization activists to join the strike.

BEM-UI chairman Taufik Riyadi said the citywide campaign would last until Monday, with a huge rally against the fuel price hike in front of Merdeka Palace capping the three-day move.

"We have seen Gus Dur's government plunging to its lowest ebb in terms of effectiveness. That's why we are inviting all elements in society to join hands in demanding that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign." Taufik said on Friday.

He said the student movement would remain a moral force and eschew pursuing political interests. "We don't care who the next president is since we will always position ourselves in opposition to the government," he asserted.

He said that even if Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri took over, the BEM-UI would remain critical for the sake of reform. "A transfer of power does not necessarily guarantee that reform will be upheld," he said. He further asserted that the BEM-UI had yet to identify the right figure to replace Gus Dur as most politicians were prone to lying.

If the plan goes as expected, some public figures will join thousands of students in Monday's rally and strike. Taufik did not identify the figures.

The protesters, Taufik said, would march to the House of Representatives after the demonstration in front of the palace. Taufik said, however, that he would reconsider the plan if the people gave the students a cold shoulder.

Noted labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan told the Jakarta Post that he opposed the planned strike and had asked workers to shun the students' call. "A strike will only cause industry to crumble and it is the workers who will suffer," Muchtar, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union, asserted.

He said Gus Dur did not deserve the blame and his ouster would not solve the crisis facing the nation. "It is the MPR who should be held responsible. What is wrong is the presidential election process employed by the MPR," he said, referring to the 700- member People's Consultative Assembly.

Muchtar suggested that the country bring forward the general election in order to resolve the protracted crisis.

Separately, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council Amidhan said he could accept the strike as long as it was aimed at saving the nation. He said the bloodshed in Sampit and Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan was another sign of the serious disease the nation was suffering from that urgently needed a remedy. "I still believe the students represent the interests of the people," he said.

Acting governor Djailani said on Friday that the city administration had made preparations for the planned strike. "We have consulted with the City Land Transportation Agency [DLLAJ] and security authorities in order to prepare for the strike," Djailani, who is also Deputy Governor for Social Welfare Affairs, told reporters.

He called on all city administration employees to work on Monday as extra buses, including some supplied by the military, had been prepared in case public transportation drivers joined the strike. He also asked the Ministry of National Education's Jakarta office to call on junior and senior high school students to attend school as normal.

DLLAJ head Buyung Atang also called on bus operators to operate on Monday, although he failed to announce any measures to be taken against those who participated in the strike. "It's only a moral sanction. The strike is pointless as it will only cause problems for the ordinary man in the street," Buyung said.

He claimed that the owner of the Mayasari bus company, Mahfud, had pledged to keep his 750 buses operating next week. Other bus operators, such as state-run bus firm PPD, had also followed suit.

He said that police officers would be deployed at bus stations to prevent students from obstructing buses. There are currently some 2,000 buses operating on the city's streets.

Students move in on Golkar's Jakarta offices

Detik - March 5, 2001

Djoko Tjiptono/Hendra & GB, Jakarta -- Students grouped in the Golkar Disbursement Alliance (ABG) wanted to take over the Jakarta offices of the Golkar Party but apparently have not been successful. Around 100 security officers from the Jakarta city police are on alert at the site. Head of the Jakarta city police, Inspector General Mulyono Sulaiman, is there too.

ABG, an alliance of student groups, moved from the University of Indonesia in Salemba to the Golkar Party's offices on Jl Pegangsaan Barat, Central Jakarta, Friday. The ABG groups are: the People's Network, Students Action Front for Reform and Democracy (Famred), City Forum (Forkot), National Democratic Student League (LMND), All-Indonesia Forum and University of Indonesia Students' Action Front.

As observed by Detik, several people in the vicinity of the site in civilian clothes also looked to be safeguarding it. "Well, go ahead if they want to guard it.

That's because they think this is their place which must be defended. We as the police are here just to help safeguard by preventing violence," said Mulyono to journalists in front of the office.

Mulyono also said the demonstration had been caused by the tension within the political elite. "It effects the masses as well as the police's duties. In fact the police have many other duties besides overseeing demonstrations," he said.

Meanwhile, the situation around the Golkar Party offices at 4.45pm local time is relatively calm. It appears the ABG will not be successful in `claiming' or sealing off the offices as student groups were in Yogyakarta, central Java, earlier in the week.

Calls are rising for the Golkar Party which dominated Indonesian politics under former president Suharto be disbursed for it's political and economic crimes. The driving force of this movement are students.

Gus Dur supporters hit the streets

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2001

Purwokerto -- Some 200 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid from Banyumas took to the streets here on Tuesday, burning the Golkar Party flag.

The President's supporters also demanded House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais stop their efforts to unseat Abdurrahman.

"We call on the two politicians to take our demand into consideration for the sake of the nation," Muchson, one of the protesters, said.

According to Muchson, the protesters were prepared to go to Jakarta to defend the President if Amien and Akbar continued in their efforts to topple Abdurrahman.

"As long as Golkar members are in the administration, things will remain chaotic," Muchson said.

According to sources, Abdurrahman's supporters plan to hold more rallies on Wednesday.

East Timor

Renegade party denies plot to kill Gusmao

Sydney Morning Herald - March 10, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili -- A small political party that claims allegiance to East Timor's first short-lived independent government has emerged as a thorn in the side of the United Nations administration and the country's main political grouping.

The party gained international attention this week with allegations that members were linked to a plot to assassinate independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao -- allegations yet to be substantiated and which the party strongly denies.

While it is difficult to gauge its support, the RDTL party has sought to exploit widespread local disenchantment, particularly among the young, with the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

The RDTL is the Portuguese acronym for the Democratic Republic of East Timor, proclaimed by the Fretilin party on November 28, 1975, nine days before the Indonesian invasion.

In recent months it has emerged as a major irritant of the UNTAET and the main pro-independence grouping, the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), which RDTL refuses to join.

"Our aim is to defend the republic," said Mr Cristiano da Costa, a senior RDTL official. "My point of view is the November 28 proclamation is still legitimate. We have a serious disagreement with the CNRT on policy matters."

Mr da Costa, who holds a political science degree from the University of NSW, strongly rejected CNRT allegations that the party has links to pro-Indonesian sources and plotted Mr Gusmao's assassination. Instead, he accused Mr Gusmao of seeking to discredit the party because he sees it as a political threat.

"These allegations and accusations launched by CNRT and other leaders are a complete manipulation of the facts. I do not have any relations with Indonesian generals -- if I do, please name them," he said. He said he was jailed and beaten by Indonesian forces in the 1980s.

Mr da Costa said UNTAET was a destabilising influence that had failed to address pressing social issues, including widespread youth unemployment.

RDTL has won strong youth support for its opposition to the demobilisation of the Falintil guerilla force and its transformation into the East Timor Defence Force.

This opposition is recognised by Mr Gusmao, who on Wednesday attended a meeting of students in Dili to explain why East Timor no longer needed a guerilla resistance but a regular defence force recognised by the international community. It was at the meeting that three RDTL activists were arrested, amid allegations of a plot to kill Mr Gusmao.

UN police are yet to press conspiracy charges against the three, who were scheduled to appear in court on lesser charges yesterday.

East Timor militia supporters burn US flag

Associated Press - March 8, 2001

Jakarta -- Around 50 supporters of East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres burned an American flag outside the US embassy in Indonesia Thursday to protest Washington's alleged meddling Indonesia's internal affairs.

The demonstrators claimed the US was behind moves by the UN administration in East Timor to prosecute Indonesians alleged to have been involved in the 1999 violence in the territory.

Earlier Thursday, a Jakarta court continued hearing arguments in the trial of Guterres on weapons charges.

The militia commander is accused of ordering his followers last year to take back weapons they had surrendered to police in Indonesian-controlled West Timor as part of a disarmament program.

East Timorese militiamen, aided by parts of the Indonesian military, destroyed much of East Timor in September 1999 after the territory voted in a UN-organized ballot to break free of Indonesian rule.

Guterres is wanted by East Timor's UN administration on charges arising from the those events, but the Indonesian government has refused to extradite him.

Pro-Jakarta link to East Timor violence

Straits Times - March 10, 2001

Dili -- The UN mission chief in East Timor yesterday blamed agitators with links to Indonesia for the recent violence in the capital of Dili and the second-largest city of Baucau.

Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello said "well-known" agitators were responsible for Wednesday's alleged attempt on the life of independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and the subsequent mob violence.

Three members of the small Democratic Republic of East Timor Party were arrested in Dili on Wednesday by international police, who said that they had been tipped off that the men would attempt to kill Mr Gusmao.

The UN has accused hardline elements within the Indonesian army before of trying to destabilise the nascent nation.

'Rambo' Diggers annoy other soldiers

South China Morning Post - March 8, 2001

Roger Maynard, Sydney -- Australian troops in the multi-national peacekeeping force which was sent to East Timor 18 months ago were too aggressive, often impossible to comprehend and annoyed other soldiers by wearing dark sunglasses while on duty, a survey has found.

The occasionally damning report of the Australian military's behaviour since it arrived in the former Indonesian province paints a picture of a fiercely Australia-centric force which annoyed soldiers from other countries with an "overt display of firepower" and insensitivity to the cultural norms of men from other nations.

While acknowledging the success of the Australia-led mission, the report, by Dr Alan Ryan, a research fellow at the Land Warfare Studies Centre in Canberra, reveals a diversity of views and tensions within the multi-national force and a wide variety of teething problems.

Fast-talking Australian officers left many Asian troops -- even those with a good command of English -- often confused about their role and what they were supposed to do.

But language problems were only the tip of iceberg. And it wasn't only the Asians who were annoyed. Even the English-speaking New Zealanders, Australia's closest allies, found the Diggers a bit too much, particularly when it came to the way they dominated the proceedings.

"Ninety per cent of the time I thought, you've done marvellously well, and then 10 per cent of the time I got really frustrated with the Australia-centric view," Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wheeler, from New Zealand, told the survey.

"Everyone knows that this is Australian-led and you don't need to reinforce that," Colonel Wheeler said.

The Australians were also accused of being unnecessarily aggressive. Thai soldiers said they were unhappy with the overt display of firepower, the use of armoured personnel carriers and troops carrying weapons loaded and ready to fire.

Dr Ryan said the Thais were also upset at the use of dark sunglasses by Australian troops when they were on duty. "Their own cultural norms dictated that when working with people it was important to show eye contact," he explained.

Harassment halts bid to move East Timorese from West Timor

Associated Press - March 8, 2001

Geneva -- An ambitious drive to repatriate tens of thousands of East Timorese from West Timor has ground to a halt because of blatant intimidation of the refugees by Indonesian-backed militias, an aid agency has said.

The International Organisation for Migration said the inability of the Indonesian authorities to control the militias and provide security guarantees also thwarted hopes of aid agencies returning to West Timor.

"We're stuck, absolutely stuck," said spokesman Jean- Philippe Chauzy.

He said it looked increasingly like the only solution to end the militia stranglehold would be to mount a massive operation to close the camps.

This would need UN Security Council approval and full cooperation from the Indonesian army. An estimated 80,000 refugees remain in West Timor.

Last Friday, the migration organisation and UN High Commissioner for Refugees launched their biggest repatriation programme for the past year, shipping nearly 500 refugees out of the West Timorese port of Kupang.

But hopes turned to frustration. A militia leader, Elizariou Perreira, stood by the gangway with a list of refugees, said Mr Chauzy.

Modest beginnings for East Timor's justice system

New York Times - March 4, 2001

Seth Mydans, Dili -- Judge Maria Natircia Perreira set her face in a judicial frown and studied the nine scruffy men lined up below her in the dock, she herself once a victim but now ready to hear evidence in East Timor's first case of crimes against humanity.

Standing shoulder to shoulder in their sandals and T-shirts, the men shifted uneasily in the hot and nearly empty courtroom. Members of a group called the Alpha Militia, they are accused of a series of killings, abductions, forced deportations and instances of torture committed in 1999, the year East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia.

In the most serious incident, they are charged with shooting and hacking to death two nuns, three seminarians and four civilians who were traveling by car near the eastern city of Los Palos.

According to the indictment and to independent investigators of the events of 1999, their actions were part of a campaign of violence organized by the Indonesian military that was intended, first, to derail the independence vote and then, when that failed, to lay waste to East Timor.

Now, as the new nation struggles to its feet under a United Nations administration, it is simultaneously creating a new court system with novice judges and lawyers and using that fledgeling system to try to address its recent trauma.

Mrs. Perreira, 31, a former civil servant, knows the story first-hand. Like hundreds of thousands of East Timorese, she lost her home to arson, was threatened with death by armed men and was deported, with her five children, into a militia-controlled camp in the Indonesian territory of West Timor.

One of the few East Timorese with a law degree, she has now joined two more experienced judges, from Italy and Burundi, on the three-judge panel that will hear the most serious cases from that period.

Like other Timorese being trained here, she has dedicated herself to the country's new system of justice, with its rights and protections and rules of fairness. But like others -- both prosecutors and defense lawyers -- she speaks passionately about the inherent unfairness of these trials.

"As a judge, it's my duty to enforce the law," she said. "Every individual must be responsible for his crimes. But speaking as a Timorese and not as a judge, I think this system is not fair. Is it fair to prosecute the small Timorese and not the big ones who gave them orders? Personally, I'm worried about this."

The big Timorese -- the militia leaders -- remain beyond the reach of the law, in hiding in West Timor. And at a still higher level, the Indonesian officers who recruited, trained and commanded the militias are safe at home, some of them already rewarded and promoted to higher ranks.

"The problem is, we've got the judicial process but not the perpetrators," said Patrick Burgess, director of the human rights unit in the United Nations administration here. "In Indonesia, they've got the perpetrators but not the process."

Despite an agreement signed last year to exchange defendants and witnesses between their separate court systems, analysts here are all but unanimous in saying that no Indonesian is likely ever to be sent to court in East Timor.

Indeed, in the Alpha Militia case, the man accused of giving the orders, Lt. Syaful Anwar, is an Indonesian army officer -- the only defendant who is not present. "The Indonesians tell us they can't find him, they don't know his whereabouts, they don't know his address," Mrs. Perrera said.

Prospects for justice seem even more dim within Indonesia itself. The government has promised to carry out its own trials in an effort to avert formation by the United Nations of an international tribunal. But after issuing a damning report one year ago that implicated a score of senior officers and officials, Indonesia has done little to move toward trials. Analysts say it is now highly unlikely that any high ranking figures will face justice there.

"The United Nations line is that we'll wait and see, give Indonesia an opportunity to prove that they can undertake a credible prosecution," Mr. Burgess said. "So we are still waiting. It's certainly an issue of how long we wait until we decide whether that process is credible or not."

Most experts are already convinced that justice in Indonesia is a lost cause. "We are a long way from real justice, either in Jakarta or in Dili," said Sidney Jones, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch in New York. "Certainly in Jakarta the process is totally and utterly stalled. We think people should start thinking again about an international tribunal, simply because the Jakarta process is at such a dead end."

But time is probably on Indonesia's side as world attention moves elsewhere. And analysts say the United Nations Security Council is in any case unlikely to create a tribunal, given strong objections by Russia and China, which may fear similar probes into their actions in Chechnya and Tibet.

And so the tiny courthouse in Dili -- with its ill-prepared staff, its shortage of translators, its missing records, its lack of a court reporter or copy machine, its confused schedule and its inadequate budget -- is for the moment the sole venue for justice for this ravaged country.

Prosecutors misplace their indictments, the police misplace defendants who are free on bail and cases recess in midstream when foreign judges break for vacations. No money has been allocated to house and support witnesses from outside Dili.

But the process has begun. The first two convictions for murder -- cases that were not treated as crimes against humanity -- have been handed down in the last two weeks. In what seemed a pointed demonstration of evenhandedness, one 12-year sentence was given to a member of the militias and one 7-year sentence was given to a member of the pro-independence forces who had killed a militia member.

The seeming lightness of the sentence against the militia member caused an outcry among some spectators and there is concern here that the judicial process may not satisfy the need of many East Timorse for an accounting.

The United Nations is preparing a parallel "truth and reconciliation" program in the hope of defusing this discontent and of handling the hundreds of cases that would overwhelm the tiny Dili courthouse.

Desite its inadequacies, the court here has begun to create both a mechanism and a culture of due process. And for both Lisete Quintco, 28, a public defender, and for her clients, each step is a revelation.

Mrs. Quintco, who studied law in Jakarta, said she struggles between her personal feelings and her dedication to the system she is helping put in place.

Asked how she felt about defending the people who ravaged her country, she said: "Oh, gosh, that's a difficult situation for me. Sometimes I am angry at all the militia for doing these things to me and my family and my friends and everyone. But then, you see, they may be bad men but they have the right to a good trial and a fair trial. We cannot just say, `You did wrong.' We have to prove it first."

Two of the Alpha Militia defendants are her clients, including one, Joco da Costa, who is accused of gratuitous brutality in the course of the murders. He is not a very nice person, she said.

She said she has spent hours with him reviewing the case and explaining his rights. "When I met him, he said to me, `You have come to judge me, to convict me,"' Mrs. Quintco recalled. "And I said, `No, I have come to tell you that you have rights, to this and this and this. You have the right to a fair trial. You can defend yourself in court and I will help you."'

He was surprised, she said. "He asked me, `We can do this?' And I told him, `Yes!'"

Rights groups welcome conviction of East Timor guerrilla

Associated Press - March 3, 2001 (abridged)

Dili -- Human rights groups Friday welcomed the conviction by a UN court of an East Timorese guerrilla for killing a pro- Indonesian militiaman during 1999's post-independence violence.

Julio Fernandes was sentenced to seven years in prison -- the first member of East Timor's main pro-independence guerrilla group, Falintil, to be convicted for the violence that followed the UN-sponsored vote for independence.

The sentencing will encourage ex-militiamen and refugees in Indonesian West Timor to return home, said Joachin Fonesca, a spokesman for East Timor's leading human rights organization, Yayasan HAK. "This case shows that the same standards apply to pro- independence and pro-Indonesia supporters," Fonesca said.

Last month, a former pro-Indonesian militiaman was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for killing an independence supporter during the violence. About 70 other militiamen implicated in the violence are in detention, awaiting trial.

The UN court convicted Fernandes of stabbing a militiaman to death in a marketplace, encouraged by a pro-independence mob. The crowd had cut the militiaman's ears off and tied him to a chair.

After the Portuguese pulled out of East Timor in 1974, Indonesia invaded and ruled the territory for the next 24 years.

Militia chief's new role confirms army ties

Sydney Morning Herald - March 5, 2001

Mark Dodd, Kupang -- Elly Pereira was a well known face around Dili in 1999. Short, stocky and muscular, dressed in trademark jeans, T- shirt and dark aviator-style sunglasses, he kept interesting company as a deputy chief of the Aitarak (Thorn) militia.

Mr Pereira is now a familiar face around West Timor's provincial capital, Kupang, where he seems to enjoy unusual privileges given that the Indonesian Government says his organisation no longer officially exists.

Still dressed the same, on Friday he was able freely to enter the Fatululi refugee transit centre outside Kupang, which is secured by 250 heavily armed police and soldiers. Once inside he appeared to be on familiar terms with senior Indonesian Army and police officials.

Officials from the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) turned him away when he asked for a list of names of refugees who would be returning by ship to East Timor -- but he still had the list a few hours later anyway.

On Friday afternoon Mr Pereira appeared at Kupang port to see off 498 East Timorese refugees. An Indonesian Foreign Ministry official who asked him to identify himself was surprised to learn that he worked as a provincial-level army intelligence officer attached to Korem 161. He gave his name as Eliziarou Dalus.

The information is alarming on two counts: it confirms that the militias and the Indonesian military intelligence apparatus are one and the same; it also goes some way towards explaining the difficulty for Jakarta in trying to disband the militias.

An IOM spokesman, Mr Chris Lom, said: "His [Pereira's] presence is significant. It means for international aid agencies [that] demanding security guarantees from the Indonesians is meaningless. It is simply unrealistic to expect security guarantees from the very people who are posing the threat in the first place."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and affiliated agencies stopped operations in West Timor in September after three international staff were murdered by pro-Indonesian militiamen in the border town of Atambua.

Mr Lom said the IOM now supported more "radical solutions" for the refugee repatriation issue, including deploying Indonesian security forces to close the camps one by one.

Last week in Jakarta the UN chief in East Timor, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, sought support from the UNHCR and donors for tough new measures on refugee repatriation, including the use of security forces to close down the refugee camps.

Labour struggle

Indonesia: Nike forced into self-criticism

Green Left Weekly - March 7, 2001

Pip Hinman -- The recent well-publicised report by Global Alliance for Workers and Communities on sexual harassment of women workers in Nike factories in Indonesia is hardly earth- shattering news. By now, Nike's legendary exploitation of its global 550,000-strong workforce is well known.

It's one of the big corporate tyrants. But there is more to the story than meets the eye.

Throughout the initial Global Alliance (GA) report  the full report is due out in April  the authors heap praise on Nike for its cooperation with the researchers and the compliance steps it has begun to take. This all seems a little strange until it's revealed (in the last chapter in one of the final appendices) that Nike, together with Gap, another footwear multinational, and the World Bank actually set up Global Alliance in 1999.

The report, which surveyed work practices in nine factories across Indonesia, revealed a number of workplace "problems" ranging from unpaid overtime to the death of a couple of workers.

So how come Nike is prepared to wear such criticism by its own front organisation which it funds to the tune of some US$7.8 million over five years?

Under pressure

The answer is simple. Nike, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is feeling the pressure of the growing strength of the anti-globalisation movement and believes it's time for an image change.

Nike is increasingly concerned about its ugly corporate image. So what better than to commission a report  even critical in parts  but which stresses Nike's responsiveness and concern for its Third World workers throughout.

Nike says GA is all about "improving workers' lives in the global supply chain ... in the partnership of foundations, global brands, supply chain manufacturers, trade unions and educational/research institutions".

We're told that additional goals of Global Alliance include "strengthening [the] factory management-worker relationship ... and helping ... build sustainable national partnerships aimed at improving workers' lives".

Nike believes that by combining the efforts of companies and non- profit organisations it hopes to "effect positive impacts in the global economy". It's even encouraging other corporations to do likewise.

But recrafting Nike from ugly corporation to "responsible corporate citizen" will require more than a few partisan reports. As the growing global anti-corporate tyranny movement shows, people are not so easily fooled.

Nike has been forced to take this step because of its devastating record which can no be longer be covered up. Like the World Bank and IMF, which are also in the business of "reinventing" themselves, Nike obviously believes that the best way forward is to admit that, yes, obviously some things are wrong, but that it is doing its best to remedy the situation.

"We know that our current compliance is not perfect. We are continuously seeking to challenge ourselves and our partners to strengthen our compliance system", Nike states in the GA report. Nike goes on to add that while the GA findings are sometimes "disturbing", it "welcome[s] the information because it enables us to deepen and strengthen our existing compliance systems, and to take steps to improve working conditions and opportunities for the workers".

Improving conditions?

Nike's sudden concern about workers' conditions rings hollow. The US-owned company first started operations in Indonesia in 1988. Nike's method of operation is to place orders with sub- contractors which are mainly Korean- or Taiwanese-owned garment or footwear manufacturers. In 1988, there was one footwear factory with a few thousand workers producing Nike products. Now Nike subcontracts 11 footwear factories and 22 apparel and equipment factories which employ a combined workforce of more than 155,000 people in Indonesia.

Nike is the biggest corporation making athletic shoes and apparel in Indonesia.

Its annual exports amount to more than US$1 billion. Yet the workers receive on average between US$2.26 to US$2.94 a day or between 32-42 cents an hour.

A worker on US$2 a day can afford to rent half a two-by-three metre room in a slum, eat two meals a day of rice and bean curd and purchase some basic toiletries. This hardly makes Nike a generous employer when the average mark-up on a pair of its sports shoes is somewhere in the realm of US$75!

The GA survey was conducted between August and October last year.

Some 4000 workers (some 83% of which were women) aged between 20-24 from nine factories were interviewed by researchers from the Atma Jaya University Social Research Institute around such issues as education, family life and health, education and life skills, needs and aspirations, the workplace and their communities.

The findings provide an insight into the desperate plight of Indonesian workers.

Since the country's economic collapse in 1997, Indonesian workers have been forced to bear the brunt of the neoliberal austerity measures proscribed in the IMF's structural adjustment programs. The IMF's current US$5 billion bail-out is designed to assist multinational corporations such as Nike to weather Indonesia's unstable economic conditions.

According to the GA report, since the 1997 economic crisis, the number of people living in poverty increased dramatically from 22.5 million in 1996 to 49.5 million in 1998. About half of Indonesia's 210 million people live on less than US$2 a day, with the paid labour force between 1986-1999 remaining around 66% of the total overall working age (above 15 years of age) population.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), 63% of Indonesian workers give as their reason for going on strike is low wages.

Wages fell starkly in 1997 and haven't increased much since then, while government subsidies on basic goods such as fuel, electricity and fertiliser have been partially removed.

If Nike was the good corporate citizen it purports to be, it would immediately move to implement the demands of its own work force. They are: wage rises to cover cost-of-living rises, adequate weekly rest and annual leave, the fair granting of sick leave and menstrual leave, reduce excessive overtime, increase overtime compensation for night shift and Sundays, child care, improve factory clinic services, provide workers with better protective equipment and eliminate abusive treatment.

Aceh/West Papua

Indonesia's wars over riches

Christian Science Monitor - March 9, 2001

Dan Murphy, Lhokseumawe -- The Aceh coffee is thick and sweet, the grounds sticking to the teeth the way they like it here, as a tense group sips and talks in the thatched shade of a cafe across from an ExxonMobil pump station.

One of the men, Sulaiman, gestures around the room: That quiet farmer on the bench lost his father and a brother to Indonesian soldiers nine years ago. Another man's motorcycle repair shop was burned by the military late last year. A third says his uncle was disappeared.

Sulaiman suddenly chokes off his narrative. "You'd better go," he says. Out in the tropical glare, two soldiers have noticed a visitor and are ambling over. "We're probably in danger already."

It's hard to disagree with him. In the last year, more than 1,200 people have been killed in Aceh, most of them civilians, and it appears the conflict is evolving into something more deadly still.

At least 250 have been killed since the start of the year, and this month, faltering peace talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels have collapsed completely.

On Wednesday the commander of the Army's elite Strategic Reserves said that a "military operation" had begun on March 1, in apparent violation of a cease-fire with the rebels. "GAM is an enemy of the state. We must get them all," Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu told local reporters. Diplomats in Jakarta say intelligence reports indicate the military is planning a major offensive.

Violence has intensified throughout Aceh since 1998, when East Timor won its independence and former President Suharto fell, two events that inspired a surge of separatist activity and met with a brutal counterinsurgency.

Lhokseumawe, the boomtown where ExxonMobil's pipelines, pumps, and work crews are tangled up with the local people's lives, is one of the main arenas of conflict. The company's natural gas operation in the province is, by unhappy circumstance, the common thread between the dream for independence, human rights abuses, and Aceh's hopes for a peaceful and prosperous future.

Near where Sulaiman -- who like many Indonesians uses only one name -- and his friends sip coffee and curse the military, ExxonMobil runs the Arun gas field, Indonesia's largest. Analysts estimate the field spits out about $1.5 billion of product most years, helping to make Indonesia the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Yet almost all of the money has gone to Jakarta. Bringing that money back is one of the central rallying points of GAM. "Once we're independent, that field will make us as rich as Brunei," says GAM's Amni Ahmad Marzuki.

Natural resources not only inspire GAM, but lie at the heart of Indonesia's determination to hold on. Soldiers guarding ExxonMobil's operation have tortured and killed civilians, say human rights investigators. GAM attacks are also higher in the area: If you stick a pin in a map of Aceh where every alleged human rights abuse has occurred, Lhokseumawe bristles like a porcupine.

It's an increasingly familiar pattern across the globe. Gas, oil, and gold are shimmering lures for independence movements, which are then met with violence by the controlling regimes.

"Rebel movements ... need both a grievance and a source of funding. Oil and mineral wealth can help provide both," says Michael Ross, a political scientist at the University of Michigan who studies resources and conflict.

Companies like ExxonMobil -- which have to cooperate with the government to stay in business -- end up in the hot seat. For instance, ExxonMobil's contract with Indonesia requires it to pay for the military and police presence. "Without Mobil, we wouldn't have so many soldiers," says Yusuf Ismail Pase, a Lhokseumawe- based lawyer and human rights activist.

"These military posts -- they're like machines to make people disappear."

ExxonMobil is understandably sensitive about its position and its executives declined to be interviewed. In a written response to questions, it stressed that it is not responsible for the behavior of the soldiers: "Our company condemns the violation of human rights in any form and has actively expressed these views to the President of Indonesia." Sometimes even the good can have negative consequences.

Lhokseumawe is Aceh's second-largest city, thanks to Arun. In a province where most people are farmers, the city is home to dozens of small businesses that service Arun's workers. But that zone of economic opportunity is also helping to pay for both sides' guns: The city's relative wealth, combined with the conflict, creates extortion opportunities. Mr. Ross says that GAM probably generates revenue from extorting money from local businesses.

The military does, too. The International Crisis Group estimated that 80 percent of the military's money comes from protection rackets and other outside ventures, usually illegal.

The modern incarnation of GAM was founded in 1975, four years after the Arun field was opened. A military backlash that has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths soon followed, according to organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

That was supposed to change after the 1999 election of moderate President Abdurrahman Wahid. But, as a Western diplomat points out, "The Army continues to punish whole villages for their independence sympathies."

Around Lhokseumawe, attitudes toward ExxonMobil are complex, and few are willing to speak about the company. Locals often blame ExxonMobil for abuses, since its presence justifies military posts in the region. But residents say they can live with ExxonMobil, provided more benefits flow their way. Back at the coffee shop, Sulaiman says he'd like a job. "We don't have a problem with Mobil," he says. "We have a problem with the military they've brought here."

ExxonMobil has built mosques, schools, and hospitals, and made contributions to local charities. Yet even those efforts have begun to suffer. One ExxonMobil official says the full budget for local programs wasn't spent last year, in part because of the disruptions in the Lhokseumawe area. ExxonMobil itself has suffered hijackings of its vehicles and, last year, a brief hostage-taking involving a group of engineers. The violence is beginning to threaten the long-term viability of Aceh's cash cow.

Mr. Pase, the human rights activist, says the company has improved as a corporate citizen, both in environmental protection and in community relations. But he says the best thing ExxonMobil could do would be to push the military to leave. "They have a moral responsibility to make that change."

Court begins trial of SIRA activist

Jakarta Post - March 9, 2001

Banda Aceh -- The trial of an Acehnese independence activist charged with revolt opened at the Banda Aceh District Court on Thursday amid a tight security cordon and a silent protest.

Prosecutors read out the indictment against detained chairman of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) Muhammad Nazar, who could face a sentence of up to seven years in jail if found guilty.

"The defendant encouraged people to rise against Indonesia by distributing pamphlets and banners that created hatred against the legal government," said prosecutor Supery.

Nazar was arrested on November 20, 2000 after organizing a rally in the region calling for an independence referendum earlier in August.

The banners, which Nazar is accused of having distributed on August 17, Indonesia's independence day, stated: "Aceh remains within the Republic of Indonesia, or Free." He is being charged under Articles 154 and 155 of the Criminal Code for showing hostile intentions/treason against the state.

The 30-minute trial which began at 9:30 a.m. was presided over by judge Farida Hanoem, assisted by four other judges.

Nazar arrived at the court in a Kijang van from Banda Aceh State Penitentiary on Jl. Cut Meutia, which is only about 100 meters away from the court.

He was accompanied by nine lawyers led by Abdurrachman Yacoub. The session, however, was marked by a silent protest by 27 SIRA activists in front of the courtroom who dispersed themselves peacefully after the hearing was completed.

About 600 police and soldiers guarded the court with two armored vehicles parked nearby. Barbed wires were put on the side of Jl. Cut Meutia and only about 30 people were allowed to enter the courtroom.

Judge Farida adjourned the trial until Monday to hear the lawyers' defense statement.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, SIRA issued a media statement demanding the release of Nazar. "The trial will not resolve Aceh's problems as all conflicts are centered within Aceh, and Nazar is only one of the figures," said Jakarta SIRA's advocacy coordinator Tarmizi Nizami.

The group also urged the government to pull out all police and military personnel from Aceh and to proceed with legal action in all cases of violence in the disputed province.

Also in Jakarta, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief of general affairs Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago said on Thursday that the government must determine the position of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) with regard to the Indonesian legal framework.

"The first thing to do is to identify the movement as separatist. The mistake in not identifying the movement as such has led to the current situation," Djamari said.

"If we had determined its status as separatist we could clarify the status of the Aceh region, which is completely different from other regions such as Central Java, East Java or Jakarta," he said in an emotional tone.

He further said that the TNI headquarters has been preparing its troops to anticipate the worst in Aceh. "But the TNI is waiting for the government's stance on whether or not the movement in Aceh is separatist," Djamari said.

Djamari however declined to say whether the weak security situation in Aceh was a result of the central government's policy. The TNI reportedly has deployed about 30,000 troops in Aceh, of which two battalions are the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) troops.

Earlier in the day, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. told reporters before leaving for Sampit, Central Kalimantan, that the government has yet to conduct military action to quell the separatist activities in Aceh.

"The government is currently conducting two approaches -- a dialog and a legal approach -- but has yet to impose military action," Mahfud said as quoted by Satunet.com.

He said the two approaches taken during a one-month moratorium on violence from Janurary 15 to February 15 were quite effective in decreasing the violence there from 259 cases to 58.

Back in Aceh, violence continued to rage as 10 bodies were found on Wednesday and Thursday.

Six unidentified male bodies were located in Aramiah village, Birem Bayeun district, East Aceh regency, at noon on Thursday.

Three more bodies were found in Seunelok village, also near Langas Town in East Aceh on Thursday, two of whom were identified as drivers named Muhammad Nur and Jamidun, said a local hospital official.

Another body was discovered in Matang Seulimeng village in East Aceh on Wednesday.

Seven killed in fresh Aceh unrest

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2001

Banda Aceh -- At least seven people were killed and scores of others injured during a fresh outbreak of violence in Aceh between Sunday and Monday, officials and witnesses reported on Tuesday.

Five bodies bearing bullet wounds and lacerations were found in East Aceh on Monday during the celebration of Idul Adha in the predominantly-Muslim province.

Two of the fatalities were sisters named Suhala, 50, and Cut Zubaida, 45, both locals of Lhok Bani village in Langsa Barat district of East Aceh. "According to Habibi, 14, Zubaida's son who witnessed the event, the murderers used rifles to shoot both victims at point-blank range in the head and chest," Sr. Comr. Kusbini Imbar told The Jakarta Post by phone from Banda Aceh on Tuesday.

Both women and Habibi were performing their afternoon prayer at their house when the three gunmen entered at around 2 p.m. and opened fire on them, the officer said.

Police have identified two of the murderers as alleged rebels M. Sofyan, alias Yan bin Nekmen, and Adi bin Nekmen. The third person remains unknown. "We're after the killers and the case is being investigated," Kusbini said.

Meanwhile, three decomposed bodies were recovered in East Aceh and taken to Langsa General Hospital.

Also on Monday rebels attacked the Baiturrachman police subprecinct in downtown Banda Aceh at 5:20 p.m., leaving two policemen severely injured.

Brig. Komaruddin Hidayat and Brig. Eko Kurniawan suffered gunshot wounds after gunmen on motorbikes sprayed bullets at the police post using AK-47 semiautomatic rifles. "The assailants fled the scene and the two officers have been treated at a local police clinic," Kusbini said.

In restive Pidie regency, which is known as the stronghold of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists, two rebels were killed on Sunday.

The first rebel, 35-year-old M. Djamil Syahkubat, 35, was killed during an encounter with patrolling police officers in Ulue Tutue Mutiara village, while the other rebel, named Syukri Nurdin, 22, was shot dead after resisting arrest, Pidie police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Heru Budi Ersanto said. In Jakarta, the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu asserted on Tuesday that the military should handle the security situation in Aceh because the police are not trained to handle armed civilians.

"The government was supposed to impose a limited military operation in Aceh some time ago, but due to various considerations, including the policy of the House of Representatives [DPR], the Indonesian Military [TNI] has just started a military operation [beginning March 1]," Ryamizard said on the sidelines of preparations for the 40th anniversary of Kostrad at the Airborne brigade headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta.

The government declared a limited military operation in the troubled province on March 1.

Ryamizard, however, said he has yet to be given instruction by TNI headquarters on how to perform the operation because "the [military] operation is really dependent on the escalation of conflict there".

The three-star general added that the military has been "too generous" in listening to the people's demands to restrain the TNI from conducting a military operation in Aceh.

"Not only in Indonesia, but in any other country, an armed threat such as the one in Aceh should be handled by the military, not the police. Dispatching the police there is wrong since they are not trained to suppress armed groups," Ryamizard said.

Elite power struggle

Megawati will survive till 2004, Amien believes

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais said on Friday that should Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri replace Abdurrahman Wahid as President, she will survive until 2004 if she can maintain a corruption-free coalition in her cabinet.

"Insya Allah [God willing], she will be successful as president only if she can maintain a clean coalition and refuse to take after the example set by her predecessors of dismissing supporters," Amien said after paying his last respects to the late noted economist Soemitro Djojohadikusumo.

Amien, also chairman of the National Mandate party (PAN), was responding to criticism of whether the Axis Force, a loose coalition of Muslim-based parties, was sincere in formulating a permanent coalition with Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in an attempt to hoist Megawati to presidency.

He said if President Abdurrahman did not ignore his obligations to fight corruption, promote the rule of law and promote national integration, as well as dismiss his coalition partners, he would be able to continue as President in peace.

Commenting on Friday's breakfast between Abdurrahman and Megawati at the latter's official residence, Amien said it was probably useful for Gus Dur to learn about the latest developments in the country. Breakfast at Megawati's residence has become a habit of Gus Dur's, giving an impression of a close relationship between the two.

Amien, however, said that he had been informed of Megawati's determination to resist being a stooge to anyone. "Gus Dur has often given the impression that all his decisions have been approved by Megawati and that TNI and PDI Perjuangan were behind him, though in reality, they were not," he said.

Later in the day, deputy chairman of the Crescent Star Party (PBB) Ahmad Sumargono said although there should not be a problem for Megawati to be President, members of the political elite must not put aside the fatwa (decree) that a woman could not be the nation's leader.

"What has been called haram [forbidden for Muslims] is still haram," Ahmad said to the press prior to the funeral of Soemitro at the Karet Bivak public cemetery, South Jakarta.

However, Ahmad said that during an emergency, the decree could be set aside as the public have no better choice over the nation's leadership.

"There is only Gus Dur or Mbak Mega. Gus Dur has failed to carry this nation out of the crisis. He is no longer a legitimate president, therefore the national leadership must be replaced," he said.

Ahmad, however, said that members of the political elite should determine the length of time this nation could be led by a woman: that is only until 2004.

Ahmad added that Megawati should formulate her Cabinet by accommodating professional people who are recommended by the political parties which will be represented in the coalition Cabinet.

He said the parties have already formulated a draft shadow cabinet during their meeting held at the Dharmawangsa Hotel in South Jakarta last Thursday night.

"The draft comprises candidates from the leading political parties -- PDI Perjuangan, Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), PAN, and the Justice Party (PK) -- according to their achievement in the 1999 general election," he said.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar said on Friday that President Abdurrahman will soon submit his reply to the memorandum in an effort "to evade the image of existing disputes between executives and legislators and to speed up reconciliation [between members of the political elite]."

"Hopefully the reply, which is being prepared by Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will be endorsed during breakfast between Gus Dur and Megawati next Wednesday," Wimar said.

The first memorandum was issued by the House of Representatives on February 1 which censured Abdurrahman over two financial scandals.

Separately, President Abdurrahman said on Friday that he would allow all his political opponents to continue to pressure him to resign "until they get tired of themselves".

"I will not take any action as that would only mean that I was killing the democratic process," Abdurrahman said after a Friday prayer at his residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.

Gus Dur 'may hang on as opponents are still too weak'

Straits Times - March 8, 2001

Shefali Rekhi -- Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid might well hold on to power, despite the criticism against him in the wake of the Kalimantan crisis, because the forces opposing him are weak.

"Those who are against Gus Dur don't have support from the major parties, especially from the PDI-P," said Dr Abubakar Eby Hara, a lecturer at East Java's Jember University.

And Golkar cannot decide whether to support him or not, he added. Also, the military was not keen to get involved in politics now, he said. The reason is that a new generation of military leaders is conscious about the need for the armed forces to maintain a good image.

The crisis was an opportunity for Mr Abdurrahman to emerge stronger, he felt, adding that the President should go ahead with a Cabinet reshuffle. He should give more positions to members of the PDI-P and Golkar.

"The important thing for him is to send out a message that he is willing to share power with the other political parties, which he did not do during the last Cabinet reshuffle.

"If he does make the correct decisions, he can stay on till 2004 when the next election is to be held," Dr Abubakar said.

Megawati urged to be wary of Islamic parties

Straits Times - March 7, 2001

Jakarta -- Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri should treat mounting support from Islamic political parties with suspicion as the parties might be courting her favour in return for short-term gains, political observers said.

Leading figures of the National Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the Justice Party (PK), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), Golkar Party and the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) met here on Friday to show their support for Ms Megawati as the immediate successor to President Abdurrahman Wahid.

But an ex-member of PAN, Mr Bara Hasibuan, urged the Vice- President to remain wary of the purported political support, saying it was probably not sincere.

"There is a possibility that Megawati is only being exploited for the sake of immediate interests, and afterwards will be left out once she is no longer useful to them," he said.

Mr Bara, who recently resigned from PAN, where he was a member of the executive board, pointed out that the Islamic-based parties that took part in Friday's meeting and exclaimed their support for Ms Megawati were the same ones that led the battle against her during the 1999 presidential election. The parties had claimed then that it was unacceptable for a woman to become president.

Mr Bara, and legislators from Mr Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB), pointed out that the parties have still not retracted their statements rejecting the possibility of a woman president.

He suggested that the show of support for Ms Megawati was temporary and politically motivated, with the primary aim of toppling the President.

While it is not known if any political agreement was reached, the meeting was the first clear public display of a possible political alliance to propel Ms Megawati, who leads PDI-P, to the presidency.

Separately, a political observer from the National Institute of Sciences, Mr Syamsuddin Harris, said the meeting showed strong signs of bargaining, suggesting that if Ms Megawati replaces Mr Abdurrahman, she might have to accommodate the interests of other political elements.

A PDI-P legislator, Mr Dimyati Hartono, said on Monday that he believed Ms Megawati was already wary of the support.

Government/politics

House Commission selects eleven new KPU members

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- The House of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs selected 11 members on Friday for the new General Election Committee (KPU) who are to be the organizers and adjudicators of the 2004 general election.

The eleven passed a screening conducted over three consecutive days by the House Commission.

"Our commission has completed its task to select 11 out of 22 candidates proposed by the government, and the 11 who passed the test will be brought to a plenary session to gain the House's full endorsement," House Commission Chairman Amin Aryoso said.

Among the 11 are Mulyana W. Kusumah, secretary general of the Indonesian Election Supervisory Committee, who actively supervised the 1997 and 1999 elections.

Another is Ramlan Surbakti, a political lecturer at Airlangga University in Surabaya, East Java. He contributed to the drafting of political laws in 1998.

Also chosen was Anas Urbaningrum, former chairman of the Indonesian Muslim Students Association (HMI). He was also a member of Team-11 who selected the political parties that contended the last elections.

Rounding the list are Dan Dimara, Rusadi Kantaprawira, Imam B. Prasodjo, Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, Chusnul Mar'iyah, F.X. Mudji Sutrisno, Hamid Awaluddin and Valina Sinka Subekti.

They will replace the previous 48 member committee who were mostly representatives of the 48 political parties which contended the last elections.

The previous commission was dominated by party representatives and was much criticized because of its partiality during the elections, especially its rejection to endorse the elections' results.

Separately Commission II Deputy Chairman Hamdan Zoelva said general guidelines had been established in appraising the performance and capability of each candidate.

"We have decided that they [the candidates] should meet four requirements: they must show integrity, commitment for democracy, an understanding of KPU's management and politics," Hamdan said.

Two of the original 22 candidates submitted by the government for the KPU resigned their candidacies earlier.

Legal Aid and Human Rights Association chairman Hendardi and former 1966 student activist Rahman Tolleng withdrew before undergoing a screening.

Hendardi had reportedly resigned because he objected to the screening process which he regarded as lacking in transparency, while Rahman had, from the beginning, said he was unwilling to sit in the KPU.

Golkar and the legacy of `oriental despotism'

Green Left Weekly - March 7, 2001

Max Lane -- Despite the humiliating forced resignation of Indonesian President Suharto in May 1998, the political machine that he built during his 33-year reign has remained virtually intact.

Suharto's son may be on the run from a prison sentence and his daughter summonsed for corruption, but the party organisation he created, Golkar, steams along often being able to seize the political initiative and embarrass the incumbent president. In fact, Golkar is poised to make a comeback.

What lies behind Golkar's strength and what is at after?

Of course, Golkar is supported by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), the senior bureaucracy and the big crony conglomerates. But perhaps more importantly, Golkar has retained, reasonably intact, a social base of support that it developed during the 33 years of Suharto's rule.

This social base is made of at least three elements. The first and least stable is the middle-class professionals. The second and more stable is the wealthy and prosperous middle peasants and land owners, 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 horde of hundreds of thousands of petty bureaucrats that inhabit the state machinery.

During the Suharto period, much emphasis was placed by its opponents on the role of the military, including its political role right down to the village. A central aspect of this political role was to back the despotic rule of local bureaucrats, who acted and still try to act as virtual petty lords in the provinces, districts and villages.

This is a centralised bureaucracy that extends into every village and into every aspect of life. Its resilience as a social force stems from a number of factors.

First, it has centuries of tradition behind it and at least 150 years of institutional continuity in many provinces.

Legacy of `oriental despotism' Before colonisation by the Dutch most parts of the Indonesian archipelago, where there was some form of state, were ruled by tribute- collecting despots based on the system of production-property relations that Karl Marx described as the "Asiatic mode of production", the political superstructure of which is often described as "oriental despotism".

Within such socioeconomic formations, the most famous of which were the agrarian empires of ancient Egypt and China, an absolute ruler farmed out the right to collect tribute from peasant villagers to a hierarchy of provincial petty officials, who also had responsibility for organising the construction and maintenance of extensive irrigation works, upon which agricultural production was dependent. Extorting tribute from village communities became the universal mode of enrichment by the ruling class of military-priestly nobles. As the Dutch capitalist colonisers gradually spread their administration into the "East Indies", they subordinated this hierarchy of tribute- collecting bureaucrats to their colonial administrators, many of whom also adopted or adjusted to this tribute-extorting way of life.

The Dutch colonial rulers multiplied many-fold the number of permits and documents needed by peasants, artisans and traders, thereby also multiplying both opportunities for extortion as well as extending the reach of the local bureaucrats into more and more aspects of the daily life of the rural villages. A massive army of extortionists and petty despots was created.

During the period of revolutionary struggle against Dutch colonialism between 1945-49, this tribute-extorting state apparatus came under attack.

In some areas where the mass struggle radicalised quickly, the local despots were deposed by popular uprisings and often executed.

However, when the right-wing of the national independence movement seized the initiative after 1948, following the bloody suppression of the left, the tribute-extorting bureaucratic state machine maintained by the Dutch became the new "civil service" of the independent Republic of Indonesia.

During the 1950s and 1960s, the despotism of this state machine was constrained to a certain extent by the growth of the Communist and other left parties and the explosion of popular struggles against the imperialist exploitation of the Indonesian masses. But the total defeat, including the physical extermination of the left during army general Suharto's CIA- backed military coup in late 1965, meant that during the Suharto regime, the horde of little lords of the provinces, districts and villages, was free to rule as it pleased.

Backed by the army's terror against political dissent, local bureaucrats became the main instrument of rule for the Suharto autocracy.

These "civilian" bureaucrats, like their military partners, wore uniforms and held varying ranks. The permits and documents, rules and regulations, which citizens were subject to multiplied even further. This included the need for "a letter of clean circumstances" that certified that an individual, as well as the whole of the individuals' 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, swelled the private wealth held by this social layer. In addition, since the Dutch colonial 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 May 1998, there were mini-revolutions in hundreds of villages throughout Indonesia where village bureaucrats were deposed.

Sometimes they were physically attacked, their houses burned downed or trashed.

Localised and without a broader political perspective, these actions petered out after three months.

The huge social layer of local despotic officials is very conscious that reformasi total, as demanded by the students and sections of the urban masses, threatens their very existence. In fact, they also resent even partial reformasi in so far that it has opened up the political space that allows common citizens to organise opposition to these officials' arbitrary rule and the extortion that is this layer's chief source of income.

A majority of this social layer has been absorbed into Golkar and gives Golkar access right down to the village level. A minority, in specific locations but not as a national phenomenon, has also been absorbed into Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P). The combination of support from the crony conglomerates, including the press, the TNI and the huge numbers of petty despots and extortionists means that Golkar remains a potent, counter-revolutionary force.

Billions in tribute

During the Suharto era, this army of official extortionists not only operated at the local level, but also at the very top of the state machinery.

Special mechanisms were introduced which gave the ruling Suharto clique incredible power for the collection of a modern form of tribute.

The key mechanism was a special presidential decree which ensured that all government tenders had to be approved by the office of the cabinet secretariat. This practice began with large-scale government-funded projects but gradually extended to virtually all publicly funded projects.

In addition to the cabinet secretariat, the Logistics Board (Bulog), which controlled the marketing and distribution of rice and many other staples, was also another source of tribute collection. The state banking system was rorted into bankruptcy by its officials, mainly Golkar members. The court system, dominated by the so-called "court mafia", was also a lucrative source of tribute for judges as well as a means whereby the bigger crony capitalists could buy judgements against lesser cronies or smaller businesses.

Since Suharto's fall, Golkar has been struggling to keep or, where it has lost official positions, regain access to these sources of giant tribute. At stake is control of billions of dollars of tribute.

The International Monetary Fund's deregulation policies have reduced Bulog's overall power, but it remains a central body regulating the distribution of key commodities. President Abdurrahman Wahid has appointed an official from the Indonesian Panca Sila Young Generation, a Golkar front, to the head of Bulog.

This appointment has been the target of attack by a number activist and NGO coalitions.

There has also been a massive struggle over the appointment of the next chief justice of the Indonesian Supreme Court. Whoever is appointed to this position will have the power to restructure the whole court system. Golkar, in alliance with the right-wing Muslim Central Axis parties, has been pushing for former Suharto cabinet minister and Golkar official, Muladi, to be appointed to this position. So far Wahid has been holding off on making this appointment, but he has been unable to gather parliamentary support for an alternative candidate.

A new institution that is up for grabs is the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), formed by the government after the 1997 Asian economic crisis to take over bankrupted banks and many corporations that owed money to these banks. The IMF has assessed that IBRA holds assets worth US$58 billion, about half the equivalent of the country's gross domestic product.

IBRA's task is to sell off these assets to private sector buyers.

There have already been controversies where IBRA has tried to sell back to "bankrupt" cronies their former assets at cheap prices. Indonesia's biggest crony capitalist, Sudomo Salim, actually tried to buy back cheaply some of his assets until the controversy forced the government and IBRA back down. At the moment, IBRA is in the hands of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli, a non-Golkar Wahid appointee.

Regional conflicts

Analysis: Behind the Borneo violence

BBC News - February 28, 2001

Jonathan Head -- The clashes in the Indonesian province of central Kalimantan are part of a pattern of violence between the indigenous inhabitants of the island of Borneo and immigrants from other parts of the country.

The terrible attacks on Madurese settlers by indigenous Dayaks are a legacy of a failed government policy -- that of encouraging migration between the different islands of the archipelago.

They also reflect the collapse of trust among local communities and the authorities to resolve long-standing disputes.

Military impotence

One question which puzzles observers is why the Indonesian security forces appear to be doing so little to control or disarm the gangs of Dayaks.

One reason is that at first the soldiers and police in Central Kalimantan were simply outnumbered. Another is that the military is no longer the feared and respected institution it was under the repressive Suharto regime.

Even under the former president, Indonesia?s armed forces were very small. There were only around 500,000 personnel -- about the same number as today -- most of them badly-trained police officers, spread across a country of more than 200m inhabitants, as wide as the United States and spread across 13,000 islands.

Rule of fear

President Suharto relied on the fear he and a few elite military units instilled in the Indonesian people to deter any serious challenges to his rule.

The military was able to concentrate its efforts on crushing the isolated outbreaks that did occur, and then use its control of the media to prevent news of the unrest from leaking out.

Back in February 1997, when I covered previous Dayak attacks on Madurese settlers, which left 1,000 dead, we were quickly detained by the elite troops sent in to quell the violence, and prevented us from covering the conflict.

Collapse in morale

All that changed after Suharto fell from power in May 1998. Morale collapsed in the ranks of the military, as a resentful public turned against them.

The economic crisis which had helped bring about the end of the Suharto regime was also hurting the soldiers.

They had relied on huge informal levies taken by their commanders from local businesses to boost their meagre salaries, even to pay for military operations. Many of those businesses either collapsed after 1997, or just refused to pay up any more.

Decades of clashes

Immigrants from the impoverished island of Madura started arriving in Borneo as long ago as the 1930s.

The devoutly Muslim Madurese are viewed throughout Indonesia as aggressive settlers. Clashes between them and indigenous Dayaks go back many decades.

The Dayaks are the originial inhabitants of the Borneo rainforest. In recent years they have been marginalised by the rapid economic development of Indonesian Borneo and have found themselves competing with the Madurese for jobs.

When violence broke out in 1997 in West Kalimantan large groups of Dayaks armed themselves and many Madurese were beheaded in a grim revival of an old Dayak custom. Following the fall of the Suharto regime, violence broke out again in 1999.

In the most recent violence, local Malays and other ethnic groups joined the Dayaks in their attacks on the immigrants.

Thousands of Madurese homes have been burnt, but there is nowhere else in Indonesia for the settlers to go and most of the refugees have stayed in West Kalimantan.

The indigenous people accuse the Madurese of being insensitive to their customs and culture.

Fragmented army

Indonesia's security forces today are every bit as fragmented along ethnic, religious and organisational lines as the civilian population.

The police, who have now been formally separated from the military command structure, have long resented the more privileged soldiers. In several areas, including Borneo, police and military units have engaged in armed battles with each other.

In other areas, like the Molucca islands, troops and police officers have abandoned their units and joined the fighting on the side of their own ethnic or religious community.

Police fire warning shots as Dayaks burn police posts

Agence France-Presse - March 9, 2001

Jakarta -- Police fired warning shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of Dayaks who burned at least seven police traffic posts in the Borneo city of Palangkaraya to avenge the killing of four of their tribesmen by police.

Police, who had laid low since Thursday night, fired shots when the Dayaks armed with spears and swords tried to storm the home of provincial police chief, Brigadier General Bambang Pranoto, a local journalist said.

There were no reports of casualties in the rampage during which the Dayak rioters burned a police truck.

A duty policeman at Pranoto's home told AFP that the police chief and his family had fled the house before the attempted attack.

As dusk fell, Palangkaraya remained tense with mobs of Dayaks still milling around the city, another local journalist told AFP.

But Central Kalimantan military commander, Colonel Sihono told AFP that he had deployed two companies (around 230 men) of troops in response to a police request. "We are not taking over security ... we're just helping the police," Sihono said.

Earlier on Friday, some 300 Dayaks had massed outside the local parliament and urged lawmakers to press police to investigate Thursday's shootings, in which at least four of their tribesmen were killed.

Police have said five people, four Dayaks and a policeman, were killed and three others wounded in th incident which came minutes after a visit to Central Kalimantan by President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Palangkaraya police spokeswoman Andi Selvi told AFP the policeman was lynched by a Dayak mob, but denied local rumors that he had been beheaded.

Dayaks also threatened to renew their attacks on Madurese migrants, more than 50,000 of whom have fled a bloody two-week- long ethnic cleansing campaign by indigenous Dayaks, which has left some 500 dead.

The Dayaks also demanded police turn over the bodies of two tribesmen they claim were killed during Thursday's clash and were being held by police, the private SCTV television channel said.

They also demanded the release of several Dayaks detained by police over the violence in the area, the journalist said.

Wahid, speaking in Jakarta, said that two policemen and six Dayaks had been killed in Thursday's clash. "Some people tried to storm the governor's house," Wahid said.

The president also said more troops could be sent to Central Kalimantan if current security personnel could not contain the violence. "We should not worry and panic," he said, speaking after Muslim Friday prayers near his private home.

But one of the demands of the Palangkaraya protestors was that Jakarta immediately withdraw the elite police mobile brigade Brimob from the province.

Thursday's Dayak protest was staged outside the residence of the Central Kalimantan governor -- while Wahid was holding talks inside -- to protest Jakarta's plan to return the thousands of fleeing Madurese refugees to the province.

The state Antara news agency said that Dayaks on Friday were also burning houses belonging to settlers from Madura island in Palangkaraya.

Analysts have blamed the violence on cultural differences between the two communities as well as the dominance of the Madurese in the local economy.

Dayaks have accused Madurese of stealing their land but experts have said they lost much of it to government-sponsored logging and plantations and that Madurese have been made scapegoats.

Wahid on Friday said the conflict between the two groups was not religious despite the fact that Dayaks are mainly Christian and animist while Madurese are Muslim. "There's no religious war there. Mosques are still intact," he said.

In Borneo, the truth is often missing in action

Sydney Morning Herald - March 9, 2001

Complex and enduring rivalries over natural resources are the real cause of the horrific violence in Kalimantan, writes John Walker.

The recent spate of killings of ethnic Madurese in Central Kalimantan has again exposed how poorly equipped many Australian media are for either accurate reporting or informed analysis of events in Indonesia.

Most media have characterised the violence as "ethnic cleansing" and "an orchestrated campaign" by one "ethnic" group, the "Dayaks", against another, the "Madurese". There have been accounts of Dayaks cutting off victims' heads, cutting out their hearts and smearing themselves with the blood. Such horrors must be acknowledged; but it is also important not to play to Australian (and Javanese) prejudices about primitive Borneo and its "wild men". Actually, very few corpses appear to have been mutilated.

The situation is far more complex than the reporting might suggest. The violence reflects deep, enduring conflicts between a range of indigenous groups loosely categorised as "Dayaks" and Madurese settlers.

The word "Dayak" is a label applied by non-Dayaks to Borneo's non-Muslim indigenous inhabitants. With few reporters actually filing from Central Kalimantan, it is impossible to be certain which Dayaks are involved in the conflict. Though the violence appears widespread, it is not part of an orchestrated campaign. To report that Dayaks are killing Madurese does not tell us much about exactly who is involved. Nor should the killings be characterised as "ethnic cleansing".

Dayaks are not a single ethnic group but speak a range of distinct languages and have widely divergent social structures and value systems. Readers and reporters should be sceptical of "Dayak spokesmen", asking for whom they speak and with what authority.

Far from having its origins in ethnicity, the present killings in Central Kalimantan, like those in western Kalimantan in 1998-99, reflect deep conflict over natural resources. Indonesia does not guarantee indigenous people's rights over land. Many Indonesian officials wrongly consider that because Dayaks shift their agriculture from place to place, they do not have indigenous legal systems governing land use or rights. Even if such systems were recognised, they would not override the Indonesian Government's claim to be the ultimate source of title to land, and the regulator of land use.

Much of what appears to be jungle in Borneo is forest lying fallow, land already cleared and farmed by Dayaks who will return to farm it again.

Under indigenous law, the act of clearing primary rainforest bestows enduring ownership rights. Primary rainforest is also important as a source of game, rattan and other jungle produce, as well as timber for building, plus new farmland.

Since the 1960s the Indonesian Government has increasingly asserted a right to allocate very large tracts of primary forest for logging concessions and for palm oil and other plantations without regard for indigenous land ownership or use.

Deforestation in Central Kalimantan accelerated during the 1990s following the construction of a logging access road from Sampit (the epicentre of the present violence) to the centre of the island. The road not only allowed dramatic increases in commercial logging but made large tracts of land accessible to Madurese and other newcomers who do not understand or do not recognise the pre-existing claims of indigenous shifting cultivators.

The tensions such policies have created between indigenous people and Jakarta governments have been localised and directed against the Madurese.

Local resentment of Madurese has three specific grounds. As newcomers, Madurese often occupy farmland owned by Dayaks. Though the areas allocated to Madurese are insignificant compared with the acreages alienated by the Government as logging concessions or plantations, Madurese are a more visible focus for resentment than international or national corporations.

Themselves poor, unskilled and socially dislocated, many Madurese have found jobs in the plantation and logging sectors, displacing local people and ensuring that Madurese are, however unjustifiably, identified with land-hungry commercial operations.

These social and economic factors are exacerbated by cultural differences.

Madurese culture strongly emphasises personal honour, and Madurese men have a vigorous martial tradition. They go about armed and are often found working as security guards and in other jobs which require physical courage and confidence.

Borneans and other Indonesians characterise them as rough, violent and quarrelsome. For example, in Kalimantan they reportedly harvest other people's crops and knowingly squat on others' land.

Widespread attacks on Madurese in West Kalimantan in 1998-99 were precipitated by a Madurese revenging himself on a bus driver he believed had insulted him. The present killings are said to have been sparked when a group of Madurese burned a house sheltering a family the Madurese believed had been involved in killing one of their number.

One complication in Kalimantan is that the Dayaks and Madurese are both less victims of each other than of the economic and political policies of the Soeharto regime and its corporate collaborators. It might also be worth remembering that not all indigenous people are as forbearing in the face of dispossession as indigenous Australians.

[A fellow of the Borneo Research Council, John Walker lectures in politics at University College, the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra. He recently returned from Sarawak, East Malaysia.]

Bloodbath in Borneo

Time Magazine - March 12, 2001

Blood. countless gallons of blood soaked deep into the clay of a soccer field. There have been two heavy thunderstorms in the four days since 118 children, women and men -- Madurese refugees huddled together and promised safe passage -- were systematically butchered on the high-school playing field in Parenggean, a logging town deep in central Kalimantan. Those rains weren't cleansing enough: in the still of a tropical afternoon, the sweet stink of putrescence hangs in the air like the unquiet spirits of those murdered here.

Halerin, a stocky sawmill hand in his thirties, was at the field that night. His account:

"They were about to be taken away by the police, and suddenly trucks appeared full of Dayaks from upriver. They cut off their heads and put them in sacks. And then they sliced them open and took out their hearts, and then ..." Halerin pinches his fingers together and motions toward his mouth, the Indonesian gesture for eating. "The children and women were first. I even saw a baby being chopped. Maybe one month old at the most."

From a distance, the playing field looks terribly normal: new nets of green and blue in the goals, red and yellow flags marking the boundaries, rows of wooden benches where parents, in different days, cheered their children. The 118 bodies are gone, carted to a field outside town and buried. But signs of the massacre remain.

Four circles of bonfire ash are dotted with personal effects of the victims: a rifled plastic wallet, a tube of lipstick, the shoe of a very small child on which Tweety Bird still cavorts under a coating of ash.

A hundred meters up the road, opposite the shiny new Ecce Homo Catholic church is another remainder of that night's fatal frenzy: a van reduced by fire to a charred frame on wheels. Inside, on seat springs that have had the cushion burned away, a blackened, desiccated corpse arches in agony. Nine people died in the vehicle, villagers say. And there were other victims, whispers Diran, who is squatting by the soccer pitch, puffing on a cigarette. "I don't know how many were chased into the forest and killed." He shrugs and gestures up the road in its direction. "But it must be a lot. You can still smell them up there."

Diran, who arrived in Parenggean five months ago looking for work, says he wasn't watching when the murders took place. But he heard the killings. He covers his ears and grimaces. "I couldn't stand the sound of their screams, especially the women and children."

Others in the town admit having seen the killings -- though none admits to taking part. In fact, townspeople say they were trying to protect the refugees, many of whom were neighbors. That's the unbearable part: how close the Madurese came to freedom, but ended up in mass slaughter.

When the violence between Dayaks and Madurese began last week, many Madurese escaped into the jungle. A community leader negotiated a truce under which Madurese would be escorted to the safety of a refugee camp in Sampit, the provincial capital of Kalimantan, and then loaded onto boats to leave the island. The truce was broadcast over the loudspeakers of the local mosque normally used to call the faithful to prayer. Almost 400 Madurese emerged from the jungle and climbed onto trucks. The unfortunate ones were diverted to the soccer field. They were butchered as they climbed down from the trucks. The killing was done by the light of headlamps. Then the killers lit bonfires, tossing in the victims' personal possessions.

The killers planned carefully. Before the slaughter, they shut off the town's electricity generator. They checked identity cards to identify Madurese, sparing immigrants from Java. This was no outburst of berserk blood lust, but ethnic cleansing at its most cold-blooded.

A handful of policemen guarding the refugees fled when the violence began around 10 p.m., even though they were armed with M-16s. (The murderers had machetes, axes and a few homemade guns.) They came back at about one in the morning, Diran says, finally stopping the slaughter. Forewarned that the police were on their way, the murderers climbed back into their trucks and fled.

The final toll on the soccer field: 26 men, 64 women, 20 children and 8 babies.

Indonesian distributor of Time censors Borneo pictures

Associated Press - March 7, 2001

Jakarta -- The Indonesian distributor of Time magazine censored photos of headless corpses in Borneo in the weekly's latest Asian edition, fearing they might incite more violence, officials said Wednesday.

The cover image, shot by Associated Press photographer Charles Dharapak, shows a Dayak man standing in front of two decapitated corpses, both victims of ethnic violence that erupted in Borneo last month in which more than 450 people died.

Parts of that image and others inside were blacked out by hand in all copies sent to Indonesia for distribution.

Distributor PT Indoprom Indonesia said it was under no pressure from the government to censor the pictures.

"We blacked out the pictures ourselves," said spokesman Wahyu, who like many Indonesians only uses one name. "We didn't want the situation to deteriorate when people read the magazine." Indonesian publications reported on the Borneo violence extensively, but didn't run any graphic photos. Grisly images of decapitated adults and children have been circulating widely on the Internet, however.

Since dictator Suharto was toppled from power in May 1998, the Indonesia media has enjoyed greater freedom. However, certain topics, especially those involving religious or ethnic conflicts, are still treated with caution.

Jason Tedjasukmana, a Time writer in Indonesia, said he was surprised to see the blacked-out photos and was worried that they might herald a fresh wave of censorship. "This is something new. This is disturbing," he said.

Indonesia's heart of darkness

Asian Wall Street Journal - March 5, 2001

[This is an opinion piece from Tuesday's Asian Wall Street Journal. Mr. Carey is a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford University, where he specializes in Southeast Asian history.]

Peter Carey -- The specter of ethnic cleansing has once again returned to haunt Indonesia. In the last two weeks indigenous Dayak warriors have killed as many as 1,000 Madurese settlers and forced 30,000 to leave the province of Central Kalimantan. Some Dayak leaders are warning that they will not rest until every Madurese has been expelled from Kalimantan.

This is not a new phenomenon. In 1997 and 1999, during the upheavals which accompanied the fall of Suharto's "New Order" regime, thousands of Madurese were forced to leave the neighboring province of West Kalimantan.

Then the mangok merah or "red cup of war" was circulated among Borneo's indigenous tribes, and hundreds of Madurese perished while local Javanese, Balinese and other inner island Indonesian migrants were left almost unscathed. Now the same pattern is repeating itself.

What has gone wrong with Indonesia? Has inter-ethnic conflict now reached such a peak that the very integrity of the unitary republic is at risk? Bhinneka tunggal ika or "unity in diversity" is the reassuring motto of the Indonesian state, a motto in part inspired by the United States's e pluribus unum. Indonesia's founding fathers hoped the vast archipelago might one day, like North America, become a congenial "melting pot" of cultures in which wider Indonesian identity would replace older ethnic and racial atavisms.

Since Suharto's fall in May 1998, however, quite the opposite seems to have happened. Long simmering secessionist movements have burst forth with renewed vigor in Aceh and West Papua, resource-rich outer-island provinces have demanded and are now receiving -- at least at the district level -- greater autonomy, and violence has fractured ancient local communities along religious and ethnic lines. During the past two years, some three million Indonesians have become internally displaced within their own country, 400,000 of those in the Malukus alone. Some even speak of the republic going the way of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. But appearances are deceptive.

Recent events in Kalimantan give the lie to the idea that Indonesia is simply disintegrating. The violence in both West and Central Kalimantan has had a specific target -- the Madurese. Other migrant populations have been spared. Indeed, in the case of the 1997 violence in West Kalimantan, local Chinese and Malay populations -- themselves descendants of migrants, many of whom had arrived in the Dutch colonial period (1602-1942) -- joined with the Dayak to attack the Madurese.

This closing of ranks within the local community is understandable given the abrasiveness of the Madurese and the coercive nature of the transmigration policies pursued by Jakarta since the late 1950s. During the New Order period alone some three million inner islanders were moved under World Bank-funded programs from Java, Bali and Madura to the ostensibly "under- populated" outer islands. Many more followed them as "spontaneous" transmigrants, attracted by the prospect of cheap land and commercial opportunities. Of these, some 300,000 Madurese were resettled in Kalimantan, whose total population was only 10 million in the mid-1990s.

While the overt rationale for transmigration was relief of population pressure on over-crowded inner Indonesia, there was also another, less publicly stated goal. The government saw the transmission of inner island agricultural techniques, especially wet-rice cultivation, as a means of imposing "civilizing" economic development and national integration on the "backward" swidden (slash-and-burn) cultivators of such provinces as Central Kalimantan. Ambitious land reclamation schemes were set in motion and sizeable areas of sawah (wet ricefields) were carved out of primary jungle along the great river systems of the Kalimantan interior. At its peak in the mid-1980s, transmigration consumed 6% of Indonesia's total national budget, with the cost of moving a single family in excess of $7,000. The program was only officially ended in August 2000.

Poor planning (especially the lack of environmental impact surveys), degradation of local resources and disputes over land ownership all marred the implementation of the transmigration program. But the most serious problems involved inter-ethnic conflicts. Here cultural attitudes were the key.

Even in the most contested areas, such as Indonesian-occupied East Timor (1975-99), the arrival of officially sponsored transmigrants did not necessarily spell disaster. The 700 Balinese families who were brought into the fertile rice-growing Maliana plain near the border with Indonesian West Timor, for example, apparently built up good relations with the local Timorese community and some even inter-married. Had it not been for the Indonesian military's scorched-earth policies in the aftermath of the August 30, 1999 independence vote and the forced evacuation of all Indonesian nationals, many Balinese might have elected to stay in Maliana and become citizens of the soon-to-be independent state. Admired for their agricultural skills and their cultural adaptability, there is no reason why they should not have found an honored home as citizens of the new Republic of Timor Loro Sae.

The Madurese, however, are a different story. Hailing from one of the poorest parts of inner island Indonesia, an island renowned in the Dutch colonial period for only two products -- salt and soldiers -- the Madurese brought with them their own village- based martial traditions (epitomized by the grass-cutting sickles stuck in their waistbands) and an unflinching style of Islam. This sat ill with the animist belief systems of the local Dayak majority, who are renowned throughout Indonesia for their knowledge of the black arts and their own head-hunting traditions.

The fact that the Madurese were competing with the Dayak for scarce economic resources in the poorest of the three provinces of Kalimantan made them difficult neighbors. Indeed, once the weight of the New Order's security state apparatus had begun to decline with the onset of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Jakarta's ability to contain these seething resentments of outer island populations against unassimilated transmigrant communities was put to the test. Nowhere has this been more serious than in Kalimantan.

The slowness of the government's response to the current crisis is a measure of the sheer scale of the problems now confronting Indonesia.

With a third of its navy blockading the Malukus, new security problems arising daily in Aceh and West Papua, and the crisis over President Abdurrahman Wahid's leadership causing unrest in Java itself there is precious little spare capacity available to contain the violence in Kalimantan. Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri's hurried visit to Central Kalimantan last week may underscore the government's concern, but unless it is followed by concrete action the crisis will not be resolved.

First, Jakarta must realize that in the specific case of the Madurese in Kalimantan, transmigration has not worked. Sufficient security forces must be deployed to guarantee the safe and orderly return of those remaining Madurese who are seeking repatriation to inner-island Indonesia.

Second, immediate meetings must be sought with local community and adat, (customary) leaders, to find new ways to improve inter-communal relations. Such meetings have in the southern and southeastern Malukus have resulted in a decline in violence and in previously displaced populations being allowed to return to their old homes. Something similar must be attempted in Central Kalimantan.

Third, every effort must be made in the current devolution process to make sure resources are divided fairly among local communities. The province of East Kalimantan has shown the way forward here by announcing that it intends to make all junior and senior high school education free for local inhabitants once it starts receiving expected royalties from foreign oil and gas, and mining companies. Central Kalimantan may not have such assets at its disposal, but the combination of timber, agriculture and tourism could generate sufficient income to ensure better social welfare facilities and economic opportunities for all its people.

Now is the time for statesmanship -- not the knee-jerk, security-state responses of the New Order. If she wishes to preserve her father's legacy, Megawati Sukarnoputri will need to act with skill and imagination. What better place to start than in Central Kalimantan?

Dayak tribe feels disenfranchised

Associated Press - March 6, 2001

Daniel Cooney, Kualakuayan -- Deep in the heartland of Borneo Island, a civil servant named Manarung explains why his tribe is perfectly justified in massacring hundreds of people and driving out tens of thousands of others.

"They did not respect our culture. The Madurese are all thieves and murderers," he said, sitting in his wooden hut on the banks of the Mentaya River, which snakes through dense rain forest.

His fellow Dayak tribespeople went on a rampage last month, killing more than 450 settlers from the island of Madura, beheading or ripping the hearts out of many.

Manarung -- who represents the government in the village of Kualakuayan and who, like many Indonesians, uses only one name -- said he personally didn't kill anyone. But it was Dayaks from his small village who are alleged to have massacred 118 settlers on a soccer field in the neighboring village of Parenggean on February 25 in the worst incident in two weeks of bloodshed that began in mid-February.

Thrust into modernity after centuries of isolation, many Dayaks feel disenfranchised in their own land. Traditional bonds to the rain forest have been largely severed by government and business interests eager to exploit the vast resource-rich region.

Dayaks have moved out of the forest and into cities and towns and languish at the bottom of the economic ladder.

As the economy has nosedived in recent years, they have found someone to blame: the Madurese. The Madurese were first brought to the Indonesian half of Borneo in large numbers as part of government effort to relieve overcrowding in other parts of the country. The ethnic tensions caused by those migrations were largely suppressed during the 32-year dictatorship of former President Suharto -- but started to boil after Suharto's 1998 ouster.

Carmel Budiardjo, the head of the London-based Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, said the Dayaks are using the Madurese as scapegoats.

"The Dayaks' whole livelihood has been destroyed over the past three decades due to development and they have been marginalized by it," she said.

They have lost much of their forest and land to logging, legal and illegal, and to vast palm-oil plantations.

Once logging companies take the most valuable timber, the Dayaks can't make a living from agro-forestry and small-scale logging, said a joint statement by the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign and Down to Earth, a Britain-based environmental group specializing in Indonesian issues.

"The commercial loggers and the oil-palm estates which replace them prefer to use migrant labor rather than employ Dayaks," the groups said.

In cities and towns, the Madurese dominate small-scale trade and transport businesses such as minibuses and pedicabs. Dayaks have difficulty competing with Madurese for jobs in gold, tin and copper mines, and in palm-oil plantations.

"They see the Madurese as the outward manifestation of all these problems," Budiardjo said.

The Dayaks' rampage has sent thousands of Madurese fleeing, evacuated by ship to Indonesia's main island, Java.

"I would like to return but I am afraid they [the Dayaks] will cut my head off," said Marsari, a 52-old coconut farmer with 10 children and 7 grandchildren, who hid in the jungle for 10 days before being evacuated. "Even though they burnt my house down my farm still has a promising crop. I don't know what to do. I don't know where I will work or what food we will eat today or tomorrow," he said in the Java port of Surabaya.

Budiardjo said the outside world shares the blame. The World Bank helped finance the Madurese resettlement for a decade before pulling out in 1989 amid criticism that the Dayaks' culture was being ignored. Foreign companies import timber from Borneo, much of it harvested illegally.

Religion also comes into it. The Dayaks blend Christianity and animism, and many Muslim Madurese are offended by some Dayak practices, such as eating pork.

The government in Jakarta has largely ignored the Dayaks' grievances, focusing on financial profit from the region, Budiardjo said.

President Abdurrahman Wahid left Indonesia on a two-week overseas trip four days after the massacres began on February 18, and rejected calls to return home and deal with the crisis.

Indonesia specialist John Taylor, a professor at South Bank University in London, said the Dayaks have become confused about their identity, with a sharp contrast between their daily lives and perceptions of their ancestors.

Even though most Dayaks wear Western clothes, ride motorbikes and watch TV, they suddenly decided to reprise ancient tribal war practices such as eating their victims' hearts, believing it would strengthen them.

Refugees created by ethnic violence could be next time bomb

Newsweek - March 12, 2001

Joe Cochrane -- The scenes from Borneo last week were both horrific and horrifyingly familiar. Gangs of local Dayaks in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan hunted down ethnic Madurese with spears and machetes.

Hearts were ripped out of corpses; bodies, even those of children, were decapitated. As many as 500 people, almost all Madurese, may have died.

The true number of victims may ultimately be much higher. Already 21,000 Madurese have been evacuated to East Java, for temporary resettlement on Madura itself, a desiccated, barren island just off the coast. An additional 30,000 sit in fetid refugee camps in Central Kalimantan, waiting to be relocated. Together they account for most of the province's Madurese community-and add to Indonesia 's growing population of internally displaced people, which now stands at more than 1 million, roughly 10 percent of the world's total.

Those floating communities -- expelled from their homes in the brush-fire wars that have racked Indonesia since former strongman Suharto stepped down in 1998, trapped in disheveled camps or unfamiliar provinces or even long-forgotten hometowns -- may be the country's next time bomb. They contradict the hope that Indonesia can cohere as a pluralist state, with more than 300 ethnic groups spread across 13,000 islands and speaking some 450 languages. And they only confirm the fears of those who think the nation might shatter into dozens of fragile, "independent" states.

The killings in Borneo present perhaps the starkest example of this cycle of violence. In late 1997 mobs of indigenous Dayaks also attacked Madurese settlers, many of whom had lived in Kalimantan for more than 20 years. A thousand were killed and 40,000 evacuated. Resentment between the communities has simmered ever since. Violence has tended to flare at the least excuse: in 1997 riots erupted after a dispute over a bus fare. Police say the latest outburst began on February 18 after two Dayaks, angry at losing their jobs at a local forestry office, paid a mob to attack a Madurese family's house. Madurese retaliated, killing 15 Dayaks, and the town erupted. On February 25, 118 Madurese were slaughtered as they were being evacuated by police. The violence spread 200 kilometers east to the provincial capital, Palangkaraya, where Dayaks looted and torched Madurese homes.

At the same time, the savagery reflects deeper resentments. The Madurese in Kalimantan largely arrived as part of the Suharto-era transmigration program, in which millions of Indonesians were relocated from the crowded central islands to more remote, less populated provinces. The idea was to reduce pressure on the resources of Java, Bali and other islands and develop isolated areas. Suharto didn't worry about the ethnic and religious combinations he was creating; in fact, his officials argued that blending communities would help foster an overarching national identity. And besides, the armed forces and police could quell any unrest by brute force. "In the beginning it all seemed like a wise plan," says one Westerner who was a development officer in Indonesia during the 1980s, when the World Bank put up $5 billion to support Jakarta's transmigration schemes. "But the Suharto government was very highhanded. They just went in and took land and didn't give any compensation to the local people, and then they gave the migrants all the economic deals. It's like what happened to the American Indian."

In Borneo, the program brought in thousands of settlers from Madura, an inhospitable island whose residents have traditionally made their living elsewhere. Their new neighbors were the indigenous Dayaks, already angry at being pushed off their tribal forest lands by big logging companies. "The Dayaks remain the most marginalized of Indonesian ethnic groups," says Dewi Fortuna Anwar, an adviser to former president B. J. Habibie. "They rely on the forest and a traditional way of life. Then you have the Madurese, who are hot-tempered and resort to violence to resolve disputes." The prosperous newcomers tend to think of the Dayaks as stupid and lazy. The powerless Dayaks see the Madurese as greedy and arrogant.

Similarly irrational hatreds have fueled the conflicts that have spawned swarms of refugees across the country. Separatist insurgencies in Aceh and Irian Jaya have displaced more than 70,000 people. A festering religious war between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas has killed up to 5,000 and driven whole communities from island to island. In West Timor an estimated 120,000 East Timorese still fill camps abandoned by the United Nations after militiamen killed three UN workers last September.

Jakarta does little for most refugees beyond evacuating them when violence erupts. The problem of resettling and reintegrating them is left to the provinces. North and South Sulawesi provinces are taking care of almost half a million refugees from the Moluccas.

In West Kalimantan, an estimated 40,000 Madurese still populate camps in the capital, Pontianak, where diseases like typhus and dysentery are rampant.

In many areas, cast adrift by the government, refugees have returned to their families and original villages. In places like Madura, that puts a dramatic strain on an already overburdened local economy. In other places, like Sulawesi, officials worry that refugees traumatized and angered by ethnic violence will bring their new resentments with them. (Last year Irian Jaya refused to let a shipload of refugees from the Moluccas unload, afraid the holy war might spread.) Those driven out by separatists from Aceh and Irian Jaya are even more determined that the Army should keep those provinces within the Indonesian fold.

Of course, the military is also part of the problem. In the Moluccas, troops have joined the warring sides in their battles; in West Timor, they tolerate the pro-Jakarta militias that destroyed East Timor. Last week at least five battalions of soldiers and police were rushed to Central Kalimantan. They mostly kept out of the mobs' way. One member of the Mobile Brigade, an elite police unit, was asked why he didn't try to stop rioters from burning a nearby house. He replied: "It's not my duty." On February 27 a fire fight broke out between troops and policemen evacuating Madurese from the port at Sampit, allegedly over dividing up the bribes both were charging refugees to get on the boat.

Still, officials insist the cycle of violence can stop. "Don't set too complicated a scenario," Resettlement Minister Erna Witoelar warns. "The refugee situation is different, and the reasons for conflict are different in each and every part of Indonesia." Some outsiders agree. "This has been a very tolerant country and a very tolerant people," says G. Ravi Rajan, resident representative of the UN Development Program. "It would be a stretch to say [the vision] has failed." To judge by the 1 million refugees scattered across the archipelago, though, the word success can hardly apply.

The bloody birth of a 'messy state'

Newsweek - March 12, 2001

Melinda Liu -- Terrified, the victims hid in the jungle. At long last the police came, announcing over loudspeakers that it was safe to come out. So some 300 Madurese-Muslims whose families had settled in Borneo over the last four decades-emerged from the bush. That was the worst mistake many of them would ever make.

This was Indonesia, where neither police nor the Army can hold the line any longer against the forces of chaos and savagery. The Madurese were met by a large crowd of machete-swinging Dayaks-an indigenous people whose ancestors were animists and cannibals. The handful of police ran away, and the Dayaks descended. They beheaded some of the Madurese and ripped open chests to tear out and eat still-beating hearts. "They were like wild pigs," one shocked witness, Tuguh Ernawan, told Newsweek after the incident last week. "I saw a beautiful young woman die. They stabbed her with a spear in the side, then cut off her head and took out her heart."

Indonesia used to be considered an important place-when Washington bothered to notice. With 210 million residents, it's the world's most populous Muslim country. Some 40 percent of the world's commerce passes through its key sea lanes. Western corporate giants such as Caltex, Mobil, British Petroleum and Freeport-McMoRan represent vast oil and mining investments here.

Three years ago, when the Southeast Asian financial crisis blew through the region, battering Indonesia like a monsoon, Washington was alarmed. International Monetary Fund chief Michel Camdessus, prodded by the US Treasury, rushed in and imposed a harsh financial fix on the then President Suharto that led to the collapse of many banks and businesses. The IMF later admitted its policy was too draconian, but it was too late. The bailout scheme failed, Suharto resigned and the West exulted at the expected dawning of democracy. Then, for the most part, it stopped paying attention.

But the Suharto regime's mechanisms of control disappeared along with him. The iron hand of the military had previously tamped down restive ethnic communities in this vast archipelago. Now the Army became weakened, distracted. Two years ago ruthless militias began murdering separatists in East Timor, and Indonesia spiraled into a seemingly endless cycle of ethnic violence. Christians and Muslims began killing each other in the former Spice Islands. Javanese soldiers have slaughtered civilians while fighting separatist rebels in Aceh. Indigenous residents in Irian Jaya rioted and clashed with police over the raising of their independence flag.

"Nobody can overcome these conflicts, and if there are more of them, the government will collapse," says Jusuf Wanandi, head of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies.

With an ethnically diverse population spread across an archipelago of 14,000 islands, Indonesia might seem to be ripe for disintegration, like Yugoslavia a decade ago. Yet few expect the country to break up totally, not least because the military, however less organized it is today than under Suharto, is resisting it. "Indonesia is too big to fail completely, but we could become a danger to ourselves and to our neighbors," says Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a prominent political scientist. It's more likely that Indonesia descends into a long-term state of disorder, and central authority simply vanishes. Yet that's worrisome, too, because there's no clear-cut end state. Massive refugee flows, piracy, regional tensions and environmental devastation are already occurring; haze from unchecked slash-and-burn farming is choking nearby Singapore. As a result, Jakarta-based Western diplomats have invented a whole new category of chaos: the "messy state." "This isn't failing," says one. "There's a new sort of entity emerging-but no one knows what it is yet."

And neither Washington nor other Western countries seem very interested in stepping in, as they did during the East Timor crisis and the financial contagion. Nor even does Indonesia's president appear especially concerned. As the bloodshed increased last week in Borneo's Central Kalimantan province, President Abdurrahman Wahid, 60, a nearly blind Muslim cleric, set off on a 15-day trip to the Middle East and Africa. Wahid told journalists in Cairo that the news media had blown things "out of proportion" and there were "only two headless bodies" found. Western governments displayed a lack of urgency, too. Secretary of State Colin Powell recently told Congress that Australia should "take the lead" in dealing with Indonesia's problems, adding that Washington doesn't have to jump at "every 911 call that's out there." The Sydney Morning Herald shot back in an editorial that Australia has enough on its plate "without the new US administration's inevitable policy fumblings being dumped on it." The West's influence on Jakarta's policies began long before the 1997 financial scare. For decades, Western governments and businesses courted President Suharto's regime.

They generally chose to ignore the regime's rampant corruption and human-rights abuses. One of Suharto's most controversial policies was a program called "transmigration." Entire communities were moved from densely populated islands like Java and Madura to less crowded ones, such as Borneo, mingling diverse and sometimes antagonistic ethnic groups. "In the beginning, it all seemed like a wise plan," says a Western diplomat who was a development officer in Indonesia in the 1980s. "The World Bank gladly supported transmigration to the tune of $5 billion." But Suharto's government failed to pay adequate compensation for the land it seized. Now Jakarta is grappling with more than 1 million internally displaced people-10 percent of the world's total-many of them transmigration victims forced out of their adopted homes by the post-Suharto chaos. Last week's grisly scenes on Borneo culminated in a cruel mirror image of Suharto's transmigration scheme. Soldiers and police herded thousands of traumatized Madurese migrants-many of whom had been shipped to the area in the '70s-onto evacuation ships for safe passage out of Central Kalimantan. At one point police and soldiers engaged in a two- hour fire fight against each other .

The violence has since taken on a medieval religious cast as well.

In the Moluccas (formerly known as the Spice Islands), Christians attacked Muslim settlers who were perceived as monopolizing scarce jobs. Sociologist Thamrin Tomagola of the University of Indonesia says there have been more deaths per capita there than in Bosnia, making the Moluccan conflict "the most terrible civil war in the world."

The once idyllic Moluccan capital of Ambon, perched on the edge of a crystalline bay, is now an Asian Sarajevo. It's segregated into Muslim and Christian sectors, sliced apart by a green line that locals simply call "the Border." The day may come when Ambon wishes it were Sarajevo; after all, the war in Bosnia eventually ended thanks to Western intervention. By contrast, no one today has any ideas for saving a messy state.

[With Paul Dillon in Borneo and Joe Cochrane in Jakarta.]

The violence in Central Kalimantan

Statement by Tapol and Down to earth - March 2, 2001

Down to Earth and TAPOL express deep concern about the horrific violence and ethnic cleansing in Central Kalimantan

Violence has again erupted between Dayaks and Madurese, this time in Central Kalimantan. Groups of Dayak men have descended on settlers from Madura, driving them from their homes, killing and burning houses to the ground. The conflict broke out in the town of Sampit on Saturday night, 17th February, when a house belonging to a Dayak was burnt down.

Settlers from Java and Madura were suspected. Several hundred indigenous people soon took revenge by burning settlers' houses. Six people died. The violence spread rapidly into neighbouring towns and villages and as far as Palangkaraya, the provincial capital, 220km to the east. Estimates of the human costs vary widely. Local sources state that over the ten day period there were up to 700 deaths and as many as 57,000 people -- mostly Madurese -- have fled their homes. Countless houses and other property have been burned.

By March 2nd, the violence had subsided sufficiently for Vice- President Megawati to make a 30 minute visit to a refugee camp in Sampit.

However, the relative calm was only because most of the Madurese immigrants had sought sanctuary in camps or evacuated to Java. Officials in other districts of Central Kalimantan have refused to accept refugees for fear that the violence will follow. The authorities in Barito Utara, location of the disastrous million hectare swamp rice project, have been listing the ethnic origin of all settlers and transmigrants and instructed all Madurese to leave the area by March 2nd. A wave of ethnic cleansing is now underway.

Conditions in the refugee camps in Sampit are dreadful. Supplies of water, food and medicines and sanitation are totally inadequate. There is a high risk of diseases such as dysentery, cholera and TB. Some people have died already. The governor of Central Kalimantan claims that 24,000 Madurese have left Kalimantan during the past week, mainly by ship to East Java and hopes that the rest will have gone by the end of next weekend.

Violent confrontations between the indigenous Dayak people and Madurese settlers in Kalimantan occurred under Sukarno, through the Suharto era and now under Wahid's government. In Central Kalimantan last year, four people died in incidents in Kumai in August and in Ampalit in December; much property including homes and vehicles was also burned. Clashes go back to the 1950s in neighbouring West Kalimantan. In late 1996/early 1997 violence between these two groups caused at least 600 deaths. Three years later there are still an estimated 40,000 Madurese refugees living in wretched conditions in 'temporary' camps in West Kalimantan's provincial capital Pontianak.

Successive governments have done nothing to address the roots of the problem. Typically, the killings only stop once the incomers have been driven out of one district. A well-publicised peace ceremony of government officials and prominent leaders of Madurese and Dayak communities is held. National and international reporters stop filing stories about headhunting and other atrocities and move on to the next war zone, while the authorities behave as if the conflict had been resolved -- until the next outbreak.

A major cause of the conflict between indigenous Dayaks and Madurese settlers -- and other ethnic conflicts in Indonesia -- has been the 'development' that the Suharto regime promoted for over thirty years.

Natural resources, including Kalimantan's forests and minerals were parcelled as concessions for a powerful business elite. The customary landowners -- the indigenous Dayaks -- were systematically denied their land and resource rights. They have had no recourse to legal action to defend their rights since, under Indonesian law, forests belong to the state.

Tropical rainforest was turned into plywood, veneers and sawn timber for export in the name of development. Large timber companies made substantial profits and moved on to invest in plantations, banking and real estate, becoming giant conglomerates. The natural wealth of Kalimantan flowed through the hands of Suharto's family and their business associates and helped to fuel Indonesia's economic boom which lasted until the mid 1990s.

Much has changed in Indonesia since the Asian economic collapse, the fall of Suharto and a new democratically elected government, but the model of economic wealth driven by the ruthless exploitation of natural resources remains intact. Under new regional autonomy legislation, districts must raise sufficient income from natural resources under its control to pay for public services, support the bureaucracy, make a profit for local elites and send revenues to Jakarta.

The international community has supported this. The IMF's 'economic rescue package' promotes exports of timber, minerals and plantation crops such as palm oil to balance Indonesia's financial books. This includes paying off international creditors who were so keen to lend during the Suharto years.

The World Bank funded the Indonesian government's transmigration programme for a number of years and, with the Asian Development Bank, supported an estate crop system which depends on transmigrant labour.

The various Dayak tribes have been subjected to enormous, rapid change. Traditional lifestyles have been almost wiped out within one or two generations in many areas. The Dayaks cannot make a living from agro-forestry and small-scale logging once the logging companies have stripped the most valuable timber, especially once plantation companies move in to clear what remained. The commercial loggers and the oil palm estates which replace them prefer to use migrant labour rather than employ Dayaks. Many are 'spontaneous' migrants -- people other islands seeking new opportunities to get land, set up a small business or trade.

Central Kalimantan where the latest bout of violence erupted exemplifies these problems. The local economy depends on timber and plantations.

The district of Kotawaringin Timur, of which Sampit is the capital, covers about 5 million hectares, nearly all of which was forest thirty years ago.

Now only 2.7 million ha is designated 'forest land'. The rest has become agricultural land, plantations, settlements or unproductive scrub and grassland. Only 0.5 million ha is classified as 'protected forest' and local people are prohibited by law from using this to make a living.

Over 1 million hectares of the remaining forest is to be 'converted' to estate crops. Illegal logging is rife and the forests will be commercially logged out within ten years. Local people have little to show in return for the forests they have lost. Most live below the official poverty line.

Sampit, a thriving port town, is the centre of the legal and illegal timber industry and the trading and administrative centre for the area.

Almost all these activities are dominated by outsiders. Sampit has the air of a booming frontier town but for all its apparent wealth its infrastructure is poor: the electricity supply is intermittent and there is a lack of clean drinking water. There is just one asphalt road which cuts east-west across the district from Palangkaraya to Pangkalanbun and this is in very poor condition due to the heavy traffic of logging trucks. Sampit's 'get rich quick' atmosphere attracts migrants. Corruption is everywhere. The local police who used to levy a 10% tax on tourists are now said to be soliciting extra income from refugees desperate to leave Kalimantan.

The mobs of angry local youths who appear in photographs bearing severed heads on spears are being portrayed as Dayak warriors, head hunters or savages. While they are carrying out ethnic cleansing, they are -- in effect -- the victims of the destruction of their ethnic identity.

'Development' has eroded traditional lifestyles and undermined the authority of community leaders. It has offered young indigenous people little in return. The majority have only had a few years of primary education, due to lack of schools and the money to pay fees. They are ill-equipped to compete with migrants. Most rely on poorly-paid manual work and casual employment.

A whole generation has been promised a brighter future firstly through Suharto's Pancasila, then through reformasi and now demokrasi. Yet most people have remained poor and powerless. As in other areas where 'horizontal conflicts' have broken out, people in Central Kalimantan without power are turning on other groups because they are frustrated and do not know who else to blame for their day-to-day misery.

There is little doubt that certain individuals and factions benefit from such conflict and lawlessness both locally and nationally. The military are foremost among these. It was not helpful of President Wahid to order several battalions of special troops to be dispatched to Central Kalimantan while on yet another international trip. Nothing has been learned from the tragedy of the Moluccas where the intervention of the military has intensified the conflict between two communities. Military solutions such as a state of emergency or orders to shoot on sight will not solve anything.

We condemn the local police for colluding in ethnic cleansing. They have stood by while Dayak youths terrorise and murder. We also condemn the local authorities who consider that helping the Madurese to leave is the only solution. Indonesia is a multi- ethnic society and communities must find ways of living together peacefully. More effort needs to be made by schools, religious, youth and community leaders and local authorities to break down the long-standing hostile perceptions which the Dayaks and Madurese have of each other. We commend initiatives such as those in Yogya, where Madurese and Dayak students have jointly expressed solidarity, understanding and mutual support during the current violence and urged their communities back home to find peaceful solutions.

Action

Tapol and Down to Earth:

• Call on all parties immediately to stop the violence;
• Call on the local police to fulfil their responsibilities to enforce the law and prevent further violence;
• Call on grassroots community leaders from both sides of the conflict to meet and find ways of preventing further conflict;
• Call on the governor of central Kalimantan and district heads not to attempt to resolve the problem through the mass eviction of the Madurese, but to promote genuine reconciliation between the two groups;
• Call for a proper investigation into the causes of the conflict by an independent body such as the National Commission for Human Rights, and for those responsible for the killings to be brought to justice;

The following measures need urgent attention to address the underlying causes:

• Recognition of indigenous peoples' customary rights over land and resources;
• Reform of Indonesian land laws and forest and other sectoral laws which violate indigenous rights;
• A stop to all permits for the conversion of natural forest to large-scale plantations;
• An immediate two year moratorium on all logging, as proposed by Indonesian civil society groups.

Armed forces 'misread' Kalimantan clashes

Straits Times - March 5, 2001

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Security forces were slow to react to the crisis in Central Kalimantan because ground commanders "misread" the intensity of the conflict, a high-ranking government official said yesterday.

In acknowledging what was clearly another serious bungle by the police and Indonesian armed forces (TNI), he said they failed to ask for reinforcements early, and alerted Jakarta only after the violence had spiralled out of control and begun to spread.

"They miscalculated," he said. "They wanted to handle the problems without any interference from outside. It was only after they realised they had failed to read the ground correctly that they alerted us."

The TNI sent two battalions of 800 soldiers to the trouble spots of Sampit and Palangkaraya only after more than a week of ethnic clashes between Dayaks and Madurese that left over 400 dead and saw the exodus of tens of thousands of refugees.

Analysts said it was no surprise that local military officials were slow to respond in Kalimantan -- where there have been 13 documented cases of violence in the last five years -- given that their focus there was on business activities, not internal security.

Said a Western diplomat: "Kalimantan ranks as one of the lowest in terms of priorities ... The best men are not sent there because it is viewed as a semi-retirement post. It is where they can make money from illegal logging, gambling and prostitution rackets. Internal security is the last thing on their mind."

But the government source refuted this and maintained that Kalimantan was "as important as any other province in Indonesia".

He said there were more plausible reasons to explain the reluctance of officers to intervene -- their concern about being accused of rights violation if soldiers moved in and acted to quell the unrest. There was also fear of antagonising the locals.

Lower-ranking commanders who see no hope of moving up the ranks often turn to alternative career paths as village chiefs or provincial officials -- which require broad-based local support in the region.

Observers said such factors have resulted in an erosion and malfunctioning of the TNI chain of command.

Increasingly, coordination between the central and local commands has gone awry -- in part because of factional rivalry and some military elements out to destabilise the civilian regime.

But the government official, in defending the military, said that it "had every right to turn a blind eye" to the Kalimantan debacle because internal security was no longer under its purview. "People fail to realise that the police are now in charge of law and order in the country," he said.

Given the growing fears that Indonesia could implode with ethnic and religious conflicts, he said the TNI "is unlikely to sit back and watch the whole country break down".

"That is why the army wants to regain its old domestic security function. The police is just not up to the task now," he said.

Human rights/law

Priok probe to be continued

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- The Attorney General's Office will not stop the investigation into the riotous 1984 incident in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, regardless of the peace pact made between victims and military officers.

The office's deputy general for general crimes, M.A. Rachman, who leads the investigation, said on Friday that the Islamic reconciliation pact, called islah, will not affect the investigation, which is scheduled to be completed in April.

"Not all of the victims agree with the islah, and the pact has nothing to do with this office. We have so far questioned 46 out of 56 victims and their relatives, so we hope we can complete the investigation next month. After that, we'll announce the suspects in the case," he said.

The pact was made on March 1, when both sides agreed to forgive each other and decided that the case was settled and should not be reopened. They also agreed to cooperate by establishing a foundation for the victims.

The officers signed the islah included Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno, Sugeng Subroto, Pranowo, Soekarno, Rudolf A. Butar-butar, Sriyanto and H. Mattaoni.

Try, a former vice president, was the Jakarta Military Commander and Butar-butar was the North Jakarta Military Commander when the incident took place on September 12, 1984.

Previous governments have claimed that the clash with the military took place following provocative lectures at the Tanjung Priok Rawa Badak Mosque, by preachers criticizing the government.

A report by the National Commission of Human Rights revealed that the incident killed 33 people -- the identities of 14 victims remain unknown -- and a Chinese-Indonesian family of eight and their servant were burned to death when their house was set on fire. It also stated that at least 55 people were injured during the incident.

Rachman said that although some of the victims demanded that the investigation be halted, his office would not fulfill those demands because it had a duty to investigate incidents concerning serious human rights abuses.

"I'm responsible to the National Commission for Human Rights, who initially started an inquiry over the case but later handed it over to us for further investigation."

News & issues

Jakarta women grapple with groping on local trains

Straits Times - March 11, 2001

Jakarta -- Women in this city are often harassed sexually when they take the extremely crowded public trains.

"Almost every day a man will try to press his body against me," Yurike [not her real name], a teacher who takes the train almost every day, said. "If I get angry, they just say 'if you don't want to get touched, don't take the train'," she said.

"Once, I asked a man to help me up onto the train, and after he gave me a hand he sneeringly thanked me. I realised he thanked me for touching me," she said.

Anita [not her real name] tells a similar story. The employee of a private bank in central Jakarta said she has to wear a skirt to office and often has to deal with men trying to grope her.

Meanwhile, Sugandi, 28, a janitor at a mall in south Jakarta, said with no apparent shame, that he availed of the opportunities provided by crowded trains.

"Where else can I enjoy those pretty women? Trains are the right place," he said. "It's impossible a beautiful woman would ever look at me, but I can touch and even kiss them on trains."

Arief Rifky, a student at a private university, said he felt disgusted whenever he saw such instances. "I want to do something to stop it, but I can't do anything ... I think the best way to stop this harassment is to provide special compartments for women," he said.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice Rita Serena Kolibonso said: "A woman must immediately berate the man who is trying to harass her on the train, or these types of incidents will be seen as common and lawful occurrences."

US government supports democratic Indonesia

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- The United States has reiterated its continuing support for Indonesia to resolve its internal conflicts by peaceful and democratic means.

"The United States strongly supports a peaceful, democratic, constitutional political process in Indonesia," according to a statement by the American Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday.

The statement came in the wake of various interpretations and reactions by Indonesian politicians, government and military officials to a March 2 editorial of the Washington Post.

Many read the editorial as suggesting that the administration of President George W. Bush would turn to the Indonesian Military to prevent the country from plunging into anarchy.

Others interpreted this as condoning a military takeover amid widespread speculations of a possible coup d'etat in view of the present political crisis engulfing the country. The military has firmly denied the suggestions.

"The United States welcomes recent statements by senior Indonesian military officials that the military will respect the Constitution and remain out of politics," the short statement by the embassy said.

Indonesia still faces an embargo on sales of US military equipment and aid, which was imposed by the then Clinton administration in late 1998 because of Jakarta's poor handling of the East Timor debacle.

Many experts believe, or hope, that the embargo would soon be lifted by the new Bush administration.

Soeharto used to demand protection: Sudjana

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2001

Jakarta -- Former minister of mines and energy Ida Bagus Sudjana revealed on Wednesday that ex-president Soeharto told him to "protect" a company belonging to the latter's son, Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Sudjana claimed that during his term of office between 1993 and 1998, the then president had several times reminded him to give special attention to oil company PT Ustraindo Petro Gas, which had been awarded a project by the state oil and gas company Pertamina.

Sudjana said that an assessment conducted by Pertamina's board of commissioners in 1994 found that PT Ustraindo, in which Bambang owned 40 percent of the shares, was incapable of carrying out any further development work on the oil project. In addition to Bambang being a major shareholder in the company, its president Praptono H. Upojo was a relative of the late first lady Madam Tien Soeharto.

Pertamina and PT Ustraindo were then ordered to resolve the problems with the help of two working groups set up by the board of commissioners to resolve investment and technical problems respectively. This resulted in an amended contract being signed by Sudjana on March 20, 1995.

"I sent the [then] president a letter on March 14 saying that an agreement between Pertamina and PT Ustraindo had been hammered out in order to save the project, but I also explained that the company had failed to fulfill its obligation to supply investors to finance the project," he told reporters after being questioned for six hours at the Attorney General's Office.

He said that Pertamina had also agreed to accept less oil under the amended agreement.

Sudjana, who also served ex officio as the chief commissioner of Pertamina, has been named a suspect in an abuse of power case involving the resumption of four technical assistance contracts for oil field development projects as a result of which, it is alleged, the state suffered losses of US$6.8 million.

The contracts, which involved oil fields in Bunyu, East Kalimantan, Prabumulih and Pendopo in South Sumatra, and Jatibarang on the north coast of West Java, needed no technical assistance, it is alleged.

Sudjana said that his being named a suspect was merely a political ploy timed to coincide with the government's campaign to eradicate corruption. "I'm not guilty. I did all I could to save the state from losses," he said.

The controversial project involving Bambang's company started in 1992 following a recommendation issued by Soeharto on January 6, 1991.

Sudjana's predecessor Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who is now in the United States, is also suspected of having caused $18 million in losses to the state in connection with the project. Ginandjar, a fellow at Harvard University, has said that he would return home in July after he finished his work at the university.

However, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said separately on Wednesday that Ginandjar must come to his office within one month.

Gus Dur back home as anti-government demonstrators rally

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2001

Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid arrived home after midnight on Thursday, an hour after some 4,000 youths from different camps rallied peacefully in front of the Merdeka Palace.

The Garuda Airbus carrying the beleaguered President and his entourage landed at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta 40 minutes into midnight amid tight security cordon.

Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Coordinating Minister for Political, Social Affairs and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Cabinet Secretary Marsilam Simanjuntak, Indonesian Military Commander Adm. Widodo A.S., National Police Chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, State Coordinating Intelligence Body Chief Arie J. Kumaat and presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar were among state officials greeting the President at the airport.

In a press conference onboard the plane, Gus Dur asserted that he never doubted Megawati's loyalty despite mounting support for her to take the lead.

"I've never been doubtful. If so, I would have not gone abroad. It's all up to her, and she has told the media that she would never act based on her own decision or violate the Constitution," the President said. However, Abdurrahman refused to comment on a possible Cabinet reshuffle.

Earlier, demonstrators from the Justice Guard, a youth wing of the Justice Party, demanded the resignation of Abdurrahman for yet another failure in not preventing the ethnic riot in Sampit, Central Kalimantan that left hundreds, mostly Madurese migrants, killed.

Another group of some 200 youths who claimed to represent the Suburban Muslim Students (Mampir) stood close to the other crowd but separated by a security cordon made up of some 1,000 police officers. Like their rival group, Mampir supporters chanted religious verses almost throughout the rally.

Other Muslim groups representing the Hisbullah Front and student executive board of Ibnu Khaldun University in Bogor briefly appeared near the palace. No incident broke out until the masses dispersed at about 20 minutes to midnight.

Wearing head scarfs and carrying posters, Justice Guard activists packed the Hotel Indonesia roundabout at around 8 p.m. before marching along the capital's thoroughfare Jl. M.H. Thamrin en route to the palace. Heavy traffic congestion was seen on the main street and the adjacent access roads as a result of the rally.

Pressure has been mounting for Abdurrahman to resign or be ousted by the People's Consultative Assembly for his failure to implement reforms and take the country out of its current crisis.

His decision to proceed with his two-week trip abroad despite the bloody unrest in Kalimantan has added fuel to the growing resentment of him. Abdurrahman is slated to visit the riot-torn Sampit on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Student Executive Board (BEM) of various universities in the country canceled their plan to stage a protest at Halim Perdanakusuma airport upon the President's arrival.

In place of the rally, the student group called for a nationwide strike on Monday to add pressure for the President's resignation.

A representative of the University of Indonesia, Taufik Riyadi, told Antara the mass strike was a form of public disobedience to the government of Abdurrahman, whom the students accuse has failed to uphold the reform agenda.

Taufik said the rally to welcome the President was called off for fears of possible infiltration. The student activist said many parties who claimed to represent BEM had announced their participation in the rally.

Environment/health

Silicone dreams shattered

Straits Times - March 11, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- They wanted perfect noses, fuller lips and voluptuous breasts. What they ended up with instead were grotesque snouts, disfigured lips and breast cancer.

Thousands of women in Indonesia have become victims of a trendy beauty treatment called the silicone injection. Long outlawed in most developed countries, the treatment has in recent times been attracting numerous Indonesians dissatisfied with their flat noses, unpronounced cheekbones or small bosoms.

The appeal? It is very affordable. Unlike conventional cosmetic surgery, which costs at least six million rupiah (S$1,020), a treatment of liquid silicone starts from 50,000 rupiah (less than S$10) per shot. And it can be done at many beauty salons.

The affordability is exactly why Mrs Tike Suhariadi, 33, had her shots a year ago. "I'm married and I wanted my husband to stay attracted to me," she said.

She went to a salon in East Jakarta which offered a complete "face and body overhaul" and she was instantly attracted by the promises outlined in a brochure. "For less than 400,000 rupiah, I could have a new nose and be able to wear a low-cut dress," she thought then.

The treatment initially went well and she was able to enjoy her new look. But two months after the treatment, her nose started to go extremely red and swollen and painful hives appeared on her breasts.

She is now too embarrassed to leave home. Every time she looks at her red "clown-like" nose in the mirror, she breaks down and cries. She is also worried that she may have to surgically remove her breasts because of severe infection. She is now undergoing treatment to cleanse her body of silicone.

And it is not just educated urban women who are being attracted to silicone makeovers. Those living in small villages have also been lured by the promise of silicone injections.

In Indramayu, a town in West Java, thousands of young women have been injected with silicone. They were approached by door-to-door salespeople who showed them photographs of beautiful celebrities, stars who had supposedly benefited from silicone injections.

Dermatologist Indah Yulianto now treats many of these women. Out of her 50 patients every day, at least five are seeking recovery treatment after being infected by silicone. One of her patients has big holes in her cheeks and tongue; another one is dying of breast cancer. "Imagine injecting poison into your body, it will not like it," said Dr Indah, who is based in Solo, Central Java.

The skin tissues infected by the liquid silicone become inflamed and tumorous. Many victims die because of severe complications affecting the liver, kidneys and lungs.

Although the use and sale of liquid silicone is illegal in countries like the United States, there is no specific law regulating it in Indonesia.

The 1992 law on medicines requires all drugs and its components to be registered with the Ministry of Health. None of the liquid silicone used here has been registered.

The absence of law enforcement makes it impossible to stop the practice. "Everyone is busy talking about politics, no one cares that silicone injections can be just as deadly as riots," said Dr Indah.

Insanity afflicts capital in crisis

Reuters - March 10, 2001

The country's long and brutal economic crisis is sending increasing numbers of people living in the capital insane, a local newspaper said on Friday.

"The number of psychotic people in Jakarta has almost tripled since the crisis," the Kompas daily quoted Endang Dunga, head of the city's social services office, as saying. "Most of them are in a very bad condition in which they don't remember where they came from or who their families are," she added. "Many even don't remember their own name."

Ms Dunga estimated that the number of people suffering from severe mental problems had risen from 790 in 1997, when the country's economic crisis first began, to 2,100.

She said that many of the afflicted were forced to live on the streets of Jakarta, noting that the capital's four state-run mental hospitals simply did not have the capacity to cope with the huge numbers of patients involved.

Indonesia is still struggling to pull out of the financial crisis, and some economists have predicted it could worsen.

Legal battle against PT Freeport reopens

Jakarta Post - March 8, 2001

Jakarta -- The legal battle between the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia opened on Wednesday at the South Jakarta District Court.

Walhi told the hearing that Freeport has been responsible for environmental damage caused by its mining activity in Irian Jaya and that the company should be held responsible for spreading misleading information about a recent accident at its dump site.

The suit was filed following the collapse of a large pile of waste belonging to Freeport at Wanagon Lake near its copper and gold mine in Grasberg, Irian Jaya on May 4, 2000, which led to the death or disappearance of four workers. Freeport had said that the incident was caused by the slippage of overburden waste, which caused a wave of water and material to spill over the Wanagon basin spillway and enter Wanagon valley.

Walhi lawyers Abdul Haris Semendawai, Lukmanul Hakim, and Ersan Budiman stated in the suit that Freeport had violated Law No.23/1997 on environmental management, which obliges every company to provide accurate and correct information about its environmental management activities.

They said that Freeport had provided incorrect information in its press releases dated May 5 and May 24, 2000; during the hearing held by House of Representatives Commission VIII on the Environment, Science, and Technology on June 28, 2000; and in the company's 1998 annual report.

In the press release dated May 5 and during the House hearing, Freeport stated that an early warning system had been set up at Banti, a village 16 kilometers from the Wanagon basin, to warn the villagers of floods. Freeport also stated that the system had worked perfectly. Walhi's lawyers, however, said the early warning system had not worked properly. They blamed the disappearance and death of the workers at Wanagon Lake on the malfunctioning of the early warning system.

According to Walhi, Freeport had deliberately implied that the Wanagon accident had been the result of natural causes.

Walhi pointed out that even though Freeport knew that the lake was prone to accident, the company did not stop dumping huge amounts of the waste in it. Therefore, according to Walhi, the defendants deliberately increased the risk of accidents.

Walhi demanded that Freeport make a public apology through national and international media. The company was also asked to publish a full-page advertisement for one week in at least 10 national daily newspapers and two local daily newspapers in Irian Jaya; and a one-page advertisement for one month in at least 10 national magazines, five international magazines and three international daily newspapers.

In addition, the company must also air prime time advertisements on national and international television stations; and on 10 national radio stations at least five times a day for 10 days, the lawyers added.

The hearing was adjourned until March 21, when Freeport's lawyers, from Minang Warman & Associates, will submit their responses.

Meanwhile, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on Tuesday in Irian Jaya by the head of the Irian Jaya Environmental Impact Management Agency and representatives from PT Freeport Indonesia, The Indonesian Forest Entrepreneurs Association, the Jayapura Science and Technology Institute, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, and the United States Agency for International Development.

The agreement was aimed at implementing many programs on environmental management activities in Irian Jaya, including human resources development and improvements to the information system. The event was witnessed by Irian Jaya Governor J.P. Salossa.

Arms/armed forces

Officers told not to attend political meetings

Jakarta Post - March 7, 2001

Cipatat, Bandung -- Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto warned on Tuesday that no active Army officers are allowed to attend meetings aimed at discussing any specific political agenda.

"If Army officers are invited to join meetings discussing political issues, there's a strong possibility that we would not attend such events as they are already beyond our duties as professional soldiers," Endriartono said here as quoted by Antara.

He was responding to questions about whether the TNI would attend if its officers were invited to the next meeting, following the meeting of leaders of six political parties at the Al Azhar Mosque last Friday. That meeting concluded by expressing support for Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri. He said, however, that the Army might consider responding to an invitation if the meeting were just "a consultative one".

"But, if the meeting is about to set a certain political agenda, it's forbidden for Indonesian Military [TNI] members to join it," Endriartono said after opening the training program for the Army's artillery, cavalry and infantry officers, and military engineers.

Commenting on the editorial of The Washington Post, published on March 2, 2001, which hinted that the United States government might ask the Indonesian army to maintain "the nation's stability" if the battle over President Abdurrahman Wahid's impeachment turns violent, Endriartono said the Indonesian army would only be involved in efforts to help the nation settle security matters.

"The Indonesian army's involvement is not aimed at bringing the TNI back into the political arena. Therefore, during this transitional period, the TNI expects clear regulations to back us in handling security matters at home," he said.

He denied having had a meeting, along with Chief of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, and Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly Amien Rais in Cilodong, a suburb south of Jakarta, last Friday night. "The meeting never took place," Endriartono said.

Rumors were rife that Endriartono and Ryamizard met Amien on March 2, telling the Assembly Speaker that the Army could no longer support President Abdurrahman's administration.

Separately in Jakarta, Ryamizard said the Indonesian people should settle their internal problems by themselves without allowing in any foreign intervention.

"As a sovereign country, we must solve our own problems and not let others interfere," Ryamizard told reporters while observing the final rehearsal of Kostrad's 40th anniversary celebration at the command's Airborne brigade headquarters in Cijantung, East Jakarta.

"All elements of the nation, both military and civilian, should join hands in maintaining security. The TNI alone cannot perform this duty," he said.

Ryamizard declined to comment when asked about the possibility of military's involvement in maintaining the 'nation's stability' due to the weakness of civilian politicians in ruling the country.

"We [TNI members] do not have political interests, and this includes the top political posts," he said. He also denied meeting with Amien Rais on March 2.

House speaker wants TNI's role in security

Jakarta Post - March 5, 2001

Jakarta -- Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung has joined calls for the involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in maintaining security nationwide.

TNI should be given back its role in maintaining security if the country wants to ward off the threat of disintegration, Akbar said Friday night while in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan.

"I am of the opinion that TNI can be asked to help maintain security and order," for the sake of national stability, Akbar said as quoted by Antara. Earlier on Thursday a coalition of Islamic parties urged TNI to act to help maintain security.

The coalition, consisting of the New Masyumi Party, the New Indonesia Party, the Democratic Islamic Party and the Indonesian Muslim Awakening Party, said in a statement that "We hope TNI act immediately to put the situation under control." The statement was read by chairman of the New Indonesia Party, Syaiful Anwar, in Jakarta.

Also on Thursday Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said TNI should be given more room to help maintain security nationwide.

"I believe that every modern country adopts the principle of separated security and defense responsibilities in order to avoid an overlapping while they [police and military] perform their duties," said Endriartono.

Akbar meanwhile said TNI's involvement in maintaining security is necessary when the country is faced with riots with a religious or ethnic overtone, better known as SARA (social, religious, race and inter-group).

Riots triggered by SARA can lead to national disintegration and it is the duty of TNI to defend the territorial integrity of the nation, Akbar said. "When elements of SARA are behind a riot, then TNI must be involved," he added.

Earlier this week, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. voiced his concern over the separation of the National Police from the TNI, saying that it could "create a lot of problems".

Mahfud claimed that a decree of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) on the separation needed to be reviewed in the next MPR's annual session considering that, among other things, the National Police had a weak intelligence network and that the police were technically underequipped to deal on their own with situations of domestic chaos.

Mahfud's statement was strongly criticized by the police, saying that it was the minister's personal opinion.

Economy & investment

Government reform target ready for IMF review

Jakarta Post - March 10, 2001

Jakarta -- All economic reform targets stated in the latest Letter of Intent (LoI), which has been agreed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have basically been completed, according to a senior government official.

Assistant to the coordinating minister for the economy, Dipo Alam said on Friday that he was optimistic that all the reform programs would be ready for the Fund's review before the end of this month.

"We're working quickly on the LoI, but I'm afraid I can't name any dates yet," Dipo told reporters after a meeting with the government economic team responsible for the LoI.

The LoI contains a set of economic reform targets that the government agreed to meet as a condition for obtaining loans from the IMF.

The IMF has delayed the disbursement of its $400 million loan tranche since December after the government failed to meet the required targets. The loan is part of the Fund's $5 billion loan package to help Indonesia cope with its worst ever economic crisis.

Among the uncompleted targets were the divestment of government shares in Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank Niaga. Last year, the House of Representatives disapproved the divestment plan, due to the then unfavorable market conditions.

But since then relations with the IMF have deteriorated and legislators last week approved the plan. The government plans to divest 40 percent of its ownership in BCA, and 51 percent in Bank Niaga sometime in the middle of this year.

Dipo said that the government has resolved the divestment issue as demanded under the LoI, although its implementation will take several months.

He also dismissed several media reports which claimed that the government was uncertain as to how much it planned to divest from the two banks. "We've made sure that we will stick to our agreement with the House," he said.

Another reform target, he said, is the issuance of regulations which would govern the creation of a contingency plan to cope with the possible shortfall of the state budget.

Dipo said that the government was working on deciding how to manage this contingency budget. "We hope to issue a government regulation and an accompanying ministerial decree [for the contingency budget] next week," he said.

He added that the IMF additionally requested the government to finalize government regulations regarding the regional financial information system.

The regional financial information system is necessary to consolidate the differing financial conditions of each region under the decentralized fiscal budget.

Regions must report their budget status, and transaction flows to central government in order to update a data base of every region's financial condition.

"We're preparing a government regulation on the regional financial information system, and we expect the President to sign it by next week," he said.

Aside from targets outlined in the latest LoI, the IMF asked for the amendment of central bank Law No 23/1999 to be addressed without weakening Bank Indonesia's independence.

Dipo said that the government had agreed to the IMF's request for a panel, comprising IMF and government-appointed experts, to provide input on the government-proposed bill.

"We've told the IMF that we're ready to form that panel. We're currently discussing with the House on the panel's mechanism," he said. Its formation stemmed from the IMF's concern that the new law would weaken Bank Indonesia's independence, which was a key reform target stipulated in the 1998 LoI.

Other concerns were that the move to amend the law was politically motivated, in order to oust Bank Indonesia's current governor Sjahril Sabirin. Sjahril's job is still seen as politically strategic, despite Bank Indonesia's guaranteed independence from government intervention.

Legislators have urged that the new central bank law give politicians the opportunity to hold the top position at Bank Indonesia.

Dipo went on saying that IMF representatives on the panel include a former central bank governor from Chile, and another still active central bank governor from New Zealand.

This differs from an earlier government statement which said the representatives were two former central bank governors from Brazil and Canada.

According to Dipo, government representatives on the panel would include two banking experts. "All we have to do now is to find these experts," he said. He said that he would meet with the IMF team on Friday evening for further discussions on the LoI.