East Timor

East Timor elections will go ahead on August 30

Reuters - March 18, 2001

Dili -- East Timor, preparing the way for eventual independence, will hold its first democratic elections on August 30, the head of the United Nations transitional authority said. Formal independence is not expected until later this year or in 2002.

"This electoral law and its provisions for the participation of political parties are surely the most open and democratic in the world," UN transitional administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello said after signing the regulation into effect on Friday. The date will mark the second anniversary of the overwhelming vote in favour of ending 23 years of often savage Jakarta rule.

That was followed by the near destruction of the tiny territory by Indonesian military-backed gangs as they fled across the border and a United Nations administration took over.

East Timor's estimated 400,000 eligible voters will elect an 88- member Constituent Assembly with each of the country's 13 districts electing by majority vote one representative. The other 75 members will be elected by proportional representation. The assembly then has 90 days to prepare and adopt a constitution.

"This is an historic moment ... all political leaders and the whole of East Timor are fully committed to this process and are well aware of the difficulties we face," said Xanana Gusmao, independence leader and the man most expect to become East Timor's first president.

Officials are already warning that the former Portuguese colony may not make formal independence as hoped by the end of this year.

"This could happen by the end of this year or, if we see that some of the conditions that are essential for the foundation of independence are not there yet, we could very well postpone until 2002," foreign minister under the UN administration, Jose Ramos- Horta, said on Friday in Tokyo.

He repeated his view that since East Timor had already waited 500 years for its freedom, a few more months did not matter that much.

There have been growing signs of violence in the impoverished territory which is still struggling to recover from the sacking by pro-Jakarta militias following the 1999 independence vote.

Earlier this week, UN riot police were called in to quell gang violence in the small town of Viqueque, a senior officer said on Tuesday. That came just one week after the worst rioting since Indonesia's military rule ended.

Orphanage children pawns in Timor tussle

Sydney Morning Herald - March 17, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- Death threats and intimidation this week forced United Nations officials to abandon efforts to reunite children living in impoverished Indonesian orphanages with their parents in East Timor.

A prominent Timorese pro-Jakarta activist, Mr Octavio Soares, told the Herald that if any member of an international organisation "dare mess with the kids, I will not hesitate to kill them".

"I swear, I will protect and take good care of them and protect them with my last [drop of] blood," he said.

Humanitarian workers suspect that Timorese living in Java are blocking UN attempts to repatriate the children because they want to indoctrinate them and raise them as activists to seek East Timor's reintegration with Indonesia.

Letters from 14 of the children's parents in East Timor asking them to return home were confiscated from them several weeks ago by friends of Mr Soares.

The traumatised children have become pawns in a highly politicised tug-of-war. They are confused and sceptical about UN assurances that their parents have returned to East Timor from refugee camps in Indonesian West Timor, where they last saw them.

Many of the children have been told that the UN wants to take them away from orphanages only because it gets money for transporting them.

Sister Josefinia, a nun helping to care for 73 of the children at St Thomas, an orphanage near the East Java city of Semarang, said one of the children cried herself to sleep when she was told she would be leaving.

Julmiro Sarmento Pinto, 12, said that the first time he heard the UN wanted to take him home, "I got confused".

"How is it possible that my parents, who insisted that I must study in Java in the first place, now want me to go back to them without having finished my school?" he asked.

Two UN officials trying to negotiate the return of a first group of 14 children from St Thomas were this week the targets of verbal intimidation and threats, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Bernard Kerblat, said.

Mr Kerblat was quoted in Dili as saying that the "case was almost completed and the [UNHCR] team had been due to begin the last interviews with the children before they leave to join their parents, who had asked for their return".

Asked about the threats, Mr Soares said the UNHCR must have misinterpreted his comments. But he said that he and his friends had argued with UNHCR officials over the children's future.

The children are among as many as 1,000 boys and girls who were separated from their parents at the height of the violence in East Timor in 1999, and who were later moved from camps in West Timor.

Mr Soares and his friends persuaded parents of the 124 children taken to five Indonesian orphanages that they would receive a better education in Java.

But UNHCR officials said the parents agreed to their children being taken away because of the chaos and fear at that time. They said the separations were against the spirit of United Nations conventions protecting children. The children were left with nuns at the orphanages who were given no prior notice of their arrival.

Mr Kerblat said the threats and intimidation of UN officials had come from members of the Hati Foundation, an organisation that has close links to Indonesian government departments.

Mr Soares, a nephew of the former Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor, Mr Abilio Soares, is secretary-general of the foundation, which continues to refer to East Timor within the framework of "Indonesian unity".

Sister Angelina, the senior nun at St Thomas, said Hati representatives got upset and raised their voices in front of the children this week when they learnt that UNHCR officials had met the children without them being present.

Mr Soares said it was up to the children to decide whether they wanted to return to their parents.

But he said the UNHCR had threatened him while the media and others had accused him of exploiting the children for political purposes. "But to hell with them ... to hell with the media," Mr Soares said.

He was concerned that the children, if returned, would face a tougher, more dangerous life in East Timor, he said. "I don't want them to be neglected or manipulated by certain people, or even worse end up on the street becoming beggars or child prostitutes."

Mr Soares said that when the children came to Java, he had agreements with their parents that they would stay and finish their studies.

[On March 17 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Kirsty Gusmao, wife of Xanana Gusmao, plans to raise the case of an East Timorese teenage girl abducted by a notorious militia leader before the UN's International Commission of Human Rights in Geneva. Juliana dos Santos, of Suai, was 15 when she was abducted as a "war prize" by Igidio Mnanek, the deputy commander of the Laksaur militia. She was taken across the border into West Timor to live a life of virtual sexual slavery - James Balowski.]

UN fears sabotage of East Timor elections

Sydney Morning Herald - March 17, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili -- Seven suspected Indonesian spies have been detected in East Timor, prompting warnings by United Nations officials that saboteurs could try to wreck the territory's first democratic elections.

The discovery is revealed in a leaked internal UN security report that also warns of a campaign of subversion planned by a fringe East Timorese political party that has been linked to Indonesian intelligence agencies.

The security report, dated March 3-10 and distributed to senior UN officials, says the seven Indonesians posed as shipwrecked fisherman who landed on Atauro island, off Dili, shortly before a voter registration trial began there on February 26.

Registration began across the rest of the territory yesterday, with the aim of compiling a full voter list for elections for a national assembly, tentatively scheduled for August 30 -- the second anniversary of the territory's vote for independence.

The security report says the seven Indonesians "claimed they were fishermen but further investigation revealed that they had been observed entering the Indonesian mission near the Pertamina oil [depot] in Dili at the end of February".

"It is suspected that they had travelled to Atauro to monitor and report on the the pilot civil registration project."

The UN administration in East Timor buys bulk fuel from Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina oil company, whose Dili depot also houses Indonesia's diplomatic mission.

Tankers from Indonesia arrive about once a week to offload at the depot's jetty. No UN security is in place there, and tanker crew or passengers are free to come ashore unhindered.

An underlined sub-heading of the UN report, entitled Action Required, warns: "The Atauro-Dili sea lane presents an obvious route to Dili for saboteurs and, in view of increased threats to public security, merits increased attention from the security forces."

The report makes no mention of what action, if any, was taken against the seven Indonesians, and Indonesian officials in Dili could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The UN report also expressed concern about a planned campaign of "subversion" by a renegade political party, the CPD-RDTL, the People's Defence Committee of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

UN police last week accused the party of planning to assassinate the independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao and other senior East Timorese.

The UN memo says CPD-RDTL supporters had clashed with members of the East Timorese pro-independence Fretilin party on Atauro on February 22, the same time as the seven Indonesians were seen there. Last week, Mr Gusmao warned of links between senior RDTL officials and shadowy Indonesian army intelligence agents.

"All available evidence points to an escalation of subversive activity by CPD-RDTL and they will most likely continue to cause problems for the administration during the upcoming civil registration process," the memo warns.

The UN is also concerned about the links between CPD-RDTL and a fanatical quasi-religious sect comprising former Falintil pro- independence guerillas known as the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family).

The memo said a male corpse found in Liquica on February 26 was believed to be the first victim of a Sacred Family "hit list" targeting members of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, which Mr Gusmao leads.

Police a new country

International Herald Tribune - March 15, 2001

Mark Dodd, On board the Curtis Wilbur, East Timor -- The deck of an American guided missile destroyer might seem a strange place to train East Timorese police cadets but one hand-picked group of recruits learned some valuable lessons recently.

Twenty-seven East Timorese cadets, comprising the best and brightest of the country's new police force, were put through an innovative and intensive course in leadership skills and human rights training by veteran officers from the United States Justice Department.

It began with a two-hour tour of the warship. Then classes started in earnest, the students dressed in neatly pressed blue uniforms of the Timor Lorosae Police Service.

Sitting attentively under a green canvas awning on the stern deck, the cadets began by answering probing questions from John Coyne, a senior trainer.

"What examples of leadership have you seen on this ship?" he asked. There was a moment of silence before one cadet raised his hand and replied: "They have good security. They are patrolling in small boats outside and patrolling inside the ship."

More hands were raised. "We've seen supervision," said another. "This is a well-run ship. There is good management," a third student said.

"Did you see any officer mistreating enlisted personnel?" Mr. Coyne asked. "No," the class answers in unison. "So, here we have an example of human rights before your eyes," Mr. Coyne said. "The officers respect the enlisted men and the enlisted men respect their officers."

The US team coordinator, Al Vasquez, says the aim of the course is to transform attitudes so the new East Timor police force will be a pillar of respect in the community rather than a symbol of oppression and corruption, which typified the service during 24 years of Indonesian occupation that ended in September 1999. At least 80 percent of the cadet group taken onto the Curtis Wilbur once served in the discredited former Indonesian police force in East Timor, Mr. Vasquez said.

So far some 300 East Timorese, 15 percent of them women, are undergoing a 12-month training course supervised by United Nations Civilian Police, known as CivPol. A total force of 3,000 is expected to be recruited before the UN mission ends. Training involves three months in the classroom at the new East Timor police academy, formerly the Indonesian police headquarters.

Recruits are then posted to CivPol stations for three months where they accompany UN police on their rounds. After six months, the trainees are put on probationary assignment and posted to stations throughout the territory.

Trainers say that the East Timorese police cadets are fast learners.

Australian and American police officers recently called to help quell a riot in the suburb of Becora in the capital, Dili, praised their East Timorese colleagues, many of whom had been punched and targeted as "traitors" by the rioters, a gang of thugs from the eastern end of the island.

Cool-headed East Timorese police trainees, including several women, were instrumental in defusing a recent violent confrontation between Portuguese riot police and university students. "They have the language and know the culture," said one Australian Federal Police officer serving with the UN mission.

The shipboard course is part of an annual $1 million US program to assist the development of the East Timor police. It has been devised in response to the needs of new and emerging democracies like East Timor. Since its creation in 1986, the program has been used in nearly 60 countries.

Known officially as the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program, it uses a skilled cadre of experienced federal and state law enforcement officials like Mr. Coyne, a Korean War veteran. The program teaches a curriculum ranging from crime scene investigations and forensics to administration and public accountability of police.

[The writer, a journalist based in East Timor, contributed this comment to the International Herald Tribune.]

UN cuts estimate of refugees still in West Timor

Associated Press - March 15, 2001

Jakarta -- The estimated number of East Timorese refugees still in camps in Indonesia has been reduced to about 50,000, a UN official said Thursday.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Indonesian director, Rene Van Rooyen, told journalists after meeting President Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta that the agency was ready to help resettle the remaining refugees within Indonesia.

He said the organization would still repatriate any of the individuals who wanted to return to East Timor.

More than 250,000 refugees fled East Timor amid a rampage by anti-independence militias following the UN-sponsored independence referendum in August 1999. About 100,000 -- mostly supporters of union with Indonesia -- were thought to still be in the camps.

The United Nations and other aid groups withdrew from West Timor last September after three UN foreign aid workers were slaughtered by an anti-independence militia mob in the town of Atambua.

Gang violence breaks out in East Timorese town

Associated Press - March 13, 2001

Viqueque -- Gang violence in an East Timorese town has left at least two men dead and forced dozens of residents and aid workers to shelter in a guarded UN compound, witnesses said Tuesday.

International relief workers and townspeople complained that Thai peacekeeping forces, based in the area, have done little to stop rival gangs from taking over Viqueque, on East Timor's southern coast.

"There is no coordination and no one has a plan to deal with what is happening," said Silva Lauffer, a foreign aid worker. UN military officers in the town weren't immediately available for comment.

Violence broke out Friday night between two youth groups, known as the Magic Monkeys and the SH gang, and continued through Tuesday. Officials confirmed two gang members were killed and about 30 houses burned. The town's electricity supply station was also burned and disabled.

Aid workers were sheltering in the town's UN compound and had been joined by dozens of frightened local people, said UN district administrator Ilda Maria da Concecicao.

Meanwhile, gangs members and men from other surrounding villages were walking the streets armed with machetes. Local people said Viqueque had a long history of gang violence.

UN officials, who are temporarily administering the territory, have admitted that crime and violence has increased in East Timor as it grapples with massive social and economic problems while preparing for full independence.

The territory is struggling with a huge task of reconstruction after being devastated by pro-Indonesian militia forces in 1999, following a UN-sponsored independence referendum.

[On March 14 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that UN police have recaptured the pro-Indonesian militia leader, Joao Fernandes, a member of the Dadurus Merah Putih (Red and White Typhoon), who was serving a 12-year term for manslaughter when he broke out of Gleno jail last week - James Balowski.]

Debate over Constituent Assembly election process

Green Left Weekly - March 14, 2001

Vanya Tanaja, Dili -- The "Draft Regulation on the Election of a Constituent Assembly to draft the Constitution of an Independent and Democratic East Timor" was presented to East Timor's National Council by the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) on March 2.

In February, many representatives of political parties and non- government organisations made submissions at public hearings on the draft regulation for the registration of political parties. At the hearings, representatives argued that laws regulating political parties needed to be part of a broader set of electoral regulations. Suggestions were made about what should be contained in the draft regulation.

In the end, the draft regulation on the registration of political parties that was discussed in February became part of the Constituent Assembly regulation.

The draft regulation includes rules on the composition of the Constituent Assembly, the tasks and authority of an independent electoral commission, the registration of political parties and how Constituent Assembly seats are allocated. Much of the regulation is derived from recommendations made by National Committee's Political Affairs Committee (PAC).

The draft regulation stipulates that the role of the assembly is to implement the aspirations of the East Timorese people as expressed at the August 1999 independence ballot. The regulation states explicitly that the Constituent Assembly will be composed of those who support independence for East Timor.

This counters the worries of some council members that pro- Indonesian integrationist parties would run in the elections.

In accordance with the recommendation of the PAC, the assembly will have 88 members. Thirteen will represent districts and will be elected on a "first past the post" basis. The remaining 75 will be elected by proportional representation and be known as "national representatives".

Once elected, the assembly is expected to adopt a constitution within 90 days of its first sitting. The constitution will have to be approved by 60 of the 88 members. After adopting a constitution, the assembly will become East Timor's parliament.

The same criteria used in the August 1999 referendum to determine a person's eligibility will be used in the Constituent Assembly election. A person must have been born in East Timor, or had at least one parent born in East Timor, or be married to a person who was born in East Timor. Voter registration and the casting of ballots will only take place in East Timor, unlike during the 1999 referendum when voting also took place in other countries.

An Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will be formed to oversee the registration of political parties, the Constituent Assembly election and, subsequently, the allocation of seats. The IEC will determine whether the poll is "free and fair". The IEC will be composed of five commissioners, only two of whom will be East Timorese. The others will be "internationally recognised" experts on electoral matters.

A National Constitutional Commission will be formed under the aegis of the Constituent Assembly to organise "consultations" on the process of drawing up the country's constitution.

Under the provisions of the draft regulation, a political party will require 500 endorsees before it can register. A person signing one party's application may not sign another party's. A party must also submit its statutes, constitution and the details its leaders to the IEC in order to register. Under the previous draft registration of political parties regulation, a party needed to present 1000 signatures.

Independent candidates are also required to present 500 signatures. A district candidate needs the signatures of at least 100 people from the particular district they are seeking to represent. District representatives may run without endorsement from a political party.

Some National Council members remain undecided about recommending the passing of the draft regulation. The NC has no power to pass regulations, it can only recommend that the transitional administrator, Sergio de Mello, pass them.

The doubts stem from not knowing the details of the date of the election, where and how vote counting will take place and the number of votes that will be required to win a seat. Trabalhista (Labour) Party representative Angela Freitas has questioned these gaps.

UNTAET representatives responded that such details will be addressed by additional regulations and directives to be issued by de Mello. There is also disquiet in the NC regarding the issue of dual citizenship. Many members are opposed to candidates for the Constituent Assembly holding dual citizenship. Avelino Coelho de Silva, the Socialist Party of Timor's NC representative told Green Left Weekly that this issue needs to be settled soon.

UNTAET has stated that the issue of citizenship must be decided by an elected body, not by unelected officials. But no elected representative body exists in East Timor.

The heated debate surrounding citizenship is an indication of the resentment that exists toward former East Timorese emigres by those who stayed in East Timor or in Indonesia during the liberation struggle. Should dual citizenship be ruled out for candidates, this would cut out most of UNTAET's present coalition partners, especially in the cabinet.

The registration of voters will be conducted by a Civil Registry Office which will issue ID cards for registration purposes only. The cards will denote residency, but are unrelated to the issue of citizenship. It seems no part of UNTAET is prepared to deal with the citizenship issue.

Another hotly debated issue is quotas for women. In its recommendations, the NC argued that 30% Constituent Assembly seats must be filled by women.

However, criticisms were raised in the council -- ranging from the argument that such a measure would discriminate against men to the view that quotas are tokenistic and imply lower quality of candidates. UNTAET was opposed to the quota proposal because it was worried it would set a precedent for other elections it presides over.

The recommendation was acted upon in the draft regulation in the form of a provision that stated that parties who meet the quota shall receive assistance from UNTAET. This assistance will be in the form of free air-time on UNTAET's media, space in newspapers and publications, and assistance with photocopying and transport. Parties who field more than 50% women candidates will receive double the amount of assistance.

There was much consternation over this section of the regulation, especially from small parties who may not be able to fill this quota. One woman member of the council argued it was treating women as commodities to be traded.

UNTAET and the NC member representing women (and Social Democratic Party member) Milena Pires responded by saying that this provision was an incentive for parties to promote women and it avoided the UN imposing quotas on an elected body.

Avelino Coelho strongly argued against quotas and condemned them as a system of "trading in women" to obtain material assistance. He said he was concerned that candidates' political abilities would not be tested adequately if they were put forward simply for being women.

The PST is fielding a large number or women candidates in the 88 seats it will run for. These candidates have been chosen on merit, the party said.

However, women's groups and Milena Pires are concerned that should no decisive attempts be made to ensure that women are included among political parties' candidates, then there will be no women elected at all.

"A constitution should not ignore half of its population", Pires said in an address to the NC. She did agree that quotas alone were not enough to tackle women's lack of representation.

The NC's will decide whether to recommend the draft regulation at its next sitting on March 12.

Labour struggle

Hotel staff clash with Jakarta police

Straits Times - March 18, 2001

Former workers of the Shangri-La hotel, Jakarta, have clashed with baton-wielding Indonesian police, after threatening to enter the hotel, which re-opened yesterday.

It was closed down on December 22 after workers, demanding higher wages, occupied the premises for six days. Yesterday's demonstrators were part of a group of 450 workers who were likely to be sacked. Of late, unions have been flexing their muscle after decades of Suharto-era curbs.

Aceh/West Papua

Indonesia to defend oil fields

Associated Press - March 17, 2001

Daniel Cooney, Jakarta -- Indonesia has deployed about 1,500 troops to protect Exxon Mobil oil fields from rebel attacks in the violence-plagued province of Aceh, the government said Saturday.

"This is biggest security deployment in Indonesia ever to defend a vital installation," said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's top security minister. He said the army had sent three battalions to the area.

Two people were killed and four injured by fighting on Friday in the oil-rich province, where insurgents from the Free Aceh Movement have been battling for independence for 25 years.

Fighting in the region 1,100 miles northwest of Jakarta has killed 6,000 people in the last decade, most of them civilians.

Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. suspended operations in the region last week and evacuated its staff after repeated attacks by rebels. The company sells the oil it extracts to Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina.

Japanese company Tohoku Electric Power Co. has also said it will begin buying natural gas from Malaysia instead of Indonesia after violence disrupted production in Aceh.

Indonesia initially said it would still be able to honor its supply contracts with Japan and South Korea by tapping gas fields in other parts of the country.

However, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric said Indonesia had not been able to fulfill its supply agreements.

Tohoku Electric's decision is another blow to Indonesia's struggling economy, which relies heavily on oil and gas exports.

To help shore up the economy, the Asian Development Bank said Saturday it is willing to extend annual loans of between $600 million to $1.2 billion to Indonesia if the country makes political and economic reforms, including a cleanup of its debt- ridden banking industry.

Aceh is one of several regions in Indonesia that have been wracked by separatist, religious and ethnic violence.

A bomb exploded on a railway bridge near Jakarta on Saturday, slightly damaging the end of a freight train but causing no injuries, police said. Police defused another bomb found nearby. Rail service was interrupted for about seven hours, officials said.

Also Saturday, four people were injured when about 200 striking hotel workers clashed with police in Jakarta outside the five- star Shangri-La Hotel. The workers, who are demanding raises, had tried to force their way into the building.

Weekend violence leaves at least 14 people dead in Aceh

Agence France-Presse - March 18, 2001

Banda Aceh -- At least 14 people were killed in a series of clashes between government forces and separatist rebels in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, police and residents said Sunday.

Three suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were shot dead by police in Blang Krueng village in the Darussalam sub- district near this capital of Aceh late on Saturday, said Aceh Besar district Police Chief Adjutant Senior Commissioner Sayed Husaini.

The three were killed during an exchange of fire following a police raid on a house after a tip-off that rebels were holding a meeting there, Husaini said.

The local GAM commander, Ayah Muni, however denied the three dead victims were his men. "What happened is that security personnel were conducting a sweep in the Darussalam sub-district," Muni said, adding that the troops had simply shot villagers who were running away to avoid the sweep.

He added that six villagers had also been arrested by the security forces and their whereabouts remained unknown.

Meanwhile in East Aceh, a group of around 50 unidentified armed men on Saturday shot three civilians dead and critically wounded four others in Blang Simpo village, Peureulak sub-district, a rights activist said.

The victims were taken from their homes and herded together at an isolated spot where they were shot, said the activist, who declined to be named.

On Saturday, the general hospital in Langsa, the capital of East Aceh, received four bodies which had been found with gunshot wounds in the Sungai Raya area, also in Peureulak, hospital staff said.

In South Aceh, security forces conducting an operation to locate a reported GAM home base in Kluet Utara district, shot dead a youth, a pregnant woman and her two young children on Saturday, a local journalist said,

The woman and her children were killed as troops fired a volley of shots as they entered a village while the youth was shot as he tried to run away to avoid the soldiers, the journalist said quoting local residents.

The operation was launched after a police post in the same subdistrict was attacked by armed gunmen on Thursday, South Aceh Police Chief Adjutant Commissioner Agus Mandarwanto said. But he said he had yet to receive a report on any fatalities in the operation.

Indonesia has recently announced plans to mount "limited security operations" to rid Aceh of the GAM, which has been fighting for a free Islamic state in the province since the mid-1970s.

The government and rebels have held peace talks and signed a series of ceasefire agreements. But they have so far failed to stem violence which has left some 300 people dead this year.

More police commmanders probed over Irian Jaya student deaths

Agence France-Presse - March 16, 2001

Jakarta -- The chief of police in the capital of Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya province was quizzed Friday over the deaths of three students in December, a human rights investigator said.

Jayapura police chief Lieutenant Colonel Daud Sihombing is one of six police commanders questioned in the past two days by investigators from Indonesia's Human Rights Commission over the student deaths on December 7.

On Monday 19 senior sergeants are due to face questioning, secretary of the probe team, Sriana, said.

The students were killed when scores of police raided their dormitories following the brutal pre-dawn killings of two policemen and a security guard by suspected separatist guerillas who descended from the foothills ringing Jayapura.

The attackers struck within days of the anniversary of an unrecognised declaration of independence in the resource-rich province, when police intensified a crackdown on the separatist movement by enforcing a ban on the flying of the separatist 'Morning Star' flag.

Sihombing said at the time that the students were killed for resisting arrest by police who believed they may have perpetrated the attack.

The commission plans to summons dozens more lower-ranked policemen in coming weeks as part of its probe into the deaths, Sriana told AFP. "We will question 19 senior sergeants on Monday. We've asked for the names of the men below them too."

A five-member probe team lead by the commission's Albert Hasibuan is conducting inquiries in Jayapura. The provincial police commander at the time, Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas, will be questioned in Jakarta next Wednesday.

Two of the students died in the field and a third died in a Jayapura police cell after severe beatings.

Sriana said Sihombing would show investigators the exact place in the city police station "where one of the students was tortured."

All three students were from the central highlands region, considered a hotbed of the separatist movement.

Witnesses said police shot at, chased and beat the students before arresting around 100. Students described further police beatings in the jail to local human rights advocates.

Irian Jaya lies on the western half of New Guinea island and is home to some 250 Melanesian tribes, most of them devoutly Christian.

A long-simmering separatist movement, fostered by the central government's perceived exploitation of the province's resources and repressive security forces, regained momentum least year.

A mass people's congress attended by tribes from across the province's remote highlands and coastal regions in June demanded Jakarta recognise the province's sovereignty.

Authorities have since charged five of the key organisers with subversion. On Thursday the five were released from jail, pending a trial in mid-April, after more than three months in detention.

Indonesia prosecutors free five Irian Jaya separatists

Associated Press - March 15, 2001

Jakarta -- Prosecutors Thursday ordered the temporary release of five political activists facing subversion charges for alleged separatism in Irian Jaya province, lawyers said Thursday.

The move comes a day after Amnesty International condemned Jakarta for jailing dozens of "prisoners of conscience" in an attempt to stamp out separatist movements in several provinces.

Lawyer Anum Siregar said the five, all senior members of the Papuan Presidium Council, were freed Thursday to allow for the preparation of their trial, expected early next month.

The president of the council, Theys H. Eluay, has been in a Jakarta hospital since January undergoing treatment for cardiovascular problems.

The men were arrested ahead of a December 1 pro-independence rally in the provincial capital, Jayapura. They are charged with subversion, a crime which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence in Indonesia.

Siregar said her clients were still determined to fight for an independence state on the western half of New Guinea island. "For them the important thing is their trial," she said. "They want to prove their innocence."

Rebels in the region, also known as West Papua, have been fighting for independence since Indonesia occupied the former Dutch colony in 1963. The separatists claim widespread popular support among native Papuans, who resent the wealth of immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

US supports integrity, warns of rights violations

Jakarta Post - March 16, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- The United States government maintained on Thursday its opposition to separatism such as that in Aceh, but warned the Indonesian government to be "conscious of the local people's human rights."

"Of course we support Indonesia's territorial integrity and oppose separatism. But we hope that Indonesia will support us, too [in respect of ExxonMobil]," US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S. Gelbard told The Jakarta Post after signing an agreement for a school milk project at the Ministry of National Education here.

"And we believe that the [Indonesian] government needs to be very conscious of the people's human rights. But again, we oppose separatism ... we've made that very clear to the GAM [Free Aceh Movement] and the GAM has no support internationally. Zero [support]," Gelbard said.

"ExxonMobil unfortunately have had to close down temporarily because of the security conditions. They were being bombed, their airplanes were being attacked. One of their planes got hit with bullets while it was in the air, and there have been lots of mortar attacks so that the lives of the people have been put in serious danger.

"It is not accurate to say that this military offensive started because of ExxonMobil. I think this military offensive was already underway, already planned," he said.

Gelbard added that ExxonMobil obviously wanted to complete their contract of work, but at the same time they had to safeguard their employees' lives.

He said it was very important for the government in Jakarta to listen to the aspirations of the people in Aceh.

On the planned limited military operation in Aceh, Gelbard said "that is entirely for the Indonesian government to decide." "What I support is an approach that embraces the people. And that shows the people why the Indonesian government cares about them," he said.

This included matters involving autonomy, economic development, justice and revenue sharing, all of which should be accelerated by the government, Gelbard said.

"I think, of course, there is hope for the settlement of the Aceh matter and we think we have some ideas on how it could be done. We have some aid programs we would love to be able to function in Aceh, but unfortunately some parts of the government have been blocking them ... Bakin [The State Intelligence Coordinating Agency] did that," Gelbard added.

Aceh activist calls on Wahid as defence witness at trial

Agence France-Presse - March 14, 2001

Banda Aceh -- A leading supporter of independence for Aceh walked out of his trial Wednesday when it refused to call Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid or his representative as a witness.

Muhammad Nazar, chairman of the Information Centre for a Referendum in Aceh (SIRA), walked out of the Banda Aceh district court in protest with his defence lawyers.

"The accusation against me ... is that I insulted the government, in this case the government of President Wahid, therefore it is important for a witness from the government's side to come and say in what way I have insulted them," Nazar said. "I reject all testimonies in this court today, until the witness [Wahid] is made to appear in court," he told the court.

The Aceh activist, who faces seven years imprisonment if convicted, is accused of having "publicly expressed emnity, hatred or insults towards the government of Indonesia."

The judges went ahead and heard the testimony of three witnesses without the defendant present, as well as the written testimony of two other witnesses.

"The court process is politically engineered by the neo- colonialist government of the Republic of Indonesia to curb the civilian movement in Aceh," Nazar told AFP after the court adjourned until March 20. "The verdict is already there and this trial is just a comedy. But whatever the verdict, I am prepared to accept it," Nazar said.

State prosecutor Suheri told the opening session of the trial that Nazar had distributed banners with slogans demanding a referendum on independence in the Indonesian province. The banners, which Nazar is accused of having distributed on August 17, Indonesia's national day, stated: "Aceh remains within the Republic of Indonesia or Freedom."

The first witness, an official of the provincial treasury office, was asked to detail the procedures for displaying banners in public, but he told the court non-commercial banners did not have to be registered for display.

The second witness, a journalist from the state Televisi Republik Indonesia broadcast, was asked to recount what he saw during a public rally organized by SIRA in Banda Aceh in November, and another public meeting on August 17 last year.

The third witness, an official of the provincial office for socio-political affairs, told the court his office had sent a letter to SIRA, asking it to explain about the organization, and whether it planned to register it to the authorities as required by law. But he said he had received no reply.

The prosecutor also read out the written testimony of two policemen on the November rally and the August 17 public meeting. One of the two had since died and the other had been transfered to another province.

The tightly-guarded trial was poorly attended Wednesday, with some 20 people in the court room mostly from the press.

Nazar was arrested a few days after SIRA organized days of mass rallies involving tens of thousands of people in Banda Aceh in November to help push for the referendum. It was the second mass rally in favor of a referendum. The previous year SIRA held a similar peaceful mass rally of one million people in Banda Aceh.

Demands for a referendum on self determination in Aceh have been fuelled by a decade of harsh military operations that left some 5,000 dead.

There is also resentment at the syphoning off by Jakarta of natural resources from the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Despite a series of shaky truces, more than 200 people have died so far this year in violence between goverment troops and the Free Aceh Movement, which has been fighting for an independent Aceh since the mid-1970s.

Attacking us will cause bloodbath, rebels warn

South China Morning Post - March 15, 2001

Chris McCall, Jakarta -- Rebel leaders in war-torn Aceh yesterday denounced plans by Jakarta to mount a new military operation there and said it would lead to a bloodbath on an appalling scale.

In a telephone interview from a secret rebel base, commander Abu Sofyan Daud predicted the war that would follow would be long and make past violence in Aceh pale into insignificance.

"Hundreds of thousands of Acehnese people are going to die," said Mr Sofyan, commander of the rebel Free Aceh Movement in the Pasee region, near the industrial city of Lhokseumawe.

A series of top Indonesian officials, including influential chief security minister and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said on Tuesday that Jakarta was about to undertake a limited military operation in its troubled western province. Military hardliners have been champing at the bit for action for more than a year, but have been held in check by President Abdurrahman Wahid. Now facing impeachment, Mr Wahid's influence is growing weaker by the day.

The announcement followed a series of shutdowns by economically strategic firms based in Lhokseumawe, in particular Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc, a subsidiary of US-based Exxon Mobil. Late last week it decided to close down its onshore operations in Aceh, citing a worsening security situation.

Indonesia's oil and gas revenue is a vital part of its cash- strapped state budget and Aceh is one the main producing provinces, most of it coming from the Arun field in the sea off Lhokseumawe. The rebels, also known by the acronym GAM, had "asked" these firms to stop production, citing concerns for their own security.

Resentment that Jakarta has siphoned off Aceh's natural resources and given little back has helped fuel the long-running separatist war. For nine years from 1989 to 1998 Aceh held the status of a "military operations area", known by the Indonesian acronym DOM. This has become a synonym in Aceh for a period marked by widespread human rights abuses, the full extent of which only became apparent when DOM was cancelled in August 1998, a few months after the fall of former president Suharto.

Mr Sofyan said that this new declaration would be tantamount to DOM II, rejecting government denials that it represented a return to the past. He said it would be worse and Indonesian police and military would target innocent civilians if they could not get GAM.

"We from GAM do not want war but we demand independence through diplomacy. But if they attack us we are going to fight them," he said. "If this really happens to make an emergency in Aceh, indeed security in Aceh cannot be guaranteed. We will still defend ourselves and oppose them. If they do this it will be a larger war."

GAM was well-equipped to resist the Indonesian military, he added, with 10,000 "elite" forces. And, he said, 70 per cent of Acehnese men were willing to become laskar, or fighting forces. If that figure were true it could mean more than one million people. Aceh has a population of around four million. Indonesian officials dispute the rebel figures and say their forces are much smaller.

Jakarta to launch limited security operations against Aceh rebels

Agence France-Presse - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian authorities are planning to launch "limited security operations" against separatist rebels in the troubled province of Aceh, Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud said Tuesday.

Mahfud's statement came after he met with President Abdurrahman Wahid at the Merdeka Palace, and a day after the cabinet officially slapped the "separatist" tag on the Aceh Merdeka Movement (GAM) which has been fighting for a free Islamic state there since the mid 1970s.

It appeared to spell an end to an effort by Wahid's administration to broker a political agreement with the GAM through talks which involved a series of shaky truces.

"The government has already ruled that GAM is a separatist [movement] and in legal terms it is of a subversive nature," Mahfud said, adding that concrete steps to face the separatists in Aceh were being formulated. "Security operations will immediately be conducted there," he added.

He said the operations will be "limited," and added that they would not take the form of the harsh anti-rebel military drive, known as Military Operation Zone (DOM), imposed in Aceh for nine years until August 1998.

"I can guarantee that there will be no more DOM for Aceh. GAM is too small to be handled with DOM," Mahfud said. The minister added that under the limited security operations, care would be taken to separate active GAM members from civilians.

The DOM had been widely criticized by human rights activists here and abroad for indiscriminate military violence and gross human rights violations. Thousands of Acehnese were killed and thousands of others maimed or injured during the DOM period.

Mahfud said that the government would also issue an amnesty for all GAM members who leave the organization and pledge loyalty to the Republic of Indonesia.

He did not elaborate, saying that the steps, currently being prepared by office of the coordinating minister for politics, social and security affairs, would include comprehensive socio- cultural and military approaches.

GAM representatives entered talks with the Indonesian government in Geneva last year and agreed on consecutive but shaky truce periods. Despite the current truce, more than 200 people have been killed in violence in the province this year.

The two sides remain politically far apart, with GAM demanding independence and Jakarta saying it will grant only limited autonomy.

Indonesian military escalates repression

Green Left Weekly - March 14, 2001

Chris Latham & Pip Hinman -- On February 20 the "cease-fire" between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian military (TNI) was extended for the third time since the so-called humanitarian pause in 2000. These declarations mean nothing, Syadiah Marhaban from the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) told Green Left Weekly. That very night the TNI swept through four villages terrorising and killing people.

Following every previous cease-fire extension, attacks on unarmed Acehnese take place almost immediately; more than 100 people have been killed since January. Since GAM declared unilateral independence from Indonesia in December 1976, some 30,000 people have been killed.

Under the current cease-fire, GAM and the Indonesian government have agreed to a four-point code of conduct. However, given the lack of an enforcement authority, the TNI continues to hunt down GAM members especially in the rural areas. Ed Aspinall, who lectures in Indonesian studies at University of New South Wales and has recently returned from Aceh, told an Amnesty International forum in Sydney that the TNI routinely strafes whole villages in revenge attacks if even one of its soldiers comes under fire.

On February 15, the TNI announced an additional 6000 troops would be sent to Aceh, bringing the total deployment of combat troops to more than 30,000.

Aspinall described the northern-most city of Banda Aceh as being like a "war zone" in which there is an unofficial curfew as night falls.

"People are just too scared to leave their homes after dark. Local commanders are calling on the central government to call an all-out civil emergency", he said.

Aspinall described President Abdurrahman Wahid as pursuing a dual policy of negotiations with GAM while the TNI is allowed a virtual free hand to wage war.

And while the political situation in Indonesia remains unstable, the military is playing up their role as harbingers of peace and security.

The TNI's attempts to hunt down GAM members and terrorise its rural support base reflect the Indonesian government's unwillingness to engage in genuine negotiations over Aceh's future. The military have significant commercial operations in the gold, oil, gas timber and marijuana-rich state of Aceh.

Autonomy versus independence

Syadiah Marhaban told Green Left Weekly that a poll conducted by SIRA just before the November 8 referendum rally last year -- during which 48 people were killed, hundreds were injured and thousands of public and private vehicles damaged by the security forces -- 92.6% said they favoured independence rather than autonomy.

Despite the overwhelming sentiment for independence, the Wahid government is only prepared to allow greater autonomy -- a position the Aceh People's Council has adopted. Wahid's government is pushing the Acehnese House of Representatives to prioritise deliberation of the autonomy law which ensures the central government maintains control over financial and security affairs.

While the new autonomy laws -- scheduled to take effect from May -- are supposed to decentralise decision-making and allow Aceh to retain a greater percentage of earnings from the exploitation of its natural resources, they say nothing about reducing the number of TNI troops in Aceh.

In an attempt to shift the balance of forces and provide some legitimacy to the autonomy demand, the Wahid government is seeking to include anti-independence groups in the negotiations. However this is unlikely to be successful given GAM's strong base of mass support, and the activities of pro-referendum groups like SIRA and the radical Student Solidarity with the People (SMUR).

On February 20 Indonesian defence minister Mahfud Mahmoddin declared he was tired of prolonged talks with the independence movements in Aceh and West Papua and threatened to become increasingly tough with "separatist groups".

SIRA has evidence that the TNI has started to train militia groups in the northern part of Aceh. "Jakarta is going to try to repeat what it did in East Timor", Marhaban warned. She said that the TNI is recruiting poor transmigrants from Java for six months of training. "This shows the Wahid government's desperation. It has been unable to contain or curtail the pro- referendum sentiment by military means, and is now resorting to inciting communal conflict to achieve its ends."

Attacks increase

Following the forced resignation of the despot Suharto in 1998 the democracy movement forced a number of concessions from President Habibie's government and the TNI including the abolition of wide-ranging anti- subversion laws.

However, many restrictive laws remain on the books, including those dealing with freedom of speech (including the law banning the propagation of Marxism).

Last November Muhammad Nazar, chairperson of SIRA, was detained and charged with treason. After growing pressure he was finally set to go to trial last week. He looks set to be the first activist to be so charged since the Suharto days. According to Marhaban, some 500 extra soldiers have been deployed for his trial in Banda Aceh.

The Western powers' opposition to Aceh's independence is primarily motivated by a desire to maintain a politically stable environment for corporate investment throughout the Indonesian archipelago. There is a general fear within the ruling circles of the imperialist powers, in particular in Washington and Canberra, that if Aceh was to win its independence, the West Papuan independence struggle would be given added momentum and other provinces dissatisfied with rule from Jakarta would become similarly inspired.

US support is important for the Wahid administration to maintain control in Aceh. It gives political cover to Jakarta and helps keep the independence forces relatively isolated and serves to strengthen a weakening military position within Indonesia.

TNI and Indonesian police forces are increasingly stretched. It is estimated that half of Indonesia's 200,000 soldiers and 300,000 police are now deployed in provinces waging struggles for independence such as Aceh and West Papua or where communal violence is breaking out, such as in Kalimantan and Malaku.

Marhaban is under no illusions about how the fight for the right to a referendum would eventually be won. "International pressure on Jakarta, particularly from countries such as the US and Australia, is vital", she said.

US military training, or the stepping up of such training by Australia, will provide further legitimacy to the Indonesian government's effort to smash the independence forces. For this reason, she argued, the Australian and US governments must be forced to end all military ties to Indonesia.

SIRA is demanding the TNI and police leave Aceh. After that there's a need to conduct a campaign to raise consciousness among Acehnese about what a referendum would mean. "We have to be ready to take the consequences", Marhaban said, alluding to the likely difficulties a democratic government might encounter from multinational companies, such as Exxon (Esso), currently profiting from the Acehnese people's misery.

Court to continue trying Aceh activist

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Banda Aceh -- The judges of the Banda Aceh District Court ruled on Monday that the court could continue to try Acehnese independence activist Muhammad Nazar, ruling that the court had legal grounds on which to proceed. "The case will go ahead as there are sufficient legal grounds to justify this," presiding judge Farida Hanoem said during the second session of the trial.

The panel of judges overruled the motion moved by defense lawyers that Nazar, the detained chief of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), be released from all charges due to "inadequate legal grounds for the prosecution." The trial of Nazar on sedition charges opened on Monday amid tight security and a silent protest by fellow activists.

Earlier in the session which began at 9:15 a.m., Nazar read out a 26-page defense statement titled: "Aceh's Struggle against Neo- Colonialist Rage" and this was followed by defense statements by his lawyers -- Abdurrachman Yacoub, Johnson Panjaitan, Rasmita and Catur Karya Soksianto.

"We urge the court to dismiss these charges as the prosecution was only seeking an excuse to arrest, detain and put the defendant on trial in order to eventually punish him [Nazar]," Yacoub said.

The defense team said that the legal basis and criminal code articles used for charging Nazar had lost their "philosophical legitimacy" due to the fact that they no longer accorded with the values of democracy and human rights. "What Nazar did was merely to express himself and that's not against the provisions of the Criminal Code," they argued.

The team of prosecutors, however, stuck to their indictment, saying that Nazar harbored hostile and treasonable intentions against the state. Nazar is being charged under Articles 154 and 155 of the Criminal Code which carry a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

"The defendant has clearly incited people to rise up against Indonesia by distributing leaflets and banners likely to sow hatred against the lawfully established government," chief prosecutor Supery said.

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

Outside the court, some 100 SIRA activists staged a silent protest, wearing headbands and posters emblazoned with the word "Referendum". They covered their mouths with black tape and tried to approach the courtroom before a cordon of police officers turned them away. The group, however, dispersed peacefully later in the day.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday to hear testimony from witnesses.

Dozens of onlookers crowded the tightly guarded courtroom while another group of protesters demanded the police find the murderers of Aceh activists, in particular those of Banda Aceh's Ar-Raniry IAIN (State Islamic Institute) Rector Safwan Idris.

The hearing, however, went smoothly and was adjourned in the afternoon. "We will maintain tight security during every session until the trial has been completed," Aceh Besar Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayed Hoesaini said.

No military option in Aceh

Jakarta Post (Opinion) - March 12, 2001

Statements by top Indonesian Military (TNI) officers last week signaled mounting pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to take a harder line against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), with which he has been negotiating for a peaceful solution to the Aceh problem.

If TNI has its way -- now a possibility given President Abdurrahman's increasingly precarious political position -- then we are looking at a possible military option to settle the Aceh conflict in the not too distant future.

On Wednesday, the chief of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, declared war against GAM, which he described as an "enemy of the state". Then on Thursday, TNI Chief of General Affairs Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago demanded that the government declare the legal status of GAM. "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," he said.

Once GAM has been outlawed, it would pave the way for the military to deal with it accordingly, he said.

Both Ryamizard and Djamari said that TNI, which has already stationed 30,000 troops in Aceh, is ready to dispatch more to crush the rebels if the government gives the go-ahead.

All the tough talk by the two generals presumes that the current conflict in Aceh is largely of GAM's doing, and that current negotiations between the government and GAM have failed. Indeed, the killings have continued in breach of a cease-fire which the two sides signed under a "humanitarian pause" agreement in June. But judging by the victims of the recent killings, both GAM and the Indonesian security forces (police and military) must take responsibility for the deaths.

What these two generals forgot, or probably chose to forget, in demanding a free hand to crush GAM, is that the military option was tried throughout most of the 1990s, and that TNI, or the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) as it was then called, failed miserably. ABRI botched the job in Aceh so much, just as it did in East Timor, that it aggravated the problem.

Various military operations launched by ABRI against the Aceh rebels used methods which were simply unacceptable. What the military regarded as standard procedures were atrocities against not only rebels, but also innocent civilians. These violations of human rights by the military are well documented by various organizations, including the National Commission on Human Rights, which were sent to investigate the atrocities. Their reports should serve as reminders to one and all, particularly the new generation of TNI leaders, that a military operation is not an option, not even a last option, when it comes to dealing with Aceh.

Some of the existing problems in Aceh are legacies of past military operations. The operations drove more and more Acehnese into the camp seeking an independent state, either the hard way through an armed rebellion, or the peaceful way through a referendum of self determination. To many Acehnese who lost loved ones, or had their homes burned down during these military operations, TNI has become the number one public enemy. TNI's operations have strengthened GAM, both in resoluteness and in popular support among the people in the province.

What chance of success is there if TNI is allowed to launch another military operation today? Given TNI's recent failures in containing rebellion, in East Timor and in Aceh, history is not on its side. A military operation would likely make TNI even less popular among the people of Aceh. No military operation could be effective without the goodwill and support of the populace. TNI has even failed to deliver on its promise to punish those responsible for the atrocities of the past military operations, a gesture that would certainly have bought it some goodwill.

The peaceful negotiations currently being pursued by the government remains the only viable option for a true and lasting solution to the Aceh problem. Having made the concession to start negotiations with GAM, the government should explore all possible avenues to strike a deal with the group, including an offer of formal recognition of GAM as a regional political party which will fight for its cause with ballots and not bullets. Negotiations may be long and arduous, but they are certainly far less bloody and have a greater chance of success.

The military option proposed by TNI on the other hand would be a sure recipe for another disaster, probably even bigger than the one we saw in the 1990s. Rather than saving Aceh, it might even become the one that pushes the territory out of the republic.

Other firms in Aceh close after Exxon shutdown

Straits Times - March 12, 2001

Jakarta -- Exxon Mobil Indonesia's decision to halt oil and gas production in the troubled Aceh province has forced other major companies in the area to shut down too.

PT Arun LNG Co, a major exporter of liquefied natural gas to Japan and South Korea, officially stopped operations on Saturday, the Serambi daily said.

"We have to halt production because the supply of gas as raw material from Exxon Mobil has totally stopped," firm spokesman Rustam Effendi said. PT Arun employs more than 1,400 workers, and has another 2,400 contractors.

Exxon Mobil, which operates three oil and gas fields in North Aceh, halted production on Friday over security concerns.

It operates in an area where violence is common between government forces and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) which has been fighting for a separate Islamic state since the mid-1970s.

On Friday, fertiliser plants PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda and PT Asean Aceh Fertiliser also halted production following the interrupted fuel supply from Exxon Mobil. Paper plant PT Kertas Kraft Aceh is also said to be facing difficulties.

On Saturday, security appeared to have been reinforced at Exxon Mobil, with armed soldiers posted at security posts.

Land disputes/peasant struggle

Villagers demanded US$1 per meter land compensation

Detik - March 12, 2001

Haidir Anwar Tanjung/FW & GB, Pekanbaru -- Twenty villagers representing 439 families came to Riau Provincial Legislative Council to file a complaint over the seizing of their customary land by a giant pulp and paper company. They demanded their land be returned or the company should pay compensation of US$ 1 per square meter, arguing that the compensatory arrangements have not been made clear.

The villagers are from three villages in Pelalawan municipality namely Delik, Sering, and Pangkalan Kerinci village. They claim PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (PT RAPP) has forcibly taken over 1700 hectares of their customary land since 1992. Accompanied by their lawyer, Marganti Manalu, the villagers said their customary land, which has been turned into a pulp and paper factory, was forcibly taken by using rogue military members. In the council, they held talks with the head of Commission VII from the Council, Rolan Aritonang.

The conflict between the company and the villagers finally reached its peak in October 1997. Villagers set up a roadblock on the road to Timber Estate Area belonging to PT RAPP. Annoyed by this action, PT RAPP sent an elite police force -- Mobile Brigade -- to terrorise the villagers.

Consequently, tens of villagers were injured. The lawyer, Marganti Manalu was made to spend three years in jail, accused of inciting the villagers. In the meeting, Rolan Aritonang said that the council would establish a special committee to investigate the ownership of the land in question. He also promised to summon PT RAPP, which is one of the leading pulp and paper companies in Southeast Asia.

Interviewed separately, PT RAPP lawyer, Samsul Rakan Chaniago argued that compensation for the land has been settled. "We have settled the compensation through community development programs, and everything has been handled legally," stated Chaniago saying that it was a mere provocation and all has been settled properly.

Elite power struggle

Megawati snub deepens rift with rift with Wahid

Agence France-Presse - March 17, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was publicly snubbed by his deputy on Saturday, adding to growing signs of a politically explosive rift at the top of the troubled administration.

Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who sources say is trying to distance herself from Wahid as he faces pressure to resign over a corruption scandal, was conspicuously absent from the inauguration of a new forestry minister at the presidential palace. Megawati, who will replace Wahid if he is forced to step down, normally swears in new ministers. No reason was given for her absence from the ceremony to induct Marzuki Usman into the cabinet. Sources said she was in Jakarta.

Earlier this week, a senior aide to Megawati told AFP that she was growing increasingly frustrated with Wahid's leadership and was now ready to take his place.

The fresh signs of a rift emerged as an influential senior politician urged Wahid to surrender executive power. House Speaker Akbar Tanjung called on the president to make his deputy head of government, while he retained a role as head of state.

Separate roles for Wahid and Megawti could prove a way out of the political chaos gripping Indonesia, Tanjung was quoted as saying by the Media Indonesia newspaper.

Current efforts to oust Wahid, even constitutionally, would risk stoking social conflicts that could claim many lives, Tanjung said. "It is very likely that a social conflict will erupt and harm the nation," Tanjung said.

Wahid has so far resisted calls to step down in favour of Megawati after being censured by parliament on February 1 for alleged involvement in two financial scandals.

Critics have also accused the virtually blind president of incompetent leadership in a country struggling economically and beset by violent separatist and communal conflicts.

The resulting political turmoil has brought chaos to Indonesia's capital and elsewhere on the main island of Java. Thousands of staunch Wahid supporters from his home base in densely-populated East Java have staged mass rallies in Jakarta while others have blockaded a vital port at the eastern tip of Java.

Sources close to Megawati indicated Saturday that she was growing increasingly resentful of Wahid's interference in cabinet decision-making.

The president sacked Usman's predecessor, Nurmahmudi Ismail, on Thursday for allegedly not doing his job. Ismail, has said he was dismissed for refusing a presidential order to replace the ministry's secretary-general Suripto after Wahid had accused the official of plotting to oust him. Ismail's party is part of a coalition of Muslim groups that is seeking to oust Wahid.

Tanjung said that although a presidential decree last year had already given Megawati a large degree of executive responsibility, "Gus Dur must stress that he will only focus on state affairs while the matters of the day-to-day running of the government should be entrusted to Megawati."

A politician close to Megawati has said that despite the decree, Wahid has continued to interfere and often altered decisions taken by the vice president.

Under the new proposal, Tanjung said, "the vice president will completely hold the reins of the government." "This has to be openly and firmly made clear."

Muslim chief threatens mass pro-Wahid uprising

Reuters - March 16, 2001

Terry Frie, Malang -- Indonesia's leading Muslim group and fanatic supporters of embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid threatened to call millions on to the streets of the capital to defend him.

Chief of the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Hasyim Muzadi, also warned that the political brawling over the president's fate could trigger more bloodshed and prompt the military to seize power, ending a brief attempt at democracy.

"In one day, NU can take one or two million people to Jakarta to defend the president. That also has its dangers," Muzadi told Reuters late on Thursday in the town of Malang, in the East Java heartland of Nahdlatul Ulama and Wahid's own support.

The NU is the largest Muslim organisation in the world's largest Muslim country. Wahid led the body, founded by his grandfather, until he became president in October 1999, and it remains one of his most ardent defenders.

NU sources say an estimated 60,000 members have already made their way to Jakarta, including hundreds of members of "suicide squads" who have sworn to die for Wahid and believe they are protected by magic charms and spells.

"These are not empty words," said Affandi Alwi, a member of one suicide squad, which calls itself the Movement Brave Enough to Die Defending Gus Dur. Gus Dur is Wahid's nickname.

NU executive Fachru Razid said on Friday that Wahid supporters would hold a major protest in Jakarta on March 20, the day of an expected anti-Wahid rally in the capital.

"Because the protests against Gus Dur will reach their peak on March 20, our action will also reach its peak on March 20 in Jakarta. Only God knows what will happen on that day," he said.

Wahid, a 60-year-old, half blind and ailing Muslim cleric, is under mounting pressure to quit or be impeached over his bumbling leadership and failure to deal with myriad crises dragging down the world's fourth most populous country.

About 1,500 supporters rallied at parliament on Friday, shouting "Hang Amien Rais!" a reference to the speaker of the top legislative assembly, who helped engineer Wahid's surprise rise to power in 1999 but now publicly rages against him.

Rais is former leader of the second largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, which has traditionally been at loggerheads with the NU.

"Day by day, this conflict is enlarged ... and if social conflict comes, the military will govern again and all the democratic movement in Indonesia will come to a stop," Muzadi said after a crisis meeting with Muslim leaders from across East Java. "There are a lot of dangerous things behind these games."

But Wahid has gained some ground in his battle with Rais. This week, Rais was forced to concede that his attempts to speed up procedures to impeach Wahid would be unconstitutional. Also two ministers he ordered to quit Wahid's cabinet or be expelled from his party chose to stay with the president.

And on Thursday, Wahid sacked his forestry minister, who is a member of the loose coalition trying to push Wahid from power.

Wahid officials said that when he does respond to a parliament censure over two financial scandals -- which has to be by May -- he will plead his innocence.

If he was pushed from office, his replacement -- almost certainly Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri -- would inherit a poisoned chalice of uncontrollable civil unrest that would lead to an army takeover, Muzadi warned.

If Wahid and his enemies could not end the power struggle, a fresh national election should be called, he added. But that offers no obvious solution.

At the last general election in mid-1999, the most successful party -- Megawati's -- won barely a third of the votes, creating a splintered parliament and forcing Wahid into unlikely alliances to win the presidency a few months later. Indications are the next election, whenever it is held, will be just as inconclusive.

The risk of widespread bloodshed, which has spooked financial markets, is real. NU supporters have clashed with anti-Wahid protesters in Jakarta and destroyed buildings belonging to the former ruling Golkar party, headed by another key figure in the anti-Wahid movement.

On Thursday, thousands of NU protesters torched a Golkar building and a car in the town of Banyuwangi, near Malang. It was the latest in their attacks on the Golkar party.

The NU sources say the organisation is likely to go ahead with its mass callout next Tuesday, putting well over a million people on the streets of the Indonesian capital, already jittery after weeks of pro and anti-Wahid protests.

The simmering instability and the constant threat it could explode into violence has mauled financial markets, driving the rupiah and stocks to two-year lows earlier this week.

All signs point to another Cabinet reshuffle soon

Straits Times - March 17, 2001

Susan Sim, Jakarta -- Thirteen. That was the number of ministers and top generals President Abdurrahman Wahid had fired up until Thursday.

Number 14 was Forestry Minister Nurmahmudi Ismail, a former palace favourite whose regular night visits with Mr Abdurrahman in the early days of the administration led critics to dub them the Night Cabinet sessions.

Mr Nurmahmudi fell out of favour when other whisperers accused his party mentor and senior ministerial aide Suripto of orchestrating the recent student protests against Mr Abdurrahman.

But having apparently seen this coming, Mr Nurmahmudi simply went home to play badminton after the President fired him on Thursday night.

A colleague who spoke to him yesterday told The Straits Times that the Justice Party founder did not even care to contest the allegations when confronted by Mr Abdurrahman. "He took it in his stride. You can say the ship is sinking and one needs to hop off anyway."

The signs seem clear enough -- Mr Abdurrahman is planning to reshuffle his Cabinet soon, the second time in seven months.

Although Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri is said to be worried that the public will lose confidence in a government that seems more fond of playing musical chairs than governing, a reorganisation is crucial.

And Cabinet ministers, critics, acolytes, are not short of names for Mr Abdurrahman to axe. Yet some of those whom insiders insist are definitely going to be shown the revolving door seem more guilty of having a stubborn streak of independence than mere ineffectiveness.

And will Mr Abdurrahman replace them with men of integrity, talent and public approval? "No," said a Cabinet minister. "He tends to be overly impressed by the sweet talkers, the slick ones who speak good English, or good Arabic, and can engage him in an intellectual discourse. Gus Dur loves good conversations. If you can project that image of a civilised man, the job is yours."

And so the current ministers who fit this bill and have not provoked too much public criticism might find themselves given stronger portfolios.

Security Coordinating Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyuno is credited by many as being the only one who does try to rally other ministers to work to a common game plan.

But while Mr Abdurrahman is expected to retain him, confidants say the minister, a former army general, is so fed-up he is looking for a graceful way to exit the Cabinet. But first, he is trying to effect a national reconciliation among the political elites.

He is fearful that the continued political deadlock will lead to massive bloodshed if the President's ardent supporters carry out a reported plan to slaughter his opponents, beginning with Assembly Speaker Amien Rais and the Islamic leaders from his Muhammadiyah movement.

If Mr Bambang succeeds in balancing a peace of sorts, his rising star could take him to the presidency or vice-presidency come 2004, even if he leaves the Abdurrahman Cabinet soon. But he also cannot afford to antagonise a paranoid Mr Abdurrahman with the millions of zealous Nahdlatul Ulama followers at his call.

So the current consensus is an uncomfortable one: Mr Abdurrahman is committed to reforming the government, but unlikely to change his old ways.

Yet, despite the sense of despair among those who still believe in him, there is also a hope that common good sense might prevail.

The break with old patterns might come next week if the president makes a public apology to Indonesians for the current messy state of affairs and admits to his own physical frailty -- his almost total blindness.

"He's always insisting that he's in command, in control of things," said the minister. "If he admits that he is blind, then we can start putting in place a whole set of protocols to protect him, to ensure that at least state documents are read to him, instead of in some haphazard manner now by his family members."

Gus Dur sacks 'disloyal' Forestry Minister

Straits Times - March 17, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid has sacked a minister from one of the political parties trying to oust him in an apparent bid to remove disloyal aides from his Cabinet.

Forestry Minister Nurmahmudi Ismail, who headed the Islamic Justice Party until last year, was replaced by Mr Marzuki Usman, former minister of tourism and arts in the Habibie administration.

"Mr Nurmahmudi was dismissed because he and the President had different vision and policy orientation, and he has not been able to restrain the Justice Party mass," Defence Minister Mohammad Mahfud told journalists at the presidential palace.

Members of the Justice Party have taken part in street demonstrations with students in the past few weeks to pressure Mr Abdurrahman to step down.

But Mr Nurmahmudi told journalists yesterday he was sacked most likely because he defied Mr Abdurrahman's order to sack his ministry's secretary-general, Mr Suripto.

In a joint press conference with Mr Suripto, Mr Nurmahmudi said the latter had been accused of conspiring with some military officers to topple the President and of being behind anti- Abdurrahman street demonstrations.

He said Mr Abdurrahman had accused the secretary-general of plotting with Maj-General Muhdi Purwopranjono, the former chief of the army special force Kopassus, to remove him from power.

Mr Suripto, one of the Justice Party's founders, was also accused of helping the fugitive son of former president Suharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, escape in one of the ministry's helicopters. "I kept telling Gus Dur that I would not fire Mr Suripto merely because of unproven accusations," Mr Nurmahmudi said.

Mr Nurmahmudi also denied that he had done a poor job rooting out graft in the ministry, saying timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan had been jailed.

The minister's dismissal came as a surprise to many. He had been perceived as one of Mr Abdurrahman's trusted aides, especially after he decided to stay in the Cabinet last year, and gave up his party position and membership.

Mr Nurmahmudi is the second minister dismissed this year. Minister of Law and Legislations Yusril Ihza Mahendra of the Crescent Star Party was removed in February.

Party fires ministers for standing by Wahid

South China Morning Post - March 16, 2001

Chris McCall and Reuters in Jakarta -- Beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid won a much-needed boost yesterday when two cabinet ministers opted to stay in his Government and leave the party of his most ferocious political enemy.

It is the second blow this week for Amien Rais, head of the small National Mandate Party (PAN) and speaker of the top legislature. Mr Rais has mounted an increasingly fierce campaign to oust Mr Wahid who he helped put in office 16 months ago.

A PAN source said that the decision had been taken at a party board meeting on Wednesday. Education Minister Yahya Muhaimin and Manpower Minister Alhilal Hamdi, PAN's last ministers in the coalition Government, were given 12 hours to resign from their cabinet posts. By the time the deadline was reached yesterday morning, neither had done so.

Mr Rais yesterday confirmed that the two men had been fired from the party. Both are party board members and have served in Mr Wahid's unwieldy coalition cabinet since it was appointed in October 1999.

Mr Hamdi thanked PAN for dismissing him, saying he would get on with his work as a minister and it would be a lot easier free from party pressure.

Apart from leading PAN, Mr Rais also serves as the speaker of the supreme People's Consultative Assembly which appoints the president and will hear any impeachment trial if one takes place later this year, as widely expected.

Impeachment proceedings began against Mr Wahid last month. This week Mr Rais was forced to concede the constitution prevented an early assembly session to impeach the President.

"Certainly, it could boost Gus Dur [Mr Wahid's nickname] to have these two ministers in the cabinet because their rebellion against their party's wishes indicates that their leader's political legitimacy is also eroding," political analyst Arbi Sanit said. But he said it is was too early to say whether Mr Wahid had gained the upper hand in the country's political battle.

Despite overwhelming opposition from legislators, Mr Wahid has declared there is no way he is going to resign. It has left his ministers in a quandary.

In May 1998, former president Suharto was reluctantly forced to resign after 32 years in power when his ministers started abandoning the sinking ship.

Many in Indonesia see a parallel with Mr Wahid's position now. Many of his ministers are drawn from parties that voted for impeachment on February 1, when Mr Wahid was issued with a "memorandum" of censure concerning his alleged role in two corruption scandals.

Their party colleagues believe a wave of resignations might pressure the virtually blind Muslim cleric into changing his mind and bowing out gracefully. But some ministers are remaining doggedly loyal to the embattled President, in defiance of their own parties.

Gus Dur supporters block Ketapang Port

Jakarta Post - March 16, 2001

Surabaya -- More than 5,000 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid, armed with sickles, machetes and bamboo spears, blocked Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi, some 290 kilometers east of Surabaya, on Thursday, demanding that the House of Representatives (DPR) withdraw the memorandum it issued on February 1, censuring President Abdurrahman Wahid.

It was the second blockade of the port by Abdurrahman's supporters in their fight against what they call "unlawful moves to unseat the President". The first blockade took place on February 6.

The people, from all districts in the regency of Banyuwangi, started to crowd the port at 8 a.m., until it was completely full just before noon.

The operation of ferries to and from Gilimanuk in Bali were canceled and demonstrators, who also demanded dissolution of the Golkar Party, vowed to stay at the port until House speaker Akbar Tandjung and speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais resign.

Akbar is also chairman of the Golkar Party, while Amien is seen as the "number one enemy" of President Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid, who chaired the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization for 15 years. The protesters also demanded that the MPR not hasten the special session to impeach Gus Dur, as demanded by anti-Gus Dur groups.

The protesters installed barricades at port gates, preventing anyone from entering the port. The action resulted in the standstill of a five-kilometer line of trucks, buses and cars which were heading toward the port.

All roads to the port were blocked, while closure of the segment of road between Situbondo and Banyuwangi, after protesters parked five cars and two trucks on the thoroughfare, worsened the situation.

Another group of protesters, chanting anti-Akbar and anti-Amien slogans, descended upon the Golkar Party's office on Jl. Kolonel Adisucipto. They pelted the building with stones, but police arrived in time to prevent further vandalism.

"Everything is under control," Banyuwangi Police deputy chief Comr. Ajib Purwadi said, adding that four platoons of police were deployed to maintain order.

Abdul Gofar, the coordinator of protesters from Rogojampi district said that the House's censure of Gus Dur was based on allegations only.

"Gus Dur is accused of being involved in financial scandals, but there has been no legal evidence presented so far," he said, condemning Amien's string of efforts to expedite an MPR special session to impeach Gus Dur.

Police sources said that a group of people marked the houses of local National Mandate Party (PAN) officials, Golkar branch offices and the local Muhammadiyah chairman's house. Amien was the former chairman of Muhammadiyah and is the current chairman of PAN.

Jakarta Thursday was also the day for pro-Gus Dur supporters in Jakarta. More than 2,000 people claiming to be Gus Dur supporters responded to rallies by rival protesters, who had 'ruled the capital city' days before when they occupied the DPR/MPR building complex and staged a rally inside the House compound.

The Gus Dur supporters, from West Java, Central Java, East Java, Madura, West and East Nusa Tenggara, Lampung and Kalimantan, were led by Nur Arifin Husien from Semarang.

"We request a political pause, similar to the humanitarian pause imposed in Aceh. The leaders of the legislature, Amien Rais and Akbar Tandjung, must restrain their arrogance. They must set aside their ambitions of becoming the country's president to curb the prolonged political chaos," Husien said.

Pledging to support Abdurrahman retaining his post until 2004, the protesters demanded that Amien and Akbar quit their positions at the MPR and DPR.

The protesters said they would spend the night at the House building complex and would meet with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction on Friday.

Meanwhile, the flow of Abdurrahman's supporters from Central Java to Jakarta continued on Thursday. As many as 5,000 people from Cilacap, Purwokerto and Banyumas regencies entered Jakarta on Thursday, traveling by bus at their own expense.

Ahmad Ihsam, the coordinator, told reporters before leaving on Wednesday, that he and his fellow supporters had two firm demands: Amien's resignation and dissolution of the Golkar Party.

Meanwhile, reports from Central Java's capital Semarang revealed that at least 70 buses carrying Gus Dur's supporters had left for Jakarta since Monday.

Muzamil, chairman of NU's Central Java branch, said that the organization could not suppress the people's desire to go to Jakarta 'to defend' Gus Dur. "Their action is the consequence of their anger against the political elite's attitude," Muzamil said.

While most supporters of Abdurrahman agreed to mass deployment in support of the President, deputy secretary general of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Chotibul Umam Wiranu said in Purwokerto on Thursday that he was against such a step.

"The pressure thousands of Gus Dur's supporters cause by their street action is comparable to primitive democracy, which is what the Student Executive Boards (BEMs) conducted several days ago. "Why don't we allow the political crises to be resolved by the legislature without mass public pressure," Chotibul added.

Further disagreement with the mass rallies was aired by the rector of Jendral Soedirman University, Rubiyanto Misman, who said that mass deployment would result in chaos. "Cooling down among the political elite would be the best way to help the nation overcome the political crises," Rubiyanto said.

Megawati ready to bid for top job: party official

Agence France-Presse - March 15, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri no longer supported President Abdurrahman Wahid and was ready to replace him, despite mistrusting her new allies, according to a senior official of her party.

"Mrs Mega and Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname] used to be like brother and sister. They were very close. But now it's different," the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Mrs Mega is very, very disappointed in him. She can no longer support him."

However any bid for the presidency by Megawati would be strictly along constitutional lines, the official told AFP in an interview. He also said if she did take over, Megawati would "empower" the military.

The daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, Megawati, 54, has kept a studied silence on her ambitions during the past weeks of turmoil surrounding Wahid.

When she was denied the presidency 18 months ago, despite her party's general election victory after a coalition of Muslim parties objected to having a woman president, Megawati wept.

Her higher public profile now has led to the impression that she has made her decision, and opinion polls show her popularity has surged.

As vice president she will automatically replace Wahid if he resigns. But a similar constitutional guarantee does not obtain in case he is impeached.

She would have to rely on those same Muslim parties who previously crushed her presidential bid, including People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman and Wahid's chief nemesis Amien Rais.

Wahid has defied demands for his resignation since parliament censured him on February 1 over two financial scandals.

He has seven weeks to respond or face a possible second censure, which, unless his response appeases MPs, could be followed by a special MPR session to impeach him.

Calls for his exit have intensified, especially from his foes in parliament, who say his ouster was vital to "save the nation."

Megawati's deep distrust of Rais -- who is said to be nursing presidential ambitions of his own and is now leading moves to dump Wahid in her favour -- would not deter her, the PDIP official said.

"She cannot 100 percent believe Amien Rais supports her. She knows this is politics," he said. "But it won't make her hesitate. She's thinking about how to save this nation," he said, adding "all parties" had an understanding to "keep Megawati safe until 2004." "She will accept it. She is ready," said the official.

Megawati's disillusionment with Wahid stems from his constant over-ruling of her decisions, he said. Wahid's pledge last August to delegate day-to-day running of the government to Megawati had proven empty, he noted.

"He is intervening in so many commitments made in cabinet meetings," the official said. "Whenever Mrs Mega tries to make decisions and use her new powers, he so often alters her decisions."

Megawati, he said, had concluded Wahid's blindness was affecting his decision-making. "Mrs Mega told me two days ago she tried closing her eyes and blindfolding herself in a room for an hour and a half, and put on classical music, to understand the president's position and emotions.

"Her conclusion was that his decisions just depend on the first thing that comes into his head." "He just listens to the people surrounding him, and the spirits."

Critics say Megawati was too close to the military (TNI) and, as president, would hand back more power to the armed forces. The PDIP official confirmed that "empowering" TNI was on Megawati's agenda.

"Mrs Mega believes if we are going to solve this nation's problems it must be with TNI," he said. "She wants to give them a political umbrella. We can call it the empowerment of TNI."

The military needed an "umbrella" because criticism of rights abuses had made them impotent, the official said, citing their ineffectiveness during recent ethnic slaughters in Borneo. "Mrs Mega thinks we should have a military that is strong."

Cash 'was sent to Jeddah to cover Gus Dur's bills'

Straits Times - March 15, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- The presidential office yesterday denied that the US$300,000 sent to President Abdurrahman Wahid while he was on an overseas trip in Saudi Arabia was obtained improperly, saying it had come from its own coffers.

"We ran out of money because we had anticipated that our expenses would be paid for by the government of Saudi Arabia, as in past visits to other rich Middle East countries," said Mr Wahyu Muryadi, head of the presidential palace's protocol office.

But as it turned out, the Saudi government only covered the expenses of 35 of the 85-member entourage during the five-day pilgrimage tour in the country.

They included President Abdurrahman Wahid and his family, his doctors and secret service personnel and a couple of MPs travelling with them.

Said Mr Wahyu: "Consequently, the peak haj season makes everything much more expensive, and the reason we had to ask Garuda to fly the cash over to us was to get the money quick."

A letter circulating since Monday among parliamentarians and student activists who are critical of the President revealed that the presidential office had asked national airline Garuda Indonesia to send US$300,000 to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the entourage ended its two-week trip to Africa and the Middle East.

Legislators yesterday called for an audit into the presidential treasury to see if there were any irregularities.

The transfer of funds is the latest controversy to hit the President, who is under mounting pressure to resign over his alleged role in two financial scandals.

But the whole incident might have been just a case of poor planning and an under-financed trip.

The 11 journalists travelling with the entourage said they had not been informed about the exorbitant expense of US$3,000 per person for the trip until the night before they left Sudan for Jeddah on February 28.

"We knew that we didn't have that much cash on us, so we decided to return to Jakarta, but palace officials wouldn't let us because that would have created a PR crisis," said one journalist. "Finally, they told us to pay US$700 while they would find a way to cover the rest."

But certain observers are speculating that officials at the presidential secretariat office might have been trying to mark up the stipulated expenses for personal gain. The journalists said they never got any receipt for the money they gave to the officials.

Last month, the Supreme Audit Board said the presidential secretariat had misused 58 per cent of funds it received from the state.

Students drop anti-Wahid protest, seek VP's help

Agence France-Presse - March 14, 2001

Jakarta -- Thousands of Indonesian students Wednesday abandoned a sit-in at parliament demanding the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid, amid rumours his supporters were descending on the complex.

As police squads looked on, some 2,500 students marched out of the back entrance of the sprawling complex after two nights camping in the grounds.

The evacuation of parliament eased the pressure on the country's battered markets, with the Jakarta stock exchange index closing up 0.8 percent and the rupiah endeing the trading day in the 10,000 range to the dollar.

The protestors, from universities in Sumatra and Java, marched towards the Salemba campus of the state University of Indonesia (UI) some 7.5 kilometres northeast to "consolidate."

But they stopped on their way outside the official residence of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and urged her -- even though she was not at home at the time -- to move against Wahid.

Massing in front of the residence, tightly guarded by some 500 police and vice presidential guards, the students held a free speech forum on the main avenue in front of the house.

"If Megawati and the PDIP do not have the courage to precipitate the special [national assembly impeachment] session, it means that they are just like Golkar," said Januar, a UI student through a loudspeaker in front of the residence.

Golkar is the political party of former president Suharto, and ensured he stayed in power for 32 years, until he was toppled in May 1998 amid mass student protests.

Megawati's Indonesian Democracy Party for Struggle (PDIP) won the country's first free elections in 1999 and holds the largest block of seats in parliament. "We are asking for a commitment from Megawati," Januar said.

Earlier Wednesday, the leader of the UI student executive board Taufik Riyadi said the students were pulling out of parliament to prepare their next strategy.

Board executive Idrus told AFP the students were asking Megawati for help because "the students no longer have the patience" to wait for parliament to move against Wahid.

The country's first democratically elected president, Wahid has turned a deaf ear to the mounting calls to resign, saying he will not quit.

Riyadi said the students wanted to prevent clashes with pro-Wahid supporters. "We heard that supporters of Gus Dur [Wahid's nickname] will come, so it will be better that we return to Salemba because we don't want a conflict."

Later in the day, a pro-Wahid crowd of some 500 marched to a central city roundabout, where they were joined briefly by some 800 anti-Golkar protestors from three student organizations. But they did not try to confront the anti-Wahid students, or replace them in the parliament complex, and instead marched back to the presidential palace.

Imron, the "field commander" for Wahid supporters from East Java, said earlier that his group had only wanted "to talk to our friends who oppose Gus Dur, and ask them to leave the parliament grounds."

The anti-Wahid students began their sit-in on Monday to demand that he step down or that the country's highest body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), hold a special session to impeach him.

But MPR leader Amien Rais said Tuesday assembly leaders had dropped a plan for an early session as it had no "constitutional basis."

Rais said MPs were now resigned to following the constitutional process and would wait for the lower house (DPR) to call for the special session.

On February 1, the DPR first censured Wahid for alleged involvement in two financial scandals, giving him three months to respond.

The lower house could issue a second censure if it deems Wahid's reply to the first one is unsatisfactory. The president would then have a further month to reply.

Should it believe the second reply to fall short, the DPR could then call for a special MPR session which would have the power to depose Wahid.

About 300 students and the same number of other protestors including farmers and workers stayed behind at parliament.

Further misery feared as Wahid digs in

South China Morning Post - March 14, 2001

Chris McCall and agencies in Jakarta -- Indonesians are bracing for more economic misery as their currency crumbles, sparking fears of a repeat of its 1997 collapse.

Supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday staged their own demonstration outside the presidential palace, where thousands on Monday called for him to resign.

The protest was peaceful but will do little to convince the silent majority they are better off with the near-blind Muslim cleric in charge.

Across town, more than 3,000 students massed in the grounds of Parliament for a second day to demand Mr Wahid step down.

Later, in separate violent protests, at least three students were seriously injured when police fired tear-gas and charged a crowd of 500 attacking a Jakarta office belonging to the political party of former president Suharto.

In recent weeks, students have stepped up protests to demand Golkar disband. They accuse it of inciting unrest in various regions to win back power.

Moves to force Mr Wahid from office took a substantial blow yesterday. Chief Wahid critic and People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais, who had over the past few days vowed to speed up the President's impeachment, said after a closed meeting of assembly leaders that they had dropped the plan for a special impeachment session of the MPR. "We have no constitutional basis," said Mr Rais, a former Wahid supporter.

In the market in Tebet, South Jakarta, the traders' talk is of doom and gloom. They blame Mr Wahid's refusal to quit, despite Parliament's overwhelming opposition to his Government. The President has privately declared there is "no way" he will step down voluntarily.

Stall-holder Arizal Amin, 50, said: "We will go back to 1997 if the dollar goes up and the rupiah falls. We can't predict what will happen. We, the people, are scared. Don't let it happen."

Mr Arizal said most Indonesians wanted Mr Wahid to go. "Only his home province of East Java still supports him," the trader said. "The longer he stays, the greater the chance of mass unrest."

Unfortunately, East Java is Indonesia's most populous province and its people have threatened civil war if President Wahid is ousted mid-term.

The country is in a far worse state than it was in 1998. It is facing belligerent rebel movements in Aceh and Irian Jaya, states of virtual civil war in the Malukus and Kalimantan, not to mention uncontrollable militia remnants in West Timor. Crime and lawlessness are on the increase nationwide and its economy has only barely started to recover from the collapse of three years ago.

This week, the Jakarta composite stock index sank below the 400 mark for the first time in two years and the rupiah has been wobbling around 11,000 to the US dollar after a sudden slide on Monday pushed it down to 11,500. Experts say the currency could well fall to 15,000, a level that has not been seen since the days after former president Suharto's 1998 resignation. At that time, inflation reached 80 per cent, curbing industry efforts to recover and indirectly throwing millions out of work.

As such effects filtered through into higher prices for ordinary Indonesians, a withdrawal of foreign investment and fewer jobs, the country erupted in an orgy of destruction that ultimately swept former president Suharto from office after a 32-year reign.

On May 13 and 14, 1998, Jakarta descended into an abyss of mass rioting, in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Very few Jakartans want to see that happen again.

Wahid and the economy under siege

Sydney Morning Herald - March 13, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- Investors took fright yesterday as thousands of protesters blockaded the tightly guarded palace of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his most senior minister warned the country was on the brink of collapse.

The rupiah fell to its lowest level since late 1998, below 11,000 to the US dollar. The stock market also plunged 5.5 per cent, hitting a two-year low.

Mr Wahid responded with a call to his vice-president, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, to take a more active role in government.

The market jitters followed an extraordinary statement issued at the presidential palace by, the chief politics and security minister, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Uncertainty over Mr Wahid's future would have severe consequences for the country, he said. "This uncertainty will have a severe impact, not only on the political front, but also in our economic, social and security fields."

As speculation grew about what motivated Mr Yudhoyono's comments, Mr Wahid reaffirmed that he had no intention of resigning.

"I don't want to resign; I want to maintain this country's integrity." If he was forced from office the archipelago would break apart, he warned.

His statement came as protesters, many of them students from Islamic groups, chanted anti-Wahid slogans in one of the biggest rallies against his 16-month rule.

"The problem here is president Wahid," said Mr Taufik Riyadi, a student leader. "We have come to conclusion that he must go. If the parliament's members make too many mistakes we are going to crush them too."

But smaller groups rallied in support of Mr Wahid, the country's first democratically elected leader, and workers failed to respond to student calls for a national strike. Rival protesters hurled stones and abuse at each other at the gates of the palace as Mr Wahid's cabinet met inside.

With the protests raging and the financial markets shuddering, the Cabinet discussed a 20 per cent fuel price rise demanded by the International Monetary Fund that observers fear could spark rioting among the poor. It also considered measures to help stabilise the rupiah.

Mr Yudhoyono said the uncertainty would last until July or August if national leadership, stability and security were not quickly resolved. He urged co-operation among the political leaders, including Ms Megawati and parliament leaders Dr Amien Rais and Mr Akbar Tanjung.

Mr Yudhoyono, a former top military officer, said a formal censure motion issued by parliament last month was not only a blow to Mr Wahid but to the entire government.

Mr Wahid has made it clear he is prepared to give the go-ahead for thousands of his supporters to take to the streets if an attempt is made to remove him unconstitutionally.

Mr Yudhoyono said: "The word is peace and order, no matter how large the mass demonstrations are."

He indicated that the Government expected the army to back police in maintaining order. Though the expression national security and stability had a militaristic connotation, "without it this nation would be a sea of chaos, violence and tension," he said.

Under a parliamentary decree the police are supposed to be responsible for internal security, with the military supporting them only when needed. Since Mr Wahid's return last week from one of his many controversial overseas trips, observers have been closely watching the security forces, which have until now promised to stay neutral in the crisis.

But as the Government has tried to negotiate a peace agreement with separatists in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, military commanders have declared war on the Free Aceh Movement.

The oil and gas giant ExxonMobil has halted production at its liquefied natural gas plants in Aceh after a series of attacks, kidnappings and threats against staff and facilities. "The situation is beyond our control," a spokeswoman for the company said.

Thousands demand Gus Dur resign

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- No bullets or tear gas were fired when more than 10,000 protesters, mostly students, besieged Merdeka Palace on Monday, intensifying the pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign.

Rallies against the President also took place in several towns across the country, but the students' call for a national strike did not materialize.

The demonstration, which began peacefully, was marred by violence when a group of students attacked Atma Jaya University campus on their way to the House of Representatives after dusk. A car was set ablaze and at least 10 other cars and six motorcycles were damaged during the violence.

Although there was no official report of injuries, several people, including a Jawa Pos photographer, were beaten according to witnesses.

Chanting anti-Abdurrahman statements around the tightly-guarded palace, the protesters, who started gathering at around 10 a.m., handed out leaflets calling for a national strike and the President's resignation. Abdurrahman was presiding over a Cabinet meeting when the rally took place.

The rally blocked traffic trying to access the palace, while the city's main thoroughfares were almost brought to a total standstill.

Against the odds, a tiny group of people, including Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) youth wing Ansor activists, held a prayer in support of the President, who chaired the country's largest Muslim organization for 15 years before being elected as president in October 1999.

The deployment of 3,000 police and military troops and the deployment of barbed wire barricades at the palace did little to separate both pro and anti-Abdurrahman supporters and deter them from throwing rocks at each other.

Tense moments passed after members of both camps formed a human barricade to avoid further provocation. City Military Commander Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo, who stood guard at the scene, said that there were several damaging rumors circulating in the masses. "I am here ... to help police secure this place," Bibit said without specifying the rumors. Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman was also seen at the scene.

Expressing their immense dislike for the President, popularly known as Gus Dur, members of the Student Executive Body (BEM) representing various universities in Java and Sumatra also demanded that the former ruling party Golkar be disbanded.

"Don't you know that Gus Dur is the best student of former president Soeharto?" one BEM protester said.

Three student representatives were finally given an audience with Minister of Justice and Human Rights Baharuddin Lopa; Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono; Minister of National Education Yahya Muhaimin; and Minister of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy Surjadi Soedirdja.

The students were Taufik Riyadi, who chairs BEM at the state University of Indonesia, and his counterparts at the state Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and private Trisakti University, Sigit Prasetyo and Andre Rosiade respectively.

Andre told The Jakarta Post that during the 30-minute meeting, the student leaders demanded that Gus Dur resign and his Cabinet be dissolved.

"The ministers promised us that they would convey our demands to the President. We demanded that the ministers leave the Cabinet and join us instead," a dejected Andre said. "They refused without any clear explanation, except that all things should be done constitutionally."

Apart from BEM activists, the protesters included Muhammadiyah United Students Front (Kammu), labor groups Gaspermindo and the Association of Indonesian Muslim Workers (PPMI), and members of the Ka'abah Youth Movement (GPK), all demanding that Gus Dur resign.

The masses traded verbal insults with Gus Dur supporters, who included students from Bung Karno University and the State Islamic Institute (IAIN).

The demonstration kept the President and ministers in the Bina Graha presidential office compound, until they secretly departed after most of the students dispersed.

People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais led a group of legislative leaders from all factions, who joined the rally after a group of students fetched them, except those of the National Awakening Party and Indonesian Military and National Police.

Amien, who spoke from his bus, told the students that the MPR could no longer tolerate Abdurrahman remaining in office and would consider an accelerated process to impeach the President over his failure to uphold the reform agenda.

Joining Amien were Sutjipto, MPR deputy speaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle; Fachmi Idris, secretary of the Golkar faction at the Assembly; Syamsul Muarif, chairman of the Golkar faction at the House; Ali Marwan Hanan, chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) faction; Hatta Radjasa, chairman of the reform faction; and Fuad Bawazier, a regional legislature representative.

The clash at Atma Jaya University was reportedly sparked by rumors that a BEM activist from UI was abducted while passing the campus, which is situated near the Semanggi cloverleaf. But an Atma Jaya student, Dony, said a group of protesters provoked the brawl with statements criticizing Atma Jaya's absence from the rally.

Some 500 students were allowed to rest at the House compound, where 50 of them held talks with Amien at around 9 p.m.

With more anti-Abdurrahman rallies almost certain to take place, Ansor Youth secretary-general Abdul Naim Salim said there would be no single force that could prevent the organization's members from streaming into the capital to protect Gus Dur.

"If the situation is unchanged, we cannot guarantee that Ansor members will not flock to Jakarta. But they will only come as individuals," Naim told The Jakarta Post.

Call for national strike gets mixed response

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- The Jakarta Student Executive Boards' (BEMs) call for a national strike received a mixed response from both the people and university students nationwide, and life practically went on as normal in all cities in the country on Monday, despite student demonstrations in several places.

In the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, some 200 students from the local BEM branch gathered at the Mandala Monument area downtown at Jl. Jend. Sudirman, expressing their support to the Jakarta's BEM's call for a national strike.

Demanding that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign, the students said that a national strike was the most effective way to force the President to step down.

Usman, chairman of Makassar University BEM, said that Monday's move was aimed at informing the people about their big plan. "Many more students will take to the streets on Wednesday. We were and will be consistent with our demand for the resignation of President Abdurrahman." A student of Hasanuddin University said she heard about the strike call. "Things ran as usual on Monday, despite the demonstration," Emmy Mustafa said.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, there was no action taken by Jendral Sudirman University students.

Banyumas Police chief Comr. Imam Basuki told reporters that he had been informed about a huge strike on Monday. "Thank God, nothing happened." Asked about the many officers in uniform standing at several corners of the city, Imam said that the alert status related to the planned visit of First Lady Sinta Nuriyah Wahid on Tuesday.

The First Lady was scheduled to become the keynote speaker at a one-day seminar on gender in the campus. Rumor had it that a big rally was planned to welcome Sinta Nuriyah on Tuesday, but reliable sources said late Monday night that she canceled her visit for unknown reasons.

In the Central Java capital of Semarang, around 500 students of Diponegoro University BEM and the Sultan Agung Islamic University marched to the provincial legislative council.

On the way, the students distributed leaflets to pedestrians and motorists calling all people to go on strike as an expression of national concern about the unresolved national problems.

The students also urged the President to step down for his failures. Fris Dwi Yuliyanto, the students' coordinator, did not say when the strike would take place.

Meanwhile, at least 300 members of the Indonesian Muslim Students' Front packed the front yard of the Grahadi gubernatorial office in Surabaya, demanding that President 'Gus Dur' Abdurrahman give up his post.

They said they supported their fellow students from the BEM (who were in Jakarta for a similar demand), adding that Gus Dur's administration has lost its political, moral, social and psychological legitimacy. In the 90-minute action, the students also criticized the government's plan to increase fuel prices.

On Sunday, Jakarta students called on public transport drivers to take part in the national strike. However, the call got no response in Surabaya. "What's the reason for going on strike? Shall drivers in Surabaya go on strike if Jakarta drivers do so? Let Jakarta drivers take their own action," Roni, a mikrolet driver said.

The students' front secretary, Guritno, said the (Surabaya) students had never asked Surabaya people to go on strike. "We have not planned any strike." Nothing special happened in Yogyakarta on Monday.

Only a group of 35 people calling themselves the Youths Community for Defending Democracy were seen gathering at the side of the well-known Malioboro thoroughfare. They were just "saying prayers" for national unity and had nothing to do with the national strike call or demand for the President's resignation. They waved huge banners which read, among other things, "Pray for National Unity".

Coordinator Syahrul Munir said that his group was just trying to remind all layers of society that unity was beyond everything.

Life in the West Java capital of Bandung went on as normal. All government and private offices were open and there were no students' demonstrations on the streets.

People seemed to be heedless of the call to strike. "Who has called for a strike? Why? I have to make money as usual," said Apul, a 61-year-old food vendor.

In Tangerang, Banten, public transport drivers did not heed the strike call. They operated as usual, saying that they did not agree with the strike call voiced by the students.

"We have families. Who will feed our wives and children if we stop making money?," said Solihin, a driver of a public transport vehicle plying the Pasar Anyar -- Perumnas route.

A becak (three-wheeled pedicab) driver, Warman said a strike would not change his life. "With or without a strike I'll remain a becak driver," the 50-year-old man said.

Wahid supporters head to Jakarta

Indonesian Observer - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- A large number of President Abdurrahman Wahids loyalists left East Java for Jakarta yesterday as their rivals mounted protests to demand the resignation of the national leader.

Hundreds of Wahids supporters, who admitted to come from several cities in East Java, such as Madiun, Tulung Agung, and Nganjuk, flooded train stations in the provinces capital of Surabaya, insisting to depart for Jakarta right away.

Brandishing rod rattans, they then jumped aboard the Gaya Baru train, an economy-class wagon that was scheduled to depart for Jakarta at 1:30. p.m. from Semut railway station in Surabaya. Hundreds of others had also left at five in the evening, from the Pasar Turi railway station in Surabaya to add to the previous batch.

Imam Ghozali Aro, a local Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) youth organization (Ansor) official, said Wahids supporters have pledged to guard the president under any circumstances.

The departure of NU members followed yesterdays huge anti-Wahid protest at the presidential office. Thousands of students from the Student Executive Board (BEM) yesterday besieged the state palace and the presidential palace to put more pressure on Wahid to resign.

Aro said East Javas NU chapter did not order them to go to Jakarta. He also denied that they were members of NUs security force wing of Banser. Aro said their departure was made under their own conscience to defend Wahid from his opponents, who demanded his resignation.

However, he warned that the people who were heading to Jakarta, were not just common people. He said that they were special people who would guard the pro-Wahid contingents acts to defend the president.

One thing that has to be made clear is that they are special people. They are people who will guard the loyal defenders of Gus Dur. So they are ready to face any circumstances that may occur, Aro reminded, employing Wahids nickname.

East Java is Wahids most devoted region, which is the main stronghold of NU, the nations biggest Muslim organization. Wahid once led the NU until he became president in 1999.

Wahid himself is the son of Hasyim Ashari, NUs founding father. He was born in the city of Jombang, 200 kilometers west of Surabaya. Before elected as Indonesias fourth president, Abdurrahman Wahid led NU for quite a long tenure.

Government/politics

PDI-P members plot to unseat Megawati

Jakarta Post - March 12, 2001

Jakarta -- Despite mounting political support for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairperson, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, to lead the country, there have been signs of an effort to unseat her from the party's top post, PDI Perjuangan secretary general Soetjipto said on Sunday.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday in Surabaya, Soetjipto admitted that there were illicit efforts made by the party's cadres to hold a special congress against Megawati.

Soetjipto, as reported by satunet.com, said that the effort was provoked by several cadres at party branches, but assured that the move would not gain support from party members or regional representatives across the country. He said that the party's central executive board had ignored the maneuver.

Megawati was ousted as the Indonesian Democratic Party's (PDI) chairperson in 1996, when the New Order government-sponsored special congress in Medan, North Sumatra, removed her and nominated Surjadi as the party's leader.

At the time Megawati was considered the greatest threat to Soeharto's presidency. The move which finished her was an attack on the party's headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Jakarta, on July 27, 1996.

Megawati regained her supporters after Soeharto's resignation in 1998. She changed the name of the party to PDI-Perjuangan and won the election in 1999.

Echoing Soetjipto, PDI-Perjuangan faction secretary at the House of Representatives (DPR) Heri Akhmadi told The Jakarta Post here on Sunday that the effort to oust Megawati was nothing serious.

"Yes, we've heard about that. One or two branches are trying to move against her, but I don't think that move is significant. According to the party's regulations, a special congress is legal if it gains support from 75 percent of the party's branches," Heri said.

"What I know is that until today [Sunday] the party's central executive board has yet to receive any formal proposal to hold such a congress," he added.

Heri added that the move might have diminished following the party's decision to dismiss several members last year for their alleged involvement in corruption or money politics over several areas.

When asked whether the effort to oust Megawati was supported by certain groups outside the party, Heri said: "Maybe, but as you can see, many of our own members, including members of our faction at the House, sometimes feel disappointed. So it is not surprising that they could be provoked by other groups [outside the party]."

Regional conflicts

Holy war in the Spice Islands

The Economist -- March 16, 2001

Ambon -- There is still gunfire every night in Ambon, the capital of the Moluccas, and sometimes a shattering bomb blast. Once a thriving commercial city, it is now a deadly maze of Christian "red" areas and Muslim "white" ones, a pattern of demarcation that has spread to the neighbouring islands. Children play near the front line and cheerfully tell visitors to relax when "there is no shooting at the moment." But virtually all adult Moluccans are tired of the killing, which has ruined their beautiful islands. Yet that does not mean it is over.

Ambon is now a city divided in two. Muslims call Christians Obet, a corruption of Robert. Christians call Muslims Acang, a corruption of Hassan. There is often no physical barrier separating red and white areas, but everyone knows where they are and rarely, if ever, does anyone set foot in the opposite camp's territory. It could mean having your throat slit. Visitors soon learn to recognise the border areas.

Everything there is smashed to smithereens.

Three long bouts of religious warfare in just over two years in the Moluccas, once known to European traders as the Spice Islands, have claimed at least 5,000 lives, and probably many more. At talks in Bali and Java aimed at reconciliation, the participants spoke of 8,000 dead. Some say 20,000.

Laskar Jihad, a group of Muslim outsiders generally blamed for setting off the third and most recent wave of violence in the Moluccas last year, now has its Christian counterpart, Laskar Kristus -- the Army of Christ.

Its commander, Agus Wattimena, looks like a latter-day Jesus with his wiry frame and long flowing locks. His followers claim to be warriors who are defending the faith; they attribute their survival to the will of God.

Some of the younger troops hang out in Ambon's half-built Roman Catholic cathedral. Work on the building stopped when the war broke out.

Now it is a shelter for refugees, among them AGAS, a motley collection of teenage soldiers who will happily make you a pile of bombs if you give them $30. AGAS stands for Church Children who Love God. It also means "gnat". Many of the children have bullet wounds, and when fighting breaks out they rush out of school and down to the front line. They call it their crusade.

Laskar Jihad emotively claims that its enemy are "RMS rebels", a name calculated to strike dread into Muslim hearts. But the RMS, the Republic of the South Moluccas, has been defunct for decades, other than as a nominal government-in-exile in the Netherlands. It made its bid for independence in the 1950s but failed miserably. Its remnants held out on the large island of Seram, to the north of Ambon, for 13 years. Eventually they too were defeated.

Muslim sources in Ambon say their side suffered badly during the days of the RMS. Its leaders were mainly Christian officers who had fought for the Dutch colonial government. They were trying to resist integration into a centralised Indonesia ruled from Jakarta, the site of the government they had fought in the 1945- 49 war of independence.

So when the current fighting broke out in January 1999, hardline Muslims quickly called the Christian side the RMS. At first it seemed laughable, but in a way it has come true. After Laskar Jihad arrived last year and ignited the third round of the war, some Christian leaders, facing annihilation and a state of civil emergency, founded a new movement of their own: the Maluku (Moluccas) Sovereignty Front, or FKM.

The FKM's aim is to re-create an independent South Moluccan state, though it says it is quite distinct from the RMS. It now has representatives in Jakarta, Europe and the United States. Its leader, Alex Manuputty, is a doctor and a member of the Indonesian Red Cross who lives in Kudamati, an area in the hills above Ambon city, which has become the Christians' command centre. But he says FKM does not want to see Christians dominating Muslims. It wants Moluccans on both sides to take control of their own destiny.

The government in Jakarta has not taken the FKM lightly. It has attempted to prosecute Dr Manuputty for separatist activities, a crime in Indonesia. But the attempt has failed: the Moluccas' legal system is in a mess, and most of the judges have fled.

Indonesia's security forces cannot bring an end to the fighting, say the Christians. Although Christian and Muslim police and soldiers work together when things are calm, the moment fighting breaks out they grab their ammunition and run to fight with their co-religionists. Some have even been filmed doing it. Members of the same units sometimes start shooting at each other. Soldiers and police sell weapons to both sides, at $700 for an M-16 or an AK-47.

For all Dr Manuputty's fine words about living together in peace, even moderate Muslims in Ambon see his FKM as a threat. Laskar Jihad has started putting angry references to FKM alongside those to the RMS in its propaganda outside Ambon's main mosque. Its members are turning more radical. Afghan-style turbans can often be sighted in the Muslim sector of Ambon, and it is becoming more common for women to cover their heads in public. Refugees from Muslim areas of the archipelago have horrific tales to tell of forced Islamicisation, with death the only alternative to conversion. And many believe this is part of a wider long-term strategy to turn not just the Moluccas, but all of Indonesia, into a fundamentalist Islamic state.

Madurese return home, only to face more problems

Straits Times - March 16, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Madura -- There seems to be no safe haven for the thousands of Madurese refugees who are fleeing the brutal ethnic violence in Central Kalimantan.

Those who have returned to rural Madura in the hope of finding solace and refuge with their kinsmen face increasing problems of overcrowding and poverty.

Overnight, small villages in Madura have doubled in size. Almost every family in the village of Lempong has opened their doors to Madurese refugees, whether or not they are related.

The vast majority of refugees fleeing the violence in Sampit and Samuda originally came from this part of western Madura, the most arid and infertile part of the island.

But it was this infertility that led the Madurese out of their homeland in the first place, said villager Abdullah Salam. Now this village -- where 80 per cent of the inhabitants are poor, and water supply is scarce -- must feed and house the refugees.

With none of the promised aid having arrived from Surabaya, Mr Abdullah predicts the village can only support the visitors for a month or two.

He says the tension of supplying food for so many refugees coupled with competition for limited work will spark new conflicts between the Madurese migrants and the residents in Lempong.

Already this week, two suspected Dayaks, accompanying their Madurese wives back to Madura, were brutally murdered, showing just how easily mass violence can be ignited. "They've already run here to escape conflict, if there's a new conflict here, where do they go next?" he asked.

Even local Madurese leaders, such as Mr Mohammad Noer, the much respected former governor of Surabaya who is sympathetic to the refugees' plight, is talking of unrest and violence if the refugees remain in Madura for any length of time.

He, like other local Madurese leaders, is hoping that the refugees would be returned quickly to Kalimantan. But reconciliation is a process that Jakarta may be considering. Not Sampit, according to authorities.

Inadequate government funding to rebuild destroyed shops and homes adds to the problems. Many of the migrants' own valuables, such as cars, have already been sold to the police for a fraction of their value.

Reconciliation would be a slow process if the experiences of Madurese migrants and past ethnic conflicts in areas such as Maluku are anything to go by.

For instance, many of the Madurese migrants from Sampit say they have no Dayak friends and have minimal contact with Dayaks because the latter were "stupid" or non-Muslim.

Dayaks in Palangkaraya and Sampit have shown themselves as unprepared for reconciliation. They burnt vehicles and rioted when the issue of returning the Madurese was publicly raised.

In the case of North Maluku, it has taken almost 18 months before 90,000 Muslims, pushed from their homes on the island of Halmahera, can even begin to return.

Aid groups say the lack of government co-ordination and simmering religious tensions have retarded the process. Even now, despite government assurances, only a handful have returned due to lack of community infrastructure.

In God and pipe bombs they trust

South China Morning Post - March 13, 2001

Chris McCall, Ambon -- They are the shock troops of a crusade to defend the Christian faith and they are mostly still at school.

They call themselves "Agas", an abbreviation for "Church Children who Love God". It also means "gnat". Several dozen of them live in the half-finished Catholic cathedral in Ambon, the main city in Indonesia's troubled Maluku Islands, sleeping on the pews without mattresses or sheets.

Give them 220,000 rupiah, however, and they will happily go and make a few bombs for you. Several, with bullet scars on their bodies, grin and smoke as they calmly explain how they make their weapons.

"We are ready to defend the faith of God wherever we have to," says their student commander, Tommi Maurits, 23. "Our forces are ready to die for Christ, also ready to live for Christ."

Some are only 13. They come from all over Maluku, having made it to Ambon as refugees from outlying areas. All are boys and like any good son, they get their parents' permission to be there. "Those here are ready to leave their parents to defend the faith. If there is armed contact, we are prepared to go straight in. What is important is defending the faith," said their leader.

Faith is a big issue these days for Ambon's beleaguered Christians. After a series of onslaughts by well-armed Muslim forces, at least half the city is in ruins. The Christian side time and again has run out of ammunition but held on, something they believe is due to their faith. When they run out of ammunition, they pray as hard they can, sing hymns and hope God will save them.

So far He has. But their opponents on the Muslim side are also fighting their own holy war, a "jihad", and believe God is on their side too.

God was certainly on the side of 15-year-old Rano Imlobla. During one street battle, a grenade bounced off his head. He emerged unhurt, but the man next to him was killed. Rano is still with the "gnats" and, like all of them, is prepared to die if he has to.

As he drags heavily on a cigarette, commander Tommi shows a couple of samples of bombs conveniently on hand and offers to make some in exchange for money.

On former battlefields, they sometimes find unexploded mortar rounds and grenades. Although still active, they take these weapons apart and find the "yellow medicine" inside, their way of describing the explosive chemicals. The yellow medicine gets stuffed into curved pipes, or wrapped up in packets with nails tied together with sticky tape and wire.

The user injects another liquid into the end with a medical syringe, shakes it about a bit and then lets fly within a second or two. Wait much longer and it would blow up the bomber not the enemy.

Weapons like this have helped change Ambon from a tropical paradise to the picture of devastation it is today. At several stages last year, Christian areas of the city and the rest of the island faced wave after wave of Muslim attackers, often with the support of the Indonesian troops.

Christian leaders have video evidence showing soldiers in full uniform fighting alongside local Muslims in skullcaps.

When that happens, Tommi's boys skip school to go and fight. Their teachers let them. If they did not, the boys would burn down the school, they say.

Home again ... only to be beheaded

Straits Times - March 12, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Madura -- After escaping rampaging Dayak mobs, hiding in the forest for days with her 15-month-old daughter, Ms Biah thought she had survived the most traumatic part of her two-week exodus from Kalimantan.

But when she returned to her uncle's village in Madura, she found that the worst was yet to come.

Last Wednesday night, a thousand-strong mob abducted her ethnic Kalimantan husband in the middle of the night. The next day his head was found on the side of the main road 2 km from her village.

Ms Biah, originally from Madura, says the unknown mob mistakenly thought her husband was Dayak, when in fact he was Banjar, an ethnic Malay group in Kalimantan.

"Thousands of them arrive at the house. I couldn't see if they have weapons. I was just crying and felt frightened," she said.

Ms Biah says neither she nor the other villagers could stop them because they were so enraged and everybody was scared they too would become victims.

Now the widowed Biah, her young baby and 17-year-old son are forced to stay just kilometres from where her husband was killed.

On the same day, according to police, another man was also lynched by a mob. His legs were cut off and his body was dragged through the streets just a few kilometres from this village.

No one really knows whether he was Dayak, but it is easy to see how these reprisal killings might have taken place, and the incidents have terrified the Kalimantan community here.

Madurese refugees in the area insist that both the men were Dayak and they were not killed purely out of revenge but because both had allegedly killed Madurese while in Kalimantan.

In Surabaya and Madura, ethnic Kalimantan students and residents now fear a wave of reprisal killings after rumours spread through Surabaya that all those who had come from Kalimantan would have to return by March 13.

This followed a demand by Madurese leaders that all refugees -- ethnic Madurese included -- had to be returned to Central Kalimantan because they had a right to be back in their homes.

In Surabaya, dozens of students originally from Central Kalimantan have already returned to the province, and so too have Banjar timber merchants.

Others have tried to convince the Madurese that they too are shocked by the violence and have joined a fund-raising drive by one of the city's major newspapers, which is distributing food, blankets and goods to Madurese refugees.

"I want to make peace in the world especially between the Madurese and Kalimantan people," said student Nur Ihsanty, explaining why she was involved in the donation drive.

Not apparently all Madurese are intent on driving those from Kalimantan back to where they came from.

According to Kalimantan community leader Makmun Hasan, head of the South Kalimantan Association in Surabaya, there have been guarantees from some local Madurese that they will not attack ethnic Kalimantans who remain in East Java.

Human rights/law

Hasan ordered to pay back $492 million

Sydney Morning Herald - March 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Lawyers for the Indonesian timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, a close associate of former president Soeharto, say they will appeal after Hasan was sentenced to six years' jail for corruption.

Last month Hasan was sentenced to a two-year term by the Central Jakarta District Court for a $A492 million scam involving a state forest mapping project during the early 1990s.

On Wednesday the Jakarta High Court upheld a prosecution appeal and extended the sentence to six years. It also ordered Hasan to pay back the entire sum.

Hasan became one of Indonesia's richest men during the Soeharto era, and was regarded as a close adviser to the president. In return for his loyalty to the authoritarian leader he was granted a long list of lucrative government contracts and monopolies.

He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee.

News & issues

Protest trash upsets cleaners

Straits Times - March 17, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Jakarta municipal authorities are complaining that the daily anti- and pro-government protests in the Indonesian capital are causing a strain -- on their garbage collectors.

The thousands of protesters who staged daily sit-ins at the Indonesian parliament complex this week left behind some 60 cubic metres of garbage a day, the Kompas daily said.

The head of Central Jakarta's cleaning office, Mr Nana Suhena, said his office was having a hard time coping with all the extra garbage.

"Even though on average we deploy some 40 cleaners at each protest location, and even 60 personnel at the parliament complex, the handling of waste can still not be effective," he said. "We have to work from morning to the next morning and manage our limited number of sweepers."

On a normal day, the city's cleaning office already has difficulty coping with the 5,200 cubic metres of garbage that Jakarta's 11 million people generate daily.

Dissolve the current legislature

Jakarta Post - March 16, 2001

[The following is an article based on a conference paper by sociologist George J. Aditjondro, a lecturer at Australia's Newcastle University. It was originally published in two parts with the second appearing on March 17.]

Newcastle -- Recently, the move to push Megawati Soekarnoputri into the presidential seat has become stronger.

But is that the solution to the current stalemate between the executive and legislative branches of the Indonesian government? Or will it only be followed by another stalemate, centered around another corruption scandal, in six months time? Reports of the growing cancer of corruption within Megawati's inner circle, and also those of corrupt practices among top leaders of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) clearly shows that simply replacing Abdurrahman Wahid by Megawati is surely not the solution.

The solution should rather be found in dissolving the current legislature -- most of whose leaders come from political parties which violated the 1999 bans against excessive party donations and electoral graft -- and have a new election, in which only those parties which did not violate those 1999 laws can take part.

The new elections would be supervised by a new General Elections Commission committed to enforce all bans against political corruption, especially excessive contributions and electoral graft. Only in that way can we have a multiparty system, without the multiparty corruption now thriving in our political system.

Allegations of corruption and favoritism has been raised against Megawati's husband, Taufik Kiemas. He has been the focus of media reports in news portal detik.com and tabloid Adil which portray the South Sumatran businessman as rescuing Marimutu Sinivasan, the boss of Texmaco, one of the biggest debtors to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), from criminal investigations after allegedly accepting a position as a commissioner of the conglomerate. Taufik has also attracted media attention for allegedly winning favorable deals in the US$2.3 billion Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) project, the $2.4 billion double track railway project from Merak on the tip of West Java to Banyuwangi on the tip of East Java, the $23 billion Trans-Borneo highway, and the $1.7 billion Trans-Papua highway in West Papua (Panji Masyarakat, August 30, 2000).

The JORR project seems to be the most politically sensitive among these potential megaprojects, since it strongly depends on Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso. This retired general is sitting on hot potatoes given his alleged role in the 1996 attack on the headquarters of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party when he was in charge of the city's security as the Jakarta commander.

The government and the party's silence over investigations into the case, which led to days of rioting, raises questions over whether Sutiyoso might have offered Megawati's side a lucrative deal in the JORR project in return for being let off the hook, as reported by the above magazine.

The news bulletin, Xpos, mentions that Sutiyoso's bribe to Taufik amounted to Rp 15 billion, in addition to Rp 10 billion paid to Roy Janis, the head of the Jakarta branch of Megawati's party, PDI Perjuangan.

In its internet edition of May 22-28, 2000, Xpos showed proof of these alleged bribes and also exposed Sutiyoso's offer of another perk to win over Taufik's favor, namely a license to manage an offshore floating casino in Jakarta Bay.

As far as the JORR project is concerned, the Governor's attempt to be absolved from his alleged political crime in the July 27, 1996 disaster does not seem to be limited to Taufik.

The children of two ministers in the Cabinet are allegedly also involved in determining which company will be involved in the megaproject.

Further, two of Taufik's younger brothers, Santayana Kiemas and Nazaruddin Kiemas, have allegedly accepted appointments as commissioners of one of the Gajah Tunggal companies, to rescue Syamsul Nursalim, the conglomerate's boss, from similar criminal prosecution. Taufik allegedly put some good words to the President about Syamsul Nursalim, after the tycoon sponsored Megawati and Taufik's New Year holiday in Hong Kong, according to Adil (January 2001) and other reports.

Nazaruddin is also named in the same report as having lobbied on behalf of Djoko S. Tjandra, one of the main suspects in the Rp 546 billion Bank Bali scandal. After two hearings at the South Jakarta court, Tjandra was acquitted by the court.

This acquittal raised strong public protests in Jakarta, since this was one of the stumbling blocks for the legitimation of former president B.J. Habibie's presidency. Habibie's friends had allegedly used these funds to bribe a significant number of MPR members to elect Habibie as president in the October 1999 MPR session, as reported among others by Kompas in November 1999.

These reports show another feature of Taufik's business connections, namely the predominance of young people from his home town, Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra.

According to these news weeklies, Nursalim's link to Taufik is Dudy Makmun Murod, a legislator from Palembang. Dudy's father, a retired lieutenant general and former Army commander, also sits, incidentally, on Gajah Tunggal's board of commissioners.

Other members of this "Palembang mafia" reportedly include former student leaders and environmentalists, who have become business operators for Taufik, to the dismay of their fellow activists. This includes M. Yamin, a lawyer and former student activist in the campaign to defend victims of the huge Kedungombo dam in Central Java, and Zulkarnain M.S., an engineer and former director of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (WALHI).

Influence in the bureaucratic sphere seems to be divided between members of the two ruling families. While Gus Dur's brother Hasyim Wahid has attracted media attention due to his influence in IBRA, Taufik has been allegedly influencing the appointment of the Director General of Customs, Permana Agung.

The closeness of this financial officer with the Vice President's husband is alleged to cover up for Taufik's luxury car-importing business, Adil reported in January 2001. A luxurious car dealer which the author visited last January in Cipete, South Jakarta, is allegedly partly or wholly owned by Taufik, showed dozens of luxurious sedans and four-wheel drive vehicles, that cost half of what other well-established car dealers were demanding in Jakarta.

None of these allegations against the Vice President's husband, his brothers and friends have been legally proven, so far. However, it is widely talked about in business circles and politicians in Jakarta, and among members of Megawati's own party.

Hence, MPR Speaker Amien Rais recently called for "people around Megawati Soekarnoputri to cease their corrupt practices, to safeguard Megawati's position when she becomes President", koridor.com reported in February 2001.

However DPR and MPR speakers are not free from corruption themselves.

Amien has allegedly amassed huge political donations from members of his National Mandate Party (PAN). These were to finance his campaign trips to Sumatra prior to the 1999 general election, and later his trips to maintain his constituency in Sumatra after becoming MPR Speaker.

These donations amounted to billions of rupiah, since it included such luxuries as helicopter trips during the 1999 election campaign. These costs amounted to approximately Rp 1 billion for every three days of his campaign.

Reports say these donations are mainly from PAN members who work at Mitra private hospitals, which are in turn part of the Kalbe Farma pharmaceutical company.

It is unclear whether these "donations" are seen as personal donations to Amien, or official donations from Kalbe Farma to the MPR Speaker -- hence a private donation to the state -- or a donation from a private company to a political party, namely PAN.

If reports of the "donation" to the National Mandate Party (PAN) are true, this would be a violation of Law No. 2 of 1999 on political parties. The law limits annual individual contributions to Rp 15 million, and annual contributions from business entities and organizations to Rp 150 million rupiah. So, in which category do the donations from PAN cadres employed by Kalbe Farma fall?

According to the December 2000 edition of the tabloid, Bangkit, PAN received a Rp 100 million donation from Achmad Junaidi, director of the state's workers insurance company, PT Jamsostek. This donation was disguised as an investment of the state company in the private company, PT Bumi Resources.

Again, if this news is accurate, is the above donation an individual one from Junaidi, or a donation from the company he directs? And, since this is a state-owned company, is this donation -- or investment -- known and approved by the Ministry of Labor, the Minister for Supervision of State-owned Companies, and by all the legislature's factions? On a less dramatic level, the Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and Megawati Soekarnoputri's younger brother, Guruh Soekarnoputra, reportedly accepted sponsorship by the British American Tobacco company, to attend a music festival in Cannes, France, in January 2000.

From a liberal democratic perspective, every gift from a large company to a legislator could be seen as a bribe. The House of Representatives was then debating a new regulation of the Ministry of Finance on tobacco levies, as reported among others by Kontan in May 2000.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung also has several corruption cases on his plate. Officials in a large river- dredging project in East Kalimantan have accused the chairman of Soeharto's former ruling party, Golkar, of pocketing Rp 5 billion in public funds from the Rp 27.5 billion project, while he was state secretary during the interim presidency of B.J. Habibie.

These funds were allegedly used to fill Golkar's coffers, Forum Keadilan magazine reported in March 2000.

Corruption allegations have also been aired concerning other political parties and politicians, who are -- or were -- represented in Abdurrahman Wahid's and Megawati's coalition government. One of them is Minister of Forestry and Plantation, Nur Mahmudi Ismail [who was reportedly dismissed Thursday - Ed]. This former chairman of the Islamic Justice Party (Partai Keadilan) has been attacked by the January 2001 edition of Jakarta Muslim news weekly magazine, Panji Masyarakat, for handing out new timber concessions to his cronies.

Hence, Chatibul Umam, the deputy secretary general of Gus Dur's National Awakening Party (PKB), urged the President to sack this minister. He said Ismail had abused his position by handing out business favors to friends and cronies.

Chatibul was quoted in the Indonesian Observer in February 2001 as saying the minister was two-faced, "On the upper level Ismail approaches Gus Dur, while on the lower level he acts like a political opponent." His remark reflects how deeply corruption has become a political football between members of the ruling coalition.

Former minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra was accused by members of his own Moon and Crescent Star Party (PBB) of accepting a Rp 1 billion donation from then president Habibie, to finance a national meeting of the party in February 1999, and then another Rp 500 million more for the general election in July 1999.

Amid denials from Habibie's associates, Yusril was still reelected as PBB's president in a party congress in late April 2000. This has led to a split in the party's leadership, with 16 party leaders rejecting Yusril's chairmanship. They are also currently planning to sue him for breaking the 1999 laws on political parties and general elections.

Finally, in the wake of the election of governors for the newly established provinces, the candidacy of these governors has also led to close scrutiny of the candidates' potentially corrupt past.

Abdul Gafur, a former long-time minister in Soeharto's Cabinets and former executive of Golkar, who has campaigned for the governorship in his home province of North Maluku, has been accused of accepting a Rp 100 million donation from state mining company PT Aneka Tambang for community development projects in North Maluku's three subdistricts.

However, the funds allegedly never reached the people in these subdistricts, and have instead been used by Gafur to renovate his parents' grave in one of the subdistricts, Gamma magazine reported in January this year.

All these cases demonstrate the predominant feature of post- Soeharto corruption in Indonesia, which has shifted from the formerly predominant oligarchic and hierarchical single-party model of corruption towards a "multi-party" model, as reported earlier this year by Indonesian Corruption Watch.

In most cases recorded, the rationale to justify corruption is the raising of funds for political parties represented by the bureaucrats and politicians in question, while simultaneously skimming some of the funds for their own pockets.

This level corruption heralds the presidential race of 2004. That is, if the current President and Vice President are not already displaced from their positions of power before their terms end.

This indicates one of the main shortcomings in the transformation of Soeharto's oligarchy towards the current multi-party system, namely the lack of clarity in laws, regulations and mechanisms to enforce those laws and regulations which deal with donations to political parties and vote-buying.

The predominance of former cronies of Soeharto and Habibie in the House, including the dominant role of Golkar, reflects the failure of the Election Supervisory Committee to enforce the two laws which ban excessive political donations and vote-buying.

Based on those two laws, the four most prominent political leaders, who have not shown their capacity as statesmen -- or stateswomen -- should not be trusted to lead the country out of the political and economic crisis; since their respective political parties have violated these laws and should have been disqualified even from taking part in the 1999 elections.

In their 1999 report, "Money Politics: Regulation of Political Finance in Indonesia," the Washington-based International Foundation for Election Systems has documented political parties which have violated the prohibitions against excessive political donations.

Despite the above annual limit on individual donations of Rp 15 million, Golkar acknowledged receiving two anonymous personal donations of Rp 50 million each, and one for Rp 25 million. Despite the annual limit upon contributions from business entities and organizations of Rp 150 million, Golkar also reported receiving three contributions from corporations of approximately Rp 200 million.

In the first report to the General Elections Commission, PDI Perjuangan reported 304 unidentified donors, three donations from individuals that exceeded the legal limit, and a Rp 400 million loan from an individual.

PKB reported receiving two donations from individuals that exceeded the legal limit and four excessive contributions from business entities. PAN reported receiving one individual donation that exceeded the legal limit, the National Labor Party (Partai Buruh Nasional) reported receiving loans and contributions from five individuals above the legal limit.

Indeed most of the Rp 582.6 million reportedly received by the Justice and Unity Party, led by some retired officers, were also from unidentified donors.

A few of the more noteworthy items in the above review of the second audited reports include five excessive contributions from individuals to PDI Perjuangan, plus six more excessive donations among 282 unidentified donors, as well as donations to the United Development Party from 168 party executives amounting to nearly Rp 14 billion, ranging from Rp 20 million to Rp 1.25 billion.

The report for the second round of party audited reports, covering the official campaign period, notes that the auditor did not attach a list of donors to Golkar's report at the request of the party's executive board. From persuading citizens at the voting booths with financial rewards to providing financial rewards to MPR members to vote for their presidential candidate, Golkar again tops the list of law-breakers.

The role of A.A. Baramuli, then chair of the Supreme Advisory Council and main Golkar campaigner for Eastern Indonesia, is well documented.

So is the "Bank Bali" scandal, where Rp 546 billion was spent to bribe Golkar branch leaders and MPR members to legitimize B.J. Habibie's presidency, as described in reports.

Given the above, extensive violations of laws on political donations and bans on vote-buying, a more fundamental solution to the current stalemate between the executive and legislative branch is to dissolve the entire DPR and MPR, and hold a new election.

Police storm prison to quell riot

Agence France-Presse - March 15, 2001

Jakarta -- Police stormed a top-security prison here early yesterday, killing one inmate and injuring three others as they quelled a riot over plans to transfer 50 prisoners to other jails, police said.

"One inmate was shot dead while three others were injured by gunshots," Jakarta chief detective Harry Montolalu said during the pre-dawn assault on the rioters who were torching buildings in the overcrowded Cipinang jail.

The jail housed scores of political prisoners under the 32-year regime of former Indonesian president Suharto.

Mr Montolalu said the riot, during which the inmates burnt down three buildings, including an administration block, and pelted wardens with stones, was over by noon yesterday.

Director-General of Penitentiary Affairs Adi Sujatno told journalists at the jail that the rioting broke out around 4 am yesterday. Mr Adi said the riot was triggered by the authorities' plan to move some prisoners to other jails in nearby Tanggerang and in Cirebon, West Java.

Mr Ari Prasongko, a jail warden, said the transfer plan was only the "tip of the iceberg". "In reality, there are a lot of problems here in the prison," he said without elaborating.

A plywood board placed by the prisoners for journalists to read said: "We, all inmates here ... want to be released if Tommy is not arrested."

Tommy refers to Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the youngest son of Mr Suharto who has been a fugitive since failing to turn himself in to serve an 18-month jail term for corruption on November 3.

Several buses hijacked during massive strike

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- Monday's mass student rally was marked by the hijacking of several buses with their drivers being forced to transport protesters to the scene of the demonstration.

Some of the bus drivers told The Jakarta Post that their vehicles were hijacked near the campuses of, among others, the University of Indonesia in Salemba, Central Jakarta and Depok, and the Syarief Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute in Ciputat, South Jakarta. Some of the buses belonged to private firms Mayasari Bhakti and Himpurna.

A driver, Karsiman, said the students asked passengers on the Mayasari Bhakti bus he was driving to comply with their call for a national strike and threatened to force the passengers who defied the call off the vehicle.

"We were stopped by the students in front of the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba as we were passing with a full load of passengers. All the passengers opted to get off the bus and leave it to the students," Karsiman said.

Another driver, Burhan, said several traffic police officers stopped his Himpurna bus plying the Pulogadung-Kalideres route at Jl. Pintu II in Kalideres, West Jakarta and ordered him to take students and a group of other people to Merdeka Palace, where the rally was being staged. He said the officers threatened to suspend the operation of his bus for 10 days if he refused.

Both Karsiman and Burhan claimed they received no payment from the students. Other drivers said the students promised to pay between Rp 250,000 and Rp 300,000 for the use of their buses.

Marihot, a Metromini bus driver, said he was stopped by Jakarta State University (UNJ) students when passing in front of their campus in Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

A female student, he said, gave him Rp 50,000 and promised to pay him the full rental fee after the demonstration was over. "We hope the students will soon leave the state palace and return to their campus, so that we continue operating for the rest of the day," he said.

Drivers who carried students from outside the capital said they were asked by their managements to take the students to Jakarta.

Students from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) rented 20 Limas buses, while a group of students from Bandung calling themselves Formasi chartered 15 Duta Pengarang buses.

Undeterred In general, the capital was relatively unaffected by the rally. It was business as usual in elementary, junior high and senior high schools as it also was in the city's shopping and commercial centers, such as the Mangga Dua and Glodok areas of West Jakarta and Blok M in South Jakarta.

Transportation and the distribution of staple foodstuffs to and from traditional markets across the capital, such as Kramatjati market in East Jakarta, Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta and Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta, continued undisturbed with the markets appearing no less crowded than usual.

The city's public order office announced after an inspection across the city that about 70 percent of a total of 6,000 buses were on the road serving the public, while the rest were being used by protesting students and students on their school vacations. "The predictions of some of the print media that the city would be paralyzed today have been proven wrong," the office's head Raya Siahaan told reporters at City Hall.

He said most of the bus drivers who had previously been touted as among those going to join the national strike, particularly those from the Mayasari Bhakti and Metromini companies and the KWK and Wahana Kalpika cooperatives, had, in fact, reported for work as usual.

No disturbances were reported at the city's major bus terminals, including Senen in Central Jakarta, Pulogadung in East Jakarta, Kalideres in West Jakarta and Blok M in South Jakarta, he said.

The Navy had also made 100 buses available in anticipation of a public transportation shortage following the student's call for a national strike, Navy spokesman Col. Arie Zulkarnaen said.

He said the buses were standing by at Navy headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, the Western Fleet Command headquarters on Jl. Gunung Sahari in North Jakarta and the marine corps headquarters on Jl. Prapatan in Central Jakarta.

Raya also said that workers in the city's major industrial estates in Pulogadung and Cakung in East Jakarta and Cengkareng in West Jakarta had not heeded the strike call.

But heavy traffic jams occurred along Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Jl. MH. Thamrin, Jl. Veteran and Jl. Majapahit throughout most of the day.

Arms/armed forces

Army chief denies new TNI reshuffle

Jakarta Post - March 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto dismissed on Thursday speculation that there would soon be a major reshuffle in the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"There is a standard mechanism that is followed if there is a planned reshuffle in the TNI's top posts. First, the President must propose the candidates to the House of Representatives in order to secure their approval," Endriartono told The Jakarta Post by phone. To date, the TNI has yet to submit the names of any candidates to the President," he added.

Endriartono was commenting on widespread rumors that TNI chief Adm. Widodo AS would soon be replaced by the chief of the TNI's Strategic Intelligence Body (Bais) Vice Marshall Ian Santoso Perdanakusuma.

Reports have it that Ian, a 1971 Air Force Academy (AAU) graduate, had been selected as an alternative candidate for TNI chief after incumbent Air Force chief Marshall Hanafie Asnan turned down the posting due to ill health.

Hanafie, a 1969 Air Force Academy graduate, reportedly also rejected the offer as he was already past the mandatory retirement age of 55 years of age.

Rumors also have it that the current TNI Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo has been selected to replace Endriartono as the Army chief.

The nomination of Agus, a 1970 Armed Forces Academy (Akabri) graduate, to replace Endriartono was made after the two front- runners -- incumbent Army Assistant Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Kiki Syahnakrie and incumbent Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu -- reportedly rejected the post on the grounds that they still had work to do in respectively straightening out the Army and Kostrad.

Endriartono, however, dismissed the speculation that he would be replaced and be assigned to a staff posting at TNI headquarters.

Rumors were also rife that President Abdurrahman Wahid has already issued a decree on Endriartono's replacement.

"It [the planned reshuffle] is all rumors. Army headquarters hasn't held any further meetings on a command reshuffle since our last reshuffle in February," Endriartono said, while citing that it was within the President's prerogative to replace the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

"But to date, Gus Dur has yet to summon me to specifically discuss my replacement. Neither have I been informed about whether I will be transferred," the four-star general said.

Separately, deputy speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) from the TNI/National Police faction Lt. Gen. Hari Sabarno said any reshuffle in the TNI's top posts must secure the approval of the House.

"Based on the MPR decree, the President must obtain the House's approval before he can replace the TNI chief and the National Police chief. If it is planned to replace the TNI chief, there are certain requirements that a candidate must fulfill.

"He [the candidate] must be a professional soldier, have an excellent educational background and a clear track record, and have experience serving with the Special Force," Hari said as quoted by Antara, while claiming that the post of TNI chief did not always have to be rotated among officers of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Hari said the frequent reshuffles in the TNI's top ranks would affect the military's solidity and professionalism. "If we frequently replace our maids, we'll never be satisfied with their work," he said, while pointing out that Endriartono had only been in office for less than five months while Endriartono's predecessor, Gen. Tyasno Sudarto, only lasted in the post for less than a year.

TNI may take control of security affairs

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Karawang, West Java -- Army chief of staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto warned on Monday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would take control of security affairs from the National Police if the political situation deteriorates into chaos.

"We [the TNI] must guard the nation if a chaotic situation erupts ... We are not going to let it occur nationwide. The nation's interests are paramount," Endriartono told journalists after presiding over the inauguration ceremony of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command's (Kostrad) new intelligence platoon unit, Tontaikam, at Sangga Buana, Karawang, West Java.

Endriartono stressed, however, that the TNI would only act within the confines of the law, and "under a legal and political umbrella". He further underlined that such action would only be carried out in an effort to maintain security, and not in an attempt to acquire power.

Endriartono's remarks came amid heightened political tension which has pitted the President against the House of Representatives. The situation has become increasingly tense as street protests, ethnic conflict and armed separatism have emerged across the nation.

Even Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed concern on Sunday that the nation could collapse if questions over the national leadership, stability and security are not quickly resolved.

Endriartono emphasized on Monday that national integrity and sovereignty means everything to the TNI, and that it would not allow anything to threaten those basic tenets.

"If peaceful measures fail to settle problems and the government is not willing to impose a military emergency, even though it could ... then of course we are not going to let it happen," Endriartono asserted.

When asked whether the political elite have approached or lobbied TNI top brass for assistance in maintaining security in the event of a national leadership change, Endriartono maintained that he had "never held a meeting with the political elite".

"Even if they asked us and tried to lobby us, we would reject it since we are not in a capacity to support or to make specific political powers victorious. Our concern is the nation's interests. The TNI must save this nation," Endriartono asserted.

Kostrad to launch new intelligence battalion

Jakarta Post - March 12, 2001

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- With unrest, bomb attacks and separatist violence affecting various parts of the country in recent times, many people have condemned the weaknesses of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) intelligence gathering system.

In the past, the TNI intelligence system was known to be quite efficient and was so pervasive, particularly during the New Order era, that it delved into not only security and defense matters, but also the social, economic, and political arenas.

The Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) has expressed its concern over the recent regression and the need to have a strong and powerful intelligence unit for security, not political, purposes.

Kostrad chief Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu expressed the dilemma that he and his force faced by saying that while in many respects they had been excised from the body politic, nevertheless the demands for them to be proactive kept increasing.

"The challenge for my troops in maintaining the nation's security has become more difficult due to the separatist demands that have been aired among us," he remarked.

In response, Kostrad has set up a special intelligence unit dubbed the Security Surveillance Battalion (Tontaikam).

The battalion will begin special training on Monday at Kostrad's newest training camp in the hilly Sangga Buana area of Karawang, West Java.

"The intelligence capabilities of my combat units must be improved. But it should be underlined that I only want to create a professional military combat intelligence unit," Ryamizard said.

Operational assistant to the Kostrad chief, Col. Bambang Darmono, told The Jakarta Post that each of the TNI's branches had their own intelligence units.

"In the Army, there is an intelligence detachment at each Military Command [provincial] level. There is also, for example, the Sandi Yudha Group IV in the Army's Special Forces [Kopassus] and the intelligence platoon attached to Kostrad's airborne brigade," Bambang said.

Kostrad, which comprises about 22,000 soldiers, already has an intelligence unit.

But Bambang lamented that enhancing and improving its capabilities had never been a major priority and that its personnel had never received additional training.

According to Bambang, in January Kostrad decided to reorganize and enhance the capabilities of its intelligence unit.

"Through this reorganization, we recruited the Tontaikam members, with its personnel being drawn from each of Kostrad's six infantry brigades," Bambang said.

The Kostrad commanders have demanded high standards of would-be members of the new platoon, including an age limit of between 25 and 35 years of age.

"We are demanding very high requirements from every member, including a high degree of sensitivity in predicting the weather, and good capabilities in battle field analysis and enemy strength estimation," Bambang said.

"We now have six companies of Tontaikam, with each company consisting of between 41 and 50 men," Bambang said. The two-and-a-half month training course is being held in cooperation with the Army's Kopassus.

Five weeks of the course will be under the tutelage of Kostrad instructors, three weeks under Kopassus's instructors, and one week will be devoted to improving the trainees' capabilities in the water.

Bambang noted that one of the most crucial skills which the battalion members needed to possess was the power of resistance -- to maintain clarity of thought and analysis despite suffering from extreme exhaustion, whether mental or physical, and at times of intense pressure.

The training course includes a daily 25-kilometer race over the hills and through rivers.

"While undergoing the course, we will suddenly intervene and make them take psychological tests which they will have to pass with satisfactory results," Bambang explained.

Bambang said that in the future the platoon would be the first reconnaissance unit sent into a combat zone to collect information on the enemy's strength.

He further revealed that apart from honing their marksmanship using standard SS-1 Army rifles, Tontaikam personnel will also be taught to use the German-produced MP-5 handgun.

While the handgun is not standard issue in the Indonesian Army, Bambang said such training would be necessary as "most of the elite forces in the world use this gun." Kostrad has allocated about Rp 250 million (US$25,000) for the training course.

International relations

US assures Indonesia it would not support a coup

Reuters - March 13, 2001

Carol Giacomo, Washington -- The United States has assured Indonesia that it would not back a military coup against Jakarta's politically embattled civilian government, US and Indonesian officials said on Monday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that such a move by Washington would be "unthinkable," a senior US official told Reuters.

Powell also told Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab he would see if there was some way Washington could help Indonesia develop a trained police force to assist in quelling violence in its restive provinces, the US official said.

He added, however, that the Bush administration is not seeking at this time to have Congress lift sanctions on Indonesia that restrict military cooperation between the two governments.

Shihab and the senior US official spoke with Reuters after the Indonesian foreign minister's first meeting with Powell at the State Department.

A major issue on Shihab's mind was a recent Washington Post editorial that raised concerns in Jakarta that the United States might support a military coup against Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically-elected president.

Accused of corruption, Wahid is the target of growing protests at home by demonstrators demanding his resignation.

Recent violence, in Aceh, Irian Jaya, Borneo and the Spice Islands plus calls for Wahid's removal, have undergirded a sense that the world's largest and most diverse Muslim nation may be drifting toward anarchy and mob rule.

Powell told Shihab that "not only would we not be supportive [of a military coup], we would be specifically against it ... The secretary of state said it was unthinkable, and that's a direct quote," the US official said.

Shihab, in the Reuters interview, said he was "reassured" by Powell that "speculation which has been spread around that the United States will support the Indonesian military to ... take the authority in Indonesia is improper and out of the question because it contradicts with United States idealism."

For years, the United States had a close relationship with the Indonesian military, as it does with most of the militaries of East Asian countries.

But Washington cut off sales and military assistance to Indonesia, including logistical support and training, after the Jakarta-backed violence that accompanied East Timor's 1999 vote for independence.

The United Nations, now running the territory as it prepares for independence, estimated 1,000 people were killed and 300,000 others -- more than a third of the population -- were herded into neighbouring West Timor by rampaging pro-Jakarta militias backed by Indonesian soldiers and police.

In his meeting with Shihab, Powell stressed US support for Indonesia's efforts to build democracy in the archipelago, officials of both counties said. But he also reiterated US concerns about the course of democracy and human rights there, as well as the need for civilian control of the military and respect for the rights of refugees in East Timor, the US official said.

Shihab said he had asked Powell to talk to Congress about lifting sanctions on military cooperation, arguing that the problem of militias running rampant and intimidating the East Timorese is over.

According to the Indonesian minister, Powell was sympathetic but said he needed "time to convince" Congress.

The US official said Powell made clear he was not looking to change US sanctions law at this time. Instead, the official said, Powell had promised to explore what cooperation might be possible within US law to expand Indonesia's police capability.

US officials see building up an Indonesian police capability, separate from the military, to help keep order as a key element of democracy.

Shihab said he also asked Powell to increase US aid to Indonesia which last year amounted to $145 million. The minister stressed that the former Clinton administration had designated Indonesia one of four emerging democracies deserving special US attention and assistance.

"I only jokingly said I'm not asking for as much as you provide for Colombia," Shihab said, referring to the South American country on which Washington plans to spend at least $550 million in 2002 to combat cocaine and heroin production.

Economy & investment

Bank Indonesia expects to keep raising rates

Reuters - March 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesia's central bank said on Friday it expects to keep raising interest rates to help ease inflationary pressures stemming from the battered rupiah, but hoped the rise would not be too high.

The rupiah's recent fall through 10,000 to the US dollar has unsettled officials, fearful that imported inflation could raise prices for Indonesia's millions of poor and spark more social unrest across the embattled country. The rupiah weakened 3.41 percent on Friday to trade at 10,250 to the US dollar.

"It would appear that interest rates must be increased from now to help ease inflationary pressures which have resulted from the recent weakening in the rupiah," Bank Indonesia deputy governor Miranda Goeltom told Reuters.

Central bank governor Sjahril Sabirin later told reporters the bank hoped it would not have to raise interest rates too high and reiterated that intervention in the foreign exchange market would hopefully boost the battered rupiah.

Indonesia's 2000 year-on-year inflation rate was 9.35 percent. The government has forecast the 2001 figure at just over seven percent.

On Wednesday, the central bank's benchmark one-month SBI certificates rose to 14.97 percent from 14.83 percent at the previous week's auction of the paper.

Goeltom said, however, that an interest rate rise would not necessarily strengthen the rupiah -- one of the world's worst performers in recent years and which has been buffeted by a steady diet of political instability and dollar demand. Rais is former leader of the second largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, which has traditionally been at loggerheads with the NU.

"Day by day, this conflict is enlarged ... and if social conflict comes, the military will govern again and all the democratic movement in Indonesia will come to a stop," Muzadi said after a crisis meeting with Muslim leaders from across East Java. "There are a lot of dangerous things behind these games."

But Wahid has gained some ground in his battle with Rais. This week, Rais was forced to concede that his attempts to speed up procedures to impeach Wahid would be unconstitutional. Also two ministers he ordered to quit Wahid's cabinet or be expelled from his party chose to stay with the president.

And on Thursday, Wahid sacked his forestry minister, who is a member of the loose coalition trying to push Wahid from power.

Wahid officials said that when he does respond to a parliament censure over two financial scandals -- which has to be by May -- he will plead his innocence.

If he was pushed from office, his replacement -- almost certainly Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri -- would inherit a poisoned chalice of uncontrollable civil unrest that would lead to an army takeover, Muzadi warned.

If Wahid and his enemies could not end the power struggle, a fresh national election should be called, he added. But that offers no obvious solution.

At the last general election in mid-1999, the most successful party -- Megawati's -- won barely a third of the votes, creating a splintered parliament and forcing Wahid into unlikely alliances to win the presidency a few months later. Indications are the next election, whenever it is held, will be just as inconclusive.

The risk of widespread bloodshed, which has spooked financial markets, is real. NU supporters have clashed with anti-Wahid protesters in Jakarta and destroyed buildings belonging to the former ruling Golkar party, headed by another key figure in the anti-Wahid movement.

On Thursday, thousands of NU protesters torched a Golkar building and a car in the town of Banyuwangi, near Malang. It was the latest in their attacks on the Golkar party.

The NU sources say the organisation is likely to go ahead with its mass callout next Tuesday, putting well over a million people on the streets of the Indonesian capital, already jittery after weeks of pro and anti-Wahid protests.

The simmering instability and the constant threat it could explode into violence has mauled financial markets, driving the rupiah and stocks to two-year lows earlier this week.

Government to raise fuel prices for industry

Jakarta Post - March 13, 2001

Jakarta -- The government decided on Monday to raise fuel prices for industries by 50 percent up to 100 percent on April 1 but keep kerosene and fuel prices at gas stations unchanged until October to protect the poor.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro told reporters at his office that the Cabinet's meeting on Monday decided to postpone price increases for kerosene, automotive diesel oil and gasoline sold at gas stations until October 1 to prevent the already fragile social political situations from worsening.

Under the plan agreed to by the Cabinet, starting on April 1 state oil and gas monopoly Pertamina will sell fuel to all foreign investors in the mining and petroleum sectors, as well as foreign-flagged ships, twice as high as the current price.

According to Purnomo, foreign mining and petroleum investors, and foreign-flagged ships account for 0.3 percent of the country's annual fuel consumption, which stood at about 51 million kiloliters last year.

The Cabinet also decided to increase on April 1 the fuel price by 50 percent for other industrial customers, including the fishing industry which has staged many campaigns to oppose such a discriminative pricing.

Purnomo said industrial consumers account for about 23 percent of national fuel consumption.

The remaining 76.5 percent of Pertamina's fuel supplies are consumed by households and transportation firms. In accordance with the state budget, the government must raise fuel prices for all consumers by an average of 20 percent on April 1 to cut the government's subsidy burden by Rp 4.3 trillion (US$409 million) to 41.3 trillion this fiscal year.

The decision to delay fuel price increases for the poor was made amid growing pressure from students for President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign.

Purnomo said the policy to maintain fuel prices at gas stations was actually aimed at providing public transportation with cheap fuel, but the government could not prevent affluent car owners from buying fuel at the stations.

The government has instead decided to impose some additional taxes on car owners in compensation for fuel subsidies they enjoy at gas stations, Purnomo said. "But the government is still studying the type and the amount of the new taxes on car owners," Purnomo said.

Purnomo said that although the government would not raise kerosene prices and fuel prices at gas stations on April 1, it was still optimistic to cut fuel subsidies by Rp 4.3 trillion this year as planned in the state budget, owing to the price increases for industrial users.

Purnomo said the government would implement a tight monitoring and supervisory scheme to ensure that the three-tier fuel pricing scheme would be implemented properly.