| Home > South-East Asia >> Indonesia | |
Indonesia News Digest No
23 - June 3-9, 2001
Detik - June 6, 2001
Bagus Kurniawan/HD, Yogyakarta -- On Wednesday, around 100
students calling themselves Anti New Order People Front (Frarob)
from various universities in Yogyakarta staged a demonstration at
the Yogyakarta Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) aimed at
dissolving the Golkar Party and purging the parliament from any
New Order elements.
Students from various universities namely Gadjah Mada, Atmajaya,
Sanata Dharma, Janabadra and Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic
Institute started their action around 1pm local time at the DPRD
Yogyakarta on Jl Malioboro, Wednesday. Arriving there, they
staged oration and stretched banners and posters.
A white banners reads "Implement the people and reform agenda,
purge the parliament from the New Order, disband the Golkar
Party, bring the New Order's economy, politics and humanity
criminals into trial, or the People whom will take the parliament
over."
According to the coordinatior of action, Syamsul, Frarob remains
demanding the disbandment of the Golkar Party and the purging of
the parliament immediately from the New Order elements. For him,
the reform has been misguided so that it results the people
suffering.
"The presence of New Order people in parliament are clearly
trying to break and throw out the reform agenda and divide pro-
people power," Syamsul said confidently. He added that though in
this demonstration they have been threatened to be blocked by
certain group of masses, however, their side are not scared.
"Because that's the security officials' duties and we're clearly
anti-violence," he said.
Detik - June 5, 2001
Djoko Tjiptono/HD, Jakarta -- Anti-Golkar Party demonstration
keeps to move. This Tuesday, around 400 residents from Jakarta
came to the Supreme Court (MA) building on Jl Medan Merdeka
Utara, Central Jakarta. They came to demand the disbandment of
the Golkar Party. At the same time, second court against Golkar
continues aimed at dissolving the Golkar Party.
Hundred of people went by teens of buses and arrived in front of
the MA building at 12.45 Jakarta time, Tuesday. They then
gathered at the green line and staged an oration mainly demanding
the disbandment of Golkar Party.
They asked MA to dissolve the Golkar Party immediately. The
Golkar party violated Law No 2/1999 on Political Parties and
Article 9 of the law for failing to promote democracy, honesty
and fairness in the 1999 general election. In the last 1999
general election, Golkar received donations exceeding Rp 90
billion from the the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), Rp 15
billion from Bank Bali and Rp 1 billion from the former chief of
the Supreme Advisory Council (DPA), AA Baramuli.
Due to the Golkar's violations, the demonstrators ask the court
to dissolve the party. They stretched their banners in fron of
the MA building among them read, "dissolve Golkar within
Legislative and Executive board, Watch out of Golkar's cadres at
the Parliament."
At the MA building, in the same ime, a second court case against
Golkar staged. This second court is presenting a hearing from the
Golkar party's response represented lawyers OC Kaligis, Hotma
Sitompoel, Ruhut Sitompul and Tony Sihotang. Around four trucks
containing of security officials deployed to guard this court.
Visitors looked being guarded tightly with mental detector
equipment.
As known, the first suit filed by several non-governmental
organisation (NGOs) against Golkar started last Friday (1/6/2001)
aimed at dissolving the Golkar Party.
R.O. Tambunan of the Pijar Keadilan Law Office filed the suit on
behalf of some 60 people grouped in five NGOs -- Paguyuban Korban
Orde Baru (Society for Victims of the New Order - Pakorba),
Lembaga Perjuangan Rehabilitasi Pegawai Negeri Korban Rezim Orde
Baru (Institute for the Rehabilitation of Civil Servant Victims
of the New Order Regime), Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indonesia
(Confederation of Independent Labor Unions - GSBI), Barisan
Penyelamat Bangsa (Nation's Savior Front - Balabas), and Front
Indonesia Semesta (Front for a Universal Indonesia - FIS).
East Timor
Aceh/West Papua
Elite power struggle
Human rights/law
News & issues
Economy & investment
Democratic struggle
Students demonstration to dissolve Golkar party
Second court against Golkar continues
Students clash with police in anti-Mega rally
Indonesian Observer - June 2, 2001
Jakarta -- Students of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) were involved in clashes yesterday with Police and Military who were tasked to safeguard Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri during her visit to the ITB campus to inaugurate a statue of Soekarno, Indonesias first president which was erected on the campus where he studied technical science and obtained his diploma from. No killings were reported in the clashes, however dozens of students were admitted to the hospital with serious injuries.
The clash occurred when the students, who were awaiting the arrival of Megawati, the daughter of Soekarno, from early in the morning were forced to move after they tried to block the vice presidents convoy to leave the campus after she successfully initiated the statue.
The students of ITB who have a tradition of militancy refused to accept Megawatis visit since they had put their stance to oppose politics on campus, a position which was declared several years ago.
During the occasion however, they also urged Megawati to put her priorities with the people who have been suffering from the current national crises, rather than placing so much priority on politics and her party. Megawati did not comment on the students suggestions or about the clashes between police.
Megawatis visit to ITB was supposed to be the highlight of the celebration of centennial commemoration of Soekarno who was. Soekarnos statue inauguration was among the scheduled events during the commemoration.
| East Timor |
Sydney Morning Herald - June 9, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- As its final act, the organisation that united ordinary East Timorese in the struggle to end Indonesian rule called for all political parties contesting the August elections to sign a national unity pact.
Its leader, the independence fighter and former guerilla commander Xanana Gusmao, praised as courageous the decision of the National Council of Timorese Resistance to dissolve, saying he also would step down from public office to become an ordinary citizen.
Alongside the Falintil pro-independence guerillas, the CNRT was the other major player in the East Timor conflict. Formed in 1998, it forged a common front from anti-Indonesian groups and rival political parties in the battle for independence, a goal that is now within months of attainment.
Its name and flag were chosen by the United Nations to be used on the ballot paper to represent the independence vote in the 1999 referendum to end 24 years of Indonesian rule. Hundreds of its supporters were hunted down in the bloodbath that followed.
In his opening speech at the start of a three-day special conference to close the council on Tuesday, Mr Gusmao hailed the heroism of its members drawn from all walks of Timorese life.
"As a human being it is hard sometimes to accept reality and to close everything down. It is hard as an organisation which was so highly motivated to lead the people of East Timor towards independence and that now faces a new context," he said.
That new context is national elections for an 88-seat Constituent Assembly scheduled for August 30. The dissolution of the council will allow the membership to join or form political parties, many of which will compete against each other.
Jorge Trindade Neves de Camoes, one of the younger generation of council members and an official on its judicial commission, said it was an appropriate time to dissolve the umbrella group because its role was diminishing. "No, I don't think there will be problems," he said. "Most of the CNRT members are committed to support all political parties.
"We have urged the political leaders to sign a national unity pact to show their commitment to ensure stability and security and to start this democratic process we have aspired for so long." The council evolved from another anti-Indonesian front called the National Council of Maubere Resistance. Maubere is the name given to the original inhabitants of East Timor.
The CNRM was set up by Mr Gusmao and his colleagues in 1982 in the wake of the near obliteration of organised resistance to Indonesia in the late 1970s. As a broad political forum, its roots tapped deep into traditional East Timorese society.
Its legacy endures, with CNRT leaders often being sought as arbitrators, social welfare providers and primary sources of information for remote mountain communities. As a test of its credibility in the absence of a properly functioning legal system, local council leaders are still called upon to resolve disputes at a district and village level. Its word is usually final.
Former CNRT head of security and veteran resistance fighter David Ximenes, said the passing of the CNRT was an emotional moment for him. "But this is an event that happens to most organisations. The reality is we have to allow the parties here to now involve themselves in the political process of the transition. We don't want the CNRT to go on as an umbrella for every party. We want to show everyone that we want to set up democracy in our country."
So popular and familiar is the CNRT to most East Timorese that many people believed the organisation could transform into a single political party. In its closing declaration, it demanded the state assume responsibility for CNRT war veterans, widows, orphans and the disabled, and called on the Constituent Assembly to form a commission to report on the number of East Timorese who perished in the fight for independence and to erect a national monument in their memory.
BBC Monitoring Service -- June 8, 2001
Indonesian language Internet media sources have published comments by East Timorese refugee representatives and IX/Udayana Military Area Commander Maj- Gen Willem T da Costa on the post- registration future of the refugees.
Jakarta based Internet news portal Astaga.com (June 8) has confirmed that the majority of East Timorese refugees who registered in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) on 6-7 June, wanted to remain in Indonesia as they felt their safety was not yet guaranteed in East Timor. According to Alfredo Pires Amaral, an East Timorese from Kovalima, in Atambua on Thursday [7 June], "A majority vote for remaining in Indonesia is an indication that we [East Timorese refugees] are afraid to return because it's not yet safe."
The regional head of the Kovalima UNTAS branch said this was based on a number of incidents which occurred once refugees returned to their villages. "My cousin Jose Hele was killed when he returned by a number of people, including Feliks Pires," said Amaral. He also relayed the story of a couple returning to Kovalima and members of National Council of the Timorese Resistance (CNRT) breaking their ribs. "Therefore, if East Timorese refugees opt to stay then that means they have more faith and feel more secure in Indonesia than living in fear in their own homeland," he added.
The refugee leader also called on the international community to respect the refugees' reasons for making the choices they did. Claims that the Indonesian government, East Timorese political elite or members of UNTAS were holding refugees in NTT against their will should be "withdrawn".
Three of his relatives Acasio Amaral, Filomeno Amaral and Deo Linda Amaral decided to return to their village a few days ago and none of them were prevented from doing so. "The refugee's choice of staying or returning is completely their own and is their right. If they are not authorized to return then it is a violation of human rights," he said.
Meanwhile, another East Timorese refugee Fransisco Soares from Bobonaro said, "What is the point of the international community getting involved in our country's affairs? The truth is that Indonesia would prefer it if we all returned to our homeland." He asked what would be the point of Indonesia insisting they stay.
Meanwhile, Jakarta based Internet news portal Koridor.com (8 June) reported comments from IX/Udayana Military Area Commander Maj-Gen Willem T da Costa who made the assertion that those East Timorese choosing to stay in Indonesia would no longer automatically have refugee status. "From now on there will no longer be any East Timorese refugees in NTT, only Indonesians," said the commander when answering reporters' questions at El Tari Kupang airport on Thursday [7 June]. He also said he was satisfied with the 6 June registration process which was extended to 7 June, as it was conducted in a free manner.
According to the head of the Refugee Registration Programme, Amien Riamon, those who chose to return to East Timor would be repatriated in around 10 days time. Those who chose to stay will need to join the re-settlement programme similar to the transmigration system. The Indonesian government has reportedly already arranged a number of re-settlement locations and if refugees refuse to move then TNI [Indonesian National Military Forces] will forcibly remove them from the camps. "There has been enough humanitarian assistance given to the East Timorese by our government. So don't keep complaining," said the Udayana Commander.
Straits Times - June 9, 2001
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The thousands of East Timorese still languishing in West Timor's camps are not free to choose to return to home as they have been intimidated by pro-Indonesian militia during a registration programme to determine their future, say aid workers and international observers.
Indonesian authorities say that initial results from a survey of 90,000 refugees, asking if they want to return to East Timor or be resettled in Indonesia, show that 97.65 per cent want to remain. The registration is the first step in allowing the refugees to be repatriated or resettled in Indonesia.
However non-government and international agencies say the results have been skewed by the threat of violence, a charge that Indonesian officials deny. "I'm not surprised the majority opted to stay in Indonesia. They live in camps controlled by the militia and are daily subjected to intimidation," said Ms Ana Gomes, the Portuguese Ambassador to Indonesia.
"The observers saw many militias in the camps, and then they heard refugees absolutely changing their speech and behaviour as soon as the militias came over," she said. She said many of the refugees told the Portuguese observer they wanted to return to East Timor, but then changed their positions as soon as militias were in earshot.
A spokesman from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Bernard Kerblat, said he would not be surprised if the refugees were intimidated. However the UNHCR had not sent observers to the registration because it would have been impossible to judge in one day whether it was carried out free and fairly, he said.
Around 250,000 refugees were herded into West Timor after a referendum that confirmed East Timor's independence two years ago, while the army-backed militia went on a rampage destroying most of East Timor's infrastructure. Other non-government groups also say that the refugees have been intimidated and that militias have been conducting a campaign of misinformation.
In one camp, East Timorese were warned by the militia leader that they would be kidnapped if they chose to return to home, said a spokesman from the Centre for Internally Displaced People's Services in West Timor. Refugees were also misled into thinking that the registration was another referendum and that if most of them chose Indonesia, then East Timor would again become part of Indonesia, said the spokesman.
Pro-Indonesian militia commanders who control the refugee camps do not want the refugees to return to East Timor because they are a source of food and money, say aid agencies. The agencies are concerned that the small percentage of refugees who choose to return to East Timor will be in danger. However Indonesian authorities have given no definite timetable for their return.
"The biggest concern now is not to expose them to retaliation," said Ms Gomes. However, she said that the registration at least informed the refugees that they could return home.
Agence France-Presse - June 8, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's central bank (BI) and the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) on Friday agreed to repatriate the equivalent of around 20 million dollars of Indonesian rupiah now circulating in East Timor.
"An agreement was reached by BI and UNTAET to repatriate the rupiah currency from East Timor," BI deputy governor Miranda Gultom said in a press briefing at the bank's headquarters here.
The move came as UNTAET is struggling to halt the use of the rupiah and the Australian dollar in the territory, and enforce the use of the US dollar as legal tender.
Gultom, the signatory of the memorandum of understanding with UNTAET's liaison office director, Lakhan Mehrotra, said there were eight Indonesian commercial banks in Dili before East Timor gained its independence on September 4, 1999.
The director of UNTAET's Central Payment Office (CPO) in Dili, Fernando Peralto, said it was difficult to know the precise quantity of Indonesian rupiah in circulation in East Timor. But "we estimated that the amount is in the order of some 20 million dollars," Peralto told a press briefing.
Gultom said the figure came from a discrepancy in BI's cash inflow of 300 billion rupiah (26.84 million dollars) and 548 billion (49.03 million dollars) cash outflow in Dili by the end of 1999.
Under the memorandum, both BI and UNTAET would spend six months working out the discrepancies and trying to calculate the amount of rupiah circulating in the East Timorese capital of Dili.
It also stipulates that in the next six months, the CPO can only repatriate the rupiah through BI's branch in Denpasar, the capital of the neighboring island of Bali, up to twice a month.
Peralto said the the memorandum also allows UNTAET to "enter cooperation with [BI-appointed] commercial banks and for them to take rupiahs deposited by their [former] customers." The CPO will also provide public facilities for East Timorese to exchange their rupiah into US dollars.
It will be "pretty easy to have most of the rupiah in circulation brought into the banks and into the CPO within the next six months" with BI's restriction on the imports of rupiah, Peralto said. He added that UNTAET had recently brought 500,000 dollars worth of US coins into the territory.
Agence France-Presse - June 8, 2001
Jakarta -- An overwhelming majority of East Timorese refugees languishing in West Timor camps want to stay in Indonesia, early results of a registration drive showed Friday.
The preliminary results of the two-day exercise issued by the registration committee in Kupang, the main town in West Timor on Friday morning showed that 97.65 percent, or 88,102 of the 90,225 people counted so far, wanted to remain in Indonesia.
Another 1,399 refugees, or 1.55 percent, wanted to return to East Timor, while 724 made no choice, said Tupan Masan of the committee's media center.
Usman Abu Bakar, coordinator of the media center, said discrepancies in the numbers of refugees chosing to return, which on Thursday night stood at 4,259, was because of miscounting in Belu district, where most of the refugees are camped. "Belu sent a revised version last [Thursday] night and apologized to us. We're not tempering with the data," Abu Bakar told AFP.
Masan said that out of 14 districts in the province, only the districts of Kupang and Timor Tengah Utara had completed the vote counting. "We hope we will complete the counting today," he told AFP. Masan put the number of the refugees in West Timor at 152,790.
All East Timorese aged over 18 in the camps are required to register and state whether they and their dependents want to be repatriated to East Timor or resettled in Indonesia. The registration was extended for an extra day Thursday as turnout far exceeded expectations.
Officials have said an agreement between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Indonesian government in a meeting in Bali on May 15, has pushed up the number of people registering. One of the criteria for eligibility, residence in East Timor for 12 consecutive years, was reduced to just five years.
The state Antara news agency quoted several of the refugees as saying they might opt to return later when conditions improve in East Timor, where the militia burned whole towns to the ground after the 1999 vote. Others said they were in militias or related to militia members and feared vengeance attacks, Antara said.
The planned one-day consultation opened on Wednesday amid tight security, but had to be extended by another day because of the number of people still waiting to register. Officials cited the short preparation period and refugees' ignorance as the main obstacles in the exercise.
Foreign critics, including in the United States, have warned that as long as former pro-Indonesian militias remain in control of the squalid West Timor camps an accurate assessment of where the refugees want to go would be difficult. They said the militias were still intimidating refugees and spreading disinformation about conditions in East Timor, leaving the refugees vulnerable to reprisals if they registered to go home.
The refugees are the last of more than 250,000 people forced across the border by the militias during an orgy of violence and destruction in the wake of East Timor's independence vote on August 30, 1999.
The United Nations, whose personnel fled the territory when three UN aid workers were murdered by the militia last year, and other foreign agencies are eager to repatriate the refugees ahead of a June 20 deadline to register for elections in East Timor.
Kyodo News - June 7, 2001
Kupang -- Allegations of widespread fraud and reports of intimidation of voters marred an Indonesian-run vote Wednesday for thousands of East Timorese refugees in West Timor to decide whether if they wish to return to their homeland.
Usman Abubakar, secretary of the registration and polling team in Kupang, said at least 160,000 ballot papers have already been used in the poll and another 50,000 are needed for refugees who have yet to vote, even though the highest estimate of East Timorese still in West Timor is only about 140,000.
ETAN/CIS - June 7, 2001
On June 6 and 7, the Indonesian government conducted a procedure throughout the refugee camps in West Timor. One stated objective was to allow each family to choose whether to be resettled in Indonesia or to return to East Timor, their homeland from which they were forcibly abducted 21 months ago. However, this process was ill-conceived, illegitimately executed, and conducted in an atmosphere of intimidation without meaningful oversight or participation by the international community. The results of the registration must therefore be rejected, no matter how much the two-day process appeared to be smooth and free of civil disturbance.
The approximately 80,000 refugees languishing in squalid refugee camps urgently need the international community to help provide for their immediate needs and to ensure that they can freely choose whether to repatriate to East Timor or resettle in Indonesia. The United Nations conducted the 1999 election, while leaving security in the hands of the Indonesian military, thereby creating the conditions which forced these refugees from their homeland, and the UN should acknowledge its responsibility to enable them to rebuild their lives. This week's exercise was totally inadequate, and we reiterate our call for a genuine, internationally-conducted registration conducted after the militia organizations have been disarmed, disbanded, prevented from pressuring the refugees, and not involved in future registrations.
Intimidation by the Indonesian military and the militias they created has been a fact of life for the refugees since before they were evicted from East Timor nearly two years ago. That alone invalidates this week's process, and the international community should be ashamed of allowing it to proceed under these conditions. The following are specific points which demonstrate the fraudulent nature of the Indonesian government's refugee registration: Intimidation
- Indonesia brought an additional 4,500 military from other parts of Indonesia to West Timor to enforce order during the registration. These soldiers, operating under shoot-to-kill orders, recall the 24 years of Indonesian military occupation of East Timor which resulted in 200,000 East Timorese deaths and which was resoundingly rejected in the August 30, 1999 referendum. The impunity enjoyed by military officers and militia leaders who committed crimes against humanity in East Timor from 1975 to 1999, and in West Timor since then, allows them to continue terrorizing East Timorese refugees. Reports, including those from Indonesian authorities, describe militias forcing people either to "vote" for resettlement or not at all.
Distortion and lack of information about the process - The very nature of the process was confusing to all. Was this a count of the refugee population, a poll to determine what percentage planned to repatriate, a re-vote of the 1999 referendum, or an individual choice by each person to return or resettle? One thing was clear the Indonesian authorities, and therefore the militia leaders, will know how each person "voted." In many cases, registrants displayed their marked ballots or marked the ballot without going into the private booth, proving that they had chosen the red-and-white.
Coercion
Ubiquitous irregularities
We are deeply disturbed that the United Nations is participating in this sham refugee registration by providing funds and an observer, and that UNTAET declared that the process appears successful merely because little violence was initially reported on the first registration day. As the calm East Timor voting day of August 30, 1999 vividly demonstrated, the military and militia can turn their violence off and on. If no major incident occurs while West Timor is under international scrutiny for a few days, that says nothing about prior intimidation or subsequent retaliation which is the experience and the terror of the East Timorese refugees and inevitably influences their decisions.
For all these reasons, the refugee registration process conducted by Indonesia this week must be soundly rejected. The United Nations and the international community have accepted Indonesia's hollow promises and dangerous charades too many times and left the East Timorese people to bear the bloody consequences. This time, they must do better.
BBC Monitoring Service - June 7, 2001
The East Timorese leader [currently cabinet member for foreign affairs] Jose Ramos Horta says his country cannot support the claim to secession by the Papuans in Indonesia's Irian Jaya Province. Mr Ramos Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize three years before East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia, says East Timor cannot support every secession claim in the region...
Mr Ramos Horta says he disapproves of the methods that continue to be used by the Indonesians against dissenting minorities.
[Ramos Horta] While we abhor what is being done to the West Papuans, to the Acehnese, while we are perplexed at the inability of the Indonesian side to address the root cause of the unhappiness and rebellion in West Papua and Aceh, we must also say that we cannot as a small nation in the making go around and endorse every secession claim in the region or anywhere in the world.
Australian Associated Press - June 7, 2001, Thursday
Karen Polglaze, Canberra -- East Timor could not begin its life as an independent country by scaring off investors -- so it would reach agreement with Australia on a Timor Gap Treaty, interim foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said today.
Negotiations for a new treaty covering oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea had been through a few bumpy weeks, but were now proceeding more smoothly, Mr Ramos Horta said. He was confident an agreement on a treaty to replace the one that had existed between Australia and Indonesia, which ruled East Timor until the territory voted to separate, would be finalised by July.
"The talks are going very well," Mr Ramos Horta said in a lecture at the Australian National University. "We have to sign an agreement by July. We have to. There is no other way. We have to show leadership, pragmatism and a sense of responsibility. The Timor Gap (Treaty) has to be signed."
Both sides would be blamed if they could not reach agreement and sign a new treaty, he said. "I don't want the East Timorese side to be blamed, so our side will do our utmost because it's beneficial to Australia, but even more beneficial to East Timor, " Mr Ramos Horta said. "We can't begin our new nation, our new country, by scaring off investors, particularly those who have invested already hundreds of millions of dollars in research, in exploration, in drilling and in infrastructure."
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs officials negotiating the new deal said yesterday that the crucial issue of how to divide revenue from the oil and gas reserves had yet to be decided.The former treaty signed in 1989 split royalties 50:50, but the new treaty will much more heavily favour East Timor.
Interim economic minister Mari Alkatiri has said East Timor has already rejected Australia's offer to split 85:15. Oil royalties have so far netted a few million dollars annually to the treaty partners, but gas reserves are predicted to be much larger and could earn East Timor more than $100 million a year for its budget.
Reuters - June 8, 2001
Irwin Arieff G. K. Goh, United Nations -- East Timorese refugees eager to return home are being threatened and intimidated by militia who forced them into squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor two years ago, an aid worker charged on Thursday.
"The civilian refugees are threatened with murder or kidnapping if they choose repatriation," said Winston Neil Rondo, an Indonesian who leads the Centre for Internally Displaced People's Services in West Timor.
Pro-Indonesian militia commanders living in the same camps, still angry over East Timor's lopsided August 1999 vote for independence from Jakarta, "will use any means including intimidation and violence to achieve their ends", said Rondo, who has worked in the camps since mid-1999.
Refugees also feared losing their food aid, which the hard- pressed Indonesian authorities had been slow to deliver, Rondo told a news conference.
The militia went on a rampage after the UN-organised 1999 ballot, burning, looting and raping. They herded tens of thousands of East Timorese over the border to West Timor.
Indonesian authorities this week registered East Timorese refugees in the camps, asking them whether they wanted to return home or resettle in West Timor. The registration is in advance of August 30 elections for a new governing assembly before the territory, now under UN administration, becomes independent next year.
Rondo said registration irregularities went largely undetected because there were only 12 international observers monitoring 507 registration sites. He urged the United Nations to reject the results.
The registration process was completed late on Thursday, but Indonesian officials said it could take up to 14 days to tally the preferences set out in some 130,000 registration forms.
But they said a partial count of some 42,000 refugees polled showed that 38,000 wanted to remain in West Timor. There was no explanation for the discrepancy. Indonesia counts some 130,000 refugees registered, compared with UN estimates of 80,000 to 100,000 people in the camps.
Rondo said the refugees suffered from a lack of food, drinking water and health care. Three to five a day died in the camps, most from malaria, diarrhoea, respiratory infections and childbirth complications.
He estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the refugees actually wanted to go home to East Timor. "But with the intimidation and the undemocratic process, I don't think this is going to happen," he said. "Because of this climate of fear, the refugees have no other choice but to be resettled in Indonesia. There may be a small number who choose to be repatriated, but the risks they are taking would be too great," Rondo said.
Sydney Morning Herald - June 7, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- East Timorese languishing in Indonesian refugee camps were asked yesterday if they wanted to stay or go home as aid agencies warned that those who opted to go home faced violent retaliation from the militias who control the camps.
Indonesia promised tough measures to ensure a peaceful registration of the estimated 85,000 East Timorese still in the camps in Indonesian West Timor. They are the remnants of about 250,000 who fled or were deported by Indonesian security forces and their militia allies after East Timor voted to secede from Indonesia in August 1999.
More than 4,000 soldiers and police were on hand yesterday to ensure the registration process was orderly. But aid agencies and human rights groups warned that a fair census was impossible while the camps remained under the control of pro-Indonesian militias.
"It's ridiculous to think that those people who indicate they want to return won't face persecution," said Father Frank Brennan, of the Jesuit Relief Service, one of the few aid agencies still working in West Timor. He criticised the lack of anonymity in the census, saying refugees who signed a form opting to return home would have their answer stapled to their family registration details.
The service did not object to the Indonesian Government wanting to know how many refugees were in West Timor, he said, but there should be measures to ensure the safety of those who wanted to return to East Timor.
A spokesman for the East Timorese human rights foundation Yayasan-Hak, Mr Joaquim Fonseca, said the presence of militiamen in West Timor during the census would intimidate the refugees. "Their presence in the camps would be terrifying. They have been trying to keep the refugees in the camps as one of their main political objectives."
It was unclear how quickly Indonesian authorities would act to repatriate those who wanted to return, and this could increase their vulnerability, he said. "If, after the census, those who want to come back are not provided with the means, they will be more vulnerable than ever and exposed to those who have power in the camps, the militias."
His organisation had received reports of militia gangs demanding refugee support in the camps. Yayasan-Hak was concerned about the lack of international observers in West Timor to monitor the registration process.
The United Nations Transitional Administration (UNTAET) in East Timor sent one observer to monitor the registration. It says it wants the refugees returned home so they can take part in elections on the August 30 for a constituent assembly. The deadline to register for the ballot is June 20.
A UNTAET spokeswoman said: "This is an important exercise, since it will establish once and for all how many people there are in West Timor and with some degree of accuracy how many want to return."
Sydney Morning Herald - June 7, 2001
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- The East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres has been freed 23 days after an Indonesian court jailed him for six months.
The former head of the feared Aitarak militia did not spend one day in jail after the sentence was imposed on him in April for inciting violence in Indonesian West Timor in September. He spent the 23 days under house arrest in a government housing complex in Jakarta. Even then, visitors often found he was not at home when they called.
He said yesterday that as a free man he had launched his career in Indonesian politics. He is chairman of an organisation called the Front of the Red and White Defenders, which last month threatened to raid bookshops in Jakarta and seize communist books and literature.
Speaking from the government house where he is still staying free of charge, Mr Guterres lashed out at foreigners in East Timor, saying they were ripping off the former Indonesian province's resources and would leave it one of the world's poorest states.
Indonesian prosecutors spent more than a year investigating crimes he allegedly committed before East Timor's independence ballot in 1999, but he has never been charged over them.
His release on May 23, which has not been made public in Jakarta, will anger East Timorese leaders who want the United Nations to set up an international tribunal to bring to justice those responsible for the East Timor bloodshed.
Influential politicians and commentators in Jakarta have described Mr Guterres as an Indonesian hero who should not have been charged with any offence. One supporter turned up at court to give him the deed to a block of land in West Java.
Since fleeing East Timor in September 1999 after his men rampaged through the capital, Dili, he has become a pop star, producing a hit condemning the UN's role in the territory's independence vote. He has assumed a leading role in the youth wing of Vice- President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.
He had been asked to return to East Timor to help reconciliation efforts among East Timorese, he said. "The problem is ... the crisis of trust among the East Timor people towards each other. If people still insist that this person or that person must be punished there can be no reconciliation between them."
Australian Associated Press - June 4, 2001
Canberra -- Administrative action is being taken against two defence personnel following high profile document leak investigations. Defence department secretary Dr Alan Hawke told a Senate estimates committee the inquiries related to leaking of documents concerning East Timor and to alleged espionage by a Defence Intelligence Organisation employee who is now before the court.
Jason Brown, defence department assistant secretary for security, said administrative charges were being prepared in the two cases. One is a defence civilian and the other a member of the military.
Mr Brown said one had been suspended from service in September following an investigation instigated by the Australian Federal Police. The other had been restricted to controlled duties following an internal defence inquiry.
Mr Brown declined to reveal further details. "I am content to answer that the person stood down is a civilian member," he said.
Leaking of defence intelligence documents at the time of the East Timor operation in 1999 proved highly embarrassing for the government. They suggested the violence and destruction had been orchestrated by the Indonesian military at the time the government was attributing it to rogue elements.
The government launched an intensive investigation which included a police raid on the home of an opposition staff member. That coincided with other inquiries relating to former DIO employee Simon Lappas and to publication of secret details on the Collins submarines.
Mr Brown said no-one had been caught for leaking the submarine details but the investigations remained open. "There are a number of persons who were investigated for submarines leaks who have since departed defence who cannot be ruled out but certainly cannot be ruled in," he said. "We don't close the book on them in case other information comes forward."
Mr Brown said the new defence Security Investigation Unit, formed last year to raise the standards of security investigations, would start work next month. He said the head of the new unit had not yet been chosen.
Australian Associated Press - June 4, 2001
Canberra -- An interim East Timorese government minister has accused Telstra of monitoring private telephone conversations within the fledging country. Infrastructure Minister Joao Carrascalao said Telstra did not have a main switch in Dili and the communication was transmitted via Adelaide.
"I have no doubt that all conversations are monitored," he told ABC radio. "It happens quite a lot and I have a lot of experience with that and whenever I have a conversation that's more delicate, then the lines are certainly full without an explanation." Telstra is in East Timor supporting the defence force.
Interim foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said he had heard rumours phone calls were being monitored. "Obviously if this is the case then it's an invasion of privacy that could result in Telstra being sued in a court of law for invasion of privacy," he told ABC radio.
Telstra told the ABC it could neither confirm or deny the allegations, as it never comments on monitoring and only ever taps phone conversations when directed by a law enforcement agency.
Australian National University defence commentator Michael McKinley said Australia would want to know what was going on among the leadership in East Timor. "It would not surprise me at all if the conversations are monitored A because they want to know and B because it is relatively easy to do so," he told ABC radio.
Green Left Weekly - June 6, 2001
John Gauci, Sydney -- "East Timorese must ask themselves, why are we still divided? We can't go on holding other countries to blame", the new country's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta told a public lecture at the University of New South Wales on May 30. "There is need for reconciliation. We need to develop relations with our neighbors and swallow our pride. You can't attract foreign investment without internal stability." The 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner believes, however, that "much has been done" to improve the situation in his country.
"The level of tolerance in East Timor has been extradinary", he said. "The first group of militia to visit East Timor were welcomed and received our traditional scarf ... Even the most bitterly divided communities are engaging in dialogue." "First the truth must be told. The victims have a right to be acknowledged", he said, explaining his view on how reconciliation should occur. "The question is, how far to go in facing the truth. At some time we need to build peace and stability." Ramos Horta also said he believes the relationship between East Timor and its neighbours is improving.
He recounted the experience of the November 1999 delegation to Indonesia by himself and East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao. "One of our aims was to engage in dialogue and to get them to accept reality. We were warmly received by Indonesian NGOs, the people and the media. This was a new reality." Ever the diplomat, Ramos Horta was complimentary about Australia's presence in East Timor's development relief, calling it "crucial", and thanked the Australian Labor Party, the Democrats and even the Liberal Party for their efforts.
When asked about whether he supported independence for the troubled Indonesian provinces of Aceh and West Papua, where demands for self-determination are increasing, he was cagey, however.
"Where would it end? Why not independence for every other situation in Asia or Africa. East Timor was always different. It was never part of the Dutch East Indies. It's up the Indonesia to answer these burning questions. I cannot stand here representing an emerging nation and say I support the dismembering of Indonesia."
UN News - June 1, 2001
The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today reported that the grenade attack that killed five people along the East/West Timor border last week was the result of a private dispute between a militia member and a gambling ring organizer.
Investigations conducted by the UN peacekeeping force, in conjunction with the UN Civilian Police (CIVPOL) and the Indonesian military, have revealed that the market site where the incident occurred on 29 May is a regular, traditional trading point located south of Balibo in a creek bed on the Tactical Co- ordination Line between East and West Timor, the UN peacekeeping force said in a statement issued in Dili.
Witnesses say that a fight occurred on 28 May between a militia member and a gambling ring organizer who was operating at the market. The militia member then enlisted aid from another more senior member of the militia and they, with the possible assistance of one other, conducted a vengeance attack with hand grenades the next day.
The gambling ring organizer was among those killed in the attack. Most of the casualties were bystanders who were not involved in the gambling. "This is primarily a criminal issue and has been handed over to UN CIVPOL for further investigation," the UNTAET statement said.
Sydney Morning Herald - June 4, 2001
Andrew West -- Australian Government officials have been accused of burying a crucial intelligence report about a 1998 Indonesian massacre in the West Papua town of Biak because it did not want to offend Indonesia so soon after it had thrown off the Soeharto dictatorship.
In a stunning and unorthodox attack on foreign policy by a serving member of the Australian Defence Force, intelligence officer Andrew Plunkett says the suppression of the Biak report all but encouraged Indonesia to arm and train pro-Jakarta militias in East Timor.
"We were saying Indonesia's behaviour in Biak was acceptable by turning a blind eye and not raising an official public protest," said Captain Plunkett, who served with Interfet in East Timor. "We were giving a green light to their subsequent actions," he said. "Biak was a dress rehearsal for the TNI [Indonesian army] in East Timor."
Fourteen months later East Timor was aflame as militias attacked, murdered and dismembered hundreds of civilians while the TNI looked on.
Canberra's response to the Biak massacre of July 6, 1998 -- in which more than 20 people were killed and up to 200 were beaten, tortured or raped -- was muted. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokeswoman said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer had raised media reports of the massacre with his Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas.
But Mr Downer did not know the extent of the slaughter because the official intelligence report had not been compiled by Major Dan Weadon, an intelligence officer attached to the Jakarta embassy. It took five months before DFAT publicly expressed "grave concerns" at the massacre.
Captain Plunkett made his comments after The Sun-Herald this week received copies of confidential e-mails he exchanged with Major Weadon. Major Weadon, who did not authorise the release of the e-mails, was sent to Biak from July 11 to 14 to investigate the slaughter, gathering eyewitness accounts and interviewing Colonel F.X. Agus Edyono, the chief of the local military command.
DFAT classified his report "confidential" instead of the usual "restricted", so it would not embarrass Indonesia. When Greens Senator Bob Brown asked the Government to release it, Senator Jocelyn Newman, representing then Defence Minister John Moore, refused, saying the report was "a highly classified document".
"Although some of the information given in the report is already in the public domain," she said, "the report provides far greater detail and amalgamates a number of sources of information. I believe, therefore, it provides a mass of information that in its totality would be very damaging to our international relations." But Major Weadon said: "In all probability [it] was capable of being downgraded, probably to unclassified."
In the e-mails, dated February 3, Major Weadon wrote to Captain Plunkett: "During my visit to [Edyono] I had expressed (as an official representative of Australia) disapproval of their actions, so to a degree Australia had condemned the actions (not sure, but Downer probably said something at a much higher level)... "Government/DFAT types probably took the stance that our point had been made, and why ruin all chance at further access/dialogue to score a few more points. The view is/was that we cannot bully the Indonesians into becoming a better nation -- if so, they will simply tune out to us."
Major Weadon described Edyono as "polite and friendly, but obviously very suspicious and wary that my visit was going to discredit ABRI [Indonesia's armed forces]/Indonesia". "Anyway," he wrote, "I think I summed up the info by saying it was almost certain ABRI had responded in a very heavy-handed manner on 6 July 98, and ... were likely to have beaten, killed and tortured many people.
"From my point of view, the whole Javanese/Indonesian culture is to blame -- they honestly believe they did the right thing and cannot understand why we criticise them for putting down traitorous primitive and racially inferior subversives."
| Aceh/West papua |
Sydney Morning Herald - June 8, 2001
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- The bodies of six people, including a boy, have been found in Aceh, taking the death toll from a military offensive launched on April 11 to almost 200. Police said the bodies of five of the latest victims were bullet-riddled while a sixth bore torture marks.
Violence has been escalating in the oil- and gas-rich province at the tip of Sumatra since Jakarta approved what it called a "limited" offensive to protect vital installations such the giant American-owned Exxon Mobil gas fields. The fields were closed in March over security concerns, costing Jakarta millions of dollars a day in lost revenue and threatening long-term international supply contracts.
The Aceh-Sumatra Liberation Front claimed in a statement made available in Jakarta yesterday that the offensive is going from bad to worse. "Since this military operation, the escalation of atrocities committed by the Indonesian armed forces and police has been very high and the number of Acehnese people who have fallen victim has significantly increased," the front said.
Of the dead, 10 were children, nine women, 143 men and seven fighters with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the front said, noting that 300 people had been wounded, eight of them children.
The front said that of the 271 people who had disappeared, only 17 were believed to be under arrest. "The majority of those who were arrested and disappeared may be [GAM] sympathisers since the vast majority of Acehnese people fall into this category," it said.
A group of Acehnese leaders this week met President Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta to appeal to him to order a halt to military and police attacks. Mr Wahid argued against the offensive in Cabinet meetings but approved the offensive under pressure from key ministers, including Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
More than 650 people have been killed in Aceh this year following a year of inconclusive talks in Geneva and shaky ceasefires between the Indonesian forces and GAM.
Agence France-Presse - June 6, 2001
Jakarta -- Lawyers from Aceh yesterday urged the Indonesian government to ensure that courts are run properly after judges fled the troubled province fearing for their safety.
"The government, in conjunction with the Supreme Court should immediately prioritise the posting of judges so that every court of justice in Aceh has a minimum of one panel of judges," said a statement from eight prominent lawyers and human-rights lawyers from Aceh.
The statement was read out by Mr Abdurrahman Yakob, from the Aceh Coalition of NGOs, after a meeting between the lawyers and Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta. It said that justice in Aceh was no longer functioning because of the lack of judges in many courts.
The deployment of judges in Aceh, especially in conflict zones, should be backed by a special fund and adequate security for the officials should also be provided, it said. An Indonesian panel consists of three judges.
Of the 18 district courts in Aceh, five do not even have a single judge. Eight courts were manned by only one judge, while three by two judges. One court had three judges and the one in Sabang, on Weh island off northern Aceh, had five judges.
Many judges and court officials in Aceh have fled their posts for fear of their safety, especially in areas where violence between separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and government forces is rampant.
Mr Jakub said the government should prioritise the functioning of five courts -- in the capital Banda Aceh, and in the north, south and east Aceh as well as Pidie districts.
The lawyers also called on the government to hold ad hoc human- rights trials in Medan, the capital of the neighbouring province of North Sumatra, to hear cases involving human-rights violations in Aceh.
Indonesian authorities have already decided to move trials of Aceh pro-independence leaders and activists to Medan citing security reasons.
The Medan court is already trying a GAM deputy leader, Linggadiansyah, who is facing the death penalty on several counts including blackmail, possession of firearms and treason.
GAM has been fighting for an Islamic state in Aceh since the mid-1970s. Jakarta in April launched a military operation to rid the province of the GAM, following a year of inconclusive talks in Geneva and shaky ceasefires which failed to stem bloodshed in which more than 650 people have died this year.
| Elite power struggle |
Straits Times - June 8, 2001
Susan Sim, Jakarta -- Opposition politicians with no skeletons in their closets need not fear the new Attorney-General.
Endorsing his successor for his legal scruples, former A-G Marzuki Darusman told The Straits Times yesterday that despite rumours that arrest orders had been issued for certain allegedly corrupt politicians, Mr Baharuddin had not yet been given any specific targets to pursue by President Abdurrahman Wahid.
"Lopa told me on Wednesday that he had no special instructions from the President. But while the President may not have said so, he does expect Lopa to act if instructed.
"But I don't think Lopa is going to allow himself to be used if there is no strong legal basis. He doesn"t play politics." Besides, Mr Marzuki said he left his successor several cases against former Suharto cronies to bring to court within the next two weeks. And no, he was not concerned that Mr Baharuddin might get credit for work that he did.
"Lopa also faces the risk that the courts might acquit these men, that he might not be able to deliver the results. Then he'll have to go after the judges, but that's not his job anymore," he said, laughing. As justice minister, Mr Baharuddin sanctioned 12 judges in the last two months for abusing their powers.
The new A-G lost no time in announcing yesterday that he had ordered the pursuit of tycoon Syamsul Nursalim, accused of misusing billions in state bank credits, to ensure his return for trial. Allowed by Mr Marzuki to leave Jakarta last month for medical treatment in Tokyo, there is now concern that Mr Syamsul might flee instead.
Mr Baharuddin said yesterday that he had sent a telegram to Indonesian diplomats in Japan asking them to check if Mr Syamsul is indeed in hospital. "If we can't find Syamsul Nursalim there, we will declare him a fugitive. If he's found, we will send people to Japan to fetch him," he declared.
He was also launching probes into seven other cases, but declined to name suspects lest they should flee the country. "Every case must be completed. We can't leave cases unresolved," said the man known here as Indonesia's Mr Untouchable for his incorruptibility and persistence.
Associated Press - June 8, 2001
Chris Brummitt, Jakarta -- With calls growing for her to lead the nation, Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri lashed out at critics who say she lacks the experience for the presidency.
As President Abdurrahman Wahid tries to stave off impeachment over allegations of corruption and incompetence, Megawati has become, in effect, president-in-waiting. Most lawmakers are openly calling on her to replace Wahid, who desperately needs her support to cling to power. But she has said virtually nothing about her ambitions.
Speaking out in a rare television interview Wednesday night, Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno, answered critics who question her political ability.
"It appears that I am considered to be a housewife. I say to those people who belittle housewives: what's wrong with that? It does not mean a housewife does not understand politics," she said. On Thursday, she added to tensions by failing to show up at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Wahid, who only last week replaced several key ministers in an effort to please her, make a deal and escape impeachment. Impeachment proceedings are slated to start in the legislature on August 1.
Megawati attended the opening of an environmental exhibition and refused to comment when reporters asked why she had avoided the Cabinet session. In the hourlong question-and-answer session broadcast Wednesday, Megawati also gave little away. "I don't know," she said when asked if growing up in the shadow of her father had prepared her for a life in politics.
But Kusnanto Anggoro, a political analyst, said Megawati was becoming more assertive in her quest for the presidency and was increasingly antagonizing Wahid. "In the past, I think she was just following the wind of history, but now she is becoming more determined to get a political objective," Anggoro said. "I think she is determined now to become the president of Indonesia." Last Friday, Wahid shocked lawmakers with the surprise Cabinet change -- his third major shake-up in the 19 months since he became Indonesia's first democratically elected president in more than four decades.
In one move, Wahid appointed a security minister who is one of Megawati's key advisers, saying he hoped the new minister would help broker a compromise with his vice president. On Thursday, the dismissed security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, called for a new leader and new government. "The interests of the state have to be saved first before personal interests," the state-run Antara news agency quoted him as saying.
Aides said Megawati gave the interview to mark the 100th anniversary of Sukarno's birth on Wednesday. Sukarno proclaimed Indonesia's independence at the end of World War II and was ousted amid political turmoil in 1966. He died under house arrest in 1970, but is remembered now as a strong nationalist.
Sydney Morning Herald - June 8, 2001
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- In a further sign of the animosity between Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri and President Abdurrahman Wahid, Ms Megawati yesterday snubbed a Cabinet meeting she was supposed to chair.
Political observers in Jakarta say that the Government's decision-making process has now virtually collapsed along with the relationship between the two former friends. Mr Wahid has relied on Ms Megawati to chair Cabinet meetings because he cannot see ministers who raise their hands to speak or read Cabinet papers. But Ms Megawati skipped the twice-monthly Cabinet meeting yesterday and instead opened an environment exhibition.
Observers say the list of serious problems facing the country is growing by the day as the political crisis in Jakarta drags on. A special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), where the crisis will climax, is not scheduled to be held until August 1. The MPR, the highest parliament, has the power to impeach Mr Wahid.
Sources close to Ms Megawati say she remains undecided over whether to accept a compromise offer from Mr Wahid to take control of the Government while he remains a figurehead president with largely ceremonial powers. They say she is deeply worried that violence could erupt on the streets if she refuses to accept the compromise and is elevated to the presidency amid acrimony.
"Mega hasn't got the ability to keep pace with rapidly changing events," a source said. "Various people in her party are telling her different things, trying to lock her into positions they think she should take. She is under enormous pressure."
Ms Megawati, the head of the biggest political party, was upset that MPs did not elect her president in 1999. Relations between her and Mr Wahid have been worsening by the day for several months. Ms Megawati last weekend and on Tuesday snubbed the swearing in of four new ministers Mr Wahid appointed in a surprise Cabinet reshuffle last Friday. Apparently she was miffed that Mr Wahid did not consult her about the appointments.
One of them is a long-time friend, retired army general Agum Gumelar, who was quoted yesterday as saying he opposed Mr Wahid carrying out a threat to impose a state of emergency before dissolving of parliament and calling of snap elections. "I think that with the current situation, it is not appropriate to issue an [emergency] decree," he was quoted as saying. "It would not be my choice."
Many observers in Jakarta think Mr Wahid is bluffing in an attempt to get his political enemies to back away from impeaching him over his leadership style.
Agence France-Presse - June 5, 2001
Jakarta -- More than 8,000 Indonesian police and troops staged a show of unity and defiance near the presidential palace Tuesday, pledging allegiance to the national police chief sacked by President Abdurrahman Wahid last week.
Presiding over the rally, Jakarta police chief Inspector General Sofyan Jacoeb called on the military (TNI) and the police (Polri) to remain united under the sacked police chief, General Suroyo Bimantoro.
"We have to maintain the solidity of the TNI and Polri to anticipate threats and disturbances in the country," Jacoeb told the gathering in the Monas square, a few hundred meters from the presidential palace. The rally was joined by soldiers from the army strategic reserve command, the marines and the air force.
Jacoeb said the roll call was held to assess security after the G-15 summit of developing countries last week and a parliament plenary session last month, as well as a special session of the national assembly scheduled for August 1 at which Wahid could be impeached.
The gathering, also attended by Jakarta military chief Major General Bibit Waluyo, was called as police stood firm in their refusal to accept the firing of Bimantoro.
"General Bimantoro is still the leader of the national police," Jacoeb said after the ceremony. Bimantoro was absent from the parade. "This rally is based on an instruction from General Bimantoro," he added. He said the military "remains supportive of Polri in every way."
The Detikcom online news service quoted Wahid as saying of the parade: "Let them go ahead." In what many described as a desperate bid to cling to power, Wahid on Friday sacked four senior aides, including security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and "de-activated" Bimantoro when he refused to step down.
Bimantoro has insisted that under the prevailing laws he remains the police chief until parliament approves his dismissal.
Yudhoyono had objected to Wahid's plan to impose state of emergency to allow him to disband parliament, which is seeking to impeach him for his alleged involvement in two financial scandals and incompetence. The military has also expressed openly its opposition to the emergency plan.
Wahid blamed Bimantoro for the death of one of his supporters in East Java last week when police fired to halt a pro-Wahid mob that went on the rampage, burning churches and a mosque and attacking police with machetes.
Straits Times - June 7, 2001
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The younger sister of Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri lashed out at Parliament yesterday, accusing it of organising a virtual coup d'etat by attempting to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Speaking on the 100th birth anniversary of the country's founding President, Mr Sukarno, Ms Rachmawati Sukarnoputri also accused her sister of capitalising on their father's popularity to gain support for her Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P). Analysts said her attack on Ms Megawati and her party just as she seems poised to become President might have sprung from Ms Rachmawati's disappointment with the PDI-P's inability to live up to her father's nationalist ideals and its lack of concern for the welfare of ordinary Indonesians.
But her outspoken comments could also be a result of President Abdurrahman's desperate bid to cling on to power.
Analysts said he could be using Ms Megawati's family to ignite a debate over who is the real inheritor of Mr Sukarno's political legacy, and thus try to diminish Ms Megawati's popularity.
'Wahid courts many people, he tries to divide and rule,' said one analyst.
In her comments yesterday to graduates of Bung Karno University, Ms Rachmawati described attempts by legislators to impeach Mr Abdurrahman as a 'coup d'etat ... being conducted in the name of the Constitution and democracy'. She compared the move to the toppling of her own father in 1966, when he was forced to hand over power to General Suharto after a coup attempt in the country blamed on the communist party. She hinted that the same group that tried to topple her father was now trying to topple Mr Abdurrahman.
She accused the PDI-P of capitalising on Mr Sukarno's image without understanding his teachings. The PDI-P, which garnered most votes in the 1999 general election, used images of her enormously popular father on party posters and banners.
Mr Sukarno's other daughter, Ms Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, said in an interview that Ms Megawati could not be compared to their father, whom she described as 'really very special'.
She also said it would be better if Mr Abdurrahman remained as President while Ms Megawati kept her post as Vice-President.
'President Wahid still has the drive to remain as President. We don't find anything wrong with him or that he made a mistake in certain matters,' she said.
Much of Ms Megawati's popularity comes from public perception that she will live up to the ideals of her father -- a point reinforced in a recent poll by the Tempo news magazine in which most respondents said Ms Megawati possessed the same leadership qualities as her father.
Analysts said that Mr Abdurrahman might be using Ms Megawati's sisters to portray the PDI-P as betraying the Sukarnoist ideology in order to split the party.
'Many Sukarnoists in the PDI-P don't agree with the special session,' said a PDI-P source, referring to the August session of the country's National Assembly (MPR), where Mr Abdurrahman faces impeachment proceedings. The President had threatened to boycott the session, but MPR chairman Amien Rais said yesterday that impeachment proceedings against him would go ahead on Aug 1 regardless of whether he attends the session.
Some observers said Ms Rachmawati might be moving closer to Mr Abdurrahman because she was pleased that he had supported moves to reinstate Mr Sukarno's name and revoke a 1967 decree blaming him for the communist coup attempt.
Agence France-Presse - June 6, 2001 (abridged)
Jakarta -- Tensions around Indonesia's leadership crisis seeped into a centenary commemoration Wednesday of the country's founding ruler Sukarno when a partisan crowd cheered his daughter, the vice president, but jeered the embattled leader.
President Abdurrahman Wahid, desperately trying to avoid impeachment, was jeered by the crowd of some 30,000 when he arrived at the ceremony here to rename the country's largest stadium in honour of Sukarno, born 100 years ago.
Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Sukarno's eldest daughter, was welcomed with loud cheers from the crowd, most of whom wore the red T-shirts of her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP). Wahid was again jeered when he addressed the hostile audience.
He and Megawati, sitting side by side in the VIP box, were joined by the anti-Wahid speakers of both houses of parliament, Akbar Tanjung and Amien Rais, who were also greeted with jeers. Rais is widely blamed for depriving Megawati of the presidency in spite of her party's lead in the 1999 parliamentary elections and handing it to Wahid instead.
Wahid was full of praise for Megawati's father. "Bung Karno [brother Sukarno] belongs to all of us, the whole Indonesian nation," he told the hostile crowd. "Therefore it is not out of place if we name our biggest sports stadium after Bung Karno." He also suggested Indonesia's highest mountain, the 5,050 meterfoot) Puncak Jaya, be named after the charismatic independence hero turned president.
Wahid praised Sukarno as someone who "championed humanitarianism" and compared him to the father of Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi. "Maybe few people know that Sukarno is a follower of resistance without violence, taught by Mahatma Gandhi. We should respect him in every way," Wahid said.
Agence France-Presse - June 5, 2001
Jakarta -- The political party of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Tuesday accused the sacked national police chief and his allies of treason for refusing to accept his dismissal by Wahid.
"[General Suroyo] Bimantoro's behaviour amounts to treason," legislator Effendy Choirie of Wahid's National Awakening Party told AFP.
Wahid told Bimantoro to resign last Friday and also sacked four ministers, including his top security chief and the attorney- general. But Bimantoro refused to step down, prompting Wahid to declare him "non-active" on Saturday at the swearing in of new deputy police chief Chaeruddin Ismael, also named caretaker police chief.
Choirie said a defiant parade in Jakarta Tuesday of 8,000 police and troops and weekend statements signed by senior police officers in support of Bimantoro were also treasonous. "The parade was a political mobilisation by officers in the context of backing up Bimantoro, which means rebellion against the president," Choirie said. "Bimantoro's mobilisation of senior officers to make a statement supporting him -- this move is treason, it is defiance of the state," he added.
Bimantoro and the top police command have rejected Wahid's dismissal order as unconstitutional and said the parliament must approve any change of police chief. Some 102 police officers signed a statement supporting Bimantoro that was read out publicly on Sunday by Jakarta police chief Sofyan Jacoeb. Top legislators also declared their support for Bimantoro on Sunday.
Choirie said Wahid was apparently planning to ask parliament in writing later Tuesday for its approval of his decision to sack Bimantoro. "I heard that he will send the letter later today," Choirie said.
The chairman of the lower house of parliament (DPR), Akbar Tanjung, said legislators had summoned Bimantoro to the parliament to discuss his status.
This was also rejected by Wahid's party, Choirie said. "We reject this move as it is politicising a law which is valid, and it is dramatising the situation," he said. "The president is not wrong constitutionally, there are laws supporting his dismissal of the police chief," he insisted.
The police force continued to regard Bimantoro as their leader, Jacoeb and national police spokesman Didi Widayadi have said. They would do so until the Supreme Court or DPR ruled on the definition of "non-active", Widayadi told AFP.
Bimantoro and Ismael meanwhile would together draw up Ismael's job description and work out the division of duties between them, Widayadi added. The two officers on Tuesday attended the official transfer of the post of chief security and political affairs minister from retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to fellow ex-general Agum Gumelar.
Wahid has blamed Bimantoro for the fatal shooting last week by police of one his supporters in East Java when pro-Wahid mobs went on a rampage against the parliament's decision to hold impeachment proceedings against him.
Observers have speculated that the removal of Bimantoro was also due to his opposition to Wahid's stated desire to declare a state of emergency which would empower him to dissolve the parliament, in an effort to prevent his impeachment.
A special session of the national assembly is due on August 1 to call Wahid to account for his erratic performance as Indonesia's first democratically elected president. This could lead to his impeachment.
South China Morning Post - June 6, 2001
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The word being debated among foreign journalists in Jakarta is "mutiny". The police chief sacked last week by President Abdurrahman Wahid has refused to step down and his stance is being interpreted by the security forces as a reason for defiance of their own.
About 8,000 police and several hundred soldiers and Marines gathered in a central park near the presidential palace yesterday in what they said was a pre-planned ceremony. But in Jakarta's highly charged political context, the gathering seemed to be yet another show of defiance towards Mr Wahid.
His decision on Friday to make police chief Surojo Bimantoro "inactive" has provoked a series of meetings by senior police officers, generals and parliamentary faction heads. The message is that Mr Wahid must stop meddling in the institutions of law and order -- or else.
The "or else" part has been left tantalisingly vague, but parliamentary leaders are looking for a constitutional excuse to accelerate impeachment moves against Mr Wahid. They say his bid to sack General Bimantoro without their say-so might be it. "We're not playing politics. We're professional. But we are not allergic to politics and General Bimantoro is still our leader," Jakarta police chief Major-General Sofyan Jacoeb said.
He presided over the 10-minute ceremony, which he claimed was held to congratulate police troops for their hard work during a summit of the Group of 15 developing nations last week as well as recent sessions of Parliament.
As well as the presence of men such as Jakarta military chief Major-General Bibit Waluyo, the parade included men from the army strategic reserve command, the marines and the air force, along with armoured vehicles and helicopters. General Bimantoro told the media he had refused to resign for what he said was his refusal to back the President's efforts to declare emergency rule.
Mr Wahid also might have wanted a more amenable police chief to help prosecute his parliamentary enemies for corruption, in another tactic aimed at stopping impeachment. Some analysts interpreted the surprisingly large gathering of police and troops as a sign from the security apparatus of its possible support for accelerated impeachment.
Mr Wahid replaced General Bimantoro with deputy police chief Chaeruddin Ismail on Saturday. But even this new recruit to power preferred to hug his former boss, General Bimantoro, in public instead of moving at Mr Wahid's behest to bring the police under presidential control.
Instead of proving Mr Wahid's claimed control over events, his clumsy steps against the police chief have instead highlighted his weakness.
Despite frequent attempts, he has been unable to impose emergency rule, to scare off Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri from a parliamentary confrontation or to deflect Parliament from its impeachment moves. General Bimantoro has insisted that under prevailing laws he remains the police chief until Parliament approves his dismissal.
Two weeks ago the armed forces carried out shows of force a stones' throw from the palace where Mr Wahid is ensconced. Now the police have joined in what is a new, subtle version of a mutiny by any other name.
Green Left Weekly - June 6, 2001
Max Lane, Jakarta -- On May 30, an alliance of members of parliament from Golkar (the party of former Indonesian dictator Suharto), the armed forces (TNI), the muslim right-wing Central Axis parties and vice-president Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) passed a resolution in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR, Indonesia's parliament) to hold a special session of the MPR on August 1.
At this session, the MPR will request that President Abdurrahman Wahid defend his government's record. If the MPR rejects Wahid's account, and his responses to the parliament's criticisms of it, this will amount to a vote of no confidence and the president will be asked to step down.
Wahid has so far been ineffective in countering these moves, in parliament and among the population. His first step was to issue a presidential proclamation ordering his minister for political, social affairs and security to take special measures to ensure security and law and order during the period of crisis.
Because there has been no serious security threat during this period, the military and police top brass have not taken any serious repressive measures. However, they have used the proclamation to ensure that they appear more frequently in the mass media.
Wahid issued the order despite public statements by military and police commanders that they would defy any move by Wahid to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.
In the week before May 30, Wahid uncharacteristically did not discourage mass protests to defend his presidency. For the first time, the pro-Wahid National Awakening Party (PKB) mobilised several thousand of its members over three days. These mobilisations had only limited effect because neither Wahid nor the PKB national leadership used their authority or access to the mass media to turn the mobilisations into a campaign in support of political reforms.
In recent weeks, the PKB and the Wahid government have attempted to introduce anti-corruption legislation to target corrupt officials from the Suharto era to investigate scandals linked to Golkar corruption. All these initiatives have been rejected by the Golkar-TNI-Central Axis-PDIP parliamentary majority. Neither Wahid nor the PKB have placed these issues at the centre of the mobilisations. Instead, they have concentrated on the unjust and illegal nature of the MPR's attempt to remove Wahid. However, this issue can only mobilise the most fanatical Wahid supporters from East Java. The PKB's approach reflects its weak commitment to any kind of liberal reform aimed at dismantling the still strong institutions formed under the Suharto "New Order" dictatorship.
Anti-New Order coalitio
The successful manoeuvre by the Golkar-TNI-Central Axis-PDIP alliance has added urgency to the moves to consolidate an alliance of democratic forces to resist a comeback by the Suharto dictatorship's forces. The mobilisations on May 29 and May 30, which included several thousand Wahid supporters, were organised by the Coalition Against the New Order (KNAOB).
KNAOB includes the radical-left People's Democratic Party (PRD) and related forces, key sections of the militant democratic wing of the student movement, several high profile academics and intellectuals and sections of the PKB. Megawati's sister, Rachmawati, has also given her support to the coalition.
The key demands being popularised by KNAOB include: the dissolution of Golkar because it is a corrupt party whose hands are covered in blood from the Suharto era; the dissolution of parliament and the holding of snap elections without Golkar and TNI MPs; abolition of the political role of the TNI; the trial of all corrupt officials and human rights violators from the Suharto era; nationalisation of all assets corruptly gained during the Suharto period; the removal of former "New Order" officials from all state institutions; the smashing of the "New Order approach" to labour disputes; and the return to peasants of land stolen during the New Order period.
Hundreds of thousands of leaflets promoting these demands were distributed in Jakarta during the May 29-30 mobilisations. Speakers from the PRD, the National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI), the National Peasants Union and other farmers' groups, and from the anti-Golkar wing of the PDIP also put these demands to the thousands of pro-Wahid peasants and urban poor at the May 29-30 demonstrations.
Golkar fears
Even though the NKAOB remains a small force, with uncertain support from the PKB Leadership, it clearly has frightened Golkar. Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung, in a television interview, described NKAOB as the main hindrance to the removal of Wahid at the August 1 special session of the MPR.
The Jakarta police chief on May 29 told journalists that it was forces led by PRD chairperson "Mr Budiman Sujatmiko" that were trying to provoke confrontations with the security apparatus. He added that he would tell Sujatmiko: "Bud, Bud, watch it or I will smash you".
Sujatmiko's parents' house has twice been the target of attacks, with giant firecrackers thrown. In response to these attacks, the local police chief stated: "Who knows? Maybe Budiman did this himself". In Central Java, anti-PRD leaflets are circulating naming PRD activists who are going to be kidnapped.
Mass resentment at the squabbling of the political elite for power is very great. This is combined with simmering anger at the masses' declining social and economic conditions. Cynicism towards the political elite can quickly turn to mass support for a political alternative that has is not tainted by the squabble at the top.
Figures such as FNPBI chairperson Dita Sari, who has emerged as the labour leader with the highest profile in the country, the PRD's Sujatmiko, academic Dr Arbi Sanit and human rights lawyer Hendardi could easily develop as such an alternative pole of attraction. If Rachmawati Sukarnoputri continues her strong stand against Golkar and the Central Axis parties, her presence would also add authority to the coalition.
The main factor slowing this process is the extreme hesitation by Wahid and the PKB to defend themselves by proposing even a minimal democratic platform. If they continue in this way, it is likely that the Golkar-TNI-Central Axis-PDIP coalition will succeed in removing Wahid and installing Megawati.
In this process, Wahid and the PKB leadership will also lose much of their authority among their own supporters, who have responded enthusiastically to NKAOB demands and arguments. The PKB will suffer the same fate as the PDIP. Outside the PDIP parliamentary caucus, the PDIP members are increasingly angry with Megawati for her alliance with Golkar and the TNI.
South China Morning Post - June 4, 2001
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Observing the behaviour of President Abdurrahman Wahid, it is easy to paint a picture of a crazy, erratic, inconsistent and ailing old man, lashing out wildly at his opponents like a wounded animal trapped in a corner.
One could see Mr Wahid as helpless and desperate, unaware of how widely his rule is opposed and embarrassing himself by trying to hang on to office.
Or, as some remaining supporters do, one could describe him as a much-maligned hero, a man still committed to democratic principles who has been forced against his will to act undemocratically in the name of reform.
This view sees him as a man so under attack by the forces of evil once grouped around former president Suharto that he deserves praise for battling so long.
All these analyses have elements of truth. But judgments of leaders must be set in the context of their time; whoever was president after three decades of Suharto and a couple of years of his hand-picked successor, Bacharuddin Habibie, was going to have a rough ride.
To set the record straight, it should be remembered that a majority of civil servants still bear an allegiance to the old Suharto days or to patrons from those times. The armed forces and police maintain strong institutional interests and major pyramids of bribery and patronage which will always militate against democracy.
In continuing pressure on Mr Wahid, Indonesia's police chiefs delivered a fresh blow yesterday, rallying behind their national commander, General Surojo Bimantoro, who is defying a presidential order to step down. A signed statement from the police chiefs suggested that Mr Wahid was trying to politicise the police force and said that they wanted no part of it.
The so-called new politicians from many "new" political parties, who now fill the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly, are often nothing of the sort. Instead, they are "Ono", meaning Old New Order figures. They date from the Suharto period, which the former president called his New Order.
The general populace is remarkably uneducated about open politics, with the vast majority of young people, who have known only Suharto's warped definitions of national life, unable to reach conclusions of their own. Suharto deliberately emasculated at least a generation of future leaders.
The crux of Indonesia's problems now stem from the fact that what leaders it has grew up during Suharto's time. They learned politics in the shadow of a man more devious, power-hungry and successful than most. As if to soften the viciousness, this kind of politics is called "Javanese", ruled by culture and pride, giving an artistic gloss to what is, in effect, brutal politicking.
A New Order interpretation of Mr Wahid would give him a fighting chance of surviving Parliament's plans to impeach him on August 1. It would highlight his adeptness in turning defeats into partial victories, his ability to manoeuvre his opponents and his use of confrontation to claim compromise.
Public criticism of Mr Wahid is based in part on his backroom dealing, secret manipulations, unsubtle denigration of Vice- President Megawati Sukarnoputri and more. Some question how could Mr Wahid be a democratic reformer and behave like this.
The answer comes from a more accurate reading of the recent past. Mr Wahid was indeed a figure of reform who was brave and deft- footed against the repressive Suharto. But he was never a saint. He was born to politics, albeit in religious garb, and remains a politician to the core. That means his over-riding goal is to achieve and maintain power, no matter what the cost.
Public misconceptions about him date from before he gained the presidency in October 1999, so that analysts tie themselves in knots to explain how he has changed or deteriorated.
But such convolutions are not necessary, because Mr Wahid is just the same mercurial, arrogant and determined politician he always was. "He has always been like this," says political analyst Marcus Mietzner.
The point for Mr Wahid was never in doubt. He has God on his side and therefore expects trials of the kind currently before him. If and when he is deposed by Parliament, he still will not admit defeat. And in this, at least, he has been entirely consistent for years.
| Human rights/law |
Straits Times - June 9, 2001
Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia's new Attorney-General pledged yesterday to restart corruption proceedings against former President Suharto, who spent his 80th birthday praying at a mosque and giving out charity packages to orphans.
Mr Baharudin Lopa, who was sworn into office on Tuesday, also announced an ambitious agenda that included arresting the former leader's fugitive son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, and stepping up probes against ethnic-Chinese tycoons Prajogo Pangestu and Sjamsul Nursalim.
The immediate attacks on the four pending cases could be seen as an effort to dispel speculation that Mr Baharudin was appointed in part to thwart impeachment procedures against President Abdurrahman Wahid by digging up charges implicating members of the opposition.
A spokesman for the Attorney-General's Office, Mr Mulyohardjo, said: "Suharto is a priority case and we wish to finish this case. The doctors have to declare him fit first, but after that, we could take him to court again." The courts dismissed a US$600 million corruption case against Mr Suharto last year after teams of doctors testified that the former ruler was too ill to stand trial.
Said Mr Baharudin: "It needs to be understood that we are serious about prosecuting these cases. Hunting for Tommy is a top priority. He has to serve his sentence." Hutomo disappeared last November after the courts found him guilty of corruption and sentenced him to an 18-month jail term.
The Attorney-General added that investigators would pursue and bring home for questioning Messrs Prajogo and Sjamsul, who are not facing any charges yet. Mr Prajogo is reportedly in Singapore for business while Mr Sjamsul is in Japan for medical treatment.
Mr Abdurrahman last year gave the two tycoons -- their conglomerates are heavily in debt -- and Texmaco-boss Marimutu Sinivasan immunity from prosecution "due to the vital roles they and their companies play in the economy".
Prosecutors, however, have said they are building strong corruption cases against them and will be able to file charges as soon as the formal questioning procedures -- which both have dodged by being out of the country or pleading illness -- are completed.
But despite Mr Baharudin's aggressive promises and his reputation as an uncompromising and tough anti-corruption crusader, legal analysts argue that success in prosecuting corrupt officials and cronies depends on support from the government.
Prominent human-rights lawyer Frans Winarta said: "Everybody knows who is guilty. The problem is whether the process has support from politicians and the law-enforcement system." Law Professor J.E. Sahetapy, an MP from the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle, agreed: "Lopa can't do the job all by himself. He has to delegate to his assistants and much depends on how the entire system works."
Jakarta Post - June 7, 2001
Jakarta -- Legal activists made a fresh call on Wednesday for the abolishment of military courts and joint civilian-military tribunals which, they said, were often used to protect the military's impunity.
Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) deputy chairman Munir and Jakarta-based Legal Aid Institute (LBH) director Irianto Subianto said during a discussion that everybody including soldiers should be equal before the law.
Munir questioned why military officers who have allegedly committed a criminal or human rights offense should be tried in a military tribunal or joint civilian-military court under military law while civilians are tried in a regular court under the criminal code.
"This is pure discrimination," Munir charged. "It will be impossible for us to create a sense of equality before the law if we continue applying such a legal system," he added.
Based on Article 10 of Law No. 14/1970 on judicial power, the nation's legal system adopts four types of tribunals. They are the general courts to try civilians, the administrative court, the Islamic court to handle divorce cases, and the military court.
Munir said the military tribunal is supposed to try members of the military who are accused of violating the military code of ethics, such as desertion or disobedience. "If a member of the military conducts a crime that has nothing to do with the military code of ethics -- such as corruption or murder, he must be tried in a general trial," Munir said, adding that it was also stipulated in Article 3 of the People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. VII/2000. Munir revealed the inconsistency of the implementation of the laws by referring to the corruption case involving former minister of mines and energy Ginandjar Kartasasmita, a retired three-star Air Force marshal. Ginanjar was recently released by the Attorney General's Office after the South Jakarta District Court decided that his detention was illegal and ordered that his case be conducted before a joint civilian-military tribunal. "Ginandjar was supposed to be tried in a general trial as he did not violate the military code of ethics. He allegedly committed corruption," Munir said.
Munir was also critical of the joint civilian-military tribunal as it restricts the authority of prosecutors to hold an investigation as the suspect could only be questioned after the approval of his superior.
Irianto accused military tribunals of making verdicts based on who the defendant was instead of the crimes they had committed. "Due to these considerations, a military tribunal will never deal objectively with justice," he said.
Irianto was referring to the verdict handed down to Second Lt. Agus Isrok, an officer in the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) and the son of former Army chief of staff Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo. The Jakarta Military Court sentenced Agus to four years in prison for the possession of 1.6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine), 6,218 ecstasy pills, 27.9 grams of heroin and 25 packets containing Valium pills. The sentence was later reduced by the court of appeals to two years.
Jakarta Post - June 8, 2001
Surabaya -- An investigation team formed by the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction at the East Java provincial legislature claims to have found evidence that people arrested following riots in Pasuruan were tortured during police questioning.
Chairman of the team Fathorrosjid said on Thursday at least three of the suspected rioters had been admitted to Bhayangkara Police Hospital for injuries they sustained.
"We first heard about the torture from families of the detainees who complained to us. When we visited them we learned that the crime against humanity was true," Fathor said.
A team of 26 PKB faction members went to Pasuruan Police precinct on Thursday to visit 127 people who were held under arrest. They were alleged to have participated in riots that erupted last week in response to the House of Representatives move to call for an impeachment process against President Abdurrahman Wahid, one of PKB's founders.
Abdurrahman charged the East Java Police with human rights abuse, likening them to the iron-fisted security troops during the New Order, for their measures against the demonstrators across the province. The President claimed that the protesters staged peaceful rallies, although in fact a number of buildings, including schools, mosques and churches, were attacked or set on fire. One man was shot dead in the Pasuruan riots.
Fathor said a number of detainees showed signs of being beaten and had cigarette burns on their faces. The team also discovered two of the detainees were students of an elementary and a junior high school.
Responding to the results of the investigation, chief of East Java Police detectives Sr. Comr. Bambang Hendarso Danuri suggested that the PKB team pursue legal avenues. He maintained that his personnel had carried out their job in a professional manner and in line with the law.
South China Morning Post - June 6, 2001
Associated Press in Jakarta -- Corruption in Indonesia's law courts is so deeply ingrained that it might take more than two decades to purge them of graft, the newly installed attorney general was quoted as saying by newspapers on Wednesday.
"It is difficult to combat the court mafia as it involves lawyers, judges, prosecutors and police," said Baharudin Lopa. "All of these bureaucratic elements seem to support such evil practices." Known for his tough stance against corruption, Mr Lopa was sworn in as the new attorney general on Tuesday after the former top prosecutor failed to clamp down on graft.
Mr Lopa, however, denied speculation that he would use his new position to investigate alleged corrupt business deals by embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid's political rivals.
Mr Wahid has himself been accused of corruption. In August, the nation's top legislature will start impeachment proceedings against him to review those allegations -- which he vehemently denies -- and separate charges of incompetence.
Mr Lopa said lawyers in Indonesia often forwarded bribes from their clients to prosecutors and judges to win cases, The Jakarta Post newspaper reported.
Corruption within the Indonesia's courts and bureaucracy fostered under former dictator Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years before being forced from office in 1998. Mr Wahid came to power in October, 1999 promising to eradicate graft. However some foreign investors and analysts say the problem has deteriorated since then as the formerly controlled system of kickbacks broke down and a weak central government could do little to eliminate it.
| News & issues |
Reuters - June 9, 2001
Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta -- Indonesian police said on Saturday that more than 30 foreigners, including a four-year-old girl, detained at a human rights seminar were suspected of immigration violations and would be questioned next week.
Police detained the foreigners, among them 20 Australians, after breaking up a seminar on worker and human rights on Friday, but allowed them to return to their Jakarta hotels on Saturday after initial questioning. Police confiscated their passports and ordered them to report to police again on Monday.
"They are all suspects for violating the immigration law," Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told reporters, adding they were released after their embassies guaranteed all would return on Monday. They face a maximum penalty of five years in jail or a 25 million rupiah ($2,230) fine if convicted of immigration violations.
Participants at the seminar, attended by about 300 people, said armed police stormed the hotel on the outskirts of Jakarta on Friday afternoon where it was being held.
The four-year-old, Zoe Hinman from Sydney, was with her parents, officials said. Among the others were nationals from Japan, New Zealand, Britain, the United States, Thailand, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, Pakistan and Germany, officials said. Police said most spent Friday night in police detention.
One of the Australian detainees, Helen Jarvis, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, told ABC radio by telephone the experience had been unpleasant. "We have the protection of the [Australian] embassy, which has been very valuable. But the Indonesian friends who organised the conference were beaten up badly and also one of them has been interrogated," she said. Police did not comment on the allegations, although several Indonesian activists detained have been released.
Conference organisers accused police of using brutal tactics more in keeping with the authoritarian rule of disgraced former President Suharto. They said police had claimed the event was aimed at disrupting an impeachment hearing of embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid scheduled for August.
Alam said the event was halted because of the presence of the foreigners, who he earlier said had entered Indonesia as tourists. Foreigners attending seminars in Indonesia usually need to obtain visas beforehand, but many foreign nationals, including Australians, can visit as tourists without visas.
One participant said Friday's raid caused some panic. "Maybe 50 or 60 police stormed into the meeting room armed with guns, including rifles held in an offensive stance," Max Lane, an Australian, said on ABC radio. "They barked something over a loudspeaker in Indonesian language, creating quite a tense and worrying situation."
South China Morning Post - June 9, 2001
Agence France-Presse in Jakarta -- Disgraced and ailing former dictator Suharto was moved to tears by an orphan when he marked his 80th birthday yesterday, two days after the man he overthrew, founding president Sukarno, would have turned 100.
While the centenary of the charismatic independence hero's birth was marked on Wednesday by an outpouring of sentimentality by millions of Indonesians, Suharto's birthday was a quiet family affair. The day was marked with little more than prayers and donations to orphans at a mosque built by the family, and a small gathering at their Jakarta home.
Suharto's 80th birthday fell almost three weeks after the virtually unnoticed third anniversary of the end of his 32-year rule in May 1998. Since Suharto stepped down amid violent pro- democracy demonstrations and an economic crisis, only his failing health has enabled a battery of lawyers to save him from facing trial for massive corruption.
Yesterday he and his family were up at dawn to distribute food and clothes to orphans at the At-Tin mosque in the Taman Mini Indonesia theme park on Jakarta's eastern outskirts. "There were thousands of orphans," Suharto's main lawyer, Juan Felix Tampubolon, said after attending the ceremony.
The former army general wept as an eight year-old orphan read out an Islamic prayer, Detik.com news reported. "My father cried listening to the orphan read a verse about peace," Suharto's daughter, Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana, was quoted as saying.
Five of Suharto's six children and all his grandchildren were present, Mr Tampubolon said. "All the children except Tommy were there," he said, referring to Suharto's youngest son who has been on the run from police since his conviction over a multimillion- dollar land scam in September.
Suharto, who has suffered two strokes and intestinal disorders and is allegedly brain-damaged, was able to walk slowly and smile, Mr Tampubulon said. "His face seemed cheerful. But speech is very difficult for him. He can only manage a few words, 'yes, no, thank you'," he said. "His brain damage has got worse."
A security guard at the plush Suharto family villa said flowers had been arriving for the frail ex-president since 5am. Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri is now Indonesia's Vice-President, and the former founding father is remembered with reverence even though he spent his final years until his death in 1970 under house arrest in ignominy and virtual solitude.
Suharto is seeing out his own post-rule years in similar disgrace, charged with siphoning off US$571 million of state funds into the pockets of his family and friends. Time magazine charged in 1999 that he and his family stashed away US$15 billion over the 32 years -- charges the former strongman has denied.
He is accused of bankrupting the nation and leaving a legacy of endemic corruption. His tough army-backed rule was also blamed for sparking separatist movements in Aceh and Irian Jaya, bringing the vast island archipelago to the brink of disintegration.
But Suharto is faring better than the man he deposed, cared for by his family in their home in Jakarta's grandest neighbourhood and receiving frequent guests.
"Mr Suharto is very lucky now," one of Sukarno's surviving wives, Hartini, told the weekly Forum magazine. "He is free to go wherever he likes, whereas [Sukarno] could not go anywhere at all. He wasn't even allowed to receive guests ... he was very sad."
Another Suharto daughter, Mamiek, said her family was handing out donations to 80,000 orphans in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surabaya to mark their father's birthday. "We want to show that in his 80s, our father can still demonstrate compassion," she was quoted as saying.
Straits Times - June 6, 2001
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- He was autocratic, plunged Indonesia into a period of economic disaster and widespread poverty and flirted with communism. Yet, Indonesians today can't get enough of Sukarno -- Indonesia's founding president.
Thousands are expected to flock to Blitar, his burial site in East Java, for today's celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Every newspaper is issuing Sukarno specials -- discussing his controversial, anti-Western foreign policy to his infamous womanising, while the newly-renamed Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta will be the site of a day of celebrations.
As ethnic, separatist and religious conflicts, along with economic woes, threaten to tear the country apart, Indonesians are increasingly nostalgic for a nationalist, Sukarno-like leader, claim analysts.
"He had imagination, a vision for the future and knew how to come out of a crisis," says Mr Mochtar Buchori, a political analyst and member of Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) party. Ms Megawati is Mr Sukarno's eldest daughter.
The inability of the current crop of political leaders to solve Indonesia's current economic and social crisis has led people to review Mr Sukarno in a romantic light, seeing in him all the qualities that today's leaders lack, says Mr Mochtar.
"He's the strongest leader of Indonesia, so he is like a model for an ideal President," says Ms Sukmawati Sukarnoputri, Mr Sukarno's youngest daughter.
Mr Permadi, a PDI-P legislator, likens the charismatic founder- president to India's Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
He says that his concepts about how to unify Indonesia's diverse political and religious groups and his ability to try and accommodate seemingly conflicting beliefs such as nationalism, Islam and communism made him a heroic figure. Mr Sukarno was a rebel leader who fought against the Dutch after World War II.
He was named President in 1945 and was ousted by General Suharto in 1966 after he was accused of involvement in a failed communist-backed coup. He was effectively held under house arrest in Bogor till his death in 1970.
While the PDI-P capitalises on the Sukarno legend, Ms Megawati herself has few of his political skills or vision, says Mr Permadi. "She is the biological daughter of Sukarno but Rachma is the ideological daughter," he said, referring to the nationalistic third daughter, Ms Rachmawati.
Ms Rachmawati recently criticised the Vice-President's attempts to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid. She is also the chair at the Bung Karno University, which she helped set up.
Political analyst Kusnanto Anggoro says that apart from her commitment to national unity, Ms Megawati is not as brave or politically innovative as her celebrated father was. He added that while there was much controversy surrounding Mr Sukarno's policies, including his support of the communist party and his poor economic policies, his admirers now remember him mainly for his tough anti-West stance. Mr Sukarno withdrew Indonesia from the United Nations in 1965 and, in a fiery nationalistic speech, rejected American aid.
And since the economic crisis, which many Indonesians blame the IMF's interventionist policies on, they are looking for a leader who will free Indonesia of Western intervention.
Agence France-Presse - June 5, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's charismatic founding president Sukarno is enjoying a surge in popularity 31 years after his death, as his country sinks deeper into political and communal squabbling, analysts said.
Despite firm efforts by his successor, Suharto, to erase from popular memory the man who proclaimed the country's independence in 1945 but who died in official disgrace on June 21, 1970, Sukarno continues to be venerated by millions of Indonesians as a true father of the nation.
His 100th birthday which falls on Wednesday will be celebrated in a big bash to include exhibitions and seminars in several Indonesian cities as well as a planned massive commemoration rally in the capital.
Embassies overseas too are laying on receptions. The nation's leading print and electronic media have been churning out long commemorative features on the dapper president who mesmerized listeners with his fiery oratory and captivated his opponents with his self-assurance and charm.
"This is a sign of a longing for Bung Karno [his popular nickname], a longing for his values of national cohesion and unity, values that are now sadly lacking," said Maswadi Rauf, a political observer from the state University of Indonesia.
At a time when the country is beset by separatism, communal unrest and endless political bickering, Sukarno's emphasis on unity appeals to all generations, Rauf said. "He may have had many faults and weaknesses, but Sukarno is primarily now remembered for his strong passion for national unity and cohesion," Rauf said.
Since the fall of the authoritarian leader Suharto in May 1998, Indonesia has seen one president resign and is likely to see another one impeached soon. BJ Habibie, hand-picked by Suharto to replace him in 1998, resigned in 1999 when a special session of the national assembly rejected an account of his year in office.
Current President Abdurrahman Wahid is battling growing efforts by the parliament -- with whom he has been at loggerheads since early in his term -- to impeach him for alleged involvement in two financial scandals and incompetent rule. A special session of the national assembly will convene on August 1 to hear him account for his turbulent months in office.
Suharto's fall after a 32-year iron-fisted rule was rapidly followed by rising separatism in the arcipelago's two extremities, Aceh and Irian Jaya, as well as bloody communal unrest in Borneo, Sulawesi and the Maluku islands.
Muchtar Buchori, an MP from the party led by Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri who stands to first in line replace Wahid, said Sukarno's popularity stemmed from a longing for an leader with authority.
"People are just fed up with the leaderships that came after Bung Karno," Buchori said. But he warned the current phenomenon resulted from "a romanticization" of Sukarno's leadership, that gilded his memory into a charismatic intellectual leader who spoke several languages, had a thorough knowledge of world history, and could solve every problem. "Don't dream, be realistic," Buchori said.
For years, the anniversary of Sukarno's death was marked by thousands of admirers who flocked to his tomb, built by Suharto in Sukarno's hometown of Blitar in East Java in the second half of the 1980s.
Suharto, who, not for want of trying, was unable to stamp out Sukarno's memory, finally in 1980 rehabilitated his name as one of the country's proclaimers of independence, and later declared him a national hero in 1986.
But a 1967 decree accusing Sukarno of being implicated in the 1965 communist-backed coup attempt which stripped him of the presidency, remains firmly in place.
Jakarta Post - June 2, 2001
Bogor -- Democratic People's Party (PRD) chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko alleged on Friday that the recent explosions at his parents' home in the Sukaresmi subdistrict of Tanah Sareal was a premeditated act of terror.
"Two weeks ago, I received a telephone call at the PRD office in Tebet, South Jakarta, from an anti-communist group, stating that they would finish off me and my family," Budiman said on Friday. "I have no idea if the telephone call was related to the blasts."
Budiman said that the telephone caller refused to identify which anti-communist group he belonged to, and warned him not mobilize people against the New Order regime. "He called me a communist who was against the New Order regime," Budiman told reporters.
Two small explosions rocked the home of Budiman's parents on Wednesday and Thursday, leading people to speculate that the blasts were related to Budiman's political activities, which are critical of the former ruling Golkar Party.
The second blast on Thursday, smaller than the first blast on Wednesday, left a hole as big as a man's fist in the ground.
Bogor Police deputy chief Comr. Damisnur described the explosion on Thursday as a small explosion from a firecracker. Budiman described the explosions at his parents' home as an act of terror against his activities.
When asked to comment on city police chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob's statement, that Budiman intended to incite the masses, Budiman said he would demand an explanation from Sofjan. "I am going to demand that he explain that lie. He made the statement without any proof or evidence. How could he make such an unprofessional statement?"
| Economy & investment |
Straits Times - June 10, 2001
Robert Go, Jakarta -- For cabby Sutardjo, the petrol-price increase scheduled for this coming Friday could erode his daily take-home earnings of around 40,000 rupiah (S$6.80) by as much as 20 per cent.
The 11-year veteran driver said: "Things are hard enough. We can't raise taxi fares, because then fewer passengers would ride taxis. Drivers now have to take the loss of income." Carpark attendant Slamet argued similarly that the price hike would hurt them and the rest of Indonesia's working poor: "Prices for everything else will also go up now, so life will get tougher for us."
Late Friday, following marathon negotiation sessions that spanned nearly one week, Indonesia's Parliament and government agreed to slash petrol subsidies to 53.7 trillion rupiah and impose price hikes averaging 30 per cent across the fuel-product range. A litre of premium petrol will go up from 1,150 to 1,450 rupiah, automotive diesel from 600 to 900 rupiah, and kerosene from 350 to 400 rupiah.
Budget Committee chairman Benny Pasaribu of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) party announced the measure: "We have agreed to the government's proposal of raising fuel prices by a 30-per-cent average." He said Indonesians should conserve fuel to further reduce the amount Jakarta has to spend on subsidies in the future.
Indonesia's fuel subsidy is an issue harped on consistently by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other aid agencies, which have long recommended its termination. They argue that Jakarta's subsidy actually benefits the car-using middle class and oil smugglers who, according to some analysts, export oil illegally with the help of corrupt government officials. Bringing Indonesian fuel prices closer to international standards should cut out smugglers' profits and help the country maximise its oil income.
Last October, the government already increased prices by an average of 12 per cent, but cancelled its plan for a 20-per-cent jump two months ago, fearing mass protests at a time of heightened political tension in the capital.
Currently, the subsidy has come under particular pressure due to Indonesia's Budget deficit trouble, which could hit 85 trillion rupiah if the government does not implement drastic measures to control it.
Parliament wanted to cut subsidies down to 41.3 trillion rupiah initially to alleviate pressure on the Budget, but relented on Friday and agreed to a sum closer to the government's projected figure of more than 60 trillion rupiah.
The next battleground for financial planners will be the issue of alleviation programmes aimed at reducing the impact of the fuel- price hikes on the poorest Indonesians.
Analyst Ichsanudin Noorsy warned: "Price hikes will have side effects such as rising inflation and a further reduction of the people's purchasing powers." Sources in various ministries reported that some coupon and direct-cash programmes will be initiated to help the poor deal with the price hikes.
But they declined to elaborate on how much money the government would spend or which installations would oversee the process.
Mr Pramono Anung, PDI-P legislator and a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Commission, said: "This increase can't be avoided. We also need better monitoring of the subsidy programme in general."
Reuters - June 7, 2001
Jakarta -- Jakarta stocks edged higher on Thursday, but the market was under pressure from rumours, later denied, that politically isolated President Abdurrahman Wahid would sack the armed forces commander in a bid to hang on to the leadership.
"We heard [military chief Admiral] Widodo would be sacked and that maybe Wahid would not appoint a replacement ... that is a worry," a dealer at a foreign brokerage said. New chief security minister Agum Gumelar later denied the rumours.
The Jakarta Composite Index gained 0.36 points or 0.09 percent to close at 397.96. Trading was light with turnover estimated at 352 billion rupiah ($31.44 million) down from 422 billion rupiah on Wednesday. Decliners outnumbered gainers 62 to 47 with 74 issues unchanged.
Indonesia's top legislature will consider impeaching Wahid over two financial scandals and his erratic 19-month rule when it meets in August.
"When the rumour came out the stocks went down but no particular stock pushed it back up in the end, it was probably more psychological with players saying the market is cheap," said Suhendra Setidi of Trimegah Securities.
He said market heavyweights PT Telkom and PT Indosat fell following news late on Wednesday the parliamentary telecommunications commission rejected the government's proposal for a planned phone price hike. "This prevented the index from making bigger gains," he said.
State-run domestic phone operator Telkom fell 50 rupiah to 2,775 while international phone operator Indosat lost 250 rupiah, ending at 8,950. Under the deal, earlier approved by parliament, prices were to have increased in three annual stages, starting with an average 21.67 percent rise next week.
Indonesia's leading bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA) , closed up 50 rupiah at 1,150 even though a state auditor's report showed the country's bank restructuring agency (IBRA) had not returned some 20 billion rupiah in collateral to BCA. IBRA was supposed to have returned the money under a 1999 debt deal.
"I guess players are still focusing on the fact that there will soon be a short list of bidders," another dealer at a foreign brokerage said.
BCA, 70.3 percent owned by IBRA, has said up to 30 percent of the bank would be sold to a strategic investor this month as part of the government's divestment programme. Up to six mostly international bidders are expected to be short listed for the sale.
The stake sale, originally slated for last year under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, would be a confidence booster for the market. The IMF delayed a $400 million loan to Indonesia in December for a raft of missed economic targets and concerns over central bank law reforms.
Straits Times - June 8, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's Parliament wants stiffer cuts in petrol subsidies and price hikes more drastic than the 30 per cent jump already slated by the government -- a development that could inject additional fuel to the escalated political tension in Jakarta and spark further mass demonstrations later this month.
Parliament's budget committee, which faces the Herculean task of controlling a gaping budget deficit estimated to reach 85 trillion rupiah (S$15.3 billion), decided late on Wednesday to allocate only 41.3 trillion rupiah for petrol subsidies this year.
Committee chief Benny Pasaribu of PDI-P said: "This has to be accepted by the people. We can't afford more subsidies, especially if subsidies result in petrol being smuggled out of the country. A subsidy of 60.4 trillion rupiah is not going to help stabilise the budget," he said.
He was referring to the subsidy figure pitched by the Finance Ministry's latest budget revision, which has already presumed a 30 per cent price increase to motorists to be implemented on June 15.
Clashing fuel-consumption assumptions, with Parliament calculating a consumption of 51 million kl, or five million kl less than the government's figures, also contributed to the wide gap between the two sides. The government is scrambling to close up the budget deficit.
In addition to the planned petrol price hikes, Jakarta is also considering increasing rates for electricity by 17.5 per cent and telephone by 21.7 per cent.
Both Parliament and the administration, however, appeared committed to slashing subsidies -- one of the conditions previously set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its continued support for, and loans to, Jakarta. Indonesian Vice- President Megawati Sukarnoputri has even planned a major speech for June 14 to urge acceptance and tolerance of the new prices.
Yet top Economics Minister Rizal Ramli joined several analysts yesterday in warning that implementing even a 30 per cent fuel hike could serve as the spark that blows the top off the Indonesian powder keg. Huge demonstrations following petrol price hikes imposed in 1998 helped force the resignation of then president Suharto after 32 years in power. Mr Rizal said: "Within the current situation, this is surely not wise. The price hikes will lead to an even hotter situation."
Political analyst Kusnanto Angorro of the Centre for Strategic International Studies agreed: "This has serious political impacts. Higher petrol prices lead to higher prices for staple goods. The burden on the poor will be tremendous." "It's bad timing given the political situation. Delaying the hikes would be better for the government," the analyst said.
Economist Sri Adiningsih of Gadjah Mada University argued for the necessity of the price hikes, saying that only subsidy cuts would alleviate pressures on the state budget and repair Jakarta's strained relationships with the IMF and other aid agencies. But she also cautioned: "We have to make sure the people will accept new prices. 'Compensation packages, aimed at cushioning the impact on the poor would be crucial."
Associated Press - June 4, 2001
Duri -- It is a costly cat-and-mouse game played out daily by guards, the workers who install oil-exploration equipment and the thieves who scavenge its metal for scrap.
"We install it, they steal it," moaned Mr Akson Brahmantyo, an engineer at Indonesia's largest oilfield operated by the US energy company Caltex.
On this palm-fringed plain in Riau province, about 1,000 km north-west of Jakarta, Caltex wells produce half of Indonesia's daily output of 1.4 million barrels of oil, extending a lifeline to an economy that is being dragged down by political and social disarray.
Dozens of workers labour beneath the scorching sun, wrapping protective aluminium sheets around hundreds of kilometres of pipes that inject super-hot steam deep into the earth to force oil to the surface. By night scavengers tear off the aluminium to sell for scrap. The steam then cools and the ejection process fails.
The pilfering does not stop there. Villagers and criminal gangs carry off anything of value. Electric wire, valves, control panels and other equipment vital for the oilfields disappear daily. Caltex estimates that direct theft is costing it more than US$1 million a month and US$400 million a year in production stoppages.
Another US energy giant, Exxon-Mobil, shut down natural gas production in Aceh province in March because of fighting between troops and separatist rebels. That halted exports of liquefied natural gas worth US$100 million a month.
Elsewhere in the 5,000-km-long Indonesian archipelago, Denver- based Newmont Mining Corporation and other mining companies have scaled back operations because of growing labour problems, worsening community relations and demands by local officials for more kickbacks.
So the last thing Indonesia needs is a massive flight of foreign investment. That does not seem to have happened yet, but one foreign mining executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his company is thinking of relocating to Iran.
Foreign companies are not the only ones struggling with lawlessness. The state-owned PLN electricity monopoly had to abandon a 190-km power line connecting the western side of Sumatra island to the grid. All the cables were stolen off the pylons before the project was completed. Police reported 93 demonstrations, labour strikes and other disruptions in the Duri area last year, compared with 42 the previous year.