Democratic sturggle

Demonstrators derail fuel price rise

South China Morning Post - June 15, 2001 (abridged)

The Government delayed a controversial fuel price rise in the face of more unrest yesterday as President Abdurrahman Wahid prepared to leave his troubled country on yet another overseas trip.

Police fired tear-gas and warning shots at thousands of protesting workers in three cities. It was the second straight day of violent demonstrations against new labour laws. At least three people at Sidoarjo, close to East Java's provincial capital, Surabaya, were wounded by the shots.

About 3,000 demonstrators blocked roads and attacked officers in Bandung, in West Java province. Warning shots broke up a big protest in Waru, a factory town near Surabaya.

Police insisted the bullets used in Sidorrjo to disperse those protesting against a decree to end severance pay were made of rubber, despite the casualties. "Of course, they were rubber. The victims just got hit by stray bullets," police commissioner Sudirman said when asked if police used rubber or live ammunition.

In the nearby industrial city of Surabaya, more than 5,000 workers took to the streets, hurling rocks at police trying to block people from joining their protest. On Wednesday, police fired warning shots and tear-gas to disperse the workers.

Rioters in Bandung city on Wednesday torched dozens of cars and ransacked the local Parliament but more protests yesterday were peaceful.

Previous fuel price rises have sparked bloody demonstrations, most notably those in May 1998 that helped topple ex-dictator Suharto. Petrol in Indonesia costs 1,150 rupiah a litre. The planned increases. due to have come in at midnight, would have seen the price jump to 1,450 rupiah.

Before the delay was announced, police drafted a security plan to guard petrol stations and other fuel installations. Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the planned average increase of 30 per cent would be reviewed today by senior social and political officials. Fuel prices are a highly sensitive issue in poverty-stricken Indonesia.

[On June 16 Agence France-Presse reported that the government had announced that the 30 per cent fuel price increase would go ahead. Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Mr Burhanuddin Abdullah, said the increase would reduce subsidies earmarked for fuel from 60 trillion rupiah to 53.8 trillion rupiah annually. He added that the government would try to cushion the burden on the country's millions of poor who rely on kerosene for cooking - James Balowski.]

Police beat students following anti-Golkar demonstration

Koridor - June 12, 2001

Hundreds of protesters from the Student Action Front for Reform and Democracy (FAMRED), All-Indonesia Front (FIS), Peoples Action Committee for Victims of Violence (KARAT), and Student Union (IISIP) staged a demonstration in front of Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, this afternoon demanding the dissolution of both Golkar Party and parliament.

The students waved banners and posters and held orations airing their demands while chanting 'Dissolve Golkar and the House. Their action, however, did not cause any traffic congestion as they carried out such activity by the Merdeka Utara Street and made such orations on top of buses that took them there.

The student's spokesman Mario said their demands for Golkar's dissolution was because it had been used by Suharto's regime to rule the country for 32 years ad the parliament's dissolution as it had never worked for the people since its establishment two years ago.

However, the demonstration turned violent when hundreds of police officers chased protesters and the latter ran to Medan Merdeka Barat Street but one of them was fainted after being beaten by the police. Other protesters, who could not reach their buses, were also beaten.

Makassar students renew protest

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2001

Makassar, -- Fifty students of the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) put on a theater roadshow in Makassar on Tuesday as part of a renewal of their protest against the government's plan to raise fuel prices and electricity rates.

The drama show, including pantomimes expressing the hard life of low income people, was performed by UMI's student art workshop members in a long march from one campus to another.

The students rejected the plan because "it will surely bring suffering to the people, particularly with the subsequent general price hike," a show leader asserted.

Last week the students blocked roads to mark the start of their protest and vowed to continue blocking them until the government had canceled its plan.

But the House of Representatives has agreed the government's plans to increase fuel prices by an average of 30 percent, and electricity rates by 17.47 percent.

The government's decision to raise fuel prices prompted taxi companies to seek local legislative and executive approval of increased taxi fares. Makassar Taxi Association chairman Rahman AT said, after discussion with relevant parties, that he hoped that the rise in taxi rates would be implemented to cover the running costs of at least 1,800 cabs in the city.

Protests in Jakarta against fuel price hike plan

Reuters - June 11, 2001

Jakarta -- Around 2,500 workers rallied in front of Indonesia's presidential palace on Monday demanding the government drop plans for a 30.1 percent fuel price hike later this month. There were no reports of trouble from the protesters who shouted slogans under the watchful eyes of 200 policemen and dispersed by midday.

Raising fuel prices is a sensitive issue in poverty-stricken Indonesia and sparked riots that helped topple former President Suharto three years ago.

Indonesia's parliament reached agreement on the price hike with the government late on Friday. It is still subject to approval from the parliamentary budget commission and a final plenary hearing expected later this month.

The government raised prices by an average of 12 percent last October but aborted plans for a further 20 percent hike across the board in April, fearing it would add to social instability. Consumers are also set to bear a 20 percent increase in electricity prices later this month, placing more financial hardship on the country's millions of poor.

The government is under mounting pressure to raise heavily subsidised utility prices in order to help plug its problematic budget deficit which international lenders have warned could balloon to 6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) unless urgent measures were taken.

Fuel is the biggest component of the government's subsidies. Parliament and the government also agreed on Friday to contain fuel subsidies at 55.5 trillion rupiah ($4.96 billion) this year.

East Timor

Oil-sharing talks falter at eleventh hour

Sydney Morning Herald - June 16, 2001

Mark Dodd -- Negotiations between Australia and East Timor to conclude a new agreement on revenue sharing from the oil- and gas-rich Timor Sea have run into last-minute problems, a senior East Timorese official said yesterday.

At the end of a donors' conference in Canberra, the East Timor cabinet member for finance, Dr Mari Alkatiri, said an Australian offer of an 85/15 per cent revenue split was unacceptable and the situation had "become complex".

He said the East Timor side was holding to its demand for a 90/10 split and would hold new talks in Australia next week. There had been hopes that a deal could be finalised as early as today. Dr Alkatiri said he remained hopeful a new Timor Gap agreement would be ready by July 15.

A senior Australian official said negotiations, which had been running smoothly, had faltered over technical issues not necessarily linked to revenue sharing. "It's part of the endgame; it's not just about a revenue split. There are other issues on how you put together this agreement. It is not necessarily to do with money."

Meanwhile, Washington has urged Australia and East Timor to reach a speedy conclusion to the tortuous negotiations. "We urge the rapid conclusion of an agreement between East Timor and Australia to allow the Timor Gap resources to be developed," a United States delegate said in a statement at the Canberra conference.

Foreign investors have warned that contracts worth tens of millions of dollars are in jeopardy unless an agreement is in place by mid-July. A spokesman for the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, said the Government was optimistic that a framework agreement would be able to be reached in the next few weeks.

Donors back Timor budget

Australian Associated Press - June 15, 2001

Karen Polglaze, Canberra -- International donors today signed-off on East Timor's 2001-02 budget, the blueprint that will take the new country through elections to independence.

Twenty-nine countries and institutions wound up a two-day meeting analysing progress towards political, social and administrative rebuilding in the territory laid waste by Indonesian military and militia groups in 1999 following its vote to separate from Indonesia.

The budget, drawn up by East Timor's interim government in consultation with the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), was prudent and restrained, administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello said.

The $US65 million budget will concentrate on poverty alleviation, health, eduction and social rebuilding and was expected to be supported by the constituent assembly that will be elected on August 30.

There is a $US20 million deficit in recurrent funding that donors will support, Mr de Mello said. "Donors, as a rule, when they endorse, they also fund," he told a media conference after the Timor Donors' Meeting. "We are confident ... they will help us."

Mr de Mello said donors had shifted the focus to the medium-term outlook in this fourth meeting of the group which supplies funding for reconstruction of East Timor.

Continuing budget deficits were expected until earnings from oil and gas reserves in the Timor Gap come on line from 2004 and until private enterprise gets up and running again. The budget was seen as a cautious one, and donors urged this approach be continued in future years, Mr de Mello said.

A looming concern was the end of the UNTAET mandate in eight months. While most agree that peacekeepers will be needed beyond the as-yet unnamed day for independence, there may be less consensus on the continuing use of international civilian police and administrators.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday echoed the views of many when he called on the UN Security Council to mandate a post-independence mission for East Timor that was comprehensive and funded out of regular contributions to the world body.

Mr de Mello said today that much had been achieved in East Timor, even though it had been a colossal job. But much remained to be done, he said. "It is essential that the UN remain engaged in the development process. To walk away too soon after independence and see East Timor falter is an untenable proposition, given the resources the international community has invested to date."

The security council is expected to consider in July the future of the UN in East Timor. Norway will host the next donors' meeting in Oslo, in December.

East Timor eyes big slice of oil, gas revenue

Sydney Morning Herald - June 15, 2001

Mark Dodd -- East Timor is set to get up to 90 per cent of Timor Sea oil and gas revenue in a move Australia hopes will ensure the new nation does not become dependent on foreign aid.

The Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, said yesterday that Australia wanted to avoid mistakes made in the early years of Papua New Guinea's independence, when Australia had to prop up its Budget.

Diplomatic sources say Australia is likely to agree to an East Timor demand for a 90 per cent share of revenue, compared with the old 50:50 split with Indonesia.

East Timor's Cabinet member for economic affairs, Dr Mari Alkatiri, told the Herald he hoped an unsigned agreement on the Timor Gap could be reached by today. "It would be a good signal for the whole donor community," he said.

Mr Downer said the new Timor Gap Agreement would most likely be signed by July, with East Timor receiving substantial oil and gas income by 2004. "I hope it will be possible to endorse a framework agreement by early July that will provide the security investors need to proceed with planned investments," he told the fourth annual meeting of East Timor donors in Canberra yesterday.

Representatives from the donors -- 29 countries, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and non-governmental agencies -- are meeting to discuss East Timor's situation two months ahead of elections for its first Parliament.

Mr Downer said Australia would provide budgetary support to East Timor but would avoid squandering millions of dollars in direct financial aid as it did in the early years of PNG's independence.

"Being generous with Timor Sea revenue will be a good way of ensuring their [East Timor's] Budget becomes sustainable -- and this is a big issue." Australia is one of East Timor's biggest aid donors, having pledged a $150 million package over four years.

"We need to be generous with East Timor and help East Timor in its early years of being an independent nation," he said. "Australia has a vested interest in a successful new emerging country in our vicinity. We don't have an interest in a struggling and embattled country."

East Timor faces difficult first few years

Asia Times - June 15, 2001

Canberra -- Economic prospects for East Timor remained low in the medium term, the World Bank said ahead of a two-day meeting of donors to the emerging nation that began in Canberra on Thursday.

Donor support would be needed for many aspects of life as the former Indonesian province transforms to independence in 2002. The World Bank points out that building state institutions will take years, not months.

Civil servants are still gaining experience in new jobs in a fragile and evolving system and there is a lack of legislation in crucial areas such as land titles and property rights.

With independence approaching -- after constituent assembly elections on August 30, the development of a constitution and the holding of presidential elections -- medium-term development priorities must be examined, the World Bank said. "While the realization of oil and gas revenues mid-decade can provide relief from dependence on external financing for core budget support, East Timor will still be a very poor country in the medium term," the Bank said in a paper prepared for the donors conference. "It will require strong direction from the Timorese leadership and continued coordinated support from external partners to make progress against development goals."

The Bank also notes that oil and gas revenues are expected to be totally absorbed by recurrent budget needs. It also called on donors to ensure the funds they have already pledged are delivered ahead of independence.

Austalian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and two key negotiators for East Timor were to meet on Thursday to discuss an agreement on sharing oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. The meeting comes after two days of negotiations between officials of the two nations as the last areas of difference are resolved ahead of the proposed signing of a framework agreement in July.

East Timor interim economics minister Mari Alkatiri and United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet) political officer Peter Galbraith will talk to Downer on the framework agreement.

Last week, interim East Timorese foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said he could not allow the negotiations to fail as his country would not begin its independent life by scaring off investors. Galbraith said he was in Australia to try to conclude negotiations.

A new treaty could be signed once East Timor established its first government, probably in 2002. In the meantime, the framework agreement would enable exploitation of oil and gas in the sea. The July deadline has been demanded by prospective gasfield developer Phillips Petroleum.

After East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999, Untaet collected royalties that had previously gone to Indonesia. While oil royalties total only a few million annually, exploration suggests gas reserves are considerably larger and could net East Timor more than $A100 million ($US52.95 million) a year if exploited.

East Timor faces difficult first few years

Asia Times - June 15, 2001

Canberra -- Economic prospects for East Timor remained low in the medium term, the World Bank said ahead of a two-day meeting of donors to the emerging nation that began in Canberra on Thursday.

Donor support would be needed for many aspects of life as the former Indonesian province transforms to independence in 2002. The World Bank points out that building state institutions will take years, not months.

Civil servants are still gaining experience in new jobs in a fragile and evolving system and there is a lack of legislation in crucial areas such as land titles and property rights.

With independence approaching -- after constituent assembly elections on August 30, the development of a constitution and the holding of presidential elections -- medium-term development priorities must be examined, the World Bank said. "While the realization of oil and gas revenues mid-decade can provide relief from dependence on external financing for core budget support, East Timor will still be a very poor country in the medium term," the Bank said in a paper prepared for the donors conference. "It will require strong direction from the Timorese leadership and continued coordinated support from external partners to make progress against development goals."

The Bank also notes that oil and gas revenues are expected to be totally absorbed by recurrent budget needs. It also called on donors to ensure the funds they have already pledged are delivered ahead of independence.

Austalian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and two key negotiators for East Timor were to meet on Thursday to discuss an agreement on sharing oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. The meeting comes after two days of negotiations between officials of the two nations as the last areas of difference are resolved ahead of the proposed signing of a framework agreement in July.

East Timor interim economics minister Mari Alkatiri and United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet) political officer Peter Galbraith will talk to Downer on the framework agreement.

Last week, interim East Timorese foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said he could not allow the negotiations to fail as his country would not begin its independent life by scaring off investors. Galbraith said he was in Australia to try to conclude negotiations.

A new treaty could be signed once East Timor established its first government, probably in 2002. In the meantime, the framework agreement would enable exploitation of oil and gas in the sea. The July deadline has been demanded by prospective gasfield developer Phillips Petroleum.

After East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999, Untaet collected royalties that had previously gone to Indonesia. While oil royalties total only a few million annually, exploration suggests gas reserves are considerably larger and could net East Timor more than $A100 million ($US52.95 million) a year if exploited.

West Timor aid worker slams refugee registration process

Agence France-Presse - June 12, 2001

Washington -- A leading Timorese aid worker on Wednesday branded as a "sham" an Indonesian canvassing drive which found that 98 percent of East Timorese refugees confined to camps in West Timor did not want to go home. Winston Neil Rondo, who works in camps in Kupang, claimed in an interview with AFP that Indonesian officials and militia leaders had connived to rig the results of the two-day referendum.

"It is a complete sham" Rondo said, claiming that pro-Jakarta militias which control the camps and are keen to discredit East Timor, had intimidated refugees into voting against a return, bribed them with food and money and encouraged groups of non- refugees to enter the ballot.

"There is no democratic process, because there is no free and safe atmosphere, [no] space for refugees to make their decision," he said in an interview before meeting US officials at the State Department.

The refugees were among around 250,000 people from East Timor who fled who were forced across the West Timor border when militia violence erupted after the territory voted for independence from Indonesia in August 1999.

International observers who monitored the registration of East Timorese refugees in West Timor said last week they saw no evidence of refugees being physically intimidated to get them to stay in the west of the island.

But officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said in Geneva last week that one of the reasons why most people decided to stay was misinformation about East Timor by pro-Indonesian groups. Some monitors have also argued that refugees feared a repeat of the militia violence when East Timor holds elections in August.

A provisional result released Wednesday of the exercise showed that 98.02 percent of 113,794 East Timor refugees stranded in Indonesia wanted to remain and not return home.

Rondo, general secretary of the Centre for Internally Displaced People's Services, said the results belied evidence he collected in two years in the camps. Given a free choice, almost all of the refugees would chose to return home, he said.

Over 30 suspected militia surrender to UN peacekeepers

UN News - June 13, 2001

A security operation conducted by United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor has resulted in the surrender of 34 suspected militia members in the eastern part of the territory, the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAET) said today in Dili.

The operation, which was described by UNTAET as "highly peaceful," came after a former militia leader voluntary surrendered to the UN Civilian Police on Tuesday and later informed the peacekeepers that more returnees and former militia had returned from West Timor, Indonesia, to East Timor over the previous 48 hours.

After securing the area in and around the village of Lontama in the Bobonaro district, the UN peacekeepers asked the returnees and ex-militia to come forward and submit to security and registration processes.

Of the 34 people interviewed, six volunteered to cooperate further with the peacekeepers and civilian police in ongoing security and law and order investigations, UNTAET said. The others were released to commence the process of reconciliation with the people of their villages.

UN turns up heat on Jakarta to prosecute military for atrocities

Sydney Morning Herald - June 14, 2001

Hamish McDonald -- The United Nations is running out of patience with the Indonesian Government's move to avoid prosecuting army, police and militia suspects over atrocities in East Timor before the 1999 independence ballot.

Implicit in the UN's concern is awareness that pressure will quickly mount for the world body to set up an international war crimes tribunal for East Timor if Indonesia fails soon to show it is determined to carry out serious prosecutions.

There is a feeling in human rights circles that if a credible trial process is not initiated by the beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid, there is even less prospect if he is replaced by Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Jakarta caused international concern when Mr Wahid's long-awaited decree setting up a special tribunal for East Timor limited its jurisdiction to crimes committed after the August 30, 1999 vote -- an apparent concession to the military.

This would rule out several of the serious crimes committed by militias before the ballot, including massacres of independence supporters in Liquica and Dili in April, as well as bringing army generals to account for the overall militia campaign to intimidate East Timor's population.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, contacted the Indonesian Government recently to ask for this time limit on prosecutions in a new tribunal to be lifted, it was revealed yesterday. The head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, said he would take up the issue in talks next week with the new Attorney-General, Mr Baharudin Lopa, and was also in touch with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, about it.

Mr Vieira de Mello was speaking after an address at Sydney University yesterday about East Timor's prospects ahead of its first free elections on August 30, for a new constituent assembly.

On the question of justice for the events of 1999, he said his dealings over about 18 months with the previous Indonesian attorney-general, Mr Marzuki Darusman -- whom Mr Wahid sacked a fortnight ago -- "gave me hopes that they [the Indonesian authorities] were genuine".

Mr Darusman had assured him that a new presidential decree lifting the time limit was being drafted. The UN was now calling on Jakarta to accelerate the drafting of that decree and its promulgation.

"How much longer can we wait is open to discussion," he said. "That is a call for the Secretary-General and the Security Council to make. But I agree there will be no peace, there will be no security in the longer term, unless justice for these very serious crimes is done."

East Timor elections to go ahead despite fears of violence

Associated Press - June 12, 2001

Dili - East Timor's UN administrators Tuesday said they would push ahead with historic elections in August despite fears of unrest. UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello has signed an order for the elections for a new governing assembly to proceed on Aug. 30 as planned, said UN spokesperson Barbara Reis.

The 88-member assembly will help draft a constitution and steer the nascent nation to full independence sometime next year. Campaigning for the elections will officially start on July 15. The decision comes despite calls from some East Timorese political leaders for the poll to be postponed due to fears that fighting may break out among supporters of rival parties.

Last month, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told the Security Council in New York that the UN peacekeeping force and civilian police were gearing up for an increase in politically motivated violence ahead of the elections. He said there was a widely shared fear among the population that the ballot would lead to unrest.

Nearly 90% of East Timor's 800,000 population have already registered for the August elections.

Manipulation suspected in registration of refugees

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2001

Kupang -- Changes in the results of last week's registration of East Timorese refugees have aroused suspicion in Kupang of the possible manipulation of registration results. The refugees chose last week whether to remain in Indonesia or return to East Timor.

The team in charge of the refugee registration said here on Tuesday that the regencies registering ever-changing data included Kupang, Belu and North Central Timor, while 11 other regencies and towns had already submitted their final tallies.

Provisional records show that the number of refugees eligible for the registration rose from 107,588 to 115,983, and the number of those opting to return to East Timor also increased from 1,121 to 1,175. The number of refugees choosing to remain in Indonesia, meanwhile, dropped from 105,450 to 90,458, and the number of abstentions fell from 947 to 635. The total number of refugees in East Nusa Tenggara as of Tuesday was 53,824 families or 295,744 people, compared to 48,050 families or 268,407 people earlier.

East Nusa Tenggara provincial spokesman Kosapilawan said in Kupang on Tuesday that the changing numbers were the result of calculation errors, not manipulation. He said that to ensure accuracy, all registration cards would be sent to the provincial and central registration committees to be recounted by computer.

According to unconfirmed reports, nonrefugee residents in a number of regencies took part in the registration process to obtain government aid. Many people criticized the registration organizing committee for extending the registration, scheduled to be completed on Wednesday last week, until Friday.

The chairman of the organizing committee, Amin Rianom, said earlier that he was ready to take responsibility for the results of the registration. He said the process was based on international standards and was monitored by foreign observers.

Dili budget, not investment, to consume oil revenue: Study

Lusa - June 12, 2001

East Timor may be forced to apply its future revenues from oil and natural gas exploration in the Timor Gap to cover its operational budget, rather than in investing in the territory's development, according to a study which will be presented to an international donors conference.

"The rapid increase in recurrent expenses between now and the middle of the decade means that the majority of future revenues from oil and natural gas will likely be used to finance the state budget instead of long-term investment", says the UN administration study obtained by Lusa in Dili Tuesday.

Estimates indicate that Dili's current 65 million dollar budget could reach 100 million by mid-decade, placing enormous financial pressure on the fledgling nation which has projected revenues of only dlrs 19 million. While there are no sure estimates of East Timor's future revenues from offshore Timor Gap oil and natural gas fields, some reports have placed Dili's share at up to dlrs 100 million per year. East Timor and Australia are currently negotiating changes to the 1989 treaty between Canberra and Indonesia over the Timor Gap's resources.

"Given the high level of expenses indicated by the projections, any delay in capitalizing the oil and natural gas revenues could mean the need to undertake loans to cover budget deficits", warns the the study, which will be presented to a key donors conference taking place in Canberra Thursday and Friday.

Dili's UN chief, Sergio Vieira de Mello, told Lusa that mounting financial pressures on his UNTAET administration could require the use of "Timor Gap resources" for Dili's operational budget even during the remaining period of transition to independence. The territory is expected to gain full independence sometime next year.

"What is important", Vieira de Mello stressed, "is to find a balance, yet in the transition period, between saving for future development" and the use of some Timor Gap revenues and taxes "to cover current administrative operational expenses".

Such a "proportional balance will not be easy to find, but is indispensable", the Brazilian diplomat said. Donors in Canberra, he added, would be told East Timor would require "long-term" international financial and technical aid.

UN lauds move to dissolve CNRT resistance organization

UN News - June 11, 2001

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), has called the dissolution of the East Timor resistance umbrella organization CNRT a difficult and painful decision, but a "politically courageous, wise and timely one."

Speaking at the Dili Municipal Stadium on Saturday, when thousands of people had gathered for the official ceremony that ended the existence of the CNRT (the National Council of Timorese Resistance), Mr. Vieira de Mello said it was rare in history that a national liberation movement decided to dissolve itself and give the power to the people.

"CNRT has taught the world an important lesson," he said. "Even in the most difficult circumstances, a people that is united and organized is able to go through the most terrible times and conquer the right of self-determination."

The UNTAET chief said the UN mission would do its utmost to assist former CNRT members applying for positions within the Civil Service. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank also pledged to finance training programmes designed to help former CNRT staff pursue new careers.

CNRT was created in 1998 and formally dissolved on 7 June after a three-day extraordinary conference in Dili. The conference decided to set-up a veteran's association, which will support vulnerable groups in East Timor.

In other news, Fretilin (Frente Revolucionaria de Timor-Leste Independente) on Saturday received its official political party certificate of registration from the Independent Electoral Commission. This is the fourth party to be registered with the Commission for the purpose of presenting candidates to the elections for a Constituent Assembly on 30 August.

Fretilin's registration application was the subject of various objections based on the claim that it should not be allowed to register with the name Fretilin or with the symbol that it submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission. The Board yesterday decided that Fretilin should be registered as a political party with the name and the symbol that it submitted in its registration application.

Rebel coalition folds as Timor readies to vote

Melbourne Age - June 9, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili - Amid emotional scenes, the organisation that united ordinary East Timorese in the struggle to end Indonesian rule dissolved itself on Thursday evening.

The end of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) was accompanied by a moving declaration and an appeal for unity as East Timor prepared for the next step in its transition to independence: national elections for self-government.

At its final congress in Dili this week, the CNRT leader, the former guerrilla commander Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, praised members for their courage in deciding to dissolve the organisation. He also announced, not for the first time, that he would step down from public office to become an ordinary citizen.

Few believe he will stay an ordinary citizen for long and he remains the popular choice for president of the world's newest country.

Alongside the Falintil guerrillas, CNRT was the major player in East Timor's fight for independence. Formed in 1998, it united anti-Indonesian groups and rival political parties to forge a common front in the battle for independence, a goal now within months of attainment.

The CNRT 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 that ended 24 years of Indonesian rule. Hundreds of its supporters were hunted down in the bloodbath that followed the vote.

In a speech at the start of CNRT's final three-day conference, Mr Gusmao hailed the heroism of its members. "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 second anniversary of the independence referendum. The dissolution of CNRT will allow its members to join or form political parties that will now compete with one another.

Jorge Trindade Neves de Camoes, one of the younger generation of CNRT 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, referring to the prospect of former CNRT members in opposing camps.

"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," he said.

CNRT evolved from a earlier anti-Indonesian front, the National Council of Maubere Resistance, set up by Mr Gusmao and his colleagues in 1982 as a non-partisan front to serve the independence struggle after the near obliteration of resistance to Indonesia in the late 1970s.

As a broad political forum, CNRT had roots that tapped deep into traditional East Timorese society. This influence was invaluable in establishing the so-called Clandestine Network during the resistance struggle. Its legacy endures today, with CNRT leaders often sought as arbitrators, welfare providers and primary sources of information for remote communities.

In the absence of a properly functioning legal system at a district and village level, local CNRT leaders were and are still called on to resolve disputes. Their word is usually final. So popular and familiar is CNRT to most East Timorese that many had believed the organisation could transform itself into a single party.

With its closing declaration, CNRT's final act was a call for all parties contesting the August elections to sign a national unity pact. It appealed for the new government to make use of former members and learn from their experience in the challenge of nation building.

It also demanded that 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 died in the fight for independence and to erect a monument to their memory.

Xanana warms to election bid

The Age - June 9, 2001

Mark Forbes, Canberra -- Jose "Xanana" Gusmao will become East Timor's first president next year despite his pledge not to nominate, according to fellow independence campaigner Jose Ramos Horta.

Mr Ramos Horta, the Nobel peace laureate and East Timor's de facto foreign minister, said he had detected a change in Mr Gusmao's thinking in the past month and was confident he would contest the presidential post. Mr Gusmao resigned as head of the transitional government in April, pledged not to run for president and nominated Mr Ramos Horta for the role.

In Australia for talks with the Federal Government this week, Mr Ramos Horta also told The Age that an Indonesia led by Megawati Sukarnoputri would normalise relations with an independent East Timor, despite fears to the contrary.

The East Timorese were viewing August's elections for a constituent assembly with a mixture of excitement and anxiety, fearful of further chaos after the bloodshed that followed their independence vote 18 months ago, Mr Ramos Horta said.

"We are well on the road to a government, constitution, head of state and the people are proud about that," he said. "They want to see enshrined in the constitution fundamental guarantees -- of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, of private property ... people are tired of violence."

"The single most important issue for them is who is going to be the president. And there is only one person they all, with unanimity, want. That is Xanana Gusmao. For them, independence, freedom, is associated with Gusmao, so a lot of people are worried he says he is not running for president - many say if he is not running, they will not bother voting. But I believe he will run," he said.

Mr Ramos Horta said he detected a shift in Mr Gusmao's thinking a month ago, when Mr Gusmao indicated he was amenable to considering running. Mr Ramos Horta did not rule out his own candidacy, but said it would "be the saddest day in my life if I have to run for president. In any case it is an unlikely possibility, so I am not worried about it."

The prospect that troubles many East Timorese -- Mrs Megawati's likely ascension to the Indonesian presidency -- would not present a threat to East Timor, despite her fervent nationalism and links to the military, Mr Ramos Horta said. "I have good feedback from those who have spoken to her on my behalf ... that she accepts the reality of an independent East Timor and will normalise relations," he said.

"If and when she becomes president, she will have to come to terms with the monumental task and challenges around her in regard to internal Indonesian problems, from Ambon to Aceh to West Papua to Kalimantan. "She has to face up to the World Bank and IMF, she has to create jobs for three million new workers who every year enter the workforce. If she has time to seek to antagonise East Timor she is really a herculean person," Mr Ramos Horta said.

Mrs Megawati would recognise that it is in Indonesia's national interest to normalise relations and the international community would judge her to a large extent on how she pursued justice for the victims of violence in East Timor, Mr Ramos Horta said. He said that her administration should persecute the military responsible for crimes in East Timor and disarm the militias.

Labour struggle

Bid to calm violent protests

Straits Times - June 16, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government yesterday temporarily revoked a controversial labour decree which cuts long-service payments, in a bid to calm violent street protests carried out by angry workers over the last three days.

The decision to "delay the implementation of the decree" was made yesterday evening in an emergency meeting between Chief Security Minister Agum Gumelar and Manpower Minister Al Hilal Hamdi with labour union leaders, representatives of the Indonesian Chambers of Trade and Industry, and the Indonesian Association of Employers.

The decree which was issued this year cuts severance pay for workers who are dismissed for incompetence, resign or retire early. It went into effect following complaints from employers on the excessive cost incurred by long-service payments. It has not yet been decided when or whether the decree would be imposed again.

Chairman of the Federation of Indonesian Workers Union Jumhur Hidayat said a team comprising representatives of manufacturers, workers and the government would be formed within a month to further discuss the contentious labour issues. "The team will work on new arrangements on the labour issues," he said after the meeting. In Gresik, East Java, yesterday, protesting workers clashed with police as they tried to enter the capital city of Surabaya. Police blocked the streets and fired tear gas to break up the protesters.

Dozens of people have suffered injuries in clashes with police during street demonstrations in East Java towns in the last two days.

In Bandung, West Java, police said they had arrested 98 people for allegedly provoking the acts of destruction on Wednesday, when protesters burned scores of cars and motorcycles and vandalised the local legislature building.

The violence in the last three days has raised questions over who might be behind the demonstrations. Mr Agum said the labour protests were politically motivated.

Quoting an opinion poll, which he did not identify, he said: "The people are of the view that the actions are political." Labour Union leader Mochtar Pakpahan backed his statement, saying workers were not behind Wednesday's riots in Bandung.

"In the current situation, it is normal if workers are angry and emotional, but the rioters in Bandung were not workers. They were not just demanding the lifting of the decree," he said.

The violence has crippled businesses and manufacturers at the affected areas. Head of the Textile Producers' Association in West Java Lili Asjudiredja said the textile manufacturers in Bandung estimated that they had suffered 40 billion rupiah in losses.

Protesters-police new clash flares up in Bandung

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2001

Bandung -- A new clash between police and protesting workers erupted here on Thursday, injuring at least nine people and damaging dozens of stores, buildings, two hotels and many vehicles.

The accident began when some 10,000 workers returned to the provincial legislature around noon, demanding that ministerial decree No. 78/2001 on labor issues be revoked. The decree annulled old decree No. 150/2000, which said that a company was obliged to provide severance pay for resigning or dismissed workers.

Those protesting on Thursday came from industrial areas around Bandung -- South Bandung, Cimahi and Leuwigajah, as well as Garut and Sukabumi. An employee of state-owned toll road operator PT Jasa Marga, Jeje, said that the toll road from Pasteur to Baros, some six kilometers in length, was closed between 9.30am and 11.40am due to the rally. "Some 8,000 laborers from Leuwigajah marched along the toll road. To anticipate this, we closed the road," Jeje told The Jakarta Post.

The laborers then gathered in front of the legislature building, better known as Gedung Sate, on Jl. Diponegoro, where a security cordon comprising five lines of police and mobile brigade troops stood.

During a speech, an employee of the provincial administration distributed copies of Governor R. Nuriana's decree, which said that the province would be maintaining the old prolabor decree. But the workers did not believe the governor's policy and started to rip up the pamphlets, shouting, "Liar, Liar!", even though two councillors talked to them and tried to convince them.

The crowd then started to hurl stones, pieces of wood and plastic bottles, forcing the police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets. At least nine people were injured, mostly in the head. In the two days of clashes since Wednesday, police have arrested 20 people.

The crowd dispersed at around 4pm, but they damaged almost every object they found along their way. They threw stones at Hotel Savoy Homann and Hotel Preanger on Jl. Asia Afrika. Dozens of other buildings, such as the BRI tower and BII building were attacked too.

In relation to the violence, West Java Deputy Police chief Brig. Gen. Dedy Sutardi claimed that the protest had been organized by provocateurs. "We're pretty sure that the protest wasn't staged by laborers, as they would never use violence. The demonstrators were familiar 'old players' whom we have often seen at demonstrations here," he said.

The proof was, he added, the fact that over 20 protesters arrested on Thursday were not laborers, but students, street singers and homeless people. A suspect admitted to have received Rp 100,000 (US$9.09) to participate in the protests since Wednesday. But he refused to reveal his donor, even though police tried to force him to do so.

Separately on Thursday, chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association, Lili Asdjudiredja said that 24 major textile companies in Bandung would be closed until further notice. "We will re-open when the situation is safe," he told the Post over the telephone from Singapore, adding that the companies suffered some Rp 25 billion (US$2.3 million) in material losses, due to the two days of demonstrations.

In Jakarta, the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) dismissed the workers' protest, saying that their demands were groundless. Djimanto, acting secretary-general of Apindo, stated that Apindo had opposed the 2000 ministerial decree because it was unfair and irrational.

"We, along with several labor unions, have conducted a survey of many countries, including Japan, South Korea and the United States and none has such irrational rules," he said at a media conference here on Thursday.

Anton J. Supit, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear Industries Association (Apresindo), revealed that not only local businesspeople but also foreign investors had expressed their objection to the 2000 decree.

Massive protests against labour decree rock Indonesia

Agence France-Presse - June 14, 2001

Jakarta -- Thousands of Indonesian workers yesterday held massive rallies in several cities, including the capital, to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labour decree cutting long-service payments.

Police fired rubber bullets in the city of Sidoarjo in East Java to disperse thousands of workers trying to break through a barricade set up to prevent them from marching on the provincial capital of Surabaya. One protester was seriously wounded and had to undergo surgery to remove a rubber bullet, state Antara news agency said.

In Jakarta, more than 4,000 workers from at least 30 unions in the city and its outskirts protested in front of the presidential palace. "The ministerial decree only benefits employers," said Mr Mustopa, a worker from the city of Serang in West Java.

The protesters demanded that the decree be revoked and that Manpower Minister Al Hilal Hamdi resign or be ousted. Under the new decree, issued by the Manpower Minister earlier this year, workers dismissed for incompetence or taking early retirement would lose long-service payments. Only those who were made redundant would receive service and merit pay as well as severance payments.

Similar protests were carried out in Bandung, Surabaya and Lubuk Pakam.

Government rejects workers' demands on ministerial decrees

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2001

Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid turned down on Tuesday the demands of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) to nullify two controversial ministerial decrees on labor issues but agreed to give some concessions to protect workers rights.

Citing investors concerns, the President told the Union leaders, that he was fully supportive of the two decisions of the Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Al-Hilal Hamdi which negated employers' obligations to pay severance and service payment to resigning and retiring workers.

The Union chairman Hikayat Atika Karwa quoted the President as saying that the government would not bow to the workers' demands to revoke the minister's Decrees No. 78 and No. 111, issued this year, for the sake of maintaining a conducive investment climate in the country.

The President said the two decrees had to be issued to replace previous ministerial Decree No. 150 following complaints from investors, which the President described as counterproductive to attracting private investment.

However the President also allowed provinces which had implemented the Decree No. 150 to continue the policy if it was deemed necessary. "In principle the government still sticks to the two decrees and refuses to revert to Decree No. 150," said Hikayat after the meeting.

The source of the dispute derives from the decree No. 150, which was issued by then minister of manpower Bomer Pasaribu in June last year. The decree obliged employers to pay a severance compensation and a merit or service payment to the sacked employees. According to the decree the employees are entitled to receive 100 percent of their gross monthly wage for each year they have worked at the company. Those who have worked over five years will receive 600 percent of their wages.

The workers also have the right to receive service payment, which totals 200 percent of their gross monthly salary for those who have worked up to six years. Meanwhile retiring workers are entitled to a service allowance in line with their working period.

Bomer's successor, Al-Hilal annulled the decree following pressure from investors. In his Decree No. 78, issued in April, the amount of the severance payment is smaller and there is no obligation for companies to give service payment to resigning workers. Decree No. 111, stipulates that companies are required to obey their collective labor agreement if the amount of compensation is bigger than regulated in the decree.

Demo

While Hikayat was meeting with the President, thousands of workers of the industrial town of Sidoarjo, adjacent to the East Java capital of Surabaya, took to the streets again on Tuesday demanding that Decree No. 78 be revoked and the reinstatement of Decree No. 150. They staged a similar protest on Monday.

The workers were from various organizations, including All Indonesian Workers Solidarity Party (FSPSI) and the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI) and Indonesian Workers Front of Struggle (FNPBI).

Several incidents spiced the street demonstration. The protesters threw stones at company buildings when encouraging the companies' workers to join them. A minibus belonging to PT Trias Sentosa was ransacked and the fence of PT Panggung Elektronik was destroyed, forcing the security officers to alert demonstrators by firing warning shots.

Comr. Soedirman, chief of Surabaya Taman Police, which oversees, among others, Sidoarjo said that some 500 personnel were deployed to anticipate possible rioting. "We blocked the Waru traffic circle to prevent protesters from entering Surabaya, and we succeeded."

Massive workers' rallies against labor decree rock cities

Agence France-Presse - June 13, 2001

Jakarta -- Thousands of Indonesian workers held massive rallies in several cities on Wednesday to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labor decree cutting long-service payments.

More than 1,000 workers from at least 30 labor organizations in the capital Jakarta and its outskirts demonstrated in front of the vice presidential palace facing central Jakarta's Monas square.

The protestors carried posters and banners demanding the revocation of the decree issued by the minister of manpower earlier this year and demanding that the minister, Al Hilal Hamdi, resign or be ousted.

"We are the life and blood of the nation, do not betray us," one of the posters said. Some of the demonstrators chanted "revoke, revoke," and "down with Al Hilal Hamdi."

Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri was not at her office when the rally took place. Some 200 policemen guarded her office and the road in front of the palace was closed to traffic.

Some 1,000 other workers demonstrated in front of the manpower office, causing an immense traffic jam on the main artery passing the ministry.

In Bandung, the capital of West Java province, at least 3,000 workers demonstrated for a third straight day to demand the revokation of the decree. They protested in front of the local parliament.

In Sidoarjo, an industrial town near the East Java capital of Surabaya, police fired warning shots to disperse thousands of workers attempting to break through a security barricade set up to prevent their advance into Surabaya, the Detikcom online news service said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Thousands of other workers were already rallying in front of the East Java provincial parliament in Surabaya, Detikcom said. At least 1,000 workers conducted a similar rally in Lubuk Pakam near the North Sumatra capital of Medan, Satunet said.

Officials have said that the new decree, a revision of a previous one issued last year, was aimed at cutting long-service payments. The protestors said the new decree was a step back as it favored employers and put workers at a disadvantage.

The decree followed complaints from employers and is aimed at accommodating investors' complaints about excessive costs incurred under last year's decree, Hamdi said last month. Under the new decree workers dismissed for incompetence or taking early retirement would lose long-service payments. Only employees who were made redundant would receive service and merit pay as well as severance payments.

The old decree was issued last year by then-manpower minister Bomer Pasaribu, to replace one issued in 1996. It was designed to prevent mass dismissals following the Asian economic crisis.

Aceh/West Papua

Aceh peace talks tipped to resume next month

Reuters - June 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Indonesian officials and rebel leaders from Aceh province will resume peace talks in Geneva next month in yet another bid to resolve a bloody separatist conflict that has raged for decades, local media reported on Saturday.

The two sides last met in Geneva four months ago when they agreed to extend indefinitely a ceasefire which has virtually been ignored. The ceasefire was first agreed to in June last year.

"The peace dialogue will be attended by [chief security] Minister Agum Gumelar," the leading Jakarta Post quoted Defence Minister Mahfud M.D as saying. The report said the peace talks were set for July 2 and 3.

The planned talks come amid renewed violence in the staunchly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra island where 60 people were killed in the past week. In the latest clash, police said rebel gunmen opened fire at a wedding killing a policeman on Thursday and in another incident a family of three was slaughtered in their home. These incidents also come at a time when the government says it has improved the security situation in the province.

Thousands have been killed in clashes between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels and security forces in recent years in fighting that has forced many villagers to flee their homes.

Mahfud told reporters on Friday security measures introduced in April to quell the GAM rebels had reached a "clear point". "It seems that GAM has weakened and all of the government facilities [in Aceh] which had been disabled have restored operations," Mahfud said.

On Thursday, a report by an independent think-thank criticised the government's new policy in Aceh and said it must cut back military operations there in order to find a peaceful solution to the growing separatist tensions.

The report by the International Crisis Group said President Abdurrahman Wahid's April plan to put down the rebels relied too heavily on the use of force and risked emboldening the separatists in their cause.

The conflict has also taken its toll on the country's battered economy. Exxon Mobil closed three gas fields in the province in March following dozens of security incidents over the past two years. Exxon Mobil Indonesia -- a unit of the world's top energy company Exxon Mobil Corp -- is the country's second largest producer of liquefied natural gas and a vital cog in the Indonesia's oil and gas-reliant economy.

Resentment against Jakarta runs deep in Aceh after two decades of often savage military operations and what locals see as the plundering of their wealth.

GAM bases raided, 12 found dead

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2001

Banda Aceh -- Indonesian military (TNI) troops claimed to have raided two main bases of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebel group in the village of Jiemjiem, Bandar Baru district, Pidie regency on Wednesday.

The village was believed to be the hideout of GAM commander Teungku Abdullah Syafiie, the place from which he led military resistance against Jakarta. Local military spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus said on Thursday that the troops seized GAM military supplies in the raid but failed to locate GAM forces.

Meanwhile, at least 12 people were found dead in various locations in East Aceh, Central Aceh and Pidie, according to humanitarian activists and GAM.

Rights activist Zulkarnaini said that men's bodies were found over the last 10 days floating in the nearby river. "We identified six of them as residents of Idi Rayeuk, who went missing following a joint police and military raid last week," Zulkarnaini said.

Spokesman for the GAM in Central Aceh Wien Rimbe Raya accused the local military-trained militia members of killing two civilians and burning 59 houses there. Police spokesman Comr. Sudharsono strongly denied the charges, saying such a militia did not exist.

Five Brimob officers killed in Manokwari

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2001

Jayapura -- Five on-duty officers of the Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade were killed in a pre-dawn attack by an unidentified group of people in the village of Wondiwoi, located in the Wasiur district of Manokwari regency, on Wednesday.

Irian Jaya Police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika confirmed the accident, condemning the inhumane attack. "It was an uncivilized action, and we vow to pursue the attackers," Pastika said, adding that the armed attackers also seized firearms from the officers.

The attack took place at 2:30 a.m. local time. Adj. Comr. Zulkifli AR, head of the provincial police information office, said that the five slain officers were First Brig. Ibrahim, First Brig. L. Pakpahan, First Brig. Baspur, Second Brig. Firmansyah H, and Second Brig. Taufik Hidayat. "All died from gunshot wounds."

"A local was also shot dead in the attack, but he has yet to be identified," said Zulkifli. Both Pastika and Zulkifli said they had yet to identify the guns used by the assailants, whom they identified as members of a separatist group.

Wondiwoi village is in a coastal area. It takes a day and a night to reach it by sea from Jayapura. Zulkifli said that the police had increased the deployment of personnel in Manokwari, in order to pursue the attackers.

Aceh rebels gun down 16 migrant settlers

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2001

Banda Aceh - Police claimed on Monday that at least 16 people had been killed in guerrilla attacks on transmigration sites in Central Aceh since Sunday. Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sad Harunantyo said the Javanese migrant settlers were killed when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels on Sunday and early Monday attacked Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages.

The first attack occurred in Kresek village late on Sunday, resulting in the death of seven people, while the second at Lindung Bulan took place in the small hours of Monday. "The casualties, 16 killed and 12 wounded, were all shot by GAM separatists. They were all migrant settlers from Java," Harunantyo said. Head of Takengon General Hospital Sutrima confirmed the deaths and said their bodies were being given autopsies.

Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages are located some 30 kilometers northeast of Takengon, the capital city of Central Aceh regency. But a spokesman for the rebel group in Central Aceh, Wien Rimbe Raya, denied the claims, saying the 16 Javanese settlers were members of a militia group trained by the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"They [the settlers] were killed in a clash in Buntul Kemumu village when GAM tried to take back the village from TNI occupation," he said. In turn, relatives of the 16 dead flatly denied that their deceased relatives were members of any militia. "We are not militia. We do conduct exercises and arm ourselves, but this is just for self-protection," Subiman Taufik, a family member, said.

Subiman said the migrants, grouped in pujakesuma, had settled in the transmigration location for more than three decades. "We have lived here for 30-years and mingled with the local Gayo people but still we have to protect ourselves from the armed rebel groups that often extort money from us," he told local reporters at the hospital in Takengon.

Violence has mounted since the government issued a new security arrangement to rid Aceh of separatist rebels, who have been fighting for independence since the mid-1970s. The crackdown followed a year of inconclusive talks in Geneva and shaky ceasefires between Jakarta and GAM, which failed to stem bloodshed that has left hundreds dead this year alone.

Elite power struggle

Wahid-ordered graft probes target enemies

South China Morning Post - June 14, 2001

Agencies in Jakarta -- In a new attempt to stay in power, President Abdurrahman Wahid has authorised prosecutors to launch corruption investigations against three ardent critics, officials at the Attorney-General's Office said yesterday.

In a letter dated Tuesday, Mr Wahid granted permission for investigators to question parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who heads the Golkar party, and two other hostile legislators, an official at the office said. Mr Wahid appointed a new Attorney- General on June 1 and ordered him to crack down on graft.

Lawyers for the targeted lawmakers accused Mr Wahid of using the probes as a political weapon ahead of impeachment proceedings planned for August that could remove him from office. "This is clearly a political move," said lawyer Muhammad Assegaf.

Meanwhile, a separate attempt by Mr Wahid to rebuild some political support seems to have failed with opponents unimpressed by a cabinet reshuffle. Reports said Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, his main rival, laughed when told of the changes. She failed yesterday to host her customary weekly informal breakfast meeting with Mr Wahid and other top officials at her residence for the second consecutive week. Mr Wahid appointed a new ministerial economics team on Tuesday. It was the second major cabinet change in 11 days.

"Ms Megawati just laughed when we asked for her comment on the latest cabinet reshuffle," Soetjipto, the secretary-general of her party, was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post. He said Ms Megawati had not been consulted about the changes.

Mr Wahid needs her backing to survive impeachment. She has spurned his repeated offers to give her most of his executive powers in exchange for a guarantee that lawmakers will drop their impeachment drive.

The Speaker of the country's top legislature, Amien Rais, said it was almost certain Mr Wahid would be impeached. "Only an eruption of Krakatoa can stop the special session," he said. Krakatoa is a 1,790-metre-high volcano which erupted in 1883, killing 36,000 people.

A senior lawmaker in Ms Megawati's party, Jacob Tobing, said the changes would not help Mr Wahid survive impeachment proceedings for alleged corruption and incompetence. "This reshuffle means nothing. His presidency is finished," he said.

Burhanuddin Abdullah, a deputy governor of the central bank and former Indonesian representative to the International Monetary Fund, replaced Rizal Ramli as Senior Economics Minister. Mr Rizal, a critic of the Fund, was demoted to the post of Finance Minister and replaced incumbent Prijadi Praptosuhardjo, who was dropped from the cabinet. The new ministers were to be sworn in yesterday. Aides said Ms Megawati would not attend the ceremony.

Newspaper editorials said the changes would not help repair relations with Ms Megawati and hostile lawmakers. "With the President almost certain to be impeached in less than two months, anything is possible now, even the irrational, illogical or simply irrelevant, like some of the recent changes in the cabinet," the Jakarta Post wrote.

Wahid replaces economics team

Associated Press - June 12, 2001

Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid changed his economics team Tuesday in a bid to rebuild his support ahead of impeachment proceedings and to smooth relations with disgruntled foreign lenders. It was the second major change to his troubled Cabinet in 11 days.

In a prepared statement read by an aide on behalf of the nearly blind president, Wahid said Burhanuddin Abdullah, a deputy governor of the central bank and former Indonesian representative to the International Monetary Fund, had replaced Rizal Ramli as senior economics minister. Rizal, a longtime critic of the IMF, was demoted to finance minister and replaced incumbent Prijadi Praptosuhardjo, who was dropped from the Cabinet.

Wahid also appointed a new state apparatus minister, Anwar Suprijadi, who will be in charge of much of the government's administrative functions. Praptosuhardjo, a friend of Wahid's, was appointed only last August and has been accused of failing to implement basic economic policies. "Increasing the efficiency of the government is the main reason for the reshuffle," Wahid told a news conference.

Yahya Staquf, a Wahid spokesman, said the president hoped Burhanuddin would improve ties with the IMF, which is delaying the disbursement of $400 million in loans in a dispute over the pace of economic reform.

The Cabinet changes come as Wahid battles to maintain his hold on power ahead of a special session of Indonesia's national assembly that has summoned him to appear at an August 1 impeachment hearing. Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab said changes would help ease tensions with his political opponents.

Opponents appeared unimpressed. "There is no need to reshuffle the Cabinet because it will not help," said Parliament's Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who added that impeachment proceedings will go ahead as planned.

On June 1, Wahid fired four ministers as well as the national police chief. The changes were designed to win back crucial support from Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Wahid's main rival. Her party is the largest in Parliament and has led the charge for his ouster.

Wahid shifts ministers but Mega's party won't stop impeachment

Sydney Morning Herald - June 13, 2001 (abridged)

President Abdurrahman Wahid, fighting for his political life, named the deputy governor of the central bank, Mr Burhanuddin Abdullah, as the new chief economics minister yesterday.

In a reshuffle aimed at placating his estranged deputy and political parties out to dump him, Mr Wahid appointed the outgoing chief economics minister, Mr Rizal Ramli, as his new finance minister. Mr Ramli replaces Mr Prijadi Praptosuhardjo.

However, the party of Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri said yesterday that the Cabinet reshuffle would not prevent an impeachment hearing against Mr Wahid.

Mr Wahid said in a nationally televised statement: "The reason of the changes is to increase the efficiency [and] in order to possibly meet [economic] targets."

Mr Ramli said the new team would focus on speeding up the sale of assets held by the country's bank restructuring agency and boosting economic restructuring. He also played down concerns that his new position would hurt ties with the International Monetary Fund, with which he has clashed over the country's reform efforts.

However, economists said the moves would be a waste of time. "A team that will be in place for two months -- what difference does it make?" one Western economist said.

However, members of Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) made it clear the reshuffle would not work. "PDI-P has a clear stance," the deputy party chairman, Mr Roy Janis, said. "If the reshuffle is aimed at halting the special [impeachment] session, then that's impossible ... The special session must still go on."

Wahid challenges military to use force against him

Reuters - June 11, 2001

G. K. Goh, Jakarta -- Embattled Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has stepped up his defiance saying he will not resign and challenged the military and police to try and use force to oust him, media reported on Monday.

Wahid, trying desperately to stave off likely impeachment in August, said he would not step down even if the armed forces turned their guns on the presidential palace, underscoring the prickly relations between the Muslim cleric and the military. "They can point their guns and shoot at the palace ... what I'm doing is maintaining the unity of the state and I will not hesitate to deal with violators of the constitution," the Jakarta Post daily quoted him as saying.

Wahid compared himself to Indonesia's founding President Sukarno -- ousted in the mid-1960s following a coup attempt blamed on the now banned Indonesian Communist Party -- who he said faced the same adversity. "At that time he [Sukarno] talked to the TNI [military] and said: 'Go ahead, you can shoot me because I have been chosen by the people'," Wahid said.

Wahid is growing increasingly isolated in his scramble to hold on to power and has driven a wedge between himself and the military in the process. Earlier this month he sacked the national police chief General Bimantoro. His rejection of the presidential order to step aside has won widespread support from senior police and major factions in parliament. He also sacked widely respected chief security minister and former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Rumours also surfaced last week, which were denied, that Wahid would sack armed forces commander Admiral Widodo as part of his attempts to cling to power.

Wahid's threat to declare a state of emergency if legislators persist in the impeachment effort has drawn fire from the armed forces. A state of emergency would allow the president to dissolve parliament and call snap elections.

Indonesia's supreme legislature, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), will consider impeaching Wahid on August 1 over two graft scandals and his chaotic 19-month rule. It has the power to dismiss Wahid, whom it elected president for a five-year term in October 1999. MPR speaker Amien Rais over the weekend said the assembly would press ahead with the impeachment hearing in August even if Wahid defied a requirement to attend.

Government/politics

State officials reluctant to disclose wealth

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2001

Jakarta -- Many state officials have demonstrated their unwillingness to disclose their wealth and assets as only 13 percent of the total forms distributed by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) have been returned.

The head of KPKPN's judicial division Chairul Imam said on Wednesday that a total of 24,999 forms have been distributed since March. But only 3,126 forms have been returned. "We gave the National Police headquarters 150 forms on March 23. But so far we have received less than 50 completed forms. The National Police chief has not returned it, neither the newly installed one nor the old chief," he told a media conference here on Wednesday.

All the officials should have returned their wealth audit forms one month after it was received by them. The ironic thing, he said, is that very few officials at the Attorney General's Office have returned the forms, while they are supposed to be the on the vanguard in combating corruption. "We distributed a total of 157 forms on April 19. But up until now, over three months later, not even 20 forms have been returned," Chairul said.

Former attorney general Marzuki Darusman has yet to declare his wealth to the commission. "Many failed to give any reason why they haven't submitted it. There are also officials who said that they haven't got documents to substantiate their wealth," Chairul said. He said beginning next month, his office are going to start verifying all the reports.

Among the officials whose wealth was declared on Wednesday was Arifin Panigoro, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle at the House of Representatives, whose assets are worth Rp 245.4 billion and US$2,299,222. According to the report, he has no debt.

Separately on Wednesday, Government Watch (Gowa) coordinator Farid R. Faqih criticized the form submitted by KPKPN as incomplete as it, for instance, does not state the period of time the officials occupied their positions. "The commission should also set a limitation on grants, as grants and bribes sometimes cannot be differentiated," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone. KPKPN, he added, should also coordinate with the taxation department and non-governmental organizations in the verification of assets. He also suspected that many officials were not honest in filling out the forms.

The head of the commission, Yusuf Syakir stated in March that according to Law No. 28/1999 on clean government, all state officials should declare their wealth, otherwise administrative sanctions could be taken against them. The maximum administrative sanction is dismissal. But the commission has limitations as no one could fire a legislator, he said.

Regional/communal conflicts

76 detained in bloody brawl in West Java's Cirebon

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2001

Jakarta -- Police Wednesday detained 76 people following a three-day bloody communal clash in Cirebon regency, West Java, in which four people were killed and dozens were wounded. Police also confiscated hundreds of sharp weapons, Molotov cocktails, arrows and hand grenades from feuding villagers, Antara reported Wednesday.

The brawl involved residents of seven villages in two districts, Gegesik and Arjawinangun districts. Most of those arrested are residents of Gegesik and Bayalangu villages.

The brawl reached its climax on Tuesday when four people were killed. Sarta, 65, and an unidentified man from Gegesik village, died a violent death during the brawl, their bodies cut to pieces. The other two fatalities, Yayan, 20, and Rokisa, 25, both residents of Bayalangu village, burned to death after attackers set fire on their houses. The brawl has also caused hundreds of millions of rupiah in financial losses, police said.

Eight killed in clashes in Ambon

Agence France-Presse - June 13, 2001

Jakarta -- Eight people were killed, and 12 others wounded in armed attacks on a Christian neighbourhood and a passenger boat in the strife-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon yesterday.

Five men were killed in an early morning attack on the Wisma Gonzalo neighbourhood in Ambon by men clad in black and carrying standard army-issue firearms, the state Antara news agency said. Five other people were injured in the pre-dawn attack. Later in the day, snipers shot at two boats crossing Ambon bay, killing three people and wounding seven, including a soldier escorting the boat.

Mr J. Wattimuri, the director of the Bakti Rahayu hospital in Ambon, told AFP that one of the bodies from the Gonzalo area had been brought to the hospital with slash wounds and a bullet through the chest.

He said that according to people who brought the victim to the hospital, two other people were also killed in the early morning violence. Antara said the bodies of these two men were found hours later near one of the four houses burned in the attack.

Human rights/law

Military tribunal to try Trisakti case

Jakarta Post - June 16, 2001

Jakarta -- Eleven military personnel will be tried in a military tribunal on Monday for their alleged role in the shooting of Trisakti students, a military spokesman revealed on Thursday.

"It is not true that the case was frozen or there has been no improvement in the handling of the case," Rear Marshall Graito Usodo was quoted as saying by Antara. He did not identify the defendants.

He said that accounts of 35 witnesses would be heard in the trial. Documents of the Semanggi II shooting case would be filed with the military court on June 28, he said. "The trial of these cases is proof of the military and police's commitment to prosecute in accordance with the law anyone who violates the law," Graito said.

Four students were killed in the Trisakti incident in May 1998 during a mass rally that led to the resignation of former president Soeharto.

Two police officers were sentenced by the military tribunal on August 12, 1998 to 10 months and 4 months in jail respectively for ordering police to shoot at the crowd.

The Semanggi II incident took place in September 1999 where students clashed with the security officers in the wake of protests over a security bill. Five people were killed.

News & issues

50,000 civilians to help secure special session

Jakarta Post - June 15, 2001

Jakarta -- The city administration announced on Thursday its plan to recruit some 50,000 civilians to help safeguard the city during the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), scheduled to begin on August 1.

Speaking after the City's Collective Leadership Meeting at City Hall, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said the civilian force would consist of local residents, including Pendekar Betawi (martial arts experts indigenous to Jakarta).

Sutiyoso, who was a former Jakarta Military commander, said the residents would be backed up by 25,000 military and police officers officially assigned to secure the special session.

He said police have promised to deploy 40,000 officers if the situation worsens, with the number extending to 100,000 in the event of a crisis situation.

"So I hope Jakarta residents will not worry about security and continue their daily activities as normal. Let the security be handled by the police and the administration," he added. Sutiyoso also guaranteed the security of foreigners in the city, hoping that they would not leave because of the special session.

Most of the civilian security force will comprise of jobless people and hoodlums, locally known as preman. The city administration categorizes those people as potmas, or potensi masyarakat, which literally means the community's potential.

The city's five mayoralties have currently assigned hundreds of citizens to help public order offices. Wearing official uniforms and armed with sharp weapons, they recently conducted a campaign against street vendors and buskers.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Sofjan Yacob, who attended the meeting, said the police have also assigned 100 sharpshooters, members of the National Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob), to safeguard the city prior to the special session.

"The sharpshooters are deployed in 17 key locations throughout the city, including shopping areas in Glodok, West Jakarta, and Pasar Baru in Central Jakarta. They commenced their duty as of yesterday until August 1," Sofjan told reporters.

He said the sharpshooters, who ride motorcycles, are also equipped with small fire extinguishers to extinguish fires lit by rioters. "The sharpshooters are able to ride their motorcycles up stairs to the third floor of a shopping center when chasing rioters," Sofjan claimed.

Asked about the possibility of having an expedited special session, Sutiyoso admitted that he, personally, supported the possibility. "The sooner, the better. I don't want to suffer too long," he said.

He said that waiting for the special session was like a test of spirit, saying it would not be healthy to conduct such a stressful test over a long period of time. However, he insisted that this should no be viewed as a supporter or opponent of President Abdurrahman Wahid. "We shall follow the Constitution," he added. It is almost inevitable that the President will be impeached during the special session.

Forget Tommy, get the foreigners and PRD

Laksamana Net - June 11, 2001

The decision by Indonesian police to detain local and foreign participants at a human rights and labor rights seminar on the outskirts of Jakarta has further tarnished the nations international image. Last Fridays raid was seen as a return to the tactics of ex-president Suhartos regime, which routinely used police and thugs-for-hire groups to repress pro-democracy activities. But this time around, the order to break up a peaceful seminar did not come from the government.

Indonesias notoriously corrupt (and lowly paid) police have often failed to uphold the law. They have been unable or unwilling to unmask or arrest the perpetrators behind the 1998-99 killings of student activists. A string of high-profile cases from the 1990s, such as the murders of labor rights activist Marsinah and outspoken journalist Udin, have never been solved, presumably due to the alleged involvement of powerful politicians and the military. Most embarrassingly, police have been unable to capture Suhartos youngest son, Hutomo Tommy Mandala Putra, who should be serving a jail sentence for corruption.

Despite their shortcomings, police are capable of regularly detaining civilians and extorting money from them for the offense of not being able to produce an identity card. Foreigners pulled over represent an even greater catch for police, as larger sums of money can generally be extorted from them if they do not have their documents. As for visa violations, the are also usually taken care of by paying a bribe.

But police were not looking to extort money from the 32 foreigners and 8 Indonesians who were detained on Friday (June 8, 2001). The detainees had been among 120 people attending the Asia-Pacific Labor Solidarity Conference at the Sawangan Golf Inn in Depok, West Java. The event, subtitled The People's Struggle Against Neoliberalism and Militarism in Asia-Pacific, was organized by Indonesian pro-democracy groups, some affiliated to the left-wing Peoples Democratic Party

(PRD). In the final years of the Suharto regime, PRD was one of the governments favorite scapegoats for riots that were believed to have been engineered by elements of the military. PRD leaders were arrested, jailed for subversion and the party was banned. Although it is now legitimate and participated in the June 1999 general election (with poor results), PRD is still often referred to as communist in propaganda that has not changed since the days of president Suharto. The only difference now is that the government of reformist President Abdurrahman Wahid is not slurring the PRD. Instead, the party is being targeted by certain groups and elements of the elite that want to see an end to genuine political reform and an end to Wahids government. The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which has informal links to generals opposed to Wahid, has been claiming PRD is responsible for a resurgence of communism in Indonesia and threatens that members of the party deserve to be beheaded. Other groups containing alleged thugs (preman) with connections to Suharto cronies have also been attacking the party. Some police officials and Golkar Party members claim PRD was responsible for recent acts of violence that occurred in response to parliaments efforts to impeach Wahid. Although there is little hard evidence to prove such allegations against the party, PRD is strongly opposed to the remnants of the Suharto regime attempting to stage a political comeback.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung on February 11 implied he wanted the government to consider banning PRD. "We will ask Justice and Human Rights Minister Baharuddin Lopa and Home Affairs Surjadi Soedirdja to soon review PRD ... Whether it is still consistent or not with the nation's goals If PRD's purpose and principles are no longer relevant to the country, then PRD's existence must be questioned," said Tanjung, who is also House of Representatives speaker.

Jakarta Police chief Inspector General Sofjan Jacob has been more blunt in his criticism of the small party. On May 29 he said forces led by PRD chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko had been trying to provoke conflict between civilians and the security forces. He warned that Budiman would be arrested if any unrest erupted. Sure enough, Budiman was among those taken in by police and questioned last Friday, even though there had been no violence.

Considering the security authorities dislike of PRD, it comes as little surprise that police decided to take action against the 32 foreigners who were regarded as being sympathetic to the party's aims. Witnesses said dozens of armed police stormed the seminar venue without warning. One officer then announced through a loudhailer that the meeting was suspended and the participants would have to leave. They were taken to a police building, most traveling on the back of a police truck, and had their passports confiscated.

None of the foreigners were badly treated, but a statement released by PRD said police had used a civilian militia group the Kabah Youth Force (AMK) to beat and injure the Asia-Pacific conference participants with swords. Participants confirmed that sword-wielding thugs had been brought in to attack several of the Indonesian activists after the foreigners were taken away. Police have not officially responded to the allegations of assault. The Indonesian detainees have since been released, but reports say that four left-wingers were hospitalized as a result of the attack, one critically, while several other activists went missing.

The foreigners were released on Saturday and immigration authorities on Monday decided they could return to their home countries. Eighteen of the detained foreigners were from Australia. The others included two Belgians, a Pakistani, an American, a New Zealander, a Thai, a Canadian, a Briton, a French citizen, a German, a Dutch citizen and a Japanese national. Police had detained them for visa abuse, although immigration officials said that only the Pakistani man had violated the terms of his tourist visa by attending the seminar. The others had all been traveling on short-stay visas.

People coming to Indonesia for holidays, conferences or business meetings are entitled to short-stay visas on arrival. The police can only summon the organizers of the seminar for questioning, not necessarily question the foreigners," Gani, an official at the Directorate General for Immigration, was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post. He said if the foreigners really had violated the immigration law, they should not have been released on Saturday, but ought to have been sent to the Immigration Office.

Gani on Monday said the foreigners would not be prevented from re-entering Indonesia and could attend similar seminars in the future. He said Farooq Tariq, secretary general of Pakistan's Labor Party, would be deported because he had been attending the conference while on a tourist visa.

Two Australians, Pip Hinman (48) and her daughter Zoey (4), had been allowed to return to Sydney on Saturday on humanitarian grounds as they had been the only mother and child among the detainees. Police had initially said the other foreigners could be deported or charged with misusing their visas, and faced five-year jail terms or fines of Rp25 million (US$2,230) if convicted of immigration violations. The only law cited by police was the 1992 Immigration Law, under which they could be deported or barred from entering Indonesia for a certain period of time.

Several Indonesian legal experts have condemned the action taken by police. Chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Hendardi, said police had violated democratic principles. Lawyer Apong Herlina described the raid and detentions as bizarre. She pointed out that many seminars are now held in Indonesia and participated in by foreigners. Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, chairman of the Institute for Human Rights Research and Advocacy, said the raid was a clear violation of the freedom of assembly and police had directly breached the Universal Human Rights Declaration.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development said the raid indicates that democracy in Indonesia is under threat. Among the better known foreign detainees were: New Zealand politician Marie Leadbeater, an Auckland city councilor; New South Wales University academic Helen Jarvis and her husband Allen Myers; Thai academic Ji Ungphakorn, a lecturer in political science at Chulalongkorn University, and Asia- Pacific Institute chairman Max Lane.

Lane, a former diplomat, is no stranger to controversy in Indonesia. He is best known as a translator and contributor to Australia-based publications such as Inside Indonesia and Green Left Weekly. He served as second secretary at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta until recalled in 1981 because of his translations of the banned books of acclaimed Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer. He has also translated works by outspoken poet W.S. Rendra.

Currently Lane is chairman of a group called Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET). On April 9, 2001, he spoke at a seminar in Sydney about the democracy movement and the impact of neo-liberal economic policy. Speaking at the same event was George Adjitjondro, the self-exiled lecturer who tracked down the ill-gotten wealth of the Suharto clan.

Lane was critical of the Indonesian political elite and Western lending institutions. The state apparatus is being used against the people of Aceh, West Papua [Irian Jaya] and the Indonesian people themselves. The instruments of global capital are waging an all out attack on the Indonesian people through the policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank policy, he told the Sydney seminar.

He said the IMF and World Bank were forcing the Indonesian government into further debt, while trade liberalization is causing disaster in Indonesia by ending restrictions on the import of things like rice and sugar, as farmers cannot afford to compete with cheap imports from the US and Canada. He also said privatization of state-owned companies had led to the pricing of basic services at levels that most Indonesians could not afford.

What has made these attacks even worse is that they come on top of a 30 year dictatorship. The economic planning carried out by Suharto is better described as a planned rip-off, Lane was quoted as saying by Green Left Weekly. Education was wrecked during the Suharto period, and the process of scientific inquiry smashed. The ideology permeating all sectors of society was one of self- enrichment in its most barbaric form. The rule of law was subordinated to maximize the elite's ability to enrich themselves.

He pointed out that PRD has been demanding that parliament be disbanded and new elections held. Building a mass movement to carry this out won't be easy. Establishing a people's power movement is essential to counter the right-wing forces, he added.

Sources say PRD is far too small and lacks the organizational strength and unity required to mount a serious challenge to the elite. Despite the party's minor size, authorities are obviously irked by its strong pro-democracy creed and are doing their best to make people afraid to be associated with PRD.

Illegal meetings?

Authorities did not only crack down on PRD meetings and gatherings of labor rights groups during the final years of the Suharto regime. The most notorious incident came on March 10, 1998, when Suharto was unanimously re-elected by the venerable Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) to lead the nation for a seventh consecutive five-year term. On that date, renowned playwright and actress Ratna Sarumpaet and eight other people were arrested for attempting to hold a peaceful pro-democracy gathering in North Jakarta.

The others arrested were: freelance journalist Ging Ginanjar, human rights lawyer Alexius Suria Tjahaja Tomu, Ratnas daughter Fathom Saulina, Indonesian Humanitarian Association (MIK) director Bonar Tigor Naipospos (also a former prisoner of conscience), human rights activist Nandang Wirakusumah, actor and rights activist Joel Thatcher, artist Aspar Paturusi, and journalist Adi Hermawan.

Fathom was later released, but the others were charged under a 1963 law with holding a political gathering without a police permit. On May 20, the day before Suharto resigned after deadly mass riots, the activists were found guilty, given a 70-day sentence and then released as they had already spent that amount of time in detention. Once the reform era got into full swing following the resignation of Suharto, few people would have thought that security forces would still be allowed to get away with bursting into pro-democracy gatherings. Whats most worrying about Fridays raid is that police allegedly used the anti- communist Kabah Youth Force (AMK) to attack PRD members and supporters.

Many Indonesians believe foreigners should not come to Indonesia to meddle in the nations internal affairs. Indonesia has enough problems to deal with now without foreigners coming here to say what should be done, said Ahmad, an office worker. That may be so. Australian authorities would probably not react too fondly if a bunch of tourists came out from the Middle East and then held inflammatory meetings in Canberra to complain about conditions at detention centers for illegal immigrants in Western Australia.

But some analysts say Indonesia-Australia relations should not be the main issue stemming from the incident at Sawangan. The key concern is that police seemingly at their own initiative (or that of shadowy forces) broke up a peaceful meeting and apparently used a proxy force to do the dirty work of attacking and intimidating local pro-democracy activists. Until the security forces get the nations priorities in order and cease using third parties for violence, the reform movement has a long way to go.

Raid hoodlums, but not vendors, warn experts

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2001

Jakarta -- The city administration should discriminate in its handling of hoodlums and street vendors. The city should not arrest street vendors and other informal traders as the police arrest hoodlums, experts said on Tuesday.

Noted criminologist Mulyana W. Kusumah and Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra said that unlike hoodlums, the so-termed people with social welfare problems (PMKS), such as street vendors, singers and informal traders burdened neither the city nor the people.

On the contrary, they provided jobs amid the current high unemployment rate, and consequently could reduce the crime rate in the city. Therefore, they deserved help rather than being arrested. "Arresting them would not solve the problem. The city would do better to assist them, like giving them more places to do business," Mulyana, from the University of Indonesia, said.

He said the main problem for street traders and similar people was poverty, and therefore arresting them and putting them in social institutions would not solve their problems.

If possible, the city administration should create more job opportunities for them. Unless the city can provide places or job opportunities for these street people, it should simply let them carry on their businesses in the capital.

The city administration has actually differentiated the actions it takes against hoodlums as opposed to street vendors and other PMKS. The city has asked the Jakarta Police to arrest hoodlums, while the city's public order office is responsible for dealing with PMKS. The Jakarta Police have arrested at least 600 thugs since April 16, of which 36 were shot dead for resisting arrest.

The public order office has replicated what the police have been doing and arrested PMKS and sent many of them to social rehabilitation centers in Kedoya, West Java, and Cipayung, East Jakarta. As many as 20,946 PMKS, including prostitutes, street singers and vendors, transvestites and the homeless, have been netted by public order officers in the capital since mid-April. Many of them were street vendors, totaling 7,791 people. The city has allocated Rp 12 billion (US$1.09 million) for a nine-month operation against thugs and public regulations offenders.

Mulyana agreed on Tuesday that the Jakarta Police should conduct raids against hoodlums, suggesting that they should focus more on organized hoodlums. But he did not provide a further explanation of who the organized hoodlums might be. He said the city administration should involve the public in evaluating raids against hoodlums to get feedback on whether they had reached their targets.

Meanwhile, Azyumardi Azra, rector of the Syarief Hidayatullah State Islamic Institute, supported Mulyana's suggestion and said that the public, especially religious leaders, should be more involved in the operations against thugs. "We see that religious leaders have a small function in these matters, including the handling of hoodlums," Azyumardi said in the same seminar.

A chilling portent for liberty, as we fawn over Jakarta yet again

Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2001

Hamish McDonald -- A score of Australians has just been caught up in a nasty example of the repressive violence that could easily become the norm again in Indonesia as Soeharto-era forces regroup behind Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's push for power.

The Australians, and visitors from several other countries, were hauled out of an "Asia Pacific Labor Solidarity Conference on Neoliberalism" in Jakarta by heavily armed police on Friday afternoon. They were carted off in police trucks, held in bare cells until 2am, and then sent back to their hotels minus passports -- all on the suspicion they were violating the terms of their visas.

After the foreigners were pulled out, the police let loose a supposed Islamic militia group calling itself Angkatan Muda Ka'abah, which went to work with swords and sticks on locals at the conference.

One of the disturbing aspects has been the speed with which our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has agreed that the Australian visitors were in the wrong, and Indonesian police within their rights to question their visa status.

That is not a unanimous view even in Jakarta, where the police action has been roundly attacked. Not even the Indonesian immigration authorities agree. The spokesman at the Directorate- General for Immigration, Mr Mursanuddin Gani, was reported in The Jakarta Post yesterday as saying it had nothing to do with the police raid, had received no report on the status of the foreigners attending, and doubted they were breaking the rules.

Mr Gani pointed out that foreigners visiting Indonesia for special events such as conferences and business meetings were eligible for the visa-on-arrival facility. This visa was meant to attract foreigners to Indonesia, and that the purpose of their visit could be stated upon arriving in the country.

It is not yet clear whether all the Australians did list the conference as the purpose of the visit, or just put themselves down as tourists. Some said it was just one part of a longer holiday in Indonesia.

It is also unclear whether the seminar's organisers had obtained the police permit apparently required. But even if neither of these things had been done, it is not at all clear that the foreign participants exceeded their rights.

Did our officials have to give an implicit OK to the police action? Especially when Indonesian human rights groups, and The Jakarta Post in an editorial yesterday, have condemned the raid as an attack on freedom of expression and assembly. "The police and its thug friends have made a complete mockery of every value and principle that this nation has been struggling to establish in the last three years," the Post said.

Budiman Sudjatmiko, the organiser of Friday's seminar, would know how difficult is that struggle. The 31-year-old former student radical, sentenced to 13 years' jail for subversion in 1996, was one of the last of Soeharto's political prisoners to be freed, when President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered his release in December 1999. Police and intelligence agencies still treat him as a communist threat. Last month a bomb was set off at his parents' home.

Some of his Australian guests have also had their brushes with authority here in times when keeping Soeharto happy was the main game in Canberra. Associate Professor Helen Jarvis, an archival expert at the University of NSW, had her appointment as National Library acquisitions officer at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta vetoed by ASIO in 1979.

A few years later, Max Lane, an aid official at the embassy, found himself on the plane home after he told his ambassador, Rawdon Dalrymple, that his translations of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's novels, written in a prison camp for alleged communists, were about to be published.

You don't have to share the Australian protesters' perspective on global capitalism to be disturbed at the implications for everyone in the police raid.

Party chief real target of raid on seminar

South China Morning Post - June 12, 2001

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- While foreign activists at the Justice Ministry tried to avoid being fingerprinted, the prime local target of a police raid on a labour seminar last week was almost forgotten.

But Budiman Sudjatmiko, 31, labelled a communist and revolutionary by police and military, knew the raid was primarily aimed at him. "Police said they arrested the foreigners because the conference had no legal status and they were not permitted to participate because they only had tourist visas," Mr Budimen said. "They also tried to get the momentum to arrest me."

Police detained Mr Budiman on Friday but released him that night due to lack of evidence. Although he is free for the moment, he sees a larger plot at work. His parents' house has been mysteriously attacked twice in recent weeks.

Political controversy is nothing new to the man who admits to being a fan of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. In 1994, when he founded the Democratic People's Party (PRD), he called for the introduction of multi-party politics, the elimination of a political role for the armed forces and for amendments to the constitution. Although hardly revolutionary by Western standards, the ideas were incendiary in former president Suharto's Indonesia.

Periodically forced underground, the PRD has survived as a small but legal political party. It contested the 1999 elections, failing to garner a seat. Mr Budiman ran his campaign from jail, where Suharto had put him for subversion.

He was released by President Abdurrahman Wahid late in 1999, but has remained a target of the military and police. Two weeks ago, the police chief threatened to arrest him for undefined crimes and police admit they have been following him for some time. The harassment is nothing new and has helped breed a culture of resistance.

Several activists rounded up in 1996 have disappeared or been killed, but despite claims by foreign activists at Friday's conference, Mr Budiman says he was not attacked by police or militant Muslim thugs during the raid. "Up to now there has been no problem," he said.

Jakarta detainees slam `soft' government response

Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2001

Scott Rochfort -- Eight Australians detained by Indonesian police after attending a Labor rights conference in Jakarta returned, relieved, to Australia today.

Speaking at Sydney Airport, the group criticised the Australian Government for not taking a harder line towards the Indonesian Government on their detention. One member of the group, John Percy, said he was "shocked that [the Australian] government could be so dishonest because this was not a visa misunderstanding ... this was an attack by the police on a peaceful seminar".

Sydney resident Peter Boyle praised the courage of the Indonesian delegates attending the conference "who put themselves between us and the military" and of five Indonesian lawyers who stayed with the detainees and advised them throughout the ordeal. The lawyers, representing the Legal Aid Institute of Jakarta, had been attending the conference.

Mr Boyle was met at the airport by his partner, Pip Hinman. Ms Hinman and her four year old daughter Zoe had been detained in Indonesia but were freed to return to Australia on Saturday on "humanitarian" grounds. At their reunion this morning, Peter Boyle said: "I am going to write down before I forget the extremes of emotion I felt. "I feel extremely happy now but on the Saturday afternoon when Zoe and Pip were allowed to leave ... to see the back of them, it was very hard to control myself".

Mr Boyle said during the police raid on the conference on Friday afternoon, the delegates had been threatened by a group of 50 militia, armed with sickles and swords, chanting Islamic slogans. The militia then attacked the Indonesian delegates at the conference, putting two in hospital.

Mr Percy said the 18 Australians and 14 other foreign delegates were taken to the Central Jakarta Police Station. They spent the night asleep on a tiled floor. The Australians had their passports handed back to them yesterday after Indonesian immigration officials admitted the group had committed no offences in relation to their visas.

The New Zealand Government has expressed concern over allegations of ill-treatment of delegates attending the conference. Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said he has demanded answers from New Zealand's consul and is considering summoning the Indonesian ambassador to explain the detention of foreigners, including New Zealanders and Australians.

The conference had been organised by the Indonesian Centre for Social Reform and Emancipation.

Detainees free and the questions begin

Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- Indonesian immigration officials yesterday freed 29 foreigners, including 18 Australians, who were detained at an international conference in Jakarta, as criticisms grew of police-sanctioned brutality against the organisers.

The conference secretary, Ms Romawaty Sinaga, said the police tactics in using a gang of thugs parading Islamic symbols to attack the Indonesian organisers had reignited fears of police and military repression during the 32- year-old rule of the dictator Soeharto. The thugs wielding swords and sickles, who had accompanied police to the conference, attacked the Indonesian organisers after the foreigners, including a four-year-old Australian girl, had been taken away by police for questioning over suspected immigration offences.

But after two days of high tension which involved almost 24 hours of detention by most of the foreigners, an Immigration Department spokesman, Mr Marsanudin Gani, said an examination of the passports of 29 of 30 foreigners had revealed they had committed no offences. Only a Pakistani participant had entered the country on a tourist visa and faced trial or deportation, he said.

Mr Gani said the rest of the foreigners had obtained free short visit visas on arrival in the country that allowed them to attend meetings or conferences.

Sydney women Ms Pip Hinman and her daughter Zoe had been allowed to return to Australia on Saturday night after being among those detained the day before. Police who had acted aggressively towards the foreigners yesterday offered no apology for the blunder.

One of Australians, Dr Helen Jarvis, of the School of Information at the University of NSW, said being allowed to go free was a "tremendous relief". Threats to deport the foreigners were "something fabricated, it would seem". Dr Jarvis was reluctant to speculate on the motive for the raid. "I suppose people are trying to clamp down on democratic space," she said. "None of us thought we had committed any violations. We went through an extremely awful experience and it turned out all right."

But Dr Jarvis said the conference organisers who were attacked were not as lucky. One man suffered a severed artery when one of the attackers thrust a broken glass into his neck. Seven others were hurt. Dr Jarvis said the police were "extremely aggressive" when the group arrived at police headquarters yesterday morning before being taken to immigration offices. She said that acting on the advice of lawyers, the group refused to be fingerprinted. But police tried again, unsuccessfully, to fingerprint them at the immigration offices.

The chairman of Indonesia's Institute for Human Rights Research, Mr Abdul Garuda Nusantara, said Friday's raid was a direct violation of the freedom of assembly. Police "have clearly breached one of the important principles of the Universal Human Rights Declaration," Mr Abdul said. "This will only worsen Indonesia's image before the international community as the conference was attended by activists from foreign countries."

The Jakarta Post said in a scathing editorial that not only did the thugs who attacked the organisers seem to have the tacit support of the police, "but they finished off the police's job in dissolving the gathering".

Appeal for calm over Jakarta detainees

Sydney Morning Herald - June 11, 2001

Craig Skehan, Malcolm Brown and Lindsay Murdoch -- Australian diplomats warned protesters last night against inflammatory action as attempts continued to get 18 Australians, accused of visa violations for attending a political conference in Jakarta, out of Indonesia. However, a protest outside the Indonesian Consulate in Maroubra went ahead yesterday as scheduled.

The Australians, among 32 foreigners who had their passports seized after being released from cells, face more questioning this morning at Jakarta's central police station and possible passport charges.

A Foreign Affairs Department spokesman in Canberra said yesterday: "We hope and fully expect the 18 remaining detainees will be out of the country in a matter of days.

"Consular officials have been working around the clock to resolve this matter quickly through negotiation with Indonesian authorities.

"It does appear that the people attending the conference have breached visa requirements. Visa breaches are always taken seriously in Indonesia and Australians should be aware of that."

Rights activists involved in the conference described the behaviour of the police on Thursday as "barbaric and uncivilised", saying they had stood by as sword-wielding Muslims beat-up participants after the foreigners were taken away.

Others detained included people from New Zealand, the United States, Pakistan, Japan, England, Belgium, Canada, France and Thailand.

One of the Australians, Ms Pip Hinman, who was later released with her young daughter Zoe, spoke on her return to Sydney yesterday about how heavily armed police burst into the conference, at a hotel at Depok, south of Jakarta.

About 100 people were at the meeting when dozens of police suddenly appeared, she said. "They were bristling with rifles. I was there with my partner, Peter Boyle, and four-year-old daughter, Zoe. We just sat tight. They blocked off the exits and used a loud-hailer and were shouting."

The foreigners were taken to the police station but were later allowed to go to a hotel, so long as they remained there. Because Ms Hinman was the only person with a child she had been allowed to fly home. Mr Boyle had to stay behind. Ms Hinman said she had gone to Indonesia with Mr Boyle and Zoe on a four-week holiday and that the conference, on labour and social issues, had "fitted in".

The gathering, billed as the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity Conference and referred to on the Internet as "The People's Struggle Against Neo-liberalism and Militarism in Asia-Pacific", had invited international participation. Organised by the Indonesian National Student League for Democracy, it had sought police approval but this had not been granted before it began, Ms Hinman said.

Two other Australians detained were named by conference organisers yesterday as a NSW academic, Ms Helen Jarvis, and her husband, Mr Allen Myers.

Participants detained in Polda Metro Jaya:

1. Budiman Sudjatmiko, chairperson PRD, Indonesia
2. Kelik Ismunanto, Direktur Increase, from Indonesia
3. Surya Candra, YLBHI, Indonesia
4. Habiburahman, LBHR, Indonesia
5. Budi Ansori, PRD, Indonesia
6. Max Lane, Australia
7. Julia Perkins, Australia
8. Marie Leadbeater, Australia
9. Graham Mathews, Australia
10. Pip Hinman, Autralia
11. Jim McLLroy, Australia
12. Satya Sivaraman, Bangladesh
13. Rebeca, Australia
14. Jonh Percy, Australia
15. Doug Lorimer, Autralia
16. Paul D'Amato, America
17. Alen Mayer, Australia
18. Sybele K, Australia
19. Faroukh Tariq, Pakistan
20. Giles Upakaron, India
21. Kenji Kunitomi, Japan
22. Tom O'lincoln, Australia
23. Jhon Duval, UK
24. Michael, Holland
25. Jonh Dumb, Australia
26. Joe (4 year old child), Australia
27. Peter Boyle, Australia
28. Kerryn Williams, Australia
29. Earl Gillman, Canada
30. Steve Harney, America
31. Nick Everet, Australia
32. Piere Rousset, France
33. Hellen Jarvis, Australia
34. Marie, Kanada
35. Dave Murphi, Australia
36. Eva Ceng, Australia
37. Jonatan Strauss, Australia
38. Ian Rintoul, Australia
39. Three people from Thailand (not yet identified)
40. Two other not yet identified

The Participants of The Conference who are injured during the AMK attack:

1. Yahya Gunawan GP, PRD, neck injuries as a result of being cut
2. Ki Joyo Sardo, from PRD, seriously wounded after being struck by a wooden club and trampled on
3. Anom Astika, beaten with a wooden club and trampled on
4. Akim, PRD, bruises to the head, beaten with a wooden club and trampled on

[Compile by the People's Democratic Party.]

Environment/health

Jakarta's dirty rivers pose toxic threat

Straits Times - June 12, 2001

Jakarta -- The 13 rivers in the Indonesian capital are turning into a major health hazard as factories and families dump untreated toxic waste into the waterways.

More than 10 years after a programme to clean up Jakarta's rivers was implemented, they remain heavily polluted. An estimated 90 per cent of shallow wells -- less than 40 m deep -- in the capital have also been polluted by domestic waste.

The worsening water situation in Jakarta and other major cities affects the poor the most, and is noticeable in areas where factories and homes exist side by side. The streets of Semanan, West Jakarta are coloured red, green, blue and black by the overflow from a narrow gutter where factories have dumped untreated industrial waste.

The gutter empties into River Mogot, which also serves as a dump for domestic waste. Its water is thick, black and foul-smelling. Thousands of impoverished families live along the river. They rely on groundwater supplies for drinking, bathing and cooking.

Brackish water also poses a serious problem to people living in coastal areas such as Marunda, a swamp known as "Jakarta's toilet". Potable water is scarce: Residents, mostly fishermen, pay 750 rupiah (13 Singapore cents) for a 15-litre jerrycan of drinking water. Water prices soared to 1,500 rupiah per jerrycan when a reservoir in East Jakarta burst recently.

In coastal North Jakarta, where the water crisis is most severe, only half of the population have access to drinking-water services. The rest buy water from traders. Even then, tap water may be contaminated by heavy metals such as mercury.

Fume spewing bajaj to give way to kancil

Straits Times - June 11, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- In a bid to cut down pollution in one of the world's most polluted cities, the government is planning to phase out the fume-emitting and noisy three-wheeled bajaj and replace it with more environmentally friendly vehicles. However, the bajaj drivers and cooperatives that rent out the vehicles are concerned that they will have to bear the high cost of introducing the kancil.

The four-wheeled natural-gas powered vehicle travels at 60 kmh, almost twice the speed of the bajajs, and has a light-weight, fibre-glass body.

Jakarta's Road Traffic and Transportation department chief Buyung Atang said bajajs are the second-highest contributors of carbon dioxide in Jakarta. If they were banned, pollution levels could be cut by 25 per cent, he said.

However, bajaj cooperatives fear they will be the ones to pay for reducing air pollution in Jakarta. Mr Eric Yohannes, whose family has a fleet of 18 bajajs that it rents out to drivers in central Jakarta, is concerned that the kancil will be too expensive for his small family business.

The ever-changing rules over the licensing of public transport vehicles have already cost his family millions of lost rupiah in the last 30 years, he said. "I hope they don't make this rule like when the bejak was forbidden and it had to be thrown away; then the helicap was banned and had to be thrown away," he said, referring to Jakarta's first permitted cheap public taxis, the trishaws or bejaks, which were then replaced by motorised trishaws or helicaps.

But Mr Buyung said the kancil would be made affordable through a bajaj buy-back scheme, which would give the owners cash to buy the kancils. The buy-back scheme and a long-term credit scheme have not been approved yet.

Bajaj drivers who operate in some of the busiest parts of Jakarta say their profit margins are small and that they cannot afford to pay much more rent than they already do. Said one of them, Mr Sidik: "The cooperative would have to buy it. I can't buy it alone. At the most, bajajs can make 30,000 rupiah to 40,000 rupiah per day." This is equivalent to S$4.80 to S$6.40.

Mr Yohannes said he doubted the kancil would be as efficient as the bajaj, which thanks to the local mechanics' ingenuity have continued to run long past their use-by date. "These bajajs are all easy to repair. It only needs three hours before they are back on the streets again, whereas taxis take three or four days to repair. That's three days before you can earn money again," he said.

The three-wheeler's dirty reputation

Straits Times - June 11, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Originally imported from India in the 70s as a faster alternative to the motorised rickshaw, the bajaj -- similar to Thailand's tuk-tuks -- was never officially legalised in many parts of Jakarta. However, these brightly coloured vehicles are as much a part of Jakarta's street scene as the trishaw and have multiplied over the years -- 20,000 of them now ply Jakarta's markets and back alleys.

They are also a key contributor to air pollution in Jakarta. Environmental campaigner Ahmad Syafrudin, who has been campaigning to phase out heavily polluting fuels, welcomes the introduction of vehicles using alternative fuels. "We agree with using CNG because it cuts out a lot of pollution," he said. CNG refers to compressed natural gas.

Mr Syafrudin said Jakarta rates as the world's third- or fourth- most polluted city in the world, largely because unlike other Asian cities such as Bangkok, it has yet to ban leaded fuel.

Religion/Islam

Activists demand stern action against Muslim hard-liners

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2001

Jakarta -- A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped under the Ornop Coalition, urged police on Wednesday to take stern action against members of a hard-line Muslim group who had committed acts of theft and vandalism in connection with the raid on an international conference in Sawangan, West Java, last week.

Indonesian Environment Forum (Walhi) executive director Emmy Hadfild said after meeting National Police Chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, harsh measures should be taken against members of Angkatan Kabah Muda (AKM). "AKM members committed acts of vandalism and they confiscated cassettes, cameras and documents at the Depok conference. They were armed with sticks and machetes and this is just not acceptable," Emmy said.

AKM is an anticommunist group affiliated with the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP). The attack is believed to be part of an ongoing campaign against Democratic People's Party (PRD) chairman Budiman Soedjatmito, who the group says is a communist.

Emmy added that the Ornop Coalition were scheduled to meet with legislators of the United Development Party (PPP) faction on Thursday to discuss the same matter. She also said that, after the meeting with the police chief, activists had got the impression that Friday's police raid in Sawangan was aimed at arresting Budiman.

Police have previously admitted to targeting Budiman and have repeatedly threatened to arrest him. They believe that he plans to cause disturbances in the capital which will disrupt the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) special session scheduled for August.

"There are several allegations which police have leveled against Budiman ... police were suspicious about why the conference was private and whether Budiman spoke during the conference. "The police seem to be targeting Budiman for some reason. Unfortunately, 32 foreigners got caught up in the mess ... they were not at fault at all," Emmy said.

Police raided the Asia Pacific Labor Solidarity Conference on Neoliberalism in the Sawangan Golf Inn on Friday Jun. 8 and arrested 40 participants; eight Indonesians and 32 foreigners. The foreigners were questioned for alleged visa violations and held in custody for one night. Immigration authorities, however, declared that, with the exception of one Pakistani, none of the foreigners had violated any laws.

Newly installed National Police deputy spokesman Sr. Comr. Edward Aritonang said separately on Wednesday that police would provisionally consider that the attacks carried out by AKM members were conducted independent of the organization. "However, we are investigating the case, including the possibility of the alleged involvement of PPP in the attack," Edward said.

Malaysia

The Sawangan incident has apparently discouraged other foreigners from participating in seminars in the country. Two botanists from Universitas Kebangsaan Malaysia have canceled their plans to speak at a seminar on rare plants, which is scheduled to take place here on Saturday in Bogor.

Ervisal AM Zuhud, a member of the organizing committee, said on Wednesday that Prof. Abdul Latif and Dr. Kamaruddin Mat Saleh canceled their trips to Indonesia following the Malaysian government's warning about security conditions in the country, Antara reported.

He said that the two experts may have been alarmed by media reports about Indonesia's political situation. "Maybe also because of reports about the police's raid of the international conference in Sawangan," said Ervisal, who is head of the Plants Conservation Laboratory at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture.

He regretted their cancellations, saying that the two botanists, experts in Rafflesia, were expected to be keynote speakers at the seminar. The one-day seminar, organized by the Rafflesia Foundation in cooperation with the Bogor Botanical Garden and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, is aimed at conserving the Raflesia, which is on the brink of extinction.

Ervisal said that the organizing committee hoped that the two experts would still come to the seminar so that they could later inform the Malaysian government that Indonesia, especially Bogor, is a safe place. "We have sent them an e-mail explaining the situation in Indonesia, especially Bogor. We even told them that we will collect them from the Soekarno-Hatta international airport," he said.

Police release Laskar Jihad commander from custody

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2001

Jakarta -- The National Police released Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jammaah commander Ja'far Umar Thalib from custody on Tuesday, though the suspect remains under investigation. Ja'far's lawyer Eggy Sudjana said the police officially released Ja'far via an official letter issued by National Police chief of general crimes Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi, dated June 12.

"The police released him because he has been very cooperative during question, and the police believe that he will not flee," Eggy said on Wednesday.

Ja'far was arrested on May 4 at Juanda Airport in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, on suspicion of inciting religious violence and ordering the murder of one of his followers, Abdullah, who was stoned to death in Maluku earlier this year for adultery. Ja'far was released from police detention on May 15 and placed under house arrest.

Aryanto confirmed on Wednesday evening he had issued a letter ordering the release of Ja'far from police custody. The officer said he issued the letter because the investigation of the case was expected to take time.

"The murder suspect was under house arrest. I know that the investigation will take a long time and after a while we would have had to extend Ja'far's house arrest, which would have created a lot of attention. I cannot be bothered with demonstrations or certain parties trying to stop me from investigating the case," Aryanto said. The South Jakarta District Court earlier ruled that the arrest of Ja'far was unlawful, but said this did not affect the suspect's detention.

Arms/armed forces

US seeks thaw in military ties with Indonesia

Sydney Morning Herald - June 16, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- The Bush Administration has decided to restore tentative military contact with Indonesia at a time that Australia is stepping up pressure on Jakarta to punish those responsible for atrocities in East Timor. But the United States move will not include the lifting of an arms embargo or the restoration of most other ties until there is genuine accountability on East Timor and other human rights abuses.

Sources in Jakarta said yesterday that Bush Administration officials had decided several weeks ago to improve military contact with Indonesian officers in a move aimed at regaining influence in Jakarta amid fears of increased unrest across the archipelago. While this would include exchange visits and attending seminars it would not extend to aid, training or military sales.

"There will be a slight increase in engagement," a source said. "But it won't be anything more than that until there is a genuine effort to punish officers responsible for past abuses." The Indonesian military has so far shown no willingness to prosecute any of its officers. The Government in Jakarta has agreed on set up an ad hoc tribunal to deal with abuses in East Timor but no judges have been appointed and few other arrangements have been made, legal sources in Jakarta say.

Under pressure from the military, the Government stipulated that the tribunal could only hear offences committed after an August 1999 United Nations ballot to decide the territory's future. Many of the worst offences occurred before the ballot.

The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, this week urged Indonesia to carry out its promise to set up the tribunal, saying the international community had on many occasions drawn Jakarta's attention to the importance of bringing those responsible for crimes in East Timor to justice.

Analysts in Indonesia and the US say the mood in the US Congress is strongly against lifting the 1999 Leahy Amendment, which blocks all significant military ties between the two countries. Under US law the ban cannot be lifted until the Indonesian military allows the prosecution of officers responsible for crimes against humanity, particularly in East Timor in 1999.

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that US officials had delayed making their decision about Indonesia public, in part because of uncertainties about the Congress's response. "We have to approach Capitol Hill very carefully on this," an official was quoted as saying.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the Congress's leading critic on the Indonesian military, would not oppose a renewal of US contacts with the generals in Jakarta but would oppose any direct US aid or training, the paper quoted his spokesmen as saying.

Professor Jerry Winters, an American expert on Indonesia, told the Van Zorge Report, which is published in Jakarta by a political risk consultancy, last month that the US Congress remained strongly against the Indonesian military.

"The mood in Congress is that the Indonesian military is at best an undisciplined military out of control -- and certainly beyond the reach of any training the US could supply -- and at worst a bunch of thugs wearing medals and uniforms," he said.

Mr Salim Said, an Indonesian military expert, said the US had gradually improved its ties with the Indonesian armed forces over the past year.

US has loosened military embargo on Indonesia: Alwi

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2001

Jakarta -- Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab claimed here on Monday that the United States government under President George W. Bush had loosened its military embargo on Jakarta. Speaking at a hearing with House of Representatives Commission I for defense and information affairs, Alwi said Bush had adopted the policy of loosening the embargo, except on some combat weapons, Antara reported.

He said the easing of the embargo included permitting Indonesia to purchase spare parts for its C-130 transport aircraft, either from the US or a third party. "The spare parts for the C-130 aircraft ... have been exempted from the embargo," he said. The US unilaterally suspended military relations with Indonesia on September 9, 1999.

The foreign ministry said the restoration of military-to-military contact was reflected in the visit by a US warship in May last year to carry out a humanitarian mission in West Java, through a program called Cooperation Afloat, Readiness and Training. The program covered assistance in medicine, cattle breeding and infrastructure development.

Alwi also said that the military embargo had not only been adopted by the US administration, but also by the US Congress. "In connection with the military embargo, there has been an intense effort to approach the two bodies," he said. The minister testified that he had met with groups in the US administration and Congress, as well as other sympathetic parties, to urge the loosening of the military embargo on Indonesia.

International relations

US `must help Jakarta win world's confidence'

Straits Times - June 14, 2001 (slightly abridged)

Lee Siew Hua, Washington -- The United States has been urged to help Indonesia to regain the world's confidence and help it to improve its relations with the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong said the US should take these steps when he spoke of the need for Washington to pay closer attention to East Asia amid unsettling political changes and despite US frustrations with slow reforms in Asean.

He told the US-Asean Business Council at its annual dinner: "When the political situation in Indonesia stabilises, the US, with its friends and allies, must help Indonesia regain international confidence. "We must help it improve its relations with the World Bank and IMF, and encourage investors to revisit Indonesia."

Otherwise, Indonesian instability would affect US allies such as Australia, Japan and South Korea, he cautioned. Sitting beside vital shipping lanes, a resentful Indonesia would be a global problem.

The most important issue in Indonesian politics today was the nature of the new political order, he said. It would take years before a new balance was established among all political groups, from the presidency, to the military, to separatist groups, he noted.

He said a consensus had emerged among Indonesia's elite that political change was needed to restore growth and stability. He said: "The expectation is not that a new government will immediately solve all problems. Given the complexity of Indonesia's problems, the hope is that a modicum of stability will be restored at the centre. This would at least allow a start at addressing Indonesia's problems in a coherent manner and at regaining investors" confidence."

While developed countries had established institutions to maintain stability during political change, East Asia's institutional framework was far weaker, and Indonesia was a case in point, he said.

He recalled that a senior official from the previous US administration told Singapore leaders in 1998 that Indonesia needed a "discontinuity" in the way its government was run.

He said: "Singapore leaders responded that it was best to bring about change gradually. No successor president would be as strong as Suharto to enforce the tough conditions that the IMF required. Indonesia is now living with the consequences of discontinuity."

Indonesia was unique, he said. "No other major East Asian economy has such a brittle system or is likely to face a crisis of such magnitude and complexity."

Economy & investment

IMF urges new Jakarta economic team to pass budget

Reuters - June 13, 2001

Joanne Collins, Jakarta -- The IMF on Wednesday urged Indonesia's new economic team to forge ahead with the revised 2001 budget, saying it was an important precursor to mending frayed relations.

The Fund stalled its $5 billion loan programme to Indonesia last year over a raft of missed economic reforms. Fresh funds now mainly hinge on a revised budget and central bank law reforms.

"Pushing [former Finance Minister] Prijadi's plan through [on the revised budget] is an important aspect of the agreement with the Fund," IMF senior resident representative in Jakarta, John Dodsworth, told Reuters. "We are very happy with the government's proposal to parliament for the budget so we hope that within the new team, that proposal will be carried through quickly," he added.

Indonesia's parliament is expected to approve key changes to the 2001 state budget on Wednesday, ahead of the original June 15 schedule.

The new timetable was agreed to before Wahid announced the reshuffle. Analysts on Tuesday branded President Wahid's latest cabinet reshuffle as pointless given looming impeachment hearings against him. The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) will meet on August 1 to consider impeaching the Muslim cleric over his chaotic 20-month rule and two financial scandals.

Under the cabinet shakeup, little-known central bank deputy governor Burhanuddin Abdullah was appointed chief economics minister, replacing outspoken Rizal Ramli. Ramli, who has been accusing the Fund of blackmailing Indonesia over central bank law reforms, replaced Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo. Abdullah, who served as the central bank's representative to the IMF in Washington in the early 1990s, vowed on Tuesday to restore relations with the Fund.

But Dodsworth said the make up of the new team was not so important as accelerating reforms. "We are keen to work with the government whatever the composition of the economic team so we do want to move quickly with the team to try and resolve the oustanding issues," Dodsworth said.

Indonesia said on Tuesday the Fund would send a team to conduct a review of the country's economic reforms as soon as the budget revisions were passed.

The government has been under mounting pressure to adjust the budget amid a crumbling rupiah and climbing interest rates which are crippling debt servicing efforts. The IMF recently warned Indonesia its budget deficit would mushroom to six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) unless urgent measures were taken.

The revised budget assumptions include: economic growth of 3.5 percent from five percent, inflation of 9.3 percent against the original 7.2 percent, an exchange rate of 9,600 rupiah per dollar from 7,800 and an average interest rate of 15 percent from 11.5 percent.

Revised budget should satisfy IMF but implementation tough

AFX Asia - June 12, 2001

Aloysius Bhui, Jakarta -- The revised budget currently being debated in parliament designed to contain the fiscal deficit to 3.8 per cent of GDP should be enough to satisfy the International Monetary Fund but will prove very tough and problematic to implement, analysts said.

They said that in some cases, the revisions are quite positive, such as the reduction of fuel subsidies, as they demonstrate the government's commitment to IMF sponsored reform.

This much, however, is overshadowed by concerns over the government's ability to actually implement the changes given the current political impasse between the president and parliament, and the possible very negative popular reaction to the higher prices that may result from some of the changes.

The parliamentary budget task force has so far approved government proposals to cut fuel subsidies from an anticipated 66 trillion, which will see fuel prices rise an average of 30.1 per cent. In the original budget, fuel subsidies were estimated at some 41 trillion rupiah; if the revised budget restored that figure it has been suggested that fuel prices would rise 100 per cent.

The budget task force was reported over the weekend as agreeing on a fuel subsidy of 53.7 trillion rupiah and revised budget assumptions which include a base exchange rate of 9,600 rupiah/dollar, compared with the 7,800 originally given, interest rates of 15 per cent, up from 11.5 per cent, and inflation at 9.3 per cent, up from 7.2 per cent.

The government was forced into the revisions as domestic political concerns undercut the rupiah and the economy, compounding the impact of a US-led global slowdown on exports.

In line with IMF guidelines on the disbursement of aid, the government is trying to keep the budget deficit at 3.8 per cent of GDP, rather than the 6 per cent or more judged possible earlier, by cutting expenditures and increasing revenue.

At the moment, Indonesia needs to control the budget deficit in order to access the delayed 400 mln usd IMF loan and to prevent the further erosion of investor confidence, analysts said. "I think the government is moving in the right direction but it is still tough to reach the projected deficit of 3.8 per cent of GDP," IDEAglobal.com analyst Nizam Idris said.

He said it is possible for the government to cut some expenditure but in some cases, such as interest and foreign debt repayment, there is nothing the authorities can do to cut back. "The problem is that these expenditures are based on actual interest rates and exchange rates, instead of the projected assumptions. In other cases, the proposed increment of revenue is over-estimated," he said referring to the planned increase in tax revenue and privatisation proceeds.

Idris said the revised assumptions for exchange and interest rates are still "too low" given that they have already been overtaken by current levels and are largely hostage to political developments.

At the same time, "while the numbers are still open debate, the revision itself is positive as it will be seen as an attempt to [meet] the IMF [requirments]. I think IMF is also aware that the revision is just an attempt to limit the budget deficit. If the government is doing something, then the IMF won't pull out of Indonesia ... This [process] is showing that efforts to comply with IMF reform [are being made]."

The outlook, however, remains problematic, he said. "It will get tougher. The government will not be able to achieve the target. I think the deficit will still increase to around 4.5 per cent of GDP so later, this problem with the budget will come back again. The revisions will have to be repeated simply because the government tends to [opt for] higher estimates," Idris said. "We think it will be hard to prevent this number from exceeding the forecast," Suresh Kumar, economist at Standard & Poor's MMS said.

He said the new interest rate assumption of 15 per cent will increase interest payments on domestic debt by 16.3 trillion rupiah to 69.8 trillion while "interest expense on foreign debt will shoot up by another 11.49 trillion [to 34.59 trillion] based on an average rupiah/dollar rate of 11,680, as compared to the government's 9,600 forecast in 2001.

"Based on this increase in domestic and foreign debt [repayments] and our GDP forecast of 3.0 per cent for this year, we see the final deficit hitting 5.5 per cent, which is not far from the IMF's warning that the deficit is likely to exceed 6.0 per cent unless corrective action is taken."

Kumar stressed that these estimates have been established on a base-line scenario but there is a strong likelihood that interest and exchange rates could move against the government over the balance of the year.

IDEA's Idris said it is going to be difficult for the government to raise taxes given the global economic slowdown and domestic political problems. Additionally, it will be hard to increase proceeds from privatisation as foreign investors are unlikely to be anything but cautious current leadership and security problems are resolved.

"As a case in a point, the decision by ExxonMobil to halt production at PT Arun because of security concerns highlights how tough it will be to [even] improve confidence, let alone the direct impact on government revenue from the disruption of gas production. This problem with the budget will come back again," Idris said.

Merrill Lynch Indonesia head of research Haryanto Irawan said he is concerned about resolving the key issue that undercut the original budget in the first place, namely political risk. If the dual problems of a weak currency and high interest rates are to be resolved, "we need to reduce perceived risk. My understanding is that a change of government will at least help to reduce the risk profile. With this in mind, if the rupiah [then] appreciates, then naturally budget problems will be less than an issue," he said.

Shrinking economy - shrinking clothes

Straits Times - June 11, 2001

Robert Go, Jakarta -- The economic crisis, as much as fashion, is responsible for the current fad among Indonesians for wearing body-hugging, belly-button-baring clothes.

For giant retailer Ramayana, which caters to the low-to-middle- income crowd that makes up almost 90 per cent of Indonesia's population, literally downsizing its goods has helped it prosper in hard times. Since 1998, Ramayana has cut off a centimetre or two from its clothing patterns, reduced the number of buttons per shirt, and sold other products in smaller quantities to cut production costs and give consumers really low prices.

Mr Koh Boon Kim, the chain's business-development officer and senior adviser, said: "Our target market lost 50 per cent of its purchasing power in a very short time. "We asked our suppliers to provide us with the same, or similar, goods at cheaper prices. What does this mean? Using less material, or material of lower quality and fewer accessories."

Mr Richard Santosa, head of Ramayana's corporate division, said: "We have to provide customers with cheaper alternatives if we want to continue selling." The two executives explained that their target consumers, whose monthly take-home wages average around 400,000 rupiah (S$65), made purchasing decisions mostly based on cost, and less on quality or accessories.

Said Mr Koh, a Singaporean who has been involved in Indonesia's retailing scene for nearly two decades: "This doesn't mean we provide poor quality. We still give value for money. Our shirts are good for 20 washes."

The strategy helped Ramayana gross 2.4 trillion rupiah last year, nearly doubling 1998's 1.3 trillion rupiah. The department store has 400,000 sq m of retail space, shared by 73 outlets that include a food bazaar. Sales figures for this year are projected to total nearly 3 trillion rupiah. Added Mr Koh: "Many still can't believe we can sell to people who earn US$3 or less a day. How can we sell US$1 shirts?"

The benefit of the downsizing strategy for consumers may be even greater when it comes to non-textile staple items, such as powdered milk, sugar or rice. Given their low daily wages, most Indonesians prefer to buy smaller quantities of any particular item at lower prices. Street vendors still sell cigarettes by the stick, not by the pack.

And at Ramayana, instead of buying 800-g cartons of powdered milk at 13,000 rupiah each, housewives snatch up 400-g packs at 6,000 rupiah or 200-g packets at 3,000 rupiah. Shopper Puji Hadi said: "I look around for children's toys, milk that's appropriate for my kids. Prices here are comparable. Sometimes it's the cheapest."

But for those who are not yet worried about having enough for the next day's meals, Ramayana's clothing styles are the big draw. "The items are nice and cool, the store is modern, the overhead music is good, and the clothes are cheap and sexy. That's the most important thing," said teenage student Diah Ajeng.

Shopper Suparto agreed: "The clothes are stylish and good enough. They are also cheaper, more affordable. I don't mind that they feel smaller or thinner." The next time you see Indonesians in tight, sexy clothes, do not assume it is all about style. Simple economics and thrift may also be at play.