Democratic struggle

New Order forces lash out as defiance increases

Green Left Weekly - June 27, 2001

Max Lane -- On June 15 the Indonesian police kidnapped eight members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and occupied and ransacked the PRD's West Java office. The PRD activists remain in police custody in Bandung and so far have been denied access to lawyers. In Jakarta, the police have also been arresting student activists.

These attacks are an attempt by the police to re-establish their right to arrest activists at will. The only charges made by the police against the PRD activists in Bandung and the student activists in Jakarta is that they were handing out leaflets calling on workers to go on strike to protest a new ministerial decision abolishing some redundancy payments as well as proposed increases in fuel prices.

The PRD, along with other militant elements of the student movement, is being targeted because of its unrelenting campaign against the comeback of the New Order forces. The PRD's anti-New Order campaign has frustrated the rightists' attempt to redefine current political conflict as a struggle between the "democratic" parliament and an allegedly corrupt and dangerously "irresponsible" president.

The rightists have been using their control of key parliamentary positions to present themselves as the representatives of "democracy". Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung is the speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR) and Central Axis leader Amien Rais is the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

However, the PRD's national campaigns calling for the disbanding of Golkar, for the removal of the pro-New Order forces from all positions of power in the country's civil and military administration, for the abolition of the "dual function" of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), and for the confiscation of the corruptly gained assets of the Suharto family and its New Order cronies have effectively countered the Golkar strategy.

The PRD's campaigns have taken different forms. They have included propaganda interventions into activities organised by organisations directly linked to President Abdurrahman Wahid, such as the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Nahdatul Ulama.

The PRD has also been part of united-front actions along with grass-roots members of the PKB and NU as well as liberal- democratic intellectuals and academics, plus some elements from Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP). There have also been anti-New Order protests by various student activist coalitions.

Opposing the New Order forces

There is a major disagreement between the majority of the Indonesian ruling class and its small liberal wing over what is the best method of rule: repression or concession and compromise. For the majority, with its base in crony corporations and a corrupt, tribute-collecting state apparatus used to unchallenged arbitrary rule, there can be no compromise on the necessity for strict authoritarian rule.

The struggle to prevent the full comeback of the rightist New Order alliance, represented by Golkar, the TNI, the Central Axis and the PDIP, is one of two main foci of struggle determining the present shape of Indonesian politics.

The police offensive against the PRD is taking place with the full support of the New Order alliance. Not a single voice from within these forces has been raised against the police violence or acts of repression. From within the government, only President Wahid has been criticising the police actions.

Knowing that they have the full backing of the MPR majority, the police have become increasingly arrogant in their actions and statements. Police spokespersons have answered allegations of torture from the PRD leadership by saying that perhaps the PRD activists had been beaten by frustrated workers who were also in jail. The police replied to criticisms of their occupation and ransacking of the West Java PRD office by stating that they occupied the office as a preemptive action to safeguard the office from a possible attack from an unnamed third force.

In Jakarta, police agents monitored university campus gates and arrested those students that their intelligence agents identified as "trouble makers".

The offensive by the police is, however, continuing to galvanise opposition. The largest moderate NGOs -- INFID and WAHLI -- have joined the PRD in challenging the June 8 police raid on the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity Conference. The National Human Rights Commission (Komnasham) has also indicated it will investigate the incident.

The police offensive is bringing together for the first time liberal-democratic and radical forces that have mostly worked separately in the past.

There are also signs that there are many members of the PDIP who are also starting to react against the offensive by the New Order alliance. There have now been three demonstrations in Jakarta by PDIP members supporting the plans by the new attorney-general, Baharuddin Lopa, to lay charges of corruption against PDIP parliamentary chairperson and former Golkar crony, Arifin Panirogo.

At the same time, the eastern Indonesia branch of Golkar has supported plans by Lopa to lay similar charges against Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung.

The appointment of Lopa as attorney-general has scared many in the New Order circles. Formerly with the Muslim United Development Party (PPP), Lopa is known to be untainted by corruption and unable to be bought off. The initial reaction of the New Order parties after the appointment of Lopa was to raise the possibility of bringing forward the MPR special session to hear impeachment charges against Wahid. They tried to depict any action by Lopa against Panirogo or Tanjung as politically motivated and not a genuine move against corruption. However, the demonstrations and statements by dissident elements within the PDIP and Golkar undermined these moves.

There have also been a series of statements by almost all the most important independent sections of the legal profession attacking the DPR for refusing to take up issues of corruption involving Golkar or other New Order officials.

At the same time, the DPR majority has come under attack from the National Human Rights Commission for refusing to allow ad hoc human rights courts to investigate human rights abuses by the TNI and the police.

The New Order alliance has had to back off from speeding up the convening of the MPR special session.

Most consistent critic of Wahid government

While the Golkar-led New Order alliance has been manoeuvring against President Wahid as part of its campaign to regain power, some NGOs and especially the mushrooming number of left debating clubs, some made up of former PRD members, have taken up the issue of Wahid's neo-liberal economic policies, although only in discussion circles and on the internet.

These groups have been unable to put forward a consistent critique of Wahid's political positions due to their view that there is no real differences within the ruling class. They therefore abstain from demanding that Wahid live up to his democratic talk and join a united front against the New Order forces.

The PRD has been struggling to build a united front against the New Order forces while remaining the most consistent critic of the Wahid government, taking up both political and economic issues.

Again and again, the PRD has demanded that Wahid end his vacillations and take real action against those guilty of corruption and human rights crimes during the 30-year New Order regime. Again and again, the PRD has accused him of accommodating the New Order forces, including granting them positions in government.

The PRD has worked hard to convince as many as possible within Wahid's support base to join a united front against the New Order, often against the wishes of Wahid himself. The formation of the National Coalition Against the New Order (KNAOB) in May was the first united front that was able to mobilise both liberal intellectuals, student radicals, and PRD members alongside pro- Wahid forces, mainly peasants from eastern Java.

As the campaign against Wahid by the right has intensified, he has been forced to deal more seriously with the left-wing activists in the PRD. Wahid denounced the police's use of violent repression against radical activists and then attempted to sack the police chief.

Despite these gains in building an anti-New Order united front that includes pro-Wahid forces, the PRD was again at the forefront of criticism of the Wahid government over recent anti- worker legislation as well as the government's decision to increase fuel prices. Between June 12 and 14, most trade unions in Indonesia launched strikes against a new ministerial decision which abolished many redundancy payments. In Jakarta, the demonstrations were organised by the May 1 Alliance, in which the PRD-led Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI) played a key role.

In Bandung, the FNPBI and PRD activists also played a key role, including helping to mobilise several thousand members of the All-Indonesia Workers' Union (SPSI) who were abandoned by their national leadership in the middle of the strike.

The PRD itself issued statements attacking the redundancy law and demanding its abolition. The PRD statement singled out Megawati Sukarnoputri as well as Wahid for specific criticism. This was the first time the PRD has aimed its fire at Megawati, who has so far escaped criticism for any decisions of the government. The PRD statement also demanded that Wahid act to repeal the ministerial decisions and end his silence on the issue. "Silence means compromising with the New Order", the PRD stated.

The size and militancy of the strikes against the redundancy decision shook the government. In Bandung, police provocation and the abandonment of the SPSI members by their leadership led to rioting.

The government went into emergency session to reconsider introducing fuel price rises. The increases were delayed one day. However, in the end they were put into effect, with Wahid making a statement that he assessed the people could still afford to pay the new prices.

The PRD called for national protests and for workers to go on strike again. More strikes and demonstrations then took place in many cities. They too were met with police violence. Wahid was forced to make a public call for the security apparatus to hold back and allow the demonstrations to take place.

NGOs to sue government over conference raid

Green Left Weekly - June 27, 2001

Peter Boyle -- Indonesian non-government organisations believe the June 8 raid by police on the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference, during which 32 foreigners were detained, was "a threat not only for [conference organiser] INCREASE but for all other pro-democracy NGOs". They have launched a lawsuit against the police.

Rita Olivia, one of several lawyers from the Legal Aid Institute of Jakarta (LBH) who assisted the 32 foreigners, told Green Left Weekly "The issue won't be only the raid but the state violence that violated the freedom of association, freedom to express our ideas".

Twelve NGOs have met since the raid to discuss its implications. These include the Indonesian Centre for Reform and Social Emancipation (INCREASE), which organised the confererence, but also environmental NGO WALHI, the International Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Women's Solidarity and LBH.

The groups agreed that "the raid was a form of state violence on democracy and freedom of association and expression", Olivia said.

The NGOs have since met with the chief commander of Indonesian police, General Bimantoro, on June 14 and parliamentarians, but "there was no satisfactory response from them", Olivia said. According to INCREASE director Kelik Ismunanto, Bimantoro admitted that his officers were wrong to stop the conference, but said that they did so because they suspected it to be an illegal meeting.

The suit will target not only the police but also the militias Angkatan Muda Kabah and Gerakan Pemuda Kabah, whose thugs entered the conference site alongside police and threatened and beat several Indonesian conference participants.

Olivia admits, however, that there "is only a tiny possibility to win such a case in our present justice system" but said confidently "Since we have a new attorney general and minister of justice and human rights, who are said to be `true and straight men', who knows?" She adds however that "Usually we use court procedures not to win the case but use it as our stage to expose the behaviour of our government and authorities" and that the press will likely be an "ally" in the case.

"There is big support from NGOs" for the lawsuit, Olivia argues, "as this will effect their work as well. Still, we need to move quickly otherwise the moment will be gone with the hot political situation here".

Police target PRD after strike wave

Green Left Weekly - June 27, 2001

Nick Everett & Rebecca Meckelburg, Bandung -- Police have arrested six members of the radical People's Democratic Party (PRD) in West Java, in an attempt to repress the largest strike the Indonesian province has seen since the coming to power of Suharto in 1965-66.

More than 20,000 workers from 24 Bandung factories took strike action from June 13, and were joined on June 15 by thousands of angkutan (minibus) drivers, demanding the withdrawal of a government decree annulling employers' obligations to make redundancy payments to sacked workers.

Workers were also fearful of the impact of cuts in fuel subsidies and a resultant 30% increase in petrol prices, due to come into effect on June 15. They have forced a partial backdown, the government delaying the price rise and the provincial governor promising that the labour decree will not apply in West Java.

The strike began on June 13 as an initiative of the All-Indonesia Workers Union, the SPSI, a union federation formerly tightly controlled by Suharto's ruling party, Golkar.

The strike was supported by factory workers throughout Bandung's garment and textile industry, with workers streaming in from industrial areas around the city. Some 8000 labourers from Leuwigajah marched up the toll road from Pasteur to Baros to participate in the rally. Once outside Bandung's local parliament, the demonstration soon became a riot.

A representative from the SPSI, speaking from atop a police vehicle, attempted to convince the workers that negotiations between the provincial legislature and all Bandung unions had resulted in a backdown by the provincial legislature.

But the workers, aware that the more militant Indonesian National Front for Workers' Struggle (FNPBI) had not been a party to the discussions, were not convinced that their redundancy entitlements were safe and began throwing stones at the building. The police then attacked the workers with sticks, but soon found themselves outnumbered by workers who chased them away.

On June 14, 20,000 striking workers again returned to the provincial legislature from industrial areas around Bandung, where they were confronted by five lines of police and Brimob (mobile brigade) armed forces.

This time an employee of the legislature attempted to convince the workers that the legislature had backed away from implementation of the decree by circulating copies of a decree from West Java's governor, Nuriana. These were torn up by the workers, who shouted "Liar, Liar" at the official; some again began throwing stones at the parliament building.

This time the police used tear gas and rubber bullets to attack protesters, injuring at least nine people. In addition, 83 protesters were detained over the two days, including a representative of the FNPBI and two members of the National Student League for Democracy (LMND).

Protest actions, including by public transport workers, continued throughout the weekend. Workers also took action in the nearby industrial city of Surabaya.

Police immediately accused the PRD of orchestrating the riots, claiming that it had paid workers 60,000 rupiah ($12) to participate, a claim firmly denied by the PRD. The claims were taken up by a right-wing group calling itself Forum Banjaran, which circulated pamphlets on June 14 accusing the PRD of promoting riots and anarchy.

On June 17, while distributing leaflets, one PRD member, Anton, was grabbed by a group of vigilantes, beaten and then taken to a local police station. A further four PRD members were captured by plain-clothes police.

The local military then raided the local PRD offices, forcing party members to make a quick escape out the back exit. The military then proceeded to throw stones at the office, break down the door, damage property and remove computers and party documents. The regional PRD leaders have since gone into hiding but PRD units continue to organise actions to condemn the Bandung police.

The party's chaiperson, Budiman Sujatmiko, has asked the human rights commission to investigate the incident, while West Java party secretary Natalia Scholastica was able to travel to Jakarta for a national media conference to condemn the police. There she expressed concerns for the safety of the detainees but vowed that her party would not be intimidated.

Forum Banjaran is only one of many groups being organised by right-wing forces to terrorise the democratic movement. Some are organised around an explicitly anti-communist program, such as the AAK, the Anti-Communist Alliance, while others are Islamic fundamentalist in character.

While primarily made up of members of the urban poor desperate for money, these militias are well-organised, even having a secretariat in central Jakarta, something far beyond the resources of poor slum-dwellers. In Bandung, Forum Banjaran has operated as provocateurs in workers' actions, encouraging rioting and then accusing the PRD of being responsible.

Urban poor hold rally

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2001

Jakarta -- Hundreds of becak (pedicab) drivers held a march on Wednesday to demand that the poor be given the right to earn a living in the capital.

The march, organized by several non-governmental organizations, began at the National Monument and passed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the City Council building, before ending at the United Nations representative office on Jl. Thamrin.

The pedicab drivers demanded the city administration revoke Bylaw No. 11/1988 on public order, which they said was frequently used as the legal basis for apprehending and detaining the underprivileged in the city, particularly street vendors and becak drivers.

According to an activist from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, the city's 474th anniversary, which fell on June 22, was an appropriate opportunity to remind the government and the city administration to focus more attention on the poor, whose rights, particularly the right to earn a living, were being ignored.

As part of their campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the impoverished, the NGOs will hold a dialog involving disadvantaged people, officials from the city administration and city councillors on Friday in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. It is hoped the dialog will help find solutions to the problems of the urban poor, who are often blamed for causing disorder and traffic jams in the capital.

LMND and PRD to file lawsuit over Bandung police

Detik - June 23, 2001

MMI Ahyani/HD, Bandung -- National Democratic Students Student League (LMND) is scheduled to file a lawsuit to West Java Police over an arrest of LMND's seven and Democratic People's Party (PRD) for West Java activists. Next week, a pre-trial be submitted since an arrest of those seven activists believed as fabricated. "This week, groups of Advocation team from Bandung (TABB), to whom we give them an authority to treat this case will submit their suit of pre-court," said PRD's leader for West Java Nathalia Scholastika Ch in Bandung, on Friday, yesterday.

Meanwhile, LMND's leader for West Java's district IV Rusma separately in Bandung Technology Institute (ITB) basket field on Friday, yesterday said that five of its seven activists. They are George Hormat, Andi Hartono, Yovi dan Dony Danuwiryo (ITB) and Noormalinda from Padjajaran State University, Bandung, West Java.

"They were incidentally arrested when they were distributing PRD's pamphlets. It's true we cooperate with PRD because of similarity of program in regards to go against rising fuel hike," he said.

Rusman furthermore said firmly that if that accusation saying our activists as the the man behind mass action, unrest, anarchic action over West Java Legislative Council on last June 13, 2001 are not wholly being accepted. "LMND started to move for going against rising fuel hike on last June 14 and cooperated with Indonesian National's Workers' Struggle Front [FNPB]," he said firmly.

However when asked did they follow on June 13 in an action at West Java Legislative Council's building, Rusman said firmly that they were coming at that time. "But we just came after hearing any unrest and cars were burned. Thus, if we incited the action it impossible. It should All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation (FSPSI) who the one took responsibility for that because it's them who incited the action," he said once again in firm.

Meanwhile, Nathalia also told firmly that legal base applied by police to the suspects saying they violated article 160, 161 and 157 of Criminal Code (KUHP) about instigation could not be accepted. "Those are rubber articles applied to remain silent over pro-democracy activities," she said. Because of that reason, through TAAB, PRD for West Java will submit a pre-trial lawsuit on this arrest.

In response to this, West Java Detective Division Police Head Commissioner Besar Sardjono contacted by Detik stated that police are ready to face a lawsuit conducted by groups which are not satisfied with police's measures. "Go ahead. That's their rights, how come we want hampering it," he said laughing.

At present, according to Sardjono, police has been kept questioning and making the report case of the all suspects. Total of suspects for unrest in Bandung last June 13 are as many as 21 people. "If the files have been finished, it will as soon as possible to submit to the attorney general's office (AGO) for trial," he said.

East Timor

`The ecology of disaster recovery'

East Timor diary - April 20, 2000

[The following is a sidebar from the Red Cross 2001 World Disasters Report. The writer is a medical doctor who has worked in Afghanistan and East Timor.]

Kies Rietveld -- At half past six, the sun is shining. Children shout, "Hello Mistar" on my morning run. Most suburban houses still lie in blackened ruins. No repairs are going on. The UN has levied a 10 per cent tax on timber for roofing beams. Aid agencies are exempt. Private repairs are not encouraged. It's cheaper to wait and let a foreign organization do it for free.

I arrive at the sea. In the bay waits a ship. It has been there for some weeks. On board are things normal people need, like soap, to be sold in the shops. But the ship has to wait. All harbours except Dili are closed. Supplies for the 10,000 peace keepers, UN officials and humanitarians have priority.

Back at my hotel (a bunch of containers in a car park), I listen to the Australian owner negotiating over a huge fish. The local fisherman wants twelve dollars. The owner pays him six Australian dollars. Fish-steaks will be sold over lunch at AS$ 12 a piece. Forty steaks could come out of this fish.

That night on the way home from work, I pass a ship the size of an oil tanker, dwarfing the palm trees. It is the UN hotel. International staff serve, manage and cook. Food comes from Singapore and Australia. It serves 600 guests, paying AS$ 150 a night. Not a cent gets into the local economy.

That is, if you exclude the shy girls, sitting next to aid workers in their four-wheel drive cars. They aren't imported from elsewhere. They're cheaper here.

Head of UN mission delivers first State of the Nation address

UN Department of Public Information - June 28, 2001

The head of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) today presented the first State of the Nation address to the East Timorese National Council, giving an in-depth overview of the progress to date and the challenges that lie ahead.

"The past twenty months have been intensive for all. We have shared a remarkable experience so far, and I suspect this will continue until -- and possibly beyond -- your independence," Sergio Vieira de Mello said before National Council Members, Cabinet, diplomatic corps and the public.

The one-hour speech covered 12 main areas: security and law and order; justice and human rights; humanitarian; reconstruction; finance; the role of UNTAET; public services; economic development; administrative transition; international relations; political process; and the post-UNTAET mission.

Mr. Vieira de Mello reaffirmed that preparations are on schedule for East Timor's full independence, with the results of the 30 August elections to be announced by 10 September, and the appointment of a second Cabinet by 15 September.

"I believe strongly that the East Timorese should be as united as possible as they face the extraordinary challenges of independence. Therefore, I will support the formation of a Government of National Unity, based on the spirit of a Pact of National Unity that I am currently encouraging political parties to conclude," he said.

"Following the elections and the formation of the second Transitional Cabinet, there will be a further and significant delegation of UNTAET's powers to the East Timorese political leadership, as elected," he said.

Indonesian officials urge East Timor refugees to go home

Deutsche Presse Agentur -- June 28, 2001

Atambua -- Facing the prospect of resettling tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees, an Indonesian government delegation on Thursday appealed to pro-Jakarta militia leaders to return home.

The appeal by senior Security Minister Agum Gumela came after a surprising 98 per cent of refugees languishing in Indonesian- controlled West Timor opted earlier this month to remain there.

Jakarta, which is trying to cope with over 1 million internally displaced people, had expected most of the estimated 100,000 refugees to chose to return to East Timor during a registration.

Local aid organizations slammed the registration as a ruse, saying the refugees were being intimidated by militia gangs running the refugee camps to remain in Indonesia.

The militias and Indonesian army soldiers launched a rape, murder and arson spree in East Timor after it overwhelmingly voted for independence in an August 1999 ballot. They then marched some 260,000 East Timorese into neighbouring West Timor at gun-point and held them there.

The Jakarta government, facing international humiliation for the actions of its military, is desperate to end the East Timore refugee crisis before it enters its second year this September.

Gumelar, who met with militia leaders in the West Timor border town of Atambua, tried to convince them that East Timor was safe and it was time to reconcile. "Just forget what happened in the past because there's no use continuing to be angry and seek revenge," he said, implying that the refugees should return rather than be settled in Indonesia.

Gumelar was accompanied by Admiral Widodo A.S., commander of the Indonesian Defence Forces, and other cabinet ministers and officials.

East Timor is now rebuilding under a UN administration as it prepares for statehood following elections slated for later this year.

Independence leaders have urged the refugees, including militia leaders, to return home, but warned that those who committed crimes would be arrested and prosecuted.

Joao Tavares, commander of the notorious Aitarak militia, which allegedly massacred dozens of people in two separate incidents in 1999, said they would return home if there were guarantees the militia members would not be arrested. "We did our best to keep East Timor integrated into Indonesia," he told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa. "We don't want to return to East Timor and be treated as criminals."

UNTAET to provide much aid, but no cash to political parties

Lusa - June 29, 2001

The UN administration in East Timor has prepared a package of wide-ranging logistical and material aid for 16 parties and independent candidates contesting the territory's first elections, but it does not plan to provide direct financial help.

Details of the UN plan, obtained by Lusa in Dili Friday, provide, among other things, for automobile and airborne support, telecommunications, access to computers and other office equipment, and the aid of graphic artists to help design campaign materials.

But, contrary to calls by some of the 16 recently registered parties, the plan makes no mention of direct financial aid to political organizations.

Campaigning for the August 30 constituent assembly elections, in which 88 seats are at stake, will begin July 15 and run through August 28.

Aid worker slams refugee `referendum'

Green Left Weekly - June 27, 2001

A leading Timorese aid worker has branded as a "sham" an Indonesian canvassing drive which found that 98% 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 the news agency 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.

The refugees were among around 250,000 people from East Timor who fled across the West Timor border when militia violence erupted after the territory voted for independence from Indonesia in August 1999. A provisional result released on June 6 showed that 98.02% 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 choose to return home, he said.

Helping the Timorese heal wounds of the mind

Melbourne Age -- June 28, 2001

Paula Doran -- For half of his 30 years Domingos lived chained to a wooden bench behind his village home in the hills of East Timor. His family was so afraid of his unexplained aggression that they bound his wrists and feet with chains.

Domingos' behavior changed when he was 15. At first his family thought his unrequited love for a schoolteacher sparked his rage. He began wandering daily and he would burn things for no reason. His speech was often jumbled. His family said he claimed to speak with spirits and with Jesus.

Because of his condition, Domingos was abused by fellow villagers, who frequently pelted him with stones. Afraid that his son would come to harm, his father brought out the chains.

Once, in a wave of guilt, his father unchained him. Domingos ran but was caught by Indonesian troops who beat him badly and then put him in a hessian bag and dumped him in a river. He was found and returned home barely alive.

When Australian psychologist and doctor Kim Baker first visited his village in December last year, Domingos lay on his bench, thin and dirty. He spoke single words and made no eye contact.

He has since been diagnosed and treated for schizophrenia. "Two months later he has shown enough improvement for his mother to remove the wrist chains," Dr Baker says. "One week later the family removed all of the chains. Sadly, his father wasn't alive to witness the removal of the chains. He died 17 months before." Domingos is now an integrated member of his community.

Dr Baker works with PRADET (Pyschosocial Recovery and Development in East Timor), a group funded by AusAID that provides what is believed to be the first mental health service in East Timor's history. Domingos is one of 255 cases PRADET has treated since the service began in April last year.

Led by a small Australian team -- director Kristina Tang, clinical supervisor Susan Kendall and Dr Baker -- PRADET has trained 12 local staff as mental health nurses and continues their training on the job. Given the extent of neglect in the past, it is not surprising that no figures are available on the extent of mental illness in East Timor.

But the limited research that has been done, also not surprisingly, suggests a high level of post-traumatic stress disorder. A survey of East Timor's 13 districts, conducted in June-July last year by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, found that 96.6 per cent of the 1033 people surveyed had suffered trauma during Indonesia's occupation. Seventy-six per cent had experienced a combat situation; 64 per cent had suffered a lack of shelter; 60 per cent had endured ill health without access to medical care; more than half had been close to death. A third of those surveyed reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In their first week of operations, PRADET treated 17 patients; they now have more than 250. Most patients suffer psychosis (45 per cent) and severe depression (40 per cent). Many suffer post- traumatic stress disorder. "Half of these people are under 30 years old. Many have had the illness for decades. It's not uncommon for the patient to have gone 10 to 15 years without treatment," Dr Baker explains.

With little other option in the past, it was common for the mentally ill to be chained up or locked away in barricaded rooms or prison. Some of these practices continue today, and mentally ill people are still in East Timor's prisons.

"During Indonesian times they were simply diagnosed 'bulak' -- crazy. The Indonesians treated the mentally ill very basically. They were given a handful of pills and told to `go away'. At best these pills were a sedative, at worst, they did nothing," Dr Baker says. "There was no follow up, the people would relapse. "Some of the mentally ill were sent to Bali to a psychiatric hospital. Most didn't come back. Some patients were treated with the anti-psychotic chlorpromazine injection and I believe some people died from that.

"I heard that in some instances, if someone was very `crazy', if they were very dangerous and tying them up didn't work, then the village chief would meet with the family and together they would face the decision of whether that person should live," she explains. "That was a decision made with great difficulty for the good of the community, to contain the danger. Many times the condition of the person tied up would deteriorate so they couldn't eat ... they eventually passed away."

Ignorance about mental health issues, and prejudice against sufferers, are the first obstacles the team must tackle. An incident Dr Baker witnessed during a recent visit to the small Becora Clinic, which adjoins a school on the outskirts of Dili, demonstrates the scale of the task. In the middle of the school yard was a patient, a 25-year-old stabbing victim who had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the attack. Surrounding him were swarms of children, who chased, taunted and stoned him.

"I ran outside to defend him, but every time I shooed away some of the kids, more would surround us. They kept on screaming and pelting stones at this poor man," Dr Baker says. "He'd ran out of medicine, and off his own bat he was coming down to the clinic to get more." Public education, starting in schools, is next on PRADET'S agenda.

After personally experiencing the trauma of the war in the former Yugoslavia, Croatian psychologist Suzanah Paklar, representing the International Catholic Migration Commission, has been training East Timorese women in trauma, tolerance and communication skills.

"People here lived so long under threat," Ms Paklar says "They learnt how not to think, to make your mind blank. You function, but your mind is not functioning ... they switch off because it helps not to feel. We need to share the message that recovery will take time, steps, processes and activities to heal these people."

Ms Paklar says her training sessions left her with hope that women would lead the recovery in East Timor. "The idea is to focus on women and increase the knowledge of trauma, to empower the women in the local community. A lot of [East Timorese] military come home after years in the mountains, away from their families, with a very important job of defending their country. When they return they are still on a little bit of a high ... they're welcomed, then slowly, normality hits and they don't know how to fit in. These men need to learn how to deal with everyday life that is now too simple."

She says it was important for aid organisations to treat more than the bricks and mortar deficiencies in East Timor. "People aid the visible, the tangible problems, the destruction, the burnt houses ... which is all very fair but the longer you wait to treat mental health, the more complex the condition."

She cites the rise in domestic violence as an example. "There is no group that would not be affected by the experience of their country. You have a situation that you live under for a long period of time, in conditions defined as very traumatic, then the trauma is all that you know. It's not like a train crash, it's your life."

[Domingos' name has been changed for reasons of privacy. Paula Doran is an Australian journalist doing volunteer work for an East Timor radio station.]

Sixteen parties meet deadline to nominate candidates: UN

UN News - June 27, 2001

Sixteen political parties have nominated candidates to run in the August elections for East Timor's Constituent Assembly, meeting the deadline set for noon local time on Wednesday, UNTAET, the United Nations Transitional Administration in the territory, said today.

During the elections to be held on 30 August, the voters will elect 88 members of the Assembly, of whom 13 will be district candidates representing each of East Timor's districts, and the remaining 75 will be allocated to parties based on a nation-wide proportional representation list.

All of the parties nominated national candidates, UNTAET said, with Parentil and the PNT being the only two parties that had not submitted district candidate nominations.

As for party registration, the UN mission said that the final three parties to register with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) ahead of last Sunday's deadline -- Apodeti, Parentil and Partai Liberal -- were currently in the 14-day inspection period, but presented candidates in conformity with IEC.

HIV tests to be optional

Sydney Morning Herald - June 28, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dill -- The United Nations in East Timor will encourage staff to volunteer for HIV tests but cannot make them compulsory on human rights grounds.

Responding to reports that a Darwin woman had contracted the virus from a UN employee based in East Timor, the Northern Territory Chief Minister, Mr Burke, this week urged the UN to screen all its employees for HIV to prevent its spread in East Timor and Australia, adding that should it fail to do so Canberra should consider restricting the visa that allows UN staff to visit Darwin. The Northern Territory Government says it has diagnosed 10 cases of HIV in visitors from East Timor.

A spokeswoman for the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor yesterday accepted not enforcing compulsory testing of UN personnel posed a health risk, but defended the policy. "We don't do tests for HIV because it is a basic human rights issue and considered discriminatory." she said.

The UN has about 11,250 people in East Timor, including about 8,000 peacekeepers from 10 countries. Only one case of HIV had been detected in East Timor and all donated blood was screened, a senior Dili-based public health official said.

Australia, East Timor close to treaty on energy royalties

Dow Jones Newswires - June 28, 2001

Ray Brindal, Canberra -- Australian and East Timorese representatives have resolved many of their outstanding differences about a planned new treaty covering royalties from energy production in the Timor Sea, Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.

He was commenting after meeting with East Timor negotiators Jose Ramos Horta, Mari Alkatiri and Peter Galbraith, and Australia's Attorney-General Daryl Williams and Industry Science and Resources Minister Nick Minchin.

"It's been a pretty productive day and we have been able to resolve a lot of outstanding issues," Downer told reporters. He said he expects to have more say on the issue early next week. "The chances of us reaching an agreement are high," he said in answer to a question about whether a framework agreement can be finalized next week.

A spokesman for Downer earlier said the two sides now are "pretty close" with only one relatively minor issue still outstanding, which he said related to one particular but unnamed oil-field.

The 75,000 square-kilometer area known as the Timor Gap was covered by the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty between Australia and Indonesia. This lapsed when Indonesia withdrew after East Timor's August 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.

Australia and East Timor began formal negotiations on a new treaty last year. If and when an agreement is reached, it could clear the way for billions of dollars of investment in energy projects in the area.

Media reports suggest royalties from production of the vast gas resources in the Timor Sea could yield up to US$1 billion a year in revenue for East Timor, way more than a proposed government budget for the next fiscal year of US$65 million.

The major development under way now in the Timor Sea is a US$1.6 billion Bayu-Undan liquids stripping and gas recycling project operated by Phillips Petroleum Co. (P). A second stage of this project could involve a cooperative development with Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD), Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (A.WPL), Japan's Osaka Gas Ltd. (J.OSG) and Phillips to jointly run an undersea gas pipe to Darwin from the Greater Sunrise gas resource in the Timor Sea.

A number of projects have been proposed to process this gas at Darwin or pipe it into major Australian markets to the south.

People to have their say - but so will the UN

Sydney Morning Herald - June 29, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili -- The United Nations has told the people of East Timor they will be virtually self-governing from September 15 -- but that the UN will decide who will form the government.

The head of the UN administration in the country, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, appealed yesterday to political parties to accept a government of national unity after elections on August 30 for a constituent assembly, or parliament. He indicated he had the right to appoint such a government, although he added that the new Cabinet would "broadly reflect" the results of the elections.

He spelled out the next steps in East Timor's rocky road to independence in a speech to the appointed members of the national council, the de facto parliament. The council will be dissolved on July 15 to pave the way for the elections. The results will be announced on September 10, and the newly elected constituent assembly will convene five days later.

"I believe strongly that the East Timorese should be as united as possible as they face the extraordinary challenges of independence," Mr Vieira de Mello said. "Therefore I support the formation of a government of national unity based on the spirit of a pact of national unity that I am currently encouraging political parties to conclude."

While East Timor would be virtually self-governing by September 15, he said, he would appoint the all-Timorese Cabinet. "We will all respect the outcome of the August 30 election and the choices made by the Timorese people, and thus the Cabinet will broadly reflect the results of the ballot. But I will be urging the victorious party or parties to reach out to those who were less successful in the ballot."

The Cabinet would include most if not all of the parties elected to the assembly and could include other "eminent" but non-elected members. Within 90 days, the 88-seat assembly will draft and adopt the first constitution for an independent East Timor. Independence would be granted after the constitution was approved, and any further elections needed were held, Mr Vieira de Mello said.

He reminded national council members that until independence he would retain ultimate executive authority under a UN Security Council resolution. "You won't be getting rid of me that easily," he joked, but no-one in the national council laughed.

Indonesia essential for the future of East Timor

Canberra Times - June 26, 2001

George Quinn -- Personally I don't think Indonesia will break up, but we are talking here of probabilities, and there is an outside chance, but a real chance, that current stresses will tear the nation apart. If this happens in any comprehensive way, the new state of East Timor will find itself the star player in a whole new regional ball game. But it may not be on the winning side.

As I write these words, I'm taken back to the lobby of a hotel in Tokyo in December 1999. Late at night, around a low table strewn with coffee cups, a group of East Timorese intellectuals and activists are talking about the UN referendum and its aftermath. Some are pro-independence, others are pro-Indonesia now living in West Timor or in other parts of Indonesia. Across the ideological divide there is an air of jocular Timorese camaraderie, but there is also an edgy intensity.

Talk turns to relations between East Timor and Indonesia and the question emerges: what will happen in Timor if Indonesia breaks up? There is a kind of surprised consensus around the table. The break-up of Indonesia will make it possible for the island of Timor to reassert its primordial unity.

For both groups, the possible emergence of a unified Timor is a disturbing prospect. It will destroy the delusions that lie at the heart of their respective nationalisms. For pro-Indonesia East Timorese the dream of a prosperous, autonomous place within Indonesia, like Goa's place in the Indian Union or Macau's in China, will vanish once and for all.

For the pro-independence East Timorese a unified Timor will demand reversal of their nationalist myth that East Timor is culturally distinct from West Timor and other adjacent areas.

In 1994 I visited the Oecussi enclave, a lick of East Timorese territory on the north coast of West Timor. On the way out of the enclave I found myself sitting in a rickety bus with a party of Oecussi Timorese dressed in their spectacular traditional finery and chewing wads of betel and lime.

They told me they were on their way to Kefamenanu in the central highlands to present a formal proposal of marriage. Kefamenanu is across the border in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara.

The hopeful groom was sitting opposite me, a ceremonial crescent of beaten copper lying on his lap. "My future wife," he said, "works in the market in Kefamenanu. I go there every week to buy and sell produce, and that's where I met her. We speak the same language and our families are known to each other."

For an instant the old Timor had materialised before me. Networks of trade, ritual and kinship had once knitted the island into a single cultural and economic domain. There were no borders. Of course, as far as is known, in pre-colonial times the island of Timor was never a single state. It was a patchwork of small polities, interacting in a dynamic, constantly shifting configuration of alliances and enmities.

But it is also clear that, despite its internal diversity, Timor constituted a coherent culture area bound by common elements of culture and trade. Goods and people moved freely from market to market from one end of the island to the other. In coastal areas the Malay language (today called Indonesian) played a significant role in lubricating commerce up and down the island and even over the straits to neighbouring islands.

When the Dutch and the Portuguese hacked a border across the belly of Timor they ruptured a number of trade paths, in particular the ancient route along which sandalwood and other products had been transported from the eastern part of the island to the port of Atapupu in what was to become West Timor. The Portuguese nursed an almost pathological distrust of the Dutch. Under their rule, East Timor sank into isolation. Knowledge of the Malay language dried up, trade across the length of the island likewise withered.

But the memory of Timorese unity never died. The vigour of this memory is one reason why East Timor's new elite, many of whom are strongly stamped with the outward trappings of Portuguese culture, feel compelled to set about resurrecting a pseudo- colonial image of East Timorese distinctness.

I suppose the most extreme manifestation of this is the decision to assign a role of prime importance to the Portuguese language. Given that no more than two or three per cent of East Timorese have (or ever did have) a communicative command of Portuguese, this will be a huge, long-term, potentially divisive imposition on the new state.

Paradoxically perhaps, the preservation of Indonesia's unity is essential to the development of a culturally distinct East Timor. If Indonesia breaks up and pan-Timorese primordialism emerges, East Timor, as it is presently being shaped, may well disappear too.

[George Quinn heads the South-East Asia Centre in the Faculty of Asian Studies at the Australian National University.]

777,989 Timorese registered

Suara Timor Lorosae - June 26, 2001

The civil registration process has been a success. Since the start of it on 24 February till its closing on 22 June, 777,989 Timorese have been registered at the various centers in the country. The total population of Timor Lorosae has been estimated at 812,000 people.

This was stated by Piter Rimmeli, the head of the Civil Registry Unit. Out of the 777,989 that had been registered, 370,000 would be eligible to vote in the 30 August election.

"Civil registration is still open for those who haven't registered and want to be citizens. There is no deadline for registration," said Rimmeli.

He emphasized, however, that the cut-off date for taking part in the August 30 election was 22 June. "Those who were registered on 23 June cannot take part in the election," he stressed.

Rimmeli said 1,200 foreigners had been registered as Timorese citizens and, now, had the right to vote in the 30 August election. He said the foreigners were married to East Timorese citizens.

Rimmeli said that the registration process was not problem-free. "During the four months, we encountered various difficulties. There were computer problems; the generators failed because we were using them full-time; and there were certain people who were just not familiar with the procedures," said Rimmeli.

Gusmao calls for pardoning militiamen

Australian Associated Press - June 27, 2001 (abridged)

Joanna Jolly -- East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao said he supports pardons for militiamen who are found guilty of committing atrocities during the territory's 1999 vote for independence.

But Gusmao, who is widely expected to become East Timor's first president when it becomes independent next year, said the paramilitaries would first have to account for their crimes. "I am of the mind that amnesty comes after justice," he told reporters in East Timor's capital, Dili.

Gusmao also criticised Australian peacekeepers stationed at East Timor's border with Indonesia for distributing "wanted" posters of pro-Jakarta militiamen. He said the tactic was frightening refugees still in West Timor from returning home and disrupting reconciliation efforts.

End of beginning for East Timor

Australian Financial Review - June 25, 2001

Geoffrey Barker -- An armada of big, white four-wheel-drive vehicles cruises and clogs the dusty roads of Dili carrying the army of United Nations soldiers, policemen and civil servants that is preparing the world's newest impoverished nation for independence.

The pervasive UN presence in East Timor has had a dramatic economic impact on the capital that was burned, trashed and looted by the departing Indonesians two years ago.

Out of the ashes are rising new and restored buildings and trendy bars and cafes patronised by foreign staff of the United Nations Transitional Authority for East Timor. The result is a bizarre dual economy in which young women work as waitresses while young men labour on burned and battered building sites or loiter on roadsides trying to sell mobile telephone cards, bootleg CDs and old Portuguese coins.

At night, the UN elite, headed by the smooth Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, retires to the air-conditioned comfort of a luxury cruise ship berthed in Dili harbour. The locals go home to wrecked houses or to rusty iron and sapling shanties where roosters, pigs, goats and dogs piss and peck and snuffle for scraps of food.

Soon, very soon, most of the four-wheel-drives, the highly paid foreigners and the cruise ship will depart. The cafes will close and the bubble will burst, leaving the relatively privileged minority of the capital, and the overwhelming majority in East Timor's countryside, to ... what?

East Timor, just 500km north of Darwin, is approaching a historic cross-roads, the end of its beginning. On August 30, two years to the day since their overwhelming vote for independence unleashed the Indonesian-orchestrated orgy of violence and destruction against them, the East Timorese will vote in national elections for an 88-member Constituent Assembly.

The election results will be announced on September 9, the assembly will sit on September 15 and, under UNTAET's smothering solicitude, it will have 90 days in which to write and to promulgate the Constitution under which East Timor will finally reach full independence late this year or early next year.

Thus will end what is arguably the UN's largest and most complex operation so far -- to ensure security in a country that had been plunged into chaos and wrecked and looted after its vote to reject Indonesian rule, and, in the words of the UN mandate, "to support capacity-building for self government and to assist in the establishment of conditions for sustainable development".

The UN and international responses to East Timor have been extraordinarily generous, reasonably effective, unquestionably wasteful and doubtless intimidating and confusing to many locals.

The UN (which is facing a $US20 million deficit in this year's $US65 million East Timor budget) has brought in 8,000 troops, 1,450 civilian police and 1,000 international staff. Many national government and non-government organisations are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the reconstruction of East Timor.

When the UN mandate expires on January 31 next year it will leave behind a civil administration of variable quality and the nucleus of defence and police forces.

Democratic political institutions will be in place with responsibility for developing social and economic policies. Reasonable foundations for future health and education -- two crucial areas of concern -- will have been laid.

As East Timor moves towards the August 30 elections, political parties and national leaders are taking cautious positions. National resistance hero Xanana Gusmao has declared that he does not want the presidency, although Fretilin, the country's main party, insists that he is its candidate.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta, a high-profile international figure, has, like Gusmao, quit Fretilin and is Cabinet member for Foreign Affairs in the UNTAET administration.

After the elections, peace-keeping forces, including some 1,500 Australians, will remain in East Timor for possibly three to five years while the new East Timor Defence Force is recruited and trained. Several hundred senior civilian staff will also stay in the country to overcome critical skill shortages in key administrative areas.

But the country of about 812,000 people, most living from primitive, subsistence agriculture, will be in charge of its own social, political and economic future. Its civil administration will be new and inexperienced, it will be among the poorest countries on Earth, and it will face three major challenges identified at the recent Canberra meeting of East Timor donor countries.

They are to set up a medium-term post-independence framework for planning and development expenditure within what seems likely to be an extremely limited budget, to achieve fiscal sustainability by balancing its spending, saving and investment, and to achieve a clean and efficient political and administrative handover.

The country faces massive and interacting social, political and economic hurdles. It will face self-government barely two years after the UN started to build its administration from the ground up out of the wreckage. The Constituent Assembly elections and the constitution-writing process are being squeezed into a period of barely four months.

Leading East Timorese non-government organisations argue this timeframe is far too tight for an adequate program of civil and political education in a country of largely illiterate people for whom political life has always been associated with violence and where question marks remain over personal security and political stability.

But the UN has so far registered 750,000 East Timorese to vote and insists that it is time to wind down its dominating presence and activity.

About 16 political parties have emerged to contest the August 30 constituent assembly elections -- although there seems little doubt that the dominant majority party will be Fretilin (the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor) which led East Timor's 25-year struggle against incorporation into Indonesia. It is the biggest, richest and by far the best organised group.

Fretilin leaders say they have abandoned earlier Leftist preferences for highly centralised command economy politics for policies similar to those of the Australian Labor Party, but the Fretilin platform is far stronger on idealistic rhetoric than it is on social and economic policy substance.

Fretilin has pledged a government of national unity in its first term of office, but if it wins up to 80 per cent of the vote (which many experts say is possible) it may well be tempted to impose its will, whatever its will proves to be.

Whoever governs East Timor will face extremely testing budgetary and economic management constraints despite guarantees of continuing but declining levels of international aid, a significant portion of which seems certain to be provided by Australia.

East Timor's core pre-election budget, prepared by an Australian Treasury team headed by Department of Finance and Administration branch head Michael Carnahan, is for $US65 million.

But Carnahan's team has estimated that recurrent expenditure will rise to around $US100 million by mid-decade as functions now provided by UNTAET are taken into the budget and as the new country hires its police, armed forces and other administrative staff.

By mid-decade, according to an UNTAET-World Bank report prepared for the Canberra donors meeting, Timor Sea oil and gas revenues "can provide an exit strategy from dependence on external grant- based or concessional funding".

But the report also notes that the timing and magnitude of those revenues "complicate" policy decisions. "These resources can be used to fund recurrent expenditures or part can be saved to fund medium-term development expenditures and used to smooth the revenue stream over a longer period," the report says.

And if recurrent expenditure rises to $US100 million, the report says that all Timor Sea revenues may be needed to fund the recurrent budget. "Moreover," it adds, "should oil and gas revenues be delayed, the maintenance of expenditures at the levels projected would almost certainly create the need for substantial unplanned borrowing. This argues for caution."

But how cautious is the new Fretilin-dominated government likely to be given the pent-up expectations and frustrations of a dirt- poor population that has finally reached independence after 400 years of neglect and brutalisation by the Portuguese, Japanese and Indonesians?

Will its leaders be tough enough to avoid economic policies that will lead East Timor to becoming a client State depending on foreign budget support?

"We are fortunate to have here a fairly responsible leadership," UN supremo De Mello told The Australian Financial Review. "In the very early stages they told me that they wanted us ... to proceed with utmost prudence and care with regard to royalties and taxes from the Timor Gap."

De Mello said the interim Cabinet had agreed three months ago that part of the Timor Sea revenues would have to be used to supplement or to replace foreign budget support in the funding of recurrent expenditure.

But a proportion, which de Mello said had never been defined, would need to be kept in reserve for development-related investment. "At what point the Timorese will use part of those resources to fund recurrent expenditure is up to them. My hope is that they will come to a clearer decision as to how much and when to contribute to recurrent expenditure," de Mello said.

Fretilin's election platform declares the party to be for an administration based on "sustainable governability and good governance" and the eradication of poverty. Fretilin central committee member Estanislau da Silva, a former NSW Government research agronomist whose son and daughter attend university in Sydney, said Fretilin no longer supported nationalisation policies.

"We do not want to rely on international donors for too long. That's why we are committed to stable government, small government and effective government," da Silva said. Easy to say on the eve of independence, but hard any time to achieve.

Much has been achieved in East Timor, but as the UNTAET-World Bank report concludes: "The continued support of all the development partners will be critical to the successful transition to a stable, sustainable and independent East Timor."

Students set fire to school in Baucau

Lusa - June 27, 2001

A group of unidentified youths set fire Wednesday to a school in the East Timorese city of Baucau, 130 kms east of Dili, causing serious material damage. No one was hurt in the incident. UN civil police investigators said the group of between five and 10 people had set fire to the building at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

A note from the UN transition administration sent to Lusa specified that the perpetrators had fled the scene before the arrival of authorities.

The fire was the most recent incident in Baucau, East Timor's second city, where various acts of violence have taken place since last March, including the burning of the local mosque and an attack on a local administrator and UN officials.

Leader says Fretilin confident of winning presidential election

Xinhua News - June 26, 2001

Maputo -- Guterres, visiting president of the Timorese liberation movement (Fretilin), declared here on Tuesday that he is confident his party will win in the country's first presidential election scheduled for August 30. Guterres made the remarks immediately after an audience with Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who is also president of the ruling Frelimo party.

He declared that the Timorese people always support Fretilin, adding "so our victory is certain". He said that Fretilin is still backing Xanana Gusmao, former President of Fretilin and the historic leader of the Timorese resistance against Indonesian occupation, to become the first president of East Timor, even though Gusmao has repeatedly said that he does not want to be a candidate. "For us, Xanana is the only consensual candidate within Fretilin," stressed Guterres, adding he is optimistic that Gusmao will change his mind in time to stand in the presidential election.

Guterres said that his meeting with Chissano was intended to thank the Mozambican leader for all the assistance that Frelimo has given to Fretilin in its struggle for Timorese self- determination. "Since 1975 Frelimo has given invaluable assistance to Timor," said Guterres, adding Chissano has promised that this support will continue in the new phase of Fretilin's history.

Timor and the dilemma of development

Australian Financial Review - June 26, 2001

Geoffrey Barker -- A wizened brown man with black teeth squatted in the dusty Balibo roadside with eight 5-litre plastic jerry cans of kerosene he had lugged 8 kilometres up steep jungle hills from the smugglers' market on the border between East Timor and Indonesian West Timor.

In hot sunshine, metres from the wrecked house where five Australian-based journalists were murdered by Indonesian troops in 1975, he was waiting for Augusto, the man with the truck, who would pour the cans' contents into 200-litre drums and sell them in Dili.

Black-Teeth had paid 8,000 rupiah ($1.40) for each 5 litres; Augusto would buy them for Rp15,000. Four days each week, Black- Teeth and hundreds of other villagers haul their 40-litre fuel loads up to Balibo slung on bamboo poles across their skinny shoulders and wait for the Augustos and their trucks.

It's a living. It's the living in this isolated and still dangerous border area where 1,000 Australian troops from 4RAR battalion group commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Jeff Sengelman remain on full operational alert against militia groups seeking to infiltrate from Indonesian West Timor.

The fuel smugglers complicate the Australian operations. Armed militia members visit the border markets and extort a percentage to fund their continuing activities. They also seek to infiltrate East Timor under cover of the smugglers and returning refugees in the hope of destabilising the new country.

So Sengelman and his troops find themselves in a catch-22. "We are here to protect the East Timorese," he says. "We have to work with the people to ensure their security, but any attack on the illegal cross-border trade is seen by the people as an attack on their livelihood. "We need to find strategies that do not attack them."

Ironically, a massive increase in cross-border smuggling was caused by the United Nations Transitional Authority itself. Its decision to impose a national 10 per cent consumption tax meant that smuggling fuel from Indonesian West Timor, where it is subsidised by Jakarta, became an irresistible proposition for East Timorese villagers close to the border.

With few customs posts along the mountainous 150km border of the 1,138squarekilometre Australian area of operations, it is easy for villagers to avoid taxes by tramping over jungle footpaths with their loads to make fast profits. The Australians have seen up to 400 villagers, including children, marching ant-like up steep hills with their jerry cans.

It is a trade of indeterminable scale, but only part of wider smuggling operations in fuel, cigarettes and foodstuffs taking place between Indonesia and East Timor. Rumours abound that corrupt East Timorese political leaders in Dili are deeply involved in the trade, but there seems no clear evidence to link any party or politician to it.

Indonesian military authorities in West Timor have no incentive to discourage the cross-border trade: they are skimming off their own percentage on the West Timor side to supplement their poor salaries and are thus also benefiting from Jakarta's subsidies and Dili's taxes.

Sengelman is philosophical about the trade. He is neither a customs collector nor a policeman, he says, but adds cautiously: "It does not make our jobs easier, trying to implement strategies that do not appear to be achievable ... Unless it involves security issues, it is not a soldier's problem."

His problem is that the smuggling frequently intersects with security problems in the area, including at Junction Point A, where armed Australian and Indonesian troops face each other in watchtowers across 419m of no-man's-land called the tactical control line, 12km from Balibo. Junction Point A is a major crossing point for refugees returning from West Timor.

Three times this year -- on May 29 and twice this month -- the Australian troops have been involved in significant border incidents. On May 29, three people were killed and about a dozen injured when grenades were thrown by suspected militia fighters at a market in the village of Mabusa. Indonesian troops rushed to the area and were ordered to leave by United Nations military observers when an Australian force arrived.

For Sengelman, the incident demonstrated that the militias used the markets, mingling with traders operating within the tactical control line.

On June 12, a key militia figure handed himself in to UN civilian police after crossing the border with a group of 230 returning refugees. Interrogated by Australian forces, the man revealed that other militia figures were also part of the group. The Australians mounted an operation involving 100 infantrymen supported by armoured vehicles and helicopters to sweep villages and round up other militia figures.

In all, 34 people claimed to be ex-militia and the Australians handed six of them over to the civilian police for further investigation. It was the first time so many militia members had handed themselves in, persuading Sengelman of the need to remain engaged with, and talking to, villagers about security issues.

On June 14 to 16, the lead scout of an Australian patrol challenged five armed men in heavy country. One of the men started to fire on the Australian patrol and the patrol counter- attacked, pursuing the men through 40m of jungle. The men moved back towards the Australian position, firing shots, before disappearing into West Timor.

Later, Indonesian forces told the Australians that they had captured five unarmed men who claimed they had been smuggling sandalwood. Sengelman described this encounter as "one of the most significant events to date". "It shows that groups with weapons and intent on killing are still trying to cross the tactical control line," he said.

None of these incidents has deterred the cross-border trade. If anything, it might have helped to lift prices. According to Australian Army Captain Toby Horton, prices rose after the May 29 grenade attack, with five litres of kerosene rising from Rp3,125 to Rp9,000 and a similar sharp increase in the profit from a truckload of 10 200-litre drums.

A former SAS commando with a Master's degree in international relations, Sengelman launched an operation code-named Albatross this month with the aim of denying militias the use of cross- border trade as a cover for moving into and out of the Australian area of operations, but without denying the villagers their freedom to engage in the trade.

The operation involved aggressive patrols, a public information campaign, and searching and physically monitoring trade locations. Sengelman is adamant that he does not want to confiscate goods from villagers. "I can't prosecute security if I take away the trade," he says.

But what would happen if the UN tax collectors and civil police mounted their own major operation to collect taxes or to stop smuggling? Sengelman says such action would undermine him, but adds: "I take the lack of UN interference with my approach as tacit endorsement."

Down at the Balibo market, the villagers appear to appreciate the attitude of Sengelman's men who maintain a relaxed if pervasive presence, repeatedly explaining that there are "no problems" -- a universally understood formula -- when they seek information about the trade.

Villagers seem pleased when the Australian troops arrive to look at their favourite gambling pastime: cock-fighting. A smiling village boy, carrying his victorious rooster in one hand, waves the bloody, white-feathered carcass of its vanquished opponent at the Australians as they stroll by. It seems a sign of approving recognition.

And so from his headquarters in an old Portuguese fort, Sengelman's soldiers are surrounded by the ghastly memorials at the sun-drenched place of death that is Balibo -- the death house of the Balibo Five, the nearby bullet-pocked kissing house where militias in 1999 forced Timorese to lean forward to kiss a wall before shooting them in the back of the head, and the big old hanging tree where Timorese were executed and left on display.

Inside the kissing house, behind a black drape, an altar has been built. On it are six small black coffin-shaped boxes, including one that is infant-sized. The boxes hold the bones of some East Timorese slaughtered on August 30, 1999. There are flower petals and candle wax on the altar and on the floor. On each coffin, for the ghosts of each of the slain, mourners have left a cigarette.

And outside, the bright hot sun shines on a large Indonesian statue. It is the statue of a man with raised arms from which hang broken ropes. It purportedly represents an East Timorese who has broken the shackles of Portugal by becoming part of Indonesia. The villagers are too busy smuggling fuel or betting on cock-fights to stop and laugh at it.

Americans threaten to derail Timor oil talks

Sydney Morning Herald - June 26, 2001

Jane Counsel -- A United States company is stepping up efforts to settle a 25-year dispute over the oil and gas riches of the Timor Gap, announcing yesterday it would launch legal proceedings to validate its claims.

PetroTimor's chief executive, Mr Charles Haas, said the company planned to lodge a statement of claim in the Australian Federal Court within the next fortnight seeking legal recognition of a 1974 exploration concession granted over a large part of the Timor Sea.

That concession now forms much of the area covered by the Timor Gap Treaty. The concession was granted to PetroTimor by Portugal in late 1974 but effectively became null and void when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975.

The legal action threatens to derail sensitive negotiations between Australia and East Timor over a new treaty to replace one formed between Australia and Indonesia in 1989. Mr Haas said the legal action came after the company had exhausted all other avenues trying to convince Indonesian and Australian authorities of the validity of their claim.

"They have been trying to ignore us and hope we go away," Mr Haas said. "But that's not what we intend to do. We intend to protect our rights -- we have obligations to our shareholders."

PetroTimor has not indicated who it intends to name as the defendant to the claim, but it is assumed it will be the Australian Government, which Mr Haas argues has refused to take the company's claim seriously. "Australia owns the most prolific parts of the Timor Gap -- they simply did not want to recognise that [PetroTimor's] ownership," he said.

Mr Haas rejected accusations that the legal claim is a last- minute event staged to force a favourable outcome for East Timor in existing talks over a new Timor treaty.

PetroTimor, which is owned 80 per cent by Oceanic Exploration -- a $US5 million public oil and gas company -- and 20 per cent by the East Timorese, was granted an exploration concession for 50,000 square kilometres of the Timor Sea between Australia and East Timor in March 1974. PetroTimor's 1974 concession is almost a mirror image of "Zone A", a key area of the Timor Gap Treaty which is now being renegotiated.

But rather than give any validation to PetroTimor, the company, along with several others, was invited by the joint Indonesian- Australian authorities to bid for exploration permits for the Timor Sea after the treaty was finalised. PetroTimor refused to bid, arguing that it already held a claim to much of the Zone A area and that several promising oil and gas discoveries were subsequently made by other companies.

Several of those now form the basis of a $1.5 billion gas project being developed by Phillips Petroleum, which is under threat if PetroTimor's concession is validated. PetroTimor is hoping to proceed with separate plans to develop the Bayu Undan gas fields by building a pipeline to gas processing facilities in East Timor.

East Timor's new ally: Dr Death

Expresso (Portugal) - June 14, 2001

Tony Jenkins -- East Timor has acquired a powerful and unexpected new ally, a man some Americans still refer to as Dr Death: Henry Kissinger. In a meeting in New York last month with Xanana Gusmao, Jose Ramos Horta and Constancio Pinto, the former US Secretary of State promised to organize a conference of top US financiers and media figures this autumn, in an effort to drum up investment money and support for East Timor. He also offered to use his considerable influence with the current Republican administration to gain attention and assistance.

The meeting was requested by Ramos Horta, "I had a feeling this might be the right moment, that he might be sensitive and supportive, and I was right," Ramos Horta told the Expresso. According to US government documents, Kissinger and President Gerald Ford, gave their assent to the Indonesian invasion during a meeting with the Indonesian dictator Suharto in Jakarta in 1975, even though US government lawyers had pointed out that such an invasion would be illegal. 16 hours after their meeting, Indonesian paratroopers landed in Dili and started massacring civilians. In a more recent connection, since 1999 Kissinger has donated his services as an unpaid adviser to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

But in recent months Kissinger has also become the target of renewed accusations that he is a "war criminal" for actions as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State in the 60s and 70s that allegedly led to atrocities in Timor, Vietnam, Chile and elsewhere. He has also been asked to testify by courts in both France and Argentina which are investigating Latin American death squad activity and other human rights abuses. Last month, to his great discomfort, a request to appear in court reached him in his room at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. He declined the invitation.

But Timorese leaders are not interested in talking about the past. "We can only gain by putting the past behind us and by benefiting from this man's connections to help us in the future," Ramos Horta says, "Why blame only Kissinger? It was the whole Cold War era."

But Kissinger himself felt the need to explain his actions, as if he felt some guilt for the disaster that befell East Timor. "He repeatedly tried to explain the complex global situation of the period. He kept saying again and again that he didn't know of the Indonesian plans, that he thought it would be peaceful like the Indian occupation of Goa," says Constancio Pinto, the official Timorese representative to the USA. "It seems he wants to compensate for the past, presumably he feels some sense of guilt." Ramos Horta had the same impression, "He was frank and sounded apologetic."

Alan Batkin, Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, who also attended the meeting, denies this, "Dr Kissinger feels that there is nothing he needs to justify," Batkin said in a telephone interview. "He simply feels the Timorese have suffered a lot and he is happy to help in any way he can. It was a warm and friendly meeting."

Indeed Kissinger expressed his "extreme admiration" for the Timorese resistance, his "sympathy" for their struggle and for the fact that they never received any assistance from a single US administration. He noted that he has "many old friends" in the Bush team whose help he can request.

"Any help would be for free," Ramos Horta notes. "If he can persuade American investors to visit East Timor it would fit our strategy of creating new jobs and new wealth," in petroleum, tourism, fisheries, banking and electronics.

Nation builder to leave foundations for success

Australian Financial Review - June 25, 2001

Geoffrey Barker -- Sergio Vieira de Mello says emphatically, perhaps too emphatically, that he is convinced East Timor's coming constituent assembly elections will be free of violence despite the country's long history of political violence.

But the UN supremo is not prepared to rely on verbal commitments made to him by political party leaders in East Timor. He has ordered his top administrators to help the 16 parties draft an agreed pact of national unity ahead of the August 30 vote for the 88 constituent assembly seats.

"It will be the most reassuring message that they can send to the Timorese population. They commit themselves formally to certain basic rules of behaviour and certain fundamental principles ... The people will be reassured by the way in which this campaign will be organised and led," de Mello says.

So he hopes. But de Mello also acknowledges that the East Timorese have good reason for their anxiety about the looming election. "Their history is a history of violence whenever major political challenges were faced," he says.

The Brazilian UN official who is Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, and Transitional Administrator, has his reputation riding on the coming elections and the subsequent constitution-writing period leading to independence for East Timor late this year or early next year.

Since late 1999 he has been in effect dictator of East Timor, albeit a conscientiously consultative dictator, with full executive and legislative authority over the emerging nation. He wants, needs, a smooth and peaceful final exit from the shattered country he entered with his army of peacekeepers and bureaucrats.

"It is the responsibility of the political forces of the country, not UNTAET [United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor], to demonstrate to the people of East Timor, and I am convinced they will, that this time will be different. All the political parties that I have been dealing with ... have committed themselves time and again, to respecting fundamental principles and values of multiparty democracy, and the first one is to renounce violence once and for all in the pursuit of political objectives," de Mello told The Australian Financial Review.

He has faced criticism for leaving the elections too late and calling them too soon, for requiring the constitution to be drafted in only 90 days and for some administrative moves. His response is that his mission has proceeded by trial and error on a major new UN task, and that he has consulted with the East Timorese political leaders rather than exercise the heavy powers granted to him under UN security council resolution 1272.

"We were not prepared to play this role ... I couldn't have done better," de Mello says. He says he wants to be judged by four criteria: The security situation, "A stable and secure environment is probably the best legacy we can leave behind for the Timorese people, not least since they have suffered enough. A credible sustainable public administration that is "free from the vices of the past. "Truly democratic institutions. Not easy to build after 500 years of non-autonomous non self-governing status. A sustainable fiscal basis for the medium and longer term, including sufficient income, domestic and offshore, to avoid East Timor becoming dependent on foreign budget support."

So how confident is de Mello that the UN will leave behind a going concern? "You don't build a new administration in two and a half years," he says. "I would be confident that what we leave behind is in some sectors -- education, for example -- close to full development. "In other sectors -- the finance ministry, the central bank -- we will just have started. Those are areas which will require specialist, specialised support for quite some time to come, and we have a commitment from the IMF to help with skilled senior personnel. "In between there are a variety of situations. It's uneven basically."

On the crucial issue of East Timor's medium- to long-term fiscal future, de Mello says the UN administration has been basing its assumptions on conservative projected income. "We are not planning the future of East Timor on wildly optimistic forecasts."

He says the Timorese leadership "very soon", with support from the UN, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program will "start reflecting through a working group or taskforce on medium- to long-term economic and social development issues". "First and foremost they will be attempting to learn from mistakes other developing countries have made in the use of oil-related resources. We are fortunate to have here a very responsible leadership. They want us to proceed with prudence and care."

Perhaps because he is Brazilian, de Mello seems fascinated with the potential of East Timor's coffee. He speaks of increasing East Timor's non-oil and gas revenues by doubling or even trebling its coffee production. "I am aware coffee prices are low, but the coffee Timor exports is organic, high-quality coffee. It has a niche market in the US, Japan and Portugal, and it might be able to widen that. We are advised it is possible to double or triple coffee production," de Mello says.

He says he wishes he had resources to subsidise East Timorese production, but describes having to cut back East Timor's second budget to $65 million as cruel. "I have had many sad experiences in my professional life but that was probably the worst. I don't have an answer to low coffee prices except to say that we will try to make sure prices paid to East Timorese growers are the best and fairest possible."

He says two sectors for which he refused further cuts were health and education. "We must attempt to invest as much of the budget of East Timor as possible in those areas over the coming years."

He says East Timor recruited 1,000 teachers in each of its first and second budgets, although the number of teachers was limited by the decision of the October 1999 World Bank Joint Assessment Mission that the number of public servants in East Timor be reduced from nearly 36,000 under the Indonesian regime to 12,000.

Labour struggle

Indonesian labor fears worst is yet to come

Inter Press News - June 26, 2001

Jakarta -- After weeks of nationwide, sometimes riotous agitation, Indonesia's labor unions scored a major victory last week when the Wahid government decided to delay implementation of two new decrees criticized for undermining workers' interests. But trade union activists worry that this is but a temporary win given the dark clouds of anti-labor pressures building up in the Indonesian economy, which has yet to recover from the impact of the 1997 Asian economic crisis. Both the International Monetary Fund, whose handouts are crucial to the functioning of the national economy and foreign investors, threatening to close down factories, are lobbying hard with Jakarta to curb the burgeoning labor movement.

The latest row between labor organizations and the Indonesian ministry of manpower primarily relates to changes to labor law regarding severance conditions and payments. It started in June last year, when the previous minister of manpower introduced a decree to protect workers from mass retrenchments by employers due to the economic crisis. Under that decree, clauses provided the same termination requirements to personnel who left a company voluntarily as to those who were retrenched. The decree stipulated that compensation -- consisting of annual leave, allowances for transport, health and housing, and severance and service payment depending on duration of employment -- was payable to retiring or dismissed workers.

Following protests from both the domestic and foreign business community that the compensation required was excessive, two new decrees were issued recently annulling the requirement that employers provide severance pay and service fees to workers who either resigned or were sacked for committing major violations. They would only be eligible for regular compensation.

Critics added that the provisions for sacking workers under the revised decree infringed on the right to legal trade union and protest activity. "The issue is one of job security and workers' fundamental rights," says Maulana, a garment factory worker in Jakarta who took part in a rally against the new decrees outside the Indonesian president's palace recently. Trade union activists say that given the uncertain economic situation at present, workers wish to ensure they receive a proper compensation for their years of service in case they lose their jobs for any reason.

The militant labor protests come in the context of relentless loss of jobs and income in recent years. Indonesian workers, even during the years of economic boom, were among the least paid and protected in Southeast Asia. Only some one-third of the country's workforce of 89 million had permanent jobs in 1997. Since then several million have lost their jobs and forced to work in the informal sector or join the ranks of the poor, now numbering 25 percent of 213 million Indonesians.

The legal minimum wage during the Suharto period was around US$1.27 a day, the lowest in Asia after Bangladesh. While the average wage in industries in the capital Jakarta was around 250,000 rupiah a month (around $100), after the crisis, with the collapse of the domestic currency it is worth only some $25. This, coupled with steep increases in prices of basic necessities, has made survival of even industrial sector workers in the cities and towns of Indonesia difficult.

"While the economic conditions have worsened it must be pointed out that Indonesian workers today have much greater political freedoms than they ever had under the Suharto regime," says an International Labor Organization (ILO) official in Jakarta. According to him, part of the militancy of workers during the recent demonstrations is due to their exercising basic rights denied to them for decades by the former dictator.

Since the ouster of the Suharto regime in May 1998, Indonesia has drastically modified its labor laws. It has thrown out draconian laws that prevented workers from forming trade unions and provided for the use of military force in settling industrial disputes. In June 1999, Indonesia became one of the few countries in the Asia-Pacific to ratify three major ILO conventions that express the principles underpinning freedom of association, non- discrimination and the elimination of forced and child labor. The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has also been praised for lifting the ban on several trade unions considered "subversive" during the Suharto era and freeing dozens of labor activists.

From a situation in the past where the country's entire labor force was represented only by one government-controlled union now there are 26 major unions in Indonesia and dozens at the regional and grass-roots level. But increasing trade union activity and expansion has also spurred a backlash against labor activists from the business community and the state security apparatus, which had the upper hand for three decades under Suharto's repressive rule.

Unionists complain of a growing number of attacks on their organizers by paramilitary groups supported by the military and police and paid for by employers to intimidate workers or to break strikes. Even during the recent wave of labor protests, activists of the National Front for Indonesian Workers Struggle (FNPBI), a radical but rapidly growing trade union, were assaulted in mid-June in the West Java town of Bandung by members of an unknown militia and the offices of the left-wing People's Democratic Party (PRD) was sealed by police for "provoking workers".

But even more sinister, activists say, is the attempt to turn the clock back on long-term legislative gains made by trade unions because of pressure from investors and more particularly the IMF with its free-market "reforms". With Wahid, considered soft on labor, likely to be removed from office at impeachment proceedings early August, union activists fear that a future administration may negate numerous gains made by the country's trade unions in recent years.

"Just as in the Suharto era, there is now a growing trend among politicians and bureaucrats trying to justify anti-labor policies by giving greater priority to foreign investors and so-called industrial peace," says Dita Indah Sari, chair of FNPBI. All through the three decades of Suharto's regime, she points out, trade unions and worker's rights were suppressed in the name of fostering growth.

When the crisis came, it was the workers again who paid the biggest price, she adds. Even as the labor movement grows by leaps and bounds today, she says, there is an ever-increasing chance of the business- bureaucrat-military nexus trying to use "labor unrest" as an excuse to go back to the previous repressive era.

Hundreds of bus drivers strike, more will follow

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2001

Jakarta -- More than 250 Mayasari Bhakti bus drivers went on strike on Monday, and hundreds of others are rumored to join on Tuesday to demand a bus fare increase to compensate their dwindling income from the fuel price hike.

The strike by Mayasari bus drivers, the largest contingent of buses in the city, left thousands of people stranded at hundreds of bus stops across the city, usually serviced by Mayasari buses.

Several stranded passengers told The Jakarta Post on Monday that they had to wait about one hour or more to get transported by public buses, other than Mayasari buses. "Most buses from Kampung Rambutan were full this morning," Endang, a resident of Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, said.

According to the head of the city's Social Disturbance Control Office, Raya Siahaan, 267 Mayasari bus drivers, mostly from Cijantung pool, East Jakarta, joined the strike. Luckily, the strike ended on Monday afternoon following a meeting between Mayasari executives and officials of the City Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ).

Following the meeting, Mayasari's director for operations Azis Trismaya Mahfud urged his drivers to resume operations, saying their demands for a bus fare increase would be delivered soon. "We will propose a fare increase shortly of at least 20 percent," Azis said.

Nevertheless, there are rumors that hundreds of bus drivers will strike again on Tuesday. A number of bus drivers said that they had been told by their employers to strike to demand the 20 percent fare increase.

The city administration has prepared hundreds of vehicles, including 440 buses and trucks from the Jakarta Military Command, to transport stranded passengers if the strike materializes on Tuesday. "We heard that bus drivers would strike tomorrow. We are ready to transport the stranded passengers if they really conduct the strike," DLLAJ chief Rustam Effendi told reporters at the City Hall.

City Governor Sutiyoso pledged to take stern action against bus operators who instructed their drivers to strike since the publicwould suffer. "They should not do that as it could be considered as an act of 'sabotage' against the public. They should not use drivers for their own interests," Sutiyoso told reporters.

Some bus drivers who were interviewed separately by The Jakarta Post on Monday, refused to join the strike planned for Tuesday. "What will we eat if we join the strike on Tuesday?" Siagian, a driver of a Steady Safe bus plying the Kampung Melayu-Grogol route said.

However, Siagian agreed that the bus fare should be increased following the increase in fuel prices. "Our income has dropped since the fuel price increase," he said.

With a daily bus rental fee of Rp 360,000 and daily fuel costs of Rp 100,000, he said he could only bring home between Rp 15,000 and 20,000. Before the fuel price rise, Siagian said he could earn between Rp 25,000 and Rp 40,000 a day.

Cruel, inhuman treatment of migrant workers takes toll

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2001

Jakarta -- The death of a woman migrant worker upon her arrival at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport on Thursday has prompted calls for the government to close the special gate at Terminal III for migrant workers. Labor activists have complained that the special gate for migrant workers at Terminal III failed to provide immediate health service for the workers after their long journey. Worse, the area is rampant with touts and extortionists.

"Close the special gate at Terminal III of Soekarno Hatta International Airport as it has proven dangerous to Indonesian migrant workers," Wahyu Susilo of the Indonesian Consortium of Advocacy for Migrant Workers said.

Wahyu believes the government, the airport's management, the labor export agency and the airline concerned should be held responsible for such incidents. "The minister of manpower and transmigration, the labor agency, the respective Indonesian Embassies abroad and the airport management should the medical report of each worker, especially those who were facing health problems abroad, he said.

Amah Suamah, 31, arrived from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Pakistan Airlines on Thursday. She was sent home by her employer less than one month after starting to work as a housemaid. She was found dead on her wheelchair in the queue at the airport immigration. There were no bruises on her body, and police are still awaiting the forensic report on the cause of her death.

The agency which sent her abroad, PT Sapta Saguna, claimed Amah, who was from Majalengka, West Java, was healthy when she departed on June 2. "This incident shows that the airport management has not fulfilled its obligation of providing good service to homecoming migrant workers," Wahyu told The Jakarta Post on Friday. Moreover, the health clinic at the special gate is not functioning. "There are no doctors or paramedics there. There is also no crisis center for workers who have been sent home or had to flee because of problems with their employers," he added.

A volunteer from Solidaritas Perempuan at the terminal, Endang, called for a thorough investigation into Amah's death. She suspected Amah was sent home by her employer because she was sick. "But I cannot understand ... how was it that she was sent overseas if she had been sick? The company which sent her is the most responsible in this case," she told the Post.

Head of the labor division of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) Rita Olivia, urged the government and the House of Representatives to enact a law for the protection of migrant workers. The government calls them 'foreign-exchange heroes', ironically, they often face sexual abuse in their workplace and extortion at the airport when they return home, she said. "A law is also needed to prevent migrant workers from being exploited as they are valuable commodity to provinces to meet their financial targets. The regional administrations are now drafting their own regulations on debarkation and the placement of the workers," she said in an interview.

Aceh/West Papua

House accepts special autonomy bill on Papua

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2001

Jakarta -- The House of Representatives' consultative body agreed on Thursday to put forward a controversial special autonomy bill for Irian Jaya proposed by Papuan legislators, but at the same time acknowledged that the government's own bill on the subject would remain the primary reference of the deliberation.

Ali Yahya, secretary of the Golkar Party faction, said all factions in the consultative body had agreed to deliberate the bill proposed by 60 legislators. "The decision was made to break the deadlock between the House and the government over which one of the two bills would be deliberated," he said here on Friday.

Ali conceded that according to the House's internal rules, the bill proposed by the government should have first priority because it was the first bill submitted to the legislative body, but the consultative body had decided to deliberate the bill proposed by the legislators as a means of accommodating the aspirations of the Irianese.

The question of special autonomy law for the easternmost province has been bogged down by the presence of the two bills. The two bills differ in the approach of special autonomy, with the one proposed by the government being more austere in the granting of special autonomous powers. The other bill was proposed by a team set up by the House.

Ali said the substance of the bill prepared by the Papuan team should be open to possible change in its deliberation in line with the principle of the unitary state and the 1945 Constitution. "The bill has been accepted with the consequence of possible substantial corrections so that the province under special autonomy will remain an integral part of Indonesia," he said.

He added that the Papua bill would be brought to the House's next plenary session to decide on whether it would be deliberated by House Commission II on home and legal affairs or by a special committee.

Separately, the 10-member team originally appointed by Irian Jaya authorities to design the Papua bill voiced appreciation for the House's decision, saying the team had no objection to possible changes in the bill provided they were in line with the principle of a unitary state and their concept on special autonomy in the province.

Agus Sumule, a team member, however, pointed out that their draft had been prepared after months of in-depth study and a series of consultations with numerous parties in Irian Jaya and Jakarta. "Our team is not perfect, but any changes likely to be made to the draft law must be based on rational arguments, academic reasons and the concept of special autonomy," he said.

Sumule, also a lecturer on urban sociology at Cendrawasih University in Jayapura, denied the bill's substance was contrary to the principle of the unitary state and the Constitution.

He said that with the special autonomy as stipulated in People's Consultative Assembly Decree No. 4/2000, Irian Jaya must have special authority in managing its own administration, culture and identity. "We must have our special authority to manage our home in the political, economic, cultural and legal fields. If Aceh, under special autonomy, is given special authority to implement Islamic law, we should be given the same treatment to implement Christianity in this predominantly Christian province," he said.

He said Irian Jaya also had a unique identity that should be reflected by the province having its own flag, symbol, anthem and basic regulations. "The flag, symbol, anthem and basic regulations constitute the Papuan identity and they are not aimed at separating the province from Indonesia," Sumule said.

Despite the distinct cultural identity, Irian Jaya remains an integral part of Indonesia and the Papuan people accept the Indonesian flag, symbol, anthem and Constitution as their national identity, he added.

Asked about the question of the division of profits from the exploitation of natural resources in the province, Sumule said the provincial administration had requested that 80 percent be allocated to the province while the remainder could go to the central government.

"We have proposed the ratio of 80:20 to allow our lagging province to catch up with other provinces, especially in the educational, transportation and trade fields," he said. Sumule said the bill also stipulated the need to conduct a thorough investigation into human rights abuses.

22 rebels killed in latest Aceh fighting, says military

Straits Times - June 30, 2001

Lhokseumawe -- Indonesian security forces killed 22 rebels in two separate gunbattles in Aceh province, officials said yesterday. In the most recent fighting, government soldiers shot 20 separatist guerillas in a gunbattle in central Aceh, said military spokesman Lt-Colonel Firdaus.

He said the clash occurred after patrolling soldiers ambushed a group of rebels who tried to attack several villages near the central Aceh capital of Takengon, about 1,700 km north-west of Jakarta.

"According to the villagers, they were rebels who had earlier massacred dozens of people and burned hundreds of houses in the area," he said, adding that that one soldier was wounded in the fighting.

Lt-Col Firdaus said earlier that two rebels were killed and two others were arrested after a shootout in eastern Aceh on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, villagers found the bodies of two civilians who were shot dead in northern Aceh, said Indonesian Red Cross official Mahyudin.

The incidents came as government officials prepared to meet rebel negotiators in Switzerland for the latest round of peace talks this weekend. The two sides entered into a truce last year. But it collapsed in February amid escalating violence.

An unofficial count showed that about 75 per cent of the 895 people killed in insurgency-related violence in Aceh this year have been civilians. Rebel casualties numbered 150, and 85 soliders were confirmed to have been killed.

The rebel Free Aceh Movement said it would press Jakarta at the talks to agree to the formation of a new independent monitoring team made up of international observers to check on the violations of peace accords.

The movement, which has been fighting for an independent homeland on the northern tip of Sumatra island for 26 years, argued that such a team would be crucial because "violence cannot be stopped by the perpetrators of the violence itself".

Optimism grows ahead of Geneva Aceh talks

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2001

Banda Aceh -- Optimism looms ahead of the upcoming two-day peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) scheduled to take place in Geneva from Monday.

Chairman of Commission A of the Aceh provincial legislative council Mustafa Abdullah Geulanggang said here on Friday that he was optimistic the peace talks would be fruitful because "Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh will represent the Indonesian government. With Puteh representing the government, things would hopefully be easier," said Geulanggang.

Puteh, former member of the House of Representatives (DPR) is Acehnese. He will be one of a team of Indonesian officials led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Political Affairs, Hassan Wirayuda, at the two-day meeting.

"It's not a question of winning or losing in the talks. The most important thing is that violence could end soon in Aceh and that there could be peace for all."

The executive director of the NGO Coalition for Human Rights in Aceh, Maimul Fidar, shared his opinion, saying that peace talks were a must for Indonesia and GAM. "People must not be sacrificed any longer. Both Indonesia and GAM must reduce the role of the armed forces and give civilians more chance to settle their problems in a democratic manner."

Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. said earlier that Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Agum Gumelar, who is a retired Army general, would join the Geneva meeting.

Last week in Jakarta, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri chaired a ministerial meeting at Merdeka Selatan Palace. Megawati expressed her expectation during the meeting, which was also attended by governor Puteh, that the government would be able to resolve the Aceh conflict before celebrating the 56th anniversary of Indonesia's independence on August 17. She also hoped the good news could be reported to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) during its plenary meeting in August.

Back in Banda Aceh, Chairman of Aceh's Ulemas Council M. Ibrahim called on all Acehnese people in the country to pray for the success of the meeting.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Nazar, chairman of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), said that he had sent a letter to GAM and Indonesian government officials at the meeting, requesting that a referendum or a local election be arranged in Aceh and that both sides must agree to a cease-fire and respect it.

"The Henry Dunant Center [which is sponsoring the peace talks] should improve its role in the implementation of the peace agreement," the letter said. Meanwhile, spokesman for Aceh's Law and Order Operation Lt. Col. Firdaus said in Banda Aceh that 20 GAM members were killed during an ambush on Friday.

The clash between GAM members and the Indonesian military took place in the village of Timang Gajah in Central Aceh on Friday.

Indonesian separatist leader arrested

Agence France Presse - June 26, 2001

Jakarta -- Pro-independence leader Don Flassy has been arrested and is now detained in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province, a justice official said Tuesday.

"Don Flassy was arrested after he turned himself in, accompanied by five lawyers, to our office yesterday around 11 in the morning," the head of the Irian Jaya prosecutor's office, Y.M. Tahya told AFP by telephone from Jayapura, the capital of Irian Jaya.

He said that Flassy, one of five pro-independence leaders on trial for subversion, had turned himself in after a visit to neighbouring Papau New Guinea (PNG).

"His arrest follows the decision of the panel of judges at the Jayapura district court dated June 18," Tahya said. "He is now at the state jail in Abepura," he added.

Flassy last month sought permission from the judges trying him at the state court in Jayapura to go to Jakarta for medical treatment. The demand was granted, but the Indonesian embassy in PNG, which shares a land border with Irian Jaya, later told authorities in Jayapura that the defendant had been sighted in Vanimo, PNG.

Flassy and four other members of the pro-independence Papua Praesidium, including chairman Theys Eluay, are being tried for subversion for advocating independence from Indonesia. Eluay is receiving medical treatment in Jakarta while the three others, Reverend Herman Awom, John Mambor and Thaha Al Hamid are in Jayapura. Tahya said that the date for the resumption of Flassy's trial has yet to be set by the judges.

All five Praesidium members, who use the locally-preferred name of Papua for Irian Jaya, were detained shortly after the December 1, 2000 anniversary of an unrecognised 1961 declaration of Papuan independence. They have since been released.

Prosecutors have said that a Papua People's Congress, organized by the Papua Praesidium in May-June 2000 was subversive because it had concluded with a demand that Jakarta recognize the province's sovereignty.

Irian Jaya's independence movement gained momentum last year under Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's liberal approach, but authorities abandoned tolerance after the congress with a tough, sometimes brutal crackdown. The crackdown included the arrest and charging of the five Papua Praesidium members.

A former Dutch colony, Irian Jaya was integrated into Indonesia in 1969 by a UN referendum which pro-independence leaders consider flawed and unrepresentative.

Kidnappers seek international discussion on 'Free Papua'

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2001

Jayapura -- An Irianese separatist group that has taken hostage two Belgian filmmakers is demanding President Abdurrahman Wahid bring the Irian Jaya issues before an international forum, a church official said on Tuesday.

Priest Theo van den Broek said the demand was made by an Irianese separatist group in a letter signed by commander of the Papuan Liberation Army (TPNP) Kelly Kwalik. The demand surprised Van den Broek because earlier the abductors only demanded to meet with church missionaries to negotiate the conditions for the hostages' release.

Van den Broek and Rev. Benny Giay have been appointed by Irian Jaya bishop to establish communication with the kidnappers. "I thought the letter was only meant for the mediators [church officials] but it is stated that it is to be passed on to the President," Van den Broek said.

Kelly led the 1996 abduction of several researchers, among them a few foreigners. One of the abducted scientists was killed during a military operation to release the hostages in the remote Mapenduma, Wamena.

Broek said he would go to Illaga in Puncak Jaya where the two Belgians -- Johan Elia Theo van Dem Eynde, 47, and Phillippe R.D. Simon, 49 -- were being held captive by the rebels.

The two Belgians were reported missing three weeks ago. "We will offer a preliminary meeting with the abductors while waiting for a response from the President," Van den Broek remarked. The two church officials met with Irian Jaya Police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika to discuss their departure to Puncak Jaya regency.

In a related development, Irian Jaya Governor JP Solossa said that the letter sent by the separatist group had been sent to the provincial administration representative in Jakarta to be passed on to President Abdurrahman. "We have forwarded the letter to Jakarta but the demand to take the Free Papua issue to an international forum can't be done within one or two days as the President is still on his overseas trip," Solossa said.

Five dead in Indonesia's separatism-plagued Aceh province

Agence France Presse - June 24, 2001

Banda Aceh -- At least five people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province which has been wracked by separatism, the military and activists said on Sunday.

Troops shot dead a suspected rebel during a clash in the Lhoknga district some 12 kilometres south of here on Saturday, Aceh military spokesman Major Edi Sulistiadie said. He said a unit of 10 soldiers raided a house where suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were assembling home-made bombs. One rebel was killed and the rest fled to a nearby forest. Troops found bomb-making materials in the house, Sulistiadie said.

However, the local GAM spokesman, Ayah Sofyan denied an exchange of fire had taken place there. "Because they found no GAM members, TNI [Indonesian armed forces] troops conducted a sweep of the area, shot two civilians and took them away in a truck," Sofyan told AFP by telephone, adding the fate of the two remained unknown.

Sulistiadie said soldiers shot dead another suspected GAM member in a raid on a house in West Aceh late on Friday. Four suspected rebels escaped, he added. The body of a man with gunshot wounds was found on Saturday in a forest, said a Red Cross volunteer who recovered the body.

Another body with a bullet in the head was found in South Aceh on Saturday, the local Red Cross office said. Residents said the victim had been kidnapped by a group of unidentified men some four hours before his body was found.

In North Aceh, soldiers shot dead a suspected GAM member on Saturday, the local military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus, said. He said the man was killed during an exchange of fire that erupted after a military patrol encountered armed rebels in the area.

The Central Aceh GAM spokesman Wien Rimeu Raya claimed that seven soldiers were killed and four injured when guerrillas attacked troops in Ronga-Ronga area on Saturday. But Firdaus denied there was any military casualty or any clash in Ronga-Ronga on Saturday.

Elite power struggle

National MPR special session pig in a poke

Tempo - June 26-July 2, 2001

Karaniya Dharmasaputra, Adi Prasetya and Wens Manggut -- Suddenly the move to force an early session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid is grinding to a halt. A fortnight ago after Wahid ordered investigation into corruption charges against Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung and faction leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) at the House of Representatives (DPR), Arifin Panigoro, the parties called for a speeding up of the impeachment proceeding against the president. Three other political groups in the anti-Wahid coalition-the United Development Party (PPP), Crescent-Star Party (PBB) and the Central Axis, a coalition of smaller Muslim parties-lent their support to an early MPR session originally scheduled for August 1.

Jimly Assidique, a professor of law at the University of Indonesia, finds nothing legally wrong with moving the MPR session to an earlier date. "Constitutionally, there is nothing wrong about an accelerated session of the MPR," he says. Article 33 of the MPR Rules of Procedures, which provides that a special session of the MPR needs at least two months to prepare, need not be interpreted rigidly, says Assidique. His legal opinion is increasingly being sought after by those legislators seeking Wahid's impeachment for alleged corruption.

Leaders of the parties in opposition to Wahid moved quickly. In a meeting held at the initiative of PDI-P at the Bidakara in Jakarta, a date was fixed for the convening the accelerated MPR session-July 5, a month ahead of the original date. Leaders of the five political groups also agreed to meet on June 24-26 for the final move.

But, only three days after the Bidakara meeting, the agreement soured. Amien Rais, leader of the Central Axis and the MPR chairman, suddenly called for restraint. "There's no need to rush and act rashly," said Amien. Golkar's Tandjung agrees. Like Amien, Tandjung was most spirited in calling for an early session of the MPR in the first place.

What really has happened? Tempo sources say the about-face came last Tuesday when leaders of PDI-P decided at a meeting at the Regent Hotel in Jakarta to back off on an earlier commitment to meet leaders of the anti-Wahid coalition prior to the MPR proceedings. They said party chief Megawati Sukarnoputri could not possibly meet with leaders of the other parties in the coalition owing to her position as vice president to Wahid.

Megawati's presence at such a meeting, held ahead of the MPR impeachment proceeding, could be construed as a conspiracy against the president. Besides, they added, Megawati's tight schedule also played against her ever having time for such a meeting. Rubbish, says one party leader in the coalition. "Talk about busy schedule, aren't Pak Amien and Pak Akbar equally busy like her?"' he suggested.

PDI-P sources told Tempo that Megawati herself was opposed to an acceleration of the scheduled session. They asserted that it was Arifin, the man targeted by Wahid, who was most eager in calling for such a session. The decision by Arifin to push for an early impeachment of the president was taken without prior approval from party leadership.

According to party treasurer Noviantika Nasution, Megawati even questioned the constitutionality of an accelerated MPR session. Still, Arifin went ahead. "Why hurry when Ibu Mega's chance of being the president is already 90 percent in our hands," said Noviantika.

Another party member says an accelerated session would only destroy Megawati's chance of taking over from Wahid. "Why can't we wait for one and half months more when have been able to wait for one and half years," he said, quoting Megawati.

But there's another more disturbing reason for the cracks within the coalition: disagreement over power sharing on Megawati's assumption of the presidency. Leaders of Golkar and the Central Axis are unhappy with Megawati's refusal to talk about any power sharing until after the MPR confirms her as president.

Still, the coalition has managed to agree on three important issues-composition of the future government, its mission and vision, and a blueprint for the first 100 days of government. A detailed formula has also been agreed on concerning the composition of the government. Two alternatives are offered. First, a composition based on a percentage of votes gained by the parties in the last election.

Second, based on a concept of calibration in which the presidency is rated equal in value to 10 ministerial posts, the vice presidency to five, and a coordinating minister to three. An agreement has also been reached on a procedure concerning submission by the coalition members of their nominees for ministerial posts. Who among them will be appointed is left to Megawati to decide. If none are acceptable to Megawati, new names will be submitted.

With no agreement having been reached on power sharing, many doubt the future of the fragile coalition. "We have not been offered any seats at all [in the future government]," Amien told Tempo. Alvin Lie, a member of Amien's National Mandate Party (PAN) also deplores Megawati's reluctance to talk about power sharing. "What's been discussed so far has been limited mostly to concepts, not to who will get what," says Alvin.

Tempo sources say a new scenario is in the works courtesy of the parties disappointed with Megawati. In the scenario, Wahid will be impeached and forced to resign but that does not autromatically put Megawati in his place. The MPR will instead order a general election wihin six months during which time Megawati will act as interim presidient, her power limited to that of a vice president. A worse case scenario perhaps, but a better alternative to the parties, to buying a pig in a poke, so to say.

Falling banyan leaves

Tempo - June 26-July 2, 2001

Wens Manggut and Andari Karina Anom -- Where are all the laughter and hand clapping of yesteryear? They have all but disappeared from Golkar's party headquarters in Slipi, West Jakarta. It's as if the former political vehicle of the Suharto regime is black and blue, within and without.

Two weeks ago, President Abdurrahman Wahid gave the attorney general his blessing to investigate the involvement of its chairman Akbar Tandjung in a legal case which smelt of corruption. To date Akbar has not been officially called for questioning, but his reputation is slipping. New Attorney General Baharuddin Lopa's apparent keenness to root out corruption has a lot of people scared.

And it has prompted Akbar's old political opponents in Golkar to start rebuilding their forces. The heat is on. One senior party official told Tempo that old scores have recently resurfaced. Every group is vying for its interests. Divided we fall. These troubles make the party's overall influence weaken, even its strength to "just ask President Wahid to abandon Baharuddin Lopa's steps to open the file on Akbar Tandjung's past."

Internal conflicts in Golkar are nothing new. Soon after Suharto fell, it started to break up and has kept on breaking up. After its National Congress in 1998, Edi Sudradjat, Hayono Isman and several other top Golkar figures formed a new party, the PKP, based around the idea of unity. Although they trailed far behind Golkar in the 1999 election, the PKP phenomenon is something the party never saw during its decades of virtually unchallenged rule.

The splits showed more tellingly when Habibie's accountability speech as president was rejected by the supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) in October 1999. Votes from Golkar dissidents swung the balance. A number of politicians from East Indonesia, united in the so-called Iramasuka Nusantara faction, accused Akbar and pals of stabbing Habibie in the back. Habibie is from Sulawesi.

When Golkar's parliamentary faction met for the first time after that, the meeting was little short of chaos. Several MPR members from the Iramasuka front accused Akbar and reformist Marzuki Darusman of betraying the party. "We have been betrayed by Golkar people themselves," said Anwar Arifin, a DPR legislator from South Sulawesi.

Failure to carry Habibie back in triumpth to the presidential chair did not mean the Iramasuka group gave up all hope. Iramasuka saved up its strength and has now reemerged, just as Akbar faces legal problems and a resulting slump in his popularity. The Iramasuka front is now arranging its position, a Tempo source in Golkar said, waiting to turn the president's war with the DPR to its advantage. "They scoop up profits from the open war of President Abdurrahman Wahid's camp with the DPR which involves Akbar Tandjung," said this source.

Lately a number of Iramasuka politicians have been on a political walkabout. On June 16 two figures from the group, Andi Matalata and Marwah Daud Ibrahim, met Taufiq Kiemas, the influential husband of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The word is that Taufiq was told they would support Megawati on condition they get cabinet seats when she takes over as president, although Marwah himself denied any such talk of trading in cabinet posts. "We discussed the fate of this country, not cabinet seats," he said.

Iramasuka has also cast its eyes on the Wahid crowd. They are trying to rally forces so he can escape sacking. Iramasuka is one of the forces that have been eyed up by Wahid's lobbyists. It controls a juicy 72 seats in parliament.

Marwah confirmed that his group has talked to Wahid's crowd. But he insisted that it was the Wahid people that approached them, not the other way around. Marwah himself admits he met with a number of envoys from Wahid. Unfortunately, Marwah kept the names of the envoys and the contents of their talks private. "It would not be ethical if I cited them," he told Tempo.

But is this closeness aimed at strengthening Wahid's weak position ahead of the special session? "It appears indeed to be so," said Marwah diplomatically. Some 72 seats are quite interesting to political forces of all persuasions, according to Marwah.

Other new factions are also emerging in Golkar, or reemerging in some cases. There is the West Java group pushed by former mines and energy minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita and the renewal group spearheaded by former attorney general Marzuki Darusman. All these groups, said a senior Golkar official, want to take over the remains of the shade of the party with the Banyan tree as its symbol. Even though that Banyan tree has been rather damaged by repeated storms and shed quite a few leaves in the process.

PBB, PPP to designate vice presidential nominees

Jakarta Post - June 30, 2001

Jakarta -- While the fate of embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid is still far from sealed, the United Development Party (PPP) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) are already preparing to forward vice presidential candidates to partner Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Legislators from both parties acknowledged that they were actively taking this step, but would not reveal who their candidates might be.

Ali Marwan Hanan, the secretary-general of PPP, said that "PPP, as an old party", always has personnel ready for all positions in the executive body. "Our party's main target is to take power and to occupy the presidential and vice presidential positions," he said in a discussion here on Friday.

When pressed to name the party's vice presidential candidate, Ali replied: "In line with eastern culture, it's unethical to name our candidate because the special session has yet to be held and it is uncertain whether the President's accountability will be accepted or not."

Asked if PPP chairman Hamzah Haz was the likely candidate, Ali merely said the party would wait for the appropriate time before making an announcement. But he said PPP ha begun lobbying other parties to secure support for their nominee.

Meanwhile M.S. Kaban, the secretary-general of PBB, hinted that PBB would nominate party chairman Yuzril Ihza Mahendra for the vice presidential post if Abdurrahman was removed from office.

Kaban said the nation would need a strong vice president if Megawati took over the presidency. "The next government will face ample problems since Gus Dur has achieved little during his 19 months in power," he said, referring to the President by his nickname.

The Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung said his party would not nominate a vice presidential candidate, noting that the party was focusing on the 2004 general election. "Golkar will not nominate a vice presidential candidate because we are busy consolidating for the 2004 elections," he said.

Buoyant Wahid offers to bury the hatchet

South China Morning Post - June 30, 2001

Reuters in Manila -- President Abdurrahman Wahid, threatened with impeachment by a hostile Parliament, offered yesterday to reconcile differences with opponents in the legislature and the military.

Mr Wahid, speaking during a visit to the Philippines and appearing to step back from comments he made in Australia, said he was 100 per cent confident he would not be impeached and that sacking top generals was not an option.

The frail Muslim cleric had told Australian radio earlier in a tour that also took him to New Zealand that he would be willing to call a state of emergency if legislators insisted on pursuing an August 1 impeachment hearing over his erratic 20-month rule.

But he sounded conciliatory in Manila. "I look forward to the so-called political reconciliation which will be used to develop the idea of co-operation between the legislative and executive branches," he said at Manila airport shortly before leaving for home after a three-hour visit. "After my return to Jakarta, I will work for that," he said.

However, he added: "There is no sacking in the military, except in the case of emergency. But the emergency thing is the last thing to come and it should be decided collectively, including by them, not only by myself." Police and Indonesia's top generals, including the army chief, have made it clear they oppose a state of emergency, which would freeze all parliamentary processes and result in a snap election. It would also allow the arrest of Mr Wahid's opponents.

"I hope we can find a win-win solution with the Parliament without violating the constitution," Mr Wahid said. Asked if he believed he would survive an impeachment threat against him, he replied: "I will not be impeached and I will survive 100 per cent." There had been talk in Jakarta that Mr Wahid would sack top generals, but the President played this down. "As for the armed forces, I think if things go like now, then there is no need for a replacement within the ranks," he said.

Mr Wahid, who left Australia about an hour late after a problem with his Boeing 747's cockpit window, arrived in the Philippine capital mid-morning and was immediately driven to the Malacanang palace for talks with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Mr Wahid said Mrs Arroyo told him of Manila's appreciation for his efforts in trying to find a solution to the Muslim separatist conflict in the southern Philippines. They also talked about economic co-operation, especially in fisheries, Mr Wahid said.

Manila is considering Jakarta as one of the possible "alternative venues" for peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group fighting for a Muslim homeland in the south of the Philippines.

Mr Wahid's administration has previously offered to host peace talks between the Philippine Government and the rebels as Indonesia is a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference. The Philippine Government and the rebels signed an agreement in Libya on June 22 to implement a four-year-old ceasefire accord.

Indonesia's Megawati says state of emergency unconstitutional

Agence France Presse - June 28, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday warned President Abdurrahman Wahid that declaring a state of emergency, as he has threatened, would be unconstitutional.

And the military, which would be required to maintain security during a state of emergency, said it would not support the president if he issued the controversial decree. "Madam Mega said it [a state of emergency] is not in accordance with the present situation ... and it is not in accordance with the constitution," former army general Syaiful Sulun said.

Sulun was speaking to journalists after meeting with Megawati and other members of an association of retired soldiers and police. He said his association too believed that declaring a state of emergency would only "aggravate the problems" in the country.

The isolated Wahid, who is facing impeachment, said in Sydney during a landmark visit to Australia Wednesday he was prepared to declare a state of emergency and call in the military to save his rule. A state of emergency would allow Wahid to dissolve parliament before the upper house could convene a special session on August 1, which could impeach him if it rejects an account of his rule, and call early elections.

Two senior military officers were quoted by the Media Indonesia daily Thursday as warning Wahid against declare a state of emergency. "The TNI [military] stand is clear. We will not support such a decree because it will threaten the country's unity," the armed forces' chief of territorial affairs, Lieutenant General Agus Wijoyo, said.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Fransiscus Xaverius Bachtiar echoed Wijoyo. "The TNI appeals to the president not to declare an emergency because the TNI will not support it," Bachtiar was quoted as saying.

Wahid's new security minister, Agum Gumelar, on Wednesday was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying that he was trying hard to persuade Wahid not to take any such action. Wahid also said in Sydney that the military was in chaos -- "like the politicians" -- but he was confident it would obey him.

When Wahid first threatened an emergency in May, several top military figures and ministers argued publicly against any such move.

Rift among police displayed over dual leadership

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2001

Jakarta -- National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro had reportedly cut short his minor haj pilgrimage and returned to the capital on Tuesday, after receiving news that there had been a near clash among his middle-ranking officers.

The incident reportedly started with two officers arguing about whether Bimantoro, or National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Chaeruddin Ismail, would lead a police briefing linked to a ceremony in observance of the 55th anniversary of the National Police force on July 1.

Bimantoro had left for the minor haj pilgrimage on June 22 and was due to return a week later. National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi confirmed on Wednesday that Bimantoro returned after hearing the news about the incident on Monday. He refused to elaborate.

Sources said the incident occurred at the National Police Detachment Division (Denma). "Brig. Gen. Rifai Siregar of the National Police internal affairs had ordered Denma Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wagio to announce that Chaeruddin would lead the briefing on the dress rehearsal of the police anniversary ceremony," a police official who requested anonymity told reporters.

Wagio made the announcement, but a few minutes later, he made another announcement, saying Bimantoro would lead the briefing, he said. "Rifai, who was obviously angry, went up to Wagio and reportedly pulled Wagio by the collar, and was reportedly about to hit Wagio in the face."

Separately, top officials at the National Police Headquarters said on Wednesday that a rift had always been present between the National Police Academy graduates of year 1970, and 1971. Chaeruddin is a 1971 graduate, while Bimantoro graduated in 1970.

Confusion reigned in the halls of the National Police Headquarters on Wednesday, when Didi and Bimantoro ended up making two differing statements.

Instructions

Didi said that upon arrival at the airport on Tuesday, Bimantoro had reportedly issued two verbal instructions to National Police official Brig. Gen. Logan Siagian. "The first was to formally request the Supreme Court to issue a decree, particularly in connection with the recently issued Presidential Decree No. 77/2001, which reinstates the post of the National Police deputy chief," Didi said. "Second, to file a lawsuit at the State Administrative Court (PTUN) against three presidential decrees, which concern the dual leadership."

Didi identified the three decrees as Presidential Decree No. No. 54/2001, which had abolished the post of National Police deputy chief; Presidential Decree No. 40/2001 on the appointment of the National Police deputy chief and Presidential Decree No. 41/2001, on the suspension of the National Police chief.

These statements were however denied, by the National Police chief. "I never gave such instructions ... I have spoken to the National Police spokesman about this matter. I just want things to cool down," Bimantoro said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Didi had said that the National Police is scheduled to formally request the Supreme Court to issue a decree in connection with Presidential Decree No. 77. "This formal request will be made in a few days. The current dual leadership at the National Police, has frankly confused the police force. It is not healthy," Didi said on Tuesday.

Abdurrahman had recently suspended Bimantoro from his post for defying a presidential order to resign as National Police chief, and had appointed Chaeruddin to take over Bimantoro's duties.

Indonesian Megawati faces opportunity and opportunists

Reuters - June 27, 2001

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta -- Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's expected rise to power is likely to be clouded by the same opportunistic politicking that has plagued her hapless boss.

Megawati's problem, analysts say, is that she may be forced to rule with a government of dubious loyalty, and one as unwieldy as the one which has marked President Abdurrahman Wahid's often divisive 20 months in office. And that means, analysts say, a President Megawati may not give the crisis-racked country much more than short-term relief.

Wahid looks likely to be impeached in August but the Muslim cleric, currently on a foreign tour, warned he would declare a state of emergency if legislators pushed him down that path.

While for many Megawati would at least be an improvement on Wahid's erratic leadership, the doubts lie longer term. Analysts say she may be hard-pressed to keep in line the elite of her Indonesian Democratic Party-struggle (PDI-P), the country's largest.

On top of that will be other political groups anxious for a slice of power if Wahid is ditched, and a rejuvenated military, eager to capitalise on its repolished role as the nation's saviour. "She will be in a very delicate position," Aberson M. Sihasolo, an MP and long-time Megawati supporter, told Reuters.

Most factions in parliament support Megawati over Wahid, putting the presidency -- first held in Indonesia by her charismatic father Sukarno -- within her sights.

No dream-team

But her own PDI-P party is no dream team. It was formed three years ago as a splinter group of another party which the government of former autocratic ruler Suharto blocked her from leading. Before then, the mother of two was barely known beyond her family connections.

But it was Suharto, the man who ousted her father in the mid- 1960s, who unwittingly dragged her into the political limelight when he ousted her as chief of the smallest of the three parties his military-back regime allowed.

When Suharto's hand-picked successor, B.J. Habibie, allowed new parties, she set up her PDI-P splinter group which went on to win the most seats in a 1999 general election. That power -- the result of the party's huge popularity among Indonesia's legions of poor -- has also tempted in a smorgasbord of politicians and entrepreneurs, some of whom blossomed first under Suharto's rule.

Some of Megawati's leading party cadres, including her inner circle, are former members of Suharto's political vehicle, the Golkar party, or were linked to his regime. Among the most notable is Arifin Panigoro, a former Golkar member whose oil business prospered during the Suharto era and who is at the forefront of the movement to topple Wahid and head of the party's parliamentary faction.

`Dormitory kids'

His meteoric career within the PDI-P and closeness to Megawati has irked other party members, especially long-serving Megawati loyalists who feel sidelined by the newcomers, whom the media has dubbed "dormitory kids", a derogatory term for people who move from place to place showing no loyalty to one home. Panigoro is now a target of a Wahid government investigation into alleged corruption at one his companies.

Then there is Megawati's husband, her third, Taufik Kiemas who is repeatedly linked in the local media to shady business deals though he denies any underhand dealings or abusing his political connections. Analysts warn he could provide ammunition for Megawati detractors, but her supporters insist she can deal with it.

"There has been negative talk swirling around about Taufik but I can assure you she wouldn't let him do things she didn't approve of," PDI-P legislator, Meilono Soewondo said.

And, her supporters say, she has the ability to bond her party despite the bickering and rivalry. "Once she says 'no', then everybody says 'no'," the secretary general of her party, Sutjipto, said.

Her placid public image and ability to stay out of the political fray may also be her greatest weapon, winning sympathy from an electorate fed up with years of economic crisis and the failure of squabbling politicians to deal with problems.

No blank cheque

As the political establishment has turned on Wahid, so Megawati's one-time enemies have been currying favour with her in return for a share of the action if and when Wahid is toppled. "What we really want is a coalition cabinet with the other parties," A.M. Fatwa, deputy speaker of parliament and a leader of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said.

His party was instrumental in forming the coalition which pushed Megawati aside and brought Wahid to power in the 1999 presidential election. When he took office, Wahid ruled with a "rainbow cabinet" made up of his disparate backers which spent more time squabbling than ruling.

Megawati's one-time rivals, many from that coalition and who are now pushing her into the presidency, insist she should give them a voice in government. "We [political parties] don't want to hand Megawati a blank cheque," deputy speaker of the country's top legislative body, Husnie Thamrin told Reuters. "The cheque that we are giving her is an agreement for a government structure, the cabinet ministers, its programme and priorities," said Thamrin, a senior official from the Muslim-oriented United Development Party.

East Timor pressure from Howard will reinforce Wahid's grip

Sydney Morning Herald - June 26, 2001

Hamish McDonald -- Within an hour of arriving in Canberra from a gruelling journey from Jakarta, Abdurrahman Wahid was plunged into a succession of discussions and engagements last night.

What the Indonesian president was telling old friends privately would astonish and discomfort the Soeharto-era holdovers from the military and the Golkar party ganging up against him behind his vice-president, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Mr Wahid is supremely confident he has the numbers in the People's Consultative Assembly or MPR to defeat the impeachment motion being brought against him in August.

Coming to Australia and New Zealand is part of his strategy of unsettling his foes. "He's not behaving as frightened as they want him to be," said one close associate who travelled from Jakarta with Mr Wahid. "How many leaders in his position would leave the country for a week?"

From his domestic political point of view, Mr Wahid may welcome the foreshadowed pressure from Australia's John Howard and New Zealand's Helen Clark for prosecutions over the 1999 violence in East Timor and decisive action to end the militia threat from West Timor.

The president's confidants insist he has tried to do much more on the human rights front, in Aceh and Irian Jaya as well as the Timor case, but has been prevented by the nationalist coalition spearheaded by Ms Megawati. They agree the threat of an international criminal court, if Indonesia itself cannot bring the East Timor prime suspects to justice, may actually strengthen Mr Wahid's hand -- provided it is conveyed in a way that respects the President's own efforts.

A switch of power to Ms Megawati will not be neutral in its effects, these supporters of Mr Wahid insist. "She is no longer inscrutable, we know what she means," one said, citing the vice- president's support for a military solution to the secessionist uprising in Aceh.

Another said: "Heaven knows what will happen in West Papua [as its indigenous people call Irian Jaya] if he is impeached and Mega becomes president." Referring to the notorious East Timorese militia leader who has positioned himself on the militant fringes of Ms Megawati's party, this source added: "You may even see Eurico Guterres back in action, in Papua."

Regional/communal conflicts

Madurese want 14 days to evacuate

Agence France Presse - June 30, 2001

Jakarta -- Madurese settlers in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province have asked the local government to give them two weeks to persuade thousands of Madurese refugees to leave their camps in Pontianak, an official said yesterday.

The request was made by Mr Sulaiman of the Madurese Community Association during a meeting at the governor's office in Pontianak, the provincial capital, on Wednesday.

Said Ms Utin Srilena, a staff member of the mayor's office: "The Madurese community asked for two weeks' time ... to encourage the Sambas refugees to be relocated." On Wednesday, Pontianak officials said youth groups from the Malay and Dayak communities told the 40,000 refugees to leave by Saturday or face forcible eviction. The youth groups had extended their ultimatum by one day, said Ms Srilena. "So the deadline is now Sunday," she said.

She said the situation in Pontianak had calmed down since Monday, when at least four Madurese, two of them settlers, were hacked to death by Malays. She added that the current talks also involved officials from the Pontianak chapter of the National Commission on Human Rights.

Army personnel arrest eight rioters in Poso

Jakarta Post - June 28, 2001

Poso, Central Sulawesi -- Eight armed men were detained on Wednesday as they were allegedly about to attack residents working on a cacao plantation in Batugincu village, Poso, Central Sulawesi, an official said.

Tadulako Military spokesman First Lt. Abdul Haris said the eight men were spotted by patrolling soldiers as they took aim with their homemade guns at the residents. "They [the would-be assailants] were caught red-handed aiming their homemade weapons at three persons who were working in a cacao plantation near Batugincu village," Abdul said.

The soldiers confiscated three assembled guns, a Colt 38 pistol, 29 rounds of ammunition for an SS1 rifle, a Kenwood handy-talky, 60 arrows, three homemade bombs and one machete.

Poso, located some 225 kilometers southeast of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, has been the scene of violence perpetrated by an unknown armed group since last week. The gunmen, wearing ninja outfits, are believed to be from outside Poso.

Uneasy calm has now started to return to Poso town although residents are still watchful for any sudden attacks. However, in several villages like Masani, Tokorondo, Sa'atu and Pinedapa in Poso Pesisir district, gunfights occurred from late Tuesday through Wednesday afternoon.

Three people, all from the attackers' side, were reportedly killed and dozens of others were injured during the violence. The gunfights broke out following attacks by unknown gunmen on residential areas. While the attacks were sporadic, the villagers were expecting them and put up resistance.

Fitri, an official at the state-run Poso Hospital, admitted that there had been fatalities as a result of the shooting. "It's true that there are three civilians dead and one of the injured is the head of Pinedapa subdistrict who was shot in the leg." Fitri added that there was no information on the dead as they had been rushed by their fellow attackers to the Tentena area -- a district south of Poso.

Central Sulawesi Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Sugianto said he was unaware of any fatalities from the gunfights as he had yet to receive a report from the Poso Police. "We have not received any reports about fatalities among the attackers," he said, adding that the telephone lines from Palu to Poso had been cut since the morning.

Meanwhile, Poso Police deputy chief Comr. Wahyono declined to confirm the deaths, saying it was outside his authority to make public statements.

Poso was the scene of bloody communal clashes between Muslims and Christians which claimed the lives of more than 250 people last year.

Meanwhile, Antara reported from Pontianak, West Kalimantan, that local residents grouped in the provincial Malay Youth Communications' Forum threatened to attack Madurese refugees if they refused to be relocated. They set five days as the deadline for the relocation.

The Madurese refugees, who are camped in a sports stadium in the city, rejected the government's offer of relocation to Tebang Kacang and Sungai Asam, insisting that they wanted to mend ties in Sambas and Pontianak.

Tandililing, a professor of political and social sciences at Tanjungpura University in Pontianak, said that for the time being relocation was the best solution because it would take years for the Madurese to be accepted by the locals. He regretted the fact that the Madurese refugees, in fear of fresh attacks, always carried weapons with them, a situation which could provoke the locals.

The clashes between Madurese refugees and locals that erupted on Saturday have claimed five lives so far.

Violence hits Poso, Pontianak

Jakarta Post - June 25, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Dozens of armed men attacked a residential area in the town of Poso, Central Sulawesi, in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing two people and injuring three others. The unidentified men stormed houses and fired randomly during the predawn attack which caused panic among residents. Security personnel combing the area after the attack found two bodies.

Quoting sources, Antara news agency identified the casualties as Army First Lt. Rudy Ilham and civilian Udeg. Both died of gunshot wounds. Ilham was found in his house located near the local military headquarters, while Udeg reportedly was killed while he was on neighborhood watch. An employee at Poso General Hospital confirmed the two fatalities. The men's bodies were handed over to their families for burial on Sunday afternoon.

The spokesman for the Central Sulawesi Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Sugianto, said he had not been informed of the attack. "As of now I have not received a report of the incident. It is better to contact directly Poso Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Djasman Baso Opu." Djasman, however, could not be reached for comment.

As of Sunday afternoon, Poso remained tense, though police and military personnel appeared to be in control of the situation.

The attack on Sunday was the fifth such incident in the past five months. A similar incident took place in early April, leaving a policeman dead and three civilians seriously wounded. About 250 people died in clashes that erupted last year between Muslims and Christians in Poso, which is located some 225 kilometers southeast of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi.

Human rights/law

Activists claim police cells seriously overcrowded

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2001

Jakarta -- Activists from the Anti-Torture Network visited on Tuesday the headquarters of the city police and the West, North and East Jakarta police, and reported that their detention cells were seriously overcrowded.

Prisoners are packed into small, dark, fetid detention cells, according to Sumamihardja, who led a group of 10 activists to the Jakarta Police Headquarters. The cells at the city police headquarters house 390 prisoners, including 189 prisoners transferred from the Attorney General's Office.

The North Jakarta Police Headquarters houses 362 prisoners, the West Jakarta Police Headquarters 346 prisoners and the East Jakarta Police Headquarters 91 prisoners -- all beyond their capacities. At the North Jakarta Police Headquarters, each nine- square-meter detention cell accommodate 19 prisoners on average.

Doho A. Sastro, who led activists to the East Jakarta Police Headquarters, said the cells were dark and stuffy and lacked ventilation. The prisoners are not only packed into small cells, they are also often tortured by police, especially during questioning, according to the activists.

Based on testimony from a number of detainees, Sumamihardja said police officers often tortured suspects during questioning in a detective's room, not in the cells. As a result of the torture, two men being detained at the Jakarta Police Headquarters had to be taken to the Kramat Jati Police Hospital in East Jakarta for treatment, the activists said.

According to a report from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, there were 908 torture cases recorded in Jakarta last year. The report said the police allegedly tortured criminal suspects, non-governmental organization activists, university students, journalists, laborers, farmers and others.

The visit to the police detention cells, organized in conjunction with the United Nations Anti-Torture Day, which fell on June 26, was aimed at pressuring the police to reduce or abandon altogether the torture of prisoners, according to the activists.

The activists were denied access to detention cells at the South and Central Jakarta police headquarters. Erna Ratnaningsih, who led the activists, said she was disappointed that the South and Central Jakarta police chiefs refused to grant the activists' access to their cells. "I will ask the National Commission on Human Rights to file letters of complaint with the National Police chief and the city police chief about this matter," she told The Jakarta Post.

News & issues

Graft rampant in state firms: Jakarta official

Straits Times - June 30, 2001

Jakarta -- Corruption, collusion and nepotism are rampant in state enterprises, a top government official admits, confirming what many have long suspected.

Mr Mantaris Siagian, secretary of the directorate-general of state-owned companies of the Ministry of Finance, said: "We need to create clean, effective and efficient state enterprises and we need to do it soon." The chief auditor of the Supreme Audit Agency, Mr Usman Damanik, also pointed out that corruption could take place from the time products were first procured until the time they reached consumers.

"No good example from superiors, foreign intervention in the enterprises, the lack of law enforcement and the workers' religious faith, just to mention a few, contribute to corruption in state enterprises," he said.

Mr Usman added: "The government has to appoint directors for state enterprises based on the candidates' professionalism and not on certain interests." He said that audit reports revealing the extent of corruption in areas like banking and mining had been submitted to the Attorney-General's Office, but no action had been taken.

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) coordinator Teten Masduki said: "If there was no corruption, how come state enterprises like electricity company PT PLN and telephone company PT Telkom suffer losses each year although they don't have competitors?" The workers' federation has agreed to work with ICW to create a zero-corruption zone in all state enterprises.

Indonesia's new Attorney-General Baharudin Lopa has also pledged to crack down on corrupt bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians, and has his sights on restarting corruption proceedings against former president Suharto.

The courts dismissed a US$600 million corruption case against Mr Suharto last year after doctors said he was too ill to stand trial.

US and Australia warn on suppression of separatists

Sydney Morning Herald - June 30, 2001

Hamish McDonald -- Senior United States and Australian officials yesterday joined in an unusually direct warning to Jakarta against trying to suppress secessionists in Aceh and Irian Jaya by force. The US State Department's director of policy planning, Mr Richard Haass, also called for accountability by the Indonesian military, or TNI, for past actions in counter- insurgency operations and tighter control on present activity.

The head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Ashton Calvert, warned against "suppression" as a strategy in Irian Jaya, saying it would lead to human rights abuses and a confrontation with the international community.

The remarks, at a Sydney University conference on the US- Australian alliance sponsored by the two governments, come amid hundreds of civilian casualties in recent weeks as Indonesian forces try to crush the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, in the northern Sumatran province, and secessionist leaders in Irian Jaya face sedition charges.

Dr Haass said that while Jakarta was "paralysed" by moves to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid in August, the peripheral areas like Aceh, the Malukus, Irian Jaya and parts of Kalimantan continued to raise serious concern.

"No matter who is president of Indonesia come August, Jakarta will have to come to grips with the problems on the periphery , as political issues and not just as security problems," Dr Haass said. "There is no military answer to the challenge posed by the GAM in Aceh or by separatists in Papua [Irian Jaya].

"Decentralisation is a step in the right direction, but Jakarta will ultimately have to accommodate at least some provincial as well as district level ambitions for self-government. Authorities in Jakarta will also have to make real progress in reforming the Indonesian military. A reformed TNI could be an important institution for promoting political cohesion in Indonesia."

Dr Haass, whose repeated use of the "Papua" name chosen by secessionists for Irian Jaya will irk some in Jakarta political circles, said the political solution had to include self-rule and devolution of political authority and accountability.

"There's got to be accountability for past actions, and there's got to be control over present and future actions by the security forces." Dr Calvert, Canberra's chief diplomat, said Australia was "totally sincere" in wanting the territorial integrity of Indonesia to hold, which was "patently in our national interest".

Using the official name Irian Jaya rather than Papua, he said the situation there was better known in Australia because of proximity than were events in Aceh, but said he supported Dr Haass's message.

"It is important to set in train processes which are convincing to local people, that dialogue and a joint search for devolution and some degree of regional autonomy is what the central government wants, rather than relying on suppression. "Suppression might work in the short term but tends to exacerbate the problem over time."

Court tax order on Suharto's son `not lost'

Straits Times - June 29, 2001

Jakarta -- Court officials said yesterday that they had not lost the documentation of a Supreme Court decision ordering a fugitive son of former Indonesian President Suharto to pay nearly US$300 million in back taxes, as had been alleged by a minister. 'We sent the document back to the Jakarta state administrative court in April. So it is not missing,' said a spokesman for the Supreme Court.

Finance Minister Rizal Ramli said last week the government wanted to collect the 3.2 trillion rupiah (S$546 million) in unpaid taxes from Hutomo 'Tommy' Mandala Putra, Suharto's youngest son, but that the letter ordering the payment had disappeared. A Supreme Court statement also said the head of the Jakarta administrative court had denied the document was missing and had shown it to be in the court's possession.

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed last year by Tommy's automotive company, PT Timor Putra Nasional, against the administrative court's ruling obliging his firm to pay the taxes. The tax dispute between the government and Timor Putra arose when the government demanded the company pay import duties and other taxes on the Timor cars it imported from South Korea. Timor Putra was initially exempted from the duties and taxes.

Tommy, a 38-year-old millionaire businessman, has been on the run since November 3 of last year when he failed to turn himself in to serve an 18-month jail sentence for graft. Family friends say he has remained in Jakarta.

More legislators reveal their wealth

Jakarta Post - June 27, 2001

Jakarta -- Amid the topsy-turvy of preparations for the upcoming special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), a total of 13 members of the House of Representatives (DPR) and the MPR finally submitted forms on their wealth to the Civil Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN).

In the commission's latest report on Tuesday, DPR member Ahmad Sumargono from the Crescent Star party said he only has total assets worth Rp 420.7 million, while MPR member Said Aqil Siradj owns more than Rp 2.8 billion worth of assets.

Legislator Awal Kusumah from Golkar Party is the wealthiest among the 13, with total assets of Rp 2.4 billion and bank deposits worth US$43,499.

He declared that of four vehicles in his garage, two were bought recently, after he had been installed late last year. Awal's A- class Mercedes Benz C230 produced in 1999 was bought last year and is now worth Rp 275 million, while his Grand Cherokee jeep made in 2000 was recently bought at an estimated price of Rp 325 million.

Unlike many councillors who refused to report their wealth, four councillors outside the city have filed a report with the commission. They are from East Java province, Pasuruan regency in East Java, Lampung province and Enrekang regency, South Sulawesi.

Several members of the judiciary are also on the commission's list, including Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Mangkoedilaga and Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Bachtiar Fachri Nasution.

Benjamin, who was once supported by President Abdurrahman Wahid for the position of Supreme Court chief, said he had Rp 2.089 billion worth of assets and deposits worth $55,440, while Nasution revealed his total assets at Rp 1.475 billion.

The National Police inspector-general Comr. Gen. Ahwil Lutan, who is also head of the National Body for Drug Coordination (BKNN), said he had total wealth of Rp 1.319 billion and deposits worth $29,725.

The former East Timor police chief, whose position caused him to be a suspect for human rights atrocities there, Brig. Gen. Godlief Manangkak Timbul Silaen, revealed that last year he was given a Toyota Land Cruiser jeep worth Rp 300 million. The gift of the vehicle has meant that Silaen, now an executive of the police drug coordination body, has assets worth Rp 1.197 billion, with deposits of $10,000 and valuables worth $1,638.

Golkar groups demand to disbanding communist organisations

Detik - June 25, 2001

MMI Ahyani/HD, Jakarta -- Around 1,000 thousands people from various organisations which are Golkar Party's underbouw came to West Java legislative on Jl Diponegoro, Bandung, Monday. They demand West Java legislative to urge the government disbanding organisations suggest a new communist movement.

Those of several affiliated or Golkar Party's underbouw are Pancasila Youth, Panca Marga Youth, Baladika Karya, Siliwangin Youth Wing and other mass organisations. They arrived at the site by trucks. In its statements, they cursed badly a demonstration against rising fuel Hike in Bandung which was ended in anarchic way several times agao. For them, the demonstration is well- organised and not want peace condition in West Java.

"For this reason we ask for clarification to Democrati People's Party (PRD) which is indicated as the actor behing unrest in Bandung last 13 June," They said. In addition, they asked Human Rights National Comminission (Komnas HAM) to objectively and professionally handle an arrest of PRD's activists in due to this case.

"We also support fully police measures in investigating and taking action to rioters in Bandung," They added Till around 11.30 local time, there's no yet any West Java legislative's members appeared to meet the demonstrators. Meanwhile, the demonstrators look sitting at the Legislative's field.

Wahid protest in Melbourne

Australian Associated Press - June 25, 2001

A group of protesters has demonstrated outside the Indonesian consulate in Melbourne on the first day of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid's Australian visit.

The protest was held to draw attention to the delay in the repatriation of East Timorese citizens being held in camps in West Timor since 1999. Four protesters from the Free Timor Campaign unfurled a banner that said "separate militia from hostages now" from the fifth floor of an abandoned office building overlooking the consulate in Queens Lane.

Against the backdrop of the banner, two of the protesters then re-enacted a scene of a balaclava-clad militiaman holding an East Timorese person hostage. The protesters also took their own "hostage" while shouting their demands from a third-floor balcony.

Free Timor Campaign spokeswoman Lenny Sky said the group was calling for the United Nations to be put in charge of a re- registration program for the East Timorese in West Timor. "I'd just like to send a message to Wahid that his government actually do something about getting the militia away from the hostages before re-registration begins," Ms Sky said. A police divisional van attended the scene but no action was taken against the protesters.

Youths occupy legal aid office

Jakarta Post - June 26, 2001

Bandung -- Tens of youths from various youth groups under the umbrella of the former ruling Golkar Party occupied the West Java branch office of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) here on Monday.

Around 25 youths from Siliwangi Youth Generation (AMS), Kosgoro, AMPI, Pancasila Youth and KNPI (Indonesian Youth Committee) protested PBHI's defense of 21 suspected rioters.

The suspects, five of whom are members of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), are being held at West Java Police headquarters for their alleged involvement in incidents of civil unrest that followed a labor strike and a rally against fuel prices hike here two weeks ago.

PBHI told a media conference earlier the same day that it had urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to set up a human rights violation investigation committee in connection with the Bandung incident.

The protesters, clad in the uniforms of their respective organizations complete with bayonets, forced their way into the PBHI office and ransacked the room. They tried to find documents containing PRD activities and took away some posters and pamphlets with them. Police arrived at the location 30 minutes after the youths had left the PBHI office.

AMS chairman Joni Hidayat said that the action was meant to express their concern of the threat of violence in the city and his organization believed the recent rioting had been masterminded by the PRD.

Environment/health

Babies suffer as formula milk targeted at new mothers

Sydney Morning Herald - June 30, 2001

Peter Kerr, Jakarta -- Soon after giving birth earlier this year in a major central Jakarta hospital, nursing staff gave Indra a pack containing infant milk formula, a measuring cup and other gifts provided by a big international baby-food company. Three months later, when she felt she was having difficulty breastfeeding, she started giving her baby the milk formula.

Lisa, a European woman living in Indonesia, gave birth in a south Jakarta hospital last July. She was surprised and confused soon afterwards to receive in her VIP maternity room a similar gift pack, prepared by a different baby-food manufacturer. It contained a tin of formula milk for babies aged three to six months, with a range of information and gifts. Did this mean the hospital staff thought she should change from breastfeeding to formula as soon as possible?

Stories like these, told by women who asked that their real names not be used, are a common frustration for health workers trying to promote the benefits of breastfeeding.

International regulations forbid providing samples of infant formula or related products to new mothers, but the practice appears to be widespread in Indonesia.

Many hospitals desperate for funding also accept medical equipment and other support from the makers of infant formulas, according to health professionals. Pediatricians, midwives and consumer groups also say that baby-food companies are breaching the World Health Organisation's marketing code in the way products are packaged in Indonesia and many other countries, and that information on the packaging is often inadequate or misleading. Formula companies reject these charges of improper practice, insisting they abide by international and national regulations.

One of the biggest battles in Indonesia at present, however, is over "follow-on" formulas, made for children older than six months. Indonesia last year banned advertising of all formula products for children aged below one year. Companies are aggressively advertising food products for children beyond that age.

Meanwhile, a business lobbyist acting on behalf of the Indonesian Baby Food Manufacturers' Association is challenging the ban above the age of six months. "This sort of interference ... is deplorable as it puts profits before the health of infants and young children," said Yeong Joo Kean, a legal adviser in Penang, Malaysia, for the International Baby Food Action Network.

Manufactured baby milk is big business, estimated by the network to be worth at least $A15.8 billion a year worldwide. Figures for Indonesia are unavailable publicly, but one company spokesman said total market volume for the four months to April was 6.7 million kilograms.

No-one, the formula manufacturers included, denies that breast is best for babies. Last month the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organisation agreed unanimously that the recommended period for "exclusive" breastfeeding -- when a baby receives nothing other than breast milk -- be increased from four months to six months.

Meanwhile, studies have shown that mothers who start using formula usually continue buying the same brand, hence the big advantage to companies getting their product into hospitals.

The health benefits of breast milk are generally greater the longer babies drink it exclusively, while babies who switch early to formula have higher rates of death and disease. In developing countries infants who do not breastfeed in the first three to four months have 10 to 15 times greater risk of dying than babies who drink only breast milk. This is mainly due to a higher rate of gastrointestinal infection.

Health professionals say poorer mothers, convinced their babies need formula, will often buy it before feeding the rest of their family properly, or cause other problems by watering down the formula to make it last longer.

One Indonesian midwife said the marketing and availability of formulas, particularly in urban areas, was largely responsible for the drop in exclusive breast feeding from 44.3 per cent of infants aged two to three months to 23.9 per cent for infants aged four to five months.

Ms Dien Sanyoto, a pediatrician with the Indonesian Breastfeeding Promotion Foundation, said many companies violated the international code by promoting their products in health facilities.

Dr Utami Roesli, a pediatrician at St Carolus Hospital's Breastfeeding Enhancement Institute in Jakarta, said it was common for formula-makers to sponsor medical seminars, provide hospitals with equipment, and offer to pay for midwives to finish their education.

Religion/Islam

Hardline groups cause fear in Yogyakarta

Straits Times - June 26, 2001

Yogyakarta -- Revolutionary groups which attack gambling houses and nightspots in the name of religious beliefs are mushrooming here, causing residents to be increasingly fearful.

There are some 40 new Muslim hardline groups in the sultanate town, including Laskar Saddam Husein, Laskar Hizbullah, Laskar Macan Tamil, the Movement of Ka'ba Youth (GPK), the Anti-Maksiat Movement (GAM), and the Anti-Communist Youth Movement (Gepako). The groups are mostly affiliated to the local branch of the United Development Party (PPP). Ahead of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan last year, these groups conducted raids on cafes, nightclubs, bars, gambling spots and other places they branded as an insult to Islamic teachings.

The attacks have continued, although they are now rare. "We have merely tried to execute God's commandments to eradicate prostitution, which the police are reluctant to do," said Yogyakarta Young Mosque Congregations Communication Forum chief Ahmad Yazir. "We cannot avoid using violence to counter student demonstrators and some non-governmental organisation activists who campaign against our religious values."

Many residents have expressed fear at the groups' activities, which include night rallies on motorcades and random raids. Yogyakarta police chief Brigadier-General Saleh Saaf said: "They should simply inform us about gambling spots and other illegal businesses and let us take action. They have no right to carry out the duties of the police," he said.

International relations

A thorn removed in Jakarta relations

Australian Financial Review - June 27, 2001

Brendan Pearson -- The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, and Indonesia's President, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, have pledged to repair a diplomatic relationship marked by discord and bitterness since the East Timor independence vote in 1999.

After the first meeting between leaders of the two countries on Australian soil since 1975, Mr Howard and Mr Wahid yesterday agreed in Canberra to put aside political strains and pursue closer and smoother relations, including a more regular exchange of high-level visits.

Mr Wahid, who faces an impeachment hearing in August, said the main purpose of his visit was to "improve the relationship, which was deteriorating, between the two countries and the two nations, despite the fact that Indonesians as a nation and a people, like the Australians".

At a summit marked more by its symbolism than concrete initiatives, Mr Howard signalled his backing for a proposal floated by Mr Wahid for a new regional sub-grouping -- the Western Pacific Forum, comprising Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Brunei.

The grouping, which would meet initially at foreign minister level, would canvass political and regional security issues, government sources said last night.

In an exchange of diplomatic nods, Mr Howard emphasised his Government's support for Indonesia's territorial integrity, while President Wahid pledged to help the East Timorese "regain their position in the international community".

At a press conference, President Wahid fended off calls from human rights groups for Indonesian military leaders implicated in violence in East Timor to be prosecuted by an international war crimes tribunal. "They have to be brought to justice and the law enforcement will take place in Indonesia. But of course it needs time, because everything in Indonesia is slow," President Wahid said.

The Federal Government has been pressing Jakarta to pursue Indonesian army generals and militia figures, recently securing a commitment that an ad hoc tribunal would investigate atrocities that were committed before and after the East Timor autonomy vote. When first announced, the ad hoc tribunals were to investigate atrocities committed only after the vote.

The two governments also discussed Timor border issues, with Mr Howard seeking assurances that the Indonesian military would play its part in securing the border with East Timor. President Wahid, meanwhile, asked for more assistance in resettling East Timorese refugees.

Discussions on security issues were limited, though President Wahid said later that there needed to be a "reformulation" of the security dialogue given the "changed geopolitical and geo- military" situation. The Australia Indonesia security treaty was abrogated by Jakarta at the height of tensions over East Timor.

Mr Howard endorsed President Wahid's push for greater autonomy in regions such as Aceh and Irian Jaya that have been plagued by violence after the establishment of separatist movements.

At a parliamentary luncheon, Mr Howard and the Opposition Leader, Mr Kim Beazley, warned that the price of failure to forge closer ties would be high. "There is much to be gained should we succeed. But there is much to lose should we fail," Mr Howard said. Mr Beazley said: "National interest on both sides dictates that we cannot step back from each other."

PM's thoughts are back on Asia

Sydney Morning Herald June 26, 2001

Is it mere symbolism for the Wahid visit that John Howard has had an apparent change of heart on Asia, asks Gerard Henderson?

Alexander Downer is correct in referring to the "symbolism" of Abdurrahman Wahid's visit to Australia because in diplomacy, as elsewhere, rituals can convey significant messages. Hence Downer's comment on ABC Radio yesterday that "the symbolism of the President of Indonesia coming here after a quarter of a century, and the rehabilitation of the bilateral relationship which that symbolises, is extremely important". It's true that President Wahid is facing considerable political difficulties, and his immediate political future is not clear. But, right now, Gus Dur -- as he is popularly known -- is the elected President of Australia's largest neighbour and the first Indonesian leader to visit Australia since President Soeharto met with Gough Whitlam in Townsville in 1975. That's both significant and symbolic. John Howard has indicated that the Indonesian President will receive an official welcome similar to that extended to President Bill Clinton during his 1996 visit.

In his AM interview yesterday, Downer sought to distance the Coalition from the policy towards Indonesia during the prime ministerships of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The Foreign Minister commented that Australia has "a very different relationship with Indonesia from the relationship Mr Keating wanted to have".

It was not always so. On September 16, 1996, John addressed a banquet in Jakarta given by then President Soeharto. He reminded his audience that "it was a Liberal/Country Party government which welcomed the stability brought by [President Soeharto's] New Order government in the second half of the 1960s". Moreover, the Howard Government's foreign and trade policy white paper "In The National Interest" (1997) praised the "historic Agreement on Maintaining Security [negotiated between the Soeharto and Keating governments] and the substantial bilateral defence co-operation program" between the two nations.

This was before the Asian economic downturn, the collapse of the Soeharto regime, East Timor, Indonesia's repudiation of the Agreement on Maintaining Security and all that. For a time, the Australia-Indonesia relationship became part of the domestic debate in both nations. Wahid's visit, and Howard's appropriate diplomatic reception, indicate that relations between Canberra and Jakarta are mending. For the moment at least.

Not before time. For too long Australia's relationship has been adversely affected by Howard's claim that, during Keating's time, Australia had "Asia only" foreign policy. It is difficult to visualise what such a policy would have entailed. Presumably, at the very least, the unilateral abolition of the Australian-US alliance and a downgrading of Australia's historic ties with Europe. This never happened -- but rejection of an alleged "Asia only" foreign policy was seen by Coalition strategists as a useful political tactic.

However, any conscious diminution of Australia's ties with the Asian region would require a turning back on the foreign policy enunciated since the end of the Pacific war by both Labor (Ben Chifley, Gough Whitlam, Hawke, Keating) and Coalition (Robert Menzies, Harold Holt, Malcolm Fraser) prime ministers. Consequently, Howard could not, and did not, demolish the Keating government's foreign policy towards Asia.

However, the Prime Minister's diplomatic language, until recently at least, has sent out a muted message that Australia does not hold the region as being as important as it was once. This has been noticed by Australians and others. Witness, for example, the debate between former Australian senior diplomat Richard Woolcott and Alexander Downer in the International Herald Tribune last month. The former head of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Department (DFAT) argued that "although Australia is geographically on the edge of Asia, it seems to have moved off the stage and into the wings in recent years", (International Herald Tribune, May 17).

What's more, according to the Woolcott view, "there is renewed scepticism in the region about the sincerity of Australia's moves to engage with South-East Asia, beyond advantageous trade relations". He cited a number of reasons for this change of attitude. However, above all, Woolcott depicted Howard's (politically motivated) criticisms of the Keating government's politics towards Asia in general -- and Indonesia in particular -- as primarily responsible for sending "the wrong message".

The former DFAT secretary cannot be dismissed as a member of the chattering classes who supports politically correct causes and belongs to the Leftist Luvvies for Paul Keating Fan Club. Not at all. Woolcott held senior appointments during the period of the Fraser government (when Howard was treasurer). One of the first acts of Howard as Prime Minister in March 1996 was to send Woolcott to Kuala Lumpur to meet with Dr Mahathir to improve the Australia-Malaysia relationship.

Downer recognised the significance of the Woolcott critique of the Howard Government's policy towards Asia. He replied (International Herald Tribune, May 30) that Australia "remains strongly committed to long-term, mutually beneficial relations with countries of the region".

This, no doubt, reflects the Foreign Minister's personal beliefs -- along with those of Treasurer Peter Costello and former trade minister Tim Fischer. All three have been deeply involved in the Asian region, consistent with their portfolio responsibilities. However Downer did not quote even one comment from Howard about the importance of Asia to Australia.

There is no incompatibility whatsoever between Australia focusing on Asia while enhancing traditional relationships with allies and friends in North America and Western Europe. Australia's public sympathy with the Bush Administration's attitudes to China and missile defence would be better understood in the region if Asia was seen as a distinct priority for the Howard Government's foreign policy.

After all, many Asian nations maintain good relations with the US. A focus on Asia is the best way for Australia to counteract the ill-informed view -- aired most recently in the Malaysia Government-controlled New Straits Times -- that "Australia is America's satellite state".

Wahid's visit is an appropriate reminder of Australia's physical location in the Asian region. While the timing had nothing to do with the Howard Government, it coincides with signs of an apparent -- and, if so, welcome -- change in Howard's attitude to the region. In a speech on May 30, the Prime Minister commented that "the Asia-Pacific region is of overwhelming strategic importance to Australia". Last week Downer announced the Government's decision that the "funding assistance" will be provided to the ABC "to establish an Australian television service to the Asia-Pacific region". This follows a decision late last year to fund Radio Australia's short wave transmissions to the region. Both commitments effectively overturned previous expenditure cuts. All this could be regarded as mere symbolism. However, as Wahid's visit demonstrates, symbolic acts can be important.

[Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.]

Wahid flies into flak over atrocities

Sydney Morning Herald - June 26, 2001

Craig Skehan -- Australia and New Zealand will press Indonesia's visiting President Wahid to prosecute members of his country's military, and militiamen, over atrocities in East Timor. But the Prime Minister yesterday also pledged support for Indonesia's "territorial integrity" in the face of secessionist conflicts.

Mr Wahid, who in August faces impeachment, began his trip on an unfortunate note, with an aircraft problem stranding him temporarily in Darwin. And in what could be seen as an irony, the former commander of Australia's forces in East Timor, Lieutenant-General Peter Cosgrove, was among those at Fairbairn RAAF base in Canberra for Mr Wahid's arrival.

Mr Howard told Parliament that his counterpart's much-postponed trip was warmly welcomed as a shift from past bilateral tensions."This is a very important visit." But officials said the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, would raise with Mr Wahid today his Government's failure to prosecute many military and militia figures involved in the killing of pro-independence East Timorese.

Unless stronger action is taken to overcome military resistance to such prosecutions, Australia is expected to back calls for an international war crimes tribunal.

Asked on his arrival in Canberra last night what his response was to Australia's push for action over the atrocities, Mr Wahid said: "I have to discuss it with the Foreign Minister first." His advisers said there was a need to entrench democracy in Indonesia, and the President's authority, to improve the Government's ability to deal with human rights violations.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Ms Helen Clark, said that she would ask Mr Wahid, due to visit her country tomorrow, to do more to disarm East Timorese anti-independence militias. The NZ Government is also threatening to support calls for a war crimes tribunal because of the severe limits on prosecutions and the extremely light sentences given to the few people who have been convicted. Some commentators fear that a tribunal would be exploited by political and military foes of Mr Wahid on the ground that it would be a violation of Indonesia's sovereignty.

Mr Howard told Parliament: "Everyone in the House knows that relations between Australia and Indonesia went through a difficult time over matters concerning East Timor." Australia wanted to "move on" to strengthen bilateral relations. Mr Howard said Australia would continue to support Indonesia's territorial integrity and expressed hope that secessionist tensions could be resolved.

The Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, asked by journalists about the call from the Government back bencher Mr Andrew Thomson for negotiation of a security treaty with Indonesia, said: "Well, it's not on our agenda that we should do that. But that's not to say that you wouldn't be in a position to have discussions about regional security with Indonesia." A security treaty, signed in 1995 by the Labor prime minister Mr Paul Keating and President Soeharto, was abrogated by Indonesia in 1999 amid diplomatic clashes over East Timor.

Mr Downer was asked in an ABC interview yesterday if Australia could have a formal security relationship Indonesia as it became more democratic. "I don't think you need a security treaty in order to do that," he said. "But your point is generally right -- I think it's important we do have links with the security apparatus in Indonesia, which we do have."

Wahid promises to pursue human rights abusers

Sydney Morning Herald - June 26, 2001

Australia and Indonesia had agreed to put behind them the strained relationship which arose over East Timor and move on, Prime Minister John Howard said today, while Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid promised to pursue the perpetrators of human rights atrocities in East Timor.

Mr Howard met President Wahid this morning in talks the prime minister described as positive. Mr Wahid told a press conference soon after that his visit to Australia was a strong symbol and he hoped it would help bring Australia and Indonesia closer together.

"I come here mainly in a symbolic way," Mr Wahid told reporters. "But symbolic or not, it is really important because of many things. "With this kind of visit the co-operation between Indonesia and Australia will be closer, and I hope that we both can help the East Timorese to regain their position in the international community."

Mr Wahid said it was important to bring to justice those responsible for the militia violence in East Timor, but he said it would take time. "They have to be brought to justice," he said. "The law enforcement will take place in Indonesia but, of course, it needs time."

Mr Howard said he supported Indonesia's commitment to independent tribunals to examine who was responsible for the violence in East Timor. "We do wish to see those tribunals operate," Mr Howard said. "We are pleased to note the commitment in relation to investigation of matters both before and after the [East Timor independence] ballot."

Mr Howard outlined some of the actions which woiuld flow from President Wahid's visit. "Amongst a number of things that we have agreed to is, of course, to have regular exchanges of visits between the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Australia," Mr Howard told a joint press conference following the meeting.

"This is, as everyone knows, the first visit to Australia's national capital by an Indonesian president for 29 years. "That alone marks it as a highly significant occasion and a very important one. "Both of us are very strongly of the view that the strains over East Timor, understandable though they were in the context of those events, should in the interests of a broader and deeper relationship be put behind us as we move on. "And I'm delighted to say the visit by the president symbolises that and also gives a great deal of practical substance to the importance of the relationship."

Mr Howard said the foreign ministers of the two nations had signed a memorandum of understanding on tourism and an agreement had also been reached to establish a marine working party. The two leaders also discussed economic matters and noted the establishment of ad hoc tribunals in relation to war crimes both before and after the 1999 East Timor independence ballot.

Economy & investment

IMF to send team to Jakarta if central bank laws delayed

Reuters - June 26, 2001

Jakarta -- The IMF said on Tuesday it would resume a vital $5 billion loan programme with Indonesia if the government agreed to delay a debate on controversial central bank law revisions.

Renewed ties would be a big plus for President Abdurrahman Wahid, edging closer to impeachment over his erratic 20-month rule, and signal to donors and investors the country's reforms were back on track. Indonesia's parliament earlier on Tuesday urged the government to stall the central bank law debate by six months to help improve ties with the Fund, cut off since December.

"I believe the Fund would be willing to send a mission soon if the government wishes to follow the comprehensive suggestion by the parliament," IMF senior Jakarta representative John Dodsworth told Reuters.

Head of the parliamentary commission in charge of financial affairs Benny Pasaribu, said the IMF review was more crucial than the planned central bank law amendments, concerns over which have helped push relations between Indonesia and the Fund to their lowest ebb.

"I very much support comments by Benny Pasaribu. It's good for the IMF programme to be put back on track and for Paris Club relations to be regularised," Dodsworth added. The official Paris Club of creditors agreed in April last year to reschedule $5.8 billion of Indonesia's debt but part of the agreement depends on an active IMF programme.

Dodsworth said the mission -- which would pave the way for a fresh $400 million loan -- was solely contingent on the revised laws which the Fund fears would undermine the central bank's hard-won independence.

Indonesia has already cleared two hurdles for securing fresh IMF loans: revising its 2001 state budget and dropping a much criticised plan to issue asset-backed bonds.

The biggest sticking point on the Bank Indonesia law reforms is Article 75 which stipulates the whole bank board resign once the new laws take effect. An independent report recently said the clause was a "serious mistake".

While Indonesia has been slow to push ahead with key reforms, it has been distracted by the mounting political crisis and hampered by the lack of cohesion between government and parliament.

Lagging reforms were also partly the reason the World Bank slashed its aid programme to Indonesia in January. But the Bank is widely expected to approve a $320 million loan to Indonesia when its board meets in Washington on Tuesday as part of its $1.2 billion, three-year aid programme.

Key Indonesian official's sacking slammed by analysts

Reuters - June 25, 2001

Gde Anugrah Arka, Jakarta -- Indonesia's floundering president has sacked the widely respected head of the bank restructuring agency (IBRA), in yet another shakeup at one of the troubled country's most vital institutions.

The sacking -- slammed by analysts -- caps the latest shuffling of economic posts by President Abdurrahman Wahid, desperately seeking ways to avoid impeachment in August but sowing mainly confusion with his frequent personnel changes.

I Putu Gde Ary Suta was sworn in on Monday to replace Edwin Gerungan, who some analysts said fell foul of powerful political forces by opposing controversial debt restructuring deals. Ary Suta was chief of the capital market watchdog Bapepam from 1995- 1998 and a senior official at the Finance Ministry before taking up the new post.

Financial analysts have had little positive to say about yet another change at the head of IBRA. He will be IBRA's fourth head in 18 months, changes that have disrupted its job of reviving Indonesia's broken bank sector and selling off assets worth 600 trillion rupiah ($52.8 billion) it took over during the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s. "We'll do our best to speed up restructuring," Ary Suta told reporters at the swearing-in ceremony.

A palace source said Wahid, who left for a visit to Australia on Sunday, signed the order to sack Gerungan over the weekend. The former Jakarta-based Citibank vice president told Reuters he had not quit of his own accord but declined to give any further details.

His sacking comes days after Finance Minister Rizal Ramli said IBRA's management needed to be improved. Ramli told reporters on Monday that IBRA must accelerate asset sales and make sure they did not lose their value.

Political meddling

Economists said that while Gerungan might have been a bit slow to push through deals, he brought unrivaled integrity to an agency under constant pressure from political meddling because of the wealth it controls. "I really respected Edwin Gerungan because he managed to steer away from the controversy and scandal which plagued IBRA under previous chairmen," said Lin Che Wei, head of research at SG Securities in Jakarta. "His departure will be a major blow to IBRA because it is very difficult to find people with a squeaky clean reputation like his," he told Reuters.

One senior Western economist who declined to be identified speculated Gerungan's dismissal was linked to his dislike of political interference in controversial debt restructuring deals. "Clearly there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than any of us know, which led to this," the economist said.

Wahid is visiting Australia and other countries this week even though he faces an impeachment hearing in just over a month for a tumultuous and widely-criticised 20 months in power. While analysts have condemned the sacking of Gerungan, financial markets have barely blinked, focused primarily on Wahid's increasingly shaky political future.

IBRA is meant to sell the assets it controls so the cash-strapped government can plug a gaping budget deficit while the private sector gets back in business.

More changes on the way

Finance Minister Ramli cast doubt over Gerungan's future last week, not long after being moved from the chief economics post, where he repeatedly crossed swords with the International Monetary Fund over key financial reforms. IBRA falls under the control of the Finance Ministry. Ramli's criticism of IBRA has coincided with speculation he would soon replace most of the key officials at his ministry.

Dasa Sutantio, a senior IBRA official, denied the dismissal of Gerungan would affect IBRA's tasks. "Maybe from an emotional point of view [it will have an impact] but from a technical point of view ... restructuring or [asset] disposal is not going to stop just because there is a new boss," Sutantio told Reuters. Sutantio added IBRA's 27 trillion rupiah revenue target for this year, which Gerungan said in May was too high, could be met. Gerungan's appointment last November had been applauded. But IBRA has come under constant attack for moving too slowly to resolve the huge problems facing the shattered banking sector, giving the enemies of Wahid more ammunition to attack him.