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Indonesia News Digest No
34 - August 19-25, 2001
Straits Times - August 19, 2001
Abdul Razak Ahmad -- Only one road leads to the house of
Pramoedya Ananta Toer and I am not on it. Lost instead in a maze
of back lanes in the Javanese village of Desa Waringin Jaya, I am
driving around in circles trying to find the house of the man
generally regarded as the greatest living writer in Indonesia.
The village, a mere 60km from Jakarta, is a ramshackle community
of the suburban poor. Some dwellings have electricity, many do
not. Open toilets and wells are the norm. Groups of begging
children erect makeshift "roadblocks" hoping for spare change
from passing motorists. They correct my bearings, and I soon
arrive at my destination, nervous and unannounced.
Pramoedya's house, a white bungalow nestled snugly against a
small hill, marks a stark contrast to the meagre village
surroundings. A wall, decorated with spray-painted graffiti of
political slogans, separates the house from the railway track
behind it. Workmen completing an unfinished section of the house
welcome me. The foreman tramples upstairs to summon the master of
the house.
In a short while he appears, a smiling and grandfatherly figure
clad in a short-sleeved collared T-shirt and sarong. Pramoedya,
76, projects a humble and polite demeanor that puts visitors
quickly at ease with him. His gentle bearing conceals a harder
aspect of his personality, one which is tempered by painful
experience.
A supporter of the country's founding father President Sukarno's
doctrine of Guided Democracy, Pramoedya was already a renowned
writer when he was detained for fourteen years in the notorious
Buru Island from 1965 for suspected communist sympathies. His
works were banned, his property confiscated, and he was confined
to Jakarta after his release from Buru Island for a long time
afterwards.
Pramoedya has suffered this and much more from the New Order
administration of President Suharto, which took over the reins of
administration from Sukarno in 1966 following an allegedly
botched communist coup.
In 1975, when he was allowed to write again, Pramoedya began work
on his famous Buru Quartet, a four-volume epic consisting of Bumi
Manusia (This Earth of Mankind), Anak Semua Bangsa (Child of All
Nations), Jejak Langkah (Steps Forward) and Rumah Kaca (House of
Glass).
The ban on his works was officially lifted in May this year. He
has also received numerous awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay
Award in 1995 and the New York Foundation of the Arts Awards last
year. Pramoedya now leads a quiet life. With the assistance of a
Spain-based literary agent, he oversees the worldwide publication
of his previously censured books.
We exchange niceties. He warns me that I would have to speak
loudly, close to his ear, because his hearing is not what it used
to be. I later learned that his near-deafness was the result of
an old injury -- a rifle butt to the head. The 14 years in
detention appears to have taken its toll on him. He tells me that
he is in poor physical condition, and that he can no longer
write.
I ask about the appointment of Megawati Sukarnoputri as President
which took place two days before, following the impeachment of
Abdurrahman Wahid by the People's Consultative Assembly.
Pramoedya replies by saying that he views Megawati's ascension as
a coup. "As her father [Sukarno] faced a coup by the New Order,
now she is the beneficiary of one. I do not know Megawati's
capabilities. What I do know is that Megawati is no Sukarno." I
ask him about the graffiti on the wall outside. He chuckles, and
says that it was most probably "the kids", referring to the many
groups of university students who congregate at his house as a
sort of pilgrimage, to seek his advice on their struggle.
I ask him about the advice he is giving them. "They come here
often, and I always tell them to forget their studies for the
next two years. Go on and continue with the demonstrations until
the New Order is totally wiped out. They are now doing this," he
adds matter-of-factly.
"I tell them that questions regarding the good and bad of this I
leave to them to determine. "But you," Pramoedya intones,
suddenly addressing me as the third person collective of the
student movement. "You, who have been accused of not having
experience, how could you have managed to bring down a dictator
without the assistance of the armed forces? "So don't act naive
with me because you know how to do it," he says, staring into the
distance and waving a clove cigarette in the air.
Pramoedya's uncompromising opposition to what he believes is the
tyranny of the unjust makes him one of several influential
figureheads of the country's splintered student movement. Since
the fall of their common enemy Suharto, the once collective force
of the student demonstrators have dissipated into various
squabbling groups.
Many are disillusioned with the shortcomings of Reformasi. Many
of its goals are yet unfulfilled. Golkar, the much-despised
former ruling party of Suharto, is the second largest in
parliament. The military, blamed for numerous gross violations of
human rights during the New Order, remain a deciding political
force.
Pramoedya acknowledges the flaws. "As it is, 50 per cent of those
currently in power are from the New Order. They can do whatever
they want. Even New Order stalwarts like [former ruling party
Golkar chairman] Akbar Tanjung is now Speaker of Parliament. How
could this have been allowed to happen?" The solution, according
to Pramoedya, lies with the younger generation and the masses.
Some of the dissatisfied students have already sensed the need to
re-energise their movement. Some call this imminent uprising
"Reformasi Part Two", others, "Revolusi".
Pramoedya says it is all part of a social revolution, which
Indonesia is at the threshold of. "Farmers whose land was
confiscated by the New Order must now reclaim their property,
forcefully, using arms, if necessary. Although these people are
most likely to lose in an open conflict, if they can create
leaders in this early stage of our social revolution, the
resistance movement will step up in intensity," he says.
Few take Pramoedya's dire predictions of a bloody social
revolution seriously, although the land-grab incidents Pramoedya
cited did occur in the countryside in the months before the
country's 1999 elections.
A social revolution was one of the possible scenarios resulting
from the political volatility. However, many mainstream political
figures including Abdurrahman dismissed such a possibility and
called for a rejection of it. Pramoedya's critics allege that his
words are merely aggravating an already difficult situation while
others dismiss him as a spent force. In either case he offers no
apologies.
"Reformasi is just part of a bigger social revolution, just a
beginning which many do not realise," he reasons, citing what he
believes is Indonesia's unavoidable destiny. What actions his
words will lead to only time will tell. He remains an influential
figure nevertheless.
The embattled Abdurrahman himself paid a courtesy call on
Pramoedya at his home several weeks before he was impeached.
Observers say Abdurrahman, desperate for his political survival,
realised the influence Pramoedya wields over the student movement
and was hoping for some respite to his troubles.
In an earlier meeting with Pramoedya in Jakarta, Abdurrahman had
even gone so far as to apologise to him for all the injustices
that he had suffered at the hands of the New Order. I ask about
the apology. "I cannot forgive. No. If the supremacy of law
really exists, then these people must be judged accordingly. I
don't need empty talk," Pramoedya says. There is no anger, but
sorrow in his eyes as he says this.
Pramoedya's public refusal to accept the apology has made him the
target of severe criticism by several well-known cultural
figures. He responds to such criticism by relating his 1965
detention. "Even back then, those who were involved in polemical
arguments against me used my detention as their means of getting
back at me, my so-called detractors," he says, shaking his head.
I ask about the essence of what he has been fighting for. He says
it is for Indonesia to be free, modern, and democratic. I ask how
he defines democracy. "Democracy is only a word. But where it
needs to be taught most is at the family-level, more than in the
schools, because then it would just be living skills and not
democracy in the true sense of the word.
He provides an example, explaining why, despite his past ordeals,
there is no longer any anger, no burning desire for revenge. "In
fact I pity them, how can their culture be so low, what did their
parents teach them? Doesn't that go to show that the whole
problem is essentially due to a lack of culture, and not
political in nature?" The interview is soon concluded and
Pramoedya escorts me to the gate.
I notice an uncompleted swimming pool with a kiddie slide being
bolted on to the side by one of the workmen. "For my
grandchildren," he says, and I ask how many there are. "Sixteen,
and you wouldn't want to be here when they all come over in one
go," he replies with a laugh. On the drive back, I discovered
that the road to his house was not as complicated as I had
earlier thought.
Jakarta Post - August 21, 2001
Jakarta -- Dita Indah Sari, a noted woman activist who is the one
of the recipients of the 2001 Ramon Magsaysay Award, said here on
Monday that winning the award would encourage her to continue her
fight for the basic rights of workers.
"For me the award constitutes international recognition for what
I've done in the labor movement, which hasn't been properly
addressed in Indonesia. It encourages me to continue our
struggle," Dita told The Jakarta Post.
Dita, 29, who according to the award organizers was honored for
being at the forefront of the struggle against labor abuses in
Indonesia, will share the US$50,000 award with Oung Chanthol, 34,
who was honored for her work in opposing crimes against women in
Cambodia.
Scheduled to fly to the Philippines to receive the award late
this month, Dita will join other Indonesian recipients of the
award, who include Mochtar Lubis (journalist), Pramoedya Ananta
Toer (writer), Abdurrahman Wahid (democratic activist) and
Atmakusumah Astraatmadja (journalist).
Dita, the chairperson of the National Front for the Struggle of
Indonesian Workers (FNPBI), was jailed by former president
Soeharto's regime in the East Java's town of Malang in 1997 and
Banten's town of Tangerang in 1999 on subversion charges of
inciting workers. FNPBI has 14 provincial branches with some
22,000 members. She has also been arrested several times by
police while leading labor protests.
Democratic and human rights activists held a party in Jakarta on
Monday night to honor Dita before her departure to the
Philippines to receive the award. Former president Abdurrahman
Wahid was among those to be invited to the event.
Dita said prisons have helped her become a tougher labor activist
as from there she gained many valuable experiences. "We should
not be weak because if we are we just give room for dictatorship
to grow," said Dita, whose Magsaysay Award will be classified in
the 'emergent leadership' category.
Dita, who frequently comes to her office in a bajaj (a three-
wheeled vehicle), was born in Medan, North Sumatra, on December
30, 1972. She was elected as FNPBI chairwoman at the
organization's second congress in July last year. She is also one
of the founders of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), led by
her friend Budiman Sudjatmiko.
Speaking about her political views, she said that workers could
become a potential constituent as they consist of people who can
easily be organized.
She expressed pessimism over President Megawati Soekarnoputri
government's ability to enhance the process of democratization
because she rose to the presidency with the support of both the
military and figures from Soeharto's New Order government.
"Therefore, Megawati will be forced to compromise with the
military, who have been notorious for committing human rights
abuses in the past," she added.
East Timor
Labour struggle
Aceh/West Papua
Government/politics
Regional/communal conflicts
Human rights/law
News & issues
Environment/health
Arms/armed forces
Economy & investment
Democratic struggle
Pramoedya sees revolution as the destiny of Indonesia
Noted award means struggle goes on: Dita
East Timor
Damages bid hits Timor Gap talks
Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 2001
Jane Counsel -- Delicate negotiations over a new Timor Gap revenue sharing agreement were further unhinged yesterday, after a small American group launched legal action against the Federal and Indonesian governments and Phillips Petroleum.
Colorado-based PetroTimor, which is owned by Oceanic Exploration and the East Timor government, is seeking up to $2.85 billion in damages over a disputed exploration concession covering part of the Timor Gap treaty zone. The legal action, launched in the Federal Court, threatens to derail negotiations over a new Timor Gap revenue sharing agreement, which remains stalled over East Timor's push for a greater share of the spoils.
The Timor Gap treaty, signed by Australia and Indonesia in 1989, carved out a revenue-sharing arrangement over the middle portion of the Timor Sea between the two countries. But PetroTimor claims the pair formed an illegal agreement and it is now seeking official recognition of a concession it was granted over the same area by Portugal before Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975.
PetroTimor was forced to flee East Timor before it could start exploration on the concession and claims it has since spent 15 years trying to convince Indonesian and Australian officials of the validity of its claim. A spokeswoman from the office of Attorney-General Mr Daryl Williams said "any proceedings brought against the Commonwealth Government will be defended vigorously".
US group Phillips Petroleum, which is heading up the proposed $U1.5 billion Bayu-Undan project within the jointly administered zone of the Timor Sea, was named as the third defendant to the action. But Phillips said it was confident that its exploration and production contracts in the disputed area were legally valid. "We have every confidence in these contracts being upheld," Phillips Darwin manager Mr Jim Godlove said.
The legal action was launched on the same day that Phillips met Federal Government representatives in Canberra to discuss the Timor Gap issues. Phillips has already postponed a second-stage proposed gas pipeline project due to East Timor's unfavourable tax regime.
Sydney Morning Herald - August 25, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- East Timor's Cabinet member for foreign affairs, Mr Jose Ramos Horta, has blasted the United Nations mission in Dili for obstructing the implementation of Portuguese as the country's official language. In a confidential memo sent to Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Mr Ramos Horta accused UN staff of wanting to impose the English and Indonesian languages on East Timorese.
In uncharacteristically blunt language, he said he had banned his staff from co-operating with any UNTAET training program that did not use Portuguese as the language of instruction. "I would like to inform that no staff from this department will attend this Secretariat training workshop, as once again, some of the [UN] international staff seem to wish to impose Bahasa Indonesia or English," he wrote in the letter dated August 20, a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald.
"Time and again, these international staff members have completely ignored the majority of East Timorese political leaders [who] have stated that Portuguese will be the official language of this country. In this context and in my capacity as Cabinet member, I have forbidden my staff to co-operate with any branch of UNTAET that insist in ignoring Portuguese language initiatives they organise."
Mr Ramos Horta's angry stance raises again the controversial subject of East Timor's official language, which the older generation of independence leaders -- including Mr Xanana Gusmao -- say should be Portuguese, the language of their former coloniser. Mr Gusmao, an early proponent of Portuguese as the official language, said the choice was important in defining the new nation's culture.
His call for the adoption of Portuguese sparked a heated debate last year during the national congress of the pro-independence umbrella group, the National Council of Timorese Resistance. Many East Timorese prefer English or Indonesian in addition to Tetum, their indigenous language. Many university students fluent in Indonesian resent having to learn another language that they consider irrelevant to the region.
English classes are fast becoming as popular as Portuguese for many East Timorese students who see fluency in the language as essential to getting a well-paid job with a foreign company or working for the local UN mission. "If you are going to teach one language then teach a language that is going to open up the world and the region for East Timorese, and that language is not Portuguese but English," one East Timorese official said.
Mr Vieira de Mello said UNTAET would not get involved in the language debate, which was a matter for the new East Timorese government to decide. However, senior UN officials said vital UN-sponsored training programs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were potentially at risk over the insistence that they be taught in Portuguese.
With a hefty budget allocated to judicial training, the United States mission has recently expressed private concern over the insistence by the Cabinet member for judicial affairs, Ms Gita Welch, that the language of the courts be Portuguese. Courts now use a mixture of languages including English, Indonesian, Portuguese and East Timorese dialects, rendering the proceedings cumbersome.
Last month the Department of Social Affairs announced plans to recruit 723 Portuguese language teachers for primary, junior and secondary schools nationwide.
Sydney Morning Herald - August 25, 2001
Lindsay Murdoch, Dare Mulo -- Some people wept. Others sang national songs they had rehearsed for days and stamped their bare feet in the dust. Rogerio Lobato this week brought the revolution to Dare Mulo, a village high in East Timor's mountains, 100 kilometres south of Dili.
"The vote will be a landslide," said Mr Lobato, sipping thick black coffee made from beans growing wild in the mountains where 14 of his brothers and sisters were killed in the 24-year guerilla war with Indonesia. "The war has left a deep emotional connection with Fretilin," he said. "The villagers may not be able to write their own name, but they are not stupid. They know who collaborated with the Indonesians. They know who led the resistance struggle."
For weeks the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor, or Fretilin, has dominated campaigning throughout the villages for the election of the half-island territory's first independent parliament ahead of full statehood next year. United Nations officials, diplomats and other observers predict that the left- wing party founded in 1974 will win 60 to 90 per cent of the vote, raising concern over the creation of a one-party state.
Fretilin will almost certainly dominate the 88-member parliament after voters go to the polls next Thursday, exactly two years after a majority of East Timorese voted to reject Indonesian rule. The parliament's first job will be to draft a Constitution establishing how to rule the 812,000 people. If Fretilin wins more than 85 per cent of seats it will be able to write the Constitution without input from any other party. Fretilin favours a system of government based on the French model, where a president elected directly by the people every five years would have the authority to call and chair parliament and make important decisions.
Its leaders deny claims by rival parties that their supporters have been intimidating voters during the campaign, which has so far been peaceful. They also deny they want a communist state. "We will form a government of national inclusion," said Mr Lobato, 52, a member of Fretilin's central committee. If someone from the other parties is competent and honest and will do a good job we will bring him or her into government. But they must not develop the policies of their own party. They must agree to pursue the programs of the party that won ... our government will be based on pragmatism and realism." He added: "It's nonsense to say we are a communist party. Almost all of us are practising Catholics and have strong links to the church. So how can we be communists?"
Two years ago, dozens of pro-Jakarta militia surrounded Dare Mulo and pointed their home-made guns at villagers as they lined up to vote in the UN plebiscite. But the villagers bravely ignored the intimidation because Fretilin, which operated underground during Indonesia's occupation, told them to. The militia responded by destroying 90 per cent of the village and killing an unknown number of people in an orgy of violence and destruction which was repeated across East Timor.
But Mr Lobato said Fretilin believed strongly in peacefully bringing back into the villages and towns people who supported Indonesian rule, including an estimated 80,000 still living in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor. "There still should be justice for the victims," he said. "We will ensure that those who are guilty will be brought before the courts and given the chance to defend themselves."
To the people of Dare Mulo the Lobato family are heroes. Rogerio's brother, Nicolau, was the commander of anti-Indonesian guerillas in 1978 when he was shot in the leg not far from the village during an attack by soldiers led by Prabowo Subianto, the son-in-law of the then Indonesian dictator Soeharto. Rather than be taken prisoner, Nicolau declared, "My last bullet is my victory", before shooting himself dead. His wife was eight months pregnant when she was captured. Rather than be taken for interrogation she pleaded to be shot dead. A soldier obliged.
The Fretilin rallies held in all East Timor districts in recent weeks had been highly emotional, Mr Lobato said. He was greeted in Dare Mulo, for example, by three teenage girls whose parents were killed in 1999. They wept as they recited poems of welcome. "The memories are still fresh in the people's minds," he said.
Mr Mari Alkatiri, another Fretilin leader, said his party was confident of receiving 80 to 85 per cent of the vote. He noted Fretilin was rural-based and more than 90 per cent of the population lived outside the cities and towns.
Mr Alkatiri said Fretilin's policy was to ignore claims that its members were intimidating voters, although UN police have reported one incident involving two men. "Some of the other parties are taunting us," he said. "But we will not respond. Few other countries have had such a violence-free election campaign." He claimed that interests in Indonesia -- not the Government in Jakarta -- had tried to send 1 billion rupiah (about $215,000) to one of the other political parties to be used to try to thwart Fretilin. But the money was seized by border officials.
"I know the party, but won't say which one in the interests of keeping things peaceful," Mr Alkatiri said. "There are certain individuals in Indonesia, even generals, who don't want Fretilin to win this election ... it will be another humiliation for them because they could not crush us during 24 years of occupation."
Associated Press - August 24, 2001
Dili -- A US-based election monitoring group said Friday it was satisfied with conditions for East Timor's first free elections next week, but expressed concern over cases of voter intimidation.
On August 30, East Timor will elect an 88-member assembly to decide on the territory's first constitution ahead of full independence next year. Sixteen political parties and 16 independent candidates are contesting the vote.
"A number of parties cited these instances of intimidation as affecting their ability to campaign, causing them to scale back planned campaign activities," said a report from the Carter Center.
The last ballot, a UN-sponsored independence referendum in 1999, was preceded by massive violence by Indonesia's army and its militia proxies. They went on a rampage after election results showed an overwhelming vote to end Indonesia's 24-year occupation.
Although political rallies in the current campaign have largely been peaceful, the leading party Fretilin used words such as "traitors" to describe its opponents, the Carter Center said in a report. Luis Carrilho, a UN police spokesman, said 14 minor campaign offenses had been reported so far. Only one instance of intimidation was substantiated, he said.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center was established in 1982 by former President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, to promote human rights and democracy. The organization has helped to monitor elections around the world.
Lusa - August 24, 2001
Some East Timorese political forces have set up security-style partisan groups in preparation for next week4s elections but have not generated any problems, UN administration officials said Friday.
One official told Lusa that UN peacekeepers met this week with one such group, allegedly organized by the favored Fretilin party, to advise them that election security was the responsibility of the peacekeepers in tandem with Timorese defense force personnel.
"There have been no problems", the official said, adding that other parties had also organized activists in similar ways.
Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri denied, in comments to Lusa, that his party had any private security apparatus, saying the groups aimed to assure "stability" and "better organize" election campaign events.
"Security is the responsibility of the UN", Alkatiri added.
UN police spokesman Luis Carrilho said there were "rumors" that some partisan groups planned to deploy groups of activists near voting stations next Thursday. "They can4t substitute the security structures", he said, adding that if the groups acted like "scouts, helping people with water and food", they would be granted "freer movement".
Lusa - August 22, 2001
The number two in East Timor`s Fretilin party hierarchy, Mari Alkatiri, strongly critized Wednesday the territory`s Independent Eletoral Mediation Panel, which has complained about the movement`s campaign use of an expression deemed to be provocative.
The three-member Panel, set up as a watchdog ahead of the August 30 Constituent Assembly elections, considers that Fretilin`s frequent use of the expression "dasa rai" (sweep the ground) in rallies is a "disturbing form of apparent verbal harassment" and thus violates the national unity pact signed by the parties before the campaign.
Fretilin leaders have in rallies promised to clean the garbage from the territory`s streets. However, the Tetun (lingua franca of East Timor) words "dasa rai" were also used during the Indonesian occupation to refer to operations against the East Timorese resistance and more recently by anti-independence militias before the 1999 independence plebiscite.
Alkatiri told Lusa Wednesday that the Panel was practicing "intellectual dishonesty", charging that it was attempting to use "alleged threats by Fretilin" to justify "the overwhelming defeat of the other parties" in the August 30 ballot. "All our speeches have called for peace and stability and clearly rejected violence. Why do they remove from our discourse an appeal we make to the people, for them to relax after the election campaign", he queried.
Fretilin, which is widely favored to win the election, is currently a center-left, social democratic-style force that benefits from its long association with the independence cause and resistance to Indonesia`s quarter century occupation of East Timor, although some have voiced fears about its Marxist past.
The Indonesian invasion in 1975 was triggered by Fretilin`s unilateral declaration of independence after the brief civil war that followed the withdrawal of Portuguese colonial authorities.
East Timor has been governed by a UN transition administration since the 1999 plebiscite, with full independence expected next year.
Voters in the territory will on August 30 elect the 88 members of an assembly whose main task will be to draw up the future national constitution.
Agence France Presse - August 23, 2001
Bronwyn Curran, Dili -- East Timorese voters are relishing their first-ever taste of democracy but some parties in next week's elections have tried to intimidate them, local poll watchdogs said Thursday.
Five groups, including the Joint Election Observers Committee and the National East Timorese Students' Resistance (RENETIL), cited cases of minor violence, forced attendance at campaign rallies and intimidation by several of the 16 parties running in the August 30 poll.
After centuries of authoritarian Portuguese rule and 24 years of often-brutal Indonesian occupation, voters next Thursday will choose 88 candidates to form a constituent assembly. This will write a constitution for the fledgling nation, now under United Nations stewardship, and will become the first parliament. Independence is expected next year.
In the five and a half weeks of campaigning so far, little major violence has arisen. In a statement the observers hailed the "widespread public enthusiasm" of voters and the success of candidates in controlling their supporters.
But in several districts heavy-handed tactics and stonings have been reported, they said. A group claiming to belong to the Timorese Social Democrat Association Party (ASDT) paraded through villages in the border district of Maliana dressed in military- style clothes and carrying knives, RENETIL coordinator Jose Antonio Neves said. "They told the people they must vote for ASDT. One of our observers was there and saw them," he told AFP.
In the eastern district of Viqueque, candidates from the Christian Democrat Party were stoned by unknown attackers the night before a scheduled campaign rally, which was cancelled as a result.
In Liquica district bordering the capital Dili, rocks were thrown at supporters of the Democratic Party (PD) as they gathered for a rally. "We don't know who was throwing the stones, but they were shouting 'PD to lose, Fretilin to win'," said Neves.
In Maliana residents accused Fretilin (the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) of intimidation by pledging "to sweep clean" during and after the elections. "This is a term the Indonesian soldiers used during their rule. It meant 'to kill'," Neves said. "The Fretilin candidates could well have meant something positive with that term but the people ... took it as a threat and felt frightened."
Fretilin for decades led the guerilla campaign against the Indonesian occupation and is widely tipped to be the hot favourites in the August 30 vote. The vote comes on the second anniversary of the August 1999 independence ballot, in which 78.5 percent of East Timorese voted to split from Indonesia.
Indonesian troops and the local militias they raised killed hundreds of independence supporters and razed towns to the ground as they herded a quarter of a million people across the border into Indonesian-ruled West Timor. Maliana experienced some of the worst violence then. "The people in Maliana are easily worried because they experienced a lot of killing and destruction in 1999 and they're on the border with Indonesia," Neves said. The border has been penetrated several times since 1999 by pro-Indonesian militia living in West Timor.
Fretilin's use of the term "sweep clean" has also been criticised by the United Nations-backed Election Media Mediation Panel. "The term ... recalls intimidation that occurred during the Indonesian occupation when the military used the same term to describe operations against the resistance," the panel said in a statement Monday.
"In 1999 pro-Indonesia militia groups also used the same term to threaten the population before the referendum." Fretilin candidate Estanislau da Silva had said the party only meant that they would clean up campaign debris like posters, the panel said.
Suara Timor Lorosae - August 22, 2001
An American Civpol officer stationed in Bobonaro District was stoned by a group of Timorese at the border area. The Indonesian Commander of the Border Security Task Force in West Timor, Lieutenant Colonel (Infantary) Magna Candra confirmed the incident.
"It's true that an American Civpol was found bleeding as a result of being stoned by a group of Timorese. He tried to intervene in some illegal smuggling business carried out by the group ofv Timorese," he said.
He said the Indonesian Task Force had already received a report from Indonesian troops stationed at the West Timor -- Timor Lorosae border. LtCol Magna Candra said between 100 to 200 Timorese were heading towards the border post at the banks of Malibaka river, which was commonly used as an illegal trading point, when they were stopped by the American Civpol.
Sydney Morning Herald - August 23, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- An East Timorese anti-independence leader said yesterday he would tell refugees in camps in West Timor that the world's newest country was on the road to democracy. Mr Helio Moniz, 29, expressed satisfaction with East Timor's political process after assurances from the leading political party, Fretilin, that it had renounced communist ideology and supported a free-market economy.
On a United Nations-sponsored visit to East Timor, Mr Moniz said most refugees in militia-controlled camps in West Timor would wait until after the August 30 election before deciding whether to return. He criticised a refugee census carried out by Indonesian authorities on June 6 in which 98per cent of those polled reportedly said they wanted to stay in West Timor. "This was not normal, not human to ask refugees who are living in confusion about their situation. Do you want to leave, do you want to go back to East Timor? This is not natural. This is not justice."
Mr Moniz said he would return to East Timor on September 19 to work with the Cova Lima Reconciliation Forum, a new body that will encourage the peaceful return of refugees.
Meanwhile, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor's chief of staff, Mr N. Parameswaran, said he would complain to Indonesian officials about a press report warning of imminent civil war in East Timor. The report was carried on Tuesday in Radar Timor, a West Timor newspaper owned by the former hardline governor of East Timor, Mr Abilio Soares. It claimed Fretilin had received 500 guns from the Australian Government and another 700 from Portugal and that the election would erupt in civil war.
Mr Parameswaran described the report as baseless and said it was intended to prevent the return of refugees. He added that no anti-independence leaders involved in reconciliation talks with UNTAET inside East Timor had outstanding arrest warrants for crimes committed in 1999.
The UN taskforce investigating human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 admitted yesterday it lacks the staff and resources to deal with the 674 documented murders on its books. The deputy prosecutor-general for serious crimes, Mr Jean-Louis Gilissen, said 31 investigators were focusing on only 10 priority cases. He admitted several investigators had resigned over the decision.
Agence France Presse - August 22, 2001
Canberra -- Australia is unable to dictate a solution to a dispute between East Timor and a US-based oil company that has stalled construction of a key gas pipeline, the government said Wednesday.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the dispute between the fledgling state and Phillips Petroleum jeopardises construction of a 800 million US dollar gas pipeline between East Timor and Australia.
Phillips shelved the project earlier this month in a dispute over East Timor's tax regime, citing a corporate tax rate of at least 40 percent as a major disincentive to continuing its efforts to exploit oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. Downer and Resources Minister Nick Minchin were scheduled to meet Phillips executives later Wednesday, but the Foreign Minister conceded Canberra could only play a support role in resolving the dispute.
"We will be saying to Phillips that the important thing for them is to engage more intensively in discussion with the East Timorese," Downer told reporters. "There's no point in Phillips saying to Australia 'You fix it'. We don't run East Timor's tax regime, the East Timorese do."
Downer said the dispute was unlikely to be resolved until after the results of East Timor's first democratic elections scheduled for August 30 were announced. However he urged East Timor, which is currently administered by the United Nations after its bloody 1999 separation from Indonesia, to acknowledge a previous commitment that any post-independence tax regime would be no more onerous than a previous treaty between Australia and Indonesia covering development of Timor Sea oil and gas resources.
"East Timor's reputation will not be well-served if in the end this project doesn't go ahead because of East Timor just refusing to budge on this tax question," Downer said. The delay in the pipeline project threatens an estimated 6.5 billion US dollars worth of downstream investment in both East Timor and Australia.
When announcing the halt to the project, the president of Phillips Petroleum's Australasia business division, Stephen Brand, accused the UN of undermining the project. "Agreement by East Timor to fiscal and taxation arrangements reflecting their earlier commitments would allow further investment to proceed, providing significant economic benefits to the Bayu-Undan [oil and gas field] co-venturers and the new nation of East Timor," Brand said. "However, since the conclusion of the Timor Sea Arrangements, the United Nations, acting on behalf of East Timor, has yet to affirm these crucial commitments."
The Age - August 23, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- The UN Serious Crimes Unit, charged with investigating human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, says it is investigating 674 documented murders but has insufficient resources to do the job.
The Deputy-General Prosecutor for Serious Crimes, Jean-Louis Gilissen, said yesterday that 31 investigators were working on solving 10 priority cases. Six of the 10 cases had been completed and handed over to the prosecutor-general's office as crimes against humanity, he said.
Mr Gilissen admitted that staff morale had been low and that several investigators had resigned from the unit over an unpopular decision to choose 10 priority cases based on 17 major incidents. "I do not pretend it is a good choice. Of course some people disagree," he said. But he said a shortage of specialists and resources meant the serious crimes unit had to primarily focus on 10 investigations.
They include the Liquica church massacre, the killings at the Dili home of Manuel Carrascalao, and the Cailaco killings, all in April, 1999, as well as the September, 1999, Maliana police station massacre. Also being investigated were attacks on the Dili diocese and the home of Bishop Carlos Belo, the massacre at Passabe in the Oecussi enclave, the Suai Cathedral massacre, the Los Palos murders of church workers and clergy, the mass deportation of civilians, cases of sexual assault and the murder of UN staff.
Mr Gilissen said the unit's work was being badly hampered by a lack of resources, including a chronic shortage of motor vehicles. "I do not even have a car to go into the field and I am the deputy prosecutor-general. If I want to go into the field, I am obliged to take the place of an investigator," he said. Mr Gilissen said the quality of the investigating staff varied considerably due to a high turnover resulting from short-term employment contracts for international investigators.
Financial Times - August 20, 2001
Joe Leahy, Dili -- Something resembling a commercial bustle has returned to Dili, East Timor's capital. Beaten-up taxis cruise streets frequented by illegal money-changers. Stores here and there have re-opened. New cafes serve Australian steak sandwiches and cappuccinos to thousands of foreigners working for the United Nations and other organisations.
Modest as it is, this is a significant transformation. Little more than 18 months ago, East Timor's towns were blackened shells, destroyed by Jakarta-backed militias after the territory voted in August 1999 in a UN-sponsored referendum to separate from Indonesia.
Yet the economic recovery remains dangerously fragile. Within months of an election scheduled for the end of this month, the territory is expected formally to declare independence. The UN transitional administration and other bodies will then begin scaling down their missions.
The resulting economic vacuum will leave East Timor, a drought- prone land with limited skills and resources and few industries, more dependent than ever on foreign grants.
East Timor's best hope of achieving financial independence is a block of ocean on its southern sea border with Australia. Oil and gas fields in this block, most notably one called Bayu Undan, are believed to contain enough resources to provide East Timor with between US$3.5bn and US$5bn in revenues over 20 years starting in 2004.
Just how badly East Timor needs these resources was highlighted this month when Phillips Petroleum, one of the developers of Bayu Undan, threatened to stall the project because of a dispute with the transitional government over taxes. The issue is expected to be resolved but the brinkmanship is hair-raising for tiny Timor.
"It's a bit like a game of Russian roulette," says Michael Francino, cabinet member for finance in the territory's transitional government. "If these projects don't go ahead there will be no significant revenues here for at least a decade." However, he adds, "East Timor is not like a Dubai or a Saudi Arabia. You can't just stick a drill in the ground and hope to make money."
East Timor's government budget expenditure is forecast at US$65m in 20001/2002, rising to US$103.3m by 2004/2005. Currently, most of this budget is funded by foreign aid. Even in the future, the government will be hard-pressed to raise more than US$50m domestically from sources other than oil and gas, says Mr Francino.
The territory's economy has had a rocky time over the past few years. Gross domestic product fell 40 per cent with the violence in 1999 before rebounding about 15 per cent in 2000, helped by the influx of more than 10,000 UN troops and civilians, according to a report by ANZ, the Australian bank. GDP per capita is now estimated at US$325, about a third of its levels in 1997.
Coffee is the main export, accounting for a tenth of GDP. It is a premium product -- about a quarter of the crop is certified organic. However, warehouses and trucks remain in short supply and world coffee prices are low.
East Timor also has tourism potential. Its landscapes are ruggedly beautiful, culture unique and beaches untouched. But there are plenty of similar places in Asia that are easier to reach -- and cheaper.
Mr Francino expects East Timor's economic growth to be incremental rather than revolutionary. This means the oil money, and the question of how to spend it, will remain central to the territory's future for years. Saving too much would mean wasting development opportunities and would increase the risk of corruption while saving too little would be risky given the uncertain nature of oil and gas revenues.
"You don't want to put yourself in a position where you're forced to make cuts if oil and gas revenues are delayed or come in later than expected," says Sarah Cliffe, head of the World Bank in Dili.
Mari Alkatiri, a senior official with Fretilin, the biggest party, says the country should save at least 50 per cent of the money in a trust fund abroad. "The policy is to use the less the better for the recurrent budget," Mr Alkatiri says.
Donors have expressed their willingness to help East Timor through the next few years of deficits. But they are hoping the onset of oil revenues in 2004 will provide them with an exit strategy. Any subversion of these resources through corruption would jeopardise this and would be an embarrassment for all concerned.
After all, the world has staked a lot on this tiny half-island. "Everyone wants to be associated with a success story," says Ms Cliffe.
Reuters - August 21, 2001
Canberra -- Australia said on Tuesday it would urge Phillips Petroleum Co chairman and chief executive Jim Mulva to talk tough with East Timor over tax proposals which are stalling a Timor Sea gas project.
This month US-based Phillips indefinitely deferred investment in a US$500 million pipeline to bring gas to Darwin due to legal, fiscal and tax uncertainty under a new Timor Gap agreement between Australia and East Timor.
Resources Minister Nick Minchin said on Tuesday he would meet Mulva in Canberra on Wednesday to push for a breakthrough on the tax issue which is needed to meet a letter of intent to deliver liquefied natural gas to El Paso Corp from 2005.
Minchin said he would urge Mulva to stress to the East Timorese authorities the economics of the projects and why East Timor's tax proposals would render operations unviable. "We must make sure these projects proceed and I trust that Phillips will be able to persuade East Timor to adopt a realistic and practical approach to taxation of oil and gas," Minchin told reporters.
The problems stalling the gas project arose after Australia and East Timor drew up a new agreement to cover petroleum production in the disputed Timor Gap area of the Timor Sea.
Previous treaties over the zone between Australia and Indonesia became invalid after East Timor voted in 1999 to break away from Jakarta after 24 years of often brutal Indonesian rule.
Minchin said impoverished East Timor would miss out on valuable revenue if it refused to change its tax proposals. "If they don't, the project is unviable and there is no point in seeking, for example, 100 percent of nothing," he said.
Australia and East Timor last month reached a framework agreement based on a 90/10 revenue split in favour of East Timor for oil and gas recovered from the Timor Gap. Under a Phillips proposal, a 4.8 million tonnes a year LNG plant in Darwin would be supplied firstly by gas from the Bayu-Undan project which Phillips operates and owns 50.3 percent of.
Other stakeholders in Bayu-Undan are Santos Ltd with 11.8 percent, Inpex Sahul Ltd 11.7 percent, Kerr McGee Corp 11.2 percent, Phillips unit Petroz NL 8.3 percent and Eni 6.7 percent.
This would be followed by gas from the Greater Sunrise field due to come on line in 2006 with 9.16 tcf of gas. Greater Sunrise is operated by 33.44 percent stakeholder Woodside Petroleum Ltd. Royal Dutch/Shell has 26.56 percent, Phillips 30 percent and Osaka Gas Co Ltd 10 percent.
Mulva is also expected to meet Foreign Minister Alexander Downer while in Canberra.
South China Morning Post - August 22, 2001
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The political party of East Timor's independence heroes, Fretilin, has been accused of using intimidation, threats and "Indonesian-style" campaigning ahead of next week's general election.
Fretilin is expecting a landslide victory in the choice of a constituent assembly that will draft East Timor's first national constitution. And independence leader Xanana Gusmao is expected to become the country's first leader.
But a complaint lodged by the UN Media Mediation Unit accuses Fretilin of using the emotive phrase dasa rai, or "sweeping", as a threat against voters. "They are saying vote for us or we will 'do a sweeping' in your area after August 30," an observer of the campaign period said.
Fretilin leaders have been told of international observers' concerns and, in the capital, Dili, at least, have moderated their language and claimed that by "sweeping" they meant the physical process of tidying up the streets after voting day.
But independent observers are not so sure. "It has come to the attention of the Media Mediation Panel from numerous sources both inside and outside political parties that a disturbing pattern of apparent verbal intimidation has become a focal point of the Fretilin campaign, especially in the districts," a formal complaint from the panel reads. It and other sources report numerous witnesses hearing Fretilin speakers in recent weeks threatening a post-election "sweep" in Maliana, Bobonaro and Same.
"This term has a very disturbing meaning for the people of East Timor because it recalls intimidation that occurred during the Indonesian occupation when the military used the same term to describe military operations conducted against the resistance. In 1999, before the popular consultation, pro-Indonesia militia groups also used the same term to threaten the population before the referendum," the panel noted.
"We are concerned that an atmosphere of suspicion and intimidation may be building in the closing weeks of the election campaign leading to a rise in fear and tension among the people," the panel's complaint said.
Some pro-Fretilin sources insist that remarks about sweeping have simply been misinterpreted and observers say apologies have been made. At a large rally in Dili on Saturday, Fretilin rhetoric was far more conciliatory.
"But even if genuine apologies are delivered and if they're clarifying their position in Dili, I'm concerned the damage is already done in the districts. I think this is a serious complaint which deserves serious attention," an international election observer said.
Another observer said: "It's got everybody wound up and we've had a variety of reports from the districts to confirm there is a distinct tone of intimidation out there. It's not only by Fretilin, but they are doing it the most and they are the ones who, most of all, should know better."
Fretilin has led the resistance to Indonesian rule for 25 years and its members have borne the brunt of formerly Indonesian "sweeps".
As in any election, each political party involved is making bold promises of free schooling, new housing, special care for veterans of the independence struggle and more in a festival of promises that in practice cannot conceivably be fulfilled.
But in a publication Cidadaun, produced by Yayasan Hak, the Human Rights Foundation in East Timor, concern has also been voiced about threats and coercion being used in the campaign. "Old women in villages, who have been witness to tragedy after tragedy in this nation, grieve to imagine what will happen in the future" wrote Joaquim Fonseca, head of Yayasan Hak's policy advocacy division. "We pray that all the bad things that happened before will not happen again. That is their hope.
"It is public knowledge that the 1999 referendum was marked by violence because the underlying scenario of 'civil war' was deliberately manipulated by the Indonesian military. And yet rhetoric used during the current campaign differs little from that spouted by the pro-Indonesia militia and pro-Indonesia bigwigs."
Lusa - August 21, 2001
East Timorese women's rights groups have gathered more than 10,000 signatures backing the inclusion of a "Women's Rights Charter" in the territory's future constitutiuon, activists announced Tuesday in Dili.
The petition accompanies a 10-point draft charter, which includes demands for social, health and educational rights, equal access to traditional law and protection from domestic violence.
The charter was the focus of discussion Tuesday in Dili at a women's rights conference opened by UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The draft, which pays special attention to discriminatory dowry and inheritance traditions, says the future constitution, which will be drawn up by a constituent assembly to be elected August 30, "must establish an institutional mechanism to protect and implement women4s rights in East Timor".
Sydney Morning Herald - August 22, 2001
Mark Dodd, Dili -- Those responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999 are likely to escape prosecution by a special Indonesian war crimes tribunal, according to senior United Nations and Timorese human rights officials.
They said that a move by President Megawati Sukarnoputri to widen the tribunal's scope would still exclude serious crimes committed during the Indonesian Army campaign of intimidation and revenge before and after the 1999 independence vote.
One UN official described Ms Megawati's decree as a joke that would allow Indonesian officers to escape justice. She was initially praised when, soon after replacing Mr Abdurrahman Wahid as president, she changed the scope of a planned ad hoc court to try East Timor cases.
Early this month her office announced she was removing a constraint preventing the court from prosecuting abuses that occurred before the independence referendum on August 30, 1999.
UN officials in Dili initially welcomed the move. Now they are having second thoughts. In a letter to the UN 12 days ago, Ms Megawati said the court would investigate and prosecute human rights violations that occurred in the districts of Liquica, Dili and Suai in April and September, 1999. UN officials said the new decree appeared to restrict the court's jurisdiction to crimes committed in those three districts during those two months.
"It does not include the massive deportations of hundreds of thousands of people from all across East Timor, nor the widespread burning of houses and looting," said a UN official involved in war crimes investigations. "It does not include many of the major killings, like the massacre of up to 80 people at Passabe, in the Oecussi enclave, nor the Maliana police station massacre, or the Los Palos killings of church workers and priests," said the official, who asked not to be named. "It makes a joke of the prosecution and investigation of offences when the whole world knows there was a pattern of widespread violence and destruction in East Timor in 1999."
Mr Aniceto Guterres, director of Yayasan Hak, East Timor's leading human rights organisation, said he had no optimism about Ms Megawati's commitment to prosecute those responsible for human rights abuses. "She spoke about her commitment, but I don't believe it," he said. "It was the military commanders who supported her rise to power. Many of those were in East Timor."
Mr Guterres said that at a weekend rally the main parties contesting this month's election for a constituent assembly had endorsed a statement calling for an international criminal tribunal for East Timor to be set up. However, a UN lawyer said he feared Indonesian officers would escape justice because of the world's reluctance to upset the Indonesian Government.
No action has been taken by Jakarta, almost two years after the worst of the 1999 violence. Eighteen months have passed since the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, resisted calls for an international court and called for Indonesia to be given a chance to bring those responsible to justice.
Lawyers and human rights officials also expressed concern that Indonesian law would prohibit prosecutions for offences against laws which were not in existence at the time the offences were committed.
A UN lawyer said: "If the international community is to accept this as satisfactory, then we are sending a clear message that the programs of violence carried out in East Timor involving the Indonesian military will never be subject to justice. The issue for the international community now is to ask how long do we wait before judging Indonesia's judicial process as credible or not."
Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission, in a widely applauded investigation of the 1999 violence, identified 11 specific cases for prosecution, none of which has gone to court.
Decisions by Indonesian courts against militia leaders implicated in violence or murder offer little grounds for optimism. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was deeply disturbed by the light sentences of 10 to 20 months handed down against six men after three UNHCR staff members were killed in the West Timor border town of Atambua on September 6 last year.
The Indonesian tribunal included:
Not included
Australian Associated Press - August 22, 2001
The Senate has rejected a proposal for an international war crimes tribunal covering the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. Instead, it backed Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's moves to prosecute those committing atrocities during the 1999 independence ballot.
Greens Senator Bob Brown said Australia should pressure the United Nations to set up a war crimes tribunal to deal with atrocities in East Timor between 1975 and 1999.
Senator Brown said 2,000 East Timorese were killed during the referendum period but 200,000 were killed during the entire Indonesian occupation, so Indonesia was only investigating one per cent of crimes. But Labor's Peter Cook won government support to change the motion to back Indonesian prosecutions and to note the UN Security Council's lack of support for an international tribunal.
"On the other hand, we do know that the new president of Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has set up a new process which will broaden the scope of the special Indonesian court's work in investigating human rights violations in East Timor in the lead- up to the 1999 referendum," Senator Cook said.
"If this matter can be settled with justice and honour within Indonesia that is a far, far, far better outcome than an international body seeking to impose a standard on that country. We call on the Indonesian president and her government to make sure that all necessary steps are taken to bring to justice those responsible for crimes and human rights violation."
Australian Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman Vicki Bourne said people committing atrocities before 1999 would never be brought to justice without a tribunal. "People know who the individual was who chopped off somebody's head and stuck it on a pole outside a school ... but we will never hear [that evidence] because that tribunal will never happen," she said.
Senator Brown said the Senate lacked in nerve and morality. "I don't accept this amendment because it is simply saying, well, this matter should be left to Jakarta and it should be circumscribed to the events surrounding the referendum in East Timor," he said. "Is the massive rape, death and destruction campaign in East Timor different from that in Rwanda or in Bosnia?"
Lusa - August 20, 2001
East Timor's UN Transition Administration (UNTAET) praised Monday the weapons collection campaign conducted last week by the Indonesian Armed Forces and targeting militias in Jakarta's western half of Timor island.
A UN spokesman in Dili said UNTAET chief Sergio Vieira de Mello "welcomed the efforts" of the Indonesians, adding that he hoped they would continue.
An Indonesian police spokesman, Colonel Edward Pakasi, said Monday that security personnel had visited various refugee camps in West Timor, where they confiscated weaponry that included seven rifles and more than 200 homemade firearms.
No militiamen were detained during the operation, which also netted seven grenades, 1,200 rounds of ammunition and about 800 knives and other cutting weapons.
Many tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees remain in West Timor, nearly two years after their homeland, then occupied by Indonesia, voted for independence in a UN-sponsored plebiscite. Efforts to repatriate them back to East Timor have been consistently hampered by the East Timorese anti-independence militias now based in Indonesian West Timor.
Lusa - August 17, 2001
United Nations civil police in the Suai region of East Timor have detained two people suspected of committing infractions of election campaign rules, a UN source told Lusa on Friday.
The suspects are both members of Fretilin, the historic pro- independence party and were allegedly involved in "coercion" of potential voters. Party material "distributed to non-supporters of Fretilin" was also confiscated.
"The initial investigation confirmed that the complaint was substantiated and two people were thus detained" and will be brought before the district court, said the source contacted by Lusa in Dili.
The detentions were the most serious result of the at least 10 investigations undertaken by UN authorities following complaints by East Timorese citizens or organizations.
Despite the complaints, foreign UN personnel contacted by Lusa emphasized that the electoral process in East Timor was proceeding "much better than in other similar situations".
"During the Bosnian vote there were hundreds of complaints per district. The numbers here are much less. They are occasional cases and none of them causes major risks to security or stability", one source said, adding that "many of the complaints are nothing more than rumors or attempts to spread fear".
| Labour struggle |
Jakarta Post - August 21, 2001
Jakarta -- More than 1,000 disadvantaged people, mostly becak (pedicab) drivers and street vendors, staged a rally at the Office of Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, on Monday.
Organized by several non-governmental organizations, including the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), the people urged Minister Jusuf Kalla to press the city administration to revoke City Bylaw No. 11/1988, which bans becak from operating in the city.
Political observer Arbi Sanit, who accompanied the protesters, said the government under President Megawati Soekarnoputri should listen to the voice of the people. "Megawati was earlier supported by the people. She will lose their support in the future if she does not listen," he said.
Jusuf Kalla, however, was absent from his office on Monday. Jusuf told SCTV later in the evening that he could not force the city administration to revoke the bylaw.
Separately, City Governor Sutiyoso insisted on Monday that he would not revoke the bylaw. He said the administration was preparing to take legal action against the UPC for their alleged role in the clashes between becak drivers and public order officers last Tuesday, which left one civilian guard dead.
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2001
Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Fitri, Jakarta -- "Being a becak driver is easy. I just have to use my muscles," said Yatim.
The 30-year-old man decided to become a becak (pedicab) driver four years ago after his hard efforts to find work proved fruitless. Yatim, who dropped out of vocational school in his hometown in Cirebon, West Java, came to the capital 10 years ago to seek a new future. He worked as a janitor in a state department on Jl. Gatot Soebroto, Central Jakarta, for three years before the job contract was terminated in 1997.
Being unskilled and with no capital, he was left jobless for six months. Finally, he made up his mind to drive the three-wheeled pedicab, as did some people in his neighborhood, a slum area in Gemblok, North Jakarta.
But now, a few days after a violent protest against a becak crackdown that killed a civilian guard, he worries should the administration conduct a crackdown in Gemblok market, where he and other fellow drivers operate every day. "How will I feed my family? It's hard to get a job here," Yatim remarked.
Yatim lives by the railway line across from the Gemblok market, where he has erected a 1.5 meter by 1.5 meter shack made from cardboard. Here he lives with his wife, a baby and five rabbits.
According to a veteran driver, Suwarno, 52, becak has been in existence in the Gemblok market area since 1967. At that time, there were only a dozen of becak in the area, but currently there are around 100 becak operating there. Most becak drivers in the Gemblok market area come from Tegal and Brebes in Central Java as well as from Cirebon.
So far, the administration has never conducted a becak raid in the area, although Bylaw No. 11/1988 bans them from the city. In 1998, however, Governor Sutiyoso said that becak could operate in certain parts of the city. He retracted the statement the following day, but the news had already reached hundreds of kilometers away and many becak drivers started to come to the capital.
Since then, the city administration and the becak drivers, who gained support from the Urban Poor Consortium, have been engaged in a tug of war. While the becak drivers persist in maintaining their existence in the city, the government tries to drive them out.
The drivers insist that they need a job to survive and they believe it is their right to work as a becak driver in the city. "I only ask to be allowed to peddle my becak in the housing complexes or around the market, as I do now. Is that too much to ask?" Suwarno asked.
He said becak drivers did not believe in the administration's promise to help them change their profession. The administration once promised to give some capital and driver licenses to those who wanted to become bajaj (three-wheeled motor vehicle) drivers. "But it was only an empty promise," said Suwarno.
Suwarno did not agree with the criticism that his job was "inhumane", arguing that the drivers peddle the pedicab, which has wheels and chains, they don't push it like a rickshaw.
He also denied the accusation that becak was a source of traffic jams, pointing out that there were traffic jams in some major thoroughfares where there are no becak. "We only want to do a halal job, we don't want to be thieves or robbers," he asserted.
Comfort
Meanwhile, Marni, a housewife living about 500 meters from Gemblok market, said that she always goes to the market by becak because the fare was cheap. She felt that becak helped her, particularly after she shopped in the market, since she did not have to carry the heavy shopping bags home. "It only costs Rp 1,000 for such a convenience," she remarked.
Most becak drivers in Gemblok market area earn between Rp 10,000 to Rp 15,000 a day. They rent the becak for Rp 3,500 a day from the owner, who usually owns between five to 10 becak.
The drivers work seven days a week from 6am to 6pm. Their passengers are the residents around Gemblok market. One has to pay Rp 1,000 for a short route of less than one kilometer. The fares are quite low as even the residents around the area are from lower income groups. Becak are also found in some other parts of the city, like in Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta, where middle-and-higher income people live.
Yanto, 27, went to Jakarta to leave behind hardship in his village in Pati, East Java. "It's really hard to earn a living in my village. I didn't continue my school because I didn't want to burden my parents," he said, adding that people in the village make meager income from farming and fishing.
When he arrived in the capital in 1994, his first job was as a shop attendant at a drug store in Glodok West Jakarta. At that time, he earned Rp 200,000 a month. Since then, Yanto has had two or three different jobs, before finally in 1998, his friend offered him a job as a becak driver around the Bendungan Hilir market, Central Jakarta.
"I was hooked to the profession the minute my friend offered me the job. I think being a becak driver is really cool. I can be my own boss," he said smiling broadly.
Yanto got his first becak by renting it from the owner. But later on, he bought it out of his own savings for Rp 600,000. He said that he can pocket between Rp 20,000 to Rp 30,000 a day.
Apparently, for Yanto being a becak driver is not just a job, it is a career. "If someday I have money and an opportunity for a 'decent' job, I won't give up my profession as a becak driver," said Yanto.
His love for his job also gives him courage. He was not afraid when he came face to face with the city's security and public order officers in a becak crackdown. "I'm not doing anything wrong. I don't kill or steal," he said.
But, his choice of career was not without a cost. He separated from his wife because she wanted him to have a more stable job. "I couldn't always bring home money. So, she decided to go back to her parents in the village and took my son with her," Yanto said bitterly.
Support
He also lamented the lack of support from the government. Hundreds of becak drivers staged a rally on Wednesday at the North Jakarta mayoralty office and also in front of the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-Perjuangan) headquarters in Central Jakarta. "It claimed to be the poor people's party, but it was only words," said one of them.
The becak drivers felt that the administration hated poor people so much, that it felt compelled to conduct becak raid ahead of the 56th Independence Day. "Independence only caters to the haves, not for the poor people like us," he concluded.
As for the city administration, it is quite clear. The law bans becak from the capital and governor Sutiyoso has declared war against becak. This time, he and his officers, backed by the police, want to show the public that they will uphold the law at whatever cost.
Straits Times - August 20, 2001
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Banned from Jakarta's streets in the late 80s because they were considered inhumane and backward, becaks -- or pedicabs -- have become the centre of a fierce struggle between the city authorities and the drivers who demand the right to earn an honest living.
But a non-government body charged that the Jakarta Governor is merely using the pedicab drivers as scapegoats for the city's problems.
In the wake of last Tuesday's violent protest, in which hundreds of pedicab drivers attacked city officials conducting the raid, killing one security guard and seriously injuring two others, Jakarta's Deputy Governor Abdul Kahfi vowed that the police would use even harsher tactics in future raids against the becaks. "They will use rubber bullets and even live bullets if necessary," he was quoted as saying in The Jakarta Post.
Ms Wardah Hafidz, co-ordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium campaigning for pedicab drivers, said: "The city council targets the weakest in society because it is easier to make them the scapegoats for all the problems of the city when actually it is their incompetence at practising good governance." The council is trying to eliminate pedicabs and illegal vendors from the streets because it does not know how to deal with the high number of poor people and the steep crime rate, she added.
Many of the 10,000 pedicab drivers in Jakarta are former factory workers or labourers like Mr Munardi, a 28-year-old construction worker who took up pedicab driving after he was laid off at the start of the economic crisis.
He earns around 100,000 rupiah to 150,000 rupiah per week driving his pedicab. He also works as a security guard for extra money to support his wife and young child.
Mr Munardi said he would not know how to survive if his becak was confiscated, like what happened to many of his friends in a raid last week. They were given 250,000 rupiah in compensation, but this was only a quarter of their value, he said.
Thousands of other drivers are rural workers who became unemployed at the start of the Asian economic crisis and moved to Jakarta to drive becaks when the law banning them was revoked in 1998.
But the ban was quickly re-introduced after protests from city councillors. The council wants the vehicles banned because they clog up the streets and encourage rural drivers to migrate to Jakarta.
Ms Wardah, however, alleged that the crackdown on the pedicab drivers is merely a ruse to win more funds -- the Jakarta council got 1.3 billion rupiah earlier this year to confiscate 3,000 becaks.
| Aceh/West Papua |
Associated Press - August 25, 2001
Jakarta -- The military is losing patience with peace efforts in Indonesia's Aceh province and should be allowed to crack down on separatist rebels, a top general said yesterday.
"No matter what country they are in, rebels have to be totally destroyed," said Lt-General Ryamizard Ryacudu, quoted by the Antara news agency. He said the government had tried to find a peaceful solution to the 25-year conflict, but the insurgent Free Aceh Movement had used the lull in hostilities to build up its armoury. "The fact is, they don't want peace," said the general, who commands the elite strategic reserve force Kostrad.
His comments came amid speculation that President Megawati Sukarnoputri will use the army to crack down on separatist sentiment in Aceh and elsewhere in the nation. Violence in the province, about 1,750 km north-west of Jakarta, has escalated during the first month of Ms Megawati's administration. On Wednesday, a ministerial team visited the province on a fact- finding mission. Rebel leaders condemned the trip as little more than a publicity stunt.
More than 6,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the past decade, including at least 1,000 this year. Human rights groups blame the military for most of the atrocities, including the massacre of 31 plantation workers earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the local newspaper Serambi Indonesia resumed publication yesterday after closing down for 13 days. The paper suspended operations after receiving threats from rebels.
Agence France Presse - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- Separatist guerillas in Aceh are increasingly cornered and disunited, Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday. "After visiting Aceh, in general it can be concluded that the wheel of the government is now functioning better than before and the armed actions of the GAM are decreasing, even though there are still sporadic attacks," the minister said.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been fighting for an Islamic state in the province of Aceh on Sumatra island since 1976.
Mr Susilo, who led a top-level delegation to Aceh on Wednesday, said rebels were increasingly feeling the heat from security forces and were moving to areas previously spared violence, such as central Aceh. The minister, quoted by the state Antara news agency, said he believed GAM no longer had a strong force and was split between moderates and radicals. "I caught a strong impression that the hardline elements in GAM only want independence, but there are also other elements which are not radical," he said.
Mr Susilo said President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government planned to extend peace talks, which so far have been limited to the government and GAM, to cover other elements of society. He did not elaborate.
Ms Megawati has signed an autonomy law which, among other things, gives Aceh control over 70 per cent of its oil and gas revenues. She has promised a fresh approach based on dialogue but has ruled out independence, which the rebels insist on. Jakarta has held a series of meetings with GAM in Geneva since last year, but they have only been able to agree on a series of shaky and short-lived truces.
Reuters - August 21, 2001
Terry Friel, Jeunieb -- Indonesia's generals insist they are winning the war against the rag-tag rebels fighting for independence for the bountiful province of Aceh, but after dusk at one of hundreds of rebel barricades on the main north-south highway the reality is different.
"We're sorry to bother you sir, no problems, yes?" said one of the guerrillas as they shook hands and began posing for pictures for a group of Reuters journalists they had stopped, before melting back into the night.
The 40,000 heavily-armed police and troops in Aceh, accused of brutal attacks on civilians in their bid to quell the rebels, cannot stop the guerrillas taking control of the countryside after the sun goes down.
The fighting has condemned most people in this devoutly Muslim territory on the northern tip of Sumatra island to a life of violence, intimidation, food shortages and suffering. The crackle of gunfire is heard sporadically and the rebels bomb military compounds and government facilities almost every day and night.
A leading international rights group this week accused both sides of violating human rights with impunity in the increasingly bloody conflict. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Jakarta had "utterly failed" to control the military and police operating in Aceh and called on new President Megawati Sukarnoputri to quickly set up human rights courts to prosecute serious violations.
"There is no question that both sides have been responsible for unlawful killings, as well as a wide range of other abuses," Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said.
The violence has intensified in recent months and more than 1,500 civilians are estimated to have been killed since the start of the year.
Troops holed up in barracks
The security forces remain mostly holed up in their heavily- defended compounds behind their own barricades in the villages and towns, occasionally venturing out to patrol the highway -- Aceh's lifeblood for supplies from the south. The military and police are so badly resourced themselves that patrols routinely steal food and water from locals struggling to feed their own families.
Any vehicle arriving at a rebel roadblock -- often just a felled coconut tree -- before the guerrillas have moved on to make the next one draws a warning volley of semi-automatic fire. The occupants are forced to lie face down on the hot tarmac while their identities are checked.
Acehnese civilians and foreigners generally have nothing to fear at the barricades. GAM deputy military chief Sofyan Daud later apologised to a Reuters news crew for his men's actions as he entertained the journalists over soft drinks and peanuts.
Rebels also blamed
But GAM, too, is accused of human rights abuses and many people are afraid to talk publicly to foreign reporters for fear of reprisals from both sides. "They are just as brutal," a local academic told Reuters, too frightened to allow his name to be published, said of GAM. "We are caught between two powers." The security forces and the rebels both deny their poorly trained men are guilty of any systematic human rights abuses.
Aceh's war for independence has brought the economy to a standstill, sent thousands fleeing their homes and badly hit farming in one of Indonesia's most fertile areas. The war has killed thousands, mostly civilians and aid groups estimate 15,000-20,000 people are homeless at any given time in the province of four million.
In many areas outside the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, few people dare work the fields, shops are tightly shuttered, buses run only sporadically, the roads are largely empty and the electricity supply was lost long ago. Many schools have been destroyed -- a favourite GAM target because of their vulnerability and their symbolism of Jakarta's rule -- and thousands of homes have been torched.
"If they aren't losing their lives, they are losing their livelihoods," Oxfam's humanitarian project manager in Banda Aceh, Prasant Naik, told Reuters. "People either can't get the food, they can't grow it, or they can't work to earn the money to buy it." Infant mortality is rising and Oxfam estimates 25 percent of the rural population are at risk of starving to death. The Banda Aceh academic says about one million people live below the poverty line of 60,000 rupiah ($6.90) a month.
The exact extent of the suffering is impossible to determine because of the war. Several local aid workers have been beaten up and others forced to flee the province fearing for their lives.
The situation is a little better in the seaside provincial capital, where restaurants and businesses open as usual and the markets are relatively full. But even there, military, police and government posts are dug in behind tight security and Indonesia's rule on the streets ends at the city outskirts at dusk. Indonesian authorities conduct arbitrary searches and arrests as they try to quell the rebel threat.
For the frightened and pessimistic academic, the cycle of violence gripping Aceh will be hard to break. "The actions of the security forces means people are just becoming victims," he says. "Then the children of the victims grow up and become passionate and it just keeps exploding."
Reuters - August 17, 2001 (abridged)
Rodney Joyce, Aiwo, Nauru -- South Pacific island nation leaders on Friday backed Indonesian plans for autonomy in Irian Jaya rather than the independence Melanesian separatists are seeking for the restive province.
The Pacific Islands Forum leaders, holding their annual meeting on the tiny island of Nauru, also joined other international leaders in urging the United States to reverse its decision to opt out of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Some South Pacific nations, notably Nauru and Vanuatu, have expressed sympathy for Melanesian separatists who want an independent Irian Jaya, which they call West Papua. But the leaders of the Forum, which groups Australia, New Zealand and 14 small Pacific nations including Papua New Guinea, instead supported Indonesian power-sharing proposals for the remote, but resource rich, province of two million people.
Forum chairman, Nauru President Rene Harris, told reporters the Forum wanted a peaceful resolution of differences among Irian Jaya's factions. "The Forum leaders agreed that adoption and implementation of comprehensive autonomy for the province would contribute to this outcome and welcomed the recent presentation of special autonomy proposals to Indonesia's parliament," he said. "We feel this is a problem that can be best handled by Indonesia."
Asked if Indonesia's problematic human rights record in East Timor allowed it to be trusted in Irian Jaya, Harris said: "We would hope that commonsense on Indonesia's part and the rest of the world would convince Indonesia to do the right thing."
New Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday apologised to the rebellious provinces of Irian Jaya and Aceh for human rights abuses, but said they would never gain independence. Indonesian officials will meet with Pacific Island officials in a dialogue session on Monday.
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark told reporters there had been a change in position among some Pacific nations that had supported West Papuan separatists. "What there's been since the last Forum where it was raised by Nauru, and backed very strongly by Vanuatu, is a change of government in both those countries and that seems to have brought some change in emphasis."
Nauru, a tiny 21 square km island just south of the equator, between Australia and Hawaii, banned five West Papuan separatists from attending the Forum. Four had visas withdrawn while a fifth was turned away at the airport.
Reuters - August 19, 2001
Terry Friel, Lhokseumawe -- Rebels in Indonesia's battered Aceh province said on Sunday they could not work with new nationalist President Megawati Sukarnoputri and demanded foreign intervention to help end the bloodshed.
The Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) deputy military commander, Sofyan Daud, told Reuters in an interview at a secret location near here that the separatists did not trust the daughter of Indonesia's founding father, Sukarno.
Ending a long-running rebellion that has killed more than 1,500 people, most of them civilians, since January alone and threatens Indonesia's unity is one of Megawati's toughest and most urgent tasks.
"The policies of Megawati and her father only harm the people of Aceh and bear no fruit," said Daud, a pistol tucked into his jeans and surrounded by dozens of fighters carrying a motley collection of guns, some home-made, and rocket launchers. "We will have no relations with Megawati."
Peace talks
However, Daud said GAM would press ahead with its so far fruitless peace talks with the Indonesian government -- due to resume in September -- despite Megawati's rise to power last month and the arrest of the rebels' chief peace negotiator.
But he demanded international monitors to police any future ceasefire after the failure of previous agreements. The industrial town of Lhokseumawe lies to the east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh on the northwestern tip of Sumatra island.
"Of course we still want to continue the peace dialogue," he said, speaking in Acehnese. "But we need an international forum to watch what the Indonesian soldiers do. We need an international body that can control and punish the Indonesian troops. They [Jakarta] talk peace, but their troops in the field don't follow the agreement." Daud denied allegations his own men had committed human rights abuses.
"That is an irrational accusation," he said. But some Acehnese say the rebels are guilty of such abuses and the respected Banda Aceh-based Serambi newspaper was closed for a few days last week by threats from an enraged GAM commander until his superiors stepped in. "They [GAM] are just as brutal," said an academic in Banda Aceh, who said he was too afraid of both sides to be named.
The size of the rag-tag band of rebels, some of whom serve Indonesian troops or police in coffee shops or markets by day and take up arms at night, is estimated as high as 10,000. They are far from skilled. But they have the numbers and the popular support to cause serious problems for the 40,000 Indonesian police and soldiers in the province of four million.
At night, the rebels control the countryside outside the towns and villages and beyond the outskirts of Banda Aceh. They are even able to block the road to the golf course where Indonesian officers play, minutes from the centre of the capital.
One of Megawati's first public announcements as president was to formally apologise to Aceh for past abuses that have killed thousands. And she is taking personal charge of bringing peace.
Many Indonesians fear that if Indonesia's western-most province, rich in gas and other natural resources, breaks away, it will create a domino effect in other disgruntled regions that could tear apart the world's fourth most populous nation. The other main separatist hotspot is Irian Jaya in the far east.
Autonomy
But Megawati, like her father a staunch nationalist, has firmly rejected an independence vote similar to that which saw East Timor overwhelmingly reject Jakarta's rule in 1999.
The cornerstone of her solution is to push ahead with her ousted predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid's policy to give Aceh more control over its own affairs and resources.
But many in Aceh say Jakarta has failed to deliver on too many such promises in the past and only independence will do. They also doubt Megawati has enough control over her unruly, poorly- trained and under-resourced soldiers and police to make good on her pledge.
And they reject Jakarta's retitling of the province as The Peaceful Land of Aceh, its renaming of schools and other institutions with more Islamic terms and the introduction of Islamic Shariah law as mere window dressing.
"Autonomy is not enough," said a farmer in the small village of Jeunieb. "We want independence," he whispered before quickly moving away from foreigners to another table at a roadside coffee stall as soon as a police patrol appeared in the distance.
South China Morning Post - August 20, 2001
Reuters in Jakarta -- A leading international rights group yesterday accused Indonesia's security forces and Aceh rebels of violating human rights with impunity in an increasingly bloody conflict in the province.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Jakarta had "utterly failed" to control the military and police operating in Aceh and called on President Megawati Sukarnoputri to quickly set up human rights courts to prosecute serious violations.
Bloodshed in resource-rich Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra Island has spiralled out of control, with more than 1,500 people, mainly civilians, killed since January in a rebellion that presents Ms Megawati with one of her most formidable challenges.
"There is no question that both sides have been responsible for unlawful killings, as well as a wide range of other abuses," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, in a statement accompanying a report on the blighted province.
The 40-page report, "Indonesia: The War in Aceh", said the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) controlled much of the province of four million people, especially wealthy districts.
Popular support for the rebellion had grown in the past two years partly because of Jakarta's failure to respond to demands that perpetrators of violations be brought to justice, it said. And violence had intensified in recent months.
"The conflict in Aceh ... is an increasingly brutal war in which both sides have violated human rights with impunity," said the hard-hitting report that catalogued a number of abuses.
Ms Megawati last week apologised to Acehnese and the people of rebellious Irian Jaya for past abuses, but vowed the two provinces would remain part of Indonesia. The Government has offered both special autonomy to run much of their own affairs in an attempt to placate demands for independence. Security forces and rebels routinely blame each other for rights violations in Aceh -- something that Human Rights Watch noted.
Neither military officials nor GAM representatives were immediately available to comment on the report. Earlier yesterday, GAM's deputy military commander said his men had not committed any rights violations.
Human Rights Watch said it was not aware of a single case this year where a soldier or policeman responsible for civilian deaths, torture or destruction of property in areas suspected of being a GAM stronghold had been punished.
There was also ample evidence that security forces deliberately and systematically employed executions to deter villagers from supporting GAM, the report said.
"The Indonesian Government has a particular responsibility to ensure that those who are supposed to uphold the law do not themselves become violators of it. In this, it has utterly failed," Mr Jones said in the statement.
The report also accused GAM of killing suspected military informers and family members of police and military personnel, of unlawful detentions, destruction of property and forced expulsions of non-Acehnese, particularly ethnic Javanese.
It added that local human rights groups faced increasing obstacles conducting field investigations from both sides. The report said while GAM had been fighting for independence for decades, it had only developed a significant popular base, a steady source of arms and a relatively well-organised command structure in the past two years.
| Government/politics |
Agence France Presse - August 25, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesian newspapers yesterday rapped Jakarta city councillors for going on 'foreign junkets' at a time of economic crisis. Activists agreed that the current visits to Japan and China by 17 councillors, as well as earlier overseas trips, were a waste of taxpayers' money and could amount to corruption.
The current visit is purportedly to study disaster and fire management. "Legislators have many times visited other countries, citing comparative studies as their reason, while the country, notably Jakarta, is in disarray. Traffic jams, fires and crimes are widespread," the Republika daily said in an editorial. "During their visit, however, they spent their time mostly in tourist places in Tokyo and Beijing."
The Media Indonesia daily said the trip, which cost US$37,400 (S$65,400), was "nothing but a junket". "We elected legislators to support good governance but in fact they are busy using state funds for their personal interests," it said.
The Jakarta Post, citing an itinerary, said on Thursday that the schedule included visits to various tourist destinations in China and Japan -- including Tokyo's Imperial Palace Gardens, the Great Wall and an acrobatic show. The Post said the itinerary was obtained by a non-governmental organisation from a travel agent organising the tour. The chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum, Azas Tigor Nainggolan, urged prosecutors to investigate whether the trips amounted to corruption.
Jakarta Post - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- As it is difficult to curb international terrorism in the country, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) will focus on fighting its domestic accomplices, agency chief A.M. Hendropriyono said on Thursday.
He said that international terrorism would only be effective in the country if it had local players. "Therefore, these organizations or groups [accommodating international terrorism] should be eliminated," Hendropriyono told reporters after addressing a coordination meeting for Indonesian governors as quoted by Antara.
Asked whether international terrorism had been prospering in Indonesia, he said the country was vulnerable to it.
The intelligence chief, however, refused to divulge information on domestic organizations or groups suspected of involvement with foreign terrorists. "If there are indications, we will investigate. We must promote awareness of suspected groups at home, because international terrorism cannot do anything here without domestic accomplices," he said.
He noted that international terrorism could spread to any country, including Indonesia. "So, we must take care and be prepared. It is ourresponsibility [to fight terrorism]," he said.
Hendropriyono said that in a country where there was tight surveillance, terrorism would recede because it had no room to develop. "Terrorism has a tendency to flourish in a country which is in transition to democracy. So, democratization should be coupled with the promotion of surveillance," he said.
On the increasing arms smuggling into the country, he mentioned the importance of stepping up cooperation with the intelligence agencies of neighboring countries. "It is not practical to fence our house to prevent mice from coming in. It is the nests of the mice that should be found and destroyed," he said, citing that he had started fostering intelligence cooperation with Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, including promoting sea patrols, in an effort to stem terrorism and arms smuggling.
Jane's Defence Weekly - August 22, 2001
Robert Karniol, Bangkok -- Indonesia's new government appears intent on completing intelligence-related reforms, including an expanded role for the civilian National Intelligence Agency (Badan Inteligen Nasional, or BIN).
"The president has determined that the BIN head will be at the same level as cabinet members so that BIN can cover the whole intelligence community," AM Hendropriyono told the media in Jakarta after he took his appointment as agency chief on 12 August. Hendropriyono, a former transmigration minister under President BJ Habibie, was named for the post on 9 August by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Intelligence reform was pushed by President Abdurrahman Wahid, replaced by Soekarnoputri late last month following his impeachment.
This included a July 1999 reorganisation of the military's Strategic Intelligence Agency (Badan Inteligen Strategis, or BAIS) and the creation earlier this year of an intelligence bureau within the Department of Defence (DoD), the Directorate General for Defence Strategy. Wahid's main aims were to gain more control over the armed forces, to help ease the military out of its political role and to strengthen the DoD.
The BIN should see its responsibilities as a co-ordinating agency enhanced and its operational capabilities significantly expanded.
The latter involves taking over many of the domestic intelligence collection activities currently undertaken by BAIS, the National Police and the attorney-general's office -- including the highly political monitoring of officials suspected of corruption. It is also intended to provide clearer mission mandates to reduce overlapping activities and any conflicts over jurisdiction that may result.
In a parallel development, the DoD's new intelligence bureau should eventually establish sections at regional level. The process partly aims to make BAIS an organisation that focuses purely on military intelligence, contrasting with its traditionally all-pervasive role.
However, no timetable for the changes has been announced.
Straits Times - August 22, 2001
Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia will fight corruption by focusing on bureaucratic reforms, not on the prosecution of serving and former government officials who are suspected of graft.
State Apparatus Minister Feisal Tamin told The Straits Times yesterday: "The past is the past. We cannot look backward and dig up old cases. That is a waste of time." He unveiled the government's new anti-corruption paradigm, which focuses on cleaning up the country's 6.5-million-strong bureaucracy, after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Monday.
The new programme advocates less complicated procedures for virtually all government services, including the issuance of identity cards, business permits, driver's licences and tax- payment records. The cost of each service would be well publicised, and citizens would be encouraged to report irregularities or unlawful conduct on the part of bureaucrats.
The government also plans to install anti-corruption safeguards, including regular monitoring and audits of government accounts and bureaucrats' personal wealth.
Mr Feisal explained: "Current procedures create many chances for corruption. Reforming the bureaucracy has to be the focus of our anti- corruption efforts. Law enforcement and prosecution can follow these reforms. But if we devote energy on going after people for past violations, we will never move forward." Indonesia's creditors, including the World Bank and the IMF, have long demanded anti-corruption measures as part of the reform pro- mises Jakarta has made in exchange for financial aid. Yet since the Suharto era, few individuals have gone to prison for past corruption or abuses of power.
Mr Suharto himself faced charges that were later dropped due to poor health. His son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra is now a fugitive from the law. He was handed an 18-month jail sentence last October for graft. Several leading tycoons have also opted for medical treatment in Japan or Singapore whenever they faced corruption-related questioning by the prosecutors.
Legal and anti-corruption experts, however, warned yesterday that the real challenge before Ms Megawati's government remains the prosecution of corrupt officials. According to them, most of the top politicians, including members of the President's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), are too eager to brush away the past and to start on a clean slate.
Professor J.E. Sahetapy, a PDI-P legislator who two weeks ago was rumoured to be in the running for the attorney-general's position, said: "Many people want to forgive and forget. The government now has it backwards. Prosecutions have to precede reforms." Prominent Jakarta lawyer Frans Winarta agreed: "The government needs a breakthrough -- successful anti-corruption prosecutions -- to regain the people's trust. If we don't punish the big corrupters at the top level, we won't succeed in getting rid of corruption."
New York Times - August 20, 2001
Seth Mydans -- Just at the start of his ill-starred presidency, Abdurrahman Wahid slipped out of his official palace and made a secret pilgrimage to the tomb of a Muslim holy man who preached here in central Java 400 years ago.
Alone in the burial chamber, Mr. Wahid said later, he heard the voice of the holy man, Sunan Kalijaga, offering encouragement. Stay calm, the saint told him, and repeat the daily mantra: "God is with those who steadfastly persevere."
In the first week of her presidency, after supplanting Mr. Wahid last month, Megawati Sukarnoputri made a pilgrimage of her own, to the tomb of her father, Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno, whose spirit she often consults.
She was greeted by supporters who held up a sign saying "Welcome to the Just Ruler." It was not a mere political slogan. The just ruler, Ratu Adil, is the savior predicted in an ancient Javanese chronicle who will arrive when the time is right to end a long "era of madness."
Throughout their terms in office, and before, all five of Indonesia's presidents have made frequent visits to holy places tombs, caves, mountaintops, ancient ruins. At least four of them have consulted with spiritual advisers, both corporal and intangible, before making important decisions.
They have clearly sometimes used such gestures for political theater. But most experts believe that for those leaders, the mysticism of Javanese Islam was real and sometimes affected their decision-making.
"This is part of an underlying animistic magical strand of thinking that does see success in the world as due to the basic spiritual powers that run it," said Paul Stange, an American who is an expert on Indonesian mysticism at Murdoch University in Australia.
It is a level of political behavior that generally escapes analyses of Indonesian politics and, by its nature, often remains unknowable. At the same time, experts caution, the effects of mysticism on politics and daily life should not be overblown.
Nevertheless, for Indonesians and Javanese in particular the existence of a spiritual world is a palpable, if diminishing, part of their culture. "Humans are not born alone," said Permadi, a Javanese spiritualist who is also a member of Parliament. "We are connected like siblings with animals and plants and also with nonphysical beings, created by God, that also inhabit the earth."
Indonesians also believe that certain objects like huge trees, stones and mountains hold mystical power, he said, and that God has given certain people special talents to communicate with them. In Javanese tradition, power has an essence of its own, known as "wahyu," and is conferred like a mantle on certain chosen people.
Thus an overt lust for power can be seen as crude and futile. The enigmatic silences favored by Mrs. Megawati and by former President Suharto have carried a deep resonance. "Suharto really felt he had the mandate of heaven," said Onghokham, a prominent social historian. "A colonel suddenly becoming president. He felt he could do anything."
But there was always talk that the wahyu was not really his, that it came from his well-born wife, Ibu Tien. And when she died in early 1996, people began whispering that Mr. Suharto's heavenly mandate was slipping away. He fell from power two years later.
"There is a tradition of Javanese kings becoming kings because of their wives," Mr. Onghokham said. "When Suharto rose to power, people believed that the wife had the wahyu, the flaming womb, and whoever united with her would get the wahyu. After her death people began to sense the wahyu was gone."
Both Mr. Permadi and Mr. Onghokham said that they had tried to dissuade Mr. Wahid from becoming president but that he said he believed he had been chosen to rule. "I told him, `You're mad, you're stupid'" Mr. Onghokham said. "`Two strokes, blind, how can you be president? You don't know what you're getting into.' And he said, `No, I've got the mandate of heaven.'"
In a strange way, Mr. Wahid, popularly known as Gus Dur, may have been right, Mr. Permadi said. "Maybe it was a decision of God to raise him up as part of the time of madness." And now, he said, "I'm worried about Megawati." "If she is Ratu Adil she will save the nation," he said. "But if not, she will make things worse, like Gus Dur."
Mr. Wahid, who was the most overtly mystical of Indonesia's presidents, is a Muslim cleric who frequently communes with saints and had, as president, parallel groups of political and spiritual advisers. His sudden departures, often at night, to the tombs of the holy figures became a hallmark of his presidency. "If you go to the tombs to meditate, with all the incense, the dark, the smell of antiquity," said Mr. Onghokham, "it's easy to believe in destiny."
In his brief 21-month tenure as president, Mr. Wahid spawned an entire lore about his mystical adventures. There is the time he went to an all- night shadow-puppet show for spiritual inspiration but fell asleep before the good part. Or the time he prayed tearfully at a tomb, only to discover later that it was the wrong one.
Tales of ghosts in the presidential palace proliferated during his tenure, with one of his daughters calling the place "creepy" and reporting that her television set turned itself on at odd moments. On the advice of spiritualists, Mr. Wahid reversed the layout of his office and changed its carpet from red to blue.
Mrs. Megawati's father, Sukarno, is also said to have surrounded himself with magic charms and with dwarfs, albinos and others he believed to have spiritual qualities. According to one account, he declared Indonesia's independence in 1945 only after paying three visits to seek wahyu at the place of the death and resurrection of an ancient ruler, King Jayabaya.
It is this king who produced the mystical chronicle called Jayabaya, which describes the circular nature of history, with times of madness followed by the arrival of a just ruler. Jayabaya is said to have predicted the coming of the Dutch and the short-lived occupation by the Japanese in World War II.
The chronicle, which people here sometimes compare to Nostradamus, is open to shifting interpretations with changing times. "One day there will be a cart without a horse," it begins. "The island of Java will be encircled by an iron necklace. There will be a boat flying in the sky. The river will lose its current. There will be markets without crowds. These are the signs that the Jayabaya era is coming."
It goes on: "The earth will shrink. Every inch of land will be taxed. Horses will devour chili sauce. Women will dress in men's clothes. These are the signs that the people and their civilization have been turned upside down."
Mr. Sukarno referred to the Jayabaya chronicle in a famous speech to a colonial court in 1930. "Please consider, judges, why people constantly await the coming of Ratu Adil," he said. "Why until this day does Jayabaya light up people's hope? For no other reason than because the weeping people wait faithfully for their rescue like a person in darkness who never ceases to await and expect, every hour, every minute, every second: when will the sun rise?"
Seventy-one years have passed since then and it is a question Indonesians are still asking.
Jakarta Post - August 21, 2001
Jakarta -- Legislators of the National Awakening Party (PKB) resumed their participation in proceedings at the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday, attending the House's first session for the 2001-2002 period.
PKB faction's newly appointed chairman Ali Masjkur Musa said that despite the comeback of the faction, it was under no obligation to clarify its stance on the Special Session and the presidential succession.
PKB along with the Love the Nation Democratic Faction (F-PDKB) faction supported the former president's decree to declare a state of civil emergency and dissolve the legislature following the People's Consultative Assembly's decision to bring forward the Special Session which led to the ouster of Abdurrahman Wahid from the presidency.
PKB's executive board also dissolved its faction in the DPR and dismissed Matori Abdul Djalil as chairman of the party for attending the session.
"We are present here now for our own constituents and for other factions and the House leadership. The press should not force us to decide whether the new government is valid or not because it has already become a political reality," he said without elaborating.
Ali Masjkur said his faction would promote advocacy and strive to serve the people's interests. "The PKB will be critical of the new government and control its policy in efforts to uphold democracy and the supremacy of the law and to continue reform efforts," he said.
He further explained PKB legislators could not attend the House's plenary session to hear President Megawati Soekarnoputri's state-of-the-nation address last Thursday because they were in regions to inform members of the results of the party's recent national meeting.
The national meeting appointed Ali Masjkur as the new chairman of the PKB faction replacing Taufikurrahman Saleh, assigned nine new deputies to the chairman and chose Amien Said Husni as the new secretary replacing Abdul Kholiq Achmad.
The party has yet to appoint someone to fill the position of MPR deputy speaker, which was left vacant by Matori, who has been appointed as the minister of defense in Megawati's Cabinet.
Separately, Abdul Kholiq, a PKB member who supports Matori's camp, called the party's national meeting and reshuffle in the party's faction invalid, calling for an extraordinary congress to solve internal friction in the party.
"Thirteen out of 29 regional PKB chapters still recognize Matori's leadership in the party and have called for an extraordinary congress to solve internal friction in the party," he said.
PKB legislators were greeted on Monday by their colleagues from other factions. Sutradara Gintings, chairman of the Indonesian Nationhood Faction (F-KKI), called on all sides to accept the PKB faction's political stance, saying the right to a different opinion was supported by the Constitution. "Despite the absence of an official statement, the PKB faction implicitly accepts the results of the Special Session," he said.
House Deputy Speaker A.M. Fatwa and Pramono Anung Wibowo, deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) also hailed the PKB legislators' presence. They said it was necessary for the PKB faction to clarify its stance on the Special Session because they were part of the House.
Like other factions, 27 of the PKB's 47 legislators held an internal meeting to discuss their faction's work program during the House's present term.
| Regional/communal conflicts |
Jakarta Post - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- Nearly 300,000 people were displaced by communal and sectarian conflict in various parts of Indonesia between January and August, further straining government resources, officials said on Thursday.
The number of people accommodated in mostly makeshift refugee camps swelled to 1,305,886 from 1,038,276 during the period, Director General for the Prevention of Social and Health Problems at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Sumaryati Arjoso said.
And the number was rising, Sumaryati told a public debate on the problems of refugees. "You can imagine the challenge facing central government with 1.3 million refugees, because for their food alone, it has to spend Rp 3.26 billion ($362,000) a day," Sumaryati said.
In a keynote address, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said President Megawati Soekarnoputri had ordered that the problem be resolved quickly, while simultaneously preventing new conflicts from erupting in other areas. "We realize that the refugee problem is a complex one and the government's ability to tackle it is very limited," Jacob said, calling on the support and participation of the entire nation.
Jacob's office provided a more moderate figure, putting the number of refugees at 1.26 million on July 31. Sumaryati's figures, based on a report by Bakornas PBP, the coordinating agency to handle disasters and refugees, did not give details of where the additional 300,000 refugees had come from in the last seven months.
The 1.3 million refugees are being accommodated in shelters in 19 provinces. The figures include East Timorese who were displaced by the violent destruction which erupted after the territory overwhelmingly voted for independence in August 1999. Only the East Timorese are officially considered to be refugees by the United Nations, entitling them to international assistance.
The others, victims of sectarian and communal wars in Aceh, Maluku, North Maluku, Central Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and Irian Jaya are considered to be "internally displaced people", putting the burden of containing them solely on the Indonesian government.
Sumaryati said the government had allocated Rp 693.5 billion ($77 million) from its 2001 budget to handle the refugee problem. While considering the amount as sufficient, she admitted that the food allocation -- Rp 1,500 and 400 grams of rice per day per person -- could hardly provide the minimum 2,100 calories per day intake that a person needed to lead a healthy life.
Sumaryati put housing and basic amenities at the top of the list of problems encountered in the field. Most refugees were either living in makeshift shelters or accommodated in the homes of local people, she said, adding that some were living in miserable conditions.
In addition, their mental health was deteriorating due to traumatic experiences and the appalling conditions at the camps. Many refugees also suffered from "post-traumatic stress" once they had appreciated their status as refugees, with little hope of repossessing their property, livelihood, or even members of their family. The appalling conditions in the camps had only aggravated their problem, she said.
Other issues encountered include the provision of basic logistics such as food, unnecessary delays or complications caused by red tape, security problems, and the health of the refugees. The government had yet to handle the specific problems of the most vulnerable groups, including babies, children, women and the elderly, she said.
Director General of Population Mobility at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Harry Heriawan Saleh said the most effective, efficient and least costly solution would be to repatriate the refugees. By the first week of August, more than 28,000 refugees, including nearly 11,000 East Timorese, had been repatriated, he said.
The next alternative would be to relocate or resettle them, Harry said, pointing out that the government would have to spend up to Rp 18 million ($2000) per family. The government hoped to relocate 13,910 families in 2001, he said.
| Human rights/law |
Agence France Presse - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- Rights group Amnesty International urged Indonesia's new President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Friday to bring policemen and soldiers to book for grave human rights violations.
The London-based group also complained of excessive delays in bringing to justice those suspected of "crimes against humanity" before and after East Timor's vote for independence in August 1999. Amnesty said in a statement that it wrote to Megawati Friday, urging her to give hign priority to protecting human rights.
It welcomed her apology to the people of Aceh and Irian Jaya provinces for past rights violations during the battle against separatist rebels but called for practical steps to prevent future abuses and redress for previous victims.
Amnesty urged Megawati immediately to free all "prisoners of conscience". It said there were currently 29 of these compared to none in the previous two years but gave no details.
The rights group criticised both security forces and separatist rebels in Aceh, saying there are "daily reports of grave human rights abuses" by both sides.
Amnesty urged Megawati's government to bring police and troops to account. It said the majority of cases involving grave rights violations, "including widespread unlawful killings, torture and 'disappearance,' have not been investigated at all.
"The result is an environment in which the security forces appear to remain free to operate outside the law." It urged Jakarta to protect rights activists and humanitarian workers, saying their work in both Aceh and Irian Jaya "is being hampered by the constant threat of detention, torture or even death." On East Timor, it noted that Megawati had amended an order setting up a human right court.
Although seen by some as a positive step, the amendment still limited its jurisdiction to just the two months of April and September 1999 and to just three out of 13 districts in East Timor, Amnesty said.
"This means that hundreds of victims of violations during 1999 throughout East Timor will be denied justice and the full truth of the events will not emerge." Amnesty urged a review of the decision and for trials to begin without further delay.
On August 30, 1999 almost 80 percent of East Timorese voted to split from Indonesia. Indonesian troops and the local militias they had nurtured killed hundreds of independence supporters and razed towns to the ground as they herded a quarter of a million people across the border into Indonesian-ruled West Timor.
Amnesty said tens of thousands of East Timorese remain in poor conditions in West Timor. It called on Megawati to fulfil United Nations Security Council demands "to disband and disarm militias still operating in the area; provide secure conditions in which refugees can access all necessary information to freely choose whether to stay in Indonesia or return to East Timor; and facilitate the repatriation in safety and dignity of those who choose to return." East Timor, currently under UN administration, will next Thursday hold an election for a constituent assembly as a prelude to independence expected by next year.
Tempo - August 21, 2001
Muhammad Abdul Rachman had some trouble uttering his oath of office as he was sworn in as attorney general last week. His voice tripped up a bit on the words "I will act honestly". Fortunately, with a little coaxing from President Megawati Sukarnoputri the words finally came out.
Work honestly. That is what the Indonesian public is demanding of the former junior attorney general for general crimes. It is no secret in Indonesia's corridors of power that the Attorney General's Office is one of the most corrupt institutions in this remarkably corrupt country. And to be fair, the 59-year-old Rachman does not enjoy the glistening reputation of his predecessor, the late Baharuddin Lopa. Aged 59 and born in Madura, there are those who still question Rachman's commitment to fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law.
Rachman's appointment did not get the rousing applause that Lopa's did a few weeks ago, just before his untimely death in Saudi Arabia. In fact, many keen watchers of the Indonesian legal scene were rather disappointed to see Rachman take over.
"He is the most conservative element in investigating cases of human rights abuses," said Munir, the outspoken lawyer behind the leading human rights lobby Kontras. Teten Masduki, coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch, also expressed doubts about Rachman's ability to stamp out corruption. But Asmara Nababan, secretary general of the National Human Rights Commission, was cooler in his criticism. "He is not exceedingly ugly," Asmara said. Or, as one source close to Mega put it, considering the available stock of career prosecutors in the larder, Rachman was the least ugly choice available.
Previously, many hoped that a figure from outside the prosecution service would get the job. They had two favorite candidates. The first was Achmad Ali, appointed by Lopa as his special advisor on major cases. Vice President Hamzah Haz gave Mega his name. Achmad was clean and tough and a lecturer from the law faculty of Hasanuddin University in Makassar, like Lopa. Something in the mold of the giant-slayer. There were no doubts whatsoever about Achmad's integrity. He told his close friends that if he got the job he would clean out the Attorney General's Office and all the senior prosecutors within it. He planned drastic measures -- replacing all and sundry in the main posts within the so-called Round Building once he got there. He was determined to get corruption suspect Nurdin Halid into a cell soon. Nurdin is a suspect in one major ongoing corruption case, concerning the Indonesian Distribution Cooperative. Like Lopa, Achmad led a simple private life. He does not even own his own car. When he was in Jakarta in the last few weeks, his close friends even had to give him donations to make sure he could stay in a decent hotel.
The other name was Suripto, former secretary general of the forestry department. Suripto was stubborn indeed when it came to hunting down big-time corruption cases in his own field. Suharto cronies Bob Hasan and Prajogo Pangestu and the former president's son Tommy Suharto all felt the sting of his work. His name was put forward by the Justice Party, a small Muslim-oriented party.
In the end both names were flung away by Mega. According to two leading figures in her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), right from the start the president was looking for a candidate from within the AGO. The reason? She did not want to infringe the existing regulations.
Chaerul Imam, former director of corruption crimes at the AGO, says the existing law stresses that the attorney general is not a poltiical position that can be filled from outside. This is not set out in law number five of 1991, the law which governs the prosecution service in general. It is actually contained in the clarification of law number 43 of 1999, which sets out the main points of official service. Under this the attorney general, as the leader of a non-departmental government institution, is considered a career post.
Bearing that in mind, said the two PDI-P sources, there were only four names which made it onto Mega's shortlist. First in line was deputy attorney general Soeparman, who acted as interim attorney general after Lopa's death. But for some reason, Soeparman appeared reluctant to take it on full-time when Mega asked him. She asked twice. After that, his name was crossed off the list.
The second candidate was Harprilleny Bareno, former head of the West Java state prosecutors office. Ellen, as she is known, is none other than an old school friend of Mega's. According to a former senior official at the AGO, they tried to find a way to get Ellen into the post. But the preparations would have been too difficult and would have taken months. To qualify for the top spot, Ellen had to be promoted first to the level of junior attorney general. The plan was to appoint her as secretary junior attorney general for general crimes, then promote her three months later to junior attorney general for general crimes and later attorney general. In the meantime, Soeparman would stay on as interim attorney general. But there was a lot of opposition to this plan, especially within the military. They wanted Rachman. In any case, the long, drawn-out procedure to get her into the post would have caused unhelpful speculation and uncertainty. As a result, Ellen's name was also crossed off the list.
Basrief Arief was another name which was considered, although his was not as strong as the other candidates. The head of the Jakarta regional prosecutors office, a native of Palembang, he is known to be very close to Taufiq Kiemas, Mega's influential husband. Taufiq is also from Palembang. Former attorney general Marzuki Darusman earlier designated Basrief to replace Rachman as junior attorney general for general crimes. But Rachman's name was not just pulled out of a hat. His name was on the lips of politicians close to Taufiq for more than a month. And it apparently reached Mega's ears from Taufiq, who got it from Basrief, himself an old friend of Rachman. The two prosecutors worked together as investigators of human rights abuses in East Timor. Taufiq himself has always denied that he gets involved in deciding strategic posts like this. "I always deliberately go away ahead of important announcements, so that I am not always mixed up with them," he said.
And then there was the general factor, in particular two retired generals, former military commander Wiranto and the head of the State Intelligence Agency A.M. Hendropriyono. According to a former senior official, they came to meet Mega at her official residence on Jalan Teuku Umar on Tuesday last week, only a few hours before the name of the attorney general was announced. At that time they both pressed her to name Rachman as soon as possible. So Rachman was carried, shoulders-high to office. According to some sources, the hope is he will be a shield for the military top brass against various human rights cases that are under investigation by the AGO. The obvious link was made with Wiranto's alleged involvement in the scorched Earth operation in East Timor two years ago. It was carried out by the Indonesian military and their militia allies after East Timor voted for independence and hundreds were killed. Wiranto was military chief and defense minister at the time. In Hendro's case, there is an older issue. He was personally involved in a bloody 1989 attack on the Warsidi Movement in Lampung.
Wiranto has known Rachman for quite a long time. Both of them sat in the Security and Legal System Stabilization Council during the Habibie administration. They had more dealings when Rachman became head of the investigating team into serious human rights abuses in East Timor. At that time Rachman took several steps which are felt to have protected Wiranto, whatever the reasons behind them. He refused to announce the names of generals listed as suspects. And he looked reluctant to touch officers `with stars on their shoulders'. The direction of his investigation was always limited to the involvement of officers and soldiers in the field. "He was very compromising," said one Tempo source.
Yan Djuanda Saputra, secretary of the legal team defending military and police officers, denies Wiranto had anything to do with Rachman's appointment as attorney general. Yan even said Rachman had taken a tough stance on East Timor. But he did not deny Rachman was close to Wiranto. "That does not mean he immediately would positively support Rachman," he said. He also confirmed a meeting took place between Wiranto, Hendro and Mega some time before the name of the new attorney general was announced. But Yan said the talks were limited to the national security situation. Unfortunately, Wiranto and Hendro themselves could not be reached for comment or confirmation.
Whatever the reasons, after weighing up left and right, Mega chose Rachman. Only two hours before the decision was announced by state secretary Bambang, on Tuesday last week at 9pm, Rachman was called to Jalan Teuku Umar to meet the president. It appears, Mega wanted to make one or two final clarifications. The talks went on one to one. In Mega's hand was a file which contained an intelligence report with Rachman's full background.
Mega asked a number of questions, some about the conditions of the AGO. Then she moved on, onto more delicate ground for Rachman. Mega talked in detail about a number of complaints which had come in about him. Rachman answered one by one, and his answers were judged satisfactory.
After that, Mega gave him three messages. First, Rachman was asked to carry on Lopa's work. Second, Mega guaranteed she would not intervene in the handling of cases. Third, Rachman was repeatedly warned to restore the people's trust in the prosecution service. Rachman promised. If not, Rachman told Mega he would resign from the post.
Then the decision was quickly taken. That night, around 11pm, his appointment as attorney general was announced at the palace. And the next day he swore his oath of office. "I will act honestly."
[Karaniya Dharmasaputra, Andari Karina Anom, Tomi Lebang, Levi Silalahi.]
Republika - August 20, 2001
The Asia Director of Human Rights Watch has serious doubts about therecently appointed attorney-general, MA Rachman, considering his trackrecord. She believes that he obstructed completion of the cases about humanrights abuses.
"The recently appointed attorney-general is the most disappointing appointment in President Mwgawati's cabinet," said Sidney Jones in Jakarta on Sunday. She referred to the time when he chaired the investigation team regarding the East Timor and Tanjung Priok cases, when the team took such a long time to complete its work.
"As chair of the team, he obstructed the work of the other members and gave no consideration for ideas and alternatives suggested by the other members of the team," she said.
As an example, she mentioned its investigation regarding the perpetration of human rights in East Timor when some of the perpetrators, including people from the TNI, were excluded from the list (of suspects). As deputy attorney-general, he even sought the acquittal of Eurico Guterres at his trial. "It was really up to him to be responsible for upholding human rights in Indonesia," she said.
| News & issues |
Straits Times - August 25, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's intelligence chief has confirmed US government warnings that American interests in the country face possible terrorist attacks.
Mr A.M. Hendropriyono, a retired army general, said greater democracy in Indonesia had made it more vulnerable to the forces of international terrorism. "We must improve the performance of our intelligence agency as we are responsible for anything that happens to the Americans and their assets here," he said.
Earlier this month, US officials urged Americans to defer non- essential travel to Indonesia and to stay away from outlying provinces where separatist and religious fighting had flared up. The US State Department said the government had received information that extremists might attack American interests in Indonesia. Britain and Australia have also warned their citizens to take extra care in Indonesia.
The nation of 210 million people has been hit by civil unrest and a wave of unexplained bombings as it struggles to establish democracy three years after the downfall of former president Suharto.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri came to office last month and appointed Mr Hendropriyono as the head of the National Intelligence Agency. "Terrorism has a tendency to flourish in a country which is in transition towards democracy," he said. "So, democratisation should be coupled with the promotion of surveillance." He declined to give details about specific threats, but said foreign terrorists could only operate in Indonesia with help from "domestic accomplices". One of the four army generals in Ms Megawati's Cabinet, Mr Hendropriyono has been accused by human rights groups of ordering the slaughter of more than 100 civilians in southern Sumatra in 1989 when villagers resisted the seizure of their land by cronies of then-president Suharto.
Straits Times - August 25, 2001
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Indonesian police have said they will question an entertainer for allegedly inciting hatred against the state by defaming government and national symbols. Police spokesman Colonel Anton Bahrul Alam said recording artist and actor Harry Roesli was "playing with fire" when he sang a satirical version of a national song, Garuda Pancasila, during the country's independence day celebrations last week.
"The lyrics were defamatory," the spokesman told The Straits Times on Thursday. "We cannot allow anyone to make fun of state symbols. We don't want others to follow his example."
The move to interrogate Mr Roesli -- who faces a seven-year jail term or a 4.5 million rupiah (S$1,000) fine if convicted -- was slammed by non-governmental bodies. They charged that it was the clearest indication yet that the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri was attempting to put a tight lid on freedom of expression. "This is not a good sign because it suggests the start of a subtle repressiveness against society which mirrors what only Suharto did. We stand to lose whatever freedom we earned over the last three years," former student activist Hariman Siregar said.
There has been widespread speculation in the local press that the government was quietly taking steps to curtail the liberal shenanigans of recent years. Apart from the Roesli saga, they point to the establishment of a revived Information and Communications Department as evidence that the authorities are planning to gag the press.
But pro-establishment figures said such sentiments were misplaced because the President had placed reform high on her list of priorities. Said a senior government official: "People comparing her to Suharto are just trying to put pressure on her not to take certain measures that would actually do this country more good than harm. We need some order in this country and to have order people must follow the rules. There is nothing wrong in summoning Roesli. He attacked a national symbol and must pay the price for it. The police in any other democratic country would have done the same thing."
Mr Roesli's song parodies a tune about Pancasila, the philosophy of national unity, and the Garuda, a mythical eagle that is Indonesia's state symbol. On Thursday, he denied any wrongdoing and said the song simply calls on the government to help the poor. But he had earlier published an apology in the leading Kompas daily to those he offended.
Reuters - August 22, 2001
Jakarta -- An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced an army corporal and a former soldier to life in jail for a devastating blast at the stock exchange that killed 15 people. Prosecutors had demanded death for ex-sergeant Irwan Ilyas and Corporal Ibrahim Hasan. Both at one stage escaped authorities, but Ilyas was recaptured and Hasan remains on the run.
"Both were soldiers who knew what such an explosion can do ... so they took lives on purpose," Judge Purwono told the South Jakarta court. Both had pleaded not guilty to possessing and using explosives, causing death and damage. "Maybe this is the best sentence I can get," Ilyas told reporters after the sentence. But his lawyer told the court he would appeal. Hasan was also sentenced in absentia on Monday to eight years in jail over a grenade attack on the Malaysian embassy last year.
The court on Monday sentenced two other men to 20 years in jail over the bombing last September, one of a series of attacks that undermined security in the crisis-racked capital. One of those two also remains on the run. All have denied any wrongdoing and say they have been framed.
The motive for the stock exchange bombing, the bloodiest single bomb attack in the capital in years, remains unclear. Prosecutors have said only that the men wanted to destabilise the already troubled country.
Police this month accused disgraced former President Suharto's fugitive youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, of being behind some of the bombings. They didn't say which bombs he was linked to, but former President Abdurrahman Wahid publicly blamed Tommy for the stock exchange blast. Tommy has been on the run since November after a court sentenced him to 18 months' jail for graft over a land scam.
New President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to stamp out the violence that has stoked instability and scared off foreign investors since the Asian financial crisis unleashed a wave of social and political violence in 1997. But she has not outlined how she will do it.
Reuters - August 22, 2001
Lewa Pardomuan, Kuala Lumpur -- A rally in palm oil prices is fuelling widespread looting in plantation areas in Indonesia, with armed gangs targetting mainly state-owned farms.
Industry sources said on Wednesday the looting has gained momentum since July when edible oil prices started to rally because of low stocks. "Looters have come back. They will come to the plantations by trucks and steal fresh fruit bunches," one source from an Indonesian state-run plantation firm told Reuters.
"Those people won't hesitate to kill you or burn your house," the source said the sidelines of a palm oil conference in Kuala Lumpur. "Security officers seem to be hopeless. We have suffered billions of rupiah in losses," said the source.
Indonesia is the world's second biggest producers of palm oil after Malaysia.
Many of its farms have been plagued by looting after the country's worst economic crisis in decades led to a breakdown in law and order in parts of the country and widespread unemployment.
The looting subsided earlier this year with lower prices. But it reemerged in July when palm oil futures in Malaysia started to increase because of a decline in stocks. Prices hit a 22-month high of 1,315 ringgit ($346.05) a tonne in August 8. Fresh fruit bunches hover around 575 rupiah ($0.07) a kg compared with 300 rupiah ($0.04) before the price hike, said the source. The fruit is normally sold to local refiners, which do not question its origin, the source said.
Local newspapers in Indonesia reported that state-run and private plantations suffered losses of least three trillion rupiah ($351,493) last year because of looting. Plantation sources said most of the looting took place in Sumatra, the country's main growing area and in particular the North Sumatra province.
Plantations owned by state-firm PT Perkebunan Nusantara II (PTPN II) in North Sumatra's Binjai regency is among the worst hit.
The area's crude palm oil processing plant operated at just 60 percent of production capacity last year because of a shortage in fresh fruit bunches.
A police officer in Binjai said: "Looting still happens, but I think it is subsiding." He declined to elaborate and PTPN officials could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Palm oil plantations cover 2.8 million hectares (6.9 million acres) of land in Indonesia, in which 490,000 hectares belong to state plantations. There are 14 state-run plantation firms which also manage coffee, rubber, cocoa and sugarcane estates. Derom Bangun, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki), said this week the country's palm oil production may fall short of a 7.2 million-tonne target for 2001 because of security problems and a possible drought.
Indonesia produced 6.5 million tonnes of palm oil in 2000 and state-run firms accounted for around 35 percent of output. Plantation sources said looting had worsened after former president Abdurrahman Wahid said last year that 40 percent of areas under state firms were seized or acquired without paying due compensation. But one source said some state-run companies had encouraged local people to manage parts of the plantations to ease the tension.
Asia Times - August 23, 2001
Andi Asrun, Jakarta -- Former Indonesian president Suharto has been out of power for three years now, but authorities agree with the suspicions of political analysts and activists that members of his family are still busy -- wreaking havoc with bombings and bomb threats.
As analysts here see it, Suharto's family -- as well as his supporters in the military -- are determined to prove that the ex-strongman's political successors are weaklings who are unable maintain peace and order. This is why, they say, bombs have become part and parcel of post-Suharto Indonesia.
The military-backed regime of Suharto lasted more than three decades, ending only when growing public protests forced him to resign in May 1998. Since then, Indonesia has been wracked by communal conflicts and deadly bombings, including one on July 23, which destroyed two churches in Jakarta and killed one person.
A strong explosive also went off in a downtown shopping center just a week after President Megawati Sukarnoputri was sworn in in late July, killing a passerby and injuring dozens. Among the more lethal attacks were the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange last September and last year's spate of Christmas Day bombings. Each resulted in the loss of 15 lives.
"I am quite sure some elements in the military and supporters of Suharto were behind the bombing and bomb threats," says political analyst Hadimulyo of the Center for Information and Democratic Studies. "The police have strong evidence that Tommy Suharto was behind the recent bombings."
Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy Suharto, is the ex- president's youngest child. The 38-year-old multimillionaire is currently a fugitive from justice, eluding arrest late last year after he was found guilty of corruption. Earlier, then president Abdurrahman Wahid had also ordered his arrest for supposedly being the mastermind behind the stock exchange explosion, but the matter was dropped after authorities admitted they had no evidence to back the allegation.
Last week, another warrant of arrest was issued for Tommy, this time for being one of the main suspects in several bombings and the murder of Justice Safiuddin. The magistrate, who was killed on July 26, had been a member of the panel of judges that sentenced Tommy to 18 months imprisonment on corruption charges.
Two weeks after Safiuddin's murder, police had found several hundred pieces of explosive devices and firearms in a house in southern Jakarta that is believed to have been used by Tommy. The police have a standing order to shoot Tommy on the spot if he refuses to surrender voluntarily. But one of his sisters, Siti Hadijanti Rukmana, who is also being tried for corruption, told reporters recently: "I still believe that Tommy is not involved in any bombing. Please give him a chance to explain all these allegations."
Tommy, however, is not the only member of the family that is being eyed for involvement in the bombings. Just last Tuesday, authorities arrested Ari Sigit, a Suharto grandson, for alleged illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at his house in downtown Jakarta. The father of Ari, who is in his early 20s, is Sigit Hardijanto, eldest of the six Suharto children.
Authorities have also included two military officers, including a member of the elite Army Strategic Reserve (KOSTRAD), in their list of suspects in the stock exchange bombing. Analysts and activists are convinced that none of the bombings or Safiuddin's murder could have been done without some help from the military.
Hadimultyo, for instance, believes that some intelligence officers and members of the army elite troops were involved in the more recent bombings. He says only such people could have carried these out without arousing the suspicion of others.
Munir, chair of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, meanwhile, cannot help wondering, "Why can't the security and state intelligence detect [who did] the bombings? What have they done so far to protect the people?" He suggests that Megawati act quickly to unify the state intelligence and military intelligence agencies and put the merged institution under the Office of the President. Both agencies are currently under the control of the military.
Opposition member Budiman Sudjatmiko, chair of the small People's Democratic Party, for his part argues that the police have been having difficulty solving the series of bombings -- which no group has claimed responsibility for so far -- because the military keeps on rejecting any investigation of any of its units. While probing ithe stock exchange blast last year, for instance, the National Police Detective Unit found at the site pieces of explosives material that came from the East Java Military Command. But top army officials refused to allow the police to pursue the lead.
Wahid then had also claimed that explosives material used in the Christmas Day bombings were also from the army-run ammunition and weapons factory. But the army top brass flatly denied the allegation.
Unsurprisingly, the military has yet to change its tune. Recently, KOSTRAD chief Lieutenent-General Riamizard Riacudu made a categorical denial of any involvement of soldiers in the rash of bombings that have hit several places across Indonesia, but especially Jakarta, in the past three years. Interestingly enough, Riamizard has refused to comment on the stock exchange blast.
Jakarta Post - August 21, 2001
Jakarta -- The South Jakarta District Court sentenced two defendants to 20-years imprisonment each on Monday for their role in last year's bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, which killed 10 people and injured 46 others.
The verdict was presented by the presiding judge, Rusman Dani Achmad, during the trial of Tengku Ismuhadi Jafar, 30 and Nuryadin alias Nadin, 29. Prosecutor Endang Rachwan had earlier asked the court to give Jafar a death sentence and Nuryadin a life sentence.
Nuryadin was tried in absentia since he escaped from Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta last month.
Jafar, who looked calm during the trial, said that he respected the verdict. "It is more 'humane' than the sentence request demanded by the prosecutor," he said.
However, he insisted that he was framed by investigators. "I will file an appeal since I am innocent. I will go anywhere in the world to seek justice, I am even ready for an international trial," he remarked.
The court rejected Jafar's defense about being framed by investigators. "It is hard to understand how investigators could create a description that is so very complete and accurate, unless the suspects admitted it themselves," judge Rusman said.
The court found Jafar guilty of planning the bombing, utilizing his auto repair shop to make the bomb and delivering it to the JSX building on Sept. 13, 2000, while Nuryadin was proven guilty of assembling and delivering the bomb.
The bombing was meant to damage the country's economy and particularly to increase the strength of the dollar against the rupiah, according to the judge.
On September 11, 2000, Jafar went to the parking lot in the JSX building basement along with the other suspects, Irwan and Ibrahim Amd bin Abdul Wahab, to reveal the location where the bomb would be put.
The next day, Nuryadin bought 43 TNT (trinitrotoluene) bars, as ordered by Irwan, a former member of the Army's Special Force (Kopassus). They, along with Ibrahim Amd bin Abdul Wahab and Corp. Ibrahim Hasan, a former member of Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), made the bomb with the TNT bars. On the same day, Jafar withdrew Rp 176 million from Bank BNI to buy dollars.
Two days later, Nuryadin put the bomb to a Toyota Mark II car. He, Jafar and Ibrahim Amd bin Abdul Wahab then went to JSX building in Jafar's car. Irwan followed Jafar's car in the Toyota Mark II. Irwan was the one who detonated the bomb in the parking lot of the building.
Meanwhile, Jafar's lawyer, Johnson Panjaitan from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association said the court failed to reveal the motive of the bombing. "I feel very disappointed that the court revealed the facts that had been manipulated by investigators," he said.
Jakarta Post - August 21, 2001
Jakarta -- A live bomb was found outside the family residence of human rights activist Munir in Batu, Malang, East Java, in the early morning hours of Monday.
The police defused the high explosive bomb in the middle of a paddy field opposite the house on Jl. Diponegoro. The bomb squad claimed it was of TNT (trinitrotoluene) type.
Munir, the founder of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), was taking leave for a week to visit his parents, wife Suciwati and their three-year-old son Alif in the town.
Munir said that they were woken up at around 2am by Alif's cry when the phone rang. The caller hung up when Suciwati took it. "The phone rang again and when I took it, a man on the other line said he was looking for my wife but refused to reveal his identity. He later said that a bomb had been planted around the house and would explode within minutes," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone.
Munir then searched around the house and found a suspicious black plastic bag outside his mother's room. Batu Police came within 15 minutes and confirmed it was a bomb, while the bomb squad arrived around 6:30am. "The bomb is certainly connected with my work," he said.
Munir has often criticized the authorities for their failure to solve the bombing cases that have rocked the country over the past two years.
| Environment/health |
Jakarta Post - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- Head of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) Goenawan Ibrahim warned on Thursday that the haze problem in Kalimantan might worsen as forest fires could easily be sparked by the protracted dry season in the region.
He said the rainy season in Kalimantan will begin later compared to the other regions in Indonesia where the transitional season between the dry and rainy seasons falls in September.
"Usually the transitional season falls in September, but for Kalimantan, it may only be in October this year. The forests in the region can easily catch fire in their present condition," Goenawan told The Jakarta Post.
The risk of fires is greatest in forests whose land consists mainly of peat, he said. "Such forests can even catch fire on a hot and dry day. So not much can be done to prevent fires like this," he said, adding that the fires are difficult to extinguish as well.
Haze from forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have become an annual problem for Indonesia. Apart from causing health problems for the local people, the haze also disrupts flight schedules. The haze also spreads to neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.
North Sumatra and Aceh provinces will also face this year a longer than usual dry season. Goenawan, however, said the dry season will not affect food production. "Usually the last month of the dry season is the driest," Goenawan said.
Goenawan added that the dry season only affected rice production. However, if the region has a good irrigation system, there will be no problems as the rice fields will have enough water, he said. "But if the rice fields rely on rain water, rice production will suffer," he said. He said the provinces whose rice production suffered from a lack of water included Lampung, Central Java, East Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.
Commenting on the possible return of the Elnino weather phenomenon, which cause a longer dry season, Goenawan said Indonesia was unlikely to be affected by the phenomenon this year. "It is unlikely that Indonesia will be affected by Elnino this year.
However, there is a 25 percent possibility that we will be affected by it next year," he said. Nearly all of Indonesia's territories, except West Sumatra, have the potential of being affected by Elnino.
BMG held on Thursday a meeting with a number of institutions to discuss climatic problems and its impact. Among the organizations that attended the meeting were the National Aerospace and Space Agency (LAPAN), the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) and the Ministry of Agriculture.
Agence France Presse - August 22, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's state-owned forestry company could lose its profitable "ecolabel" certificates if it does not act to stamp out illegal logging on Java island, it was revealed Wednesday.
Many foreign companies will no longer accept wood products without the ecolabel stamp, a guarantee the wood has come from a renewable source.
United States-based certification body SmartWood has threatened to withdraw the ecolabel certificates it has issued for six of P.T. Perhutani's 57 forest districts, threatening Java's exporters of wood procucts such as furniture.
Businessmen in need of cheap timber are paying locals to hack down trees illegally, a process which Smartwood fears will ruin the reforestation process. It has told Perhutani to deal with the problem by October 20 or lose the certificates.
P.T. Perhutani, which estimates its exports this year at 67 million dollars and manages 2.8 million hectares (6.9 million acres) of forest on densely-populated Java, defended its record Wednesday. "Perhutani is developing forest resources on Java island in an efficient, professional, fair and democratic manner," company director Marsanto Sastrowardoyo told a press conference.
Perhutani spokesman Martono said the company wanted to invite certification bodies under the Forest Stewardship Council, a Mexico-based forest accreditation body, to assess its forest management for ecolabel approval. "Otherwise we will have to wait for 20 years until they (SmartWood) finally certify all of the forest districts," Martono said. "They don't have enough people."
Martono said his company was committed to sustainable methods and would take firm action against illegal loggers. "We prioritize the prosperity approach but if their action is illegal we'll take them to court," he said.
But Javan small enterprises are complaining that the ecolabel process is undermining their business. "The requirement for ecolabelling has undermined their business. Their exports have been decreasing," said non-governmental organisation activist Adang Gumilar.
Illegal logging has been on the rise following the economic crisis that began in mid-1997 and the end of the iron-fisted rule of president Suharto in May 1998. In one incident earlier this year, Martono said, police were forced to release six residents arrested for stealing timber at Cepu in Central Java after violent protests by fellow villagers.
The protesters burned several buildings and homes belonging to Perhutani when police refused to release the detainees, said Martono. He said Perhutani had been running a project called the Community-based Forest Management since 1972. The scheme involves residents of forest areas in the process of developing them.
| Arms/armed forces |
Jakarta Post - August 23, 2001
Jakarta -- Observers welcomed the Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters' plan to drop its territorial function and to focus on defense duties, saying it was a positive move to improve its professionalism.
TNI's chief for territorial affairs Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo revealed on Tuesday that based on the results of the recent Workshop on Military Territorial Function, the military wanted to drop its territorial functions and would focus on defense affairs.
"But, such a move is not that easy to implement as there are still differences in understanding and vision among regional military commanders," Hermawan Sulistyo, a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
He said there were many regional military chiefs who still adopted old practices since they adhered to the belief that the military was superior to civilians, "and therefore they are unable to let go of TNI's socio-political functions."
"So, the reform measures which have been agreed upon by the military headquarters in Jakarta are not always applicable in the provinces because many regional military commanders still defend old military practices," he said. "So it very much depends on who heads the regional military commands," he added. He said the military regional commands would still need to be maintained for some time before being gradually phased out.
Military observer M.T. Arifin said the idea to drop the territorial function was part of the process within the military of leaving politics. "I think the process is still going on and of course it takes place in stages and takes time," he told the Post. He agreed with Hermawan that the military regional commands could not be phased out in the immediate future. "But their function should be narrowed so that they deal only with defense concerns."
Both of them, however, agreed that if the military managed to leave its territorial function it would boost the effort to create a professional military, whose function was only to the defend the nation. "As a consequence of the policy, all the military men in the House of Representatives (DPR) must be withdrawn. And I believe that many military officers are not happy with their presence in the legislature," Hermawan added.
Observer Indro Tjahjono, while welcoming the plan, expressed reservations that the plan to drop the military's territorial function would take place smoothly since there were still many officers who wanted to be involved in politics. He said that competition among factions in the military was won by those who were not in favor of the reform process and who now enjoyed political support. "But if the military really wants to drop its territorial function, it should be followed by the dissolution of the regional military commands which have been used as political instruments in the past," Indro said in a seminar on The Military in Megawati's Government on Wednesday.
A legislator from the Military/Police faction in the House, Christina M. Rantetana, said there were many military officers who agreed that they should no longer be used as a political tool. "Actually, we want to become a professional military which is no longer involved in political affairs, but it is not easy. We need support from all segments of society," she told the seminar.
South China Morning Post - August 22, 2001
Nick Squires, Sydney -- The Government planned to help build a counter-terrorist training base in Indonesia for the country's elite special forces, according to confidential government documents. The 1994 plan, which was never made public, was proposed by Canberra despite controversy over the poor human rights record of Kopassus, the Indonesian army's special forces.
The revelation follows weekend reports that during the 1990s Australia aspired to become a big arms exporter to Asian countries, hoping to sell up to A$1 billion worth of military hardware each year. The scheme failed, partly because of inexperience and infighting among government arms salesmen.
Plans for a counter-terrorist training range were hatched under the government of prime minister Paul Keating, who was keen to develop military links between the two countries as a way of strengthening the overall relationship. At the time, Australian troops from the elite Special Air Service regiment were involved in joint exercises with Kopassus troops in Australia and Indonesia. Some Kopassus soldiers also spent time at a counter- terrorist training range in Western Australia.
Defence documents obtained by the Australian newspaper reveal the Keating government was keen to further cement relations with Jakarta by helping to build a similar training facility in Indonesia. It is unclear whether the range was ever built, but defence experts said yesterday such a proposal was in keeping with Australia's policy towards its neighbour during the early 1990s.
James Cotton, professor of politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said: "The defence relationship with Indonesia was, and is, crucial. It was thought, these people are not going to go away, so we might as well try to get on with them."
Despite concerns in Canberra about human rights violations committed by Kopassus, "successive governments chose to look the other way". "A lot of countries started changing their minds in 1991 after a massacre in East Timor by the Indonesian military," Professor Cotton said. "In 1992 the United States withdrew its military training programme, which brought Kopassus officers to the US, because of these concerns. To some extent Australia took up the slack. In retrospect, we can be thankful this exchange [the building of the range] never took place."
Canberra eventually cut military links with Kopassus in 1998, following allegations of human rights abuses by Kopassus troops in the breakaway provinces of East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya. Former director of defence exports Adrian Fielding confirmed the Defence Department drew up the specifications for the centre. The project would have been extremely controversial if it had been revealed at the time.
Former foreign minister Gareth Evans wrote in an article published last month that he now thinks Australia was wrong to train Indonesian troops. "I am one of those who has to acknowledge that many of our early training efforts helped only to produce more professional human rights abusers," he wrote.
Prime Minister John Howard said recently he would consider resuming military ties with Indonesia as the relationship between the two countries improved. A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter Reith said Australia's only military links with Indonesia now were logistical support for aircraft and a programme under which about 20 Indonesian army officers attended Australian colleges. None were members of Kopassus, he said.
| Economy & investment |
Reuters - August 24, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's crude oil output is expected to fall by an average 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year due to security disruptions in its fields, a senior mines and energy ministry official said on Friday.
Indonesia's vital oil and gas industry has been hit by a series of disputes in the past year in the wake of new autonomy laws introduced on January 1, which have given regions more fiscal and administrative powers.
The country's biggest producer, PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, has been one of the hardest hit by worker disputes and protests at its Riau operations on the island of Sumatra.
"It [the expected fall in 2002 output] is because some production sharing partners, including big ones like Caltex ... have failed to maintain production this year because of rampant security disruptions in their areas," official Kardaya Warnika told reporters. "Some other companies have cut investment for production next year and many have cancelled investment for expansion," he added.
Caltex -- jointly owned by Chevron Corp and Texaco Inc -- said on Tuesday output had fallen to 660,000 bpd, from a forecast 705,000 bpd, due to a range of disruptions. Caltex accounts for about half the crude oil output of Indonesia, Asia's only OPEC member.
Indonesia's crude oil production slipped to 1.23 million barrels per day (bpd) in July from 1.24 million in June, according to industry sources, partly because of the reduced output from the Caltex oil fields. Earlier this month the oil giant said it expected to post revenue losses of around $400 million this year because of the disputes. One of its most high profile rows has been at the Coastal Plain Pekanbaru (CPP) field in Riau.
Jakarta recently extended the CPP contract, which expires this month, to allow more time for preparations before it was handed to the government.
Riau has been haggling with Jakarta for months over the field and is demanding a 70 percent stake. But Jakarta has said state oil firm Pertamina would get 85 percent and the local government 15 percent.
Normal CPP output is 70,000 bpd but current production is around 50,000 bpd.
Another producer, Exxon Mobil Indonesia, was forced to close its vital gas fields in Sumatra in March due to security concerns in the rebellious Aceh province. Some of the fields were re-opened last month, but production is still below capacity and operations are on a day-to-day basis.
Dow Jones Newswires - August 23, 2001
Tom Wright, Jakarta -- Indonesia's independent debt restructuring review body issued a report late Thursday criticizing key deals which it said favored debtors over the government. The International Monetary Fund, which is visiting Indonesia this week, has said it will only resume lending under a stalled $5 billion program if the government first made the report public.
The IMF suspended its program in December, in part because of concerns Indonesia was giving politically connected debtors deals that allowed them to keep control of their companies, while putting most the costs of restructuring on the government. The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, or IBRA, took over about 300 trillion rupiah in bad debt following a banking sector collapse four years ago, and is under huge pressure to recover cash to help reduce pressure on state finances.
In the review, the government's Oversight Committee -- an independent body set up by the government to review IBRA deals -- criticized a number of outline debt restructuring pacts for leaving IBRA with short change. The review heavily criticized a deal between IBRA and Chandra Asri, a joint-venture petrochemical company owned partly by a consortium led by Japan's Marubeni Corp. (J.MRB). Under the deal, Chandra Asri would repay the Japanese creditors under Marubeni $623.6 million over 12 years at the London Interbank Offered Rate plus 2.5%. Japanese creditors would convert $100 million for a 20% stake in Chandra Asri.
IBRA would get back only $50 million of the Chandra Asri loans it took over from the banking sector, while converting a huge $463.6 million in debt for an 80% stake in the company, the review said. "Looking at it form a purely commercial point of view, the restructuring is clearly disadvantageous to IBRA and advantageous to Marubeni (representing the Japanese lenders)," the report said.
The Oversight Committee also criticized a related debt restructuring deal with Prjaogo Pangestu, the millionaire former head of Chandra Asri.
The head of the committee, Mari'e Mohammad, was quoted by local media Friday as saying it will soon publish other reviews of debt restructuring deals.
The latest review doesn't cover the Texmaco Group's controversial debt restructuring agreement, which drew flack for putting a huge burden on IBRA while allowing founding shareholders to keep control of the company.
Texmaco, with IDR17 trillion in debt to IBRA, is the agency's largest single debtor.
Asia Times - August 22, 2001
Jakarta -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday drew a "clear commitment" from the Indonesian government to accelerate its economic reform programs. The IMF mission arrived in Jakarta on Sunday to try and strike a new economic reform agreement with the government.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her economic team, IMF deputy director for Asia Pacific Anoop Singh said that he is very optimistic about their discussions. He did not, however, state when the Washington-based body would release the US$400 million loan it has withheld from Indonesia since late last year on the grounds that the latter has wavered on agreed reforms.
A new Letter of Intent (LoI) on economic reforms is expected to be signed soon. "The IMF is very optimistic and expects all talks to be completed this week, but on Thursday we expect a new LoI," Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi said after the meeting.
Laksamana said that if the draft of the new LoI is brought to the IMF executive board, it will convene immediately to approve it. The approval will allow the disbursement of the Fund's $400 million loan tranche, which has been withheld since late last year amid signs that the Indonesian administration was wavering on the implementation of the agreed reform agenda. Laksamana said the meeting also reopened the issue on the privatization of state enterprises.
He expressed his belief that the IMF will not object to the government's target to raise Rp6.5 trillion (US$768.8 million) from the privatization of state enterprises. "The issue on the privatization of state companies would be discussed again, whether the target should be reduced or not, but I believe the government's target of Rp6.5 trillion will not impede the IMF's disbursement of its loan," he said.
The IMF is requiring Indonesia to take six so-called prior actions before signing the new LoI. The six are:
Bank Indonesia intends to wait for IMF signals before making a decision related to the base money target of Rp108 trillion. "We are still waiting for signals from the IMF to decide whether or not to increase the interest rate on Bank Indonesia's short-term promissory notes [SBI] to control base money," the central bank's governor Syahril Sabirin said, adding that the current base money of Rp112 trillion was still too high.
Syahril said that the government can take several ways to reduce base money to its target of Rp108 trillion without increasing the SBI interest rate. The bank's deputy governor Miranda Goeltom said that another way to control base money is to intervene in the money market by selling dollars. But the central bank will waiting for the IMF's approval before taking the decision, Goeltom said.
On the IMF's economic reform targets for Indonesia, economist Sri Adiningsih of the Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University said that a particular concern is the IMF's request to issue extra government bonds for financing the blanket guarantee scheme on banks. "The IMF must consider revising some of its programs, including the one on account number 502, since it requires a lot of funds and is difficult to meet under the current situation," she said.
The bonds, the proceeds of which would be kept under a Bank Indonesia account known as account 502 to finance funding shortfalls for the bank guarantee scheme, should be issued later this month as a prerequisite for an IMF deal. Sri warned that issuing the extra bonds, initially estimated to be worth Rp30 trillion will worsen Indonesia's debt burden.
The Paris Club of official creditors will study an Indonesian proposal for the rescheduling of a $6.2 billion debt due this year, when it meets in September. Syafruddin B Tumenggung, a senior official at the office of the chief economics minister, said that the debt includes $400 million owed to five non-Paris Club members.
The five countries, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Brunei, Kuwait and China, have agreed to roll over the debt under the Paris Club scheme. Tumenggung said that the debt to be rescheduled includes Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is to be rolled over for 20 years, with a grace period of 7 years, and a non-ODA loan to be rescheduled for 15 years, with a grace period of 3 years.
Indonesia has a foreign debt of around $140 billion. The central bank said that $33.5 billion of Indonesia's foreign debts will be due for repayment this year including $7.5 billion owed by the government. Tumenggung said that approval for the rollover by the Paris Club will depend on the success of the current talks between the government and the IMF. He said in principle all members of the Paris Club, with the exception of Britain and Canada, have agreed to roll over the Indonesian debt. In related news, Ary Suta, chief of IBRA, said that investors taking part in a previous tender are allowed to make a bid in a retender for a 30 percent stake of the government in Bank Central Asia (BCA). "To be fair, all meeting the requirements could take part in the retender," he said.
Laksamana has decided to relaunch the tender as the previous one has been seen as tainted with price speculation and the tender process lacked transparency. In March the country's House of Representatives approved the sales of 40 percent stake of the government in BCA. A 10 percent stake was sold in July. In May IBRA, which represents the government in BCA, said 10 local and foreign investors had submitted their bids for BCA stakes.
Sources at the House of Representatives said that only two of the 10 bidders remained in the contest, one of which is affiliated to the Salim Group, the old owner of the bank. The government has banned the old owners from being involved in the bank. BCA divestment is part of the economic reform targets set by the IMF.
Financial Times - August 20, 2001
The International Monetary Fund was fiercely criticised for its failure to salvage the Indonesian economy in 1997-98. Much of the criticism was justified. With financial markets crashing around it, the IMF's mission should have been to restore investor confidence and macro-economic stability.
Instead, it insisted on the implementation of a long laundry list of painful microeconomic changes that further strained financial tensions and shattered public confidence. The policy appeared to be driven by Washington's antagonism towards President Suharto and his cronies as much as by a determined attempt to stop the rupiah from plummeting.
But the fund's previous mistakes were about priorities and timing rather than principle. There is no doubt that Indonesia needs to untangle business from politics if the world's fourth most populous country is ever to maximise its economic potential and regain investors' trust. Now is the time to push hard for such structural changes, as an IMF mission has arrived in Jakarta this week to consider whether to resume its $4.8 billion loan programme. It must be doubted whether any such radical restructuring programme can ever be successfully imposed from the outside.
The appointment of Megawati Sukarnoputri as president has raised hopes that change may now come from within Indonesia. Her election last month has been well received by the people. She has appointed a strong cabinet of market-savvy technocrats who have impressed investors. Since she came to power, the rupiah has climbed 30 per cent against the US dollar -- although this reflects how far the currency had previously fallen as much as expectations of rapid change.
But a similar euphoria greeted the election of Abdurrahman Wahid as president two years ago. The opportunity was squandered not only because of Mr Wahid's personal idiosyncracies but also because of the power of vested interests and the obduracy of the bureaucracy.
Suharto-era corporate bosses are still capable of neutering economic proposals that cut across their own interests. Most notably, they appear to have succeeded in de-fanging the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, which was supposed to repackage and sell on distressed assets.
The IMF should calibrate its financial support according to how far Mrs Megawati pushes ahead with structural reform. But it would be counter-productive to force change on Indonesia once again from outside. The IMF can put extra fuel in the tank if the car is heading in the right direction but it should not try to seize the wheel.