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Indonesia News Digest No
37 - September 10-15, 2001
Green Left Weekly - September 12, 2001
Maria Voukelatos -- Ngadinah binti Abu Mawardi made Indonesian
history on August 30 when she became one of the first workers to
defend herself in a court of law and win.
The factory worker, who produces merchandise for giant Western
sportswear company Adidas, was controversially jailed for
organising and inciting workers to join a strike. But on August
30, a panel of three judges pronounced Ngadinah not guilty of
both charges. They said that she was "fully rehabilitated" and
ordered the government to pay her court costs. They didn't
apologise for imprisoning her for a month before the trial.
In what could be an important precedent for other workers' rights
trials, the judges did, however, refer to International Labour
Organisation conventions, which bind signatories to protecting
freedom of association, including the right of workers to give
speeches to other workers about their rights, and to discuss
those rights with fellow workers.
One hundred and fifty workmates and labour organisers attended
the final court hearing and celebrated her victory. One said,
"This is the first time I have ever heard of this happening in
Indonesia".
Green Left Weekly - September 12, 2001
Max Lane -- Despite protests by human rights groups and large
sections of the legal profession, Indonesia's police are
continuing their prosecution of more than 30 people for their
political activities.
In the northern province of Aceh, where the military is locked in
fierce struggle with supporters of a referendum on independence,
pre-trial hearings have begun in the case of Kautsar, the
chairperson of the Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front.
Kautsar was arrested on July 11 during a police "sweep" in the
provincial capital Banda Aceh, when police found protest leaflets
in the car he was travelling in. The leaflets called on the
Acehnese people to boycott the payment of taxes as a protest
against the national government's repression and exploitation of
the province.
The leaflets also called for the closure of ExxonMobil plants in
Aceh, because the giant oil company had been financing a military
presence.
In custody since his arrest, Kautsar is being charged with
"spreading hatred against the legitimate government", a law used
during the Dutch colonial period and extensively under Suharto's
dictatorship, when critics were frequently imprisoned for up to
15 years.
At pre-trial hearings, the defence brought forward witnesses who
testified that the police who detained Kautsar had no arrest
warrant and forbade him from contacting a lawyer.
They also confirmed that Kautsar was travelling in the car to see
his ill brother in a local hospital and was carrying out no
political activity at the time.
Under Indonesian law, an arrest warrant is necessary for any
detention, except when the suspect is detained while committing
an illegal activity.
While police representatives accepted witnesses' testimonies that
there was no illegal act underway and that officers lacked a
warrant, the judge ruled that the arrest still stood and ordered
Kautsar stand trial.
In Surabaya, in East Java, Purwadi, the chairperson of the
provincial branch of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), remains
in jail along with eight other activists, including two members
of the National Awakening Party of former president Abdurrahman
Wahid, both of whom are members of the Bondowso Sub-Provincial
Parliament.
The eight were arrested on July 31 while distributing leaflets
demanding that Suharto's party, Golkar, be put on trial, that the
military withdraw from political activity and that the assets of
corrupt Suharto-era cronies be confiscated.
Purwadi was arrested in relation to the same case on August 9.
Two days later, the offices of the PRD in Surabaya were raided
and computers, other equipment and documents seized by police.
The police had no search warrants or other required documents.
On August 15, the Surabaya People's Council, representing more
than 20 activist groups, organised a protest delegation demanding
their release.
Purwadi and the other eight activists are being charged with
"spreading hatred against a legitimate government".
On September 5, the police stated that they had ended their
investigation and handed all the charge sheets and documents to
the East Java attorney-general's office. However, on September 7,
the attorney-general returned the documents to the police asking
for more information.
A team of 23 lawyers has been formed, including Surabaya's most
prominent human rights lawyer, to prepare the case. They intend
to seek a pre-trial hearing to demand the case be dismissed
because of illegal arrest. They also want to charge the police
with illegal seizure of equipment from the PRD office.
In Bandung, in West Java, the trials of 12 of 19 activists
arrested during worker protests in June have begun.
Most of the activists are from the Young Christian Workers, with
others affiliated to the PRD and the National Student League for
Democracy. The 12 standing trial have now been released from
prison and are facing charges less serious than those being used
in Aceh and Surabaya.
However, it is reported that many of the detainees, both students
and workers, were beaten during detention and forced to sign
confessions. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, the
prisoners have been treated extremely badly. They went on a
hunger strike for eight days, and eventually were given medical
attention and ordered to end their fast.
The police have also moved against popular singer Harry Roesli
after he sang a song satirising society's commitment to the
values of pancasila, the official state ideology. Roesli may also
be brought to court.
Pre-trial hearings have also begun in relation to the arrest of
seven senior police officers for holding informal discussions as
to whether their superiors had broken the law in defying various
instructions from President Wahid while he was in offce.
East Timor
Aceh/West Papua
Government/politics
Corruption/collusion/nepotism
Regional/communal conflicts
Human rights/law
News & issues
Health/education
Religion/Islam
Arms/armed forces
Economy & investment
Democratic struggle
Factory worker freed
Police move to try activists
East Timor
UN inducts East Timor assembly
Associated Press - September 15, 2001
Dili -- The UN administration in East Timor on Saturday inaugurated the newly elected assembly that will draft the territory's first constitution, bringing it one step closer to full independence.
The 88-member assembly, which was voted in last month, will have three months to draft the charter and adopt East Timor's new political system.
At a ceremony presided over by local UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello, the constitution writers swore to uphold the principles of democracy. "Our struggle for 24 years has become a reality," said popular independence movement leader Xanana Gusmao, who watched the inauguration. Gusmao is widely expected to become East Timor's first president when it becomes fully independent next year. Until then, the United Nations is administering the territory.
Saturday's ceremony was held in a newly refurbished assembly building behind the UN headquarters in Dili. De Mello began proceedings by calling on all present to stand for a minute of silence in memory of the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the United States.
"The East Timorese know the heavy price to be paid to achieve and preserve peace, self-government and democracy," he said. Hundreds were killed and 80 percent of East Timor's infrastructure destroyed by retreating Indonesian troops and allied militia members following East Timor's vote for independence in 1999.
The assembly will meet Monday to choose a speaker and deputy speaker, and a transitional government of around 10 East Timorese ministers is expected to be announced early next week.
Also Saturday, around 1,000 US marines and sailors arrived to provide humanitarian assistance and help with rebuilding work. They were operating from the warships USS Peleiu, USS Comstock and USS Dubuque. US servicemen are not included in the 8,000- strong international peacekeeping force in East Timor but often visit for humanitarian projects.
South China Morning Post - September 15, 2001
Vaudine England in Jakarta -- Children snatched from refugee camps in East Timor and taken to central Java two years ago were reunited with their parents yesterday.
Independence hero Xanana Gusmao also welcomed home the families of former pro-Indonesian militiamen. His move came as mass refugee returns resumed across the border with Indonesian West Timor.
The reunions of the 10 children and their parents in Bali -- a joint operation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Organisation for Migration -- was the first achievement in a two-year process aimed at retrieving at least 124 children taken from refugee camps in West Timor by an Indonesian foundation.
The children were put in Indonesian schools and looked after at Catholic orphanages in Java. The Hati Foundation appeared to want to produce a new generation of East Timorese who would reject independence in favour of Indonesian rule.
Until yesterday, efforts to persuade the foundation's maverick Octavio Soares to return the children had failed. But he was present at yesterday's reunion and "appeared to be behaving okay so far", a source present at the meeting said.
"The handover is happening as we speak," said a UNHCR source at the Bali reunion. "There has been a lot of anxiety here today. Some children and parents immediately found the right tone with each other. With some others, they will clearly need more time together."
Assuming no last-minute hitches occur, that time will come when the parents and children are brought back from Bali to East Timor today and begin new lives together, after the rupture of the violence and destruction caused by Indonesia after East Timor's independence ballot in August 1999.
An estimated 250,000 East Timorese either fled or were forced across the border into Indonesian West Timor and held in camps as virtual hostages to the enduring passion of some Indonesians to reclaim East Timor territory.
Soares, a well known anti-independence figure with close links to the former Suharto regime, had promised parents their children would have a better life in Indonesia and several parents say they felt they had no choice but to relinquish their offspring. Several efforts to get the children back failed until Indonesia's Foreign Minister felt obliged to get involved.
A different kind of reunion also began yesterday with the return of about 900 refugees from camps in West Timor, to holding centres near Dili, in East Timor. This group included at least one notorious militia leader, and the parents of two others, and marks the first phase of a reconciliation process in which much time and effort has been invested.
On July 7, East Timor's president-in-waiting Mr Gusmao and other local leaders met militia heads such as Cancio Lopes Carvalho and his Mahidi militia to pledge safety and justice for them if they returned. Only when the militia leaders are brave enough to go home to East Timor will they allow their captive refugee groups to go home too.
A second and third phase of refugee returns is hoped to follow soon, which will eventually include the return of Cancio himself. He says he is ready to face justice and will declare everything that happened in the past periods of brutality inflicted by his and other militia groups. "He won't say who gave the orders for the terror until the right time comes," said a UN source involved in the reconciliation and return process.
The militias unleashed a wave of killing and destruction in the run-up to the 1999 independence ballot and in the weeks that followed until an Australian-led international peacekeeping force arrived.
Sydney Morning Herald - September 15, 2001
Mark Dodd, Tumin -- On a barren ridge just outside the village of Tumin, hundreds gathered last weekend to commemorate one of the most shocking mass murders that occurred in the violence following East Timor's 1999 referendum.
Some had walked all day to be present at the ceremony. They had heard a special guest would arrive to bear witness to their anguish and hear their appeals for justice.
But Xanana Gusmao, East Timor's famous independence leader, never arrived and those present began to wonder if even their leaders were starting to forsake the people of the enclave. "We are very, very sad about this because he promised us he was going to come and he didn't," said Mateus Remedio, a local teacher. Mr Gusmao had a good excuse; he was suffering from the flu. However, rumours abounded that his was a diplomatic illness.
Those who lost family in the killings and deportations that followed the vote to end Indonesian rule were also puzzled by Mr Gusmao's readiness to offer amnesty to militia leaders, some of whom took part in war crimes like the Turin massacre.
After the referendum on August 30, 1999, many people in the Oecussi enclave, anticipating violence, fled to the mountains. Nine days later two militia groups converged on the mountain villages of Passabe, Kiobiselo, Tumin and Nonkikan. Their intention was to eradicate suspected independence supporters.
The villages of Tumin and Kiobiselo were the main targets for one 500-strong militia group reinforced by police and soldiers from territorial Battalion 745. Indonesian soldiers were seen co- ordinating the attack using hand-held radios. Seventeen villagers were murdered in the initial strikes, with the rest rounded up and driven across the border to West Timor.
The next evening about 70 men were separated from the others, bound and then marched back into East Timor. The militia stopped the group in a field outside the village of Passabe and murdered them, using guns, machetes and swords.
"They took us all and tied our hands. I remember someone coming from behind and striking me -- his name was Liberato Maung, a Sakunar militia," said Marcus Baquin, one of seven survivors. His cheekbone bears an ugly indent from a machete blow.
"I just want justice. I'm a witness, I know about this matter. My friends are dead. Put these militia in jail ... We [survivors] need someone to support us," he said.
During the remembrance ceremony hymns were sung and flowers laid on the graves of victims.
About 75 people are thought to have been murdered on September 9, 1999. The United Nations is planning exhumations of suspected graves. But frustration about the slow pace of justice is turning to anger and resentment among the villagers of Tumin. Some have complained of being interviewed as many as seven times by different police investigators rotating through the mission on six-month contracts. "The community is withdrawing their support from the police because they are so frustrated," a local human rights officer said.
At a gathering in Tumin on Sunday, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor tried to reassure villagers justice was being done. "It is impossible to have justice unless you help us," said the UN's deputy-general prosecutor in East timor, Jean-Louis Gilissen. "Without your help we are nothing." He added that arrest warrants involving war crimes charges would be handed down by early next month. At the end of his speech the villagers clapped politely.
Washington Times - September 14, 2001
Ian Timberlake, Dili -- Police officers in smart blue uniforms confidently direct traffic. Newly refurbished government buildings sparkle with white paint, and a constituent assembly will be sworn in tomorrow following East Timor's first democratic elections.
A new nation is being born here under UN guidance two years after departing Indonesian forces turned this country into a wasteland of rotting corpses, burning buildings and refugees living in metal shacks of scavenged metal.
"Never forget what we started from," says Sergio Vieira de Mello, who heads the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which assumed authority here when Indonesian occupiers withdrew in October 1999.
The Indonesians damaged telephone, water and electrical facilities, destroyed government records and torched homes, businesses and offices as part of a scorched-earth policy that left UNTAET with the job of building a government from scratch -- something the United Nations has never succeeded in pulling off.
After facing severe criticism in its first year for the slow pace of reconstruction, for the shortage of East Timorese in administration, slow efforts at job creation, and for its lavish lifestyles, the UN officials are now drawing qualified praise from Timorese and foreign observers alike.
"We thank the UN because they've helped us," said Francisco da Costa Amaral, 39, a teacher who voted in the August 30 elections for an assembly made up entirely of East Timorese who will write the country's constitution. "I see their effort as pretty good," said Manuel Carrascalao, 67, who briefly headed the National Council, a type of legislature dissolved in July ahead of the recent assembly elections. The assembly is expected to lead the country to full independence early next year.
A Western diplomat who closely follows East Timorese affairs said UNTAET has succeeded despite the huge challenges it has faced. "They never had an experience like that anywhere in the world and I think they have done a great job, I must tell you," the diplomat said.
The reconstruction effort has required more than 10,000 UN soldiers, police and civilian staff whose presence has acted as a magnet for foreign-run hotels, restaurants and other businesses, which moved in to serve them at prices unimaginable in Indonesian times. "I'm hungry, mister. I'm hungry, mister," a boy in rags said as he trailed a foreigner past the Delicious Blue cafe on Dili's waterfront. The restaurant sells steak dinners at $12, more than the daily wage of most East Timorese.
Outside the capital, the measure of change is not in the number of restaurants but in the simple fact that many people have roofs over their heads again. On the road to Liquica, a town 30 miles west of the capital and one of the most severely damaged by Indonesian-backed militias in 1999, nobody seems to be living under plastic tarpaulins as they were one year ago.
The UN cites several achievements here, including the recruitment of more than 9,000 civil servants, the establishment of a judicial system, the repair of thousands of school classrooms damaged by Indonesian forces, and the creation of a Central Payments Office -- a type of central bank.
At the same time, the United Nation's Mr. de Mello says the roads are bad in parts of East Timor. He said he wished schools and medical clinics could have been rebuilt more quickly, and he said that although agricultural production is good, marketing of the produce has not been so successful. "Could we have done better? Yes, of course we could have, had we known how to do it," he said.
Agence France Presse - September 14, 2001 (abridged)
Jakarta -- In a gesture of reconciliation, East Timor's independence hero Xanana Gusmao welcomed home the families of former pro-Jakarta militiamen Friday as mass refugee returns resumed across the border with Indonesian West Timor.
Gusmao waited for the returnees at the end of the Metamasin bridge, near East Timor's southern border town of Salele, and hugged them as they arrived, Indonesia's Antara news agency reported. Seeing them off from the other side was the military commander for West Timor, Major General Willem da Costa.
Some 961 refugees attached to members of the pro-Jakarta Mahidi militia were registered to return home Friday, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in East Timor, Bernard Kerblatt, told AFP from East Timor's capital Dili.
By late afternoon 450 refugees had crossed the border and more were still streaming across the bridge, said UNHCR official Iain Hall. Kerblatt said the operation could continue till Saturday.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), providing trucks to take the refugees to their home villages in Suai and Ainaro districts, said the return was the largest since March 2000. "Another 312 refugees crossed the border at Batugade on Wednesday, suggesting that a long awaited upturn in refugee returns from West Timor may be under way," an IOM statement said.
The Mahidi leader, Cancio Lopes de Carvalho, said before the repatriation that he had allowed his people to leave the squalid camps in West Timor and go home. "As a former chief of Mahidi, I have sincerely let them go," he told the Jakarta Post newspaper.
Lopes de Carvalho, the Mahidi leader, is among a group of former militia leaders who have been negotiating with Gusmao to bring home people allegedly under their control. Some have been asking for amnesties in return.
Associated Press - September 13, 2001 (abridged)
Dili -- Opposition leaders in East Timor criticized the United Nations on Thursday for favoring one political party and not creating the framework for democracy in their fledgeling nation.
Fernando de Araujo, who heads the Democratic Party, accused the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor of siding with Fretilin, the pro-independence party that won elections last month for the assembly that will draft the new constitution.
The UN administration has been running the country since 1999 when an overwhelming majority of East Timorese opted for independence from Indonesia, which had occupied the former Portuguese colony in 1975.
Fretilin -- the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor -- garnered 57 percent of the vote and secured 55 seats in the 88-member assembly that will steer the territory to independence next year.
"We are worried that the United Nations is offering everything to Fretilin without consulting the other parties that won seats," said de Araujo, whose own party came in second with seven seats in the assembly.
De Araujo's criticism of the world body was echoed by other party leaders and political analysts. They voiced concerns that the United Nations would allow Fretilin to dominate the assembly and draw up a constitution without consulting all segments of society.
The UN administration "is about to leave behind a political culture as undemocratic as the workings of the United Nations itself," said Lucas de Costa, who heads the Higher Institute for Economics and Management in Dili.
Jakarta Post - September 14, 2001
Kupang -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has decided to reopen its base in West Timor to help channel humanitarian aid to some 290,000 East Timorese refugees currently settling in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara.
The decision was made by High Commissioner Assistant Soren Jasson Petterson during his visit to West Timor to monitor the refugees' development and to lay a wreath on the site where three UNHCR staff members were slain last year.
After meeting with East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet A. Tallo, Petterson told The Jakarta Post in Kupang on Wednesday that the reopening of the base would be help before the end of 2001, but its presence would be directly under the United Nations coordination and would also involve local personnel.
"The UNHCR has recommended the UN headquarters in New York on the reopening of the base in West Timor with the aim of giving better service to the refugees and at the same time relieving the burden on the Indonesian government," said Petterson, accompanied by Raymond Hall, the UNHCR regional manager, Jean Marie Fakhuri, the director of UNHCR Asia Pacific bureau, Gansalo Vargas, the UNHCR executive assistant, and Kemala Angraeni Ahmil, the UNHCR external relations officer.
Apart from extending humanitarian relief, Petterson added that they would cooperate with the Indonesian government, particularly the East Nusa Tenggara administration, in seeking concrete measures for the gradual repatriation of East Timorese refugees. Udayana IX Military Commander May. Gen. Wellem T. da Costa separately welcomed the UNHCR's decision to reestablish its base in West Timor. He said the Indonesian Military (TNI) would guarantee the security of UN staff members stationed there as their presence would be of great help to the Indonesian government in handling refugees' problems.
During the visit, the UNHCR entourage held a mass prayer and laid a wreath on the site where three of its staff members were murdered in Atambua on September 6 last year.
At least 257 families of former Mahidi (Live and Die for Indonesia) militiamen, or a total of 1,023 people, have confirmed that they will return to their homeland on Friday, September 14. These people, originally from the Ainaro-Suai district, have been staying in West Timor as refugees since the outbreak of the political turmoil and violence in the wake of the self- determination poll two years ago.
They have decided to return to East Timor after obtaining a written guarantee signed by 59 traditional figures, the chief of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Sergio Viera de Mello, presidential candidate Xanana Gusmao and Bishop Belo on July 7 in Sahlele, an Indonesian-East Timorese border area.
Former Mahidi militia commander Cancio Lopes de Carvalho, in an interview with the Post in Kupang, said on Thursday that the decision by most of the militiamen's families to return home must be taken as the disposition of true East Timorese and that other refugees must therefore follow in their footsteps.
At present, he noted, there was a change in the paradigms prevailing among the leaders and people of East Timor. East Timorese refugees, although formerly belonging to an opposing camp, are now welcomed in East Timor as fellow countrymen.
"As a former chief of Mahidi, I have sincerely let them go. I myself will return to East Timor to witness the process of the election of our first president. Even if I am detained and brought to court, I'll be well prepared," said Cancio, who is known as a reconciliation figure.
A report from Sahlele, meanwhile, said that when they set foot again in their homeland, the 1,023 refugees would be accorded a traditional welcome in a special ceremony to be attended by thousands of East Timorese and led by Xanana Gusmao, Bishop Belo and other East Timorese figures.
La'o Hamutuk -- (posted) September 13, 2001
[The following is the officially certified list of East Timorese who were elected to the Constituent Assembly on the August 30 ballot. Some of these people will probably be selected to serve in the cabinet, in which case they must resign from the Assembly. The next-ranking person on the slate of the party they were elected under will fill the vacancy. The assembly has 88 seats. 60 votes are needed to enact articles of the Constitution. Fretilin has 55 seats.]
District Candidates Elected to the Constituent Assembly (all Fretilin except Oecusse, whose independent is expected to vote with Fretilin)
National Party Candidates Elected to the Constituent Assembly
The order of parties reflects the order in which they appeared on the ballot:
Partido Democrata Cristao (PDC)
Uniao Democratica Timorense (UDT)
Partido Democratico (PD)
Associacao Popular Democratica de Timor (Apodeti Pro. Ref.) None
Frente Revolucionaria do Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN)
Klibur Oan Timor Asuwain (KOTA)
Partido Republika Nacional Timor Leste (PARENTIL) None
Partido Nasionalista Timorense (PNT)
Partido Trabalhista Timorense (PTT) None
Partai Demokratik Maubere (PDM) None
Partido Social Democrata (PSD)
Partido Democrata-Cristao de Timor (UDC/PDC)
Partido do Povo de Timor (PPT)
Partido Socialista de Timor (PST)
Associacao Social-Democrata Timorense (ASDT)
Partai Liberal (PL)
South China Morning Post - September 12, 2001
Vaudine England -- The barefoot children were scrambling up the bougainvillea bushes to gather fresh clusters of the flowers -- the only bright spot in the dry, dusty and still-devastated landscape of the East Timorese town of Memo.
Just across the river bed is Indonesian-controlled West Timor, and across this border Indonesian-backed militia forced tens of thousands of East Timorese who voted for independence just over two years ago.
On August 27, 1999, three days before the ballot, an organised and armed mob of 400 militia arrived in Memo. Eyewitnesses are still not sure who threw the first stone, but independent observers agree the conflict was planned by pro-Indonesian groups to intimidate the pro-independence population. By the end of that day, two locals were shot dead and most homes in the town burned to the ground.
In one of the first of the ceremonies which have been taking place across East Timor recently -- and will continue this week -- the people of Memo commemorated the tragedy of two years ago with a special church service and procession to the graves of the victims. Memories do not fade here but are sustained and participated in by all -- including the children collecting the bougainvillea offerings.
It was moving. The church bell tolled, teenagers readied themselves for the choir, mothers breast-fed their babies and some worshippers knelt alone outside, wanting to hoard their private store of grief.
Father Lazarus Mau, who, curiously, is of Indonesian stock, has tended this flock for 10 years. He exhorted the overflowing church to give thanks for those still alive and said: "Through such tragedies we achieved our national liberation."
Although independence is on its way and a successful democratic election has been accomplished, the East Timorese have yet to see much sign of the justice promised when the United Nations bandwagon came to town.
The mobs who trashed Memo, for example, are camped in West Timor. The case is a minor one by East Timorese standards and is not on the list of prioritised massacres at the UN's Serious Crimes Unit.
At the larger town of Maliana nearby, much more destruction and murder took place in a systematic process led by Indonesian- backed militias. Two years on, the town remains a wasteland of wrecked buildings and shattered lives. No prosecutions have taken place. No one is in jail for what they did here.
"People don't express disappointment as such, but they strongly hope prosecutions will happen," said Lazarus dos Santos, from the Maliana branch of Yayasan Hak, a leading local human-rights organisation. "People are not interested in revenge but in a legal process. If it takes two or three months or two or three years, it's OK. But ever since Untaet [the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor] has been here, we see their progress rate has been very slow. "The people here still don't have a true sense of what Untaet is doing for them, and Untaet does not communicate well to the people," he said.
It's easy to slam the UN administration for failing to move faster on prosecutions for the gross crimes against East Timor's people. But it would be hard to summarise the many impediments facing a justice process here.
The first question is where to start -- with the entire Indonesian occupation of East Timor, the period leading up to the 1999 ballot, or only the viciousness inflicted after it? And how to start? Should it be through the mass import of a foreign legal system replete with experienced judges and lawyers, or should priority be put on building an East Timorese judiciary?
The Serious Crimes Unit has decided on 10 priority cases and has 30 investigators compiling evidence of major incidents of mass murder, forced deportation, rape and torture. So far, 31 indictments have been issued against 50 individuals for serious crimes. Thirteen cases have been completed at trial-court level, resulting in 11 convictions. Of four planned district courts, just the Dili District Court in the capital is functioning properly, with two international and one East Timorese judge.
There also are six indictments charging 26 individuals with crimes against humanity. One trial of 10 people accused of crimes against humanity in the Los Palos massacre -- the September 25, 1999, killings of two nuns, four male clergy, an Indonesian journalist and a teenage girl -- was started just nine months after formation of the Serious Crimes Unit, which is a record compared with the performance of the international tribunals set up for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
But that is all. A comprehensive report by Amnesty International in July this year concludes that "law and order is now barely being maintained, justice is not being administered effectively, and the human rights of the East Timorese people cannot be guaranteed".
It strongly criticises efforts to establish an East Timorese judiciary, saying what exists is still "fragile". It details cases of direct political interference in legal processes, which remain unpunished. It highlights the weaknesses of the UN's civilian police contingent -- which one diplomat described as "a pig's breakfast" -- and notes that existing courts and investigators' offices lack basic facilities such as pen and paper.
It says the rights of suspects to fair trial have been lost as they languish for months in detention without charges being filed. "The slow pace and questionable quality of its work has resulted in a loss of confidence among the East Timorese in Untaet's ability or will to bring perpetrators to justice," the report says.
Investigation units in far-flung areas of East Timor are seriously under-staffed, a detailed database of alleged crimes has yet to be completed, witnesses are dead or still stuck in West Timor, and it is always possible to find UN staff focused more on their daily allowances and car rights than on pursuing difficult and dangerous roads to justice for the East Timorese.
Only the presence of many dedicated individuals, especially in the districts outside Dili and many of them on volunteer terms, has sustained the faith of some East Timorese that justice will eventually prevail. Against odds ranging from lack of transport to the obfuscation of UN bureaucracy, such individuals have continued to compile cases, secure opportunities for testimony and to input them into the UN system.
"There's no question we have to tighten up our management and our whole approach," said Dennis McNamara, the UN's Deputy Transitional Administrator in East Timor.
He arrived just over a month ago and sees one of his key goals to be a wide-ranging revamp of the justice ministry. He wants to give new impetus and priority to the entire issue of justice and human rights in East Timor. He is also overseeing the panel involved in setting up a Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission which will mesh traditional village-level reconciliation methods for lesser crimes with referral of serious crimes to the judicial process. He is devising what he calls a "justice package" to list the personnel and equipment urgently needed to make serious progress with the serious crimes. This ackage will be taken to donors, to beg for lawyers willing to work for less than sual, and for money specifically targeted towards justice and not just to the bottomless pit of UN bureaucracy.
He has a difficult task ahead, not least in inspiring his own staff at the Serious Crimes Unit and elsewhere in the UN. Some remember the Fisk Report, an earlier internal attempt to tackle management problems at the unit. Confidentiality had been promised so that details of where the process was going wrong could be collected. But confidentiality was blown. Only one of the staff who gave information still has a job, and all those at the top of the administration named as impediments to justice kept their jobs.
Mr McNamara said the Fisk Report was one of the first things he read and that he was focusing on implementing its recommendations -- hoping to persuade embittered investigators to trust him to get it right this time. Management changes were already under way. "It's long-term stuff. There is no quick fix. Training a local judiciary is a massive process. And you're right, it is partly our fault in that we didn't prioritise it enough," Mr McNamara said.
But what of the larger picture? How does East Timor heal its wounds and move on? If president-in-waiting Xanana Gusmao is to be believed, the way forward is to focus more on reconciliation than on justice. Many of his people disagree. Widows and children of the dead want the perpetrators brought to trial and are happy to leave reconciliation till later.
But Mr Xanana wants to bring his people home from West Timor, where militia bosses are awaiting signs of soft treatment before letting the groups they control to return home across the border. Meetings between Mr Xanana and militia bosses, facilitated by senior Untaet staff, are geared to getting these men home regardless of their crimes -- and that political compromise will inevitably compromise some victims' hopes for justice. "But we've got to prioritise justice," Mr McNamara said. "It's the glue that holds post-conflict situations together."
Jakarta Post - September 13, 2001
Jakarta -- A senior East Timor official said on Wednesday that the country would not prosecute the alleged human rights violations by Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in the international court of justice.
"We will not sue Indonesia at the international court of justice, but let the Indonesian justice system prosecute the alleged violators of human rights," Ramos Horta, a 1996 Nobel Prize laureate told reporters, after a meeting with Indonesian security ministers at the office of the coordinating minister for political and security affairs.
He said that the East Timor authority would like to observe the Indonesian government's commitment in upholding the law. "I know it's difficult to probe such human rights violation cases. And President Megawati [Soekarnoputri] ordered the establishment of an ad hoc human rights court to try such cases," he said. "I think we should just wait for the process," he said.
Horta was accompanied by special envoy of the UN secretary- general and the UN Transitional Authority in East Timor (Untaet) Sergio de Mello and East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao. They met with the Indonesian security ministers discussing the security and economic bilateral relationship between Indonesia and East Timor, which has just held its first election after opting to separate from Indonesia in August 1999. The meeting also discussed the Exclusive Economic Zone (ZEE) between both countries.
Earlier in the day, the East Timor leaders also held a similar meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri at the State Palace.
Green Left Weekly - September 12, 2001
Jill Hickson -- "Where are our missing children? We have nothing -- no land, no houses, nothing to do, no materials to work with to make an income. The women here are dying from childbirth because they have no money for doctors, there is little food and in some camps little water. We cannot afford to send our children to school or to the doctor." These were the cries of the women in the refugee camps in Kupang and Atambua that were heard by six women who visited West Timor in late July as part of an women's solidarity tour organised by the Asia-Pacific Coalition on East Timor (APCET).
The women in the delegation were from the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia and Australia. The visit was to focus on the plight of the women and children refugees who were removed, forcibly in many cases, by the Indonesian military in the days after the East Timor referendum on independence in August 1999.
I joined the delegation as an independent film-maker and member of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET). I was interested in documenting the situation in West Timor in the same way I did on the July 1999 APCET women's solidarity delegation to East Timor. During that visit, I met with East Timorese women who highlighted the brutality suffered by women at the hands of the Indonesian military rulers.
Our mission in West Timor was to meet with the women in the camps to find out their problems and to gauge the sentiment of the women for their return to East Timor. Although the Indonesian government claims to have disbanded the militia groups in the camps, we were advised to limit our discussions to humanitarian issues only.
We visited six camps. Camp Noelbaki is 15km from Kupang and is home to around 5000 refugees. Tupaukan is 21km to the east of Kupang and has 13,000 refugees. In Atambua, we visited the Haliwen camp, located inside the stadium with 4000 refugees; Lolowa camp with 3000 refugees; the Tirta camp with 3000 and Lebur A with 2400 refugees.
In each camp, the refugees tend to come from the same area in East Timor. For example, in Haliwen, the people are from the Ermera district; in Lolowa they are from Dili; in Tirta from Manatuto; and in Lebur A from Aileu.
As we approached Atambua, the capital of the Belu district, some 30km from the border with East Timor, we were stopped by police and informed that we would be accompanied throughout our stay in the area.
They claimed this was necessary for security reasons as there has been an incident in Atambua that day where five houses had been damaged in a fight between young refugee men and the local people. The local people are unhappy about the refugees living in their area, especially as they are on land that used to be accessible to the local people. The next day the local West Timorese people were planning a protest march in Atambua and the police feared there would be more violence.
It was in Atambua last September where the militia killed three United Nations High Commission for Refugees aid workers. Since then UNHCR and other international organisations assisting the refugees have pulled out of West Timor. Atambua has been under a "high-level alert" ever since. The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has a security rating of "five" on the area, the highest rating.
Throughout our visit to the Atambua camps, we were escorted by four police officers. They were from the intelligence section of the regional police department, three of them has been in East Timor before the referendum. All spoke English so they could listen to our conversations.
Manipulation
We also met with a number of non-government organisations and religious groups and were able to talk more frankly about violence in the camps and about the recent registration process undertaken by SATGAS PMP, the Indonesian East Timor Refugees Task Force set up by the Indonesian government. In June, the Indonesian government announced that 97% of the refugees had voted to remain in Indonesia.
While in West Timor we were hosted by the Centre for Internally Displaced People's Services (CIS GAMKI-GMKI), which, to combat militia intimidation, provides humanitarian support, investigates human rights abuses, counsels women victims of violence and disseminates information to refugees on repatriation.
We also met with the district commander of Kupang, Lieutenant Colonel Aritonang.
Our meetings with the refugee women and also with Major Rudolf Roja, the commander of the Mobile Brigade in Kupang who supervised the registration process (he admitted there had been discrepancies in the voting), convinced us that the registration process had been manipulated.
The Indonesian government offered to relocate the refugees to an island off the coast, where the refugees could begin to make a new life for themselves. The refugees refused to be relocated, stating that they wanted to remain close to East Timor so they could return in the future. Major Roja was perplexed at this.
It was clear to the women in the APCET delegation that the recent registration vote in June was not a true indicator of the desires of the refugees. For example, the district commander told us that he thought the refugees were "crazy". He said that people who two days before had voted to stay in Indonesia, turned up at his office asking to be repatriated to East Timor.
Another story we were told involved a number of women who voted to return to East Timor. When the camp coordinator collected the voting papers, he was so outraged that he called a meeting of the women and intimidated them into changing their votes. There were also incidents reported in which women did not get to vote because the men filled in the voting cards for them.
Conditions in the camps
The majority of the camps we visited were without adequate housing. They were constructed with tarps and other inadequate materials and had uneven dirt floors. There was a lack of cooking facilities, privacy and adequate space. The only camp we visited which had houses was the one that accommodates the families of the East Timorese members of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI).
The women at all the camps complained about the inadequate and unequal distribution of food. The Indonesian government gives 4 kilograms of rice and 1500 rupiahs per person per day except for infants under 12 months. However, distribution is controlled by the camp coordinators, who are usually militia leaders.
The camp coordinators give the money allocated by the government to the heads of the families, which in most cases are men. The women complained that the money generally was used for the activities of the men, such as drinking and gambling. Money and rice were given at irregular intervals, sometimes monthly or even longer. We heard that two days before the registration process, there had been deliveries to all the camps of rice and money.
The women explained that they and their children had many serious health problems, but there were no doctors in the camps and they could not afford to pay to see a doctor outside or pay for medicines. Many of the traditional midwives had returned to East Timor leaving the women without assistance during childbirth.
At one camp, the deaths of 10 women from childbirth complications in the month of June were reported. In another, five women had died in one month. Each visit to a doctor costs R100,000 and the women have no way of getting the money. The low level of nutrition in the camps was clear from the appearance of the women and children who displayed a number of diseases and most had dull eyes.
Due to resentment by the West Timorese of the refugees' use of land that was previously used by the locals, refugee children are not attending local schools. Where the Indonesian government had provided schools near the camps, the women complained that it was compulsory for the children to wear a uniform that costs R25,000 and they have to pay R10,000 fees per month for each child. This prevented children from attending school.
The women expressed frustration at the fact that they have nothing to do. Those with agricultural skills have no land to cultivate. Those with handicraft and weaving skills have no materials to work with. The women all expressed the desire to be trained in new skills which would allow them to generate an income to help overcome some of the problems they face.
Except for the camp that housed the families of the East Timorese TNI, all the camps have inadequate toilet and sanitation facilities. The women expressed concern at the health risks this was creating.
The women also talked of the inadequate clothing available to them. A lack of underwear for themselves and decent clothing for the children was seen as a major problem.
Violence
In one camp, women cried as they talked about their missing children, left in East Timor or their whereabouts unknown. A UN worker in East Timor informed us that they had located a large group of children in Central Java who had been removed from East Timor by the Indonesian authorities. They were negotiating their return to East Timor.
While we were unable to discuss openly the violence they experience, we had some discrete discussions with individuals and we were able to discuss the issue with the West Timorese NGOs working in the camps.
Outside the camps there is conflict with the local West Timorese communities and the refugees. Often the water supply outside the camps, used by both communities, has been the source of tension. Land access is another.
Tensions and conflicts in the camps often results in violence among the men, and between different camps.
The incidence of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assaults, are rife in the camps. Sexual violence includes rape, forced marriages, husbands having many wives (up to 11 in some cases), the making and distribution of pornography, and the incidence and spread of sexual health problems. Payment for prostitution is as low as a packet of noodles, indicating the desperation of the women for adequate food.
The high incidence of adultery meant that many women suffered abuse by men who were not their husbands as well as their husbands and this was also a source of conflict among the men.
In all cases, men perpetrate the violence. The Indonesian government organisation SATGAS, which carried out the registration process, told us that the militia were still operating in the camps. The women in the camps generally referred to them as the "elites" running the camps and controlling the distribution of food, materials and money.
This situation has created a climate of fear, which has continued throughout the two years most of the refugees have been in the camps. This causes a great deal of stress on the women and children. For many of the women it is a continuation of what they experienced in the past two decades in East Timor under Indonesian military occupation. This reminded me of the women we met who had suffered repeatedly under Indonesian rule.
Escape difficult
The social construction of the camps means that many people are unable to escape. The outer houses surrounding the camps are occupied by the families of the East Timorese TNI, in the next circle live the members of the intelligence service and plain- clothes police, and the next circle is inhabited by militia families.
Inside these live the rest of the refugees. It is not possible to pass through the camp to the outside without the knowledge of the camp coordinators. We were told stories of people who had walked out of the camps, saying they were going up the road to get water and the escaped by foot to the border without their possessions.
The UN has a border area set aside for refugees who want to return to East Timor where they can be assessed and their repatriation facilitated quickly.
Many of the women we met were wives of the militia and TNI. They expressed their desire to return to East Timor after the constituent assembly election but they have been told that violence would disrupt the elections. Some of the men told us they would only return to East Timor when they knew what would happen to them.
Militia members who have returned to East Timor have in many cases been sentenced to community work for their crimes. The harshest sentence has been 12 years' jail.
In one camp, the men interrupted the women and told us that they would only return with guns in their hands and with the Indonesian flag. It was here that we got the real sense of the situation in the West Timor camps.
Since the Indonesian military were forced to leave East Timor, the people there have returned to a normal if somewhat poor existence. The communities have been rebuilding their houses and their lives and are in no mood to tolerate being lorded over by the militia. Therefore many militia-linked men are content to remain in West Timor where they can continue to control more than 100,000 or more refugees.
When we returned to Dili, in East Timor, the APCET delegation held a press conference to announce its findings and make a number of recommendations, the most important being that the Indonesian government must disband the militia. The UN and international NGOs should take control of the camps, solve the social problems and facilitate the repatriation of the majority of the refugees. People who wish to stay should be given houses and the camps closed down.
Green Left Weekly - September 12, 2001
Jon Land -- Fretilin, the party which declared East Timor independent in 1975 and which was the largest single force in the long fight against occupation, has won 57% of the vote in the country's first elections since the end of Indonesian rule -- but the result is well short of the 85-90% the party had been predicting.
The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor announced provisional electoral results for the Constituent Assembly on September 6, declaring 12 parties elected to the 88- seat body. Fretilin won 12 of the 13 district seats and 43 of the 75 national seats.
Fretilin had hoped that it would win a large enough majority to be able to draft the constitution without having to rely on the support of other parties in the assembly -- and most of the local and international media had forecasted just such a Fretilin landslide.
Given the considerable non-Fretilin vote, such a strategy is now not so easy. At least 60 of the 88 members of the Constituent Assembly must approve the constitution for it to be adopted.
The first results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission on September 3 for the districts of Aileu, Ainaro, Covalima, Lautem, Liquica and Manatuto signalled that Fretilin was not going to win the vote that many of its leaders had predicted. While all the district representatives provisionally elected for these districts are from Fretilin, the national representative vote reflects considerable support for a number of other parties.
In Aileu district, once considered a Fretilin stronghold, the ASDT (Social Democratic Association of Timor) won 52.3% of the vote, more than twice that of Fretilin. Two smaller, newer parties, the PST (Socialist Party of Timor) and the PD (Democratic Party) received notable votes of 5.6% and 5.2% respectively.
The strong vote for the ASDT in Aileu and neighbouring Ainaro, Manufahi and Manatuto reflects the strong traditional following for the ASDT's popular leader, Xavier do Amaral, formerly a prominent Fretilin leader and the president of the Democratic Republic of East Timor declared on November 28, 1975.
The result reflects considerable public openness and interest in the newer parties.
It remains unclear, however, whether the strong showing for the PD and ASDT, which both tapped into support from nominally Fretilin-aligned voters, will fuel the antagonism between Fretilin and ASDT, or whether it will intensify factional struggles within Fretilin itself.
As an openly socialist party, the PST has done quite well, particularly in those areas where it has established farmer cooperatives and won the respect of the local population, such as in Aileu, Liquica and Manatuto.
Party general secretary Avelino Coelho da Silva told Green Left Weekly that despite a strong anti-left smear campaign the PST has helped "legalise and legitimise socialism in East Timor".
While the PST will hold just one seat, Coelho said that he was deeply satisfied with the result and that the PST would continue with its projection of building grass-roots support for cooperatives and land reform.
Across East Timor, the national representative vote varied widely. Fretilin received a vote as low as 27.1% in Aileu, but more than 80% in Baucau.
The PD and the PSD (Social Democratic Party) received strong votes in many districts (a national total of 8.7% and 8.2%), giving these parties the second largest block of seats after Fretilin, with seven and six seats respectively. ASDT received slightly less than the PSD and will hold six seats.
As one of the newer parties that has formed since the 1999 referendum, the PD has done very well. It has many former student activists in its ranks and some significant support from lower- ranking civil servants, former National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) activists and Fretilin members disgruntled about, amongst other things, the adoption of Portuguese as the official language of East Timor.
The PSD support appears to come primarily from another layer of ex-CNRT officials and members. The party's leader, Mario Carrascalao, has considerable respect due to his role as a former governor during Indonesian rule who became increasingly outspoken against the excesses of the Indonesian military. Once a key leader of the traditional conservative party UDT (Timorese Democratic Union), Carrascalao's leadership role in the PSD -- along with another prominent ex-UDT leader, Leandro Isac -- has likely to have won over a significant section of UDT members and sympathisers.
The UDT has received a drubbing in the election, reflecting an extremely diminished level of support compared to what it once could claim. It will hold two seats, as will four other parties: the National Timorese Party, Klibur Oan Timor Asuwain, People's Party of Timor and the Christian Democratic Party.
The Socialist Party of Timor, the Liberal Party and the Christian Democratic Party of Timor have one candidate each elected to the Assembly.
Green Left Weekly - September 12, 2001
Jana DK, Dili -- In its first major mobilisation since the beginning of East Timor's election campaign, on August 25 some 5000 Timorese Socialist Party members and supporters gathered at Dili's Independence Field for one of the most energetic, enthusiastic and political rallies the country has yet seen.
Converging on Dili from the districts of Liquica and Ermera at around 2pm, a convoy of some 30 or more trucks and cars, led by dozens of motorcycles, stretched for almost a kilometre as it headed down the coast road and into central Dili.
An hour later, separate convoys coming from the southern district of Aileu and Manatuto on the east coast -- delayed by distance and difficult roads -- arrived in a dazzling mix of dust, exhaust smoke and red flags.
PST organisers estimate that this represented only a small proportion of their nationwide support base. Due to financial limitations and the tyranny of distance, contingents which had planned to come from Baucau, Los Palos, Same, Suai and the Oecussi enclave in West Timor were unable to attend. Los Palos and Baucau are two of the party's newer support bases.
Organisers from Manatuto described how the lack of trucks to rent forced older people to let young party supporters take their spaces in the already overcrowded trucks -- and how they shed tears as they cheered and watched the convoy depart.
Following opening remarks by the rally coordinator, singers and musicians gave a lively rendition of the party's anthem. The crowd -- with raised arms and clenched fists -- sang along enthusiastically and ended with calls of "Viva PST" and "Viva Socalisme". This was followed by music and a performance by traditional East Timorese dancers.
To many people's surprise the first speaker was resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. Although Gusmao has been present at a number of election rallies -- usually in his former role as a journalist and photographer -- this was the first time he had spoken at a political rally.
Earlier in the day, at the end of a nationally televised debate between 15 of the 16 political parties and independent candidates contesting the Constituent Assembly elections, Gusmao had declared that he would accept a nomination to run for president. He also stated that he would attend all of the parties' political rallies until the end of the official campaign period on August 28.
Gusmao began by thanking PST general secretary Avelino Coelho da Silva, party president Pedro da Costa, the party's international representative Azancot de Menezes and party spokesperson Nelson Correia, who he referred to as "respected comrades".
In his address, Gusmao stated that Marxism was a part of a social and democratic society and indicated his support for the PST as a Marxist-Leninist party. He emphasised the importance of non- violence -- a condition upon which he agreed to accept a nomination for the presidency -- and said that if socialism can change a society it should be accepted. He closed with the call, "Viva PST", to cheers and applause from the crowd.
Coelho later told Green Left Weekly that Gusmao's remarks were especially significant, as they send a clear signal to right-wing forces who are already attempting to whip up anti-socialist and anti-PST sentiment.
The final speaker -- which everyone had been eagerly waiting for -- was Coelho himself.
The party's general secretary took up a number of themes in the party program, which includes support for the November 28, 1975 proclamation of independence by Fretilin, which formed the RDTL, the East Timor Democratic Republic. He also backed the restoration of the national anthem, flag and constitution of the old Republic.
Although a number of other parties also support this demand, only the PST is calling for the restoration of the 1975 constitution with amendments to adopt all international human rights conventions, a section on workers' rights and the principle of equal opportunities for women and men.
"We must defend our politics in the transition period to total independence. The Constituent Assembly will decide if it is correct to restore the true [RDTL] proclamation", Coelho told the crowd.
He also emphasised that the party would continue its struggle against exploitation by capitalism and imperialism and implement policies to promote and protect the local economy -- particularly small peasant farms -- and protect workers and small business from foreign investors.
Speaking to Green Left Weekly after the rally, Coelho was highly critical of the country's media outlets, saying they had not been independent and had already begun red-baiting the PST.
His comments seemed to be affirmed by the media's attitude to the party's rally. Although all the major television, radio and print media were present at the rally, with the exception of the Dili daily Suara Timor Lorosae, they all chose to ignore the event.
In contrast, other rallies such as those of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), the Democratic Party (PD) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) have had favorable and almost daily coverage in both of Dili's two daily newspapers.
On August 13, for example, Suara Timor Lorosae "reported" that "thousands" of UDT members mobilised in Dili in a "mammoth" campaign. I was present at the rally and at best it attracted around 1,000 people and was a very tame and lacklustre event.
The UDT, the PD and the PSD were all able to run a number of full page advertisements (at US$500 each) in the daily newspapers and were given ample space to voice their conservative and sometimes reactionary views.
Aside from the high degree of organisation and militancy, one of the distinguishing features of the PST's rally was the huge proportion of people wearing white T-shirts with the PST flag on the chest and the party's five central campaign platforms written on the back -- they were the 3,300 party members who had registered to attend the rally.
Many political parties -- particularly Fretilin -- have toured well-known and well-paid singers around the country to attract crowds and bolster numbers.
Not lacking in funds, these parties have also resorted to renting empty trucks which cruise around Dili filling up with unemployed people from street corners who are given flags and dropped off at the rallying point to enjoy the food, drink and entertainment -- while posing as committed party supporters.
While the PST mobilisation did attract a significant number of curious spectators, there was minimal entertainment and no refreshments for those who had travelled for hours under the hot sun packed in trucks of 65 people or more.
Coelho had told me several days earlier that this would be a "test" of people's interest in the PST's politics: when the serious political speeches began, he wondered, would people leave or stay and listen? No-one left.
With the exception of two of the rallies organised by Fretilin, this was easily one of the largest mobilisations of the election campaign. It confirmed what some observers have grudgingly admitted: the PST is attracting significant support despite limited resources and is running a well organised and effective campaign to educate the people about the party's program and policies.
Jakarta Post - September 11, 2001
Yemris Fointuna, Dili -- The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is planning to forge economic cooperation between the former Portuguese colony and Indonesia's province of West Timor, the other half of the island of Timor. This is one of the programs to be tackled by a development commission to be set up here this month.
At a recent press briefing here attended by journalists from West Timor, UNTAET chief Sergio Viera de Mello said he hoped to meet with President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the near future to propose the program. "There should be mutual benefit if the two countries cooperate in the economic sector given their close geographical proximity," de Mello said.
He said he also hoped to discuss the program with other senior Indonesian officials, including Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda. The program would come under the aegis of a council on East and West Timorese economic cooperation to be set up soon, de Mello said.
East Timor presidential candidate Xanana Gusmao is a strong supporter of the program. Xanana recently said that although East Timor is rich in natural resources, they were still largely unexploited. The country could not develop without the support of foreign countries, especially its nearest neighbor Indonesia, he said.
His blunt statement reflects the reality in that almost all basic needs come from either Kupang, Makassar or Surabaya. Countries like Australia and Portugal only supply cars, electronic products like cellular phones, and motor cycles.
The Jakarta Post found during a recent token survey that some 315 commodities on sale had been imported from Indonesia. In any given shop about 90 percent of the labels on the products sold are foreign names.
Xanana said he hoped that in return Indonesia would open itself to East Timor's exports of agricultural products. A number of East Timorese products, such as coffee and copra, have already entered the world market.
Sigit Wardono, Indonesia's Economic Section head in KUKRI (a consul-general level representative office based in Dili) was upbeat about the program. "The non-oil and gas commodities bring in US$3 million in revenue for Indonesia," Sigit said.
In the aviation sector, Indonesia's Merpati Nusantara Airlines serving the Denpasar-Dili route contributed about US$500 million from January 2000 to August 2001. Another source of income, estimated at US$15 million annually, was from United Nations' staff visits to Denpasar and other places in Indonesia. Indonesian products that currently dominate the East Timor market include aviation fuel, diesel, kerosene, LPG, zinc, cement, wood, nails, cooking oil, packaged noodles, mineral water, beer, cigarettes, as well as hundreds of other products.
Manuel Gutteres, an importer based in Dili, said East Timor's economy would not be able to develop without the support of Indonesia. He said he had once imported packaged noodles, cooking oil, cigarettes and cosmetics from Singapore but they were not well-received by the East Timorese as they had been used to Indonesian products. The planned program has also won the support of Xanana Gusmao, the former independence fighter.
Two years into its independence, East Timor with a population of more than 730,000 has yet to boast income taxpayers from the business and industrial sectors. The handful of foreign firms operating in the country are mostly involved in the services sector, such as hotels and restaurants. Observers say that once East Timor has a legitimate government, the country's economy will take off.
East Timor held its first free election last week, two years after it voted to split from Indonesia. The territory had been a Portuguese colony for four centuries before Indonesia invaded it in 1975 and withdrew in 1999 leaving a totally ruined Dili and a still largely impoverished territory.
The country's current development budget of over US$800 million is subsidized by various agencies of the United Nations.
Almost the entire area of East Timor is rich in minerals and agricultural as well as forest products. The right approach to its development could turn it into another Brunei or a country on a par with any of the Middle Eastern countries. However, the dire quality of its human resources is testament to the low-level of development in its economy.
[The writer is The Jakarta Post's correspondent based in Kupang, West Timor.]
South China Morning Post - September 10, 2001
Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Pressure is building on Indonesia to return 124 East Timorese children taken from their parents in West Timor refugee camps following East Timor's 1999 independence vote.
East Timor's acting foreign minister, Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, intends to bring the issue to the United Nations Security Council in New York later this month, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is insisting Indonesia let the children go.
"This is one of the most outrageous, scandalous situations, where the abducting of children and holding of children against the will of the parents is going on under the eyes of Indonesia, by a well-known thug, and no one does anything," Mr Ramos-Horta said yesterday.
The so-called "thug" in question is Octavio Soares, nephew of a former Indonesian-appointed governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares, and a member of a family with ties to former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto and the family of ousted strongman Suharto.
"He's a lunatic, a stupid idiot, who thinks he can abduct these children and eventually turn them into Indonesian patriots to regain East Timor," Mr Ramos-Horta said. "He and his family have done enough harm to East Timor -- the abuse of authority, cronyism, corruption. Time and again we have offered reconciliation but I am afraid for some, there will be no reconciliation."
Mr Soares says his only concern has been the welfare of children, whose parents gave them up willingly for the chance of a better life in Indonesia. Some parents admit they gave their children up voluntarily, but others say any notion of choice in the militia- controlled camps of West Timor was impossible. At least 16 couples now say they want their children back.
But Mr Soares, who collected the children from desperate conditions in West Timor refugee camps after their forced deportation by Indonesian-backed gangs, has managed to frustrate any family reunion so far. He has variously claimed the children are now his, or that the East Timorese parents are "stupid". He is part of a group called the Hati Foundation that claims to work for the welfare of the East Timorese, but admits on its Web site that it aims at "sustaining the existence of well-schooled East Timorese in the frame of Indonesia unity".
Mr Soares left the children at a Catholic orphanage in Semarang, Java, last November. The nuns agree the children should be reunited with their parents. Some of the children are not so sure -- they have memories of East Timor in flames, compared to the protected and mysteriously well-funded safety of Java. They have told some journalists they want to stay with their friends in Java, and also have expressed the belief that East Timor should be reunited with Indonesia.
The children, aged six to mid-teens, are receiving three solid meals a day, a Catholic education and the opportunity to follow modern pop culture -- treats not necessarily available in East Timor. But that is not the point, UNHCR officials insist. "We want to set these children free and reunite them with their parents," Bernard Kerblatt, of the UNHCR in Dili told the Straits Times. "It is not up to a five-year-old child ... to decide if he wants to choose between McDonald's, teddy bears and toys and being reunited with his parents."
Some observers believe the child-snatch was designed specifically to nurture a new generation of East Timorese who could carry on the fight against East Timorese independence.
The new Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirayuda, reportedly told Octavio Soares three weeks ago to let the children go, as a result of UNHCR and media pressure. Plans are reportedly underway for a meeting to be held between East Timor-based parents and the children in Bali next week, despite concerns this places both reluctant children and yearning parents in an invidious position. "This would be a farcical event, and I hope the United Nations does not lend itself, does not get involved with such an illegal and immoral situation," Mr Ramos-Horta said. "The children should be brought to East Timor."
He believes there are at least 1,000 East Timorese children in similar or worse conditions in Indonesia and says he has met grown-up East Timorese as far afield as Malaysia who were taken from their families by Indonesian groups in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mr Ramos-Horta said the situation the children were in was similar to that of about 50,000 East Timorese refugees still held in camps in West Timor. "But this is even more painful -- these are children, they have been traumatised enough. They will grow up very violent and angry and confused," he said.
But the prevailing feeling in some government departments is that the children are better off in Indonesia. "Why does the United Nations want the children to go back?" Foreign Ministry spokesman Sulaiman Abdulmanan, told the Washington Post. "What about the human rights of the children? They will get a better education in Java. It's a better situation than the uncertainties in East Timor."
| Aceh/West Papua |
Jakarta Post - September 15, 2001
Medan -- More than 500 families of Acehnese who fled clashes between separatist rebels and the military have encroached on Gunung Leuser National Park, a non-governmental organization reported on Friday.
They have turned part of the park into a refugee camp and built a school as their number constantly increases, according to Ridwan AR, coordinator of Conservation Management of Leuser.
The first group of 200 families (800 people) came to the park in October, 2000. Last November, Conservation Management of Leuser and a number of NGOs helped 151 families (628 people) move to Riau. But as the tension has continued to increase, displaced persons have started to arrive in larger numbers since then. Now, over 500 families live in the protected state property.
"We suspect that many of them are, in fact, not Acehnese who fled the violence in their villages. Many of them have identity cards from Karo and Tapanuli (in North Sumatra)," said Ridwan. Ridwan said he suspected that many of the refugees were in fact people who were working for cukong, or financiers, who paid them to steal wood from the park.
Among those financiers were executives of the local chapter of the Indonesian Farmers' Association (HKTI). The park management had sought to relocate the "refugees", Ridwan said.
Straits Times - September 15, 2001
Banda Aceh -- At least 11 people were killed in an armed clash in strife-torn Aceh on Wednesday night, local police said.
Eight of the 11 victims were killed in an alleged ambush by a group of 13 members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) at the village of Darul Aman, Simpang Kiri district in South Aceh, police spokesman Sudharsono said on Thursday. Five other civilians were severely injured and nine houses burnt down.
A senior GAM commander, Amri Abdul Wahab, denied the accusation, saying: "I've contacted all GAM commanders in South Aceh and found out that all of them were at their own headquarters. There was no operation launched on Wednesday night.
"As far as I know, all transmigrants there were friendly towards us. Therefore, I'm wondering whether the killings were conducted by the Indonesian Military [TNI] to corner GAM members." Meanwhile, in Jakarta, the government reiterated its stand that it would not withdraw the military and police from Aceh.
Straits Times - September 15, 2001
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Simmering differences are emerging between President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her generals on how to resolve the bloody conflict in Aceh. Both sides share the aim of keeping the restive province within the Indonesian fold.
military sources said the palace was putting the brakes on a "quick solution" by pursuing dialogue rather than troop deployments. "The army would prefer Ibu Mega to take a stronger line against the Acehnese rather than to give in to their demands, which makes it appear that we are weak," said a two-star general.
But he was clear that differences over tackling the Aceh problem would have little bearing on the military's "symbiotic" relationship with the new President unless she prosecuted generals for human-rights abuses.
The 54-year-old leader, who rose to power two months ago with critical military (TNI) backing, has been careful not to venture such an idea given that she needs that backing until 2004. She is not about to follow the path of her predecessor, Mr Abdurrahman Wahid, who alienated the generals by exposing past excesses.
During her recent trip to Aceh, she refused to cave in to pressure from her Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) to highlight the military's involvement in atrocities there. But she has also been careful to draw the line on Aceh with the generals, despite giving them a budget bonus this year of more than 15 trillion rupiah (S$2.75 billion), payback, perhaps, for supporting her presidency.
Sources said the President had made clear to her top brass that she wanted to pursue dialogue to resolve problems in the territory. The Straits Times understands that she summoned TNI chief A. S. Widodo to express reservations about comments made by some of his generals belittling efforts at finding a peaceful solution in Aceh.
Admiral Widodo reportedly told her that they supported her initiative but were hesitant about the President meeting members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which she had planned to do originally. Said an army general: "That amounts to recognition, so we objected." Eventually, the President succumbed to the wishes of the generals in agreeing not to meet GAM members.
But dialogue -- not force -- continued to be the government's main agenda in Aceh. The effect of this was to block more troops being sent into Aceh to back up the 15,000 already there. Key officers were not pleased.
While there was tacit backing for deployment of an elite reconnaissance unit, Admiral Widodo -- toeing the palace line -- turned down requests from the military commander of North Sumatra, I. G. Purnawa, for more combat troops in Aceh.
"For the President, sending in more troops is a signal to the Acehnese that she is prepared to spill blood to achieve her aims," said a two-star general. "She is not prepared to do that now. Maybe, as a last resort, if there is a real threat of Aceh breaking apart." The military was "not bothered" at not sending in more soldiers. "The important thing is Ibu Mega, unlike Gus Dur, seems to better understand the sensitivities of the military," said an army source.
Reuters - September 11, 2001
Jakarta -- Rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province have released five Muslim leaders who police say were abducted after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri when she visited the province at the weekend.
Aceh police spokesman Sad Harunantyo told Reuters on Tuesday the five were freed on Monday afternoon and were traumatised by their experience. Police said they had been seized on Sunday.
Abu Pausi, a spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), said the rebels had met the five, but denied they had kidnapped them. "We didn't detain them. It was only a courtesy call because one of them is our teacher," he said.
Police said earlier the five were in the Krueng Sabe district about 150 km south of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, when their vehicle disappeared late on Sunday. They were among hand- picked community leaders who met Megawati on Saturday in Banda Aceh. Her visit was aimed at curbing separatist tension and growing violence in the resource-rich province.
"If it was only a discussion why did they [the rebels] keep their car?... We view this as an abduction," said Harunantyo, speaking by telephone from Banda Aceh, 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Jakarta.
During her visit, Megawati apologised for past human rights abuses and urged all sides to stop decades of violence which has killed thousands. More than 1,500 people, mostly civilians, have died since January alone in an upsurge in violence in the province of four million people on the northwestern tip of Sumatra island.
Reuters - September 9, 2001
Tomi Soetjipto, Banda Aceh -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri made an emotional apology to the people of rebellious Aceh on Saturday over their suffering under past governments before being jeered by scores of students.
In a speech to 1,500 local residents at the main mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, Megawati called on Acehnese to be patient as the government tried to develop the province and urged all sides to stop what she called meaningless violence. She said dialogue was the only way to halt spiralling bloodshed. But Megawati's second apology to Acehnese since taking office last July was marred by a testy exchange with students who dismissed her olive branch.
Troops and police kept close guard over Megawati, with snipers patrolling roof tops while some roads were closed during her six-hour visit. She left in the late afternoon for Jakarta. "Governments in the past have had shortcomings and made many mistakes. For that, personally and on behalf of the government as the president of Indonesia, I offer my deep apologies to the people of Aceh," said Megawati, wearing elaborate, traditional Acehnese dress and a purple Muslim headscarf. "But we must look to the future, otherwise we will get nowhere," added a visibly emotional Megawati, constantly waving her right hand for emphasis and promising to return to Aceh.
Megawati's visit to resource-rich Aceh was a test of her goal to stabilise Indonesia, although analysts dismiss the chance of a quick fix to stop bloodshed in the staunchly Muslim province wracked by a decades-long separatist war.
Indeed, many Acehnese were scornful of the visit, expecting little beyond more hollow promises and ignorance of the extent of disenchantment over decades of human rights abuses, often at the hands of the security forces.
Students strike nerve
Already irritated with the students as she neared the end of her speech to the unscreened crowd at the mosque, Megawati ordered some students to sit when they tried to ask questions. At least 100 students then jeered Megawati when she promised to return to Jakarta and study what she had learned during her trip to Banda Aceh, 1,700 km northwest of the Indonesian capital. "I hope the people of Aceh can treat their guests well without making unpleasant noises. I say again, even God ordered guests to be treated well," Megawati said, her voice rising.
Megawati earlier went to the governor's office in Banda Aceh to hold closed-door talks with community leaders. The students said they were angered they were not invited to that meeting. "All I wanted to ask was why no students were invited to the dialogue. This did not represent the Aceh people," said Alfian, one student, adding he did not mean disrespect to Megawati. "This is a useless visit. I do not need promises ... another apology does not mean anything." Analysts had already expressed similar doubts.
Megawati has taken personal responsibility for resolving a conflict in Aceh that is increasingly claiming innocent lives, but has said little about her policy plans apart from a special autonomy package she signed last month.
"A one-day visit cannot change the situation, the Acehnese are tired of promises of justice and peace. The situation here is so acute and complex," Humam Hamid, a political analyst at the state-run University of Syiah Kuala in Banda Aceh said earlier.
Megawati did not met rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during the trip and has flatly refused to heed their demands for the province's split from the rest of the country.
The dusty streets of Banda Aceh were quiet, as many people stayed home and some shops closed for the day.
Special autonomy the only option
Acehnese say that for Megawati to have any hope of rolling back suspicion of Indonesian leaders that extends back to her father, founding President Sukarno, she would need to launch serious investigations into years of human rights abuses.
During her speech Megawati referred to the special autonomy package, which gives the territory of four million people greater power to handle its own affairs and more share of the wealth that locals complain has largely been siphoned off by Jakarta.
The province is a major oil and gas producer and an important source of revenue for the cash-strapped central government. Aceh is one of Megawati's toughest challenges among the woes she inherited from Abdurrahman Wahid, who was ousted as Indonesia's leader by the top assembly in July for incompetence. More than 1,500 people, mostly civilians, have died in an upsurge in violence since January in heavily militarised Aceh.
South China Morning Post - September 10, 2001
Associated Press in Banda Aceh -- A day after President Megawati Sukarnoputri led a peace mission to troubled Aceh province, rebels vowed to maintain their secessionist war and activists described the visit as a failure.
"Our struggle will continue," rebel spokesman Teungku Agam Kateraja said. "Soldiers on patrol in rebel areas will be attacked."
During a five-hour visit to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, on Saturday, Ms Megawati apologised for mistakes by previous governments during the 26-year separatist war that has left thousands dead, including more than 1,200 this year.
Ms Megawati called for an end to the fighting and urged the staunchly Islamic Acehnese to accept new laws granting them greater autonomy, including a larger share of revenue from the province's vast natural resources and the right to practise Muslim sharia law.
Her speech in front of the town's main mosque left many in the crowd of about 2,000 -- at least half of whom were schoolchildren and government employees -- unimpressed. Independence rallies held there in the past have drawn tens of thousands of people.
Student leader Muhammad Nazar -- serving a 10-month prison sentence for subversion -- said Ms Megawati's trip would not dampen calls for independence. "The trip will have little effect because Megawati is not addressing the real problem. Most people will see it like that," he said. "The only way to find a peaceful solution is through an independence referendum."
Nazar was arrested on November 11 after the student group he heads held a rally calling for a plebiscite -- similar to the UN-sponsored one in East Timor in 1999 that saw it secede from Indonesia.
Ms Megawati's trip was her first to Aceh since she became president on July 23. It came amid rising violence and demands by military leaders and nationalist politicians to launch a full- scale offensive against the rebels. Security was tight for the visit. Snipers and helicopters were deployed along with thousands of troops to deter rebel attacks. Indonesian Red Cross workers found an unidentified corpse in a river near the capital on Saturday.
Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said bringing peace to Aceh would take time. "We cannot expect too many things from a one-day visit," he said on Saturday before leaving the province. "It is a continuing process."
Rebel spokesman Kateraja said Aceh's four million people no longer believed promises from Jakarta. He accused the Government of breaking a ceasefire agreed to by the administration of recently deposed president Abdurrahman Wahid. The deal broke down in February and Mr Wahid agreed to a limited military operation against the rebels. Many people now say violence is worse now than it was during the dictatorship of president Suharto, who used the security forces to crush dissent.
Support for succession in the province is fuelled by alleged human rights abuses by the security forces, who have been accused of running death squads and engaging in rape and torture.
North Aceh Governor Tarmizi Karim acknowledged that in "some cases" military action in his district had been excessive. "If we can't win the hearts of the people then our message is difficult to get across," he said.
Jakarta Post - September 10, 2001
Jakarta -- President Megawati Soekarnoputri publicly asked on Saturday for forgiveness from all Acehnese for past mistakes of the government. The plea was made by the President before thousands of Acehnese people in a gathering on the grounds of the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province.
"I know that the central government made mistakes in the past. Personally and on behalf of the government, I would like to ask for your [Acehnese] forgiveness," Megawati, who wore a blue dress and a black headdress, said as quoted by Antara.
She asked the Acehnese not to look back to the past, but to concentrate on the future. "If we only look at the past, we will never make progress in our lives," she said in her 15-minute speech.
While asking for the Acehnese's patience in observing the government's development programs, the President noted the importance of establishing peace and order in the troubled province. "We must share a common opinion that we will settle [the Aceh problem] without violence," she said. "Today, I have such a short visit here. But, in the future, when all Acehnese can sincerely welcome any guest visiting the province, I will visit more often," she added.
Half way through her speech, a youth suddenly stood up and raised his hand to interrupt her. Megawati, however, asked the young man to sit down. "I am a guest in this Rencong land. If you were on a visit, would you be willing to be treated impolitely?" she inquired of the youth.
The President told the audience that she had received various suggestions from Acehnese public figures and ulemas on problems in the country's westernmost province.
Previously, Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh said in his speech that Megawati's visit had long been anticipated by the Acehnese. "Here, I would like to convey two important requests -- free the Acehnese from fear and release them from poverty," Puteh said.
| Government/politics |
Straits Times - September 14, 2001
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- A battle is brewing in Parliament over a move to amend the constitution to enable Indonesians to directly vote for their President and Vice-President by the 2004 elections.
The Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), the largest party in Parliament and headed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, has rejected the proposed amendment, although five other major political parties have thrown their weight behind the move.
An ad-hoc committee in Parliament is currently drafting the proposed amendment before the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) gives its stamp of approval during the November annual session. If the PDI-P continues to reject the proposed amendment, the MPR would have to vote during the annual session.
Lawmakers said a direct presidential election would strengthen the legitimacy of the country's leaders. In the current system, the 695 members of the MPR, which include the 500 Parliament members, elect the President and Vice-President after the general election to elect the MPs.
Observers have said this system is susceptible to money politics, and its results could often betray the people's choice. In 1998, Ms Megawati lost in the presidential fray to Mr Abdurrahman Wahid despite having won the general election. Her defeat was caused by the loose coalition among Muslim factions, unable to accept a woman leader, and the Golkar party supporting Mr Abdurrahman, who was impeached last month over graft allegations.
Ironically, the PDI-P has been the strongest opponent to direct presidential election. The party's representative in the ad-hoc committee, Mr Jacob Tobing, said the party wanted the current system to remain, except that the party that wins the general election will automatically have its presidential and vice- presidential candidates elected. Party officials also cited their fears of potential conflicts if the new system raised technical problems.
Critics said the PDI-P has been very "conservative" in the constitutional amendment process because of President Megawati's emotional attachment to the constitution drafted by her father, founding president Sukarno.
But Golkar, the second largest party in the house, is supporting a new "district system" that would guarantee fair competition for candidates from outside of Java, which is inhabited by 60 per cent of Indonesians. In the new system, contenders must win more than 50 per cent of the popular vote and at the same time 20 per cent of the votes in at least half of Indonesian provinces.
"With the current system, if you win in Java, you pretty much win the election, so the President will likely come from Java," said Golkar's Rully Chairul Azwar. Observers said Golkar will likely benefit from the direct presidential system.
The ruling party for 32 years under then president Suharto, it still has a strong network of bureaucrats and supporters outside of Java. Though the party's image is still widely associated with Mr Suharto's corrupt regime, its chairman, Mr Akbar Tandjung, who is from North Sumatra, has made it clear he is eyeing the presidency in the next elections.
| Corruption/collusion/nepotism |
Straits Times - September 15, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesian police are under fire again, this time for using cars and motorcycles impounded as criminal evidence. During an internal raid at the Jakarta Police headquarters last month, 32 cars and 52 motorcycles were recovered as the vehicles -- meant for crime evidence -- were being used by policemen.
But a senior officer justified the use of the vehicles because they had limited funds to buy new cars. Jakarta Police spokesman Senior Commander Anton Bachrul Alam reiterated that the limited budget had prompted the police to use these vehicles in order to be mobile.
But he admitted that last month's raid on the police headquarters was carried out to enforce discipline and acknowledged that the cars and motorcycles should not be used by policemen without approval from their superiors.
"Most of the time, the superiors will provide a recommendation paper for the officers who use any impounded vehicle." The spokesman said the vehicles were returned to the headquarters after the recommendation papers from the superiors were produced.
In an internal briefing that was held a day after the raid, Jakarta police's secretary of the police detective unit, Senior Commander Abdullah, said: "For the sake of all of us, to maintain our image and to enforce discipline among us, I order you to return vehicles that are for crime evidence or to complete the necessary clearance from your superiors."
Meanwhile, a non-governmental group, Police Watch, criticised the use of the vehicles. Its coordinator, Mr Athar, said: "For whatever reason, the crime evidence should not be disturbed. It is totally wrong to use them. It's not for official activities and especially not for personal use," he stressed.
He revealed that it had been going on for years. "It's not a new thing. All of us know about it. The good news is that they have publicised the raid," Mr Athar claimed.
Straits Times - September 15, 2001
Jakarta -- Labour activists are sceptical about the government's resolve to weed out corrupt airport officials, and believe that any plan to prevent them from extorting money from returning Indonesian migrant workers will be futile.
The government on Thursday set up an eight-member joint team of officials from various ministries to halt the extortion practice at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Indonesia's Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea also vowed to crack down on corrupt airport officials.
However, Mr Yunus Yamani, an observer of labour affairs, said the joint team would be ineffective because the officials themselves are corrupt. "I cannot understand why the Manpower and Transmigration Minister has assigned the task of halting extortion to those officials who are themselves responsible for the practice," he said.
The joint team comprises officials from the Immigration Office, National Police, the airport authority, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.
Returning workers often have to pay 50,000 rupiah (S$10) to have their passports checked and are forced to convert their foreign currency at extremely low rates.
Jakarta Post - September 14, 2001
Jakarta -- The agency tasked to audit the wealth of civil servants is apprehensive about looking into the wealth of top officials.
The Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) head Yusuf Syakir said here on Thursday that he was not sure the agency would be able to face high ranking officials such as the President, Vice President, Speakers of the People's Consultative Assembly and House of Representatives, legislators and ministers.
"Despite limited investigative authority, we still encounter psychological and cultural barriers in our investigation into high ranking officials whose assets have been questioned by the public," he said.
The agency has so far received wealth reports from 2,740 officials, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri and aims to audit only around 1,500 of the total reports this year.
Separately, Chairman of Muhammadiyah Youth Organization Imam Addaruquitni said after a meeting with Vice President Hamzah Haz that public accountability was very important and state officials should set an example by providing actual and transparent reports to the public of their wealth.
"There should be an investigation into all kinds of gifts [received by public servants], to ensure transparency in the wealth report," Hamzah said as quoted by Imam in the press conference.
Controversy over the "gifts" included in the public servants' wealth report surged following reports that many politicians and government officials received a huge number of gifts, without a clear explanation as to who gave it to them.
KPKPN is to investigate questionable assets gained by officials from third parties Yusuf said. "We will start summoning their owners on Friday [today] in an attempt to seek clarification about where they gained them from," he told The Jakarta Post.
Syakir declined to identify the officials to be investigated on the grounds of the presumption of innocence, but conceded many have reported their assets they gained from third parties.
A number of officials, including former minister of finance Fuad Bawazier and House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, have reportedly submitted the list of their assets, including those obtained from a third party.
"KPKPN will summon not only the officials but also the third parties as witnesses. The officials who are believed to have obtained their wealth through corrupt and collusive practices will undergo further investigation by police and prosecutors," he said.
Syakir explained that KPKPN has thus far audited the wealth of 160 officials, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri, House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Akbar Tandjung, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais and Chief Justice Bagir Manan. "So far, there isn't anything irregular about their assets," he said, adding that KPKPN would monitor the assets of state officials once every six months or annually in order to make sure that they gained their wealth "naturally".
Syakir, who was promoted by the United Development Party (PPP) to the top position at the commission, said KPKPN would maintain transparency while carrying out its tasks.
KPKPN has held a weekly media conference to announce the latest developments of its investigation, he said, urging the public to help detect any dishonesty among officials in announcing their wealth. "We will provide protection for those who voluntarily report on corrupt, collusive and nepotistic practices," he said. He added that KPKPN would cooperate with state universities in provinces to help KPKPN do its task of auditing wealth of public officials.
Despite a shortage of professional staff, the 25-member commission has strived to audit the wealth of hundreds of thousands of officials in central government, MPR/DPR, provincial and regency legislatures, the Indonesian Military, the National Police, courts, prosecutor's offices and state-owned companies, he said.
Syakir added that KPKPN would also cooperate with the Ministry of Finance to detect officials who failed to pay their income taxes in accordance with their wealth. "Such cooperation is needed to help the government maximize its tax revenues," he said.
Jakarta Post - September 12, 2001
Jakarta -- Activists intensified their demands on Tuesday for the Public Servant's Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) to investigate the origin of retired and serving state officials suspect wealth.
Many respondents have suspiciously registered part of their huge fortune with KPKPN as "grants" without naming the source and/or specifying if they accepted it while they served in office or after they retired.
Fuad Bawazir, a former tax director general and finance minister in the New Order regime, listed his Rp 30 billion (US$3.33 million) assets as "grants".
Activists demanded that the government-sanctioned KPKPN should take legal action against state officials who failed to prove the legality of their wealth.
Government Watchdog (GOWA) chairman Farid R. Faqih said that accepting gifts and grants was a violation of the oath that the official takes when assuming office.
But the problem is, as Farid pointed out, Indonesia has no law dealing with officials who violate their oath in office. Corruption Law No. 28/99 does not clearly state any punishment for the action.
"There is still a long way to go to nail those officials. KPKPN should propose harsher punishment for corrupt dealings," Farid told the Jakarta Post.
Hamdan Zoelva, a legislator of the Crescent and Star Party (PBB), voiced similar concerns. He said KPKPN has the authority to conduct the investigation. "If KPKPN finds that the wealth is unlawful, it should take the case to the police to be brought to a court of justice," he said.
Meanwhile, a KPKPN official M. Wildan, said that KPKPN planned to summon officials suspected of acquiring wealth illegally to explain the origins of their fortune. He said they will summon officials who have suspicious amounts of wealth to further explain its origins. "They will be asked once again over the exact amount of their wealth and how they acquired it," he said.
Wildan threatened to take officials to the police who fail to satisfactorily explain how they obtained their wealth.
Agence France Presse - September 12, 2001
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Two years ago, House of Representatives deputy speaker Muhaimin Iskandar could hardly pay for the room he was renting, his old friends say. Today, the National Awakening Party legislator is worth 1.8 billion rupiah (S$347,000) and owns luxury cars and properties, according to papers he filed with the Commission to Investigate State Officials' Wealth (KPKPN).
But even that pales in comparison to the more than 50 billion rupiah in assets owned by fellow MP Fuad Bawazier, a former director-general of tax and one-time finance minister. He said that more than 90 per cent of his assets were gifts, including imported cars and real estate -- and he says that because they were not bribes he has broken no law. "I was only trying to be transparent. I can't believe I am now being scrutinised for my honesty," he told the Gatra news magazine when asked about the 45 billion rupiah he had received in gifts. Mr Muhaimin has said that most of his assets actually belong to his party.
Both cases are among several that have come to light after submissions filed with the commission, an independent body examining the worth of officials and legislators before and after they take office as part of the government's bid to fight corruption.
Some legislators and officials have taken to declaring assets under the category "hibah" -- a grant or formal donation. The law bans officials from receiving bribes but makes no mention of receiving gifts -- something of a tradition here when dealing with some officials or politicians.
But National Commission of Law chairman J.E. Sahetapy dismissed the argument: "It's all nonsense, a real hibah is made before a notary. It can be in the forms of wakaf, which in the Islamic law is a property donated for religious community."
[Irregularities worth US$363.6 million (S$636.5 million) were uncovered in the use of Indonesian state funds last year. The chairman of the state audit agency BPK, Mr Satrio Yudono, told parliament that his agency had found 1,643 cases of irregularities in the implementation of the state budget, regional budgets and budgets for state companies.]
Jakarta Post - September 12, 2001
Jakarta -- The central government's pledge to fight the practice of nepotism seems to be ineffective as some officials of the city administration and the City Council have reportedly placed their children and close relatives in some city-owned companies.
Reliable sources said on Tuesday that some people were believed to have passed the selection of new employees of the companies in July this year because of their parents' influential power.
"They are accepted because their parents are high officials in the administration," said a source at city-owned developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol (PJA), who requested anonymity.
The source said a son-in-law of deputy governor for development affairs Budihardjo Sukmadi Bagus Prayogo was accepted at PJA's planning division. Budihardjo's foster son Catur was also accepted at the company's development division, the source said. The source also said that City Council Chairman Edy Waluyo also placed his son Budi Waluyo in the company's public relations department.
The company's spokesman, Muhridjul Adly, admitted later on Tuesday that both Edy's son Budi Waluyo and Budhihardjo's son Catur work at the company. But the spokesman did not give information on Budihardjo's son-in-law, who also reportedly works at the company.
PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, which manages the Ancol recreational park in North Jakarta, is known as "a milch cow" for administration officials. The company financed several controversial trips made by city officials and councillors to South Africa, Japan and Australia, last year. The case is still being investigated by the prosecutor's office.
Meanwhile, another source said that City Council deputy speaker Djafar Badjeber and councillor Posman Siahaan of the Unity and Justice Party had also placed their daughters as employees at city-owned market operator PD Pasar Jaya. "The two councillors' daughters work at the company's public relations department," the source said.
The source said many senior employees of PD Pasar Jaya were disappointed that they could not place their relatives in the company even though they had better skills than the councillors' daughters.
Posman, who is a member of the council's commission A for legal and administrative affairs, admitted that his daughter works at the company. "But I was not involved in the selection process," he told reporters on Tuesday. Djafar of the United Development Party also admitted that his daughter was accepted in the company but asked the media not to blow the matter up.
Similar to PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol, PD Pasar Jaya is also known as a "milch cow" for certain councillors. Some councillors had earlier requested the company give them shops at markets managed by PD Pasar Jaya, including newly renovated Glodok Plaza shopping center in West Jakarta and Kenari market on Jl. Kramat Raya, Central Jakarta.
Budihardjo Sukmadi and Edy Waluyo could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
| Regional/communal conflicts |
Straits Times - September 15, 2001
Pontianak -- A teenager has been sentenced to seven years in jail for inciting clashes between Madurese refugees and local Dayaks in Pontianak.
The ethnic clashes claimed four lives, injured many others, and resulted in a badminton hall sheltering 120 refugees being razed to the ground.
Fauzi, a 16-year-old Dayak, was found guilty of inciting the clashes in June this year by a panel of judges at the Pontianak district court on Thursday.
The clashes erupted after the seizure of belongings of a Madurese refugee family by Fauzi, who was assisted by his friends Sani, Rahmudin and Syamsul. During the seizure, the six-year-old son of Busrah, the refugee, was killed, inflaming the already-tense relationship between the two communities.
The refugees are Madurese migrants who have fled ethnic clashes in Sambas since 1999. They were temporarily housed in sport halls, stadiums and a Haj dormitory in Pontianak.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta Post - September 11, 2001
Jakarta -- The South Jakarta District Court rejected on Monday the lawsuit filed by eight middle-ranking police officers against National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro.
The judges declared in their pre-trial verdict that the court did not have the authority to try the case, saying that there did not yet exist any supporting regulation to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decree No. 7/2000, which stipulates that the National Police are answerable to the civilian courts, SCTV television station reported.
Earlier, the eight officers had said in their defense that the court had the authority to try the case, while referring to the MPR decree.
The eight officers were identified as Sr. Comr. Bambang Widodo, Sr. Comr. Parlindungan Sinaga, Sr. Comr. Alfons Leomau, Sr. Comr. Nurdin Umar, Sr. Comr. Badaruzzaman Haidir, Sr. Comr. Herman Kotto, Sr. Comr. Banjar Nahor Nainggolan and Sr. Comr. Salihin.
The officers allegedly led some 150 middle-ranking police officers to stage a revolt against National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro on July 9. They declared Bimantoro disobedient and demanded that the police chief comply with presidential orders issued by then president Abdurrahman Wahid to vacate his post. Abdurrahman "publicly" dismissed Bimantoro on July 1, when the National Police celebrated its 55th anniversary.
The eight officers sued Bimantoro, following what they claimed was their unlawful arrest and detention in connection with the insubordination charges imposed against them.
They also said in the lawsuit that the National Police could not charge them for violating the military criminal code, arguing that the police had now to abide by civilian laws and regulations.
| News & issues |
Jakarta Post - September 14, 2001
Jakarta -- City police have apprehended 10 people, including a Malaysian, for their alleged involvement in the blast at Plaza Atrium, a shopping mall in Senen, Central Jakarta, an officer said on Thursday.
Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Sofyan Jacoeb said the Malaysian suspect, along with several other people, was arrested in Pandeglang, West Java. The Malaysian was arrested following a tip from one of the suspects in the Atrium blast, Danny, who is also Malaysian.
Danny, who was injured in the blast which occurred on August 2, was said to be a member of a Malaysian-based Muslim fundamentalist group.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said that during the arrest in Pandeglang, police also confiscated several firearms. "Our police detectives are still building the case and all suspects are being interrogated at Jakarta Police Headquarters," Anton said.
| Health/education |
Straits Times - September 14, 2001
Jakarta -- Most of the soft drinks and snacks sold in Indonesia's elementary school canteens use textile dyes and are contaminated with the E. coli bacteria, which causes worm-related diseases, a report said.
Mr Adi Sasongko, head of Kusuma Buana Foundation's anaemia eradication team, said on Wednesday that the team had discovered such conditions after conducting surveys in several elementary schools in Jakarta recently.
"The canteen owners confirmed the use of these unhealthy substances. They said that it was cheaper to use textile dyes," he told a seminar on an anaemia eradication programme in Jakarta's elementary schools. Consuming textile dyes in food and drinks over a long period of time could cause cancer among schoolchildren, he said.
| Religion/Islam |
Reuters - September 14, 2001
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta -- Muslim leaders in Indonesia, the world's largest Islamic nation, have joined the international outrage over the terror attacks against the United States, but warned the world to avoid an anti-Muslim backlash. They also called on Washington and the Western media against hasty condemnation of Muslim Arabs over the attacks, warning such action could stoke anti-Islamic passions.
"Such attacks on such a grand scale -- it's very outrageous, it's worth every condemnation," Muslim cleric Yusuf Muhammad from the powerful Nation Awakening party told Reuters. "Whoever carried out the attack did not have a right to do it in the name of the religion, namely Islam ... killing innocents to achieve a target has never been the heart of the religion."
Suspicion is increasingly focusing on Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden. Although his aids have denied his involvement, and Washington has yet to decide if he was behind the violence, the shadowy leader described this week's carnage as "punishment from almighty Allah".
As millions of Muslims crowded into mosques around Indonesia on Friday's Islamic Sabbath, clerics prayed for the victims but also warned against painting Muslims as killers.
Masduki Baidhowi, a top official with Indonesia's largest Muslim group, the 40 million strong Nahdlatul Ulama, condemned the New York and Washington attacks, but urged the United States to protect its Muslim citizens from revenge. "Needless to say, we strongly condemn these acts of terror ... but we also regret the retaliation against our brothers," he told Reuters. "The people should not generalise wrongdoers as one whole group. "This was not an act of religion." He added the US government should not reinforce stereotypes of Arab-Americans as terrorists.
There have been reports of anti-Muslim violence in the United States and Australia after the deadly attacks, which have killed hundreds and left thousands more missing. A mosque was firebombed in Australia's conservative northern state of Queensland and Islamic groups said a busload of Muslim schoolchildren was stoned in the southern city of Melbourne. Australian Muslims came under attack during the Gulf War in 1991 and after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in the United States. "The Muslim community has grown used to being the victims during the immediate aftermath of almost every terrorist act," said Aishah Amini, a legislator with Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz's Muslim-oriented United Development Party. "The whole popular concept of terrorism needs to be changed."
Malaysia and Bangladesh, both Asian countries with large Muslim populations, have also offered support for stern action against people or states involved in terrorism after the attacks on the United States.
Jakarta Post - September 11, 2001
Jakarta -- The country's two largest parties reiterated their intention to reject inclusion of the Jakarta Charter in Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution, viewing the United Development Party (PPP)'s effort to institute the doctrine for Islamic Syariah law merely an expression of responsibility to its constituents.
Members of the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) told The Jakarta Post on Monday that it would be a waste of energy reopening discussion on inclusion of the charter, which would mean full implementation of Islamic law for Muslims in Indonesia.
PPP chairman Hamzah Haz insisted on Saturday that inclusion of the charter would threaten other religions in the country.
The Jakarta Charter, intended to form the basis of the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution, attracted considerable debate at the time over the wording "obliging its followers to exercise Islamic laws". The charter was later dropped from the Constitution.
"PPP should stick to their political choice to fight for the Jakarta Charter, but I don't think this is a serious effort. They just have to appear to be consistent, especially to their constituents," Ade Komaruddin of the Golkar Party said.
He further said that it would be strange if PPP did not suggest the move after the party's chairman Hamzah Haz was elected Vice President. "It's their ideology to fight for Islam, but I am sure that they understand political realities may hamper them in their effort. For Golkar, we are not in the position to insist on the Jakarta Charter," Ade said.
Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations -- Nadhatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah -- also rejected the charter's implementation, saying that it would only provoke religious disharmony.
PDI Perjuangan deputy chairman Roy B. Janis also said that the suggestion was just an idea and every political party had the right to propose anything. "But I believe that they realize the political reality that it was decided by our founding fathers not to include Piagam Jakarta [the Jakarta Charter], so why should we further discuss the issue?" Roy said.
He also stressed that the debate was not a sign of discord between the nation's two leaders as PPP's suggestion to include the Jakarta Charter was something to be expected, which the President had considered earlier. "We know they will lobby for the Jakarta Charter because it is their political stance, but we cannot stop people from throwing forward a suggestion," Roy commented. Separately, Syaiful Achmad of the National Mandate Party (PAN) said that he personally supported PPP's suggestion and hoped that other Muslim-based parties would support the idea. "It is a good idea, but of course PAN as a party does not support it. Many of the (PAN) members personally support the suggestion," Syaiful told the Post.
"I think many legislators, from the Muslim-based parties actually support the suggestion and will continue to fight for it at the 1945 Constitution amendment process by the People's Consultative Assembly," he remarked.
| Arms/armed forces |
Jakarta Post - September 10, 2001
Jakarta -- Political analysts have hailed the increase in the defense budget in the 2002 draft state budget amid rising speculation that the 18 percent hike was to gain support from the Indonesian Military (TNI) in maintaining stability. "The TNI [which is in charge of defense] is politically more influential than the police [in charge of security], and it carries more weight," political analyst Arbi Sanit told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
However, fellow analyst Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) regarded the bigger defense budget as nothing extraordinary. "I don't think there is anything special in the budget rise. I don't think it's a political concession. It's only an adjustment to take account of inflation," he told the Post. Kusnanto only questioned the absence of transparency on the part of the TNI concerning its revenues from business practices and non-budgetary funds.
The comments were made in response to President Megawati Soekarnoputri's decision to raise the defense budget from Rp 7.9 trillion (US$870.5 million) in 2001 to Rp 9.4 trillion in 2002. By comparison, the security budget in 2002 received an allocation of only Rp 5 trillion.
Arbi, who is also a lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said that the establishment of Megawati's government could not be separated from the helping hand of the military. He suspected that the increase in the number of TNI figures recruited for executive seats in her Cabinet was a strong indication of politics at play.
The appointment of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a military figure, to deal with the political and security affairs, for example, further supported this view, he said. "More military personnel have seats in the cabinet than personnel from the police force," he said.
Data shows that the Army has the biggest number of personnel, amounting to about 200,000, followed by the Navy with 47,000 and the Air Force with 23,000. Meanwhile, the police has 196,000 officers. "Given these figures, it is normal that the defense budget is bigger than the police's," said Kusnanto.
According to Kusnanto, the funds in the defense budget would be allocated mostly for maintenance because that amount of money would be insufficient to purchase new defense equipment.
He said that with the endorsement of the regional autonomy law, security affairs would soon be put under the management of regional administrations. "That's why the budget received by the police is lower because the police will certainly receive funds from the regional administration too," he said.
Apart from the political motive, Arbi said the government preferred taking the military approach rather than the security approach in quelling any separatist demands from the regions. "The fear of disintegration has prompted the current government to allocate more to the defense sector," he added.
Fellow analyst from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences Ikrar Nusa Bakti praised the defense budget increase because it is badly needed to improve the military's professionalism in maintaining national stability. "Without sufficient equipment and exercises, the professionalism of the military will not be optimal," he said. Asked if there was a political motive behind the budget rise, Ikrar merely said: "Well, it could be. But, I think our military is really in need for more funds."
| Economy & investment |
Straits Times - September 14, 2001
Robert Go, Jakarta -- The hard-fought battle over the proposed sale of Indonesia's largest retail bank appears indicative of the concessions the Megawati Sukarnoputri government will have to continually make to win over supposedly friendly legislators.
Having used the nationalistic card to stymie the government's plans for a quick sale of PT Bank Central Asia (BCA), legislators appear set to play the populist card next week when her budget comes to the House for approval.
Flushed from the victory of getting approval for the BCA sale, legislators now talk of forcing a postponement of the unpopular, but essential, fuel price hikes next year.
On Wednesday night, several legislators argued till the last moment against government plans to sell a 51 per cent stake in BCA, warning that one of the country's healthiest banks should not be controlled by foreign investors.
Ms Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is the strongest in Parliament and leads the Finance Commission, but State-owned Enterprises Minister Laksamana Sukardi still needed more than three weeks of tough debate sessions to push through his BCA plans.
During the past year, Parliament had foiled several attempts by former president Abdurrahman Wahid's government to sell BCA and other "national assets", but had been expected to be more cooperative with the new government given the pre-impeachment pledges made by party leaders.
PDI-P legislator Aberson Marle Sihaloho described the continuing uphill fight thus: "Getting others to agree that we need to work with foreign investors was a tough process. Many needed days of talking to before finally agreeing that we need to sell BCA to any highest bidder." Finance Commission chairman Benny Pasaribu agreed: "It gives a good idea of the decision-making process that we have to deal with in future."
When the decision was finally handed down, it became clear what kinds of concessions Mr Laksamana and his PDI-P colleagues had to live with. With the country desperate to raise cash through asset sales, his proposal would see one bidder paying a premium price -- around 5.2 trillion rupiah -- for control of BCA.
Parliament has given the green light to the sale, but suggested that the offered stake be divided into two parcels of 30 per cent and 21 per cent. That way, argued one opposition legislator, it is possible that two different bidders would end up splitting control of BCA.
Ironically, legislators have no legal basis to veto the government's asset-sale plans. They told The Straits Times they might be overstepping the boundaries of their powers, but gave the justification that as representatives of the people, they had the right to accept or reject sales involving people's assets.
Agence France Presse - September 14, 2001
Jakarta -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday described Parliament's approval of the sale of a 51 per cent government stake in Indonesia's largest private retail bank as an important milestone in economic reforms of the country.
The Lower House late on Wednesday approved the sale of the PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) stake, which was taken over by the government in 1998 to save it from collapse at the height of the regional financial crisis.
"This decision is a very encouraging sign of progress in several respects," said IMF senior resident representative in Indonesia David Nellore. He said the sale of the bank would be an "important milestone in the reform process" building on recent measures including the budget, strengthening the corporate restructuring process and the banking system.