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Indonesia News Digest No
38 - September 16-22, 2001
Jakarta Post - September 22, 2001
Kupang -- Of their own free will, hundreds of thousands of East
Timorese who have been living in refugee camps in Indonesia's
West Timor for the past two years, have now decided to return to
their homeland following the successful general election in East
Timor, held in a free, orderly and safe manner on August 30,
2001.
Along with these East Timorese refugees, some 600 members of the
Indonesian Military (TNI), once notorious for its involvement in
cruel, scorched-earth policies in East Timor pursued after the
self-determination referendum in 1999, have decided to leave
military service and return to their homeland and work together
with their former political foes in building a peaceful,
democratic and harmonious East Timor.
Udayana Military chief Maj. Gen. Willem T. da Costa said that
some 200 of these former soldiers of East Timorese origin have
returned to East Timor and that the remaining 400 will do
likewise after the administrative process of their early
retirement and honorable discharge from the military service is
completed.
When interviewed by The Jakarta Post at Naibonat refugee camp in
Kupang regency on September 19, some of the military personnel of
East Timorese origin who have filed an application for early
retirement said that they had decided to return to their homeland
of their own free will. They also denied allegations emerging
from some quarters in Kupang that they had betrayed their
motherland by giving up their TNI positions to return to East
Timor, now known as Timor Lorosa'e, which the East Timorese
explain as meaning "Timor, the land where the sun rises".
One soldier, Alfonso da Silva, 43, a chief private hailing from
Viqueque, said that he had just filed an application for early
retirement from his unit, Infantry Battalion 744, and that he and
his family would have returned to East Timor had it not been for
rumors that former TNI members would be killed upon their return.
"We were ready to return home quite a while ago, but rumors were
spread in our camp that if I went back to East Timor, I would be
killed by the pro-independence group.
Later Bishop Basilio Nascimento of Baucau came to Kupang and told
us there were no more killings and no more violence in East
Timor. He also said that all refugees whose hands were not bloody
could return home. It's true that I'm a member of the TNI, but I
have never killed anybody," he said, adding that his entire
family had agreed to return to their homeland. He expressed hope
that the East Timorese people, who were once embroiled in civil
war, would stand ready for a peaceful reconciliation. If this
happens, he said, many more refugees will be willing to return to
East Timor. "My family and I must return to our homeland. We have
a plot of land there and I will be a good farmer," Alfonso said.
Another member of Infantry Battalion 744, Francisco Ferandes from
Dili, agreed with Alfonso, and maintained that he had no special
reason to return to East Timor except that he and his family
longed to enjoy their freedom in peace and safety with their
siblings and relatives. "Whatever happens, we must return home.
East Timor is where we were all born. Perhaps, some people will
nurture some envy or hatred against us but we are all ready for
this as we believe it will soon pass. I'll work as a farmer or
just do anything to support my family," he said.
Another TNI member, Louis Sarmentho Amaral, 37, said that his
decision to return to East Timor was prompted by a desire to
reunite with his family, the loved ones he had left behind when
there was a massive exodus out of East Timor two years ago. "I
left East Timor then because I was a member of the TNI. My wife
and two children sought safety in a mountain area. Security has
been restored in East Timor now and the East Timorese live in
peace, so I have decided to return home and be reunited with my
family. East Timor is everything for us," he said. Some East
Timorese and a number of prominent East Timorese figures, such as
Dili bishop Mgr. Carlos Filipe Ximenes Bello, East Timorese
independence figure Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Ramos
Horta, have said on different occasions that the East Timorese
had never harbored any envy or revenge against the refugees,
including former pro-integration militiamen and former members of
the TNI. Instead, they have continually called on their fellow
countrymen still in refugee camps to return home and work hand in
hand to build the Timor Lorosa'e state and eliminate poverty.
"Allow me to call on the East Timorese still in West Timor to
pack up and return home along with their children," Bishop Belo
said at the Dili Lecidere diocese palace, East Dili, recently.
Asia Times - September 21, 2001
Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- The election victory on August 30 of
Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor,
sent UN and World Bank officials in Dili into an instant policy
huddle which lasted three weeks. The party had led a 24-year
guerrilla resistance to Indonesia's occupation of the former
Portuguese colony, and this was reflected in its resounding 57.3
percent of the vote. Its nearest rival, the student-led
Democratic Party, polled a mere 8.7 percent.
The UN wanted a consensus government representing most of the
twelve parties which won seats in the 88-seat Constituent
Assembly, while Fretilin, which won 55 of those seats, argued it
should take the lion's share of the portfolios. The parliament is
an interim one, to draft a constitution and prepare for
independence.
The outcome, announced in Dili by Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of
the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor
(UNTAET), was a predominantly Fretilin government led by
52-year-old lawyer Mari Alkatiri.
That the selection caused headaches for the UN planners was
reflected in the fact that the Democratic Party was the only
other major party to agree to participate with Fretilin, apart
from a sprinkling of independents. The Social Democrat Party,
third with 8.1 percent of the vote, refused to participate.
The diminutive Alkatiri is seen by his supporters as a dynamic
man who has led the nationalist Fretilin party to deserved
political victory after more than two decades of bitter struggle.
To his detractors, he is a radical extremist attempting to impose
the ideology of Mozambique's ruling Frelimo party -- acquired
during years of exile there -- on a quite different situation.
The two contrasting views, of competent, principled nationalist
versus radical extremist, are little different from those which
were expressed in East Timor in December 1975 when Alkatiri also
emerged as the most senior politician in the short-lived
government of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, declared 10
days before Indonesia invaded.
In interviews conducted on that occasion, and on the eve of the
UN-supervised election, I found Alkatiri to fit neither mold.
Rather, he gave the impression of a man with a considered
nationalist philosophy, who wouled tackle governance of this
war-traumatized nation seriously but would also be unyielding in
defending Timorese rights.
It is a defense that needs to be conducted skilfully with
Australia and Indonesia, East Timor's two closest neighbors. In
his view, both acted with total contempt for East Timorese human
rights in the years after 1975. "Indonesia and Australia have to
remember that our independence was won at great cost and that a
Timorese is very proud to be Timorese," he states. If Alkatiri is
seen as a hard man, it is because of this past. Nevertheless, he
has a strong desire to build bridges.
As East Timorese chief minister, Alkatiri will be a Muslim at the
head of a predominantly Catholic country (Islamic leaders at the
Dili mosque confirmed that he is a practising member of their
congregation). In his diplomatic dealings with Indonesia before
1999, the fact that he was Muslim didn't moderate Indonesian
attitudes, but changing times may help. "If it helps, well and
good, but it didn't previously," Alkatiri said. "I am foremost a
Timorese who is a militant of Fretilin, and being Islamic didn't
help much with former foreign minister Ali Alatas." Yet his
family has established roots in Indonesia, in the Moluccan
Islands as well as in West Timor. His cousin, Mar'ie Muhammad,
was a finance minister in the Suharto government, who, according
to Alkatiri, was known as "Suharto's incorruptible minister".
The Alkatiris emigrated to Timor from the south of Yemen three
generations ago. From humble beginnings as rice planters, they
consolidated agricultural holdings on the outskirts of Dili, and
now own considerable real estate in the capital. Mari's father
was a highly-respected leader of the minority Arab community, who
died a few years ago at the age of 100. When Portugal announced
in 1974 that it would decolonize its remote Southeast Asian
territory, most of the 1,000-strong Islamic community, including
some members of the Alkatiri family, supported the pro-Indonesian
Apodeti party. Mari and his brother Djafar, however, opted for
the radical pro-independence Fretilin. In the dying days of the
colonial regime, Mari, Nicolau Lobato (founding commander of the
guerrilla resistance), and Timorese diplomat Jose Ramos Horta had
formed the advance guard of a wave of burgeoning Timorese
nationalists.
"I remember him as belonging to one of the nationalist groups
which met secretly in restaurants, hotels and in the city park,"
Fretilin central committee member Jose Luis Guterres said, "but I
was in a younger group and didn't really know him well, because
he was very introspective, as he is now."
In December 1975, after the Portuguese colonial administration
had withdrawn from Dili during a brief civil war, it became clear
that Indonesian invasion was imminent. Fretilin decided to send
three emissaries out of the country to organize political
support. Alkatiri, Ramos Horta and Lobato's brother Rogerio,
nominated as defense minister in the newly-proclaimed republic,
flew out of Dili two days before Indonesian paratroopers landed.
Alkatiri settled in Mozambique, where he married fellow-Timorese
Marina Ribeiro and raised three children. Mozambique had
recognized the Democratic Republic of East Timor, and he became
part of the Maputo diplomatic corps. He learnt the protocol of
international diplomacy and traveled widely. He also completed a
law degree and taught for 10 years at Maputo's Eduardo Mondlane
University, an experience which he enjoyed. "I haven't been
seeking a career as a prime minister," he said, "and I hope to
return to academic life in the future."
His critics say his ideas are frozen in the doctrinaire attitudes
of 1975, when Fretilin, Frelimo and other fraternal parties in
Portuguese Africa declared themselves "the sole legitimate
representatives" of the nation, above other parties. But Alkatiri
says he learnt a lot that was "positive and negative" in
Mozambique. "It's easy for Westerners to assume revolutionary
postures," he asserts. "It's not so easy to govern according to
revolutionary principles when you don't have a refrigerator
stuffed full."
He advocates a practical, moderate foreign policy, seeking to
cultivate "best possible relations with Indonesia and Australia".
Days after the election results were ratified by the UN he
traveled to Jakarta with other Timorese leaders at the invitation
of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. It was a welcome
sign of thaw in which Alkatiri's background undoubtedly helped.
"The Indonesian president is very open and positive," he
commented.
Alkatiri's reputation as a hard man has been underlined in his
role as chief Timorese negotiator in talks over oil riches in the
southern Timor Sea, to be exploited jointly between Australia and
East Timor. This investment began in 1989, under an Indonesian-
Australian treaty, but Indonesia ceded its share to East Timor in
April 2000 after its troop withdrawal from the territory.
The Ohio-based Phillips Petroleum company is head of the
investment consortium. Its US$1.5 billion project all but
collapsed in July over Alkatiri's insistence on increasing
Phillips's tax share from the revenues, despite an earlier
promise not to do so. Phillips Petroleum president Jim Mulva flew
into Dili for talks just before the elections, in a last-ditch
attempt to save the company's deal to supply natural gas from the
maritime field to Australia. The choice East Timor faces is
between having oil revenues to cover its budget in its first
years, or waiting almost another decade if Philips pulls out.
At the time of the poll Alkatiri said that he had told Mulva he
was open to new proposals after the elections, but so far no date
has been set for talks. The outcome will determine whether East
Timor enters nationhood as just another impoverished Third World
nation, or with a base-line prosperity which will grow with the
years. It will be a first test of Alkatiri's desire to balance
national pride with pragmatism.
Labour struggle
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East Timor
Ex-Army members to farm in East Timor
Exile returns to run East Timor
Assembly prepares to draft constitution
Radio Australia - September 21, 2001
East Timor's Constituent Assembly has been sworn in this week following a peaceful election at the end of August. All but two of the country's 16 political parties won seats in the new assembly which now has just 90 days to write a constitution for the country's future governance. So the political bargaining is underway on crucial constitutional issues like how the future government will be structured, presidential powers and what legal rights women will have. There's pressure on the politicians to draft the constitution in close co-operation with the wider community.
Fitzgerald: A radio drama series being broadcast on an East Timorese community station urging the public to get involved in drafting the constitution. It's part of a push by civil rights groups to get the community involved in the making of a new constitution rather than leaving it solely to the politicians.
Already this week the views of 38-thousand East Timorese have been presented to the Constituent Assembly. They were collected as part of a six week long consultation on the constitution conducted by the United Nations Transitional Administration, which is known as UNTAET.
In an emotional written statement to UNTAET, Constitutional Commissioners Father Armindo Brito and Genoveva Alves, explained what the constitution means to East Timorese people. "For 450 years the people of East Timor lived under Portuguese law. Black or white sweet or bitter we have tasted it. In the last 25 years we lived according to Indonesian law. In daylight and in darkness, life or death we survived it. Now the people of East Timor want to show the world we want to live under our own law. A law which we ourselves are creating according to our history, culture and dignity."
Fitzgerald: The United Nation's Katerina Amitzbell says East Timorese so far have grabbed the opportunity to participate in drafting a law which will guide their country into the future.
Amitzbell: Some of the main issues that people discussed were obviously the language, then the national symbols, the flag, justice, human rights, violation of women's rights, prohibition of polygamy, came out very strongly, then about systems of government which was really heavily discussed whether there should be a presidential system, semi-presidential system. Also natural resource management, there was a great concern for the support of the national and local economy. Some people said they didn't want any foreign import if the goods could be produced locally. They want a democratic system in distributing land and also that foreigners should not be able to buy any land in East Timor, that came up many, in many, many public hearings.
Fitzgerald: The Constituent Assembly members are under pressure to base their deliberations on the UN's findings, and pressure is also coming from women's groups who've assembled 8000 signatures which they are about to present to the Assembly supporting a ten point log of claims. Jesuina Soares Cabral of the Lao Hamutuk community group says the signatures call for the constitution to bar discrimination against women, and to guarantee basic rights like personal safety, freedom of speech and children's and labour rights.
Fitzgerald: Jesuina says women want the constitution to spell out women's rights, particularly on the traditional East Timorese dowry system, which is called locally "barlaki". She says it's currently being used by some men as a way of purchasing women. Women's groups are also pushing for the constitution to pave the way for a change in East Timor's traditional inheritance laws which bar women from receiving inheritance.
In this community radio piece released to raise awareness about the importance of the constitution a woman is discussing need for law reform so she can inherit her father's property.
Fitzgerald: Although almost 30 per cent of seats in the assembly have been won by women, the proposals to change customary law on women's rights are likely to provoke a heated debate. Aderito de Soares an East Timorese human rights lawyer and a Fretilin member of the new Assembly says the choice of a national language and the role of the president are also likely to be key sticking points. He says with most land ownership records destroyed in the post referendum violence two years ago, constitutional provisions on land ownership are also likely to be difficult to draft.
De Soares: About land issue, land property, for me it is a huge, huge problem there and the new government will have a very big responsibility of tackling this issue.
Fitzgerald: Non-government organisations are lobbying for an extension of the Constituent Assembly's 90-day term to write the constitution. Aderito de Soares agrees the 90-day period is far too short and may need to be extended past December.
De Soares: It is a huge task even after we adopt the constitution in the future to continue doing this kind of education so people really understand what is the constitution. I think learn from other experience like Fiji, I think they have a very wonderful constitution, very detailed one, but it was drafted by three people one Fijian, one Fijian that lived in Australia quite long and then one New Zealander. There's three people there they developed this constitution but people have no sense of belonging totally for this constitution. So I think we have this task even after the consultation process must go ahead even after the Constituent Assembly adopted the constitution the new government should also take into account how to communicate, how to really consult.
Fitzgerald: National leader Xanana Gusmao says it won't be possible to draft a detailed constitution in just 90 days, so he's backing the a more basic bill of rights type document.
Gusmao: For me we will not need a big constitution if we think that basically we'll be the universal police force, not ideological, not problematic. Maybe we'll be able to do that.
Kyodo News - September 21, 2001
Dili -- The UN peacekeeping force (PKF) in East Timor and Indonesia's military have signed an agreement on sharing information and coordinating military activity along the border between the UN-administered territory and Indonesian-ruled West Timor, a PKF spokesman said Friday.
Captain Jeff Squire told reporters Friday the "military technical agreement" was signed August 28 in Denpasar, on the Indonesian island of Bali, between the commanders of the two sides. "The new document will improve practical understanding between the PKF and TNI [the Indonesian Defense Force] on information sharing and the coordination of military activity in the vicinity of the tactical coordination line,' Squire said.
The agreement provides clearer process for investigating incidents that sporadically occur in the vicinity of the border between the PKF and Indonesian troops, some of which have resulted casualties. The latest incident happened in late July, when PKF soldiers shot to death an Indonesian soldier who was not wearing a uniform, mistaking him for a militiaman seeking to enter into East Timor to oppose East Timor's independence.
The Guardian - September 21, 2001
John Aglionby, Jakarta -- The United Nations' transitional administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieirade Mello, appointed the territory's first entirely East Timorese government yesterday to lead the fledgling country to full independence next year.
Mari Alkatiri, the leader of East Timor's largest political party, Fretilin, is the new chief minister and also finance minister in the 20-member team. He is joined by eight other members of his party -- which won a convincing majority inlast month's first-ever fair election -- plus two members of the second-placed Democratic party and nine independents.
"This is the first truly representative and democratic government in the history of East Timor," Mr Vieira de Mello said at the swearing-in ceremony. Although he holds ultimate executive authority until independence, he has stressed that he will now take a hands-off role, as he sees this period as a dress rehearsal for after the UN's departure. The UN has been running East Timor for the past two years since its people voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. It has had to build a country from scratch because the Indonesian military and its local militias destroyed most of the territory after the referendum.
Mr Alkatiri, 51, said his goal was to create a new basis of national unity. "In the past, national cohesion was built upon opposition to the occupant," he said. "Today it must be built around the goal of reconciliation and social justice." Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate, keeps his position as foreig nminister from the previous cabinet, which was a mixture of East Timorese and UN officials.
Last month's election was for a constituent assembly which will write East Timor's constitution and then most probably turn itself into the state's first parliament. Fretilin has 55 of the 88 seats and the Democratic party seven. Sixty votes are needed to pass the constitution. Then presidential elections will be held. The former resistance leader, Xanana Gusmao, is expected to win. The economy is guaranteed in the medium-term by 20 years of offshore oil and natural gas reserves, but these pounds 125m annual windfalls will only come on stream in four years' time.
Kyodo News - September 20, 2001
Dili -- The following is the lineup of the new cabinet of East Timor's transitional government.
[F stands for Fretilin, I for Independent, PD for Democratic Party]
Kyodo News - September 20, 2001
Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Dili -- UN-administered East Timor's transitional government Thursday swore a new cabinet comprised mostly of figures from a long-established political party that won last month's election.
UN Transitional Administrator in East Timor Sergio Vieira de Mello, announcing the lineup, said the cabinet has 10 ministers, three secretaries of state and seven vice ministers.
It consists of nine representatives from the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of East Timor (Fretilin), two members of the Democratic Party, Fretilin's closest rival, and nine members not affiliated with any party. De Mello said they were selected "not on the basis of party nominations but on the basis of their individual competence."
The nine politically independent figures in the cabinet, he said, were chosen "because of their proven sectoral expertise and their demonstrated dedication and patriotism with as broad a geographical representation as was possible."
In the August 30 election for the Constituent Assembly, Fretilin, the party that spearheaded East Timor's 24-year armed resistance against Indonesia, garnered 57.3% of the vote to secure 55 seats in the 88-seat body. The Democratic Party won seven seats.
Among the cabinet members from Fretilin are Chief Minister and Economy and Development Minister Mari Alkatiri, Justice Minister Ana Maria da Silva Pinto, and Internal Administration Minister Antoninho Bianco. They also include Secretary of State of the Council of Ministers Gregorio Ferreira de Sousa and Secretary of State for Natural and Mineral Resources Egidio Jesus.
While Alkatiri leads the transitional government, it is still under the ultimate authority of de Mello pending full independence sometime next year.
The independents include Senior Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Jose Ramos-Horta and Finance Minister Fernanda Mesquita Borges.
The Democratic Party's members in the cabinet are Secretary of State for Labor and Solidarity Fernando de Araujo and Vice Minister for Internal Administration Joao Soares Martins. Despite failing to accommodate other parties in his cabinet, Alkatiri said national unity is essential "for the future success of our country."
"National unity and, consequently, stability will not be guaranteed by a formal agreement between the leadership of parties or by appointing party leaders to government posts," he said. "National unity can only ensured if it is entrenched in every strata and sector of our society."
Alkatiri also stressed the importance of normalizing relations with neighboring Indonesia. "The reconciliation process is decisive and has an immense influence in reinforcing national cohesion," he said.
Agence France Presse - September 19, 2001
Jakarta -- At least 500 East Timorese members of Indonesia's armed forces have resigned to return to their homeland, a report said Wednesday.
"I could not hold them back. It is their right to return to their homeland and they should not be prevented," regional military commander Major General Willem da Costa said, quoted by the Jakarta Post. The military had even encouraged them to return to East Timor rather than become refugees, said da Costa.
He said they were given allowances worth between nine million rupiah and 17 million rupiah, depending on their rank.
Da Costa denied the armed forces had intentionally let its native East Timorese members quit due to problems of loyalty. He said it was military policy to let the troops decide whether to stick with the military or to return.
East Timorese overwhelmingly voted on August 30, 1999, for independence after 24 years of often brutal Indonesian rule. Local pro-Jakarta militias, backed by the Indonesian military, unleashed a wave of killing and destruction in response.
East Timor is now under United Nations stewardship and is expected to become fully independent by the middle of next year.
Da Costa said in addition to the 500 "quite a lot" of troops had already returned to East Timor or were expected to do so in the future. The armed forces are also encouraging East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor to return home, he said.
An estimated quarter of a million people fled or were forced into West Timor in the wake of the 1999 violence. Militia leaders in West Timor camps have been preventing some from returning.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, Assistant United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Monday that 183,800 refugees had returned and an estimated 40,000 more would go home by the end of this year.
But he said differences between the United Nations and the Jakarta government were delaying the signing of an agreement on security and the UNHCR would not return permanently to West Timor without the pact. Without a regular presence in West Timor the UNHCR was not satisfied that refugees would have a free choice on whether to return, Jessen-Petersen said. The refugee agency pulled out of West Timor after three of its staff were murdered by a mob in September last year.
Jakarta Post - September 19, 2001 (slightly abridged)
Jakarta -- Indonesia expects to have repatriated 190,000 East Timorese refugees, currently still living in East Nusa Tenggara province, by the end of 2002, a minister said on Wednesday.
"So far, an average of 10,000 refugees are being sent back to their homeland every month," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said as quoted by Antara.
Speaking to journalists after chairing a ministerial meeting on social welfare matters here, Jusuf said the government would also take care of East Timorese refugees who did not wish to be repatriated and preferred to become Indonesian citizens.
"The government will help them get resettled somewhere in the country," he said. In addition, the government will set aside Rp 100 billion (US$10.5 million) in funds to pay the pensions of about 6,000 East Timorese refugees who worked as servicemen or civil servants in East Timor when the territory was still part of Indonesia, Kalla said.
Besides handling the East Timorese refugees, Kalla said, his ministry would also resolve the problem of 1.2 million refugees spread over 19 provinces. They were forcibly displaced by natural disasters and communal or ethnic conflicts.
"This refugee problem must soon be overcome to curb another problem, including the increasing number of poor people or even threats of national disintegration," he said.
He said the government would offer refugees three options in its efforts to solve the problem. The options are: returning them to their homeland, resettling them in new places based on preference and repatriating them to East Timor.
All of the refugees are expected to get jobs to support themselves and their families, and to improve their living standards in a peaceful situation, Kalla added.
Straits Times - September 19, 2001
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Indonesia's commitment to prosecuting human-rights cases in East Timor has come under fire following revelations that it has apparently stopped its probe into the 1999 murder of a Dutch journalist, possibly by Indonesian troops.
The Attorney-General's office said it has not officially ceased investigation into the murder of Financial Times correspondent Sander Thoenes but admitted that there had been little progress since it started over a year ago. Said its spokesman Mulyoharjo: "We are still waiting for evidence and witnesses' testimony. Without that, how can we proceed with the investigation?"
But observers dismissed the statement and said that getting witnesses would not have been difficult, if the Attorney- General's office had made a serious effort to do so. Said a source in the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet): "That is no excuse at all because the evidence is on their side of the border and we have offered full cooperation for anything on our side of the border. It should be one of the most straightforward cases to investigate."
Earlier investigation by an independent commission to investigate East Timor, known by its Indonesian acronym KPP HAM, indicated the involvement of members of the Army's battalion 745 in the killing. According to KPP HAM's report, Mr Thoenes was shot while riding on a motorcycle taxi by a group of men in military uniforms on three motorcycles, a truck and a car. At around the same time, the Battalion 745 was supposed to pass the area on their way to West Timor. But battalion commander Lt-Col Jacob Djoko Sarosa has denied his troops' involvement.
This development raised more doubts on Indonesia's ever prosecuting the five East Timor cases currently under the AG office's investigation. The four other cases are the attacks on the Dili Diocese and the house of pro-integration fighter Manuel Carrascalao, and the massacres at two churches in Liquica and Suai. The AG office has named 19 possible suspects including pro-Jakarta militias and mostly middle to lower-ranking military officers in the cases.
Mr Munir, who was a member of the East Timor KPP HAM, said the AG office might be buying time until the cases no longer attract any attention.
He added: "The lesser the reaction to their sluggish probes, the lesser the chances are for these cases to be brought to court."
Observers put the blame on the new Attorney General M. Abdur Rachman, who headed the team to probe the five cases on East Timor, saying his ties with the Indonesian military (TNI) are a guarantee that no high-ranking officers would be implicated. "Since the beginning, our talks with him also show that he had no passion nor knowledge on prosecuting crimes of humanity," said Mr Munir.
The Untaet source said its experience with dealing with Mr Rachman "had not been positive". The source added: "It's very much one step forward and two steps back and it has been like that for a long time, so I personally see no reasons to believe that it's going to change. It's a pity because President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government is sending all the right signals on all other issues, but East Timor justice is a really glaring exception."
Lusa - September 18, 2001
East Timor's new parliament convened Tuesday for its second session to choose deputy speakers, following Monday's election of Fretilin party leader Francisco Guterres (Lu-Olo) as speaker.
Proceedings were interrupted for several minutes due to an earth tremor, which was felt throughout East Timor. When the session continued, the two deputy speakers were elected.
The assembly's largest bloc, Fretilin (controlling 55 of the 88 seats) voted tactically to choose members of the smaller ASDT (Timorese Social Democratic Association) and PDC, rather than let the deputy speaker posts fall into the hands of the PD (Democratic Party) and PSD (Social Democratic Party).
Francisco Xavier do Amaral of the ASDT and Arlindo Marcal of the PDC were thus appointed as the two deputies to assist speaker Lu-Olo in overseeing debate in East Timor's Constituent Assembly, whose members took office last Saturday.
The assembly has until the end of the year to draft the fledgling nations' new constitution ahead of full independence, likely in the first half of 2002.
Fretilin is short of the minimum needed to approve legislation and must consequently work in partnership with other parties.
The New York Times - September 18, 2001
Seth Mydans, Dili -- They are the new missionaries. Steeped in the values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, they travel from one emerging nation to another to share their gospel.
In places as obscure as Vanuatu or as consequential as Russia, they join with founding fathers to help create new societies for the 21st century. They are the constitutionalists -- some more dogmatic than others -- who offer their expertise to new or reforming nations like East Timor as they draw up the written foundations for statehood.
Yash Ghai, for example, will arrive here soon from his native Kenya, where he is leading a constitutional review commission. He has given advice in Cambodia, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and the Seychelles. And he has only scratched the surface.
"There have probably been more constitutions made since World War II than ever in the history of mankind before," said Mr. Ghai, who is a professor of public law at the University of Hong Kong and a leader in the world of constitution-drafting. "So we have quite a bit of work."
When he arrives, he will be working essentially with a blank slate. In August, East Timor, newly independent from Indonesia, elected an 88-member council to draw up a constitution and gave it just 90 days to do so. At the moment, there is essentially no expertise here in constitution-making. Three council members have studied law.
This nation of fewer than 800,000 people, most of whom are illiterate, is abuzz with constitutional talk. Will it have a presidential system, a parliamentary system or a semi- presidential system? How much will the government control the economy? Will women be liberated from the local system of buying brides? What will become of the village councils that traditionally settle disputes? What will the national language be?
"We do need advisers with experience in developing constitutions around the world," said Aderito de Jesus Soares, one of the council members with a legal background. "But we don't want someone to write it for us. It has to be our constitution that we own."
This is the tricky part, Mr. Ghai said. Inevitably, people like him bring with them not only their technical expertise, but also a set of core democratic and human rights values that are common to most modern democracies. "So there is a bit of danger," he said, "that one carries in one's baggage ideas that need to be scrutinized carefully, both in terms of their social impact and of their compatibility with the traditional systems and aspirations of the people."
It is a caution that applies as well to international advisers in many areas of nation-building -- a huge, itinerant machine of democratization that includes experts in electoral law, bureaucratic systems, judicial practices, law enforcement, parliamentary procedures and the workings of a free press. All those are hard at work in East Timor, a sort of petri dish of nation-building. And each has his style.
A constitution is far more than a legal document, said Herman Schwartz, a professor of law at the American University Law School who has helped draft constitutions in 12 nations in the former Soviet bloc.
"My own values are very strongly democratically and human-rights oriented," he said. "And I try gently to promote these -- sometimes not so gently -- in the sense that I might point out things I think are very bad. One of the few things from the American Constitution that I push very strongly is a true independence of the judiciary."
He said he also tried to help hone a workable balance of powers and stressed the importance of some sort of freedom-of- information act, something the United States lived without for nearly 200 years, as "absolutely vital to having a decent democracy."
His ideas generally meet with a positive reception, he said, adding: "One of the major forces here is the pull of the West, the prosperity. That's been immensely influential in Eastern Europe."
No matter what the theories or the balance between international and local norms, there is one factor that overrides all others, the experts said -- politics. "No constitution is written in a vacuum," said Louis Aucoin, a constitutional expert at the Institute of Peace in Washington who recently worked in East Timor.
Factional squabbling is a theme that runs through East Timor's history, even within the independence movement that struggled for 24 years against Indonesia. Each party or bloc is quite likely to seek political advantage from aspects of the new constitution. So it is no surprise that even before the constitution is written East Timor has already embarked on one of the hallmarks of democracy, political infighting.
Agence France Presse - September 17, 2001
Jakarta -- A senior UN refugee official rapped Indonesian authorities Monday for failing to properly punish the "cold- blooded" killers of three of its staff.
But Soren Jessen-Petersen, Assistant United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said Jakarta, in a "fundamental policy change," now clearly wants the return of an estimated 80,000 East Timorese refugees from Indonesian West Timor.
Jessen-Petersen, speaking at the end of an eight-day visit to Jakarta and West and East Timor, said he was "very disturbed and distressed" that the high court had confirmed "ridiculously low sentences" on two men convicted in connection with the murders.
In September 2000 a mob of frenzied East Timorese militiamen stoned, stabbed and beat to death the three unarmed UNHCR workers -- an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian -- in the border town of Atambua in Indonesian West Timor. Their bodies were set on fire.
A Jakarta court in May found six men not guilty of their murder and instead convicted them of inciting mob violence. It sentenced them to jail terms of between 10 and 20 months.
Jessen-Petersen told a press conference he raised the case of "cold-blooded murder" with the attorney-general's office. "I was very disturbed by what I heard. The concerted impression we got was there was very little he could do [about the confirmation of sentence]. We don't agree with that. We believe it is the responsibility of the Indonesian authorities to take this all the way, to see that justice is done," Jessen-Petersen said.
"The impression we got from that meeting is that is not happening ... among many, many very encouraging meetings with the Indonesian authorities, there was [that] one disturbing meeting."
Kyodo News - September 17, 2001 (abridged)
Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Dili -- Francisco Guterres, a veteran of East Timor's long struggle for independence, was elected the territory's first speaker of the Constituent Assembly on Monday.
The 88-member assembly elected Guterres, popularly known by his guerrilla name Lu Olo, after UN Transitional Administrator in East Timor Sergio Vieirra de Mello, who chaired the election, named him as a single nominee in the election.
During an open vote, 68 assembly members were in favor of his election and one against, while nine abstained and eight did not determine their choice. Two assembly members were absent on the day. According to the assembly's internal regulations, a candidate for the chairmanship can be elected if he or she gains at least 45 votes. Guterres is scheduled to lead a plenary session Tuesday to elect his deputies.
Following his election, Guterres, who is coordinator of the presidential council of Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of East Timor, asked the assembly to cooperate and work together. "We have to be able to carry out the public interest," he said in brief remarks after taking over the chairmanship of the assembly from de Mello.
Guterres is a veteran of the resistance struggle and a political commissar of FALINTIL, Fretilin's armed wing during the occupation of Indonesia. He speaks Tetum, East Timor's native language, and Portuguese, but cannot speak Indonesian.
The assembly, which after independence will become East Timor's parliament, will have 90 days to write and adopt a constitution that will pave the way for a presidential election followed by a declaration of independence.
More than 37,000 East Timorese turned out in June and July at more than 200 constitutional public hearings that solicited the views of the population on what should be considered by the future Constituent Assembly when drafting the constitution.
Among the prevalent issues discussed at the hearings were the political system, currency and national flag East Timor should adopt, the type of punishments that should be applied to those responsible for serious crimes, education system, laws for foreign investors and official language.
The adoption of the constitution will require the support of at least 60 members of the assembly. The constitution itself will elaborate on the final steps to East Timor's independence. It will determine whether future elections are required before independence.
Some parts of the constitution are allowed to come into effect before independence with the consent of de Mello, who is also special representative of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. However, it will not fully come into effect until independence.
Sydney Morning Herald - September 17, 2001
Lindsay Murdoch, Bali -- Eight children and their parents, who were separated at the height of violence in East Timor two years ago, have been reunited after a year-long tug-of-war with pro- Jakarta Timorese activists. The children, part of a group of 130 aged between seven and 16, have been living in Indonesian orphanages.
But they were distressed and confused when they met their parents at a United Nations-organised reunion at a hotel in Bali at the weekend. They said they did not want to return to East Timor, fuelling concerns they had been brainwashed.
One 14-year-old boy, Abril Salvador, became violent after his father told him that he had to return. Kicking and punching people who surrounded him, he screamed in front of the other children waiting in a bus to go to the airport: "I told you I don't want to go. Don't want to go."
Eventually a sobbing Mr Domingus Salvador agreed to let his son stay in Indonesia under the guardianship of the Hati organisation, headed by Timorese activist Dr Octavio Soares.
"This is all coercion. It's against human rights," Dr Soares said after most of the parents, brought by the UN to Bali for the reunion, insisted that their children return to East Timor with them. "But that's just fine by me. I'll follow their rules," he said.
A spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ms Kemala Ahwil, who watched the tense reunion, said the parents had the right to decide what was best for the children.
For months, Dr Soares and the Hati organisation have blocked UNHCR attempts to hand over 18 children whose parents had authorised their return to East Timor. He insisted on the Bali reunion rather than a UN plan to fly the children directly to East Timor, where the parents had returned from West Timor.
Mr Marty Natalegawa, a senior official of Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Department, said his Government helped broker the Bali reunion because of an impasse between the Hati organisation and UNHCR officials representing the parents.
But a humanitarian worker, who has monitored the children's plight, yesterday criticised the decision to put the children in the position of trying to convince their parents to let them stay. "The parents have asked for their children back," the worker said. "That should have happened without putting the kids and parents through the additional trauma of a reunion in Bali because Octavio Soares insisted on it. Of course the children did not want to go back. They have not seen their parents for a long time and have been under the influence of people who want them to stay in Indonesia."
East Timor's president in-waiting, Mr Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, raised the issue of the children with Indonesia's President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, last week.
I'll name generals: militia leader
Melbourne Age - September 17, 2001
Mark Dodd, Junction Point -- The leader of one of East Timor's most notorious anti-independence militia groups has declared he is prepared to face justice and to name Indonesian generals who ordered the campaign of violence in 1999.
Cancio Lopes de Carvalho, leader of the once-feared Mahidi (typhoon) militia said: "I've killed and I've destroyed in East Timor. I am the commander of Mahidi so I'm responsible. "But I want to tell the court who gave the orders ... who are the Indonesian generals who gave the orders."
East Timorese human rights groups claim Mahidi gang members took part in the attack on the Suai cathedral on September 6, 1999, in which 200 civilians were killed.
Mr De Carvalho and his brother Nemecio, who arrived at a border checkpoint 25kilometres west of Suai to supervise the repatriation of refugees from West Timor to their homes near Cassa in Ainaro district, were also linked to threats against Australian journalists and diplomats during the militia violence.
The Mahidi militia, one of the first pro-integration gangs to be armed by the Indonesian army, supervised the forced deportation of thousands of East Timorese villagers to West Timor. The group murdered suspected independence supporters and was also linked to a campaign of terror and violent intimidation in the lead-up to the vote on independence.
The repatriation operation caps months of negotiations involving the de Carvalho family, Indonesian officials, independence leader Jose "Xanana" Gusmao, and N.Parameswaran, chief of staff of the United Nations transitional administration.
Ainaro, in the foothills of the southern highlands, was once a thriving coffee-growing town. It was almost destroyed in the violence that followed the 1999 UN-brokered referendum for self- determination from Indonesia.
| Labour struggle |
Jakarta Post - September 17, 2001
Jakarta -- Labor unions have called on the government to ratify the international convention on the protection and rights of all migrant workers and their families to help safeguard Indonesian migrants working overseas.
Wahyu Susilo, the chairman of the Consortium for the Advocacy of Indonesian Migrant Workers (Kopbumi), said Indonesia urgently needed to ratify the UN convention due to modern-day slavery that is prevalent among Indonesian workers overseas.
"The UN convention could be used as a legal foundation by the government to consider a law on the protection of Indonesian migrant workers and their families overseas," he said, responding to the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which ended on September 7.
Wahyu, who was also in the Indonesian delegation to the conference, said issues on migrant workers gained serious attention at the week-long meeting on the grounds that discrimination and torture against migrant workers from Asia and Africa were rampant.
"Besides the convention on migrant workers, the conference also recommended that Asian and African countries ratify the convention against transnational-organized crime and protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking of people, especially women," he told The Jakarta Post.
The convention on migrant workers stipulates that both labor export countries and labor import countries should make a bilateral agreement to provide maximum protection. It also guarantees migrant workers' rights for freedom of union, information and safety in the workplace.
Wahyu lambasted the government's double standards on migrant workers and labor exporters who mostly treat workers as trade commodities, which he said partly led to the prevalent torture of Indonesian workers overseas.
"So far, the government has yet to enact any law that treats migrant workers as human assets instead of a trade commodity. The government has not taken any action against labor exporters found guilty of trading children and women to international syndicates," he said.
The consortium's data shows that the number of Indonesian migrant workers who died or were killed in Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia reached 29 between January and August of this year, with 82 others tortured and over 4,500 running away from employers in Taiwan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
Ariest Merdeka Sirait, the coordinator for the Legal Advocacy and Information System for Workers (Sisbikum), concurred, saying that Indonesia was classified as one of the major Asian countries supplying workers overseas. "Some two million Indonesian workers, mostly women, are working overseas despite the absence of bilateral agreements with countries employing Indonesian workers," he said.
Ariest called on the government to take a lesson from the Philippines on how the neighboring country treats its migrant workers by providing protection to those encountering trouble overseas. "We have long treated our workers as the subject of extortion, from when they leave their home village until they return home again," he said.
A. Munir, the chairman of the Legal Aid Foundation for Migrant Workers (LPBH TKI), said the inhumane treatment of migrant workers at home and overseas had something to do with the absence of laws guaranteeing workers' rights and protection from the government and labor exporters. "We have frequently reported labor exporters violating regulations on supplying workers overseas but no actions were taken against them," Munir said.
He said the government must take tough measures against labor exporters who poorly treat migrant workers and fail to provide them with protection. "Besides, the government should improve labor cooperation with countries employing a large number of Indonesian workers," Munir said.
He said the majority of Indonesian workers were employed in Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Qatar, Oman, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
| Corruption/collusion/nepotism |
Agence France Presse - September 21 2001
Jakarta -- Bribery is so rife in Indonesia's parliament that legislators consider the system to be normal, a report said Friday.
Members of the House of Representatives (lower house), interviewed by the Jakarta Post, told the paper that receiving gifts, cash or facilities was considered acceptable because "practically everybody did it" and they were beyond the reach of the law.
Controversy arose after the discovery on Monday that a legislator had received a 10 million rupiah (1,052 dollar) travellers' cheque from a ranking government official. The paper quoted police sources as saying they would soon question both the legislator and the finance ministry official said to be implicated.
Another MP, on the house's forestry and agriculture commission, was quoted as saying he received a payment after debating a plantations bill. "We convened for deliberation on the bill for days and nights. It is normal for me to accept cash," he told the Post.
"I receive extra money amounting to between 500,000 rupiah and one million rupiah from the ministry of agriculture. I don't consider it to be a special case." A legislator who asked to remain anonymous said the amount received by each legislator was not the same. "Perhaps, because I am outspoken I receive only a little," he said.
MP Hartono Mardjono strongly condemned the payments system. He blamed the indirect election system under which voters cast ballots for a party -- which then selects legislators to sit in the house. MPs do not feel accountable to constituents, he said.
Hartono said some commissions were classed as "wet" in which bribery is normal. Among these were bodies supervising banking and state enterprises.
Commissions where bribery is uncommon were classed as "dry." He said legislators are offered various privileges, project concessions and "complimentary" gifts for themselves and their families.
"But cash is the most common form of bribery. Enclosed in an envelope it is untraceable." Hartono said legislators can accept bribes without fear of being caught. The Post said existing laws do not say whether a legislator may receive gifts.
The paper said legislators receive take-home pay of about 12.5 million rupiah a month plus an array of other benefits -- including an "intensive communications" allowance of 35 million rupiah per year and six million rupiah for a washing machine allowance. The purpose of this allowance was unclear.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed the stamp out what is called KKN -- corruption, collusion and nepotism. She says she summoned her close family and instructed them against any form of corruption. Members of her new cabinet were also told to list their assets.
| Regional/communal conflicts |
Straits Times - September 18, 2001
Tangerang -- Vigilantes here are increasingly regarded as more effective in curbing crime than the police.
Violent mobs have killed at least 42 criminals in the last nine months, while police turn a blind eye and even seem to applaud the bravery of residents who kill criminals.
Between January and early September this year, the Tangerang General Hospital morgue had received the bodies of 42 criminal suspects delivered from 15 police sub-precincts. Twelve of the 42 corpses could not be identified due to serious burns, said Mr Jaelani, a morgue assistant at the hospital. Not a single vigilante victim was delivered to the hospital last year, he added.
Mr Agus Mulyadi, a plant vendor who joined in beating up two criminals last month, said: "We're sick of criminals who do not hesitate to hurt their victims. Moreover, the criminals are usually lazy individuals who just want to enjoy their lives without working hard. We can no longer trust the police to settle these cases."
Since the vigilantes are regarded as effective at curbing crime, the police seem to have turned a blind eye and appear to applaud the bravery of residents who kill criminals. "We regret the action of residents who take the law into their own hands. But such vigilantes bring positive results to our crime-busting efforts," said Tangerang Police chief Affan Richwanto. "Unlike in the past, residents are now becoming braver at facing criminals. If you were a police officer, what would you do if you found an angry mob beating up a criminal?"
He called on public and religious figures to help prevent vigilantism, saying that Indonesians still respected and listened to them. "But the problem is that public figures are not able to monitor the vigilantes as very often they operate far from housing complexes," he said.
When asked whether the vigilantes are a result of the fact that people no longer trust the police, he said: "If you claim people have lost trust in the police, why are residents still willing to build police stations in their areas? Anger and a lack of legal awareness have prompted people to kill criminal suspects."
Most victims of the vigilante mobs are motorcycle thieves, robbers or burglars. Vigilantes will not be able to eradicate these kinds of crime, the police chief said. "As long as the economy is depressed, there will always be criminals,' he said.
But criminologist Erlangga Masdiana of the University of Indonesia said police should not just wash their hands off the rising prevalence of street justice, adding that in the long run, the police force must be reformed.
| Local & community issues |
Agence France Presse - September 19, 2001
Jakarta -- Vigilante justice rules the streets of an Indonesian city near here, with at least 42 suspected petty criminals burnt alive or beaten to death by mobs so far this year. Criminologists say the attacks reflect a widespread loss of faith in the police and the justice system. Police say they do not condone the lynchings but can do little to prevent them.
A hospital morgue assistant in the city of Tangerang, near Jakarta international airport, said 42 corpses -- 12 of them burnt beyond recognition -- had been brought in from January to September. "We normally tag the bodies of the unidentified criminals -- most of whom had no ID cards or are hardly recognizable due to severe beatings or burnings -- as Mr. X," the assistant, Jaelani, told AFP this week.
He said if nobody claimed the bodies after a week, the city would bury them in a mass grave. "The police know that the burnings and beatings are helping their work and that knowledge is making them lackadaisical in preventing the mob," Jaelani said.
Many Tangerang residents are sick of criminals who do not hesitate to hurt their victims, plant vendor Agus Mulyadi was quoted by Monday's Jakarta Post as saying. "We can no longer trust the police to settle these cases," said Mulyadi, who claimed to have taken part in the beating up of two criminals last month.
Tangerang's police chief, Adjunct Chief Commissioner Affan Richwanto, said police "are normally outnumbered and face possible attack" from angry mobs if they try to stop the lynchings. "I personally regret past brutal actions by residents here but the upside of the street justice is that it helps our work to fight crime in this area," Richwanto told AFP. "There is not much a policeman can do to stop dozens in an angry mob when they are in the middle of a frenzy," he said, adding that the killings normally involved motorcycle thieves and burglars.
Street vigilantism, said criminologist Harkristuti Harkrisnowo of the University of Indonesia, could be attributed to the public's "long-standing distrust" of law enforcers. "It starts with distrust which later leads to civil disobedience. A large sentiment exists that the law will only work for those who have power and the funds," she said. "The public feels that they have long been victimized by the state for its lack of real actions to uphold justice."
By nature, she said, Indonesians are not violent people, "It's just that the current conditions -- the four-year long economic crisis and political upheavals -- have led the public to take matters into their own hands." Public education starting at neighborhood level and the strengthening of security personnel in restive overpopulated areas could help curb street vigilantes, Harkrisnowo told AFP.
Criminologist Erlangga Masdiana, also from the University of Indonesia, was quoted by Monday's Jakarta Post as saying police should not wash their hands of street justice. He noted that in the long run, reform of the police is necessary. "There must be political will from top executives within the police to reform its institutional structure and culture right to the lowest level," he said.
| Human rights/law |
Straits Times - September 22, 2001
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Militant human-rights activists selected as candidates for the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) are finding opposition within the splintered commission, as some members are not happy with their "pro- Western, anti-military, NGO-approach".
Most of the 14 people nominated by a committee comprising of academics and some Commission members are outspoken non- governmental activists since the repressive days of former president Suharto. They include human-rights lawyers Hendardi and Todung Mulya Lubis, environmentalist Emmy Hafild, consumer-rights campaigner Zoemrotin and urban poor advocate Wardah Hafidz. Some of them were known to be supporters of ousted president Abdurrahman Wahid till the last days of his 21-month tenure.
Some members of the Commission have raised objections to the selections. They say the candidates do not represent the various elements of society. Mr Saafroedin Bahar said the selection lacked former bureaucrats, judges, attorneys, police and military officers, and religious figures.
"These candidates do not reflect pluralism," added the retired military general. "Komnas Ham is not an NGO. If it consists mainly of the NGO people, then I'm afraid Komnas will adopt an 'Abdurrahman-Wahid syndrome'." He said Mr Abdurrahman, a former activist, continued to act like one by alienating the military, police and Parliament while in office.
He and his colleagues have ignored the recommended list and added 20 more candidates to the selection. The move is to raise the number of Commission members from 25 to 35 people, so that NGO types would not dominate the body. Parliament is due to screen the candidates next week.
But Mr Saafroedin's colleague Asmara Nababan disagreed. "There are a lot of objections within Komnas because the current members are mainly former bureaucrats, politicians and retired military and police officers," he said. "Only one person comes from an NGO -- so it is very under-represented." He pointed out that the current members were mostly "senior citizens" who think many of the young candidates are a threat to stability.
A human-rights commission does not have to represent all professions, Mr Asmara said, otherwise it would be laden with conflict of interests and would lack independence. He added: "It is this that continues to erode trust in the Komnas HAM. Some of the people here are happy enough that we can only bark but not bite."
Three human-rights organisations have also urged all existing Komnas members to resign, because of its inability to resolve human-rights abuses. They described the Commission as a "bumper of immunity".
| News & issues |
Reuters - September 17, 2001
Jakarta -- Indonesia's vice president, a leading Muslim politician, urged the United States not to make Muslims a scapegoat for last week's terror attacks, which he said could help atone for Washington's past sins.
"Hopefully, the tragedy can cleanse the sins by the US," the Kompas newspaper on Sunday quoted Vice President Hamzah Haz as saying. "Therefore, there should not be any revenge against the Islamic community or Islamic countries," said Haz, the head of the Muslim-oriented United Development Party.
But Haz also condemned the attacks and expressed Jakarta's sympathy for the victims. "We are concerned by, regret and condemn the terrorism against the United States. But we are asking the US not to make Islam a scapegoat," Haz said.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslin country and the fourth most populous. About 90 percent of its 210 million people follow Islam. President Megawati Sukarnoputri, due to visit the United States this week, has offered Indonesia's help for Washington's war against international terrorism.
Haz said Jakarta appreciated President George W. Bush's decision not to cancel his invitation to Megawati despite the attacks, adding it was a sign the Bush administration harboured no ill will specifically against Islamic nations. Haz's United Development Party (PPP) is the largest Islamic party in Indonesia's parliament and its governing coalition.
Indonesian authorities and people have overwhelmingly expressed sympathy for the United States and outrage over the death and devastation. Although about half a dozen people held an anti-US protest outside the heavily-guarded embassy on Thursday, they were vastly outnumbered by the scores of flowers and wreaths laid along the security fence behind policemen carrying automatic weapons.
However, some commentators, including one former defence minister and one adviser to former President B.J. Habibie, have urged Washington not to over-react over the attacks, prompting an angry public response from US ambassador Robert Gelbard.
Indonesia is battling an Islamic insurgency in Aceh, a province on Sumatra, and recently agreed with Malaysia that their security agencies should cooperate closely to counter Muslim extremist groups in the region.
Straits Times - September 17, 2001
Jakarta -- Two civilians were shot dead yesterday when police battled soldiers in the streets of an East Java town after a dispute at a petrol station.
"There are 20 people injured and two killed," East Java police spokesman Commissioner Peni Handayani told the Antara news agency. The wounded comprised eight policemen, two soldiers and 10 civilians. Several police stations had been damaged in the clashes that erupted soon after midnight in the town of Madiun, Antara said. "Those who were killed numbered two, all civilians," Mr Peni said.
Antara said Madiun's military police command, several police posts and the emergency ward of the police hospital had been damaged. Four police motorcycles and a car were also torched.
The clashes erupted after police tried to halt a fight between a navy officer and members of the army infantry at a gas station. An infantry man who was lightly wounded in the melee gathered other soldiers and went on a rampage in the town, attacking police stations. The gas station clash started after several infantry members on motorcycles jumped a queue for fuel.
Jakarta Post - September 17, 2001
Jakarta -- Preliminary questioning of alleged bombers revealed that they planted bombs to incite terror and sow hatred between people of different religions in the country, an officer said on Saturday. "So far we've had a confession that the arrested bombers wanted to see people of different religions blaming and fighting each other," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam told reporters.
Police also got an indication that the next target of the groups was mosques. "We believe that the people are merely the hit men and it's not easy to make them reveal who their boss is," Anton said.
Police have apprehended 14 people, including three Malaysians, for allegedly being involved in the Atrium Plaza bombing in Central Jakarta, and a series of church bombings in the city earlier this year and on Christmas Eve throughout the country last year. Some of them also confessed that they had been involved in communal clashes in the Maluku islands.
Earlier, police blamed Acehnese separatists, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra as being behind the bombings.
| Religion/islam |
Reuters - September 21 2001
Jakarta -- Sales of T-shirts bearing the picture of Muslim militant Osama bin Laden have surged in Indonesia, home of the world's largest Islamic population, since Washington named him as its chief suspect in last week's attacks.
"Today, we sold twice as many as usual. It has been like this since [the US accused bin Laden]," Andi Cut Muthia, a 30-year-old mother of three who prints and distributes the shirts, told Reuters on Friday.
Washington has demanded that Afghanistan hand over bin Laden, accusing him of masterminding the September 11 air attacks on Washington and New York in which more than 6,000 people died.
The $3 T-shirts come in three styles, one with the words "Islam is my blood." Muthia said business had never been better given the growing number of protesters against the US stand.
"With these shirts, we are also spreading the word. Osama is a hero ... a defender of Islam and human rights. The world should not perceive Islam as a religion of terrorists," said the veiled businesswoman whose shop also sells Islamic books and tapes.
Indonesia's radical Islamic groups, which have small but very vocal support, have set the tone, vowing to declare a holy war on the United States if it attacks Afghanistan to demolish bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization.
Not all those buying Muthia's shirts are making a religious statement, though. Some are simply looking for a change of style.
"I've heard about this shop but never dropped in. This is my first time," said student Gatot Setiawan, 24. "But a lot of my friends have bought them," he said, putting on his new T-shirt.
Agence France Presse - September 21, 2001
Jakarta -- Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network has supplied money and weapons for Indonesians and other Islamic fighters waging a "holy war" against Christians in the Malukus, an expert said Friday.
Al Chaidar, an academic who has written 18 books on radical Muslim groups in the world's most populous Muslim nation, said in an interview that bin Laden and his network channel funds and weapons to a militant Islamic network here called the "Darul Islam" to fight the jihad in the Malukus, Indonesia's fabled "Spice Islands".
The links were forged when 30,000 Indonesians fought alongside the mujahideen from 1983 to 1989 against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, he said.
Bin Laden, considered by the US as the chief suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, was among the key backers of the mujahideen fighters.
Al Chaidar said the 15,000 Indonesian fighters who returned home make up the core of the Darul Islam, which he described as a clandestine network that conducts terrorist operations in Indonesia.
"They maintain contact with the international mujahideen network, including Osama bin Laden's group. Wherever a jihad is in force, this network provides money and weapons and all tools needed for the jihad, and they mobilise fighters to go to the jihad area," Al Chaidar told AFP.
"This is exactly what is happening in the Malukus. Osama bin Laden is one of those who have sent money and weapons to jihad fighters in the Malukus."
Al Chaidar estimated that bin Laden supplied up to 50 million rupiah for the first wave of 7,000 jihad fighters sent to the Malukus in "The majority of Darul Islam leaders make contact directly with Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda directly sends funds. Al Qaeda has supplied money and weapons for the jihad in the Malukus," he said. An estimated 4,000 people have died in three years of sporadic fighting between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku islands.
The militant Laskar Jihad group, whose commander Jaffar Umar Thalib is a former mujahideen fighter, publicly trained and paraded its fighters in Jakarta before sending them to the Malukus in May 2000. Local and international observers have blamed the group for much of the violence since mid-2000.
Al Chaidar said he is a leader of one of eight moderate factions within the organisation's 14 factions. He became involved with the group initially through his research in 1991 when he was a student at the University of Indonesia.
Since 1999, he said, the eight moderate factions have been trying to transform the organisation "from an underground, pro-violence, clandestine movement to an open, non-violent, above-the-ground group."
Al Chaidar said the international mujahideen network, made up of former fighters from Chechnya, Kashmir, the southern Philippines, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, held meetings in Malaysia in 1999 and 2000 at which they pinpointed Indonesia as the ideal place to develop their movement.
"They called Indonesia the number one country in terms of looseness, corruption, and instability. They decided it was very easy to infiltrate and a very good place to develop themselves," he said.
Al Chaidar said as far as he knew bin Laden had never visited Indonesia but did not rule out the possibility that he could try to hide here.
However the scholar said he was unaware of plans by Al Qaeda or Darul Islam to attack US interests in Indonesia. "I met a band of mujahideen fighters two months ago who said plans had been decided six months ago to attack the US in the US, not here," he said.
The US embassy in Jakarta has warned its citizens repeatedly in recent months that extremist groups may be targetting US interests in Indonesia.
Agence France Presse - September 20, 2001
Jakarta -- Some 30 Muslim students set fire to two US flags outside the US consulate in Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya Thursday during a protest against any plans to attack Afghanistan, police said.
About 50 riot police guarded the mission in the East Java city but a police spokesman said nobody from the group, which calls itself the Muslim Student Solidarity Forum, had been arrested. Students torched the flags after being barred from laying wreaths carrying protest messages at the consulate.
One of their leaders, Zainul Abidin, was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying protesters only wanted to express their views with the wreaths. These bore inscriptions reading "America, reflect on the Oklahoma tragedy" and "Rest in peace humanity, stop nuclear war." "Democracy does not work in the US because they [the US consulate] refuses to meet us when we just wanted to convey our aspiration that America should not easily make an accusation over the tragedy in New York and Washington," Abidin said.
The Oklahoma city bombing in 1995 was carried out by US terrorist Timothy McVeigh despite initial suspicions of a Middle Eastern connection. The US says Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden is its main suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks and has warned Afghanistan to hand him over.
In Jakarta, some 100 headscarved protesters from "The Muslim Women Sisterhood", held a brief peaceful rally outside the United Nations office. The group shouted "Peace is beautiful" and "Peace, yes, terrorism, no." "We are strongly against terrorism as a whole but if they are going to attack Afghanistan it will be a new form of terrorism because many innocent civilians will be victimized," said the group's spokeswoman, Zyrlifera Jamil.
Jamil said President Megawati Sukarnoputri -- who held talks with US President George W. Bush on Wednesday -- "must not betray the aspirations of [the] Muslim community" in Indonesia. On Wednesday radical Islamic groups in Indonesia threatened to raid US facilities and expel American citizens if Washington attacks Afghanistan. But Jamil said her group "will never support any raids by any Muslim groups" on US residents and facilities.
The protesters went on to a roundabout a few blocks away and distributed roses to onlookers before dispersing.
Later in the day some 50 protesters from the Indonesian Muslim Student Association rallied at the same roundabout and urged the US not to indiscriminately blame Afghanistan and Bin Laden. "America is so confused that they had to issue threats to Afghanistan without having any proof that Osama was actually behind the attacks," said association spokesman Yanuar Arif.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation.
Jakarta Post - September 18, 2001
Jakarta -- Muslim communities in Indonesia are playing down a call for a jihad by Taliban rulers in Afghanistan against the United States should the US attack Middle East countries.
"I think we must be careful. We must not show emotional ties [to the Taliban] as it could have a broad impact," said A. Syafii Maarif, chairman of the Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country.
The comment was made in response to Afghanistan's Taliban leaders, who called on Muslims to launch a holy war if the US and its allies attacked them. Reuters reported on Monday that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers had deployed a force of between 20,000 and 25,000 fighters just across the border from the Khyber Pass into Pakistan.
Syafii said Muslims in Indonesia should practice moderate Islam which is mainstream here, not the radical form. "Because the problem is not clear yet," he said. On one hand the US government remains adamant that Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden was behind Tuesday's suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. "On other hand, bin Laden has strongly denied the accusation. But he hailed the attack," he told The Jakarta Post. Syafii said everybody should first realize precisely what the real situation was.
Lasykar Jihad spokesman Hilal Thalib, meanwhile, said that his force had no connection with the Taliban in Afghanistan. "We are in Indonesia. We have a responsibility to defend Muslims here," he told the Post.
Thalib said the accusation by US that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks was political motivated. "There is no clarification on that matter." He said the Lasykar Jihad was set up mainly to further develop Islam in Indonesia.
South China Morning Post - September 19, 2001 (abridged)
Agencies in Jakarta and Baradan Kuppusamy in Kuala Lumpur -- A radical Indonesian Muslim group said yesterday it would attack the US Embassy and seek the expulsion of Americans in Jakarta if Washington carried out revenge strikes against any Islamic nation.
"If the US carries out its threat in the form of military aggression against any Muslim states then the FPI will perceive it as an act of terrorism," said Al Habib Muhammad Riziq Syihab, head of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). "It means that we will attack the US Embassy," he said, adding the group also would seek out American citizens to have them expelled if any attack took place.
The FPI is a small but aggressive group that has been behind several attacks in the past year on bars and nightclubs, including some known to be popular with foreigners.
Police, who have beefed up security at the US Embassy in Jakarta since last week, dismissed the threats. "We don't think this is a serious threat ... no one has a right to conduct sweeps except security forces and no one has a right to attack any buildings in the name of religion," Jakarta police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam said.
In a letter published in the Singapore Business Times, the US Ambassador to Jakarta, Robert Gelbard, said recent comments by two former senior Indonesian officials cautioning the US against wrongly apportioning blame "could create an atmosphere of misunderstanding and hatred, rather than one of compassion".
| Arms/armed forces |
Straits Times - September 19, 2001
Jakarta -- An elite Indonesian army unit has sacked two top officers as well as 20 soldiers from the battalion following a deadly street battle with police in an East Java town. Lieutenant-General Ryamizard Ryacudu, chief of the Kostrad strategic reserve, ordered the sackings.
The two top officers fired were Major Komistin Hadirin and Major Nurcholid, the chief and deputy chief of Kostrad's airborne battalion in Madiun, where the clashes broke out. The East Java military spokesman Lt-Col Djoko Agus said the other 20 infantry soldiers were in the custody of the Madiun military police. "They are waiting for legal processing for the offence. We are investigating the case very seriously," he added.
Members of the battalion attacked several police stations in Madiun following a brawl at a petrol station around midnight last Saturday. Three students died and 20 people were injured. The parents of the dead students, Hendrik, 17, and M. Adi Nugroho, 18, said they would file suits against the police and the army for the deaths of their children.
Fierce fighting broke out after a heated argument over queue- cutting at a petrol station near the town square on Saturday night. The arguments escalated when a large number of the infantry battalion members arrived at the scene and helped the military policemen. A police officer fired a warning shot, which did not stop the fighting. A military policemen then tried to grab his gun and was shot in the leg instead.
The brawl later led to an attack by about 300 members of the infantry battalion on Madiun police station and three other sub- stations in the town. One traffic police post in the precinct was destroyed. Other buildings were also attacked and damaged, including the police hospital. Many police officers were seriously injured in the attack.
Lt-Gen Ryacudu said: "If something like this occurs again, I will never pardon anyone who is involved. I will even discharge one battalion if necessary if this kind of incident ever takes place again."
| International relations |
Jakarta Post - September 22, 2001
Jakarta -- Are there any strings attached to the promised military and financial aid from the United States? A number of analysts believe there are not.
Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies says he does not see any link between the aid pledged by the US and Indonesia's commitment to support the global war against terrorism. "If any, it is only at the diplomatic level, but it is not the real objective of the US," Kusnanto told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He said the US did not expect too much from Indonesia's support as it had already secured support from many Arab countries. Besides, Kusnanto said, the United Nations' resolutions already provided a strong and legitimate basis for the US to fight terrorism.
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that Indonesia's support for the global war against terrorism was not the main reason why the US heaped promises of aid to Megawati.
Dewi cited three long-term considerations behind the promises. First, Indonesia has a very important role to play in the Southeast Asian region. The US does not want to see a weak Indonesia. Second, the US wants to help smoothen the transition process toward democracy in Indonesia. Third, to protect US interests in Indonesia, as there are many US companies operating here. President George W. Bush and President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a joint statement in Washington on Wednesday. Bush promised Megawati to restore US military aid and pledged financial aid totaling US$657.4 million. The statement also sought for a renewal of military ties between the two countries, which had been disrupted since September 1999, soon after the TNI was allegedly involved in violence after East Timor's ballot for independence. The US imposed an embargo on arms and spare parts and froze its international military training, cooperation on education and foreign military funds.
Fellow analyst at LIPI, Riza Sihbudi, said he feared that the US attached strings to its promises. "As long as the commitment is limited to support a global war against terrorism it is OK. What I am worried about is that the commitment includes a dissolution of what is perceived as hard-line Islamic organizations by US diplomats," he said. "Megawati should reject the aid if it comes with the condition that Indonesia should fulfill all US demands," he said, adding that Megawati became president, in part, due to support from Muslim groups. Riza said the US needed support from Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, in its efforts to pursue Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect of the attack against Washington and New York on September 11.
Dewi said the American policy looked like a carrot-and-stick approach. "I think such an approach is still used by the US in its dealings with Indonesia. But we should not think negatively about the aid as it is not wise if support from Indonesia is used as an exchange for aid," said the former adviser to president B.J. Habibie. If such an approach persists it would be counterproductive as it could offend nationalist sentiments. Had Megawati not pledged her support to fight international terrorism, she said, she doubted that the generous promises would be made so soon.
Human rights campaigner Munir said financial aid from the US was promised with the hope that Indonesia would control anti-American groups in the country. "This is a new cold war waged by the US against the Middle East," said the former coordinator for the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence.
Some radical Islamic groups have threatened to attack the US Embassy in Jakarta and to search and expel US citizens from Indonesia as soon as the US launch a military attack on any country in the Middle East.
The House of Representatives will summon Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda next week to explain the background of the promised aid, Chairman of Commission I on foreign affairs Ibrahim Ambong said on Thursday.
Separately, the Indonesian Military (TNI) hailed the US decision to restore military aid to Indonesia. "We are grateful that finally such an agreement has been reached, which will benefit both countries," TNI spokesman Rear Air Marshall Graito Usodo told reporters at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta on Friday.
Kusnanto, however, said he was pessimistic that military relations could be normalized soon, as there were conditions that required Indonesia to resolve its human rights issues first. "Moreover, Bush needs approval from the Congress to restore military relations with Indonesia," he said, adding that he appreciated the US's commitment to educate civilians on defense matters. "It is important because it will help civilians control the military. How can legislators oversee the military when they do not understand defense matters."
Asia Pulse - September 21, 2001
Washington DC -- The United States government has pledged to assist President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government in building a stable, united and democratic Indonesia, according to a joint statement between the two countries' leaders here Wednesday night. US President George W Bush and his Indonesian counterpart issued two joint statements following their meeting at the White House.
Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said one of the documents was about bilateral relations between the two countries, and the other was about cooperation on terrorism and religious tolerance.
Bush expressed strong US support for continued political and economic reform in Indonesia.
The statement noted that the two leaders had agreed to open a new period on bilateral cooperation, which will be based on democratic values and joint interest in promoting regional stability and welfare.
Bush has pledged to secure US$130 million for Indonesia in the 2002 state budget of the US. The fund will be used to assist education and the reform of laws in Indonesia. He also promised additional loans totalling $10 million for refugees in Maluku island and $5 million to support a reconciliation program in the restive province of Aceh.
The US president reaffirmed his support for an integrated Indonesia, saying Washington would never support the separatist demands in Aceh and Irian Jaya.
Washington also promised to normalize its military relations with Indonesia as the two presidents agreed to establish a bilateral security dialog. Bush said he would allocate $400,000 for a program of "expanded international military education and training" (E-IMET).
Some members of his administration want to explore a limited resumption of military links with Indonesia, frozen when the military was implicated in militia rampages and serious human rights abuses after East Timor voted for independence in 1999. Bush also announced that the US will revoke its embargo on the sale of non-lethal defense articles to Indonesia.
The other statement emphasized that Islam was a religion of peace which neither teaches hatred nor condones violence.
Megawati encouraged Bush in his stated purpose of building a broad coalition across religious lines and cultures to deal with these new and dangerous threats, it was said.
In her joint appearance with Bush, Megawati noted that she had condemned the "inhumane" attacks as soon as they occurred. "This is the position of my government on this issue. So it is very clear Indonesia has always been against violence," she said.
"You represent the nation with the most Muslim people in the world," Bush told Megawati in a joint Oval Office appearance. "I have made it clear Madame President that the war against terrorism is not a war against Muslims, nor is it a war against Arabs," said Bush. "It is a war against evil people who conduct crimes against innocent people," he said.