East Timor

Leaders cryptic on SAS claims

The Age - December 8, 2001

Jill Jolliffe -- A former defence minister in the Whitlam government, Bill Morrison, has left open the possibility of an SAS operation to evacuate the Balibo Five from the border area of East Timor in October, 1975.

Morrison said that although he was unaware of such a mission, his approval would not have been strictly necessary. "One would like to think so, but I think certain defence force ministers aren't always fully informed of the movement of units," he said when asked if he knew of such a mission.

He told The Age that there was often a gap between principle and reality when it came to ministerial approval.

In a carefully-worded response about reports that an SAS mission may have been initiated in an attempt to extricate the journalists, Morrison said: "It is extraordinary that a unit would be there and I certainly wasn't aware of their presence. No request was made of me and no decision came from me. I had no information ... if there were any major SAS groups there I didn't know about it and I didn't authorise a taskforce."

Intelligence experts have argued that any covert SAS operation into East Timor would normally have been authorised by then prime minister Gough Whitlam, or by Morrison.

Whitlam, 85, responded to questions submitted to him about the existence of such a mission with one sentence: "I never heard that such a mission was proposed or had occurred." He declined to comment further.

Recent research on the deaths of Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie has revealed that on October 13, 1975, three days before Indonesian forces attacked Balibo, Australian diplomats in Jakarta had been given detailed advance plans for the Indonesian attack.

This knowledge was withheld from the public as well as from Australia's closest Western allies -- the United States, Britain and New Zealand -- as is indicated on relevant cables by the code AUSTEO: "Australian eyes only."

The journalists were killed in Balibo at dawn on October 16 as they filmed Indonesian forces attacking with warships, artillery, helicopter gunships and regular infantry troops. Morrison said that at the time he had no knowledge that the journalists were in the remote border town waiting to film the Indonesian invasion.

"I certainly wasn't aware that the Balibo Five were in East Timor," he said. "You might recall that before this we [the Whitlam government] had taken out quite a lot of Australians. Some journalists then entered illegally."

He said he was unaware that Australian diplomat John Starey had informed the government on October 9 that Greg Shackleton of Channel 7 and his crew were on their way to East Timor, after he met them in Darwin's Travelodge hotel before their departure.

Documents released recently (October 15) under the Freedom of Information Act contain evidence to the 1999 Sherman inquiry by Edward Howes, a former clerk of the secret Office Of Current Intelligence. He testified that records of radio intercepts from East Timor had been hand-delivered to Whitlam and other senior government officials in October, 1975.

He said the intercepts reported when the five journalists arrived in East Timor from Australia and when they reached Balibo, described the house they camped in and gave details of their deaths, all within hours of those events.

Were the Balibo five nearly saved?

The Age - December 8, 2001

Jill Jolliffe -- In 1996, I had been told about a man who claimed to have been at Balibo when the journalists died, as part of an Australian SAS force. I finally tracked him down and won his agreement to talk on the basis of anonymity. We met at his home in England in 1999. This man now works as a consultant for a Balkan army; in short, he is a soldier of fortune. The story he told is an extraordinary one. If true, it changes everything known about the Balibo case.

He claimed to have been the commander of a 12-person SAS unit that was on the ground near Balibo four to five days before the announcement that the bodies had been found. This sets the date as October 15 or 16, although he agreed it may have been a day before that. They were brought out by submarine and parachuted in, he said. He said they went in from Goroka in Papua New Guinea. The unit was dropped close to Balibo village. Their mission, he said, stemmed from a Whitlam government decision: get (the journalists) out forcibly, at gunpoint, if necessary.

A place had been predesignated at which the journalists were to rendezvous with his men, but the unit was not informed how the journalists were to be delivered this message, or indeed persuaded to act on it. The orders and briefings in this highly secret operation were on a need-to-know basis. The commander assumed, however, that whoever was the Australian Secret Intelligence Service agent on the ground in Dili had responsibility for making necessary arrangements.

The SAS mission failed, my informant said, because the journalists did not turn up at the assigned meeting place. The unit was on the ground for less than a day altogether, but risked exposure by overstaying its set time in the hope that the contact would occur.

According to the former commander, two other governments (the New Zealand and the Portuguese) had been contacted in advance and had agreed on the operation, but there had been no contact with the Indonesian government. The mission went smoothly and there were no problems apart from the journalists' non-appearance.

In an attempt to ascertain whether Australia had sought Wellington's agreement for the hypothetical SAS operation, I contacted New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark last year. In a letter dated November 7, she stated: "Officials have conducted a thorough search of New Zealand government archives. They have found no evidence to support these claims."

Given the difficulty of confirming the informant's testimony, it can only be taken as prima facie evidence, but there are further fragments of information that do enhance the story's credibility.

Following a Foreign Correspondent program on the death of the newsmen, among the many callers was a man who said he knew of a person who claimed to have been with the SAS not only in the Balibo area, but in the town square itself on October 16, and to have been injured in a firefight with the Indonesians.

My source said that this man, who had a long history of service in the SAS, claimed to have been shot in the arm in Balibo. He, too, maintained that he had been sent there to get the journalists out alive, and had arrived as the attack was occurring. His group managed to penetrate to the Balibo square and the Chinese house, the story went, but when they got there, the source told me, they found the bodies of the executed journalists laid out in the house. The SAS quickly retreated, he said, to be taken off Timor by submarine.

In April last year, I ran this second SAS man to ground with the assistance of my source. By phone, I told him about the book I was writing, and said I would like to talk to him and ask some questions. After a pause, he said, "I'm not sure I want to go down that track. I still have connections". But then he proposed that I e-mail him some questions, and he would consider whether he could reply. On April 18, I sent a questionnaire that would involve him only answering true or false.

By April 23, I had received no reply. I sent another message, stressing guarantees that I would safeguard his identity. On April 26, the unsigned reply came: "Hi. I'm afraid I cannot comment on any of your questions. I have no idea who pointed you in my direction but there has obviously been a case of mistaken identity."

There our exchange came to an end. It was on a note that contradicted the earlier phone conversation, and was internally contradictory, in giving two slightly different reasons for not replying fully: I cannot comment, and there has obviously been a case of mistaken identity.

Because I already knew the rough outline of this man's claims when I interviewed the first alleged SAS man, I had run the story past him. He at first dismissed it, saying no SAS person had been wounded at Balibo, but then admitted that, after the debacle of his mission, a second expedition could well have been sent in and that on SAS security principles he would not have known about it.

How does one evaluate this material? Without further corroboration it can only be treated as circumstantial evidence.

There is some further circumstantial evidence of an Australian intelligence presence on the ground near Balibo at the time of the deaths. A close friend of one of the dead reporters later came to know an agent of ASIO, who told her he had been close to Balibo, transmitting from a radio at the time of the deaths. He refused to give any other details. He said he was transported in and out by a Caribou aircraft. Quite by coincidence, this same friend some years later was told by a work colleague that he had also been there at the time, and produced a photo of himself standing against a Caribou aircraft, with some Timorese.

Documents declassified by the Australian Government in September last year show that in Jakarta on October 24, 1975, diplomat Allan Taylor was defending accusations from intelligence officer Harry Tjan (Silalahi) that, some days before, the Australian submarine Oxley had entered Portuguese Timorese waters. Taylor vigorously denied the charges. The Oxley, one of four Oberon- class submarines commissioned by the Australian government in the 1960s, was ideal for such secret missions, and had been used in Australian SAS training programs.

Indonesian complaints to the Australians in this post-Balibo period also included accusations of violations of Indonesian air space by Caribou aircraft crossing the border from Portuguese Timor some weeks before. Once again, the Australians denied the charges.

But in an interview at his Maroochydore home on the Sunshine Coast, former squadron leader Lance Stanley Harding blithely admitted he flew regularly over the border in RAAF planes to peek at the situation in West Timor. On intelligence activities he would only say that he filed regular reports to the defence department on the intelligence situation.

Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra (Desmond Ball and Hamish McDonald, Allen Unwin, 2000) contains the first suggestion that the Australian government might have considered rescuing the journalists. The authors point to the means by which Canberra could have got a message to them, using a group of Australian army doctors. Ball and McDonald claim the doctors were equipped with radios and received daily reports about security conditions based on Defence Signals Directorate intelligence. Conceivably, they could have been used to pass on a message to Fretilin to be sent by radio-telephone to Maliana and thence hand-carried to Balibo.

The jump to the notion of a rescue operation doesn't make sense in the context in which it appears, but it does if viewed in the light of my first SAS informant's claim that Australian intelligence agents on the ground in Timor had the responsibility to get a message to the journalists for purposes of the rescue operation he was involved in, but failed to do so.

Last year, I interviewed former Fretlin commander Sabika, who witnessed the journalists' deaths. He told me that three Timorese men entered Balibo in the days immediately before the attack. They said their car had broken down just outside the town, but he did not believe that was the real reason they had come. It is possible that they were English-speaking Timorese working for the Australians. Although they were not observed to have contact with the journalists, this remains a possibility.

Until the prima facie evidence presented by these former SAS sources is subject to independent examination, and potential witnesses are freed of the danger of prosecution if they speak, the existence of an SAS rescue mission remains a mystery -- one of many in the secret 26-year history of the Balibo incident.

[Jill Jolliffe is the author of Cover-Up: the inside story of the Balibo Five (Scribe Publications).]

Gusmao downplays US complicity in Indonesian invasion

Lusa - December 7, 2001

East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao Friday downplayed the impact of newly released US documents showing that Washington had been informed of and approved Indonesia4s invasion of his homeland in 1975.

"East Timor, in the situation it faces, must be engaged in looking towards the future, not to the past", Gusmao said, when questioned by reporters on US complicity, on his arrival in Lisbon for a private visit.

He said Washington had played "an important role" recently in East Timor's 1999 independence plebiscite and transition from Indonesian occupation.

Asked whether the US should formally apologize for its complicity in the invasion and 24-year Indonesian occupation, the former guerrilla leader said that what East Timor now needed was "aid from the international community". "We are not here to ask for apologies from each other", he added.

Gusmao, who is on his way to an international donors conference in Oslo Tuesday, will participate in Lisbon later Friday in a commemorative Catholic mass marking the 26th anniversary of the invasion.

Hundreds commemorate anniversary of invasion

Associated Press - December 7, 2001 (abridged)

Joanna Jolly, Dili -- Hundreds of people commemorated the anniversary Friday of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, as speakers demanded justice for 24 years of brutal occupation.

Meanwhile in Washington, newly released documents showed for the first time that the US administration at the time had approved the attack. "War crimes have been committed here since 1975. There is international justice for Bosnia and Rwanda -- why not in East Timor," said Aniceto Guterres, head of a human rights body that sponsored the rally.

The gathering in a park in the East Timorese capital, also included a photo exhibit depicting torture and killings allegedly committed by Indonesian troops during the occupation that ended in 1999 after a UN-sponsored independence referendum. Up to 200,000 people -- a quarter of East Timor's population -- died in the guerrilla war that followed the invasion on December 7, 1975.

There was a minute of silence for the dead and many of those present wept as prayers were read. Later, flowers were laid in the city's port, where hundreds of civilians were executed on the day of the invasion.

The commemoration came just a few hours after a US research group published previously classified documents showing that former US President Gerald Ford and then-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger approved the planned invasion when they discussed the issue with President Suharto.

In Oslo, East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta said the East Timorese had long been aware that the Ford administration gave Suharto the green light for the assault. "This has been said many times. We already knew this," the Nobel peace laureate said in a telephone interview.

Despite its support for Suharto, the US government never formally recognized Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. After Suharto was ousted amid massive pro-democracy protests in 1988, his successor B.J. Habibie agreed to resolve the festering issue by asking the United Nations to organize a plebiscite in the province. The referendum resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence.

Since then, Washington has become one of the biggest aid donors to the fledging nation, which is due to achieve full independence next May. The US government has given 100 million dollars to the UN administration currently governing the territory, and an additional dlrs 25 million has been approved by Congress.

East Timorese refugees sue Habibie for 1 trillion rupiah

Antara - December 6, 2001

Jakarta -- Former deputy commander of the East Timorese pro- integration fighters (PPI), Eurico Guterres, on Thursday registered with the Central Jakarta court a class action against former president, BJ Habibie, to pay 1 trillion rupiah in indemnity.

The litigation pointed out that Habibie, who has been named defendant II, was personally responsible for agreeing with the implementation of a popular ballot in East Timor in August 1999, because he made the decision without asking for approval from the House of Representatives.

The suit said habibie's policy had inflicted moral and material losses to pro-integration East Timorese. "After losing the popular ballot, pro-integration east timorese had been forced to flee to East Nusa Tenggara [284,148 persons] and Java [2,736]," the suit noted.

The class action, where Eurico and Nicholas Lay acted on behalf and for the East Timorese refugees, also sued the Indonesian government under President Megawati Soekarnoputri as defendant I for violating the law.

The Indonesian government has been accused of allowing pro- integration East Timorese refugees to return to East Timor without proper legal protection, either according to the Indonesian law or international law. The Indonesian government has also been charged with forcing the refugees to be repatriated. The suit said the Indonesian government should relocate the pro-integrationists to one location in Timor island.

Government policy

Meanwhile, following the court session, Habibie's legal counsel, Yan Djuanda, pointed out that the decision to agree with the holding of the popular ballot was a government policy.

"The government policy was not detached from the situation and condition at that time," Djuanda said. He pointed out that, before the holding of the popular ballot, the East Timor issue had been a point of conflict at the international world.

Djuanda then referred to the existence of a resolution of the United Nations Security Council and eight decisions of the UN General Assembly on the status of East Timor. "So, it is obvious that the holding of the popular ballot was directed to reach the legal certainty [on the status of East Timor] ," he said.

US OK'd Indonesian '75 East Timor invasion: documents

Reuters - December 6, 2001

Jim Wolf, Washington -- US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave late Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor that left perhaps 200,000 dead, according to previously secret documents made available on Thursday.

Kissinger has maintained that he only learned of the plan at the airport as he and Ford prepared to fly home after meeting Suharto in Jakarta on the eve of the December 7 thrust into East Timor, a former Portuguese colony.

Kissinger also has argued that any US nod for the action should be seen in its Cold War context -- on the heels of the communist victory in Vietnam and amid US fears that other "dominoes" might fall in Southeast Asia.

The incursion led to a bloody occupation that ended only after an international peacekeeping force took charge in 1999 and East Timor achieved independence.

At the time of the 1975 invasion, the United States supplied as much as 90 percent of Indonesia's weapons on condition that they be used only for defense and internal security.

Ford and Kissinger appear to have gone to considerable lengths to assure Suharto, a staunch anti-communist, that they would not oppose the invasion, which was designed to keep East Timor from breaking away from Indonesia.

"We want your understanding if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action," Suharto told them during a stopover on their way home from meetings with Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping in Beijing, according to a newly declassified December 6, 1975, document.

"We will understand and will not press you on the issue," Ford replied, according to the State Department record of the conversation declassified by Ford's presidential library.

Kissinger pointed out that "the use of US-made arms could create problems," but added: "It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation," according to the same document.

Manipulating public opinion

The private National Security Archive, a Washington-based research group that obtained the document under the Freedom of Information Act, said it showed that Kissinger's concern was not that US weapons would be used offensively -- hence illegally -- but about how he might manipulate public opinion.

"It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly," Kissinger told Suharto, according to the document. "We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens, happens after we return."

"We understand your problem and the need to move quickly but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned" to Washington, Kissinger said, according to the document.

Ford's current chief of staff, Penny Circle, said the former president had no comment. Kissinger did not respond to requests for comment.

The National Security Archive released a package of East Timor- related documents, some of which had been made public before but had been heavily censored. They can be accessed at the National Security Archive's Web site (www.nsarchive.org).

In a March 19, 1999, interview with WNYC Radio in New York, Kissinger denied having held substantive talks with Suharto on the invasion plan, saying: "We were told at the airport as we left Jakarta that either that day or the next day they intended to take East Timor."

He added, "And it happened in a year when southeast Asia, Indochina had collapsed. So it wasn't a question of approval but of not being able to do anything about it."

The newly disclosed material could raise new questions about President George W. Bush's drive to resume sales of non-lethal weapons to Indonesia. Former President Bill Clinton cut off most military cooperation after Indonesia's armed forces and paramilitary units attacked East Timor in response to an August 30, 1999, UN-sponsored referendum in favor of independence.

"This is a critical time in relations between the West and the Muslim world, and Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country," said Frida Berrigan of the New York-based World Policy Institute, author of an October report on US weapons sales to Indonesia.

"This new information should force the Bush administration to move cautiously in its dealings with an Indonesian government still largely dependent on the military to retain power," she said.

Indonesia takes East Timor invasion report in stride

Reuters - December 7, 2001

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta -- Indonesia said on Friday reports the United States gave former president Suharto the green light for the bloody 1975 invasion of East Timor came as no surprise, but would not harm relations with the world's only superpower.

The invasion and ensuing 24 year occupation killed more than 200,000 people -- a quarter of the population -- through fighting, famine and disease as thousands of Timorese took arms against the Indonesian army. "I do not see how that 1975 policy can have any link to our relationship with the US right now. There is no connection," Wahid Supriyadi, a foreign ministry spokesman, told Reuters. "There'll be no effect at all," he added, responding to whether these revelations could put back Indonesia's efforts to get non-lethal military aid from the United States.

Jakarta's rule in East Timor was never recognized by the mainstream world community or the United Nations. But at the height of the Cold War in 1975, the United States -- just out of the conflict in Vietnam -- and vehement anti-communist Suharto thought communism could creep into the region via Timor following the power vacuum left by former colonial power Portugal's disorganized withdrawal.

These fears pushed then US President Gerald Ford and State Secretary Henry Kissinger to say they would understand Indonesia's invasion, according to newly declassified December 6, 1975 documents.

Supriyadi also said he didn't think the revelations would worsen links with East Timor, strained further after pro-Jakarta militias went on a bloody rampage in 1999. "No effect at all. For Indonesia, that's history. Let bygones be bygones. Our commitment now is for the future ... on how to build bilateral relations with East Timor," he said.

Indonesia has been trying to repair ties with the tiny territory after it overwhelmingly voted for independence in a UN-sponsored ballot two years ago despite an orgy of violence by the militias opposed to breaking away.

Washington slashed military ties with Jakarta following the massacres as many of the militias were supported by the Indonesian army. The United States has since lifted an embargo on sales of non-lethal military items but some Washington analysts thought the newly disclosed material could raise more questions about President Bush's drive to resume such sales.

Indonesian analysts say this is unlikely but say if there was an issue that could jeopardize US-military aid it would be Jakarta's failure to try those involved in the 1999 violence. "The Indonesian military has been required by the US to be accountable ... But we haven't seen much effort and this could affect things," said Hasnan Habib, Jakarta's former ambassador in Washington and a retired general.

Alkatiri appeals for end to domestic violence against women

Lusa - December 4, 2001

East Timor4s chief minister, Mari Alkatiri, has expressed concern over mounting domestic violence against women, urging his people to put an end to such practices as part of the territory4s larger efforts at reconciliation.

"I have been informed with preoccupation that cases of domestic violence are increasing and that many of us consider the beating of women to be a private affair that should not broached in public", Alkatiri said in a statement issued at the weekend.

He added that his government was "preoccupied" with the "process of reconciliation" between the territory4s pro-independence majority and those who had defended integration into Indonesia, stressing that reconciliation should begin at home, "inside the family".

The government, Alkatiri said, sought to create a "culture or peace and respect for human rights", underlining that "our women and girls should enjoy these freedoms without violence".

Alkatiri's statement was issued to mark the recent celebration of the International Day to Eliminate Violence against Women.

Timor's missing children

Los Angeles Times - December 4, 2001

Richard C. Paddock, Dili -- The girl's nightmare began when she was 13 and a pro-Indonesia militia burned down her village. Her parents were away from home when gunmen herded her and her neighbors across the border into the Indonesian province of West Timor.

There, in a squalid refugee camp, the leader of the gang took her captive and repeatedly raped her over the next 17 months. Refugee workers who had been searching for the girl learned earlier this year where she was being held and staged a daring rescue. They smuggled a message to her and, when her guards were occupied, stole her from the camp. Using a network of safe houses, they brought her back to East Timor and her parents.

It was a rare but welcome victory in the two-year battle to bring home East Timor's missing children. "What characterizes this case is the horror, the ordeal," said Bernard Kerblat, operations director here for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "How can you remain patient when a 13-year-old girl who is not even a woman has been used as a sexual slave day in and day out in a refugee camp in Indonesia?"

The girl, whose name was withheld by officials, was one of an estimated 2,000 children separated from their parents two years ago when the militias ran amok in revenge for East Timor's decision to secede from Indonesia. Her case is notable for its brutality but not for the length of time it took to win her freedom.

During the rampage, 240,000 East Timorese fled across the border into West Timor, many of them forced there by the militias. In the chaos, some children were separated from parents who remained behind in East Timor. About 450 children have been returned to their families, Kerblat said, including many who walked back across the border with other refugees or on their own.

But United Nations relief workers have been stymied in their attempts to retrieve the others. Some remain in militia- controlled refugee camps in West Timor. Some have been taken to orphanages on Indonesia's main island of Java. Others allegedly have been sold off or handed over to strangers to work in sweatshops or as household servants elsewhere in Indonesia.

In many cases, information about the children's whereabouts is sketchy. Relief workers, who have little access to the refugee camps, have had difficulty tracking them down.

East Timorese leaders and UN officials say the Indonesian government has been uncooperative. Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's acting foreign minister, called Indonesia's slowness to act "most shameful." "These are real cases of kidnapping of children," said Ramos-Horta, co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize. "Children were taken from refugee camps in Indonesia, and the Indonesian authorities allowed this to happen. What kind of country allows this to happen?"

Indonesian officials deny that they condone kidnapping or moved slowly to return missing children. Wahid Supriyadi, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said UN officials should turn over information about any of the children and the government will look into the cases. "What is the interest of Indonesia in kidnapping the children? We have no such policy," he said. "Indonesia has done everything it could to return children."

In many ways, the struggle over the children is a continuation of East Timor's long fight for independence. The Portuguese colony was seized in 1975 by Indonesia, which ruthlessly suppressed the new province's liberation movement. In 1999, Indonesia agreed to hold a referendum on the question of self-rule. When East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, militias backed by the Indonesian military laid waste to the province, killing at least 1,000 people and destroying 80% of its buildings.

Since then, the territory has been run by the UN and protected by about 8,000 international peacekeepers. East Timor's first free election was held August 30 to select a national assembly. The new nation of 745,000 people will become fully independent May 20. About 80,000 of the 240,000 refugees who fled from East Timor remain in West Timor, where they live in miserable camps largely controlled by the militias.

Some say the gangs still operate under the protection of the Indonesian military. Militia members use intimidation to keep the refugees from going home, aid workers say, although the number of returnees has increased since the peaceful August election. Though Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has said she accepts East Timor's independence, many Indonesians--including some in powerful positions--still are angry that the territory broke away. Indonesian prosecutors have never tried Indonesian army officers and militia leaders accused by the UN of responsibility for the 1999 carnage. Similarly, six militia members convicted of taking part in the slayings of three UN refugee workers in West Timor last year received sentences ranging from 10 to 20 months. The deaths of the humanitarian workers, including an American, prompted the UN to pull its aid staff out of West Timor, making it even harder to locate and recover missing youngsters.

Kerblat, a veteran UN refugee worker, said it is unfortunate that children are paying the price for East Timor's wish to be independent. "It is one of the most painful issues of the tragedy," he said. "The victims we are talking about are voiceless children who are pawns in a political game." He estimates that 1,200 to 1,800 children are still missing.

In an attempt to identify as many as possible, the UN launched a survey in September, sending 300 workers door to door in East Timor's 13 districts to determine which families are missing children. So far, in two districts where the survey has been completed, the agency has received credible reports of 324 missing children. The assessment will be finished early next year and the information used to try to find the children.

One case that has attracted international attention and wide media coverage is the abduction of Juliana dos Santos. She was 15 at the time of the independence vote and took refuge from militiamen with hundreds of other East Timorese in a Roman Catholic church in the town of Suai. The notorious Laksaur militia attacked the church and killed as many as 200 people in one of the worst East Timorese massacres, prosecutors say.

Igidio Manek, a militia leader, shot and killed Juliana's 13-year-old brother, Carlos, witnesses say. Then, they say, he claimed Juliana as his "war prize" and took her across the border to West Timor. Human rights officials allege that he repeatedly raped her in the refugee camps. She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy in November 2000.

Juliana's desperate parents have been unsuccessful in their attempts to get her back. Their cause has been taken up by Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Australian-born wife of independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, who is widely expected to become East Timor's first president next year.

In an interview, Kirsty Gusmao said it is well-documented that Manek had "the full collaboration" of the Indonesian military in the Suai attack. She suspects that he now operates in West Timor with the military's continued support. He has never been charged for his role in Suai. Some believe Juliana could provide important evidence against the Suai killers and the slayers of the three UN workers.

But the Indonesian government regards Manek as Juliana's legitimate husband, not her kidnapper, and has been an obstacle in securing her release, Kirsty Gusmao said.

After months of requests from Juliana's parents and the UN refugee agency, Indonesian authorities agreed to arrange a meeting in June between Juliana, now 17, and her family on the Indonesian side of the border. Watched by the police, Manek and members of his militia, Juliana told her parents that she wanted to stay with the father of her baby. Her disappointed relatives concluded that she had been brainwashed by Manek during her two years in captivity.

In July, Manek was arrested by Indonesian authorities on charges of stealing government funds and is in jail awaiting trial. Even so, Juliana has not returned to her family in East Timor.

Pro-Indonesian activist took children to Java

Almost as frustrating for UN officials and East Timorese parents has been the largely unsuccessful effort to recover 170 children taken from the West Timorese camps by pro-Indonesian political activist Octavio Soares. Soares, a medical student from East Timor, searched the refugee camps in 1999 for children he could take to the Indonesian island of Java. He promised parents or other relatives that the children would live in Christian-run orphanages in the district of Semarang, where they would get three meals a day and the chance to go to school.

I have dedicated myself to humanitarianism," Soares said recently. "I want every kid to be like me. I want them to have a very bright future. The parents begged me to take them because the children lived in very bad conditions in the refugee camps."

Until recently, Soares and the Indonesian government ignored parents' requests for the return of their children, East Timorese and UN officials say. Soares' critics contend that his goal is to keep pro-Indonesian passion alive within the next generation of East Timorese.

In some cases, he secured permission to take the children. In other cases he did not, parents say. Olivero Amaral was one parent who lost his daughter to Soares. Amaral and his family fled the 1999 violence and ended up in a militia-controlled camp near Kupang, the West Timorese capital. Soon after their arrival, Amaral heard from another refugee that his daughter Filumena, then 11, had been taken to Java. Amaral said he never agreed to let her go. "I ran to get her, but she had already left," he recounted. "I felt I had been tricked, but I couldn't do anything about it. I could only stand there and think to myself, 'How could this have happened?'"

Sister Vincentia Trimurti of the St. Thomas orphanage in Semarang recalls when Soares called in 1999 to say he was bringing orphans from West Timor. She expected perhaps four or five. Instead he arrived with 40 or 50. Today, she has only praise for Soares. "He's the savior of these children," she said recently. "He's their angel. He took them from the camps, and now they can study again. They have good clothes. He took them from a bad situation."

By all accounts, the children have been treated well in Semarang. Some of them say they do not want to go back to East Timor, where their last memories are of homes on fire and people being slaughtered.

Returnee sought to have daughter join him

Amaral returned to East Timor last year and wanted to reunite his family but had no way to get Filumena back from the orphanage. He sought help from the UN refugee agency, which asked the Indonesian government to return her. For more than a year, UN officials got nowhere. Under growing international pressure, Soares and Indonesia agreed to return 10 of the children. One was Filumena.

Now 13, she was handed over to her father in September, two years after he last saw her. Amaral said he is grateful to Soares for making sure that she was treated well. "We are all Timorese," the father said. "The difference is only our ideology. I'm not angry with him."

After meeting with their parents during an emotional reunion on the Indonesian island of Bali, two of the older children chose to go back to the orphanage to continue their education.

Marty Natalegawa, director of international organizations for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said the return of the children to their families was just a starting point. "The Indonesian people do not have any intention of keeping anyone against their will," he said. Soares, however, said he has no immediate plans to return any of the other 160 children. But Kerblat said he was encouraged by the return and hopes that Indonesia will give back more of East Timor's missing children.

Indonesia's lack of cooperation has prompted UN refugee workers to resort occasionally to the cloak-and-dagger methods they used in April to rescue the girl who was taken at age 13. Officials would not allow the girl or her parents to be interviewed because of the trauma she suffered and the stigma of being raped. They said it was simply bad luck that the teen was left on her own on the day the militia attacked -- her parents were at the hospital with an ailing sibling. While the rest of the family fled into the mountains, the girl was taken to West Timor, where a neighbor handed her over to the militia leader.

Officials would not identify the leader. "He is a real perverse psychopath," Kerblat said. "She was used as a sexual toy. He continually raped her for 17 months. She was even raped the day before we extracted her." While in the camp, the girl was kept under guard by militia members.

Rescuers made their move on a day the militia planned to hold a large rally. They calculated that even the girl's guards would attend. Now 15, she needs medical rehabilitation because of the sexual abuse she suffered. For Kerblat, it is difficult to comprehend the treatment she and other East Timorese children have received. "Let's give these people a break," he pleaded. "Why continue to punish them? Because they voted for independence?"

Timor Sea gas talks get down to bedrock

The Australian - December 4, 2001

Nigel Wilson -- A new wave of confidence is emerging that East Timor and Australia within weeks will reach agreement on key aspects of future development of Timor Sea gas reserves.

New proposals providing non-cash benefits to the East Timorese for 20 years have been circulated by Phillips Petroleum in a bid to resolve its dispute concerning Timor Sea developments. Phillips's confidential proposals are understood to involve the provision of long-term employment and training as part of a claim by the US company that effective taxation provisions on its Bayu Undan project should be no higher than they were under arrangements agreed in 1989 between Australia and Indonesia.

East Timor's foreign affairs minister Jose Ramos Horta believes an agreement can be reached "in the next few weeks". Officials are hoping there will be progress on the Phillips dispute before a meeting of donor countries to East Timor in Oslo scheduled for the middle of the month.

"If East Timor can show real progress in these talks with Phillips it would give the new administration greater credibility among donor countries," one official said.

A planned meeting between Australian officials, East Timorese representatives and the United Nations Temporary Administration for East Timor has been put on hold in the hope the Phillips discussions can achieve an early breakthrough.

Phillips's Darwin manager Jim Godlove declined yesterday to discuss the detail of the negotiations. "I can confirm we've resumed negotiations with the East Timorese," he said. "We've been looking to identify the long-term benefits of petroleum investment for East Timor."

Phillips has said in the past it needs legal and fiscal security from the East Timorese before it can consider investing in the second phase of its Bayu Undan project. Speaking after a meeting with Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Mr Ramos Horta said he did not expect delays in Timor Sea investment.

"We're hoping in the next few weeks we can conclude the arrangements for an agreement with Phillips and other contractors," he said. "Talks are going on right now in a very positive climate. I have seen a proposal from Phillips to provide additional incentives to East Timor itself. Our side, we're very pleased with that proposal ... I believe that in the next few weeks we'll reach agreement with Phillips," Mr Ramos Horta said.

Mr Godlove said there was no timetable for the talks with East Timorese officials but he was happy that talks had resumed. A spokesperson for Mr Downer said it was expected that discussions on technical aspects of the arrangement reached in July between Australia and UNTAET would begin in Dili.

It was uncertainties caused by these arrangements -- particularly taxation and resource security -- that led Phillips and its partners to postpone indefinitely a decision to invest upwards of $800 million on a large diameter pipeline between Bayu Undan and Darwin.

Labour struggle

4,500 workers in Medan demand higher wages, bonus

Jakarta Post - December 4, 2001

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan -- Some 4,500 workers from 24 companies launched a strike here on Monday demanding better pay, fair treatment of layoff victims and higher Idul Fitri bonuses.

The striking workers, employed by companies operating in the nearby areas of Tanjung Morawa, Binjai, Mabar and Belawan, staged a rally at the North Sumatra governor's office. The workers, grouped under the Forum for All-North Sumatran Workers Unions, held the rally under the coordination of the Medan Independent Workers' Union.

The presence of the workers at the governor's office compound kept the office's security guards and police officers busy, especially after some of the workers tried to forcibly enter the office to meet Governor T. Rizal Nurdin.

Erika Rosmawati, Secretary General of the Medan Independent Workers' Union, told The Jakarta Post that they rejected the governor's decree on the provincial minimum wage of Rp 464,000 (US$45.5) and demanded that the minimum wage be based on a decent standard of living of Rp 1,023,876 or at least on the standard of subsistence of Rp 709.876 a month.

The workers also demanded that concerned agencies and institutions handle lay-off cases fairly and humanely. She did not elaborate, but said there were 1,700 lay-off cases at the PT Riza Mitra Garmen Factory, 530 cases at PT Glovindo, 100 cases at PT Industri Tata Cemerlang, 3 cases at PT Sumatera Rotaindo and 1 case at PT DMIOP. The workers, according to Erika, also demanded that they be given an Idul Fitri bonus equal to two months salary.

"If the government and the businessmen do not respond to our wishes, then we will encourage all elements of the workers unions in this province to hold a massive strike," Erika said. Erika further said that they were very disappointed at the gubernatorial decree fixing the minimum wage at Rp 464,000, "because the decision had never been discussed with them. None of the workers belonging to this workers union forum has been invited to discuss the minimum wage problem," she said. Erika also criticized the Provincial Wage Council for not informing the workers forum about the new minimum wage.

Meanwhile, Thoga Sitorus, the secretary of the wage council, confirmed that hey had not discussed the minimum wage with the forum. "We discussed it only with the sanctioned workers unions that have their principal organizations," Sitorus, who is also the acting chief of the North Sumatra provincial office of the Ministry of Manpower, said. Regarding the minimum wage of Rp 464,000, Sitorus said that the amount was equivalent to the subsistence standard of living. "The wage council initially proposed only Rp 453,000 for the minimum wage to the governor. So, the governor's decision to raise it to Rp 464,000 is much fairer," he said.

Sakhyan Asmara, spokesman of the provincial administration, said that the amount of the minimum wage was arrived at after discussions with various parties, including employers and workers. "The decision had also been approved by the provincial legislative council," he added. Commenting on the incident, Sitorus said that the workers had the right to stage a strike. "But if the strike was launched without the consent of the companies, then it was in violation of Law No. 22/1957 on labor disputes. Their companies could take action against them, like cutting their salaries," he said.

Aceh/West Papua

Six killed in Aceh as separatists mark struggle

Agence France Presse - December 5, 2001

Banda Aceh -- Six people were killed yesterday in Indonesia's Aceh province as rebels marked the 25th anniversary of an independence struggle which has cost an estimated 10,000 lives.

Streets were deserted until mid-afternoon apart from security patrols and markets and offices closed after Free Aceh Movement (GAM) military commander Teungku Abdullah Syafiie urged residents to stay home until 3pm.

Fully armed police and troops patrolled Banda Aceh, capital of the oil- and gas-rich province on the north of Sumatra. Rights groups say about 1,600 have been killed this year alone.

Police tore down about 100 separatist flags in Banda Aceh and its surroundings, said city police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Sayid Huseini.

He said two men who ran away when police checked a house with a suspicious antenna in the Tungkup area were shot dead after they ignored warning shots. Two others escaped. Police found two handguns on the bodies and one appeared to have belonged to a local police chief abducted last year, he said.

Four bodies displaying signs of torture were found in two locations at Langsa in East Aceh on the eve of the anniversary, local paramedics said.

Rebels held flag-raising ceremonies in jungle hideouts. In a message read out at the ceremonies, Sweden-based GAM supreme commander Hasan di Tiro called on Acehnese to pursue independence at all costs.

"I hereby call upon all gallant Acehnese to be steadfast, resolute, and continue our rightful and sacred struggle against the Javanese-Indonesian invaders until the final victory is ours, come what may," he said.

Mr Tiro, who established the Free Aceh Movement in 1976 to fight for an independent Islamic state, denounced the autonomy scheme implemented in Aceh this year as "an empty shell".

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Legislators zero in on Akbar's riddles

Jakarta Post - December 6, 2001

Jakarta/Surakarta -- Well aware that the creation of a special committee to investigate House Speaker Akbar Tandjung's alleged corruption may not materialize due to stiff opposition, legislators are setting up a contingency plan.

They will exploit Akbar's documented inconsistencies in public with regard to his role in siphoning off Rp 40 billion in National Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds in 1999 when he was minister/state secretary.

His critics have charged that the inconsistencies show that Akbar has been lying to the public, an unethical act, which by itself, may cost him his position as House speaker.

Akbar, who is also the Golkar Party chairman, has been under investigation by Attorney General's Office prosecutors for the past several weeks. But Golkar politicians have been scheming to buy time in an effort to thwart the establishment of the committee by those demanding justice.

Spearheaded by legislators from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the latest maneuver is intended to take Akbar to the House's Honorary Council for lying to the public.

Firman Jaya Daeli, a PDI Perjuangan legislator, said that while the efforts to form a special committee to probe Akbar's involvement in the Bulog scam would continue, he would also try to take the case to the House Honorary Council. "We [PDI Perjuangan legislators] are lobbying other factions for support," Firman told The Jakarta Post.

The establishment of an Honorary Council is possible under Article 59 of the newly-enacted House internal regulations. The maximum sanction is dismissal, for any House member who breaches the law.

J.E. Sahetapy, another PDI Perjuangan legislator, said that it was indisputable that a senior state official was not supposed to breach his/her oath of office. "The House internal rule clearly stipulates the sanction. The coming probe committee must recommend that the Honorary Council discharge him [Akbar]," said Sahetapy, who is a legal expert.

PDI Perjuangan's plan received strong support from the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction, which is also an adamant supporter for the establishment of a special investigation committee. "Although we still are concentrating on the committee, we will gladly support this plan as well," said Ali Masykur Musa, chairman of the PKB faction.

The efforts to set up a special committee as demanded by 50 legislators, have received strong backing from Amien Rais, speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly. He said in Surakarta on Tuesday night that people implicated in "Buloggate II", as the scandal is called, should resign to clear the way for an investigation. "Some people have given inconsistent statements and if this is tolerated, the investigation will go nowhere," he said.

Meanwhile, Golkar faction officials reacted angrily to the new idea to take the Akbar case to a House Honorary Council, saying that the Attorney General's Office was the only institution which had the authority to probe the case. "Nobody has the authority to judge whether Akbar had lied to the public. Let's stick to the president's order to investigate the case through the legal process in the Attorney General's Office," Slamet Effendy Yusuf, a Golkar party executive said.

The House is scheduled to hold a plenary session on Thursday (today) to decide if the proposal on establishment of a special committee for the Akbar affair will be discussed in the upcoming sessions or not. Pro-Akbar politicians in Golkar have threatened to expose other parties which also received the hot Bulog money in 1999. Golkar officials critical of Akbar, particularly those from eastern Indonesia grouped in the Iramasuka forum, also favor the House committee.

Akbar Tandjung's documented statements

Akbar's story

1. He initially denied directly receiving the Bulog funds.
2. He later said Dadang Ruskandar (Bulog deputy), on behalf of Roudlatul Jannah foundation accepted the funds for relief operations.
3. He added that the naming of Roudlatul Jannah, to receive the funds, had been reported to three ministers (Haryono Suyono, Rahardi Ramelan and Muladi)
4. He also said the foundation was recommended by Haryono Suyono.

The inconsistencies

1. Former Bulog chief Rahardi Ramelan and the former Bulog deputy Ruskandar disputed Akbar's testimony. Akbar later admitted the fact that he directly received the checks in his office.
2. Evidence shows checks were accepted by Golkar Party treasurers Muhammad S. Hidayat and Fadel Muhammad.
3. All three ministers denied any knowledge of the foundation.
4. Haryono Suyono claimed he never made such a recommendation.

Most parties had share of Bulog money, says minister

Straits Times - December 6, 2001

Jakarta -- Disgusted by recriminations that Golkar swindled most of the 54 billion rupiah (S$9.5 million) from a financial scandal involving a state agency, a government minister said most major political parties got a share of the money.

Several politicians and parties had been accused of misusing funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), including House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, who chairs Golkar, the second largest party in government.

State Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul Muarif, who is also from Golkar, said: "Of course, when then president B.J. Habibie distributed the funds to the political parties, he did not get receipts from those who accepted it."

In a thinly veiled threat, Mr Syamsul said there were quite a few Golkar members who were more than willing to discuss the facts publicly, which he claimed would drag many political parties down.

Meanwhile, Golkar's well-oiled political machinery moved into high gear on Tuesday as it attempted to thwart the setting up a special parliamentary probe team to investigate the Bulog scandal. Instead, the party is advocating a more tedious, but less politically damaging, legal process through the courts.

The establishment and findings of a parliamentary probe team would have greater political repercussions for Golkar as a whole as it prepares for the 2004 elections. And there were already signs that Golkar's lobbying may be succeeding. There are strong signals that major political factions are swaying ahead of today's meeting to determine the necessity of the investigation team. Golkar's inner circle has also been working full time to sway opinion and distance itself from the case.

The scam revolves around Mr Akbar's alleged misuse, when he was secretary of state, of funds from Bulog. The funds were said to be used for a poverty alleviation programme. However there were suspicions that the money found its way into Golkar's coffers during the 1999 general elections.

Mr Akbar, who was elected Golkar chairman in 1998, has maintained his innocence and claims that the Bulog money was handed over to a private foundation for distribution to help the poor.

Regional/communal conflicts

Christians flee Muslim militants in Sulawesi unrest

Agence France Presse - December 9, 2001

Christian refugees trekked for two days through mountain forest to escape advancing Muslim warriors armed with bombs and rifles, a Christian leader in a riot-torn district in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi said.

Speaking in Alitupu, a village in the Central Sulawesi district of Poso, where he and his fellow villagers had fled attacks by "Jihad" (holy war) warriors in a three-day offensive last month, the Christian leader spoke of being overpowered.

Muslims and Christians have been fighting in the Poso area since May last year, but after a period of relative calm the conflict has escalated in recent weeks. Conflict has been stoked by the arrival of the Muslim militia, the Java-based Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force), whose leader claims to have fought against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan and whose men have battled Christians in the Maluku islands.

The Poso attacks began on November 27 and forced thousands of Christians to flee as the heavily armed militiamen seized a series of villages, refugees and aid workers say. "If we had been one day later, we would have all been dead," the Christian commander said.

The commander, who did not want to be named, said his defenders were armed only with machetes that were no match for the bombs and firearms of the black-clad attackers who struck with shouts of "God is great."

"They came to the corner of the village and threw a bomb. We don't know if it was real or home made," said the commander, a soft-spoken 39-year-old. "Our houses and churches were destroyed."

He said eight Indonesian soldiers were on duty in the village. The soldiers shot back at the attackers but quickly ran out of ammunition and retreated, he said.

More than 100 Christians fled only with their clothes and what little food they could bring with them. They said they walked day and night until they neared the safety of a village on the edge of Lore Lindu National Park. "There is still one family we don't have news of. Dead or alive, we don't know," said the commander.

He and the people of his village have joined about 8,000 other refugees who are now sleeping on wooden floors and cooking on portable stoves in in villages near the Napu Valley.

While some children at the camps played with toy guns made of bamboo, their parents jokingly asked a group of foreign journalist for real weapons. "Then I'll shoot some jihad," said one man who gave his name as Anton.

Alfianus Sengkey, 22, said he ran to the hills as the Muslim forces advanced on his village but his father remained at the family home, armed only with a knife. "Two days later they found his body," Sengkey said.

Sulawesi blames Jakarta for new violence

Straits Times - December 5, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- As whole villages are destroyed by renewed religious violence in Central Sulawesi, its local leaders blame Indonesian security forces and a team of government negotiators for failing to rein in the rampaging militias.

Mr Yus Mengun, a parliamentarian from Poso, said the government's reconciliation team had ignored negotiations between the Christian and Muslim militants, and instead implemented a heavy- handed approach in disarming both sides. The reconciliation team aborted the peace process when police bungled a hastily organised disarming operation. Police clashed with armed villagers who were angered by the arrest of their fighters.

Another Muslim community leader, Mr Iskandar, from a local peace forum, said the reconciliation team failed because it lacked backing from the security forces and other government groups. "They announced the programme to collect the guns but the atmosphere was not conducive for it, people were still opposed to it and there were not enough troops to do it," said Mr Iskandar.

The chairman of the government-backed reconciliation team, Mr Gumyiardi, admitted that he had abandoned reconciliation efforts in the middle of October, but blamed the security forces for their failure to disarm the two sides. Mr Yus said that both Christians and Muslims wanted peace but the security forces appeared unwilling or unable to halt the violence. As a result, no one trusted the police and military.

Another Muslim leader blamed biased actions from police and military for the escalation of the conflict. Mr Idrus Al Habsyi, an ulema in the provincial capital of Palu, accused the security forces of abducting six Muslims in apparent retaliation for clashes between troops and Muslim fighters in which four riot police were injured. On Monday, at least 200 Muslims protested in Poso saying the armed forces had abducted the six.

Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Indonesia's police chief Brigadier-General Dadang Garnida are to visit the Poso area to assess whether to declare a civil emergency there. Government officials said they will be in the area today. Mr Susilo on Monday vowed to send extra troops to end the clashes and to search for weapons.

Church spokesmen in Palu and Poso say thousands of villagers in the predominantly Christian town of Tentena are under threat of imminent attack. But a spokesman from the Christian Crisis Centre said Tentena was relatively calm. Police in Palu said several hundred reinforcements had been sent to Tentena to protect the community.

Human rights/law

Court 'violated all the rules' in acquitting Tommy

Jakarta Post - December 6, 2001

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- A team examining October's controversial verdict issued by the Supreme Court exonerating Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra from all charges has concluded that the Court violated the Criminal Code Procedures as well as its own rules and procedures.

In a statement made available to The Jakarta Post, the team said on Wednesday that "the Criminal Code Procedures stipulate that an application for a review must be made by the defendant himself or his heirs and successors, and not his lawyers as in Tommy's case.

"The verdict has also failed to deal with the conflict between legal certainty and the sense of justice, so that the application for a review should have been rejected." It was understood that the public saw the original sentence meted out by the Court as justice being done. The review, however, had offended against the public's sense of justice.

The statement was issued after the team met with Chief Justice Bagir Manan at the later's office. It said that "due to these violations, the Supreme Court must impose stern sanctions by dismissing the three review panel justices as they have proven themselves incapable of carrying out their duties." The team was referring to deputy chief justice M. Taufiq and justices Soeharto and German Hoediarto.

The team was set up by legal experts and a number of NGOs following the issuance of the controversial verdict.

Tommy, a flamboyant businessman and playboy who is also the son of former President Soeharto, was captured last week after a year-long flight from justice. He was originally found guilty of involvement in the Goro-Bulog land scam and was sentenced in September 1999 to 18-months imprisonment by the Supreme Court. The sentence was imposed after the Supreme Court reversed Tommy's acquittal by the South Jakarta District Court.

In November 1999, Tommy went on the run only to be finally arrested last Wednesday. While he was still at large, the Supreme Court review panel overturned the Supreme Court's earlier verdict on Oct. 1, 2001.

Responding to the team, Bagir said that the Supreme Court could not quash the review panel's verdict unless they evidence on corruption involving the review panel justices was uncovered. "We have set up a clarification team to probe the accusations that the judges took bribes. But as this clarification team is not a legal tribunal and does not make findings of fact, any conclusions it reaches will not affect the review panel's recent verdict," Bagir said.

He was quick to add that "it will be difficult to ascertain whether the justices were bribed or not, unless Tommy, or his lawyers, admit it."

When asked whether the court could impose interim sanctions on the justices pending the outcome of the clarification team's investigation, Bagir said: "I can't impose any sanctions as they would only interfere with the current process."

He added that there were no grounds for imposing sanctions as the accusations about the justices represented mere assumptions by the public. "Pak Taufiq himself has expressed his readiness to be questioned by the police over the allegations," he said.

The NGOs making up the team include Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), and Judicial Watch. The jurists on the team include Tomi Bustomi, a former judge, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia, Achmad Ali, a former advisor to the late chief justice Baharuddin Lopa, Adi Andojo, a former justice, Bambang Widjojanto, the outgoing director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI), Teten Masduki, chairman of ICW and Irianto Subiakto of the LBH.

Tommy, now under police investigation, is facing three charges, including involvement in the murder of Supreme Court Justice M. Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, the judge who meted out his 18-month jail term, illegal possession of weapons and masterminding a spate of bomb attacks.

The clarification team is led by Bagir himself and the team members are Justice Mariana Sutadi, former chief justice Purwoto Gandasubrata, and former justices Bustanul Arifin and Djoko Sugianto. The team is scheduled to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss the case.

Reebok announces 2002 human rights award recipients

Business Wire - December 3, 2001

Canton, Mass -- The Reebok Human Rights Award Program announced today that for the first time in its 13-year history, the annual Reebok Human Rights Award will be presented to four women.

The 2002 winners include the founder of the first independent labor union in Indonesia; an advocate for abused children in Zambia; a rescuer of young girls enslaved as prostitutes in India; and an activist at the forefront of a new generation of civil rights leadership in the United States.

The winners, Dita Sari of Indonesia, Kavwumbu Hakachima of Zambia, Babita Maili Lama of Nepal and Malika Asha Sanders of Selma, Alabama will be honored as champions of human rights as part of the 2002 Cultural Olympiad of the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games. The awards will be presented at a ceremony during the Olympic Arts Festival on February 7, 2002 at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

Over the past eight years, Dita Sari (age 29) has been harassed, arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for her efforts to improve the deplorable labor conditions for thousands of factory workers, primarily women, in Indonesia.

Today, Ms. Sari leads a union that is 22,000 strong and growing.

Kavwumbu Hakachima (age 27) is an ardent spokesperson and advocate for victims of child abuse in Zambia, a country ravaged by poverty and AIDS. Ms. Hakachima now heads Children in Crisis, an organization dedicated to helping abused children. Babita Maili Lama (age 25) was a young mother who was abducted from her village in Nepal and sold into forced prostitution in Bombay. After surviving two years of unspeakable horrors, she escaped and now risks her own life to rescue other young girls who suffer a similar fate. A second-generation civil rights activist, Malika Asha Sanders (age 27) is executive director of the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, an innovative organization dedicated to developing leadership and community building skills for young African-Americans.

"The four remarkable women we are privileged to honor this year at the Olympic Arts Festival are extraordinary examples of the true nature of courage and humanity," said Paul Fireman, Chairman and CEO of Reebok International Ltd. "We are especially pleased to share their stories with the international community, many of whom will be in Salt Lake City for the Olympic Winter Games. Consistent with the noble aspirations of the Olympics, their human rights work brings hope, inspiration and strength to the lives of others. They are truly champions and torchbearers in the fight for a better world."

Established in 1988, the Reebok Human Rights Award honors activists thirty years old or younger who, against great odds and often at great personal risk, have made significant contributions to the field of human rights, strictly through non-violent means.

Since 1988, 68 recipients from 35 countries have been selected. The Award aims to strengthen the work of these young heroes by attracting international attention to both the recipients and their issues. Award recipients receive a $50,000 grant from the Reebok Human Rights Foundation to help further their work.

They also become members of Forefront, a network of former recipients that helps each other gain skills and resources, share strategies and opportunities, communicate with the international community, and respond to crises.

Mitt Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games (SLOC), noted "The Olympic Arts Festival is a most appropriate setting to celebrate these four champions of humanity. The recipients of the Reebok Human Rights Award represent the ideal human qualities that bring forth the best in mankind and are synonymous with the ideals of the Olympic Games since ancient times."

News & issues

Illegal immigrants riot in Malaysia detention camp

Reuters - December 5, 2001

Kuala Lumpur -- Around 2,000 illegal immigrants detained in a Malaysian camp rioted and burnt down some of their quarters overnight before police fired tear gas to re-establish control, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The New Straits Times quoted witnesses as saying detainees at the Pekan Nenas camp in the southern Peninsular Malaysian state of Johor, most of whom were Indonesians, began rioting shortly after breaking their Ramadan fast.

"They set fire to cloths. The blaze razed four or five blocks that housed the male Indonesian inmates," State Immigration Department official Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Mahmud was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper.

"These inmates are due to be deported on Saturday," he said, adding that Bangladeshis, Singaporeans, Thais and Vietnamese were among the other detainees.

The official said several inmates who suffered minor injuries were sent to a local hospital with the remainder being transferred to other camps in the neighbouring states of Negeri Sembilan, Malacca and Pahang.

Malaysia carried out its largest ever deportation of illegal immigrants last month, sending back around 2,500 Indonesian workers on two Indonesian naval ships under armed escort.

Illegal immigration is a big problem for this southeast Asian nation, which has a population of 23 million and is a favoured destination for workers from its more populous, poorer neighbours.

The country is home to more than a million foreign workers, most of them from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

The government said it would begin deporting about 300,000 overseas workers from last month to cut down on foreign labour in certain industries and free up jobs for locals affected by the economic slowdown.

Environment

Activists urge probe into Musi River pollution

Jakarta Post - December 6, 2001

Bahrul Ilmi Yakub, Palembang -- Environmental activists have called for a transparent investigation into the pollution on Musi River in Palembang that has allegedly originated from a factory on the river's banks owned by state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Pusri.

Budiman Kertopati, chairman of the local office of the Environmental Forum (Walhi), and Taufik Anwar, chairman of the South Sumatra Industrial Monitoring Forum (Forsip), both called on Wednesday for an objective and transparent enquiry into the pollution, in the light of the failure of the local Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedalda) office to publicize the results of an earlier investigation that it had co-ordinated.

"I won't accuse Bapedalda of having colluded with PT Pusri but it is better for all sides to conduct an independent and objective investigation into the case," said Kertopati.

Walhi quit a monitoring team set up by the Palembang mayor last October, saying it lacked objectivity and honesty in conducting its examination of the case.

An alliance of non-governmental organizations accused PT Pusri of polluting the Musi when thousands of fish were found dead in the river last March and numerous people living on the river's banks reported suffering from skin diseases beginning last August. Pusri, which operates its own waste water plant, has admitted to polluting the river on two occasions this year, following leakages from a pipe connecting the factory with its waste water plant.

Bapedalda says PT Pusri is no longer polluting the waterway, since the company has repaired the leaking pipe and is treating its waste water before pumping it into the river. However, it declined to unveil the results of its analysis of the waste water.

According to Kertopati, the reason Bapedalda has found no pollution is that it has not taken its water samples at times when the factory has been pumping waste water into the river. "We are of the opinion that Bapedalda was not serious in carrying out the investigation, " he said.

Taufik said he had learned from reliable sources that Bapedalda had not been honest in presenting the results of its investigation. "Bapedalda produced two different reports. The one delivered to the city administration shows the river pollution is being caused by the fertilizer company's waste water while the other one released to the public says the company has treated its waste water in accordance with the law," he said.

M. Yansuri, deputy chairman of the city legislative council's Commission E on environment and social affairs, said the Bapedalda report was not objective because it had used PT Pusri's laboratory facilities to examine the company's waste water. "We will raise the pollution case in the next hearing with the Palembang mayor and Bapedalda," he said.

Jafar Abdullah, head of PT Pusri's environmental division, hailed Bapedalda's examination of the factory's waste water. He said that his company had already conducted repair work to rectify the waste leakages.

"And now, the waste water dumped by the company into the river is safe and in accordance with the standards set by the government," he said, adding his company would support an objective investigation into the pollution.

Economy & investment

ADB approves 400 million dollar loan to Indonesia

Agence France Presse - December 5, 2001

Indonesia will get a 400 million dollar loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to help it reform and return its state- owned corporations to private hands, the Philippines-based lender said.

The program loan would help Jakarta improve resource allocation in the public sector and increase the profitability of state- owned enterprises (SOEs), thus promoting private sector interest in them, an ADB-statement said.

"Privatizing SOEs will also allow the government to release scarce resources for poverty reduction and social development programs," it added.

The bank said that while President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government had made a firm commitment to SOE reform, "there may be some opposition as a result of corporate restructuring and privatization". Growing public debt and the need to curb inflation are limiting expansionary policy, it added.

It said the Asian crisis had showed that "many weaknesses of Indonesia's SOEs are related to poor governance. The main causes are government interference in day-to-day operations, lax internal controls, loopholes in accounting practices, and poor auditing standards and practices. "Indiscriminate subsidies and protection have undermined SOEs," it added.