East Timor

UN human rights commission abandons justice for East Timor

ETAN Statement - April 22, 2002

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) described Friday's UN Commission on Human Rights statement on East Timor as "a rotten birthday present for the soon-to-be independent nation."

The Chairperson's Statement on the Situation in Human Rights in East Timor was issued in Geneva today.

"The statement essentially abandons any pretense that those most responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in East Timor should be brought to justice," said John M. Miller, spokesperson for ETAN.

"The statement ignores flaws identified by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Indonesia's ad hoc human rights courts on East Timor," said Miller. "Any reference to the ridiculously limited mandate of the court two months out of a 24-year military occupation and only three of East Timor's 13 districts has been removed. Those sitting on the Human Rights Commission cannot expect anyone to take this statement seriously if it does not even mention this most basic jurisdictional flaw."

The ad hoc court is now hearing cases against some mid-level Indonesian officers and pro-Indonesian East Timorese.

In her report to the Commission, High Commissioner Mary Robinson, said the "limited jurisdiction conferred upon the Court does not address the actual situation as reported to various United Nations officials, independent experts and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who investigated the 1999 violence." The report called "upon the international community to reconsider the recommendations of the [United Nations] International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor, including that concerning the establishment by the United Nations of an international human rights tribunal."

Since 1999, ETAN has joined with East Timorese civil society to urge the US and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to work to establish an international tribunal.

"An international tribunal is essential to ensure that those at the highest levels of the Indonesian military and government responsible for the violence against the people of East Timor are brought to justice," said Miller.

"We are also concerned about the statement's singling out of the murder of journalist Sander Thoenes. He and his family certainly deserve to have the perpetrators of this vicious crime brought to justice, but by focusing on this case, the commission has indicated a lack of concern for the thousands of other victims killed in 1999, as well as their loved ones and the hundreds of thousands murdered, tortured, raped and imprisoned in the 23 previous years of Indonesia's military occupation," said Miller.

Miller also said that while the commission statement "'welcomes the agreement of UNTAET/East Timorese authorities and the Government of Indonesia to strengthen ongoing co-operation on judicial matters,' the statement fails to recognize Indonesia's disregard for the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the parties, including Indonesia's refusal to extradite any suspects for prosecution or questioning to East Timor.

"The Chairperson's Statement glosses over the ongoing refugee crisis and ignores the failure to disarm and arrest hard-line militia which threaten East Timor's long-term security," said Miller. "Nor is there any mention of the estimated 1600 children still separated from their parents through force or coercion since 1999, some 160 of whom remain in orphanages throughout Indonesia," added Miller.

"Tragically, no Human Rights Commission Statement has even touched on the terrible human rights record of the Indonesian security forces and the ongoing atrocities committed against civilians. They are killing women, children, and men in Aceh and terrorizing the people of West Papua," added Miller.

Following the August 30, 1999 UN-organized referendum, the Indonesian military and its militia proxies systematically destroyed East Timor, murdering at least 2000 East Timorese, destroying over 70 percent of the infrastructure and raping hundreds of women. Hundreds of thousands were forced from their homes. Resistance leader Xanana Gusmao was just declared the winner of the first presidential election in East Timor.The country will gain full independence on May 20. Gusmao has urged the international community to take prime responsibility for bringing perpetrators of atrocities to justice while he focuses on reconciliation.

East Timorese begin weaving their own political fabric

Canberra Times - April 26, 2002

[Daniel Casey was on hand to watch the world's newest country, and our neighbour, embark upon the road to democracy with its people tackling the ballot box for the very first time.]

"If there is independence, blood must flow" read the graffiti on a building still burnt out from the violence that followed the 1999 popular consultation. Below, a young East Timorese girl, who would barely remember the violence, sits and reads. On Sunday, April 14, the world's newest country, East Timor, went to the polls to elect their first President. As I arrived at the small Dili airport, a few days before the election, Alessandro Gusmao Xanana's young son ran up to meet his Australian grandmother, Rosalie, who was on the same flight. Young Alessandro was accompanied by his mother, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, but no security- guards.

The mood was very relaxed, as I chatted to Kirsty, and Rosalie put away a Mars Bar for her President-in-waiting son-in-law, Xanana, who has a sweet tooth.

The only two candidates were Francisco Xavier do Amaral and Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao. "Xanana" as he is popularly known, was a guerrilla commander, and the international face of the East Timorese resistance. Gusmao, 56, only reluctantly agreed to run, with his nomination form only being lodged with 20 minutes to spare. Although he was backed by nine of the 12 political parties, he described himself as an independent, and ran on a platform of transparency and scrutiny of the Fretilin-led government. He drew support from a wide spectrum of Timorese society, including church and pro-autonomy groups.

Do Amaral, 66, was the true populist leader of the East Timorese resistance in the 1970s, and declared East Timor's independence on November 28, 1975. He was the country's first and, so far, only President, for nine days before the Indonesian invasion. After being sick for the first two weeks of the campaign, he fought on the basis of a partnership with government in the development of the island. He was backed by Parantil and ASDT, the third largest party in the Constituent Assembly, and drew most of his support from the rural highlands. On the Friday before the election, each candidate closed their campaigns with massive rallies around Dili.

Do Amaral's rally, at his home, attracted a few thousand people, while Gusmao attracted close to 10,000. The crowd sat, stood, jumped up onto fences, bus and truck roofs and trees to watch more than an hour and a half of music in the sweltering heat, using newspapers for shade, before Gusmao arrived. One of Gusmao's key campaign tools was a weekly newspaper, Xanana, featuring extensive articles about his campaign and policies. This paper was devoured by the locals, with children as young as eight distributing and reading it.

The first clear success of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), CivPol (the international police force) and the Timor Lorosa'e Police Service (TLPS) was restoring law and order in the troubled country. Only one act of politically motivated violence was confirmed throughout the country by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), while the general crime rate is also very low.

Unfortunately, there is no word for "democracy" or "human rights" in Tetum, the indigenous language around Dili, and it was clear that it was indeed a strange concept to many East Timorese. On polling day, I went to four polling booths in rural Dili and the neighbouring town of Manatuto, 60km east of Dili. Long queues developed early, but by midday, the queues had abated. Between midday and 4pm, when polls closed, I saw no more than two dozen voters. Most voters needed to be carefully directed how to vote, with many people naively trying to put the blank ballot paper directly into the ballot box. I saw a handful of people being turned away from the booths, with polling officials stating they were not eligible to vote.

Significantly, none of these people challenged this decision, seemingly viewing voting not as a right, but rather as a privilege, or perhaps they were scared of recriminations if they challenged the decision. The voting age is 17, a legacy from Indonesian occupation. To be eligible to vote people must either be born in East Timor, or have a parent born in East Timor, or be married to someone born, or whose parents were born, in East Timor.

People were allowed to vote with either a pencil or a nail, with which they punched a hole in the box of the candidate of their choice. Because of the low level of literacy and education in East Timor, the ballot papers had both the candidate's name and photo, and a vote was considered valid as long as the voter's intention was clear. However, there was significant debate about whether a nail hole through the head of the photo of the candidate demonstrated an intention to vote for him or assassinate him!

The most striking aspect of all parts of East Timor is the continued devastation. After the popular consultation in 1999, pro-Indonesian militias, with the backing of sections of the Indonesian military, systematically looted, pillaged and burned huge amounts of the country, leaving the country destitute. Although the UN has significantly re-built some areas of the country, almost half of all commercial buildings in Dili remain burnt out shells.

As has been reported in The Canberra Times earlier, Xanana Gusmao won a commanding 80 per cent of the vote. However, this is well down on the expectations of over 90 per cent. Turnout was also very high, around 86 per cent. Gusmao will be sworn in on the same day that East Timor formally declares independence, on May 20.

Thus, although they seem to have succeeded in getting democracy "right", a lot more support is needed for this developing nation. Yet they may only have one chance, in order to stop this fledgling nation sliding backwards into anarchy or dictatorship. So, after significant consultation with the local community, the UN has recommended a new Tetum word for democracy, which literally means "a group of people sitting together, weaving a mat". However, without another election scheduled for five years, it is vital that this "mat" is securely made, in order to prevent further bloodshed.

[Daniel Casey went to East Timor as an official election observer with the International Commission of Jurists. He is a fourth-year student at the ANU, and would like to thank the ANU for their generous financial assistance.]

East Timor won't back separatists

Melbourne Age - April 26, 2002

Mark Baker -- East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has ruled out any backing for separatist movements within Indonesia once the country achieves its independence next month.

Mr Ramos Horta said freedom fighters in regions including West Papua and Aceh could expect no support or sanctuary from Timorese leaders, who fought for 24 years to win their own struggle against Jakarta's rule.

"We can assure our Indonesian neighbours, brothers and sisters, that East Timor is not going to be a haven for anyone in Indonesia who wishes to dismember the Republic of Indonesia," he said.

"Our first obligation is our national borders, our national interest, our national security and we have to respect our neighbour. Indonesia is facing enormous challenges within and without and East Timor will be the last piece of real estate in the world that would be offered to anyone to aggravate the situation in Indonesia."

Mr Ramos Horta told journalists during a visit to Singapore that despite the personal sentiments that East Timorese might have, they had to recognise that Indonesia would not tolerate any activities across its border that challenged Jakarta's sovereignty.

"There will be no rational-thinking government person in East Timor that would offer a base of support for any group in Indonesia that wishes to secede from Indonesia," he said.

He argued that there was no direct comparison between East Timor's fight against Indonesia's 1975 invasion and the claims of separatist groups within Indonesia. Throughout the struggle of the East Timorese, the foundation of their argument for independence was that Indonesia as the successor state of the Dutch East Indies never had a legitimate claim to the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.

"East Timor was therefore separate from any other claims within the Indonesian Republic. In the 24 years of our struggle ... we never once said that we support self-determination equally for Aceh or Irian Jaya [Papua]."

Mr Ramos Horta said he was optimistic that Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri would attend the independence celebrations in Dili on May 20, despite opposition within sections of the Indonesian bureaucracy. "She would be honoured by our people and she would show herself to be a stateswoman, and she probably would be the star of the event," he said.

Mr Ramos Horta also said East Timor would resist strongly opposition from within the Association of South-East Asian Nations to the new nation's early admission to the regional grouping.

He confirmed that Burma was lobbying against the granting to East Timor of even observer status with ASEAN because of the long- standing support of the Timorese resistance for the Burmese democracy movement and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Other ASEAN members are arguing for delayed membership because of the poor state of the Timorese economy.

TNI/Police faction opposed to President visiting Timor

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2002

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) has taken the same position as the House's Commission I for political and security affairs, rejecting a visit by President Megawati Soekarnoputri to East Timor next month, according to reports.

"The stance of the TNI/Police faction is clear and final," the chairman of the faction, Lt. Gen. Budi Harsono, said as quoted by Antara news agency. Budi said Indonesia should send an envoy no higher than the minister of foreign affairs to witness the proclamation of East Timor's independence on May 20.

Earlier in the day, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that barring any unforeseen developments, President Megawati would attend EastTimor's proclamation of independence.

"If nothing extraordinary happens from now until May 20, President Megawati will continue with plans to go to East Timor," Susilo said as quoted by the news agency. He was speaking after attending the installment ceremony at Merdeka Palace of Vice Adm.Bernard Kent Sondakh as the new Navy chief of staff and Vice Marshall Chappy Hakim as the new Air Force chief of staff.

The President's planned trip to East Timor has received strong opposition from some quarters, mainly the House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly, the country's two highest law-making bodies.

Military 'aided civilian guards in East Timor'

The Jakarta Post - April 26, 2002

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Witnesses in their testimony on Thursday highlighted a clear link between civilian guards roaming East Timor in the run-up to 1999 ballot and military forces, saying local authorities established and recruited the paramilitary force.

The two witnesses for the prosecution, former East Timor deputy police chief Sr. Comr. Muafi Sahudji and former Dili regent Dominggo Soares, said that the Ministry of Defense was directly involved in establishing and funding the civilian guards, popularly known by the acronym Kamra.

They testified in the adhoc tribunal, Indonesia's first ever human rights trial, of former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares and former East Timor police chief Timbul Silaen. Silaen and Abilio are accused of committing gross human rights violations in East Timor for failing to prevent killings in the former province before, during, and after the 1999 vote.

However witnesses in their explanation clearly separated the presence of the civilian guards with the pro-integration militias who are perceived to be directly involved in the destruction which swept the territory.

Dominggo maintained that the situation in East Timor became "uncertain" after it was known that those who rejected integration won a massive victory in the ballot. "The local administration was no longer effective ... Since Timorese camped themselves into two rival groups -- pro-integration and pro- independence -- authorities decided to establish Kamra to help maintain security," said Dominggo whose testimony pertained to the charges against Abilio.

When Judge Komariah Emong asked if members of Dili-based militia Aitarak were also recruited, Dominggo replied: "In Dili yes, there were members of Aitarak who joined Kamra."

Meanwhile witness Muafi, who testified against Silaen, said military and police officers trained Kamra members. However he was quick to stress that "the police only trained them in drill."

The trials were adjourned till Wednesday and Thursday to hear more witnesses for the prosecution.

Biographical notes Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao

East Timor News Service - April 24, 2002

Name: Jose Alexandre Gusmao
Nom-de-guerre: Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao
Date of Birth: 20 June 1946
Place of Birth: Manatuto, East Timor

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, was born on June 20, 1946 in Manatuto, on the north coast of East Timor. He was raised in the country, with a brother and five sisters. His father was a school teacher. He completed primary school at the Catholic mission of St Theresa's in Ossu, then went to the Jesuit seminary "Nossa Senhora de Fatima" in Dare and later to night school at the High School in Dili. He began work very early in various jobs: as a chartered surveyor, a teacher, a public servant, a wharf-side worker, a fisherman, a soldier and a labourer. He began writing for the local newspaper, "A Voz de Timor" (the Voice of Timor) in 1974.

The Portuguese colonial administration of Timor began a long over-due process of decolonisation May 1974. Xanana Gusmao joined the left-wing political organisation Fretilin -- Revolutionary Front for an Independence East Timor on 20 May 1975. After a brief civil war in which Fretilin prevailed he became Deputy Head of its Department of Information.

On December 7, 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor and Xanana took to the hills with the recently formed national army, Falintil. After President Nicolau Lobato's death in December 1978, and the decimation of almost all Fretilin's resistance leadership Xanana found himself in charge of the reorganisation of the Resistance.

In March 1981, he set out to organise the first National Conference of the Reorganisation of the Country and created the National Council of Revolutionary Resistance, CRRN, during which he was elected leader of the Resistance and Commander-in-Chief of Falintil, a responsibility which he had taken on in practice ever since Lobato's death.

Under his command, in 1983, the resistance initiated the first preliminary talks with the occupying armed forces and negociated a six month ceasefire. He conceived and implemented the Policy of National Unity which translated into increasing contacts with the Catholic Church and the development of a clandestine network in urban areas and other occupied zones. In 1988, the success of the initiative for National Unity enabled Xanana to create the CNRM -- National Council of Maubere Resistance.

In the lead up to the year's anniversay of the horrific 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in Dili, Xanana was captured on November 20, 1992 by the Indonesian armed forces and imprisoned in Jakarta until his trial in March 1993.

According to an Amnesty International Report (East Timor, Xanana Gusmao - A Briefing; ASA 21/58/97, August 1997), "after his capture [...] Xanana Gusmao was held in secret military custody for 17 days before representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were permitted to see him. During this period he was believed to have been subjected to psychological ill-treatment in the form of sleep deprivation in an apparent attempt to prevent him from concentrating fully on his defence plea. [...] A defence lawyer was appointed [...] just six days before the trial began". In court he denounced the genocidal character of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in front of the international press. At the conclusion of a trial denounced as farcical by all international observers, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. This sentence was later commuted to 20 years.

In prison, Xanana devoted his time to the elaboration of the strategies of the Resistance, while studying English, Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language) and Law. He also painted and wrote poetry, cultivating a talent already recognised in 1975, when he won the Timor Poetry Prize with his poem "Maubermadas". Some of his paintings have been sold and the money donated to the Resistance at Xanana's request. In 1994, some of his political essays were published in a book, Timor-Leste - um Povo, uma Patria, (East Timor - a People, a Nation) Ed. Colibri, Lisbon.

In April 1998, at the East Timorese National Convention in the Diaspora, established the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), an even more inclusive body than CNRM. Xanana Gusmao was acclaimed as President of CNRT.

President Habibie of Indonesia proposed that if East Timorese reject the automony plan in a UN-sponsored popular consultation they would be given their independence. Following increasing international pressure to release Xanana Gusmao and so he could take part in negociations concerning the consultation he was transferred from Cipinang Prison to house arrest in Salemba, Central Jakarta, on 10 February 1999. He received vistits from foreign government representatives, including US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer and, Japanese Foreign Minister, Masahiko Komura.

On 30 August 1999 the Timorese people voted overwhelmingly for their independence. A period of intense violence followed and was only stopped by the intervention of a UN auspiced Australian led peace keeping force. Xanana Gusmao was released from house arrest on 7 September 1999 and fled to Australia. It was the end of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor and the beginning of the transitional process led by the UN in East Timor.

Due the rapid developments in the East Timorese political process and the general international recognition of Mr. Gusmao's statesmanship and leadership he is genrally recognised as leader of the East Timorese people. Mr. Gusmao is a member of the National Consultative Council, comprised of personnel of the UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor), representatives of the CNRT, pro-autonomy groups and the East Timorese Church.

In December 1999, he was awarded the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for his struggle for Human Rights. He married Australian Kirsty Sword in Dili in July 2000, and the couple's son, Alexandre Sword Gusmao, was born on 30 September, 2000.

Re-elected as President of CNRT by 400 delegates at the August 2000 Congress, shortly after Xanana led celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the ballot.

The CNRT was officially dissolved on 9 June, 2001, following an Extraordinary Conference of the CNRT held 5 to 7 June in Dili. Shortly after, Xanana Gusmao was elected President of the Association of the Veterans of the Resistance.

Publications

• Timor Leste: Um Povo, Uma Patria, Colibri, Lisbon, 1994 Portuguese collection of writings
• Mar Meu, Editora Granito, Faculdade de Letras, Porto University, Porto, 1998 Collection of poetry and paintings in Portuguese and English
• To Resist is to Win: the Autobiography of Xanana Gusmao with selected letters and speeches, Ed. Sarah Niner, Aurora Books, Melbourne, 2000

Awards and Prizes

• 1975 - National Poetry Prize for 'Mauberiadas'
• 1994 - UN Human Right Award, Australia 1995 Honorary Citizen of the City of Brasilia, Brasil
• 1998 - Order of Liberty, Portugal
• 1999 - Sakharov Prize, European Parliament
• 2000 - Order of Merit, New Zealand
• 2000 - Keys to the City of Lisbon, Portugal
• 2000 - Vice-President's Medal, Brasil
• 2000 - Jose Bonifacio Order of Merit, State University of Rio de Janeiro
• 2000 - Kwangju Peace Prize, Korea 2000 Sydney Peace Prize, Australia
• 2001 - United Nations Assocation of Australia, International Peace Award (presented in Melbourne on 10 October, 2001)
• 2001 - Honorary Adult Friend, The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child (Sweden)

Annan calls for robust post-independence UN mission

Lusa - April 24, 2002

General Kofi Annan recommended Tuesday that the Security Council approve a new UN mission for East Timor to last two years beyond its independence, slated for May 20. The proposed mandate, dubbed UN Mission to Support East Timor (UNMISET), would center on aiding good governance and assuring domestic and border security.

The Security Council, under pressure to pay more attention to other hot spots, such as Afghanistan and the DR Congo, is to debate Annan's recommendations Friday.

While upbeat on the current social, political and security situation in the UN-administered territory, Annan said that "all this would be at risk" if it were not "reinforced through a continued (UN) presence and international commitment".

Among other needs, he called for "urgent attention" in providing "financial and material support" for continued formation of East Timor's police and defense forces.

On a visit to Sweden, President-elect Xanana Gusmao said Tuesday that he would travel to New York to encourage the UN to extend its presence in East Timor, with only "gradual downsizing" of its current UNTAET mission, which ends at independence next month.

First budget features higher taxes, spending cuts

Lusa - April 23, 2002

Dili's interim government has approved a USD 75 million budget for East Timor's first year as an independent state.

The budget, approved Monday, centers on increased taxes, tightened public spending, subsidies to local administrations and the creation of a special fund to lessen the impact of the end of the United Nations transition administration, according to a cabinet statement released Tuesday.

The territory gains its independence May 20.

The biggest slice of the budget pie goes to education, health and public works, and includes a request for a USD 10 million supplement which will be presented to international donors during a May 14-15 meeting in Dili.

The cabinet also decided to create a so-called Petroleum Resources Investment Fund, with the aid of the International Monetary Fund, to define strategies for saving and applying future revenues from oil- and natural gas-operations in the Timor Gap.

Estimates indicate Dili will garner more than USD 300 million yearly, beginning about 2004, from the offshore fields.

The 800,000-population territory's villages, towns and infrastructures suffered immense destruction in violence unleashed by vengeful Indonesian forces at the time of the 1999 independence plebiscite.

'I was ordered to bury victims of attack on Timor church'

Jakarta Post - April 24, 2002

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- A witness testified before the ongoing Human Rights Court on Tuesday that he was ordered by his superior to bury at least 25 bodies, including three Catholic priests, after a massacre at St. Ave Maria Church in Suai town, Covalima regency, East Timor on September 6, 1999.

Second Sgt. Sony Iskandar explained that some military and police officers, along with about 10 East Timorese, buried the bodies in three mass graves which were excavated at a nearby beach.

"I just followed my superior's order by digging the holes ..., there were three holes ... one for the male corpses, another one for women and the remaining hole for the three priests," said Sony, the driver for the former Suai military command's chief of staff Capt. Achmad Syamsuddin -- one of the five defendants accused of committing gross human rights violations.

Sony said the bodies were transported from the church by military truck for burial in a "new cemetery near the beach". He also said that he noticed that almost all of the bodies had been wounded by sharp weapons.

Tuesday's hearing was part of the ongoing trial of four mid-level military officers and one policeman accused of rights violations in the massacre at the church, where at least 27 people were killed in the attack, including Catholic priests Tarsisius Dewanto, Hilario Madeira and Francisco Soares.

Achmad Syamsuddin, along with four other defendants, former Covalima regent Col. Herman Sedyono, former Suai military commander Lt. Col. Liliek Koeshadianto, his successor Lt. Col. Sugito and former Suai Police precinct chief Lt. Col. Gatot Subiaktoro are charged with violating Articles 7, 9, 37 and 42 of Law No. 26/2000 on human rights violations. The crimes carry sentences ranging from 10 years to the death penalty.

Sony is also a suspect for a similar case, as he, along with several soldiers and the Suai-based pro-Jakarta militia group Laksaur, stand accused of carrying out the attack. Asked if he had any knowledge of why he was ordered to bury the corpses, Sony replied, "For humanitarian reasons, I guess".

Another witness, First Sgt. I Wayan Suka Antara -- also a suspect for the other case -- told the court that the situation turned ugly, following the announcement by the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) declaring victory for the pro-independence voters on September 4, 1999.

Antara said that hundreds of people from the pro-Jakarta group immediately attacked the church as they knew that "it had been used as a safe haven for the pro-independence group and some UNAMET staffers." "There wasn't any security officer guarding the church during the attack. How could we guard it, anyway, if these people ... I mean, the pro-independence group, banned us from getting closer?" Antara told the court.

During the trial, both Sony and Antara asked the panel of judges to nullify their dossiers because they were coerced under physical pressure by military police investigators to admit to all the charges during the interrogation process. They also said that the investigators threatened to discharge them from the military if they refused to sign the dossiers.

Judge Cicut dismissed their request, and adjourned the trial until April, 30 to hear other witnesses, including at least one who is currently residing in East Timor.

Former police chief blames superiors for Timor debacle

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2002

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- A witness in the human rights trial into the East Timor mayhem said on Wednesday that top state officials in Jakarta should have been held accountable for the violence that ravaged the former Indonesian province in 1999.

Brig. Gen. Timbul Silaen, who testified against former East Timor governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, looked emotional when he told the court he had done his best within his ability to stop the violence, which erupted following the independence ballot there on August 30, 1999.

"Those accountable for security affairs at the national level are Feisal Tanjung and Wiranto. I was only a field officer who received orders from the National Police chief. Who was I to maintain security there?" Silaen said.

He was referring respectively to the then coordinating minister for security and political affairs and the Indonesian Military chief, who escaped prosecution in the case. Wiranto has testified to the court.

"Ultimately, it should be [former president] B.J. Habibie that should take responsibility, considering the fact that the decision to hold a referendum in East Timor was the government's," Silaen said.

Silaen, the only witness to appear on Wednesday, is being tried separately under the same charges as Abilio. The two are charged under Article 9 of Law No. 26/2000 on rights tribunals, with the killing of civilians at separate locations in East Timor, including the Liquica incident on April 6, 1999, and attacks by pro-Jakarta militias on the residences of proindependence leaders, Manuel Viegas Carrascalao and Leandro Isaac on April 17, 1999.

Both Abilio and Silaen are also standing trial for crimes against humanity, which claimed 27 lives during the attack on St. Ave Maria Church in Suai and the raid on the residence of Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo following the ballot.

Silaen said the violence in East Timor had been exaggerated when compared with other clashes that occurred in the country. "The number of people who died in East Timor was far fewer than those in the sectarian conflicts in Ambon and Poso," Timbul said, referring to the prolonged clashes between Muslims and Christians in the Maluku and Central Sulawesi towns between 1999 and 2002.

Silaen also told the court that local administration in East Timor was in practice taken over by the UN after the tripartite meeting in New York between the UN and the Indonesian and Portuguese governments on May, 5, 1999. That meeting decided how the self-determination ballot in the province would be run.

Presiding Judge Emmy Marni Mustafa adjourned the trial to May 1, to hear other witnesses.

'Ms Mega is planning to attend. I repeat, Ms Mega to be present'

Straits Times - April 25, 2002 (abridged)

Jakarta -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will attend East Timor's landmark independence handover on May 20, despite strong opposition from MPs.

"Ms Mega is planning to attend. I repeat, Ms Mega is planning to be present" at the celebrations, top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday, according to the state Antara news agency.

Mr Susilo declined to elaborate on the reason for the decision. Ms Megawati has made no public comment on the heatedly debated question of her attendance.

Legislators, including the speakers of the lower and upper houses of Parliament, respectively Akbar Tandjung and Dr Amien Rais, have called on her to shun the East Timorese independence celebrations.

They said that for many Indonesians, the wounds of having lost a territory which was for 24 years part of the country had yet to heal, while Dr Amien had implored her to avoid the ceremony for the sake of "national dignity".

MP Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, a member and former chairman of the Parliament's outspoken foreign affairs commission, said Ms Megawati's decision to attend the ceremony was a snub to Parliament.

Witness says he drove bodies from massacre for burial

Agence France Presse - April 23, 2002

Jakarta -- A soldier told Indonesia's new human rights court Tuesday he was asked by his commanding officer to transport and bury bodies from a church massacre in East Timor, among the worst of atrocities that followed a 1999 vote for independence..

Three Catholic priests were among 27 people slaughtered by pro- Jakarta militias armed with machetes, spears and homemade guns when they attacked the refugee-packed Hail Mary church in the southern border town of Suai on September 6.

First Private Soni Iskandar said he was asked by Suai's then military chief Captain Sugito to help him bury the bodies the day after the attack. "Mr Gito [Sugito] told me: 'We've got bodies in the cars. Let's bury them,'" Iskandar told the court.

Iskandar said he transported bodies in a pick-up truck while Sugito drove a minibus carrying corpses. A third vehicle loaded with bodies was driven by an East Timorese civilian. Sugito, himself and several East Timorese buried "about 25" bodies near a beach about 30 kilometers from the church, he said. They were buried "properly" in three separate mass graves, he added.

Sugito was one of five middle ranking officers in the dock Wednesday, as their trial for alleged gross human rights violations resumed. The other defendants were Colonel Herman Sedyono, Lieutenant Colonel Lilik Kushardianto, Major Ahmad Syamsuddin, and Adjunct Senior Commissioner Gatot Subiyaktoro. Prosecutors have accused the five of ignoring warnings or news of the massacre.

They said the attack was carried out by the pro-Jakarta Laksaur militia, who they have said were funded by the then Indonesian district administration and guided by the local military. The massacre took place two days after the results of the independence vote were announced, showing nearly 80 percent of East Timorese had opted to break away from Indonesian rule.

Another witness, First Sergeant I Wayan Suka Antara, said no soldier was present when the church was attacked and that there had been no sign earlier that the refugees were under threat.

Suka Antara said he and eight other soldiers rushed to the church after hearing a shot and tried to contain the violence. He denied that his superiors ignored the news of the attack.

"I saw the chief of staff [defendant Major Ahmad Syamsuddin] try hard to ward off the crowd. But we were outnumbered," he said. He said he did not see any dead bodies at the time, but took three injured people to the local military headquarters for treatment.

Dozens of military officers again packed the officers' trial at the Central Jakarta district court. Once-feared militia chief Eurico Guterres, who will eventually stand trial, was also present.

A total of 18 military, police, militia and civilian officials are due eventually to face trial over the attacks by pro-Jakarta militias against independence supporters in East Timor in 1999.

Militiamen backed by Indonesian soldiers waged a campaign of intimidation before East Timor's vote in August 1999 to split from Indonesia, and a "scorched earth" revenge campaign afterwards. They killed hundreds of people, torched entire towns and herded more than 250,000 people into Indonesian-ruled West Timor after the vote.

Jakarta has come under strong international pressure to punish the atrocities, with the United States refusing to resume high- level military contacts until it does. But international rights groups are sceptical that the long-delayed rights court will deliver justice.

The people's choice

Time Asia - April 23, 2002

Phil Zabriskie -- Who is Xanana Gusmao? A Portuguese journalist put that question to Gusmao himself shortly before he was captured by the Indonesian military in November 1992. The answer, a celebrated freedom fighter battling a brutal oppressor, seemed plain to most everyone -- except to the freedom fighter himself. "He is not the myth which some people have helped construct," was his reply. "He is a man confronting many difficulties. A man who fights down a struggle within himself."

Who is Xanana Gusmao, we ask 10 years on and just a few weeks before May 20, the day East Timor officially becomes the world's newest nation. Instead of jungle fatigues or a prisoner's uniform, he wears jeans and light flannel shirts. His face, wan and sagging during life on the run, is robust. Gusmao, 55, is no longer a soldier trying to defeat an occupying army, but a head of state trying to build a country. Yet still, now as before, he's struggling with himself. "If I win, I will be President," he said before the election. "But I don't want to be President."

Gusmao's courage, integrity and charisma make him a natural hero. For giving them liberty, his people worship him. But Gusmao does not shoulder his greatness easily. When he hears the word hero, he mentions many others -- Nobel laureates Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Josi Ramos-Horta, and the guerrillas he fought alongside -- but never himself. His humility camouflages a self- doubt that gnaws at him.

When Gusmao was fighting what seemed an invincible foe, he was haunted by whether he was achieving anything more than the continued misery of his people. "There were many moments of despair," he says. In the end, he and his followers prevailed, but at a cost that he still thinks too high -- "the loss of my companions, some who died just to save me."

Today, his burden of office is the presidency itself, a post he vowed he would never assume because he felt personal ambition would betray a promise made to his guerrillas to stay out of any administration if they won independence. He agreed to run only when it became clear that not running would betray a broader commitment, both to those soldiers and to East Timor. The people were beseeching him to do a job for them, as they did in the late 1970s, when the rebels were low on morale, food, arms and manpower. "Go back to the jungle," he remembers the villagers pleading. "Fight and die there." They needed him to risk his life to sustain what little hope they had. He could not refuse. "This situation," he says, "pressuring me to be President, is the same. It is why, even though I don't want it, I accept it. I will try not to disappoint them."

So now that he has accepted it, can Gusmao make the leap from bush to bureaucracy? The challenges he faces are as daunting as once his armed stalkers were. He and other East Timorese leaders must forge an economy, build legal and education systems and reconstruct a civil service.

History is littered with revolutionaries who failed as national leaders, or at most had a mixed record: Castro, Mugabe, Sukarno, Mao. Gusmao is nowhere as self-obsessed, so he is not prey to the often destructive conviction that one man can save the nation. He understands that for East Timor to first survive, then flourish, he needs the international community and that he must deliver on the good governance it demands. Gusmao, says a UN official in Dili, "has a lot of Mandela in him."

Gusmao, in turn, will demand a great deal from his people. He knows he can't offer them the best life-he would settle for a better one. He hopes that the sacrifices he asks them to make-to forgo better housing, education and jobs-might be their last, just as being President will be his last. Then this most uncommon man can be, as he desires, "just a common citizen." For Xanana Gusmao, that may be the hardest struggle of all.

Labour struggle

7,000 part-time teachers demand better conditions

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2002

Kasparman, Padang -- Some 7,000 temporarily employed teachers in West Sumatra are threatening to go on strike in protest against the provincial administration's alleged discriminatory recruitment policy and its neglect of their conditions of service.

The threat was made at a second demonstration late on Tuesday afternoon by at least 100 temporarily employed teachers at the Padang mayoralty office.

The protest was triggered by the local government's move to provide Rp 180 million from Padang's budget for at least 100 temporary administrative staff to attend diploma programs at state-run Padang University.

The demonstrators, from the Padang-based Association of Indonesian Temporary Teachers (IGHI), reiterated their earlier demand for the cancellation of the state-funded program, which, they said, amounted to unfair treatment of them. They also claimed the program was only wasting state resources as its participants had no experience or expertise in teaching.

"Attention should first have been paid to our situation because we have been serving as temporarily employed teachers for 10 years to 15 years," Padang's IGHI chairperson Yulfaheri said. He demanded that the Padang administration consider seriously their situation by officially appointing them civil servants teaching in schools.

He suspected that the diploma program, which excluded temporary teachers, was to prepare the participants before their being appointed as civil servants within the administration.

Another IGHI activist, M. Nahar, said the Rp 180 million in funds should have been used to improve the welfare of temporarily employed teachers in Padang. He said that amid the prolonged economic crisis, he and fellow teachers were paid an average of Rp 200,000 per month and that the amount was far from enough to cover their family's daily living costs.

Nahar admitted that school headmasters had been intimidated by certain parties to prevent a planned strike by temporarily employed teachers. "We would not have gone on strike if we had not been ignored. Please pay attention to our demands. We are aware that if we strike, thousands of students will be affected," he said. Yulfaheri said he would organize a massive demonstration on Monday, should his organization's demands continue to be ignored.

In a response to the protest, Padang administration secretary Masril Payan said that it was impossible for his office to stop the diploma program, which started three weeks ago, as it had been approved by the city's legislative council. The program was aimed at improving the skills and knowledge of the 100 temporarily employed civil servants, he added.

He flatly denied that the participants would automatically be accepted as civil servants after the training had finished. "It's impossible, because the recruitment of new civil servants will be announced openly. They (the 100) will have to compete with others for the jobs," Masril argued.

Students/youth

Students urge probe into Makassar deaths

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2002

Jupriadi, Makassar -- Thousands of students in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar marched on Wednesday to commemorate the killing of three local students in a clash with security forces in 1996.

The protesters were students from the Indonesian Islamic University (UMI), University of Makassar (UNM), Muhammadiyah University and the State Academy of Islamic Studies (IAIN) and they demanded the deaths be thoroughly investigated.

They urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to establish a fact-finding team to look into the bloody tragedy.

"We have gathered here in the street to urge Komnas HAM to find the cause of our friends' deaths, which remains unclear," a student leader, identified only as Aqil, told a free speech forum during the demonstration.

Fellow protesters also called on the South Sulawesi legislative council to set up a special committee to investigate the murder, added the protesting students. Their other demands included the revocation of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) much-condemned dual function, which allows it to be involved in political affairs.

The dead victims were Syaiful Bya, Muhammad Tasrif and Andi Sultan Iskandar, all UMI students who were killed when security personnel stormed their campus on Jl. Urip Sumohardjo on April 24, 1996.

Wednesday's rally started from the Islamic Panaikang cemetery, in which Syaiful Bya and Tasrif are buried. Before the protesters ended their rally at Andi's grave in the Islamic Dadi cemetery, they marched to the provincial legislative council from UMI's campus and Makassar's 1945 University campus.

Aqil added the rally was also aimed at commemorating Makassar's student movement against the Soeharto government's fuel price policy, which disadvantaged low-income people. It was also to commemorate the frequent clashes between the police and military with anti-government demonstrators, he said. "The action is actually meant to observe the student spirit of resistance against the TNI and police."

Speaker of the South Sulawesi legislative council Amin Syam, who met the demonstrators, vowed to pass on their demands to Komnas HAM and other relevant authorities as a "priority".

The demonstrators dispersed peacefully. There was no report of any clashes during the protest, which caused heavy traffic on Jl. Urip Sumohardjo. Makassar Police chief Sr. Comr. Amin Saleh, who monitored the rally closely, thanked the students for the peaceful demonstration.

Aceh/West Papua

Papuans hold talks on Muslim paramilitaries

Agence France Presse - April 18, 2002

Jakarta -- Religious leaders in Indonesia's Papua province have met regional authorities to discuss the entry of a militant Islamic militia into the mainly Christian province, an official said Thursday.

"The governor held talks with leaders of the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths on Wednesday," said Henke, secretary to Papua Governor Jacobus Solossa. "They discussed the presence of the Laskar Jihad," he told AFP, declining to elaborate.

Laskar Jihad was blamed for inflaming the deadly Muslim-Christian conflict in Maluku province after sending thousands of fighters there in May 2000. It also sent fighters to Poso in Central Sulawesi province to help Muslims in battles against Christians. Recent government-brokered peace pacts have ended both conflicts, which cost thousands of lives.

The militia's move into Muslim-dominated western districts of Papua was first alleged two years ago, but it is only in recent months that the group has acknowledged it is establishing bases there.

A coalition of Papuan religious, tribal and community groups last month accused Laskar Jihad of trying to stir up religious conflict by circulating provocative newsletters and giving fiery sermons in Sorong and Fak Fak.

They were also accused of telling worshippers in mosques that the nearly three-decades-old separatist movement in Papua was a Christian movement, and of training anti-independence militia units.

At Wednesday's meeting the government and religious leaders agreed to monitor Laskar Jihad's activities in Papua, the state Antara news agency reported. "The secure conditions in Papua must be safeguarded, so there will be no conflict like those that have happened in [the Maluku capital] Ambon and Poso," Governor Solossa was quoted as saying.

He said inter-faith relations in Papua, where mainly Christian Melanesians make up the majority of the 2.1 million people, had always been harmonious. Solossa urged people not to be provoked by unnamed parties who "wished to disrupt Papua's peaceful condition."

A Laskar Jihad spokesman, Ayip Syarifuddin, last month denied that his group had ever "issued statements or leaflets that can provoke hatred for certain religious groups." The group calls itself a humanitarian organisation.

Police have arrested two of the paramilitary group's members in Fak Fak for carrying home-made firearms, Antara reported.

Papua has been home to a low-level armed struggle for independence since Indonesian troops invaded on the heels of departing Dutch colonisers in 1963. The province was renamed Papua this year from Irian Jaya under an autonomy law and promised a much greater share of revenue from natural resources.

Church leaders demand inquiry into killing of Theys

Agence France Presse - April 18, 2002

Geneva -- The World Council of Churches (WCC) has called for an independent inquiry to look into the killing of an independence leader in the Indonesian region of Irian Jaya.

Martin Doolard, of the Geneva-based WCC, told the UN Human Rights Commission that most people in Irian Jaya viewed the death of Eluay as a deliberate act of the state authorities to silence him.

He urged the Commission, currently holding its annual six-week session, to use its influence on the Indonesian government to stop the repression of people in the region and not to suppress their demand to exercise their right to self-determination.

"We also urge the Commission to call on the Indonesian government to establish a credible, legal, independent inquiry team that includes international human rights experts, to investigate the involvement of state institutions in the assassination of Theys Eluay and to bring the perpetrators to justice," Doolard said.

Eluay was abducted on November 10 last year and his body was found the following day in his car at the bottom of a ravine. A police coroner concluded that he died of asphyxiation.

The WCC said Jakarta had failed to establish a legally constituted and credible inquiry team to carry out the investigation. Moreover, it said two inquiry commissions had both found the killing to be an ordinary crime.

Inhabitants of Irian Jaya, known locally as Papua, have been demanding independence since the 1960s following Indonesia's takeover in 1963 on the heels of the departing Dutch colonisers.

The WCC is made up of 342 churches in more than 100 countries across the world representing virtually all Chrisian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the organisation.

Four killed in Aceh violence

Agence France Presse - April 19, 2002

Banda Aceh -- At least four more people including a soldier and a rebel have been killed in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, the military said Friday.

A soldier died Thursday in a 30-minute skirmish with Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels in Bireuen district, said Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin.

Local rebel commander Darwis Jeunieb said there were no casualties from his side but claimed that troops had killed three civilians following the incident. There was no confirmation of the three civilian deaths.

Residents in the Tanah Pasir area of North Aceh on Thursday found an unidentified body bearing gunshot wounds on a road, witnesses said.

A rebel was shot dead after he tried to wrestle guns from soldiers following his arrest in the Panyang area of Pidie district on Wednesday, Muttaqin said. Also in Pidie, humanitarian workers said they found an unidentified male corpse in the Meureudu area on Tuesday.

Indonesian officials and rebel leaders are scheduled to resume peace talks in Geneva at the end of April. GAM rebels have been fighting for an independent state in Aceh since 1976. An estimated 10,000 people, mainly civilians, have died since then and more than 400 people have been killed this year alone.

East Timor hopes for peaceful Aceh solution

Reuters - April 22, 2002

Stockholm -- East Timor's new president, former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao, on Monday urged Aceh separatists fighting for independence from Indonesia to follow East Timor's example and pursue a peaceful solution.

"We understand the demands of the Acehnese people, but we respect the sovereignty of Indonesia," Gusmao told a news conference in Stockholm, where he was taking part in an international summit on reconciliation.

Aceh province, which accounts for one-fifth of Indonesia's oil and gas exports, is home to four million people.

Indonesian officials and rebels are due to meet in Switzerland on April 27-28 for the latest round of peace talks aimed at ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

"All we can say is we hope the problems there can be solved peacefully by dialogue," said Gusmao, who won a landslide victory in East Timor's first presidential election earlier this month.

East Timor was invaded and taken over by Indonesia in 1975, but in 1999 its people overwhelmingly voted for independence. The country will officially become an independent state on May 20, when the United Nations hands over administration to the new government.

Gusmao, who spent seven years in a Jakarta prison for guerrilla action, said he did not plan to meet representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during his visit in Sweden. The GAM's exile government is based in Stockholm.

`Aceh is the next East Timor' says visiting activist

Green Left Weekly - April 24, 2002

Pip Hinman, Sydney -- The news that two Acehnese activists sought refuge in the Finnish embassy in Jakarta on April 10 didn't surprise Erwanto, an Acehnese activist currently visiting Australia. "Aceh is like hell on Earth", he said. "Already this year more than 700 people have been killed, almost all of them civilians. Aceh will be another East Timor, unless we and our friends internationally prevent it from happening".

Erwanto, international officer of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), is visiting Australia and New Zealand to generate greater solidarity for the campaign demanding a referendum be held in Aceh on independence. During his two-month visit, he will address public meetings in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and meet a number of solidarity, trade union, NGO and parliamentary representatives.

Erwanto is one of a new generation of Acehnese leaders whose political and community activity did not start as part of a movement for independence, but as part of an Indonesian-wide movement to get rid of the dictator Suharto.

In 1998, Erwanto helped form SMUR  Student Solidarity with the People  one of the key organisations then mobilising students against Suharto. SMUR is now one of the few longer-term university student organisations in Aceh.

After Suharto was deposed, the Acehnese people organised huge demonstrations demanding a referendum on independence. In the countryside, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), a pro-independence organisation with an armed guerrilla wing, spread rapidly.

At the same time, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) retreated from their former level of intense military activity against GAM, which increased GAM's support.

In the cities, Erwanto and others of his generation saw the need for another wing of the independence movement  which would use peaceful methods and take a strong stand in defence of a democratic future for a free Aceh and for friendly relations with the Indonesian democracy movement.

Erwanto told Green Left Weekly that in 1999, he helped Acehnese peasant farmers in the south. "The farmers were campaigning against their land being privatised and together with the students they set up WAKAMPAS (Youth and Student Movement for Democracy) which mobilised some 5000-7000 people in Tapaktuan, in south Aceh, that year." These young activists saw a need for the democratic movement to not just struggle for freedom but to maintain the struggle for social reforms. Many other organisations started to develop, organising farmers, workers and others. In 2001, many united to form the FPDRA. At its first congress, Erwanto was elected as its international officer. Erwanto criticised the Australian government's decision to strengthen military ties with Indonesia. "It is common knowledge that the Indonesian military is being helped by ExxonMobil in Aceh", he said. "But it's the political and financial support from the West which makes it easier for the Indonesian government to wage war on the people of Aceh. This is an act of complicity with murder", he said, adding that there are now 60,000 troops in Aceh.

The FPDRA believes that there will never be peace unless the Indonesian government agrees to a referendum allowing the people to decide on autonomy or independence. Erwanto is in no doubt what the verdict would be, given that two million people (half the population of Aceh) mobilised in support of independence in Banda Aceh in 1999, and since then the movement has only become stronger.

Erwanto said that the central government's offers to try and buy off different sectors in Aceh have failed. "For instance, religious leaders are opposed to the implementation of Islamic law in Aceh, and the autonomy law deeming that 70% of resources stay in Aceh has only served Jakarta's bureaucrats." The FPDRA believes that the process towards a referendum has to begin with a cease-fire between GAM and the TNI, followed by mediated political dialogue between GAM or its political wing the Aceh- Sumatra National Liberation Front and Indonesia.

"We have learnt from East Timor", said Erwanto. "We cannot have a democratic referendum while the TNI is in Aceh." He hopes that others too have learned. "If not", he warns, "Aceh's four million people will become victims of the TNI and police operations".

'War on terror'

Mother of Indonesian jailed in Philippines shocked by verdict

Agence France Presse - April 22, 2002

Jakarta -- The mother of an Indonesian suspected of links to international terrorism said Thursday she was "shocked" to hear he had been jailed for up to 12 years in the Philippines.

"Really? I didn't know it until you told me. Did they find the evidence?" Rukanah, 56, asked AFP by phone from the East Javan town of Madiun. "I'm shocked. I thought he would be freed because I was told they didn't find the evidence," she said.

Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, 30, was sentenced by a court in the southern Philippine city of General Santos after pleading guilty to possessing explosives. His lawyer Confesor Sansalo said he had hoped for a lesser sentence by admitting his guilt.

But after being told that her son had pleaded guilty. Rukanah said she left his fate to God "There's nothing I can do about it. If that's the case I only hope that he is strong and patient enough to face this test, which Allah has ordained to him," she said. She said her husband Muhammad Jainuri was in the Philippines to attend the trial.

The judge sentenced al-Ghozi to between 10 to 12 years in prison and imposed a fine of 200,000 pesos (3,920 US dollars). The court would decide on the exact prison term later. Al-Ghozi admitted Thursday to stashing 1,000 kilograms of TNT, 300 detonators and rolls of detonating cord in General Santos City. He was arrested in Manila in January,

Philippine authorities have said al-Ghozi was an explosives expert for the Jemaah Islamiyah extremist group, the regional allies of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. "He thought it best for him to plead guilty," said Sansalo.

The lawyer said al-Ghozi's guilty plea was not related to accusations that he was behind a series of bombings in Manila in 2000. He said there was no evidence for this charge. Al-Ghozi was also not admitting that he was the explosives expert for the Jemaah Islamiyah or behind an alleged bombing plot in Singapore, Sansalo said.

Singapore has detained 13 suspected Jemaah Islamiyah militants for the alleged plot to bomb US targets there. The Indonesian faces a separate charge of illegal possession of 17 rifles found with the explosives, the maximum sentence for which is 20 years.

Al-Ghozi once studied at an Islamic school run by Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. Singapore and Malaysia allege that Ba'asyir is linked to Jemaah Islamiyah, a charge he denies. Ba'asyir was quesioned in January by Indonesian police about alleged terrorism links but was not detained.

Government & politics

Internal rift within beleaguered PPP widens

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2002

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta -- The internal rift within the beleaguered United Development Party (PPP), mainly between the veterans and the newcomers, is widening as evidenced by fresh demands from the party's youth wing to move its congress up to 2003.

The youth wing, represented by Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin, insisted on Tuesday that PPP's central board should move forward its congress to 2003 so as not to violate the party's platform.

However, PPP's secretary general Alimarwan Hanan coolly responded to the demand on Wednesday, saying that the party bore no resentment over differences voiced by the youth wing. "Such an aspiration is fine. Nevertheless, any charges must have a legal basis," Alimarwan said, referring to the youth wing's intention to take its demands to court.

Supporters of PPP chairman Hamzah Haz, who wish to see Hamzah -- also the country's vice president -- remain in power, have decided to hold the next party congress in 2004, the same year as the country's general elections.

The central board's insistence on postponing the party's congress until 2004 sparked frustration among many PPP members, and led noted Muslim cleric Zainuddin MZ to declare the establishment of a splinter party -- PPP Reformasi -- on January 21.

In the party's 29th anniversary celebration last week, Hamzah urged the splinter group to reunite and strengthen the Muslim- based political party. He, however, did not mention any intention from his side to reconcile the differences over the party's congress.

There has been speculation that the dispute between Hamzah and Zainuddin was the consequence of a power struggle mainly over the issue of drafting the legislator line-up for the 2004 general elections.

PPP, which garnered the third highest number of votes in the 1999 general elections, is expected to fare poorly in the upcoming elections due to the split as well as the ongoing internal rift with the youth wing.

Alimarwan, however, denied any further splintering from PPP, claiming that the provincial chapters would remain with the Hamzah version of PPP. "In my visits to the provinces, I see no indication of a split in PPP," Alimarwan said.

Regional/communal conflicts

Ambon loyalists riot over separatist flags

Straits Times - April 26, 2002

Ambon -- Blasts rocked the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon yesterday and gunshots rang out as hundreds of loyalists protested against the flying of balloon-borne flags on the 52nd anniversary of a separatist group.

At least six people were injured and at least three explosions were heard across the city as the balloons, carrying the flags of the mostly Christian separatist group, South Maluku Republic (RMS), floated overhead, residents said.

Around 1,000 Muslims took to the streets to protest against the flags. Police fired warning shots to keep them away from a Christian area of the coastal city.

The Silo Protestant church, which is being rebuilt after being razed three years ago, was also targeted by demonstrators who detonated an explosion. It was then set on fire, the Ambon Diocese Crisis Centre reported.

The unrest is testing the strength of a peace deal signed in February between the Christian and Muslim communities. The truce had stemmed much of the sectarian fighting, which left up to 9,000 people dead.

The RMS had announced repeatedly that it would mark the 52nd anniversary of a failed independence bid yesterday. The small group is banned in Indonesia for its aggressive campaign to make the southern part of the Maluku archipelago an independent nation, demanding a referendum on self-determination.

It has come to represent hardline Christian aspirations in the region, 2,600 km east of Jakarta. Its presence is often cited by local Muslims as justification for their own militancy. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but Maluku's two million inhabitants are divided evenly between Muslims and Christians.

RMS claims widespread support. But analysts say its reach and influence are small compared to separatist groups in Aceh and Papua province. "We don't want violence, but we are determined to keep struggling for independence," said RMS secretary-general Moses Tuankota. Two of its leaders were arrested last week and have been charged with treason.

Earlier this month, a bomb exploded in a Christian area of the city, killing seven and injuring scores of others. It was the first major violation of the ceasefire.

Ambon tense as independence supporters fly separatist flags

Agence France Presse - April 25, 2002

Hundreds of loyalist Muslims staged a noisy protest in Indonesia's eastern city of Ambon against independence supporters flying flags attached to air balloons to mark the anniversary of a separatist group.

Security forces, including Maluku military commander Brigadier General Mustopo, tried to calm about 1,000 Muslim protesters gathering in the Trikora area in downtown Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, on Thursday.

The crowd was angered by the authorities' failure to stop the flying of the separatist flags. There were no reports of violence so far. Troops blocked roads to prevent the protesters from marching to Christian areas.

Separatists used air balloons to fly about 10 flags of the South Maluku Republic (RMS), a separatist movement with a predominantly Christian support base, to mark the 52nd anniversary of the group. Security forces managed to shoot down two of the flags.

Meanwhile a source at the Maluku governor office said about 220 RMS flags were seized Thursday on Haruku island off the northeastern coast of Ambon in Central Maluku.

People loyal to Dutch colonial rule declared the RMS in 1950 and staged a revolt against newly-independent Indonesia, but the rebellion was quashed and the movement has since been active mostly abroad. RMS activities in Maluku resurfaced after widespread sectarian unrest broke out in Ambon in January 1999.

Officials have already put in place a series of measures to prevent the RMS from upsetting a fragile state-brokered peace agreement reached between warring Muslim and Christian camps in February.

Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina, who heads the civil emergency authority set up in Maluku in September 2000, has extended a nightly curfew by three hours, closed the province to foreigners and non-governmental organizations and imposed a news blackout on RMS activities for 20 days as of April 10.

He has also banned access to the area surrounding the home of Alex Manuputty, the RMS leader arrested last week and set to be charged with subversion, where an RMS flag-raising ceremony had been planned for Wednesday.

Muslims have accused the predominantly Christian RMS of fanning sectarian violence that has ravaged Maluku since January 1999, killing more than 5,000 people, displacing more than 500,000 others and leaving a swathe of destruction.

Christians say Laskar Jihad, a Java-based militia group which has sent thousands of Muslim fighters to the eastern islands since May 2000, has played a major part in fanning the violence.

Police on April 17 arrested Manuputty and said they were planning to charge him with subversion, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Since his arrest, some 200 Manuputty supporters have held daily protests outside police headquarters in Ambon to demand his release. They have also said they plan to go ahead with the flag-raising ceremony.

More than 80 percent of Indonesia's 214 million people are Muslims but in some eastern regions, including the Malukus, Christians make up about half the population.

Local & community issues

100 prostitutes arrested in Bogor

Jakarta Post - April 25, 2002

Bogor -- About 100 alleged prostitutes were netted in a series of operations launched separately by the police and the local administration on Monday and Tuesday night following Saturday's attacks on a number of hotels and suspected brothels in Cipayung, part of the Puncak resort area.

The police conducted the raids on street cafes located in the Parung area on Tuesday night, and arrested some 600 women who were suspected of being prostitutes.

On Monday and Tuesday night, the Bogor administration launched a similar operation along Jl. Pajajaran -- near the Hero supermarket, in front of the PMI (Indonesian Red Cross) hospital, and around the Kujang monument -- as well as on Jl.Juanda and in the vicinity of Taman Topi park. A total of 39 women were netted.

The Bogor administration will continue the raids so as to avoid a repetition of Saturday's disturbances, according to Suhud Achyadi, who led the operation.

On Saturday, hundreds of vigilantes vandalized a number of hotels and other buildings in Cipayung, and looted the victims' belongings. They claimed that they took the law into their own hands because the police and the authorities had failed to eliminate prostitution in the area.

The police arrested some 40 people, but 12 of them, who were students of a Muslim boarding school, were later released.

Indonesian mob attacks six alleged brothels

Agence France Presse - April 22, 2002

A mob of protestors including Islamic students torched and vandalised six suspected brothels and injured four people during a rampage at an Indonesian hill resort, police and reports said.

The mob of up to 150 people, many of them students from a local Islamic boarding school, late Saturday ransacked four hotels and burnt two houses allegedly used as brothels in Cisarua, one of the chain of hill towns just south of Jakarta where residents of the capital regularly head for weekends.

Police said they arrested 41 people over the raid, and have charged 29. The other 12 were released for lack of evidence. "Those 29 were directly involved in the riot and destruction. We've categorised them as the perpetrators," regional police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Mochamad Taufik told AFP. "Among them are students from the local pesantren [Islamic boarding school] and people who live near the pesantren," Taufik said.

The attackers were armed with sticks and petrol bombs, and also hurled rocks at the alleged brothels. Four people suffered serious head injuries after being hit with rocks, the Media Indonesia daily reported.

On Sunday night another mob of 300 surrounded the Cisarua police station, where the detainees were being held, smashing windows and police cars. Tempers flared when police questioned three kiais (traditional Islamic scholars) who had gone to ask about the detainees, Taufik said. "We needed information from the kiais. The mob thought we were detaining the kiais," Taufik said.

Police were forced to close the main highway for two hours to prevent commuters getting caught up in the trouble, he added. Sunday night traffic on the narrow two-lane thoroughfare, usually choked with weekend commuters, came to a standstill for almost two hours, the Media Indonesia daily reported.

The Puncak hills area around Cisarua, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Jakarta, has been the site of frequent mob attacks on nightspots and suspected brothels. Prostitution is illegal in Indonesia but flourishes in cities and holiday areas.

Human rights/law

UN's highest human rights body fails victims

Amnesty International - April 22, 2002

Following the adoption of a statement on East Timor by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) in Geneva last Friday, Amnesty International expressed its disappointment that once again the Commission has succumbed to pressure from the Indonesian Government not to address either the grave human rights situation in Indonesia or its poor record on holding perpetrators to account.

Although serious human rights violations continue to be committed by the Indonesian security forces, most notably in the provinces of Aceh and Papua, no reference to this was made in the statement. The statement was confined to the current human rights situation in East Timor and on Indonesia's responsibility for serious crimes committed there by Indonesian security forces and pro-Indonesian militia during 1999.

"Despite being provided with ample evidence of grave human rights violations, including unlawful killings and torture, the Commission has chosen once again to ignore the situation in Indonesia," said Amnesty International.

"It is sad that the UN's highest human rights body will not take a stand against a government which permits its security forces to engage in acts of such brutality."

The Commission also lost the opportunity to apply serious pressure on Indonesia to carry out a credible and effective justice process for serious crimes, including crimes against humanity, which were committed by Indonesian security forces and pro-Indonesian militia throughout East Timor during 1999.

Trials in three cases began in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, in March but the court process is likely to be flawed and lacks safeguards to ensure it meets international standards for fairness. There are also signs that Indonesia intends to limit to just five the number of cases to be brought to trial thereby denying justice to thousands of victims in East Timor.

"Given the serious concerns about the quality of the trials which have been voiced by Amnesty International and other observers, it is surprising that the Commission is so positive about them," Amnesty International said.

"The weakly worded references to the process will not put the Indonesian authorities under any pressure to take the measures necessary to ensure that justice is delivered or that all alleged perpetrators, including those with command responsibility, are brought to justice."

Amnesty International is particularly concerned that the Commission statement fails to express concern that both justice and the rights of defendants are at risk because basic measures, such as a functioning witness/victim protection program, necessary to guarantee that the trials are fair are not yet in place.

It also makes no reference to the sweeping temporal and territorial limits on the jurisdiction of the ad hoc Human Rights Court on East Timor which mean that many of the perpetrators will escape justice and that the full truth behind the events of 1999 will not be revealed.

Also absent from the statement is any condemnation of Indonesia's failure to cooperate with the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) in its own investigations and prosecutions of the 1999 serious crimes, including by handing over individuals who have been charged with crimes against humanity by UNTAET Serious Crimes Unit.

Similarly, the Commission barely mentions the plight of tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees in Indonesia who are still prevented by security and other concerns from making a free and informed decision as to whether to return to East Timor or remain in Indonesia. The refugees have been in Indonesia since September 1999 when they fled or were forcibly expelled by Indonesian security forces and militia.

"The Commission should be impressing on governments such as Indonesia that it expects human rights to be promoted and protected in all places and in all circumstances. Instead it has turned a blind eye to ongoing violations, including in Papua and Aceh, and ignored the fact that the East Timor justice and refugee repatriation processes are falling far below acceptable standards."

The one positive element of the Commission statement is the call for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit an interim report to the UN General Assembly later this year. Amnesty International hopes that the UN General Assembly will now address the grave human rights situation in Indonesia, the victims of which have been badly let down by the Commission.

Widow of judge tells trial of threat, bribe bid

Agemce France Presse - April 17, 2002

An Indonesian judge murdered 10 months after sentencing Tommy Suharto to jail, had told his wife of a threat from Tommy and a bribery attempt by his lawyer, a court heard.

So'imah, the first wife of supreme court Judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, was giving evidence in the murder trial of Hutomo (Tommy) Mandala Putra. The son of the former dictator is accused of ordering the contract killing of Kartasasmita in July 2001, and of two counts of illegally possessing firearms, both offences potentially punishable by death.

So'imah said her husband told her that Tommy's lawyer Elza Syarief wanted to see him and to offer him 200 million rupiah (now 21,276 dollars). "I told him to be careful in handling Tommy's case and he told me, 'It's all right. I already asked for the money to be returned'."

So'imah said her husband had met Tommy at a house at Cipayung in East Jakarta, and later told her about the meeting. She said her husband quoted Tommy as saying: "Sir, if someone is nice to me, I can be nice to him in return, but if he is mean I can do worse than what he does to me."

So'imah told Central Jakarta district court that Kartasasmita had often expressed irritation about people who tried to influence him when he was handling a case.

Tommy, 39, told the court that Syarief was not his lawyer at the time and also denied making the threatening remark to Kartasasmita.

The judge in September 2000 had ordered Tommy jailed for 18 months for a corrupt land deal. After failing to secure a presidential pardon, Tommy went on the run for a year rather than surrender to serve the sentence.

Kartasasmita was gunned down in broad daylight the following July. Prosecutors say Tommy paid two hitmen 10,000 dollars and gave them two pistols.

The former millionaire playboy and tycoon, a symbol of nepotism during his father's 32-year rule, has refused to enter a formal plea and has always maintained his innocence of all charges.

Earlier Wednesday, prosecutors tried again to link Tommy to two weapons caches allegedly found in premises linked to him, after three security guards last week retracted statements implicating the defendant.

Police have arrested one of the guards on suspicion of perjury and have accused Tommy's lawyer Syarief of trying to bribe him, a charge she denies.

Muhammad Imam Subarkah, a former deputy chief of the National Intelligence Agency, said he issued five licences for pistols under Tommy's name in 1997. These were valid until December 1998. Police say the pistols were found during a raid in August 2001 in an apartment used by Tommy.

Subarkah said the licence request did not come directly from Tommy, but from Tommy's staff. Asked why he granted it, he said: "At that time the defendant was a son of the Indonesian president and our institution was under the president. The defendant was a VIP and his request was granted by the chief of the intelligence agency." He said the licences were not extended because no one asked for this.

Questioned by defence lawyers, Subarkah said the document requesting the licences no longer existed. "How could you be sure it was me who requested the licences?" Tommy asked the witness.

"Because we have the numbers and somebody submitted the request. Of course we were sure it was your staff," Subarkah replied, "I object to the [Subarkah] testimony, all of it," Tommy said. The trial was continuing.

Witness in Tommy Suharto's trial admits perjury

Agence France Presse - April 17, 2002

Jakarta -- A witness in the trial of Tommy Suharto, a son of the former Indonesian dictator, on Wednesday admitted that he had lied in court and received 210 dollars from a defense lawyer, the official Antara news agency said.

Rahmat Hidayat, a former security guard at an apartment block allegedly used by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was arrested by police on Sunday. They accused him of perjury by denying in a court session last week his earlier statement to police which implicated Tommy in a weapons cache found in the building.

"I regret having given false information by saying I didn't sign the statement. I did sign it," Hidayat was quoted by Antara as telling reporters at Jakarta police headquarters. He said he had received two million rupiah (210 dollars) from Tommy's chief lawyer, Elza Syarief, and was told by her to deny having signed the statement. Syarief has denied the accusation.

Hidayat said he would tell the truth in a future court session if he received police protection.

Hidayat testified in relation to the discovery of documents in a safe at the Cemara Apartments, where weapons allegedly belonging to Tommy were found. But he said he did not witness the weapon discovery. Two other guards at the apartment complex also retracted their statements during last week's trial and denied they had signed police statements implicating Tommy. Police have said they are also searching for the two other guards who were also suspected of perjury.

Tommy, a former millionaire playboy, is charged with ordering the July 2001 drive-by killing of a Supreme Court judge who had sentenced him to jail on a graft conviction, and with illegal possession of weapons. He could face the death penalty if convicted on either charge,

Police allege they discovered a cache of weapons when they raided the central Jakarta Cemara Apartments on August 5, 2001, and a second cache of weapons in a later raid on a south Jakarta house allegedly used by Tommy.

US envoy urges reform of Indonesia's 'corrupt' legal system

Agence France Presse - April 19, 2002

Jakarta -- US ambassador Ralph Boyce has urged reform of Indonesia's "ineffective and corrupt" legal system to help attract badly needed foreign investment.

"Indonesia faces no more serious economic challenge today than fundamentally improving the environment for investment, both domestic and foreign," Boyce said in a speech Thursday. The text was released Friday by the US embassy.

Boyce praised several achievements by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's legal team but said there was little sign the investment climate was improving. "Indonesia's legal system is still ineffective and corrupt. More troubling still, Indonesian companies are learning that they can manipulate the courts to criminalise standard business disputes," he said.

"In the past few months, at least five American investors have been forced into court on charges that quite honestly would never hold up in a US court. "Each of these companies has shown a long-term commitment to Indonesia but still finds itself lost in a non-transparent legal maze."

Boyce said Indonesia's devolution program to give more powers to the regions had created additional uncertainties for investors.

The ambassador said investors realised that the government did not directly control the courts. "But they want to see clear and principled leadership on legal reform from the highest levels of the government. They want the government to demonstrate that it understands the gravity of the problem in its courts and is committed to resolving them."

In the first two months of this year the government approved 149 foreign direct investment projects worth 489.3 million dollars against 189 projects worth 2.33 billion a year earlier.

The Asian Development Bank, in its annual report released this month, said there was "a widespread perception that the policy environment for investment in Indonesia has turned harsh and unsupportive." Boyce did not identify the US companies facing legal problems.

A US district court has declared Indonesia's state energy giant Pertamina to be in contempt of court after it used a Jakarta court to contest a 261-million-dollar award against it by an international arbitration panel. The judgement, over a cancelled power plant project, was in favour of US-controlled power firm Karaha Bodas.

News & issues

Wiranto to lend voice to cartoon

Straits Times - April 25, 2002

Jakarta -- Former Indonesian military chief Wiranto, who launched a solo album of classic Indonesian love songs last year, will soon provide the voice for a cartoon character.

General Wiranto will lend his voice to an elephant character in a local folk tale.

He will be one of several celebrities to lend their voices in the cartoon series that will be aired by a new private Indonesian television channel soon.

Others celebrities involved include leading poet and playwright W. S. Rendra, tenor Amoroso Katamsi and former film actress Yenni Rachman.

Last year, Gen Wiranto launched a solo album featuring classic Indonesian love songs. Some of the 17 songs were popular numbers of the 1940s. Music experts said his effort was "not bad".

The general was military chief when pro-Indonesian militias launched a campaign of systematic terror, killing and destruction in East Timor following a pro-independence ballot there in 1999.

Indonesian yuppies keep coffee shops on the boil

Reuters - April 22, 2002

Grace Nirang, Jakarta -- Indonesian farmers may be fed up with the low prices they get for their coffee but young people in the world's fourth most populous country can't get enough of the trendy bean.

Farmers in the world's fourth largest producer desperately want out of coffee, but plans are brewing in the big cities for even more trendy cafes serving the stuff.

The Coffee Bean opened in one of Jakarta's glitziest malls in January and the world's largest coffee chain, Starbucks, has announced plans to expand into Indonesia.

Home-grown modern cafes with Italian or French names dot almost every mall, although foreign coffee chains are just entering the Indonesian market. For investors, the draw is obvious: Indonesia's growing middle and upper classes.

The world's most populous Muslim nation may still be in crisis, but don't tell that to customers lounging at The Coffee Bean (TCB) in upmarket Plaza Senayan in south Jakarta. "Sure, the coffee is expensive, but it's the lifestyle that we've bought," accountant Tri Wahyu Sampurno said, as he sipped his tall mochachino.

There's a strong demand for "the modern yuppie lifestyle" and drinking coffee is part of it, TCB managers say. "The coffee business is booming. It's a matter of getting the right concepts and tapping into what the middle class wants," said Arifian Gustiandi, operations manager at TCB franchisee PT Tiga Satu Tiga Dwima (TSTD).

A regular mocha-ice-blended drink at TCB costs 25,000 rupiah ($2.62) -- more than a day's wage for the average Indonesian factory worker.

Perth-based chain Dome opened its second outlet in Jakarta last year, less than a year after starting up. Lukman Hakim, assistant manager at TCB, said: "It's trendy to be seen at our shop. It's not just the coffee, it's the idea of drinking expensive coffee too."

Ambition and challenges

Over the next five years, TCB plans nine more outlets in the country's biggest cities. Some may think that a touch ambitious for a vast archipelago more accustomed to exporting its coffee than drinking it. But there's no shortage of optimism in the sector.

"Indonesia has a strong coffee culture, but it has been much more focused on the growing side. We hope we can contribute to develop the local side of consumption, help convince the local consumer that quality coffee tastes good," said a manager at Starbucks's partner, Mitra Adiperkasa.

Yet Indonesia still has a long way to go before it can rival Japan as Asia's largest coffee consumer. Even before the economic crisis of the late 1990s, Indonesia's annual domestic coffee consumption was just half a kg (1 lb) per person, or about 120,000 tonnes every year.

The Indonesian Coffee Exporters' Association (AEKI) estimates consumption at 100,000 tonnes, a slight recovery after hitting 80,000 tonnes at the worst point of the crisis in 1998. Only a few years ago, consumption of gourmet blends was close to non- existent.

But thanks to home-grown cafes that have mushroomed since the late 1990s, many youngsters -- flush with pocket money from their parents -- now prefer to drink cappuccinos, mochachinos and cafe lattes rather than tea or colas.

For upwardly mobile professionals such as Sampurno, Jamaican Blue Mountain and Sumatran Mandheling are names of gourmet beans, not simply tourist resorts.

Imported beans

The irony is that TCB and Starbucks buy mostly arabica raw beans from producing nations and process them in the United States or elsewhere before bringing them back for sale at inflated prices. "So far, I see no positive impact from the producer side. Those coffee chains serve imported beans, they rarely serve our robustas," AEKI Executive Secretary Rachim Kartadibrata said.

The country's coffee output has been falling in the past three years as weak prices -- robusta at 30-year lows last year -- deter farmers from planting coffee and maintaining plants. Indonesian grade four robusta beans now sells at 4,000 rupiah/kg, just enough to buy one kg of rice.

But the new coffee culture could bring a glimmer of hope to domestic producers -- who grow 90 percent robusta and 10 percent arabica -- through the possibility of a share of the growing market, by encouraging consumption of domestic blends.

"We have a lot of gourmet varieties, some of them have never even been heard of in the international market," said Litha Brent, who runs Sulawesi-based CV Gumer trading house. "Our good quality robustas have appealing and acceptable taste characteristics ... I don't see any reason why it can't be sold in international chains," one trader said.

Armed forces/Police

Jakarta replaces navy and air force chiefs

Straits Times - April 25, 2002

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) has replaced its navy and air force chiefs in a routine military reshuffle, the head of the military announced yesterday.

Navy Chief of Staff Indroko Sastrowiryono was replaced by Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh, currently inspector-general of the armed forces, Admiral Widodo Adisucipto told reporters at a press conference here.

Air Force Chief of Staff Hanafie Asnan was succeeded by Air Vice-Marshal Chappy Hakim, who has headed the Armed Forces Academy for the past year.

The reshuffle, approved on Tuesday by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, was made as "part of the process of regeneration of the leadership", Adm Widodo said. He said the replacement of the two chiefs of staff was not a hasty decision as it had long been discussed within TNI.

He added that both men would be sworn in today. "The two new chiefs of staff will be installed by Mrs Megawati during a ceremony at Merdeka Palace on Thursday," he said.

Despite efforts at reform, the Indonesian military still retains significant political power. As such, movements within the top brass are watched closely.

There is speculation that the current army chief of staff, General Endriartono Sutarto, will soon replace Adm Widodo as the commander of the armed forces.

International relations

Indonesia, US wrap up sensitive security talks

Reuters - April 25, 2002

Dean Yates, Jakarta -- Indonesian and US defense officials Thursday wrapped up security talks that covered issues from terrorism to piracy, marking a step forward in relations after military ties were slashed in 1999.

The United States imposed curbs on the Indonesian military in response to bloodshed that swept East Timor, when the territory voted to break from Jakarta's often brutal rule, and restoration requires an accounting of what happened.

In a joint statement, both sides agreed on the need to fight terrorism along with regional piracy. No concrete measures to combat terrorism were unveiled, but the two sides agreed to explore bilateral and regional cooperation in fighting piracy, a menace that haunts the vital shipping lanes that pass through the world's largest archipelago.

"Both delegations made it clear that they value [this] dialogue as an important pillar in relations between Indonesia and the United States," said the statement, released after two days of talks, the first in what will be a periodic exchange.

The talks were chaired by Maj.-Gen. Sudrajat, director general for defense strategy at the Indonesian Defense Ministry, and Peter Brookes, US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs.

Jakarta won support from the US for its efforts to reform the military, a process some human rights activists say has slowed to a glacial pace under President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The statement said Indonesian defense officials gave a briefing on military reform and protection of human rights.

They also gave a presentation on some of Indonesia's trouble spots, including the rebellious provinces of Aceh and Papua, where activists say some of the worst human rights abuses in recent years have been committed by the security forces.

"Both delegations agreed that this [military] reform process should win greater international understanding and support," the statement said, without elaborating. Sudrajat later told a brief news conference the United States had agreed Indonesian military reform was moving in a "good direction." US officials declined to comment after the talks.

No rush

A senior US official said Wednesday the talks should not be interpreted as indicating that the two sides are rushing to resume full military ties. That hinges on Jakarta accounting for the bloodshed and destruction that swept East Timor when the territory voted to break from Indonesian rule in 1999.

Bilateral military ties have been largely restricted by the US Congress to humanitarian and disaster relief exercises since the carnage in East Timor, when pro-Jakarta militias backed by Indonesian soldiers rampaged after a 1999 independence ballot. The result was the US cut arms sales to Indonesia and suspended most forms of military training.

Jakarta has put some officers on trial over the East Timor chaos, but many are sceptical that justice will be served on the armed forces, which operated with impunity under former President Suharto.

Some of Indonesia's neighbors have suggested that Jakarta has not cracked down hard enough on radical Muslim groups as part of its efforts to root out regional terror networks. Jakarta has dismissed the criticism along with the fears about extremist Islamic groups, who make up a tiny minority of the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The next round of security talks are scheduled to be held in the first half of 2003.

Time to 'reawaken' military ties with US, says Jakarta

Straits Times - April 25, 2002

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- Terrorism and piracy were on the agenda but a restoration of full military ties with the United States was uppermost among Indonesia's concerns, with its military chief calling for cooperation to be "reawakened".

Senior armed forces officers also conceded that the military had been badly hit after the US Congress banned military sales, training and aid to Indonesia after allegations that the army sponsored the outbreak of bloody violence in East Timor in 1999.

"One aspect which has hit us most as a result of that ban is the operational readiness of equipment we acquired from the US," a three-star general told The Straits Times. "We need their military hardware."

As senior-level talks got under way here yesterday, Indonesia also indicated that both sides stood to lose much more in the longer term by not working together. For Jakarta, this includes being unable to secure critical hardware. On Washington's part, it stands to lose a symbolically important Muslim ally in its terrorism war.

"The Indonesian military would like to have good military-to- military relations with every country in the world, including the US," Indonesian armed forces (TNI) chief Widodo Adisutjipto told reporters here. "We hope military cooperation between Indonesia and the US will finally reawaken."

The talks here are the first of regular consultations which President Megawati Sukarnoputri and President George W. Bush agreed to when the Indonesian leader visited Washington just after the Sept 11 attacks on America.

Although maritime piracy and stamping out terrorism are the main agenda items, senior Indonesian military sources suggested that the talks here could be a first step towards rapprochement given the growing realisation about the need to cooperate.

A ban on all commercial military sales imposed by the Clinton administration has since been revoked by Mr Bush and private US firms can now sell non-lethal products to the TNI.

Analysts said that while the Bush administration might be able to make symbolic gestures, these were limited in scope given that the congressional ban remains in place.

Said Mr Ken Conboy of the Control Risks Group, a Jakarta-based political and security consultancy: "Congress holds the purse strings. "They are still not convinced that the military has done enough to address their concerns on East Timor human-rights violations."

But while some US legislators remain firm against any easing up on Indonesia, senior officials in the US administration and the Pentagon have been lobbying quietly for ties to be normalised. After all, close military links with Indonesia would help the US in its war against terrorism.

Said a high-level military official: "The Bush administration realises that the military still has a role to play in Indonesia and that it is wrong to push us into a corner given that they need our help, especially to weed out terrorists. "In the short term, we lose out on their hardware. But in the long run they stand to lose out most if nothing is done to repair the relationship."

The TNI has already indicated that it would secure military equipment from countries like Russia and China through barter trade if the US continued its arms embargo.

But reflecting Washington's cautious position until Congress makes a final decision, US Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph Boyce said that normalisation of military ties still had some "way to go".

"I think both sides realise that. And we know that these things take time and I think with good intentions on both sides we ought to be able to get to what I would consider as a more normal military relationship," he said.

Economy & investment

Jakarta to revoke 52 regional laws that hamper businesses

Straits Times - April 25, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government has ordered several provinces to revoke "problematic" laws and regulations in a bid to reign in regions which are exercising too much power.

Many provinces and lower level administrations like regencies and townships have misused the additional clout granted by the 1999 Law No 22 on Regional Autonomy to impose excessive taxes and levies, according to Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno.

He said on Monday that at least 68 perdas -- laws issued by local governments -- since last year have burdened businesses. He said 52 of those laws would be revoked with consensus from the local authorities in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and other areas.

According to the autonomy law, the central government can revoke a perda if it is seen as contradicting higher laws or harming the public's interests. The provision allows Jakarta to curtail the vast power granted to the regions by the government of Mr B.J. Habibie. However, local governments can appeal Jakarta's decisions in the Supreme Court.

Mr Yuswandi, a high-ranking official in the Home Affairs Ministry who was involved in revising the autonomy law, told The Straits Times: "We need to put the decentralisation process in order."

He said many of the regions had issued regulations and imposed taxes and levies that discouraged investors. "The mobility of goods and services is being hampered by the imposition of taxes in every region."

Mr Benyamin Husein, a member of the team revising the autonomy law, said it was drafted hastily and gave power to the regions without an appropriate check-and-balance mechanism.

"Regional autonomy has not really benefited people in the provinces. Much of the money generated by the regional governments goes eventually to the routine spending of the government, such as to raise salaries ... instead of for public services."

Many of the perdas were poorly drafted due to a lack of expertise in the provinces, he added.

But he said the Ministry of Home Affairs would likely face resistance from the regions, especially since it had not involved them in the autonomy law's revision process. Indeed, the provinces have been accusing Jakarta of trying to maintain its grip over the regions, going back on its promise to empower them.

The Chairman of the Association of the Regency Governments, Mr Syaukeni, told The Straits Times: "Seventy per cent of the content of the draft revision of the regional autonomy law is clearly an excuse to recentralise power."

Mr Syaukeni, also the chief of the Kutai Regency in East Kalimantan, said the government should not blame regional autonomy for slow returns from foreign investments. It was in fact political instability, legal uncertainty and security concerns that had discouraged the investors from coming, he said.

Indonesia, out of crisis but not the woods

Reuters - April 25, 2002

Dean Yates, Jakarta -- In the past two months foreign investors have snapped up a bond by Indonesia's top mobile phone firm, a US investment fund paid good money for the country's biggest retail bank and creditors agreed to roll over more state debt.

Has the world's fourth most populous country finally turned the corner after flying off the rails during the Asian economic crisis in 1997, disappearing from investor radar screens under the weight of political turmoil and communal violence?

"There is nothing imminent that makes us think we would dramatically shift direction so maybe we have moved out of crisis mode although we're on a fragile path fraught with difficulties," said Jim Castle, a prominent business consultant and former head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia.

Besides investors taking a fresh look at Indonesia, foreign capitals have become less panicky about a giant nation that straddles vital sea lines and which in the blink of an eye went from regional heavyweight and economic success to the East Asian country most fretted about after North Korea.

But many still doubt President Megawati Sukarnoputri will abandon her legendary caution and decisively tackle thorny economic and judicial reforms before the next election in 2004.

Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, a former minister in previous administrations, said the greatest danger for Indonesia was that the political elite had little interest in solving problems. "I think sanity is back in fashion ... but I don't think [the elite] have a grasp of things. We have a president who doesn't create problems but she doesn't solve them either," he said.

The Asian economic storm bludgeoned Indonesia, unleashing the forces that blew former President Suharto away in May 1998 after 32 years of iron rule and setting the stage for political chaos that only began to ease when Megawati took over last July.

Attitudes changing, slowly

At first glance, foreign investment approvals paint a bleak outlook. Pledges sank 79 percent year-on-year in the first two months to $490 million, after falling last year 41 percent to $9 billion from 2000.

But Castle and other business consultants said while foreign investors did not have their wallets out, there had been a clear shift in attitudes in recent months.

"A lot of people have begun looking over the wall at Indonesia. There is some sense of comfort this administration will hold together," said one foreign security risk consultant, whose clients represent a range of industries.

On Tuesday, mobile phone firm PT Telkomsel tapped foreign investors for $150 million in Indonesia's biggest dollar bond deal since Asia's financial crisis. More than 50 overseas investors made up 70 percent of total demand for the bond.

Last month US investment firm Farallon Capital Management bought a 51 percent stake in Indonesia's leading retail bank, Bank Central Asia (BCA) , for some $530 million.

The Paris Club of official creditor nations backed Indonesia earlier this month by rolling over $5.4 billion in debt, while ties with the IMF have been solid since Megawati took over.

Stocks have also been near two-year highs while the rupiah has firmed some 10 percent to the dollar since the end of 2001.

Don't forget what ails

All well and good, but what about the issues that bedevil Indonesia and have kept foreign investors at bay for years -- judicial reform, graft, weak law enforcement, opposition to privatisation, militant Islam and haphazard governance.

Despite perceptions abroad that militant Islam represents a major threat to the world's largest Islamic community, the biggest headache is probably judicial reform and the rule of law -- which both breed the graft that hobbles the economy.

Officials believe harsh criticism of Megawati is unfair. "Of course we haven't achieved all we wanted, but it cannot be denied that this government under President Megawati has made progress," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said last week.

Many analysts see Indonesia's relative political stability remaining and virtually no one believes Megawati -- who sees eye to eye with the influential military on a range of national policy issues -- will be ousted ahead of the 2004 election.

Her popularity among Indonesia's impoverished masses, the lack of a credible alternative and even a modest track record will make her hard to beat in 2004.

However, Megawati is vulnerable to Islamist politicians seeking to exploit her secular/nationalist credentials, partly explaining her unwillingness to crack down on small but extremist Muslim groups as part of the US war on terrorism.

"Megawati is certainly the frontrunner," said William Liddle, professor of political science at Ohio State University and an Indonesia expert, referring to the next election.

"A governing centre has been created around Megawati and her party that could last into the future if everyone plays their cards right. It's fragile but the wonder is that it's there."

New incentives planned to combat foreign investment slump

Agence France Presse - April 18, 2002

Jakarta -- Indonesia is planning new incentives to raise foreign direct investment after a slump last year, an official said Thursday.

Actual foreign investment last year totalled 50 million dollars compared to approvals of nine billion dollars, said Investment Coordinating Board chairman Theo Tumion.

He told reporters after a cabinet meeting that his office wants more authority to grant investment incentives such as tax breaks. Tumion said at least 11 different government offices have the authority to offer incentives to investors even though a presidential decree gives such power to his board.

His office has also drafted a new bill which will give equal treatment to domestic and foreign investment projects.

In the first two months of this year the government approved 149 foreign direct investment projects worth 489.3 million dollars against 189 projects worth 2.33 billion a year earlier.

The Asian Development Bank, in its annual report released this month, said there was "a widespread perception that the policy environment for investment in Indonesia has turned harsh and unsupportive." Political opposition to privatisation was one symptom.

Approved foreign investment projects totalled six billion dollars in the first ten months of 2001, about one third the total in the same period of 2000, the bank said.

The fall would seem to be "part of the broader, longer-term problem of capital flight seen in Indonesia since the financial crisis," the report said. "Continuing problems of financial governance, lack of credibility of the legal and judicial system and political uncertainty have all discouraged investors from making longer-term commitments."

People

What they did with their lives

Time Asia - April 23, 2002

Pramoedya Ananta Toer -- Grandmother Satima and mother Saidah, according to Pramoedya Ananta Toer, made him who he is.

Two women gave me life. Two women of one flesh and blood, but sundered by fate. Two women who then defied that fate. Two women who taught me that the individual matters, above anyone or anything else. Two women who are my heroes.

I don't know when my grandmother Satima was born-back then, during the 1890s, they didn't keep records -- but it was in a fishing village in central Java, near the town of Rembang. By all accounts she was a pretty girl. Pretty enough to catch the eye of the powerful head of local religious affairs, a Javanese man working for the colonial Dutch administration. She was taken by this man in marriage and became what was known as a "practice wife," a woman who fulfilled a man's personal and sexual needs until he decided to marry a woman of his own class. She slept with him and helped take care of his Rembang residence, a sprawling complex of houses, pavilions, stables and even a mosque. The "marriage" bestowed prestige on my grandmother back at her fishing village because she was seen to have ascended to a higher class. But it did not take long for her to fall to earth. The Javanese man owned her, and he could discard her-which he did after she had given birth to a baby girl, my mother Saidah. My grandmother was just 14.

So young, yet my grandmother was already a nobody. No husband, no home, no child (my mother was taken away from her to remain at Rembang), no job. Too ashamed to return to her village, she instead made her way south to the town of Blora. There, she met and married an itinerant worker. But everything this new husband tried-farming, selling soup, hawking spare parts-he failed at; he was a loser and when he drifted away, she decided she was better off without him. The accumulated heartbreak over the years would have been enough to shatter anyone, but not my grandmother. She resolved to no longer depend on others, on men, just on herself.

It was my grandmother I wrote about in my novel Girl from the Coast: "Her skin was golden, her body small and slender. Each day she carried a large basket tied to her back by a length of cloth. She went to the houses of the nobles. She bought old clothing, empty bottles, even broken things, then sold them in the marketplace. She lived in a hut on the edge of town. The walls were of woven bamboo, the holes plastered over with cow dung. Anything she couldn't sell, she stored under the wooden platform on which she slept." My grandmother was poor, but she had regained her dignity. No matter how hard life was, she walked with her head high. Her example taught me that no one is ever too down to never come up again. During my harsh years of incarceration on Buru Island, my memory of her enabled me to keep going.

My mother Saidah, meanwhile, was living a very different life-at least for a while. Though she was a girl-and merely the daughter of a concubine-she was privileged, even if she did not quite possess the status granted children of her father's "main" wife from his own social class. She didn't have to lift her finger for anything; she was even forbidden from entering the kitchen. The plentiful servants took care of all that. My mother also received a good education. The Dutch encouraged schooling for women, and Javanese aristocrats followed suit, if only so their women could converse intelligently with their Dutch counterparts.

My mother met my father Toer at home. The Dutch rented rooms in the huge Rembang house for their staff, and Toer lived there because he was a government teacher. The stepmother encouraged their relationship-she had children of her own to raise and wanted my mother out of the house. After they married, my parents left for Blora, where my father got a job at a school promoting nationalist teachings. Saidah helped run the school, raised funds to pay the salaries of teachers (they never got any money from the central administration), printed a school newsletter, opened a kindergarten for poor children, planted crops on our small parcel of land and brought up eight children, of whom I was the eldest. She read all the time-in English, Dutch, Javanese, Arabic-and she read to me.

Saidah grew to believe fervently in the nationalist cause. Independence-for herself and her nation-became her rallying cry. She insisted that just as a people have to be in charge of their own destiny, so must an individual be in control of her life. She pushed me to excel at school (urging me to persist when I wanted to quit after failing sixth grade), to complete my studies and to enroll in a vocational institute in Surabaya where I learned to be a radio operator. She taught me to love to work, that it didn't matter what I did, so long as I did not do it for the colonial government -- because that would be tantamount to participating in the colonization of our own people. Never beg, my mother stressed, never ask for something you don't deserve. Even if it's just a school notebook, obtain it yourself rather than have it given to you. I bought into the idea of self- sufficiency. With the money we made selling produce at the market, I bought some hens. With the money selling eggs, I bought some goats, and so on. I have been independent ever since.

Now the story takes what would be a fictional turn-if it weren't astonishingly true. One day, a woman showed up at our home seeking our old and unused household items to resell. My mother asked her to come in and sit down. They started talking. The first question we Indonesians habitually ask strangers is where they are from. The visitor replied Rembang. Me too, my mother said. In a big house on the square. And so, mother and daughter rediscovered each other-after nearly 20 years. They displayed little emotion. They had hardly ever known each other, and they were too different: one illiterate, the other educated, one poor, the other relatively well-off. My mother invited her mother to stay with us; she refused. She never said why, but I figured it was because she did not want to be beholden to anyone, not even her daughter, her only child. What the two women had in common- stubborn individualism -- is what prevented them from growing closer.

I visited my grandmother often in her shack. But the time she really needed me, I was not there. My mother had died from tuberculosis and post-labor complications. To support the family, I worked in Jakarta as a typist for a Japanese news agency. I am not sure what exactly happened, but this is what my siblings later told me. Grandmother Satima was at our place in Blora when she complained of stomach pain and said she wanted to return to her shack. My family tried to persuade her to stay, but she refused-she did not want to trouble anyone. She left to walk home, and died by the roadside, quietly, alone.

Neither my grandmother nor my mother are forgotten. The literal meaning of the Indonesian word for hero, pahlawan, is a person -- not someone necessarily great, just a regular person-whose life benefits others. My grandmother and mother benefited me. They are my role models. They live in all the many strong women characters who people my writings. And they live in all the people who have ever had to fight to be themselves.

[Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's most celebrated writer, is the author of The Buru Quartet, among other books.]

Iwan Fals: Croonin' with a conscience

Time Asia - April 23, 2002

Jason Tedjasukmana -- Here's why Iwan Fals matters: because boy bands don't take on dictatorships. They don't stand up when everyone else is hunkering down. They don't put to song what others are afraid to put in print. Pop stars should give a damn- when they do, remarkable transformations are possible.

When Iwan Fals & Band held a benefit concert for flood victims last month in a Surabaya stadium, it was the group's biggest performance in more than a decade. Though the 40-year-old singer and songwriter Fals hasn't released an album since 1993, his face is still visible on the mud flaps of three-wheeled pedicabs and on street-side food stalls in the smallest of villages across the Indonesian archipelago. The fame of Iwan Fals lives on-especially in the hearts of the country's underclass-because his message will always matter.

In front of the stage in Surabaya, 13,000 fans-students, workers, the unemployed-are chanting "We want Iwan." At 7 p.m., the call is answered. Fals launches into Underneath the Flagpole, a foot- stomping favorite that sends the crowd into a frenzy. "We're all from the same blood so let's not argue/We're all from the same bone so let's not separate," sings Fals, lyrics again apt in these times of ethnic and religious violence in Indonesia. "You remember these songs?" he shouts. The answer is a resounding "Yeah!" In the crowd, 22-year-old Ali, a waiter in mud-caked sandals and pants rolled up to his knees, says he's waited since he was a child to see his idol: "He's the voice of the people."

And he has been a thorn in the side of those who would abuse their power. In 1984, Fals was hauled in for a song that touched a nerve with the then Suharto regime. Mbak Tini (Miss Tini) told the story of a hooker who opened up a roadside coffee stall and married a truck driver hauling dirt. Problem is, the husband's name was Suharto and the wife was short and fat, not unlike the First Lady, Ibu Tien (Mrs. Tien). Fals insists that the song was not about the former First Couple. But he is as unconvincing now as he was then. Fals was confined to his hotel for two weeks while officials drew up charges of insulting the head of state- which could have led to jail. In the end, he was never prosecuted, but from that point on, Fals was rebel, hero and star all rolled into one. Today, there is no Suharto around to needle. But Fals' reminders to legislators not to sleep through hearings, and calls to fight oppression have never been more relevant. "He's always had courage," says pop singer Sophia Latjuba.

But he has mellowed. While Fals still writes music, he finds greater comfort painting abstract canvases and studying world religions. His growing introspection stems from the pain of the 1997 death of his teenage son, Galang. Fals' eyes turn red and watery when speaking about the boy, a talented guitarist who had just launched his first album at the age of 15. Fals was watching TV when Galang came home late one evening, said good night and went up to bed. "The next morning I found him unconscious," Fals recalls. He admits his son had experimented with drugs but insists his death was asthma-related. "Iwan changed a lot after Galang's death," says his wife, Yos. "He's looking to fill a void."

Fals is set to launch a new album and has just kicked off a 14- city tour. But he is wholly uninterested in the details, so much so that he's not even aware that an invitation has been extended to perform with U2, possible headliners at East Timor's gala independence celebration in May. Yos, who manages Fals' career, says the once-in-a-lifetime experience won't fit into their schedule. Her husband shrugs off the lost opportunity, but admits, "man, I bet the sound would have been pretty good." For Iwan Fals, the beat never stops.