Labour issues

Unions fight IMF push for new labour laws

Green Left Weekly - September 4, 2002

David Gosling, Yogyakarta -- Indonesian workers are braving police repression to oppose President Megawati Sukarnoputri's IMF-inspired draft labour laws. So far strikes and protest rallies across the country have succeeded in pushing back the parliamentary debate on the laws until at least October, buying time for workers to organise against them.

Indonesia's current labour laws are a mix of Sukarno-era and Suharto-era regulations, some of which could provide some protection for workers -- if they were ever enforced by the government. This has led the International Monetary Fund to push for new laws, which will "regularise" industrial relations and impose legal restrictions on the growing trade union movement, instead of the arbitrary repression that was used under General Suharto's New Order regime.

Despite a campaign against the individual contract system by many unions, the new labour bills propose to permit contract hiring in all sorts of work, without time limits. Oral contracts will be allowed, and a new "training wage" of 80% of the minimum wage introduced. Retrenchments and sackings will no longer require the formal approval of the labour ministry or industrial tribunals.

The attacks on the right to organise, however, are the most serious parts of the bills. Employers will be given the right to withhold payment from workers, not just during strikes but also during negotiation periods. Political and solidarity strikes, and all strikes not directly connected with pay and conditions, will be banned outright and punishable by prison sentences and huge fines for both organisers and rank-and-file workers.

And if there is more than one union in the factory, only the union with an absolute majority of workers as members will be recognised in negotiations. Given the diversity of unions in Indonesia, representing different religious and subcultural groups, this could be a powerful divide-and-rule tactic for employers.

Ninety per cent of Indonesia's trade unions have come out against the new laws. The Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI), led by Dita Sari, has formed an alliance with other unions -- the Committee against Oppression of Workers -- to fight the bills. Its members include the FNPBI, the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI), the F-SPSI (a split from the old government "yellow" union federation), two Islamic union federations and the Nusantara Workers Union.

Other unions have been drawn into united-front protests against the draft laws. The largest action to date was on August 19 in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, where strike action by 30,000 workers shut down almost 600 factories. The strike was coordinated by a committee involving the FNPBI, Muchtar Pakpahan's SBSI, the white-collar workers' union Aspek and the Gaspermindo federation.

Police tried to block some workers from leaving the factories to join the strike, firing on some strikers. An SBSI organiser, Suparjo, and one worker were hospitalised with bullet wounds. Thirty-one people were arrested, including Suparjo, who was removed from hospital and detained in a police-cell, despite the bullet wound in his leg.

Police have charged the 31 arrested with "spreading hatred against the government" and have tried to scapegoat the FNPBI as "provocateurs" in an attempt to break the strengthening alliance of unions by smearing its most radical element. However, there is little sign that this tactic is working.

Dream becomes nightmare for workers

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2002

Fitri Wulandari and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Nunukan -- Rustan was dreaming of streets paved in gold when he took the offer to work in Malaysia last year. He left his hometown of Rappang in South Sulawesi, bringing with him his wife Pasah and their two- month-old son, Ruslan.

To reach the land of his dreams, the young family ran the risk of getting locked up for not having legal travel documents.

From the transit island of Nunukan regency, the family hopped on board a small boat provided by the labor export company PT Mitra Harta Insani to reach Malaysia's Tawau region in Sabah state at night. From there, they were immediately taken to the camp of the biggest cocoa plantation in the area.

Earning RM 6 (US$1. 60) per day, Rustan saved RM 200 after one year of hard work. But he spent most of that money to take the family home for a vacation two months ago.

It was just on their return to Malaysia that local authorities started deporting Indonesian illegal migrant workers in compliance with a new labor law which took effect on August 1.

Rustan, 23, said his employer had sent him and another 70 workers to obtain new passports and work permits before the stringent immigration policy took effect. Another batch of workers would be sent after they got back, he said.

By the time he arrived in Nunukan, Rustan hardly had any money. The employer had given Malaysia-based agents of the Indonesian labor supply companies RM 1,050 to pay for new passports for each of the workers. Rustan had to pay the labor supply company to get decent meals and safe drinking water for his son, in addition to paying for running water for bathing and washing clothes.

"Our boss said we had to get our passport as soon as possible so that we could get back to work. It is a big plantation and we are desperately needed there. The company said our monthly salary would be cut by RM 50 to RM 100 upon our return," Rustan told The Jakarta Post as he looked after Ruslan, now 14 months old.

The family stayed for a month on a sidewalk in front of a shop on Jl. TVRI in downtown Nunukan. They were then moved to a shelter newly built by the regency's administration in the Tanjung Mambunut campground last Thursday after PT Mitra claimed Rustan was not on the list of migrant workers it had sent to Malaysia.

Over 23,000 Indonesian migrant workers are camping in Nunukan, waiting for legal entry back to Malaysia or to board a boat back home.

His unrealized dream will force Rustan to leave his son in the care of relatives back home soon after the couple obtain their passports since the Sabah government refuses to allow anyone without a work permit to enter the state.

"What else can we do? I could work at home, but it wouldn't be enough. Moreover, I'm ashamed to go back for good," he said.

Most Indonesian migrant workers working in the Sabah region come from Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi and islands in eastern Indonesia, where development has been neglected by the government for decades. Farming and fishing cannot meet their needs for a better life similar to living in the western part of the country.

Rustan is lucky to have relatives back in Rappang and his wife to work with on the Malaysian plantation. Carla Losor of Ende, East Nusa Tenggara, did not get a job offer. With her 18-month-old twins Carles and Carlos, she left her husband Marcelinus Sega and elder daughter Kety in Sabah to get a visitor's permit, which is valid for one month.

The new Malaysian labor law has put her life in turmoil, since she doesn't have any skills to join the labor force nor the heart to leave her toddlers.

Not all that glitters is gold for 50-year-old Petrus Manu of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, who has been married to a Malaysian for 20 years, during which he experienced hardship as an Indonesian in the neighboring land.

"The police repeatedly arrested us, took our money, jewelry and wristwatches. They stripped us naked to make sure we weren't hiding anything else. They took the girls out of the detention center and returned them after hours. It has become common practice for us to give money to the police although we were working there legally. The local administration even made me carry an identity card, which is still valid as well as my work permit.

"If it was not because of my four children back home in Sabah and my crippled wife working alone on our vegetable farm, I would go back to my hometown. I may not be living well back home, but at least I would not have to live in fear," he said.

Death toll rising in deportation camp

Reuters - September 7, 2002

Jalil Hamid, Nunukan -- Indonesian officials say 35 deportees from Malaysia have died at sprawling makeshift camps in Borneo as they await the arrival of a navy vessel bringing medical help.

A crackdown on illegal immigrants in Malaysia has strained relations with the country's poorer neighbors, Indonesia and the Philippines, as reports mount of deportees dying from malnutrition and disease. Philippine and Indonesian women have reported being raped or being forced to work as sex slaves while awaiting deportation.

A senior Indonesian welfare department official said there were 17,000 illegal Indonesian workers and their families stuck in makeshift camps in Nunukan in east Kalimatan near the country's border with Malaysia.

"The latest number of deaths [in the camps] is 35," the official told Reuters. Aid workers say the death toll is nearer 70 from diseases caught from dirty water, poor sanitation and nutrition.

A Malaysian amnesty for all undocumented foreigners to leave expired on August 1. Illegal immigrants arrested after that day face caning and imprisonment.

One relief worker told Reuters this week that some mothers were selling their babies for cash in the camps, about two hours by boat from Tawau in Malaysia's Sabah state.

Of the hundreds of thousands of people that fled Peninsular Malaysia and its two states in northern Borneo, thousands of Indonesian plantation and construction workers ended up in Nunukan -- camping out with no proper sanitation or protection from mosquitoes and bad weather. Volunteers now bring meals to the camps, but inhabitants say it was much worse when they first fled across the border.

"The situation now is much better than a few weeks ago," said Anita Bisanjar, 36, who worked in an oil palm plantations in Sandakan, Sabah."Before, the place stank." An Indonesian navy ship, the Tanjung Kambani, was due to arrive on Saturday, bringing a team of doctors to set up a floating hospital.

Indonesian police in Nunukan said around 25 young Indonesian girls had been forced into becoming sex workers in Tawau. "I was confined to a hotel room and had to serve up to 17 men some 15 hours a day," one of the girls, Kris, told Reuters. Kris said she ran away to Nunukan on Friday where she was placed under police protection.

Demonstrators in Manila and Jakarta have burned the Malaysian flag at protests in recent weeks. The Philippine and Indonesian governments had played down the row until Philippine President Gloria Arroyo sent a letter this week protesting against the alleged rape of a 13-year-old Filipina.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad promised to launch a full inquiry.

Deported mums sell babies to get home

Straits Times - September 4, 2002

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Desperate to get away, some female migrant workers now camped in Nunukan close to the Sabah border have resorted to selling their babies to raise money to pay for their return journey to homes in Sulawesi and Java.

While the number of such instances is in dispute, church workers confirmed that one migrant worker deported from Sabah sold her baby for one million rupiah (US$100) to a local woman from Nunukan, a port town in Indonesia's East Kalimantan province.

An aid worker from the Humanitarian Volunteers Network, Mr Najib Abu Nasser, said he received reports that another two babies had been sold by their mothers for as little as 300,000 rupiah.

This comes amid reports that some 31 adults, children and prematurely born infants had died in Nunukan in the past five weeks, while hundreds of other illegal migrants were seeking medical treatment. Confirming the sale of the baby, Mr Alloysius Ratukellen from the local Catholic Church said: "Kristina, the woman who bought the baby, lives near my house and she told me that she bought the baby just two days ago. The baby had a fever and was sick and I think the mother was scared the baby would not survive in the camps." He said the migrant woman's husband had abandoned her within a month of the baby's birth.

The mother felt comfortable selling the baby to Kristina, who is originally from the eastern Indonesian island of Flores, because the baby's father is also ethnic Florinese, he said, adding that the mother reportedly needed the money to return to her hometown. No further details were available about the sales of the other two babies.

Other aid workers said many such workers have used all their savings just to get to Nunukan, and now lack money to pay for food or their journey home.

Meanwhile, there was no change in the conditions at the holding camp, with many migrants continuing to stay in tents. "Most of the tents are made of plastic, and are open to the wind, the rain, the heat. If it rains they can't sleep as they are just sleeping on the earth," Mr Najib said.

A Nunukan health clinic worker said at least 18 children were in critical condition and although there were no new deaths on Monday or yesterday, many migrants were succumbing to disease. "Many are hungry and only 50 per cent have access to fresh drinking water," said health worker Siti Sumarti.

She said there were only nine doctors for around 80,000 deportees camped around Nunukan, and additional doctors who were supposed to come from Makassar in Sulawesi, and Samarinda, the East Kalimantan provincial capital, had not yet arrived. An Indonesian navy vessel has been sent to the area, even as Indonesian Red Cross chief Mari'e Muhammad lashed out at the Social Welfare and Labour departments for reacting too slowly to the humanitarian crisis.

The Antara news agency quoted Health Minister Achmad Suyudi as saying the ship, with 10 doctors and dozens of paramedics on board, was equipped with 200 beds.

Illegal Indonesian workers in dire straits at camps

Reuters - September 2, 2002

Jakarta -- Thousands of illegal Indonesian workers and their families are living in dire conditions in camps near the country's border with Malaysia and one relief worker said a few are selling their babies to raise cash.

Activists said nearly 70 workers and their dependents have died in the past several weeks from illness in the refugee camps around Indonesia's Nunukan town near Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island, after they fled tough new Malaysian labour laws. Officials put the death toll at just 28, however.

"There is baby trade in exchange for money here. Mothers are selling their babies from 300,000 rupiahs to one million. I've had three cases this week," said relief worker Palupi from the Humanitarian Volunteers' Network. These figures are equivalent to a range of $34 to $112.

"They need the money to be able to go back to Malaysia," she told Reuters by phone from Nunukan, some 1,700 km northeast of Jakarta. Kuala Lumpur's campaign to expel illegal workers began four months ago at a time when Indonesian workers were demonstrating against their working conditions and amid public unhappiness about rising crime blamed on illegal migrants.

Malaysia gave illegal workers until August 1 to leave or face penalties of six months' jail and up to six strokes of the cane.

The threat of the cane has prompted tens of thousands of Indonesian illegal workers to cram border checkpoints such as Nunukan, where officials say around 25,000 people are living in tents and run-down buildings. Aid workers say hundreds more arrive each day.

Officials said the media has exaggerated the situation. "The situation in Nunukan isn't like what the media reported. From our report since July the death toll is 28 [including] a premature- born baby who died last night," said Mardjono, head of a manpower ministry team that went to Nunukan over the weekend. The deaths come from illnesses related to a lack of clean water, sanitation and food.

The illegal worker issue has enraged politicians in Indonesia and underscored some latent tensions with its neighbour. Impoverished Indonesia has long supplied affluent Malaysia with workers for its construction and manufacturing sectors.

Some 70,000 Philippine workers have been expelled by Malaysia as well, but unlike Indonesia, Manila has managed to secure a temporary halt to the deportations while diplomats try to work out a more orderly repatriation.

Hundreds of bank employees rally outside legislature

Jakarta Post - September 3, 2002

Jakarta -- Some 800 of employees from five banks facing a merger rallied outside the House of Representatives on Monday, urging legislators to safeguard their jobs.

Protesters from Bank Patriot, Bank Bali, Bank Artamedia, Bank Universal and Bank Prima Ekspress -- which are due to be merged by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) -- said legislators should represent their views to the agency. As quoted by AFP, they said around 2,350 employees from the five banks want to know that their jobs will be safe.

The five banks, along with numerous others, were taken over by IBRA during or after the 1997-1998 regional financial crisis.

Indonesian border town swamped

Straits Times - September 1, 2002

Jakarta -- Health and emergency workers in an Indonesian border town said yesterday they were struggling to ensure thousands of Indonesians fleeing an immigration crackdown in Malaysia had access to clean water and adequate sanitation.

The warning came amid reports that up to 80,000 more undocumented workers may soon arrive in the town of Nunukan in East Kalimantan province from the neighbouring Malaysian state of Sabah.

At least 27 people have died in the town, where makeshift camps and government buildings are accommodating about 23,000 Indonesians who fled Malaysia in response to a recent get-tough campaign against illegal immigration.

Based on data collated by the group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and obtained by Reuters, nearly 50 refugees there and elsewhere had died in the past month from a range of illnesses, including diarrhoea.

The victims included at least a dozen babies and a similar number of older children.

"This is a national disaster. There is even one camp near a garbage dump where illegal workers are sleeping with maggots," said Ms Ade Rostina, coordinator for the group of NGOs, adding she feared the death toll would rise.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said yesterday the government would try hard to solve the problems of illegal Indonesian workers deported from Malaysia.

"I have discussed the problem of the workers with the Malaysian government since January as the problem has something to do with human rights," he said.

The government has already made every effort to accommodate the deported Indonesian workers but since the numbers arriving in Nunukan were too large, "their condition is getting worse", he said.

Since August 1, Malaysia has been enforcing new laws which impose caning, imprisonment and large fines on illegal foreign workers. More than 300,000 immigrants, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, have fled Malaysia in recent months to escape the new penalties. The issue is straining ties between the three countries.

Nunukan's one health clinic had seen a 100 per cent jump in admissions since the beginning of the month, said nurse Jalehia. The town was desperately short of doctors to treat the sick, most of whom were suffering from diarrhoea and respiratory problems, she said. "The question is how long can we last like this?" Ms Jalehia told The Associated Press by telephone from Nunukan.

Mr Hotaman, an official at a the town's emergency centre, said sanitation supplies at the camps were running low and tankers were also needed to transport fresh water.

He added that the Indonesian Consulate in the nearby Malaysian town of Tawau in Sabah reported that about 80,000 workers were waiting to return to Indonesia via Nunukan. It was unclear when they would depart.

Most of the refugees in Nunukan are hoping to return to Malaysia, but must first obtain fresh passports and documents from the immigration office in the town.

Officials estimated up to 600,000 illegal workers were in Malaysia -- a relatively wealthy South-east Asian country which attracts migrants from poorer neighbouring countries -- before the laws were introduced.

Malaysia still employs hundreds of thousands of legal foreign labourers, mostly on plantations and construction sites.

Students/youth

Students reject Sutiyoso's reelection

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2002

Jakarta -- Hundreds of university students demonstrated in front of the Jakarta City Council building on Wednesday to protest against incumbent Governor Sutiyoso's reelection bid.

Demonstrator Syarif Effrina, from Jakarta State University (UNJ), said councillors should not be reelect Sutiyoso on Sept. 11 as he was inept, among other things.

"He has failed at being a good governor so far, why should the council reelect him," said another demonstrator on Jl. Kebon Sirih.

The 200 demonstrators, from a number of universities, comprised students from the Student Executives Body (BEM) and the Anti- Obscenity Front (FAM), were received by several councillors at the building yard. In its statement, BEM stressed that Sutiyoso did not deserve to be reelected for another five-year term.

"He is part of the New Order regime and the military, which were involved in human rights violations. The next Jakarta governor must be a clean and honest figure, and for reform," the statement, which was read by Jamas Pardosi, a councillor from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, said.

Sutiyoso appears to be the strongest gubernatorial candidate after winning support from President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who has ordered 30 councillors from her PDI Perjuangan faction in the City Council to vote for him.

Megawati, through the PDI Perjuangan's central board, also threatened administrative sanctions against those who violated her instructions.

Sutiyoso, who is paired with vice gubernatorial candidate City Secretary Fauzi Bowo, is also supported by eight councillors from the Golkar party faction and some of the nine councillors from the military-police faction.

Other potential candidates include chairman of Jakarta's PDI Perjuangan chapter Tarmidi Suhardjo, paired with Abdillah Toha, and Council Chairman Edy Waluyo who is paired with Ahmad Suaidy.

Aceh/West Papua

Suspicious deaths in Papua

Sydney Morning Herald Editorial - September 4, 2002

The question to be asked about the bloody ambush in the Indonesian province of Papua of employees of the giant US-owned Freeport mine is who stands to gain. The Indonesian military has been quick to blame separatist guerillas.

However, on the face of it, the weekend ambush which killed two American teachers, an Indonesian mine worker and wounded 11 others could only discredit the Papuan independence movement. At the same time, the murders are expected to provoke a security crackdown in the remote province where indigenous tribal people have resented and resisted Jakarta's authority since their incorporation into Indonesia more than three decades ago.

It is plausible that a hardline, armed Papuan faction posted the gunmen along the isolated road. However, at no time in the past have Papuan fighters targeted foreigners. The ambush occurred just as local military commanders embarked on a 60-day campaign to shut down the political wing of the Papuan independence movement. Indonesia's military is seeking a resumption of military ties -- and funding -- from the United States. As such, it is keen to co-operate in protecting US interests overseas. The Freeport operation is the world's biggest copper and gold mine.

Papuan leaders blame the Indonesian military for the ambush, calling it a "set-up" to justify a new round of arrests. That such a conspiracy should even be entertained is a measure of the Indonesian military's poor record of unprofessional, politicised conduct. Twelve members of the notorious Special Forces unit were charged with the murder last year of the West Papuan leader, Theys Eluay, a widely respected moderate who was seeking a negotiated peace settlement. Such a peace would have allowed the demilitarisation of the resource-rich province, disadvantaging senior military commanders who have built their careers and personal fortunes on the back of the protracted conflict.

After East Timor, the Indonesian Government is determined to combat separatism in Papua and the northern province of Aceh. But this can be achieved only through an end to human rights abuses and the return of a fairer share of the province's wealth to the indigenous people. The implementation of a recent autonomy package has been slow and uneven. The Freeport murders must be independently investigated and not used to justify further repression. Such independent action is necessary to ensure all suspects are properly scrutinised, even the military itself.

Raising West Papua - the next East Timor?

The Paper - September 2002

Marni Cordell -- It's cold on the first morning of the Yumi Wantaim gathering, and we -- an eclectic mix of faces, ages and colours -- are huddled under a large white marquee in Pipemaker's Park in outer Melbourne. Outside, under a drizzle of rain, a fire pit is being prepared to cook sweet potato and a pig, killed for the occasion. The West Papuan flag stands motionless as backdrop while longtime West Papua activist Bishop Hilton Deakin welcomes the crowd.

Yumi Wantaim was held on the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of August and was a gathering of people wanting to learn, discuss and share knowledge and understanding about the current political and cultural situation in West Papua. It was a small event, but the audience was diverse, and included many people from the Pacific region who had come in support and welcoming of their West Papuan sisters and brothers. Despite the fact that it's only 250 kilometres from our coastline, West Papua is not an area of the world that many Australians know much about.

Formerly known as Irian Jaya, and sharing a landmass with the independent country of Papua New Guinea, history books will tell you that West Papua is the 26th province of the Republic of Indonesia. The people of West Papua however, tell a different story about their land.

West Papua was colonised by the Netherlands in the nineteenth century as part of the Dutch East Indies. Its sovereignty was not relinquished at the same time as the rest of the archipelago, however, which gained independence as the Republic of Indonesia in 1949. The reasons for this were complex, and can probably be attributed to the Netherlands' desire to retain some control in the region. However, it was also noted by the Dutch Minister for Overseas Territories at the time that the territory was "separate from Indonesia geographically, ethnographically and politically". The West Papuan land and people were not a part of South East Asia; they were more obviously Melanesian.

West Papuans have tightly curled hair and dark skin. They eat sweet potato and sago. They are a predominantly Christian people who are ethnically, culturally and physically very different to the mostly Muslim population of Java, Lombok, Sumatra and the other islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia. They identify themselves as Papuans, not as Indonesians, and have their own unique history, stories and traditions.

The Netherlands continued to administer West Papua until 1962, when, amidst increasing international pressure and in dispute with Indonesia over control of the territory, the sovereignty of West Papua was officially taken from them and transferred to a United Nations transitional government, under a UN-backed agreement known as the New York Agreement.

Under this same agreement, administration of West Papua was officially handed to Indonesia the year after, with the provision that Indonesia would hold a referendum after a period of six years in which the people of West Papua would decide on the fate of their country. The referendum, known as the Act of Free Choice but dubbed as the Act of No Choice, was held in 1969, under spurious conditions. Only 1,022 of the 800,000-strong population were permitted to vote, and it is now widely understood that the selected voters were coerced, threatened and closely scrutinised by armed Indonesian security personnel to unanimously vote for integration with Indonesia.

In truth, the indigenous people of West Papua overwhelmingly do not support Indonesian "integration", and have since been demanding independence; for the right to live by their own customs and for their traditional culture to be respected and incorporated into the policy that governs their land.

According to Dr Jacob Rumbiak, a respected West Papuan activist living in Melbourne, Indonesian policy governing West Papua is based on a slash-and-burn philosophy, with no thought to human or ecological sustainability. Among other things, the people of West Papua are demanding the right to manage their own resources. In a recent discussion paper Rumbiak comments: "After independence ... the capitalist formula would be much more oriented towards community development and environmental protection, rather than to foreign-profit as it is now."

West Papua is a land rich with natural resources. Beneath the dense and forested landscape can be found an abundance of copper, gold, nickel, oil and natural gas. It is no secret that Indonesia would stand to lose a huge amount with the independence of the territory, including a share in the profits of the world's largest gold and copper mine, which is situated in the town of Timika and jointly owned and operated by US multinational Freeport and Australia/UK-owned Rio Tinto.

The primary argument employed by Indonesia against West Papuan independence however, is that it would disrupt the national unity and territorial integrity of the country, and they have used this questionable line of argument as an excuse to quash the movement for self-determination through violent measures. Since 1963 the Indonesian military (TNI) have routinely terrorised the indigenous population, some of the most disturbing examples of which are the Biak massacre of 1998, in which as many as 200 people were killed at the hands of the TNI; and the assassination of independence leadership figure Theys Eluay in 2001.

The Indonesian takeover of West Papua was performed in a manner that directly breaches international human rights laws, yet the United Nations and international community passively stood by and allowed it to happen. And sadly, we continue to stand by, as the TNI and military-backed militia perform the kind of human rights abuses that we became so familiar with during the 24-year occupation of East Timor.

In terms of recent world politics, the Indonesian military may appear to be emerging as a rogue force, beyond all reasonable control. However, this is far from the case. The TNI's present existence relies heavily on the support of foreign governments, including Australia, who provide ongoing training, arms and diplomatic support.

The Indonesian occupation of West Papua relies on the support of the international community in a number of other ways too: including the continued legitimisation of the Act of Free Choice; economic aid from foreign governments and bodies such as the IMF and the Asia Development Bank; and continued investment of foreign capital in West Papua. In fact, one could argue that the occupation relies more predominantly on the co-operation of the international community than it does on that of West Papuans. The power of the international community to put pressure on Indonesia to cease their occupation of West Papua and improve their human rights record is therefore huge.

The first day of the Yumi Wantaim gathering focussed on information sharing. Speakers included Dr Jacob Rumbiak, committed West Papua activists Kel Dummett and Jason McLeod and representatives from neighbouring Melanesian countries such as Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

On the second day of the gathering we sat in a circle with butcher's paper and pens and workshopped ways in which we could put pressure on the right bodies in order to raise awareness about the issue. By the end of the day we had outlined some concrete objectives with which to go forward. In terms of political influence, we -- ordinary people living in Australia -- may not have a great deal of power over the Indonesian Government or military. We do however have the power to put pressure on our own government; to demand transparency about which foreign militaries the Australian Government provides support to, and to call on them to withdraw support from countries that routinely abuse human rights. We also have the power to call for an investigation into the UN's role in the fraudulent Act of Free Choice, and eventually, to demand a review of the Act. There are already groups in existence organising to undertake this kind of work, and involvement in the cause is as easy as getting in touch with one of them and offering your assistance.

Just as the actions of ordinary people were integral in the East Timorese struggle for independence, so will they be in the future freedom and harmony of West Papua. Yumi Wantaim was a step in the right direction.

Ambush in the clouds

Sydney Morning Herald - September 7, 2002

Matthew Moore -- Glaciers appear to hang from the sky above Tembagapura, an improbable town squeezed into a valley perched nearly two kilometres above a lush Papuan rain forest. It's a crazy place to build. But Louisiana's Freeport McMorRan company needed homes for some of its 16,000 staff and contractors whose shifts are worked up near theequatorial ice, where they mine one of the earth's richest and most remote gold and copper reserves.

Over a period of 30 years, Tembagapura's residents -- including more than 120 Australians -- have turned their mountain mining camp into a lively community. They've built houses and apartments, a supermarket and club, tennis courts and a fitness centre, places where they can meet and jokeabout their unusual lives. Until last Saturday, they also had an international school where 10 teachers taught 75 mainly American and Australian expatriate children, aged from three to 15. The children are still there, but the teachers have gone; three shot dead and others injured in a vicious attack that has torn the heart of Tembagapura. Only the secretary is left.

The mining hasn't stopped, but the school is paralysed, and the community around it is grieving deeply. The counsellors have come, and volunteers are trying to hold things together while the company searches for a way to revive the place that's at the core of the town. But it's hard to find 10 teachers ready to start on Monday.

A week ago it was shaping up as a great year ahead. The new school principal, Edwin "Ted" Burgon, had experience in international schools all over the world. Well into his 50s, he'd come with his wife Nancy to Tembagapura in Indonesia's Papua province barely a month ago, ready for the mid-August start of the new school year. Friends believe they'd wanted to get to know their new colleagues when they decided on their fatal trip last Saturday morning. They chose as their destination a well-known picnic spot, with tables and barbeques, with a view over the forest below that stretches away to the Arafura Sea. Only four- wheel-drive vehicles can climb the steep road out of the valley and, with their eight teacher colleagues, the Burgons borrowed two Toyota Land Cruisers from the car pool. They were 11 in all, middle-school maths and science teacher Kenneth Balk and his wife and computer teacher wife Saundra Hopkins brought alongtheir six-year-old daughter Taia Hopkins, who'd just started first grade. All were Americans apart from Bambang Riwanto, the school's Indonesian teacher whose wife is expecting their first child.

It took them just over 10 minutes to ascend to the ridge where they passed the permanent army post with its soldiers on guard. For 10 minutes more they followed the road south, while mist hid the precipitous drops on either side that in fine weather can put your heart in your mouth. With the cloud cover still heavy, there was little to see from the picnic area, apart from the soft alpine ferns and flowers, so they turned for home heading back along the knife-edge ridge. After three kilometres, the road climbs gently before it swings around the side of the hill and runs flat for 80 metres. To their left was a steep wall of earth; on the right was a gentle grassed rise just above car window height. That hillock, only two metres from the road, became the shooting mound.

One survivor told police he saw four men on it; three were armed, two with army-issue automatic weapons. They were about 20 metres apart. They sprayed both cars, first through the windscreens then along the side, the bullets going straight through the vehicles and some of those inside. Two dump trucks were right behind them. Trapped in their cabs, with no place to hide, both Indonesian drivers were hit, one with a bullet that went close to his spine. When the semi-trailer driver with a load of liquid nitrogen came up onto the rise and saw what was happening, he tried to drive round the stationary vehicles, but a bullet through the door caught him in the buttocks and he lost control, his truck swerving to a stop at the front of the line of vehicles.

Freeport vice-president Andrew Neale and his wife were headed the other way, off for a relaxing weekend in Timika, when they reached the semi-trailer blocking the road, its hazard lights flashing. Neale jumped out and was met with the screams of the wounded and the sounds of a burst of bullets ripping past him. He leapt back into his car, turned it around and sped back to the army post about six kilometres towards Tembagapura. Dropping his wife there, he rushed back with six soldiers. Again he was fired on and again he escaped unhurt. The teachers were not so lucky. By the time the attackers fled, fourth and fifth grade teacher Ricky Spier, Ted Burgon and Riwanto were almost certainly dead. Five others had bullet wounds to the body, shoulder and leg, including Francine Goodfriend who'd taught pre-kindergarten for just a fortnight at the school and was shot near the spine. Only Saundra Hopkins, her daughter Taia and Nancy Burgon escaped serious injury. Ambulances rushed the wounded back to Tembagapura's hospital where doctors stabilised them for the drive to Timika and a night flight to Townsville for emergency surgery.

The attack was as ferocious as it was undisciplined. With 93 bullets fired from such close range, and no-one shooting back, it's amazing there were any survivors. With the long-smouldering tensions between the Papuans and Indonesians never far from the surface, it was always going to be impossible to agree on who was responsible. Each day has brought a new theory, but little evidence. Immediately after the attack, the military commander of Papua, Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, accused a faction of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), headed by Kelly Kwalik, of the ambush, widening his scope later in the week to include other OPM-aligned groups. His troops on Sunday killed one (still unidentified) Papuan in a gunfight at the scene of the ambush, proof he said of his claims that a separatist splinter group was behind it. Papuans concede locals may have done the killings, but insist they would have acted only under military pressure and direction.

Their broad theory is that the army sees such incidents as a way of proving they need extra money and resources. With a grossly underfunded military responsible for protecting all big developments in Indonesia, it's an argument levelled against the military across the country.

At the heart of Papuan suspicion of the Indonesian Government and military is four decades of often brutal repression and the Papuans' inability to get the share they want of the province's vast natural resources. Nowhere is that more obvious than around the Freeport area. For 30 years, Papuans have watched the riches from the fabulous mine go mainly overseas, to Jakarta or into developments like Kuala Kencana, Freeport's other town after Tembagapura. Hidden behind gates down on the lowlands, bike paths and mowed lawns connect housing estates for suburban homes carved out of the rainforest. Nothing highlights the wealth of the mine like Kuala Kencana's Ben Crenshaw-designed golf course, regarded as the most remote championship course in the world.

Papuans living in shacks must have watched in amazement as Freeport spent two years dumping river stones into two crushers running round the clock to make 560,000 cubic metres of sand for the fairways. To get the right feel for the greens, Freeport imported 50 containers of Canadian peat moss.

The vice-president of the Papuan Presidium Council, Thom Beanal, is also a commissioner for Freeport and has helped negotiate agreements on behalf of the local tribes, but he still feels cheated. Since 1996, Freeport has committed 1 per cent of its annual revenue, or up to $US14 million each year, providing more health, education and infrastructure services for the local Papuans, but according to Beanal, it's insultingly little. "Our people are being robbed because the mountain is mine. Is it right to give only 1 per cent to the owner of the mountain? I don't think so. I don't know how much they should give, but more than 1 per cent. " Ever since Freeport built its mine in the early '70's there have been sporadic attacks on its people and property. After some shootings in 1996, it was quiet until last December when two Freeport employees were shot. And then, in May, windows were smashed and petrol poured onto the carpet of its Kuala Kencana head office in an apparent attempt to burn it down. No- one was caught and no one knows if these events were linked to Saturday's killings. And no-one believes the incidents have ended.

Papua separatist leader accuses military of deadly attack

Agence France Presse - September 7, 2002 (abridged)

A separatist leader in Indonesia's Papua province has accused the military of mounting an attack which killed two Americans and one Indonesian near the huge Freeport mine.

The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local leader of the disorganized and poorly armed Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist army for the attack on August 31.

"We are enraged by the shootings which killed three people and injured 14 others," Kwalik said in a hand-written statement received by AFP on Saturday.

"It is better for the TNI [Indonesian armed forces] to admit [that it carried out the attack] and stop its actions," said the statement, signed by Kwalik and sealed with OPM's stamp.

Kwalik accused the army of using native Papuans to wage a mock war against government troops to justify crackdowns on separatists.

Separatist rebels ambush convoy in Aceh

Reuters - September 6, 2002 (slightly abridged)

Banda Aceh -- Rebels in Indonesia's restive Aceh province ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying several top security and government officials, leaving a police commander critically injured, officials said on Friday.

They said the convoy, which included a car carrying Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh, was attacked by more than a dozen gunmen on Thursday afternoon in the northern town of Lhokseumawe, a rebel stronghold.

"We are still chasing the attackers who ambushed the governor's convoy yesterday. We estimated there were between 15 and 30 attackers," military spokesman Zainal Mutaqin told Reuters by telephone from Lhokseumawe, some 1,600 km northwest of Jakarta. He said North Aceh Regional Police Chief Sunardi had been critically injured in the attack.

Aceh is one of two separatist hotspots in Indonesia, the other is in the rugged eastern province of Papua where two US teachers and an Indonesian were killed in an ambush on a convoy of vehicles just under a week ago.

Rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, who have been fighting for independence since 1976, said they were responsible for the ambush. "This is a warning to the military and police to stop hurting the Aceh people," local commander Amri bin Abdul Wahab told Reuters.

This latest violence, in almost daily attacks in Aceh, comes amid plans for a fresh round of peace talks between Jakarta and rebel representatives scheduled for this month.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) has estimated the decades-long conflict claimed around 2,000 people last year alone.

The last round of talks was held in May but again failed to halt unrest in the staunchly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, although the military spokesman said this latest ambush didn't mean discussions were over.

"I do hope this incident does not obstruct the peace dialogue," Mutaqin added. He said National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar would fly to Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, later on Friday to visit Sunardi.

Unexplained killings in Merauke

Tapol Bulletin 168 - September 2002

Mystery has shrouded the death in September 2001 of Willem Onde, a local OPM commander in Merauke, together with a colleague. Investigations conducted this year by the Catholic Diocese in Merauke point to the involvement of Kopassus in his murder, just two months before Theys Eluay, the pro-independence leader was put to death by Kopassus officers. These revelations point to a systematic Kopassus intelligence operation directed against pro- independence West Papuans.

This is the story of a local OPM commander who thought he could make peace with the Indonesian military but who never relinquished his pro-independence loyalties. In the end, he fell victim to an intelligence operation by the army's masterly intel operators, Kopassus.

The name of Willem Onde, a local OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) commander in the Merauke region first came to prominence when he took sixteen employees of a Korean logging company hostage in January 2001, on which occasion he was said to be "working with military".

After the hostages were released following negotiations with the military, nothing more was heard until reports began to circulate that he and his assistant, John Tumin, had been found dead under suspicious circumstances in September 2001. But now, the Peace and Justice Commission of the Merauke Diocese has published a detailed investigation of the events leading up to these deaths, in a report published on the authority of Archbishop of Merauke, Mgr Jacobus Duivenvoorde MSC, and endorsed by leaders of the Merauke Protestant churches.

The main events highlighted in this very detailed report commence with peace talks in May 1997 between Willem Onde and the local military commander, resulting in a local ceasefire. To the dismay of other OPM units in the region, Onde's men handed in dozens of weapons to the TNI after which Onde was quoted as saying he was now "close to the TNI" in the interests of peace.

In January 2001, a group of men under Onde's command took sixteen employees of Korindo, a Korean timber company, hostage, including three Koreans. One of Onde's demands was for the withdrawal of Brimob troops from Merauke, following the shooting dead of eight Papuans while raising the Papuan flag in Merauke in December 2000. Rumours circulated at the time that this action had the backing of Kopassus.

After two weeks the hostages were released. Brimob troops were not withdrawn but Onde's demand to be taken to Jakarta to meet top-level government officials was met. Kopassus renews pressure on Onde In May 2001, when the government was trying to win support for Special Autonomy status for West Papua, Onde met the Kopassus commander in West Papua, Lieutenant-Colonel Hartomo (now the main suspect in the assassination of Theys Eluay who asked him to arrange a meeting with the OPM commander in Merauke, Bernard Mawen and persuade him to speak out in favour of special autonomy.

These efforts proved futile and in a letter dated 1 June 2001, a senior army intelligence officer from Kopassus wrote to Onde saying that he would no longer enjoy their protection unless he agreed to "return to the fold of the Motherland". This was something that Onde had no intention of doing. Thereafter, Onde visited the Pacific island of Nauru at the time of the annual gathering there of the Pacific Islands Forum (though other Papuan representatives were denied visas). He used this occasion to circulate information about brutalities inflicted on the Papuan people by the TNI.

The last time Willem Onde and John Tumin were seen alive was on 10 September 2001 when they visited the director of the Korean timber company, Korindo. Later that day, witnesses reported seeing the abandoned motorbike on which the two men had been travelling, and items of their clothing. Witnesses are quoted as saying they saw Kopassus soldiers acting suspiciously and loitering in the area where the men had been seen, ordering a logging truck not to stop and asking others whether they had sighted John Tumin.

On 11 September, some children spotted a corpse floating in a river under a bridge. The corpse was pulled out of the river and found to be that of John Tumin. His body was covered with bruises and there were several bullet wounds, indicating that he had been tortured and shot.

On 14 September, the national news agency, Antara, reported that Onde was thought to have been murdered because some of his belongings had been found, including his blood-stained hat. That evening, a second corpse was found in the river which was bound in a way as to prevent it from floating away. This was soon identified as Willem Onde. His body also bore distinct signs of having been tortured and shot.

Ten days later, Theys Eluay, chair of the Papuan Presidium Council, asked the regional government in Jayapura for an explanation as to why Onde had been murdered. The team of investigators points out that the bodies of the murdered men had been disposed of in such a way as to ensure their early detection, suggesting that one aim was to terrify local residents.

The investigators also report many scare stories that circulated in the area at the time of the disappearance of the two men. The investigators conclude by asking why the police and civil authorities have made no attempt to investigate the murder of Onde and Tumin. They also raise the possibility of a link between these murders and the murder of Theys Eluay two months later and point to similarities because both events can be linked to Kopassus.

Complex web behind Papua violence

Radio Australia - September 4, 2002

[Last weekend's killing of three school teachers in Papua highlights the complex relationship between the Freeport mining company, the Indonesian military, and local Papuan villagers. P.T. Freeport Indonesia is a subsidiary of the US corporation Freeport McMoRan and operates a giant copper and gold mine in the Grasberg mountains in Papua. After last week's shootings, which left three dead and another eight wounded, Indonesian police and military forces have stepped up operations near the Freeport mining concession.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Nic McLellan

Speakers: Australian author Dr Denise Leith, author of the book "The Politics of Power - Freeport in Suharto's Indonesia", to be published next month

Leith: "Freeport provide many, many, many services to the traditional people which they would not have if the company was not there. It certainly provides hospitals and medical services. It provides education to teachers and I believe in some instances teachers, it provides schools and scholarships. It provides many services to the traditional people."

"At the same time, the traditional people are very upset because they believe that this company has become extraordinarily wealthy by raping it's resources, and they feel that they have very little back, despite what Freeport feel has been a very generous relationship that they've had in the last few years with traditional people. I don't believe that the traditional people feel that Freeport has been extraordinarily generous at all."

"The company's profits ... there have been years when the company's made over 200 million dollars clear profit, and the traditional people get about 15 million dollars a year paid back in services to the community. Given the way in which the traditional people still live, in comparison to the way the ex- pat workers and Freeport workers live within the concession there, the traditional people are still very angry and very upset that they are not given near enough for what they see are their resources."

MacLellan: Recently the US Governmnet has introduced new requirement for companies to report on their financial accounts. Has this impacted on the relations between the Indonesian Authorities and the Freeport McMoRan company?

Leith: "That act, the corporate fraud act is quite interesting in that all American CEOs have to sign-off on that by the 14th of August. Freeport CEO, Jim Bob Moffet, or James Robert Moffet has signed-off on that piece of legislation. That means that should Freeport McMoRan or any other American company be lying in their annual reports in any way shape or form, or in their figures that they give to the stock exchange reporting of their annual reports, then they can be held totally accountable."

"My concern was that this may have been a reason that affected Freeport's relationship with the Indonesian Military because the company has been accused for many many years of paying money to the Indonesian military. There certainly have been recorded incidences of them paying money into the Military's bank accounts. Now if Freeport continue to do this, they're going to be held responsible?"

Maclellan: Do you think that there's the likelihood of further conflict in the area around the mine concession, in the wake of last week's shootings?

Leith: "More violence ... yes I believe that there will be more violence from the Indonesian military within the concession. If it is the OPM they will be after the people who actually committed violence. If it's not the OPM they still will be blaming the OPM and they will probably close off the concession and take out reprisals on the traditional people in the villages."

US security officials investigate Papua ambush

Jakarta Post - September 6, 2002

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura -- Four United States security officials, allegedly including an FBI agent, are visiting Papua to help look into last week's ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian as Indonesian troops ceased their pursuit of suspected attackers.

Papua police chief Insp. Gen. Made Mangku Pastika said on Thursday that the four arrived on Wednesday accompanied by the US defense attache chief from the US Embassy in Jakarta. "They have interviewed me about the attack," he said in the provincial capital of Jayapura.

Military sources in Timika town, near gold and copper mine PT Freeport Indonesia, told The Jakarta Post Thursday that one of the four US security officials was an FBI agent. However, Pastika denied the suggestion, saying: "I know them as security officials from the US Embassy in Jakarta and their staff members".

However, FBI agents have started to investigate the deadly attack in Papua by visiting eight of the wounded -- seven Americans and one Indonesian -- treated in Townsville Hospital, Australia. A spokesman for the US Embassy in Canberra told AP on Tuesday that an Australia-based FBI agent had interviewed the patients as part of an investigation to determine if the ambush was the work of terrorists.

It was not clear whether the suspected FBI agent currently in Timika was the one who questioned the hospitalized victims in Australia.

Australian consular officials from Jakarta are currently in Papua to assess security conditions in Freeport and to meet Australians working there.

Pastika ruled out any possible foreign assistance to track down the attackers and investigate the bloody incident. "We are still able to do the job," he said.

He also said that a forensic team from Jakarta arrived in Timika on Thursday to help investigate the incident. "They will begin the probe tomorrow [Friday]," Pastika said.

Meanwhile, Papua Military Commander Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon said Thursday that security personnel had ceased pursuing the gunmen, believed to have fled into the jungle near the open-pit mine. He said military personnel assigned to track down the gunmen had already withdrawn to their respective posts in Timika.

In addition, Pastika said joint street patrols would be intensified around the Freeport complex to prevent further attacks.

On Saturday, around 15 gunmen, whose identities and whereabouts remain unknown, ambushed two buses carrying teachers from the Tembaga Pura International School in Freeport. Two Americans and an Indonesian were killed and 12 others injured.

The military blamed the attack on rebels from the Free Papua Movement (OPM) led by Kelly Kwalik, who has denied responsibility.

International human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch on Thursday joined calls for an independent investigation. "Because of the repeated failure of Indonesia to impartially investigate such incidents in Papua, Human Rights Watch urges Indonesia to convene a panel of independent experts to investigate the killings," the group said in a statement.

Two high school girls shot dead in Aceh

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2002

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh -- Two schoolgirls from the same village as the head of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were abducted and executed by armed gunmen in Pidie regency, Eastern Aceh on Wednesday.

The shocking murder of two unarmed girls comes as new figures show the situation in the resource-rich province is deteriorating, with increasing numbers of civilians being tortured, killed or both. The murdered girls were identified as Novita, 17, and Nural Aida, 18.

Local residents and military officers said two men wearing civilian clothes stopped a public minivan in the village of Gumpueng Tiro and forcibly removed the victims.

The girls, both wearing senior high school uniforms, were taken to nearby forest where they were shot in the head. It is not clear whether the girls were raped before they were killed.

Local residents, who found the bodies after the two gunmen left on motorbikes, brought the girls to Sigli Public Hospital, 12 kilometers from the village. Local residents said the two girls were from Mancang Tiro village, where GAM supreme leader Hassan Tiro was born 78 years ago.

Hassan Tiro, who renounced his Indonesian citizenship and is now a Swedish citizen, has been leading the independence movement since it launched its armed uprising in 1976.

Local military commander Lt. Col. Supartodi confirmed the incident Wednesday afternoon. Supartodi said the two gunmen were from GAM. "They shot the two girls with a pistol," he said without elaborating.

On Tuesday, security personnel killed three suspected GAM rebels in Pidie. Supartodi said six men had attempted to run off after they saw 12 military personnel patrolling near the Raya Sanggeu village in Pidie regency, some 100 kilometers east of Banda Aceh. Supartodi said troops recovered a pistol, a communications radio and a fund-raising letter signed by a high-ranking GAM leader.

Meanwhile, Banda Aceh Legal Aid (LBH) director Rufriadi said Wednesday that from January to August this year alone, the civilian victims of violence in Aceh had reached 3,503, including 974 killings.

Citing data collected by volunteers from LBH Banda Aceh, Rufriadi said at least 1,486 of the victims were tortured, 223 had involuntarily disappeared and 820 were arbitrarily arrested.

He also said that extra-judicial killings rose to 129 cases in August 2002, up from 90 cases in July 2000, while torture victims stood at 164 in August, up from 158 in July.

"The rising number of victims shows that the situation in Aceh is deteriorating, leaving no more place for civilians to move around freely," Rufriadi was quoted by Antara as saying.

Civilians, including women, have always been on the conflict's front line. On August 23 unidentified gunmen murdered a middle- aged headmistress in full view of her horrified pupils.

Government and military officials have blamed GAM for much of the violence in the province, including school burnings and kidnappings.

The administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has given GAM leaders till the end of the year to make up their minds as to whether or not they want to continue peace talks.

The administration says that for the talks to resume GAM must accept special autonomy and abandon its quest for independence. If GAM fails to do so, the Indonesian Military (TNI) is likely to step up its campaign of violence in the war-torn province.

Separatist unrest in Aceh on the tip of Sumatra island has been fueled by years of human rights abuses by the military and by the central government's draining of the region's rich oil and gas resources.

Government-GAM peace talks hanging in the balance

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2002

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- The peace talks between the government and separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) slated to be held in Geneva early this month are still hanging in the balance as no date has been set.

Information officer for Aceh Dialog for Peace Fahmi Yusuf said on Wednesday that the talks initially scheduled to begin on September 5 had been delayed because the Indonesian government had failed to confirm the proposed date.

"The Henry Dunant Center has informed us that the dialog will be delayed until further notice," Fahmi said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara. The Henry Dunant Center (HDC), which sponsored the talks, had planned the dialog to run for three days, starting September 5, he said.

Meanwhile, an official at the Henry Dunant Center told The Jakarta Post that the dialog was not postponed as there was no date set yet. "We hoped to hold a dialog in a near future, but not on those dates. We always avoid setting a date way in advance," the official said.

He said that the process to facilitate dialog was continuing and the two sides had expressed positive signs to start another round of peace talks.

Separately, government officials said that the government had actually confirmed its participation in the peace talks. Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left Indonesia for Europe on Tuesday, and planned to go to the HDC office.

Indonesian chief negotiator for Aceh Wiryono Sastrohandoyo was also in Europe, his relatives said on Wednesday.

Aceh Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) director Rufriadi said that Jakarta should immediately decide whether or not to join the dialog because the three international wise men were only available up until September 12 to facilitate the dialog.

He was referring to Gen. Anthony Zinni from the United States, Surin Vitsuan from Thailand and Bonimir Lancar from Yugoslavia, who were present in the last dialog in May. "If there is no signal from Jakarta of its intent to continue the dialog before September 12, then there will be no follow up talks at all," Rufriadi said.

The government has been vacillating regarding with this planned peace talks. Initially, it said it would attend the dialog only if GAM accepted the special autonomy package. Then, later, the government changed its mind and decided to attend the talk, saying that having another dialog with GAM could be useful.

In the recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Wiryono said the government aimed to reach another agreement with GAM to cease hostilities, a precondition to hold the planned all-inclusive dialog for Aceh.

Indonesian repression fuels anger in West Papua

The Australian - September 5, 2002

Damien Kingsbury -- Last weekend's ambush of two buses near the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua has highlighted yet again the problems that underscore relations between Jakarta and the deeply troubled province. And that attack, which left two Americans and one Indonesian dead, and wounded about 15 others, has raised more questions than are answered by the mere reciting of such facts.

No one knows for sure, but the Free Papua Organisation (OPM) claims that since 1963, at least 100,000 Papuans -- and possibly more -- have died as a direct consequence of Indonesia's occupation of the last regional Dutch colonial outpost. Since then, the OPM has been waging a sporadic, low-level campaign of resistance, aimed at eventually securing the province's independence. Indonesia blames the OPM for the latest attack.

Since the fall of Suharto in 1998 and the ensuing liberation of East Timor in 1999, the Papuan independence movement's non- violent political wing, the Papuan Presidium Council (PDP), has quickly overtaken the OPM as the main outlet for such aspirations. But last November the PDP's charismatic chairman Theys Eluay was murdered on his way home after dinner with the local chief of the Indonesian army's much feared Special Forces (Kopassus). Since then, a dozen Kopassus officers and NCOs have been charged with Theys's murder, and have been identified in the Indonesian press as having acted on an order from a politically active former general in Jakarta.

Resentment among Papuans towards Indonesia stems from two primary causes. First, many other Indonesians are deeply racist towards Papuans. Second, there's the barely restrained economic exploitation of the province's vast resources, with hardly any returns for the indigenous Papuans. Their complaints are usually met with violence.

Papua was this year given "special autonomy" status and a short- term greater share of locally generated wealth. But few observers, or Papuans, believe this is any more than rearranging Jakarta's control over the province. Perhaps the single biggest offender in the province is the Freeport mine complex. Freeport McMoRan enjoys a very cosy relationship with the army (TNI), handsomely subsidising local battalions and their officers. Freeport's largesse extends from Suharto all the way down to the local TNI privates.

Displaced villagers, and those who have had their waterways destroyed by Freeport effluent, have borne the brunt of TNI violence for expressing their concern. Research into the TNI's money trail has shown that the funding it receives comes from Freeport's public relations office, which also funds the local "human rights" office. The TNI has a history of orchestrating violence to justify or increase its authority, and of extracting "protection" payments from big companies. And the TNI has been rebuilding itself since 1998; it now dominates policy areas it considers its own, including claims for independence. But even assuming the most benign activity on the part of the TNI this time, its legacy of repression, violence, corruption and political interference has created or exacerbated most of the conflicts Indonesia now faces. And it is this that has kept alive and strengthened a popular claim for independence in West Papua.

[Damien Kingsbury, a senior lecturer in international development at Melbourne's Deakin University, is writing a book on the TNI (forthcoming, Routledge Curzon).]

Freeport security cheif blames separatists

ABC The World Today - September 4, 2002

[The security chief for the Freeport mine has said he agrees with assessments by the Indonesian military, that the local independence group, the Free Papua Movement, is probably to blame. He has also linked the attack to the America's so-called War on Terror.]

Transcript:

John Highfield: While Australia's reservations about where to lay blame for the attacks is certainly not shared, it will come as little surprise to you, by security specialists at the Freeport mining company. The security chief for the Freeport mine has said he agrees with assessments by the Indonesian military, that the local independence group, the Free Papua Movement, OPM, is probably to blame. Freeport's chief executive officer, James Moffett, concedes the interests of the local military are inextricably linked though with security for the mine, and he's linked the attack to America's so-called War on Terrorism.

Rafael Epstein reports.

Rafael Epstein: The Freeport site sits on the biggest known deposit of gold and the second largest copper mine in the world. As unrest around the valuable asset has increased over the last 10 years, so too has the security presence. There are thousands of soldiers, the Indonesian navy, air force, and coastguard help, and there's even a garrison of riot police. Speaking from New Orleans, Louisiana, Freeport CEO, James Moffett is honest about the blending of mutual interests shared by Indonesia's security forces and Freeport

James Moffet: The troops there are there not just to provide security for the mine and our operations and communities, but for the area in general. And what I would tell you is people have already shown up on the site and they will review the security that they put in place for our specific operation to ensure that this national treasure is protected. This very important government resource. And secondly, they will review the security of the entire area. What will happen here is people will focus on our port and that is a government owned port. The security people will look at the original design that was put in place in the mid-'90s and whatever they decide to do. But I also think that probably because of this incident, that the area's away from us, that they'll probably look at the security of the whole area.

Rafael Epstein: The Indonesian military is a complex web of interests. While human rights groups blame members of the military, Freeport's own security chief, Tom Green, agrees with the Indonesian army that people from the Free Papua Movement are to blame. Independence groups fear a repeat of East Timor, where Indonesia's military helped foment the very unrest theypublicly tried to suppress. James Moffett stayed away from such speculation.

James Moffet: You heard that there was a handful of people that may have done this. My people at the job site, particularly the people that liaise with the security troops, don't confirm anything to me that would let me give you more than what you've heard from me today. But until they actually give me an official report and [inaudible] something that is more precise here, just because I think it's important for us to not get involved in rumours and I'd rather let the authorities speculate on what they've done and what they're doing, and they've made no official comment about capturing anybody.

John Highfield: James Moffett is the chief executive officer at the Freeport Mining Corporation. He was speaking at an international media conference following those incidents at the weekend. Raphael Epstein drawing the analysis together for us.

Police probe suspicions over army

Melbourne Age - September 5, 2002

Matthew Moore, Timika -- Indonesia's national police force chief has promised to investigate allegations of military involvement in Saturday's fatal attack on a group of mainly American teachers working at the remote Freeport gold mine. Three people died in the attack and 11 were wounded.

General Da'i Bachtiar flew from Jakarta yesterday to inspect the ambush site in the Indonesian province of Papua before telling a news conference he would include the military in his investigations into the attack.

He said he had an open mind on who was responsible and what motives might have prompted the attack. "We are open to all alternatives, including the military ... all these questions will be answered by the evidence," he said.

His comments are likely to anger the Indonesian army, which has consistently blamed a small group of separatist rebels for the first such attack against foreigners. The army killed one Papuan and one soldier was shot in the leg in a clash near the ambush site on Sunday.

Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, the provincial army commander, has repeatedly accused a splinter group of the Free Papua Movement for the attack, while rejecting suggestions of direct or indirect military involvement.

General Bachtiar said he believed the police would find out who was behind the killings by conducting a "scientific criminal investigation" into the crime, which he believed would dispel widespread doubts in the community. However, many Papuans are sceptical that police have the ability to reveal any military involvement in the affair and believe the army gets increased resources from the mine owners and from Jakarta if there are serious disturbances.

The acting head of the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council, Thom Beanal, said yesterday he would be pleased if the investigation uncovered the truth but he had yet to be convinced it would.

While this is the first such attack against Westerners, there has been an increase in attacks over the past nine months on the Freeport-McMoran company that owns the mine.

In December last year, two Indonesian mine employees were shot and in May, windows were smashed at the company's head office in the lowlands near Timika and petrol was poured on the carpet in an unsuccessful attempt to burn the building. No one has been arrested for these crimes.

Provincial police chief Irjen Pastika said local police were working on the theory that members of several tribes were staging attacks because they do not get a direct share of mine revenue.

He said the company had a financial agreement to pay traditional landowners in the highland regions, the Amungme and Kamoro tribes, but not with other tribes now in the area such as the Dani and Moni.

He said these other tribes were trying to set up their own foundation to get a share of any moneys from the mine. "Of course, they have some justification," the provincial police chief said.

While he stressed this was only a theory, he said it remained his best lead so far and he was trying to confirm if the Papuan killed by the army on Sunday was a member of the Moni tribe. [FUBlob][PI9017]Neither the US State Department nor Freeport's headquarters in New Orleans would speculate on who was responsible for the attack. Their position remains they are unaware of the identity of the perpetrators or their motives.

[With reporting from Marian Wilkinson.]

Army playing at terrorist against itself

Australian Financial Review - September 4, 2002

Tim Dodd -- You didn't read about it at the time because no announcement was made by Freeport-McMoRan, the US company that controls the Freeport copper and gold mine in the Indonesian province of Papua.

But in the early hours of May 25 the company's local headquarters near the mine site, in the company town of Kuala Kencana, was attacked by an armed group of Papuans.

They assaulted one of the guards, started a fire in a security post, broke a door and a window in one of the two buildings, and slashed tires on two parked vehicles.

They apparently wanted to set fire to the buildings -- or at least to give the impression that they intended to -- because they spread kerosene around, although no major fire eventuated.

Indonesian security forces arrived but nobody was caught. Yesterday, a spokesman for Freeport Indonesia confirmed the incident but could not say whether any suspects had since been arrested.

The May attack on the company offices is nothing compared with last Saturday's assault on a school party travelling on a road in the mine area which killed two Americans and one Indonesian.

But it is part of a pattern of incidents over the years that have the hallmarks of stand-over tactics by the Indonesian military to extract more money and resources from Freeport in exchange for their role in providing "security".

After major riots against Freeport occurred in the area in 1996 the company agreed to build the army a new base, which sources say cost it $US37 million.

It is also said locally, and this is unconfirmed, that new demands for more money followed the May attack on the company offices. And just because the attackers were Papuan does not mean that the army was not behind it. There are more than enough poor, shiftless Papuan males attracted to the Freeport mine by the prospect of money and a job to be suborned by army intelligence.

It is true that not every security incident in the area can be blamed on the security forces. The Freeport mine, in its 30-year-history, has become the honey pot of Papua. In that time the population of the area has risen from about 1,000 traditional tribespeople to more than 100,000 fortune seekers. The main centre of Timika is a frontier town with all the problems created by large numbers of ambitious, and often disappointed, immigrants.

Social and health problems abound, including unemployment and a growing incidence of AIDS. People disappointed at missing out on company handouts have sometimes vented their anger with attacks on Freeport property.

The social divisions were underlined by Freeport's decision to build, during the 1990s, its new company town of Kuala Kencana in virgin jungle about 20km from Timika. This project, lauded by former president Soeharto as a model for the new Indonesian city, is a bizarre creation - an American real estate development mysteriously teleported to the wrong time and place. The golf course alone, with fairways carved through the jungle, is said to have cost Freeport at least $US20 million.

But discontented locals with disappointed hopes have never murdered foreigners. Nor do they have access to the automatic weapons used in the fatal attack.

Security consultants who work for resource companies in Indonesia are reporting that Indonesian police at Timika suspect that a local separatist leader, Titus Morib, may be responsible for the killings.

It is possible that this is correct. He is alienated from the mainstream Free Papua Movement (OPM), most of whose leaders have recently renounced use of violence in favour of a peaceful, politically based independence movement.

Morib belongs to a splinter group which calls itself the People's Papuan Alliance, and possibly he has a motive to undermine the move to peaceful tactics. But over the years a number of so- called independence leaders in Papua have not been what they seemed -- many have worked for the army. "The military in the past has used OPM elements as proxies," says Brigham M. Golden, a Columbia University Ph.D candidate who has spent years studying the scene and sits on the US Council for Foreign Relations task force on Papua.

It is more than possible that Morib, or whoever else carried out the killings, was working for the army. Certainly the assault on the teachers does nothing to advance the cause of the separatist movement.

It is potentially extremely damaging to the move by the main independence group, the Papuan Presidium Council, to commit the rebel guerillas to peaceful resistance.

Says Golden: "Nobody has as much to gain as the military does from instability in this region."

The signs are already there that Jakarta is preparing to use the killings as the pretext for a new clampdown on the independence movement. Yesterday, in a statement, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry blamed an "armed separatist group" for the attack.

Unfortunately, we will probably never be sure who was responsible. But on any rational analysis it is a major setback for Papua's independence movement.

What is happening at Freeport?

Laksamana.Net - September 2, 2002

Denise Leith -- Kelly Kwalik of the OPM has denied that the nationalist group is responsible for the killing and wounding of Freeport employees on the company road from Tembagapura on Saturday.

John Rumbiak, the supervisor of ELS-HAM, who met with Kwalik on the 25 August stated in Sydney today that, "Most of the guerrilla leaders throughout the entire province are now in a position of reforming peaceful movement for their political demands." He, along with many other observers of West Papuan and Indonesian politics, believe that it was TNI who were responsible for the killings of the Freeport employees.

This is not the first time a Freeport employee has been shot and killed on the road leading from Tembagapura. On 8 November, 1994 a Papuan flagman working for Freeport, Gordan Rumaropen, was shot dead while driving along the access road. The shooting, which the military and the company blamed on the OPM, saw Freeport requesting a greater military presence in the area and resulted in an expanded military operation which led to well documented human rights violations against the indigenous peoples living within and around the concession area. However, the shooting has remained a point of some contention.

An employee of a Freeport subcontractor, who was also shot in the same area only minutes after the killing of Mr Rumaropen, believes he saw who shot at him and also killed Mr Rumaropen. A short time after hearing the original gunshot this person saw an Indonesian soldier disappear into the bushes and seconds later was shot in the leg himself. He then drove past the area where, unbeknownst to him, Mr Rumaropen was lying dead. The position, which was usually isolated, was surrounded by Indonesian soldiers. It was, he believes, the Indonesian military who shot him and killed Mr Rumaropen.

Given the similarities of the two incidents and the recognised modus operandi of TNI was it possible that TNI was responsible for the deaths this weekend, and if so, why would the Indonesian military want to attack Freeport? The general response from those who blame the military has been that TNI is using its usual tactic of manufacturing an "incident" to justify an increase in its presence and actions against the traditional peoples who have steadfastly maintained their peaceful demands for independence. But could there be another reason?

In response to the meltdown of Enron and WorldCom, and to counter investor anger, the Bush administration pushed a bill through the American senate and congress which demanded greater corporate accountability. Passed into law on the 26 July, the Corporate Fraud Act required American companies to file certifications by the 14 August declaring that their financial accounts were true and accurate. Under this legislation CEOs and chief financial officers are now to be held personally responsible for the accuracy of such disclosures.

For years Freeport has turned a blind eye to the pilfering of Freeport property by the military with such practices generally being considered part of the cost of military protection. In 1991 Emmy Hafild, from the Indonesian environmental non-government organisation WALHI, claimed that the military commander of the area boasted to her that Freeport directly supported military operations and helped pay military salaries. A number of reports have also claimed that Freeport pays $11 million dollars annually into a communal fund for the military which is reputedly topped up on request by negotiation. At the same time it has been claimed that local soldiers are paid a monthly salary-bonus, which in 2001 was estimated to be approximately Rp 400,000.

While the Freeport-McMoRan annual reports boasts substantial payments to the traditional landowners by listing the millions it pays towards development, is it fair and reasonable, or even legal, for Freeport to claim kudos for such policies without offsetting this figure with what it may be paying the military: the perpetrator of human rights against the same people the company purports to assist? Moreover, in this new era of corporate responsibility foreshadowed by the Corporate Fraud Law, are such accounting practices legal? Could it be that this new legislation has finally forced Freeport to sever its financially and morally questionable ties with TNI?

Although Freeport has strenuously denied that it pays military wages the readiness of the company's executives to deposit cash into the private bank accounts of the military undermines any such assertion. In response to a telephone call from a man identifying himself as the West Papuan police chief, in February 2001 it was reported that Freeport executive Prihadi Santoso (government and external relations) instructed his secretary to deposit $10,000 into the private bank account as requested. It was only later, when the caller was found to be a hoax, did Prihadi inform Jakarta police of the fraud. Although the incident was reported by the Indonesian press no one seemed to be interested in questioning the appropriateness of a senior Freeport executive paying money directly to someone who identified himself over the phone as an Indonesian police chief -- such payments, it would appear, are common practice.

While in the past Freeport may have been willing to fund the military and turn a blind-eye to its illegal activities, immediately after filing certifications under the Corporate Fraud Law it appears that the company may have changed its corporate policy. While for decades Freeport has allowed the military to pilfer from it, according to Dr Benny Giay, Rector of Walter College in Jayapura and chairman of the West Papuan Reconciliation Task Force, two weeks ago it was reported in the local newspaper, the Cenderawasih Pos, that Freeport had accused members of the Indonesian military of stealing company property. Moreover, on Saturday, the same day as the killings on the road from Tembagapura, Dr Giay says he was informed by a Freeport manager that Lexi Linturan (head of Freeport Security), had been threatened several times by TNI over the previous two weeks because he had discontinued some, or all, of the company's payments to this institution. Just over two weeks ago the Corporate Fraud Law came into force.

If this scenario is correct could the military have attacked Freeport employees on Saturday to force the company to resume payments and withdraw its charges against its personnel? This would not be the first time TNI threatened the company by using violence. In March 1996, shortly after the release of the Australian Council For Overseas Aid report which accused Freeport security, in collusion with the Indonesian military, of killing indigenous people in the company's concession area, the company strenuously denied all involvement and attempted to distance itself from TNI. In response the military took control of, if not orchestrated, violent riots in Timika which saw the direct targeting of Freeport infrastructure.

Endeavouring to formulate another response to what the company had come to see as a troublesome and potentially damaging relationship with TNI, Freeport then offered the institution incentives to choose separation and reform. According to one source the military requested $100 million but settled for $35 million from Freeport with the company agreeing to supply the military with its own transport vehicles, build barracks and help in the construction of its own naval base. By supplying the military with separate infrastructure Freeport hoped to define clear physical parameters between itself and TNI in the eyes of the traditional peoples and its detractors, it also hoped to lessen resentment of the company from within the military.

Could it be that the ramifications of the Corporate Fraud Law forced a change in company policy two weeks ago and did this change lead to the Indonesian military killing Freeport employees on the road from Tembagapura on Saturday? If this is the case what will happen if other American companies operating in Indonesia also decide to take this opportunity to discontinue the burdensome payments to TNI? Moreover, how will the Indonesian military and the regime in Jakarta cope with the loss of corporate funding which helps keep the discredited institution afloat and the disparate Republic together?

[Denise Leith is the author of "The Politics of Power: Freeport in Suharto's Indonesia", which describes the complex power relationships between the company, the Jakarta elite, the Indonesian military, the traditional landowners, and non- government human rights and environmental organisations and is due for release by the University of Hawaii Press in October 2002.]

Violence, a US mining giant, and Papua politics

Christian Science Monitor - September 3, 2002

Dan Murphy, Jakarta -- Indonesian soldiers were searching the fog-shrouded mountains Monday near the world's richest gold and copper mine for the killers of two American school teachers and one Indonesian.

Seven other Americans and one Indonesian girl were also wounded Saturday in one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Indonesia's modern history. The deaths come against an increasingly chaotic backdrop for the foreign mining and oil companies in Indonesia.

The roadside ambush -- possibly by a renegade separatist group -- occurred at 9,000 feet in the early afternoon as three Toyota Land Cruisers carried foreign teachers and local employees to a school run by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. of Louisiana, which operates the Grasberg mine in Indonesia's province of Papua.

The dead, say sources close to the investigation, were apparently killed after two of the cars were stopped. The trailing car managed to back out of the ambush and called an Indonesian military unit for help. All three victims died from automatic weapons-fire to the head. No money was taken, and no demands were made.

Different theories as to who was behind the attack are offered by security officials, diplomats, and local researchers. But they all agree that it had nothing to do with specifically anti- American sentiments or the war on terror. Rather, the huge Grasberg mine has been the glittering jewel at the center of a struggle for political and economic power in the remote, impoverished province for nearly 30 years.

Both the Indonesian military and a popular independence movement see the mine as a resource to be exploited and are disappointed about how much they've been getting out of it. Activists have blamed Freeport for complicity in human rights abuses by the military and in environmental damage over the years. The company denies such claims, noting its environmental efforts and local aid programs.

Indonesian provincial military commander, Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon, told reporters over the weekend that the independence movement's armed wing, called the Free Papua Movement (OPM), was responsible for the attack, specifically blaming OPM leader Kelly Kwalik. On Sunday, the military said it had killed a suspected rebel near the site of the attack.

The independence movement's political wing, which calls itself the Papua Presidium, denied the allegations of involvement in a statement: "The armed wing of the liberation movement has never attacked or killed foreign nationals as a strategy to gain international attention."

"This doesn't fit the OPM's profile at all," says a Western diplomat. "The independence leadership has made a real commitment to nonviolence in the past few years." Since the 1999 fall of Indonesian leader Suharto, Freeport has been trying to improve its local relations. Tom Beanal, a leader of the Amungme tribe which has the best ancestral claim to the mine, was named to the board of Freeport's Indonesian subsidiary two years ago. Mr. Beanal is also one of the two most popular and recognizable members of the Papua Presidium. His presence on Freeport's board has angered some military officials.

Local newspapers have been filled with speculation that the Indonesian military, led by its Kopassus Special Forces, could have been behind the attack to send a message to Freeport that it needs to pay more for its protection, as well as provide a pretext for a crackdown on separatists. Late last year, top independence leader Theys Eluay was assassinated. Though no charges have been pressed, the Indonesian police say he was killed by a Kopassus unit.

But for now, intelligence officials close to the situation say they are focusing on a rogue Papuan group led by Titus Murib, a volatile former member of the OPM who was pushed out of the movement.

Mr. Murib, a shadowy figure from the western Dani tribe, which lives in the island's central mountains, kidnapped two Belgian filmmakers last July. He was also blamed for attacking and holding the town of Ilaga and its airfield for about a week last September. The Belgians were released after about a month.

"Murib operates on his own, and he's proven himself to be a violent guy, and showed that he really savored all of the attention when he took the hostages," says an investigator who's closely following developments. "We're just hoping that the military doesn't take any harsh or illogical moves now against the presidium." Brigham Golden, a Columbia University graduate student who's writing a doctoral dissertation on Freeport's interaction with the independence movement, says Mr. Murib's involvement wouldn't necessarily rule out military involvement.

He and other analysts say the Indonesian military has frequently used militia groups as proxies in Papua and other provinces. "There's never been an OPM attack that involves automatic weapons -- the use of them is a sign of likely military involvement," says Mr. Golden. "The military are the ones that have the most to gain from instability." For instance, Freeport's mine was closed by rioting in 1996. Afterwards, the company built, at its own expense, a $37 million base for the Indonesian military in the Timika area.

The survivors of the attack are in stable condition at a hospital in Townsville, Australia. The Americans killed were Edwin Burcon, the head of Freeport's international school, and Rickey Spears, a teacher. The company said the mine will remain open. Freeport's Chairman James Moffet said in a statement: "Our primary concern is for the safety of our work force, their families and the well-being of the injured."

This is a difficult period for companies like Freeport, ExxonMobil, and Newmont Gold, which are caught between public anger at their long association with the Suharto dictatorship, and a military and police establishment often funded by extortion and other illegal business operations. The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, estimates that 70 percent of the military's budget comes from such ventures.

Police fail to identify Freeport killers

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2002

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Three days after a group of armed men killed two American school teachers and an Indonesian in an ambush at a location that is normally tightly controlled by police and soldiers in Papua, the police are as yet in the dark as to who the perpetrators were.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said that his men were still evaluating all the evidence and were as yet unable to conclude whether the perpetrators were members of the Free Papua Organization (OPM).

"We don't know exactly. We are still assessing the situation," Da'i told the press on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives's foreign and defense committee here on Tuesday.

Two Americans and an Indonesian -- all the employees of PT Freeport Indonesia -- were killed in the incident on Saturday, while 12 others were injured.

Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Jakarta condemned the "senseless attack on unarmed civilians" in Papua. "We extend our sincere condolences to the families of those killed and our concern for those who were injured in the attack," the embassy said in statement.

The attack on the innocent victims, who were mostly schoolteachers, was an outrageous act of terrorism, it said. "We urge the government of Indonesia to take all necessary steps swiftly to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of this horrible attack," it said.

The attack was surprising, considering that the location is tightly controlled by the military and police.

Security forces shot dead a suspected rebel in a gunfight one day later as they hunted for the armed men who killed the employees of PT Freeport Indonesia. Da'i said that residents living in the vicinity did not recognize the suspected rebel after being shown his body.

Local residents, according to Da'i, said that the dead man had similar physical characteristic with the gunmen that launched the attack on Saturday. "Local residents don't recognize the body. Possibly, he is a newcomer," Da'i added. However, residents in the village of Banti Tembagapura wanted to take the body for burial, prompting speculation that the suspected rebel was a local resident.

Human rights activists suspect that military personnel might be involved in the attack and called for the establishment of an independent inquiry to investigate the incident.

The Papuan people's trust in the security forces is at a low ebb as the latter have been unable or unwilling to uncover those behind the murder of Papuan independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluway in November last year.

During the hearing, led by foreign and defense committee chairman Ibrahim Ambong, the police chief related the chronology of the bloody incident to committee members.

Da'i said that the bullet casings showed the gunmen had used M-16 automatic and SS1 semiautomatic rifles. "We'll keep on chasing the attackers," he said. He brushed aside demands for the government to set up a special investigation. "We will continue what we have been doing to date," he said.

Editorial: Papua killings test case for transparency

The Australian - September 3, 2002

The shocking murder of three employees of the giant US-owned Freeport mine in West Papua on the weekend underscores the instability of our neighbourhood.

The portents are ominous. Indonesian security forces have begun a 60-day campaign to shut down the political wing of the Papuan independence movement.

Troops arrested 15 separatist rebels yesterday. The killing has given the military impetus to go after the fledging guerilla movement known as the Free Papua Organisation. Independence leaders, meanwhile, are pointing the finger at the army.

West Papuans are still angry about the assassination of independence leader Theys Eluay last year. Although 12 members of the army's notorious Special Forces have been charged with his murder, many believe the top brass who gave the orders will never be brought to trial. With no group taking responsibility for the Freeport ambush, no motive and no precedent for such an attack on foreigners in four decades of intermitent guerilla war, investigators must not rule out any suspects -- including the military.

Unless the probe is conducted in a transparent manner and justice is seen to be done, West Papua will become an even bloodier thorn in the side of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration.

Since East Timor's independence vote in 1999, Indonesia has redoubled its efforts to deal with separatism. One of the few enduring legacies of the Abdurrahman Wahid's presidency was granting greater autonomy for Aceh and West Papua. But weaning the provinces away from Jakarta's centralised control hasn't been easy. The autonomy packages introduced in January were poorly conceived and conferred power on provincial administrations lacking the personnel and capacity to implement them. One consequence of the reforms has been a weakening of the military's grip on security and its business interests. In West Papua tribal leaders have begun seizing control of traditional lands from logging companies part-owned by the military. But little else has changed. With provincial assemblies yet to pass the hundreds of pieces of enabling legislation, the promise of autonomy remains more of a concept than a reality.

Jakarta's call on West Papuans to remain patient are likely to fall on deaf ears. Ever since it annexed the province by means of the now discredited Act of Free Choice in 1969, Indonesia has dealt with the Papuan problem by brute force and a scant regard for human rights. Last year several pro-independence leaders including Eluay were charged with subversion. Last week The Australian revealed details of a sophisticated 60-day police operation aimed at shutting down organisations conducting separatist activities. Aimed at groups that "endanger the unity of the nation" it comes at a time when the Papuan Presidium, the leading civilian proponent of independence, is calling for peace talks with Jakarta.

Such a crackdown could backfire by increasing popular anger and putting Jakarta under international pressure to agree to an East Timor-style referendum. It also runs counter to recent moves to deepen democracy by introducing direct presidential elections and abolishing special representation for the military in parliament. To maintain investor confidence, Indonesia will be under pressure to find the killers of the Freeport mine workers. But there is more at stake than bringing the perpetrators to justice. It is in the interests of Indonesia -- and Australia -- to see progress towards a peaceful resolution of the Papuan problem.

Respect for the rule of law and the full implementation of autonomy measures, not another ruthless crackdown, is the preferable course for Indonesia to take.

Jakarta to outlaw Papuan activists

The Australian - August 29, 2002

Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- Indonesian police have drawn up plans to outlaw the main Papuan independence organisation in a crackdown on separatism aimed at preventing Papua from becoming a "second East Timor".

Minutes of internal police meetings and documents obtained by The Australian, reveal a strategy to put the Papuan Presidium, the leading civilian proponent of an independent Papua, out of business, possibly by arresting and prosecuting its leaders.

The 60-day operation, known as Adil Matoa, began this month with the aim of identifying separatists or separatist organisations, arresting and prosecuting individuals "committing treason or attacks against the state" and shutting down organisations conducting separatist activities.

According to the minutes of a three-hour meeting on July 5, attended by 16 high-ranking officers of the Papua provincial police, the operation would seek to prosecute Presidium members "according to the law [by obtaining] clear evidence that their activities are towards the illegal separation of Papua from Indonesia". It warns that police need to take action to stop Papua becoming another East Timor.

The moves to set up surveillance against Papuan political activists and pave the way for prosecutions come amid heightened determination in Jakarta to prevent separatist movements around the country building momentum for their causes.

Analysis by the armed forces intelligence agency has played down the risks posed by the ill-equipped, poorly co-ordinated and relatively inactive armed wing of the Papuan resistance. But according to sources, armed forces intelligence is concerned about the potential for the political wing to build support, particularly overseas.

There are fears that foreign lobbying activities could help change sentiment in countries such as the US and Australia, where governments support continued Indonesian rule based on Jakarta offering local autonomous rule.

Exerting pressure on the civilian political movement is seen as the most effective way of containing the growth of pro- independence activity. An order signed by the Papuan police chief, Made Pastika, on July 17, initiating the operation, states that activities to combat Papuan separatists are to be carried out within the province, elsewhere in Indonesia and abroad.

In this document, targets of the operation are cited as "suspected civilians and community organisations that have a vision and mission oriented towards the separation of Papua from the Indonesian republic and endangering the unity of the nation by violating national law".

It also cites civilians and community organisations that "object to government policy using the cover of violation of human rights [and] violation of indigenous rights" and conduct activities that can "undermine the dignity of the government and state".

Fearing the operation will trigger a round-up of civilian political and human rights activists, a national human rights group wrote to the police chief accusing the police of trying to turn legitimate human rights work into "a cheap issue to clamp down on innocent people".

The letter by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) warns the operation will only lead to a repeat of the "crimes against humanity committed in the past, for which the state was never held accountable".

A written reply from police headquarters in Jakarta maintains there is a "strong reason" to run operation Adil Matoa because there is evidence "suspected individuals and community organisations have a mission [and] tried to build public opinion domestically and abroad to unify their vision for an independent Papua".

"We hope that those illegal organisations will disband out of their own conscience," the letter states, in what activists regard as a reference to the Papuan Presidium.

Jakarta may strike harder against separatists

Radio Australia - September 2, 2002

[Tensions between Jakarta and Papua's independence movement have escalated following the weekend attack near the giant Freeport gold mine in Papua. Three people, including two Americans and an Indonesian, were killed when unidentified gunmen ambushed a convoy of cars. There are concerns Jakarta will now crackdown further on the independence movement to try and prevent Papua from becoming "another East Timor."]

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti

Speakers: John Rumbiak, head of ELSHAM, Papua's human rights group in Jayapura; Dr Richard Chauvel Australian Asia Pacific Institute, Victoria University, Melbourne; Dr John Ondowame, The West Papua Project, Sydney University

Lopresti: In early July, just two months before the weekend ambush at the Freeport mine, 16 high-ranking officers of the Papua Provincial police met for a three hour meeting. At the end of their talks, operation Adil Matoa was born.

The 60-day plan, which reportedly began in the first week of August, aims to shut down Papua's independence movement, possibly by arresting and prosecuting the leaders of the armed wing, the Free Papua Movement or OPM and the Papuan Presidium.

But now with the worst ever attack on the Freeport mine, there are fears that Indonesia will use the murders to strengthen its crackdown. Papua's police chief has already laid the blame for the ambush squarely at the feet of the OPM.

But John Rumbiak, who heads ELSHAM, Papua's human rights group in Jayapura, believes the Indonesian military and the police are responsible. He says OPM leader Kelly Kwalik told him he was committed to peace.

Rumbiak: "He said that himself. And he called on other guerilla leaders to support this programme. I have travelled to other parts of Papua as well to meet with other guerilla leaders -- and they are all in the same position, supportive of this peaceful programme."

Lopresti: But as Indonesian security and police widen their hunt for the unidentified gunmen, reprisals have already begun against the rebels, One man was killed in a firefight with Indonesian troops on Sunday.

Dr Richard Chauvel heads the Australian Asia Pacific Institute at Victoria University in Melbourne. He says undoubtedly, the Freeport murders will strengthen the military's hand against the separatists.

Chauvel: "I think they'll undoubtedly do that. They're still trying to persuade the Americans to recommence working relations and supplies to the Indonesian military. That, in the current international environment of being able to identify terrorist attacks, particularly that resulted in the killing of two Americans, and the wounding of others, clearly can fit into that political objective."

Lopresti: Papuans are already angry about the assasination of independence leader Theys Eluay last November. A dozen army special force soldiers are about to face a military court over his murder. But now there's more. Dr John Ondowame is with the West Papua Project at Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. He says Operation Adil Matoa has already well and truly begun.

Ondawame: "There's no doubt that many Papuans, particularly the leaders have been arrested and some of them have been targetted and threatened with death, particulay the human rights group based in Jayapura, as well as church leaders who advocate peaceful negotiation with the Indonesian government, and against the Indonesian presence in West Papua."

Lopresti: But human rights activist John Rumbiak says Operation Adil Matoa was conceived by the Papuan police as a way to placate Jakarta and get more funding. He says while activists and independence leaders have been questioned, the movement is far from being outlawed.

Rumbiak: "They haven't any money so they have to submit a proposal that has to sound like a military operation sort of thing. And that's why they submitted the proposal to Jakarta not aimed at arresting the political activists but to question the Praesidium and other political organisations in the province."

Chauvel: "I think John Rumbiak is correct in the sense that announcement was made in July, very little has in fact happened. The difficulty we're in at the moment -- we've had the military commander suggesting the OPM was involved the attack at Freport on Saturday -- strong denials of that both from John Rumbiak and the Papuan Praesidium from William Mendowen saying that it is not in Papuan interests to launch these sorts of armed attacks."

Lorpresti: Dr Richard Chauvel. Where the peace process goes from here is now anyone's guess. Jakarta has offered autonomy to Papua, a move rejected by Papuan separatists. But there's growing cynicism about its sincerity to enter a national dialogue.

Chauvel: "No Indonesian government has given any indication that they're willing to engage in those types of negotiations. The outcome of that is that a peaceful resolution of tensions in Papua is perhaps further away than it has been previously."

Army advises against media speculation

Melbourne Age - September 3, 2002

Jakarta (agencies) -- Indonesia's army chief yesterday called on the international media not to speculate on who was responsible for the fatal ambush of American schoolteachers near the Freeport mine in Papua at the weekend.

"If there is foreign media which is unclear, please tell the media not to speculate," General Ryamizard Ryacudu told El Shinta radio.

He said the attack occurred in an area where Kelly Kwalik, a factional leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), was active. "I'm not simply saying yes, but it is in Kwalik's operational area," he said.

In Papua itself, the local military commander, Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, said the attack was carried out by the OPM. "They're OPM, but we don't know which faction yet," General Simbolon said.

Security analysts were sceptical of Indonesian claims attributing blame to the OPM, which has resisted Indonesian rule for decades.

Diplomats cautioned that blaming the rebels was a rush to judgment, reflecting the government's political agenda. Indonesia's problems in keeping Papua are similar to those it had in East Timor.

The diplomats noted that the Papua rebels had not engaged in acts of violence against Americans or other foreigners during their 40-year struggle for independence.

"I don't see what they gain from it," a senior diplomat said. Another said: "A year from now, we're still likely to be asking who did it?"

Indonesian ambush still a mystery

Radio Australia - September 2, 2002

[The Indonesian province of Papua is notoriously a black hole for information, and after the weekend's shocking attack on employees of the giant Freeport Mine, few things are clear except that three people are dead.]

Transcript:

Mark Colvin: The Indonesian province of Papua is notoriously a black hole for information, and after the weekend's shocking attack on employees of the giant Freeport Mine, few things are clear except that three people are dead.

Eight more people, including a six-year-old girl and her American parents are recovering in a Townsville hospital. But the mystery is, who did it?.

The Indonesian military blames local separatist rebels, but they did the same last year when the Papuan independence leader, Theys Eluay, was murdered, a killing now widely attributed to Indonesian Special Forces.

Papuans blame the Indonesian military for the Freeport killings. Nick Grimm reports.

Nick Grimm: A heavy shroud of mist and fog was hanging over the Papuan highlands near the Freeport Copper and Gold Mine, when the attack occurred.

It provided the assailants, whoever they were, the perfect cover.

Three people were killed when the gunmen opened fire on a three vehicle convoy, headed for the lowlands mining town of Kuala Kencana.

Inside the vehicles were a group of school teachers, all employees of the American-owned Freeport Mine, along with their families.

Two of the dead were American citizens, the third was Indonesian. Eight survivors, all with varying injuries, were later airlifted to Townsville for hospital treatment. Among them, a six-year-old girl and her American parents.

A spokesman for the Freeport Mine, Jeff Hocking, spoke to the media in Townsville this afternoon.

Jeff Hocking: Back on site things are tense, but the mine and mill are operating as normal. There is nobody in intensive care now. They're all doing extremely well, and some are in very, very good condition.

Unidentified Journalist: Are we talking about gunshot injuries?

Jeff Hocking: Look they are injuries relative to the incident that happened there.

Unidentified Journalist: Emotionally how are they going?

Jeff Hocking: How would you be emotionally? They're extremely strong. These people operate in mind sites all around the world, so they're certainly, they're akin to this type of ... they're akin to being in a remote location, they're extremely strong. I think they've done an outstanding job.

Nick Grimm: No doubt mindful of tensions in the Indonesian province between the military and indigenous Papuan pro- independence supporters, Freeport's Jeff Hocking would not be drawn on who was responsible for the attack.

Unidentified Journalist: You've spoke to those people inside the hospital. Did any of them get a look at their attackers?

Jeff Hocking: Certainly not, it's very foggy, misty, it's at 9,000 feet, and I really can't comment on that.

Nick Grimm: The Indonesian military has laid blame for the attack at the feet of local guerrilla fighters of the separatist movement, the Free Papua Organisation or OPM.

But Papuan leaders have called for an independent investigation to establish who led the attack. One making that call is John Rumbiak, of the Papuan human rights organisation ELSHAM.

John Rumbiak: Papua is ruled by militarism and that involve raping of ordinary women, executionary killings of children and ordinary civilians, massive intimidation, kidnappings.

Nick Grimm: Currently visiting Australia for a conference hosted by the University of Sydney, aimed at unifying Papua's various political, social and religious groups, John Rumbiak says he believes it was the Indonesian military who attacked the school teachers.

John Rumbiak: I just met with the guerrilla leader, Kelly Kwalik, commanding his troops around the Freeport Mine on the 25th of August, just last week. I was on a peace mission to meet with him and explaining about our peaceful program and he was very supportive. He knows me, he knows me personally since I have been working around the mine with his people for many, many years.

Nick Grimm: So you don't believe that he would have led or sanctioned an attack like this?

John Rumbiak: No, no. And he sent me a statement this morning explaining that he was not responsible at all. He blamed the Indonesians for, they're responsible for the killing of those ordinary civilians.

Mark Colvin: John Rumbiak of the Papuan human rights organisation, ELSHAM, talking to Nick Grimm.

Papuan activists point finger at military

Reuters - September 2, 2002

Sydney -- Papuan rights and independence activists said on Monday they believed the Indonesian military could be to blame for a weekend attack that killed three people, including two Americans, near the world's biggest gold and copper mine.

The Papuans rejected accusations from Jakarta that the guerrilla Free Papua Organisation (OPM) was behind the ambush of a convoy carrying American teachers in the troubled province, where a low level guerrilla conflict has waged for decades.

"All of the people in West Papua are committed, in the town, in the jungle, on the OPM side. We'd already decided to work hard for a peaceful area in West Papua," said Agus Alua, second secretary general of the Papua Presidium Council -- the political wing of the secessionist movement. "So this thing has come not from West Papua but from outside," Alua told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Sydney on the Papuan peace movement.

Indonesian officials have blamed the attack on the rebels, saying it suited the OPM to destroy the confidence of international investors in Indonesia's security environment.

On Sunday, Indonesian troops combing the jungle for the assailants exchanged shots with an armed band, killing one of its members. He appeared to be an indigenous Papuan.

But John Rumbiak, a respected human rights campaigner who has been active around the US-owned mine for years, was sceptical. "This is the tradition of the military in Indonesia as a whole but specifically in Papua, to orchestrate this kind of attack and scapegoat the OPM," said Rumbiak, supervisor of Papua's Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy.

Rumbiak, also speaking to Reuters in Sydney at the conference, said he believed the Indonesian military could have had three motives for the attack.

The first would have been to remind the US owners of the mine, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc, that they needed the protection of the battalion of Indonesian soldiers which guards it, and who have been accused of human rights violations.

The second motive would be to undermine the credibility of the political independence movement in Papua.

The third would be to convince Washington of the dangers posed by the secessionist rebels in order to speed up negotiations on resuming military ties with Jakarta, which were broken after Indonesia-backed militias ran riot in East Timor.

Alua said the incident provided the Indonesian military with an excuse to launch an operation against not just independence fighters in the OPM but also the Papuan political movement.

He said that if Papuans were involved, then they had likely been recruited into military-sponsored militia similar to the officially sanctioned gangs that killed hundreds in East Timor after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

Rumbiak said he had met the rebel leader named as their chief suspect by security officials, OPM fighter Kelly Kwalik, on August 25.

He said Kwalik had told him he was renouncing violence because he and other guerrilla leaders had come to realise they were also responsible for keeping "the cycle of conflict" going in Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.

"Kelly Kwalik said, well you know, this is the time, this is the time for moving towards a peaceful movement," Rumbiak said. "I absolutely doubt he is responsible."

Indonesians accused of murdering mine workers

Sydney Morning Herald - September 3, 2002

Matthew Moore and Greg Roberts in Timika and Townsville -- West Papuans yesterday accused Indonesian security forces of involvement in an ambush of mine workers that left three people dead and 11 injured.

On the streets near the giant American Freeport gold and copper mine, Papuan locals claimed security forces were involved in a "set-up".

This contradicted the military's consistent version that members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) were responsible for the ambush killings -- the first time Westerners have been victims of such attacks.

At the same time an official from the giant company has cast doubt on claims by the Indonesian military that it knew the identity of the armed men who attacked the convoy of workers from the mine in Papua on Saturday.

A Freeport spokesman, Geoff Hocking, said none of the survivors of the attack whom he had spoken to in Townsville Hospital, where they had been flown, had caught sight of the assailants.

Indonesia's provincial military commander, Major-General Mahidin Simbolon, has claimed the attackers were a faction of OPM led by Kelly Kwalik. However, the military has failed to produce evidence for this claim, or to identify the gunman it said its forces had shot dead in an encounter after the ambush.

Two Americans and an Indonesian Freeport employee were killed in the ambush.

Matthew Mayer, the Australian representative of the West Papua National Congress, said all OPM units are under clear instructions not to attack Westerners, and the OPM had even been desisting from engaging the Indonesian military for months.

"There is no possibility Kelly Kwalik or any of our people would have done this," Mr Mayer said. "This smacks of Kopassus [the Indonesian security force]. This is just Indonesian propaganda to turn the Americans against us and what we are fighting for."

Hospital sources confirmed that a team of officials from the United States embassy had questioned most of the survivors. Four women, three men and a girl, aged 6, were flown to Townsville for medical treatment, mostly for gunshot wounds. Six of the seven adults are Americans. Mr Hocking said yesterday all were doing well.

According to Freeport sources, a convoy of company vehicles left the Tembagapura mine shortly after lunch on Saturday for a recreational rest at Kuala Kencana, a Freeport town near the lowlands provincial centre of Timika.

The convoy was transporting teachers employed by International School Systems and their families. The company is under contract to Freeport. The ambush took place 10 kilometres south of Tembagapura.

Freeport management yesterday re-opened the 92-kilometre road to Tembagapura, which was closed after Saturday's shootings. With two platoons of heavily armed soldiers, a convoy of more than 40 vehicles with 140 people left the base at the Sheraton Hotel where the mine workers and their families had been stranded since the ambush. Police reinforcements have been brought to the area.

Papuan locals told the Herald yesterday that virtually all Papuans wanted independence from Indonesia, but they had no wish to hurt foreigners and would never stage such an attack.

In Sydney yesterday, John Rumbiak, a human rights campaigner who has been active around the mine for years, was also sceptical. "This is the tradition of the military in Indonesia as a whole but specifically in Papua, to orchestrate this kind of attack and scapegoat the OPM."

Residents blame troops guarding ExxonMobil for rights abuses

Agence France Presse - September 1, 2002

Only misery, not wealth, flows from the ExxonMobil gas pipeline that passes near this poor Aceh village, residents say.

They blame Indonesian security forces assigned to guard ExxonMobil's facilities for beatings, kidnappings, sexual assaults and other human rights abuses.

Abdullah, 56, a farmer, said his 25-year-old son, Muhammad, disappeared one month ago after making his regular morning journey to tap rubber trees.

Villagers later told Abdullah that soldiers who guard ExxonMobil had passed through the area on a search operation and taken his son away. Muhammad was already dead and buried, they told him.

"We finally dug him up and buried him in the Islamic way, in the family graveyard," Abdullah said. "His entire body had been sliced with something sharp. It's certain he was severely tortured." For the past four years Teungku Hasballah, 41, the head of a local Islamic boarding school, has been documenting cases like Muhammad's.

According to Hasballah (not his real name) at least 85 civilians from villages around ExxonMobil have been shot dead by Indonesian forces since 1999. He said most of them died during government searches after clashes with rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for an independent Aceh since 1976.

An estimated 10,000 people have died in the conflict since then, and an Acehnese rights body has said 845 civilians have been killed this year alone.

Apart from those killed near ExxonMobil since 1999, Hasballah's records show more than 250 others were beaten, tortured or sexually abused. Dozens of other civilians were arrested and remain missing, Hasballah said.

He blames all the abuses on Indonesian security forces guarding ExxonMobil facilities. The company denies involvment in any abuses.

"We are disturbed by any suggestion that ExxonMobil is in any way involved with alleged human rights abuses by security forces in Aceh and categorically deny the allegations," says ExxonMobil's human rights policy, posted on its website.

Alue Ngom is one of 160 communities around the North Aceh Arun gas field, Indonesia's largest.

Classified by the Jakarta government as a vital national institution, the facilities are heavily guarded by soldiers. Despite that, GAM rebels have been blamed for attacks on company personnel and facilities.

Residents in Alue Ngom said they fear the almost daily searches for GAM carried out by troops based in the ExxonMobil complex and surrounding villages.

The Aceh military spokesman, Major Zaenal Mutaqin, said Indonesian troops have been sent to Aceh to secure the people against GAM terror. At the same time Mutaqin admitted some soldiers have acted outside regulations and had been punished by, for example, being sent back to their home units.

Killings renew attention on Freeport's record

Laksamana.Net - September 1, 2002

The murder of two Americans and an Indonesian by unidentified gunmen on Saturday near PT Freeport Indonesia's huge copper and gold mine is certain to reinforce attention on the company's "environmental vandalism" and alleged complicity in human rights abuses.

Freeport's Grasberg mine, the world's biggest and most profitable mining operation, has long been criticized by locals, as well as international human rights and conservation groups.

Thousands of indigenous people from the impoverished Amungme and Komoro tribes have been evicted from the mining area since operations began in 1972, while Freeport is reportedly making a profit of $1 million a day.

The three people shot dead on Saturday were all Freeport employees. The two Americans were teachers at an international school run by the company, which is a subsidiary of New Orleans- based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

The killers were armed with automatic weapons, including a type used only by the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police, although authorities said the weapons could have been stolen.

Although it's not yet clear who carried out the murders, provincial military chief Mahidin Simbolon, who was allegedly involved in human rights abuses in East Timor, was quick to blame a faction of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) led by maverick separatist leader Kelly Kwalik.

The OPM has been waging a sporadic guerrilla war for independence ever since Papua was occupied by Indonesian forces in 1963. Foreigners have often been kidnapped, but never murdered by the rebels -- unless the OPM was responsible for Saturday's killings.

Rights activists say the separatists are justified in their struggle for independence because of decades of economic exploitation and environmental destruction by Freeport, as well as atrocities by the company's military guards.

Amungme leader Tom Beanal once said: "They [Freeport] take our land and our grandparents' land. They ruined the mountains. They ruined our environment by putting the waste in the river. We can't drink our water anymore."

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold chief executive Jim Bob Moffett, who reportedly earns more than $40 million a year, once dismissed such criticism by saying the environmental impact of the mine "is the equivalent of me pissing in the Arafura Sea".

When once showing a slide of a smiling Papuan youth wearing a bellhop uniform, Moffett said: "I guarantee you this sombitch is glad we found a copper and gold mine ... [before Freeport arrived] the young man was raising vegetables or doing whatever on the mountain with his parents."

In 1997, Freeport Indonesia executive director Paul Murphy told the Far Eastern Economic Review: "We're a big, easy target ... We're in a pristine part of the world with a project area extending from an equatorial glacier to a warm tropical sea, and we have primitive people walking around wearing penis gourds."

The Australian Council for Overseas Aid has suggested that Freeport turned a blind eye while the Indonesian military killed and tortured dozens of natives in and around the 5.75 million acre concession area between June 1994 and February 1995.

Rights groups say that although Freeport employees have not yet been proved to be directly involved in the extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention or torture, the military used the company's equipment, premises and vehicles to carry out human rights abuses and some Freeport personnel cooperated with the soldiers responsible for the violence.

Freeport has denied responsibility for the killings and condemned the military's actions, although it continues to provide troops with food, shelter and transportation.

Environmentalists say Freeport should be sued for dumping about 220,000 tons of tailings per day into the local river system. The waste has reportedly polluted 35,820 hectares onshore and 84,158 hectares offshore, causing health problems for locals and destroying forests.

Freeport insists the tailings aren't a health hazard. But the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in 1996 withdrew a $100 million political risk insurance policy, due to environmental problems linked with "acid mine drainage ... toxic metals ... and the mismanagement of solid and hazardous wastes at the site."

On May 4, 2000, four Freeport workers died in an accident at the banks of Lake Wanagon when a pile of waste rock collapsed on them following several days of heavy rainfall. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) later attempted to sue Freeport, claiming it had failed to disclose information about the accident.

Environmentalists said unsafe waste disposal practices, not rain, had caused the deadly landslide. Shortly after the incident, then environment minister Sonny Keraf considered suspending production at the Grasberg mine, but big business won through at the end of the day and there was no closure.

Apart from accusations of environmental damage, Freeport has also come under fire for exploitation, cultural insensitivity and failure to share enough of the benefits from the mine with local people. But the company stands firm that it enforces the highest environmental and safety standards and insists it has made comprehensive efforts to promote social improvements in Papua.

Freeport employs 18,000 people and is Indonesia's largest corporate taxpayer, contributing about $180 million a year to the government coffers, whereas the province receives only $30 million.

Natives, especially those affiliated to the pro-independence movement, have long demanded a greater share of the profits from the company. Under the regime of former autocrat Suharto, locals saw hardly any of the money generated by the natural resources on their traditional land. Since 1996, Freeport has contributed 1% of its annual profits to locals living in its contract of work area. It also provides funds for local education and development, and assistance for refugees.

A constant potential headache for Freeport is that the Indonesian military may launch a special security operation to crush the rebels. Reports say there already signs the military is planning such an operation.

Freeport would then be in the tough position of having to tread neutral ground in the mountainous terrain. It would be totally unfeasible for the company to support the rebels, but if it were to provide assistance to the military, it would undoubtedly again be accused by various groups of involvement in human rights violations or perhaps even complicity in war crimes.

Papuan activists point finger at Indonesian military

Reuters - September 2, 2002

Sydney -- Papuan rights and independence activists said on Monday they believed the Indonesian military could be to blame for a weekend attack that killed three people, including two Americans, near the world's biggest gold and copper mine.

The Papuans rejected accusations from Jakarta that the guerrilla Free Papua Organisation (OPM) was behind the ambush of a convoy carrying American teachers in the troubled province, where a low level guerrilla conflict has waged for decades.

"All of the people in West Papua are committed, in the town, in the jungle, on the OPM side. We'd already decided to work hard for a peaceful area in West Papua," said Agus Alua, second secretary general of the Papua Presidium Council -- the political wing of the secessionist movement.

"So this thing has come not from West Papua but from outside," Alua told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Sydney on the Papuan peace movement.

Indonesian officials have blamed the attack on the rebels, saying it suited the OPM to destroy the confidence of international investors in Indonesia's security environment.

On Sunday, Indonesian troops combing the jungle for the assailants exchanged shots with an armed band, killing one of its members. He appeared to be an indigenous Papuan.

But John Rumbiak, a respected human rights campaigner who has been active around the US-owned mine for years, was sceptical.

"This is the tradition of the military in Indonesia as a whole but specifically in Papua, to orchestrate this kind of attack and scapegoat the OPM," said Rumbiak, supervisor of Papua's Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy.

Rumbiak, also speaking to Reuters in Sydney at the conference, said he believed the Indonesian military could have had three motives for the attack.

The first would have been to remind the US owners of the mine, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc, that they needed the protection of the battalion of Indonesian soldiers which guards it, and who have been accused of human rights violations.

The second motive would be to undermine the credibility of the political independence movement in Papua.

The third would be to convince Washington of the dangers posed by the secessionist rebels in order to speed up negotiations on resuming military ties with Jakarta, which were broken after Indonesia-backed militias ran riot in East Timor.

Alua said the incident provided the Indonesian military with an excuse to launch an operation against not just independence fighters in the OPM but also the Papuan political movement.

He said that if Papuans were involved, then they had likely been recruited into military-sponsored militia similar to the officially sanctioned gangs that killed hundreds in East Timor after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

Rumbiak said he had met the rebel leader named as their chief suspect by security officials, OPM fighter Kelly Kwalik, on August 25.

He said Kwalik had told him he was renouncing violence because he and other guerrilla leaders had come to realise they were also responsible for keeping "the cycle of conflict" going in Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya.

"Kelly Kwalik said, well you know, this is the time, this is the time for moving towards a peaceful movement," Rumbiak said. "I absolutely doubt he is responsible."

Separatists blamed for deadly ambush

Radio Austrlia - September 2, 2002

[Violence has escalated to Australia's north, in the Indonesian province of Papua, formerly known as Irian Jaya. Over the weekend two American teachers and one Indonesian were shot dead and more than ten others were injured, in an ambush near the giant Freeport gold and copper mine. While it is unclear whether the attack by the unidentified group is connected with the separtist movement in the province, Indonesian officers have already begun reprisals against the rebels, killing one man. But a Papuan human rights advocate, visiting Australia, says he does NOT believe the separatists are responsible.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Peta Donald

Speakers: Stan Harscha, US Embassy in Indonesia; John Rumbiak, leader of Papua's leading human rights group ELSHAM.

Donald: On Saturday afternoon two buses carrying mainly American school teachers and their families came under attack on a mountain road near Timika, the town servicing the world's largest gold and copper mine. Stan Harscha is from the US Embassy in Indonesia.

Stan Harscha: Of the three persons that were killed, two of them were international school teachers from the United States and one of them was an Indonesian school teacher but there were eleven injured, of whom, seven have been medevaced.

Peta Donald: The response from the Indonesian authorities was swift. Sixty police and soldiers hunting for those responsible, one man was killed and another wounded.

No one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack, but the local Police Chief has laid the blame squarely at the feet of the Free Papua Movement, OPM, a poorly organised group that's been resisting Indonesian control in the region since the 1960s.

That explanation doesn't sound right to John Rumbiak, from the Papuan human rights group, ELSHAM. He's in Sydney for a meeting about conflict resolution, but for the past three weeks has been talking with key guerrilla leaders in the area of the mine.

John Rumbiak: Most of the guerrilla leaders throughout the entire province are now in a position of reforming peaceful movement for their political demand, so I don't believe that this attack on Freeport employees was done by Kelly Kwalik and his group. I do believe that there were Papuans involving in this. You can easily pay-off anyone if you need money and it's not something that it is rare.

Peta Donald: John Rumbiak believes sections of the Indonesian military were behind Saturday's attack, a claim denied by the military and the police. PT Freeport Indonesia has issued a statement, saying the killers were unidentified assailants, now being pursued by Indonesian security officials. It says it has assurances that the mine facilities and surrounding communities are secure.

Indonesia troops search jungle for Papua killers

Reuters - September 2, 2002

Achmad Sukarsono and Jerry Norton, Jakarta -- Indonesian troops fanned out through thick jungle in Papua province on Monday in search of an armed band that killed three people in the bloodiest clash involving foreigners since a long-simmering rebellion began.

The Saturday attack, near the world's biggest gold and copper mine in Indonesia's rugged easternmost province, was more bad news for a nation struggling to convince investors and aid donors it is moving toward stability and putting a lid on violence.

"We are going to hunt them although you know it's not easy here. It's jungles and ravines and mountains ... To find them is like to find a small needle in a soccer field," Papua regional military chief Major General Mahidin Simbolon said.

Speaking by telephone from the military operations area, he blamed the Saturday ambush on separatist rebels.

Papua province, formerly Irian Jaya, borders independent Papua New Guinea on an island off the north coast of Australia.

"They're indeed separatists. They're OPM. But we don't know which faction yet," he said, referring to the Free Papua Movement that has fought a low-level rebellion against Jakarta's rule for decades.

The rebellion is sparked by many causes. Indigenous Papuans differ ethnically from most other Indonesians and are generally Christian or animist while the country as a whole is Muslim. Many also object to the heavy proportion of revenue from the resource-rich province that flows to Jakarta.

Revenue source

One symbol of that economic complaint is the mine operated by a subsidiary of US-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc.

On Saturday, a gang of what the military said was 15 armed gunmen ambushed a convoy of vehicles carrying mostly American teachers and their families from an international school that serves mining operation staff.

In a hunt for the attackers on Sunday troops exchanged shots with an armed band, killing one of its members -- who appeared to be an indigenous Papuan -- and suffering one wounded themselves. Simbolon said the group was the one responsible for the ambush. "We shot one and we are looking for the other 14," he said.

Asked whether the group was linked to the separatist Papua Praesidium Council, which seeks independence through peaceful means, Simbolon said: "They have the same idealism. Both of them want to separate this area from Indonesia. One is a military wing. The other is a political one. Whether they have some cooperation in this incident, I won't make any conclusion. You figure it out yourself."

Spent ammo

Simbolon said over the weekend that soldiers found spent cartridges at the ambush site from weapons including M-16 rifles and guns that were standard issue for Indonesian military in the 1970s. He strongly denied the military or police had had anything to do with the fatal attacks.

The gunmen in the Saturday ambush opened fire about two km from Tembagapura, a high-altitude town 3,300 km east of Jakarta which serves Freeport operations.

In addition to the three killed, Freeport said eight foreigners and two Indonesians were in the attack. The foreigners were school teachers at an international school in Tembagapura and their families. All were evacuated for medical treatment.

One wounded survivor, an Indonesian driver named Mastur, said the attack came fast. "I didn't see what happened. It occurred so quickly," he told Reuters in the Jakarta hospital to which he was evacuated on Sunday for treatment for a bullet wound. He said he heard firing but did not see who did the shooting.

The only other major incident involving foreigners in recent years in Papua occurred in 1996 when OPM guerrillas kidnapped 23 people including six Europeans in two separate incidents. A total of four Indonesian hostages were killed and the rest freed.

In a weekend statement, Freeport said it "deplored" the ambush of the convoy but its operations had not been affected.

Activists have criticised Freeport over its environmental record and impact on the local community in Papua. Freeport began operations in 1968 and defends its record, saying it makes an important contribution to the country and has spent millions of dollars in developing the local area.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa insisted on Sunday that the attack would not undermine the government's pledge to make the country safe for investment.

"It [the ambush] may have been deliberately committed to create a loss of confidence in Indonesia's security environment. The message is that we will not allow these rogue elements to disrupt the investment climate in Indonesia," he said.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1963. In 1969, a UN- run plebiscite held among local leaders resulted in a vote to join Indonesia. The vote has been widely criticised as unfair.

Government & politics

Factions give Akbar two options: Quit or be fired

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2002

Jakarta -- Two days after House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung was convicted of graft, his future has been narrowed down to two choices: resign or have legislators dismiss him through an honorary council.

Roy B. B. Janis, the chairman of the House's biggest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said that dragging Akbar before the honorary council may be inevitable.

"It was the result of the People's Consultative Assembly [MPR]'s Annual Session to establish the honorary council for legislators who have violated the House's code of ethics," Roy told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

These codes cover the most serious cases of corruption, and on this Akbar was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for embezzling Rp 40 billion (about US$4.5 million) in state funds. Akbar has denied any wrongdoing and plans to appeal the verdict.

Yet motions to unseat the House speaker have started. Roy said his faction would support any moves to set up the council and try Akbar. Chairman of the Reforms faction Ahmad Farhan Hamid said his faction would give Akbar one week to voluntarily resign.

"If the week passes, we'll call for a consultation meeting to suggest setting up the honorary council," he said.

The House's internal rules call for an honorary council to discipline its members. The council is a temporary body, including the House speaker and deputy speakers as well as representatives of each of its 10 factions.

It may dismiss a House member for offenses outlined in the internal rules, however it needs to seek the President's approval, according to Article 60 in the ruling.

Legislators began calling for Akbar's dismissal when he was first named a suspect in the graft case last January.

"I don't see anything wrong with the legislators' call for Akbar to resign, since they were the ones that elected the House speaker," said Vice President Hamzah Haz, who chairs the House's third largest party, the United Development Party (PPP).

The National Awakening Party (PKB) faction, which is a staunch critic of Akbar, said it would leave any decision about Akbar to the House's consultation meeting.

PKB Faction chairman Rodjil Ghufron said his faction had asked for the meeting, but did not say when it should be held.

Moves against Akbar would create uncertainty in the House, and that would undermine the country's hard won political stability.

Lawmakers have often come under fire for their extensive politicking. Last year these resulted in the ouster of then president Abdurrahman Wahid at the price of a weak rupiah, high inflation, low investments and piles of unfinished bills waiting to be passed into law.

Analysts said that removing Akbar may not come as easy as it sounds. Akbar chairs the Golkar Party, which is the House's second largest faction.

An attempt last July to launch a political investigation against Akbar ended in disarray when all but a few supported the move during a House's plenary session. PDI Perjuangan and most other factions voted down the probe even though they were among the first to raise the idea.

Analysts agreed that Golkar continues to hold sway in politics, despite its fall from grace with the undoing of their patron, former president Soeharto, in 1998.

However, Golkar might think Akbar is not worth the fight, if his position impinges on its chances to win the 2004 election, he added.

So far Golkar's executives and regional chapters have expressed support behind their embattled chairman. Golkar held a meeting on Friday night to decide their next move.

Small parties request scrapping of electoral threshold

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2002

Jakarta -- Fifteen political parties, each of which won less than 2 percent of the vote in the 1999 general election, are requesting that the application of the electoral threshold be canceled to allow them to contest the 2004 general election.

"The application of the electoral threshold is unfair and will amount to the suppression of democracy," chairman of the Indonesian Islamic Association Party (PSII), Rahardjo Tjakraningrat, said here as quoted by Antara on Tuesday.

The 15 parties agreed on August 15 to fight for the postponement of the application of the electoral threshold, which states that a party needed to have won 2 percent in the last election to contest the next one.

He said the request that the stipulation be dropped from the bill on elections was based on a sense of justice and the fact that the 15 political parties combined won eight million votes, or 7.8 percent, in the 1999 general election.

Among the 15 political parties are the Justice Party (PK), PSII, Justice and Unity Party (PKP), Believers Nahdlatul Party (PNU), Believers Awakening Party (PKU), Love-the-Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), "Front Marhaen" Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI Front Marhaen), "Massa Marhaen" PNI, the Indonesian Independence Fighters Association Party (IPKI), People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) and Unity-in-Diversity Party (PBI).

Rahardjo pointed out that the request would be submitted to the House of Representatives, which is deliberating the bill on political parties and the bill on general elections.

The small political parties also intend to lobby the country's six largest parties -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the Golkar Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate Party (PAN), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Crescent Star Party (PBB) -- to get backing for their request.

According to Rahardjo, the 15 political parties will organize demonstrations in front of the House if it fails to respond to their request. "Demonstrations will be the last resort," he said.

Further protests against party expulsion mechanism

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2002

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta -- Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) joined on Tuesday opposition against the plan to revive political parties' power to expel dissenting members from legislative bodies, arguing the move would pave the way for authoritarianism by the parties.

The bill on political parties, being deliberated at the House of Representatives, stipulates that legislators are dismissed from the legislative body on which they serve should they be fired by their party for a perceived offense.

The government is also drafting a new bill on the composition of the House and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), which will require the House to form a disciplinary committee to supervise the performance and conduct of legislators.

NGO activists rejected the move to authorize parties to recall their representatives from the House, saying it would harm the country's young democracy and curb the political rights of individuals.

"Giving more power to parties could prompt an abuse of power," Director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Pusdeham) Kacung Maridjan told a hearing with the House special committee debating the bill on political parties.

He asserted that the dismissal of legislators from the House should involve their regional constituents. The constituents should be allowed to decide whether or not it is necessary to dismiss their representatives from legislative bodies through voting, he added.

"The recall mechanism, as regulated in Article 11, could be understood if our elections adopted a purely proportional representation system. But because the elections will use a combination of proportional and district systems, the removal of House members using such a mechanism is incorrect," Kacung said.

Indonesian Parliament Watch (Parwi) shared the view, saying parties should not be empowered to unseat their legislators merely by removing them from the political group. However, it underscored that the parties should require approval of the House to recall their non-conforming representatives there.

Similarly, political analysts have warned that authorizing parties to dismiss their members in legislative bodies would be tantamount to the repressive move adopted by Soeharto's authoritarian regime in the past.

They said that there should be no mechanism to fire legislators unless they have been found guilty of committing a criminal offense.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Embezzle charge laid against Suharto's half-sibling

Straits Times - September 6, 2002

Jakarta -- Indonesian prosecutors yesterday indicted the half- brother of former president Suharto for embezzling state reforestation funds.

They charged Probosutejo, 72, with misusing 100.93 billion rupiah worth of funds designated by the Forestry Ministry for two of his companies in 1993, chief prosecutor I Ketut Murtika said.

As director of PT Menara Hutan Buana and PT Wonogung Jinawi, Probosutejo had 'enriched himself and others' by not fulfilling the deals made by his companies with the ministry, Mr Ketut told the Central Jakarta District Court.

In their written indictments, prosecutors said Probosutejo's companies had agreed to prepare 250,000 ha of land to be used for logging and for building a pulp company in South Kalimantan.

They said the nine-year-long project was never fully completed and Probosutejo had not returned 38.81 billion rupiah in excess funds to the state. He had also sold the shares of PT Wonogung Jinawi to two firms last February after buying 40.47 billion rupiah worth of shares owned by a state forestry company, they said.

Probosutejo said he understood the charges and asked to present his defence next week. He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Akbar Tanjung sentenced to three years' jail

Radio Australia - September 5, 2002

[Leading law-makers in Indonesia are calling for the suspension of Akbar Tanjung as parliamentary speaker following his conviction for corruption. A Jakarta court has sentenced Mr Tanjung to three years' jail, for misusing over US four-million dollars in state funds, meant for the poor. Indonesians have been following the case closely, seeing it as indicative of the government's resolve in implementing reform.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Sen Lam

Speakers: August Parengkuan, President of the Indonesian television station, TV Tujuh

Parengkuan: "Yes that is a good sign for the rule of law, but what people are talking about now is that there'll be an internal fight in Golkar because there are groups who really want to take over Akbar Tanjung's position."

Lam: Is this a low point for Golkar which after all used to be the ruling party in Indonesia?

Parengkuan: "Since they went through the court ... of course the opponents will use this to fight the Golkar, but I believe that Golkar will be still the party with all the apparatus. They will be the party in the sense of the party administration and the apparatus and since Akbar Tanjung has been convicted in the court, doesn't mean that that will weaken Golkar because they will still have a strong hold."

"But that also very much depends on the internal fighting because we have tradition of the party being divided. If they can overcome this problem internally, then I think Golkar will still be the party to be counted -- by other parties. He still has support within Golkar especially from the Indonesian Muslim Students Association -- that is very much important that Akbar Tanjung will say something -- who he will support among the people who is fighting to try and get his seat."

"Once he decides or he mentions a name then that name, then I believe they will have power -- enough to have support -- enough to take over the seat as the party president."

Lam: Akbar Tanjung of course has said that he will appeal to a higher court and indeed to the Supreme Court of necessary -- but already there have been calls in Indonesia's parliament for him to resign as speaker -- is he likely to do that?

Parengkuan: "I don't think he will do that. Because if he does that -- first he would have to face his supporters and he's not meant to disappoint them, and secondly then he will be unsure about his appeal if he is no longer the Golkar's President and especially if he has no longer become the Speaker of the House."

Lam: You think that might diminsh his chances of an appeal?

Parengkuan: "Yes."

Lam: Why is that?

Parengkuan: "Because if he resigned then he will be a "nobody"."

Lam: So you think the judiciary could still be influenced by the Opposition in standing in Indonesian politics?

Parengkuan: "Yes ... somewhere yes. Especially if he is still within the party then they can still show their power."

Payback time as disgraced Akbar is pressured to go

Straits Times - September 6, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- A conviction on corruption charges and a three-year jail sentence have eroded Indonesian parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung's chances of contesting the 2004 presidential elections.

His political career of 30 years has been irreparably tainted even if a higher court later accepts an appeal and overturns the guilty verdict delivered against him on Wednesday.

Mr Akbar, who also heads the Golkar party, was found guilty of misusing 40 billion rupiah of the state's money meant to aid the poor in 1999. He has not been arrested, however, pending a decision on his appeal, which could take months.

"He has been involved in massive public deception and it is hard to accept any justification for that," said political analyst Affan Gaffar. "To the public, he is a corruptor."

A Golkar official told The Straits Times: "He had reached the pinnacle of his career, it's downhill from now." Mr Akbar is now a liability to the institutions he heads, analysts say, which is why both Parliament and Golkar are eager to unseat him.

His long-time political opponents, who have been feeling betrayed by him in the past four years, were also taking advantage of the moment to put a brake on his career.

These include the supporters of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, who resented Mr Akbar's role in the impeachment of their leader last year, and the members of Golkar's Eastern Indonesian caucus.

The latter have blamed Mr Akbar for former president Habibie's failure to enter the 1999 presidential race.

A legislator close to Mr Abdurrahman told The Straits Times: "Mr Akbar is known for his notorious political manoeuvres. The wheel has turned now." Several parliamentarians have called on him to resign from the speaker's post.

Among them is Parliament Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar, who said that a special council might well be established to decide on Mr Akbar's fate.

Within Golkar, top officials are lobbying the leaders of the regional party chapters, whose votes are crucial for leadership changes, to call for a national congress to replace Mr Akbar.

Said one Golkar official: "As a party with the unfortunate historical link to the previous regime of president Suharto, it will cost Golkar dearly not to let him go." Party officials are also said to be using negative media reports with which to quietly press Mr Akbar into resigning to avoid further public disgrace.

Those mentioned as potential replacements include Social Welfare Minister Jusuf Kalla, former justice minister Muladi and Golkar executives Agung Laksono and Fahmi Idris.

Sources said President Megawati Sukarnoputri's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), might also be glad to see Mr Akbar go.

"Golkar is PDI-P's only major nationalist ally. If Golkar is dragged down by Akbar's case, the PDI-P would have to contest the Islamic coalition in Parliament by itself. It would be Islam against secular and Ms Megawati's position may be in trouble," they said.

Megawati, Hamzah, Amien morally responsible for scam: lawyer

Jakarta Post - September 3, 2002

Jakarta -- President Megawati Soekarnoputri, Vice President Hamzah Haz and some other senior state officials are morally responsible for the agribusiness scam involving PT Qurnia Subur Alam Raya (QSAR), lawyer Juniver Girsang said here on Monday.

"Visits to the company's operation [in Sukabumi, West Java province] by senior state officials were instrumental in promoting QSAR and encouraging people to become investors in the enterprise," Juniver Girsang told Antara.

Girsang, a lawyer with the Gusti Randa and associates firm, is part of a team that includes Gusti Randa, Coki Sinambela, Pilipus Tarigan and Erri Tjakradirana, which is representing 41 PT QSAR investors outside the Investors Communication Forum (FKI). The 41 investors are demanding that their 4.1 billion rupiah (US$456,000) be returned.

In addition to President Megawati and Vice President Hamzah, Girsang also named People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Amien Rais and Nina Akbar Tandjung, wife of the DPR speaker, as public figures who are also morally responsible.

"As such, the government should do its utmost to help solve the scam by QSAR president director Ramli Araby and the board of directors, who are now detained by the police in Sukabumi," the lawyer said.

Asked about Vice President Hamzah Haz's suggestion that the government might take over QSAR, Girsang said that he was waiting for concrete steps to be taken.

Girsang argued that the dignitaries' visits to the agribusiness operation had given the public the impression that PT QSAR was a viable venture, thus luring many more investors. "In reality, the company's board of directors was involved in deceit and embezzlement," he said.

The team of lawyers also urged the police to carry out a transparent investigation and to intensively question the suspects, as well as to keep the investors informed about the progress of the investigation.

Corrupt elites hijack decentralisation programme

Radio Australia - September 2, 2002

[Anti-corruption campaigners in Indonesia have charged that new districts and townships are being created out of existing provinces, as the nation's decentralisation programme is hijacked by corrupt local elites. Last year alone, 22 new cities or districts were approved by the Indonesian parliament, allowing local leaders to get influential positions and sometimes exploit local resources.]

Transcript:

Abidin: Local government now controls quite large sum of money that they can manage by themselves for pay salaries and programs and when it comes to administration a lot of government functions are now performed by local governments. So clearly it's also going to the local parliaments and they now they manage its resources. Since Indonesia has a lot of ethnics and groups in the regions they feel if they're not well represented in one area then the tendency is for them to create their own areas.

Lam: But some observers say that the whole situation is getting out of hand, that sometimes the decentralisation and the carving up of territories is being done for personal gain by the local elite?

Abidin: I might agree with that assessment if there is no clear reason for it. If it is for the local community empowerment then it might be acceptable. But particularly for the districts moves of the new ones are outside of Java, these are large, large, huge areas. It may have a small amount of popuation but then when government services are required you need to go to these places and it might not be sufficiently served by previous arrangements. So new areas have to be created for that. Local elites might get their first chance of trying to run these places. In that time they may be able to gain some local legitimacy by doling out pork barrels.

Lam: And this happens a lot I understand in resource rich area where there are royalties to be had from the natural resources?

Abidin: Some of the new areas yes, in Riau, in East Kalimantan and in Papua where there are a lot of natural resources and new areas, new districts are created.

Lam: And is this being done with the consent of the central government in Jakarta?

Abidin: Of course when you have new provinces or new districts you have to have that through a national law and it has to be passed by the National parliament. Most of this are of the initiative of the DPR so it's not coming from the government.

Lam: Four new provinces were created over the last four years I understand and 22 new cities or districts were also approved by parliament with another I think 25 pending and likely to be approved this year. Are those figures alarming?

Abidin: It is costly, yes, it is costly not only in the sense of administrative costs but also in the political costs. Each area will have its own local parliament.

Lam: So each district has its own parliament?

Abidin: Yes, each district has its own parliament.

Lam: Do you agree that it's vulnerable to abuse?

Abidin: Especially for local politics yes.

Lam: And so does anything need to be done about this given the fact that the latest report by Transparency International says Indonesia's greatest downfall is corruption?

Abidin: Yes indeed, it is very susceptible to that. If you have local parliament that is very difficult to be accountable to the people, the way to do that is to have direct elections and to shorten the term of office. Currently each legislator serves for five years, they are elected through a proportional system where people cast their ballots on to their party, it's not to the person. There is a feeling that central governments are allowing this abuse to happen because then they have the reason to retract decentralisation and return to the centralistic system as before.

Media/press freedom

Moves to curtail press freedom

Radio Australia - September 3, 2002

[In Indonesia, freedom of the press is under the spotlight with controversial plans by the government to prevent the rebroadcast of certain foreign programs on local media. Opponents say its a crude attempt at censorship. If the legislation gets through parliament later this month, it'll directly impact on news services from the BBC, Voice of America and Radio Australia.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Claudette Werden

Speakers: Abdullah Alamudi Lecturer, Dr Soetomo Press Institute; Widyatyana Merati, Chair of Government Interdepartment Formulating Committee; Jean Gabriel Manguy, head of Radio Australia.

Werden: According to Abdullah Alamudi, Senior lecturer at the Dr Soetomo Press Institute in Jakarta, the new broadcasting bill is a case of deja vu with Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri following in the footsteps of her late father.

Alamudi: I feel very, very, very bad, I feel terrible because this decision if it is passed, if the bill is passed as it is, it turns back the clock some 40 years back, to 1964 when President Sukarno banned Indonesians from listening to radio broadcasts from outside Indonesia during that time, during the height of confrontation with Malaysia.

Werden: The controversial broadcasting bill to be tabled in parliament on September 29, limits the replay of regular foreign programs on local television and radio with the exception of certain sports and some international events.

For Radio Australia, the international arm of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the direct impact of the new law would mean the cancellation of relay broadcasts to 24 local affiliates in Indonesia.

The Indonesian government says the move is designed to prevent local media outlets from being manipulated by foreign media. Chair of the committee tasked with drafting the law, Professor Widyatyana Merati

Widyatyana: Not just only the news, we also have the other programs like MTV, we don't have our broadcaster, to broadcast the foreign continuously like that.

Werden: So how will it effect the broadcasting of say for example the ABC.

Widyatyana: You can still have your listener, because your radio we can catch you in Indonesia very clearly, you don't have to worry about your going to lose your listener in my opinion your broadcasting emission in Indonesia is very clear, you don't have to use our broadcaster to relay your emission.

Werden: Head of the ABC's Radio Australia Jean Gabriel Manguy.

Manguy : Well its a bit hard to believe, what is showing in audience surveys we have access to is that the majority of Indonesians still get their information, entertainment and so on through local outlets and the majority of programming is produced locally, obviously there is some coming from outside, I dont think it can be considered a threat.

Werden: Critics point out the proposed new media laws contravene the country's exisiting Press Laws which states there should be no censorship, closing down or banning of broadcasts from the national press. And they argue the government's attempt to curb press freedom will lead to an unhealthy reliance on the government as the official source of information

Alamudi: There's definitely a danger because that means we only listen to, our window or gate for information is closed down, how can I know whats happening in Afghanistan, Middle East or in Australia, if I can not listen to your broadcast, I cannot listen to the BBC, the ABC, I cannot listen to Voice of America, I cannot watch CNN.

Werden: Why do you think the government has chosen to go down this path.

Alamudi: The government is afraid of freedom of the press because ever since Megawati came into power, ever since the fall of Suharto, immediately the press was given its freedom back and ever since then, criticism everyday, statements by experts of the performance of the government, non-performance of the government and criticism of the economy its all there and the government is not happy with that.

Werden: But this law only bans the replay of foreign media so there is nothing to prevent you from continuing to report those kind of things internally is there?

Now listen tell me which media here in Indonesia that publish or broadcast reports on illegal logging, your tv, and the BBC and CNN carry this kind of programs so Indonesians know who is doing what, which local organisations publish reports in detail about the smuggling of sand to be exported to Singapore and damaging our coral.

Werden: Local media is also concerned about another key component of the law which would allow the governnent to appoint civil servants to each media outlet to supervise material being broadcast -- it is they say another form of censorship.

Alamudi: You know these kind of secret service supervisors going back to the communist system of Soviet Union where you have this political commisar in every organisation in every walk of life.

Relays of foreign broadcast programs to be banned

Jakarta Post - September 3, 2002

Jakarta -- Communications and information minister Syamsul Muarif said here Monday that the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) had agreed to ban by law local broadcasting companies from relaying the programs of foreign stations.

Syamsul, as quoted by Antara, said the agreement was reached during the final deliberations in the House on the draft law on broadcasting. The ban was to prevent foreign parties from manipulating the local media into airing programs serving the former's interest, he said.

Syamsul said local television and radio stations would still be permitted, however, to relay certain foreign programs.

"Occasional programs such as sports and other international events can be relayed. The restriction applies to regularly broadcast programs," he said, adding that routine programs, including news, would not be allowed to be broadcast on local television and radio stations.

A number of local television and radio stations in Indonesia currently regularly rebroadcast programs from foreign stations.

Indosiar television station once a week rebroadcasts news from the US-based Voice of America, Jakarta radio station Elshinta that of the London-based BBC, while Radio 68H collaborates with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

New broadcast bill kills press freedom

Jakarta Post - September 2, 2002

Abdullah Alamudi, Jakarta -- Indonesia's newly won press freedom is now in limbo as the broadcast bill -- nearly at its final reading at the House of Representatives -- will prevent local radio and TV stations from relaying foreign-made news, thus curbing the public's right to information.

The provision of the bill turns the clock back nearly 40 years to 1964 when President Sukarno, during the height of Indonesia's confrontation with Malaysia, banned the public from listening to foreign broadcasts. A member of the Indonesian Broadcast Society (MPI) describes the bill as "more fascist than the occupying Japanese military's regulations".

Article 27 (2) of the bill states: "The relay of broadcasts which are used as permanent programs, both of domestic origin as well as from abroad, are limited".

An explanatory note of the article says: "What is meant by limited in article 27 (2) is that domestic broadcasting institutions may relay programs from foreign countries except news, music programs whose performances are improper and sports programs that display sadism."

If the bill is passed with the provisions, it clearly will violate article XIX of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, which guarantees the right of every human being to seek for, to receive and to convey information.

It also contradicts Articles 4 and 5 of the Press Law No. 40/1999, since banning private television stations and radio stations from broadcasting news from foreign stations amounts to censorship.

Article 4 of the Press Law states that there should be no censorship, closing down or banning of broadcasts from the national press.

Article 5 (1) stipulates: "The national press is obliged to report news and opinions respecting religious norms and the public's sense of moral values and the presumption of innocence." Since Article 27 of the broadcast bill violates Article XIX of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, it is only fair for all democracy-loving nations of the world to exert some kind of pressure on the Indonesian government to immediately back off from such repressive laws.

Indonesian donor countries in particular should review their positions as far as providing economic and military assistance to the government if the bill is passed.

If the Indonesian media -- both print and electronic -- fail to unite now, and right now, and show their solidarity against the provision of Article 27 of the bill, they will soon be witnessing the process of the large scale deception of the people.

In addition, the Indonesian press will never become the fourth estate in this country because they will be a party to the deception process.

Point 2 of Article 27 of the bill was added at the Working Committee (Panja) meeting on August 24, amending the result of the Panja the day before.

Panja comprises House members, representatives of the government, radio and television station associations, broadcasting societies and NGO's.

At the August 23, Panja meeting, a certain participant accused some local radio stations of becoming "the kiosks" of foreign broadcasting organizations. He did not name the stations but a number of private local radio stations relay or rebroadcast news and music programs from abroad through their networks across the nation.

They mostly rebroadcast news from the British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC), The Voice of America (VOA), and ABC/Radio Australia. The same three stations were among the foreign broadcasting institutions that Indonesians were banned from listening to under Sukarno, President Megawati's father.

Apart from state-owned radio stations RRI there are now more than 1,100 privately-owned radio stations in the country, a jump from 740 in 1997 at the end of Soeharto's 32-year rule. Between then and now the number of privately-owned television stations also increased to 10 from five, besides state-owned TVRI. Privately- owned provincial TV stations, which were undreamed of during the Soeharto era, now total 15 and the numbers are increasing following the enactment of regional autonomy.

The bill is now in the hands of the formulating team (Timus) who will present their work to the special committee (Pansus) before parliament puts its final stamp on it during a plenary session on September 29.

The existing formal organizational and regulatory structure of the Indonesian bureaucracy has already make it hard enough for the media to report and broadcast the news without the presence of Article 27.

There are at least 35 articles in the Penal Code, including draconian articles 154, 155, 156 and 157 that can be used against the media and journalists. The last four articles, a.k.a. hartzaai-artikelen (spreading hatred), were introduced by the Dutch colonialists in 1915 to stop the press from promoting any ideas of a free and independent Indonesia. The articles, however, were found nowhere in the Dutch Penal Code despite the fact that the Indonesian Penal Code was copied from the Dutch.

The Press Council says other laws they consider hamper press freedom in Indonesian, include the laws on companies, the protection of consumers, antimonopoly, bankruptcy, archives, copyright and the forthcoming state emergency law and the law on state secrets.

[Abdullah Alamudi is an instructor at the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute.]

Regional/communal conflicts

Four killed in blast at Ambon stadium

Straits Times - September 7, 2002

Jakarta -- Four people, including three teenage girl athletes, died in a powerful explosion at a sports stadium in Indonesia's strife-torn Ambon city, police said yesterday.

A 20-year-old woman injured in the blast on Thursday died in hospital overnight, police spokesman Adjunct Senior Commissioner Max Alfons said from Ambon. The other three victims were girls aged between 12 and 17. Eight other people were also wounded in the explosion at the Merdeka Stadium.

The victims were athletes undergoing training to prepare for the national student games, Alfons said. Police believe the explosion was caused by a home-made bomb.

The Maluku islands, with Ambon the main city, have seen fighting between Muslims and Christians which has left more than 5,000 dead since 1999.

Three die in bomb explosion in Ambon

Jakarta Post - September 6, 2002

Jakarta (Agencies) -- A powerful exploded at a stand in Merdeka Stadium in Ambon on Thursday, killing three junior high-school students and injuring 11 others, some seriously.

Antara identified two of the dead as Carla P, 15, from State Junior High School (SMPN) 4 and Yoke Siahaya from SMPN 6. Some of the injured are being treated at the GPM Hospital.

The blast occurred at 5:40pm when hundreds of people were exercising at the stadium. It left a gaping hole at the scene.

Ambon, some 2,300 km east of Jakarta, is the main city in the Maluku islands, where a wave of clashes between Muslims and Christians has claimed more than 5,000 lives since early 1999.

Both sides signed a peace deal in February but tension remains high and there has been sporadic violence. A state of civil emergency -- one level down from martial law -- is still in place in the once scenic area.

However, the situation in Ambon remained relatively peaceful with people continuing to conduct their daily activities unperturbed.

Local & community issues

Another dam fiasco

Laksamana.Net - September 7, 2002

The move by some 4,000 Indonesian villagers to sue the Japanese government and its aid agencies over losses caused by the Kota Panjang dam is a sad repeat of earlier fiascos that, when the dam was first envisaged, were not supposed to happen.

When the dam project got under way in 1989, Japanese officials made much noise about making sure there would be no return to the ways of the scandal-ridden Kedung Ombo dam project in Central Java.

Kedung Ombo, near Boyolali in Central Java, was a hot issue through the '80s and remains something of a cause even today, with many residents continuing to claim that they never received proper compensation for their land, despite court cases that found in their favor.

Constrained by the overwhelming power of the Suharto regime, protesting villagers at Kedung Ombo found themselves branded as former communists, but still maintained a struggle for their rights backed by students and the late Father Mangun Widjaya.

At Koto Panjang, villagers allege that while 30 billion yen went to Japanese contractors and the Suharto family, residents were deprived of their homes and means of making a living, and a huge amount of debt has been placed on the shoulders of Indonesian people.

Sources close to the Japanese government say Tokyo is alarmed by the pressure from the villagers and is telling Jakarta to fix the problem. "The plan was fine, but the implementation went wrong," says one Japanese official in Jakarta."It appears to us that a lot of money was filtered off at local government level, just as at Kedung Ombo.

The 3,861 villagers are demanding $165 million in compensation for losses from Tokyo Electric Power Services, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as well as the Japanese government."Local residents have not received adequate compensation," said Fumio Asano, a Japanese lawyer representing the group, Agence France-Presse reported.

Up to 23,000 people were forcibly resettled or lost part of their land during the dam construction process and when waters backed up behind it.

Construction of the 31.2 billion yen hydropower dam located in central Sumatra was completed in 1997, led by the government-run JBIC. Villagers say that land they were given in exchange for their flooded land was not suitable for farming and compensation levels for their rubber and palm oil trees were ridiculously low.

Indonesian lawyers said similar suits would be mounted against the Indonesian government.

The villagers are demanding five million yen ($42,430) each in compensation. Another 1,000 people are expected to join the class action suit.

Japanese supporters, including scholars and citizens' movement activists, say they believe the case presents the opportunity to put a strong spotlight on the use of Japan's official aid.

Human rights/law

YLBHI under fire as suspect lawyers take charge

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2002

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta -- Criticism of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (YLBHI) has mounted following the taking control of the once respected non-governmental organization by senior lawyers linked to the military and graft suspects.

Lawyers and human rights campaigners expressed doubt on Wednesday that the rift-ridden YLBHI would remain independent in its struggle for justice and democracy under the leadership of Adnan Buyung Nasution, who once served as a lawyer for military officers charged with rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

"With some senior lawyers closely linked to the military and corrupters occupying posts in the organization, the YLBHI's independence is doubtful. It will be hard for it to be impartial as its executives will suffer from conflicts of interest," Hendardi, director of the Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Buyung, a YLBHI co-founder, announced on Wednesday that he had been named last week as the chairman of the organization's powerful board of trustees, even though he had been suspended as a member in 2000 for defending military officers involved in the East Timor mayhem.

His appointment followed the resignation of his inactive predecessor Ali Sadikin, a former Jakarta governor, for health reasons.

The new members of the board of trustees include Muhammad Assegaf, who is one of the lawyers for former president Soeharto's family, many members of which currently find themselves mired in corruption scandals and other criminal cases.

"Buyung taught me when I was a YLBHI member for 13 years to stay away from conflicts of interest in trying to secure justice for victims. But he's has not remained consistent to the organization's mission as he has defended the military," Hendardi said.

Hendardi, who quit the organization and established the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) in 1996 following an internal dispute within the YLBHI, criticized the inclusion of Assegaf on the YLBHI's board of trustees.

"Buyung's presence is, in itself, problematic, and with the presence of Assegaf there, it will only worsen the YLBHI's deteriorating image and further plunge it into discord," he asserted.

He said its eroded impartiality had caused the YLBHI to suffer "financial difficulties" in running its programs as several international funding agencies, such as the Netherlands' Novib organization, had ceased providing aid.

Todung Mulya Lubis, another respected human rights lawyer, is rumored to be about to resign from the board of trustees. However, he declined on Wednesday to comment on the rumors.

Other prominent lawyers, who asked for anonymity, said the YLBHI was the subject of "serious politicking", with Buyung and his colleagues taking over the organization's leadership in a bid to stifle its promotion of democracy and advocacy against military- linked violence.

They accused Buyung of trying to cleanse the YLBHI of activists, including those in its regional branches, who had ideas for changing the organization by sidelining them.

The conflict within the YLBHI escalated after its founders, who also acted as the organization's board of trustees, rejected the board of executives' proposal to change the organization from a foundation to a loose association.

The rift peaked with the dismissal of the then YLBHI chairman, Bambang Widjojanto, and the resignation of his vocal deputy, Munir, from the organization early in December 2001.

The board of trustees later set up a caretaker board, led by Irianto Subiyakto, to prepare for the election of a new YLBHI executive board within six months.

Bambang and Munir were among the organization executives who demanded the expulsion of Buyung from the YLBHI in January 2000 following the latter's move to defend military officers in the East Timor case.

Irianto, who should have ended his term as caretaker chairman last June, still holds the YLBHI top job, and facilitated Buyung's reinstatement as a member of the board of trustees.

Verdict against Akbar another legal plus

Straits Times - September 5, 2002

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The conviction of parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung, the second case in which a politically connected person has been sentenced to jail in the past two months, is being seen as another positive step for Indonesia's legal system.

But the guilty verdict [of three years jail - JB] for the head of the Golkar party, which holds the second-largest number of seats in Parliament and is the main coalition partner of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party -- Struggle (PDI-P), is likely to cause some turmoil on the political stage.

Analysts are cautiously optimistic that the ruling is a positive step in Jakarta's drive to clean up the legal system, widely criticised as corrupt.

In another high-profile case in July, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the son of former president Suharto, was sentenced to 15 years in jail for masterminding the assassination of a Supreme Court justice.

"It could be interpreted that way -- that the courts are independent of political pressure," said Mr Ibrahim Assegaf of the Centre for the Study of Legal Policy.

"However this is just one instance. In the case of the human- rights trials, for instance, the judges relied too much on prosecutors' recommendations," he added, referring to recent rulings where several police and military officers were acquitted of human-rights abuse in East Timor.

However, there was criticism of the light sentence handed out to Mr Akbar and the judges' failure to order his immediate detention. Some saw this as a sign of political pressure.

"This case shows that some judges are good but they cannot escape political interference," said Mr Andi Asrun of Judicial Watch.

Added Mr Ibrahim: "It is too light when you consider drug trafficking cases where much higher sentences are given." Mr Andi also noted that Mr Akbar will escape immediate imprisonment because he will appeal against his conviction.

And as his sentence was less than five years, his lawyers will be able to argue that he should not be imprisoned pending the appeal. The decision not to imprison Mr Akbar will allow him to carry on as leader of Golkar and as Speaker, thus minimising the political fallout at least over the short term.

But his future as a presidential or vice-presidential hopeful for the 2004 elections has clearly taken a knock and Golkar's political future also looks dimmer.

Mr Tomi Legowo, an analyst, said: "The party will be split as it scrambles to find new leaders, and this will reduce its chances for 2004." If Mr Akbar is allowed to continue operating -- just as central bank governor Syahril Sabirin remained in office despite a graft conviction while appealing against his case -- this would be a perfect and a very Indonesian way of political compromise.

The appeal, which could take a year or more, would allow Golkar to find a new leader and still allow for some cooperation with the PDI-P. Potential Golkar leaders include Social Welfare Minister Jusuf Kalla, Golkar stalwart Fahmi Idris, Suharto-era minister Agung Laksono and former attorney-general Marzuki Darusman.

However, analysts expect that there will be some political instability as Golkar begins to exact political retribution on the PDI-P.

The secular Golkar is a natural ally of the nationalist PDI-P and it has worked easily as a majority against the Muslim parties. That could change.

"There is a loose collaboration between the two parties and with Akbar out, there would be increasing political bargaining and political blackmailing," said political analyst Hermawan Sulistiyo. For example, Golkar could threaten to expose corruption within the PDI-P if some of its demands were not met.

Focus on Jakarta

City officials bribed to allow children to beg

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2002

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- Most Jakartans are familiar with the presence of street children at most intersections in the city every day. They take their existence for granted as another dark side of the city.

Unfortunately, even law enforcers hardly blink an eye at the daily sight nor do they consider it a violation of the law even though most children are forced to work in the streets by adults.

On Tuesday, the Central Jakarta District Police questioned a couple who each day put nearly a dozen children to beg on the street corners at intersections in the Senen and Menteng areas of Central Jakarta. The children, between the ages of four and 12, were also taken into custody.

The middle-aged couple, Buyung Masril and Zuraidah, told the police that they had been making children work the streets for years. Some children had no parents while others had their parents' permission to work for the couple.

Every day, they brought the children to beg at intersections in Senen and Menteng from 6am to 8pm. Zuraidah would watch the children all day to assure that they worked well and would give her Rp 30,000 to Rp 40,000 a day.

One of the children, Hendri, said that the couple would beat them if they did not listen to the pair. Hendri, who has never been to school, said that he wanted to get an education and be smart one day.

Buyung said he bribed officers from the City Public Order office to protect "his business". The officers would inform him when the office would be making a raid on street workers. City Bylaw No. 11/1988 on public order prohibits the practice of begging and selling on streets.

Instead of charging the couple, the police sent them to the City Social Rehabilitation Center in Kedoya, West Jakarta. This means they can be released within three months time or less after they complete a rehabilitation program at the center.

Sr. Comr. Edmon Ilyas, the chief of the district police, said that the raid was part of the Central Jakarta Mayoralty's efforts to stop street workers.

"Therefore, we send them to the rehabilitation center. Besides, it is only an economic problem," he said. This fact reveals that law enforcers do not yet recognize children's rights, said a researcher at the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute for Women's Empowerment and Justice (LBH APIK).

"The couple should actually be charged under several articles of the Criminal Code because it is considered to be human trafficking," said Ratna Batara Murti, referring to Article 297, which carries a maximum penalty of six years in jail.

Parents or guardians who force their children to beg in the streets could also be charged under Article 301 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment.

All children in Indonesia deserve protection from adults as the country ratified in 2000 the International Labor Organization Convention No. 182, concerning the prohibition of child labor and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of it.

Law No 39/1999 on human rights also protects children's rights. Article 62 of the Code also protects children from exploitation for economical reasons.

However, laws on children protection are not strong enough to prevent children from being exploited by adults.

"We need a specific law with stiff sanctions against violators to protect children's rights because most law enforcers are ignorant about them. Some even protect the practice of child exploitation as they get bribes," Ratna added.

She urged the government to legislate the bill on the protection of children soon. "Children need to be protected from any kind of exploitation. Otherwise, the situation will get worse," Ratna said.

Angry protesters seal governor's residence

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2002

Yuliansyah, Banjarmasin -- Angered by the fact that South Kalimantan Governor H.M. Sjachriel had ignored their demands for him to leave his official residence, dozens of people, grouped in the People's Suffering Action Forum (Kapera), sealed off the governor's official residence on Tuesday.

They halted many of the daily activities at the house as protesters closed off the entrance gate using a giant 300-meter long banner.

Before surrounding the residence located at Jl. Sudirman No. 1, Banjarmasin, the demonstrators made speeches deploring the corrupt practices by the governor in front of the compound, and demanding the governor to immediately leave the official residence.

After Sjachriel ignored their demands, the protesters, wearing red-colored battle fatigues and head bands, pushed their way to the entrance of the house but were prevented by police and security guards who had formed a human shield.

The protesters also demanded that Sjachriel and his family meet them as part of their moral responsibility.

On Monday, protesters stormed the governor's office demanding that the governor, who was voted out of office on August 21, abandon his office without waiting for the decision of the home affairs ministry.

Sjachriel has been under fire from various groups for widespread allegations of corruption. He was technically voted out of office by the South Kalimantan legislature on August 21, 2002 after protesters occupied the council building and threatened to stay if the local councillors did nothing about the corruption allegations.

Governor Sjachriel, a member of PPP, however, vowed to hold on to his office until President Megawati Soekarnoputri gave her approval of the council's move.

Tuesday's blockade of the residence lasted for around two hours before the demonstrators got tired and dispersed peacefully to continue their protest by parading around the city.

Separately, Chief of the Antasari Military Regional Command Col. Suadrmaidy aired his concerns over the heated political tension in the province and feared violence could erupt between the anti-governor camp and the supporters of governor Sjachriel.

"I've received reports that the groups will stage simultaneous demonstrations. We will watch out for their movements to avoid clashes," Suadrmaidy said.

While the local political squabble continued, a man, identified later as Frans Moemoek, claiming to be an official from the home affairs ministry, but suspicions quickly arose when it was discovered that he was not registered with the ministry.

According to several sources, Frans claimed that he was assigned from the Ministry of Home Affairs to obtain facts about the dismissal of Sjachriel and his deputy Husin Kasah from their respective positions.

Suspicious of the man's claim, speaker of the South Kalimantan Council Mansyah appealed to his colleagues not to say anything to the man, saying he was not registered as an official at the ministry after a quick check.

The ministry itself has announced that a team, led by the regional autonomy director general Oentarto, to investigate the governor's dismissal was sent to Banjarmasin.

On Monday, the eight-man team arrived and started working, collecting information from related parties. "We cannot say when we will complete our task, it will last until we have enough information, then we will submit it to the Minister of Home Affairs," Oentarto said.

Environment

Uproar over plan to mine protected areas

Straits Times - September 7, 2002

Robert Go, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government wants to allow open-pit mining in protected forest areas in a bid to get more cash out of the country's vast natural resources and to speed up the pace of development in its eastern provinces.

But the plan has sparked protests from environmentalists, who said that the mining would permanently damage the ecosystem and harm local residents' long-term economic prospects.

Open-pit mining is done near the surface of the earth. Blocks of earth are dug to extract the ore in them.

During the process, the surface of the land is continually excavated, forming a pit that gets deeper until the end of the operation.

The process leaves ugly scars on the landscape and can easily pollute rivers and other forested areas nearby.

Mr Mahendra Siregar, a top aide to Coordinating Economics Minister Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, told The Straits Times: 'The contracts were awarded before the 1999 forestry law made those forests into conservation or protected areas. We now have to honour those contracts, to be fair to investors. ' Another reason for Jakarta's decision, according to officials, is the slow pace of development on Indonesia's eastern islands, which have huge caches of natural resources but are less densely populated and less industrialised compared with Java.

"How else are we going to develop the eastern provinces? There are many limitations to those regions' economic growth. They have limited infrastructure and human resources," Mr Mahendra said.

"But those areas have lots of mineral deposits and natural resources. Those are the things that we need to exploit." Parliament is now considering approving 150 separate mining projects.

Sources said that out of that number, 50 could get the green light soon, with 22 proposals -- a total investment value of around US$3. 2 billion -- said to be done deals.

The problem is that Indonesia's fragile ecosystem is facing an unprecedented assault from human activities, including logging and mining.

Environmentalists now say that the country loses more than two million ha of forest each year, and that the pace of deforestation is increasing along with increased economic hardship.

Illegal logging, mining and fishing are destroying natural habitats and decimating regional species, many of which are indigenous and unique to the country. And open-pit mining, said activists, is among the worst of human activities.

Mr Chalid Muhammad, national coordinator for the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said: "These operations cause soil erosion. They pollute rivers and harm the fish in it, as well as the people who use the water for their everyday needs." The experts also said that such mining activities would prolong droughts and cause water shortage, because many of these forests serve as catchment areas.

Mr Chalid added: "Mining firms are also notorious for dumping their waste in the ocean, polluting reef areas and killing fish that local fishermen depend on." In short, environmentalists argued, open-pit mines not only destroy the ecosystem, but also put pressure on the livelihoods of local people and future generations.

The Ministries of Environmental Affairs and Forestry have previously opposed the plan to re-license the mining firms, many of which are foreign-owned.

Government allows mining to proceed in protected forests

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2002

A'an Suryana, Jakarta -- The government has agreed to allow mining companies to operate in areas now categorized as protected forests, a decision that has drawn strong protests from environmental groups.

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Tuesday that the decision was taken in a bid to boost investment and increase economic growth.

"The government must attract investment to stimulate the real sector," Purnomo told reporters on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission VIII on mining and energy.

He claimed that the Ministry of Forestry, which had long been against calls to allow open-pit mining in protected forests, had given its approval.

He said the government would propose the House revise Law No. 41/1999 on forestry, which bans open-pit mining in protected forests. "The meeting will be held sometime this week," said Purnomo.

The law raised concerns among mining investors as it was implemented after many had conducted expensive explorations in areas that were later designated protected forests.

According to the latest data, about 150 companies have been banned from exploiting their mining sites as they had been deemed conservation forest areas. The areas, covering 11.4 million hectares, are mostly located in the eastern part of Indonesia.

Many of these companies belong to multinational mining companies like Freeport, BHP and Newmont. One example is PT Gag Nickel which operates a nickel mine on Gag island in Irian Jaya, believed to hold the world's largest nickel deposits.

Gag Nickel, jointly owned by BHP Pty Ltd and state-owned mining firm PT Aneka Tambang, obtained a license to exploit a mining site located in the forest on Gag Island before the Government relabeled the site a conservation area.

Purnomo said that only 50 mining companies would be allowed to resume operations, and a special team would later decide which of the companies would be eligible.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organization Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) strongly criticized the new plan, saying millions of hectares of protected forest areas, which are home to endangered wildlife and indigenous tribes, would disappear should the government allow mining companies to operate in the forests.

"Every year, Indonesia loses 2 million hectares of forest. The pace of deforestation will increase if the government and the House allow open-pit mining," Jatam coordinator Chalid Muhammad told The Jakarta Post.

Chalid said the mining sector was responsible for 10 percent of the destruction to the country's forests.

But supporters of the government plan said that the rights of foreign investors who had legally obtained their mining licenses and had spent billions of dollars in investments must be protected as well to help instill legal certainty.

They argued that without legal certainty, foreigners would not invest in the country. And the revival of the mining contracts was especially important for the economic development of the eastern part of Indonesia, which has been lagging behind other areas of the country.

The Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy has been campaigning to let the mining companies resume their activities. The Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment were the strongest opponents of the campaign.

But after years of wrangling the Ministry of the Environment finally surrendered, closely followed by the Ministry of 2Forestry.

Health & education

Indonesians rely on Chinese herbal cures

Straits Times - September 3, 2002

Jakarta -- Chinese herbal medicines are growing in popularity here, even among the non-Chinese, as an alternative to Western drugs.

Ms Ailin, who has been running a Chinese drug store in Pancoran for more than 10 years after inheriting the business from her great-grandparents, said people were convinced of the efficacy of the Chinese potions, and sales of the drugs were stable.

The Indonesian Consumer Health Empowerment Foundation (YPKKI) has, however, warned that lives could be endangered if Indonesia's Food and Drug Agency (POM) fails to control their use.

The danger, said YPKKI head Marius Widjajarta, arises from the fact that the ingredients used in the Chinese drugs are not identified in the medicines. "Consumers do not know whether the medicines contain dangerous substances, like sedatives," he said.

He said that for the sake of consumers, POM must require all Chinese drug distributors and vendors to register their medicines before selling them. But the consumers do not seem to be alarmed.

Ms Rosdiana, an employee with a foreign bank, said she had been using Chinese medicines regularly since her childhood.

"I have no worries about fake drugs. Just buy them at known Chinese drug stores to ensure that the medicines are genuine." Mr Sutikno, 40, a resident of Harmoni in Kota, West Jakarta, said: "I have been using Chinese herbal drugs for two years. And, so far, it has proven effective in curing common sicknesses like fever, cough or dizziness."

He said he planned to send packages of Chinese medicine to his father in Purwokerto, Central Java, who suffers from a kidney stone. "My father is sick of seeing doctors who do nothing. So, he wants to try Chinese drugs as an alternative. You have nothing to lose if you use Chinese drugs, as a pack of the medicine only costs 10,000 rupiah (US$1)," he said.

According to Mr Ayin, who helps run a West Jakarta drug store, many consumers seek Chinese medicines for common sicknesses. "Pills and herbs to cure gastric problems, headaches, typhoid and stress are medicines that are in high demand," he said.

A vendor in West Jakarta, Mr Kuncoro, said some Chinese medicines were locally made. "For instance Tay Pin San, a drug for gastric problems, is made in Tangerang although it uses a Chinese name," he said.

The ingredients are herbs, roots or animal parts which are then brewed into potions. "We often use antlers, dried sea horses, lizards, snakes or herbs and roots as ingredients to brew the drug," he said.

Religion/Islam

Muslim hardliners to begin 'sweeps' against foreigners

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2002

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), a Muslim militant Muslim group which allegedly has links to al-Qaeda, threatened on Friday to launch "sweeps" against foreign nationals working illegally in major Indonesian cities, DPA news agency reported.

Chairman of the MMI militant group Fauzan al-Anshari said in a letter sent to the Minister of Justice and Human Rights that the planned crackdown was in retaliation for tough immigration measures imposed by neighboring Malaysia against illegal workers there, mostly from Indonesia.

MMI is a Central Java-based fundamentalist movement whose leaders, such as Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, have allegedly been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network by Singaporean, Malaysian and Philippines intelligence agencies. The group allegedly strives to establish a pan-Islamic State in parts of Southeast Asia.

The group also called on the Indonesian government to impose tough measures on foreign workers in Indonesia, which boasts the world's largest Muslim population.

"Laskar Mujahidin [Majahidin Militia], along with other Islamic organizations will soon launch a sweep against foreign workers in Indonesia, especially in major cities across the country, in order to help impose immigration and labor regulations," al- Anshari said in his letter.

The letter named cities such as the North Sumatra's provincial capital of Medan, Palembang in South Sumatra, Surabaya in East Java, Solo in Central Java, Yogyakarta, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Jakarta for its crackdown on foreigners.

It said the sweep was aimed at collecting data on whether the foreigners had official work permits and valid visas, as well as finding foreign workers occupying professions that could be held by Indonesians."If foreign nationalities are found violating the immigration regulations during the sweep, we will bring them instantly to the local immigration office to be processed in line with the existing laws," the letter said.

However, it did not mention when the street sweeps against foreigners in Indonesia would be launched. The group urged immigration authorities to be prepared to coordinate the crackdown.

At the peak of anti-US sentiments in September, last year, members of the Laskar Jihad (Holy Warriors) -- another Muslim militant group in Indonesia -- launched the country's first "sweep" in Solo. They searched local hotels for US nationals whom they threatened to expel from the country.

However, the Solo sweep sparked spark criticism from Indonesia's tourism industry and various community leaders, as the much- publicized antic prompted thousands of Westerners to cancel trips to the country.

Indonesia's Islamic groups widen support through Web

Straits Times - September 3, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Over the past five years, the Internet has become a crucial tool for Islamic groups in Indonesia to spread their beliefs and widen mass support. A local search engine shows as many as 200 websites on Islam run by various groups.

A flickering banner of crossed swords, the symbol of the militant group Laskar Jihad, gives a preview of what its website provides.

It carries the latest death toll in the Maluku sectarian conflict and an audio file of a sermon in which the leader of the group, Jafaar Umar Thalib, called for jihad, or holy war, against the Christians in eastern Indonesia.

The website of the group, whose members have been blamed for inciting the conflict in the Malukus and Central Sulawesi, is run and maintained much better than those of most Indonesian government institutions or major organisations.

Numerous other Muslim groups have similar websites. Hizbut Tahrir, an internationally-linked political group with aims to found an Islamic state of Indonesia, is one of them.

Its website, set in a navy blue background, looks as slick as any professionally managed Internet portal.

It carries regular political stories with an Islamic slant. And readers can click on the "Save Indonesia with Syariah" banner for an update on efforts to introduce Islamic law in the country.

Other groups -- such as Salafy, Persatuan Islam and Al Irsyad -- have also jumped on to the bandwagon.

But that is not to say that militant and conservative groups alone monopolise the Net. The Islamic Liberal Network uses it too, aside from the radio and print media, to campaign on pluralistic values and gender equality within the Muslim community.

The more established groups such as the Muhammadiyah have gone online as have smaller, more localised mosque groups such as the Sunda Kelapa Islamic Youth group.

In fact, some of the pioneers on the Internet among the Islamic community were these mosque groups.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, these groups mushroomed in universities. Many of their members are technology-savvy engineering or science students.

Mr Ahmad Sahal of the Freedom Institute think-tank said: "Science is seen as a neutral ground, and the children used technology to facilitate their struggle."

In Salman Mosque at the Bandung Institute of Technology, West Java, students began using e-mail as a communication tool among group members eight years ago.

In the past four years, some of these mailing-list groups have developed into websites, offering not just religious information but also e-mail services, chat rooms and e-shopping.

Muslim leaders now hail the Internet as an effective medium for religious propagation. Mr Hasyim Muzadi, head of the 40-million- strong Nahdlatul Ulama, has said that his ambition was to make the organisation "online" to increase its efficiency.

Armed Forces/Police

Khaki power - army still a force to be reckoned with

The Economist - September 5, 2002

Jakarta -- Though kicked out of parliament, the army is still a force to be reckoned with. When Indonesia's parliament voted recently to abolish the 38 seats it reserves for the armed forces, pundits hailed the move as proof that the chief instrument of repression during the 32-year dictatorship of Suharto had finally been brought under civilian control. But Indonesian human-rights organisations still insist that the army enjoys unhealthy influence over the government, exploits this to pursue shady businesses, and commits abuses with impunity.

This contradiction matters to more than local observers. The United States, too, would like to improve ties with Indonesia's top brass for the sake of the war on terror. But many in Congress are hesitant to resume military aid until it is clear that Indonesia's armed forces have really become servants of the popular will.

Everyone agrees that military influence has declined markedly since the army's heyday under Suharto. Two years ago, it formally renounced its "dual function" as guardian of political probity as well as of national security. The police, once under military command, now report directly to the government. Another reform bars serving officers from posts in the cabinet or civil service, which they used to dominate.

Former soldiers are gradually being removed from provincial governorships, too, as their five-year terms expire. The loss of the army's seats in parliament, with effect from 2004, will mark its final exclusion from any overt political role.

Agus Widjojo, the head of the military caucus in parliament, says that his fellow officers are happy to go. But General Widjojo's notion of civil supremacy seems a little unorthodox. He speaks of "mutual respect" between the civilian and military authorities, and argues that politicians should not meddle in operational affairs.

The humiliating treatment meted out to the top brass by Abdurrahman Wahid, a former president, justified their open defiance of him, in the general's view. Senior soldiers opine loudly and publicly on security policy. And on the whole, they seem to be getting their way: President Megawati Sukarnoputri's stance on Indonesia's many internal conflicts is far more hawkish than Mr Wahid's was.

Efforts to hold the army accountable for its brutal and often counter-productive handling of those conflicts also seem to have ground to a halt.

The special tribunal set up to try those responsible for the devastation of East Timor, a secessionist province that has since become independent, has so far let off all military suspects scot-free. The attorney-general's office says it has no plans to mount more trials.

In other restive provinces, such as Aceh and West Papua, soldiers still run amok, but only a handful of cases has ever come to trial.

The government also seems loth to pry too deeply into military finances. Only about a third of the armed forces' expenditure (no one is sure, since the figures are so opaque) comes from the state budget; they raise the rest themselves, by means both fair and foul. Military foundations run logging concessions, palm oil plantations, hotels, banks, an airline and all manner of other businesses.

The army's presence in every district and village of the country (the so-called "territorial system") gives it leverage over local politicians and officials. The army exploits this influence to win lucrative contracts, muscle in on land deals, run protection rackets, set up wildcat mines, and so on.

But all this is not quite as sinister as it sounds. At the national level, at any rate, the armed forces' apparent ascendancy stems more from a meeting of minds between Miss Megawati and the top brass than from manipulation. She, like her senior officers, is an ardent nationalist, with a hatred of disorder.

Furthermore, even on matters of security, the army does not always get its way: take, for example, the government's recent decision to defer a military escalation in Aceh, a step the high command had demanded for months. What's more, corruption and impunity extend far beyond the army in Indonesia. The government seems just as lenient towards the businessmen who embezzled billions from the central bank, to name just one notorious case.

This week, Akbar Tandjung, the leader of the formerly ruling Golkar party, was found guilty in a large fraud case, but sentenced to only three years in prison -- too little, critics said. Some soldiers blame the government for all the armed forces' failings, since it is not pushing harder for reform. That is doubtless a cop-out. But these days, weak civilian leaders do seem a bigger threat to Indonesia than an overbearing army.

Accusing military indiscriminately is a mistake: Wolfowitz

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2002

Washington -- The United States Under Secretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz said here on Wednesday that the US government was very "disappointed" with the apparent lack of will to prosecute human rights abusers, particularly those from the Indonesian military (TNI), but added that it would be a mistake to paint the whole institution with the same brush.

Wolfowitz said that the US eagerly wanted to see the Indonesian military reform itself and to cease rewarding those who continued human rights abuses.

"Yes, we are all quite disappointed, frankly, with what seems a lack of vigor and energy in prosecuting some of the past abuses, most recently in the case of the actions in East Timor. But I also think it is a mistake to accuse the entire military indiscriminately," he said.

He added that he did not agree with a suggestion to cut off all US contact with the Indonesian military because that would not help the reform process."But I do think that we can have a useful, maybe a very important, at least useful positive influence in that process, and that is very much, I think, part of helping to strengthen democracy in Indonesia," he added.

Wolfowitz, who served as US ambassador to Jakarta in the early 1990s, noted that to create contacts with the Indonesian military was going to be a challenge to make sure that it assisted the forces of reform and did not let all human rights abusers in the past continue their abusive ways.

He said one of the major constitutional amendments made by Indonesian legislators was the acceleration of the departure of military representatives from the legislative assembly because it was a very healthy step and something that the US would certainly encourage." I think, if you bring an Indonesian officer to this country to participate in kinds of programs that we have officers from many nations participating in, they will learn a lot more about the role of the military in a democratic society than they will if they just stay within their narrow circle," he said.

But for the moment, he said, Washington seemed to prefer to only cooperate with the police, as evidenced by the US government's pledge to provide the Indonesian Police with some US$31 million for training and assistance through 2004.

He said some US$16 million would be extended to the police in fiscal year 2002 for additional capacity-building, including establishing a special counter-terrorism unit.

Meanwhile, if approved by Congress, in fiscal year 2003, the US government would like to provide some US$400,000 for the International Military Education and Training (IMET) for the Indonesian military, he said.

Washington and Jakarta are figuring out ways for the assistance to be used most effectively, he said. And, "We are also required by law to make sure that if we're assisting units, that those units be [evaluated] for human rights concerns. So it is not something where there is a plan ready to go but there are resources and we are trying to develop a plan," he added.

Regarding the military cooperation with Indonesia, he emphasized that the US would be more interested in restoring the IMET where training is much more focused on the institutions and structures of the military.

"In our system, that means institutions and structures of a democratic military, so there is a great deal about civil- military relations. There is a great deal about good leadership, ethical behavior," he explained.

Regarding how Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration is handling the terrorist issue in Indonesia, he said that according to the general feeling of his country, especially by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies of the US government, Indonesia is working fairly hard on it and is doing a decent job.

Indonesia's military says it won't quit business world

Straits Times - September 5, 2002

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia's military will not get out of business just yet but could set up holding companies to consolidate and clean up the hundreds of enterprises under its control, according to top generals and sources.

Although they are under pressure to give up commercial activities altogether, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) argue that the income from its companies is needed to supplement the meagre budget allocation for defence.

Lt-General Agus Widjojo, deputy speaker of the legislative body People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) who represents the military and police faction, said: "It is only fair, and it is universally practiced, that the military looks out for the welfare of its soldiers.

"The question is not whether the military can or cannot run businesses but rather how it runs them. Does it do so with accountability and transparency?"

Other senior officers at the TNI headquarters near Jakarta declined to comment officially but said that the thinking among the top brass was indeed for a revamp of the entire system.

One of the officers said: "The long-term view is perhaps to reduce our dependence on the business activities, but for now it should be enough that we clean them up and hand them over to professional managers and make them more transparent."

The TNI earlier engaged consulting firms and auditors to begin restructuring and to see what could be done to streamline its holdings. Among key recommendations is the idea of sorting businesses based on industry sectors and types of operations and grouping them under a small number of umbrella companies.

Money from the government amounts to between 25 and 30 per cent of what the TNI needs to operate at full efficiency and to ensure its 500,000 soldiers are taken care of. Military sources insist that the money raised from private dealings is not used to fund operations or to buy new weaponry but to provide housing, medical care, scholarships and other such items for soldiers.

The organisation's involvement in business dates back to the 1950s when military officials started private companies and used their connections to help their businesses survive. Now they have business interests in forestry, plantations, oil, insurance, hotels and restaurants and taxi companies.

There is sketchy information about how much money the military makes in this fashion. But experts have estimated that billions of dollars have been accumulated and distributed by the various yayasans or foundations, and cooperatives under the control of TNI officers since the mid 1960s, when former president Suharto rose to power.

Critics also allege that much of the money ended up financing the jet-set lifestyles of high-ranking officers.

Centre for Information and Development Studies director Umar Juoro said: "These companies are very messy. It is unclear how much money they make or lose and officers or former officers get to run them without having to worry about whether they're being well run or not.

"It seems there is a drive to at least make these companies more accountable and that's all to the good. But it remains unclear when this will happen."

Tie Indonesia aid to rights reforms

The Baltimore Sun - September 3, 2002

Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington -- Will US training improve the Indonesian military's terrible human-rights record?

During a visit to Jakarta in early August, Secretary of State Colin Powell vowed he would get Congress to restart a military training program suspended in 1992 after Indonesian troops committed atrocities in East Timor. He argued that exposing officers to democratic institutions and human-rights values would have beneficial effects.

But this is a risky and questionable proposition at best. American taxpayers could end up helping to train killers and torturers. By resuming training without significant progress by the Indonesian government to control and discipline the military, the Bush administration risks undermining those working for democratic reform in Indonesia. Greater reform is the best way to safeguard against Islamic radicalism.

Among those welcoming moves by the Senate Appropriations Committee to lift restrictions on International Military Education and Training (IMET) is Brig. Gen. Tono Suratman, deputy spokesman for the Indonesian armed forces.

But General Suratman was indicted for crimes committed in East Timor in 1999. He was then the commander for East Timor when Indonesian troops and proxy militia groups launched a campaign of terror following the UN-administered referendum on independence. (At that time, he was a colonel, but he later was promoted for his misdeeds.)

Congress will take up the foreign aid bill for fiscal year 2003 when it reconvenes. The administration is asking for $400,000 for IMET in Indonesia, with no strings attached.

This is the dilemma facing policymakers: the United States wants to strengthen ties with the Indonesian military without giving it greater legitimacy and symbolic support. Yet the decision to expand security assistance is seen by many in Indonesia as a vote of confidence in the military and endorsement of its prominent role.

Despite decades of US training of military officers during Suharto's rule, there is no clear evidence that abuses by the military were in any way reduced as a result.

Now, with a democratically elected government in Indonesia, the Pentagon argues that things have changed. But none of the diplomats or human-rights lawyers I spoke with in Jakarta this spring believed fundamental military reform was likely before the elections in 2004, when President Megawati Sukarnoputri will be counting on the army's support.

The Pentagon wants to train Indonesian officers in the United States and teach them about internationally recognized human rights, military justice systems and "fostering greater respect for the principle of civilian control of the military."

But Indonesian trainees would return to a country where the armed forces remain the single most powerful institution, where there is a culture of impunity for serious crimes committed by troops against Indonesian civilians and so-called "separatists" in Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere, where civilian courts are corrupt and woefully ill-equipped to handle prosecutions of security officials and where the top generals involved in atrocities in East Timor haven't even been indicted.

In such an environment, can any amount of US training make a significant difference?

Washington was stunned when an Indonesian special ad hoc court acquitted five military and police officials of a church massacre in East Timor.

The court acted just days after Mr. Powell's visit, and while the US Pacific commander, Adm. Thomas Fargo, was in Indonesia, warning that closer ties with the Pentagon would depend on "accountability and reform."

The State Department expressed disappointment over the verdicts, but neither Mr. Powell nor the Pentagon backed away from their promise to restore IMET. By seeking to lift restrictions on IMET, conditioned on accountability for abuses committed in Indonesia and East Timor, while at the same time calling for greater accountability, the administration is sending mixed signals.

The United States should send a consistent message. It should provide funding for the Indonesian police, now separated from the military but urgently in need of training and technical support. More than $31 million for the Indonesian police has already been appropriated or is pending in next year's aid bill. But Congress should maintain human-rights conditions on lethal arms sales and supplies to the Indonesian military -- both commercial and US- funded. The administration backs these restrictions.

Congress should also adopt the same modest conditions, proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, on resumption of IMET. The president is required to certify that military personnel credibly alleged to have committed gross human-rights violations have been suspended and that military authorities are fully cooperating with prosecutions of abusers.

Indonesians are trying to rebuild their country's civil institutions after more than 30 years of authoritarian rule. The United States should keep up the pressure for effective civilian control of the military as essential for democratization.

[Mike Jendrzejczyk is the Washington director for Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.]

Indonesia's military wants stronger international ties

Australian Associated Press - August 30, 2002

Catharine Munro, Jakarta -- Indonesia's military (TNI) commander today argued for greater international ties but could not fully guarantee against human rights abuses by his men.

"It's impossible that 100 per cent of all soldiers respect human rights, it's almost impossible," General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters.

The four-star general begged for understanding if there were isolated incidents of human rights abuses but offered to resign if human rights abuses continued on a large scale.

He said some Indonesians still felt "sensitive" about military relations between Australia and Indonesia, after Australia led the military force Interfet in East Timor in 1999. The force was to restore peace in the territory following a vote for independence.

"But to cooperate with other countries militarily is a must," he said.

Indonesia cut off a security pact with Australia over Australia's role in East Timor, while Australia stopped training Indonesia's special forces because of their role in aiding and abetting the ransacking of the territory by militia gangs.

Indonesia is now under pressure from the United States to improve its security force's human rights record before the restoration of full military ties, cancelled after East Timor's secession.

Sutarto said ties should be maintained in order to head off aggression. "Usually if there are good military ties it will contribute much to the ties of the two countries and we are able to prevent trouble, to prevent war from disputing countries," Sutarto said.

The US government has proposed small-scale military training but is yet to receive the approval for the program from its Congress.

Congress is required by law to block any funding for military training of the Indonesian military until it is satisfied that members of the military who aided and abetted the ransacking of East Timor by militia gangs are brought to justice.

The US State Department has already said it was disappointed by prosecutors' reluctance to use evidence at a human rights tribunal being conducted here. Further verdicts, including that of former regional military commander Adam Damiri, are not expected until November.

Sutarto said it would take time for human rights training programs recently adopted by the Indonesian military to take effect. "We can't change something in a short time that we had never provided to soldiers over decades."

He said he supported the human rights tribunal but hoped all members of the military would be found innocent of crimes against humanity.

Five officers accused of abuses in the town of Suai were acquitted by the tribunal earlier this month.

He defended the military's practice of running businesses, saying they were necessary for the institution to operate. Analysts believed that only 30 per cent of the TNI's funds are supplied by the government.

He said he would order a full audit of military businesses, just as he had done for the army in his former role as army chief.

International relations

Papua crackdown may complicate US policy on Indonesia

Dow Jones Newswires - September 2, 2002

Tom Wright, Jakarta -- Indonesia's attempts to blame the weekend killing of two US citizens on Papuan separatists may be the first step in a military crackdown in the restive province that could complicate US political and business interests.

Indonesia's army chief Ryamizard Ryacudu was quoted by the local news agency Antara Monday repeating claims the decades-old Papuan independence movement was linked to the killings. Many interpret those comments as a buildup to military action against the rebels.

For now, details of Saturday's ambush near the US-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s (FCX) mine -- which left two US schoolteachers and an Indonesian dead -- remain sketchy.

While the military was quick to blame the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, which has fought Jakarta's 40-year rule of the province, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The OPM has little history of armed violence against foreigners, although it has carried out intermittent kidnappings.

A harsh reaction by the army without clear evidence of OPM's involvement is likely to hurt the Bush administration's attempts to renew military ties with Indonesia, which it hopes will form a bulwark in the region against terrorism and secure US business interests here.

It will also complicate the already entangled situation New Orleans-based Freeport faces doing business in Papua, which until recently was known as Irian Jaya.

PT Freeport Indonesia has to balance a reliance on the military to defend the world's largest copper and gold mine from separatists with moves to improve its image in the local community.

Papuan separatists claim Freeport -- which began extracting gold in the early 1970s under a contract with former president Suharto -- has no right to operate in the province.

Since Suharto's downfall in 1998 -- which ended 32 years of military dictatorship -- provinces from Papua, at the easternmost end of the chain of islands that make up Indonesia, to Aceh in the west, have stepped up calls for more say in governing their own affairs.

Indonesia has offered Papua and Aceh a greater share of revenues from natural resources in their provinces.

Mega ruled out full independence for provinces

But President Megawati Sukarnoputri has ruled out full independence, and the army has stepped up military operations against separatists since she came to power in mid-2001.

US companies such as Freeport and Exxon Mobil -- that runs a huge liquefied natural gas plant in Aceh -- are finding it increasingly hard to distance themselves from the military units they pay to guard their operations.

Such concerns are also deterring other foreign companies from investing to develop the nation's natural resources, its largest asset.

The army's actions in Papua are already becoming an embarrassment for Freeport. In November last year, Papua's leading opposition figure, Theys Hiyo Eluay, was murdered while returning from a party thrown by military officers.

Indonesia has detained 10 officers and soldiers of an elite, US- trained special forces group in connection with the killing but hasn't started the trial. The unit has been frequently deployed to provide security at the Freeport mine.

In Aceh, the military has set the end of the Muslim fasting month in December to reach an accord with separatists. Previous attempts at peace have come to nothing in a civil war which has killed around 12,000 mainly civilians since the mid-1970s.

Exxon Mobil faces a lawsuit in the US, which alleges the company was complicit in human rights abuses against villagers by troops guarding their facilities. Faced with these problems, US companies aren't considering pulling out, and have full support of their government.

The US State Department said in a letter to the court hearing the Exxon Mobil human rights suit that criticism of Indonesia's military would hurt US business interests in the country. The State Department's intervention is expected to scuttle the suit.

Despite growing criticism of the Indonesian military, Washington agreed last month to give $50 million over the next three years to Indonesia, which it views as a crucial partner in the war against militant Islamic groups.

Economy & investment

Baird hopeful on economy, urges continued reform

Jakarta Post - September 5, 2002

[World Bank outgoing country director for Indonesia Mark Baird assumed the position in 1999 when the country was still struggling from a deep economic crisis, making him one of the few people intimately familiar with the country's economic development. Marking the end of his tenure, Baird shared his views on Indonesia's economy with The Jakarta Post's Reiner Simanjuntak and Dadan Wijaksana on Tuesday. The following is an excerpt of the interview.]

Question: In your opinion, how would you describe the current state of the economy?

Answer: Well, it's always a matter of perspective ... every day there are ups and downs ... but if we take a long perspective, there has been genuine progress over the years.

Since I arrived in early 1999, there has been significant progress in reducing inflation, bringing [Bank Indonesia's] interest rate down, stabilizing the exchange rate, [pushing] the budget deficit down and reducing the ratio of the government's debts to gross domestic product [GDP]. We've also seen a recovery in economic growth of about 3 percent to 4 percent per annum, not adequate by any means, but probably better than we might have expected 3 years to 4 years ago, because the economy had contracted by about 13 percent in 1998.

Perhaps the best news is that we've seen a significant reduction in poverty since the height of the crisis. Not only because of the growth -- economic growth has been slow -- but perhaps more importantly because of the stabilization of prices, especially the price of rice. This means people have been able to get access to basic commodities, relatively cheaply. We've seen also some increases in minimum wages and growth as well. That combination of factors has caused [a decline in] poverty, which is now pretty close to where it was in precrisis times, quite a remarkable achievement. There is, of course, suffering in some kampungs here in Jakarta and also in other parts of the country, but in general there is improvement, which gives us cause for optimism in the future.

Question: What about progress in structural reform ?

Answer: That's been the area where perhaps the most disappointment lies, but perhaps we should have realized that the reform would take time, given all of the constraints that these [post- Soeharto] administrations have inherited. There are also very strong vested interests opposed to reform and very weak institutions ... some have even suggested that it will take a generation for reform to be achieved properly.

But the key is not to become despondent and give up on reform, but to find the way to keep it moving forward. Our job is to encourage the government to move faster, so let's hope that in the future this will be possible.

Question: Is corruption getting worse here?

Answer: I think corruption remains a core concern for Indonesia. I do not know whether corruption has got better or worse over the time I've been here. However, I think that corruption has become more damaging to development; it's much harder to know now whom to pay and for what benefit.

We have now got transparency but we also need to have accountability, and it can only come -- in my view -- through a stronger justice system. That's probably a reform that will take a long time but it's the key to achieving genuine progress and commitment.

Question: Has the government delivered on these fronts?

Answer: The real issue is a systemic reform of the whole justice system, and for that the government needs a clear framework, a clear commitment and needs action ... I haven't seen that framework yet.

Question: What does it take for the country to be able to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI)?

Answer: Not just FDI, but domestic investment as well. I think there is lot of potential from domestic investors.

Well, we should not underestimate the importance of what has been achieved in terms of macroeconomic development; that's, of course, definite progress.

But investors also need a greater degree of certainty. They know that's going to take some time, but they want to see progress and want to see clearer government policies and regulations.

There are five things that the government can do to improve the investment climate:

• Improve tax and customs administration. The need to raise revenue to finance the state budget should be done in such a way as not to deter investment decisions.
• Create balanced labor market policies. Balancing the concerns of workers with those of investors is the major challenge here.
• Decentralization. This has generally been going better than we feared, but there's still a risk that local governments will start to impose taxes and regulations that will deter investors.
• IBRA's asset sales and privatization. While it's important for the budget, it's also important to get the assets back into the hands of the private sector.
• Improve the regulatory framework for investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, because the country needs substantial investment in infrastructure such as in telecommunications and power [generation and supply].

With those five things, I'm very confident that you can attract the investment needed to grow at 5 percent to 6 percent.

Question: The privatization program has so far moved very slowly; what's really the problem?

Answer: Well, I do not think that legislators are convinced that privatization is necessarily good for Indonesia, and I think the government must do a better job in explaining what it means. It should not be perceived merely as a way of funding the budget but should really be seen as a way of getting these assets into good management, so that they can grow and generate jobs in the future.

So, [I think it important] to explain the rationale of having a program and targets in the right areas and a clear schedule for taking them forward; that sort of masterplan, I think, is needed to convince legislators and the public that privatization makes sense for Indonesia.

Question: So it's not an issue of weak investor appetite?

Answer: Not at all. There is a lot of interest in Indonesian assets. Of course, the prices may not be what some people would like.

I think politicians and the government need to be comfortable that selling assets now at a lower price is better than holding on to them because prices will continue to deteriorate unless [the assets] are returned to good asset management.

IMF says Jakarta on track for single digit inflation

Reuters - September 3, 2002

Jakarta -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday Indonesia was on track to achieve single digit inflation by year end, a day after Jakarta reported its first increase in annual inflation in six months.

The Fund also said it projected public debt, a major economic issue for the crisis-hit country, would fall to 75 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year from around 90 percent last year, freeing up more funds to boost the economy.

Both predictions were generally regarded as optimistic by the market, although the inflation forecast was seen as more realistic than the debt figures for the cash-strapped nation.

"We still think inflation is on track to achieve single digit by year end," IMF senior resident representative in Jakarta David Nellor told reporters, adding part of the reason was the expected continued stability of the rupiah currency.

The rupiah, the region's best performer in 2002, has gained by around 17 percent against the dollar this year.

The statistics bureau on Monday said year-on-year inflation had risen to 10.60 percent in August from 10.05 percent a month earlier, prompting speculation further interest rate cuts would be limited.

Indonesia's inflation, one of the highest in Asia, is targeted at nine percent under this year's state budget, from 12.55 percent in 2001.

Analysts have said the likely continued stability in the local unit would help keep inflationary pressures manageable despite higher demand ahead of year-end celebrations.

However several economists have begun questioning whether the rupiah can go much higher and most doubt the government's nine percent inflation target can be reached.

"The expected stable rupiah should help the government to contain the pressures within manageable levels. Our forecast for year end inflation is around 10 percent," said economist Fauzi Ichsan of Standard Chartered Bank in Jakarta.

Debt outlook

The Fund, which has a $5 billion loan programme with Indonesia, also said the country's debt situation should improve this year.

"We are already in September, based on our expectations for the year as a whole, public debt should be in the order ... of 75 percent [of GDP]," Nellor told reporters. Indonesia's combined foreign and domestic debt stands at some $150 billion.

Economists, however, said Nellor's forecast was too upbeat given doubts over whether Jakarta would be able to post higher economic growth to provide revenue to pay off old debt.

"It seems to be too optimistic given the huge debt problem and lingering doubts on whether the government would be able to meet its four percent GDP target this year on the back of the weak investment," said an economist with a local brokerage.

Indonesia posts higher inflation in August

Reuters - September 2, 2002

Jakarta -- Indonesia posted higher inflation in August, the first increase in six months and a figure prompting speculation further interest rate cuts would be limited.

But the numbers failed to surprise most economists who echoed earlier doubts about the government's ability to reach this year's budget target of nine percent inflation, especially as the year-end celebrations approach.

Indonesia said on Monday year-on-year inflation rose to 10.60 percent in August from 10.05 percent a month earlier but still sharply down from a high of 15.13 percent in February.

"The higher inflation in August is largely due to an increase in the prices of some basic commodities and school fees," Sudarti Surbakti, head of the statistics bureau, told a news conference.

The bureau also said month-on-month inflation in August was 0.29 percent from 0.82 percent in July. Last year inflation was at 12.55 percent.

Economists also said it would be hard to lower inflation next year, particularly as the cash-strapped government plans to raise prices of basic necessities, although if the rupiah currency continued to strengthen this would help things.

"The sharp downtrend is unlikely to be sustainable particularly from year-end onward because of the seasonal factors but the government would still be able to reach around 10 percent figure by year-end," said economist Anton Gunawan of Citibank.

The rupiah , the region's best performer in 2002, has gained by around 17 percent against the dollar this year although several economists are now questioning whether it can go much higher.

Recent falls in Indonesia's inflation, among the highest in Asia and a politically sensitive subject in the world's fourth most populous country, have largely been due to the improving currency which has helped reduce prices of imported goods. But several experts have said any further strengthening in the local unit would likely be limited unless the government makes substantial economic reforms to help ease its punitive debt burden which almost equals its GDP.

The rupiah was quoted at around 8,850/8,860 against the dollar by Monday afternoon trade. The benchmark one-month central bank papers (SBI) stood at 14.35 percent last week, more than 300 basis points lower than 17.50 percent at the start of the year.

The latest trade data from the statistics bureau on Monday showed exports hitting $5.01 billion in July against $5.07 billion in June while imports stood at $2.60 billion from $2.41 billion in June.

Indonesian textile industry choked

Straits Times - September 2, 2002

Robert Go, Jakarta -- First it was shoemakers, toy makers and leather workers. Now it is the turn of the textile producers to complain that theirs is an industry choked by Indonesia's inability to compete against Asian countries like China and Vietnam.

The story is similar: Orders are coming in from foreign buyers, but local manufacturers can't beat the steep discounts offered by their competitors elsewhere. The result, said experts, is an industrial sector that sees dwindling profit margins and its own demise within the next few years.

Mr Natsir Mansyur, a division chairman of Indonesia's textile- producers association API, said: "We have never had it so bad. Competition from producers from China or Vietnam is very stiff. Buyers say they get better prices elsewhere."

Over the last few years, the textile industry -- like many other sectors in Indonesia -- has seen exports drop amid weaker demand from the global market and tough competition from foreign manufacturers.

Textile exports from Indonesia amounted to US$8.5 billion in 2000, but plunged to US$7.2 billion last year and is expected to drop by another 10 per cent this year.

During the first four months this year, central-statistics bureau BPS said, Indonesia sent out only US$2.26 billion worth of cloth and ready-to-wear garment items, a drop of nearly 15 per cent compared to last year's figures.

Senior government officials played down the declining exports by saying that other developing economies in the world, except for perhaps China, are seeing the same trend of declining export for non-oil-and-gas sectors, including textile.

But industry players here argued that some government policies, for instance on labour and energy, make production costs higher and Indonesian manufacturers less competitive.

The 1,200 registered textile companies here, which altogether employ more than a million workers, also have difficulties upgrading their equipment and factories, due to the government's steep machine-import duties and other tax regulations.

Mr Indra Ibrahim, another top executive at API, had said that lack of policy coordination between different government ministries is a key problem.

"If only the different ministries could come up with solid policies that do not contradict each other," he said. "The way it is now, one ministry may reduce import duties on raw items, but another may hike workers' wages or electricity costs."

In addition to slowing exports, textile companies here also have to deal with a huge influx of cheap imported garments that often enter the country illegally.

Mr Natsir said: "This is yet another example of how the government just cannot get its act together. Many customs officials take bribes to allow cheap garments from China and other places to come in. This increases pressure on us domestically.

"We can't compete outside, but we are also getting beaten domestically. If the government doesn't act, Indonesia will lose its textile industry within a decade."