Aceh/West Papua

Mediators' peace plan offers more autonomy to Acehnese

Associated Press - November 16, 2002

Banda Aceh -- International mediators yesterday unveiled a peace plan that they hope will end 26 years of fighting between separatists and government troops in Indonesia's Aceh province.

The plan offers more autonomy for the province's four million people and elections for a provincial legislature and administration.

"Both sides would immediately cease hostilities, acts of violence and intimidation, destruction of property, illegal arrests, harassment and illegal searches," said Mr Bill Dowell, spokesman for the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is brokering the talks.

Under the peace plan, the two sides would set up a 150-member team of monitors, including 50 mostly ex-military representatives from Europe and South-east Asia. "Each side must agree not to shoot these monitors," Mr Dowell said.

The committee, to be operational within a month after the accord is signed, would form a team to "monitor security, investigate violations and be the point of reference for all complaints".

The monitors would publish weekly reports and designate certain schools, mosques and other facilities as demilitarised zones, he said.

Military tightens siege of GAM

Jakarta Post - November 15, 2002

Jakarta -- More than 1,000 Indonesian troops have tightened their siege of a separatist rebel group in Aceh and are ready to attack if necessary, AFP reported.

Troops have moved closer to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels but are delaying any attack for fear of hurting civilians who are with the rebels, saidLieutenant Colonel Firdaus Komarno.

"Until now we are still trying to call on them to surrender," he said, adding that any order to attack would depend on the situation in the area.

The troops have encircled an estimated 40-50 GAM members who are trapped in a mountainous nine-square-km. Army posts have been setup every 100 metres. Top officers including Military Chief for General Affairs Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago overflew the area Friday by helicopter.

The 15-day siege, during which troops have used helicopter- launched rockets, mortars and light tanks, is the biggest operation for months against GAM which has been fighting for an independent state since 1976.

The siege was made after GAM postponed the signing of a truce between it and the government, which supposed to be occured earlier this month.

Papua military chief to sue Elsam

Jakarta Post - November 13, 2002

Jakarta -- Papua Military chief Maj. Gen. M. Simbolon said on Tuesday that the military would sue a non-governmental organization (NGO) for libel over an inaccurate report it released implicating its officers in the ambush of a bus in Timika in August.

He said Elsam, which defends human rights and democracy, had recently released a report of the alleged involvement of several military officers in the Timika incident, which claimed severallives, including two American school teachers.

"There is no evidence that shows the military officers were involved in the attack in Timika," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Simbolon claimed Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto had advised him to sue Elsam for the inaccurate report. He said that the lawsuit would be filed this week.

"Their report is baseless. It's libel," he said, adding that the Papua Police had told him that the report was not true.

Endriartono had earlier planned to sue the Washington Post, which reported the military's involvement in the incident.

Indonesia to hold Scottish woman for 20 more days

The Guardian - November 10, 2002

Stephen Khan -- A Scottish woman who has been under arrest in Indonesia since September for allegedly misusing a tourist visa faces being held for a further 20 days without charge.

Lesley McCulloch, 40, and her American travelling companion, nurse Joy Lee Sadler, are now under the authority of the public prosecutor -- after being held by police since 11 September, when they were arrested in the Aceh region, where rebels are fighting for independence.

Visa offences technically carry a maximum five-year jail sentence in Indonesia, but friends of the pair argue that no one in such a position has been held for this length of time without going to court. Police were able to hold them for up to 60 days without any charge -- a period that is due to expire today -- but they are now being detained under the authority of the public prosecutor.

Ms McCulloch's mother Mattie, who lives in Dunoon, Argyll, said: "Lesley's lawyer is travelling from Jakarta to see her and I am more hopeful today than yesterday that her lawyer will be able to spell out what is going to happen. No charges have been brought against her yet, and I think there will be a trial, given the time they have been held over there. The wait has been absolutely horrendous. Our lives have been on hold all this time."

Sources in Indonesia have indicated that heightened levels of security since last month's Bali bomb have not helped the situation.

The academic has complained of maltreatment, including sexual harassment, by the police and has threatened to sue them on release. She also claims that access to lawyers and consular staff has been hindered.

Police claim they found photographs and video footage of the separatist rebel movement in the women's bags, as well as a laptop and documents. In the past, Ms McCulloch has written about the Aceh independence movement for academic studies and newspapers but both women deny allegations that they were in the area as anything other than tourists.

Worse violence looms as GAM defies calls to surrender

Jakarta Post - November 12, 2002

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Nani Farida, Jakarta/Banda Aceh -- Fear of the worst bloodshed is looming in Aceh as the Indonesian Military (TNI) continue their siege on separatist rebels, who refused to budge and rejected calls for their surrender on Monday.

The rebel group taunted TNI leaders in a press release signed by Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Sofyan Dawod on Monday.

"It would be an honor if Army Strategic Reserves [Kostrad] Commander Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu would come to Aceh and lead the fight against us, instead of venting his anger in Jakarta," the release said.

Ryamizard is the current Army Chief of Staff and has headed Kostrad for the past year and a half. "We expect them not to be so emotional in facing us, nor to believe in the reports they have received from the their men here," Sofyan declared in the statement.

The impending do-or-die battle will destroy hopes for the peace agreement which has been sought by the two conflicting parties over the past two years. Armed conflict between the government and GAM since 1976 has claimed 10,000 lives, of which the majority have been civilians.

Thousands of Acehnese had rallied in support of the peace accord, the signing of which was originally scheduled to take place early this month.

Security troops have besieged the rebels and their leaders at their own headquarters in Cot Trieng village in northern Aceh since Wednesday, as Jakarta increases pressure on GAM to sign a cessation of hostility before Idul Fitri early next month.

GAM has said the signing would likely take place after the Muslim holiday. GAM had unilaterally declared a cease-fire before the military troops launched the siege.

On Sunday, Ryamizard threatened GAM to surrender or face massive attacks from the military. Ryamizard received full support from TNI Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who said on Monday that the siege would continue until GAM agreed to sign the peace accord.

"We have launched rockets around the area as a warning to GAM that although we have the capability to crush them, we have chosen to give them more time to sign the peace accord," Endriartono said after a limited Cabinet meeting presided over by President Megawati.

Endriartono asserted that TNI had a duty to shut down any secessionist movement, including GAM. "Our move to surround their headquarters has proven to effectively reduce GAM activities and we will maintain the tactic," the four-star general said.

To add more pressure on GAM, Jakarta urged the Swedish government to take action against GAM leaders in exile in Sweden, who have adopted Swedish citizenship.

Underlining the 1970s United Nations (UN) convention, under which member countries are obligated to take action against their citizens involved in rebellions in other countries, Jakarta expects Stockholm to restrict the movements of GAM leaders.

"Stockholm has stated its support for Indonesia's territorial integrity; we are asking them to prove their statement," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday at a press conference after the cabinet meeting. He explained further that the appeal was directed at GAM leaders Hassan Tiro, Abdullah Zaini and Malik Mahmud.

"The Swedish government provides living allowances, and as a sovereign country, it could impose certain limitations on its citizens," Hassan added.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during the same press conference that the government was waiting for GAM to return to the negotiating table during the current fasting month.

In its release, GAM said that it was open to the peace accord, but accused TNI of having tainted the unilateral truce GAM had declared in respect for the fasting month.

Separately, Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh said that he completely supported the TNI move, and hoped that the situation could be resolved without claiming more civilian lives.

Mortar rounds fired as the military ignores GAM deadline

Jakarta Post - November 18, 2002

Jakarta -- Residents reported gun and mortarfire Sunday as the armed forces showed no signs of meeting a unilateral separatist deadline to pull back from their siege of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)positions AFP reported.

Residents reported hearing mortar rounds fired from themilitary positions before dawn Sunday near Cot Trieng, a swampy area where more than 1,000 troops have surrounded dozens of GAM for about three weeks.

The residents said the mortar rounds were followed by gunfire near the besieged area well into the day on Sunday.

The long-range mortar rounds are believed to be the first fired in a week and came ahead of a 0300 GMT Sunday deadline which GAM set for the military to show signs of withdrawing from the besieged area in Nisam district, southwest of Lhokseumawe city.

GAM had given the military 24 hours to begin a withdrawal and said if the deadline was not met, GAM intelligence units had orders to start shooting.

But the order to open fire had not yet been issued, GAM's deputy spokesman Isnandar Al-Pase said on Sunday after the deadline expired.

"The situation is still normal and GAM combat intelligence guerrillas are on full alert. The order to attack will be given if Indonesian soldiers are already extremely close to us," Al- Pase said.

The government hopes to sign the "cessation of hostilities" agreement on November 23 but in a statement from GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah from Sweden, Friday, GAM accused Indonesia of announcing signing dates independently.

Frame over ambush

Sydney Morning Herald - November 15, 2002

Ahmad Pathoni, Jakarta -- Police in the Indonesian province of Papua said yesterday that they have photographs of four Indonesian special forces soldiers suspected of involvement in the ambush near the Freeport mine that killed two Americans in August.

The news came as the head of the notorious Kopassus special forces was named a suspect for gross human rights violations allegedly committed during thefatal shooting of 24 people at Tanjung Priok, north Jakarta, in 1984.

The reports could seriously undermine United States and Australian efforts to resume full military ties with Indonesia, restricted since the military-backed violence in East Timor in 1999. Australia's Defence Minister, Robert Hill, said last weekend that Australia should consider resuming links with Kopassus following the Bali bombing and threats of other terrorist attacks.

Papua's deputy police chief, Brigadier-General Raziman Tarigan, said a native Papuan told police a week after the Freeport ambush that he knew the names of four of 11 soldiers involved in the attack. He said the man, Deky Murib, had been an informer and guide for a local Kopassus unit. "He regretted his involvement [in the ambush] and reported to the police," General Tarigan said. He said police have photographs of the four. He identified them as a captain, a first lieutenant and two privates, but added: "These people are intelligence operatives. They can use any name and rank as they wish."

Two United States teachers and an Indonesian colleague were killed when gunmen opened fire on buses carrying them near the giant US-owned gold and copper mine in Timika district on August 31. General Tarigan said police had told the top military brass three weeks ago about the possible involvement of the Kopassus soldiers and had shared information with a military team that visited Papua on Wednesday to investigate the shootings. The Herald reported early this month that US intelligence agencies had intercepted messages between Indonesian Army commanders indicating they were involved in the ambush.

A source close to the US embassy in Jakarta was quoted as saying the motive was to pressure Freeport to continue an annual protection payment. Kopassus has long been accused of rights abuses. Prosecutors said yesterday that the force's present chief, Major-General Sriyanto, had been named a suspect over the Tanjung Priok shootings. Human rights trials could begin next February for him and 13 other serving and retired officers. The Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights says soldiers shot dead 24 people and wounded at least 54 outside a police station as they marched on the local military command.

They were demanding the release of four members of the local Islamic community being held at the military base.

Bid to clear Kopassus of murders

The Australian - November 16, 2002

Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- Indonesian armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto conceded this week that it was possible Indonesian soldiers carried out a deadly ambush on Freeport mine workers in Papua three months ago.

However, almost a week after sending a team of investigators to ascertain whether soldiers participated in or planned the August 31 attack in which three Freeport workers, including two American schoolteachers, were killed, he strenuously denied that his headquarters had any involvement in the attack.

Asked whether it was possible soldiers carried out the attack, General Sutarto told The Weekend Australian: "That's why I sent an investigation team now, just to confirm whether my members are involved in that case or not. I will not deny [it] if, then, there is evidence that members of TNI were involved in that case."

But General Sutarto dismissed recent claims that he had discussed with other senior officers the possibility of staging an incident at the Freeport mine aimed at discrediting the rebel Free Papua Organisation (OPM). The Washington Post reported these claims on November 3, quoting an unnamed US official. The newspaper said the US had information based on the account of a person believed to know of the high-level Indonesian military conversations.

General Sutarto has threatened the Post with legal action unless it apologises. Senior Australian and US military officers have lent credibility to General Sutarto's denials of any personal knowledge of the killings. He said he had been told by the officers they had no evidence to support an allegation ofcomplicity on the part of the TNI high command in the killings ? a claim verified by Western diplomats.

Western military analysts say Washington and Canberra are keen to bolster General Sutarto's position because he is regarded as being far more committed to internal reform than any likely successor. If General Sutarto were to be removed, a strong candidate as his successor would be army commander General Ryamizard Ryacudu, who has made hardline comments on separatism.

Concerns persist about the possibility of TNI involvement in the Freeport case. On Thursday, Papua's deputy police chief, Brigadier Raziman Tarigan, said police suspected special forces (Kopassus) troops participated in the ambush. He referred to testimony from a Papuan man, Deky Murib, who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the ambush. He accused four Kopassus soldiers of participating in the attack. FBI agents met Mr Murib in the Papuan capital, Jayapura, where he is under police protection, according to a US official. But the official said the FBI shared some concerns with Papuan police about inconsistencies in Mr Murib's testimony.

House endorses new regencies in Papua

Jakarta Post - November 13, 2002

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday endorsed a bill on the formation of 14 new regencies in Papua in a bid to cut red tape and increase the people's welfare in the sparsely-populated, large province.

The House also passed into law a bill on the formation of the Banjar mayoralty in Ciamis regency, West Java. The endorsements were conducted during a House plenary meeting attended by home affairs minister Hari Sabarno, Papua Governor Jaap Salossa, chief of the Trikora Military Command overseeing Papua, Gen. M. Simbolon, and other high-ranking officials from the two provinces.

The 14 new regencies are Karmi, Kerom, South Sorong, Raja Ampat, Pegunungan Bintang, Yahokimo, Tolikara, Waropen, Kaimana, Boven Digul, Mappi, Asmat, Teluk Bintuni, and Teluk Mondama. "The new regencies and the mayoralty are formed to accommodate the people's political aspirations and to implement the policy on decentralization," Hari told the plenary session presided over by Deputy House speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) in Jakarta.

The establishment of the 14 new regencies in Papua is apparently part of a plan to divide the province into three provincial administrations. Since the issuance of Law No. 22/1999 on regional administrations, a great number of new regencies and mayoralties have been formed in line with regional autonomy.

The latest was designating Riau Islands as a new province. The minister, however, warned of possible conflict that might occur during the establishment of the new regencies and the city of Banjar, including the presence of rival community groups, the regencies' borders, the capital city, the setting-up of legislative bodies and financial matters.

Papua Governor Jaap Salossa hailed the formation of the new regencies in the country's eastern-most province, saying it was needed to speed up development programs. "With the new regencies, Papuan people are challenged to show their ability and skills in developing the new regencies. We have no financial problems but we have a limited number of professional human resources to manage the administration both at provincial and regional levels," he said.

Salossa said it was not the right time to divide the province in three because the Papuan people were not ready to do so. "We are concentrating on how to introduce modernity and sciences to Papuans, especially those living in forest areas and to fight against poverty that still affects 70 percent of more than 2 million people. We have no other alternatives but to speed up the development program in all fields in all regencies," he said.

Prize catch

Radio Australia - November 14, 2002

There are concerns two foreign women being held in Aceh will be used by Indonesian authorities to set an example to foreigners wanting to meddle in Indonesia's politics.

The trials of American nurse Joy Lee Sadler and British-born Australian-resident Lesley McCulloch have been postponed by another month. The women have been held in a police cell in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, since 10 September 2002.

Indonesian authorities say the women have violated their tourist visas and that they were in possession of documents and photos belonging to the Free Aceh separatist movement, but the two women deny the claims.

The coordinator of the US-based Indonesia Human Rights Network, Kurt Biddle, believes academic Lesley McCulloch is seen as a "real prize" because she has been critical of the actions of the Indonesian authorities in Aceh in the international media.

Kurt Biddle told Asia Pacific's Mike Woods Lesley McCulloch is finding the indefinite nature of her detention difficult.

Biddle: She was concerned that she was not going to make it through this detention, depending on how long it goes -- and that's part of the problem is there's really no light at the end of the tunnel, they don't even know when their trial is going to start.

Woods: Are you concerned that really we haven't heard much about this case from Australia or from Britain?

Biddle: Well we are concerned. In fact Lesley Mculloch's mother in Scotland has been very disappointed with the actions of the British embassy.

Here in the United States though we have had good word on the service that the embassy has been giving Joy Lee Sadler.

We haven't really heard about it much publicly and the State Department here in the United States says that they cannot make any public comment on their case until she signs a waiver.

In Australia its been an odd situation because Lesley as I understand it owns a home there and she's taught for years there and is a resident there, but the Australian embassy has kind of taken a hands off approach and basically let the British take care of it.

Woods: In light of what's happened recently in Indonesia -- in light of the Bali bombings -- how do you think this will impact on their case?

Biddle: What makes things a lot more tricky here of course [is that] they were picked up on September 10 [2002], just the day before the September 11, the embassies were closed in Jakarta because of feared threats on the anniversary of September 11.

With the Bali bombings the US has really used this to their advantage. They were trying to get Indonesia to do quite a bit around anti-terrorist activities including putting freezes on banking practices that would allow money to be laundered and they were really pushing for a tighter controls around anti terrorism.

Since the Bali bombing, the US has seen more of what they've wanted from the Indonesian government to crack down on terrorists -- but as people who do follow Indonesia this is going to be tricky with high Muslim population and generally an anti-US intervention feeling since it's had so much intervention throughout the years in Indonesian politics.

Woods: Usually what happens to people in this situation is that they are deported from Indonesia. It seems the Indonesian authorities are taking this a step further, why?

Biddle: I think they see a real prize in capturing Lesley Mculloch. She published many articles in the Australian press and in the international press critical of Indonesia's role in Aceh and the military atrocities that were happening there.

I think when they picked up the two woman they weren't taken kindly to them because they probably immediately realised that they weren't tourists. I believe once they found out they had Lesley Mculloch they realised they were going to make a big incident out of this, and in fact they have said that they are going to make an example for other foreigners who want to come and interfere in Indonesian politics.

Woods: So what is the next step for these two women? Obviously, they face a hearing?

Biddle: Whenever the trial ends up being set, they face charges of violating their visas, which carry a penalty of five years and $US 2,800. When this finally comes to trial I think the woman are going to be somewhat happy, but we're trying to see that they just get deported like most people who violate their tourist visas.

Woods: What is the feeling about what may happen to these woman? Is it possible that they will face incarceration?

Biddle: I think people really are fearful that they could end up getting even the maximum here, the embassies have been very cloudy as to what kind of strategies they are pursuing to try to convince the authorities in Indonesia to let the women go or give them a light sentence.

Military investigation into Papua's Freeport killings

Radio Australia - November 11, 2002

[Indonesia's Armed Forces chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, has agreed to send a special team to the province of Papua, to probe claims of military involvement in killings of three three people at the American-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, 10 weeks ago. Police and human rights investigations into the killings have pointed to military involvement, setting back efforts by Indonesia to strengthen its already damaged defence relations with the US.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald

Speakers: Stanley Harsha, Jakarta's US Embassy spokesman; Doctor Benny Giay, Papua's human rights group ELSHAM; Greg Polgrain, University of Queensland.

Fitzgerald: The United States suspended its military ties with Indonesia after violence in East Timor three years ago.

Some US military funding has started flowing again, in the wake of the global terrorism threat, but the resumption of full military ties rests heavily on the outcome of the Freeport Mine investigation.

Freeport is the largest gold mine in the world and represents one of America's most profitable commercial projects in Indonesia.

I Made Pastika who now heads the Bali bombing investigation, was Papua's former police chief.

He led the investigation into the Freeport killings, which claimed the lives of one Indonesian and two American school teachers, an investigation which indicated military involvement and which has been closely monitored by the US Government.

Jakarta's US Embassy spokesman, Stanley Harsha.

Harsha: "We consulted closely with the indonesian police throughout the investigation. we're gravely concerned that the Indonesian police suspect military involvement. We also strongly urge the Indonesian police and military to co-operate in the investigation and apprehension of those responsible for the Papuan murders."

Fitzgerald: Immediately after the Freeport killings military officials blamed Papua's independence rebels, the OPM for the killings, and said they should be outlawed as a terrorist organisation. But leaked intelligence reports have suggested Defence Chief Sutarto himself may have been aware an attack was planned on the mine.

Doctor Benny Giay heads Papua's human rights group ELSHAM. He says local Papuans will co-operate with the military investigation team as Papuans don't want to be blamed for any attacks on foreign civilians.

Giay: "It would be wise if the military can come up with their own investigation and put the investigation on the table. So if the military want to do the investigation, that's all right."

Fitzgerald: Doctor Giay says ELSHAM's own report into the Freeport killings, which found the military had carried out the attack in an effort to discredit the Papuan independence movement, provoked an angry response in Jakarta.

He says last month the ELSHAM office in Jakarta was raided by unknown men who seized all the organisations reports on the Freeport killings. As a result that office has been temporarily shut down.

Giay: "There were unidentified people who came over to the office and broke into the office and we thought it was done by the military, or somebody else. That's part of the, I think that's a reaction to ELSHAM's investigation of the killings."

Fitzgerald: Greg Polgrain of the University of Queensland, says the raids on ELSHAM occurred because the office was being used to hold the group's reports on the Freeport killings.

Polgrain: "The fact that some unidentified men can break in and take away computers and information and no charges have been laid, is totally outrageous. In a way it doesn't matter because the police have the information in any case so it seems just like a threat or a warning to the human rights groups that that action was carried out."

Fitzgerald: In Papua the Freeport killings are being overshadowed by ceremonies honouring the first anniversary of the death of independence leader Chief Theys Eluay. The charismatic chief was murdered a year ago, and hundreds of people have participated in peaceful protests over the chief's death.

ELSHAM's Doctor Benny Giay, he has little confidence the killers of Chief Eluay will be brought to justice.

Giay: "They are taking nine military officials to Surabaya to be tried in Surabaya."

Fitzgerald: So are you satisfied with that?

Giay: "No, no we are not satisfied. It's just the Indonesian way of trying to delay the whole investigation of Theys Eluay. We are not satisfied with that mainly because the generals who gave order to kill Theys Eluay are not implicated in those reports." Greg Polgrain says the killings of Chief Eluay and the Freeport school teachers have shown up a weakness in the prosecuting powers of the Indonesian police.

He is sceptical about the value military investigations when its military personal are the suspects.

Polgrain: "It reflects I think the problem between the police and the military, the army. I think there's some inability of the police to press charges or to carry through with accusations like that. You have to put it into the political court, I think, to get anything done and I doubt very much whether Megawati is in a position to accuse the Head of the Army of being involved in shooting Americans right now."

Violence in West Papua and the role of the military

Australian Financial Review - November 15, 2002

Denise Leith and John Wing -- Over the past few years a growing body of evidence has linked the Indonesian military (TNI) with the activities of terrorist groups within the republic.

The most blatant example occurred in East Timor in 1999 when proxies trained and armed by TNI waged a campaign of terror against Christian Timorese. Since then TNI has been linked to the training and movement of Laskar Jihad warriors across Indonesia where they have spread death and destruction in restive areas including Aceh, the Malukus, Poso and now West Papua.

At the same time, Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces, has been linked to the funding and training of an East Timorese-style militia group in Papua called Satgas Merah Putih. While East Timor was the highest profile case of TNI destabilisation, Papua has suffered under a similar level of terror for many years.

Since the abduction and murder of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay by Kopassus in November last year, many indigenous leaders and human rights activists fear for their lives amid heavy intimidation and surveillance. In mid-September the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assured the Australia West Papua Association that "Laskar Jihad has no known links to international terrorist networks. The Indonesian police have been vigilant towards Laskar Jihad's presence, raiding the camps in December 2001 and early 2002".

According to Papuan sources, however, no such raids have taken place with the number of Laskar Jihad militants in Papua growing dramatically since January. A few days after the publicised disbanding of Laskar Jihad (announced hours before the Bali bombing), Papuan religious leader Pastor Terry Joku pleaded help in an ABC interview as Laskar Jihad members surrounded his house in Jayapura threatening to kill him. Joku said the death threats had started last year, the day after Eluay's murder.

While boatloads of Laskar Jihad members were reported to have left Maluku after the Bali bombings, the same exodus has not occurred from Papua. According to a Papuan non-government group, the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELSHAM), hundreds more Laskar militants have arrived in Jayapura. Spokesman Aloi Renwarin saysthat at least 300 Laskar members arrived from Ambon on October 26. He estimates there are about 3,000 Laskar members spread across several towns including Sorong, Manokwiri and Jayapura.

There have been other reports of gangs trying to cause trouble between Muslims and Christians in Jayapura. Last week, the South China Morning Post quoted a local pastor as saying that perpetrators caught by Papuans had admitted to being paid to attack Christians and their churches.

The willingness of the military to use brutal methods is well documented in Indonesia's recent history. All the latest evidence points to the involvement of Kopassusin an attack in late August on employees of the giant US-owned Freeport gold and copper mine in West Papua which resulted in the deaths of two American teachers and an Indonesian employee.

While TNI automatically blamed the Free Papua Movement (OPM), investigations by the police and ELSHAM have implicated the military. It is widely believed that TNI wanted to use the attack as justification for a crackdown on the OPM and increased "protection" payments from Freeport.

Because Jakarta has never been able to adequately fund the military, it has always encouraged TNI to become involved in business, both legal and illegal. And so the military has become the paid "protector" of businesses in Indonesia, especially the lucrative extractive industries dominated by wealthy foreign capital.

To this end, BP's new Tanggah liquefied gas field in western Papua is seen as a lucrative opportunity that TNI is keen to exploit. BP is aware of the financial and social costs associated with Freeport's relationship with the military and has said that it doesn't want to make the same mistakes. It has promoted a military-free zone or a locally raised security force. Recently TNI was accused of instigating violence in nearby Wasior to justify its presence in the concession.

The anti-terrorism decree enacted by Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri after the Bali bombing is generally considered window-dressing to appease the West and to give the military a green light to increase repression. A senior Western diplomat in Jakarta, quoted by the South China Morning Post, said last week: "I think there will be a trend in that direction, and it is encouraged by the government's perception that it would be meeting the expectations and demands of foreign governments."

An indication of the military's belief that Bali is an opportunity to further consolidate its power was recently provided by army chief Ryamizard Ryacudu, who said: "What happened in Bali shows what happens when a civilian government does not allow the armed forces to act."

However, Wimar Witoelar, an Indonesian commentator and spokesman for former president Abdurrahman Wahid, has openly accused the military of carrying out the attack in Bali and urges caution: "The plot is probably hatched by hardline military rogues as impatient as many are with Megawati, but coming from the right flank. This is certainly an excuse for the entry of a military takeover unless it is pre-empted."

While Western governments are considering re-establishing relations with the military, those with first hand knowledge of the country and its problems believe the only way to increase security is to hold the armed forces to account; to fight corruption of the military rather than reward it with closer ties. "You wouldn't believe the lack of faith being expressed in this government," says Sidney Jones, head of the International Crisis Group's Jakarta office.

"The president should consider the fact that the two institutions in this country which Indonesians have least faith in are the armed forces and the police. If Megawati now decides to give more power to those two institutions, ... then we have a serious problem. The armed forces are jumping on the bandwagon of the need for new powers. This illuminates the single core issue in the post-Soeharto era, which is that the military is no longer interested in conducting actions designed to defend the regime. The armed forces now act only if they are paid for it. They have become an army for hire."

Military personnel in areas of conflict across Indonesia foment violence in order to maintain control over their business activities and to justify their continued presence in these regions. With the military and the terrorists perpetrating violence with impunity in West Papua, Papuans see their only recourse is removal of the feared TNI presence through an act of self-determination.

However, in allowing the military to expand its role by igniting a war on terrorism against the Papuan independence movement, the Indonesian government risks sidelining advocates of peaceful solutions to the issues facing Papua. It also risks entrenching corruption and militarism in eastern Indonesia for yet another generation.

Recent attempts at dialogue and the declaration of a "zone of peace" proposed by the Papuans will be stillborn. The cry for freedom is so loud that widespread conflict looms if Papuan aspirations continue to be ignored. It would appear that TNI's continued support of militias and terrorist groups is a deliberate trigger aimed at setting off an explosion of violence in Papua that could last for years with serious implications for Australia and its Pacific neighbours.

TNI is eager to resume close ties with the West and to have funding reinstated, but its unwillingness to investigate and prosecute officers responsible for the carnage in East Timor has been a major stumbling block. Today, however, George Bush's "war against terrorism" is seen by the military as the means for achieving its goals.

Australia's defence minister, Robert Hill, has argued for the resumption of ties with Kopassus, which he sees as the only counter-terrorist force in Indonesia. This is despite knowledge of Kopassus involvement in the attack on the American teachers at Freeport, the assassination of Eluay and the violence in East Timor. Rather than establishing close ties with the military again, a policy that will only encourage further human rights violations, what may be of greater benefit to Indonesia, Papua, Australia and the region is more emphasis on the role of provincial police, their training and skills development.

Co-operation has developed after Bali, and Australia has long experience in police-training programs with other nations in the region. Australian Federal Police on the ground in Papua is a logical step in the gathering of intelligence on possible terrorist infiltration. "Community policing", involving local human rights organisations, has been advocated by Human Rights Asia. Control of ports and mines by a more professional network of provincial security agencies would ensure greater command over the entry of terrorist cells. Recruitment of Papuans into positions of responsibility may also alleviate resentment of the Jakarta-centric system that controls all aspects of Papuan life a resentment that is only aggravated by the prevailing approach to governance and an enduring legacy of brutality.

The future of West Papua is pivotal to the stability of this region. When news of the Freeport killings first made headlines, the deputy chief of the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, Imron Cotan, demanded that the perpetrators be listed as a terrorist organisation and funding to the group cease.

Australia would do well to heed his advice. Whatever decisions the Australian government makes in the coming weeks will have long-term ramifications for our security and that of our Indonesian neighbour.

[Denise Leith is a Sydney-based political scientist and author of a book on the Freeport mine. John Wing is a founding member of the Sydney branch of the Australia West Papua Association.]

'War on terrorism'

Credibility of police work in Bali case raises doubts

Jakarta Post - November 11, 2002

Fitri Wulandari and A'an Suryana, Jakarta/Bali -- Oddities in the police investigation into the Bali bombing need further explanation for the sake of credibility, an intelligence analyst said on Sunday.

A former State Intelligence Coordinating Board (Bakin) official, AC Manullang, said the police had to work hard to collect more evidence before reaching the conclusion that Amrozi and his accomplices were truly the suspects in the high profile case. "It is hard to believe that a junior high school graduate such as Amrozi could be part of a professional team who exploded bombs in Bali," he told The Jakarta Post.

Manullang questioned why Amrozi stayed for only two days in Bali, as the police claim, to prepare for the bombing. True professionals, he said, required more time for such preparations.

He also pointed out how easily the police found a set of VCDs (Video Compact Discs), photo albums and other evidence in Amrozi's house in East Java. "Usually, a suspect hides or destroys incriminating evidence," said Manullang.

Amrozi, a mechanic, was apprehended after almost one month of investigation, which was marred by some false arrests. Police said the 40-year-old man had bought a car which carried the bomb that exploded in front of Sari Club nightclub. At least 190 people were killed in the blast, with nearly 100 others remaining unaccounted for.

Despite some odd facts, Manullang refused to say that the police were engineering the case. "I don't want to talk about politics," he asserted.

Separately, the police force expressed concern about allegations that police had engineered the case using Amrozi as a scapegoat.

Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, the spokesman for the joint investigative team, said the police carried out the probe based on credible evidence and testimonies from the witnesses.

"From the evidence and witnesses, we believe that Amrozi was involved in the bombing. It is not engineered," Aritonang told reporters on Sunday.

The investigation has run smoothly, in stark contrast to other bombing cases in the country and even the terrorist attack on the United States on Sept. 11 last year blamed on al-Qaeda.

Dismissing the doubts, Aritonang said that the investigation had been conducted in a professional manner. "Evidence and testimonies from witnesses are enough to prove that Amrozi is a prime suspect in the case," Aritonang said.

The evidence includes the Mitsubishi L-300 minivan, explosive materials and some rented houses, which had been used to plan and assemble the bombs, Aritonang said.

Aritonang added that the receipts for the purchase of chemicals as the explosive raw material had strengthened accusations leveled at Amrozi. Also, the testimonies from witnesses helped the police reach their conclusion, he said.

"Amrozi initially denied that he bought the Mitsubishi minivan where the bomb was planted. But, we could produce witnesses who confirmed that Amrozi had bought the car," Aritonang said.

Meanwhile, amid the controversy, criminal law expert Loebby Loeqman called on the public not to prematurely judge police work.

"The investigation is still underway. The police need more time to collect more evidence and witnesses, in order to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the case," said Loebby.

Loebby asserted that the police may have strong indications, besides the evidence that led them to declare Amrozi a suspect.

Long trail of clues that led to a Bali suspect

New York Times - November 13, 2002

Jane Perlez in Denpasar -- Two early breaks, including the discovery of a red getaway motorbike, combined with old-fashioned detective work, led Indonesian police to the first suspect in the Bali terrorist attack.

The chief investigator, General I Made Mangku Pastika, one of Indonesia's most respected policemen, described how the small clique of Islamic militants who carried out the bombings in front of a crowded nightclub made several basic mistakes. Those errors helped crack the case, even though, he said, it was a somewhat "high-tech", strategically smart operation.

They left a red motorbike outside a mosque soon after the blast. The bike had residue of the unexploded bomb and fingerprints, General Pastika said.

They tried hard, he said, by changing a number on the chassis of the vehicle that carried the bomb, but they missed another number that investigators were ultimately able to link to the suspect, Amrozi, who was arrested last week.

The United States contends that an operative for al-Qaeda named Hambali was the mastermind for the Bali blast. Hambali, an Indonesian who is said to be the leader of the group's South-East Asian operations, is the subject of a manhunt in the region.

The names of 10 Indonesians were given to the police during the interrogation of Amrozi and all are believed to be followers of a militant Islamic ideology, General Pastika said.

While the Bali case is far from solved, the arrest of Amrozi, 40, a car mechanic and acolyte of the radical Islamic preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, came as something of a surprise. "I understand people don't believe what we have reached in a short time," said General Pastika, who served as a commanding officer for the UN police in Namibia in the late 1980s and participated in advanced courses in police work in Australia.

For this investigation, he was allowed to hand-pick his staff. Furthermore, he said, "there is no perfect crime". To make his point, he described how Indonesian police, working with Australian and British investigators and a small FBI team, were able to pick up several trails that led them to Amrozi: the motorbike, the chassis and the explosives that Amrozi bought, apparently to make the bomb.

The first clue came when a bystander outside a mosque in Denpasar phoned the police an hour after the Kuta blast. The person thought it was odd, General Pastika said, that the motorcycle was parked at midnight outside the mosque.

When the police picked up the bike, they noticed the toggle switches on it had been fiddled with so that the light at the back of the bike would not show. This, it turned out, was an effort by whoever parked the van outside the disco to flee undiscovered.

From the numberplate, the police found the salesman who sold the bike several days before the attack. From that salesman, the investigators were able to draw the pictures of three suspects. One sketch showed a man with thick eyebrows and lanky shoulder- length hair, and resembled Amrozi, he said.

The hair proved to be another clue. After Amrozi was arrested, a hairdresser in his village told police he had recently cut Amrozi's hair twice in one week. "Two haircuts in one week -- that is very important to show this is a person who does not want to be recognised," General Pastika said.

The most elusive, but most conclusive, piece of evidence that linked Amrozi to the attack was the chassis of the 1983 white Mitsubishi L300 van found in the crater left by the blast.

The plotters were smart enough to know the explosives in the van would not completely destroy the chassis, he said. They changed noughts in the chassis number to sixes.

It was only when the remaining pieces of metal from the van were laid out that police discovered a second number they knew was needed for vans registered as taxis or buses. That number remained intact after the blast.

From that, the police traced the seven owners of the van, down to Amrozi, the most recent purchaser. General Pastika said the planning for the Bali attack was "low cost" -- about $A18,000 for explosives, the van, the motorcycle, rent for places used for a month to make preparations and other costs.

Many aliases traced back to one man

Indonesian police believe several Bali bomb suspects are the same person using different aliases and perhaps related to one of Asia's most wanted men, known as Hambali.

The head of the investigation, General I Made Pastika, told the Indonesian newspaper Kompas that a man called Mukhlas -- believed to be the brother of the arrested bomb suspect Amrozi -- was the same person as Ali Gufron, who was thought to be another of Amrozi's brothers.

He said these "two men" were, in turn, the same person as Huda bin Abdul Haq, one of the senior leaders in Malaysia of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah.

However, a Kompas source in Bali has added to the confusion over Mukhlas's identity, saying he is the older blood brother of Hambali, who is believed to be responsible for a string of terrorist attacks. Police believed Mukhlas was still in Bali, Kompas said.

Shadow play and rivalry can hurt Jakarta's image

Straits Times - November 13, 2002

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- The morning after a deadly bomb ripped apart a popular nightclub in Bali, three senior generals huddled together for a meeting with President Megawati Sukarnoputri at her residence.

Security czar Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, military chief Endriartono Sutarto and police commander Dai Bachtiar offered their theories on what could have happened that led to 191 people being killed.

Conspiracy theories are de rigueur in Indonesian politics. And nothing could stop one of the generals from indulging in one.

He told Ms Megawati that the chief of the state intelligence agency (BIN), Mr A. M. Hendropriyono, and his deputies, were seen on the island on October 12.

They must have conspired with the CIA to bomb Bali to force Jakarta to act against Muslim hardliners at home, he said. Fortunately, the four-star general got his facts wrong. Mr Hendropriyono and company were in Australia then to meet Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Unfortunately, however, incidents like this -- and many others brought to light in recent weeks -- do little to help Indonesia's image.

Jakarta cannot afford to be wrought with Javanese-style shadow plays and rivalries when the international community is looking for leadership and unity in fighting the scourge of terrorism. It has been anything but.

Amrozi, the part-time mechanic captured by police as a key suspect in the bombing, offers some hope that things are changing in the face of intense competition.

The name of the 30-year-old actually surfaced in intelligence briefs to the police, along with nine other names, earlier on in the investigation. But the police apparently preferred to pursue their own leads instead.

Likewise, the military intelligence agency (BAIS) -- now a pale shadow of its former self compared to the Suharto days -- preferred to do things its own way.

This changed somewhat when the President forced some degree of inter-agency cooperation among the police, BIN and BAIS.

It produced a result: Amrozi. But, ironically, Amrozi's capture is turning out to be a thorn in the sides of Gen Dai's rivals.

For the national police, of course, he is a prize catch, with whom it can gain political mileage, allowing it to thumb its nose at other security agencies.

But even as the police were exaggerating Amrozi's role in the attack by calling him a "field coordinator", the other two outfits were describing him scornfully as a "foot soldier". They suggest that it was his brother instead who played a bigger role in the bombing.

The key issue now is whether rival agencies will see benefit in sharing information and providing other pieces of the Bali puzzle if they think it is only going to allow the police to bask in glory for all their efforts.

This skewed mentality has often led key officials to forget what is at stake for Indonesia if the comical rivalry among them continues. That is its credibility internationally in dealing with a very serious problem.

Government & politics

Golkar Party enlists ex-servicemen

Jakarta Post - November 11, 2002

Debbie A. Lubis, Jakarta -- Embattled former ruling party Golkar has recruited a number of retired police and military officers into its ranks, which analysts described as a move to maintain or even improve its performance in the 2004 general elections.

The party has recruited to its colors Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. (ret) Noegroho Djajoesman, former coordinator of expert advisors to the Indonesian Military commander, Maj. Gen. (ret) I.G.N. Arcana, and former Jakarta deputy governor Abdul Kahfi.

Theo L. Sambuaga, one of Golkar's deputy chairpersons, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that it was the desire of the retired officers to join the party, and not the party who enticed them to join. Nevertheless, Theo said, it was not just former military and police officers who had recently joined the party, but also businesspeople, lawyers and former diplomats.

Theo said these people were recruited because they were close to Golkar and had achievements that the party could count on.

"This proves that Golkar is still attractive to many people although we often have different opinions among our leaders. It also shows that having different opinions is something normal and gives a sense of democracy. That makes the party attractive," he said.

Theo was apparently referring to differences of opinion among Golkar executives about the leadership of Akbar Tandjung over Golkar as well as the House of Representatives following Akbar's conviction by the Central Jakarta District Court of misappropriating Rp 40 billion (US$4.5 million) of public funds.

Theo, in fact, is one of the Golkar leaders who have asked Akbar to step down as the leader both of Golkar and the House. Other party leaders with the same opinion are Marwah Daud Ibrahim, Fahmi Idris and Agung Laksono.

Political analysts J. Kristiadi and Denny J.A. saw Golkar's recruitment of retired military and police officers as a move to anticipate the 2004 election. However, the two analysts differed on the possible effects on the party's performance in 2004.

Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said the recruitment of retired security officials could even make Golkar even look bad in the eyes of the people.

"It's a mistake to chose persons who have no selling points anymore instead of recruiting members of the younger generation who are broad-minded and have wider perspectives.

"It's just Golkar stupidity. It will make the party more isolated from the people. First, it already has a convicted leader, and now it is becoming militaristic," he said.

Kristiadi also said that Golkar's maneuver also showed that civilian politicians were still regarded as being inferior to the military.

Denny J.A. from Jayabaya University, however, differed and said the entrance of retired military and police officers into Golkar showed that they had submitted themselves to civilian leadership, the leadership of Akbar in Golkar.

He said the presence of retired officers would improve the party's image before the public, but not before non-governmental organization activists.

"The military is a symbol of security. People will support a party that can give a feeling of security as the realm of politics after the Bali bombings and the international war on terrorism has placed Muslims, or the majority of Indonesians, in a delicate position," Denny said.

However, Denny considered that Golkar's decision would be unpopular among activists. He contended that most NGOs were opposed to the military regaining its political power.

Media/press freedom

AJI protests attacks on journalists

Jakarta Post - November 13, 2002

Bambang Bider and Oyos Saroso H.N. Pontianak/Bandar Lampung -- The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) staged a demonstration to protest attacks against three journalists in Lampung and Pontianak, and demanded authorities to investigate the incidents thoroughly.

In Bandar Lampung, hundreds of journalists rallied on Tuesday in support of Syaifullah, a photojournalist at Lampung Post, who was attacked by a group of police officers on Monday.

Syaifullah gave his account of the incident to fellow journalists during the rally, that he was beaten and his camera seized when he was taking a photograph of several police beating up a driver who had hit their police car.

The rally, which was held at the Solfian Achmad Journalist Hall, concluded after the protesters agreed to establish an advisory team to back Syaifullah in the case.

Sr. Comr. Deddi Junaedi, chief of Bandar Lampung Police, said that the incident would be investigated thoroughly, and the delinquent police officers punished.

In a separate incident, two journalists were attacked in Pontianak on Monday. Anton Perdana, 22, a journalist at Equator daily, and Rizal Ardiyansyah, 23, a journalist at Volare radio station, reported that they were beaten by a member of the city legislative council.

The attack was linked to Anton's article on an alleged bribery case that involved the councillor, who was identified only as H. Ali Hanafia, chairman of the city council, called on local police to investigate the case thoroughly and fairly. "The councillor must be punished if he is found guilty in the case," he said.

Activists worry about information agency

Jakarta Post - November 12, 2002

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Press activists criticized the government's plan to establish a public information dissemination agency for fear that it would only pave the way for a return to the New Order's tight information policy.

Ignatius Haryanto, coordinator of the Coalition for Freedom to Access Information, said that the government had failed to clarify whether the agency would serve the President or the whole Cabinet.

"If this agency will only serve the President, why doesn't the government appoint a spokesperson to communicate her policies?. But if this agency is also to serve the Cabinet, I think the press faces a serious threat, because in several policies regarding technical matters like economics or banking, we need experts instead of a spokesman to explain those things," Haryanto told The Jakarta Post.

State Minister for Information and Telecommunications Syamsul Mu'arif said the government planned to establish the public information agency to disseminate information from its own perspective and to avoid the confusing information spread by the press.

Syamsul said that the agency would gather all news on government policies and the public could access any information regarding government policies through it, "therefore the agency should become a reliable source." Separately, Ati Nurbaiti, chairwoman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), said that the plan proved that the Office of the State Minister of Information had never been quite sure of what it was assigned to do since its inception, although it did state that it would not censor the press.

"The news that the government is to establish a public information dissemination agency is alarming; it reinforces suspicions of a government's prone to efforts to return, in many ways so far, to the days when it could steer press content to ensure accuracy according to its definition," Ati said on Monday.

Both Ati and Haryanto agreed that the presence of a presidential spokesman had indeed been suggested to make her intentions clear to the media and the public at large.

But a planned information agency as described by Syamsul would not help measures toward an informed society, particularly given the country's experience under the New Order, Ati said.

"Within this current war against terrorism even citizens of the supposedly most democratic nation, the United States, have become alarmed at what is seen as threats to civil liberties, including those pertaining to access to information.

"Members of the public must be free to access and select information to help them to make decisions and eventually become involved in decision-making which affects their lives," Ati said, adding that the answer to frequent complaints of inaccurate reports, which were not always unfounded, lies only in increasing professionalism within media organizations and by professional associations.

Human rights/law

Wrongful arrests on the rise: Reports

Jakarta Post - November 16, 2002

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta -- Kartini, a vegetable vendor, was standing on the sidewalk after shopping for vegetables at the Cengkareng traditional market in West Jakarta, when several Public Order Officers came and forced her into their truck.

She was arrested because she failed to produce her ID card, which she said was stolen along with her wallet, on the first day of Ramadhan, November 6.

Kartini, 30, showed the officers a letter from the police explaining that she had lost the ID card. Yet, the Public Order Officers refused to let her go, believing that she was a prostitute.

The woman, a single mother of one, was just one of 452 people sent to the city administration's social rehabilitation center in Kedoya, West Jakarta, as a result of the raids conducted by the officers since the beginning of Ramadhan.

On Thursday afternoon November 14, Aris, a resident of Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta sat forlornly outside the institution's visiting room. He was trying in vain to get his relative, Kartini, released, after she was locked up in the center late on Wednesday evening.

To make things more complicated, he said, the center failed to inform any of Kartini's relatives. Aris was only able to find out about her abduction at around noon on Thursday from the center's cleaning lady, who was paid by Kartini to call Aris.

He rushed to Kedoya only to be told that he had to obtain letters from Kartini's neighborhood administration, the subdistrict and the regency administration regarding her residential status before the Social Affairs Agency could approve her release.

"She did nothing wrong, but the officers brought her here anyway. And now, I cannot take her home until the day after tomorrow [Saturday]," he told The Jakarta Post.

The Public Order Officers have intensified the raids against beggars, vagrants, prostitutes and other people labeled by the city government as those with community and social problems (PMKS).

While any positive aspects of the raids remain to be seen, there reportedly have been many people wrongfully arrested.

The head of the Kedoya center's character and moral development department, Aseli Husin, admitted frequent mistakes had been committed by the officers because they often just combed the city's streets or areas near known red-light districts.

He said that only 31 of the 64 women categorized as sex workers held since November 6 had been positively identified as prostitutes. Those 31 were sent to a special institution, the Bina Karya Wanita Harapan Mulia in Cipayung, North Jakarta, earlier on Thursday. The rest, including Kartini, were still in Kedoya, pending clarification of their identity.

On Thursday, the center, which has a capacity to house around 300 people, sent home 110 people, mostly beggars, to their homes in West Java and Central Java.

Another 80 people, including the 31 sex workers, were sent to undergo rehabilitation at various institutions all over Jakarta after receiving guidance and short-courses such as silk-screening and doormat-production.

The acting head of the center, Djoko Haryanto, denied the statements from several beggars who claimed that they were released from Kedoya after paying a bribe.

He explained that the center deliberately imposed difficult procedures to release the people in a bid to teach a lesson to them and to make their families or those responsible for them to take care of them and to pay more attention to them.

"But don't get me wrong. People used to say that we'd take money. The fact is, though, people have to spend a lot of money to obtain all the required documents as well as to pay transportation fees before we release their relatives," he quickly added.

Djoko also said that many people came to claim themselves as the fathers or brothers of the commercial sex workers. "Many of them are actually lawyers or police officers," he said.

News & issues

Remissions for Tommy Suharto and Bob Hasan

Laksamana.Net - November 14, 2002

Former president Suharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandla Putra, currently serving a 15 year jail sentence for murder, weapons possession and fleeing justice, is likely to be granted a one-month remission in conjunction with the Islamic holiday of Idul Fitri next month.

Tommy is doing time at Nusakambangan island prison off the southern coast of Central Java. He is in a cell next door to that of his father's former golfing buddy and long-time business crony Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, who is serving a six-year jail sentence for corruption.

On August 17, on the occasion of Indonesia's Independence Day, Hasan had his sentence reduced by five months, while Tommy received a remission of one month for good behavior, even though he had been serving his sentence for less than four weeks.

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry's director general for correctional institutions Adi Sujatno on Thursday said all prisons and detention centers throughout Indonesia have submitted proposals for clemency for various convicts to coincide with Idul Fitri and Christmas.

He said Tommy and Hasan were very likely to receive remissions ranging from 15 days to one month for good behavior.

"I think Mr Bob Hasan, who has been in jail for quite a while, will receive at least a one-month remission," he said, adding that Tommy would also have his sentence reduced.

Justice on trial as Semanggi shootings remembered

Jakarta Post - November 13, 2002

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta -- The capital went into mourning on November 13, 1998, when 12 people were killed and dozens of others were injured, mostly by gunfire, during clashes between antigovernment protesters led by students and heavily armed police officers and soldiers.

But the case has not gone to trial yet. Although its case files, along with those of two other shooting cases of students, are in the hands of the Attorney General's Office, the investigation has not started yet due to a decision by legislators that no human rights violations occurred during the three incidents.

"The Attorney General's Office gave the decision as its reason to keep returning the case files to us for further correction," Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a discussion at Atma Jaya Catholic University titled "Counting the Days of the Semanggi Tragedy", which was organized by Atma Jaya Catholic University to commemorate the tragedy. The discussion was attended by those who were present at the incident and the relatives of the victims.

House of Representatives' member Firman Jaya Daely, human rights campaigner Asmara Nababan, social observer Hilmar Farid and cultural observer Mudji Sutrisno were also speakers at the discussion.

They all said the prosecutors were hiding behind the decision and were reluctant to investigate the involvement of high-ranking military and police officials in the incidents.

Firman said that the House's decision should be ignored because it was not made in accordance with existing Law No. 26/2000 on human rights trials, which stipulates that the House should make a recommendation to the president before establishing an ad hoc human rights trial for a specific case. This recommendation should have been made according to the results of investigations conducted by the Human Rights Commission, he said.

"However, the decision was made by voting long before Komnas HAM held an inquiry. I suggest that the prosecutors go on with the probe, especially because they have the authority to force witnesses to show up for questioning.

"After the prosecutors draw a conclusion on whether there were human rights violations, the House will ask the government to set up a tribunal," Firman said. Komnas HAM has questioned several people connected with the shooting deaths of four Trisakti University students on May 12, 1998 while protesting against then president Soeharto inside the university compound and the two incidents that took place at the Semanggi overpass on November 13, 1998 and September 24, 1999, in which more students and residents were killed.

A rain of bullets hit several people, including students who had gathered in front of the Atma Jaya campus after they tried in vain to stop a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). The victims included Sigit Prasetyo, 18, of YAI Accountant College, Bernardus R. Norman Irawan, or Wawan, 20, of Atma Jaya, and Teddy Madani of the Indonesian Technology Institute in Serpong, Tangerang.

Two others, Muzamil Djoko Purwanto and Abdullah, both from the University of Indonesia, died while in hospital after suffering from severe head injuries. Police said that they had used rubber bullets and blanks.

Both the police and military refused to meet Komnas HAM's summonses for an inquiry, arguing that a military court had heard the case and several soldiers had been sentenced.

Wawan's father, Arif Priyadi, said the investigation into the cases would not be aimed at taking revenge on the perpetrators, but "to avoid more lives of the young generation from being brutally taken by the authorities".

Health & education

Malnutrition among children hits alarming level

Jakarta Post - November 12, 2002

A'an Suryana, Jakarta -- Shocking government statistics show that more than 25 percent of Indonesia's 18 million under five-year- old children are suffering from malnutrition.

And experts are warning the "alarming" figure is worsening due to the government's lack of will to deal with the problem.

Ministry of Health data shows that 4.5 million toddlers suffered from malnutrition in 2000, with the picture now even more bleak.

Community Nutrition Director Rachmi Untoro blamed the economic crisis, which has plagued the country since 1997, as the main factor, as increasing poverty meant children starved.

"The number has reached an alarming level ... 25 percent of children are malnourished in Indonesia," Rachmi said, adding the figure should be no more than 5 percent.

Speaking at a seminar on child growth and poverty, Rachmi said the government was considering reviving abandoned integrated health service posts (Posyandu) throughout the country to help poor families feed their toddlers.

Rachmi said that after the crisis, around half the 240,000 Posyandu in the country closed as the volunteer staff were forced to ensure their own survival.

Many poor families in both rural and urban areas relied much on government assistance through the Posyandu to monitor the health of their children.

Rachmi said the government could provide regular allowances to people managing Posyandu so the posts could continue to serve poor families. Assistance from international organizations was also needed, Rachmi said.

Cospeaker Steve Allen, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) representative in Indonesia, said it was ready to help the government address the malnutrition problem. Unicef provided US$1 million per year to Indonesia to nurture children's development, including combating malnutrition, he said.

"Malnutrition is a leading cause of poor human resources development and consequently greatly contributes to persistent poverty," he said.

Armed forces/Police

Memorial honors troops, civilians killed in Timor

Jakarta Post - November 11, 2002

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- President Megawati Soekarnoputri inaugurated on Sunday the Seroja Memorial, located inside the compound of the Indonesian Military (TNI) Headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, as part of a ceremony commemorating National Heroes Day.

The memorial is dedicated to soldiers and civilians who died during the integration of East Timor into Indonesia in 1976.

After more than two decades, East Timor seceded from Indonesia through a United Nations-sponsored ballot on August 30, 1999. East Timor became independent on May 20, 2002, in a ceremony also attended by Megawati.

During the ceremony, only TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto delivered a speech. "Relatives of soldiers are allowed to visit the memorial anytime," Endriartono said.

Also present at the ceremony were Megawati's husband Taufik Kiemas, House Speaker Akbar Tandjung, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno and National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief A.M. Hendropriyono. Several soldiers who took part in the operation in East Timor in 1976 also attended the ceremony.

The memorial was built on an area of 126 meters by 92.5 meters. Its construction started on June 6 of this year and finished on November 5. The memorial has several walls providing a description of the history of East Timor from its integration into Indonesia in 1976 until its secession in 1999.

The names of 1,527 soldiers, police personnel and civilians who were killed during the operation are engraved on the 23 walls of the memorial.

Earlier in the day, Akbar presided over a ceremony at the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery in South Jakarta, while Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Jusuf Kalla led a ceremony aboard the Tanjung Kambani warship in Jakarta Bay, Antara reported.

Present at the occasion were Minister of Resettlement and Regional Infrastructure Soenarno, State Minister of Communications and Information Syamsul Mu'arif, and Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh.

Other ceremonies commemorating National Heroes Day were held at government offices in Jakarta and in regional areas.

Historian Aswi Warman Adam of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that the ceremonies were necessary to remind the nation of its struggle for independence. However, Aswi questioned the criteria used to decide if someone was a hero.

A presidential decree issued in 1964 classifies heroes into two categories: those who died in the struggle for independence and those who made a significant achievement for the nation.

With this classification, there are more heroes from the military than those who are civilians, Aswi said. "We have to change that criteria and the standard has to be in line with current conditions," Aswi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The President, Aswi said, had to make public the names of nominees up for the national hero award to prevent corrupters from taking it.

Aswi said about 7,000 people had been buried at Kalibata Heroes Cemetery, of which 6,000 were military and police personnel, while the rest were civilians.

Of the 6,000 military and police personnel, 5,000 were from the Army, and the remaining 1,000 were from the Air Force, Navy, and police. "I think it would be more precise to call it the Army's cemetery," he said.

The ceremonies commemorating National Heroes Day were aimed at remembering and paying tribute to those who fell during the struggle for independence.

The date November 10 was named National Heroes Day because of a battle against colonial forces in Surabaya, East Java, on the same day in 1945, three months after Indonesia declared its independence on August 17, 1945.

International relations

Replacing one poison with another

Sydney Morning Herald - November 14 2002

James Dunn -- For the Howard Government to move to restore links with Indonesia's special forces command, Kopassus, at this time, would be an act of indecent haste.

Last week, the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, said: "Kopassus is the counter-terrorist capability in Indonesia and to defeat terrorists requires co-operation and mutual support."

However, this notorious KGB-like organisation has been an instrument for state terrorism in Indonesia as well as in East Timor. Its powers may have been curbed slightly but essentially it remains unreformed, an elite force endowed with special powers which, based on reports from Papua and Aceh, continues to engage in dirty tricks.

Under Soeharto, Kopassus took on the powerful KGB-type role as the protector of the regime and the integrity of the state. The annexation of East Timor was its proud military achievement. It was officers of Kopassus, in its earlier guise (RPKAD), who planned and led the covert military operation into East Timor in October 1975, and who then became the virtual ruling military elite in the colony. They led the military campaign against the Falintil resistance, and set the pattern for political repression, through their control over intelligence operations.

Kopassus officers were behind acts of state terror far worse in their consequences than the bombings in Bali. One of these was the Creras massacre in 1983 -- which the Hawke government chose to disregard. As we were later to discover, more than 1000 Timorese, including women and children, were slaughtered in a brutal rampage.

However, the so-called militia violence and the huge destruction in 1999 is the best case study of a Kopassus operation. The militia phenomenon in East Timor was, in the first instance, the outcome of deliberate planning by Kopassus generals, principally Sjafrei Sjamsuddin and Zakky Anwar Makarim, who feared that then president Habibie's readiness to negotiate risked the loss of a territory they had shed blood to acquire for Indonesia.

They planned the structure of the militia and arranged finance and training for these units to conduct a campaign of violent intimidation. On occasion, Kopassus colonels exhorted militia leaders to kill independence supporters and nuns and priests, "for the church is our enemy".

In 1999, in the months before the Interfet arrival, Kopassus officers, including Major-Generals Zakky Anwar, Adam Damiri, Mahidin Simbolon and Brigadier-General Tono Suratnam, played key command roles in relation to the killing of more than 1000 Timorese, the destruction of 72 per cent of all buildings and houses and the forced deportation of some 250,000 Timorese to West Timor. Individual officers, such as Colonel Sediono and Lieutenant Colonel Siagian played command roles in two of the worst atrocities in East Timor, at Suai and Maliana.

What took place in East Timor in 1999 was nothing less than a Kopassus conspiracy, which other leading generals, such as Wiranto, were happy to go along with. It took the form of a classic campaign of state terrorism but the chief perpetrators seem unlikely to be brought to account for their crimes against humanity. Suddenly, their crimes are insignificant when compared with those of al-Qaeda. As things stand, none of the officers concerned has even been reprimanded.

Most have moved to other posts, often with promotions. For a time Major-General Damiri commanded TNI troops in Aceh, while his second-in-command, Mahidin Simbolon, is presently military commander in Papua, where Kopassus is again accused of engaging in dirty tricks.

It is really important, not least from our longer term security interests, that Kopassus should not at this stage be accorded the respectability we seem to be contemplating.

That should depend on a proper investigation of its past record of crimes against humanity, with those responsible being brought to account. To engage with Kopassus now, in the fight against terrorism, is risking resorting to the use of war criminals to fight war criminals.

[James Dunn is a former foreign affairs specialist who served as consul in Portuguese Timor.]

Should Australia re-establish Kopassus links?

Radio Australia - November 12, 2002

Linda Mottram -- Out of control and not to be trusted: that's the caution being sounded this morning to the Federal Government about Kopassus, as Canberra contemplates re-establishing links with Indonesia's disgraced special forces unit, which is also the country's special counter-terrorism unit.

After considerable speculation, the Prime Minister John Howard confirmed last night that the issue is under consideration, though Kopassus has been implicated in human rights abuses across Indonesia and in East Timor.

But the man formerly responsible for Australia's defence co- operation program with Indonesia has warned that the unit remains beyond the control of Indonesia's elected representatives.

Matt Brown reports from Canberra.

Matt Brown: Between 1996 and last year, Allan Behm was in charge of Australia's defence co-operation program.

This was back when the Australian SAS and Indonesia's disgraced Kopassus special forces used to train together in plane hijack scenarios and jungle warfare. And Allan Behm is enthusiastic about re-establishing close ties with the Indonesian military.

Allan Behm: Those particular activities were simply relatively minor outcomes from a program which was about policy and it was about the development of business links, if you like, between the Australian Defence Force and the Indonesian armed forces.

Matt Brown: Now, in the wake of the Bali bombings, that business is counter-terrorism and the government is considering rejuvenating the links with Kopassus at considerable political risk.

Allan Behm: The concern that you may not have long enough a handle on your spoon when you are supping with this particular devil.

Matt Brown: Allan Behm says there must be high level co-operation with the Indonesian military and between the two defence ministers, and he acknowledges that Kopassus is the most likely unit to be used if Australians are caught up in the middle of a plane hijack or hostage drama in Jakarta. But he is concerned that elements of Kopassus have been running out of control.

Allan Behm: The problem with control, always, is that you may transfer skills to these people which could be abused.

Matt Brown: Allan Behm was still responsible for the defence co- operation program in 1999, when the Kopassus sponsored militias razed East Timor.

Allan Behm: Kopassus was not under effective command and control of the most senior leadership of Indonesia. That led to the loss of many lives in East Timor and constituted quite serious threats to our own forces when General Cosgrove took them there in September 1999.

Matt Brown: Mr Behm says Kopassus has demonstrated its own terrorist tendencies, most recently amidst religious and ethnic violence in places like Kalimantan, and the Moluccas.

Allan Behm: Attacks on the churches and on the Christians, the way in which ethnic Chinese communities were singled out and subject, I think, to very serious application of terror, they look to me like skills that are not simply available to most regiments in the Indonesian armed forces.

Linda Mottram: Allan Behm, who was the head of the International Policy Division in the Department of Defence until last year.

Matt Brown was our reporter.

Canberra wants to 'dance with the devil'

Green Left Weekly - November 13, 2002

Alison Dellit -- "It was under the military rule of Suharto that Indonesia experienced the only decades of stability that it has so far enjoyed. They were decades of corruption and suppression, but also of increasing prosperity and stability. There is the depressing possibility that this is as good as it will get for a country like Indonesia, that the Suharto period -- or at least the first 20 years of it -- may seem in retrospect to be the country's golden era." These comments were made in an article titled "We must dance with the devil" written for the October 29 Australian by former Fraser government adviser Owen Harries, now a senior fellow at the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies. Harries' main point was that Australia should reinvigorate ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including its notorious Kopassus special forces.

Harries did not mention that the Suharto "golden age" was brought into being in 1965-66 through the slaughter of around a million members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party.

General Suharto held power until 1998 through brutal suppression of dissidents and independence movements in East Timor, West Papua and Aceh. Political censorship and fierce military attacks on protests were the norm.

Kopassus was a key part of Suharto's despotic regime. Many Kopassus officers were trained in Australia, and used the techniques they learned to torture and kill Indonesian critics of the Suharto regime. Since the mid-1990s, the Australian military has not had formal ties with Kopassus.

There is little to indicate that the TNI or Kopassus have changed their brutal ways. For example, according to an October 26 Washington Post article, Kopassus was found by both the FBI and West Papuan police chief Major-General I. Made Pastika to have been responsible for the killing of three workers, including two US citizens, at the Freeport mine in West Papua on August 31.

Then, a November 3 report in the Washington Post revealed that US intelligence information, collected separately to the FBI investigation, had shown that top TNI officers, including TNI commander Major-General Endriartono Sutarto, had discussed an attack on the mine, in order to discredit the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

The Post article also revealed that this information was collected by Australian intelligence, and passed on to the US government, by Canberra in mid-September. It was not made public. Nor has it deterred the Australian government from flagging the idea of a resumption of assistance to the TNI.

Addressing the ABC's Lateline on October 22, defence minister Robert Hill, in response to a question about joint operations between Australian SAS troops and Kopassus, said: "It's an issue that we have to again address, I believe. Kopassus has not had a good human rights record, but it is Indonesia's most effective response to terrorism".

Far from being an anti-terrorist force, the TNI is a sponsor of terrorist groups. According to a report released last December by the Belgian-based International Crisis Group, Jemaah Islamiyah was created by the head of Indonesia's military intelligence in the 1970s.

On October 23, a spokesperson for Indonesia's foreign affairs department, Marty Natalegawa, said Jakarta "would not accept the presence of foreign military on our soil".

Ignoring this statement, on November 7 Hill renewed calls for links to be made with Kopassus. He also said: "TNI is an important institution within Indonesia, it is an institution with which we can work constructively in our mutual interests." On November 5, foreign minister Alexander Downer added his voice to Hill's in supporting stronger Australian links with the whole Indonesian military machine, including Kopassus.

A feature article published in the October 26 Sydney Morning Herald laid out the arguments for supporting the TNI.

"September 11 and Bali have forced us to commit even more to homeland defence and to global hotspots like Iraq. The prospect of dealing with an out-of-control Indonesia on top of all these problems is almost too frightening to contemplate...

"The immediate security priority [to control Islamic fanatics] may collide heavily with the need to nourish and protect Indonesia's fragile democratic reform in the interests of long- term stability. This is where `gritting-the-teeth' comes in. Realpolitik is suddenly the main game." According to the article, Australia has to avoid two "poles" in Indonesian politics, which exist at opposite sides of the spectrum: "Nationalist fervour and Islamic outrage on one side and a lapse back into authoritarianism on the other." The article quoted Melbourne academic Damien Kingsbury arguing that resuming military ties with the TNI would not help "in the fight against terrorism". The TNI, Kingsbury added, "is an out-of-control organisation" and "supporting TNI in its current form" would undermine the process of democratisation of Indonesian society. Such qualifications, however, did not detract much from the article's general thrust.

All these arguments boil down to stating a couple of basic, and false, precepts -- all terrorism in the region comes from Muslim fanatics, and the only way to suppress Muslim fanatics is by supporting the region's repressive military establishments.

Others have been more cautious. Labor foreign affairs spokesperson Kevin Rudd told the ABC's Lateline program on November 5 that the ALP would oppose any ties between Kopassus and Australian SAS troops. Refusing to comment on broader links with the TNI, he reiterated only that the "most important collaboration" was with the Indonesian police forces.

Labor's position reflects unease among sections of Australia's ruling elite who believe that strengthening the military will be detrimental to Australian business in the region. It is also a recognition that most Australians are deeply opposed to strengthening the Indonesian military, at the expense of democracy and freedom in Indonesia, Aceh and West Papua.

Significant links already exist, however. Indonesian military personnel are trained in Australia, and Australian defence personnel are currently studying at Indonesian establishments.

According to Kingsbury, the United States is likely to follow Australia's lead if the Coalition pushes ahead with reinstating military ties. The ALP has indicated that it believes the US has a "more cautious" approach to Indonesian military ties.

Yet in a CNN interview on November 5, US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz said that the US needed "to do everything we can to bolster [Indonesian] democracy through economic assistance, through political support, and frankly, also through this admittedly controversial idea of rebuilding ties with the Indonesian military".

He continued: "We don't do that because we're under illusions that the Indonesian military is just a perfect institution with no problems. It has enormous problems. I would submit those problems have gotten a lot worse over the last 10 years, and I'm not sure I'm saying cause and effect, but over the last 10 years we have had a policy of isolating the Indonesian military. I wouldn't say it's been a stunning success in terms of promoting a better behaviour by the military, more disciplined behaviour by the military.

"Ironically, for many years Americans complained that the government of Indonesia was too authoritarian. We wanted to see democracy in Indonesia, which I devoutly wanted myself. Now we have democracy and some people are saying, `Well, why are they so concerned about civil liberties? Why don't they just lock them all up and put them in jail?'" Australian newspapers have also hosted a debate since the Bali bombings, about the best way to "influence" Indonesia. Many, led by the Australian's "editor at large" Paul Kelly, have argued that support for moderate Muslims, the "good guys", should be pursued even at the cost of ignoring human rights violations, but also at the cost of prominently supporting a war on Iraq. Others, particularly Age editor-in- chief Gregory Hywood have argued that Australia's alliance with the US is worth more than maintaining good relations with Jakarta. In a November 8 Age article, Hywood wrote: "The US spends 4% of its GDP on defence while Australia barely spends 2%. That's a significant sacrifice by the US on our behalf... It has essentially funded open, tolerant and generous society, which we pride ourselves on being... You don't get half a century of powerful defence coverage if, when things get a bit complex, you plead for special dispensation." This debate is not all it is cracked up to be. Both Kelly and Hywood agree that an invasion of Iraq is justified. The only difference is that Kelly would like to see such an invasion sanctioned by the UN and a "quiet" Australian involvement. Most importantly, both support a massive increase of war spending and a crackdown on civil liberties -- in Australia, the US and Indonesia. This might make the world a safer place for their newspapers' owners. It is unlikely, however, to make it safer for the rest of us.

Hill backs training terrorism-linked unit

Sydney Morning Herald - November 11, 2002

Jennifer Hewett -- The Minister for Defence, Robert Hill, has given his strongest backing yet to the controversial idea of Australia working with the Indonesian special forces unit Kopassus, despite concerns about its human rights abuses and possible links with some Islamic terrorist groups.

In the light of the Bali bombing and terrorist threats, Australia had to debate the issue seriously, Senator Hill said.

"I know some have just simply been dismissive," he said. "But Kopassus is the counter-terrorist capability in Indonesia and to defeat terrorists requires co-operation and mutual support."

It was possible to argue this sent "the wrong message in terms of the sort of values that we think underpin a civilised society", Senator Hill told Channel Ten yesterday.

"On the other hand, let's say there's an aircraft hijacking or something like that in Indonesia. It would be Kopassus that would be called in to address it."

A lot of Australians would agree to deal with Kopassus in such circumstances, he said, but it would be very difficult to build a relationship and understanding at the moment of crisis.

The Government has not dealt with Kopassus in recent years because of its human rights record. It is now a sensitive argument within the Government, with other ministers, such as the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, more circumspect.

Senator Hill's push will create political division. The Labor party is firmly against the prospect of co-operating with Kopassus. The Opposition's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said co-operation with Kopassus was simply "wrong".

Senator Hill insisted there was a good argument for it in terms of protecting Australians. But he did not repeat his earlier suggestion that Australia should consider joint operations with Kopassus on Indonesian soil, a proposal not welcome in Indonesia and quickly scotched by the Indonesian Government.

Instead, he said he was thinking only in terms of the Kopassus unit that had a counter-terrorism capability, and suggested it could involve Australian training in crisis handling.

"Basically it could be opening up our processes to them so they see how we address a crisis like that," Senator Hill said. "We've had the experience of our plans for the Olympics and for CHOGM, for example, and I think there's a lot they could learn from us in terms of effectively dealing with such a crisis. But we need to be able to talk with them to convey that message."

Apart from a long history of violence, support for militias in East Timor and claims that it was responsible for the assassination of the Papuan independence leader, Theys Eluay, Kopassus has been recently linked with past support for another Islamic Muslim extremist organisation, Laskar Jihad.

Mr Rudd said Senator Hill should explain why it was all right to work with Kopassus, which had an operational relationship with Laskar Jihad, in the fight against Jemaah Islamiah, believed to be behind the Bali bombings. "It doesn't add up," he said.

Economy & investment

Economic growth revised downwards for 2002

Jakarta Post - November 16, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- The city administration announced on Friday that the recent Bali bombing tragedy has affected the city's economic growth, and has forced a revision from the previously estimated 3.87 percent to between 3.5 percent and 3.7 percent this year.

"There will be a greater impact on next year's economic growth," city administration spokesman Muhayat told reporters at City Hall, revealing the results of an analysis made by the City Office of the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Muhayat said due to the tragedy, which occurred on October 12 and claimed the lives of more 190 people, the city has also had to revise the expected economic growth next year, down from 4.03 percent to between 3.4 percent and 3.9 percent.

He said the growth of the trade, hotel and restaurant industries was predicted at 5.4 percent, but as a result of the Bali tragedy they would only grow by between 4.57 percent and 5.05 percent this year.

According to the bureau, the number of foreign tourists was earlier predicted to reach 1.3 million and had reached 914,742 visitors to the country by September. It is now expected that the number of tourists will decrease by 7.7 percent.

The bureau predicts that the number of foreign tourists would increase slightly to between 1.2 million people and 1.25 million people next year although some countries, including the United States, have issued travel warnings to Indonesia. It said that the most of the tourists visiting Jakarta were from Asian countries that have not issued travel warnings.

While the number of foreign tourists were estimated to decrease, domestic tourists to Jakarta were predicted to increase from 6.66 million people this year to 6.83 million people next year, and to 6.99 million people in 2004.

The administration predicted that the revenue from hotels and restaurants would not decrease next year, since about 75 percent of tourists to Jakarta are locals. This year, the city has estimated that they will secure Rp 470 billion in taxes from hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers.

Muhayat also said that government spending and public consumption contributed up to 64 percent of the city's economic growth and as such, this year's economic program, called the Subdistricts Residents' Empowerment (PPMK), was developed to help increase people's buying power.

Household consumption is predicted to increase by between 4.92 percent and 5.01 percent next year, and between 4.67 percent and 4.76 percent in 2004; while government spending was predicted to rise by between 3.95 percent and 4.02 percent next year, and between 4.06 percent to 4.14 percent in 2004.

As of October, inflation in the city had reached 6.7 percent and it was predicted to reach between 9.5 percent and 10 percent this year due to the seasonal holidays of Idul Fitri, Christmas, and New Year's.

Focus on economy in the wake of the Bali bombings

Radio Australia - November 15, 2002

[In the wake of the October 12 bombing on the Sari Club at Kuta Beach, tourist arrivals to the island of Bali have fallen by 75 percent. Now, for each hotel bed that is occupied, six more lie empty. The impact is being felt throughout Indonesia -- and if holiday makers don't come back, then more than two and a half million people could be permanently out of a job. Even before the Bali blasts, Indonesia's economy was struggling. Foreign investment had all but dried up, growth was sluggish and corruption rampant. In a nation of 200 million people, the implications for political stability are profound.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald

Speakers: Doctor Ross McCleod from the Australian National University; David Nellor, head of the Jakarta mission of the International Monetary Fund; University of Indonesia economist Faisal Basri; Amin Rais, chair of Indonesia's supreme parliament; Minister of National Development and Planning Mr Kwik Kian Gie; World Bank representative Mark Baird; Farid Faqih from the Government Corruption Watch group; Pak Sukino, trishaw peddler; Pak Sirigar is an economic advisor to President Megawati Sukarnoputri

Fitzgerald: Popular Indonesian musician Iwan Fals, telling the story of Budhi, a young boy selling newspapers in the rain on a crowded Indonesian street.

He's counting his money to see if he has enough to realise his dream of going to school, rather than working for his next meal.

The story is lived out a million times a day in Indonesia where a massive 35 million people live below the poverty level.

On a busy street in Central Java a little girl sings and plays her home-made tambourine in the hope that drivers caught in traffic jams will toss her a bit of spare change.

The Bali bombings, have created further hardships for the Indonesian people. The World Bank predicts that a twenty per cent fall in tourist arrivals to Bali will throw 360 thousand people out of work.

The effects will be felt well beyond the island itself, since the tourism market is supplied with labour and goods from right across Indonesia.

David Nellor who heads the Jakarta mission of the International Monetary Fund.

Nellor: The tourism sector is an important part of the economy. Based on what has happened in some other countries in the world after such events, there's been a sharp decline for some considerable time. So we would expect that there would be some slow down in economic growth as a result and that will of course make the reform effort somewhat more difficult.

Fitzgerald: The Bali bombings hit an economy which was already struggling to recover from the 1997 economic crash that sent its economic growth rate plunging down to minus 13 percent. The crisis left the country labouring under a massive 133 billion US dollar national debt.

The International Monetary Fund, the IMF, has been leading the effort to bank-roll the country's recovery and David Nellor says the reforms had been starting to take hold prior to this latest set-back.

Growth rates, were still below the pre-Asian crash level, but had largely recovered and the rupeah, had strengthened in value.

Nellor: A sound platform or foundation had been built on which further growth could be developed and we were at a phase where it was important to continue reforms in the banking sector and the like, which were a hangover from the crisis but also to look forward in terms of strengthening the investment climate in a number of areas. The Bali tragedy is clearly a set-back in that respect.

Fitzgerald: Indonesia faced major economic challenges before the Bali bombings though. Decades of rule by former President Suharto, created a financial system based on cronyism and corruption and totally lacking in basic laws and regulations.

University of Indonesia economist Faisal Basri.

Basri: Suharto didn't build didn't follow the most important things in creating a modern economy. What I mean is lack of institutional development. Nothing happened in developing institutions under Suharto. So when every thing had been growing very fastly we thought strong foundation and then crisis come, and is gone everything and we have to start from zero.

Fitzgerald: Not just from zero. Former President Suharto, had handed the country's wealth to his own family and a network of loyal businessmen and when the crisis hit they'd rushed to move their cash into safe havens.

In the biggest financial scandal in Indonesian history private banks operated by Suharto cronies, at the peak of the Asian crisis, fraudulently over valued their assets so they could get credit from the central bank.

Doctor Ross McCleod from the Australian National University.

McCleod: What happened when the crisis first struck Indonesia was that the banks started to look like they were going to fail which meant you had the prospect of depositers lining up to withdraw their funds and there being no funds for them to withdraw. And so the Central bank stepped in and started lending very heavily to the banks precisely so that they could cater to cash withdrawals. In fact however it wasn't really a case of ordinary depositors making withdrawals or wanting to do so. The banks were busily engaged in making loans to themselves or to affiliated companies and then they were taking those funds which they had just loaned to themselves and using then to repay their foreign debts or to speculate against the rupeah. Unfortuneately the loans that were given by the central bank were not properly secured which means shortly after the crisis started when the central bank would have liked to have got its money back, it simply has been unable to do so.

Fitzgerald: During the crisis the government took on 70 billion US dollars worth of domestic debt, to bail out the private banks, at a time when the banks themselves were stashing their money outside Indonesia.

Faisal Basri says the government bail out has left the Indonesian people labouring under the biggest national debt in the South East Asian region.

Basri: If you look at the data at to how much the government baliled out the private sector includingthe banking sector, the value is 70 billion US dollar, equivalent to 700 trillion rupeah. And people have to pay the interest now. This year the government allocated 60 trillion rupeah, six billion US dollars, for interest of the government bonds issued to back up banking sector bail out program.

Fitzgerald: The business elites have not only left ordinary Indonesians with a massive debt to pay off. The banking scam has exposed a gaping hole in Indonesia's justice system.

Only a handful of the embezzlers have been prosecuted....the majority of them were allowed to flee the country and now live lives of luxury abroad, in places like Singapore and Australia.

To add insult to injury, 39 bank owners who were bailed out, signed their bank assets over to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency IBRA, in order to avoid prosecution.

Faisal Basri, says many of those businessmen are now buying back their seized assets at rock-bottom prices.

Basri: IBRA now sell the assets given by the original owners, and what is happening is the that original owners buy the assets back with very very low prices. That's part of corruption...co- operation between agency chairman and deputy chairman, with elites of political parties for next election.

Fitzgerald: Amin Rais, chair of Indonesia's supreme parliament, says the government's failure to retreive the embezzled funds or to prosecute all those responsible, undermines the Indonesia's efforts to become a more democratic and just society.

He puts much of the blame on corrupt officials within the Attorney General's Department, who he says are taking bribes in exchange for not proceeding with prosecutions.

Rais: People who have plundered the richness of this country. People who have stolen a lot of people's money cannot be brought to justice simply because the Attorney General's office is colluding with them. There is about a dozen conglomerates who have plundered the money from the Central Bank, which is amounted to 75 to 80 billion US dollars, and then thsoe big monies have been deposited in Singaporean banks and other foreign banks. Then you can imagine if they get half a percent interest or a quarter of a percent per month of the big money, they can use the interest to bribe the Attorney General and his office.

Fitzgerald: Amin Rais, who's a political rival to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, claims rather than tackling corruption and ordering prosecutions to recover debts, the Megawati Government has simply joined in on the free for all.

He says although Suharto has gone, corruption is flourishing, and he claims its Megawati's inner circle who are benifitting.

Rais: Megawati's performance in eradicating corruption, collusion and nepotisim is not that successful. Even some observers say that the corruption is even more prevailing in the era of Mrs Megawati Sukarnoputri. Up to now what we are seeing is only an effort to eliminate small corruption at the low level but those gigantic and mega corruption at the top level are still completely free an dcannot be touched by law.

Fitzgerald: Even members of Megwati's own Government and party, like her Minister of National Development and Planning Mr Kwik Kian Gie, admit corruption is rampant despite Suharto's fall.

Kwik Kian Gie: Because during the day of Suharto it was corrupt but the corruption was done by Suharto and his circle. If it is outside, if the people who dare to corrupt, are outside Suharto's circle, Suharto could take harsh mesaures, but now you can't, because they will scream, "why me, and why not you?"

Fitzgerald: While the Minister admits the extent of corruption in Indonesia, he does not see it as a major problem.

Kwik Kian Gie: I am still [feeling] that that is nor a hampering factor at all. That is what you here in the press but the practice, especially if you listen to those foreign companies who have been operating here for more than 100 years, they don't mind at all. They say, " I know the corruption, I know that if I loose I ahve to pay. You just put that on your calculation of your cost price."

Fitzgerald: The Minister's view is hotly contested. Even before the Bali bombings foreign investment was still at a five year low and World Bank representative Mark Baird, believes corruption at the core of Indonesia's judicial system is what is holding back foreign investors.

Baird: Let's remember Indonesia has not had a judicial system for many many years. Under the previous regime you didn't get certainty from the courts you got certainty from your association with the elite. So the eleite in Indonesia has benifitted from the weak judicial system. It is now that indonesia has a much more democratic government, a much open society that the pressure for legal reform has to come and I think will come because the current situation is not acceptable to the majority of people in Indonesia.

Investors have just told us in the past few days in a series of meetings they want to see progress in a number of areas.

Paramount is judicial reform. You have to have a court system that rpotects investor rights. Second they would like to see the reform in key areas like taxation and customs so that there is sceratainty and transperancy in the way those programs are implemented.

Third they would like to see more balanced competitive labour market policies, And fourth they like to see a better regulatory environment for investment particularily in infratructure and mining.

This is a big agenda! Its not going to come overnight but by making progress I think the government can convince investors that this is the place to be.

Fitzgerald: There has been some progress in Indonesia's Commercial Court. For the first time the verdicts of dissenting judges are being published making it easier to spot corruption. But the World Bank's Mark Baird, says the progress has been negligable.

Baird: Particularily in protecting creditor rights but also in protecting the people of Indonesia particularily the poor of Indonesia. There has just been too many cases where justice has not been done. An dthis is not really going to be acceptable to the investors or to the Indonesian people. Progress on reform has been painfully slow. Certainly the government has been quite right to say it is not under their control, it is a matter for an independent judiciary. But how do you get an independent judiciary to reform itself?

This is the challenge and I think the pressure for this reform has to come from the Indonesians.

Fitzgerald: In a rundown office in central Jakarta a small group of concerned Indonesians is keeping a close watch on government corruption.

Farid Faqih from the Government Corruption Watch group, agrees Megawati's pledges to stamp out corruption, have yeided very few results.

Faqih: Since three years ago Indonesia made a new law about anti-corruption and anti-corruption body. But until now the parliament did not approve the anti-corruption body addendum of the new law. So I think Megawati's statements are only political gaming to say that the government is doing something for anti- corruption but its nothing!

Fitzgerald: Farid Faqih estimates 150 million US dollars a year are being syphoned off the national budget ... out of the public purse ... through corruption.

Faqih: The government budget is four hundred trillion a month, rupeah and the deficit is 55 triilion rupeah a month. But the losses are 30 to 50 percent. It means we can save around 100 or 150 billion. So that means if we reduce the corruption there is no deficit in the government budget, so we can use the money to help the poor people, to extend the programs fopr the poor people. That means that corruption is very bad for poor people.

Fitzgerald: Pak Sukino, is typical of the millions of Indonesian feeling the impact of the national debt, corruption and the Bali bomb attacks on a daily basis.

He scrapes together an income to feed his family by peddling a trishaw or bechak in the city of Yogyakarta in central Java.

He says protests by islamic extremists were already frightening away tourists in Yogya well before the Bali bombings.

Pak Sukino: I have had less money since Suharto's downfall because extremists in Yogya have been demonstrating against foreigners, so the tourists are frightened so they aren't coming to travel in my bechak. I earn 600 thousand rupeas a month, but I work for twenty hours a day for that ... but it is becoming harder to find money because I feel tourist are no longer safe in Indonesia ... the demonstrations by extremists mean that tourists are staying away. There is not enough money to support the family, its only if my wife and two children work as well that we have enough to live. The others around my village are having the same crisis and hardship.

Fitzgerald: It will be Indonesians like Pak Sukino who will decide the fate of Megawati's Government at elections in 2004.

The president is walking a tight rope ... she's promised to deliver a better standard of living to the masses, but is also attempting to satisfy foreign donors like the International Monetary Fund which is pouring nine billion dollars into the national budget over three years.

The president has already jumped one major hurdle set by the foreign donors, removing long-running government petrol subsidies. But there is local opposition to Indonesia's increasing reliance on intenational donors bodies.

Minister Kwik Kian Gie, sees IMF and World Bank programs as an affront to national pride. The Minister is angry that Indonesia is getting into more debt, a burden he feels the population cannot and should not support.

Kwik Kian Gie: The main reason for that is because the IMF really is of the opinion that the Indonesian Government, meaning the Indonesian people, Indonesian taxpayers really have to pay thousands and trillions of rupeah (in interest) . The range is between one thousand trillion and 1400 trillion rupeah and it is between 100 billion USD to 1.4 trillion USD.

Fitzgerald: There are also other pressures mounting on President Megawati. Economists are warning that her government must start to embark on major capital works projects before the country grinds to a halt.

Pak Sirigar is an economic advisor to President Megawati.

Sirigar: Without these projectsthere is an acute possibilty that in 2004 or 2005 Indonesia will face black outs or even brown outs and we are not talking about provinces in remore areas we are talking about Java and Bali.So there are real possibilities about that ... we have to solve this.

Fitzgerald: Pak Sirigar is one of those pushing the government to restart an ambitious public works program first conceived under Suharto ... multi-billion dollar tollroads, petrochemical projects, seaports, and power plants, which were commissioned but then put on hold after the asian financial crash.

Pak Sirigar had to convince MP's that the projects should be urgently restarted.

Pak Sirigar: It's not a matter of overnight in building electricty power plants, it takes three or four years at least. They [the MP's] became more excited than us saying we have to finish all renegotiations of the 27 projects by the end of this year.

Fitzgerald: Because the major projects were commissioned under Suharto the contracts were handed to his cronies and family members. They had dramatically inflated the estimated cost of projects, so that excess government funds could be pocketed.

That's meant the government has had to rewrite and re-commission all those major contracts in a transparent and uncorrupted way. Mr Sirigar believes Megawati's Government is up to the challenge.

Pak Sirigar: If these projects are still considered as strategic as we used to think they have to be renegotiated. It could be with the same players or investors or it could involve some new investors or parties. For us what is more important is that these renegotiations would mean a much more efficient and much more realistic cost and the process has to be as transparent as possible.

Fitzgerald: Kick starting the country's public works programs will be even more vital to Indonesia's economic survival, in the wake of the Bali bombings. The projects could replace jobs lost with the downturn in the tourism industry and upgrading infrestructure could entice back wary investors.

But economist Faisal Basri says there are will be no quick fixes for Indonesia's economy. He says unless the parliament puts in place basic financial regulation laws and makes sure they are followed the law of the jungle will rule and Indonesia's poor will continue to miss out.

Faisal Basri: There is no big truth or short cut that we can follow to deal with the crisis. What has to be done is to create fair competition, less government intervention in business in the market and to set up a type of social security or social safety net for marginalised groups in the society. So thats the role of the government...institutional developement and then create conditions for sustainable growth.

That the job of megawati if she would like to be remembered by the people as the mother of modern Indonesia. Her father is the founding father if Indonesia ... unless Megawati uses the opportunity to be rembered by all Indonesian people as the founder of modern Indonesia ... what she needs to do is create as much [as possible] institutional development and then strengthen the foundation for the sustainable growth of Indonesia.

Fitzgerald: Even prior to the Bali bombings President Megawati was running out of time to get the foundations for a fairer Indonesia in place.

She is due to face the masses in the first direct presidential election in under two years ... where her popularity will rest on her economic performance and her score card on tackling corruption.