Aceh

Life gets even tougher for Acehnese under siege

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Bernie K. Moestafa, Lhokseumawe -- A convoy of five marine trucks, two armored personnel carriers and a tank rumbled into Pulo Ara village, a group of wooden houses on a sandy beach and nestled among banana and palm trees.

Pulo Ara looks eerily empty. A few faces belonging to women and children appear from behind half-closed doors and window shutters. For 50-year-old Saridah, the sight of soldiers sweeping through her village is nothing new.

It has been more than three weeks since Aceh came under martial law in a new war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) following a five-year lull.

People here have faced the return of the war with a certain degree of resignation, as they endure tighter security checks, power blackouts in many parts of the province, higher prices of staple foods and an overall slump in business.

In villages like Pulo Ara, located in Bireuen regency -- one of GAM's strongholds -- living under martial law can often mean getting very close to the actual combat. For rice farmer Saridah, the sound of gun fighting is all too familiar.

"The shooting is a bit farther away than usual," she said as she sat with her children inside her home. "Soldiers come here often, sometimes they chat with us." The column of military vehicles that passed through her village on Wednesday supplied ammunition to the front line, which, one soldier said, was located five kilometers further down the gravel road.

They stopped at Pulo Ara for a quick sweep for rebels. Marines took up positions behind trees on both sides of the road and the houses just beyond, aiming into the woods. But no shot was fired today.

GAM still retains some influence in villages like Pulo Ara in Bireuen. Locals are often torn between obeying the Indonesian authorities or the rebels. Both sides can be demanding.

Nazar Yusuf, a resident of Blang Mane village in Bireuen, lost his identity card to GAM rebels. The rebels collect the cards to hamper authorities's efforts in hunting down rebels, most of whom do not have IDs. For this, however, 43-year-old Nazar could have gotten into grave trouble, had he not had his driver's license to show to marines who manned checkpoints along the main road between provincial capital Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe, stopping and searching vehicles as they passed through. He said a group of about 10 GAM rebels took away his ID card on Monday.

Between towns, security checks are also frequent. Vehicles plying the Banda Aceh-Lhokseumawe route must pass through over a dozen police and military posts.

Located away from stray bullets and the chances of coming across a GAM rebel, towns are a much safer place to be.

Still, martial law has impacted the daily routine here as well. Random security checks can be annoying and intimidating, and although the martial law administration has not imposed any curfews yet, people refrain from venturing out late at night.

Even in the capital of Banda Aceh, the streets already look deserted at about 8pm. The shorter nights cast a pall over businesses, as shops close about one to two hours earlier than usual. In the town of Lhokseumawe, where the military has set up its command center, people hurry back to their homes at around 6.30pm.

Abdul Munir, who drives a motorcycle-pulled rickshaw, known locally as becak mesin, said that he used to be able to pick up passengers and drive them anywhere in town. Since martial law was imposed, however, he did not dare wait for passengers into the early morning like before. He said his average daily income used to be Rp 40,000 (US$4.8) a day, but now, "It's hard to earn even Rp 20,000," he said, sitting on the beach in front of his shack. The 42-year-old Abdul is originally from North Sumatra, but was born in Aceh and now lives amid a community of other migrants from Java and Sumatra.

Other shop owners report a similar slump, complaining that fewer visitors have come to Lhokseumawe since the province came under martial law. For people like Abdul, life has gotten even more difficult with last week's power blackout. "We are practically making friends with the mosquitoes and rats that come out at night," he said.

Abdul is among the many who cannot afford to buy a generator, which sold out within a matter of hours after the blackout. A new stock of generators was seen arriving at shops on Wednesday amid a surge in demand.

State-owned electricity company PT PLN said it might take up to one month to restore the power in Lhokseumawe. Last week's power outage hit much of northern Aceh, covering the regencies of North Aceh, Bireuen and Central Aceh, and parts of Pidie. PLN is facing a potential revenue loss of Rp 240 million a day, excluding Rp 1.2 billion in repairs to fix the four pylons that were allegedly sabotaged by GAM.

Among those who have benefited from the power outage is an old couple who has sold kerosene lamps in Lhokseumawe for the past 25 years. At only Rp 8,000 a lamp, which burns for many hours, the commodity is in high demand among those who cannot afford to buy a generator, which costs between Rp 900,000 to well over Rp 2 million.

But those Acehnese who will benefit from the consequences of the conflict are few and far between -- for the majority of Acehnese, life will only continue to become harder and harsher the longer the war goes on.

Thousands flee homes in Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Lhokseumawe -- At least 10,000 people fled their homes in nine villages across Juli district in Bireuen regency on Friday to escape intense firefights between government troops and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

Men, women, the elderly and children rushed to board trucks and other vehicles, which transported them to a refugee camp set up by the government in Cot Gapu village, some 220 kilometers east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh. They brought clothes, cooking utensils, bedding and valuables along with them, Antara reported.

The exodus began at about 9am when the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the rebels started exchanging fire at Teuping Lampoh and Kede Dua villages, which are suspected of being GAM bases. "There was constant gunfire near our house between 6am and 9am. We are afraid of being hit by stray bullets, so we abandoned our village," one of the displaced persons, Mustafa, said.

The government appeared to be expecting the refugees as it had erected tents in the refuge camp, located on four hectares of land on the outskirts of Bireuen. Clean water, electricity, public kitchens, lavatories and health facilities were all already available. There were also temporary classrooms for children of school age.

A resident told Agence France-Presse that it was government troops who moved the villagers from their homes to the refugee camp during the attack. The resident heard 38 rounds of artillery fired through the course of the morning in the direction of a hilly area in Juli, just south of Bireuen town. RCTI television also showed pictures of artillery in action.

As of last week, the Ministry of Health had recorded 23,536 evacuees across the province, including 859 pregnant women and 3,000 infants aged under five. It is still unknown how many were killed in the latest armed clashes in Bireuen on Friday.

Separately, the military announced another plan to attack a GAM base in North Aceh, where a US journalist is believed to be. TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said the military would raid the base whether American freelancer William Nessen was there or not. "We have asked him to immediately report to the military authorities in Aceh to enable us to provide protection should he wish to leave the GAM camp," Endriartono said.

Earlier this month, soldiers accidentally shot dead a German tourist and wounded another, further diminishing the already low level of international support for the war.

Nessen has been given until 6pm on Saturday to part company with the rebels or risk getting killed in the military attack. As of Friday, the journalist had failed to make contact with the military, thus missing the first day of the ultimatum. "There are no signs of their [Nessen and GAM's] whereabouts," said Aceh military spokesman Lt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki in a press conference on Friday afternoon.

According to Aceh military operation commander Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono, Nessen wanted to leave the rebels but could not due to "difficulties". He failed to explain what these difficulties might be.

He had earlier encouraged Nessen to call him up on his cellular phone, making public his own cellular phone number in the process. "We're being polite here, I have opened myself up [to Nessen]," Bambang said on Friday. The American did not call. Bambang instead claimed that he had received a number of text messages from people in Indonesia to express their support for the war against GAM.

Nessen has been with the rebels since before the military operation began on May 19. Access to GAM was relatively easy before the start of the war, with a number of local television stations broadcasting footage of GAM activities.

The military on Thursday displayed several items they had found in a raid on alleged rebel homes, including items which apparently belonged to Nessen.

Among them were five photo albums with pictures of GAM members, some showing rebels posing with their weapons, a VCD titled "GAM's 26th Anniversary", and documents detailing the rebels' organizational structure in the Acehnese language.

Acehnese flock to district offices to get new IDs

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2003

Lhokseumawe -- People in Bireuen regency flocked to their respective district offices on Wednesday and Thursday to apply for new ID cards, in one of the first places in war-torn Aceh where the martial law administration is attempting to separate separatist rebels from civilians.

In Jeumpa district, more than a hundred residents from three villages gathered at a makeshift district office to register themselves for the new card on Wednesday. Some had been patiently waiting for hours.

"I just do what authorities tell me to do, so I come here," said 51-year-old Tarmizi from Juli Cut Masjid village.

The new ID cards would replace the existing ones for as long as the province is under martial law. The military has said that its operation against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should take six months.

The issuance of new ID cards is one of the military ruler's efforts to control the Acehnese and separate GAM rebels from the general population. The other measures include the "evacuation" of villagers from areas controlled or formerly controlled by GAM to prepared refugee camps. The military administration is also screening civil servants in Aceh as the military suspects many are linked to GAM.

The idea to distribute new ID cards followed reports of GAM collecting the ID cards from villagers to hamper government security checks. Most GAM members have no identification.

Applicants for the new cards must have their credentials checked by the local police office to ensure the applicant has no ties to GAM. Authorities hope this will help them identify rebels who try to pass themselves off as civilians.

Slightly bigger in size and printed in red and white, the new card is signed by the village head, the district chief, and the district police and military chief. Normal ID cards are signed only by the district chief.

Ishak Teungku M.Z., a village chief from Meunanah Blang, Peudada district, said he had signed the forms for 30 applicants so far. These applicants would then go to the district offices to get the ID cards. The cards are free of charge and the process of acquiring one takes about one to two days, said Jeumpa district chief Agus Salim, who oversees 21 villages.

He said that between 10,000 to 15,000 people of age in his district would be applying for the new cards. The registration process is divided into seven days for three villages, starting on Wednesday with the villages of Cut Juli Masjid, Juli Seuteuy, and Juli Tambo Tanjung .

Agus said it may take about a month to replace all the cards. Around 25 percent of the 10,000 to 15,000 people seeking cards had lost theirs, Agus said. He would not say whether they were taken away by GAM.

TNI seeks quick end to war

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2003

Lhokseumawe -- The military's biggest setback during three weeks of the offensive to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has prompted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu to seek a quick end to the war, but added his troops were ready to fight the rebels for as long as it took.

"The government has given us six months for the operation, but the faster the better," Ryamizard told reporters on Thursday. "However if this [six months] is not enough, we will ask for an extension. We don't want GAM to think that everything will simply return to normal after that six months."

Indonesia launched an integrated operation, mostly involving a military offensive against GAM, after it declared martial law on May 19 following the collapse of the five-month-old peace accord. It marks the second major military operation mounted in Aceh, with the previous one taking place when the province was a military operation zone (DOM) between 1989 and 1998.

According to Ryamizard, the present military operation is making better progress than the earlier one, claiming that people were more supportive this time around.

The military recorded its highest death toll in one incident so far with the killing of seven soldiers during a clash in Matan Kumbang district in North Aceh between Monday and Tuesday. "We must learn a lesson from this. We don't want this to happen again," Ryamizard said. "If the enemy changes its strategy, then so must we."

Despite his desire for a quick operation, Ryamizard said the TNI had no plans to bring in more troops to Aceh. Around 28,000 soldiers have been deployed to the province to fight the rebels, whom the military estimates number about 5,000. During the three weeks of fighting, 23 soldiers have been killed either in combat or in accidents.

Ostensibly for his own safety, the military has asked an American journalist traveling with the leaders of GAM to leave the rebels by June 14, saying the TNI could not guarantee his safety beyond that deadline.

Aceh military operation commander Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono said that William Nessen should report to the military within two days, or by Saturday at 6pm at the latest. "If he reports himself to the nearest military post, hopefully I can guarantee his safety," Bambang told the press on Thursday. He said he might have met Nessen once before he started traveling with the rebels, adding that if so the American knew his cellular phone number and should call him.

"He might be reluctant to contact me, so I would like to tell him to please call me on my cellular phone anytime. The number is 0811-961046." He said Nessen had been with the rebels for a month, or before Indonesia launched its military operation against GAM on May 19.

Nessen might be traveling with GAM leader Muzakir Manaf, who is thought to be somewhere in the Nisam and Sawang areas in the North Aceh regency, according to Bambang.

He said this information had been obtained following an attack on rebel positions in those areas on Wednesday, June 12. Soldiers found equipment Nessen had left behind when he fled the scene with the rebels. Some of the abandoned equipment contained video footage of GAM in action, said Bambang. "He [Nessen] wants to get out, but he is facing difficulties in doing so. What those difficulties are precisely, I don't know," said Bambang.

On Monday, Aceh martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya warned the American to part company with the GAM rebels, citing concern over his safety. His statement followed the shooting by soldiers of a German tourist couple on June 4. One died and the other sustained a bullet wound as soldiers mistook them for rebels while they spent the night on a beach in Aceh Jaya regency. "We are just wasting our energy in dealing with matters like this," Endang said.

Bambang now says that the military will not be to blame if Nessen is hurt during an attack on GAM positions once the June 18 deadline has passed. "The military operation must go on. It cannot stop because of William Nessen," he said.

Nessen is known for his ability to establish contact with GAM, and his articles on the province have been published in many major newspapers around the world, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and The Boston Globe. He is also close to journalists in Aceh, who call him "Abu Billy".

Also on Thursday, a military court sentenced three soldiers to four months in jail for assaulting civilians during a raid on GAM rebels. This is the second conviction of overzealous soldiers to come as the war in Aceh enters its fourth week.

Troops fire artillery at suspected Aceh rebel base

Agence France Presse - June 13, 2003

Indonesian troops fired artillery and moved hundreds of villagers from their homes during an attack on a suspected separatist rebel base, a local resident said.

The resident heard 38 rounds fired throughout the morning towards a hilly area in Juli sub-district just south of Bireuen town. The private RCTI television station also showed pictures of artillery being fired.

About 1,000 residents of Juli were moved from their homes Friday morning on military, police and private vehicles, the resident said. The evacuees, some carrying clothes and bedding, were taken to Cot Gapo village east of Bireuen where tents had been prepared for them.

The armed forces on May 19 launched a major operation aimed at wiping out separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The military has said it hopes to separate residents from the rebels.

Violence in Aceh has left at least seven more people dead over the past two days, residents and the military said. Two armed men wearing balaclavas shot dead a religious teacher, Muhammad Yusuf Daud, 45, on Wednesday night at Peuraden village in Bireuen district, a local resident said.

Daud was inside the village worship hall teaching youngsters about the Koran when two men called him outside. They talked for a while and then shot him in the chest and head, the resident said. Two of the pupils were Daud's children, who fainted at the sight of their slain father's wounds, the resident said.

Official military figures mid-week put at 175 the number of rebels killed, along with 24 soldiers and four policemen, since the military operation began. The military has put the civilian death toll at 18.

Humanitarian workers said they found four more corpses with gunshot wounds in separate locations Thursday in the Peusangan and Jeumpa areas of Bireuen.

A military spokesman, Captain Anang, said a Kopassus special forces soldier and a GAM rebel were missing after an incident off the coast of South Aceh Thursday. Four Kopassus soldiers had arrested a pair of GAM rebels who tried to flee across the water, Anang said. As the soldiers brought their captives back to shore in a boat one of them shoved a soldier and both fell overboard, he said. Their whereabouts are unknown. The three other soldiers were then forced to shoot dead the other rebel who also confronted them, Anang said. Another rebel was shot dead separately during a raid by troops in Singkil district on Thursday, Anang said. Troops seized two pistols.

Citing the hostilities, the US State Department warned that "American citizens are strongly urged to avoid traveling to Aceh and those already present should leave immediately."

Press reports in Jakarta Friday said the military has given American journalist William Nessen two days, starting from Thursday night, to get away from GAM rebels with whom he is believed to be travelling. After that time his safety cannot be guaranteed if a firefight occurs, the military said.

Troops who said they were investigating reports of rebel activity, shot dead a German tourist in Aceh on June 4.

The long-running conflict has also taken a toll on local government, a report Friday said. Mohanto Aki, a senior Home Affairs Department official, quoted by the Detikom online news service, said that of 5,082 villages in the province, 1,034 no longer have a functioning local government and another 1,615 do not function as they should.

Some 40,000 troops and police are involved in the operation to crush what the military says are about 5,000 GAM rebels who have been fighting for independence since 1976.

PPP members involved with GAM, investigate them: Hamzah

Detik.com - June 13, 2003

Suwarjono, Jakarta -- Two members of the Aceh regional parliament (DPRD) are reported to be involved with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and are being investigated by police. Vice-president Hamzah Haz who is also the chairperson of the United Development Party (PPP) has invited security personnel to investigate those members of his party who are involved with GAM.

"Please, who ever is guilty, including members of the DPRD from PPP, they must be processed in accordance with the stipulations of prevailing laws. But of course PPP [will provide someone to] defend them and to see how it could have occurred", he said.

Hamzah, who met with reporters after Friday prayers at the Jami' Darusallm mosque in East Jakarta, explained that GAM was using a number of means to obtain funds. "And these must be investigated", he said.

Furthermore Hamzah explained, "If [there are DPRD members] who are involved, yeh they must be processed. Because we want to create [a situation] where the Acehnese people, both government officials and members of the legislator, [wish] to be part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia [NKRI]. And not be two faced. Joining GAM, joining NKRI, that's not allowed", he explained.

As reported earlier, two DPRD members from the Greater Aceh regency and Sabang city were reported to be involved with GAM and are now being detain by local security forces. One of them, according to the military commander overseeing marshal law in Aceh, Major General Endang Suwarya, is a financial contributor [to GAM]. (gtp)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Foreigners barred from entering Aceh: Minister

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- Coordinating Minister for People' Welfare Jusuf Kalla insisted on Wednesday that the martial law administrator in Aceh would issue a new measure soon, to bar all foreigners from entering the province.

Differing from a previous statement by the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jusuf said that according to the state emergency law, the issuance of such a ban was the sole decision of the martial law commander and not of the President of the country.

Top Security Minister Susilo said in Makassar on Tuesday that the government would issue a decree to bar foreigners from any country, regardless of the type of visa held, from entering Aceh. He said it was to ensure their own safety and so they would not be able to "disturb" the military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"The ban will be discussed further, but it will be issued by the Aceh administration," Jusuf said on Wednesday, after accompanying President Megawati Soekarnoputri in a meeting with visiting East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The minister said that the government had already prohibited foreigners who work for non-governmental organizations, from entering or working in the province. "A [special] arrangement for foreign journalists will also be set up," he added.

The planned issuance of such a ban follows the killing by government soldiers of a German tourist when he and his wife were camping on a beach in Lhok Gayo, Aceh Jaya last Wednesday.

Director of media relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wahid Supriyadi said there were around 20 foreign journalists who with permission covered the military operation in Aceh. However, only half of that number still remain in the war-torn province.

The ministry said it had no data on the number of foreign humanitarian workers in Aceh, but according to an official at the United Nations (UN) office there were around 10 to 15 in Banda Aceh. "That number includes several foreigners who are members of international non-governmental organizations," Wahid said, adding that currently, UN had only two staff members in Banda Aceh. The two UN officials in Aceh are from the UN-Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and the other is from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Meanwhile, an international media watchdog group has urged Indonesian authorities to guarantee the safety of a US freelance journalist reporting with separatist rebels in Aceh.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a copy of a letter to President Megawati on Tuesday, stated that the life of William Nessen "is currently at great risk." The commander of the martial law, on Sunday, reportedly gave Nessen three days to leave before an offensive was launched against the GAM unit he was with.

Nessen, known for having rare access to GAM, last called his wife Shadia Marhadan by satellite phone on Tuesday afternoon and reportedly told her that he tried to surrender but was shot at by soldiers so returned to the GAM side.

"The Indonesian government has a responsibility to ensure that civilians including journalists are not harmed during military operations," the CPJ letter said as quoted by Agence France- Presse.

Wahid added that Nessen did have accreditation from the government to cover news in Indonesia, but has yet to get a special permit for Aceh. "He was not among the 20 foreign journalists with official permission from the government to cover the military operation," the official told the Post.

Militias on march as foreigners face Aceh travel ban

Sydney Morning Herald - June 12, 2003

Matthew Moore, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Government is planning new regulations to restrict foreign access to the war-torn Aceh province, as evidence emerges that the Indonesian army has trained militia groups to help its military offensive against the separatist movement GAM.

Journalists, tourists and members of non-government organisations including aid groups would all have their access to Aceh blocked, Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

He was quoted by The Jakarta Post saying a total ban would be imposed in Aceh after the army's shooting of two German tourists last week. "This ban is urgent to avoid any foreign victims in the province and to help make the military operation a success," he said.

The Information Minister, Syamsul Muarif, said that instead of a total ban, the Government could impose other restrictions on the movement of foreign journalists and members of NGOs. He said the restrictions were designed to avoid an international incident from the death of more foreigners, although diplomats are concerned closing Aceh will lead to comparisons with Indonesia's actions in East Timor.

Western embassies are also concerned that closing Aceh to foreigners could lead to major problems if there are large numbers of refugees as a result of the military operation. "The Government will be setting itself up for a crunch by insisting NGOs can't operate," one Western diplomat said.

There are about seven NGOs staffed by about two dozen foreigners operating mainly in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh.

Indonesia's National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said yesterday that the moves to restrict access by foreign journalists would backfire on the Indonesian military (TNI).

Mohamad Billah, who has just returned from heading a three-day preliminary investigation in Aceh, urged the Government not to cut off access for foreigners. "It will lead to the interpretation that all news coming out of Aceh is not objective because it is censored by the TNI," he said.

Under martial law, the Indonesian military has the power to restrict coverage in Aceh, although the military's commander, General Endriatono Sutarto, has said itshould not be exercised.

Mr Billah said his team heard allegations of six types of violations since martial law was introduced on May 19.

Witnesses told his team that the military had recruited and trained non-Acehnese civilians and that one of these militia groups had burnt down the office of the Joint Security Council whose members were seeking to uphold a ceasefire agreement, he said.

He said the militias were organised in central Aceh where they attacked the office in Takenon. Mr Billah said they were trained to make and use homemade guns, just as they were in East Timor in the lead-up to the independence vote in 1999.

It was suspected the militias had been prepared since the cessation of hostilities agreement was signed last December, he said.

The conflict appears to be escalating, with the Indonesian Red Cross stating yesterday it had taken 151 bodies to hospitals and morgues over three weeks.

Scores of bodies of villagers killed by the military of GAM had also been buried. An Indonesian Red Cross spokesman told Reuters the dead were in civilian clothes although that did not necessarily mean they were civilians.

All civil servants in Aceh to be re-registered

Antara - June 12, 2003

Banda Aceh -- All of Aceh's 67,000 civil servants will be re- registered and asked to attend roll-calls to affirm their loyalty to the country, a regional administration spokesman said on Wednesday.

The program will be carried out from July 1 to 30, 2003, Natsir Aly, head of the Aceh Information and Communication Office, told reporters here. "It is one of the national programs and the purpose is to screen the civil servants," he said.

Military to check report of mass grave in Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Jakarta -- The Indonesian military said Thursday it will check reports from the country's national human rights commission that a mass grave has been discovered in Aceh province.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) told AFP Wednesday that its representatives in Aceh had received information about a grave believed to contain dozens of bodies.

The grave is located in Nisam sub-district close to the rebel stronghold of Bireuen, where there has been intense military activity during a major offensive to crush separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Komnas HAM said it plans to further investigate.

Military spokesman Nachrowi told AFP the information provided by Komnas HAM needs to be closely examined to determine its veracity. "I think we have to coordinate with Komnas HAM," Nachrowi said. "Then we can investigate in the field." Whether the grave contains dead cows or humans, and who the victims are, needs to be confirmed, he said. "We are checking the information."

Sofyan Daud, GAM's chief spokesman, told AFP in Jakarta there were more than 100 bodies in the grave at Krung Tuan village. Daud alleged the victims were civilians who had fled to the forest and were then shot over a number of days by troops. Independent confirmation of his allegations was not possible.

Official military figures say 175 rebels had been killed as of Wednesday, along with 24 soldiers and four policemen. The military has put the civilian death toll at 18.

Meawnhile, top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned the Komnas HAM should be careful in using the term 'militia.' "Do not copy foreigners by using the term 'militia'," he said, adding the use of civilians as security forces is stipulated by law under the national defense strategy.

Indonesia Red Cross says removes 151 bodies in Aceh

Reuters - June 11, 2003 (abridged)

Banda Aceh -- Indonesia's Red Cross said on Wednesday it had taken 151 bodies to hospitals and morgues in Aceh since a fresh military offensive against rebels began, adding all victims had been wearing civilian clothes.

But Iyang Sukandar, secretary-general of the Indonesian Red Cross, told Reuters this did not mean the dead were civilians. The Red Cross has said it was not its job to determine the identity of those killed in the offensive, now into its fourth week.

"The latest figure that I received was on Saturday. It was 151 casualties," Sukandar said by telephone, adding more updated figures were not available because of communications problems. He said the bodies were only those removed by the Red Cross.

Sukandar declined to say if all 151 had been killed in conflict zones in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, although evacuating bodies from the battlefield had been one of their prime responsibilities since fighting erupted. "Their identities were not clear, all of them wore civilian clothing. But if I have to say that they were civilians, then I'm not sure," Sukandar said.

Aceh: TNI forges statement by wounded German

Green Left Weekly - June 11, 2003

James Balowski -- At around 9pm on June 4, two German tourists camping out near Lueng Gayo beach in the sub-district of Teunom in West Aceh were fired on by Indonesian troops (TNI). Lothar Heinrich Albert (54) died from a bullet wound to the chest and his wife, Elisabeth Engel (50), was shot in the knee. She is now being treated at the regional military command hospital.

At a press conference the following day, military operational commander Bambang Dharmono explained that the incident occurred after local people reported seeing a suspicious light behind their house. TNI troops were sent to investigate and, after twice calling out the "password" and firing warning shots in the air, fired in the direction of the light, hitting Albert and Engel. Dharmono stressed this was standard operational procedure and troops only fired after there was no response to their repeated warnings.

TNI chief Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed deep concern and ordered an investigation into what is the latest in a series of shootings of unarmed people by soldiers. Welfare minister Yusuf Kalla warned that the shooting of foreigners in Aceh "will definitely trouble us" in the same way the killing of foreigners in West Timor several years ago had reverberated around the world.

Although the exact circumstances of the incident are still being investigated, more interesting is a letter shown by Dharmono to reporters, which he says was "written" by Engel and in which she explicitly states that troops were not to blame for the death of her husband. In response to questions, Dharmono insisted that it was not written under duress.

So, what's so interesting about the letter? Well, the June 6 Kompas daily was kind enough to reprint a photograph of the letter for all to see:

"I, Elisabeth Engel say, that we will sleep on this beach and I (know) now, it was very dangerest area and it was not good, to do this at this situation. I know, I should'nd be there and about the heappen, my husband is death and I know, this was only a miss -- understanding from military. I will except my husbands deaths.

"Mauloboh, Juni 5.03"
s/- [illegible] Engel Elisabeth Engel"

The language and style of handwriting (which is different from the signatures, and the month is written as "Juni" not "June") suggests that it was obviously written by an Indonesian and not Engel.

But, as the military points out, they probably shouldn't have been staying in such a dangerous area in the first place and the whole thing may have just been a terrible accident. Or perhaps because Engel was not fluent in English or wasn't feeling well enough, "someone else" wrote the letter which she then read, agreed to and signed.

Maybe. But, I can help wondering why, if I was lying in a hospital bed with a hole in my leg, having just seeing my spouse gunned down in a hail of bullets, and in the absence of a lawyer or consular representative, my first act would be to agree to write or sign a letter who's sole purpose is to absolve the military of any wrong doing?

Aceh: Support waning for Indonesia's terror war

Green Left Weekly - June 11, 2003

James Balowski, Jakarta -- Although coverage of Indonesia's brutal war in its northern-most province of Aceh has all but disappeared from the international media, it is still front-page news here. If you believe the headlines, the Indonesian military's (TNI) goal of crushing the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and "resolving" the Aceh "question" once and for all has been a resounding success.

Three weeks into the "integrated operation", the TNI is claiming that GAM militants are fleeing to the mountains, trying to escape to North Sumatra or nearby Malaysia. The TNI claims it has surrounded or taken control of most of GAM's strongholds and killed more than 100 GAM members. More than 70 have been arrested or have surrendered. However, human rights violations, the displacement and forced evacuation of civilians, press restrictions and violence against journalists, mass arrests of students and human rights activists and other harsh measures are undermining domestic and international tolerance for the TNI operation.

On May 30, the TNI's Aceh military commander Major-General Endang Suwarya issued a decree prohibiting foreign vessels from entering Aceh's waters. He said this was to prevent weapons smuggling by GAM and that ships failing to heed warnings would be "blown out of the water".

On the same day, a decree was issued to limit the use of telecommunication equipment, in particular walkie-talkies. On June 1, Suwarya issued a decree authorising the seizure communications equipment throughout Aceh.

The TNI has begun replacing civilian administrators at the district and sub-district level with military officers. TNI insists this is only a "temporary" measure.

Police are on a nationwide alert for fleeing GAM members and have stepped up surveillance of about 20 locations in greater Jakarta and parts of Sumatra. Human rights activists are also being targeted. On June 4, Amnesty International stated: "There is now serious concern for the safety of all human rights defenders in [Aceh], some of whom have already been subjected to human rights violations." Police spokesperson Sayed Husaini told Agence France Presse on June 3 that activists who assist GAM would be charged with subversion, adding that police have records and evidence against them. He gave no details on the size of the wanted list, other than to say there are "a lot".

Husaini said many are students from a state institute for religious studies in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, or are members of non-government organisations. He specifically named one, Kautsar, who is the deputy chairperson of Student Solidarity for Acehnese People. Among the NGOs threatened were the Information Centre on a Referendum for Aceh and Society's Solidarity for the People. Members of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front are also being hunted.

Opposition grows

On May 31, religious leaders from the country's two largest Islamic organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, along with the Indonesian Communion of Churches, demanded that the Indonesian government avoid civilian fatalities and boost humanitarian activities in the province. They emphasised that the main purpose of the integrated operations was "winning the hearts and minds of the Acehnese", not a military takeover.

Earlier, Muhammadiyah chairperson Ahmad Syafii Maarif suggested that more casualties would spark anti-government sentiment among the Acehnese. Maarif said the government should stop the war and look for ways of resolving the Aceh conflict peacefully.

Jakarta governor Sutiyoso has warned Muslim preachers not to use mosques as a forum against the war. Sutiyoso's spokesperson Achyat Awe told the June 4 Jakarta Post that the governor had learned that many preachers were speaking out against the military operation during Friday prayers.

The US government has also begun to express concern. Speaking after a meeting with Indonesian defence minister Matori Abdul Djalil in Singapore on May 29, US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz called for a political solution to the Aceh conflict and urged Jakarta to allow NGO monitors into the province. This would "help encourage the world that Indonesia is behaving professionally and carefully", Wolfowitz said. A US State Department official added that "this is not the way we were hoping things would turn out" and that Washington is watching the situation "carefully".

Djalil said Indonesia's Aceh operation was both military and humanitarian and hoped for success within six months. "Maybe it will finish in just two or three months because we understand ... that too long [a period of] martial law ... is not good for our government." 'Deep concern' On May 29, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "deeply concerned" at the impact of the war on the civilian population of Aceh. In particular, he was "disturbed by reports of extra-judicial killings and widespread burning of schools". He called on Jakarta to "ensure the necessary security conditions to allow international aid organisations safe and unhindered access to affected populations".

Indonesia's UN representative Slamet Hidayat expressed disappointment at Annan's statement. According to the May 30 Detik.com, Slamet said: "Although [Annan] is not making accusations, his statement could lead the international community to believe that there were civilians being murdered." State minister of communications and information Syamsul Mu'arif said Jakarta plans to hire an international public relations firm to sell Indonesia's war. "We are weak in international public relations as foreign press coverage on Aceh has been giving a negative impression of the operation", he told the May 31 Jakarta Post.

Yasril Ananta Baharudin, a member of the parliamentary information and foreign affairs commission, said the government had failed to gain public support for the Aceh war and suggested it emulate the US government, which set up media centres to sway public opinion during its invasion of Iraq.

Press restrictions

Journalists who have ventured out of the relative safety of Banda Aceh continue to bring back stories of massacres and summary executions by TNI soldiers. There are reports that detail abductions of non-combatants and discoveries of corpses, some shot and others exhibiting signs of torture, on roadsides.

Journalists say that, because of fear of reprisals by TNI, morgue workers now write "loss of blood" as the cause of death on corpses delivered with execution-style head wounds.

Jakarta recently rejected requests from about 10 international journalists to enter Aceh. Suwarya has said there is no need for "foreign observers" in the province. Officials admit that such requests are normally dealt with by the department of migration but, following the declaration of martial law, the sole authority now lies with Suwarya.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists on May 29 issued a statement: "CPJ has documented a series of alarming incidents in which journalists have been targeted while driving on the main road between the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the town of Lhokseumawe [in North Aceh]... We are also gravely concerned by mounting evidence of a systematic effort by Indonesian security forces in Aceh to restrict reporting on the fighting there." Similarly, on May 29, the Jakarta based Coalition Against Violence Toward Journalists detailed several violent incidents and restrictions imposed on journalists in Aceh. It said that the restrictions started when Suwarya asked the media on May 20 not to quote statements from GAM. Then on May 25, the TNI stipulated that all journalists had to report to the military before covering the operation to prevent "internationalisation" of the Aceh case.

Andrew Marshal, writing in the June 9 Time magazine, painted a chilling picture of the political climate facing journalists in Aceh: "Of all the hardware currently deployed in Aceh, US- supplied bombers, British-made jets, tanks, armored troop carriers, assault helicopters, warships, it was a slate-gray Japanese sedan that unnerved us journalists the most.

"The car bore a large sign reading 'Press', yet it carried several uniformed men with guns. Who were they? GAM rebels? Not likely: the car was spotted several times in broad daylight in areas controlled by the TNI.

"More likely, we thought, the passengers were soldiers deliberately misusing press stickers to besmirch our independent and non-combatant status, and to draw us into the line of fire by making vehicles carrying journalists legitimate targets of either GAM or the TNI.

"It worked. By the end of the campaign's first week, at least seven real press vehicles had to brave a hail of bullets. Then, as journalists began to report on the mounting military atrocities against civilians, several reporters -- Indonesian and foreigners -- were interrogated by the police or army, and at least three received death threats.

"The 54 Indonesian journalists 'embedded' with various TNI units fared no better. They arrived in Aceh frightened, partly because they wore military uniforms and were indistinguishable from the troops and partly because their military keepers had told them GAM knew all of their names and intended to assassinate them. "Foolishly, I had assumed the presence of embeds might curb the worst excesses of the troops. Fat chance. Two embed teams have witnessed TNI atrocities and been warned -- in one case, on pain of death -- not to report them. 'Before, the embeds were afraid of GAM', says an Indonesian colleague in Lhokseumawe in northern Aceh. 'Now, they're more afraid of the TNI.'".

On June 2, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said it would investigate more than 20 cases of alleged human rights violations during the first two weeks of the operation. Komnas HAM reported that, from the testimonies obtained so far, there are indications that the perpetrators are members of GAM, rogue elements of the TNI and other unidentified groups.

At a press conference in Jakarta on June 2, MM Billa, head of Komnas HAM's monitoring team in Aceh, said: "Based on these findings, Komnas HAM calls for an end to hostilities between the two opposing parties and for the reopening of negotiations and the involvement of civil society [in these negotiations]. The emergency military operation must be terminated in order to also end the possibility of continued civilian casualties." Billah noted that the cases of human rights violations included summary executions of civilians in Bireuen on May 27, the torture of civilians in the village of Hadu (Bireuen) on May 23, sexual harassment of civilians in the village of Meunasah Krueng on May 23, rapes in greater Aceh on May 26, the rape of a 13-year-old child at the Ara Bungong Kampung in Bireuen on May 26, the arrest of Tempo journalists on May 26 and the forced expulsion or removal of residents.

Government to investigate Acehnese civil servants

Detik.com - June 11, 2003

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta -- The government will soon conduct a special investigations (Litsus) of state civil servants in Aceh. This follows information which suggests Acehnese civil servants are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The plan to enforce Litsus for Acehnese civil servants was announced to reporters by the State Minister for the Empowerment of the State Apparatus, Faisal Tamin, during a break in a Culture of Work Program workshop at the Hotel Meridien in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"There is a reason why Litsus must be conducted. If they are loyal, they will be valued for their loyalty in a difficult situation. But otherwise they will be dismissed immediately", explained Faisal.

In conducting Litsus, said Faisal, the government would work jointly with the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Defense [and Security]. [He said that] There are a number of things which indicate if a civil servant is a member of GAM.

"Firstly, where [the civil servants] are [working]. If they are in a GAM area or environment and they fail to carry out their duties that is strong evidence [of their involvement with GAM]. We will also request information from their families, along with information from local residents", said Faisal.

Meanwhile, the Secretary General of the Department of Home Affairs, Siti Nurbaya, said that Litsus would be conducted in accordance with the needs and the operational plans of the military operation in Aceh.

"To support this plan, tomorrow a declaration of loyalty rally will be held. This will involve village officials and local civil servants", said Siti.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Indications that civil servants are involved with GAM

Detik.com - June 11, 2003

Khairul Ikhwan, Medan -- There are indications that a number of civil servants in the Aceh provincial government are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), although none have so far been proven to be so. Aceh governor, Abdullah Puteh has said that the government is in the process of carrying out a more thorough investigation.

"Certainly there are indications that a number of civil servants are involved with GAM. But I am not yet able to say exactly how many, or what kind of percentage. We are still conduction an investigation", said Puteh in Medan on Tuesday.

According to Puteh, civil servants who are involved with GAM will be sanctioned. The type of punishment will depend on the type of infraction and they may also incur the most severe punishment, that is dismissal.

Puteh said that certainly these civil servants are not involved directly, such as those who carry arms and fight the official government, but it is rather a frame of thinking which supports GAM. It is known that in many cases, each time these civil servants speak they always side with GAM.

Aside from this said Puteh, this month the government would replace scores of sub-district heads in the province who are considered incapable of carrying out their duties properly. It was explained however, that they would not be replaced my military or police officers. "That is not their role", said Puteh.

[Translated by James Balowski]

Aceh government to screen state employees for loyalty

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Jakarta -- The Aceh provincial administration's plan to screen 67,000 civil servants and "severely punish" those found to support the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has sparked criticism.

Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) head Hendardi said the screening was absolutely unnecessary as it would disrupt government attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Acehnese. "The government will emulate the New Order regime, which was trying to weed out people allegedly linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) from the bureaucracy," Hendardi said on Tuesday.

The government should instead allow the Acehnese to seek justice for human rights violations perpetrated by the military in the past, Hendardi said. "Ensuring that justice is upheld is the main requirement to win the hearts and minds of Acehnese after the government allowed them to implement Islamic syariah law and granted special autonomy status. "Without justice the government will never win Acehnese hearts." He said the process would only divide the Acehnese and intensify suspicion between them.

After the abortive coup blamed on the PKI in 1965, the New Order government adopted a screening process, which was mandatory for those applying for positions in the bureaucracy, the military, the police and other state institutions. Those seeking promotion were also subjected to the examination, which aimed to trace links, directly or indirectly, to the now defunct party.

The central government on Tuesday expressed support for the process, which aimed to rid the bureaucracy of GAM sympathizers or supporters.

State Minister of Administrative Reform Feisal Tamin said the screening process would be based on fact instead of prejudice in order to avoid repeating past human rights violations. "It means that if certain civil servants are linked to GAM, the allegations must be supported by solid evidence, not presumptions." Feisal said witnesses would be needed to bring charges against alleged GAM supporters.

Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh said Monday that he had ordered that 67,000 civil servants in the province be screened due to suspicion that many supported or aided GAM. Puteh said the screening was necessary to find out whether the civil servants were loyal to the unitary state of Indonesia. "Those who have an unclear stance or support GAM will be given severe punishment," he said.

Feisal said the screening would be conducted carefully as civil servants were sometimes forced by GAM to support the separatist movement. "In a conflict situation, some people are frightened by physical threats so they may have no choice but to support GAM. But of course there are people that intentionally support GAM." He claimed that those forced to support GAM would escape punishment.

The central government has sent two senior officials to Aceh in connection with the implementation of the screening.

Black day for military, seven soldiers dead

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Berni K. Moestafa, Lhokseumawe -- Just hours after claiming to have made significant progress in its operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian Military (TNI) lost seven soldiers during a clash in Matang Kumbang, Bireun regency, Aceh, on Monday.

It was the highest number of casualties the TNI has suffered in one single incident so far in the province, and comes as the offensive entered its fourth week.

According to the Military, the soldiers died pursuing rebels who ambushed their convoy of three trucks carrying around 20 soldiers from the first Strike Force Detachment.

In addition, six other soldiers and one officer from the police's paramilitary Mobil Brigade (Brimob) were injured in the gunfight, which lasted for about three hours. The Military said five rebels were also killed in the incident.

"This is our biggest loss so far in terms of casualties suffered in a battle," said Aceh Military Operation Commander Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono, who described the troops as "heroic". "They [the soldiers] could have fled the ambush. But they didn't, they went out to fight."

The rebels first attacked the convoy with a hand grenade, which hit the first truck, said Bambang during a press conference on Tuesday. He said the soldiers immediately pursued the attackers, and spotted them at the top of a hill, where they had taken up position. Bambang said that some of the soldiers flanked the rebels from the right so they could fire at them from two sides.

Showing a video of the site where the battle occurred, he said the GAM rebels clearly had topographical advantage on their side. The soldiers had to fight their way up the hill, meaning the rebels had a clear field of fire at them.

The first three soldiers died as they reached the top of the hill, while four others died trying to recover the bodies of the dead and evacuate the wounded. The seven who died were Lt. Karno, Second Pvt. Apri, First Pvt. Askar Badu, Second Pvt Bian S. Tago, Second Pvt. Adam Nur, Second Pvt. Yafet Hermisa and First Pvt. Happy Sasinggih.

Bambang said that some of the attackers were members of GAM's female military wing, Inong Balee. He suspected that most of them were still in the Matang Kumbang area.

In another related development, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government would ban foreigners, whether tourists, activists or journalists, from the province as their presence there could disrupt the military operation and put their lives in danger.

"This ban is urgent to avoid any foreign victims in the province, and to help make the military operation a success," he said on a visit to Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Tuesday.

A German tourist was shot dead and his wife was injured while camping on a beach in Lhok Gayo village, Aceh Jaya regency, last Wednesday. Meanwhile, martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya called on all staff of the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), who helped monitor the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed on Dec. 9, 2002, to leave the province as their presence was no longer needed to mediate between the two conflicting sides.

"So far the HDC staff are still in Aceh, but we expect that they will leave the province immediately," martial law administration spokesman Col. Ditya Soedarsono said in Banda Aceh.

Troops suffer worst single death toll in Aceh clash

Agence France Presse - June 11, 2003

Indonesian troops and separatist rebels have fought their fiercest battle since a campaign was launched last month to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the military said.

At least seven soldiers have been shot dead and seven wounded -- the military's worst casualty toll since the assault was launched on May 19 and martial law was declared in the province on Sumatra island. "This is the heaviest battle between troops of the Indonesian armed forces and GAM since martial law was imposed in Aceh," said military operations spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki.

The clash began late Monday at Matang Kumbang in Bireuen district and lasted until early Tuesday, Basuki said, with 40 marines and 22 infantrymen battling an estimated 60 rebels.

Basuki said the rebels also suffered casualties but could not provide immediate details. He said the bodies of three marines had been recovered while the bodies of two marines and two infantrymen were still on the battlefield.

The spokesman could not be reached for an update later Tuesday but was quoted by Koran Tempo newspaper's online edition as saying that two companies, or about 200 men, have been sent as reinforcements. Basuki also said a firefight broke out at Krueng Pati Garue in East Aceh in which two rebels were shot dead and a firearm confiscated.

Twenty soldiers and three policemen have now died in Aceh since May 19. Troops have also killed 160 rebels, according to the military, with more than 300 placed in custody.

The military denies reports from villagers that some of the dead were civilians and says it is trying to protect ordinary Acehnese.

At a court-martial in Lhokseumawe a military prosecutor recommended jail sentences of between seven months and eight months and 20 days for three soldiers who assaulted civilians in Bireuen district on May 27, the state Antara news agency said. The court martial, the second under martial law, resumes Wednesday. Three soldiers have been jailed for four months over the same charges -- linked to the beating-up of villagers in Lawang village, Bireuen during a hunt for rebels. A second lieutenant is also to face a court-martial.

Police, meanwhile, accused GAM of abducting 23 village chiefs in the rebel stronghold of Bireuen district.

"Their aim in abducting those village heads is to force them to resign from their posts," said district police chief Commissioner Laksa Widiyana. He said the rebel group responsible is headed by Kautsar, the son of an Aceh legislator.

Some 76 other village heads in Bireuen district resigned Sunday, saying they were unable to perform their duties because of harassment from both sides.

GAM has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the province. An estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since then.

US weapons aid repression in Aceh

Foreign Policy in Focus - June 11, 2003

Frida Berrigan -- Far from the spotlight and far from Baghdad, another shock and awe campaign is underway. On May 19th, Indonesia launched a military campaign to "strike and paralyze" a small band of separatist rebels in the Aceh province.

In a made-for-TV photo op, 458 soldiers parachuted onto the island from six C-130 Hercules transport aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the United States' largest defense contractor. As many as 40,000 Indonesian troops and a police force of 10,000 followed close behind, backed up by warships, fighter planes, and other high-tech military equipment, declaring war on 5,000 separatist guerillas armed with automatic weapons, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack, which is Indonesia's biggest military campaign since its invasion and occupation of East Timor in 1975, follows the breakdown of five months of peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government. Nongovernmental organizations working to bridge the gap between GAM's assertion of total Acehnese independence and Jakarta's insistence that Aceh remain part of the nation, campaigned for both sides to accept greater Acehnese autonomy and at least some say over how profits from the island's rich resources -- including oil and gas reserves -- are apportioned. While there was popular support for these compromises throughout Indonesia, and the peace talks had broad support -- including from the Bush administration and international lending institutions -- the negotiations broke off in mid-May.

Indiscriminate Killing Acehnese rebels have been fighting for independence for 27 years, in a guerrilla war that has cost the lives of 10,000 civilians and forced tens of thousands more to leave their homes.

While Indonesian military officials claim to be targeting armed rebels, they are employing "drain the ocean to kill the fish" tactics, with brutality and indiscriminate killing. On May 21st, Indonesian soldiers carried out two massacres; killing at least 14 unarmed people, including two 12-year-old boys. That was not an isolated incident. According to Amnesty International, the Indonesian military has engaged in extrajudicial executions of civilians -- even children. The human rights group also charges that there is "widespread ... torture of detainees in both military and police custody." Two weeks into the intervention, the Indonesian military claims that it has killed 112 GAM fighters and captured 160, with an additional 92 surrendering. It also says that its own casualties and civilian deaths have been kept to a minimum, reporting that 10 soldiers and one civilian have been killed. Rebel sources contest these figures, saying that scores of civilians and hundreds of government soldiers have been killed.

While the true number of civilians killed in this intervention probably lie somewhere between the GAM and military counts, the displacement of civilians by the military is ongoing and well- documented by outside sources. The London-based Times quotes the Jakarta government as saying that as many as 200,000 civilians living in GAM strongholds will be interned in "strategic hamlets" for the duration of the war.

The majority of the schools in the region have been burned to the ground. While GAM and the Indonesian military each blame the other for the arson, the destruction was well orchestrated, which points to the military as the culprit. This seems to be part of a larger plan to draw popular support away from the rebels.

US Weapons Do Not Equal Influence In addition to the well- publicized use of US origin C-130s, the Indonesian Air Force has deployed Rockwell International OV-10 Bronco attack planes, firing air-to-surface missiles at targets in Aceh. Other US systems, like the F-16 Fighting Falcon multi-role fighter jets, S-58 Twinpack helicopters, and numerous small arms, are ready for deployment. The United States Arms Export Control Act stipulates that weapons are transferred to other countries to be used for self-defense, internal security, and participation in UN operations. It is difficult to see how one could classify what is going on in Aceh as meeting any of these three criteria.

In light of these violations of US law and the fact the Washington backed the peace talks between GAM and Jakarta, the criticism of the military operation from the Bush administration has been exceedingly weak. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who served as Ambassador to Indonesia under President Reagan and was friendly with Dictator Suharto, issued a statement saying that "it would be helpful if Indonesia would make sure that the actions of its forces are transparent ... it will help encourage the world that Indonesia is behaving professionally and carefully." While the Indonesian military has taken a page from the US war in Iraq, embedding journalists and providing media access, its actions are far from transparent. Members of the media have been fired upon, threatened, and detained in the conflict area, and the military authorities have sought to curtail what news does appear, demanding for instance that journalists stop quoting GAM leaders. Local human rights organizations have been attacked and international observers dispelled from the region, triggering concerns about the safety of civilians and the "transparency" with which the operation is being carried out.

For many years, the US was Indonesia's largest weapons source, equipping the country with everything from F-16 fighter planes to M-16 combat rifles. From the bloody 1975 invasion through the 1990s, the US transferred more than $1 billion in weaponry to Jakarta. Congress moved to ban some military exports to and training for Indonesia after the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor, where soldiers wielding US M-16s mowed down more than 270 unarmed people. And then, in response to military and paramilitary violence after East Timor's vote for independence in 1999, Congress strengthened the ban, establishing a set of criteria Indonesia must meet before military ties can be resumed. None of the criteria, including the transparency in military budget and the prosecution of soldiers involved in human rights violations, have been fully met.

Judicial Process Gives Military a Free Pass While the Indonesian government claims it is making strides to address human rights and military impunity, all the signs point in the exact opposite direction. In January an Indonesian court acquitted Brigadier General Tono Suratman, who was accused of human rights violations in East Timor. He is the 12th defendant acquitted by the court.

Even worse is the case of Major General Adam Damiri, who is on trial before a Jakarta human rights court for perpetrating crimes against humanity in East Timor. He has missed three consecutive court appearances because he is helping supervise the military assault on Aceh. Now the Indonesian prosecutors have recommended that all charges against him be dropped. This action makes it likely that there will be no serious penalties levied against the Indonesian military for its brutality in East Timor.

Despite the worsening crisis in Indonesia, the US's military embargo is under serious pressure as the Bush administration seeks a closer relationship with the world's largest Muslim democracy. In an effort to win support in the war on terrorism, the White House is seeking to renew military aid and training. The embargo on commercial sales of non-lethal defense articles has been lifted and contact between the two militaries is on the rise. Now, Indonesia's military benefits from the Regional Defense Counter-terrorism Fellowship Program, a $17.9 million military training program for Asian militaries. These steps send a message of support to Jakarta, even as many of the problems that sparked Congress' decision to freeze all military aid have not been resolved.

There has been some good news though. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently passed an amendment restricting International Military Education and Training (IMET) for 2004 for Indonesia until the government takes "effective measures" to investigate and criminally prosecute those responsible for a 2002 attack on US citizens. Indonesian police and NGO investigations have implicated the Indonesian military (TNI) in the attack, which killed two Americans. This is a step in the right direction, but the Indonesia military technically still has access to IMET funding for 2003.

Washington often argues that weapons sales allow the administration to wield influence over the policies of purchasing nations. Well, Indonesian General Endriartono Sutarto has a response to that. When asked about the use of UK-origin Hawk fighters in Aceh, he said, "I am going to use what I have. After all, I have paid already." The same can be said for US weapons. These weapons do not go away. The Bronco planes bombing Aceh today are very likely the same ones that dropped napalm and missiles (and maybe even the bomb that killed the sister of Nobel Prize-winning Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta) in East Timor in 1975.

Given the central role of US weapons in this new round of government sanctioned killing, weapons that Indonesia has paid for already, how can the Bush administration wield its influence to demand more from our ally than "transparent" indiscriminate killing? If the assertions that weapons sales equal influence are to be believed, the White House and Congress must muster the courage and compassion to demand an immediate cessation of military activities and a return to the negotiating table. Otherwise, our government bears some responsibility for the indiscriminate (but transparent) killing of unarmed Acehnese civilians.

[Frida Berrigan is a senior research associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center, a project of the World Policy Institute. She writes regularly for Foreign Policy In Focus.]

Indonesia plans island prison for rebel supporters

Sydney Morning Herald - June 10, 2003

Matthew Moore and Agencies -- As Indonesia's renewed war in Aceh province enters its fourth week, the army has unveiled plans to build an island prison to hold 1000 suspected members and supporters of the separatist group, GAM. The move came as President Megawati Sukarnoputri reiterated that she and her government would not tolerate separatism.

The spokesman for the Aceh military command, Lieutenant-Colonel Firdaus Komera, said yesterday that a portion of Nasi Island, about 15 kilometres off the capital Banda Aceh, would be set aside to build a prison camp for GAM supporters. He said the prison may be modelled on Buru Island, near Ambon, where thousands of political prisoners were held for decades by the former dictator, Soeharto. Prisoners on Nasi are expected to be encouraged to grow crops and take part in sports, as were those on Buru, where the government said it wanted to change the way alleged dissidents thought.

In the first week of the war, the navy and air force shelled and bombed Nasi Island before troops invaded and took over the four villages which were accused of supporting rebels. The Indonesian media has already dubbed the island the local version of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where the US has held suspected al-Qaeda supporters.

In its renewed war in Aceh, on Sumatra's most northerly tip, the army says it has arrested 183 GAM suspects, including a number who surrendered.

They will be sent to Nasi Island once the camp is completed in about two months. Meanwhile, three soldiers convicted of beating innocent villagers with sticks and clubs were yesterday sentenced to four months and 20 days detention. The army has brushed aside allegations its soldiers murdered a villager, Abu Bakar, during the raid in Lawang village in North Aceh and said he was a GAM member who was shot dead while trying to escape.

Ms Megawati yesterday told veterans of the country's independence struggle against the Dutch she had given "wider room" for the peaceful settlement of separatist desires. "But what has emerged are struggles for separatism and freedom using weapons, and I cannot tolerate these any further. "The life of the nation within the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia is, for me, not bargainable or negotiable, and cannot be changed or erased."

Aceh military campaign suffers set back

Radio Australia - June 10, 2003

Indonesia's military operation to crush the Free Aceh separatists continues to gather momentum as the war enters its fourth week. The military, the TNI claims it has killed some 160 rebels and taken more than 300 prisoners, with many surrendering. But it also concedes that this week alone seven soldiers have been shot dead and more wounded in what is its worst casualty toll since the start of the conflict.

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti

Speakers: Jakarta Post reporter Tiarma Siboro, who's embedded with government units in Aceh,

Siboro: I appreciate the military's decision to set up a military court in line with the soldiers' violations in beating civilians and that's really a good progress in the military's history. It was the first ever trial since the military launched its campaign in several provinces of Indonesia.

Lopresti: A crucial part of the military strategy is to get control of the population, to take the hearts and minds of the people. Has the military succeeded in this regard?

Siboro: Not yet because it's really difficult to separate the civilians from GAM because they are sure that once the military arrives in their village there will be armed conflict which will then cause civilian casualties.

Lopresti: So the resignation of the village chiefs must be a blow to the military, they were a key in getting control of the people of Aceh. Do you expect a shift in military strategy at this point?

Siboro: I was talking to the TNI spokesman and he said that they will monitor the village heads because they are out of the administrative sub-chairs and I think the TNI was suspicious that most of the village chiefs were with GAM.

Lopresti: Is there popular support for GAM?

Siboro: Most people sympathise with GAM rather than with the military. Once I entered a village where the TNI had taken up camp and a woman complained to me that her husband was beaten by the TNI as they attempted to find the rebels.

Lopresti: But even the GAM rebels have been accused of serious abuses by international rights groups. Have you seen any evidence of that?

Siboro: Never. I have never seen the GAM rebels hit people. Maybe they have asked for money or food. But I have never seen GAM hit villages.

Lopresti: The village chiefs on resigning said they were harassed by both the military and the rebels.

Siboro: I heard from some villagers that the village heads were being interrogated by the military and usually GAM will also question them to see whether they are supporting the military.

Lopresti: We've also heard reports of Aceh police targeting rights activists.

Siboro: Yes, mostly foreign activists. The TNI has made a clear rule of engagement that none of the foreign non government organisation activists can enter the province as a means of protecting their safety. They say that foreigners have become the GAM target.

Lopresti: Any feeling on how long this war might go on for?

Siboro: It will take more than one year because some in the military say that the operation will not stop against the GAM movement, to curb the movement and they say that it will take a long year.

Lopresti: So they're looking at a year long war in Aceh?

Siboro: Yes.

Foreigners to be banned from war-torn province

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2003

Jakarta -- The government has declared war-torn Aceh off limits to tourists following the shooting of two German tourists last week.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the decision was made for security reasons. "For the time being, we don't expect the presence of foreigners at some tourist resorts in Aceh as the security situation ... is not favorable," Susilo said after hearing a pledge of allegiance to Indonesia by villagers from Damak in the North Aceh regency on Saturday.

He said government regulations would be issued as soon as possible to enforce the restriction. The minister said the government would further review the policy regarding the presence of foreign journalists and humanitarian workers in the province.

"Their presence in the province will be managed in a certain way for their own safety in carrying out their work in Aceh," Susilo was quoted by Antara as saying.

Lothar Heinrich Albert Engel died instantly while his wife, Elizabeth Margaret Engel, 49, was shot in the knee when troops opened fire on their makeshift campsite on the outskirts of a village last week. They were the first foreign casualties in the government's military operation.

Sharing Susilo's opinion, Vice President Hamzah Haz called on the martial law administrator in Aceh to close the province off to all foreigners. "I appeal to the martial law administrator to declare Aceh out of bounds to tourists and foreigners," Hamzah said.

However, the Vice President also urged the police to investigate the shooting of the two German nationals. "The police should be given a chance to investigate the incident." Hamzah said he did not believe the incident involving the two Germans would lead to a foreign investigation of the shooting.

The case should be investigated by local police, and there was no need to invite German investigators, he said. Hamzah also said that the German government should not file a complaint with the Indonesian government over the shooting incident as it occurred in an area under martial law.

Defense Attache at the German Embassy in Jakarta Col. Bruno Hasenpusch visited the site of the shooting on Saturday, accompanied by local military officer Col. Geerhan Lantara.

Meanwhile, nine soldiers involved in the shooting of the two Germans had been told to go on leave until the investigations of the incident were completed. Navy Capt. Ditya Soedarsono from the Aceh martial law administration said that the nine soldiers would not be punished as they had followed standard procedures before the shooting took place.

Village heads quit en masse

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2003

Bernie K. Moestafa and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh -- The war in Aceh is taking its toll on village chiefs with 76 in Bireuen regency resigning on Sunday after complaining about the pressure they had to face in dealing with both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

"Keucik [village chiefs] cannot run the administration under such pressure," Rajali, one of the village chiefs from Jeunib, told reporters. "They cannot stand the conflict between TNI and GAM anymore.".

The 76 chiefs come from villages in the Peudada, Jeumpa, Jeunib and Juli subdistricts in Bireun regency, which is known as a stronghold of GAM. Rajali said that the keucik decided to tender their resignations following a meeting at Blank Sepang village on Sunday.

Indonesia's largest military operation since the 1975 East Timor invasion is in its fourth week in Aceh, where control over the population through the villages has long been a crucial part of the military strategy. "Much is focused on the keucik," Rajali said.

Last week reports surfaced about 30 village chiefs seeking refuge in the Samalanga area in Bireuen due to fears of GAM retaliation after the TNI indoctrinated them about the Unitary State of Indonesia. In the Bireuen village of Lawang, keucik Hamdani was beaten by soldiers of the 144th Battalion late last month.

The soldiers said that Hamdani failed to cooperate properly when they raided his village in search of GAM members. The incident the subject of a trial with seven soldiers named as suspects, three of whom will hear their verdict on Monday.

According to Rajali, village chiefs need not report their resignation because they have been elected by their respective villages.

Aceh Military Operation spokesman Lt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki said he had yet to receive the reports over the village chiefs' resignation. But he added that such reports needed to be verified. "We must see whether the reason for their resignation matches with the situation in the field."

Such mass resignations, he said, could not be taken lightly. The keucik play a pivotal role in supporting the integrated operation in Aceh in particular relating to the empowering of the local administrations, Yani explained.

As part of the operation to restore the administrative function in Aceh, the government plans to replace district chiefs with retired military or police officers. Administrations in many districts have been paralyzed due to the continuing conflict, even before the integrated operation and martial law began on May 19.

Separately, visiting Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said the government would focus on development of GAM-free areas, apart from providing humanitarian assistance for displaced people. "Empowerment of people in safe areas is one of our top priority programs. Only people who live in poor conditions will be prone to GAM's provocation," Bachtiar said.

Areas considered as GAM-free include Aceh Island and Nasi Island in Aceh Besar regency, some four nautical miles north of the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh. In those safe areas, the government will focus its program on the provision of jobs and capital for residents, Bachtiar said.

Meanwhile, Chief Pvt. Yenformase died and 18 other soldiers were injured after their truck fell off a bridge and into a river in an accident in the Aloe Papen village in North Aceh's Nisam area on Sunday afternoon.

The soldiers were part of a 25-man joint strike force detachment of three battalions. The accident occurred when their truck tried to pass a narrow wooden bridge during a rainstorm.

The TNI has now lost 13 soldiers since martial law was declared. According to military sources, government troops have shot dead 150 separatists, captured 88 others while 95 surrendered, and 50 different types of weapons have been seized.

Spokesman for martial law administration in Aceh Col. Ditya Soedarsono said the military would intensify the search for GAM arsenals, using special detectors.

Shot tourist heard no warning calls

Sydney Morning Herald - June 9, 2003

Matthew Moore, Jakarta -- A German tourist shot by Indonesian soldiers in Aceh province said she did not hear any calls from soldiers before they fired warning shots and further shots that hit her and killed her husband.

The Indonesian military has suspended nine soldiers involved in the attack while it investigates what happened, although the army's operational commander said on Friday that the correct procedures had been followed in the incident last Wednesday.

In her only interview, with Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff of the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau, Elizabeth Engel, 49, said she and her husband, Luther Hendrik Albert, 53, who were on a six- year world bicycling tour, were reading with head torches while camping under a mosquito net near a beach on Aceh's west coast when they were shot.

Asked whether soldiers had called out to them before shooting she said: "They told me [later] they had shouted but I heard nothing but one or two warning shots." She said there was no time to react after hearing the first warning shots. "There was not even half a minute in between, there While she admitted she and her husband should not have been camping in such a dangerous place in Aceh, where the Indonesian Army is fighting separatist rebels, Ms Engel said soldiers had to take some responsibility for "the fact they shot so fast after the warning shots".

"We neither tried to escape nor did we shoot back. Then a person should realise it is not terrorists sitting there. But normally tourists do not sit there in the open at night," she said.

Soldiers staged a re-enactment of the shooting that was shown on Indonesian television at the weekend. A source close to the investigation said the soldiers fired from less than 40 metres from the couple.

Following the shootings, Indonesia's Security Minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, announced further restrictions on foreigners visiting Aceh, possibly including foreign journalists. "We don't expect the presence of foreigners at some tourist resorts in Aceh, as the condition of security in the region ... is not favourable at present," he said.

Ms Engel, who yesterday underwent surgery in Jakarta for a bullet wound to her knee, was hoping to return to Germany today with her husband's body.

Military is being given a free hand to strangle Aceh

Time Magazine - June 9, 2003

Andrew Marshall -- Of all the hardware currently deployed in Aceh, US-supplied bombers, British-made jets, tanks, armored troop carriers, assault helicopters, warships" it was a slate- gray Japanese sedan that unnerved us journalists the most.

The car bore a large sign reading "Press," yet it carried several uniformed men with guns. Who were they? Rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)? Not likely: the car was spotted several times in broad daylight in areas controlled by the Indonesian military (TNI).

More likely, we thought, the passengers were soldiers deliberately misusing press stickers to besmirch our independent and noncombatant status, and to draw us into the line of fire by making vehicles carrying journalists legitimate targets of either GAM or the TNI.

It worked. By the end of the campaign's first week, at least seven real press vehicles had to brave a hail of bullets. Then, as journalists began to report on the mounting military atrocities against civilians, several reporters -- Indonesian and foreigns -- were interrogated by the police or army, and at least three received death threats.

The 54 Indonesian journalists "embedded" with various TNI units fared no better. They arrived in Aceh frightened, partly because they wore military uniforms and were indistinguishable from the troops and partly because their military keepers had told them GAM knew all of their names and intended to assassinate them.

Foolishly, I had assumed the presence of embeds might curb the worst excesses of the troops. Fat chance. Two embed teams have witnessed TNI atrocities and been warned -- in one case, on pain of death -- not to report them. "Before, the embeds were afraid of GAM," says an Indonesian colleague in Lhokseumawe in northern Aceh. "Now, they're more afraid of the TNI".

The brutal, unchecked crackdown in Aceh is transporting Indonesia back to the dark days of the Suharto dictatorship, exposing the military's reformist claims of recent years as a sham. With the Aceh campaign entering its third week, TNI's strategy -- if that's the word -- is shockingly clear. First, saturate the benighted countryside with trigger-happy soldiers and flush out any GAM suspects on a tsunami of civilian blood. Second, frighten into silence anyone who dares to report on the gory consequences, such as the summary execution of eight young men and boys at Peusangan in northern Bireun district.

The Indonesian government has told foreign journalists and aid workers to stay out of the province, because it does not want Aceh's plight to be internationalized as East Timor's was. But reporters are not the only ones who have been intimidated.

Fearful of reprisals from men in uniform, morgue workers in Aceh now write "loss of blood" as the cause of death on corpses delivered with execution-style head wounds.

Meanwhile, in Jakarta, the office of leading human-rights activist Munir, one of the lone voices against the campaign, was trashed by Pemuda Panca Marga, a military-backed youth group that most people associated with the Suharto regime and assumed had died with it. The upshot of all this: nobody really knows what's going on in Aceh anymore.

But then nobody really wants to know. Polls show the majority of Indonesians support the conflict -- which the military has successfully portrayed as a noble battle for national unity rather than, as an Acehnese friend described to me from hiding, a ruthless campaign against a single ethnic group.

The reaction overseas has been similarly muted. So far, protests from abroad have been pro forma or nonexistent or, in the case of Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer, who wholeheartedly threw his support behind the Aceh campaign only days after the Peusangan massacre, bordering on cold hearted.

The US is too anxious to maintain good relations with its war-on-terror allies to do anything but urge the TNI to make its soldiers' actions more transparent, a plea the TNI notes and then ignores -- as the US allows it to do. If anything does disrupt US-Indonesia relations, it will not be Acehnese blood but that of two American teachers murdered in Papua last August, possibly by the military.

With GAM now almost irrelevant to Aceh's future and without anyone -- Jakarta, the media, activists, aid workers, foreign governments -- to bear witness, the military has been free to launch what many Acehnese feel is the endgame for their people. Part of this includes the replacement of the province's 114 subdistrict chiefs with retired soldiers, which would give the military a stranglehold over the province and allow the uninterrupted plunder of natural resources such as timber.

It is a future the generals would wish upon other parts of resource-rich Indonesia -- for example, restive Papua province -- and one that appears inevitable considering the lack of protest or even debate over their blood-soaked Aceh adventure.

West Papua

Unicef concerned over high Papua infant mortality, AIDS

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura -- The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has allocated US$1 million (Rp 8.2 billion) to help cope with the high infant mortality rate and spread of HIV/AIDS in the resource-rich province of Papua.

The director of the Unicef office in Jayapura, Kiyoshi Nakamitsu, said here on Friday that the financial assistance, which would be disbursed in phases, was aimed at expressing Unicef's deep concern over the serious health problems, especially affecting women and children, in the thinly populated province.

He said that according to Unicef data, the infant mortality rate in the province reached 117 per 1,000 under-five children, which was the worst in the world.

"This means 117 out of every 1,000 infants die every year before they reach the age of one year old. This infant mortality rate is very high, and much higher than the national rate of 50 per 1,000 infants," he said He added that Unicef was obliged and had a responsibility to cope with the serious health problems among women and their children in the province.

Kiyoshi said the high infant mortality rate had a lot to do with rampant malnutrition among women and their children, and the lack of health services, especially in remote areas.

"Many infants are doomed to die because besides being malnourished, most children and women do not have access to better health services because of poverty and the fact that they live in remote areas," he said.

He said further said that this had been worsened by the high percentage of people with HIV/AIDS in the province over the last decade.

Out of a total of 1,263 people with HIV in the province, 539 have developed AIDS. If compared to the province's population of 2.3 million, this figure is the highest in the country.

"The infant mortality rate is expected to remain high over the next ten years in line with the high percentage of people with HIV/AIDS. Prenatal babies are quite prone to contracting HIV/AIDS from their mothers. Besides, teenagers are also prone to the disease as a result of promiscuity," he said, adding that Unicef would launch an anti-AIDS campaign among high school students.

He said the assistance would distributed in five regencies -- Biak, Jayawijaya, Jayapura, Sorong and Manokwari -- and take the form of medicines, and training and support programs.

Papua activists face jail for anti-government protest

Agence France Presse - June 12, 2003

Jakarta -- Six activists in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua are facing up to 18 months in jail for holding a protest against the authorities, a report said Thursday.

The activists in the western district of Fakfak have been declared suspects in a case of publicly insulting the government or government institutions, Fakfak district police chief Syahroni was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

District police detective chief Suta Astawa, quoted by Antara, said the charges were linked to a protest rally they had held against the lawful government, including the district authority and parliament. He said that the suspects had sullied the name of the head of the district administration by distributing leaflets "which are deemed to be able to create unrest among the people." The six are free pending their trial.

A low-level armed revolt has been waged in the resource-rich province since Jakarta took it over in 1963 from Dutch colonial rulers. Separatist sentiment has been fuelled by military abuses of rights. Papuans also say they do not receive a fair share of the province's rich natural resources.

Trikora commander withdraws suit

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Jayapura -- Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Nurdin Zainal who overseas Papua withdrew a defamation suit on Wednesday against EL-SHAM Papua for accusing the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) of involvement in the attack on a PT Freeport employee bus in Tembagapura last August. Two foreigners and an Indonesian were killed in the incident.

The trial was scheduled for Wednesday at the Jayapura District Court but a day earlier the commander's lawyer Maj. CHK Priyono met the Jayapura Prosecutors Office civil court administrator to withdraw the suit.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) filed the suit after EL-SHAM Papua claimed that some Kopassus members were involved in the attack last August. Nurdin said that the information had defamed the TNI because it was baseless.

Labour issues

Many employers cheat on worker insurance

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2003

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- State-owned social security company PT Jamsostek is encouraging employees to check their participation in the social security schemes as many employers were found to be dishonest in registering their employees with the mandatory insurance programs.

"Employees have the right to know whether they are registered with all the four insurance schemes and whether their premiums paid by their employers to Jamsostek are based on their actual monthly salaries," Jamsostek president Achmad Djunaidi said.

Djunaidi made the call when he paid on Thursday compensation for five workers of PT Nestle Indonesia who were killed in a vehicular accident on the Jakarta-Bogor toll road last month.

He revealed that 50 percent, or more than 50,000, of 108,000 companies participating in the social security program, have registered only some of their workers and reported their actual monthly salaries to Jamsostek, in an attempt to reduce the financial burden of joining the programs.

"Workers who are not registered with Jamsostek gain no insurance benefits when they fall sick, experience work-related accidents or enter their mandatory retirement age of 60. The smaller the premium workers and their employers pay to the insurance schemes, the less benefit they will gain," he said.

According to Junaidi, workers should file complaints about their management to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration if their premium is not paid in line with their monthly salaries as is required by law.

Law No. 3/1992 on social security programs stipulates that all companies employing ten workers or more are obliged to participate in the social security programs which comprise of a health care scheme, occupational accident scheme, compensation for next of kin in case of death and a pension scheme.

Of the 13.7 percent premium to be paid for the four schemes, workers are obliged to pay 2 percent while the remaining 11.7 percent is covered by their employers.

Djunaidi reiterated that the benefits workers gain, depends on the amount of premium they pay. "Many workers are unaware of the benefits of the basic insurance schemes because they do not pay their premium directly to Jamsostek," he said. He cited as an example that the families of two workers of the Sari Club who were killed in the October 12, 2002 bombing in Denpasar, Bali gained only around Rp 9 million (US$1,097) in compensation from Jamsostek because their employer reported to Jamsostek that their monthly salary was only Rp 170,000.

"The manpower and transmigration office in Denpasar should take action against the employer because the report was completely inaccurate since the minimum wage in the province last year was Rp 341,000.

The family of the director of the North Sumatra Development Bank who was killed in a collision in Jakarta last year received compensation amounting to only Rp 40 million because his company reported to Jamsostek that his monthly salary was only Rp 1 million.

"But, it's impossible that a bank president would be paid only Rp 1 million per month," he said, explaining that such deceit has affected recipients of the insurance program. According to the law, a worker who is killed in a work-related accident has the right to forty-times or 4,000 percent of his or her monthly salary which is paid to his/her next of kin.

Ira Yovita, one of Nestle's workers killed in the traffic accident gained more than Rp 181 million in compensation and pension funds which was paid to her parents.

Ira, who had been employed for seven months in the foreign company received a monthly salary of Rp 5 million, which was reported transparently to Jamsostek by Nestle.

Jamsostek's operation director Djoko Sungkono said his company was still promoting the social security law to improve employers' awareness of the importance of insurance coverage for their employees.

"Besides, the government through the manpower and transmigration minister should start enforcing the law to help provide protection for Indonesian workers both at home and overseas," he said.

Djoko added that the House of Representatives would likely revise the law to allow Jamsostek to appoint special staff to enforce the law as is done in many other countries.

Workers rally against planned layoffs

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Tangerang -- Some 400 workers from wood processing company PT Tambun Kusuma staged a rally at the Tangerang legislative council on Tuesday amid fears that the management would lay them off.

The protesters accused the company of looking for shortcomings on the part of its workers by claiming that 40 percent of them held fake school diplomas.

"It is part of a management trick to seek reasons to allow the company to lay off workers, so that it can spend less on their severance pay," said Suharno, one of the protesters.

He said the workers had learned of the management's plan to relocate the factory to Surabaya, East Java. In negotiations earlier, the company asked workers to tender their resignations and offered each Rp 1.4 million in "wisdom money". However, the workers refused as the amount was much less than the severance pay they would have received.

Budi, another protester, said most of the workers had been employed there for more than three years.

According to the workers, the management had threatened to report to the police those proven to hold fake diplomas, unless they resigned voluntarily.

Rural issues

Drought threatens West Java rice supply

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Nana Rukmana, Indramayu, West Java -- Over 45,000 hectares of rice plants in the Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, known as the rice belt of West Java, have withered following the early arrival of the annual drought, predicted to last until November.

A tract of farmland in the region could not be planted and in some areas, young rice plants could not grow because of the drastic decrease in the water supply from three dams in the province.

"Almost all irrigation channels to farms in a number of districts in the regency are drying up because there is no water supply from the three dams," chief of the Indramayu settlement and infrastructures office Rahardjo told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said that the water supply of the dams in Salam Darma, Subang regency, in Bendung Rentang, Majalengka regency, and in Jatiluhur, Purwakarta regency, had suddenly decreased because it had not rained over the last few weeks.

Rahardjo said around 20,000 hectares of rice plants had withered in the districts of Karangampel, Krangkeng, Juntinyuat, Balongan, Losarang and Kandanghaur, and farmers could do nothing as the dry season began in May, two months earlier than expected.

Chief of the local agriculture office Muhaimin said he was pessimistic that the farmers could plant the target 95,000 hectares of rice during the planting season.

"So far, only about 52,000 hectares have been planted," he said, adding that the drought would affect the regency's rice production this year.

Separately, chief of the Cirebon agriculture office Sathori Djuhaeri confirmed that the drought has damaged 25 hectares of rice fields in the regency.

"Compared to 2002, the situation is worse this year because the early drought has damaged tens of thousands of rice paddies in the regency," he said.

Thousands of villagers are also suffering from the drought, as their wells have dried up and they are running out of fresh water.

He said that the districts worst-hit by the drought were Kepetakan, Arjowinangun, North Cirebon, Kaliwedi, Panguragan and Gresik.

Kusnen, a local farmer, said that more than two hectares of rice plants on his farm had "turned yellow" because of the water crisis.

Government & politics

Golkar Party gives Akbar Tandjung second chance

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Golkar will give its chairman Akbar Tandjung a chance to contest the national convention, which will elect the party's presidential candidate to run in the 2004 election.

The executive chairman of the national convention organizing committee, Slamet Effendy Yusuf, said on Friday that Akbar can be nominated by either members of Golkar or mass organizations affiliated with the party for the national convention slated for November.

Akbar, who is also the House of Representatives (DPR) speaker, was sentenced to three years after he was convicted in a Rp 40 billion (US$4.81 million) graft case that took place when he was state secretary under President B.J. Habibie in 1999. Akbar remains free, pending his appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court expects to hear the appeal in August, when Golkar begins the nomination of presidential hopefuls by the party's provincial chapters. "It depends on whether Akbar is nominated [by the organization] or not," Slamet said after a discussion here on Friday.

Separately, Akbar said on Friday that he was undecided whether he would run for president. He said that as party chairman he would focus on how to boost Golkar's votes in the 2004 election. Slamet said Akbar would not enjoy any privileges in the convention, despite being the party chairman.

A group of at least 500 people or a mass organization are allowed to propose presidential candidates to Golkar's regental branch when the convention process starts up in August. Each branch is allowed to select five candidates, who will compete in the convention at a provincial level. Each provincial chapter will come with five candidates to the national convention in Jakarta in November.

Slamet said the selection process in regental branches was part of Golkar's effort to search for "the best person in the nation" for the presidential race. Citing an example, Slamet said that a recent meeting of branch offices in Surakarta, Central Java, selected 17 candidates, three of whom were not Golkar members.

For that same reason, Slamet said the presidential candidates would not be restricted to only Golkar figures. Based on the Constitution, a presidential hopeful has to be nominated by a political party or a coalition of parties, which effectively closes the door on independent candidates.

Although some Golkar leaders have mentioned several possible presidential candidates, Slamet said that until Friday the convention committee had not officially received any names.

National figures touted as candidates during the convention include Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar, Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, media tycoon Surya Paloh, former Indonesian Military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto and former chief of Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Prabowo Subianto.

"The status of these candidates is the same as the candidates that have not yet been mentioned," Slamet added.

Political analyst turned politician Andi Mallarangeng hailed Golkar's convention initiative, but said that the agenda should not pay lip service just to boost the party's image.

Popularity of large political parties declining

Kompas - June 13, 2003

Jakarta -- The popularity of the large political in the lead-up to the 2004 general elections is continuing to decline in the eyes of the public. People believe that the political parties don't care about the future and the interests of ordinary people, they are egotistic and the elite are constantly squabbling.

The results of the survey by the Center for The Study of Development and Democracy (Cesda)/Institute for Social and Economic Research, Education and Information (LP3ES), was presented by researchers E. Shobirin Nadj, Rahadi T. Wiratama and Wildan Pramudya Arifin on Thursday.

The survey involved 3,000 respondents from 13 provinces and was carried out over 12 days between May 1-12. "The image of the political parties in the lead-up to the 2004 elections is continuing to decline and [they are] failing to fulfill the hopes of society", said Shobirin. This can be seen from the number of respondents who were not convinced that the political parties could become a vehicle for the aspirations of the ordinary people (64 per cent). Furthermore, 49 per cent of respondents said that they did not trust the political parties. This figure is far higher than that of respondents who said they trusted the political parties (29 per cent).

When questioned about which political party contesting the election cared about the interests of ordinary people, 23 per cent of respondents said there was not a single party which cared with 35 per cent of respondents not answering.

They don't care

According to Shobirin, there was an interesting finding on the question of the political parties consistency [in campaigning for the interests of ordinary people]. The PDI-P consistency as the party which won the last elections has also declined. The previous year, 13 per cent of respondents said that PDI-P cared about the interests of ordinary people, this year it was only nine per cent. The assessment of the consistency of the National Mandate Party and the National Awakening Party also dropped from three per cent (2002) to two percent.

Furthermore said Shobirin, these figures will have an influence on the people's choices in the 2004 elections. The data from the survey indicates that 19 per cent of respondents will switch political parties in the 2004 elections because, among other things, the aims of the political parties are less and less clear, they have neglected the interests of their supporters, they are egotistic and the leaders of the political parties are constantly squabbling.

Changes in the choice of political parties was also clearly demonstrated in the Cesda/LP3ES survey. Support for PDI-P tended to weaken in comparison with the same survey conducted in 2002. In 2002, PDI-P was supported by 11 per cent of respondents, this year it is only seven per cent. Conversely, support for [the former state party of President Suharto] Golkar has actually increased from three to 18 per cent.

According to Wildan Pramudya, this increase in support for Golkar may be because of the regions surveyed. He said that the regions surveyed, which were chosen randomly, fell on those regions which had a Golkar support base such as South Sulawesi, North Sumatra and West Java. "This of course needs to be rechecked", he said. (BSW)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Chamber of Commerce wants business figure to lead Indonesia

Antara - June 13, 2003

Jakarta -- Indonesian businessmen have expressed hope that a business figure will be elected as the next president, so that the prolonged economic crisis in the country would end.

Businessmen such as Aburizal Bakrie and Lalu Mara Satriawangsa made the statement during a national convention on Golkar Party's presidential candidates, held on Wednesday night.

Aburizal, who is general chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry [Kadin], confirmed his readiness to be elected as the country's leader.

He made the announcement following a meeting with eight organizations affiliated with Golkar, which was also held on Wednesday night.

Aburizal said his decision to run for president was made in response to the wishes expressed during the Kadin board of leaders' meeting in Bali from February 28 to March 1.

Meanwhile, Lalu Mara said the wish to elect an economy-oriented leader was made because Indonesia's economic growth is only 3.5 per cent and the unemployment rate is still high.

Lalu said Aburizal has already formulated his economic, political, security, socio-cultural and general platforms to facilitate his entry into next year's presidential race.

Aburizal himself said he is ready to take part in all processes leading to the party's convention on presidential aspirants, including national working meetings in Makassar (South Sulawesi), Bandung (West Java) and Medan (North Sumatra) next month.

Lalu said Aburizal is ready to convey his vision and platforms during the meetings in the three cities.

Amien's wishlist of running mates

Straits Times - June 13, 2003

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Indonesia's National Assembly Speaker and presidential hopeful Amien Rais has unveiled a star-studded list of potential running mates for next year's elections.

It includes not only four Cabinet ministers but also a widely popular Muslim cleric and even a sister of the President. No fewer than four of those on the list are said to be potential presidential candidates themselves.

Dr Amien's own party, the National Mandate Party (Pan), came in only fifth in the 1999 general election, and he is counting on a popular running mate to boost his chances in the country's first direct presidential election.

The 10 were recommended for the vice-presidency at the close of Pan's national meeting in Makassar, capital of South Sulawesi, on Wednesday.

They include Muslim cleric Abdullah Gymnastiar, also known as Aa Gym, and State Minister for National Development Planning Kwik Kian Gie, the outspoken top official of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle.

Others include Cabinet ministers Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Yusuf Kalla and Agum Gumelar, and Yogyakarta governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X. These four have also been tipped as possible presidential candidates for Golkar, the country's second-largest political party.

Mr Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organisation, and the President's estranged sister Rachmawati Sukarnoputri are also on Pan's list.

Dr Amien told journalists on Wednesday: "Some of the people on the list feel capable of running for the presidency themselves, but Pan's 'diplomats' are currently wooing them to join us." All 10 fulfilled the criteria set by the party, he said. They are honest, moderate and intelligent. They also have integrity and "are not burdened by their past".

Their prominence would help his presidential campaign, he said, as they would bring with them their own constituents, thereby boosting support for him. However, he added, the party would only make its pick near election-time.

The announcement has generated little excitement among those who make up the list. Mr Kalla told reporters that he would join Dr Amien's camp if Pan could win the general election, while Aa Gym reiterated that he had no interest in politics. "I've had a lot of parties approaching me but I haven't accepted it," he said. "I'm not even that good at running my boarding school, much less a country."

Mr Kwik, an ethnic Chinese politician who has been at odds with other Cabinet ministers over economic policies, was quoted by Koran Tempo daily as saying: "I'm surprised by the nomination because I'm already old."

Who Dr Amien will eventually pick remains to be seen, but analysts said that prime candidates like the four Golkar men were unlikely to make a commitment before knowing what lay ahead.

The four are preparing to earn their party's nod as presidential candidate at Golkar's convention next year. Some, like Mr Kalla and Mr Susilo, have also been approached by other presidential hopefuls, including incumbent President Megawati, to be running mates.

A political consultant close to the presidential campaign process said: "The situation is really fluid now; everyone is keeping his or her option open because it's too early to decide. Everything will depend on the results of the parliamentary election and, naturally, parties with the most popular votes will be able to dictate the presidential race that follows," he said. Those who could not win the top post themselves would join only those with the highest chances of winning, he said.

Minister wages war on slack bureaucrats

Straits Times - June 13, 2003

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia's top bureaucrat has launched a stinging attack on the very team under his leadership. He says most of the country's four million civil servants are unproductive and unprofessional.

In Minister of State Apparatus Feisal Tamin's estimation, only 45 per cent of Indonesian bureaucrats know what they are doing and do their jobs properly. The rest, he said, are "under-educated, unmotivated, unsupervised and rarely held accountable".

This majority group, the minister warned yesterday, would have to improve or risk falling victim to reform measures he put in place last year.

The minister told The Straits Times in a telephone interview: "I am fed up by how poorly most government workers understand their roles within the bureaucracy. My focus as minister remains to change the way Indonesian civil servants view themselves and therefore perform their tasks." Mr Feisal's success or failure will have a tremendous impact on how Indonesia governs its population of 215 million people.

The minister -- famous for making surprise visits to government offices to catch napping or neglectful bureaucrats -- has identified serious problems: Some civil servants make a habit of not showing up at the office.

Attendance during the first few days following sanctioned holiday periods are often as low as 30 to 40 per cent because many officials take extended vacations. Even when they do show up, many bureaucrats take long lunches and waste time socialising with colleagues or even watching television.

As many as 75 per cent of civil servants are educated only to high-school level or less. This last factor is the one that bothers Mr Feisal most.

"That is ridiculous. The low education level is evidence that our bureaucracy is truly broke," he said. "In the past, our hiring practices were wrong. This we have to fix very quickly."

Experts say that during the Suharto era, many government jobs were up for auction and qualifications mattered less than a candidate's ability to pay bribes. Nepotism was also rampant and only those with the right connections would get stabs at the choice jobs within government ministries.

The minister is using some big sticks to wreak change -- surprise inspections, stricter evaluation procedures, mandatory attendance and the sacking of under-achievers.

At the same time, Mr Feisal is dangling carrots. He fast-tracked more than 60 people for promotion last year after he identified them as being dedicated workers.

There is also a new programme aimed at helping bureaucrats to continue their education and training -- and more controls are being put in place to ensure only good candidates are singled out for such initiatives.

"We expect the percentage of competent workers to rise to about 60 per cent by the end of this year, and to continue to rise in the future," Mr Feisal said.

Analysts suggest the minister faces an uphill battle.

Media/press freedom

Aceh: Echoes of East Timor

Asia Times - June 12, 2003

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government is once again using nationalistic propaganda and media censorship to gain public support for its military offensive in Aceh, but journalists and activists say Jakarta would do well to learn from its previous mistakes in East Timor.

Indeed, critics say, the start of the crackdown on Aceh on May 19 not only marked the launch of armed operations but the start of propaganda warfare in the province that lies at the northern tip of Sumatra island.

A separatist rebellion by the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM (Gerakin Aceh Merdeka), has been simmering there for 27 years. Jakarta declared martial law in May, after the latest peace talks collapsed.

At least seven Indonesian soldiers were killed in a clash with GAM rebels this week, military officials said on Tuesday. The military claims to have killed more than 150 rebels since May 19, but GAM disputes this.

Journalists have been told that nationalism and censorship are the rules of the day. Minister for Communications and Information Syamsul Muarif has said: "Indonesian journalists should be concerned with the country's interests."

But this remark shows that Jakarta officials have not learned enough from the government's failure in East Timor, says journalist Moch Faried Cahyono.

In 1999, East Timor voted to secede from the Indonesian state, 24 years after Jakarta sent troops to occupy it in 1975.

Cahyono, who was with Tempo magazine in 1999 when Indonesia's repression in East Timor reached its peak, recalls former president Suharto's words on reporting on East Timor back then. "Suharto said in 1991 that he hoped that Indonesian media would not report on East Timor except when they received information from government sources," he said in an interview.

In 1994, Tempo and two publications were banned from publishing by the Suharto government, among other reasons because of their independent reporting on East Timor.

Today, Cahyono says, Indonesia's military is using a new media strategy, adapted from the US-led war on Iraq, of embedding journalists with the troops. But though it is new, it has the same aim of ingraining into journalists the idea that patriotism means supporting the government's position and offensive on Aceh.

Shortly before May 19, about 50 Indonesian journalists assigned to cover the war in Aceh received training from the military on war survival tactics. They have since been allowed to follow military units in their operations, to wear military uniforms and use their equipment.

Local and international media groups have criticized these as an attempt by the military to manipulate reporting by the media. "It is an attempt to manipulate information -- something that they [the military] learned from what the US government did in Iraq," said Solahuddin, secretary general of the Jakarta-based Alliance for Independent Journalists.

In May, Aceh's martial-law commander, Major-General Endang Suwarya, frankly told journalists that they were free to report on actions of security personnel, "but there should be no reports from GAM and reports that praise GAM". "We will bring a halt to the news from the spokesmen of GAM because they are turning the facts upside down," he argued.

Local media reports say that the military is considering more media restrictions under martial law, possibly including the expulsion of journalists not accredited with the armed forces.

Meanwhile, there have been a growing number of reports in local and international media on the military's brutality against civilians in Aceh and the number of people displaced by the war.

In late May, human-rights groups estimated that more than 15,000 people had been displaced by the military operations in Aceh, but Jakarta authorities say these reports are biased. Muarif complains that media tend to report on "soldiers dragging corpses" rather than on the government's efforts to rebuild damaged schools. "We are weak in international public relations, and because of that, reports by foreign media are often damaging," he said.

But nearly a month into the latest offensive in Aceh, both media and non-government reports continue to cite human-rights abuses, including the killing of children and civilians. Hundreds of schools have been torched by unidentified arsonists while the military and GAM blame each other for the attacks.

Indonesian media and activists working on Aceh say that gathering information has also become more difficult. Local sources, they say, are afraid to talk because of threats from both the military and GAM.

Journalists have not been immune from these threats. "Acehnese journalists have experienced threats from both the military and GAM for a long time," said Solahuddin. "These threats include their lives and their families. Now they have been extended to journalists from outside Aceh."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has also issued a statement on several cases of the shooting of journalists by unidentified gunmen.

An Inter Press Service source in Banda Aceh says two Acehnese journalists who work for an international magazine were sent out of the province this month, after receiving several threats.

An Acehnese journalist from the independent Tempo Daily is under interrogation by military for the sources of a story that reported on the killing of villagers, including a 13-year-old child, by the military. The magazine says it quoted a foreign news agency in the report, which said the soldiers had insisted that the villagers were with GAM.

Cahyono says that although the media tactics used by the military in East Timor and Aceh do not differ that much, what does make a big difference is Indonesia's political environment today.

While journalists were muzzled in the Suharto era and for much of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor -- Suharto was ousted in 1998, after which East Timor was allowed to vote on its future -- they are now free to be critical of the state. "It is not the time for the military to control media anymore," Cahyono said.

In a May 30 editorial titled "Don't shoot the messengers", the English-language daily Jakarta Post urged the Indonesian military to remember what happened in East Timor.

"The moment the [military] starts shooting journalists, either literally or figuratively, is the moment when it starts losing the propaganda war. And we know, based on our experience in East Timor a few years ago, how costly that could be," wrote the daily.

NGOs push for more press freedom in Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2003

Jakarta -- International and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have demanded that the martial law administrator in Aceh to give the media the greatest possible access and lift any restrictions on journalists reporting on the conflict in the province.

Freedom of expression has to be upheld so that the public, be they domestic or foreign audiences, receive an honest report of what is happening in Aceh, and to ensure that armed combatants respect civilians' human rights, they said recently.

Article 19, a London-based international organization focusing on freedom of expression, noticed that there had been several developments that limited the freedom of journalists reporting from Aceh since martial law was imposed in the province on May 19.

The latest restriction came from Aceh martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya, who turned down applications from 10 foreign-based journalists to report from the province, stating that there was no need for foreign observers in Aceh.

"This restriction will inevitably prevent the people of Aceh, Indonesia and the rest of the world, from understanding the conflict issues in the region," said Article 19, in a statement made available to the media.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) shared Article 19's view, and said that any party, including the Indonesia Military (TNI) and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), should not curb freedom of expression. "All parties have to remember that a free press is vital to democracy," the IFJ said in a statement sent to the media.

Authorities have tried to stop most foreigners, including journalists and NGOs, from visiting the province. On Saturday, the Aceh Police questioned two Malaysian journalists on suspicion of violating their visas. Police said Samsul Akmar and Abdul Razak of the New Straits Times newspaper were questioned after they reported to police headquarters.

Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayed Husaini said the journalists had a one-month short visit visa and police were trying to determine whether it had been misused. "Did they have permission to carry out journalistic activities?" he said to reporters.

The journalists, who had been in Aceh for about a week, had a press card from the martial law administrator in Aceh and permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work as reporters, Sayed said.

All journalists reporting from Aceh are required to get accreditation from the martial law administrator. Some journalists have been interrogated and threatened by security forces due to their reporting of military misconduct.

Emulating the US and UK media policy in the Iraq war, the TNI has embedded 54 journalists with its forces, although foreign reporters are not admitted. The military is giving military training to a second batch of journalists that will be embedded with military troops in Aceh.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), through its chairwoman Ati Nurbaiti, was critical of the program, saying that it could produce bias among journalists, especially those who had been told to report on the conflict in Aceh from a "nationalistic perspective".

Besides the restrictions imposed on the media, recent reports of shots being fired at vehicles carrying journalists in Aceh has raised concerns about the safety of reporters in the field.

The IFJ expressed concern at the deterioration of press freedom and safety of journalists in Aceh, and called on all parties, including President Megawati Soekarnoputri, commanders of GAM and the TNI, to respect the independent role of the media.

Local & community issues

Tainted generals in East Java governor race

Laksamana.Net - June 10, 2003

A total of six generals have nominated for the Governor's race in East Java. Three are former regional commanders: incumbent Governor Imam Utomo, Haris Sudarno and Joko Subroto.

The other three are Mohammad Dayat and Deddy Sudarmaji, both former East Java police chiefs, and former vice governor of Jakarta and retired officer Abdul Kahfie.

Iman Utomo and Haris Sudarno are seen as frontrunners in the race, in which a total of 43 candidates have fielded. The pair has solid backing in the East Java Regional Legislative Council (DPRD).

The two largest parties in the DPRD, the National Awakening Party (PKB), with its backing from the region's traditionalist Muslim communities, and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), have both nominated retired generals.

PDI-P with 31 seats and the second largest party in the Legislative Council is backing incumbent Governor Imam Utomo for a second term. Utomo is also said to have the backing PDIP's chairwoman, President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

PKB, with 32, has not one but three generals on its list, along with two young Nahdlatul Ulama politicians. PKB's three generals are former East Java Regional Military Commander Haris Sudarno, his colleague Joko Subroto and former Jakarta vice governor Abdul Kahfi.

The continuing power of former President Abdurrahman Wahid is such that the final word on PKB's official candidate will be strongly influenced by who he decides to back, but up to now, Wahid has not signalled any candidate.

PKB is saying that if Megawati gets her way and keeps Utomo in his job, they should have their man in the deputy's post.

The picture has been complicated by the emergence of PKB secretary general and Wahid nephew Syaifullah Yusuf and East Java NU Regional Executive Board (DPWNU) chairman Ali Maschan Moesa.

NU sources close told Laksamana.Net that they expect Wahid to back a combination of retired general Sudarno and NU politician Ali Maschan as the "best of the worst" of the candidates. PDI-P remains optimistic Utomo will get the vote in a coalition with smaller parties.

Supomo SW, Deputy Speaker of DPRD from the PDI-P faction, says the party is capable of amassing another 15 votes. "We are confident of the coalition we are building, even if the military/police faction abstains," he told reporters on 7 May.

That may be an optimistic reading. PDI-P has suffered a series of defeats in the regions, most recently in the vote for Governor and Vice Governor of West Java. There, Danny Setiawan became the region's first civilian goveror through a coalition of Golkar and the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP).

PDI-P had nominated former West Java Regional Military Commander Tayo Tarmadi, whose hopes of taking the position were crushed when the police faction abstained.

Analysts note that the failure of a general in West Java -- and the chance of failure in East Java -- may reflect the belief that there is no guarantee that the nomination of retired generals is automatically supported by armed forces headquarters in Jakarta.

In East Java, PKB and PDI-P dominated the 1999 elections, and the two will logically play the leading roles. If they were to agree to support any one of the candidates, the race would be a walk- over.

Haris Sudarno has established a good record in the eyes of both PKB or PDIP, compared to the other generals.

The position of East Java Governor has been a sensitive post in the past. Amid a wave of oppression of activists by the Suharto regime and efforts to overthrow Megawati as leader of the then- PDI from 1993 on, Governor Basofi Sudirman made his position clear.

Sudirman blatantly backed a government-sponsored candidate for the PDI leadership in the province. The late Latif Pujosakti's attempt to overthrow Megawati's ally Sutjipto as chairman of the PDIP's East Java central executive board failed in the end, and Sutjipto is now PDI-P's secretary general.

While his motives for doing so are not entirely clear, former military commander Sudarno is seen as being accommodative to Megawati's position.

Shooting, killings

Despite emerging as the strongest candidate, Sudarno may have trouble living down the events at Nipah Dam on 25 September 1993, when a combined force of local army and police opened fire on hundreds of villagers protesting the construction of the dam.

Four people were killed at three wounded in the incident in the Banyuates sub-district of Sampang, on the island of Madura.

The shootings were immediately investigated by several different non-government organizations including the respected Legal Aid Institute of Indonesia (YLBHI).

Four local military officers, either themselves directly involved or having command responsibility, were transferred out of the district within a month of the shootings.

Their transfers are believed to have been not on the results of any investigation but on instructions from then Armed Forces Commander, Gen. Faisal Tanjung.

He and Sudarno, then the East Java commander, are said to have decided to sack a few officers as a way of dealing with the public pressure over the killings.

Joko Subroto was regional commander when the so-called Banyuwangi killings took place. In this bizarre episode, ninja, men clad in black, murdered a series of people in a wave of killings than reached as far as West Java. Initially, many of the victims were alleged to be practitioners of witchcraft.

The ninja were said to be able to jump over houses but one captured in Malang appeared completely insane.

While the first victims were often alleged to be black magic practitioners, many Muslim clerics were slain, along with religious school teachers and leaders of schools of Koranic studies in a wave of murders that terrified Java and produced a final death toll of 95.

Analysts said that, given the fact that the majority of murders took place in strong NU areas, the wave could have been a military operation designed to weaken the spirit of the organization's grassroots supporters. Such terror campaigns against elements of the population were commonplace under Suharto.

After the wave of killings subsided, religious teachers and prominent figures in society openly criticized the government and the military authorities for taking little effort to stem the murders.

The mastermind behind the killings has still not been revealed. Former Defense Minister and Armed Forces Commander Wiranto admitted at the time that the killings were the result of a struggle of interests among the political elite. He did not provide any more clues to the identity of the mastermind of the murders.

Human rights/law

Rights body confirms murder of unarmed civilians in Bireuen

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Friday that its team sent to Aceh had verified the May 21 incident at Matang Mamplan village in Bireuen, where seven unarmed civilians were shot dead, including a boy aged 13.

The media reported that the military committed the murder, but the military strongly denied the report, saying the victims were Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists.

However, the commission insisted that the killing was not justified as the victims were unarmed. "Without being further investigated, they were told to walk and then shot one by one," said Zoemrotin K. Susilo, who read out the team's report during a press conference.

She lashed out at the shooting, saying that "people who do not have weapons should not be killed like that." The commission's special team to monitor Aceh confirmed Komnas Ham also confirmed that other rights abuses had taken place during the first 25 days of the military operation in Aceh, and feared more cases.

Team members visited Aceh between June 5 and June 9, The rights body said that there were a number of rights violations, including extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrests, torture and sexual harassment since martial law was imposed in the province on May 19. "We have verified the reports and we found out that rights violations have occurred since the imposition of martial law," Zoemrotin said.

She also announced that there were cases of sexual harassment of women in a village. "There was a group of men who came to the village. They claimed that they were searching for members of Inong Balee, the women's military wing of GAM. They forced the women to open their tops as they claimed Inong Balee members would have certain tattoos on their breast.

"The victims said that the men wore "brown uniforms and green vests reading Brimob", said Zoemrotin." Brimob or the Police Mobile Brigade is the paramilitary wing of the National Police.

The commission also confirmed that police in Aceh had conducted arbitrary arrests of several activists and tortured them.

During the press conference, M.M. Billah, who headed the fact- fighting team, asserted that his team had obtained authentic information from credible witnesses, including those who spoke of the presence of military-trained militia groups.

"I shall state that we did not obtain information from the trash can," said Billah, adding that the team could not publish the names of witnesses or villages out of consideration for their safety.

He was referring to Indonesia Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto who accused the commission of publishing its findings without rechecking with the military. "From what trash can did they pick up the term 'militia'? They should have known that the country has a doctrine of national defense where people are empowered to defend themselves," Endriartono said.

During the conference Billah wore a black outfit and covered his face with a black mask. He told reporters earlier that he "has been told not to speak out loud." The military has imposed several restrictions on journalists and activists in Aceh in bid to support "the fight to protect the motherland".

Billah earlier told reporters of the possible presence of militia in Central Aceh and a mass grave in Nisam area in North Aceh. He said on Friday that a member of the commission in Aceh had reported the information and said that the team would verify the report next week.

Three soldiers jailed for rights abuses in Aceh

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Lhokseumawe -- A military tribunal on Thursday found three low- ranking soldiers guilty of beating villagers unconscious during the military's offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province, and sentenced them to short jail terms. They are the second batch of soldiers found guilty of the same crime during an operation in Lawang village on May 27.

First Sgt. Haryono and 2nd Pvt. Sudaryanto were both sentenced to four months and 20 days in jail, and 1st Pvt. Alfian to two months and 20 days. "All three have been found guilty of committing battery jointly," said military judge Maj. Hulwani Thursday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 months in jail.

Human rights activists also have accused troops of executing several suspected rebels since the government launched its offensive and declared martial law in Aceh on May 19 after peace talks collapsed. The military has denied the allegations.

On Monday, three other soldiers were found guilty of assaulting villagers in Lawang and sentenced to four months and 20 days injail. The platoon commander, a lieutenant, is also expected to face charges of assault.

Prosecutors said the soldiers who were found guilty Thursday beat three villagers unconscious after they denied knowing the whereabouts of Free Aceh Movement rebels.

Villagers have told The Associated Press that the troops also shot and killed a 35-year-old Lawang farmer who had no links to the insurgents. Soldiers also torched several houses in the area. But the military said the man was a rebel who was shot while trying to escape and there are no plans to file criminal charges in the incident.

The rebels have been fighting for 27 years for independence of the oil- and gas-rich province. About 12,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Komnas HAM reveals rights abuses under martial law

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found human rights and humanitarian law violations in its preliminary inquiry into the imposition of martial law in conflict-ridden Aceh.

Chairman of the rights body's Ad Hoc team for Aceh M.M. Billah said here on Tuesday that his team had found six types of violations committed by the martial law administration in the province. The violations are rampant burning of school buildings, summary killings, arbitrary arrests, torture of unarmed civilians, sexual harassment and forced displacement.

As martial law enters its fourth week, more than 160 rebels have been killed, more than 22,000 Acehnese have been forcibly displaced and almost 500 school buildings have been burned down.

The commission has yet to make any formal conclusion over the results of the preliminary inquiry, Billah said, adding that his team did not know who were behind the torching of the school buildings.

Billah led the six-member team in a three-day preliminary inquiry in Banda Aceh, Bireuen regency and Lhokseumawe which was completed on Monday and said the rights body would send a fact- finding team to further investigate the rights abuses.

Billah said that during the preliminary investigation, the team interviewed eyewitnesses and victims of violence in a bid to confirm earlier reports of alleged rights violations under martial law.

"According to a number of eyewitnesses, there has been indication of rights and humanitarian law violations in the province," he told reporters on Tuesday.

The team obtained information that there have been (pro-Jakarta) militia supporting the military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). He said that according to witnesses' accounts, the Indonesian Military (TNI) have recruited non-Acehnese civilians and trained them in basic military skills.

The existence of the militia group was evident for the first time when a group of militiamen burned down the office of the Joint Security Council (JSC) in Takengon, Central Aceh, in March in protest over JSC's delayed action against rebels violating the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which was signed by the government and GAM in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 9, last year.

The TNI employed a similar tactic in East Timor in the 1970s and in 1999 to crush groups deemed to be a threat to security in Indonesia's former territory.

Billah said that his team had yet to verify the findings with the Aceh military administration and this task would be done by the right body's next fact-finding team who was set to depart to Aceh on Wednesday.

Billah claimed that both the TNI and GAM respected the inquiry and they had not faced any problems in carrying out their investigation in Aceh. "We are able to go anywhere safely, even in trouble spots. We just placed Komnas HAM banners on our rented cars," he said.

Komnas HAM is expected to set up a center in Lhokseumawe and Bireuen to monitor day-to-day developments in the war and receive reports on human rights violations from the people.

'Emotional' Indonesia troops convicted over Aceh abuse

Reuters - June 9, 2003

Lhokseumawe -- An Indonesian military court on Monday found three soldiers guilty of beating civilians in war-torn Aceh and sentenced them to four months and 20 days in jail -- about half what prosecutors had demanded.

It is the first trial of government troops in the western-most province since Indonesia launched a major offensive there on May 19 to wipe out separatist rebels.

"The defendants have conducted a crime because they could not hold their emotions, prompting the beating of civilians," presiding judge Major Hulwani told the court in Lhokseumawe, a key base for the military operation.

He said lawyers for the defendants, low-ranking soldiers, could appeal within a week. Military prosecutors had demanded sentences of around eight months for each defendant.

Prosecutors said the privates severely beat three civilians, including a village chief, in the hamlet of Lawang in Bireun district last month.

The defendants told the court they beat the villagers because they refused to cooperate when asked about rebel activities in the area -- a stronghold of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and a focal point of the military operation.

The trial of another three soldiers charged over the same incident opened on Monday. A fourth soldier has also charged but no trial date has been set.

The trials come as the military insists it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties in its latest offensive.

The military's latest figures for the offensive put the number of GAM fighters killed at 112, with 160 captured and 92 surrendering. It says 10 soldiers, three police and one civilian have been killed.

Rebel sources say scores of civilians and hundreds of government troops have been killed.

More than 25,000 people have fled their homes because of the fighting which Indonesia has said could last anywhere from two to six months.

Indonesian troops and the rebels have been fighting each other in the resource-rich province on the tip of Sumatra island for 27 years in a conflict that has killed at least 10,000 people.

Jakarta has offered autonomy for Aceh but the rebels say they want nothing short of independence.

Focus on Jakarta

ID raids stun female workers

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2003

Zakki Hakim and Fifi Yulianti, Jakarta -- City officials, accompanied by police and security personnel, Thursday barged into homes in a densely populated Jakarta residential neighborhood checking for residents' ID cards.

There were a group of workers, mostly young women, in one house, which turned out to be a cottage industry making apparel, and almost none of them were carrying proper Jakarta IDs. They were taken to a nearby office and "tried" in a small, makeshift ID court, complete with judges but no lawyers. Afterward their fingerprints were taken by the city police.

The raid was not in a war zone like Aceh or Papua, but in West Pademangan subdistrict in North Jakarta. The city administration was conducting door-to-door ID raids on Thursday in five areas across the city.

Such raids have been common the past few years in an effort to curb the flow of migrants, especially poor, unskilled ones. Activists have criticized the policy, saying that it was against the Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to travel around the country and to seek a better living.

Bambang Haryadi, spokesman for the North Jakarta mayoralty, told The Jakarta Post that the operation was carried out to serve as means to control the registration of citizens, as well as a bit of "shock therapy" for illegal residents in Jakarta, which he said was working well as a means to keep migrants out.

A garment worker, a woman in her early 20s, said that in one raid one of the officers was overly "affectionate", as he stoked her hands and shoulders while asking questions regarding her ID problem. As the Post observed, the officials were seen flirting with the young women and at times unnecessarily touching them.

As for the employers, they complained that their neighborhood chiefs had been reluctant to assist them in making temporary IDs for their workers. "My neighborhood chief said that he would take responsibility for the absence of proper IDs," one employer said.

One neighborhood chief said that the workers mostly stayed in his neighborhood for only two months, therefore he thought making temporary IDs would be unnecessary.

The chiefs were, however, dumbfounded when the city officials explained that people who did not register themselves at the city administration were violating Bylaw No. 1/1996 Article 3, on population registration, and therefore could be punished with a fine to a maximum Rp 5 million (approximately US$607), or a three-month jail term.

However, in the makeshift trials, the violators, mostly workers, were ordered to pay fines of between Rp 10,000 and Rp 60,000. The fines were mostly paid by the violators' employers.

One of the employers, Agek, 37, said that she felt relieved because her workers did not have to pay up to Rp 5 million each. "This kind of raid is only seasonal. The officials are only looking for extra money," she said bitterly after paying a total of a Rp 220,000 in fines for her six workers. After the trial, officials took pictures and fingerprints of the "violators" to be used for the police files.

Nevertheless, after complying with all the procedures, each of them was issued a temporary ID. Kartawijaya, head of the mayoralty's agency for population and registration, said that Thursday's raid checked 865 residents and pronounced found 107 violators in West Pademangan, where about 80,000 people reside, of whom about 18,000 are seasonal migrants.

The raids were also carried out in Sumur Batu, Central Jakarta; Kramat Jati, East Jakarta; Tegal Alur, West Jakarta; and Mampang Prapatan, South Jakarta. A total of 2,542 residents across the city were checked, and 539 of them were penalized.

The city administration and police have been conducting population registration, which was earlier linked to the issue of Jakarta's security in connection with the war in Aceh.

News & issues

Opinion: Openness the key in the new, democratic Indonesia

The Australian - June 14, 2003

Greg Sheridan -- Indonesia has no plans to ban foreign journalists from the troubled province of Aceh, according to Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hasan Wirayudah. But it will tighten the regulation over who goes there and make the province, on the northern tip of Sumatra, off limits to foreign tourists.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian in his Jakarta office, Wirayudah said tighter travel restrictions should have been imposed as soon as martial law was declared. This is mainly for the safety of foreigners, as the accidental fatal shooting of a German tourist and the wounding of his wife by Indonesian soldiers last week tragically illustrated. Even if foreigners took risks in the full knowledge of what they were doing, Jakarta would ultimately be held responsible for their safety, he said.

Wirayudah said he did not know the whereabouts of a missing US journalist, William Nessen, who was last heard from on Tuesday in a separatist-held part of Aceh, but knew he was not in possession of the appropriate press accreditation.

Wirayudah defended the Indonesian military, the TNI, against accusations of human rights abuses. "People on the outside too easily equate the TNI in Aceh with their performance in East Timor. But now you are dealing with a different Indonesia, a democracy with a built-in ability to check the excesses of the military.

"Here we have a very active parliament. The people urged the Government to take decisive action against GAM (the Aceh independence movement). And the parliament exercises strict control. "In addition there is a very active civil society and free press, with debates for and against [military action]. We also have strong mechanisms such as the National Human Rights Commission. I also strongly believe it is in the military's own interests to have a clean operation."

Wirayudah said the Indonesian Government was considering offering a full amnesty to GAM leaders who surrendered: "It is our long- term aim to reintegrate them into Aceh society." A number of GAM leaders had already come over to the government side, he said. Wirayudah emphasised that military action was only one part of the Government's plans for Aceh. Development funds and local autonomy were equally important.

The Foreign Minister plans to visit Australia soon, perhaps as early as August. He was upbeat on Australia-Indonesia relations, saying Canberra and Jakarta had been able to take issues of potentially explosive disagreement, such as people-smuggling, and transform them into cases of close co-operation and even joint regional leadership.

He said the assistance of the Australian Federal Police was important in the successful Bali bombing investigations. "The help of your police was important, not only in technical terms, but politically as well. It shows to the terrorist groups that we are working well with others. This was a deterrence to the terrorists. The view of all of us in the region is that terrorism is a global threat that needs international co-operation."

Wirayudah is rightly proud of the way the Bali investigations have unfolded, pointing out that not only have terrorists been arrested but that they are also being tried in open court, unlike the practice in some other countries in the region.

Most importantly for Australia-Indonesia relations, Wirayudah does not believe the disagreement between Canberra and Jakarta over the war in Iraq will have any damaging consequences for the relationship. "Even a nation like the United States expressed to us the view that we could agree to disagree," he said.

Like other Indonesians, Wirayudah expressed appreciation for Prime Minister John Howard's visit to Jakarta shortly before the war. "He [Howard] met with and talked to Islamic and other leaders. We never thought that a war against Saddam Hussein would be a war against Islam," Wirayudah said in words which must be music to Howard's ears. "I had regular consultations with our religious leaders and we all determined that the war should not be seen as a war by the US and her allies against Islam, that it should not be seen as a war of Muslims against Christians. "Our religious leaders said the war will negatively affect Iraq but should not negatively affect us."

Within Indonesia, non-Islamic religious leaders joined in the protests against the war, which lessened the risk of religious polarisation. "The Western media misread our position as being dictated by Muslim groups. In fact, the Government was at one with the people on this."

Indonesia's anti-war demonstrations, though large, were very peaceful, more peaceful, some Indonesian officials (not Wirayudah) point out, than numerous Australian anti-war demonstrations. The demonstrations were so peaceful, in fact, that during them the US Government decided to send its embassy staff back to Jakarta.

Wirayudah gets on well with his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer. They may not be quite so much an item as Ali Alatas and Gareth Evans once were, but the collaboration, if lacking perhaps the old romance, is certainly fruitful.

Indonesians held for attacking foreign bosses

Straits Times - June 14, 2003

Jakarta -- Three people have been arrested for an attack on two foreign bosses at an Indonesian dealer for Swedish truckmaker Volvo, police said yesterday.

Swedish national Michael Ollson suffered three stab wounds after being attacked with a machete on June 5, said local police chief Kodirun Karya. A South African identified as Mr Paul Du Plesis sustained facial injuries caused by beatings, he said.

Mr Du Plesis is the chief security officer with Eka Dharma, which deals in Volvo trucks and other heavy equipment at Balikpapan in East Kalimantan on Borneo island.

Three people, including a youth activist who does not work for Eka Dharma, were arrested for allegedly instigating the attack, police said. Thirty-one employees who were facing dismissal had demanded severance pay totalling 10 billion rupiah (S$2.2 million), Mr Karya said.

Mr Ollson was stabbed in the back and slashed in the face at a meeting with the workers which went awry. Mr Ollson, an executive with Eka Dharma, was trying to negotiate a settlement with the workers, who were demanding that eight managers also be fired.

Officials from the Swedish Embassy were not available for comment.

Thousands of children trafficked for prostitution

Agence France Presse - June 11, 2003

Jakarta -- Thousands of children are being trafficked for prostitution in Indonesia and parents or other family members are often to blame, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

More than 10,000 children aged under 18 work as prostitutes in five major cities in Indonesia, the ILO said in a report marking World Day Against Child Labour. The real figure may be even higher considering that many prostitutes work at hidden and unregistered places, it said.

No country is immune from child trafficking but "the problem in Southeast Asia is particularly alarming," said Alan Boulton, ILO director for Indonesia. "Many trafficked children in Indonesia are working in the sex industry," Boulton said.

Boulton said more than one million children worldwide were forced through trafficking into various forms of unwanted work, ranging from hazardous or forced labour to sexual exploitation.

Many Indonesian children have been forced to work in the sex industry by their own parents or family members mainly due to economic pressure, the ILO report said. Many others are often forced to work in exploitative conditions as beggars, housemaids and drug traffickers. Some children are trafficked to Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan.

Andri Yoga Utami, an editor and Indonesian child labour activist, described child trafficking as a gross violation of human rights. "Child prostitution is a complex issue and involves various aspects and interests. It is visible but many people turn a blind eye and tolerate it," she said.

Cycle of bloodshed unbroken

Australian Financial Review - June 11, 2003

Andrew Burrell -- Four Indonesian state electricity workers arrived in the small village of Bendo in central Java last week on a routine job to replace some power cables. Minutes later, three of them had been bashed to death by a frenzied mob and their bodies burnt.

The fourth is still in a coma. A local villager, apparently believing the men were trying to steal the cables, yelled "thief, thief", prompting a dozen locals to run from houses and take part in the gruesome killings. This brutal mob justice, meted out regularly in broad daylight across Indonesia, usually in the back streets of big cities such Jakarta aganst pick pockets, is often retold in gruesome detail by the tabloid press.

The murders of the electricity workers might seem a long way from the Indonesian government's massive military assault in Aceh, where 12,000 people have died in the past 15 years in a futile cycle of bloodshed. But both examples graphically illustrate many of the deep-seated problems in Indonesia, where violence has long been tolerated and even promoted in the name of national stability and unity.

Many of the most important, and violent, events in Indonesia's bloody past have never been fully investigated, because of the inaction by successive governments, nor have the perpetrators been brought to justice. The anti-communist purges of 1965 which claimed an estimated 500,000 lives, the abortive coup of the same year in which several leading generals were murdered and the bloody riots of May 1998 which led to the resignation of Soeharto, all remain shrouded in mystery.

In Aceh and other conflict areas, gross human rights abuses by the military were covered up by the Soeharto regime and soldiers were not brought to account. Likewise, the army commanders responsible for terrorising East Timor in 1999 have not been brought to justice and there is overwhelming evidence Jakarta's human rights court, which was set up in response to international pressure, is a sham.

Last week, the highest ranking officer to be indicted over the East Timor violence, Adam Damiri, walked from court after prosecutors, in an extraordinary move, argued the defendant was innocent. Damiri is now a leading army commander in Aceh, where the military is engaged in its latest brutal attempt to kill off a separatist movement. His trial had been running for a year, heightening suspicions that prosecutors were under pressure to call for his acquittal to allow him to fight the nationalist cause in Aceh.

As the latest round of conflict in Aceh enters its fourth week, Indonesia is in danger of being overtaken by an ugly form of nationalism. Two weeks ago, a 100-strong nationalist mob wearing fatigues smashed up the Jakarta offices of human rights group Kontras, accusing it of being unpatriotic for expressing opposition to the military's campaign in Aceh. When the Kontras chairman, forced by the thugs to sing the national anthem, stumbled over the words, he was promptly beaten.

According to an editorial in The Jakarta Post newspaper, the incident, which happened in broad daylight, resembled an "ugly scene straight out of the days of the New Order". Armed Forces chief Endriartono Sutarto, a true product of the Soeharto era, did not see it that way. "While it may be true that attacking the organisation is against the law maybe they [Kontras] should look at themselves in the mirror," he said.

Significantly, support among average Indonesians for the military crackdown, aimed at wiping out the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), shows no sign of waning, despite the rising death toll on both sides. Yesterday, GAM said it had killed seven Indonesian soldiers in the fiercest fighting of the past three weeks.

The total number of deaths in the renewed offensive is unclear. According to Jakarta political analyst Andi Mallarangeng, most Indonesians will not care if the death toll in Aceh reaches 20,000, or even 100,000. "Most people say Aceh should remain part of Indonesia, no matter what," he says. "People have a lot of other problems. Forty million people don't have jobs, 70 per cent of them have only elementary education or less. People have a lot of things on their minds."

If anyone is responsible for promoting this fierce patriotism in Indonesia at the moment, it is President Megawati Soekarnoputri. She has urged those who do not support the government's view on Aceh to leave the country, in a line straight from George Bush's "you're with us or with the terrorists" creed. She has also failed to rein in her leading generals who have spoken in bloodthirsty language and labelled those opposed to the cause in Aceh as traitors.

Aceh was Indonesia's golden opportunity to prove it could reform itself and continue along its precarious path to democracy after the repression of the Soeharto era. It was also Jakarta's chance to recognise that armed conflict will never be a solution to what is essentially a political dilemma. Sadly, those chances have been lost and Indonesia's culture of violence continues.

Environment

Freeport to improve tailings management or face legal action

Miningindo.com - June 11, 2003

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment has called on PT Freeport Indonesia (FI), the operator of the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in West Papua province, to completely improve the system of its tailing disposal by the year 2004 or face legal proceedings.

The ministry urged the management of FI to immediately solve the current problem of tailing disposal. If the environmental problem continues to emerge, the ministry will bring the case to court.

Freeport Indonesia has two options to improve the management of its tailings. Firstly, to install a pipeline to the sea and use the controversial submarine tailings disposal system, or secondly, to improve the condition of its current tailings disposal area. The company has said it prefers the latter because of lower cost and risk.

Environment Minister, Nabiel Makarim said that the construction of a tailings disposal pipeline into the sea would be very costly. The cost will be as much as US$3 billion since the pipeline has to reach a depth of 80 meters into the sea. Whatever the option, the disposal of tailings has to meet an environmental standard on waste disposal as ruled by the environment ministry.

"The environment ministry would ponder on the environmental viability of Freeport's management of tailings. The rate of disposal should be tolerable and the company has to meet an environmental standard of waste disposal," he reminded. He warned that all activities of oil/gas and mineral extractive industries in Indonesia have to be in compliance with the environmental rules and regulations in the country.

Walhi plans to sue 20 firms over forest fires

Jakarta Post - June 13, 2003

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Forum on the Environment (Walhi) said on Thursday it would file a lawsuit against 20 companies and seven local governments in Riau later this week over forest fires and their disastrous effects on the environment in the province.

Walhi executive director Longgena Ginting said that the lawsuit was necessary as the companies were involved in the forest fires and the local administrations in the province had taken no action against them.

"We hope we will win the case to help save the environment as well as to avoid any reappearance of thick haze that has hit not only the province but also neighboring countries.

"This lawsuit is also expected to raise public awareness of the importance of the law," he said, stressing that forest fires had been an annual phenomenon in Riau as many companies practiced the slash-and-burn method to clear their land for agriculture and plantations.

The coordinator of the Walhi office in Riau, Ruli Sumanda, said the companies that were allegedly involved in such practices, and which Walhi was going to sue, included PT Inti Indosawit, PT Jatim Jaya Perkasa and PT Ratt.

Walhi will also sue the relevant local authorities in Pekanbaru, Rokan Hulu, Rokan Hilir, Indragiri Hulu, Indragiri Hilir, Dumai, Bengkalis for their inaction in dealing with forest fires, he said.

So far, a Malaysian company, PT Adei Plantation, has been punished by a local court for causing forest fires. Its director was sentenced to two years in jail and the company was ordered to pay US$1.1 million in compensation to the government.

PT Cipta Daya Sejati in Kampar regency was also convicted but the punishments meted out were light. Three perpetrators were sentenced to between three months and six months in jail.

The government banned the slash-and-burn method in 1999, but many firms and local people still practice it to save on the cost of land clearance.

In a related development, air pollution in Pekanbaru has reached an alarming level over the last few days because of widespread forest fires in the province, raising health concerns and disrupting traffic.

The Environmental Management Agency (Bapedalda) office in Pekanbaru detected 1,280 hot spots in the province on June 9. The resulting thick haze has now reached the southern part of Thailand.

Meanwhile, the North Sumatra government has issued a high alert warning over the choking haze, and scores of firefighters and dozens of fire trucks have been deployed to put out forest fires in Labuhan Batu and South Tapanuli regencies.

In Tanjungbalai regency, thousands of fishermen have had their boats tied up for weeks as thick haze has limited visibility at sea to less than 100 meters.

Thick haze risks health, affects trafic in Riau

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru -- Choking haze plaguing the main island of Riau and the Riau archipelago, bordering Singapore and Malaysia, has reached an alarming level, raising health concerns and disturbing traffic in the province.

The thick haze, caused by smoke from forest fires in almost all regencies, blanketed the province, including the provincial capital of Pekanbaru, on Monday and Tuesday.

Visibility was limited to less than 100 meters early on Tuesday from less than 500 meters on Monday. Many people complained of eye irritation and had difficulty breathing.

The local health office has distributed masks to motorists and pedestrians in the city. But, so far, no hospitals in the city have admitted patients with respiratory problems or lung ailments.

The thick haze has also disrupted the traffic within the city and to and from the city. Motorists in the city are using masks and helmets to avoid breathing in the smog.

The Sultan Sjarif Kasim II Airport continued to operate, but all airplanes flying to and from the province were warned about the thick haze that has reached an intolerable level. Many drivers complained that they had to spend 10 hours from the normal seven hours to reach the city from the West Sumatra capital of Padang. And thousands of inter-province buses and trucks used fog lights due to poor visibility. Local authorities have blamed the choking haze on the rampant fires set by farms and palm oil plantations to clear their land at the start of the dry season as is done annually.

According to Singapore-based National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) imagery on June 9, there were 1,280 hot spots and a total of around 12,000 hectares of rain forest was burning in almost all regencies in the province.

Chief of the forest protection section at the local forestry office Farizal Labay told The Jakarta Post here on Tuesday that according to the NOAA imagery, Riau was the largest area hit by the haze and fires since the number of hot spots in other provinces, including West and Central Kalimantan was less than 200.

He said that of the 1,280 hot spots, 276 were found in Bengkalis regency, 388 in Kampar, 47 in Indragiri Hulu, 40 in Kuantan Sengingi, 147 in Rokan Hulu, 46 in Indragiri Hilir, 138 in Rokan Hilir, 35 in Dumai and the rest was found in the Riau archipelago.

Labay said his office has deployed 240 firemen with many tankers to the fire sites, but they had difficulty accessing the fire sites as they were located far from main roads.

He regretted the provincial administration's tardy response in handling the forest fires, saying all sides involved in starting the forest fires should be punished in accordance with the environmental and forestry laws.

"Authorities could impose Article 5 of Law No. 41/1999 on forestry against individuals, plantation and forestry companies using fires to clear their land," he said, citing that the article carries a maximum 15 years imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rp 5 billion (US$609,756).

There is no information whether the thick haze has reached neighboring countries of Singapore and Malaysia, but according to NOAA imagery, as many as 76 hot spots were detected in Malaysia.

Illegal logs used to build new UK ministry offices

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta -- The government said on Tuesday it would investigate two companies which, according to environmental group Greenpeace's recent investigative report, have been allegedly involved in the supplying of illegal logs from Indonesian rainforests to build the UK's new home ministry office building in London.

State Minister of Environment Nabiel Makarim said on Tuesday that the government would "chase after" the two timber companies identified as PT Sumalindo Lestari Jaya and PT Raja Garuda Mas, to prove the report.

"We'll take harsh actions if the two companies are guilty of stealing logs from protected forests, but it won't be easy to get them," Nabiel told reporters after the opening ceremony of a seminar on Java forest management.

The 1982 environmental law and the 1999 forestry law both ban logging in protected forests and both the laws carry a maximum of 15 years imprisonment and a fine of Rp 5 billion (US$609,756).

Separately, Indonesian Forum on Environment (Walhi) executive director Longgena Ginting said environmental NGOs would fully support any stiff punishment the government meted out to the two companies.

Last week, Greenpeace activists hung themselves off of cranes on a British government construction site where timber and plywood used in the project and claimed the wood was stolen from rainforests in Indonesia.

The environmental group's report was based on its own investigation in Indonesia and it said it had evidence that the timber and plywood used in the projects were processed from illegal logs the two companies stole from the rainforests.

A British government spokeswoman said an investigation would be carried out to check on whether the wood being used on the London construction site was illegal.

Nabiel added that the government would also take action against all sides, including the cartels, who allegedly support and secure most aspects of the rampant illegal logging.

"The government has won full support from the House of Representatives to impose harsher punishment on illegal loggers," he said.

Logging in protected rainforests and national parks has increased markedly since the fall of the iron-fisted Soeharto regime, whose limited number of close cronies were known to have the forestry -- legal and otherwise -- market cornered, thus keeping down the numbers of those involved.

Since Soeharto stepped down, the country has been in a prolonged economic crisis marked by weak law enforcement, greater regional decision-making powers and an increasing demand for timber and plywood in foreign markets, in addition to the involvement of unauthorized military and police personnel in illegal logging.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono has admitted that his personnel are involved in illegal logging in protected forests and pledged to take some sort of action against them.

But, so far, not a single person has been punished for such illegal logging, which threatens to denude the country's rainforests within a few years.

The Ministry of Forestry has said that illegal loggers have formed covert cartels and that their operation was quite hard to track down because of obstacles by military elements. They are suspected of having links with international networks in countries supplying the illegal logs from Indonesia.

According to Greenpeace, Indonesia may lose much of its lowland forests by 2010 with an area roughly the size of Bali and Lombok combined, destroyed every year.

The illegal logging activities in Indonesia have inflicted losses to the country to the tune of Rp 30 trillion ($3.75 billion) annually.

Thick haze spreads in Sumatra, Kalimantan

Jakarta Post - June 9, 2003

Jakarta -- Choking, thick haze that has sporadically hit mainland Riau and Kalimantan has spread and reached other islands, raising health concerns.

A wind blowing strongly from the south is pushing thick haze from Riau toward the northern tip of Sumatra, turning the air above the North Sumatra capital, Medan, gray and cloudy. The same thing has occurred from Central and West Kalimantan to northern Sulawesi.

Many Medan residents complained on Saturday that the haze had made it difficult for them to breathe and many others had to stay indoors, as visibility had dropped to only 200 meters since early in the morning.

The local office of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has detected at least 230 hot spots in the province and fires raging in several forested parts of Riau have spread to South Tapanuli and Labuhan Batu regencies, North Sumatra.

Authorities in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, warned local people not to burn land to clear it for agriculture or plantations during the approach of the dry season, expected to last until November.

They said any forest fires in the region would worsen conditions, as part of the region had been covered by haze from Kalimantan.

As many as 73 hot spots were detected in South Kalimantan; the provincial administration has threatened to impose harsh sanctions on companies burning forests during the dry season.

The air in Riau, including the provincial capital, Pekanbaru, was bad and a major part of the province's mainland remained dark until 9 a.m. local time.

The haze limited visibility to 100 meters but did not affect operations at Sultan Syarif Kasim II airport. Most residents stayed indoors.

"The provincial administration and other relevant authorities must act urgently because the haze has caused respiratory problems for residents," Elis, a private company employee said in Pekanbaru on Saturday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The news agency reported that a choking, thick haze had covered a major part of mainland Riau because fires near and inside three conserved forests in Minas, Kampar and Dumai had yet to be extinguished. Moreover, the fires were spreading to other regencies and North Sumatra province.

A number of companies backed by the military have set fire to their land to clear it for plantations in several regencies in the province.

Haze has been an annual problem for the last decade and it has a lot to do with the burning of forests by farmers and unscrupulous companies to clear land for agriculture and plantations. The haze has reappeared this year due to the absence of tough action on behalf of the relevant authorities on the culprits.

Health & education

More groups join the chorus against education bill

Jakarta Post - June 14, 2003

Jakarta -- More groups in the archipelago joined North Sulawesi's move on Friday to reject the newly endorsed education bill by filing a petition for a judicial review with the Supreme Court.

The East Java-based Indonesian Education Watch (IEW) has planned to also file a petition for a judicial review against the bill. "Our colleagues from North Sulawesi have initiated the judicial review against the bill, and we will follow them on it," IEW chairwoman Anita Lie told Antara.

Anita said although the bill had been changed several times, the revisions were not substantial. Moreover, the bill, bearing the spirit of centralization, was a contradiction to the Regional Autonomy Law and the concept of school-based education, which reflects decentralization, she said.

Religious leaders and principals of private schools from Papua met Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday to voice their objections to the controversial bill.

The Papuan delegation comprises religious leaders and school principals of the Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths. "They raised questions on a number of articles which were rejected because they could inflict losses to the people of the nation," noted priest Herman Awom said.

Christian leaders from Papua, North Sulawesi, Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara also agreed to voice their demands to separate from Indonesia if the bill disrupted the Christian education system. Earlier, the North Sulawesi administration said that it would file a petition for a judicial review with the Supreme Court as part of its campaign against the bill.

The move has gained support from the North Sumatra provincial legislature, some municipalities and a group of concerned citizens.

Another group whose members come from various Christian-majority provinces in the country has also rejected the bill.

The bill was endorsed in the absence of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), on Wednesday evening. President Megawati Soekarnoputri has 30 days in which to sign the bill, but even if she fails to sign it within that period, it will automatically go into effect.

In theory, Megawati, the chairwoman of PDI Perjuangan, can block the bill by refusing to sign the necessary government regulations to implement it.

Anita went on to say that in addition to rejecting the bill, the IEW would also monitor the drafting of the government regulations for implementing the bill.

The bill requires 10 government regulations. "Either the bill or the government regulations will just add to the problems because our aspirations have not been accommodated," she said.

Arguments for and against the bill center on the government's intervention in education and the requirement for schools to provide religious instruction for students according to their respective faiths.

Many private Christian schools have large numbers of Muslim students and there is apparently fear among Muslims that those students may be converted away from Islam. However, the Christian groups see the stipulation as a state intervention into private education institutions.

House passes education bill

Jakarta Post - June 12, 2003

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The House of Representatives endorsed the controversial education bill on Wednesday despite the absence of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

In its letter read out by deputy House secretary general Faisal Djamal, PDI Perjuangan said it would stick to the previous agreement signed by representatives of all factions to delay the endorsement until June 17 in order to give the House time to disseminate information on the bill to the public.

The plenary session was adjourned overnight to allow the PDI Perjuangan faction to present its view of the bill after it boycotted the assembly.

"We originally agreed with the substance of the bill, we just want time for dialog with the people and religious leaders to ease the controversy," PDI Perjuangan legislator Noviantika Nasution told The Jakarta Post by phone.

The party's chairwoman, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, reportedly ordered the faction to push for a delay due to the opposition. PDI Perjuangan faction members boycotted the plenary session on Tuesday, forcing lengthy lobbying that resulted in an agreement to postpone the bill's passage for a week.

It remains unclear why PDI Perjuangan, the largest faction with 153 seats, made the belated move.

Debate on the bill began on October 1, 2001 and the faction did not clearly communicate its opposition to the bill until the final day of deliberations on June 9.

The bill has apparently divided the nation by religion, with most of Muslim community in favor of it and the minority Christian community against it. The two sides have persistently put pressures on the House to heed their demands.

A PDI Perjuangan legislator and a close aide of Megawati who requested anonymity, acknowledged the party chairwoman was late in understanding the substance of the bill.

Despite their faction's approval, a number of legislators expressed their opposition to the bill, including Tunggul Sirait, Gregorius Seto Haryanto, Arnold Nicolas Radjawane, Manasse Malo from the Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), Berni Tamara and Emanuel Blegur both from Golkar.

Spokeswoman for the Indonesian Nationhood Unity (KKI) faction Astrid Susanto said that although the bill made some progress, it also contained controversial articles.

KKI joined PDI Perjuangan in opposition to immediate endorsement of the bill on Tuesday but voted in favor of it on Wednesday.

Golkar legislator Baharuddin Aritonang admitted that the debate on the education bill could not be separated from the vested interests of the parties ahead of the 2004 elections.

He said political parties, including Golkar, agreed to endorse or reject the bill to win the hearts of constituents or lure votes ahead of the 2004 elections.

Like PDI Perjuangan, Golkar is a nationalist-oriented party.

It took the House just one hour to complete the session, which was chaired by House deputy speaker Muhaimin Iskandar. Representing the government, Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fadjar asserted the need to disseminate the bill to the public in a bid to reduce controversy and tension.

The minister admitted he met President Megawati on Wednesday afternoon to tell her the intentions of the seven House factions.

"As the President, she let the House continue its agenda," Malik told the press after the plenary meeting, which ended at 8:30 p.m.

Nur Iskandar Albarsany of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Priyo Budi Santoso of Golkar regretted the absence of the PDI Perjuangan faction, saying it would give Megawati a pretext not to sign the bill.

The 1945 Constitution states that a bill will come to effect within 30 days of the House's endorsement, even without the President's approval.

Highlights of the education bill:

Article 7: All citizens aged between seven and 15 years must obtain basic education.

Article 12: Central and regional administrations must provide funds for the education of citizens aged between seven and 15 years.

Article 13 (1): Each student has the right to get religious instruction by teachers of the same faith.

Article 37: Educational subjects must consider: Improvement of faith, good conduct, potency, intellectuality, talent, development needs, demands of the industrial sector, religion, and national unity.

Article 68: Individuals or institutions that issue illegal education certificates face a maximum 10 years in jail or Rp 1 billion (US$120,000) fine.

Article 71: Thesis fraud punishable by two years imprisonment or Rp 200 million fine.

10,000 rally for revamp of religious teaching

Straits Times - June 11, 2003

Jakarta -- About 10,000 youth, mostly high school students, rallied outside parliament yesterday, urging legislators to pass a controversial Bill to regulate religious teaching in private schools.

If passed into law, the Bill would force the schools to organise religious education classes for all students. The classes must be conducted by teachers of the same faith as the students. The Bill has sparked protests throughout Indonesia.

The nation has the world's largest Muslim population and has prided itself for decades on being secular and tolerant of minority religions.

Islam is not the state religion although an estimated 90 per cent of the archipelago's 212 million people are Muslims. Currently, only state-owned schools or secular private schools offer religious classes for the followers of major religions, usually Islam and Christianity.

But many Indonesian Muslims send their children to Roman Catholic schools, where the education standard is normally higher than that of state schools. This is despite the fact that these schools require all students, including non-Catholics, to attend religious education classes on Catholicism. Similarly, private Islamic schools, such as the Al-Azhar, make it compulsory for non-Muslim students to attend Islamic lessons.

Resistance to the Bill comes mainly from private Catholic and Christian schools and educators from predominantly Christian provinces such as North Sulawesi, who see the move as a threat to the tradition and character of mission schools. The Bill is also being attacked by critics who see it as an indication that the state is increasingly interfering with the individual's rights to a religious belief.

Supporters say the Bill accommodates all religions and not just Islam. But many more Muslim children study in Christian schools than vice-versa.

The crowd yesterday chanted Islamic religious songs and waved banners, some of which supported the Muslim-based Justice Party. "Save the religious community from apostasy," said one banner. "Pass the education Bill right now," read another.

The student protesters wore school uniforms or political party T-shirts. Many female protesters wore the traditional Islamic head covering.

The peaceful but noisy crowd stretched for some 500m and blocked part of the main road outside parliament. Many female students fainted in the crush as more police officers were deployed to control the crowd. Water cannons were on standby.

"This Bill is fair," said protester Eli Yulianti, adding that it was in keeping with the Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom. "I think those who oppose the Bill are missionaries because many Muslims go to Christian schools and they want to teach Christianity to them."

Analysts say Muslim politicians are trying to exploit the issue in the run-up to next year's election. They point out that Muslim parents are free to transfer their students to Islamic schools if they are unhappy with the education at Christian schools.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle as of late Monday was insisting that legislators delay passage of the Bill. Most other factions were seeking a vote yesterday.

International relations

Indonesia presents 'proof' linking GAM leaders to terrorism

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Jakarta -- The government team sent to Sweden to secure that country's cooperation in the war against GAM has handed over evidence to the Swedish government which its claims proves that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders in Sweden are involved in separatist and terror acts in Aceh.

In a series of meetings with Swedish government officials on Tuesday, the Indonesian team, led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Special Envoy Ali Alatas, presented their evidence to persuade Stockholm to take action against the GAM leaders.

"In Indonesia's view, these men are leading, instigating and commanding an armed rebellion in Aceh," Ali said during a joint press conference after meeting with Swedish foreign affairs minister Anna Lindh.

He further said that he had handed over "proof of the links between Free Aceh Movement (GAM) representatives in Sweden and terrorist acts committed by rebels in (Aceh and) Indonesia." Lindh said that the Swedish authorities would further study the evidence before responding to Indonesia's request. "The authorities will take measures if Swedish laws have been infringed," she said.

When asked whether legal action would be taken against the exiled GAM leaders, the minister said that the evidence should be studied first and stressed that any action against GAM leaders would be decided on by the authorized agency and not by the Swedish government. She insisted, however, that the Swedish government recognized Indonesia's sovereignty over Aceh.

Alatas' team is the fourth delegation the Indonesian government has sent to Sweden since 2000 to convince the Swedish government to take action against the GAM leaders.

GAM leaders who have been living in that country for years and obtained Swedish citizenship include Hasan Tiro, Zaini Abdullah and Malik Mahmood. GAM recognizes Tiro as the president of Aceh, Zaini as foreign minister and Malik as prime minister. So far, the Swedish government has taken no action against the exiled GAM leaders as they have done nothing to violate Swedish law.

Jakarta has been considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Sweden should the latest mission fail to secure a satisfactory outcome from Indonesia's point of view.

The mission to Sweden is part of the government's efforts to crush the separatist movement in the province. The government imposed martial law and launched a major military offensive there on May 19.

Entering the fourth week of the offensive, more than 160 rebels and 23 security personnel, including policemen, have been killed. In addition, some 500 schools have been torched and more than 22,000 Acehnese civilians forced to flee their villages, according to latest government figures.

Last Wednesday, a German tourist was shot dead and his wife injured in Aceh. The couple were camping on a beach in Lhok Gayo, Teunom District, Aceh Jaya regency.

The government is also considering an attempt to have GAM included on the United Nations' list of terrorist organizations under UN Resolution 1373/2000 so as to win the international community's support for the war against the separatist movement.

On Wednesday, the government team is scheduled to meet with officials of the Swedish attorney general's office. A meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson is not yet on the cards.

Economy & investment

Public procurement changes run into opposition

Jakarta Post - June 11, 2003

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta -- The government is reviewing a presidential decree on public procurements to reduce corruption, but the effort has met with stiff resistance from various sides, including business associations.

In preparation since 2000, the revisions to the decree were recently finalized by a review team comprising various state departments and institutions. The draft decree giving effect to the changes is scheduled to come into effect next year.

While the draft decree has yet to be approved by President Megawati Soekarnoputri, criticism has already been voiced by business associations, including the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), and the National Construction Services Development Institute (LPJKN).

Kadin and the LPJKN raised objections to the fact that under the revised decree, contractors will be allowed to win procurement projects without having to be accredited with either Kadin or its affiliated associations.

Presidential Decree No. 18/2000 stipulates that only companies accredited by Kadin and its affiliated associations can participate in a tender process.

"Under the draft decree, accreditation is not important. This is, of course, not true as in the current era of free competition companies need to have certificates setting out their qualifications," LPJKN chairman Sulistijo recently said.

The two influential private sector organizations also said that the absence of such accreditation could open the way to backdoor deals, as the authority to determine the winner of a tender would entirely lie with the head of the project. Responding to this, the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), which coordinated the work of the review team, said the main aim of the revision was to avoid or reduce backdoor deals in the first place.

"Eliminating the certification requirement means a shorter bureaucratic chain for businessmen who wish to participate in tenders," a source at Bappenas told The Jakarta Post, adding that the certification process was prone to abuses and bribery.

Bappenas executive secretary Koensatwanto Inpasihardjo said in a press statement that the revision was expected to gradually turn the nation into an efficient economy rather than a high-cost economy as it was today.

The revised decree was formulated in response to widespread leakage at almost every stage of the procurement process.

Various international institutions -- including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank -- have frequently stated that corruption in equipment procurement in government institutions was one of the areas most tainted by corruption in Indonesia.

The World Bank even suggested that leakage in the procurement process could reach up to 50 percent of all funds allocated for procurements.

Key points in revision of Presidential Decree No. 18/2000

• Elimination of need for accreditation with Kadin or its affiliated associations.
• For projects valued below Rp 50 billion, companies do not have to undergo a pre-qualification process.
• Fewer documents required.
• Medium and large-scale enterprises are prohibited from participating in tenders for projects reserved for small businesses, that is, projects worth less than Rp 50 billion.
• Provides a legal basis for the establishment of an agency tasked with monitoring tender processes, and improving the quality of the regulations related to procurement.