Aceh

Leading Aceh rebel reported dead turns up alive

Agence France Presse - October 31, 2003

A high-level Acehnese separatist rebel who was reported killed by the Indonesian military last month has made a public appearance and thanked the army for saving his life.

The military reported last month that Dailami, 32, and his wife were shot dead during an exchange of fire with troops.

But Dailami, 32, who confessed to being the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) "governor" of Central Aceh, told reporters on Wednesday that he and his 27-year-old wife had only been wounded during the skirmish in Bireuen district.

Dailami said he and his wife had been shot in the chest but managed to get a message to soldiers through their five-year-old son that they wanted to surrender. He said soldiers carried them out of the forest on stretchers on a night-long trek and took them to a military hospital in Lhokseumawe. Soldiers donated five blood bags to keep his wife alive, the rebel leader said.

He said he now "understands that Aceh cannot be free because GAM's strength is weakening and their military equipment is limited." "GAM definitely would not win an open war," the rebel leader, who was accompanied by his wife, told a press conference at military headquarters at Lhokseumawe in North Aceh.

The military on May 19 launched its biggest operation for a quarter-century with the aim of crushing GAM, which has been fighting for independence since 1976.

More than 900 guerrillas and 66 police or soldiers have been killed since then, according to military figures. More than 1,800 rebels have been arrested or have surrendered, it says. It has several times produced former guerrillas before the media.

ut the lesson of Australia's position is that if the booty is rich enough, law is irrelevant. It prefers to bully a country that needs oil to fund basic health care and education.

Australia claims to be a major benefactor of East Timor, but its assistance pales in comparison with the tens of billions of dollars it will reap from East Timor's resources under current arrangements. In fact, Australia has taken in more (over $1.2 billion) from the Laminaria oilfield than it has given East Timor in aid. This field began production in 1999 while the smoke was still rising from East Timor, but more than 70% of its oil has already been extracted and sold.

[Jesuina Cabral Charles Scheiner Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring, Dili, East Timor.]

Democratic struggle

Protesters condemn 'terrorist' Bush

Green Left Weekly - October 29, 2003

Protests against US President George Bush were staged in several cities across Indonesia on October 21, one day ahead of his brief visit to Bali.

In Jakarta, about 300 protesters rallied outside the US embassy, burning an effigy of Bush, as well as US flags. The protesters displayed banners and posters with slogans such as "Bush is a liar", "Bush -- Vampire", and "Bush: Number-one terrorist". The students pelted the embassy compound with tomatoes and urged President Megawati Sukarnoputri to reject Bush's visit.

Similar protests were also held in Yogyakarta, Bali, East Java, West Java, South Sulawesi and Solo and Semarang in Central Java. In Denpasar, the capital of Bali, scores of university students and supporters of various political parties rallied outside the US consulate.

Bush visited Bali for four hours on October 22. The Indonesian government mobilised 5000 troops and police, with seven warships and an aircraft carrier deployed off the resort island's coast, while four US-made F-16s will be on standby.

Undeterred by the massive security presence, a small number of protesters led by the the newly formed Party of of United Peoples Opposition (Popor) demonstrated against Bush.

Popor is a progressive umbrella organisation for the National Front for Indonesian Workers Struggle (FNPBI), the National Student League for Democracy (LMND), the Farmers and Fishermen Union (STN) and 53 other mass organisations.

Labour issues

Workers and employers fail to agree on minimum wage

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2003

Andi Hajramurni, Makassar -- Councillors, labor leaders and businesspeople failed to reach an agreement here on Thursday over whether to raise minimum wages of workers in South Sulawesi province next year.

Those present at the meeting with the South Sulawesi legislative council's Commission E for the economy became embroiled in a heated debate as they stood by their respective stances on the issue.

Leaders of labor unions demanded that the provincial minimum wages (UMP) be increased 100 percent in 2004 from the current Rp 415,000 (US$92) per month. But local businesspeople grouped in the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) rejected the demand and asked the government not to raise the wages, arguing that the rise would pose a new burden on them amid the continuing economic crisis.

Secretary of Apindo South Sulawesi Rahim Zulkifli said the proposed increase could even force companies to lay off workers, as they would not be able to afford the new wages. "We ask that the provincial minimum wages not be increased, because it is impossible during the current economic situation. If the 2004 wages are raised, we will surely have to revamp or lay off workers en masse," he said.

Meanwhile, Rachmawati Karim, coordinator of the May First Labor Movement (Satu Mei Geram), said next year's minimum wages should be raised by 100 percent, because the current pay was "inhumane".

In determining the wages, the relevant authorities should at least refer to the monthly regional living requirement (KHM), which had recently been set at Rp 447,160 per month by the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), she argued.

"The demand for a 100 percent increase in wages is based on the KHM and the rise in the prices of all basic commodities," she said. However, Rachmawati criticized the regional living costs as "irrational", saying it did not reflect the real minimum cost of living for workers.

For example, the price of rice -- an item included in the regional living costs -- was set at Rp 2,225 per kilogram, while the price on the market was Rp 2,225 per liter, she said.

Also, the price of trousers was set at Rp 7,000 per pair. "What kind of trousers sells for Rp 7,000 right now? It's irrational," she added. Zulkifli further said the demanded wage increase should take into account several factors, including the fact that many companies could still not afford to pay their workers at the current minimum wage. However, he said if the labor unions insisted on the wage increase, it should not exceed the national inflation rate of 6 percent.

As the debate continued to heat up, Commission E councillor Anas Genda eventually closed the meeting without it having reached any agreement, suggesting further talks later. Outside the council, around 100 workers from a number of Makassar companies staged a rally to support the demand for a 100 percent rise in minimum wage next year.

'War on terrorism'

Marriott suspects say more attacks planned

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2003

Jakarta/Bandung/Cirebon -- Two JW Marriott Hotel bombing suspects, who were arrested on Wednesday morning, told police that their cohorts were planning more bomb attacks in the country, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said here on Thursday.

The suspects, Tohir alias Masrizal and Ismail alias Ricky Putranto, said the bombing plans had been organized by Dr. Azahari bin Husin, a former Malaysian professor of statistics at the Malaysian Institute of Technology who is still on the run and wanted in connection for his roles in the Marriott and the Bali attacks.

Azahari and Noordin Mohd Top, another Malaysian, were apparently hiding out in a house in Bandung as recently as Monday or Tuesday according to the police, but when officers raided the house on Wednesday night, they had already fled.

Tohir and Ismail were arrested on Wednesday morning in a Cirebon hotel, West Java, with five explosive devices, possibly blasting caps, in their luggage.

"From their confessions, the police learned that Azahari has made plans for another bomb attack, but Azahari and Noordin managed to escape when we tried to arrest them in the Bandung area," Da'i said.

Meanwhile in Bandung, police found four homemade bombs at the room rented by Azahari and Noordin. The high-explosive bombs were later detonated at a nearby field.

Da'i warned the public of possible bombings as the two fugitives were carrying assembled bombs with them and ready to attack.

Azahari, Noordin and Ismail are among the most wanted terror suspects in Southeast Asia. They are all suspected members of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network and allegedly played major roles in last year's Bali bombing, which claimed more than 200 lives, and the Marriott bombing, which killed 12 people and injured 147 others.

The police distributed fresh pictures of the two men as they believed the fugitives were still holed up somewhere in West Java.

In Cirebon, the police also disposed of the five blasting caps, which were packed in small tubes, an eye glass holder and a cigarette pack. The two suspects had them hidden in their waist packs. Bomb squad officers said that the bombs were made with a high degree of expertise and were ready to be detonated at any time.

In the Marriott bombing Ismail, 28, apparently helped Azahari to assemble the Marriott bombs. Ismail was also wanted by police detectives as he had purchased the blue metallic Kijang minivan along with Arief, another suspect who is still at large. The van was then used to carry more than 150 kilograms of explosives and 20 liters of fuel to create a fireball effect in the bombing.

Tohir has been accused of being the field commander in the bombing, along with Asmar Latin Sani who detonated the car bomb and died in the incident. The two came from the same village in Malalo, Agam, West Sumatra.

West Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida said that aside from Azahari and Noordin, the police are also on the look out for two more suspects related to the bombing who were believed to be in the province.

Coinciding with the arrest of the two suspects, the British Embassy here issued a new travel advisory emphasizing that Westerners were "facing general threats" across the country. The embassy also said that there are indications of more terrorist attacks in Indonesia, targeting Westerners, and people should avoid non-essential travel to the country.

Government & politics

Golkar backers fling petrol bombs in Bali

Agence France Presse - October 29, 2003

Jakarta -- Masked attackers threw petrol bombs at homes in Bali on Monday in revenge for a deadly weekend clash between supporters of rival political parties, police and a party official said yesterday.

Several homes in Buleleng town almost went up in flames during the attacks, said detective Ngurah Darma.

Golkar supporters staged the attacks to avenge the death of two fellow supporters during a clash on Sunday with backers of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party- Struggle (PDI-P), a local Golkar party official said.

Mr I. Gusti Ketut Adiputra, deputy chief of the Golkar chapter in Bali, condemned both outbreaks of violence.

The bloodshed has sparked fears of unrest during parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

Vice-President Hamzah Haz said it "should serve as a warning that the next general election would be much different from the previous ones".

The attackers at Buleleng, located on the north coast of Bali, were armed with swords and axes, detective Darma said. He said one group drove around in jeeps, throwing petrol bombs, while another group was on foot.

"A house and a car belonging to a resident were damaged by the foot patrol mob, but fortunately there were no casualties. We have arrested a man who has admitted throwing the Molotov cocktails," he said. Police also seized four jeeps, petrol bombs, swords and axes.

The Jakarta Post quoted local police as saying that 26 people were detained after Sunday's killings and six of them would be charged.

Senior officials of both parties have called for calm among their supporters, who have clashed in the past.

PDI-P has 153 of the 500 seats in Parliament, while Golkar has 120. Some national leaders on each side have floated the idea of an election coalition between the two biggest nationalist parties to counter the influence of Islamic parties.

Indonesia will hold its general election on April 5 and its first direct presidential election on July 5.

Suharto era continues to cloud political life

Financial Times (London) - October 27, 2003

Shawn Donnan -- A.M. Fatwa, the deputy speaker ofIndonesia's parliament, has cause to be angry.

In 1984, after protesting against the massacre by soldiers of Islamic activists near Jakarta's port of Tanjung Priok, he was arrested, tortured and then spent nine years in prison, five years under house arrest and wrote 13 books highlighting the abuses of the 32-year rule of the former president Suharto.

There are times now when Mr Fatwa encounters his former torturers at meetings and parties. None has been punished. Some have apologised privately. Many retain senior roles in the Indonesian military and elsewhere. But Mr Fatwa is anything but angry. In an Indonesia where many citizens feel the "Reformasi" promises that came with Mr Suharto's toppling in 1998 have fallen well short, he has come to accept what he views as political reality. "Some of them are still very powerful," he says of his one-time torturers.

"In political life, I still have good contact with these people." Five years after Mr Suharto's exit, a now raucously democratic Indonesia has gone some way to redressing his New Order's wrongs. Last week, for example, the head of the country's Kopassus special forces went on trial for allegedly giving the order that led to the Tanjung Priok massacre.

However, activists, diplomats, historians and even institutions such as the World Bank increasingly point to what they see as Indonesia's reluctance to deal with the abuses of the Suharto regime. Many believe this is contributing to the reascendance of an unreformed military with a habit of human rights abuse as well as a broader culture of impunity that interferes with still badly needed economic and political reforms.

Adnan Buyung Nasution, a prominent defence lawyer, says: "Those who took part in the oppressive system of the past have not been punished. Because of that they feel they can do what they did before once again."

In a report on Indonesia's endemic corruption published last week, the World Bank said Mr Suharto's family and others connected to him continue to "flourish" from graft. Mr Suharto's former political party, Golkar, is expected by many to win parliamentary elections next year. Its presidential candidates include a former general indicted by United Nations prosecutors for human rights abuses in East Timor who retains strong ties to Mr Suharto, as well as Prabowo Subianto, a one-time general and Mr Suharto's estranged former son-in-law.

In Aceh, the restive province in northern Sumatra where martial law has been in place since May, human rights activists and other observers believe hundreds of civilians have been killed since the relaunch of military operations. Leading the fight against Acehnese separatists, according to a Human Rights Watch report released this month, are six senior officers born out of the Suharto regime with questionable rights records.

Critics argue the culture of impunity springs largely from the reluctance of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government to tackle a powerful elite that became entrenched under Mr Suharto. Todung Mulya Lubis, a prominent human rightslawyer, says many have argued for forgetting the past and starting "anew" since Mr Suharto's fall.

"This elite community is made up of the old elite," he says. "There's no cut-off between the New Order [of Mr Suharto] and the Reformasi Order. The elite is pretty much the same."

There are some moves under way to address the past and sensitive issues such as the 1965 anti-communist bloodletting that led to the death of up to a million, the rise of Mr Suharto and continuing discrimination against the relatives of suspected communists. A panel of historians is reviewing the official version of 1965's events. That official version says a foiled communist coup led to Mr Suharto's eventual -- and heroic -- seizure of power.

Moves are also afoot in parliament to create a reconciliation commission that would address the events of 1965 as well as Suharto regime abuses and even, potentially, the events surrounding the strongman's fall in 1998.

But scepticism and questions abound. Mr Fatwa, the legislator who pushed hardest for the Tanjung Priok trials, is cautious. The fall of Suharto was more "evolution" than "revolution", he says. "It's true. There has not been much change in Indonesia. Many Suharto people still exist."

2004 elections

General shakes off murderous stigma in search of presidency

The Times (London) - October 31, 2003

Amy Chew, Semarang -- Jakarta's Chinatown was ablaze and the city's shopping centres were being looted by mobs. On the streets students were baying for President Suharto's blood.

In desperation, Mr Suharto ordered his army commander to "neutralise" the protesters and seize power to stave off the collapse of his dictatorship.

Now, five years on, General Wiranto, the former Chief of Staff, is to try to lead the nation through the ballot box rather than at the point of a gun by seeking the presidency that he could have snatched in 1998.

The charismatic four-star general calculated that a military coup in 1998 would have cost the lives of at least 500 students, while negative reaction abroad would have made Indonesia a pariah, losing much-needed foreign aid.

"I had no wish to take power atop of death and the ruins of my nation," General Wiranto, 56, told The Times in a rare interview as he campaigned in rural Java. He revealed that Mr Suharto's order was a legal document.

Were it not for General Wiranto's forbearance, Indonesia might well have been plunged into civil war.

There is no doubting his drawing power. On the campaign trail, every other candidate is ignored and journalists have eyes only for the suave former military man. His ease with his former military colleagues -- he likes nothing better than an evening of karaoke -- translates well to the political stage. Having refused power when it was offered him, the general is now seeking the nomination of Golkar, the country's second-largest party and the former political vehicle of Mr Suharto, for the presidency in 2004.

General Wiranto sees the presidency as a means to make good the promises of reforms made five years ago by the political elite. Those promises have gone unfulfilled. Millions were thrown out of work to live in poverty and suffer from a breakdown of law and order.

"I feel I am called to take concrete steps to improve the fate of this country ... as I myself had once secured and given assurances that reforms would proceed peacefully, orderly and constitutionally," General Wiranto said.

"I only want to be President for one term because I believe it would be enough for me to do something for this country. When people go for two terms, they become preoccupied with how to hold on to power and forget about what needs to be done today."

Striding through rural Indonesia, his reforming appeal is obvious. Many stand to attention when he stops to shake hands. Few seem to be concerned at his close identification with the brutality of Suharto era and the violence that overtook East Timor.

His star waned along with the change in leadership. In 2000 he retired from the military and was dismissed from his job as senior Security Minister by President Wahid, the leader at the time, over the violence in East Timor, which cost as many as 100,000 lives. But he was not prosecuted.

Soon after his removal from office, the general, a father of three, issued a best-selling CD of patriotic songs called "For You, Indonesia", amid a wave of sympathy from many who felt that he had been treated unfairly.

In theory, Mr Suharto's resignation from the presidency on May 21, 1998, should have brought an end to Indonesia's 32 years of terror; of abuses of human rights and decades of the Suharto kleptocracy in which the ruling clan treated one of the Third World's wealthiest nations like a family firm, with any profits accruing to their own bank accounts. An era of freedom beckoned: political freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

But it was not to be. Indonesia has since had three presidents in five years and the struggles for reform and democracy are all but dead. Islamic terrorism has brought new restrictions and hampered the recovery of a broken economy.

The transition from an autocracy to a democracy was chaotic and came with huge social unrest and a rise in separatism, which reached a climax with the loss of East Timor in a United Nations-sponsored vote in 1999.

Every outbreak of ethnic and religious violence tested General Wiranto in how to quell the restless masses without casualties. Sometimes he failed. The accusations that he was often brutal in putting down unrest will haunt him in his attempt for the presidency.

Hasyim Wahid, the brother and one-time confidant of former President Wahid, told The Times: "Wiranto is sincere. He doesn't like to see the country ruined by the lack of leadership. However, he has this unfinished business -- the shooting of students, East Timor. He should finish this business [the alleged human rights violations] ... by revealing whatever he knows. And maybe by doing this he may put his life in danger, but there is always a risk in life."

However, General Wiranto lags far behind President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's founding father, whom many expect to be re- elected for a second term.

Next elections won't produce new leaders: Analyst

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2003

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Next year's general elections will result in the same unqualified, corrupt leaders heading the nation, political analyst Arbi Sanit said on Thursday. And these same leaders had designed the law to ensure that was the case, he said.

"The elections will maintain the present elite leaders although they are proven to have failed to bring about prosperity," Arbi of the University of Indonesia (UI) told a discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

Indonesia is slated to hold legislative elections in April 2004 and two-stage direct presidential elections in July and September respectively.

Citing articles in the election law, he said the executive boards of political parties possessed the ultimate power to determine legislative candidates ahead of the elections.

Although the nation has formally adopted a combination of open- list and proportional system, Arbi said the law encouraged people to vote for political parties instead of a specific candidate.

He said political leaders would still dominate and control the nation. "Slogans that the people will be a decisive factor are just nonsense," he said.

Arbi said the elections would produce elite leaders who know nothing about democracy, therefore the policies they would make would never benefit the people.

Former transmigration minister Siswono Yudhohusodo, who also spoke at the discussion, said the elections would be an important milestone in the country's journey towards democracy.

He said the presence of qualified leaders and the readiness of the people to practice democracy were prerequisites to improving Indonesia.

He said it would be very difficult for the nation to get qualified leaders, because many leaders had lost their sense of responsibility when committing mistakes, their sense of shame about corruption and their sense of fear of the law.

Siswono, who chairs the Indonesian Farmers Brotherhood Union (HKTI), however, suggested the nation should be optimistic about the leaders after the next election. He said that although the macro-economy had shown significant growth in the past three years, some leaders had betrayed the nation.

The betrayal appeared in various forms, including the sales of state assets at cheap prices, the enormous importation of food, smuggling, corruption and rampant money politics.

Besides the performance of the macro-economy, Siswono said Indonesia faced hard problems with high unemployment, a limited budget and low economic growth. Concerning the importance of state leaders, Siswono suggested that Indonesia look at Malaysia, Singapore, and China, which have had Mahathir Mohammad, Lee Kuan Yew, and Deng Xiao Ping respectively. "All of them are examples of leaders who have brought their nations to prosperity," he said.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Indonesia's first family of corruption

Asia Times - October 31, 2003

Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- Despite the thoroughgoing political disgrace that the Suharto family has seemingly endured since Indonesia's political and financial bubbles burst in 1998, his avaricious children seem to have endured their downfall rather well. At least three remain locked into a stream of profits from the remnants of enterprises in place before the collapse.

The three, Bambang Trihatmojo, Siti "Tutut" Hardijanti Rukmana, and Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, had massive interlocking billion-dollar empires in property, banking, industry, telecommunications, media and transport. Although swaths of their empires were handed over to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and they are rarely seen in public -- especially Tommy, who is in prison -- they have survived handily.

Nor are the Suharto children alone. In fact, Indonesia remains one of most corrupt countries in the world, according to the Berlin-based Transparency International's latest index of perceived corruption levels, which was released early this month. In fact, analysts say, the problem has actually gotten worse since Suharto's downfall, with splinter political parties out to get what they can and the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri demonstrating no political will to combat the problem. As an example, parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tanjung remains free, despite being convicted of embezzling Rp40 billion (US$4.7 million) in state funds that were supposed to have been used to buy food for the poor.

The ability of the Suharto family to continue to operate with impunity is cited as evidence of that lack of political will. Today, for instance, Tommy is widely believed to be running the remnants of his Humpuss business empire from prison, where he was sent for the murder of Supreme Court judge Syafiuddin Kartamasamita. Tutut, the most visible of the three, owns at least a Bali hotel and toll roads in the Philippines. Bambang still holds a major interest in his publicly traded company Bimantara Citra.

A fourth sibling, Sigit, one of the least visible of the Suharto offspring, was Tommy's partner in Humpuss and still holds 40 percent of the shares. Suharto's middle daughter, Siti Titi Hediati Harijadi (Titiek), now 43, owned a conglomerate, Maharani Paramita, with interests in property, telecoms, finance and forestry. Little is heard now about the company or the lady herself, who was often in the public eye because of her marriage to Major-General Prabowo Subianto, the infamous commander of the strategic reserves. She is a partner of Prabowo's billionaire elder brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo in the $2.5 billion Paiton power project but no corruption allegations have been made against her.

Suharto's youngest daughter, Siti Hutami Endang Adyninsih (nicknamed Mamiek), 39, had significant interests in oil-palm plantations, mobile telecommunications, land reclamation and aircraft leasing but again, little is heard of her these days.

Tommy is the only one of Suharto's children to be tried and convicted, for graft. If he hadn't taken vengeance on judge Syafiuddin for his original graft conviction, he might well have escaped jail time. The chances of any of the other five following in his footsteps remain slim despite the fact that a House of Representatives' special committee of inquiry into corruption at Pertamina, established in September 2001, demanded that several of Suharto's children, cronies and former ministers be arrested for their roles in graft cases involving the company.

At the time of the fall, analysts posited that the family's businesses were largely based on short-term rent-seeking arrangements, and most of them, as well as having borrowed heavily, actually owned no assets per se. They were involved in television and radio networks, banks, chemical factories, pharmaceutical companies, shopping malls, hotels, paper and pulp mills, shipping lines and taxi companies and were commonly thought to have very little business acumen beyond that which was coincidentally bestowed by their father's power. Estimates of the net worth of the Suharto family ranged from $8 billion to $30 billion prior to 1998 as they set up "monopolies" that were nothing more than a cost of doing business to the multinationals and local entrepreneurs wishing to set up in the country.

Tommy's prison empire

Tommy, last year sentenced to 15 years for Syafiuddin's assassination, is locked in Nusakambangan Prison away from the public eye, but he still retains his original 60 percent of Humpuss, the empire he founded with $100,000 of capital in 1984. Within 10 weeks of the startup, the 22-year-old, with only a high-school education, had made Humpuss into a business corporation with 20 subsidiaries. By 1985 Tommy had already bought the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina subsidiary Perta Oil Marketing (Perta), thus becoming a crude-oil broker for Pertamina. Perta was later closed down by the government, having allegedly milked Pertamina of almost $1 million a month.

Humpuss quickly mushroomed into a major concern, turning over $500 million a year by 1994. At the end of 1998 Tommy resigned from the board of directors of Humpuss and became president commissioner. Humpuss's assets may have dropped to a quarter of pre-crisis levels and the workforce slashed to a third of what it was, but there are two major assets remaining.

These are the LNG (liquefied natural gas) shipping company publicly listed Humpuss Intermoda and the Humpuss Aromatik petrochemical project that processes LNG from Arun in Aceh.

Humpuss still earns much of its revenue from oil, LNG and methanol shipment contracts with Pertamina, using its 11 tankers. Though the government has scrapped several service and shipping contracts between private companies and Pertamina, Humpuss Intermoda still has a long-term contract with Pertamina until 2009.

In 1990, Pertamina granted a 20-year concession to operate the lucrative Cepu oilfield block to Humpuss Patragas, in cooperation with Australia's Ampolex, which owned a 49 percent stake in the field. In mid-2000 when Humpuss Patragas could not pay its debts to IBRA, it was forced to sell its 51 percent stake in the fields to ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia. The latter bought out both Humpuss and Ampolex.

Humpuss, with 16 debt-laden subsidiaries, had "troubled" loans of more than $850 million (Rp6.76 trillion), making it IBRA's second largest debtor in 1999. But just before he went on the lam in November 2000 Tommy let go of one of his biggest assets, the Jakarta International Cargo Terminal (JICT), for $147 million. That left Humpuss's obligations to IBRA almost settled, with a mere $125 million needing to be rescheduled.

Timber baron Bob Hasan, in the next-door cell to Tommy in Nusakambangan Prison, was his partner in PT Gatari Hutama Air Service, Perta Oil Marketing, and Sempati Air. There is no verifiable information on whether or not Tommy still runs the business from Nusakambangan, but when he was languishing in Jakarta's Cipinang Prison awaiting trial, his secretary Indriyani Yastiningtyas was recorded as a daily visitor.

Tutut's roads and hotels

Tutut, 54, commonly known as Mbak (sister), started in business in 1983 with trading company Citra Lamtoro Gung Persada (Citra Group). She quickly built it into a diversified conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, broadcasting, pulp and paper. Citra was also a contractor for toll roads, airports and harbors in the country, before expanding operations farther north.

In 1995 through a joint-venture company Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp, Tutut won a contract from former president Fidel Ramos to build, finance and manage the 45-kilometer Metro Manila Skyway Project through a 30-year built-operate-and transfer (BOT) contract with the Philippine government.

In July last year she lost one of her main earners when letting go of her last remaining stake in lucrative toll-road operator PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada (CMNP). Most of Indonesia's toll roads were built and operated by state-owned PT Jasa Marga, but a 1989 decree, not revoked until 10 years later, gave CMNP 75 percent of profits from toll roads it operated in partnership with Jasa Marga. Jasa Marga itself investigated allegations of corruption in some of Tutut's toll- road concessions and subsequently barred CMNP from participating in tenders for new projects, including the Jakarta Outer Ring Road.

Tutut, an icon on television broadcasts in her Muslim scarf, is the least media-shy in the family. Thought to be worth about $2 billion before the crisis, she still has some big irons in the fire.

In Manila the Skyway has been built and her group is building a 17.5km expressway that will cut across Manila and connect two major expressways.

Tutut also co-owns the five-star Nusa Dua Beach Hotel in Bali with the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah.

Bambang's media and broadcasting empire

Bambang Trihatmodjo, 49, known for shunning the limelight, had an estimated pre-crisis net worth of $4.5 billion. His conglomerate Bimantara Citra (Bimantara), which he founded in 1982, had interests in petrochemicals, banking, a car venture with South Korea's Hyundai, satellite company Satelindo, and the biggest private TV station, RCTI.

The latter broke the monopoly of state-run TVRI when set up by Bambang as the first private broadcaster in 1990. From that year, a progressive downsizing of operations saw Bimantara reduced from more than 100 subsidiaries and affiliates to 51. When it went public in the middle of 1995, only 26 of these companies were included in the float; but as the crisis took hold in 1998, the bad debts from 23 out of these 26 totaled Rp4.36 trillion.

Though Bambang was questioned over alleged irregularities in closed Bank Andromeda, closed down by the government in 1998, no charges were laid and he still owns 14 percent of Bimantara shares through his PT Asriland. The latter is a real-estate company he owns with his wife and has been a major investment vehicle for the couple. Asriland, through PT Bima Graha, the holding company that controls the major stake in Satelindo, is also a part owner of Satelindo.

Tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibyo, through holding company Bhakti Investama (Bhakti), owns the largest single stake in Bimantara with 24.9 percent, but insiders say Tanoesoedibyo acted as a proxy for Bambang. The main thrust of the group is media and broadcasting, and it is well on the way to being the largest telecom and media company in the country.

"We are now dominant players in the two fastest-growing sectors in the economy, and that was a strategic move on our part," Tanoesoedibyo said recently.

When media operations are consolidated, the group will include three television stations, numerous radio stations, newspapers and other print media.

Bimantara owns 70 percent of Global TV, 53 percent of RCTI and 25 percent of Metro TV. It has holdings also in Indosiar and Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI). Tutut still holds 65 percent of the shares in TPI. In 1992 she stole a march on Bambang by getting permission to transmit peak- time programming nationally on TPI station while Bambang's RCTI, bleeding money, was restricted to encrypted broadcasts. RCTI won the right to broadcast freely the following year and forged ahead to a market leadership it holds to this day.

In 2002, Bimantara made a net profit of Rp347.8 billion -- marginally up from Rp344 billion in 2001.

Though Bhakti also owns Bentoel, a major kretek cigarette maker, its media and broadcasting businesses brought in Rp96 billion of the net income in 2002, dwarfing a Rp24 billion net income the year before. The increase was mainly due to advertising revenue from RCTI.

The capital's top hotel, the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, is listed among its prime assets, and it only recently sold off its stake in the adjoining marble-clad shopping mall, Plaza Indonesia.

In 1993 the government handed a monopoly in the satellite business to Bambang, who then set up two joint ventures with state companies Telkom and Indosat to operate two Hughes communication satellites. One of the ventures, Satelindo (PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia), launched Palapa-C1 in April 1996 from Cape Canaveral at a cost of $190 million. Bambang himself also has a stake in Jawa Power, one of several power plants, approved in the 1990s, whereby state-run power company PLN was forced to buy electricity at above-market rates from these companies in a series of long-term purchase agreements. The $500 million power project in East Java involved the disgraced US power company Enron, Siemens Power Ventures, the 50 percent owner, and British energy producer PowerGen PLC, which held 35 percent. A subsidiary of Bimantara holds 15 percent.

The inclusion of Bambang in the deal was par for the course. A local partner was very often a condition for government approval, and foreign companies wooed rent seekers such as Bimantara to expedite the process. Djiteng Marsudi, a former president of PLN, admitted that power companies "dictated terms to us because they had Indonesia's first family behind them".

He told the Wall Street Journal in 1998, "Resisting them was like suicide."

Eleven cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism in Pertamina were alleged to have caused losses of $1.7 billion to the state.

British consortium Foster Wheeler in 1989 won a Pertamina contract to build the Balongan oil refinery in Indramayu, West Java. Tutut and Sigit allegedly conspired with Pertamina and then mines and energy minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita to have the contract awarded to Foster Wheeler, in return for which they allegedly received cash payments.

The attorney general in February 2001 questioned Sigit about the alleged mark-up and bribes, but he and the others were never taken to court. This August the AG quietly dropped an investigation into an alleged corruption case involving Tutut's fuel pipeline construction project in Central Java, saying no irregularities had been found in a contract Pertamina awarded to her consortium. This was despite indications the deal caused the state to lose millions of dollars.

Thus, despite the widespread allegations of fabulous wealth gained at the expense of the Indonesian treasury and taxpayers, the family has largely survived intact, even including Tommy with his jail time.

Scam torpedoes BNI profit

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2003

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Net profits at the publicly-listed Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), the country's second largest bank in terms of assets, plunged by 45 percent in the first nine months of this year due to a huge loan scandal.

BNI president Saifuddien Hasan said that net profit fell to Rp 1.17 trillion (US$138.46 million) from Rp 2.10 trillion in the same nine-month period of last year as the management decided to set aside a huge loan-loss provision against potential losses from the scandal.

"The decline in our net profit is mostly attributable to the graft case," said Saifuddien at a press briefing on Thursday. He said that the bank set aside a provision of Rp 941 billion to cover the loss. This is about half of the Rp 1.7 trillion allegedly embezzled from the state-owned bank. He also said that although the bank had set aside loan-loss provisions, the bank would work hard to recover the loans.

The BNI loan scandal centers on the channeling of export credits without proper appraisals by the bank's Kebayoran Baru branch in South Jakarta to a number of local companies to finance the export of commodities to Congo and Kenya. The exporters (Saifuddien identified them as the Petindo Group and Gramarindo Group) backed up their loans requests with letters of credit (L/Cs) from banks in Kenya, Switzerland and the Cook Islands as collateral. It later turned out that the exports never materialized, causing BNI to lose the money.

Shares in BNI have plunged by around 27 percent over the past couple of days since the case first came to light, although on Thursday the share price put on 5.3 percent to close at Rp 100 per share.

Although analysts have said that the lending scandal could seriously undermine confidence in the country's banking sector, which was been badly hurt by the late 1990s banking crisis due to chronic corruption, the government's efforts to sell stakes in local banks have so far not been affected.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) has just completed the sale of a majority stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia to a Singapore-South Korean consortium, and the planned initial public offering of state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia was reported to be 14 times oversubscribed due to strong demand from investors. The government is planning to sell a further stake in BNI next year.

Reports quoting government officials said that a shareholders meeting of BNI would be held in December, in which part of the agenda would be the possible dismissal of top executives of the bank due to the scandal. But the BNI board of directors has so far denied responsibility for the scam.

Saifuddien acknowledged that scandal was caused by weak supervision in the bank, and possible collusion between certain officials of the bank's Kebayoran Baru branch and the companies concerned.

He said between December 2002 and July 2003, some $157.4 million and 56.1 million euros in loans were channeled in 105 transactions without any formal assessments being conducted or checks made (the above mentioned foreign banks were not BNI correspondent banks). "At that time, the board of directors did not know that there was a huge amounts in export credits being extended by one of our branches," he said.

Meanwhile, after a meeting with BNI management, Jakarta Stock Exchange president Erry Firmansyah said that the bourse had ordered BNI to submit a weekly written report on the progress of the bank's efforts to recoup the loans. But the JSX would not suspend BNI's shares.

The police confirmed this week that they had detained two senior executives of BNI in connection with the scandal, and more detentions would likely follow.

Reconciliation & justice

Charged Kopassus chief denies witnesses intimidated

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2003

Jakarta -- The Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) Commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan denied on Thursday allegations that his troops intimidated witnesses of the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy not to testify against him.

He urged any witnesses to file a legal complaint with the Military Police if they received such threats during the ongoing trial.

Speaking to journalists after appearing at Thursday's trial at the ad hoc human rights tribunal, Sriyanto said he would not prohibit his soldiers from coming to court to observe his trial as a defendant in the Tanjung Priok case. He argued that all community members, including soldiers, were free to attend the trial.

"There are no regulations that ban troops from visiting the courtroom to observe the trial. I don't understand why their presence is perceived as intimidation. But if some of my soldiers have made threats, people can file an official complaint with the Military Police instead of slandering us," he said.

Hundreds of Kopassus soldiers have crowded the courtroom at every trial session of their commander.

Sriyanto is charged with direct involvement in the 2004 fatal shooting into a crowd of Muslim protesters in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

Earlier on Tuesday, around 20 families of the victims reported being intimidated and asked the police to protect them. They identified their intimidators as Kopassus personnel, and said the soldiers had threatened to kill them if they testified against Sriyanto and other military defendants.

Accompanied by their lawyers from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the victims' families also took their complaint on Thursday to National Military Police commander Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. During the meeting, Sulaiman promised to protect the victims, but stressed that he could not stop the soldiers from coming to court as observers.

Despite the complaints, hundreds of Kopassus soldiers thronged Sriyanto's trial on Thursday at the Central Jakarta District Court to show support for their commander.

The two-star general, 52, was a captain and head of the North Jakarta military district operational unit during the 1984 massacre. Sriyanto is charged with ordering his troops from the North Jakarta Air Defense Artillery Battalion to open fire into a crowd of Muslim protesters without any prior warning. At least 10 people were killed, and the troops continued to shoot as the protesters fled.

Sriyanto's lawyers told the ad hoc trial that they had no right to try their client over an incident that took place almost 20 years ago, arguing that the Tanjung Priok incident was not a gross human rights violation. They asked the judges to dismiss the charges against Sriyanto, saying that under the 2000 law, only cases of gross human rights violations were tried by such tribunals.

Aside from Sriyanto, two retired generals, an Army captain and 10 privates are also on trial in the same case. Their lawyers have said the troops were only following orders from their superiors. The trial is adjourned until next Thursday.

Priok victims allege military threats, ask for protection

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2003

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta -- Around 20 victims of the 1984 Tanjung Priok violence and their families asked the police to protect them from people they said were Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers.

Accompanied by activists from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Tanjung Priok residents said they needed protection to enable them to testify before the ad hoc human rights court, which is hearing alleged human rights violations involving the military almost 20 years ago.

The group was received by National Police deputy spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko DS.

"We have received repeated death threats. The last time, they said they would break my neck if I testified to the court against the defendants," one of the victims, who is also one of the key witnesses, told a media briefing at National Police Headquarters.

He said that the threats had been made by phone and in person, including when he was present at the trial of Kopassus commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan on Thursday last week.

Sriyanto, 52, has been put on trial for his alleged role in the bloody incident, making him the highest serving Army officer to be called to account for the bloodbath. Prosecutors accused him of a crime against humanity, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of death.

Relating a similar experience, a family member of one of the Priok victims said he decided not to enter the courtroom during the trial of Sriyanto after he received a direct death threat. Hundreds of Kopassus soldiers packed the courtroom in a show of support for their commander, as well what could be construed as a show of force.

"I decided not to attend the trial but go straight home as the guys who threatened me appeared to be following me," he said.

Kontras coordinator Usman Hamid said they had requested protection from the police as the Attorney General's Office had failed to respond to their complaints.

"We have requested protection from the Attorney General's Office for the victims who are to testify in the trial, but as of today, they [the Attorney General's Office] have not responded to our request," said Usman.

In a meeting between the victims and the Attorney General's Office staff on October 14, one of the prosecutors told the victims to report their worries to the police, saying it was the police who were responsible for providing victims and witnesses with protection.

Usman asked the police to provide protection for the victims and their families on their way to the court, during the trial and on their way back home. "Otherwise, the witnesses will continue to be intimidated. It will disrupt the whole trial process," he said.

National Police deputy spokesman Soenarko said he would immediately report the request to his superior, National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar. "We will pass on the request to the police stations concerned. Those police stations will follow up on the request by deploying personnel to safeguard the witnesses," Soenarko said.

There have been conflicting figures given regarding the number of victims in the Tanjung Priok incident.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has put the death toll at 33, while the military has said only nine people were killed. The families of the victims, however, claim that almost 400 people were killed during the incident.

Trial begins of Kopassus leader and 13 officers

Radio Australia - October 28, 2003

In Indonesia, for the first time, military officers are being tried for human rights abuses during the regime of former President Suharto. The leader of Indonesia's special force, Kopassus, and 13 other officers have been accused of involvement in a massacre of political protestors in 1984.

Witnesses giving evidence at the trial have now demanded police protection, saying they have been receiving death threats from Kopassus troops.

Presenter/Interviewer: Tricia Fitzgerald Speakers: Usman Harmid, Director of the Indonesian human rights group KONTRAS; Doctor Greg Barton, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Deakin University.

Fitzgerald: More than 30 Muslim protestors were shot dead at Tanjung Priok port, a slum district in north Jakarta almost 20 years ago.

The killings took place during a major confrontation between former President Suharto's military and Islamic groups, a conflict which even today casts a shadow over Indonesian politics. The massacre occurred after a soldier wearing boots entered a mosque in Tanjung Priok to tear down anti- government posters.

Greg Barton an expert on Islamic studies at Deakin University says that incident sparked a huge Muslim street protest.

Barton: A protest of around three-thousand people was met by live fire from Kopassus troops, about 32 Kopassus troops opened fire on a crowd of several thousand, killing several dozen. Witnesses at the time reported army trucks driving away with bodies, whether living or dead it's not clear thrown in the back.

Fitzgerald: Human rights groups are not optimistic that this trial will be a fair one.

The case is being tried in the special ad hoc human rights courts, and the results of those courts so far have been disappointing with no-one yet jailed after the first round of hearings on killings by the militias and the military in East Timor in 1999.

But for the families and friends of the victims of Tanjung Priok, getting their day in court after 20 years is a breakthrough. Usman Harmid the director of the Kontras group, which supports the victims of violence, says many of the witnesses were locked up after the massacre for crimes against the state.

Harmid: But then many of them had been released and now after the fall of Suharto they are demanding accountability for the crimes in Tanjung Priok to be brought to justice, and now it's the first time for them to have or to see those responsible to sit in the court.

Fitzgerald: This trial is a landmark one, it's the first time the killings carried out by the military under Suharto have come to trial.

In an unprecedented development, Major General Sriyanto, the head of Indonesia's notorious Kopassus Special Forces, is being tried. Also in the dock with him is Jakarta's former police chief, two military commanders and ten lower ranking officers.

But today's Kopassus chief was a lower ranking soldier back in 1984. And Mr Usman says just like in the East Timor trials senior commanders responsible at the time of Tanjung Priok are not being prosecuted. He believes former President Suharto himself should be appearing at these trials.

Harmid: The victims and the families and the ? armed forces were there. The court is full of troops and the soldiers in the court and the victims and the families would not go inside the court because of the presence of hundreds of troops in the court. And some of them were threatening the victims, they said that they want to kill the victims; they want to kill the activists themselves who are accompanying the victims and relatives.

Fitzgerald: Foreign governments like Australia and the US will want to see how the Kopassus chief fares in this trial ... he's already been barred entry into Australia because of the charges against him, and trials are making political waves in the lead up to next years national and presidential elections in Indonesia, with many political leaders now keen to show their allegiance to Islamic groups.

The case is reminding today's political leaders that it may not be smart to crack down hard on Islamic groups. Some of the Muslims who escaped the Tanjung Priok massacre, people like Abu Bakar Bashir, have gone on to form today's extremist Islamic groups, like Jemaah Islamiyah. Greg Barton believes the Tanjung Priok case explains why the Indonesian government is reluctant to crack down on Islamic extremists today.

Barton: This marks for many people a sense of the darkest days of the Suharto period when the military would choose a target; make a spectacle of the target and a warning for others. Consequently it's not surprising that people are fearful that that sort of pattern should be repeated, and given that the military is not repentant about its role in the Tanjung Priok massacre, it's for this reason that the memory of Tanjung Priok does cast a long shadow.

Focus on Jakarta

Government under fire for using thugs to evict squatters

Straits Times - October 31, 2003

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Jakarta governor Sutiyoso is feeling the heat again, this time for evicting tens of thousands of squatters from government or privately owned land around the capital.

The mop-up operation has in fact been going on all year. But the authorities, joined by unidentified stick-bearing thugs, have stepped up activities since September.

While they target some of the poorest communities all over the city, Jakarta officials have said they are doing everybody a favour by bringing down the shantytowns.

Officials have blamed squatters for various city problems. During severe flooding two years ago, for instance, Mr Sutiyoso pointed his finger at those who settled around Jakarta's rivers and canals, saying squatters reduced the drainage capacity of the waterways.

The governor said earlier this month that he was "upholding public order and the law". He argued that unless addressed now, the squatter problem would spiral out of control.

There have been attempts to soften the blow for squatters. Mr Sutiyoso offered 300,000 rupiah to school-age kids who have lost their homes. Maritime Affairs Minister Rokhmin Dakhuri came up with a plan to resettle hundreds of families of fishermen in other areas of the country. City officials have also promised that several low-cost housing complexes would be built to accommodate those who lost their homes after government evictions.

Non-governmental organisations focusing on poverty issues gave a conservative estimate that as many as 100,000 people have been made homeless in the last two months alone.

Critics said the government rarely delivered on its promises, especially to the poor, and took issue with the authorities' use of force as they cleared target areas.

Local media reports said hundreds of squatters required hospitalisation following the various waves of eviction attempts by the Jakarta authorities.

Ms Wardah Hafidz, head of the Urban Poor Consortium, said what has been made clear yet again by the evictions is the fact that the poor enjoy no legal protection from the government, and have few social safety nets to fall back on. She said: "What's happening is a violation of human rights. Thugs are used to beat people into leaving their homes. Once they're evicted, the government makes no arrangement to help them at all."

Indeed, evictees have reported aid from private donors, but said they have not received any help from government agencies so far.

Legally speaking, the Jakarta administration has the right to evict the squatters. Squatters took over public or privately held land in the late 1990s, at the height of the economic crisis. At that time, government officials condoned the practice but warned squatters that they would have to move in the future if legitimate landowners decided to use the areas.

The Straits Times contacted several of these landowners, but they declined to comment. Real-estate industry sources said land value in Jakarta has risen since a few years ago, and one reason for the evictions is that owners want to build or sell now.

Ms Wardah and other critics said the evictions had nothing to do with cleaning up the city, but were linked to corruption. She alleged: "A landowner two months ago offered 2.4 billion rupiah in compensation to a group of families in one neighbourhood. He said he wanted to build a shopping mall on the land. When the offer was refused, he spent the money on bribing officials and hiring thugs to move the people."

Eviction still goes on despite governor's promise

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2003

Evi Mariani, Jakarta -- The evictions of the city's poorest inhabitants continued on the second day of Ramadhan, despite promises from Governor Sutiyoso to stop the practices during the holy month.

City public order officers targeted the same people in West Jakarta for a third time in about six weeks on Tuesday, burning the makeshift tents families had been using as shelter since their homes were destroyed in Tanjung Duren Selatan on October 2.

The latest assault follows Sutiyoso's apparent snub of a summons from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) to appear at a hearing on Tuesday to account for alleged human rights abuses during a number of evictions in West Jakarta and North Jakarta.

Two people died and a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by men wearing city uniforms during the evictions, which began in September, with scores more left injured.

Tuesday's clearance of dozens of homeless from a bus shelter in front of the abandoned Bank Dewa Ruci building on Jl. S. Parman follows a similar incident on Sunday, when the officers burned makeshift tents in an abandoned building.

The facts contrasted with a speech Sutiyoso gave in front of four Jakarta mayors -- only the South Jakarta mayor was absent -- in a meeting at City Hall on October 22, where he said: "The evictions will be halted during Ramadhan, but their suspension is only temporary." Angry evictees burned tires in the middle of the busy road to express their anger. Their action caused major traffic congestion in the area for several hours. In the afternoon, the evictees, who had all their possessions apart from the clothes on their backs taken away by public order officers, shielded from the rain in the bus shelter. They had no idea where their belongings were taken.

West Jakarta Public Order Agency head Arief Fadillah told The Jakarta Post by phone that the eviction was a "routine job to control public areas".

"Anything that disturbs the public order, like makeshift tents, must be demolished," he said.

The evictees said they had packed their belongings and were about to take refuge at the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) office in Central Jakarta when suddenly the public order officers and thugs allegedly hired by the land owner attacked them.

The eviction processes have intensified in the last two months to meet the governor's call to "make the city secure and orderly".

Several non-governmental organizations have been demanding a moratorium for 180 days, pending an evaluation of the city's eviction policy.

Eight representatives of the evictees filed a complaint with the Jakarta Administrative Court in East Jakarta on October 16, saying the West Jakarta municipality did not have any authority to confiscate the land, which is in dispute between the owner and other parties, thus violating Law. No. 2/1986 on General Court Procedures.

"The administrative court has summoned us to have an administrative examination on Thursday," said Ecoline Situmorang, one of the lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), which represent the residents. "We expect the hearing to be soon," she added.

Military ties

US clamp on military aid a 'domestic matter'

Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 31, 2003

Jakarta -- Indonesia described on Friday the recent decision by the US Senate to hold back on educational training for the country's armed forces as a "domestic matter" for American politicians.

"This is part of the [political] process between the US administration and Capitol Hill," said foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa, responding to a decision by the US Senate earlier this week to halt a military training and educational assistance programme with Indonesia.

The US stopped its International Military Education and Training (IMET) programme with the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) in 1992 in response to a brutal massacre in East Timor.

The programme was given an official go-ahead to resume last year with a budget of 400,000 dollars, but was halted again after the slaying of two American nationals and one Indonesian in an ambush in Timika, Papua, on August 31, last year.

Initial police investigations into the attack on two vans carrying American and Indonesian teachers working at the Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc's international school, implicated TNI members among the chief suspects in the murders. But Natalegawa pointed out that the statement issued last week by President George W. Bush during his visit to Bali said the two countries "hailed a positive cooperation between Indonesia and the United States to uncover the perpetrators of the killing".

On Tuesday, the US Senate voted to cut off the 400,000 dollar IMET programme to Indonesia to show displeasure over Jakarta's response to the killings. A similar ban was also passed by the US House of Representatives in July.

While the amount at stake is not large, supporters of the move said it would send a message that the United States wanted a proper probe of the killing of the two American teachers, said reports from Washington. "We are comfortable with our record [in handling the case].

Moreover, the US government has confirmed that the existing obstacle now is at Capitol Hill. Maybe we have to assure them that the situation is not as they thought," Natalegawa said.

US Senate blocks Indonesia military aid

Asia Times - October 31, 2003

Jim Lobe, Washington -- Two weeks after President George W Bush announced that he was ready to normalize military ties with Indonesia, the US Senate approved an amendment to the 2004 foreign-aid bill banning training for Indonesian army officers.

Senators who co-sponsored two amendments that were approved unanimously by the Upper House said military ties should not be normalized at least until the Indonesian military (TNI) cooperates fully with an investigation being carried out by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into last year's fatal ambush of the staff of an international school in Timika in West Papua province.

Two US schoolteachers, as well as one Indonesian, were killed in the incident in which eight other US citizens were wounded, including a six-year-old girl.

Both US investigators and the Indonesian police have suggested that members of the TNI were responsible for the ambush, possibly in retaliation for the refusal of Freeport McMoRan, the owner of the world's largest gold mine, to continue paying the armed forces for security.

The first amendment, sponsored by Republican Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado, bans Indonesia from receiving training under the State Department's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, for which the administration had tentatively allocated some US$600,000, unless Bush "determines national- security interests" justify a waiver.

The second amendment, sponsored by Democratic Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, states that any "normalization" of military relations between the two countries cannot resume until there is "full cooperation" with the FBI in its investigation and the individuals responsible for the murders are brought to justice.

The Feingold amendment also stated as a matter of policy that "respect of the Indonesia military for human rights and the improvement in relations between the military and civilian population are extremely important for the future of relations between the United States and Indonesia".

Last July, the House of Representatives, which also expressed concern about the TNI's cooperation with the FBI, also voted to strip money for IMET training for Indonesia in its version of the foreign-aid bill, so language conditioning IMET funding for 2004 will almost certainly be included in the final version of the bill to be submitted to Bush in the coming weeks, congressional aides said.

Both amendments represent a setback to the administration, which has seen Indonesia, the world's most populous, predominantly Muslim nation, as a key ally in its "war on terrorism", as well as an important target of al-Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups for recruitment and training of militants.

Initially, the Bush administration was frustrated by the attitude taken by the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri until the bombing just over one year ago of a nightclub on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali that killed more than 200 people, including almost 90 vacationing Australians.

The bombing was blamed on an Islamic group, Jemaah Islamiya, which Washington believes is linked to al-Qaeda. Since the incident, the Indonesian government has cracked down hard on the group and cooperated much more closely with the United States, Australia and regional security forces in tracking suspected militants.

The Bush administration, which has made little secret of its desire to renew military ties with TNI, particularly since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, has wanted to reward the government for its changed attitude. Last year, the Pentagon provided the TNI with some $4 million in counter-terrorism training and non-lethal equipment, while Congress also agreed to lift some restrictions on other military aid and training.

Actual delivery of some of that assistance, however, has been held up by Congress since the Timika ambush. While Jakarta initially blamed rebels, police investigators, bolstered by the FBI, concluded that the evidence pointed instead to TNI units.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who served as US ambassador to Jakarta in the 1980s, has long favored normalizing military ties with Indonesia and particularly renewing training programs for TNI officers. "I believe exposure of Indonesian officers to US [military personnel and practices] has been a way to promote reform efforts in the military, not to set them back," he said last year.

But lawmakers remain unconvinced, noting that hundreds of Indonesian military officers had been training in IMET and similar programs since the 1960s, but there was little evidence of a change in the institution's abusive practices.

In addition to the Timika incident, Congress has also expressed concern about the counter-insurgency campaign in Aceh province which was launched against rebels there after peace talks collapsed last May. Wolfowitz has himself stated several times over the past several months that Jakarta should seek a political settlement to the conflicts in both Aceh and West Papua.

Bush himself, however, created considerable confusion just two weeks ago on the eve of his own visit to Bali during a week-long tour of Asia. "I think we can go forward with [a] package of mil-to-mil cooperation because of the cooperation of the government on the killings of the two US citizens," he said in an interview with Indonesian television, adding that "Congress has changed their attitude".

But this was immediately challenged by puzzled lawmakers on Capitol Hill who had been negotiating with the administration over language to be included in the 2004 foreign-aid bill that would take account of their concerns. Three days later, a senior administration official, who talked with reporters on background, said that Bush had misspoken.

"Progress in building a broader military-to-military relationship with Indonesia," the anonymous official said, "will be pinned on continued cooperation from Indonesia on the investigation into the murders" of the schoolteachers in Timika.

IMET funding has long been a litmus test of military relations between Washington and Jakarta. Congress first voted to restrict IMET training for the armed forces in Indonesia after they committed a massacre of more than 100 unarmed civilians in Dili, the capital of East Timor, in 1991.

All military ties were subsequently severed by the administration of president Bill Clinton when the TNI and militias under its control ravaged East Timor after its inhabitants voted overwhelmingly for independence in a United Nations-organized referendum.

Congress subsequently voted to tie all US military aid, training and sales on the TNI's implementing far-reaching reforms in its human rights, economic and institutional practices, including its subordination to civilian authority and its prosecution of officers responsible for the violence in East Timor.

Although virtually all of the conditions were ignored, the Bush administration prevailed on Congress to lift them after the September 11 attacks.