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Indonesia News Digest Number 33 - August 9-15, 2004
Kompas - August 13, 2004
Jakarta -- The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) is
being urged to immediately investigate the arrest and torture of
eight Acehnese Humanitarian Volunteers Association (Perhimpunan
Relawan Kemanusiaan Aceh, Pemraka) activists and two civilians by
police on August 7.
The call was made by the Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (Kontras) on Wednesday August 11 at a
demonstration held at the offices of Komnas HAM Jakarta. The
demonstrators also brought posters which condemned the actions of
security personnel which went far beyond their authority.
"The arrests by personnel from the Banda Aceh district police
headquarters [were made] without arrest or search warrants.
Several of the activists were tortured and beaten to the extent
that they [suffered serious] bruising and were burnt by
cigarettes", said Kontras working coordinator Usman Hamid.
As well as raiding the Pemraka offices, the police also marked
the office doors with the letter "X" and the words "GAM" (Free
Aceh Movement).
Based on data obtained by Kontras, the victims of the arrests and
torture include Pemraka working coordinator Asnawi (30) and staff
member Farizal (26). A similar fate befell five others including
Marzuki (32), Ilyas (24), Samsul (45) and Amir A. Manaf.
There were two other victims involved in the incident including a
civil servant from the Aceh governors' office, Adami (50), and a
worker from a private firm, Mansur (30). Komnas HAM member
retired inspector general Koesparmono Irsan promised to
immediately phone the head of the Aceh police that day to request
clarification on the issue. (DWA)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Kompas - August 12, 2004
Banda Aceh -- The average height of children first entering
school in Aceh over the last six years has decreased by eight
centimeters. In 1997 the average height of children first
entering school was 119cm however by the end of 2003 the average
was only 110cm. This condition reflects the presence of growth
disorder which if allowed to continue will impact on the
intelligence of the next generation of children.
These facts were revealed by the head of the Aceh department of
health Dr Mulya Hasjmi at a meeting with the minister of health
Achmad Sujudi and Acehnese health officials in the provincial
capital of Banda Aceh on August 11.
The meeting is part of a visit by the minister of health to Aceh
to review free government health services provided to the
Acehnese people, to officiate of the opening of four puskesmas
(health clinics) in the regency of Greater Aceh and to officiate
a program to encourage people to use integrated health service
posts (Posyandu). Meanwhile the donation of a cold room for
various kinds of vaccines and related equipment is part of
assistance provided by the Canadian and Swedish governments.
Surprising
According to the head of the Aceh Family Health and Nutrition
Agency, Evy Syafrida, these findings are very surprising and
reflect a lack of nutrition among a segment of children in Aceh.
She did not discard the possibility that the reason for the
decrease in the average height of these children is the [armed]
conflict which has been brewing since 1997.
Another factor is the lack of socialisation on the importance of
providing a balanced and nutritious diet and the public's minimal
understanding of maintaining a sufficiently nutritious diet. "For
us this is an extremely serious problem and dealing with it is a
priority", said Evy.
Responding to the findings which are a result of a survey Height
of Children Entering School in Aceh, the health minister asked
that the data be clarified before being publicised so that it
does not create unrest. He also suggested that the causes be
found before hand because he is concerned that the data is too
narrow. It is believed that these children are lacking in protein
and calcium and as a result bone growth is inhibited.
Evy who was asked about the methodology of the survey explained
that the target group was a random selection of 30 per cent of
children who came to the puskesmas, both from six years ago as
well as those who were measured in 2003. "These measurements have
been conducted routinely since 1997 as stipulated by the
department of health", she said. (TRI)
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski.]
West Papua
Labour issues
Government & politics
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Corruption/collusion/nepotism
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Aceh
Kontras protest arrest of Acehnese activist
Average height of Acehnese children decreasing
NGOs protest arrests of activists in Aceh
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) protested on Wednesday the arrest of two humanitarian workers by security personnel in Aceh last week, on the suspicion that the two were members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Usman Hamid, a representative of the NGOs, said after filing a complaint with the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Wednesday that the authorities had no right to arbitrarily arrest activists in Aceh, or any other part of Indonesia.
Koesparmono Irsan, a commission member, said that he would phone the Aceh Police chief and go to National Police Headquarters to settle the case.
Security personnel arrested Asnawi and Fahrizal from the Aceh Humanitarian Volunteer Association (Pemraka) last Friday, the first arrest of civilians since the martial law status was downgraded in May.
The arrest of the aid workers followed another arrest of a civilian environmental activist, Bestari Raden, who is still being detained for his alleged involvement with GAM.
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh -- Security personnel have again arrested aid workers in the violence-ravaged province of Aceh, following a high-profile arrest to an environmental activist earlier this year.
The latest arrests of the two humanitarian workers, the first arrest of civilian Aceh activists since martial law status was downgraded slightly in May, happened on Friday, according to chief of the Banda Aceh police Adj. Sr. Comr. Eko Daniyanto.
The police officer said on Tuesday that the two aid workers from the Aceh Humanitarian Volunteer Association (Pemraka) were arrested for alleged involvement with the Aceh separatist movement along with 11 other people in the Pemraka office in Banda Aceh.
Pemraka was established in 1999 to help refugees and provide medical aid to the victims of war between the Indonesian military (TNI) and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
"Out of the 13, seven have been released due to a lack of evidence, while six others, including the two humanitarian activists, are still facing questioning about their alleged involvement with GAM," said Eko.
The two humanitarian activists in question were Asnawi and Fahrizal. Both are students at a university in Banda Aceh. The others are Amir, Marzuki, Syamsul and Ilias, all Banda Aceh civilians claimed by the police to be members of GAM. Eko claimed that the four were GAM guerrillas staying in Pemraka's office.
The police officer said that the two humanitarian workers were arrested and charged with harboring GAM members. Eko said that the arrest was made after the police got a tip-off from "locals".
Besides arresting the six, the police also confiscated from the Pemraka activists a document belonging to a non-governmental organization (NGO) Papua Aceh Solidarity, a desktop computer and a box of medicine.
Meanwhile, other Pemraka activists condemned the arrests of their two colleagues. In a press release made available to the media on Tuesday, they also said that Pemraka only focused on helping the victims of conflict in Aceh.
The arrest of the aid workers followed another arrest of a civilian activist, Bestari Raden an environmental researcher. Bestari was arrested in southeast Aceh on February 26, while he was visiting the area to evaluate the feasibility of the Ladia Galaska highway project that cuts across North Sumatra and Aceh provinces. He is still apparently alive and in police custody but no trial has been conducted.
According to the TNI, they arrested Bestari because of his alleged involvement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), saying that Bestari served as GAM's leader for the Tapak Tuan area in 2000.
The Ladia Galaska project, which passes through the protected Leuser National Park, home to many of the country's endangered species, has drawn strong opposition from foreign groups and local environmental activists, including Bestari.
Munir, cofounder of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), has said that the arrest was apparently aimed at silencing government opposition, especially on Ladia Galaska project.
Agence France Presse - August 11, 2004
The head of the Indonesian military command overseeing the restive province of Aceh has said that controversial air strikes have been effective in battling separatist guerrillas there.
Speaking to journalists here late on Tuesday, Mayor General Endang Suwarya said recent air-strikes were successfully eliminating remote jungle bases of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and were not endangering civilians.
"They are effective because encircling an area in a thick jungle is very difficult. It is better for us to strike first and clean up later. This is very effective and I have repeatedly done this," Suwarya said.
The air strikes use OV-10 Bronco planes to shell areas prior to land sweeps by troops. Suwarya said the attacks were only launched on suspected GAM bases which are far from settlements.
"I am making use of them against suspected targets which are, of course, far from any settlements. We operate in jungle areas," the general said. However, he said that air strikes were only effective when the targets involve bases or concentrations of at least 70-80 guerrillas.
The military launched a major operation in May 2003 to crush GAM, which has been fighting for independence since 1976, after the collapse of a brief truce. Military and police figures show about 2,200 rebels have since been killed. Human rights groups have said many of the dead are civilians.
| West Papua |
Jakarta Post - August 13, 2004
Nethy Dharma Somba and Oyos Saroso, Jayapura/Lampung -- One person was killed and seven others injured in a tribal clash in Papua over whether Indonesian Independence Day should be commemorated, a senior police officer said on Thursday.
Jayapura Police detectives chief Second Insp. Jafar M. Yusuf said the clash between members of the Wei and Dambo tribes occurred on Tuesday in Kalimo subdistrict, Keerom regency.
Jafar said the clash began when a Kalimo subdistrict official announced during a church service last Sunday that the subdistrict would organize competitions to commemorate Independence Day on August 17.
The subdistrict, which is reputedly a haven for Papuan separatists, is located near the border with Papua New Guinea.
Leaders of the Wei tribe said they opposed the holding of the competitions, while the Dambo tribe came out in support of the event.
Wei tribal leaders warned the Dambo tribe against supporting the competitions, but the Dambo's leaders refused to back down.
On Tuesday, dozens of Wei tribesmen attacked a predominantly Dambo neighborhood, resulting in the death of Hubertus Wei, 25. Four people from the Wei tribe and three from the Dambo tribe were also injured in the violence.
However, the Indonesian Military provided a different account of the incident. Lt. Col. Damar T. Santoso, the chief of the Tamalate battalion overseeing Keerom regency, said the clash was sparked by allegations of corruption in the distribution of government rice and cash aid to the subdistrict.
Damar said the incident began when a resident from the Wei tribe questioned a subdistrict official from the Dambo tribe about the distribution of the aid.
The Wei resident was reportedly unsatisfied with the official's responses to his questions, so he struck the official in the face.
According to Damar, the official told members of his tribe that he had been assaulted by a Wei tribesman, which provoked members of the Dambo tribe to attack a Wei neighborhood with machetes and arrows. In the violence, one Wei resident died and several people from both tribes were injured.
Damar refuted the police account that the incident was caused by a disagreement over whether to commemorate Independence Day.
"All of the residents of Kalimo, whether from the Wei or Dambo tribe, are ardent supporters of the Unitary State of Indonesia, so they support the competitions commemorating Independence Day," he said.
In Lampung, a house was burned down on Tuesday night following a dispute between two groups of young people in Budi Lestari subdistrict, South Lampung regency.
The incident began when Hendarto, a resident of hamlet III in the subdistrict, was riding his motorcycle on Tuesday afternoon. While he was passing in front of a soccer field in hamlet I, he crashed his motorcycle.
Several people watching the game, which was being held to commemorate Independence Day, booed Hendarto, who picked himself up and took several swings at the crowd. Budianto, Hendarto's older brother, attempted to calm the situation but somebody cut him across his face.
The two brothers departed the scene, but later that night Hendarto, Budianto and dozens of their friends went to the house of Irwan, who they accused of cutting Budianto. When the group was unable to locate Irwan, they set his house on fire.
As of Thursday, police were questioning 24 witnesses in the incident, according to South Lampung Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Budi Susanto.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Nethy Dharma Somba and M. Aziz Tunny, Jayapura/Ambon -- The Jayapura District Court in Papua province sentenced separatist leader Yance Hembring, 50, to 10 years in prison for treason.
The sentence, handed down on Tuesday, was heavier than the five years demanded by prosecutors. Yance said he would consider appealing against the ruling.
Court president FX Soegiharto said on Wednesday that the panel of judges gave Yance a stiff sentence because he had been proven guilty of instigating a rebellion against the state. The defendant also voiced no remorse for his actions, he added. Soegiharto said he hoped the long sentence would deter others from participating in separatist movements.
Yance was arrested after taking part in several meetings in November last year and in January 2004 in Nimbokrang, Jayapura regency, to discuss Papua's independence. The meetings specifically discussed the method to be used to secede from the Republic of Indonesia.
Yance and his colleagues demanded an international referendum to determine the future of Papua. Yance also set up a secretariat for the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in Nimbokrang to accommodate the aspirations of Papuans and to facilitate secession from Indonesia.
Yance's trial began on March 25, with the court hearing testimonies from eight witnesses. Prosecutors presented material evidence at the first hearing, such as the Morning Star separatist flag, a computer, the OPM office sign, a rubber stamp and related documents.
Yance was arrested by Jayapura Police last January in Nimbokrang while chairing a meeting of 50 people at the OPM secretariat. Yance claimed that he was elected an OPM leader in 1999 by Papuans at a refugee camp in Papua New Guinea.
Also on Wednesday, the Ambon District Court tried 15 members of the Maluku Sovereignty Front (FKM) for participating in a separatist movement in Maluku province.
Prosecutors laid charges against them after the defendants joined in a flag-hoisting ceremony to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) on April 25.
The event triggered three days of renewed violence in the provincial capital of Ambon, killing at least 41 people. Some of the dead victims were shot by unidentified gunmen.
The 15 defendants tried in the first trial were Michael Pattisinay, Jhon Markus, Reymond Tuapattinaya, Elisa Wattimena, Frans Sinmiasa, Elisa Saiya, Matheos Sinay, Fredy Van Herlin, Dominggus Patiiha, Donny Irapanussa, Nicson Tobias, Samuel Frans Ur, Fredy Akihary, Markus Tuasela and Johan B Kailuhu. They also have been charged with treason.
Wednesday's hearing, which drew many visitors, proceeded peacefully amid tight security.
Sydney Morning Herald - August 12, 2004
Louise Williams -- The failure of human rights prosecutions against the Indonesian military over abuses in East Timor has put millions of people at risk of continuing military abuses in the contested provinces of Papua and Aceh, a prominent Papuan says.
John Rumbiak, Papua's most influential human rights leader, said the East Timor case had set a dangerous precedent.
Mr Rumbiak said during a visit to Sydney that the failure to punish even a single Indonesian soldier or officer over the carnage in East Timor in 1999 would reassure the military that it can continue to operate with impunity elsewhere.
This week, Indonesia's human rights commission concluded security forces had recently committed "gross abuses" in several Papuan towns. The Indonesian military has been recruiting, training and funding militia groups in Papua -- also known as West Papua and previously as Irian Jaya - mirroring its notorious East Timor strategy, which "subcontracted" some of the worst human rights violations to local gangs.
East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, has confirmed his government will oppose the convening of an international human rights tribunal to consider abuses during Indonesia's 24- year occupation, despite the recent acquittal on appeal of the remaining Indonesian military officers charged over the violence of 1999.
He argues East Timor cannot afford to provoke its powerful neighbour, and former occupying power, even if this means abandoning the quest for justice.
"I understand East Timor's political circumstances and the need for good relations with Indonesia ... but bringing justice to the East Timorese would have created a very positive precedent. Without that our own human rights campaign seems hopeless," Mr Rumbiak said.
He confirmed Papua's independence forces had abandoned their armed struggle, "at least for the moment". Mr Rumbiak said the decision was taken to avoid triggering a massive military operation in Papua, similar to the military campaign in Aceh.
President Soeharto's fall in 1998, and the introduction of parliamentary democracy in Indonesia, raised hopes for political negotiations to end the violence, and address underlying economic issues.
The government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri passed special autonomy legislation that was supposed to ensure a fairer division of resources and guarantee political representation for Papuans. But, said Peter King, of Sydney University: "It seems the Indonesians are reneging on the promises they made to the West Papuans."
Dr King, whose new book, West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto, will be launched tomorrow, said the province was now "in chaos".
Jakarta Post - August 10, 2004
John Saltford, London -- In his July 30th article in this newspaper, Foreign Affairs official Andri Hadi argues against any discussion of the 1969 Indonesian-organized act of self determination in West Papua known as the "Act of Free Choice".
The Papuans it seems should accept what happened to them and be grateful for anything that Jakarta cares to offer, whether it is the, still unimplemented, Special Autonomy law or the threatened division of their country into three.
But nowhere does he make any mention of what the Papuans themselves actually want, then or now. Instead he argues that West Papua was always an integral part of the Netherlands East Indies with no right to its own self-determination.
There are of course arguments for and against this position. Jakarta's official line suggests that the West Papuans' culture, ethnicity and history are bound up with that of Java and other parts of Indonesia. Others would point out that an artificial border created by Europeans in the 19th century cannot alter the fact that the people on the divided island of New Guinea have far more in common with each other than they have ever had with the neighboring populations of South East Asia.
But I would argue that this debate lost its relevance in 1962 when the West Papuans were guaranteed their right to full self- determination in the UN-brokered New York Agreement signed by Indonesia and the Netherlands.
Since then the key historical issue has been whether or not this agreement was properly implemented, and if not, what now needs to be done to rectify the past.
Despite Hadi's protests, it is perfectly possible, with or without a "present lens", to make a relevant judgment on what happened 35 years ago during the "Act of Free Choice". In particular one can examine whether it was, as required by the agreement, an act of self-determination involving all adult Papuans "in accordance with international practice".
The facts are this. In total 1,022 Papuans out of a population of nearly 800,000 were selected by Jakarta to publicly participate in the "Act of Free Choice" in front of a selection of UN and Indonesian officials, Ambassadors and the military.
At each of the eight "voting ceremonies" all the representatives would stand up on command to indicate their unanimous support for annexation by Indonesia and rejection of independence.
Hadi would perhaps argue that "international practice" is a vague term that does not specify any particular method. However to understand what was meant by it at the time you need only look at the 1960 UN General Assembly Resolution 1541.
This stated that the integration of a non-self governing territory (as West Papua officially was then) with an independent state should be "the result of the freely expressed wishes of the territory's peoples ... their wishes having been expressed through informed and democratic processes, impartially conducted and based upon universal suffrage."
Whatever Jakarta might argue, the "Act of Free Choice" bore no relation to this. Government officials today like Hadi must privately regret that Soeharto's soldiers did not permit some dissenting voices to be heard to allow a more realistic outcome. Instead he is left to try and make us believe that a 100 percent result was anything more than a ridiculous and crudely orchestrated denial of Papuan rights.
Hadi is correct that the New York Agreement came about as a compromise by the Dutch who had originally intended to grant West Papua independence by 1970.
In the face of military threats from President Sukarno, and pressure from the US who wished to appease Jakarta in the face of Soviet competition, they agreed to sign and hand West Papua over to a temporary UN administration. But this was only on condition that political and human rights were guaranteed and an act of self determination involving all adult Papuans would be permitted "in accordance with international practice".
In the event, the UN pulled out seven months later and transferred the territory to Jakarta, without any consultation with the population. A senior UN official commented privately at the time: "I have yet to meet any thinking, sober, generally responsible Papuan who sees any good with the coming link with Indonesia."
In 1968, a small UN team returned to West Papua to help Indonesia prepare for the "Act of Free Choice". But by this time the Papuans had already experienced five years of Jakarta's rule and, as a visiting US diplomat remarked, "The Indonesians have tried everything from bombing them with B-26's, to shelling and mortaring them, but a continuous state of semi-rebellion persists".
Aware of their deep unpopularity, Soeharto's men devised the "Act of Free Choice" to avoid a referendum on the grounds that the Papuans were "too primitive" to be able to vote directly -something that they had already done under the Dutch and would do again in the 1971 Indonesian general elections.
But rather than protest, the UN chose to collaborate and privately urged Indonesia to gain assurances from the Dutch that they would not question the inevitable result.
Despite the obvious vote-rigging by Jakarta, there was little international interest. Explaining this, one British official commented: "I cannot imagine the US, Japanese, Dutch, or Australian governments putting at risk their economic and political relations with Indonesia on a matter of principle involving a relatively small number of very primitive peoples."
Another diplomat added: "the [UN] Secretariat, whose influence could be important, appear only too anxious to get shot of the problem as quickly and smoothly as possible."
In the end, despite protests from some African states, the UN General Assembly simply voted in November 1969 to "take note" of the Papuan "vote" and with that the UN washed its hands of the whole business.
This is the unpleasant reality of what happened to the Papuans, and rather than try and bury the past as Mr. Hadi suggests, I would argue that a proper acknowledgement of the truth by Indonesia, its allies and importantly the UN, would at least go some way towards beginning the process of finding a just and lasting solution to the tragedy of West Papua.
[The writer is author of The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West Papua 1962.]
Jakarta Post - August 10, 2004
Neles Tebay, Rome -- It was the first time in the history of Papua that the Government of Indonesia recognized the Papuans' need for democracy (The Jakarta Post, July 30, 2004). This recognition is fundamental, not only for the Papuans, but also for the government and the international community.
However, before addressing the Papuans' need for democracy, the government, especially the working group on Papua at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, needs also to comprehend the Papuan understanding of democracy.
Here I would like to share a Papuan concept of democracy -- that lived by the people who belong to the Mee tribe in the central highlands of Papua -- as an example.
The majority of Mee people still cannot read and write. Being illiterate does not mean being ignorant of democracy, however.
The core essence of democracy in the Mee tribe is well expressed by two words, okaina mee, which literally means "he/she is also a human being". It implies that everybody, regardless of opinion, status, profession, gender, religion or citizenship is considered to be a human being, and therefore must be treated as a human being. From this core grows four fundamental elements of democracy. Since all human beings share the same human dignity, all are also equals. Equality, then, is the first element.
As human beings, everyone also acts in an egalitarian manner, which is the second element. One does not find in the culture of the Mee equivalent terms to Pak (Mr) or Bu (Mrs), as relationships among people are characterized by the concept of ani-aki or "I-you", rather than "I-it".
Social status, profession or gender do not determine one's human dignity. People many have different roles in the community, but this does not define their dignity as people. Nobody is considered to be higher than the others in terms of human dignity. For, "Only the Creator is the greatest" (Ugatame too ibo), while "We are all human beings" (Inii ke mee too), as they to say.
The third element is the value of participation. An activity involving all members of the community in a village is decided not only by one person, or a few members of the community. It is and must be discussed by all members of the community.
The opinions of women and children are also respected. The importance of listening to the opinions of women and children is well expressed in the local language by the saying "Yoka-yagamo kaa mana na yuwii", which literally means, "The voices of the women and children must be listened to and accepted".
The discussion of a commonplace activity or problem usually takes one or two days, for every opinion must be taken into consideration.
Any decision taken by community, then, is the decision of all, for all community members are involved in the process of decision-taking and decision-making. Here one can see just how essential is the value of participation.
The fourth element is the value of independence. In the Mee culture, it is believed that everybody is gifted by the Creator with the capacity to think, reflect and judge. These gifts are collectively referred to as the dimi (mind).
Using these gifts, one can think, analyze and make judgments on things and events, and make personal decisions independently. One must be responsible for any consequences generated by the decision that has been made.
Thus, imposing one's will or interests upon others is not accepted as it goes against the other person's independence.
While one may propose something, or challenge another person to ponder an issue more deeply, the final decision will always be a personal decision made independently.
All part of Melanesian culture, the other Papuan tribes share the same concept of democracy, although its expression varies in accordance with their environmental and geographical contexts.
Thus, the concept of democracy in Papuan culture is grounded on respect for human dignity, and therefore contains the values of equality, egalitarianism, participation, dialogue and independence.
From the above description, it is also clear that democracy, for the Papuans, is not only the end of a process. It is also the way. A democratic society in Papua or in Indonesia can be developed only through the democratic way.
Democratic society cannot be created through military operations, intimidation, terror and other forms of oppression. All these are undemocratic and therefore demean human dignity.
That's why the Papuans cannot accept a military solution to the Papua issue, whatever its justification, because it attacks the very dignity of human beings.
In a military operation, the essential elements of cultural democracy such as equality, egalitarianism, participation and independence are intentionally destroyed.
For the Papuans, peaceful dialogue is the democratic way to settle problems and to create a democratic society.
In this light, it is clear why Papuans have been so insistently calling upon the Government of Indonesia to engage in a peaceful dialogue, through the mediation of a neutral, third party, to settle the Papua issue in a democratic way and to establish a democratic society. These calls are grounded on the cultural concept of democracy.
If the government already knows the Papuans' need for democracy, then the government should address this need by welcoming the Papuans' calls for peaceful dialogue.
Eventually, what kind of democracy is offered to the Papuans by the government, and how the government tackles the Papua issue will be very much determined by its understanding of democracy.
[The writer is an Indonesian postgraduate student at the Pontifical University of Urbaniana in Rome.]
Jakarta Post - August 9, 2004
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has completed the report on its investigation into bloody incidents in the Papua towns of Wamena and Wasior, saying soldiers and police committed gross abuses in both cases.
After six months of investigation in the province, the commission's fact-finding team found that both Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers and police officers were involved in serious rights violations in Wasior regency in 2001 and Wamena regency in 2003.
"The conclusion ... is that gross violations of human rights occurred as defined by Law No. 26/2000 on human rights," Sa'afroedin Bahar, who chairs a Komnas HAM team on Papua, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
He said the report would be discussed during a plenary session of the commission on August 11 and 12. A week later, the findings would be submitted to the Attorney General's Office for follow- up.
Sayihg that disclosure of details would have to wait until after the plenary, he only said that the findings showed that "rights abuses were committed by military and police personnel." Komnas HAM launched the investigations into the Wasior and Wamena incidents last November to verify its preliminary findings that blamed extra-judicial killings and torture on military and police officers in both cases.
The probes started after the commission received permission from President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
In raids on Wamena villagers between April and June 2003 by Army troops, at least seven people were killed, 48 tortured, and some 7,000 others were forced to flee.
The sweeps were launched after suspected Free Papua Movement (OPM) members stole 29 rifles from the military armory in Wamena on April 4, 2003.
In Wasior, at least three people were killed, 16 others tortured and dozens of houses were set ablaze when police raided a village in Wasior in 2001 following the killings of six police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers by alleged rebels.
The six paramilitary force officers were found dead on June 13, 2001, and the subsequent police raids and operations lasted for more than two months.
The investigation team led by Komnas member Anshari Thayeb questioned dozens of both civilian victims and security officers over the last six months. "The investigations ran smoothly because we received good cooperation from the relevant agencies," Anshari told the Post.
Under the prevailing law on human rights tribunals, the Komnas HAM findings can be admitted as evidence in cases being heard by an ad hoc human rights court.
Agence France Presse - August 9, 2004
An Indonesian independent rights watchdog has found evidence that the country's police and military were involved in gross human rights abuses in the troubled eastern province of Papua, a report said.
The National Commission on Human Rights said its investigations pointed to abuses during two outbreaks of violence over the past three years in the province, where rebels have been waging a low-level independence campaign.
"The conclusion ... is that gross violations of human rights occurred," Sa'afrudin Bahar, who chairs a commission team probing two bloody incidents in Papua in 2001 and 2003.
Bahar said the probes showed that "rights abuses were committed by military and police personnel," according to the Jakarta Post. He declined further details.
Bahar, who could not be immediately reached for comment, said the reports were to be discussed by the commission this week before being submitted to the attorney general's office. Staff at the commission declined comment when contacted Monday.
At least seven people were killed, 48 tortured and some 7,000 forced to flee their villages following military and police operations in Papua between April and June 2003 to hunt down separatist rebels, the Post said.
In 2001, three villagers were killed, 16 tortured and dozens of houses torched when police raided a village following the killings by separatist rebels of six paramilitary police members in June that year.
The Free Papua Organisation has been fighting a sporadic and low-level guerrilla war since 1963 when Indonesia took over the huge mountainous and undeveloped territory from Dutch colonisers.
Under Indonesian law, the findings of the commission can be admitted as evidence in trials held by an ad hoc human rights court.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Medan -- Hundreds of truck drivers from Belawan port staged a protest on Tuesday in front of the office of North Sumatra provincial council, demanding the council revoke a government ruling that prohibited drivers with container trucks entering the port.
They said that the ruling was discriminatory because it allowed semi-trailer trucks with containers to enter the port. Ratbaini, the coordinator of the protesters, said that the ruling had been effective since August 1.
| Government & politics |
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Piet Soeprijadi, Peter Rimmele and Anne-Lise Klausen, Jakarta -- Ross H. McLeod's -- Competition: Key to reform of civil service two-part article on The Jakarta Post of August 4 and 5 is an interesting eye opener that something has to and can be done to reform the Civil Service.
However considering the multi-complex, urgent and important problems the new president is facing, the question is then, should the upcoming president do it now and if yes how to do it properly.
In the recently released 2004 Human Development Report, Indonesia scored low with its human development index (111th out of 177 countries surveyed) below some neighboring countries like the Philippines and Thailand. On the other side Indonesia is usually among the top league when countries considered to be the most corrupt ones are compared.
For a better future of millions of Indonesians the government needs to invest more in the human development, not only to fulfill its people basic rights, but also to lay foundations for economic growth. The investment climate is still poor in Indonesia.
The Civil Service is part of the problem because of unpredictable and low quality services from government institutions as well as widespread corruption within the civil service. The citizens expect high quality services at low costs. Often they receive low quality services at high costs.
Asked about their civil service a large number of Indonesians would rather describe it with negative attributes. Focusing mostly on poor service, corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN), leave alone the behavior of the civil servants towards the subjects (the word 'customer' has not found access into the language of the administration).
All these are leading to public demands for a reform. But so far there has been little drive for civil service reform in the political leadership. The same applies to combating corruption what has merely been a political rhetoric.
Looking for reasons we found out, that the national system of administration and the civil service system are outdated. Both are not conducive to good governance and improved performance. The civil service system is not focused on professionalism and performance. Converting this bureaucracy into a responsive, efficient and professional civil service by adopting new public management theories is the target ahead.
In comparison the Indonesian civil service is not large. It is more decentralized than most other services in the region (68 percent at the regency level; 9 percent at the provincial level). However 23 percent of staff still working in the central government indicate that the decentralization process has not been finished yet.
While proportion of the women is impressive, (reach 40 percent of 3,5 million of civil servants), the education level of the civil service is worryingly low, performance-oriented training rather poor. Both present serious obstacles to improve performance.
The pay system in the Indonesian civil service is quite complex and lacks of transparency and simplicity. Low basic salaries are often said to be the reason civil servants take kickbacks to supplement their incomes.
The many allowances are the basic fodder of an existing patronage system. To gain access to additional allowances staff may be required to allegiance to the patron by condoning or supporting illegitimate activities as well. Thus the take home pay is normally very different from the basic salary in many cases.
Corruption is flourishing in the civil service due to inconsistent law, inadequate discipline, weak sanctions and lack of internal control. Positions and promotions are offered for sale thus not filled through selection on merit.
The system multiplies corruptions since investment to gain position need to be recovered. Parliaments fail in their role of external overseer, as many recent reports about graft cases in parliaments show.
Considering the above, the national system for administration and the civil service system need radical reform now!!! To start with, as the highest person in the civil service, the new president must demonstrate strong commitment for reform through exemplary actions and behavior as the most professional, efficient, effective and clean civil servant.
Then someone with integrity, professionalism and commitment for reform, need to be appointed to lead the process. To ensure effectiveness, he or she needs a support from an inter- ministerial team, since one major obstacle to reform is weak coordination between ministries.
As leadership makes the difference, next step would be the replacement of the top echelons of the civil service with men and women of the highest quality and integrity through such an open and transparent recruitment. This should become the norm in the recruitment of new employees, through open and transparent system based on publicly disclosed criteria of merit.
Organizational structures should be designed according to operational requirements (form follow functions), not to host a fixed number of positions representing each echelon. After the decentralization the present structures are full of redundant functions and offices, as well as overlapping responsibilities. A critical review of the government's functions and organizational structures should also take the increasing privatization of public service into account.
Human resource management needs to be improved and modernized if corruption is to be reduced. Competence -- based recruitment and promotion; better and transparent incentive structures; professionally classified positions (instead of the current structural and functional ones) and better training are important elements.
Make the civil service in Indonesia part of the solution and don't keep it as a part of the problem.
The writers are members of KOREKSI (Komite Reformasi Kepegawaian Sipil Indonesia), a multi stakeholder forum organized by the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia to promote Civil Service Reform.
| 2004 elections |
Jakarta Post - August 14, 2004
Semarang -- The appointment of 45 members of the Semarang legislative council was marked on Saturday by a noisy protest at City Hall from dozens of members of the Semarang People's Solidarity movement.
The protester said they were angry with the way councillors had behaved in the past by deceiving the people they represented and stealing public money.
"They have betrayed the people's trust in them. They enjoy frequent overseas trips for 'comparative studies' at a time when most people still live in misery. We don't want this to happen again," a protester said.
The protesters were also angry over the allegation one of the councillors, Sri Martianingsih of the Democratic Party, used a fake school diploma to become a legislative candidate.
Nurul Akhmad, a member of the Semarang General Elections Commission (KPU), said that if the certificate proved to be a fake, her office would replace Sri with another councillor.
Sugiyono of the Semarang General Elections Supervisory Agency said Sri was the subject of an investigation by Semarang police.
The inauguration was also marked by reporters being banned from entering the venue. The press were only allowed to enter after the ceremony was over.
Twelve of the 45 newly inaugurated councillors were from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, seven from the Democratic Party, six from the Golkar Party, six from the National Mandate Party, five from Prosperous Justice Party, four from the National Awakening Party, three from the Prosperous Peace Party and two from the United Development Party.
Radio Australia - August 12, 2004
A spate of acquittals absolving Indonesian military officers of human rights violations is being regarded as evidence of the armed forces continuing influence. An ad hoc human rights court in Jakarta this week cleared the army special forces chief and a retired army general of charges of gross human rights violations for their role in the 1984 Tanjung Priok military massacre. Last month, convictions were overturned against four security officers accused of violations during East Timor's 1999 transition to independence. There are now moves to rush through parliament a bill to allow serving military officers to be given senior government posts.
Presenter/Interviewer: Marianne Kearney
Speakers: Alvin Lie, Member of the Indonesian Parliament, National Mandate Party (PAN); Riza Sihbudi, political analayst, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Kearney: Alvin Lie, a parliamentarian opposing the bill, fears these proposals would take the military back to the days of the Suharto regime. Back then the military was officially not just a defence force, but the force which was used to protect the government from its critics.
Lie: "Now I believe this will pave the way for the return of the duel function of the military -- that is military and politics. And that is totally against the spirit of reform. Secondly there is also a clause in the bill that in emergency circumstances, the president will have the right to deploy the armed forces in times of emergency, so does this mean they have the right in times of emergency?"
Kearney: There are other worrying clauses, says Lie, such as one allowing the military commander to launch a three day long military operation without the president's approval.
Lie: "It is only for three times 24 hours but who knows in this time, the military could do anything. "
Kearney: Lie says he suspects the military faction with the backing of the government was trying to have the bill rushed through the existing parliament which is much more pliable and accommodating to the military, than the next parliament is likely to be.
Lie: "There is a strong signal from the executive that they would like to have this bill passed in this term. Although the president has denied this."
Kearney: Analyst Riza Sihbudi, from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, thinks the bill got backing from government because President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who promotes herself as a civilian reformer, is in fact very pro-military.
Sihbudi: "Megawati is still very dependent on the military. We want a professional military, not involved in politics, but the military enjoys its role in politics."
Kearney: President Megawati has come out and said there is no need to rush the bill through parliament. But this say analaysts is because the highly controversial bill has attracted a lot of negative press, ahead of the September presidential elections. But the Defence Minister, the armed forces Commander, General Sutarto, and the home affairs minister, have all kept up the pressure on parliament to pass the bill.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- The credibility of Washington- based International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and other independent pollsters have bee questioned ahead of the Sept. 20 election runoff, with analysts saying their opinion polls have been misleading.
Eka Ginting, an information technology expert, said the IFES and other pollsters should explain to the public the inaccurate results of their polls predicting the presidential candidates who would advance to the final round.
"Without any intention to restrict the pollsters' freedom of expression, it would not be ethical if the pollsters ... publicized their survey results in the mass media, because this would certainly influence voters in the runoff," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday after a seminar on opinion polls and the presidential election.
He said the results from polls conducted by the IFES and the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) prior to the April 5 legislative election and the July 5 presidential election had raised confusion among the public, since they proved to be vastly different from the elections' official results.
"From the perspective of scientific methodology, the results of the IFES' and LSI's opinion polls are not accountable, because the sampling of the population was not proportionate nor representative, while the margin of error was very high," he said, but did not elaborate further.
He said the IFES' 14th Survey gave the misleading prediction that Susilo-Kalla would win 43.5 percent of votes and Wiranto- Solahuddin would place second, while Megawati-Hasyim would not make it to the runoff.
He stressed that the IFES was too big an organization to be swayed by any candidate to influence voters through its polls, "so it should explain to the public what was wrong with the methodology it employed in conducting its polls".
Mochtar Pabottingi, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, concurred and said the two institutions' credibility were at stake.
He said the IFES should explain to the public the controversial results of its survey to maintain its credibility and prove its strong commitment to the development of a true democracy in Indonesia.
He added the results of LSI's polls had been widely questioned because a member of the Susilo-Kalla campaign team was at the institute.
"But let the public be the judge. Independent pollsters that publish subjective results of opinion polls will lose their credibility, and the public will not heed them any more," he said.
Mochtar also said the pollsters' controversial results would not be of much influence on voters in the upcoming runoff and thus, the General Elections Commission should not bow to pressure from the government to restrict their activities.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Abdul Khalik and Suherdjoko, Jakarta/Semarang -- Former Banyumas Police chief Sr. Comr. Andi Mapparesa admitted during a police professional ethics board hearing on Wednesday that he had been partial and had acted beyond his authority by endorsing President Megawati Soekarnoputri for reelection in a May 29 meeting.
"I admit that I promoted a particular presidential candidate in front of police family members and retired police officers. I admit that I violated the police code of ethics by being partial," said Mapparesa.
The hearing, which was open to the public, was convened after the Election Supervisory Body (Panwaslu) announced that Mapparesa had violated the Constitution by giving a speech in support of Megawati's candidacy.
Panwaslu also asserted that he had broken the underlying principles of impartiality and fairness that police officers must uphold during elections. According to Article 28 of Law No. 2/2002 on the National Police, police officers must shun political activities.
In front of seven ethics board members chaired by National Police Gen. Comr. Gen. Binarto, Mapparesa explained that he had wanted to illustrate the success of the current government to family members of police personnel.
"I ask for forgiveness if my actions violated the police code of ethics, which I never intended. I guess I misinterpreted an order from the National Police chief," said Mapparesa. He did not explain to which order he was referring.
The commission also presented the testimonies of four witnesses, including Banyumas Police deputy chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Bambang Yulianto and Banjarnegara Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Widianto Pusako.
The University of Indonesia Alumni Association (Iluni) handed in a video to the authorities showing Andi and his wife inferring that police offices would be disadvantaged if someone other than Megawati won the Sept. 20 election runoff.
The police admitted subsequently that Mapparesa had campaigned for Megawati in the May 29 meeting in Banjarnegara, Central Java.
To avoid further controversy, Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar removed Mapparesa from his post the following day on the grounds that he had violated a direct order to stay neutral in the election and not to campaign for any candidate.
Binarto said after the hearing that the ethics board would announce its ruling next week, and that no more testimonies would be heard. He added that there would be no further hearings.
"He can be given light administrative punishment, such as he has already been given. However, we might also decide that he doesn't deserve to be a police officer," said Binarto.
Meanwhile, the Central Java Police have suspended their investigation into the VCD case to avoid the case being used as a political commodity.
"We want to calm the situation by suspending the investigation. All previous investigations into the matter conducted by the Banjarnegara and Banyumas police won't be considered," said Central Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Chaerul Rasyid.
He said the investigation would resume as soon as the situation calmed down. He also said that Puji Raharjo was no longer a suspect in the VCD case because the police lacked evidence against him. Puji is a newly elected Banjarnegara legislator from the Golkar Party.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung threatened to take disciplinary action against party leaders and members who held meetings with the candidates in the upcoming election runoff without the prior consent of the party's central executive board.
Saying that the move threatened party unity, Akbar asserted on Wednesday that "correctional measures" would be taken against the wayward party members.
"Maintaining the party's unity is the most important thing ahead of the runoff," said Akbar, adding that holding meetings with candidates without the knowledge of the party's leaders was not healthy for the organization.
At least 23 out of Golkar's 32 provincial leaders and some central board members held a meeting with vice presidential candidate Jusuf Kalla last Sunday to discuss a possible coalition with the Democratic Party. "They should have contacted us (the central board) first. We and some members of the regional chapters would obviously have met them. Golkar has yet to decide (whether to support one or other of the presidential tickets)," he said.
As Akbar was talking to the press, Kalla, who abstained from the Golkar convention to run as Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's vice presidential candidate, was holding another meeting with Golkar leaders from Papua, West Irian Jaya, Jambi and South Sulawesi.
Akbar had earlier given the green light to a coalition with Megawati Soekarnoputri, the incumbent president, who is supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Meanwhile, Golkar central board members have been intensifying their preparations for party leadership meetings scheduled for August 14 and August 15, when they are expected to formally decide whom they will support in the September runoff.
Golkar deputy secretary-general Bomer Pasaribu said Wednesday that the party would focus on the creation of a strong and effective government as its main consideration in choosing a coalition partner.
"We are still discussing whether we will accept seats in the next Cabinet, or whether we will focus our energies on the legislature," he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Golkar has repeatedly said that a strong and effective government can only be created if the new administration wins the support of the House of Representatives, where Golkar has 127 of the 550 seats.
Separately, National Mandate Party (PAN) secretary-general Hatta Radjasa said that most PAN members preferred to concentrate on the House rather than enter into a coalition with one or other presidential tickets.
"Maybe because they are still upset, most of them have asked PAN to serve as an opposition and stay away from the executive," Hatta said, adding that the party would hold a national meeting on August 20 to decide on its stance.
Both Megawati and Susilo have held meetings with PAN chairman Amien Rais, who was eliminated from the presidential race during the first round.
Meanwhile, National Awakening Party (PKB) deputy chairman Mahfud MD said that his party had yet to decide whether to support one or other of the presidential tickets, remain neutral or go into opposition.
Mahfud said that PKB chief patron Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who was disqualified on the grounds of poor health, would leave it up to the PKB central board to make the decision. "He will only intervene if the central board's decision is based on personal interests," he said without elaborating.
In Surabaya, Susilo said that he would arrange another meeting with Gus Dur to talk about a possible coalition with the PKB, and planned to meet with the leaders of all PKB regional chapters soon.
He said that his camp wanted to form a coalition with Golkar and the PKB. "It is important to form a coalition with other parties in order to build up the country. It is impossible to rely on a single force to win the runoff," Susilo said without going into details.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- A coalition of non-governmental organizations filed a complaint on Wednesday with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over corruption allegations concerning the procurement of materials for the legislative election by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
The coalition, consisting of the Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (KIPP), the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), Indonesia Procurement Watch (IPW) and the Indonesian Forum for Parliamentary Concern (Formappi), accused the KPU of involvement in a markup over the procurement of election materials that inflicted some Rp 375 billion (US$41.6 million) in losses on the state.
"Based on our findings and analysis, there were large markups in budget expenditure for the legislative election. All KPU members and officials at the commission's secretariat-general were involved," coalition spokesman Hermawanto said.
In its report, the coalition alleged that the KPU had spent more than it should have done. It said that the KPU spent an astronomical Rp 204.62 billion, or a 616 percent increase on its original budget of Rp 28.5 billion, on distribution of the materials. State losses were estimated at Rp 176.04 billion.
The elections commission incurred Rp 56.46 billion in state losses over the procurement of ballot papers, following its decision to increase the number of registered voters from 143.1 million to 147.6 million, and to raise the number of reserve ballots from 2.5 percent to 10 percent.
"This is a blatant violation of the law on legislative elections, which set the figure at 2.5 percent," it said.
In the procurement of ballot boxes and polling booths, the KPU allegedly spent an additional Rp 111.1 billion and Rp 28.5 billion respectively.
The commission also allegedly accrued Rp 2.7 billion from the purchase of 438 cars that were distributed to provincial elections commissions (KPUDs).
The coalition also demanded the KPK use the authority at its disposal to force the election commission to abandon its secrecy when agreeing contracts with private firms.
"To curb corruption and collusion in the future, the KPK must order the commission to be transparent on all contracts with private firms," said Erna Ratnaningsih of LBH Jakarta.
The coalition gave the KPK three weeks to take follow-up action on its report.
KPK member Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas said that besides the coalition's report, his commission had also received similar reports from other institutions. "If the data is complete we shall carry out our own audit, which could lead to an investigation," he said.
Contacted separately, KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that all commission members were ready to face a summons from the KPK.
Ramlan defended the KPU's decision to hike the legislative election budget, saying that it was a consequence of having such a short time in which to prepare for the election. "Our first priority was to organize the election on time; we had to pay, whatever the cost," he said.
He cited as an example that a delay in the printing of ballot papers had prompted the commission to spend more on distribution so that the ballots would reach the country's far-flung regions.
The government had to issue a regulation in lieu of law to delay elections in some of the country's regions after the commission failed to distribute election materials in time.
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Yogyakarta -- Yogyakarta municipal police chief Sr. Comr. Chondro Kirono confessed on Tuesday that his office had become a transit point for thousands of campaign T-shirts emblazoned with images of Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi.
In a media conference, the police officer said that the T-shirts, which lay in a corner of his office, belonged to his step- brother, Xena Riyakudu Arifat, who was due to distribute the T- shirts to Megawati supporters in Bantul regency.
The incident, which was brought to light by the Yogyakarta Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), came only two weeks after Banjarnegara police precinct held a gathering that supported the presidential candidacy of Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Suherdjoko and M. Taufiqurrahman, Semarang/Jakarta -- Central Java's Semarang General Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) discovered on Tuesday that three related companies had contributed to the Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi campaign fund.
The three firms, PT Matahari Jaya Makmur, PT Matahari Silverindo Jaya and PT Mega Mulya Keramic, which are all owned or partly owned by Budiono, were found to have donated Rp 750 million (US$83,333) each to the Megawati-Hasyim campaign fund.
Panwaslu embarked on the investigation after receiving reports from Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and Transparency International (TI) Indonesia that the Megawati-Hasyim campaign team received donations from a number of sources with dubious identities.
"The three companies are related as they are owned or partly owned by Budiono. He is the executive director of PT Matahari Jaya Makmur and PT Matahari Silverindo Jaya while at the same time he owns shares in PT Mega Mulya Keramik," said Panwaslu member Husni Thamrin.
The three companies, however, are not fictitious as TI Indonesia and ICW alleged, and managed to produce receipts of money transferred to the Megawati-Hasyim campaign fund account, tax numbers (NPWP) and other documents proving that the companies are legal entities.
Suspicion surfaced because the Megawati campaign team failed to disclose the identities of the three companies in its financial report to the General Elections Commission (KPU).
During six hours of questioning on Tuesday, staffers from the companies acknowledged that their firms donated Rp 750 million each to the Megawati-Hasyim campaign fund.
"I was instructed by the PT Mega Mulya Keramik executive director to record the Rp 750 million Bank Mandiri transfer," said company operational manager Sugiyatiningsih.
An executive from PT Matahari Silverindo Jaya Tandiono said that the donation was decided upon in a meeting of the company's board of directors.
Panwaslu has yet to announce whether it will investigate the case further. The Presidential Election Law states that candidates can be disqualified if proven to have accepted funds from sources with unclear identities, from foreign institutions or donations from the government and government-related sources but fail to report them to the KPU within 14 days.
The law also stipulates that the maximum amounts of donation for presidential candidates are Rp 750 million from a private company and Rp 100 million from an individual.
Separately, after protracted deliberations with the KPU, the House of Representatives budgetary committee agreed to disburse Rp 62.9 billion (US$6.9 million) in bridging funds to help the commission organize the Sept. 20 election runoff.
Speaking after a meeting with the committee, KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that the shoestring budget had been approved and would soon be disbursed from the state treasury to help the commission procure poll equipment for the runoff.
"The bridging fund will be disbursed, although the budgetary committee has yet to approve the KPU's proposal for a total of Rp 419 billion in additional funds for the second round of the election. We badly need the bridging fund because preparations for the runoff must go on," Ramlan said.
From the bridging fund, the KPU will allot Rp 10 billion to pay for the printing of ballot papers, Rp 5.6 billion to procure various forms for poll organizers, Rp 7 billion to distribute ballot papers and other printed materials and Rp 6.9 billion for additional operational fees.
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The Golkar Party and the National Awakening Party (PKB) put an end on Tuesday to their fragile and less-than-three-month-old coalition, following the elimination of their presidential ticket from the race.
Golkar said it would not involve its losing presidential candidate Wiranto in talks on which pair it would support in the Sept. 20 runoff.
The announcement came just one day after the Constitutional Court dismissed the claim of Wiranto and his running mate Solahuddin Wahid that they lost 5.4 million votes in the July 5 polls.
The ruling upheld the General Elections Commission's (KPU) tally, which saw the duo finish third behind the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Jusuf Kalla and Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi tickets. The top two candidates qualify for the runoff.
"We discontinue our support of Pak Wiranto and Solahuddin amicably, just the way we nominated them. It's a farewell [meeting] but not a formal one, between our campaign team and that of Pak Alwi Shihab," Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung said.
PKB leader Alwi attended the meeting on Tuesday, as did Wiranto, Solahuddin, Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono, PKB deputy chairman Mahfud MD and Wiranto's campaign manager Lt. Gen. (ret) Suaidy Marasabessy.
Saying that Golkar would have to honor the Constitutional Court's ruling, as well as the Supreme Court's decision in a related case, Akbar said his party would not offer Wiranto any further political commitment.
"There won't be any offers. We want to finish it, in the right way," Akbar, who lost to Wiranto in the Golkar convention in April, asserted.
Akbar had several times hinted at Golkar's support of the Megawati-Hasyim pairing, even before the Constitutional Court turned down Wiranto's petition, while other party leaders held talks with the Susilo-Kalla team without their leader's knowledge.
Agung said Golkar would not involve Wiranto in coalition talks ahead of the runoff, despite Wiranto's claim that he was responsible for over 26 million votes that he and Solahuddin garnered in the July election.
Golkar will decide which ticket it will support in a leadership meeting this weekend. Wiranto said he expected to continue talks with both Golkar and PKB regarding the runoff. "Today's [talk] is our third meeting with Golkar and PKB leaders. We will continue talks ahead of the runoff," he said.
Wiranto said he was considering meeting with either the Susilo- Kalla pairing or the Megawati-Hasyim team. "I must be responsible for the 26 million people who voted for me and Pak Solah. They are awaiting my next move. We are yet to discuss it formally, but [the party] must consider this factor," the retired four-star Army general said.
To the contrary, Solahuddin said he was yet to decide whether he would continue his political career. "We'll see, but I will start writing a book next week," said Solahuddin, who was formerly deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
Meanwhile, Alwi said the PKB was open to the possibility of developing a loose cooperation with Golkar in the future, in political or social affairs. "We will make a decision after the party's national meeting, in the near future," he said.
Reuters - August 10, 2004
Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta -- The Islamic card may not be a sure vote-winner in secular Indonesia, but candidates in the first direct presidential election are not taking any chances.
Pictures of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who is battling for another term in office, performing Islamic rituals on a lightning trip to the holy city of Mecca have played widely on television.
Rival Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been at pains to fend off criticism that he is too Western-oriented and that he has hurt Muslims through an anti-terror drive he headed in his former role as Megawati's chief security minister.
Luring Muslim votes is a delicate balance in the world's most populous Muslim nation. Most Indonesian Muslims are moderate and presidential candidates are not firebrands. They oppose the implementation of Islamic sharia law and decry militants bent on killing Americans.
But election front-runner Yudhoyono and rival Megawati, both Muslims representing secular parties, have worked hard to play to Muslim sensibilities before a September 20 run-off vote.
"Most voters are Muslims and they dream of a leader who has an Islamic appearance. Candidates want that image," University of Indonesia political analyst Muhammad Budhyatna told Reuters.
Megawati flew to Mecca on Thursday for a weekend pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites. Television images showed her and husband Taufiq Kiemas in pristine white Muslim robes circling the holy Kaaba shrine. On Monday, she arrived home wearing another Muslim outfit, this time in red, the colour of her political party.
Around 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million population follow Islam. Most are moderates and support tough action against militants who have carried out several terror attacks in the country in recent years, including the 2002 Bali bombings.
Yet too much talk of Islamic militancy draws harsh criticism. And Indonesians prefer secular political parties to Muslim-oriented ones. The top two parties in the April 5 legislative elections were secular. The only other party to win a double-digit percentage share of the votes was set up by members of a key Islamic group but has an inclusive nature and non-Muslims on its board.
Skipping prayers
There is, however, an increasing desire among Indonesian Muslims to display their Islamic identity. "They love the image of an observant Muslim leader but loathe parties seeking to chase those who skip prayers," said Budhyatna, who co-founded a moderate Muslim party that is now defunct. "They are also afraid of hardliners who have a black-and-white approach to Islam and like to brandish the sword."
A survey by the US-based International Foundation for Election Systems showed last week most Indonesians would select their next president on personality and image, not on issues.
A trip to Mecca is something most Indonesian Muslims dream of, but few can afford. Megawati's visit was portrayed in the media as a way of thanking God after she gained enough votes in the July 5 first round of the election to carry her into the run-off.
Many analysts had predicted her popularity was on the decline amid high unemployment and sluggish economic growth and that she would be knocked out in round one.
Rival Yudhoyono went to Mecca in May, after his young Democrat Party surprisingly won 10 percent of the contested seats in the April parliamentary polls.
Both candidates have seen their Muslim credentials questioned. In 1999, Megawati was rumoured to be a Hindu, the original religion of her Balinese grandmother. Her party won the election that year but she failed to secure the presidency after the supreme legislature, the body that picked presidents at that time, preferred moderate Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid.
More recently, Yudhoyono had to dispel rumours his wife Kristiani Herawati was Christian due to her name. "If they themselves don't come from a religious background, candidates must show they are at least pious," said political analyst Fachry Ali, who hails from Aceh, the only Indonesian province that enforces sharia law.
[Additional reporting by Emmy Zumaidar.]
| Corruption/collusion/nepotism |
Jakarta Post - August 16, 2004
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta -- The government has failed to extend the travel bans on 10 suspects and convicts in the misuse of Bank Indonesia liquidity support funds, sparking concerns that the suspects will be able to evade justice by fleeing abroad.
The travel bans should have been extended in July this year, when most of the travel bans on the 10 expired. But as of Sunday, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) had not asked the Immigration Office to extend the bans. The travel bans are good for one year.
Ade E. Dahlan, a spokesman for the Immigration Office, said that in the absence of a request by the Attorney General's Office, the Immigration Office had no basis to extend the travel bans.
"As a result, we cannot do anything to prevent them from fleeing abroad. It should be made clear that, according to legal rules, our office only follows what the AGO tells us to do. We cannot impose travel bans at our own initiative," Ade said on Sunday.
The spokesman was responding to an earlier statement by the Attorney General's Office that it had requested the Immigration Office to extend the travel bans on the 10 suspects and convicts.
The controversy over the bans dates back two weeks, when the Attorney General's Office received a copy of the Supreme Court's decision sentencing graft convict David Nusa Widjaja to eight years in prison.
A spokesman for the office, Kemas Yahya Rahman, said that now that the Attorney General's Office had official notification of the verdict, David would be found and jailed.
However, it soon came to light that David, who was sentenced on July 23, 2003, by the Supreme Court in a multibillion dollar corruption scam, had already fled the country. David, the former owner of the now-defunct Servitia Bank, reportedly left the country shortly after his travel ban expired on July 5, 2003, according to immigration records.
The fact that David was able to evade justice because of a bureaucratic mistake landed the Attorney General's Office in hot water. The office later claimed it had asked the Immigration Office to extend the travel ban on David and 10 other graft suspects to prevent them from fleeing the country.
However, this claim was quickly denied by the Immigration Office.
Other suspects in the misuse of Bank Indonesia liquidity support include Setiawan Harjono of Bank Aspac and Eko Adi Putranto of Bank BHS, who have been sentenced to several years imprisonment. Other suspects, including Heru Supraptomo and Paul Sutopo of Bank Indonesia, have appealed their verdicts and are awaiting rulings from the Supreme Court.
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Cirebon/Padang/Banda Aceh -- The swearing in of graft convicts and suspects at the legislatures of Cirebon, Banda Aceh and Padang municipalities has sparked protests among the local people.
In Cirebon, hundreds of students staged a protest on Wednesday after they discovered that 11 of 30 councillors -- who had been inaugurated that day for the 2004-2009 term -- were suspects in a graft case.
Protesting at the Cirebon Council, the students yelled at the councillors and demanded the 11 suspects to resign.
The 11 had been reelected to the council in the April 5 election, and are facing trial on charges of embezzling Rp 997.8 million (US$105,031) in operational funds from the municipal budget.
The 11 represent several political parties in Cirebon, including the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
The secretary-general of the Indonesian Nationalist Students Movement and coordinator of the protest, Soibary, said: "(The councillors cannot be trusted any more." He also called on other student groups and anticorruption activists in Cirebon to step up pressure against the inauguration of the allegedly corrupt councillors.
Separately, Cirebon Cultural Council chairman Achmad Syubbanuddin Alwy proposed that the respective political parties recall the 11 councillors to restore public trust in the council.
In Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh Nanggroe Darussalam province, six councillors who are defendants in a graft case are due to be inaugurated in September.
Despite mounting public pressure, Yusmar, the chairman of Banda Aceh General Election Commission (KPU), said that the KPU would remain inaugurate them on the ground that the Banda Aceh district court had not handed down verdict above five years in jail to them. According to law, only councillors sentenced above five years in jail will be expelled from the legislature.
The six councillors were arrested in May for allegedly embezzling Rp 5.6 billion (US$589,473) of the Banda Aceh budget.
In the West Sumatra capital of Padang, seven of the 45 members of the Padang city council sworn in last Friday for the new five- year term stand accused of misappropriating Rp 10.4 billion (US$1.15 million) from the 2001-2002 budget. In addition, of the 55 provincial legislators to be sworn in this month, three are former city councillors being tried by the Padang District Court for their roles in the same scandal.
"The trend just goes to show that our leaders are not thoroughly screened," said Dr. Mestika Zed, a history professor at Padang State University.
Mestika is also a former coordinator of the Care for West Sumatra Forum (FPSB), an anticorruption watchdog that uncovered the graft cases of the West Sumatra legislature and the Padang municipal council.
"This clearly indicates the weakness of law enforcers, not only in combating corruption, but also in other cases. Why have convicts and suspects been sworn in? Their induction could have been postponed," he said.
Mestika also urged the public and the media to object vocally and consistently against other suspects and convicts holding public office.
| Media/press freedom |
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Urip Hudiono and Abdul Khalik, Jakarta -- The Central Jakarta District Court dismissed on Wednesday a lawsuit filed by youth organization Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM) against Tempo magazine.
In his ruling, presiding judge Mulyani rejected two legal arguments from Tempo lawyers that the plaintiff was improperly represented by their lawyers in their civil lawsuit against the weekly and that the PPM's allegations against the defendants -- chief editor Bambang Harymurti, journalist Ahmad Taufik and publisher PT Tempo Inti Media -- were overstated.
The judges agreed with Tempo's argument that the allegations were vague and obscure.
"Their vagueness is illustrated by the fact that the plaintiff charged the defendant using both Articles 1365 and 1372 of the Civil Code, when the articles are for different matters," said Mulyani, who was accompanied by judges Agus Subroto and Binsar Siregar.
Article 1365 stipulates punitive damages for a felonious act, while Article 1372 deals with slander.
Since the charges were unclear, Mulyani said they were unacceptable and the judges had no need even to enquire about the case's legal substance.
The PPM accused Tempo of publishing a libelous statement in an article titled Terror on Kontras, in the weekly's June 2, 2003 edition. In the article, the weekly said that PPM members, who attacked the office of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) on May 27, 2003, were "of a baser dignity", and described them elsewhere as a "gang" and "children of former soldiers".
The PPM initially agreed to make peace with the weekly, but inexplicably filed a civil suit on Dec. 22, 2003.
The PPM had demanded the weekly pay a whopping Rp 250 billion (US$ 27.17 million) in damages and run a public apology in national media for three consecutive days. The group had also asked the court to revoke Tempo's publication license for at least two years.
Tempo lawyer Azas Tigor Nainggolan considered the verdict a sign that press freedom would prevail in the country.
PPM lawyer Abdul Salam, meanwhile, said his client would use the 14 days given by the court to consider whether they would appeal or not.
Separately, Bambang Harymurti reported Central Jakarta Mayor Hosea Petra Lumbun to the National Police for giving false testimony during the trial for a separate libel suit filed by well-connected businessman Tomy Winata against the weekly. The mayor said he was never interviewed by Tempo.
Bambang, who was accompanied by lawyer Darwin Aritonang, said Tempo reporters Indra Darmawan and Juli Hantoro had conducted the interview with the mayor. As evidence, Tempo presented a print- out from state telecommunications company PT Telkom, showing a telephone call made from the weekly's office to Hosea's cellular phone.
Bambang said Lumbun had violated Article 242(2) of the Criminal Code for perjury, which carries a maximum sentence of nine years in prison.
However, the officers who received the report asked Bambang to file the report with the Central Jakarta Police instead, since the location of the incident was within that precinct's jurisdiction.
Agence France Presse - August 11, 2004
President Megawati Sukarnoputri sought to reassure Indonesia's media that it would remain unshackled despite claims her government was putting the squeeze on free speech.
"Have I ever tried to shackle the press?" Megawati was quoted as saying by Indonesian Broadcasting Commission chief Victor Menayang after she met commission members at the state palace.
Megawati last year successfully sued the Jakarta-based Rakyat Merdeka (Free People) newspapers for "publicly insulting" her in several of its front page headlines. An editor with the paper has received a suspended jail term.
The government in June expelled US analyst Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director of the International Crisis Group, after she reported on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group in Indonesia and separatist movements in Aceh and Papua.
Megawati denies she ordered Jones' expulsion, insisting the decision was a state procedure.
Indonesia's media was tightly controlled during the 32-year autocratic rule of Suharto, which ended in 1998.
A vigorous press has emerged since then. But media watchdog groups criticise an increasing number of lawsuits by public officials and others for alleged defamation.
| Local & community issues |
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Makassar, South Sulawesi -- Some 200 protesters, mostly women accompanied by their children, barred the gates of the municipal council here on Wednesday, to protest their evictions by the city administration.
Their move left at least 15 councillors and officials unable to go home, although office hours were over.
The protesters were all recently evicted -- either from their homes in the hamlets of Lette and Panambungan, Mariso district, or from their kiosks at Soekarno-Hatta seaport.
They said the council had ignored their demand for the dismissal of Makassar Mayor Ilham Arif Sirajuddin over the evictions.
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta Post - August 12, 2004
Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- Representatives of major parties have jumped on the bandwagon to call for a delay in the deliberation of the military bill, with the party led by the President shifting the blame on Cabinet members who they said pushed her into approving the government- sponsored bill.
Megawati Soekarnoputri "had no choice" but to let the bill be deliberated in the current term of the House of Representatives, which ends in September, said Panda Nababan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) on Wednesday.
This was because she faced the "authoritarian" manner of, among others, the coordinating minister of political and security affairs as well as Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who pushed for the immediate submission of the bill to the House, Panda said.
The minister referred to was not mentioned by name. However, the bill presented to the House was drafted in June, while former minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono resigned in March to run for the presidency. His replacement is interim minister Hari Sabarno.
Therefore, Panda said, the PDI-P faction in the House "has received a clear message from the President that we should not set a deadline for September" to complete the deliberation. New legislators will be installed in October.
Earlier, legislators said the bill must be completed immediately as it was the last chance that they could get input from colleagues in the police and military faction, who will not be represented in the new House.
Panda was speaking at a discussion on the bill that also featured rights activist Munir and former TNI chief of territorial affairs Agus Widjojo.
Munir and Agus said the PDI-P could not lay the blame on Cabinet members because the President could have just refused to sign the draft. "It's harder for ministers to reject the wishes of the President" than vice versa, Agus said.
The one-day talks were held by the Human Rights Training and Education Institution (LPPHAM).
Among the contentious clauses in the bill are those that allow military officers to occupy positions in state administrations without retiring from the military. However, military sources say they refer to a number of posts reserved for military personnel, such as in the defense ministry.
On Monday, House Speaker and Golkar leader Akbar Tandjung also asked House Commission I on security, defense and foreign affairs not to rush deliberation of the bill, saying it might have an adverse effect on soldiers' professionalism.
Former defense minister Mahfud MD, also deputy chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), agreed that the bill needed further public scrutiny.
He added that his party was completing its own version of the military bill that focused on, among other things, soldiers' welfare.
On Tuesday, religious youth groups joined the call of several non-governmental organizations to leave the deliberation of the military bill to the new legislators. The groups were the Muhammadiyah Student Association (MMI), the Indonesian Christian Students Movement (GMKI), the Association of Indonesian Hindu Students (KMHDI), the Indonesian Nationalist Students Movement (GMNI), the Nahdlatul Ulama Students Association (IPNU) and the Buddhist Students Association (Hikmahbudhi).
| Reconciliation & justice |
The Economist (US) - August 14, 2004
Jakarta -- It is about to stage the second half of an election that promises to cement its young democracy into place. But in some ways, Indonesia still shows little sign of bringing its armed forces to heel. Barring a volte face from the Supreme Court, a tribunal prosecuting alleged human-rights abuses carried out during East Timor's referendum on sovereignty in 1999 has now ended the predictable way, with no soldiers or police being punished.
Of the 16 members of the Indonesian security forces and two East Timorese civilians who were indicted, all the Indonesians have either been acquitted or freed on appeal (the quashing of the convictions of the final four was announced on August 6th). The two East Timorese have received minimal sentences: one got three years, the other, after appeal, five.
As far as Indonesia's government is concerned, the matter should now be closed. Many outside Indonesia are unlikely to concur. During and after the referendum, in which the former Portuguese colony voted to obtain independence from Indonesia, about 1,500 civilians were killed, many more forced to flee and much of the infrastructure destroyed.
The inadequacy of the tribunal in Indonesia is highlighted by the contrast with a parallel investigation being conducted in East Timor itself by the Serious Crimes Unit set up by the United Nations. This body has indicted some 375 people and secured more than 50 convictions. Most of those convicted are militiamen who say they were acting under the orders of the Indonesian armed forces. About 280 indictees remain at large in Indonesia.
They include the Indonesian commander at the time, General Wiranto, for whom the unit has issued an arrest warrant. After the announcement of the appeal decision in Jakarta, human-rights groups renewed their demands for the creation of an international tribunal.
So far, however, America is the only major power to have stated publicly its desire to see "a credible level of justice". East Timor itself, eager to maintain healthy relations with its vast and powerful neighbour, opposes the idea of an international tribunal. Indeed, the government has refused to forward General Wiranto's arrest warrant to Interpol.
The apparent impossibility of holding Indonesia's security forces to account may eventually create frustration. This week, the head of special forces was cleared over shooting demonstrators in 1984. The former head of the Jakarta military police was also cleared of failing to prevent the torture of 170 civilian prisoners, following a protest the same year. The judges declared the beatings were only "ordinary" rights abuses.
Attention will turn next to the government's response to a report by the national human-rights commission, leaked this week. It alleges that members of the security forces perpetrated gross human-rights abuses in 2001 and 2003 in the eastern province of Papua. The situation in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, is equally troubling. Despite the lifting of martial law in May, after a year of fighting against separatists, military operations continue. In recent weeks, the army has reported a big rise in the death toll. It claims that the victims are insurgents, but independent observers say this is hard to verify.
Meanwhile, the armed forces are pushing for a military bill to be rushed through parliament. In its present form, critics say, the proposed bill will make it harder to turn the army into a truly professional force after a long history of involvement in politics. The country's generals have won justified praise for remaining neutral during this year's elections.
You might think they could show a greater willingness to contemplate reform when their interests are being so well protected elsewhere.
The Jakarta Post - August 13, 2004
M. Taufiqurrahman and Abdul Khalik, Jakarta -- Weak indictments by prosecutors because of alleged pressure from the Military were blamed on Thursday for acquittals of Army generals from charges of gross human rights abuses in the 1999 East Timor violence and the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre.
Analysts said these acquittals were a strong indication that the Indonesian Military (TNI) remained powerful in the new democracy despite its claims it had quit politics.
Hendardi, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) executive director, said the prosecutors at an ad hoc human rights tribunal shared the blame with judges for the generals' releases as the judges had to hand down verdicts based on poor indictments.
He pointed out the weak indictments were linked to the Military's strong influence in the country's judiciary system.
"The acquittals are merely the pinnacle of the Military's interference in the judiciary. Somehow, they manage to play an influential role in (creating) flawed indictments from the Attorney General's Office," Hendardi told The Jakarta Post.
On Thursday, the Army's Kopassus elite force commander Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan was acquitted by an ad hoc human rights court of all charges for his role in the 1984 massacre in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
On Tuesday, the same court proclaimed former Jakarta Military Police commander Maj. Gen. (ret.) Pranowo, not guilty for failing to stop his troops from torturing protesters detained after the Tanjung Priok incident.
The court in both cases ruled that the evidence could not prove the charges of gross human rights violations. Victims who had testified to being tortured had withdrawn testimonies, and the prosecution had quoted a number of them saying that the physical effect of the torture was not too severe, as their spines were not broken.
Last month, the Supreme Court acquitted Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri and three other officers of gross human rights abuses linked to atrocities that followed the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in 1999.
A non government organization, the Institution for Study and Advocacy (Elsam), has attributed what it says is the weak indictment in the East Timor cases to the fact that prosecutors failed to relate the incidents between April to September 1999 "without relating them to previous happenings," which is crucial to build a case of widespread and/or systematic rights abuses.
Political analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia said the acquittals of the generals indicated the TNI was on its way back to the center stage of politics.
The Military was "riding a wind" that would blow even stronger should retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono be elected president in the September 20 election, he said.
Separately on Thursday, Attorney General's Office spokesman Kemas Yahya Rahman said prosecutors were not to blame for the acquittals of generals. He said his office had tried its best to indict all human rights defendants, including military officers.
"Prosecutors in the trials of generals have presented strong evidence, but unfortunately the judges had their own interpretations of the evidence when making their decisions," Kemas said.
He said the sentencing demands for between five and 10 years jail for the charged generals showed prosecutors were serious in taking human rights abuses to court.
Melbourne Age - August 13, 2004
Matthew Moore, Jakarta -- Indonesian prosecutors have again failed in their attempt to convict soldiers accused of gross human rights abuses, with the head of the army's notorious Kopassus special forces yesterday cleared of all charges by a human rights tribunal. Hundreds of Kopassus troops and supporters jamming the courtroom erupted into cheers as the head of the panel of five judges, Herman Hutapea, declared Major-General Sriyanto Muntrasan "legally and convincingly" not guilty over his role in a controversial massacre 20 years ago that left at least 23 people dead.
General Sriyanto hugged supporters and urged everyone "to all trust the panel of judges who have delivered such an objective, comprehensive and fair judgement". He was only a captain at the time of the Tanjung Priok massacre but his current position as head of Kopassus has ensured a huge focus on the case seen as another test of Indonesia's ability to successfully prosecute people over human rights abuses.
A separate tribunal hearing East Timor human rights cases last week overturned the convictions of three soldiers and a policeman previously found guilty. That decision left no members of the security forces with convictions for the bloodshed in East Timor that left 1600 dead at the time of its 1999 independence vote.
Despite Indonesia's efforts to prosecute human rights abusers, not one member of the security forces has spent a night in jail as a result of any verdict. As with his previous appearances in the court, General Sriyanto was accompanied yesterday by between 200 and 300 Kopassus soldiers wearing their trademark red berets, half a dozen generals and assorted members of pro-military groups and other supporters.
They included relatives and survivors of the massacre who have reached an agreement with the military, have been paid compensation, and say there is no point prosecuting anyone.
But others still push for the soldiers to be convicted despite the intimidating presence of Kopassus forces in court and death threats to stop them giving evidence.
Listening to a loudspeaker outside the court as the judges read the decision were 15 such survivors."Indonesia is cruel," said Aminatun, a woman in her 40s, who said she was kidnapped at the time of the massacre.
Her remark, made in answer to a question from a foreign journalist, saw a group of men immediately surround her. "Why are you discrediting your country?" one shouted at her as another pushed her and threatened to punch her. More critics began to jostle her and she and her colleagues were physically forced out of the building while soldiers did nothing.
The decision opens the way for Australia to resume training Kopassus soldiers. Indonesia's army last year cancelled a planned trip when the Australian Government would not allow General Sriyanto to lead a group because of the human rights allegations against him.
But many Indonesians were unhappy with the result. Muchtar Beni Biki, a relative of one of those killed, said he was "very disappointed with the judges because they didn't take the victims' side".
He could not understand why General Sriyanto had been acquitted when his superior officer at the time, General (retired) Butar Butar, was convicted 31/2 months ago. "This is very strange. Why are there two different decisions, if the one not on the field was found guilty, how come the one on the field is acquitted?"
Radio Australia - August 13, 2004
Indonesian human rights activists have condemned a court decision clearing a top army general of gross human rights violations for his role in a 1984 military massacre. In the second case to be dealt with by the country's special human rights court, the head of Indonesia's elite Kopassus forces, Major General Sriyanto Muntarsan, has been acquitted of ordering the shootings of Muslim protestors at Tanjung Priok in north Jakarta.
Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor
Speakers: Asmara Nababan, Executive Director, the independent Institute for Human Rights and Democracy Studies; Dr Harold Crouch, Senior Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University
MacGregor: Major General Sriyanto was operations chief of the North Jakarta Military Command when his soldiers opened fire on a crowd of about fifteen hundred unarmed Muslims in the Jakarta district of Tanjung Priok, on the night of September the twelfth, 1984. Investigators say as many as twenty-four people died in the massacre and hundreds more were injured.
The Chief prosecutor Darmono demanded that General Sriyanto be jailed for ten years for ordering his troops to shoot into the crowd. But the panel of judges said the prosecution had failed to prove that any human rights abuses occurred that day. Asmara Nababan, Executive Director of the independent Institute for Human Rights and Democracy Studies, is disappointed, but not surprised by the verdict.
The acquittal of Sriyanto reflects the weakness of the judiciary system in Indonesia, especially in this case of the competence of the Attorney General as a prosecutor. It shows not only in the Tanjung Priok case but in the East Timor case, how they are not willing to provide material evidence and witnesses, which of course gives trouble for the judges to uphold the justice.
MacGregor: Earlier this week, the court cleared former Major General Pranowo, who headed Jakarta's military police in 1984, of failing to prevent the torture of Muslims during the Tanjung Priok massacre. The Muslim protesters were seeking the release of four people detained by the military under the rule of then- president Suharto. Asmara Nababan says little has changed since then.
Nababan: Even though Suharto is no longer in power, the military position on political life in Indonesia is still intact. They are still a strategic power-holder in Indonesia which can easily influence the branches of the state like the executive and judiciary system.
MacGregor: Dr Harold Crouch, at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies agrees the post-Suharto administration has failed to deliver on promised reforms of the judicial system.
Crouch: There was this feeling when the human rights courts were set up that the courts would be more independent or more able to give judgments that were not favourable to the military people accused. But it looks in fact what's happening is just the old system's continuing, The only difference I suppose, since Suharto fell is that these people are brought to court, and occasionally they're actually found guilty the first time around. So at least there's some sort of public humiliation for some of these people in the present system, but it's still far short of real justice.
MacGregor: The Tanjung Priok case is the second to come before Indonesia's human rights court. The first dealt with the 1999 carnage surrounding East Timor's vote to secede from Indonesia. So far the court's failed to uphold a conviction against a single member of Indonesia's security forces.
Indonesian human rights groups are now concerned about the prospect that foreign governments like Australia will use the not guilty rulings to push through plans to resume military training with the Kopassus. As he left the court, General Sriyanto declared he wants his units to take part in joint training exercises with Australia. Dr Harold Crouch again.
Crouch: I would expect the Australian government's reaction to be to wait till his tour of duty has ended and he's moved on somewhere else. And then Australia might give some consideration to that. I don't find a problem with Australia co-operating with the Indonesian military in areas that are essentially defence, the problem with Kopassus is that its activities are basically internal security.
Nababan: I think the Australian government should really reconsider to resume their co-operation with Kopassus. It will give the wrong message to the people of Indonesia that this Kopassus as a problematic institution in Indonesia, gets support from the government of Australia.
MacGregor: There's an argument though that Australia needs to co-operate with Kopassus or with the Indonesian elite forces to co-ordinate strategic, counter-terrorism and other activities in the region.
Nababan: It's clear for me at least that the priority for the government of Australia is the war against terrorism and did not consider the human rights respect in Indonesia.
MacGregor: But it it's going to respect the rule of law in Indonesia, the judicial system which has just acquitted General Sriyanto, then it should be able to go ahead and do business with General Sriyanto...
Nababan: I would not say that because concerning the Kopassus, they are a problematic institution in terms of human rights, not only in the case of Sriyanto, but for many years.
Agence France Presse - August 12, 2004
Ian Timberlake, Jakarta -- A spate of acquittals absolving Indonesian military officers of human rights violations proves how powerful the armed forces remain in the country despite their claims to have abandoned politics, observers say.
From the days of strongman General Suharto, who kept a potent military close at hand as he reshaped the country over three decades from the 1960s, the armed forces have never been far from the levers of control in Indonesia.
But this formidable power generated a dark side, with the military implicated in atrocities across the Southeast Asian nation as Jakarta asserted its authority.
The past few years have seen Indonesia's military appear to take a lower profile, drawing a line under the past and presenting themselves as servants of the people.
But, say analysts, their strength has not waned and recent court rulings clearing senior officers of past misdemeanours are a sign they can still exert influence as Indonesia prepares to select its next leader.
Last month, human rights court convictions were overturned against four Indonesian security officers accused of violations during East Timor's 1999 bloody breakaway from Indonesia.
Among those cleared was Major General Adam Damiri, the highest- ranked officer charged in connection with the violence which left at least 1,400 dead.
The decision provoked sharp criticism from the US State Department which said it was "profoundly disappointed" by the verdicts that meant no Indonesian security officers charged over East Timor will serve time.
"This is the form military supremacy takes," said Hendardi, of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association. He said the verdicts reflect the pervasive military role in Indonesia's political and legal system. "This just proves they are strong."
In the latest acquittal, the human rights court in Jakarta on Thursday cleared Major General Sriyanto Muntarsan of gross human rights violations linked to killings that left at least 10 people dead in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port area 20 years ago. Muntarsan currently heads the army's Kopassus special forces.
Last Tuesday, the same court acquitted a retired general, Pranowo, of charges that he failed to stop his men torturing Muslim activists detained after the Priok shooting.
Hendari said the recent verdicts were part of the military's efforts to cleanse its reputation for abuse developed during the rule of Suharto, who stepped down in 1998. "If they say they don't play politics anymore, it's just a slogan," he said.
Indonesian military and police officers still sit in the current People's Consultative Assembly, the country's highest constitutional body, although this is scheduled to be replaced by an elected body later this year.
But both at home and abroad the Indonesian military is taking visible steps to maintain influence, seeking to restore ties with the United States which were almost completely severed over events in East Timor, and take advantage of new legislation.
Controversy surrounds a military bill under consideration by Indonesia's House of Representatives. Hendardi and Arbi Sanit, a University of Indonesia political science lecturer, fear it would strengthen the military's role.
Sanit says the bill would revive the military's Suharto era "dwi fungsi" or dual function role allowing soldiers to hold certain government posts. Soldiers are currently required to retire before joining the civilian structure.
The bill also confirms a "territorial" role of the military, giving the armed forces a countrywide presence. "The territorial function is opposed by civil society because it creates a state within a state," Sanit said.
Armed forces spokesman Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki calls the bill "part of our reform commitment" and insists the military tries to be politically neutral. "We no longer have the door to return to politics," he said.
Basuki said armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto rejected invitations to be a vice-presidential candidate, proof that the military intended to "permanently abandon its involvement in day-to-day politics".
Hendardi said military influence had been strong on civilian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and nothing would change if retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won when the two contest a September 20 presidential vote.
"It's just the same," he said. "He is extremely tied up with military interests." Sanit said the military was "riding a wind" that would blow even stronger with a Yudhoyono victory.
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta -- Former Jakarta military commander Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo implicated in a massacre 20 years ago walked free on Tuesday, leaving a big question mark over the trial of his subordinate who now commands the army's elite special forces.
Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo fell to the courtroom floor and kissed it upon hearing the not guilty verdict, which meant that he did not share the fate of then-North Jakarta military commander Rudolph Butar Butar. On April 30, Butar Butar was sentenced to 10 years for his role in the Priok riot in which at least 24 people were killed and 170 were alledged to have been later tortured by the Military. Butar Butar is still free pending his appeal.
"Not guilty, legally and convincingly", presiding judge Andriani Nurdin told the hearing of the ad hoc human rights court in Central Jakarta.
Prosecutors had sought a five-year sentence for Pranowo for "gross human rights violations" in the case of the 1984 Tanjung Priok riot. He was charged of failing to stop his men from torturing about 170 prisoners at two military police stations, in Guntur, Central Jakarta and Cimanggis, east of Jakarta, following a mass protest in the area near North Jakarta's port.
But the court said evidence was lacking as witnesses among the former prisoners had withdrawn their testimonies, saying they had spoken "under duress" because of "strong emotions" against the Military.
"A witness who claimed he was held in a one-square-meter jail could not show the exact location," the judge said.
On the night of Sept. 12, 1984, soldiers had fired gunshots at protesters who demanded the release of four detained Muslim activists. They had led a protest against the state ideology of Pancasila and the government program of family planning, saying that it was against their beliefs.
An investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights, which followed demands of the reformasi movement to investigate past human rights violations, concluded that at least 24 people were killed and 54 injured in the shootings.
The latest verdict makes it increasingly unlikely the court will grant the prosecutor's demand of 10 years jail for Pranowo's deputy, Sriyanto Muntrasan.
Now a major general commanding the special forces (Kopassus), his uniformed men have crowded the court room "in solidarity" each time their commander appeared on trial; and court officials and judges appeared to forget to reprimand Sriyanto's men when they carried their weapons into the courtroom.
Judge Andriani said Pranowo might be guilty of "ordinary rights abuses" but said these abuses were "beyond the court's jurisdiction." Pranowo was calm ahead of the reading of the verdict. Last month after hearing the prosecutor's demand for the 10-year sentence he said he was optimistic he would be freed.
Tuesday's decision follows on the heels of the acquittal last week of four high-ranking security officials in another high profile case involving atrocities in East Timor in 1999.
Associated Press - August 10, 2004
In the latest verdict to favor Indonesia's powerful military, a court acquitted a former army general on Tuesday of charges that he tortured scores of Muslim activists two decades ago.
Indonesia's human rights tribunal ruled there was no evidence to support charges that in September 1984, Maj. Gen. Pranowo unlawfully detained or tortured more than 150 people who protested the arrest of several Muslim clerics who had been publicly critical of Suharto.
At the same demonstration, soldiers opened fire on the unarmed protesters, killing at least 33.
Islamic activists have long campaigned for soldiers to be brought to trial over the massacre, one of several by troops during the 32-year Suharto dictatorship.
Pranowo was Jakarta military police chief at the time. He is one of 13 officers on trial on charges related to the killings and subsequent detentions.
Another soldier, Brig. Gen. Rudolf Butarbutar, has been convicted and sentenced to 10 years over the massacre. He remains free pending his appeal to a higher court.
Rights activists have expressed concerns that the military might be intimidating witnesses at the trials.
A number of senior members of the military have been accused of committing human rights violations during Suharto's rule.
Last week, an appeals court overturned convictions against three senior army officers and a policeman over violence that killed at least 1,500 people in East Timor in 1999 when the former province voted to break free of Jakarta's rule.
Witnesses have said the East Timor unrest was led by Indonesian troops and their militia proxies. But no Indonesian security officers have been punished and proceedings have been labeled a sham by local and foreign rights activists, and criticized by foreign governments, including the United States.
| Focus on Jakarta |
Jakarta Post - August 11, 2004
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- In response to demands by businessmen operating in Glodok business district, West Jakarta, the Jakarta administration will delay the afternoon three-in-one traffic restriction by half an hour. The new time will be from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Currently, the three-in-one policy -- in which a car must carry at least three passengers when passing through the restricted zone from Jl. Sisingamangaraja, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta, and from the overpass of Jl. S. Parman, Central Jakarta, to Kuningan intersection, South Jakarta -- is applied from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) chairman Handaka Santosa claimed earlier that the three-in-one policy had caused a decline in profit of up to 50 percent for retailers in Glodok.
He said many working people preferred to go straight home rather than visit shopping centers, to avoid being trapped in the restricted zone.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said on Tuesday that he approved the revision, based on a recommendation by transportation experts from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
The ITB team questioned 480 respondents from a variety of business sectors, whose offices are located within the restricted zone, about the impact of the three-in-one policy on their businesses.
Team leader Ofyar Z. Tamin said about 75 percent of the respondents suffered a decline in profit from the traffic restriction, implemented to support the busway, which runs from Blok M to Kota.
"I will issue a decree (on the revision) within a few days. We need to consult with the Jakarta Police prior to implementation of the new policy," Sutiyoso said.
For the long term, Ofyar said, his team had recommended electronic road pricing along the busway corridor as a way of easing the burden on the roads during peak hours.
"It would take time because the city would need to make some investment to implement such a policy," he added.
However, Sutiyoso would not approve the recommendation as it would spark public controversy. "You could say that the [road pricing] policy would favor only the 'haves'," he said.
| News & issues |
Detik.com - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- On the night of Wednesday August 11, the Tambora city sectoral police (Polsek) in West Java raided a number of gambling houses in the Tambora area. One of these was known to be owned by Eurico Gutteres, a former commander of the East Timor pro- integration militia.
At a gambling den located in the Duri Utara village the police succeeded in arresting around 15 of Gutteres' employees and a number of gamblers. Gutteres himself only came to the Tambora police station after being contacted by police through one of his friends.
"Gutteres and his 15 employees have been questioned by Polsek Tambora police since 6am this morning", said one of the police officers contacted by Detik.com on Thursday morning. According to the officer, the raid was based on information from members of the public who said that gambling activities were frequently seen in the area and have become a growing concern. The location of the gambling den owned by Gutteres was new and had not been in operation long.
"After obtaining the information police conducted a raid last night. Gutteres even admitted that the gambling den was his", added the police officer. As well as arresting Gutteres' employees and a number of gamblers, the police also seized a roulette machine and other brand new gambling equipment form the location. "The gambling equipment which [we] could see was still new was also seized and taken to Tambora Polsek as material evidence", said the police officer. ()
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Agence France Presse - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- Indonesian police said Thursday they had raided a gambling den reportedly owned by former East Timor militia boss Eurico Guterres, who has been convicted of crimes against humanity in his former homeland.
Police raided the pinball parlour in West Jakarta's Tambora district Wednesday night and seized gambling machines, Second Sergeant Bambang told AFP. "I don't know who owns it," he said.
He said several people were arrested. Guterres was in the police station at midday Thursday but Bambang refused to say what he was doing there.
Guterres could not be reached for comment but the Detikcom online news service quoted him as admitting to reporters that he ran the parlour.
He said he was forced to turn to the illegal but phenomenally popular gambling business to support himself while undergoing judicial proceedings related to the East Timor case. However, he insisted he was opposed to gambling.
Guterres remains free while appealing his conviction for crimes against humanity related to East Timor's bloody 1999 split from Indonesia.
He was sentenced to 10 years by a Jakarta human rights court but a prosecutor announced last Friday that the sentence had been slashed to five years on appeal.
Guterres headed the Aitarak or Thorn militia which terrorized residents of the East Timor capital, Dili, ahead of a 1999 UN- backed referendum on independence.
Aitarak and other militias, along with the Indonesian military which created and armed them, killed at least 1,400 people in East Timor as part of widespread campaign of destruction, the United Nations says.
East Timor has been independent since May 2002, following a period of UN stewardship.
| Environment |
Agence France Presse - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- Legitimate forestry companies are contributing to illegal logging and other deforestation in Indonesia, according to a new report into the widespread exploitation of the country'svaluable timber resources.
The study by Indonesia Corruption Watch and non-government group Greenomics Indonesia said poor practices by forestry firms have led to squatting and illegal logging in authorized concessions and sometimes to excessive logging by the firmsthemselves.
"This can be called proof of a trend by a majority of timber estate firms who have obtained forest access, to apparently not show a serious commitment to protecting the forest," it said.
The 18-page report also pointed to a lack of commitment by authorized loggers to the future of the forests they were working in, with 53 percent of natural forest concession holders performing poorly based on wood harvests.
"So it can be concluded that most companies holdingconcessions to natural forests have yet to show a commitment to long-term use of their forests," the report said.
Only five companies effectively implemented procedures for evaluating the environmental effects of their logging, it said.
"At the same time 39 other companies (about 89 percent) can be said to be not yet serious in guarding against destruction as a result of logging in their management unit," the report said.
Corruption Watch and Greenomics found that only about 12 percent of concession holders in specially-planted timber estates were performing well while almost 60 percent showed poor performance.
"Based on the analysis, the principal problem in developing forest estates in Indonesia is the extremely poor commitment of timber estate firms to manage their acreage in an optimal and long-lasting way," they said.
The report studied 68 holders of timber estate concessions and another 44 with concessions in natural forest, covering a total of 6.39 million hectares (15.8 million acres) in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara and Papua regions.
It quoted forestry department data as saying that as of April this year there were 333 concession holders across the country, with rights to a total of more than 31 million hectares.
A 2002 report by the World Resources Institute, Global Forest Watch, and Forest Watch Indonesia Reports said Indonesia was losing nearly two million hectares of forest annually -- an area half the size of Switzerland.
Forest cover fell from 162 million hectares in 1950 to 98 million hectares in 2000, they said.
| Health & education |
Straits Times - August 12, 2004
Robert Go, Jakarta -- Despite a hard line against offenders, Indonesia's war on drugs seems to have stalled, with users estimated at four million and rising, and the country described as a ripe target for international drug syndicates.
The government has opted for tough punishments, including the death penalty and life imprisonment, against offenders.
As a firing squad last week prepared to execute an Indian man caught trafficking 12kg of heroin, police chief General Da'i Bachtiar said the death penalty would 'serve as a deterrent' and 'show Indonesia's seriousness in fighting the war on drugs'.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri also recently rejected clemency pleas from two Thais who are currently on death row following drug convictions.
In the past four years, the courts have sentenced nearly 30 people, including five Indonesians, to death in drug-related cases.
Drug offenders make up a large majority of the more than 60 prisoners now awaiting execution nationwide.
The government also conducts a pricey and public anti-narcotics campaign.
In strategic points around Jakarta, billboards and banners advise people to 'stay away from drugs' and to lead 'clean, drug-free lives'.
Yet the problem not only persists, some observers familiar with the situation said it is now easier than ever to buy and use drugs, and the number of users is skyrocketing.
Police officials talked about international drug rings that now eye Indonesian users as valuable customers.
Previously, they said, the country was merely a transit point for drug shipments destined for elsewhere.
But with tougher anti-drugs programmes in other countries, dealers find Indonesia's relatively porous borders and high potential customer base attractive.
The solution, said anti-narcotics advocates, is a combination of tough penalties, more public campaigns to raise awareness and a real crackdown against drug lords, instead of mere arrests of couriers of drug dealers.
Mr Henri Yosodiningrat, a co-founder of the National Anti- Narcotics Movement (Granat), estimated that users in Indonesia now number around four million people.
He and other observers said users were getting younger, including primary school-age children who often also serve as couriers.
Mr Iskandar Hukom of anti-drugs group YCAB said the death penalty was needed for drug offenders, but the government should not rely solely on tough punishments.
"In addition to tough punitive policies, we need to do more preventive programmes for our children and start such things for kids as young as possible," he said.
Observers also said the police needed to start arresting drug syndicate bosses and not just their underlings who actually take the biggest risks by moving among the public.
Mr Iskandar argued: 'We know it is very easy to get drugs, including in nightclubs all over the city. But we never hear about nightclub owners getting arrested, even though logically speaking these people benefit from drug deals.' A man named Agil, who told The Straits Times he deals in drugs from time to time at a landmark nightspot in Jakarta, agreed: 'It's always us who get arrested but our bosses are safe. There is no fairness here.' Asked why he is involved in the trade, he said: 'It's easy, and if I don't do this I won't have a job to support my family.'
Popular drugs
| Armed Forces/police |
Detik.com - August 10, 2004
Dadan Kuswaraharja, Jakarta -- People living in and around mining operations find it difficult to obtain their rights. Aside from governments which don't really care, they are also confronted by militarism.
This was explained by the coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang, Tatam), Siti Maemuna, in a discussion titled "Learning from the Buyat case, what position should the environment movement take" at the Uhamka auditorium on Jalan Limau II in South Jakarta on Tuesday August 10.
"PT Freeport for example, they spend 50 billion rupiah per year for security personnel to guard their mining operations. If local people have a problem [with the company] straight away they are confronting the military or police", said Maemunah.
Furthermore, Maemuna is asking the government to pay more concern to environmental cases. One of these being the case which occurred in Minahasa which it is suspected involves PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR).
"So far the government [just] doesn't care and has even allowed problems to surface. PT NMR has not fulfill the requirements specified in the disposal of mine tailings yet the government has done nothing", said Maemunah. (djo)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
| International relations |
Agence France Presse - August 12, 2004
Jakarta -- Washington should mind its own business and refrain from commenting on court rulings that acquitted four Indonesian security officials of atrocities in East Timor, leading ministers here said Thursday.
Acting senior security minister Hari Sabarno lashed out at the United States following criticism of human rights court acquittals clearing four senior military figures over violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote.
"This is a court verdict ... America should better take care of its own self," Sabarno, also Indonesia's home minister, told journalists.
Jakarta announced last week that the four, including Major General Adam Damiri, the most senior military officer to face trial for the bloodshed during the UN-backed vote, were cleared by an appeal court on July 29.
A 10-year jail term imposed on a pro-Jakarta militiaman who oversaw the murder and torture of independence supporters was also cut in half by the ad hoc human rights court set up as an alternative to an international tribunal.
The US State Department greeted the verdicts with dismay, saying it was "profoundly disappointed with the performance and record of the Indonesian ad hoc tribunal."
Sabarno said the criticism was inappropriate as the Indonesian government itself would not consider intervening in its own judicial process.
"Is there any American tried for gross human rights in Indonesia? They are all Indonesians whose verdicts were decided by courts without any intervention from the government," he said.
Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra accused Washington of hypocrisy. "If we are talking about dissatisfaction, I am also not satisfied with what America is doing and its invasion of Iraq, but we are powerless against America," Mahendra said.
He said Indonesia was disappointed with the results of trials abroad, notably hearings on violations in Bosnia, but Jakarta chose to keep its comments to itself.
Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda said the government would "note" the US protest, but was under no obligation to act upon it.
More than 1,000 people were killed when Indonesian army-backed local militia proxies waged a campaign of terror and intimidation ahead of the vote that led to full independence for the former Portuguese colony.
Asia Times - August 10, 2004
Jim Lobe, Washington -- Saturday's dismissal by a Jakarta appeals court of all pending cases against Indonesians indicted for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor five years ago may bolster efforts by US lawmakers to halt the George W Bush administration's normalization of ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI).
The judicial action is also likely to fuel demands by human- rights organizations for the United Nations to create an international tribunal to bring to justice those responsible for the TNI-backed rampage that resulted in the killing of as many as 1,500 Timorese and the destruction of the newly independent country's infrastructure.
The mayhem followed a plebiscite in which an overwhelming majority of the East Timorese population voted in favor of independence from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year. As much as a third of the population died or was killed in the five years that followed the invasion.
A UN-backed multinational force headed by Australia intervened after the violence that followed the plebiscite and helped establish an UN administration that oversaw a transitional period to independence, which took effect 15 months ago.
"Saturday's decisions show that courts in Indonesia are simply not independent and are incapable of rendering justice for the atrocities committed in East Timor," said Brad Adams, director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"Indonesia has given the international community no choice but to initiate a justice mechanism for these appalling crimes, which took place in full view of the world in 1999," he added.
HRW was one of six international human-rights groups, including Amnesty International, the Coalition for International Justice and the Open Society Justice Initiative, that sent a letter to UN secretary general Kofi Annan in late June urging him to immediately appoint an International Commission of Experts to recommend how best to ensure that "those responsible for such violence be brought to justice", as demanded by the UN Security Council resolution that authorized the Australian-led intervention.
The decision by the Jakarta appeals court, which overturned the convictions of four high-ranking Indonesian military and security officials and reduced by half the 10-year sentence of a notorious TNI-backed militia that led the post-plebiscite violence, comes at a critical moment in the evolution of US policy toward the TNI.
As the world's most populous Muslim country, and one with radical Islamists reportedly linked to al-Qaeda, Indonesia has been seen as a key ally in the Bush administration's "war on terrorism" since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon, and Washington has made little secret of its desire to end the break in ties between the TNI and the Pentagon that were suspended after the events in East Timor.
But Congress refused to go along with normalizing military ties in the absence of clear evidence that the TNI, very much a law unto itself under the Suharto dictatorship, was subject to civilian control and had cooperated fully with efforts to bring to justice those in its ranks who were responsible for the violence in East Timor as well as the 2002 murder of two US schoolteachers in West Papua.
That, indeed, was the official policy of the US government as recently as the end of 2002, when the US ambassador in Jakarta, Ralph Boyce, told the government there that full restoration of military ties, including eligibility for credits for buying US weapons (foreign military financing, or FMF) and for participation in international military education and training programs would not be possible "until there is justice for the serious human-rights violations committed in East Timor and elsewhere".
Nonetheless, Washington has moved in recent months toward full normalization. In addition to providing millions of dollars in security assistance and training, the Pentagon last month announced the resumption of the bilateral defense dialogue (BDD)with the TNI that had been cut off after the violence in East Timor.
In addition, the State Department recently told Congressional staff that it intended to reinstate Indonesia's eligibility for FMF next year, according to knowledgeable sources on Capitol Hill.
In a letter to Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld last week, even before the appeals court issued its decision, a bipartisan group of 65 lawmakers said they were "surprised and disappointed to learn" that the BDD is scheduled to reconvene and urged him to reconsider his decision, particularly in light of reports of new abuses by the TNI in West Papua and Aceh province, a restive gas-producing region that has been under a state of siege for some 15 months.
"The TNI has successfully evaded accountability for its well- documented crimes against humanity and war crimes in East Timor, and there has been little progress in improving human-rights practices in Indonesia," the group, which is headed by Republicans Tom Tancredo and Chris Smith and Democrat Lane Evans, wrote. "Additionally, the TNI continues its brutal tactics in Aceh, Papua and elsewhere, [and] there are reports that [it] has extensive connections to the terror group Laskar Jihnad," it added.
"We believe that a resumption of the dialogue at this time would go against the strong posture Congress and the executive branch took in the late 1990s to severely limit military assistance, joint exercises and exchanges with the TNI until human-rights issues were addressed."
The appeals court decision is likely to strengthen that sentiment.
HRW noted that the four acquitted officials are Major General Rachmat Damiri, who was commander of the military region that included East Timor and has more recently overseen the counter- insurgency campaign in Aceh; Colonel Nur Muis, who was TNI's commander in East Timor; former police chief Hulman Gultom; and former Dili military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Soedjarwo. All had been found guilty by the ad hoc Human Rights Court in Jakarta for crimes against humanity, which Indonesia created largely to preempt the creation of an international tribunal on East Timor.
Damiri and Muis were also indicted in February 2003 on three counts of crimes against humanity by the UN Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) in a joint indictment with East Timorese authorities in Dili, the capital of the new country. But the Indonesian government has refused to recognize that tribunal or extradite anyone to East Timor.
The result of Saturday's decision is not only that no senior Indonesian military official will be held accountable for crimes committed by the TNI and client militia in East Timor, but that the only two people who will have been successfully prosecuted are Timorese -- the militia leader whose sentence was halved, and the former governor of the province.
"The results of these cases show that Indonesia remains committed to the fiction that the violence in East Timor was carried out only by East Timorese," said Adams. "The well-documented reality is that the violence was planned and orchestrated by the Indonesia military. The judicial games in Jakarta cannot alter these facts."
HRW called for the UN and key members, including the US, Australia, Japan and the European Union countries to move quickly in creating the commission of experts that would be empowered to review the judicial processes in both Jakarta and Dili and propose an international tribunal.
"The international community must fulfill its promises of justice to the East Timorese people," said John M Miller, a spokesman for the US branch of the East Timor Action Network. "The UN-backed SCU in Dili has issued a large number of highly credible indictments of senior Indonesian officials. They must not be allowed to rot in some file drawer in Dili."
The SCU has so far filed 83 indictments that accuse 373 individuals. Some 279 of them, including the former TNI commander and recent presidential candidate Wiranto, are currently at large in Indonesia.
| Business & investment |
Antara - August 14, 2004
Medan -- It would be difficult for Indonesia to reach a 7 percent growth target in the next two years, a senior minister said on Saturday.
"It is impossible to reach such growth rate with present situation and a lagging world economy," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti said in a seminar organized by the North Sumatra University (USU).
Currently, the government has set a targeted growth rate of 4.8 percent and projected growth rates of 5.4 percent and 6 percent respectively for 2005 and 2006.
"Indonesia's economic development and performance have improved during the past three years and the government is starting to solve lingering economic problems," Dorodjatun said.
"One-third of our state budget has been spent on repaying our foreign debts in the past three years," he said.
Indonesia is in a difficult economic situation with its foreign debt amounting to more than US$60 billion and domestic debt at over Rp 660 trillion (US$71.7 billion).
Statistics show there are more than 40 million people living under the poverty line with some 10 million unemployed out of a total of 230 million people.
With about 2.5 million people entering the labor force every year, Indonesia requires at least a growth rate of 6 percent per year to soak up the unemployed as each 1 percent growth will only absorb about 400,000 workers.
However, the Indonesian economy has not grown much higher than about 4 percent a year since the 1997 economic crisis, with growth of 4.1 percent last year
Asia Times - August 12, 2004
Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- Foreign businesses say a planned new policy on taxation, still winding its way through the corridors of power, coupled with high corporate tax rates, currently at 35%, has scared off investors and made it uncompetitive for those businesses already in Indonesia.
Taxation has always been a major concern of foreign investors, and both foreign and local businesses, as well as tax consultants, warn that what is needed is not so much tax policy reform but rather administrative reform.
This, in their view, would improve certainty in the enforcement of tax laws, and above all, help minimize corruption within the taxation system.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri promised last week that she would reform the taxation system if she wins the second round of presidential elections in September.
"The reforms will be carried out for the sake of the country's economic stability and to safeguard the state from financial bankruptcy due to the monetary crisis," Megawati said during a dialogue with local and foreign business leaders hosted by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).
"During the stabilization period, it was difficult for the government to carry out reform in the taxation sector because, if it was done, it would have posed difficulties to the government's budget," she said.
The tax ratio (the percentage of gross domestic product gained in revenue from taxes), at around 13%, is much less than the 17-20% common in other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, yet it was left to State Enterprises Minister Laksamana Sukardi, who also addressed the forum, to pick up on the few positive aspects.
Sukardi pointed out that despite lower tax ratios than its neighbors, the Megawati administration had already achieved increased revenue from taxes. Sukardi said that last year, for the first time ever, the government had collected more tax revenue than it had budgeted for.
In 2003 the government obtained Rp240 trillion (US$26 billion) in tax revenues, well above the routine budget figure of Rp190 trillion.
However, there was no word at all from Megawati on what action she proposes to take against corrupt officials in the taxation office.
International and national opinion polls on corruption in Indonesia have invariably rated the Directorate General of Taxation as among the most corrupt public institutions in the country. The institution is widely perceived as offering some of the greatest opportunities in the government for officials seeking to enrich themselves from corruption.
Though the old adage that the only two certainties in life are death and the need to pay taxes may be true elsewhere, many well-heeled Indonesian business owners are able to evade their tax obligations by conspiring with corrupt tax officials. And though the widespread collusion denies vast sums of tax revenue to the country, both parties see it more as a "negotiation" process than a criminal act.
Thanks to reforms made under Megawati's watch, the taxman now has wide-reaching power. Under a decree passed last year, people can be jailed for up to a year if the tax department says they owe more than Rp100 million ($9,250) in unpaid taxes. The rub is, of course, that such power gives the collectors an excellent opportunity to negotiate even more lucrative under-the-table settlements.
The two most contentious issues concern tax audits and tax refunds -- the two areas most vulnerable to corrupt tax officials.
While corporate taxpayers have to submit to comprehensive tax audits, they are not eligible for an automatic refund of tax overpayments, the excess sums demanded by the taxman over and above the actual taxes due -- these have to be "negotiated". The high incidence of arbitrary tax audits, which are often proven to be unjustified by the tax courts, suggests that the law has led to extortion, with businesses preferring to pay bribes to corrupt officials rather than go through an audit or be jailed.
Megawati's track record on combating corruption is extremely weak, but she has at least acknowledged the problem within the taxation office. Speaking earlier at a ceremony to mark the filing of annual tax returns (SPT) by top politicians and state officials, she said, "We are still hearing of taxpayers who meet with tax officials to negotiate [illegal] settlements of their taxes."
In the end, when the reforms have been implemented, the president said, "people can rest assured that the taxes they have paid are turned over to the state and are used for the benefit of the public at large".
However, although the planned fourth major tax reform since 1983 includes policy moves designed to increase tax receipts through broadening the tax base, the greatest concern of corporate taxpayers -- the general rules and procedures for taxation -- is not addressed in the draft bills.
Business leaders and economists have criticized the draft reforms in the pipeline as being slanted in favor of the tax office over taxpayers and as having several loopholes that would allow further corruption and misuse of power.
Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the National Economic Recovery Committee (KPEN) and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), has described the drafts as little more than legal instruments to enable the tax directorate to continue fleecing taxpayers.
This is hardly surprising as the Directorate General of Taxation drafted its own amendments to the three earlier tax laws: Law No 16/2000 on general taxation arrangements and procedures, Law No 17/2000 on income tax, and Law No 18/2000 on value-added tax on goods and services and luxury sales tax. The revisions include restructuring of tax bands and measures designed to improve taxpayer compliance.
Under existing laws, the directorate can only order police to arrest anyone accused of flouting tax laws.
After protests from government agencies and business leaders that it would hurt business confidence, the government earlier revoked the most controversial article in the draft revisions, one which would have given the tax office even greater powers to investigate alleged tax crimes without police assistance and to seize the assets of "uncooperative" people without a police warrant.
Though the time schedule is laid out in a government White Paper highlighting key reform programs in the post International Monetary Fund (IMF) era, analysts say that the extended delay in completing the drafts and debating the bills in the House of Representatives shows the Megawati government lacks the commitment to implement action plans included in the White Paper.
The reasons for the delay may lie elsewhere. Top officials from the Directorate General of Taxation are said to have lobbied the president to endorse their controversial plan to split away from the Ministry of Finance.
Their argument is that giving full attention to the main task of collecting taxes and enforcing tax laws is hampered by the need to deal with other jobs that should be carried out by other agencies, such as making policies and drafting tax laws.
Officials from the directorate also claim that as a unit under the Ministry of Finance, rather than as an independent agency, it is difficult for them to wire into other ministries and government agencies because of the need to go through masses of red tape before reaching those agencies.
Director General of Taxation Hadi Purnomo has said that his office is determined to raise tax revenue by increasing the number of taxpayers by an average of 100,000 per year. Currently, a mere 2 million individual income taxpayers are registered, other than state and private sector employees whose income taxes are withheld by the employers.
"We will also continue to take resolute legal action against tax evaders, including detaining them if necessary, and imposing sanctions on corrupt tax officials," Purnomo said.
Corrupt tax officials have also targeted international companies, in a move that cynics say is aimed at boosting the taxation office's image in the eyes of the local media, but which the taxation office claims is part of its campaign to step up pressure on tax evaders.
In June, the House of Representatives' State Budget Commission approved a proposal by the government to raise the target for taxation receipts from Rp209 trillion this year to Rp232 trillion ($25 billion) in 2005.
Purnomo said last week that some Rp120.7 trillion ($13 billion) in tax revenues had been collected in the first seven months of this year, or 46% of the full-year target, But in the same period, the tax office collected around Rp7.2 trillion, just a fifth of the total Rp36 trillion in tax arrears.
Almost a third of state revenue goes on serving domestic and foreign debt, as well as fuel subsidies and poverty-alleviation programs.
Increasing tax receipts will help plug the budget deficit and alleviate the need to fully finance the state budget without having to resort to even more foreign borrowing. But at the end of the day, it's investment that is desperately needed.
"Businesses are already going to China, Vietnam and one of the main problems is our tax policy. Even Indonesian businesses are investing elsewhere," KPEN chairman Wanandi pointed out.
In the meantime, it's business as usual. Last year, under strong pressure to increase income tax receipts, Purnomo responded by using gijzeling -- the Dutch term for detention without trial used in the Indonesian legal system -- to jail two tax evaders, one of them a foreigner.
On Monday, tax office officials announced that an unnamed businessman from Bali will also be jailed for alleged non- cooperation in settling tax arrears.
[Bill Guerin has worked for 19 years in Indonesia as a journalist and editor. He specializes in business/economy issues and political analysis. He has been a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000 and has also been published by the BBC on East Timor.]
| Opinion & analysis |
Jakarta Post Opinion - August 11, 2004
Kusnanto Anggoro, Jakarta -- There are quite a few positive sides to the territorial structure of the Indonesian Military (TNI), as ID Nugroho and Netty Dharma Somba wrote in this newspaper on August 6.
True, on the positive side, an example can be made of how the presence of the TNI throughout the country can contribute positively to the lives of locals. One should not dispute that besides monitoring borders with neighboring countries, TNI personnel may be tasked with providing health services, teaching and other services for local residents.
Nevertheless, it should be clear from the very beginning that the primary role of the military can only be for waging war, in which the military may fulfill combat, intelligence or territorial responsibilities.
The last two are meant only to strengthen the combat capability of the military. The territorial function, in this regard, has little to do with the community, other than, perhaps, providing military training to reservists.
The positive sides of the territorial structure that Nugroho and Netty identified are part of the secondary role of the military. These roles include stability operations, humanitarian assistance, search and rescue, and other services to the community.
None of these strengthen the combat capability of the military and, more importantly, fall into the category of support to civilian government.
It is important to note that territorial structure must not be confused with territorial functions. The territorial structure relates to modes of force deployment, command organization and logistical support that enables the TNI to perform its military tasks, such as successful military operations. The military regional command is just one of the possible structures in defending state territory and sovereignty as well as safeguarding the nation.
Geographic realities, threat assessment and technology are factors that must be taken into account in designing the nerve and bone of future territorial structure.
Meanwhile, territorial functions relate to the preparation and use of national wealth as defense resources and, in the end, of course, military assets (such as soldiers, weaponry and logistics).
One cannot have a successful military operation without the support of good roads, airports and sea ports and patriotic citizens. However, the military institutions should have no direct control over any of these.
It is the role of civilian institutions to transform a reasonable part of national resources into defense resources, and finally into military resources. In this context, the Department of Defense should decide how much, when, and where defense resources be developed from national resources.
The role of the armed forces in this context is limited to making recommendations to the minister of defense on required capability.
The territorial function, as we know it today, has less to do with territorial structure. The military will still be able to conduct its secondary role, even if the government opts to transform the existing territorial command into a different (territorial) structure.
At the same time, an abusive territorial function of the military may still prevail unless we have clear regulations on how, when and where to use the military.
As I mentioned in a discourse (The Jakarta Post August 6), the TNI bill provides no significant foundation to develop a professional armed force.
The absence of a strategic defense review, lack of authority for the defense ministry and a rigid orthodoxy in the current military leadership may even hamper enhancement of the military's competence.
As a legal instrument, the bill fails to clarify the unresolved complexity that emerges from MPR Decree No. VII/2000 and the defense bill.
More importantly, formulations of "territorial functions" as a role of the armed forces stem from an erroneous conception. Article 8, for example, considers such a function a distinct task, alongside military operations for war and military operations other than war.
The article reflects not only a misconception about the primary and secondary roles, but also mixes up the roles and tasks of the military.
It is just like a journalist saying that his role is reporting, writing and interviewing.
The "territorial function" should be part of either "operations for war" or "other than war". Within the context of "operation for war", the territorial function could be derived into more specific tasks and there is a possibility for the military to use local potential to strengthen its combat and intelligence capability.
Nevertheless, this "military-related territorial function" would still require authorization from the government.
Within the context of military operations "other than war", tasks of the military may include fighting armed insurgencies and separatists, combating terrorism, rescuing noncombatants from war zones, supporting civilian agencies in the "war on drugs," rendering humanitarian assistance, as well as disaster relief, peacekeeping operations and a myriad other tasks.
The essence of this is that support relates to "nonmilitary- related" territorial function. The problem is that there is no clue what the bill means by "territorial function".
Other regulations do not help. MPR Decree No. VI/2000 (Article 4) and the Defense Act 2002 (Article 10C) includes civic mission, support to the police forces and civilian government, search and rescue and humanitarian assistance.
These are erroneous classifications. It would be a lot simpler to define it either as a supporting task for stability, humanitarian and welfare objectives; or for civilian government, police and community; or other more clearly defined categories.
In such an erroneous category, the use of "civic mission" may remind people of a meddling role of the military in the everyday lives of the people.
Indeed, the bill does acknowledge that the military can engage in territorial functions on the call of civilian institutions.
Unfortunately, the regulations are insufficient to place this function under democratic civilian control. Relations between military institutions and civilian institutions, including the police forces, remain problematic. Basically, the military retains its privilege and remains independent of democratic control. In any event, the secondary role of the military must not undermine the capacity of either the civilian or military institutions. It should not contradict democracy and security.
The military argues that civilians should no longer worry about the military's involvement in politics. Nevertheless, disciplinary measures remain a serious problem in the military.
One must be cautious in transforming the territorial command. We may not be able to do so unless the government is prepared to allocate more to defense. Nevertheless, we can abolish the territorial function without much damage to the operational capability of the military. With better planning, abolishing the territorial function would improve force structure.
Part of the routine budget could be reallocated to development and maintenance and/or be redistributed within the routine budget to provide a better salary for soldiers.
[The writer is a senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a lecturer in the postgraduate studies program, University of Indonesia, Jakarta. The suggestions and thoughts of Ponny Retno Astuti on this article are greatly appreciated.]
Jakarta Post Editorial - August 11, 2004
A public debate is raging over the Indonesian Military (TNI) bill. As the TNI maintains that a law is needed to justify its duties, activists burn placards in dissent, claiming the bill protracts the military's engagement in politics. Observers and political scientists wrangle at great length over definitions of "command" and "structure", while legislators hold public hearings in a state of bemusement as though their minds were already made up, in spite of the arguments presented.
Much of the debate's essence is beyond the grasp of the layman, and those involved have failed to answer the question of "so what?" with respect to the bill's relevance to a person's daily life. More importantly, draftsmen of the bill also seem oblivious to the underlying concerns of its opponents.
Combined, these factors provide many average Indonesians -- despite their lacking knowledge of legislative technicalities -- a reason to suspect the TNI's shadowy presence. At the crux of the issue is a matter of trust.
After its active role in supporting an autocracy for 32 years, the TNI cannot expect public perceptions to change overnight -- or over the relatively short span of six years, for that matter.
Trust is earned, and the TNI has not worked hard enough for it.
They would do well to remember former US Army chief of staff George Marshall who, in a letter to a subordinate in 1943, underlined the necessity of maintaining public trust at all costs.
"We [the military] have a great asset, and that is our people, who do not distrust us and do not fear us. Our countrymen, our fellow citizens, are not afraid of us. They don't harbor any concerns that we intend to alter the government of the country or the nature of this government ... That is a sacred trust," Marshall wrote.
While we commend the TNI for seemingly taking a backseat in politics at the start of the reform era, we have noticed subtle, incremental encroachments of the TNI's influence in recent developments.
One reason for this has been the inherent fallibility of the President's obsession with national unity. Her hyper-nationalism prompted a realist approach that turned into a love affair with the Indonesian Military, allowing them to commence large-scale operations in Aceh, among other concessions.
A presumption also exists that when chaos emerges -- whether perceived or real -- for whatever reason, the TNI is "duty-bound" to step in and "restore order".
Traditionally, the TNI has been mindful of staying in the background and allowing political dynamics to dictate the course of where and when they might be thrust into the foreground again.
Hence, despite all its claims and adherence to constitutional and legislative processes, the TNI's future plans remain an unknown and of public concern.
The TNI bill is just one aspect of the problematic civilian- military relationship, and other issues will arise on its role in our democratically evolving political system, all stemming from an underlying suspicion that has had over three decades to take root.
In the end, it is a question of public trust -- something in short supply when it comes to the military.
Civilian supremacy over military command should be established as an unquestioned principle, irrespective of the prevailing circumstances.
The TNI must validate its own slogan of being "the people's army" and respect universal and constitutional rights -- as is expected of all citizens -- and relinquish the preferential treatment it has enjoyed.
As one of our greatest generals and conceptualizer of the military's dual-function, A.H. Nasution, in a speech to cadets at the Military Academy in 1958 noted, the armed forces "is but one of the many elements of the state" and should not be endowed with privileges nor estates above others.