Aceh

Minister admits misuse of relief funds

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The government admitted on Thursday that the management of public donations for the tsunami survivors in Aceh and North Sumatra had been tainted by malfeasance.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said that a balance sheet of public donations drawn up by his office revealed the disbursement of a sum of money for a purpose that was not in any way related to the relief effort.

"The balance sheet shows that a large amount of money was paid out to help organize the recent Infrastructure Summit. I am baffled as to what this summit had to do with the tsunami," Alwi said during a meeting with a House of Representatives-sanctioned team tasked with monitoring the government's handling of the relief operation in Aceh.

Alwi, who also chairs the National Relief Committee, said he was determined to fully account for the use of all the relief funds contributed by government and private sector institutions, and individuals all over the country.

"I could have altered the balance sheet by stating that the sum of money was to be used for mass burials or something else, but that would have been a lie. I want to say here, however, that the balance sheet was drawn up by my subordinates," Alwi said.

The balance sheet -- copies of which have yet to be made available to the public as it is still being finalized in advance of the next Cabinet meeting, shows that a sum of Rp 200 million (US$22,000) was disbursed to help pay for the Infrastructure Summit on January 17 in Jakarta.

The balance sheet, seen by The Jakarta Post, reveals that the government has received Rp 914 billion from the public and has spent Rp 114 billion on relief operations in the tsunami-stricken areas.

Alwi said the government proposed to deposit all the donations in a single account from which all disbursements of the remaining monies could easily be monitored.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Acehnese public figures said during a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla that the public should be allowed to participate in the auditing of relief funds.

"Public participation is a must in the audit process to ensure transparency and also to convince donor countries, given our reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world," delegation member Asna Husein told reporters after the meeting.

The delegates also urged the government to include Acehnese figures in a public campaign to lift the spirits of the tsunami victims.

Responding to the delegation's requests, Kalla was quoted by Asna as saying that the government would do its best to comply.

Kalla was also quoted as saying that most of the countries that had pledged financial assistance for the reconstruction effort in Aceh had yet to come good on their promises.

Any backtracking on aid pledges or failures to deliver could hinder full reconstruction in Aceh, Asna added.

"The Vice President said that the government would talk directly to donors to encourage them to realize their commitments," she said during a press conference after the meeting.

High-stakes talks over peace in Aceh

Asia Times - January 28, 2005

Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- Tsunami-devastated Aceh, which only a month ago was a war zone, has now become the testing ground for a concerted push to persuade the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence, to lay down its arms.

A top-level ministerial team from Indonesia left for Finland on Wednesday to prepare for a planned three days of peace talks in Helsinki with the exiled leaders of the guerilla campaign, including self-styled Aceh prime minister Malik Makhmud and minister of foreign affairs Zaini Abdullah.

Although the natural disaster has left at least 95,000 dead and 133,000 missing, presumed dead in Indonesia, the toll in human life from the separatist conflict in that country has also been horrendous, with at least 14,000 people, mostly civilians, killed during 29 years of fighting.

Prior to the tsunami, Aceh had received scant attention, if any, from Washington. But since disaster struck, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to Jakarta, has indicated that Washington expects the impasse between the government and the rebels to be resolved -- and soon. The talks, scheduled to begin as early as Friday, will mark the first time the two sides have come together to discuss a resolution to the conflict since the breakdown of a peace accord in May 2003.

The team from Indonesia is headed by Admiral Widodo Adi Sutjipto, coordinating minister of security. State Minister of Communication and Information Sofyan A Djalil, an Acehnese by birth, and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin, who is close to Vice President Yufuf Kalla, accompany Sutjipto, who commanded the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) during the Abdurrahman Wahid administration from October 1999 to June 2002.

Awaluddin is to be the chief negotiator in the talks. Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and former Aceh military commander Major General Syarifuddin Tippe are also part of the delegation. Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president, will mediate the talks through his Crisis Management Initiative group.

The stakes in Helsinki

Though a GAM official has been quoted as saying that the Helsinki meeting should focus only on reaching a ceasefire, in reality the stakes are much higher. To describe GAM's position as weak would be grossly understating the reality that they now have nowhere to run.

The rebels have been fighting for an independent state for the 4 million or so people of Aceh. But independence is not on the table now, nor is it likely ever to be. The government has long discounted any chance of an East Timor-style referendum, which resulted in the loss of a province and a vast swath of the military's business empire.

Thus, any proposals from Jakarta are likely only to be based on a very special autonomy package, a variation on the existing autonomy given by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri in June 2002, which allows the province to impose Islamic law and keep a greater share of the revenue generated by its vast natural resources. GAM agreed to use that autonomy deal as a starting point, but also said it wanted nothing short of independence.

GAM appears to recognize that its leaders, exiled in Sweden, will be negotiating from a weak position. Their main spokesman in Aceh, Sofyan Dawood, acknowledged on Tuesday that although they were still fighting for their "mission" for independence, they welcomed any means besides violence and armed contact to solve the matter. Any moral high ground the rebels may have held up until now is rapidly disappearing under a massive onslaught of foreign aid being delivered to their beloved province by their mortal enemy, the TNI, whose "mission" is still to "crush" them out of existence.

The army's territorial network, with commands all the way down to the district levels, served in the past to help maintain internal security, but in the last month it has proved to be of immense value as a conduit for distributing aid. Foreign troops and international aid workers also are on the ground in droves helping the Acehnese people. It all adds up to a big loss of face for the separatists, who claim to represent the people of Aceh and to be thinking only of them in these tragic circumstances.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono, who became the first-ever civilian defense minister when appointed by Wahid in 1999, added to perceptions of the rebels as the bad guys when praising the military. "I see pictures of TNI troops and foreign military personnel where they are working together in foreign magazines. It really made me feel proud," said Sudarsono, who was not invited to the peace talks.

Pursuits to peace in Aceh

The government's commitment to sue for peace has been unwavering since the disaster. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has met ambassadors from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and even Libya, where several rebels were trained in the past, to suss out how best to deal with the Aceh issue.

Legislators are also largely behind the drive for peace. Hidayat Nurwahid, speaker of the country's highest legislative body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), said on Wednesday that the Aceh problem was one for Indonesia to resolve and he hoped that the Helsinki talks would have a major impact on the chances for peace.

According to Nurwahid, the talks should also aim at minimizing incidents that have increased the chances of aid not being delivered to those in need.

Separately, the leader of the House of Representatives (DPR), Agung Laksono, said he hoped the talks would lead to a momentum that would produce an end to the conflict once and for all. "Not only a temporary halt to the conflict, but also an end to all combat there," he said.

Though he currently enjoys a massive popular mandate from his people and, for the moment, has the support of most politicians, Yudhoyono, dubbed the "thinking general", faces a difficult task persuading the military top brass to go along with his moves to seek a settlement with the rebels.

Army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu, a staunch nationalist, has been quoted by local media as saying he did not understand the government's call for fresh peace talks with the rebels because the conflict could only be resolved if GAM put down its weapons and abandoned its fight for independence. "If GAM refuse to give up, then we strike them. Why is it so difficult?" the general asked.

Nonetheless, TNI has failed abjectly in its counter-insurgency operations to wipe out the separatists. Though GAM never discusses its troop strength, independent estimates suggest that little more than 2,500 rebel troops remain active on the ground in Aceh.

Should GAM reject the terms of any new peace deal, for whatever reason, it will end up as public enemy No 1, not only in the eyes of TNI, the central government, and the Indonesian people, including the Acehnese themselves, but also, perhaps fatally for the movement, in the eyes of the United States.

While Yudhoyono, one of the last Indonesian officers to train in the US and a graduate of two US military schools, is anxious to improve relations with Washington, many say the US has entered the fray over Aceh far too soon and much too harshly.

Breaching the sovereign privilege of an independent nation by interfering in domestic affairs is nothing new for the administration of President George W Bush, but it seems the height of folly for Wolfowitz, who should have known better than to ruffle feathers and threaten TNI at a time when diplomacy is the order of the day all around.

"If the military gets in the way of that, then the military should be pushed to get out of the way," Wolfowitz said during an interview last week on the Australian PBS network program News Hour, after calling for a political resolution of "that" problem in Aceh.

Still, it could all work out for the bestin the end and, as Wolfowitz commented in one of his more thoughtful moments, give meaning to the tragedy by moving toward a better future.

[Bill Guerin, a weekly Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times Online since 2000, has worked in Indonesia for 19 years in journalism and editorial positions. He has been published by the BBC on East Timor and specializes in business/economic and political analysis in Indonesia.]

House urges delay of Aceh elections

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Jakarta -- The House of Representatives' Commission II for home and regional affairs has recommended the government delay the direct elections of local executive heads in tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

Commission member Abdul Gafur said on Thursday the proposed delay be imposed until the conditions improved in Aceh.

"The home affairs minister must prepare a legal basis for the delay," he said.

Out of the 20 regents and mayors in Aceh, at least 10 will end their five-year terms in February. The government has decided that direct elections for regional heads will start in June at the latest throughout the country.

The commission made the recommendation after a series of hearings with the home affairs minister, the state minister for state administrative reforms, and the state agrarian agency.

The price of peace talks for troubled Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- The wheels of diplomacy and bureaucracy are notoriously slow. Apparently not so in the case of this weekend's peace talks between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government, in Helsinki.

After talks broke down in 2003, the military, yet again, launched an extensive operation to wipe out GAM forces. Prior to the tsunamis, no resolution, ostensible or otherwise, was in sight. Less than a month later, the two sides were suddenly rushing to the Finnish capital for negotiations.

The scale of the devastation was clearly the catalyst of the new talks, but the expedience with which the two sides agreed to confer suggests more than that.

While the coming meeting is being facilitated by the Finland- based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), it is strongly believed that Jakarta had privately contacted various GAM representatives, even before the tsunami. The disaster of December 26, in effect, merely accelerated the process.

Various sources consistently point to the role of Vice President Jusuf Kalla. In fact, even before Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had been confirmed President, Kalla had privately divulged that he had been tasked by his running-mate to pursue peace talks on Aceh.

Kalla has certainly built a reputation as the "peacemaker" through his relative success in Poso and Maluku; and, even as coordinating minister, he had attempted to engage GAM officials at home and abroad.

For the latest initiative, Kalla employed his close circle of fellow Makassar aides along with Aceh-born officers to make initial contact some two months ago.

Through a series of "middlemen", it is believed that preliminary meetings were held with GAM allies and kin in Malaysia who, it was hoped, could convince hard-line elements in Aceh -- led by GAM Commander Muzakkir Manaf -- to at least consider the proposals put forward.

It is not inconceivable, as some have suggested, that cash was channeled to secure the meeting with either GAM allies in Malaysia or the GAM commander.

Curiously, the meeting did not immediately take place. Sources suggest two alternative accounts: the money was disbursed to "brokers" but the intended meeting was never set up; or that GAM representatives in Malaysia refused to meet with Kalla's people.

A meeting eventually did take place, however, about a week before the tsunami struck, and after President Susilo dispatched two respected Acehnese clerics. It was during this meeting -- believed to be in Kuala Lumpur -- that the latest proposals were relayed by the clerics.

Apart from the unimpressive pledge of ensuring the welfare of the province, rebel leaders were offered amnesty and a safe passage to foreign exile. In return, a one-time "compensation" package, in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars -- if we are to believe the accounts of some -- would be paid out. In short, this was an attempt to buy off the rebels.

For the architects of this plan, the current GAM force could be divided into three: the ideologists, the regular leaders and the criminals.

The first and third were the minority. The first could not be changed, no matter what, while the third group just needed to be rounded up and jailed. Without the second group, it was concluded, the rebellion would dwindle.

Where would that astronomical amount of money come from? It is not difficult to imagine foreign donors with long term natural- resource interests in Aceh pitching in to "buy" peace in the province.

Whether such an offer is morally acceptable is debatable, but if it is truly the only one on the table than negotiators in the next three days will certainly reach an impasse.

It would become particularly complicated if GAM representatives arrived in Helsinki with the perspective that the talks were merely preliminary, with the simple intent of confirming a cease-fire.

It is clear that Jakarta does not want to be dragged into lengthy negotiations, which would only serve to raise GAM's profile as a political entity. For a military man like Susilo, it is also inconceivable to accept anything less than a reaffirmation of Aceh as part of the unitary state.

Hence, despite the high hopes, neither side seems to be entering the talks with compromise in mind. Otherwise the question could be as simple as "what price, then, is peace?".

Acehnese pins hope on Helsinki talks

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Tony Hotland and Ruslan Sangadji, Banda Aceh -- The Acehnese have long dreamed of peace and prosperity in their homeland, which has seen decades of conflict and, at the end of last year, tsunamis that left more than 166,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead.

Local religious leaders and other community figures urged on Wednesday the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to end the separatist conflict in the predominantly Muslim Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

The plea came as the government and rebel group leaders geared up for renewed peace talks in Helsinki, Finland, later this week, following the devastating tidal waves, which many have suggested provided a chance for peace in Aceh.

"The warring parties must sit together and be willing to backtrack, rather than stubbornly maintaining their different stances, because such an attitude cannot result in anything positive and will only prolong the misery of the Acehnese," Tengku Baihaqi Yahya, secretary-general of the Aceh association of the Dayah Muslim scholars, told The Jakarta Post in Banda Aceh.

He said an earlier series of negotiations between the rebels and the government -- who once reached a truce, albeit temporary, in 2002 -- had broken down, due to both sides' unwillingness to compromise.

In the end, those who suffered the most were the ordinary, innocent people of Aceh, he added. "Everything that happens here, and is related to the TNI [the Indonesian Military]-GAM conflict, has caused nothing but suffering and trauma for the Acehnese. And, if the next peace talks are not successful, it will be everybody's loss.

"You can imagine how much money the government has spent on its military operations here. But after all that, nothing better has emerged for the Acehnese. Do they want to continue in this way, after such a disaster?" Tengku Baihaqi said.

He called on both the TNI and GAM to involve local Muslim leaders in peace talks this week, arguing that religious figures are eager to participate, as long as their security is assured. "Therefore, the talks should be held in a Muslim country instead of Finland," he said.

Similarly, Acehnese figure Hasballah M. Saad suggested that the government and the separatist group should put the interests of the local people as its top priority during the peace talks. He expressed hopes that the planned dialog would result in a chance for the two sides to focus on rebuilding Aceh after the catastrophic tsunami.

"They only need a common understanding. If the demand for Aceh's independence is impossible, they have to formulate another resolution," said the former human rights minister.

Hasballah said the amnesty offer proposed by President Susilo Yudhoyono for GAM members could become a starting point for a brighter future in Aceh.

If GAM did not get involved in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Aceh, the rebels could not claim themselves as freedom fighters struggling on behalf of all Acehnese people, he explained. The most important thing is that both sides should use common sense during the peace talks, he added.

A similar sentiment was expressed by Tengku Muslim Ibrahim, chairman of the Aceh Muslim Scholar's Consultative Assembly, who said that the Acehnese had suffered "more than enough for nothing", due to the separatist conflict. He said the tsunami catastrophe could be viewed as a chance to stop the violence.

Ordinary people have voiced their own appeals for peace. "Please, try your best during the talks, we need peace here. Make it work this time, so we no longer live in fear. Personally, I want Aceh to remain part of Indonesia, so GAM must surrender," said Teuku Darnis, 49, who works for a labor agency in Aceh. "In fact, I don't care whether we are independent or not, as long as our lives improve," said another resident, Helmi.

Foreign assistance draws few complaints in Aceh

Washington Post - January 27, 2005

Alan Sipress, Lhoknga -- Ali, a scruffy Acehnese truck driver turned tsunami refugee, said he wasn't sure who provided him with a sack of rice, bottled water, a blanket and a few other meager provisions, just that they were foreigners.

Brushing aside flies, he knelt in a corner of his tent and pointed to the sky when asked where the supplies had come from. One item was a silver packet labeled "Shortbread" in English. Another larger brown package was stamped "Red Beans and Rice." They appeared to be US military food rations.

"The foreigners are the only ones who gave us anything. We haven't gotten anything from the Indonesian government," said Ali, 43, a sad-eyed man with curly hair and a scraggly beard. "If the foreign soldiers leave Aceh, the Acehnese people will starve to death."

A heated debate over how long US and other foreign troops should be allowed to remain in Indonesia has been dominated by political and military leaders based in Jakarta, the capital.

The country's welfare minister, for example, told reporters Sunday that it was "only logical" that foreign forces begin pulling out. "The emergency phase is almost behind us, so the military will no longer give their contribution," said Alwi Shihab, referring to US, Singaporean and other foreign troops.

But in more than two dozen interviews in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province, residents unanimously said that foreign forces should remain for at least several years. Acehnese, from homeless rice farmers to professors and local officials, said the troops should help with reconstruction and serve as a check on Indonesian security forces, widely feared in the province because of their heavy-handed campaign against separatist rebels, known as the Free Aceh Movement. The rebels have been fighting for autonomy for decades.

The desire of many Acehnese that the foreign forces stay reflects frustration with domestic relief efforts but also an alienation from Indonesia born of 29 years of civil war.

The tsunami that crashed into 11 Indian Ocean countries on December 26, killing an estimated 150,000 people, triggered an unprecedented international relief campaign. At least 12 countries, including the United States, provided military support operations, and about 100 UN agencies and private humanitarian groups rushed to the stricken area. But many Indonesian officials, party activists and senior military officers have demanded that US and other foreign troops depart within weeks.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, airing the nationalist sentiments of many Indonesians, called on the foreigners to leave by March 26. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, has softened the deadline, saying that some foreign military expertise and equipment might be needed beyond that date.

Adm. Thomas Fargo, head of the US Pacific Command, said recently that military forces involved in providing relief to countries struck by the tsunami were already beginning to withdraw and could be gone entirely by late March. The US military has deployed about 8,000 troops in and around Indonesia, mostly on ships off the coast.

Acehnese have been cautious in public about the foreign presence. The government's battle with the Free Aceh Movement has left the local population cowed, fearing interrogation, detention or even summary execution by one side or the other for voicing offending views.

As Ali and his wife shared their impatience over Indonesian relief efforts, they kept watch through the opening of the tent, lowering their voices whenever Indonesian army trucks, crowded with soldiers in green camouflage uniforms cradling automatic rifles, rumbled past. US Navy Sea Hawk helicopters roared overhead every few minutes, heading down the west coast to deliver aid.

"If it's possible, the foreign troops should stay here 50 years," Ali continued, almost pleading. He and other refugees said they feared being identified by the army and requested that they not be photographed or further identified. "If the international troops don't stay here for a long time, there will be corruption, and none of the assistance will get into our hands."

Sitting on a blue tarp in a plaid sarong and swatting flies with his folded yellow hat, Ali complained that Indonesian soldiers were hoarding foreign assistance and had confiscated one of the tents that a US helicopter had delivered to the relief camp he shares with about 35 others. Another refugee, Syaiful, 19, a high school student with floppy bangs, poked his head into the tent and seconded Ali's complaint, alleging that Indonesian soldiers had yanked a sack of rice out of his hands.

Acehnese in interviews repeatedly accused Indonesian soldiers of stealing foreign aid but said they feared reprisals if they reported the practice to authorities.

Ali said friends had been tortured by soldiers, and that he had been beaten at a police checkpoint by soldiers demanding a bribe.

"We've been praying to God that the government will withdraw the military from our place," he said with a scowl, thick furrows gathering above his eyes. "Under the supervision of foreign troops, we'll be free to move. Our farmers will be able to go into the fields and plant rice, and our fishermen will be able to fish. But if the Indonesian military is in charge, they stop us and point their guns at us."

Human rights groups have accused Indonesian security forces in recent years of committing abuses against Acehnese civilians in the course of fighting the insurgency. The Indonesian government has dismissed these charges, saying they target only the rebels.

The Indonesian government has also rejected allegations that soldiers are stealing assistance. Officials said tens of thousands of soldiers have been involved in clearing streets of corpses and delivering humanitarian assistance to refugees in Aceh. If relief aid did not arrive sooner, officials have said, it was because of a shortage of military equipment, in particular transport planes.

Isma, 23, a rail-thin woman dressed in a blue sweat suit, disagreed. "The international soldiers and aid workers help us sincerely. The Indonesian soldiers do not," she said. "I hope the international soldiers stay here for a long time," Isma said as she hung laundry on a clothesline outside an abandoned house near her camp. They can help the Acehnese people wake up from this nightmare. They can help develop Aceh and prevent war here so we can live in peace."

Hussein, 20, a bare-chested man in black trousers who had been drying cloves on a sheet in front of the house, walked over to join the conversation. He said he preferred the presence of foreign troops to government intervention.

"If the foreign groups and soldiers had not come, Aceh would still be dead," said the jobless laborer. "The government set the deadline for international soldiers to leave Aceh because they don't want the world to know the truth of what is happening."

Before the tsunami struck, Indonesia had restricted the access of foreign humanitarian workers and journalists to the province on grounds that they could be targeted by the rebels. Human rights groups and some foreign diplomats said the measures were meant to cover up abuses by the security forces.

Hussein said the government's greatest fear was that the world would learn that most Acehnese want to be independent. He also said he hoped the foreign presence would push peace negotiations between the government and the rebels.

But he said disaster relief was the immediate concern. "We can't allow the international soldiers to leave and let us starve," he said.

[Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.]

Indonesia buries over 100,000 tsunami victims

Reuters - January 27, 2005

Banda Aceh -- Indonesia has buried more than 100,000 tsunami victims, mostly in mass graves, a month after the disaster, the government said on Thursday.

Trucks manned by Indonesian soldiers and volunteers dumping bloated and rotting corpses into lime-coated pits have become a common sight around Aceh province on the northern island of Sumatra, which bore the brunt of the deaths.

With nearly 130,000 people still missing, and more than 1,000 bodies recovered daily from the mud and rubble on the northern tip of Sumatra island, the task could continue for weeks.

"The total number of bodies buried is 101,199. The number of missing is 127,749," said a statement from the tsunami crisis center in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Indonesia's health ministry said on Tuesday nearly 230,000 people were dead or missing as a result of the December 26 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Sumatra. Previously it had given a figure if some 173,000 dead, which included tens of thousands of missing.

The tsunami has left nearly 300,000 dead or missing around the Indian Ocean from Somalia to Thailand.

Acehnese kids get back to school

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Nani Afrida and Dedy Ardiansyah, Banda Aceh/Meulaboh -- As the sun rose over the devastated city of Banda Aceh on Wednesday morning, Maizul, a 40-year-old school teacher, was standing in front of a classroom at one of the city's schools.

While standing, she looked at a group of students chatting on the school grounds, and suddenly her eyes filled with tears. "I am moved that they are so high-spirited," said Maizul as she wiped away her tears.

Her students arrived at school on Wednesday, as many schools in the province were reopened.

The students did not have any classes on Wednesday because their school building, the Banda Aceh High School No. 1, was still filled with mud. They only reregistered themselves with the teachers and then returned to their homes or their displaced persons shelters.

The prestigious state school used to have an enrollment of 1,200 students before the tsunami disaster on December 26 But, on Wednesday, only about 800 students turned up.

Many of those were in a sorry state, despite their high spirits. Some students wore school uniforms and shoes, but many others only wore donated tee shirts and sandals.

Eka, for example, said she no longer had a school uniform because all of her belongings were swept away. "I am glad that I have been able to return to school, but at the same time, I am also sad because the condition of the school is now totally different," said the 15-year-old.

The official announcement that the schools were to be reopened was declared by the Minister of National Education, Bambang Soedibyo, during his visit to West Aceh regency on Aceh's western coast earlier in the week. During the visit, Bambang told reporters that the central government would restore the entire education system in Aceh, and he believed it could be completed by 2009.

In order to achieve the target, the government was preparing a grand plan, he said. The education rehabilitation would be accomplished in three steps. First, will be to reregister students, schools and teachers, then, the reconstruction of school buildings and finally the improvement of educational quality. He said that the government was allocating Rp 376 billion (US$41.7 million) for education rehabilitation in the province this year and the money would be taken from the state budget.

The effort seems to be a daunting task for the government as over 765 school buildings throughout Aceh were severely damaged or washed away by the tsunami. Due to severe damage to many schools, a great number of students had to study in damaged buildings or in makeshift schools set up at their displaced persons shelters.

Eka, meanwhile, could be considered relatively lucky as she will be able to resume her studies a her previous school. But, there are many other students who have had to study in tents at the camps, including Ulfa Amna, an elementary school student in Lhok Nga, Banda Aceh.

Ulfa was seen studying at temporary school set up by the United Nations's Children Fund (UNICEF) at her camp, along with her friends. On Wednesday, they studied math, art and composition on a tarpaulin "floor" inside a tent in Lhok Nga. "I am happy that I have many friends here and we can play together. But, I am longing for my old school," said Ulfa softly, quoted as saying by detik.com news portal.

Indonesian president offers Aceh rebels autonomy

Associated Press - January 27, 2005

Jakarta -- Indonesia's president on Thursday offered concessions to separatist rebels in tsunami-devastated Aceh province if they agree to a cease-fire in upcoming peace talks.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had offered rebel leaders "new talks for ending the conflict peacefully and wisely. I heard that the response is positive," he said in an interview with CNBC Asia Pacific television.

The warring sides are scheduled to meet in Helsinki, Finland, on Friday to try to hammer out a formal cease-fire. Indonesia wants the talks to be followed by more substantive negotiations on the status of Aceh.

The Free Aceh Movement, known by the Indonesian acronym GAM, has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the Holland-sized province of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island. A previous truce collapsed in 2003 when the Indonesian military launched a new offensive against the insurgents.

At the time, Indonesia's parliament approved a special autonomy package for the resource-rich province which would give its people self-government while keeping them within Indonesia, but the measure was never implemented because of the fighting.

Since assuming office 100 days ago, Yudhoyono has repeatedly said he wished to restart the peace process, and last month's tsunami, which badly damaged the province, has provided a catalyst for the talks.

"I have to continue our talks with GAM leadership with the hope that this momentum can be used wisely and properly by GAM as well as my government to terminate the conflict and to unite, rebuild Aceh peacefully," he said.

"If we agree to terminate the conflict based on the special autonomy status, I will give some concessions to them," Yudhoyono said, adding that these would include an amnesty for the rebels and measures to reintegrate rebel fighters.

Mediators at the talks have said the rebels are unlikely to agree to anything less than an internationally supervised independence referendum like the one that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor in 1999. Pro-independence sentiments are very strong in Aceh and Jakarta's rule is widely despised, making it likely that any free vote would result in a landslide victory for the separatists.

"Our struggle does not acknowledge any wide-ranging autonomy or special autonomy offered by Indonesia," said rebel leader Tengku Mucksalmina by telephone from his mountain hideout. "Our struggle is always to gain independence for Aceh."

"It is Indonesia which has to get out from our country, Aceh. Indonesia is the colonizer," he said, adding that the insurgents would respect whatever deal their leadership reached in Finland. Another key rebel demand has been the full withdrawal of Indonesian forces.

In the interview, Yudhoyono said the military presence would likely decrease after a cease-fire, but that some troops would remain. "Actually, it depends on how could we terminate the conflict," he said. "Because, after all, security is needed by our brothers and sisters in Aceh. That's the objective of deploying and employing military units in Aceh right now."

New Zealand asks for probe into flight bribery claims

Agence France Presse - January 27, 2005

Wellington -- New Zealand said on Thursday it will ask Indonesia to investigate claims that its military officers have been accepting bribes to place wealthy people on refugee flights out of tsunami-ravaged Aceh.

US-based Newsweek magazine said in a report that half the refugees who flew to Jakarta on a New Zealand air force Hercules flight this month were "well dressed people who paid up to US$80 to Indonesian military screeners to be allowed on to theplane."

The claim was made in an article on the relief effort in Aceh, which suffered the worst damage and casualties in the December 26 tsunami. Indonesian officials said more than 228,000 are presumed dead following the earthquake and tsunami, centered just off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province.

New Zealand foreign affairs minister Phil Goff said the allegations would be raised with Indonesian authorities, with a request they be investigated. If they proved to be true, New Zealand would expect action to be taken against anyone found guilty of corruption.

The primary task of the New Zealand flights was to take in supplies and medical personnel, he said. Rather than fly back empty, the aircraft were also flying evacuees out to Jakarta.

Indonesian officials are responsible for selecting those with the greatest need to be flown out. "There's no way that the New Zealand Defense Force can sift through people to find out who merited evacuation and who didn't," Goff said on Radio New Zealand.

Defense force spokeswoman Commander Sandy McKie said there were no plans to change the way the operation was running. "The system as it stands is working well," McKie told Radio New Zealand.

She said the priority was to get aid to Aceh and "if there are displaced people to go to Jakarta, then we will continue to carry them."

US troops said photographed giving aid to rebels

Banjarmasin Post - January 26, 2005

Meulaboh -- The two-faced attitude of United States troops in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami has been revealed. Apart from carrying out humanitarian missions, the troops from the US have been caught out providing logistical aid to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Calang, the capital of Aceh Jaya District.

This dual role of US troops was recorded in photos taken by officers from the Aceh Jaya Military District Command. Ujang R (55), a volunteer from Bandung, saw the photos of US soldiers giving logistical aid to an armed civilian group in Aceh Jaya.

"I was shown the photos. But I don't know when and where the incident happened," said Ujang, after arriving in Meulaboh from Calang. What was clear was that "those receiving it were armed civilians, and who else would they be except GAM" said this fan of travelling.

According to Ujang, the situation in Calang was still dilemmatic. The impact of the disaster in the city was unbelievably bad, in fact the whole city, which is on the coast of the Indian Ocean, had been wiped out. So immediate aid was needed.

But humanitarian volunteers coming to the place were being pressured and limited from two camps at the same time: TNI [Indonesian National Military Forces] and armed civilian groups. "This is what has been hampering our movements," said Ujang.

Apart from organic troops [i.e. those under local area command], the area was being guarded by non-organic troops from the TNI marines and Kopassus [the special forces]. They were the ones strictly limiting the movements of volunteers, and frequently overseeing every phase of humanitarian operations.

"In the mornings we were ordered to report in, and also in the afternoons when we got back. If we wanted to go anywhere we'd be asked why, where, and what we were taking. It was as though they wanted to limit direct contact with those locals who survived the disaster," Ujang said.

This city on the western coast of Aceh is on the black zone list of bases of the Free Aceh armed civilian group.

Banjarmasin Post journalist Dhony Harjo Saputro, who has just returned from Banda Aceh, said that the Meulaboh District, one of the regions 90 per cent totally destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami, was a GAM base.

At the moment almost two thousand military personnel (TNI, ed.) were monitoring the area closely. "Every day, hundreds of TNI personnel from the Special Forces sweep the area," he said.

The information concerning US troops dropping logistics to armed civilian groups has only just become a topic for discussion amongst certain groups.

However, it is thought that senior TNI officers have already received reports of it. "The thing is that the Commander (Gen E. Sutarto) went to Calang last week, and I think it's been reported. The Commander also dropped by our post there," said Ujang.

TNI Information Chief Maj-Gen Syafrie Syamsudin could not be contacted for confirmation at the time of this report. Neither could the Military Provincial Commander of 012/Teuku Umar, Col Geerhan Lantara, who is based in Meulaboh.

Meanwhile, in Banda Aceh yesterday [25 Jan], TNI Commander Gen Endriartono Sutarto stressed that security restoration operations were still being conducted. The frequency of armed contact between TNI and GAM, Sutarto said, had also increased. There are currently around 60,000 TNI personnel in the Aceh region.

[From BBC Monitoring Service.]

Tsunami impact: Nobel Peace Laureate calls for Aceh peace

Interpress News Service - January 26, 2005

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok -- East Timor's Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo is appealing for peace to be given a chance in tsunami-hit Aceh as an Indonesian top-level team meets with Acehnese rebels later this week at talks in Finland.

"We hope that this meeting can bring forth some solutions or some way to create peace and mutual understanding in Aceh," said Bishop Belo, the Catholic Church's former apostolic administrator of East Timor's capital Dili.

"There is a movement to claim the independence of Aceh. The Indonesian people and the Acehnese should sit down, now, and through dialogue work this out," he told journalists at a meeting on Tuesday.

In 1996 Bishop Belo shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's present Foreign Minister, for standing up to the Indonesians in the East Timorese fight for independence -- a violent struggle which began after the Indonesian armed forces invaded the former Portuguese colony on December 7, 1975.

At the time of East Timor's UN-sponsored independence referendum in August 1999 when the territory voted to break away from Indonesia, Indonesian Army (TNI)-sponsored militia gangs attacked and burnt Bishop Belo's residence where hundreds of refugees were sheltering. Shots were fired at him and he was bundled into a car by Indonesian officers and flown to Baucau city, about 200 kilometers outside Dili.

In November 2002, Bishop Belo resigned as Dili's apostolic administrator citing physical and psychological exhaustion that "required a long period of rest." He then went off to Mozambique to do missionary work in the Portuguese-speaking African nation.

"The chances for peace in Aceh are always there. It will take time -- for East Timor it took 25 years. We have to have hope and perseverance," said Bishop Belo. "But on the other hand it is important that Indonesia shows social justice to the Acehnese people," he emphasised. "Peace and human rights go hand-in-hand."

The talks between the Indonesian government delegation and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement -- known by its Indonesian acronym as GAM -- are tentatively due to begin in the Finnish capital Helsinki as early as Friday.

This would be the first face-to-face meeting between the Indonesians and GAM since the May 2003 collapse of a prior peace agreement.

But Aceh was already a killing field before the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami wreaked havoc on the land.

Killer waves, spawned by a 9.0 earthquake in Meulaboh in western Aceh, lashed the province killing more than 95,000 Indonesians. A further 133,000 are listed as missing, presumed dead -- while the exact number of victims will probably never be known. The number of homeless is estimated at 800,000.

In the province, at the present moment, are some 1,700 foreign troops and 2,500 foreign aid workers -- who have joined hands in the international relief efforts.

Before the tsunami struck, Aceh has been almost entirely closed to any international presence due to military operations against the GAM, which has been fighting for independence since 1976. More than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since then.

The government put the province under martial law on May 19, 2003 before reducing this to a state of civil emergency one year later.

News reports from Jakarta said hundreds of Indonesian army troops were raiding GAM hideouts across East and North Aceh, which had been devastated by the tsunami. Also, 15,000 extra troops are being rushed to Aceh, on top of the 40,000 already there, to help with humanitarian activities.

"For the Acehnese, the tens of thousands of soldiers in the province are not a source of security; they are equivalent to a plague of locusts," said John Roosa, an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

"The TNI troops are expected to earn their own money, as the government covers only a part of their expenses. Thus, checkpoints have become moneymaking franchises; soldiers shakedown passing truckers, motorists, and motorcyclists," added Roosa in an e-mail interview.

The talks between Indonesia and GAM are under the auspices of the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative group led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

Nonetheless, there are signs that a fragile ceasefire negotiated between TNI and GAM -- soon after the tsunami struck -- has already been broken.

On Monday, GAM issued a statement saying said five of its guerrillas had recently been killed in a government ambush, despite the military's pledge to focus on relief efforts rather than fighting.

"Looking back, the initial statements of a cease-fire were a moot point, given that the devastation made it implausible to engage in combat operations on either side," said 'The Jakarta Post' newspaper in its Tuesday editorial.

"Nevertheless, it is not too late to hope that the tsunami tragedy can become a catalyst to promote a more passive chapter in the province's troubled history," added the daily.

This call has also been echoed by the Aceh-based SIRA group -- a students' body campaigning for a referendum in the province.

"The international community must use this opportunity provided by the tsunami to achieve something positive for the Acehnese people," said Nasrudin Abubakar, a member of SIRA's presidium council.

"The Acehnese people have suffered enough. Let them live peacefully, let their children go to school, let women walk around without fear of being raped or killed," he told IPS.

An Acehnese child and the voices of ghosts

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

Santi Soekanto, Aceh -- Nina recounted her story to me in the Lamsujen refugee camp in Lhoong subdistrict, Aceh Besar, on January 3. This is what she said: "Assalam mualai'kum. My name is Nina Maulidia Rizka. Call me Nina. I am now 11 years old. I was born in a beautiful village, called Gleebruek, in the sub- district Lhoong, Aceh Besar District.

There was no place as pretty as my village. Along with dozens of other villages, Gleebruek lay in a valley at the foot of a hill that overlooked the Indian Ocean.

My parents, Sabri and Jamiah, gave me that beautiful name because I was born on the day that my villagers celebrated the birthday of Prophet Muhammad; we called the day Maulid. Growing up, I spent my days the way other children my age did, going to school, doing sums, and playing in our spare time.

My big brother Ilham, my younger brother Sidik, and my baby sister Dinda Sulisna used to play by the sea where there were lots and lots of coconut trees and visitors from out of town spending their holidays. Very often, Dinda tagged along behind me even though I did not like it, but my mother made me mind her.

One day, all this changed.

I was minding Dinda and playing by the foot of the hill when suddenly we felt the earth shake. "It's an earthquake!" I heard someone shout, shortly before I saw my neighbors rush out of their homes in panic.

There was confusion but a short while later we had gathered in small groups outside our homes. Then, suddenly, we heard the most horrible, horrible sound of the ocean crashing against the beach, a noise as loud as hundreds of helicopters! 'The waves are rising ... run, run!' I heard people shout. I took a second to look at the black tongues of the ocean, as high as the coconut trees rushing toward us, before fleeing in panic.

I remembered to drag Dinda along but the water came very quickly. Its tentacles kept lunging at us. Soon, I saw people overtaken by the waves, drowning, drowning. I kept running while dragging Dinda with me, but the water was much faster and it took Dinda from my hands.

Then I saw somebody fish her out of the water before carrying her while he kept on running. I followed, until we reached the hill. We beat the waves.

But the waves beat my parents. The ocean took my parents away. My brother Sidik disappeared too. I met Ilham among people who reached safety at the military post and the subdistrict head's office. But the rest of my family is no more.

I still have my grandmother, Al-hamdu lillah (thanks be to God), and my blind aunt, 22-year-old Yusmanidar, and llham and Dinda. But we have no home now.

What we have now is a beach that is completely ruined, no longer beautiful after so many bodies were found there. Pak Camat, the subdistrict head, and all the other grown men spent days burying those corpses. I would have known if they found my parents; I think the ocean really took them away.

Dinda, Ilham and I are now living together with hundreds of people from the other villages by the sea, in a school building in a hilly village called Lamsujen.

Lamsujen is a funny name. In Acehnese, it means "the voices of ghosts." Sometimes I think I really hear the voices of ghosts. If I shout at the top of my lungs, the hills answer back with strange noises. I do not do that very often because people will stare. Sometimes I try to find the voices of father and mother among those voices of the ghosts.

Several days after the earthquakes and the waves, some friends and I went down to the sea to look at what used to be our homes. The ocean had left nothing. Not a single house was found.

Every building that had ever been erected was now gone except for maybe several blocks of tiles. Trees and concrete pillars were uprooted and lying every which way.

The soil became a sea of yellow sand. Seaweed was found on the tree tops at the foot of the hill.

My beautiful village is no more.

It is strange being among so many people who do not have a mother or father. Thankfully, Pak Camat works really hard to make sure that we have food every day, but actually, the food is never enough. I go to bed hungry all the time.

I wish I could be back home again with mother and father, going to school and doing my lessons. Now my school is no more. My books are all gone. I am thankful that unlike many other children, Dinda and I are not sick.

I do miss my mother and father, but so do the other kids in this refugee camp. That's Amirullah from Cundin village. He is 14 years old, and he lost both his parents too. Anwar, who is a year older, lost both parents and three siblings.

Then there is Linawati, who is about my age, who also lost her parents and is now in the refugee camp only with her younger brother, Edi Saputra, and sisters, Siti Rahmah and Nurlia.

In this single corner of the school building alone, there are more than 50 children like me -- children who have lost their parents and brothers and sisters and homes. I know that there are hundreds and hundreds of other children in Lhoong who are now orphans.

Today, we have guests -- two doctors from Banda Aceh and a woman who said she was with an organization in London . This woman said there are Muslims in far away countries such as Britain who wish to help my friends and me Al-hamdu lillah.

I would really like to have more food, a change of clothing, and books. I would like to go back to school. I would like to have a home of my own. I do not wish to stay at a shelter any longer.

My friends would like to stay on in Aceh, but I would not mind leaving for Java or another place with my sister, Dinda; a place where I could go to school and not to have to worry about the waves.

I asked the woman for her address, and her promise that she would return and come and get me. I shall write and remind her of her promise, as soon as there are people who can take my letter to Banda Aceh because we no longer have a post office here now."

[This story was first published on islamonline.net]

Empty seats speak of loss as children return to school

Agence France Presse - January 26, 2005

Many seats were left empty in badly damaged schools across Indonesia's Aceh province as children began lessons for the first time since the tsunami struck one month ago, killing thousands of their classmates.

Shortly after dawn, high school girls wearing uniforms and backpacks covered their noses as they rode mopeds past a patch of disturbed earth, the site of one of many mass graves containing thousands of unidentified tsunami victims.

At Junior Provincial High School Number 17 in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Aceh where most of Indonesia's 228,000 dead and missing lived, teachers struggled with roll calls over the noise of excavators scooping mud and garbage from the schoolyard.

"They are sad, all of them are sad," said headmistress Kasumi Sulaiman, who lost seven of her 58 teachers on December 26. "We will try to make them happy again." Sulaiman told AFP she thought most of her 980 students had survived one of the worst natural disasters in the modern era.

Elsewhere in the province, roll calls showed a potentially horrific toll on the school population.

Mohammad Hatta, an education ministry official sent to Aceh by the national government, said only about a third of the first- year students had turned up.

He said there were 83,000 primary and secondary school students in Aceh before the tsunami, which struck during the school holidays in Indonesia.

At high school 17, children were ordered to carry their own chairs into the classrooms from a muddied pile of school furniture in the yard.

The walls bore water stains at the six-foot mark (1.8 metres), and somebody had scrawled graffiti of a human skull and the words "tsunami 26-12-04", the date of the disaster.

"Keep coming to school and do not cry because you do not have any uniform to wear," Hatta told the first-graders, many of whom now live in tent camps for tsunami survivors and have lost their navy blue and white uniforms.

"This sad experience is not unique to you. It also happened to other students across the province." Sulaiman, the school principal, said she hoped "playing, child stories, and singing" would hasten the children's recovery from trauma.

Amidst the sadness, there was some laughter as children were reunited with friends.

"I am happy but I don't see all my old classmates," said 13-year-old Renggalita Faddlun, who lost her younger sister in the tsunami.

Although some began lessons earlier this month, at least 130 schools of the 500 that existed before the tsunami were due to reopen on Wednesday, according to education officials, while another 140 schools would also reopen in tents.

But many classes were dismissed soon after the head counts because of inadequate teaching material and furniture.

Hatta said only four of the 15 state junior high school and secondary schools in Aceh reopened because "some classrooms are not ready yet and they have to be prepared and cleaned first." Some local universities plan to open next week, but only partially because some students are involved in clearing corpses. More than a thousand bodies are still being found daily in and around Banda Aceh, officials say.

At Blang Bintang Elementary, close to the city's airport, there was perfect attendance but the children had to share the schoolyard with families displaced by the tsunami who now live in six tents pitched outside.

Sulaiman said at her school, 100 tsunami surviors living in tents at the schoolyard had been asked to move out the previous day so classes could start.

Despite the poor conditions, education experts say the return to school is a priority for helping children overcome the trauma.

"It is about reestablishing the routine, it is about reestablishing their life," said Gianfranco Rotigliano of the United Nations Children's Fund.

Government, GAM get talking in Helsinki

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

Tiarma Siboro and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are ready to resume peace talks in Helsinki later this week, with both sides planning to send high- level officials, according to people familiar with the talks.

A source said that the government was planning to offer amnesty to GAM rebels, but that it would maintain that Aceh remained a part of the unitary state of Indonesia.

The source said that the talks would be held from January 28 to January 30, and would be facilitated by the Finland-based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a mediation group led by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, which has extensive experience in mediating conflicts.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto will lead the Indonesian delegation, which also includes Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaludin, State Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil and senior military officer Maj. Gen. Syarifuddin Tippe, who in the late 1990s was in charge of the military command in Aceh.

The source said that the delegation, the strongest delegation ever as previous talks were led by senior diplomats, would leave for Finland on Wednesday afternoon. The government has assigned Hamid as its chief negotiator.

Meanwhile, a source from GAM said that most of the top leaders of the movement, which has been struggling for independence since 1976, would be in attendance. They include self-styled Aceh Prime Minister Malik Machmood, its Minister of Foreign Affairs Zaini Abdullah, GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah and other GAM political leaders residing in Malaysia and Australia.

Details about the planned talks, however, remain sketchy. Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said earlier in the day that the government had not yet set a date nor place for talks with GAM.

It is also not completely clear what CMI would be tasked to do.

Meanwhile, a GAM official said that the group wanted the Helsinki meeting to focus only on reaching a cease-fire in Aceh, to ensure smooth humanitarian relief operation in the tsunami-devastated province, which has seen nearly 230,000 people killed or missing and presumed dead.

"Our concern now is how to revive the livelihoods of the Acehnese, who are suffering the most from the tsunami. Stop the violence. We are ready to go to the negotiation table to bring it into reality," he said, but quickly added that any talks concerning the Indonesian government's demands for GAM rebels to surrender their weapons and quit struggling for the separation of Aceh should be held in separate talks when the rehabilitation work was complete. "The [last] issue can be discussed later as it will require more time," he said.

The government has said that it had instructed its military troops in Aceh to stop offensive attacks against GAM rebels and focus on protecting the ongoing humanitarian work in Aceh. The military claimed last week it had killed around 208 rebels since the tsunami because the rebels were said to be trying to disrupt the relief operation.

The tsunami disaster has actually provided the two sides with a chance for a peaceful solution to the decades-long conflict that has killed thousands of people.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI) Gen. Endriartono Sutarto was quoted by Antara as saying that the TNI could accept a peaceful solution to the Aceh conflict planned by the government.

"Since it's a political decision, the TNI will not interfere, although we provide input to the government in the decision- making process," he said, without elaborating.

Will talks between government and GAM yield anything?

Radio Singapore International - January 26, 2005

An Indonesian ministerial team departs for Finland today to meet Free Aceh Movement or GAM's leadership-in-exile, but though both sides expressed optimism, there is scant hope the talks would end decades of conflict in the province.

The dialogue, the first formal contact between separatist rebels and the government since a truce broke down 20 months ago, was organised after both sides urged peace in the wake of the tsunami disaster. Ahead of the talks, there were few signs the rebels and Jakarta would be able to do more than formalise a post-tsunami ceasefire.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda has said that the government would reject any demands for independence and progress could only be made if the rebels were willing to accept an offer of special autonomy.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono helped fuel doubts of progress in the talks by telling defence officials that his country needed a stronger military, insisting more firepower could have helped it crush Aceh's rebels.

For more on this, Bharati Jagdish (BJ) spoke to Sidney Jones (SJ) from the International Crisis Group.

SJ: "The Indonesian side says it's prepared to talk about anything short of independence and this would include questions of an amnesty for GAM fighters, it might include questions of participation of GAM in local government or the local parliament and it might include various aspects of a ceasefire and hovering in the background, is the possibility of some kind of economic concession, but it's not clear how all of this will be conveyed. If all of GAM has to swear allegiance to the Indonesian republic before any of this takes place, everything could be off the agenda from the beginning."

BJ: Some analysts say that the GAM rebels on the ground in Aceh may be more willing to agree to be content with special autonomy at this time especially after the military operation and the tsunami disaster. Do you think this is even possible?

SJ: "I think that if there were no GAM leadership in Sweden, it might be possible to think of field commanders taking a more pragmatic approach, but it seems to me that it would be unlikely that the field commanders on the ground in Aceh will deviate very much from what the political leadership in Sweden decides to do, so I think a lot is still going to hinge on the attitude and stance of the GAM leadership-in-exile."

BJ: Do you see the government being more willing to make concessions to the GAM rebels at this stage, short of independence, of course?

SJ: "I don't know. One of the sticking points during the last round of talks in May 2003 was the issue of political participation because the Indonesian government wasn't willing to allow for the possibility that GAM could turn itself into a political party because there are no regional political parties in Indonesia. There are only national political parties and without the option of becoming a party rooted in Aceh, it doesn't seem likely that there would be a way for political participation to take place, unless it's on a completely non-party base and then the question would be whether GAM would be interested in that and I don't know what the answer is."

BJ: But how far would you say the government is willing to go in terms of concessions or is there this feeling amongst the government's ranks that they could just easily resume military operations to crush the GAM?

SJ: "The problem is that I don't think we're dealing with a united government. I don't think the government in Indonesia is speaking with one voice. We're getting one view put forward by President Yudhoyono, another view from the Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla and yet another from the head of the military in Jakarta. Then there's a fourth view put out by the local military commanders on the ground in Aceh. It's not clear that everybody's operating on the same wavelength, so it's difficult to fathom what the government's viewpoint is."

BJ: Would you say then that these talks are more of a confidence-building measure than anything else?

SJ: "I think neither side has anything to lose by taking part in these talks. I think it's useful that they're taking place. It's not clear what the prospects are, that they're actually going to make significant progress.

They could undermine confidence as well as build it. It depends on the attitudes that both parties bring to the talks in the first place."

Sidney Jones (SJ) from the International Crisis Group, speaking to Bharati Jagdish BJ).

500,000 may need mental help post-tsunami - WHO

Associated Press - January 25, 2005

Jakarta -- Almost half a million Acehnese may suffer depression, anxiety and sleep disorders due to last month's tsunami disaster, but only five psychiatrists are on hand to treat them, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

But there are no health centers offering psychological treatment in Aceh, a province of 4 million people, said Dr Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO's department of mental health.

Acehnese people usually go to their family, traditional healers or religious leaders to seek help when they suffer from these problems, he said.

"This will be a massive psychosocial problem," Saraceno said. "Almost all the affected population will in the next months show some kind of psychological disorders."

Suicide attempts and domestic violence may also increase, he added.

Indonesia's health department will send two teams of six experts each to train local community leaders and health workers to give psychological "first aid" in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the second biggest city of Lhokseumawe, said Stephanus Indrajada from WHO Indonesia.

Aceh was the worst hit of Indonesia's provinces in the December 26 tsunami disaster which affected 11 Indian Ocean nations.

Children and the elderly who have lost most of their families will be the most vulnerable, but the Acehnese are pulling together, Indrajada said.

"Neighbors and extended family are helping out," he said. "I don't expect the children and elderly to be abandoned."

However, a well-planned, long-term strategy for mental health treatment must be integrated into Aceh's health care system following the tsunami disaster, he added.

Attorney General's office tackles legal issues in Aceh

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta -- The government said on Monday it would use some unconventional methods to cope with post-tsunami legal issues related to citizen documentation as well as for banking and court systems in Aceh and North Sumatra.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said that a special policy on the legal matters would be enacted for a smooth transition back to normalcy in the ravaged province.

The government will set up a special body or legal desk under the Attorney General's Office, to deal with legal problems facing the tsunami victims who lost identity cards, documents for their land, bank account information, tax numbers and other items, he added.

"We plan to gather data from the Ministry of Home Affairs that was collected in 2003 for the preparations of last year's general elections, so we can retrieve the personal identification of the Aceh people," Hamid said.

Separately on Monday, National Agrarian Agency (BPN) head Lutfi Nasoetion promised that his office would make duplicates of land title documents, many of which were swept away by the December 26 tidal waves in coastal areas of northern Sumatra, free of charge.

He called on the tsunami victims who lost certificates of their land ownership to apply for new documents. "The process will take time and the new certificates will be given at no cost," Lutfi told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II for home and agrarian affairs.

He said the BPN presumed that only 10 percent of the documents stored in the agrarian offices in Aceh and in North Sumatra were damaged or destroyed during the disaster. However, 100 percent of land ownership certificates belonging to people in the tsunami- hit areas vanished during the devastating disaster, he claimed.

In order to avoid disputes in the future, Lutfi urged the Aceh provincial administration to freeze all land trade activities in the tsunami-affected areas.

Also on Monday, President director of Bank Nasional Indonesia (BNI) Sigit Pramono said his bank would work closely with customers who lost personal identification cards or bank books to apply for new documents and to withdraw money.

"We will still serve those with limited identification. We have a set of procedures to verify the customer's identity by asking them basic, personal questions, such as full name, address and account balance, and requesting more detailed information that only the customers themselves would know," he added.

According to Sigit, customers in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, the cities hardest hit by the disaster, have already started making cash withdrawals.

Customers with outstanding loans will be classified into two categories according to the losses they have suffered. The loans of those clients who have died, will be written off by the bank. For those who are still alive, but have lost property or their livelihoods, the amounts owed will be cut.

Sigit also urged the government to discuss the steps needed to deal with the problems of beneficiaries considered to be entitled to withdraw funds deposited by their family members killed in the tsunami.

An identification system should be developed within the next few weeks to ease the banking withdrawal procedures for the bereaved relatives, so they can get access to the deposited funds, he said. Sigit added that any unclaimed bank accounts would eventually be deposited into the state's coffers.

Meanwhile, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia, said a special court should be established in Aceh to deal with current or pending court cases after many documents, witnesses, suspects, prosecutors and judges were killed. If deemed necessary, the government should deploy judges from other provinces to support this process, she said.

Tsunami-hit Aceh free of epidemics, declares WHO

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

Jakarta -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that health conditions in the disaster area of Aceh were improving, and that no major epidemics were likely, but all parties involved in medical relief should remain alert to possible outbreaks.

"Thanks to the collaboration between the government of Indonesia, medical volunteers and military personnel... health care has reached out to the people," said WHO representative for Indonesia Georg Peterson at the United Nations Media Center for Tsunami Relief here.

A WHO special envoy on tsunami relief for Indonesia, Eigil Sorensen, said that some cases of diarrhea, measles, malaria and tetanus had occurred in Aceh in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. However, the quick response of medical personnel, both Indonesian and foreign, in handling the diseases had helped prevent rapid spread of the diseases.

Peterson said that in order to prevent a possible outbreak, WHO was setting up a robust surveillance system to increase the response capacity of medical personnel. The organization has deployed a team of eight coordinators to operate the system, which would rely on data collected from the field.

Nevertheless, he warned that providing purified water, maintaining healthy refugee camps and cleaning up the debris of devastated buildings should be carried out as soon as possible. Puddles covered by debris could be ideal breeding areas for mosquitoes that might spread malaria and dengue.

He also said that spraying disinfectant in several areas would help prevent the spread of disease. "Previously, Aceh didn't have malaria. It has come out of debris and rubbish. So it is important to do proper prevention," said Peterson, who has deployed 50 persons working in Aceh.

Sorensen said in order to support prevention measures, WHO was setting up laboratories, which were vital to helping doctors analyze and diagnose diseases accurately. There are four laboratories set up at general and emergency hospitals, as well as the tents of International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.

Peterson also stressed that his organization would help Indonesian health authorities and local health services resume their operations.

"The media has failed to highlight the enormous help of the Indonesian medics and volunteers. They have done a good job. Therefore, WHO believes that the Health Ministry and medical volunteers will be able to maintain the health situation in Aceh after the NGOs have gone away," said Peterson, who has appealed to UN headquarters for US$30 million in additional funds for relief work in tsunami-devastated areas in Asia.

The UN agency has planned to work in Aceh for a year, or until the health infrastructure has been sufficiently improved.

"We are not an NGO, who comes and goes in a flash. Our organization will support the Indonesian health system, until it can resume functioning. So, the period could be extended," said Sorensen. (006)

GAM says Indonesia not serious about peace talks

Agence France Presse - January 25, 2005

Rebels fighting for the independence of Aceh province are willing to engage in peace talks with Indonesia but say the country is not serious about negotiations, a senior guerrilla said from his rural hideout.

"We remain ready to talk because so many Acehnese people are missing from the wars and tsunami," Darwis Djeunieb, a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) regional commander based just west of Lhokseumawe, told AFP.

Djeunieb also said five of his guerrillas had recently been killed in a government ambush, despite the military's pledge to focus on relief efforts rather than fighting after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami which killed about 170,000 people in the Aceh region of Sumatra island.

Djeunieb expressed support for the thousands of foreign aid workers in the province and mocked the Indonesian military's relief efforts.

He was speaking after a Finnish NGO on Sunday said talks aimed at bringing together the two sides would be held in Finland at the end of the week. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja later confirmed the meeting was to go ahead.

GAM's spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah, speaking from the Swedish capital Stockholm where the movement's self-exiled leaders live, said he had yet to receive an invitation to any talks.

From his hideout near a village somewhere between the farming district of Peusangan and the town of Bireuen, Djeunieb said the Indonesian government, which last week indicated it may sit down for talks with GAM leaders, is not serious.

"According to me it is nonsense, nonsense from Indonesia because they continue to say they will talk but there is no contact with our leaders in Sweden," he said.

Djeunieb was speaking by telephone because he said the situation on the ground did not allow him to personally receive an AFP reporter.

"There are a lot of military wandering around," he said, maintaining that his troops are abiding by a ceasefire they declared after the disaster. "Very clearly, we follow the ceasefire because the priority now is to improve the humanitarian situation," he said.

The commander alleged that Indonesia sent three battalions of soldiers, about 2,000 men, to the province after the tsunami disaster. "They said it was for humanitarian work but the fact in the field is, it is not for humanitarian work but to kill the people," he said.

Colonel Yani Basuki, the armed forces' deputy spokesman, called the claim "rubbish" and said the Indonesian military has adopted a defensive posture in Aceh. "It is very naive of GAM to say such a thing, because what the armed forces are doing is very clear and that is to carry out humanitarian work," Basuki said.

Djeunieb, 45, denied an Indonesian military statement last Thursday that 120 rebels had been killed over the previous two weeks. "It is a big lie," he said, admitting that some rebels died. Most of the victims were civilians, he said.

More than 10,000 people died in Aceh between the time GAM began its independence struggle in 1976 and May 2003, when the military started a fresh offensive against the rebels. Since then, the military says more than 1,000 rebels have died. Rights groups say many of the dead are civilians.

Djeunieb declined to reveal how many rebels are under his command but said about 60 have been killed since the government offensive began. The latest fatalities came last Friday when five of his guerrillas were ambushed in Jeunieb district, he said. "They were going to visit their families affected by the tsunami," he said.

Djeunieb said none of his troops nor those in other parts of the province died in the tsunami, although rebel families did fall victim to the disaster. Most of those victims are staying with relatives because they are afraid to go to official refugee camps, he said.

On the five-hour drive between Lhokseumawe and the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, an AFP reporter saw military posts located in close proximity to many of the large tents, often provided by government departments, where displaced people are living beside the highway.

The military has taken a lead role in assessing the needs of tsunami victims and distributing relief. Many of the military posts carry signs such as "Infantry Battalion Humanitarian Post." Thousands of foreign civilian and military aid workers from around the world, whose trucks pass constantly on the highway to Lhokseumawe, have been working in conjunction with the Indonesian military.

US Navy and Marine helicopters have provided crucial assistance by dropping aid from their helicopters to isolated west coast villages.

Djeunieb vowed his forces would protect the foreigners and their aid, and he mocked Indonesia's ability to deliver relief with its small and ageing fleet of transport aircraft. "How can they give aid? They have only six Hercules and sometimes they can't even fly!"

'Tsunami can boost peace prospects in Aceh'

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- Both the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) must capitalize on the outpouring of sympathy for the Acehnese in the post-tsunami aftermath to reach a peaceful solution to the protracted conflict, a former government negotiator said.

Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, formerly the government's chief negotiator in the last round of negotiations with GAM, said on Monday that the likelihood of both sides reaching a peaceful resolution in a peace talks scheduled for this week was greater than ever given the immense support both from the international community and the people of Indonesia.

"The Indonesian government and GAM must seize the momentum after the tsunamis. There has been a lot of good will from the international community as shown in its commitment to engage in the humanitarian efforts there. The same commitment was also shown by the people of Indonesia with the pouring in of aid," he told The Jakarta Post.

Wiryono led the Indonesian team in the peace talks brokered by the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC) in 2002 and 2003.

During the talks, GAM and the government both refused to back down on their stance over the independence issue. Jakarta's delegates reportedly refused to consider the idea of Aceh becoming independent.

The Free Aceh Movement has been struggling for the independent state of Aceh for several decades, and after six months of relative peace as a result of the two sides signing a cessation of hostilities agreement in December 2002, the government launched a major military offensive against the separatists on May 19, 2003 and broke off peace talks.

In a bid to revive the peace prospects in the tsunami-battered province, the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a non- governmental agency chaired by former Finnish president Martii Ahtisaari will mediate talks between the Indonesian government and GAM slated to be held in Helsinki this weekend.

However, the CMI declined to give details on the planned talks "because of the sensitivity of the meeting". Scores of Indonesian officials were also tight-lipped over the planned talks.

Analyst Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) shared Wiryono's view, saying that the scale of the calamity could help bring about peace in the province. "There is a hope that the scale of the disaster and the movement for rebuilding Aceh will help lead to social and political reconciliation between Indonesia and [the rebels]," Dewi said.

Separately, GAM's spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah, speaking from his home in Stockholm -- where most of the movement's exiled leaders have gained citizenship -- said he had yet to receive an invitation to any talks, but said GAM was ready to talk.

"Our political stance still remains. That is, we have never closed the door to any talks," he was quoted by Agence France- Presse. "So far we do not have any details: how many persons, where, when, why and even who." He reiterated that GAM would welcome any planned negotiations.

"This is a good time, we are looking forward to that," he added. Any talks are likely to include GAM's self-styled prime minister-in-exile Malik Mahmud and foreign minister Zaini Abdullah. Hassan di Tiro, GAM's aging founder, is recovering from a heart attack and is not expected to attend.

Critics see potential for tsunami aid theft

Associated Press - January 25, 2005

Jakarta -- International financial institutions paid about $35 million in the late 1980s to build the highway that meanders from Jakarta's international airport to the city, crossing picturesque rice paddies and fish ponds.

But the 1.2-meter thick layer of crushed stone that was supposed to keep the pavement above flood level was never laid and the project became known as the "highway heist" -- a glaring reminder of the corruption here that donors must overcome in aiding areas shattered by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami.

With hundreds of millions of dollars pledged as relief aid, many fear that corrupt officials in Indonesia will devour a portion of the humanitarian funds.

Thousands of relief workers -- from the US Navy and Marines to UN agencies and private organizations -- rushed to deliver food and water and establish temporary shelters for hundreds of thousands of survivors along the battered coasts of Sumatra island. As the mission becomes one of rebuilding rather than emergency aid, observers say the conditions for corruption are rife.

"Based on our past experience in other disasters in Indonesia, corruption is highest in the reconstruction and rehabilitation phase, rather than during the emergency response," said Luky Djani, from the independent watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch. "We want to focus our monitoring efforts on reconstruction and rehabilitation because in these two stages corruption will be rampant."

Indonesia's media has taken the lead in warning of the potential pitfalls. "It is well known that the government's credibility is very low in preventing and eradicating corruption," an editorial in The Jakarta Post said. "This has raised doubts as to whether the government will be able to handle public money from all over the world in a transparent manner."

Newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has moved quickly to pre-empt the potential crisis by appointing international accounting agency Ernst & Young to track the relief funds. He also has pledged to work with donor countries to ensure that aid for tsunami victims is not stolen by corrupt officials.

"There will be no corruption," said Alwi Shihab, the senior welfare minister who is in charge of the relief effort. To bolster the promise, he said the government would publish a monthly list of all aid "contributions and where it is going to avoid any suspicion."

The government has estimated that rebuilding efforts in the most devastated area, Aceh province, will cost at least US$4 billion. The earthquake and wave flattened wide swaths of Indonesia's Sumatra island, killing tens of thousands and sweeping whole villages into the sea. Some towns will have to be rebuilt from scratch.

Yudhoyono's administration has said that most foreign governments that have pledged aid are insisting that they be allowed to manage the funds.

The Cabinet was drawing up plans for the use of aid in the reconstruction and rehabilitation phases that would guarantee the donations are channeled to tsunami victims, said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, minister for national development planning.

This would include the creation of a new management structure, where donors could track the progress of projects they are financing and the way their money is being used.

Staffan Synnerstrom, a senior official of the Asian Development Bank, insisted that outside lenders were determined "to make arrangements that would minimize this risk."

However, administrators who have seen corruption in the past warn that the new safeguards don't go far enough. Kwik Gian Gie, economic minister in the former administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, predicted that on building or infrastructure projects, it was "safe to assume a 40% markup."

Indonesia is listed as one of the world's most corrupt nations by Transparency International in its latest Corruption Perceptions Index. Since his inauguration three months ago, Yudhoyono has publicly lamented that corruption has become "systemic" in the country.

Many Indonesians feel the corruption and its resulting abuse of power threatens the survival of the country's fledgling democracy and could usher in another period of military rule. A US-backed army general, Suharto, ruled Indonesia with an iron hand for 32 years before pro-democracy protests and riots forced him to step down in 1998.

During his reign, Suharto, his family and his military and business cronies are alleged to have plundered at least US$30 billion. Suharto was charged in 2000 with embezzling the equivalent of more than $600 million from a number of foundations run by his family. The charges were eventually dropped when judges ruled he was too ill to stand trial.

Aceh has long been regarded as Indonesia's most graft-ridden province.

It is home to a long-running separatist war in which about 15,000 people have died in the past decade. Power in the province is largely in the hands of the military, widely regarded as one of the country's most corrupt institutions.

The province is extremely rich in natural resources -- the liquefied gas industry alone, which supplies much of Japan's and South Korea's needs, brings in about US$5 billion annually. Critics warn that as efforts to rebuild the shattered infrastructure get under way, it will be difficult to keep contractors with ties to the army brass and top bureaucrats from padding their bids or claiming to have performed nonexistent tasks.

Indonesian general slams insolence of foreigners

Agence France Presse - January 24, 2005

The military chief in Indonesia's Aceh province described foreigners providing relief aid for tsunami survivors in the region as insolent for refusing to follow directives given by local officers.

"Many foreign teams are insolent in their work and they are not following established coordination," Major General Endang Suwarya was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying. "They should have followed rules laid down by the host," he added, referring to both overseas civilian and military aid workers.

The presence of foreigners, particularly military personnel, is a sensitive issue for Indonesia's own armed forces. Prior to the disaster, Indonesian troops had sealed off the province while they tried to crush separatist rebels.

While access was granted after the tsunami, the government earlier this month imposed tough rules for foreigners working in Aceh, requiring them to register with authorities and confining them to main towns. Officials said the regulations were necessary to prevent attacks from the rebels who they say are trying to disrupt aid operations -- a charge denied by the guerrillas.

Suwarya said the foreigners' indifference had made it difficult for the military to guarantee their safety.

Thousands of foreign volunteers and armed forces have taken part in relief operations in Aceh, where more than 170,000 people were killed by the December 26 tsunami disaster.

Indonesia had earlier given foreign militaries until the end of March to leave the country but last week backed down from the deadline following criticism.

The large presence of foreigners in Aceh, where the Indonesian military has lanched an all-out offensive to crush the rebels, prompted suspicion and a rise in nationalist sentiment here.

The Indonesian military insists it has the final say on the movements of foreign troops in Aceh.

Indonesia ramps up peace, anti-corruption efforts

Agence France Presse - January 23, 2005

Indonesia ramped up its peace bid for tsunami-hit Aceh, saying it would consider anything except independence in talks with separatist rebels, while trying to reassure the world that relief aid was safe from endemic corruption.

"We will entertain any demand short of independence," Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who is jointly overseeing relief operations in Aceh with army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu, said in the devastated capital of Banda Aceh.

Shihab also indicated the government may be willing to accept international help in negotiating an end to the conflict, which has long been regarded as a strictly internal issue.

"This is the time for Indonesia and the global community to do its utmost efforts to get back Aceh into a peaceful period," he said, without elaborating.

Shihab's comments are the latest effort in a government peace campaign for Aceh that was launched immediately after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster, which claimed more than 166,000 lives in the province.

They raised the prospect of autonomy for the resource-rich province on the island of Sumatra, as well as amnesties for insurgents and the dropping of legal moves against exiled rebel leaders in Sweden.

All these options have been closed off since peace talks between the two sides broke down in May 2003, sparking a brutal military crackdown.

Shihab said peace was vital to helping the international humanitarian effort in Aceh, as was protecting global aid from the corruption that plagues all levels of Indonesian society.

He outlined a range of measures the government was implementing to prevent corruption in the global relief effort, including the publishing of a monthly balance sheet of aid money received and spent. Shihab also said the government and parliament were working to set up a new body, the Authority Board for Aceh, to oversee anti-corruption activities in Aceh.

The body will be established as soon as possible, he said, without giving a date. The head of the body will have a ministerial rank, will be directly responsible to the president and include non-government organisations.

Shihab said another way to ensure the rehabilitation and reconstruction process would be free of corruption was for the donor country and Indonesian government to jointly select the organisations that will carry out the work.

"Not only you, as donors, are concerned with transparency and accountability, we, as the government, want to demonstrate to the whole world that we are different from the previous governments," Shihab said.

"Let us show our commitment, let us prove that our commitment is true." In Kobe, Japan, some non-government organisations meeting for a global conference on disasters said Saturday that political constraints in Indonesia were discouraging international groups from joining the relief effort. "We are considering working in Sri Lanka ... but it is very difficult to do so in Indonesia," said Masakiyo Murai, director of Citizens Toward Overseas Disaster Emergency.

"Political interference is a big concern," said Murai, whose group has sent members to more than 30 countries hit by various national disasters including Turkey, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea.

Murai was referring to restrictions placed on foreign aid workers and journalists in Aceh, which include requiring them to register and be accompanied by the military if they travel outside main towns.

The move by Jakarta has been seen as an attempt by the government to reassert its authority over Aceh, which had previously been closed to most foreigners because of the separatist insurgency.

But some activists defended the Indonesian government, as the United Nations has done previously, noting the sensitivities of allowing a mass of foreigners into Aceh.

Datuk Jemilah Mahmood, president of the Malaysian Medical Relief Society, said her group sent medical teams to Aceh and had encountered no difficulties. "It's also the responsibility of NGOs to be fairly open with them [the government] and share the plans with them," said Mahmood, who also chairs the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network.

The December 26 earthquake off Sumatra triggered giant waves which crashed into the shores of 11 Indian Ocean nations killing nearly 220,000 people. Aside from Indonesia, the worst-hit countries were Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Aceh emergency ends, foreign troops leave

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Jakarta -- The government said on Sunday that the emergency situation in tsunami-ravaged Aceh is now nearly over, and that foreign troops should gradually be replaced by civilians.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said it was "only logical" for foreign militaries to start withdrawing their personnel from Aceh.

"The emergency stage is almost behind us, so militaries will no longer be as effective in contributing. Civilians are needed," said Alwi, who is also in charge of overseeing humanitarian relief work in the region, in Banda Aceh. "We are opening up isolated areas using land transport, so we don't need any more helicopters."

The US, Australia and Singapore are among a number of countries that have dispatched troops to Aceh. They are playing a central role in distributing relief aid by helicopter to hundreds of thousands of survivors in isolated areas. Land transportation was made impossible in many areas of Aceh as the tsunami destroyed many roads and bridges.

But the presence of foreign troops in oil and gas rich-Aceh has created nervousness, particularly among hardliners in the Indonesian military (TNI). For the past three years Aceh had been closed to foreigners, with the TNI launching offensives against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who have been fighting for an independent state for decades.

The government's attitude has raised eyebrows among US officials as well as foreign relief groups. It previously said that it wanted to see foreign troops gone by March 26 as it wanted to take control of the relief work in Aceh, which bore the brunt of the tsunami disaster. At least 166,000 people in the province died and around 600,000 were made homeless as a result of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

Alwi's latest remarks came after Singapore last week withdrew three Seahawk helicopters from Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra bordering Aceh. Singapore, whose military mission in Aceh represented its largest-ever overseas operation, was the first foreign country to announce its withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Antara quoted TNI spokesman in Aceh, Col. DJ Nachrowi, as saying that Singapore had already pulled out most of its 965 troops from Aceh on Saturday. "Most of the Singaporean troops who assisted in the relief effort in Aceh returned home on Saturday," he said, adding that the troops will be replaced by civilians who will continue the humanitarian work and help in the rehabilitation process, particularly in the badly affected town of Meulaboh that had been the main focus of the Singapore contingent. He said that the remaining Singaporean military personnel in Aceh were assigned to guard equipment that had yet to be pulled out.

Antara also said that on Sunday, Malaysia had also started to withdraw its military personnel.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the US military, which has had one of the highest-profile roles in Aceh relief operations, was also preparing to scale down its presence in the province.

Captain Larry Burt, commander of the air wing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that has been stationed just off Banda Aceh and had been the base for Seahawk and Chinook helicopters, told the news agency on Saturday that the navy was preparing a phased pull-out. "We're kind of in a transition phase right now," Burt said.

In a related development, the World Food Program said on Sunday that it was sending its first ship to deliver food to Aceh's ravaged coastal areas, in an apparent sign that civilian groups were preparing to fill the gap as foreign troops began pulling out.

AP reported that a 400-ton landing vessel carrying WFP aid was due to arrive in Calang city for its first delivery, said Gerald Bourke, spokesman for the UN body. Thousands of victims are in makeshift camps among the ruins of the destroyed city. Relief workers hope to leave Calang a one-month supply of rice, noodles, biscuits, fish and vegetable oil, Bourke said.

The WFP also hopes to increase its helicopter fleet to 10 from the current two, Bourke said.

Aid chaos alarms Aceh relief team

Melbourne Age - January 24, 2005

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh -- More than three weeks after the tsunami that wiped out much of Aceh's west coast, aid was continuing to arrive in a chaotic manner. Lack of water, sanitation and food was causing relief experts deep concern.

This picture is revealed in the first detailed assessment of Aceh's remote west coast, a region where fishing and rice farming villagers were hit harder than those in any of Asia's tsunami- struck areas.

While the report, concluded last week and released at the weekend, highlights the huge and successful efforts by Indonesian and foreign military and aid groups to keep communities alive, it also details a long series of shortcomings that have flowed from the jumble of big and small relief groups.

In an attempt to plan a continuing west coast aid operation, 34 representatives from 14 groups -- including the World Health Organisation, the Indonesian military, the Australian Government's aid arm AusAID and the International Red Cross -- were taken by helicopter to four parts of the coast, where they worked for six days to produce the report. The team did not examine the capital city, Banda Aceh, and its less isolated surrounding areas, which have been better monitored and better supplied.

They found the tsunami destroyed virtually every village and town not more than 10 metres above sea level along a 170-kilometre stretch of coast. The devastation reached on average three to six kilometres inland and, along with the villages and towns, much of the road system, including 57 bridges, was wiped out.

The leader of the assessment team, Rob Holden from WHO, said a complete lack of sanitation in virtually the whole of the coast was the major risk facing an estimated 125,000 displaced people.

One of the problems was that survivors from a host of little villages were congregating in the major towns of Meulaboh and Calang, where swelling numbers posed an immediate risk of a disease outbreak. The team found prices for food and basic commodities had doubled in some areas.

The one thing in excess supply was field hospitals and highly trained foreign staff. Meulaboh had 20 surgeons at one stage. The west coast lost 50 to 70 per cent of its health services, the report said. Replacing clinics across the whole west coast was urgently needed.

Mr Holden said that while the operation "probably looks chaotic and it is chaotic", it was going fairly well given the size and location of the disaster.

Indonesia's Health Ministry reported yesterday that the tsunami death toll had risen more than 7000 to 173,981. It said 173,741 had died in Aceh and 240 in the neighbouring province of North Sumatra. Another 7249 people are classified as missing. The ministry's previous tally was 166,760.

Military sources said Indonesian troops had killed more than 200 suspected separatist rebels in Aceh province since the tsunami, including three who allegedly opened fire on soldiers repairing a damaged bridge.

The death toll signals that an informal ceasefire declared by both sides in the aftermath of the disaster never took hold, and will raise concerns about the security of the relief operation there. Army chief of staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu said the killings came in 86 separate encounters with the rebels, the state news agency Antara reported.

Officials inflate refugee numbers to get more aid

Wall Street Journal - January 24, 2005

Jay Solomon and Andrew Higgins, Banda Aceh -- Government authorities here said they are investigating claims by an Indonesian anticorruption watchdog that the number of refugees in some Aceh camps has been significantly inflated by local officials seeking to get more aid -- an early signal that graft might compromise some tsunami-relief work.

The allegations don't diminish the scale of the tragedy in Indonesia, where new government figures suggest the final death toll from the December 26 tsunami could rise to more than 200,000. So far, 94,584 people are confirmed dead and the number of people still missing exceeds 132,000, according to an official report released Sunday in Banda Aceh. This could push the total number of dead across South and Southeast Asia to about a quarter of a million.

A private Jakarta group working with the government, however, says it has evidence that some local officials in Aceh, the hardest-hit region, are raising the number of displaced persons so as to receive more aid.

Farid Faqih, coordinator for Government Watch -- a private watchdog tasked by the government to help oversee the relief operation -- said the military and local officials in a devastated area on Aceh's west coast had given starkly different figures for the number of displaced people. He said officials in Meulaboh had put the number of refugees nearly 20 times above a figure cited by a local military commander.

Alwi Shihab, the Indonesian cabinet minister overseeing the rescue operations, confirmed that figures often varied but said this was most likely because of the mobility of survivors. "You can count 500 in a camp today and tomorrow it can be empty" as people move on to other sites, he said. "This is not corruption."

He said some officials might inflate numbers to get more food and water but added "this is related to the security of human beings," not graft. "If you only have rice for two days, you want to take more. At this moment in this catastrophic event, I would discount corruption."

Still, Mr. Faqih, whose organization has been working to expose cases of official malfeasance since 1999, said the case in Meulaboh could signal a wider pattern of officials distorting figures for gain. Local officials in the town reported that 18,000 people had taken shelter at a government-run camp.

The local military commander reported just 967 people. Government officials say they are aware of the discrepancy and are looking into it. "This is very dangerous if the basic numbers aren't true," said Mr. Faqih, who said his agency has collected evidence of similar discrepancies elsewhere.

The UN, stung by the scandal surrounding the former oil-for-food program in Iraq, appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as an independent auditor to monitor tsunami relief in Indonesia and other stricken countries. "Oversight will be particularly important," said Bob Turner, who heads the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. "It's no secret that after oil-for-food, we expect greater scrutiny."

Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, took office in October promising to combat corruption, which is rampant in the nation of more than 210 million people. Transparency International, a private watchdog, ranks the country as one of the most corrupt in the world.

Mr. Faqih, whose antigraft organization is working closely with the government in Aceh, said he had met Mr. Yudhoyono Friday and raised concerns about inflated numbers. The president visited Aceh for a ceremony marking Idul Adha, an Islamic holiday commemorating sacrifice. Mr. Faqih said Mr. Yudhoyono had assured him authorities would examine each case and that he welcomed private groups monitoring relief work.

The province of Aceh, the scene of a long-running campaign by insurgents seeking independence, has long faced accusations of widespread corruption. The sitting governor was detained shortly before the tsunami on charges of misallocating government money.

Anxious to keep relief work under central-government control, Jakarta appointed Mr. Shihab, a former foreign minister, to supervise the recovery operations. Mr. Shihab, in an interview Saturday, said Jakarta is tightening financial and other monitoring. He said it is setting up a database to compile figures from various sources to try to get an accurate picture of the number of victims and their needs. "We are open to all suggestions" about how we can fight potential corruption, he said.

The data system also will seek to track the amount of aid coming into the country and how it is being spent. While discounting the likelihood of significant corruption during the early stages of emergency relief, he said the risk will rise as money for rebuilding starts to be disbursed.

Both the UN and the US say relief work in Indonesia has gone surprisingly well so far. Concerns that the Indonesian military might impede movement of aid workers have evaporated and fears of severe food shortages and epidemics have diminished.

Devastated towns and villages may never be rebuilt

South China Morning Post - January 24, 2005

Banda Aceh -- Villagers cross a river on a makeshift ferry as Indonesian soldiers work to reconstruct a bridge which was swept away by last month's tsunami in Loknga, near Banda Aceh. Agence France-Presse photo

As hundreds of thousands of psychologically scarred survivors prepare to leave tent camps and return home in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, the task of rebuilding their shattered lives may prove their biggest challenge yet.

Survivors -- most of whom are mourning loved ones lost in the disaster -- know they have no homes to return to and no jobs. But they may soon discover that even their towns and villages may never be rebuilt.

Up to 400,000 people, or 10 per cent of the province's population, may have to be resettled, according to Budi Atmadi Adiputro, who commands a massive relief operation. Up to 250,000 of them are believed to be staying with friends or relatives.

With the relief operations soon to move from emergency aid to the reconstruction phase, authorities face tough choices on how and where to accommodate those displaced by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami which killed nearly 174,000 people in Aceh.

Dozens of foreign governments and aid organisations have pledged billions of dollars for the relief and reconstruction effort, which many say will take years to complete.

Officials from the national government are due to release in about four weeks the final blueprint for the reconstruction of Banda Aceh and other devastated coastal settlements on the northernmost part of Sumatra Island, said Alwi Shihab, senior Indonesian minister for social welfare.

Barracks-type housing, semi-permanent tents and houses for up to 150,000 people are set to be completed within the same time.

Yet with more than 700 bodies still being recovered daily in the coastal wastelands, some officials have dropped hints that some areas would be abandoned rather than rebuilt.

A plan raised in government circles is for the 10km coastline of Banda Aceh, which may have lost half its 230,000 population, to be abandoned to the putrid seawater that still covers some of the ruins. A half-kilometre strip along the coast may become off- limits to human habitation. The exclusion zone, according to these officials, would be planted with mangrove trees and palms, with fish pens serving as a further buffer to any future tsunami.

Dr Shihab said the final word on whether "to bring back those who are still alive from that coastline back to their original places or not" would be in the official blueprint.

A second consideration is "whether or not [it is feasible] to rebuild the same city or village in their original design" for environmental, financial, psychological and other reasons.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged on Friday to build a better Aceh, and he and the parliament plan to create an agency reporting directly to the president to oversee Aceh's reconstruction, which would open its books to the public to prevent corruption.

Dr Shihab pledged that the resettlement sites would be "much better than the place where [the people] are now" -- the tent cities strung out across the province.

Indonesia to deport American journalist

Associated Press - January 24, 2005

Jakarta -- An American journalist will be deported from Indonesia after immigration officers said he entered the country illegally, despite granting him a visa when he arrived three weeks ago, the immigration department said.

William Nessen, who is from New York, was detained Sunday after visiting the tsunami-ravaged Aceh region. In 2003, the freelance journalist was imprisoned in Indonesia after he spent three weeks on the run with separatist rebels in the province.

Immigration spokesman Muhammad Indra said airport officials issued a visa to Nessen because they were not aware that a ban on his entry had been extended from August 2004 until August 2005. Indra said Nessen "would be ordered to leave Indonesia tonight," meaning Monday night.

Nessen told The Associated Press he was not aware that he had been barred from visiting the country. Nessen could not be reached for comment Monday. He was detained Sunday as he tried to leave Aceh and was taken to Jakarta on a plane chartered by immigration officials.

Nessen, whose wife is Acehnese, spent 40 days in jail in Aceh in 2003 for violating his visa by spending three weeks with separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement. During his time with the guerrillas, he contacted international media and accused the military of wanting to kill him.

Nessen has written articles on Aceh published in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The government banned foreigners from entering insurgency-torn Aceh for two years until the December 26 tsunami, when Jakarta was forced to open the province to international troops, aid workers and journalists.

In Aceh, ambivalent over aid

Los Angeles Times - January 24, 2005

Barbara Demick, Banda Aceh -- From behind a rickety wooden crate on which he has spread out cans of Coca-Cola and cigarettes, Mohammed Yunus warily eyes the bare legs of a blond woman in khaki shorts as she helps carry a ladder.

A welter of emotions flickers over his face. Until three weeks ago, this sleepy provincial capital was about as far off the beaten track as it got.

Then the tsunami waves that swept away half of Banda Aceh washed in unprecedented numbers of foreigners -- aid workers, soldiers, journalists, diplomats, psychiatrists, missionaries, environmentalists and just plain curiosity-seekers.

Until this past month Yunus, 32, had never seen a Western woman. He is upset that some of the foreigners don't follow the Islamic dress code that prevails in his hometown. On the other hand, he recognizes there is no way to clean up the disaster without their help.

All this is further complicated by the inescapable fact -- which he acknowledges rather sheepishly -- that he is among those cashing in on the foreign presence. Before the tsunami, Yunus earned $2.50 a day as a construction worker; he's been making twice that much since he set up his crate in front of the new tent city of foreigners known as the United Nations humanitarian information center.

"These foreigners are doing so much to help us. But it would be good if they didn't stay too long," Yunus said as two big relief trucks faced off in a dance of gridlock on the narrow road.

Decades of separatist fighting and martial law kept foreign visitors to this northwestern tip of the Indonesian archipelago to a minimum. Journalists and human rights advocates were banned by the Indonesian army, as it waged its war against Acehnese rebels seeking independence.

The imposition in 2002 of Islamic Sharia law -- with its accompanying ban on revealing clothing and alcoholic beverages -- ensured that tourists didn't linger long at its stunning palm- fringed beaches.

Today this city is in danger of being smothered by a surfeit of foreign attention and sympathy. One of the regions most ravaged by the tsunami, it has become the destination of choice for much of the world's humanitarian aid community. Dignitaries ranging from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have posed for photographs at Banda Aceh's single-runway airport. A former sultan's palace has become a temporary encampment for an international media corps numbering in the hundreds.

Foreigners can be seen tramping through the ruins of the beachfront neighborhoods or snapping photos in front of the city's leading attraction, an imposing 19th century mosque with licorice-tinged domes and a soaring yellow-brick minaret.

The Armageddon-like quality of the December 26 earthquake and tsunami has touched a nerve with donors who have pledged an estimated $7 billion to help.

The vast majority of the approximately 115,000 Indonesians killed in the disaster were in Aceh province -- and Banda Aceh, its capital, has become the hub of the relief effort. But with all the aid money come aid workers, bringing helicopters, trucks, satellite telephones, rising prices and congestion.

The Acehnese have a long history of fighting invaders, from the Dutch to the Japanese and the present uneasy relationship with Indonesians. There is a natural suspicion of outsiders, whether they come from Europe or Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.

"It is very important to the Acehnese people that they don't feel their tragedy is being exploited by the outside world," said Darmansyah, an editor of Serambi, Banda Aceh's daily newspaper, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Since the tsunami, an estimated 50,000 Indonesian troops have descended on Aceh -- more than were present at the height of the army's campaign in the late 1990s against the separatist Free Aceh Movement.

Then there are the foreign troops: 4,478 from 11 countries, according to an Indonesian military spokesman, not counting thousands more who are staying offshore on aircraft carriers such as the United States' Abraham Lincoln.

As for aid workers, 3,645 were registered at the UN compound as of Sunday, but authorities only started registering them last week, and the list is believed to be incomplete.

Add to that dozens of businesspeople, many of them Indonesians, and religious groups including Islamists and the Church of Scientology.

"A lot of these people who come to Aceh are just voyeurs. They are taking photos and coming to look, using up food and gasoline, but they're not really helping," complained Andi Basrul, 45, who lost his wife and 11-year-old daughter in the tsunami.

The ambivalence of the populace mirrors that of the Indonesian government. Welfare minister Alwi Shihab complained in an interview last week at the airport that foreigners were driving up prices for everything, whether it be taxis or sugar.

"We want to be as open with the foreign aid community as possible. We don't want to receive their generosity with rejection," Shihab said. "At the same time, we know that if we cannot handle this by ourselves, the dignity of the country will be compromised. It is only logical that there should be a limited period before we can stand on our own feet."

Banda Aceh is a flat, sprawling city built along a coastal plain that is bordered by the ocean to the north and west and blue- tinged mountains lush with rain forests to the south.

Today, the city is severed by a snaking line -- the high-water mark - that runs up to two miles inland. It delineates the section that was washed over by the waves and the part that was spared. On the ground, though, it can be hard to tell the difference because the monsoon rains that pour down each afternoon have turned much of the city into a sea of mud.

Most outsiders arrive in Banda Aceh at its tiny airport, which is eight miles inland and well outside the high-water mark. In the past, no more than 15 flights came through here per day, but since December 26 there have been as many as 200. The place is roaring with activity as C-130 cargo planes and CH-53 transport helicopters take off and land with pallets of rice, mineral water and other supplies.

A vast tent city has sprung up around the airport where aid workers and foreign troops are staying. All the hotels in the city and three-quarters of the housing has been destroyed, so the outsiders have to sleep in tents not unlike those of the refugees.

The airport is a noisy place to be camped out, but the refugees are well aware that proximity to the aid is key to survival, especially because the relief workers still have limited ground transportation.

Under a large blue tarpaulin, where he is living on the airport road with his extended family, 25-year-old spice merchant Musliadi Casi shows off some recent donations from the aid community. There is a state-of-the-art camping stove, five cartons of chocolate butter-cream biscuits and bags of rice stacked high enough to support the tent. "We have plenty of food, no complaints about that. But we are still wearing the same clothes that we escaped in," Casi said.

He is among those survivors who fear that the Indonesian government may kick out the foreign aid agencies prematurely. "We need all the help we can get. If you watch the Indonesian army, you see that all they do is order people around or talk on mobile telephones," Casi said. "They can't accomplish anything without the foreigners."

But Ferdinando Severi, the priest at Banda Aceh's lone Catholic church and one of the few foreigners living in the city, believes that the aid community has come into Aceh with too much personnel. "They really don't have enough to do," he said.

In truth, many of the aid agencies do not seem to be terribly busy. One reason is that the Indonesian army has tried to keep a tight leash on the distribution of foreign aid. As of last week, relief workers were told they could not travel outside Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, the province's other main city, without a military escort because of the threat of attack by rebels.

Medical personnel who have come into Aceh also find their workloads to be light, because the magnitude of the disaster left few merely wounded. "By and large, you either survived or you died," Michael Elmquist, the UN's chief humanitarian coordinator for Indonesia, told reporters.

With so many people dead and so much relief money floating around, some survivors stand to profit from the huge demand for labor, especially for interpreters, drivers, mechanics and construction workers.

"I feel so guilty, but I have to feed my family too," said Yusuf, 40, an English teacher who has temporarily given up his $170-a- month job in the public school system for a position with the World Food Program that pays more than three times as much.

Everywhere around Banda Aceh there are signs of the new relief- money-fueled economy: "For Rent," read English-language placards on many of the remaining houses, whose owners are moving out of town.

"What else can we do?" asked Ayu Mingsih, 55, the elegantly dressed matriarch of one of Banda Aceh's wealthier families, whose 6-year-old grandson is among the missing. Last week, she was packing up the family heirlooms in their rambling, nine-room house, just beyond the high-water mark, in preparation to rent the place and move out of town.

The aftershocks from the earthquake rattle the crystal chandeliers and the porcelain in the cabinets, so much that it feels like the house is haunted, her 30-year-old son whispers.

Mingsih scoffed at talk of ghosts, her gold bracelets jangling as she spoke, but she believed just the same that Banda Aceh was no fit place for the living. "Nobody wants to be here, at least not now," she said. "We will be back eventually, but for now we will leave this place to the foreigners."

Foreigners could be spying: BIN head

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- State Intelligence Agency (BIN) head Syamsir Siregar has called on the government to be alert to possible spying from foreign forces deployed in tsunami- devastated Aceh for relief aid operations.

However, the government should not necessarily overreact the suspicions, he told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission I for defense and intelligence affairs in Jakarta on Thursday.

"Of course, the United States government has its interests and it will use this opportunity to closely monitor the geographic conditions of Aceh and the Strait of Malacca," Syamsir said without further elaborating.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto attended the hearing.

Syamsir said the United States had wanted a long time to deploy its military personnel in the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes near Sumatra island, an area where piracy runs virtually unchecked.

Australia also had similar an intention to establish its presence in the Strait, he said. "We should not be extremely suspicious of their presence [in Aceh]. We need their practical support to handle the catastrophe aftermath," Syamsir was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

The presence of the foreign military forces should encourage the Indonesian government improve its readiness to anticipate possible emergency situations in the future.

International affairs expert Hikmahanto Juwono, from the University of Indonesia, said that as a "warning", such a statement by the chief intelligence officer was normal.

Hikmahanto, however, urged Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers and volunteers to enhance their capacities so as to soon take the lead in the emergency relief operations in Aceh.

"Should the foreign troops carry out espionage missions during the humanitarian operations, it would be a shameful act," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Syamsir said BIN had obtained the identity and data of all foreign volunteers working on humanitarian activities in Aceh, including US journalist William Nessen.

The BIN chief blamed immigration officials for allowing Nessen to enter Indonesia, although he was banned from entering the country after allegedly committing an immigration offense in 2003.

Meanwhile, TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto told Thursday's hearing that he would present "tokens of appreciation" to the families of the soldiers killed in the December 26 earthquake- tsunami in Aceh and North Sumatra where more than 160,000 died.

Similar presentations would also be made to soldiers who had joined the relief aid operations.

At least 61 soldiers were killed and 290 others were missing in the tsunami. Forty-six wives of troops died and 265 others are missing, while 107 children have been reported killed while the fate of 542 others remains unknown.

Endriartono said the TNI had deployed 45,000 troops in Aceh, two-thirds of which were assigned to focus on humanitarian operations.

The remaining others were tasked with safeguard the distributions of aid for tsunami victims, and continue th crack down on separatist rebels, he said.

Aceh rebels killed 'to protect aid'

Associated Press - January 22, 2005

Rebels in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province accused the government of abandoning an informal cease-fire after the military said it had killed scores of suspected guerrillas to protect aid deliveries.

The rebels disputed the military's claim of killing 120 rebels in the past two weeks, saying only 20 of its fighters had died in skirmishes, while the remaining 100 were unarmed civilians.

The renewed hostilities in the nearly three-decade separatist conflict in Aceh called into question the security of relief efforts.

Gunfire was heard on Thursday near a camp housing tsunami survivors, causing many to run for cover. No one was hurt, and neither rebel fighters nor government troops could be seen during the sporadic firing of automatic weapons.

With thousands still missing, accurate tallies of the dead from the killer quake and waves that slammed into coastlines in Asia and Africa on Boxing Day have been almost impossible to obtain and have varied widely, from about 158,000 to 221,000.

But with as many as a million survivors still in need of food and shelter, international humanitarian groups warned that a US military decision to begin pulling back from relief operations could leave them unprepared to maintain the flow of aid.

"My gut feeling is that no, the civilian side isn't ready to take over," said Aine Fay, Indonesia director for the Irish aid group Concern. "The American military, the military hardware has been so useful. I'm a bit taken aback that they're thinking of withdrawing it already," she said.

More than 11,000 US Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard personnel and 16 Navy ships are providing relief support in the tsunami's aftermath, according to the US Defence Department.

Since the operation began on January 1, they have delivered more than 8,600 tonnes of relief supplies to the affected region.

Indonesians living in aid camps were also worried about the withdrawal of American forces, whose helicopters have become the backbone of the relief effort.

"I want them to stay here 100 per cent. If they leave, there'll be no more food," said Mohamad Amin, a 50-year-old fisherman whose house was swept away by the waves. He is staying with 950 others in a filthy encampment in Aceh's provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Amin said the Indonesian government would not be able to cope with the gargantuan task of rebuilding his province because of its financial difficulties. He said the Americans and other foreign volunteers should only leave when large numbers of refugees have been moved back to permanent settlements and given new jobs.

Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said his troops had been forced to kill the suspected rebels because they were interfering in relief efforts in Aceh. "We cannot allow that to happen," he said. "We have to be able to guarantee that aid workers -- foreigners and Indonesians -- are safe to do their work."

Relief agencies have not reported any disruption to aid work from the rebels. They have agreed to Indonesian requirements to register and travel with military escorts.

Rebel spokesman Tengku Jamaica said most of those killed by the military were unarmed civilians. He denied the rebels were targeting aid convoys, and accused the military of abandoning the cease-fire.

In Sri Lanka, a Norwegian delegation arrived to try to further peace talks between that country's government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

A fragile cease-fire has been strained since the tsunami killed more than 30,000 Sri Lankans by accusations from each side that the other is obstructing deliveries in eastern Sri Lanka, where lines of control between the two sides are unclear.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, in his role as peace broker, held "very constructive" talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga, presidential spokesman Harim Peiris said.

Petersen and his team of envoys planned to meet reclusive insurgent leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

Nearly four weeks after the disaster, hundreds of delegates to a UN conference in Japan on disasters put the final touches on a pact backing the creation of a tsunami alert system to forewarn poor nations of cyclones, floods and other natural calamities.

But references in a planned final statement to global warming causing some natural disasters appeared likely to be removed after objections from the United States, Canada and Australia.

Jakarta places everything except independence on table

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2005 The Indonesian government will consider anything except independence for tsunami-hit Aceh province as it tries to broker a peace with separatist rebels, a senior minister says.

"We will entertain any demand short of independence," Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who is overseeing relief operations in Aceh, told reporters in the devastated capital of Banda Aceh.

Shihab also indicated that the government may be willing to accept international help in negotiating an end to the conflict, which it has long regarded as a strictly internal issue.

"This is the time for Indonesia and the global community to do its utmost efforts to get back Aceh into a peaceful period," he said, without elaborating.

Shihab's comments are the latest effort in the government's peace offensive for Aceh that was launched immediately after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster, which claimed more than 166,000 lives in the province.

Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda said on Wednesday the government was hoping to begin peace talks with the rebels by the end of January, although he did not say how much Jakarta was willing to compromise.

"Behind-the-scenes moves are ongoing toward reconciliation," Wirayuda said. "It is our hope ... that there will be a meeting by the end of this month." If the two sides meet, it will be the first time since a truce collapsed in May 2003, which led to martial law and a brutal military crackdown.

At peace talks between Jakarta and exiled rebel leaders in December 2002 in Geneva, the two sides agreed to end hostilities as a starting point to an all-inclusive dialogue in Aceh. But the pact soon ran into trouble, with each side accusing the other of bad faith. The agreement finally collapsed in May the following year despite last-ditch talks in Tokyo.

The military says more than 2,300 rebels have been killed in the ensuing crackdown. Rights groups say many of the victims were civilians, a charge the government denies. Thousands more people have been killed since the Free Aceh Movement began its struggle for independence in 1976.

Shihab repeated on Saturday Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's assertion that finding a peaceful solution to the conflict hinged on the rebels putting down their weapons. "From the first day of the disaster, the president has appealed on those who carry arms to lay down their arms and reconcile. The president is insistent and consistent in this conviction," he said.

Shihab said he had no information on army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu's comments on Thursday that the military had killed 120 rebels over the past two weeks and that his troops would continue fighting insurgents.

Ryacudu's comments highlighted the perceived conflicting positions of the government's peace statements and the continued aggressive actions of the military in Aceh.

But Shihab sought to downplay the differences. "The military is now in a defensive mood because the humanitarian mission is more important than anything else," he said.

Aceh's orphans play a waiting game

Melbourne Age - January 22, 2005

Deborah Cameron, Jakarta -- The tears pool in her deep, wise eyes. Yes, parcels of baby food and milk have been sent, but the greatest of all needs -- a family and a future - does not come condensed in a bottle. If it did, Rin Tjiptono could stop worrying.

In 20 years as a director of Indonesia's most respected adoption agency, Sayap Ibu or Mothers Wing, Mrs Tjiptono, 68, has never faced a more delicate or complicated situation as she tries to cope with Aceh's thousands of tsunami orphans.

Within days of the tsunami, the Indonesian Government banned the removal of children from Aceh, fearing that Christian missionaries might take custody of Muslim children and because of concern that child traffickers were circling.

"I truly believe it is right to stop the children being removed from Aceh but I also think that every child needs a family," Mrs Tjiptono said.

She worries that there are simply too many orphans for Aceh to absorb on its own. "I care first about the children," she said.

The number of children orphaned by the tsunami remains guesswork. Ms Tjiptono has no idea. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday spoke of thousands. A couple of days earlier, the United Nations children's fund UNICEF put the figure at 35,000. A day or two before that, the National Commission for Children in Indonesia said 100,000.

Mrs Tjiptono would rather refer to the children as "displaced", a word that carries the promise that it is just a temporary state.

It will take time, perhaps up to 12 or 18 months, but she thinks that a lot of those separated from their parents will be reclaimed. Or family members, however distant, will find them and they will grow up near to where they belong.

In the meantime, she says, "if the children are safe and in a good place then their illnesses can be treated and they can keep going to school. And then maybe some day their family will come. "If after 18 months nobody claims them, then maybe we should start with fostering or adoption."

Rin Tjiptono, adoption agency headPart of what distinguishes Aceh from the rest of Indonesia is that it has never had an orphanage. Until now there was never a need. Children unlucky enough to lose both parents were, in accordance with Muslim practice, raised by relatives. If there were no relatives, a village or a neighbourhood would take responsibility.

Only now, with whole family trees defoliated and villages razed, has the idea that a child can actually be an orphan adrift dawned on Aceh. No parents, no kin, no village. Not a soul.

So when a government official from Aceh rang Mrs Tjiptono at the privately funded, Jakarta-based orphanage, she was already prepared.

Not only did he need the milk and food supplies that she and her staff of 60 had readied, he wanted to know if she could teach Aceh how to run a children's shelter. "We are ready to send our training specialists but it is not yet realised," she said. First, buildings had to be found to house the children.

For Aceh, it is a situation that demands a culture shift. With orphanages, children's homes and even boarding schools unknown in the province, there is no starting point.

A spokeswoman for the National Council for Children said that so far the task of trying to reunite children and families had been the main strategy.

But what about those children who lack parents, relatives and a village? Mrs Tjiptono's main hope is that Indonesia's adoption laws do not compound their unhappiness.

In 2002 Indonesia changed its laws to make adoptions even more difficult. To appease members of a shaky political coalition, the then president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, stopped Christians from adopting Muslim children. The new laws also bound adoptive parents to an undertaking that children would never be cut off from their original homes or parents. It had the effect of limiting the discretion of adoption agencies and stopped virtually all overseas placements.

Political pressure discouraging grassroots aid: Activists

Agence France Presse - January 22, 2005

Kobe, Japan -- Political constraints in Indonesia are discouraging international non-governmental organizations from assisting victims of Asia's tsunamis, activists at a global conference on disasters said on Saturday.

"We are considering working in Sri Lanka... but it is very difficult to do so in Indonesia," said Masakiyo Murai, director of Citizens Toward Overseas Disaster Emergency.

A number of international humanitarian groups have been operating in Indonesia after the killer tsunami, but Jakarta has said that foreign aid workers and journalists in worst-hit Aceh province must register and be accompanied by the military if they travel outside the main towns.

"Political interference is a big concern," said Murai, whose group has sent members to more than 30 countries hit by national disasters including Turkey, Taiwan and Papua New Guinea.

The group based in Kobe, formed shortly after the Japanese city was hit by a killer earthquake in 1995, aims to improve disaster victims' self-reliance through means such as building job security.

"We have to provide support equally for victims because it's a natural disaster, but we cannot provide support that only benefits the government and ruling parties," Murai said.

Murai said more foreign aid workers would be deployed to Indonesia if the government were more welcoming to non- governmental humanitarian groups.

The move by Jakarta has been seen as an attempt by the government to reassert its authority over Aceh, which had previously been closed to most foreigners as the military pursued a crackdown against separatist rebels.

Some 4,500 delegates from 150 nations are gathered in Kobe for a United Nations-sponsored conference on disaster reduction in the wake of the tsunami catastrophe, which killed some 220,000.

West Papua

Seven alleged rebels arrested in Papua

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Jayapura -- Papua police have arrested seven suspected Papuan rebels in the past five days in Tolikara regency, some 700 kilometers southwest of Jayapura, the Papuan capital.

Acting spokesman for the Papua Provincial Police, Comr. Onny J. Lebelauw, said that the police had apprehended them after a "tip-off". Those arrested are alleged to have burned down houses and government facilities in the regency on January 14.

Seven were arrested 10 days later, while other suspects were still on the run, said Onny.

Kelly's group is one of several separatist groups in Papua that have been waging a low intensity insurgency in the jungle-clad province since 1963, when the former Dutch territory was incorporated into Indonesia.

West Irian Jaya poll may spark conflict

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Papuan leaders urged the central government to cancel a plan for direct elections in the newly created, but controversial West Irian Jaya province, as they believe it could cause serious conflict in the resource-rich area.

Frans Maniagasi, deputy secretary of the Special Team for the Empowerment of Special Autonomy for Papua, said that the Papuan people were currently focusing on the recruitment of the membership of the Papua People's Assembly (MRP).

"The plan to organize direct elections in West Irian Jaya will disrupt the MRP recruitment process and may spark conflict among proponents and opponents in the province. The government must cancel its plan," he told the press here on Sunday.

At least three people were killed and dozens of others were injured in clashes between supporters and opponents of the establishment of the new province in 2003. To avoid a similar melee, he urged the government to cancel the direct election in the province and focus on the selection of the MRP membership.

Government regulation No.54/2004 issued recently actually prohibits the central government or any provincial administration from making any decisions on West Irian Jaya province following a dispute over the legality of its creation.

Article 73 of the government regulation authorizes the Papuan governor, the provincial legislature and the MRP to seek a peaceful solution for troubled West Irian Jaya.

The government is currently preparing a draft regulation to deal with the direct elections of regional heads scheduled to take place sometime in the middle of this year.

Rumors have been circulating among the Papuan leaders that West Irian Jaya will be included on the list of provinces that will have direct elections. Indeed, a stipulation for the West Irian Jaya election is set out in the regulation that government has drafted.

Anthonius Rahail, chairman of the special team, earlier said that a direct poll in West Irian Jaya would negate Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua, as well as the Constitutional Court's recent ruling on the troubled province and the newly issued Government Regulation No. 54/2004 on the MRP.

Maniagasi urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to closely examine the local election draft before finalizing it, otherwise he would repeat the mistakes of his predecessor Megawati Soekarnoputri.

He accused the officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs of pressuring the President to violate existing laws. "President Susilo may repeat the mistakes of Megawati. We suggest that the President closely examine the draft before giving his approval," he said.

Former Papua governor Barnabas Suebu also said he hoped President Susilo would not repeat the mistakes of his predecessor.

Maniagasi and Barnabas were referring to a controversial presidential decree issued by Megawati in 2003, which effectively implemented Law No. 45/1999 on the division of Papua into three provinces: West Irian Jaya, Central Irian Jaya and Papua.

The controversy led to a judicial review by the Constitutional Court, which issued a rather ambiguous decision.

The Court annulled in November certain chapters of Law No. 45/1999. The Court, however, recognized the existence of West Irian Jaya province, given the fact that the province already had an operating administration, a legislature and four elected members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) representing the province in Jakarta.

The partition of Papua has seen by some as an effort by the central government to "divide and conquer Papua", where a low- level secessionist movement has been simmering since the 1960s.

Filip Karma faces heavy penalty for flying flag

Tapol - January 24, 2005

On 20 January, Filip Karma, a West Papuan, went on trial in Jayapura for rebellion. He is charged with seeking to separate Papua from the Indonesian state for which he faces a possible life sentence or a 20-year sentence, under Article 106 of the Criminal Code. He is also charged under Article 154 with expressing hostility or hatred towards the state, the maximum penalty for which is seven years.

Another Papuan, Yusak Pakage, also appeared in court and may also face similar charges. Both men are being held in detention in Jayapura.

Filip Karma arrived in court wearing his uniform as a local government official; his yellow shirt was emblazened with a Morning Star, the emblem of the Papuan people in their struggle for independence.

Before entering the courthouse, Karma, who was carrying a Bible, conducted prayers and read verses 17:33-45 from Samuel I which relates the encounter between David and Goliath.

Following the prayers, the two men held a brief meeting with their lawyers, who raised their intention of submitting a demurrer to the court regarding the legality of the proceedings.

At the commencement of the hearings, the presiding judge asked the two defendants whether they had been notified by their lawyers about the charges against them. They both replied in the negative as they had not met their lawyers until the day of the trial. It was agreed that they will submit demurrers on 24 January.

Nevertheless, "to avoid wasting time", the presiding judge asked the prosecutor, Maskel Rambolangi, to read out the charges against Filip Karma. This is clearly in violation of normal procedure which requires the court to hear the demurrer from the defendant, before determining whether the trial can proceed.

The prosecutor said in his indictment that on 28 November, the accused, along with Yusak Pakage and a group of about twenty people held a meeting in the vicinity of the Uncen Museum in Jayapura to discuss their intention to fly the Morning Star flag and not the flag of the Indonesian Republic on Trikora field in Abepura.

Karma's intention to fly the flag was warmly welcomed by those attending the meeting, including Yusak Pakage.

Thereafter, on 1 December 2004, the accused, along with a number of people, flew the Morning Star flag, and is charged with being responsible for the flying of a flag which is not the Indonesian national flag. He was therefore charged under Articles 110 and 106, as well as Articles 154 and 155.

The lawyer told the court that he was not yet ready to submit a demurrer to the court, so the trial will continue on 24 January.

[According to Cendrawasi Pos, the accused faces the possibility of a death sentence. However, our own reading of the articles given in the charge sheet allow for a maximum penalty of life or a 20-year sentence.]

Papuans against West Irian Jaya poll

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Ridwan Max Sidjabat and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Jayapura -- Papua's provincial leaders have expressed concern over a rumor that the central government will include West Irian Jaya province on the list of more than 95 regions that will hold direct elections of regional heads this year.

The inclusion will apparently be ruled in a government regulation set to be issued in the near future.

"If the rumor becomes a reality, a new and serious problem would emerge in the province because this would negate Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua, the Constitutional Court's decision on the troubled province and the newly issued Government regulation No. 54/2004 on the Papua People's Assembly (MRP)," said Anthonius Rahail, the chairman of the Special Team for the Empowerment of Special Autonomy for Papua.

West Irian Jaya was split from Papua province by the government last year.

Rahail called on the home ministry -- which is currently preparing the draft regulation on the direct elections of regional heads -- to comply with Government Regulation No. 54/2004, which prohibited the central goverment and the provincial administration from making any decision on West Irian Jaya province after its disputed establishment last year.

Chapter 73 of Government Regulation No. 54 authorizes the Papuan governor, provincial legislature and the MRP to seek a peaceful solution for the troubled province of West Irian Jaya.

"The Papuan people will accept it if the three local institutions finally decide to recognize the new province," said Rahail, adding that the home ministry should suspend administrative activities in West Irian Jaya until a permanent decision on the province's fate is reached.

A gubernatorial election will be conducted in West Irian Jaya only if the new province's existence is accepted by the MRP, he added.

Following prolonged tension between Jakarta and Papua, the Constitutional Court annulled in November certain chapters of Law No. 45/1999 on the formation of Irian Jaya and Presidential Instruction No. 1/2003 on the law's enforcement, which was fully supported by the home ministry, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

In a separate development, Rev. Phil Errari, a team member who accompanied Rahail in the press meeting, said the Papuan provincial administration was still preparing bylaws to enforce Government Regulation No. 54 on the MRP, which is scheduled to come into effect in May.

"The MRP will have 42 members or three fourths of the provincial legislative council, comprising 14 tribal leaders, 14 religious figures and the same amount of women," he said.

According to the government regulation, the main mission of the MRP -- the members of which serve five-year terms -- is to protect Papua's indigenous people and their basic rights.

Like the People's Consultative Assembly, the MRP is obliged to maintain the Indonesian unitary state, comply with the amended 1945 Constitution and all laws, preserve Papuan culture and its cultural values, promote religious tolerance and empower women in all fields.

Separately, scholar and chairman of Cenderawasih University Research Center, J.R Mansoben, has urged that the recruitment of MRP members be carried out in a transparent manner.

He said all elements of the Papua provincial community should be represented in the MRP, in order to avoid potential conflicts.

Papua province has 250 tribes, which have for years been self- governing.

Labour issues

Indonesia 'unprepared' for labor market competition

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Jakarta -- Indonesian workers are unprepared for competition in regional labor markets among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, a business expert says.

Prasetiya Mulya Business School Dean Sammy Kristamuljana told the first Indonesian Business Conference on Wednesday that on paper the concept of cross-border labor competition sounded great.

"However, we may suffer badly since we are not ready for the competition, especially in the service industry," he said.

Based on the World Trade Organization (WTO) rulings, Indonesia should have liberalized its labor markets in 2003. However, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris said on Monday the government would to start opening the door to job seekers from countries grouped in ASEAN next year, and in 2008 to those from outside the association.

Kristamuljana said the lack of competitiveness of Indonesians in the labor market was illustrated by the employment of several managers from other countries, including the Philippines, in major Indonesian companies such as those belonging to the Salim group.

He said most opportunities for Indonesians to work in other ASEAN countries were currently limited to blue collar workers.

"These type of jobs don't last long as they can be terminated at any time," he said.

Indonesia needed to work hard at preparing skilled workers and managers to compete in the global market, he said. Universities and government institutions needed to make concerted efforts to increase the nation's skill set.

"The government may help in terms of financing and universities in terms of the quality of education." Kristamuljana said his observations showed that many graduates of business and management schools were not making much effort to match their acquired knowledge with the conditions at their workplaces.

Meanwhile, the executive director of Prasetiya Mulya Business School, Djisman Simandjuntak, said that in order to improve competitiveness in the era of globalization, Indonesia needed to develop good corporate governance (GCG) practices.

However, collusion and nepotism continued to hamper their development, he said.

"Good corporate governance has a better chance of prevailing under competition rather than under collusive or nepotistic environments." Simandjuntak said the basic requirements of good governance -- transparency, accountability, fairness and technology disclose -- needed to be achieved first.

"We are far behind Malaysia and Thailand in applying GCG," he said.

Sumatra plantations produce generations of poor workers

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Pematang Siantar -- North Sumatra has long been known for its large oil palm, cocoa and rubber plantations, but they have contributed little to the local people's welfare over the centuries.

Bedjo Kirnadi, a 47-year-old worker of state-owned PT Perkebunan Nusantara IV (PTPN IV), raised his eyebrows when asked what changes he had seen during his 24 years at the palm oil plantation.

In a sad tone, he shared his long story, that his family had achieved nothing over the generations and that he could not afford to send his three children to school despite the fact that his wife has worked for 15 years in the same company to help support their family. Recalling his initial monthly salary of Rp 350 (3 cents) in 1980, he said conditions were better then.

"Formerly, all workers received the nine basic commodities, including rice, sugar, palm oil, kerosene and cloth besides their monthly salaries. But now, I am paid Rp 350,000 per month and my wife Rp 325,000 and that's all," he told The Jakarta Post at his small hut in the Andarasi housing area recently.

Jaiman, 54, who has been employed for almost 35 years at the state-owned oil palm plantation PTPN II in Tanjongmorawa, 12 kilometers south of Medan, said that since January 2002 he had been paid Rp 350,000 monthly and it was far from enough to support his family of eight.

"I have two children at a public junior high school while four others are employed as contract workers with the company. My wife sells basic commodities at the local market to help my family survive the economic hardships of daily life," he said in his house provided by the company at the plantation on Monday.

Jaiman expressed deep concern over the poor labor conditions at the plantation, saying none of the low-income workers were able to improve their welfare under the current conditions.

"Thousands of workers will remain poor, both economically and intellectually because under the current remuneration system, they are unable to lead a better life or to send their children to university in an attempt to make changes in their life," he said.

The chairman of the labor union at the plantation (SPBUN), Serta Ginting, said the labor union in the province had filed a lawsuit against those companies that were still refusing to pay some of their workers the regional minimum wage set by the government and had not registered them in social security programs.

He said that of the more than 100,000 workers employed in four state-owned palm oil plantations in the province, 40,000, or some 40 percent, were not registered to receive the company benefits package.

"According to Law No. 3/1992, social security programs are mandatory and the workers have a right to protection, both from the government and their management," he said.

He added that many companies in the province did not register all their workers in an attempt to avoid paying more premiums to PT Jamsostek, the state-owned company in charge of all company social security/benefits programs.

Pengarapen Sinulingga, chief of the state-owned PT Jamsostek branch in Pematang Siantar, also expressed deep concern over the poor labor conditions in state-owned plantations in the province, saying his company had urged the local administration and the manpower and transmigration ministry to look into the violations.

"We have contacted the local manpower office to closely monitor the enforcement of the new labor law and the social security law in the plantations," he said, adding that a larger part of the plantations' workers were not registered with Jamsostek.

The director of PTPN IV's general affairs and human resources, A. Lubis, defended the existing remuneration system which he said was better that the minimum wage set by the government.

He said the management could not improve the workers' social welfare due to the rampant theft of palm oil kernels over the last five years that had caused tens of billions of rupiah in annual financial losses.

Director of Labor Inspection at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Maruddin Simanihuruk said his ministry had urged the government to review the poor labor conditions that had sparked strong criticism from the House of Representatives and labor unions.

"The government has to rectify the poor labor conditions and improve the remuneration system in a bid to set a good example for private companies," he said.

'High-cost economy' curbs better pays

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- Employers, labor unions and the government have agreed to eliminate the high-cost economy in an endeavor to help repair the investment climate and improve workers' welfare.

Employers have long been complaining of the double taxation system, rampant extortion by third parties, corrupt administrations and damaged infrastructure in most regions that have discouraged foreign investors from investing in the country and most employers from paying their workers higher than the minimum wage.

The Federation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI) and the Federation of Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union (KSBSI) said on Thursday that the two major trade unions would be behind the government in fighting against the invisible costs which have been paid by employers at the expense of their workers.

Asked to comment on the tripartite agreement to eliminate the high-cost economy at the Borobudur Hotel on Wednesday, secretary-general of KSPSI Syukur Sarto said KSPSI had urged the government several times to revise the tax system and award a tax holiday to companies paying their workers decent wages and carrying out training programs to improve their skills and productivity.

"The tax system must be revised and companies committed to improving workers' skills, productivity and livelihood must be given special incentives. This will help fix the business climate and lure more foreign investors to invest in Indonesia," he said, adding that most investors have been overburdened by the double tax system under the regional autonomy.

Director General for Industrial Relations at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Muzni Tambusai said the government was revising thousands of contentious regulations issued by local administrations in line with the implementation of regional autonomy.

"The government has already reviewed the regional autonomy and fiscal balance laws and lifted a number of contentious bylaws on double taxes and the complicated process of investment permits. Besides, the government has just held an international summit to seek funds for the rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure." Djimanto, secretary-general of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo), said the majority of employers were optimistic of an immediate economic recovery in view of the government's commitment to repair the investment climate and eliminate the high-cost economy.

"It takes time and it cannot be completed within 100 days. The most important thing is that the government has a strong commitment and has taken a series of measures to show its strong commitment," he said.

Rekson Silaban, chairman of KSBSI, said employers and labor unions were also of the same opinion that the remuneration mechanism should be left to the market with the government setting the minimum wage level.

"With an improved investment climate and labor conditions, employers are expected to be able to pay their workers higher than the government-set minimum wage as has been practiced in developed countries," he said, citing that Malaysia and Singapore have since long adopted such a remuneration system.

When asked about industrial relations in Indonesia, Rekson said Indonesia should establish an industrial relations model which was operational and executable.

"We should learn from numerous models in Europe, the United States or Japan, which are all operational and morally binding," he said, adding that the current concept implemented in Indonesia was not operational because it was too general in the nature.

He said European Union has its OECD Guidelines on operational industrial relations and pacts between workers and employers and any side violating the industrial relations' norms would certainly receive social sanctions from the employers and workers communities.

Citing as another example, he said that employers and trade unions in Japan have reached an agreement that workers have a certain day in a year to air their aspirations in which their employers have to give a response. Outside that certain day, workers are not allowed to stay out of their workplace and those violating this agreement will be excluded from trade unions.

Reformasi

Disillusion rises as democracy stalls, says Demos study

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Jakarta -- The development of Indonesian democracy after more than six years of transformation from an authoritarian regime has failed to usher in significant change in the country's political landscape, with corruption and power abuse still dominant, a study has found.

A preliminary report of a study by human rights watchdog Demos made available to The Jakarta Post recently found that after six years since the reform movement began, democratic institutions were weak and political corruption was on the rise, resulting in a "deficit of democracy".

The survey revealed that 90 percent of respondents were of the opinion that government officials were susceptible to corruption and abuse of power. "The same proportion of respondents also believed that the government could not free itself from interference from powerful interest groups," the survey said.

Ninety-one percent of respondents had the view that political parties, as the primary institution in a democratic political system, were involved in bribery and vote-buying and were also susceptible to influences exerted by powerful groups.

Contrary to a widely held assumption that the government would become more accountable to the public under a democratic political system, the survey found that 87 percent of respondents were of the opinion that the bureaucracy had poor accountability.

Demos interviewed 800 respondents, consisting of non-governmental organizations (NGO) activists, members of political parties and other politically conscious community figures across the country's 32 provinces as part of an ongoing project to measure the extent of democratic development.

The survey was supported by the Norwegian Embassy in Indonesia, the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation (SIDA) and the Ford Foundation. A final report on the survey is expected to be issued in November this year.

Aside from the stifling of people's participation in the country's political system, corruption and abuse of power were the main characteristics of the autocratic regime of former president Soeharto before it was toppled by a popular movement in 1999.

Despite the bleak picture, Demos found that a large number of the respondents felt that their basic rights had been respected. "Eighty percent of respondents believed that they could exercise the rights of free speech and association," the survey said.

Demos executive director Asmara Nababan said that although a new set of freedoms prevailed, justice and legal certainty, accountable governance and democratic representation were still poor.

"Most human rights instruments and institutions designed to support democracy have been dominated by the elite groups," he said, adding that prodemocracy activists were not yet capable of using the hard-won basic rights and democratic institutions to bring about more political changes.

In its recommendation, Demos said that the prodemocracy movement must press ahead with its agenda of improving the existing institutions that already worked well and demanding more basic rights to be honored. "If democracy fails to generate immediate results, it doesn't mean it is not suitable for us," it said.

'War on terror'

Ba'asyir, lawyers storm out of court

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Jakarta -- Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is being tried on charges of involvement in acts of terror, and his lawyers walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday in protest against the judges' decision to allow the prosecution to read out the sworn statements of four witnesses in their absence.

The lawyers rejected the prosecutors reading out witnesses' statements in the case files that identified Ba'asyir as the leader of the regional Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group.

The four witnesses were Wan Min Wan Mat, Ahmad Faisal and Ahmad Saefullah Ibrahim, all being detained in Malaysia, and Fariz Abubakar Bafana who is currently imprisoned in Singapore. They have been charged under the Internal Security Act for alleged involvement in JI.

"With due respect, we are leaving this room until the reading is over," Muhammad Assegaf, chief counsel for the 66-year-old cleric, told the judges.

Seconds later, Ba'asyir also walked out. "I cannot stay here without my lawyers. I have to leave the hearing too." Assegaf said the judges' decision contravened Article 162 of the Criminal Law Procedures Code (KUHAP), which allows for the reading out of a witness' disposition only under three circumstances.

"First, if the witness dies. Second, if he or she cannot attend due to legal obstacles or because of long distance, and third, for other reasons related to the state's interests," he told the court.

Chief prosecutor Salman Maryadi challenged the argument, saying his office was trying Ba'asyir under Article 27 of Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism.

"Remember that this case is being tried under the Antiterrorism Law, a lex specialis (specific law) which regulates matters that are not covered by KUHAP," he said.

Salman said that Article 27 stipulates that information given verbally could be used in terror trials, so that the results of investigations conducted in Malaysia and Singapore could be presented to the court.

Presiding judge Soedarto accepted the prosecution's argument and instructed that the readings proceed, even without the presence of the lawyers.

Four prosecutors took turns reading the interrogation files of the four witnesses, in which they admitted to having met with Ba'asyir at the Hudaibiah camp in the southern Philippines, allegedly set up by JI.

Earlier, Mubarok alias Hutomo Pamungkas, one of the convicted Bali bombers, appear at Thursday's trial but refused to testify, arguing that he had told all that he knew to police during his interrogation.

"I don't want to testify. All that I said is in the case file," Mubarok said.

Ba'asyir stands accused of being involved in the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 and the JW Marriott Hotel attack in 2003. He could face the death penalty if convicted. (006)

Bali bomber says he had no links with cleric Ba'asyir

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Jakarta -- Ali Imron, who is serving a life sentence for the 2002 Bali bombings, testified in the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Thursday that the cleric had not influenced his actions in carrying out the attack.

His testimony posed another setback for prosecutors in trying to link Ba'asyir, 66, with the Bali bombings and the 2003 bombing of JW Marriott Hotel, which were both blamed on Jamaah Islamiyah.

Ali had previously refused to testify until the judge explained the importance of the Ba'asyir case. Another convicted Bali bomber, Hutomo Pamungkas alias Mubarok, failed to testify in Thursday's court session due to health reasons.

Ali said that Ba'asyir, charged by the prosecution for inciting his followers to bomb two nightclubs in Bali and the Marriott hotel, had not provided any facilities, financial support or any religious advice for him before the Bali attack.

He said he had not met Ba'asyir before the bombings.

"I saw Ba'asyir once, when I was staying at the home of my brother, Mukhlas, in Johor, Malaysia," Ali said, recalling the days before he went to Pakistan and Afghanistan to study Islam and learn the art of war.

"As far as I knew, Abdullah Sungkar was the leader of Jamaah Islamiyah. Then I found out from the media that Ba'asyir was the amir (leader) of the organization." Ali acknowledged that he first met Ba'asyir when the 66-year-old taught at the Al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Ngruki, Surakarta, Central Java.

Ba'asyir confirmed Ali's testimony, saying that he knew Ali when he was in fourth grade at Ngruki.

Before adjourning the trial, the panel of judges instructed the prosecutors to present Mubarok to testify in the next session scheduled for January 27.

"We believe that the presence of this witness in court is important," presiding judge Soedarto said.

He argued that during the previous hearings, witnesses had linked Mubarok with Ba'asyir in relation to the cleric's alleged role in JI.

Meanwhile, Ba'asyir's defense lawyers asked the judges to also summon former president Megawati Soekarnoputri to testify at the trial.

Muhammad Assegaf, chief lawyer for Baasyir, said Megawati should appear in court because her name had been mentioned by witness Frederic L. Bucks, a former translator for US President George W. Bush.

Bucks had told the court that Bush once asked Megawati to secretly arrest Ba'asyir and hand him over to the US authorities for prosecution.

The judges however rejected the lawyers' request, saying they did not believe that Megawati's testimony would be pivotal in Ba'asyir case.

A.P. Batubara, a Megawati aide, told Antara that the former president would not be willing to testify in the Ba'asyir trial. Batubara did not say why.

He said Megawati rejected the appeal of the Bush administration to hand over the Muslim cleric to the United States in order to protect the right of a citizen to face trial in Indonesia under the country's law.

The Ministry of Agriculture's auditorium, which housed Thursday's trial, was not as crowded as the previous sessions as many of Ba'asyir's supporters from the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI) did not show up on the eve of Idul Adha (Islamic Day of Sacrifice).

Government/civil service

What people say about SBY

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Ray Rangkuti, executive director of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP):

We have not seen a coherent strategy in dealing with the country's myriad problems in the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. As a result, in the first three months of his administration, we witnessed only sporadic changes which have had no significant impact on people's daily lives. His approach was issue-based and a reaction to what went on in the political scene.

I believe that with such an approach, we can expect that Susilo's administration will register minuscule changes during his five- year term.

Ifdhal Kasim, executive director of rights group the Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam):

In the first three months in office, Susilo's administration has failed miserably in realizing the pledge he had said was to be his top priority during his campaign trail -- eradicating corruption and seeking legal action against human rights abusers. Susilo may have a strong will to fulfill his promises, but the institution he hoped would spearhead the move, the Attorney General's Office had become a weak spot for him.

Instead of finding breakthroughs to bypass the redundant legal procedures the office has been preoccupied with internal problems. The new attorney general was busy guarding himself from a possible mutiny by his subordinates. This can be seen from his move to set up a team of experts and the Judicial Commission. Susilo will achieve little progress if the Attorney General's Office fails to come up with its own creative efforts. Addie MS, musician/conductor of Twilite Orchestra: I didn't believe in the 100-day program from the beginning. It's like an effort to boost the sales of bad quality products that will break after a month's use.

It will need a longer timetable than 100 days to evaluate the President's performance. Especially with the tsunami disaster and everything else going on, the President is in a difficult position.

I myself am optimistic that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will do a good job as president. It's not a matter of him being a bad leader, but the trouble often comes from his subordinates, such as Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who has often made inappropriate remarks.

SBY himself might be a good leader, and he has shown good moves, like in the case of (businessman) Adiguna Sutowo. So, just give him a chance, don't be too quick to judge and condemn a president. It's a Goliath task to lead a country, and only by supporting our presidents can we really produce good leaders.

Shanty Harmayn, filmmaker/cofounder of the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest):

From the beginning, president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla have been burdened by very high expectations. The challenges were enormous.

But on the other hand, they have more support and opportunities to perform better. And I don't see that they have made good use of the support and opportunities.

They are not determined and firm enough, and judging from the media, it seems that the administration does not have good coordination.

They just have to be more firm and strict. Take a risk, don't be indecisive anymore. And I hope the government can come up with a clear plan and strategy to improve the cultural scene as there is none at all now.

Agung Laksono, House of Representatives Speaker and deputy chairman of the Golkar Party:

We can see some weaknesses, for example the policies on corruption eradication. There are several figures who have allegedly committed corruption, but they are still free.

Also, we have not seen steps to deal with economic recovery.

We, however, understand that the government has worked hard in some sectors. Then, the catastrophic tsunami came. This has consumed the energy of the government. It has also forced the government to spend money on disaster mitigation.

The House will not make a specific assessment of the first 100 days of the government. For the House, the assessment is an ongoing duty carried out every day.

Ignatius Mulyono of the Democratic Party:

Basically, we agree that it is impossible to change the terrible conditions in the country within only 100 days. But, we can see the steps taken by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

He has given clear direction to his Cabinet ministers to put in place the fundamentals for further actions.

We cannot expect spectacular changes within 100 days. If there are drastic changes it will only create anxiety among the people. The ministers have shown serious action.

I hope fellow legislators can jointly criticize the policies of the government, the President and his ministers, so that our expectations can be realized.

Sugiarto, a graphic design student at Bina Nusantara:

I have not felt any changes. The program probably means more to the poor than to us who can afford school fees. I think there should be better moral education at school especially for elementary students. It might be able to curb corruption in the future. The current curriculum called PPKN or Pancasila and Civic education is not sufficient as students need more practical lessons instead of theories.

Johantan Indraguwan, a student at the University of Tarumanegara:

It is too early to see whether his program has worked or not. So far, I have not felt any changes in the education system. We have not seen any results, but it is not that he has failed to fulfill his promises, as we might be able to see the results in the next six months. But in the future, there needs to be a subsidy for education because the current cost of education is too high in comparison to people's living standards.

Andreas Pandiangan, a political analyst from the Soegijapranata Catholic University in Semarang:

Susilo's Cabinet has done little in the past 100 days, especially to do with combating corruption. The government has been sluggish in prosecuting big corruption cases. There are several important cases that have been investigated for the past few years but never brought to court.

Andreas Herry Kahuripan, the secretary general of the Indonesia Forest Research Institute (LPHI), in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Thursday:

Susilo's Cabinet has still failed to address the problem of illegal logging during his first 100 days in office. Illegal logging remains rampant in the regions although the government has stepped up a campaign against the practice.

In order to succeed in combating illegal logging, the government must tighten its supervision of the sector and take harsher measures against errant officials and the illegal loggers themselves. The government should also set up a special court to deal with the offense.

Moedji Raharto, a senior astronomer at the Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, West Java:

The situation has got worse during the first 100 days of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration. There has been a rise of jobless people during the past three months and the price of household items, including liquefied petroleum gas, has skyrocketed. I am afraid that his popularity among the people will fade away to nothing.

Ade Jasman, a spokesman for the National Student Front in Jambi:

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration has so far failed to provide affordable quality education for the people. School fees remain expensive, barring the poor from enjoying the benefits of education.

Deswati Sembiring, a contract worker in an industrial estate in Batam, Riau:

I thought that President Susilo would pay more attention to the fate of workers. However, my hopes so far have proven unfounded. The fate of workers has not yet improved in President Susilo's first 100 days. We have fought for better wages but our demands have fallen on deaf ears.

Susilo fails to register significant progress

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- Against a background of perhaps excessively high public expectations of sweeping change, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been criticized by some analysts for failing to bring about significant progress in its first three months.

Political analyst Syamsuddin Haris of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that thus far the Susilo administration had instituted only minuscule changes and had failed to give any indication that it would do better in the future.

Syamsuddin said that in the fight against corruption, which Susilo said he would personally lead and which would be the cornerstone of his administration, his performance could be considered poor as there had been nothing to date to indicate that high profile corruptors would be brought to justice soon.

"Abdullah Puteh has been finally brought before the court, but the process has been proceeding at a snail's pace. This was the style of the previous administration," Syamsuddin said, referring to the trial of the suspended Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam governor, who has been implicated in a corruption case involving a procurement project.

To make matters worst for Susilo, according to Syamsuddin, his tacit rivalry with Vice President Jusuf Kalla was slowing down the decision-making process in his administration and, in turn, obstructing immediate progress.

"Both Susilo and Kalla spend much of their energies in concealing the fact that they are rivals, especially after Kalla was elected Golkar Party leader last December," Syamsuddin said.

He predicted that the discord would likely persist and could become the defining feature of the Susilo administration.

The Susilo-Kalla government will be three months old on Friday. The country's first ever directly-elected President pledged that he would make significant progress during what he termed the "100-day breakthrough" period, with the anticorruption drive topping his agenda.

Given the lackluster performance of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in the political and economic fields, expectations were high that Susilo would bring about sweeping changes due to the strong mandate he was given by the electorate.

Economist Didik J. Rachbini concurred with Syamsuddin, saying that there had been no coordinated efforts by the members of Susilo's Cabinet to tackle the myriad of problems afflicting the country's economy.

"The members of Susilo's economic team in the Cabinet seemed to be at a loss over what they would do in the first three months. They have no blueprint whatsoever. The ministers just go with the flow," Didik told a discussion organized by an alliance of youth organizations here.

He added that the Susilo administration had also not yet succeeded in reviving the country's fragile economy.

"During the campaign, Susilo emphasized that his administration would tackle rampant corruption, reform the bureaucracy, improve the public service and stimulate the country's economy. However, after three months there has been no substantial progress," he claimed.

Despite the administration's poor record, it deserved credit for supporting press freedom, said Bambang Harymurti, chief editor of Tempo weekly.

"Susilo's inclination to avail of the right to reply and his repeated statements about resorting to the Press Council in the case of disputes with the media must be applauded, especially considering that the previous administration tended to use the criminal law against journalists," Bambang said.

Susilo-Kalla rivalry may hamper effective governance

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- A rift between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, has reached a critical stage and if not kept in check could hamper the way to effective governance, analysts say.

Political analyst Indra J. Piliang of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said political rivalry between Susilo and Kalla had penetrated the top level of bureaucracy, slowing down the implementation of various government policies.

"A recent order issued by President Susilo on the need to revamp the National Disaster Management and Refugee Coordination Board (Bakornas PBP) is among many indications that the rift is widening. I see the move as a gesture from the President to reassert his control over the government and state he is in charge of all affairs," Indra told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Citing a lack of coordination and poor management in handling emergency relief operations for tsunami victims in Aceh, Susilo ordered the reorganization of Bakornas PBP, which is led by the Vice President.

Susilo's move also came after the much-publicized row that was triggered by the issuance of a vice presidential decree to establish a national team to deal with humanitarian work in the tsunami-battered province.

State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra had said that the country's legal system only recognized a presidential, not vice presidential, decree and that Kalla's order was invalid.

State Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan A. Djalil and two presidential spokesmen recently visited the offices of several publications in Jakarta to explain that Susilo and Kalla were not engaged in rivalry.

Indra further said that the rift was prompted by political bickering between Susilo and Kalla, especially after the Vice President was recently elected leader of the Golkar Party, the largest political party in the country.

"Kalla thinks that his position as the Golkar leader adds political weight to his vice presidency, a position considered powerless in the past," he said.

Kalla snatched the Golkar leadership from Akbar Tandjung in a bitter contest in December.

However, the row between the President and his deputy reportedly dates back to the selection of ministers for Susilo's United Indonesia Cabinet. The process of picking ministers dragged on as Kalla allegedly meddled in the selection process.

Analyst Arbi Sanit of the University of Indonesia shared Indra's view, warning that the rift could intensify in the future.

The rivalry could preoccupy the top level of bureaucracy if not settled soon, he said.

"We have seen proof in the Aceh issue; the presidential and vice presidential offices are competing with one another in making sure that their interests are served," Arbi told the Post.

He said the rift could subside if Susilo managed to counterbalance Kalla's political clout.

"Susilo needs to build an alliance of political parties to strengthen support for him, an alliance that excludes Golkar," Arbi said.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Indonesia urged to seriously combat corruption

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Foreign creditors grouped in the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI) have reiterated their calls for the government to intensify measures to fight corruption and curb illegal logging, in a bid to restore their confidence in the country.

The call was made during the last day of the two-day CGI meeting here on Thursday, with creditors pledging to hand over a total of US$3.4 billion in new loans and grants.

According to Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh, most creditor countries grilled the government over what they consider to be poor handling of the efforts to eliminate corruption by state officials.

"They asked about our commitment to combat corruption and illegal logging, which often involves key state officials," he said after the meeting.

The creditors, he added, asked if the government was serious in establishing special commissions to supervise the performance of police and prosecutors, and prevent them from conspiring with white-collar thieves and embezzlers.

The absence of sufficient independent supervision has led to these two institutions -- supposedly the front-runners in the campaign against corruption -- to regularly abuse their authority.

"Creditors also questioned the government's time frame in setting up the commissions, as they would be very helpful in 'cleaning out' corrupt law enforcers. We told them that the establishment (of these commissions) would be done soon," Abdul said.

Corrupt practices are common in Indonesia -- the country is one of the most corrupt in the world -- and have flourished for decades at almost every level of government, without signs of abating. It has caused business costs to soar and made the country economically less competitive.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) estimate that up to 30 percent of the country's foreign loans are embezzled by state officials.

Meanwhile, H.S. Dillon, executive director for Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, said at the meeting that most creditors were urging the government to set a deadline for fighting corruption so that they could clearly measure the government's performance in this matter.

"Creditors said that the government needed to put more effort into anti-graft drives, despite forming the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). Creditors' confidence in the country will decline unless such issues are resolved," he said.

Neither Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Aburizal Bakrie, nor State Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Board chairwoman, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, acknowledged corruption as the most important issue raised by creditors during the meeting.

"There are no conditions or terms set by creditors for the loans and grants because they are confident that we can eliminate corruption based on our five-year development programs," Mulyani said.

Creditors also urged the government to be serious in its efforts to alleviate poverty and to narrow the gap between the nation's rich and poor in both urban and rural areas, Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said.

Aside from that, creditors requested that the government intensify its campaign to reduce mortality resulting from poor public services and malnutrition.

Creditor countries also want the government to reform the security environment by providing police with adequate equipment and skills, said Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto.

Media/press freedom

Legal action against media 'only last resort'

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reiterated his support for press freedom, promising that the government would settle disputes with the media out of court.

Communications and information minister Sofyan Djalil said on Thursday that the President was committed to supporting the development of a free and professional media as it was a major part of democracy.

"We will continue to use hak jawab (the right to respond) as we know that media reports are not always accurate," Sofyan said at a press briefing after accompanying the President at a meeting with the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI).

However, the President recently sent a team led by Sofyan to visit the offices of Kompas, the country's leading newspaper, and Rakyat Merdeka newspaper to convey displeasure at articles on post-tsunami issues, which the government deemed opinionated.

"We exercised our right to object to the articles carried by the two dailies, and the case is closed," Sofyan said, explaining the visits.

However, he said the government would not hesitate to bring a dispute with print or electronic media to the Indonesia Press Council if its right to respond was ignored.

"We will only use the legal approach as a last resort," Sofyan asserted.

Susilo acknowledged that a number of articles on the media in the Criminal Code were products of Dutch colonial rulers and were unsuited to current conditions, Sofyan said.

"However, we need to develop a benchmark for the Indonesian media. Even in countries with well established democracy, the press must abide by regulations and code of ethics," he said.

Last year, Tempo magazine chief editor Bambang Harymurti was found guilty in a defamation case against businessman Tomy Winata. Tempo also lost a civil lawsuit in connection with the case and was ordered to pay US$1 million in compensation. The magazine has appealed the verdicts.

Rakyat Merdeka, a newspaper known for its sensational headlines, lost separate libel cases last year against president Megawati Soekarnoputri and House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung. Two of its editors are appealing their six-to-eight- month prison terms.

During Thursday's media conference after the meeting with the President, PWI chairman Tarman Azzam said Susilo would attend the celebration of National Press Day on Feb. 9 in the Riau capital Pekanbaru.

"The President is set to hold talks with people at the event," he said.

The PWI commemoration of the day has drawn public criticism because the Rp 6 billion (US$666,600) event, which features a national sports competition, will reportedly be financed by the Riau budget.

Riau Governor Rusli Zainal, who accompanied Tarman at the press conference, did not deny the reports, saying his administration often disbursed funds from the provincial budget for social events.

Critics have lashed out at the Riau administration for spending so much money for the PWI event.

They also accused the PWI of being insensitive to the suffering of tsunami victims in Aceh and North Sumatra, including fellow journalists.

Tarman said the PWI got funding from other sources apart from the Riau government to finance the event.

Responding to the criticism, Tarman said there was no need to draw out compassion for Aceh.

"We don't need to be sad for a long time. We should support Aceh to rise again. The event is a part of our attention toward the Acehnese," he said, arguing that the PWI had raised funds for its members in Aceh.

Tarman said the committee would cover travel and accommodation costs of delegates participating in the National Press Day celebration.

The PWI will also present awards for exceptional reports on post-tsunami Aceh, he added.

Local & community issues

Bandung residents protest over hotel project

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- Hundreds of Punclut residents, environmentalists and artists protested on the streets of Bandung on Thursday, rejecting the planned construction of a hotel and resort in Punclut, a water catchment area in North Bandung.

The protesters criticized Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada for issuing a permit for PT Dam Utama Sakti Prima (DUSP) to turn 60-hectare plot in Punclut into a tourism and business project. They said the permit violated regional regulations that designate Punclut as part of a water catchment, and could worsen floods during the rainy season and cause water shortages in the dry season.

A performing arts show kicked off the protest, the second such protest, and was followed by a speech in front of the Gedung Sate building, which houses the Bandung City Council and governor's office.

Sobirin, an expert member from the Council of the Sunda Territory Environmental Observer who took part in the protest, criticized the mayor for issuing a permit at a time when many people were demanding stricter control of the North Bandung conservation area.

Moreover, he said the alleged construction of an access road by PT DUSP following the issuance of permit No. 593/01-DBM/05 on January 12 was against local bylaw No. 2/2004 on Bandung's spatial planning. Article 100 of the bylaw cites that no new road access is allowed in the Punclut area to maintain its green space.

"It's a strange policy of a mayor to allow a conservation area to be developed instead of being rehabilitated," Sobirin said.

PT DUSP president director Fandam Darmawan, on the sidelines of a seminar on Punclut organized by the Indonesian Geologists Association in West Java and Banten, told reporters that he only acted as executor of the permit.

He said that only 20 percent of the 60-hectare site would be developed, while the rest would remain a green area.

"If we (go on) with construction, we'd be helping to preserve water... we'll build an environmentally friendly residential area that will be comfortable for its residents and local people in the vicinity," Fandam said on Thursday.

He said the disadvantages did not outweigh the project's advantages, and his company was just waiting for Bandung administration approval to start construction. He said that so far, no development had started apart from a regreening project in a hilly area.

Geologist Hardoyo Rajiwiryono disagreed with protesters, saying that based on the latest satellite image, Punclut was not the main water catchment, but a small one where construction should be allowed.

According to Bandung's water resources office data, around 6,020 hectares of reservoirs, or around 70 percent of water catchments in North Bandung, had been damaged due to residential development.

Human rights/law

Human rights still poor in 2004: PBHI

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- The country's human rights record remained poor in 2004, with state-sponsored violence and the cycle of impunity still persisting, a rights group says.

The Indonesian Legal Aid Institute Foundation (PBHI) said in its annual report released on Tuesday that in most human rights abuse cases, the state could be blamed for abetting if not actually committing the crimes, and for failing to take enough action to prevent them.

In the report, the PBHI found that human rights abuses committed against civilians by state institutions were widespread in conflict zones.

"In 2004, we found 111 cases of human rights abuses in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), ranging from arbitrary arrest and seizure to torture and kidnapping," the report said.

It registered four incidences of rights abuses in Papua, where the Free Papua Organization (OPM) had been seeking independence from Indonesia since the late 1960s.

The rights group based its figures on cases of human rights violations in which the PBHI was involved in providing advocacy and legal aid on behalf of the victims.

The report also highlighted the fact that despite the establishment of a high-profile human rights tribunal, almost all of the defendants walked free.

"The state has not done enough to seek legal redress against the perpetrators of human rights violations and this has resulted in impunity. It is very strange that there are so many victims of rights abuses but no one is held accountable for them," the report said.

The report highlighted the fact that most of the military personnel who were implicated in human rights abuses during the mayhem that followed a United Nations-sponsored ballot in East Timor in 1999 were acquitted by an the rights tribunal.

The PBHI said that these acquittals were the result of political intervention involving high-profile state officials.

Besides being responsible for human rights abuses, the PBHI also found that the state was guilty of violating the basic economic rights of its citizens.

It said that the use of eviction by administrations as a tool to achieve quick and arbitrary solutions to land disputes was widespread in 2004.

"The eviction of the students of SMP 56 in South Jakarta is one among many immediate examples of the widespread use of eviction. This case shows us that the government backed business interests at the expense of the public interest," the report said.

PBHI executive director Johnson Panjaitan also criticized the country's current leadership.

"Respect for human rights was the main campaign theme of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, but after almost three months in office we can see that nothing has been done," Johnson said, adding that both figures were partly responsible for human rights in the previous administration. Susilo was coordinating minister for security and political affairs while Kalla was involved in handling communal conflicts around the country.

He said that neither Susilo nor Kalla had achieved anything of note in their previous posts, and that nothing much in the way of improvement could be expected from them

Disabled people demand equality

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

Yogyakarta -- Dozens of disabled people in Yogyakarta staged a protest on Monday to demand equal treatment and an end to discrimination by the authorities, and the enactment of special legislation to ensure their rights were protected.

The protesters met with several members of the local council, and complained about a lack of employment opportunities and public facilities for them.

"We don't ask for pity. We are just demanding fair and equal treatment. For how long will we continue to be treated like this?" said coordinator Nuning Setyaningsih, who is also the director of the Center for Improving Qualified Activity in the Lives of People with Disabilities (CIQAL).

She said that the main cause of discriminatory treatment against disabled people was the lack of legislation to protect their rights.

Garuda pilot investigated in Munir murder case

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- he government-sanctioned fact-finding team, which is "assisting" the police investigators over the alleged murder of human rights campaigner Munir, has asked for information from intelligence agencies about a Garuda pilot, who they suspect could be working on behalf of another state institution.

Rachland Nasidik, a director of human rights monitor Imparsial and also a member of the team, said on Monday the information was needed because "It seems he [the pilot] is not an ordinary pilot, and we have heard that he carries a gun without a license." "We [the team] are requesting a hearing with all chiefs of intelligence units, including Samsir Siregar, to get a clarification over the status of this suspicious pilot," Rachland said, referring to Maj. Gen. (ret) Samsir Siregar who heads the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

"Hopefully they can publicly explain whether or not any intelligence institution was involved [in the alleged murder]," Rachland said in a press conference.

Rachland refused to name the pilot, but acknowledged that the team had already studied 11 dossiers of suspicious passengers and crew members of Garuda who were on the same flight as Munir from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore on September 7, 2004.

Munir, who was a staunch critic of the military for its alleged role in gross human rights abuses throughout the country, was believed to have been poisoned by arsenic during the Jakarta- Singapore leg of his trip.

Three Garuda pilots have testified to the police in relation to the case. During the flight, Garuda had three pilots on board. One to fly the airplane from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta to Changi in Singapore. The other one continued the flight to Amsterdam, while the third pilot was the one who greeted Munir on the flight and persuaded the activist to move from economy class to business class during the Jakarta-Singapore leg. (Previous press reports have identified this particular pilot as Policarpus)

"In mid December, we [the team] held a meeting with the police team and prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office to discuss the issue. The police investigators have said that they have never issued a license allowing the pilot in question to own a gun. "So, he must not be an ordinary pilot," Rachland added.

From the outset, rights activists have speculated that Munir's death was politically motivated. The activists pushed the government to set up the special team in a bid to speed up the investigation process.

Activists study 'suspicious witnesses' over Munir murder

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- In a bid to speed up the investigation into the alleged murder of top human rights campaigner Munir, members of the government-sanctioned fact-finding team have recently fixed their sights on 11 transcripts containing testimonies of witnesses questioned by the police.

Usman Hamid, a member of the team, said their probe was now focused on the 11 suspicious witnesses, both passengers and crew members of Garuda, who were on the same flight as Munir from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004.

"In this step, we picked 11 dossiers of suspicious passengers and airplane crew members who flew from Jakarta to Singapore, where the plane made a stopover before it continued on to Amsterdam.

"We intentionally picked that particular leg of the journey as we believe that was when he [Munir] might have consumed the arsenic," said Usman, also a Coordinator of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

The police have so far questioned at least 91 witnesses and collected a lot of other information.

Usman refused to name the 11 people in question, but said that his team might come up with names they would like investigated further by the police or named suspects.

Munir, the co-founder of Kontras, died a few hours before landing at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. He was traveling to the Netherlands to start a master's degree in human rights at Utrecht University. An autopsy conducted by Dutch authorities found that Munir had excessive arsenic levels in his body, leading to suspicions that he was poisoned to death during the flight.

The move by the team to choose the 11 suspicious dossiers came amid strong criticism from the team against the police for being too slow in the investigation as it had not yet named any suspects.

The accusations came up after the team held its first meeting with the police investigators last week, during which the police complained of a lack of support from related ministries, including the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The investigators also said that the questioning of witnesses had been difficult and time-consuming because some of them were residing in the Netherlands. "But I don't think it should be a problem, though. They [the police] can actually coordinate with the Indonesian embassy in that country," Usman told The Jakarta Post.

Activists from Kontras had earlier interviewed a Garuda employee, who had called Munir's house three days before his death. The employee, named Policarpus, told Munir's wife Suciwati that he would take the same flight as Munir to the Netherlands.

Policarpus also greeted and introduced himself to Munir and Suciwati when they arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. He also had a conversation with Munir on board the flight to Singapore after having persuaded Munir to move from economy class to executive class. Policarpus has not been named a suspect.

Focus on Jakarta

'We can't blame the squatters for the floods'

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Although the Jakarta administration has continued to carry out measures to fight flooding, dredging 13 rivers, maintaining sluice gates and setting up early warning systems and emergency response teams, it could not stop the annual floods. The Jakarta Post asked residents about their opinion of the administration's flood-mitigation efforts.

Nanda, 26, works in a foreign bank in Jakarta. She lives with her family in Pondok Labu, South Jakarta: From past experience, I don't think the city administration is serious about handling the floods in the capital because it happens every year and there is nothing much they have done about it. I've heard that it would not be that difficult to resolve the flood problem as long as we were serious about handling it. I believe money is not a problem here because they can take it from the city budget. Everyone would agree that the city administration should allocate as much funds necessary for such a critical problem.

The council would also gain support from the public and media if they spent the money correctly and undertook the project transparently.

Djoko, 35, is a construction worker working on a hotel project on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta. He lives in a rented house with his family in Cibubur, East Jakarta: Beside poor city management and garbage treatment, the presence of shanties and slum housing in riverbank areas also exacerabates flooding and increases the people affected.

However, I think the media and government can't just blame the riverbank squatters, such as those in Kampung Pulo, Kampung Melayu or Cipinang Muara, for not wanting to leave their homes to safer neighborhoods.

They refuse to do so because they have no money to move out while the government has given them no alternative or compensation.

Who wants to stay in flood-prone areas in the first place? I am sure they would move out if the government approached them with an alternative.

I realize that it would be costly to provide safer place but there are many empty lots scattered across the city. Also, I am sure that they could take money from state budget to solve the housing problem once and for all.

News & issues

Council's house moves demolished by critics

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- Activists slammed city councillors on Wednesday for requesting a monthly housing allowance of Rp 12.5 million each, saying they had broken their own election vows to live modestly.

Chairman of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) Arif Nur Alam said on Wednesday the councillors' housing allowance should not be made a top priority.

For example, he said, the money could be better spent on the development of the East Flood Canal to prevent seasonal floods in the capital, which damage thousands of residents' homes.

He said that most of the councillors had their own houses and did not need the allowance.

"It is part of city councillors' efforts to take as much money from the budget as possible, since many of them have a house in Jakarta," Arif told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Councillor Ade Surapriatna of the Golkar Party said on Monday that the City Council had requested a monthly housing allowance of Rp 12.5 million (US$1,390) for each of its 71 councillors. That amount is more than double their basic salary of Rp 6 million per month.

Ade said councillors needed a housing allowance as the city administration had not been able to provide them with official residences. Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso gave a vague answer on Wednesday when asked whether or not he would grant the councillors' request.

He said he had not issued a gubernatorial decree on the matter as it was not a pressing issue.

Sutiyoso stressed that government regulation No. 24/2004 on protocol and financial matters for regional council leaders and members only rules on rental fees for councillors, not a housing allowance per se.

"If I approve the proposal, we (councillors and himself) could face prison terms. There have been many examples in other regions. We must avoid such a possibility," he said on Wednesday.

Sharing Arif's views, chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas Tigor Nainggolan said that the councillors had no right to ask for a housing allowance.

According to Tigor, Government Regulation No. 24/2004 stipulates that a housing allowance should only be provided for councillors in other provinces, whose houses are far from the provincial capital.

"Jakarta councillors can go home every day. Therefore, such a facility is not necessary. It is just squandering taxpayers' money," Tigor told the Post.

Tigor said the councillors' request had been made only after they were denied official cars, following widespread public opposition.

"Although they were refused official cars, (with the allowance) they will be happy now, as they can buy luxury cars in installments," he added.

Premarital sex popular at home

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Evi Mariani, Jakarta -- Permissiveness among youngsters abounds in big cities, with many of them having had sex at home without the knowledge of their parents, according to a study.

The study, which covers the country's four biggest cities -- Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bandung -- reveals that 40 percent of 237 sexually active youngster respondents lost their virginity at home.

Another 26 percent had sex for the first time at a boarding house and another 26 percent lost their virginity in a hotel.

The study, carried out by London-based marketing surveyor Synovate and sponsored by DKT Indonesia, producer of Sutra and Fiesta condoms, chose 237 sexually active youngsters aged between 15 and 24 and 237 virgins.

Camita Wardhana, project director of Synovate, disclosed on Tuesday that of the 474 respondents, 90 percent claimed they had a steady boyfriend/girlfriend, and they spent their weekends either watching television or going out with boyfriends/girlfriends.

The survey also discloses that most of the youngsters -- 80 percent -- conceded that "sex before marriage is against my values and religion". However, the survey revealed that some of them had sex anyway, regardless of their principles.

"Now the question is, how do you bridge the value with the behavior? That's the thing we should think about," Christopher H. Purdy, country director of DKT Indonesia, said on Wednesday.

Another interesting finding of the survey is that the roles of parents and schools in sex education is still minimum. Only 5 percent of the total respondents, sexually active ones and virgins, said they had learned about sex through discussion with parents or teachers. The majority, 65 percent, said they learned about sex from friends while 35 percent learned by watching pornographic films. Later, 35 percent said their main source of sex information was friends, 22 percent said it was pornography and only 5 percent of the respondents said school.

Adrianus Tanjung, head of education at the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI), said his institution had long been telling the government to include sex education in the curriculum.

"But the government says there is no room in the curriculum for sex education. Some schools include it in extra classes, though," he said.

Adrian added that parents' roles in sex education was crucial.

"Teenagers should be told about sex by parents, not friends," he said. "They should know what risks they face if they have premarital sex," he said.

He commented on a finding of the survey that 64 percent of the teenagers thought sexual intercourse was something that just happened, not something that was planned.

"It shows that the majority of teenagers do not realize the risks. They had sex without planning, meaning without thinking," he said. Unplanned sex leads to sex without protection, Purdy said.

As the director of a condom maker, Purdy said he was relieved and glad to find that the study also found that condom advertisements and safe sex campaigns had not been proven to encourage promiscuity.

"The study found that both the sexually active and virgin groups have the same knowledge about condoms. They receive the same information on condoms," Purdy said. "But the knowledge does not determine their sexual behavior," he added.

No significant progress in government-Cemex dispute

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

Vincent Lingga, Jakarta -- The President's lack of leadership to act firm and fast in resolving the government's four-year dispute with Cemex over the Mexican company's investment in the state- controlled Semen Gresik Group (SGG), could cost the government half a billion dollars and longer delays in the return of foreign direct investment.

It is now almost three months since the government initiated negotiations with Cemex to iron out an amicable solution to the impasse.

But it seems that no substantial progress has been made, despite a string of official claims that a final resolution is imminent. Indeed, State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto took everyone for a ride when he said a memorandum of understanding would be signed on Tuesday.

The government initially appeared determined to resolve the Cemex case, as one of four high-profile disputes with foreign companies it expected to settle during the first 100 days of its rule to jump-start the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI).

However, the only achievement thus far has been Cemex's temporary (60 days) suspension of arbitration proceedings on its claim at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington.

A costly, messy lawsuit still looms over the government, and its failure to reach a basic agreement by February could trigger litigation proceedings at the ICSID, a World Bank affiliate. And, given its frustration with the capricious stance of the previous administration, Cemex will not likely commit to anything, unless it is absolutely sure of a smooth, clean deal.

The government has insisted that it proposed six options to resolve the dispute, but most of them are either politically unacceptable or commercially and fiscally unfeasible. It has ruled out selling its 51 percent stake in the SGG and buying out Cemex's 25.50 percent holding in the SGG.

The most commercially viable solution acceptable to both parties seems to be the option disclosed by Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie in November, after flying around the world to initiate a series of initial negotiations with Cemex management in France, Chile and Mexico.

Aburizal then said the government would sell three units of PT Semen Gresik, one of the SGG's three subsidiaries, with a total capacity of almost seven million metric tons to a new joint- venture company to be controlled by Cemex.

The other two subsidiaries of the SGG are PT Semen Padang in West Sumatra, with a capacity of five-and-a-half million tons, and PT Semen Tonasa in South Sulawesi, with three-and-a-half million tons.

Under this option, the government would maintain its 51 percent control of the SGG, but the holding company would retain only the other two subsidiaries, Semen Padang and Semen Tonasa.

This transaction, besides halting the litigation process -- which could otherwise inflict US$500 million in losses on the government -- would bring in hundreds of millions dollars in fresh capital to the SGG, which it could immediately invest in building a green-field cement factory to capitalize on the steadily rising demand for building materials.

Most analysts have predicted that, based on the current annual economic growth of 5 to 6 percent, Indonesia would see a significant cement deficit in 2007 if the industry does not increase its capacity.

Yet another important effect is the greatly positive signal the settlement of the dispute would give to foreign investors.

Sadly, though, even before the government and Cemex began serious negotiations over the basic principles of how to implement this option, PT Semen Gresik's "trade union" has launched a massive campaign to torpedo the plan.

The "trade union" -- fully backed by Semen Gresik's management -- has lobbied the House of Representatives, trumpeting fear that the government's sale of the cement unit would make the country vulnerable to cartel-like practices in the cement trade.

But this campaign seems to be modeled on the "rebellion" of the previous Semen Padang management, which, with the support of vested-interest politicians and senior officials in West Sumatra, succeeded in blocking the government's put option to sell its 51 percent stake in the SGG in October, 2001.

Rent-seekers in West Sumatra, in a desperate attempt to maintain Semen Padang as their cash cow, also whipped up narrow nationalistic sentiments against the government's plan to sell its controlling stake in the SGG.

Unfortunately, though, the then Megawati government, notorious for its lack of political leadership, simply succumbed to the rent seekers and left behind a time bomb for the new government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to defuse.

Even now the SGG holding company still suffers from the damaging impact of the Semen Padang rebellion.

Even though SGG shares were still traded on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, the SGG's consolidated financial reports for 2002 and 2003 were classified by its independent auditors with a disclaimer. No one really knew the actual market value of the SGG until the findings of a forensic audit, ordered by SGG shareholders on PT Semen Padang last year, were disclosed.

But the Susilo government seems about to repeat the mistake of its predecessor.

The ministerial team of privatization is not so ignorant as not to know that, what is claimed to be the Semen Gresik "trade union" is actually synonymous with Semen Gresik's management because virtually all the union leaders consist of the company's management and heads of divisions, departments or sections.

Blue-collar workers, who make up 90 percent of Semen Gresik employees, seem not represented in the trade union leadership.

This clearly indicates that what the union leaders claim to be the aspirations of Semen Gresik workers and the local people is actually the vested interests of those in the current management who want to do "business as usual".

Yet, the government seems unable to adequately respond to the rent-seekers' negative campaign and xenophobia sentiments.

The government should demonstrate its political leadership to resolve the dispute, once and for all, by making a firm decision on what it feels to be best for national interests, rather than bowing to political pressure from vested interests, who claim to represent the workers and local people.

The stakes are high, both in terms of potential financial losses and severe damage to the government's credibility.

The Susilo government, which has gained such a strong political mandate, should be able to make a bold -- albeit politically unpopular -- decision, as long as it is highly accountable, and in the best interests of the people.

[The writer is Senior Editor at The Jakarta Post.]

Environment

Better welfare won't stop deforestation

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Jakarta -- Improving the economic welfare of communities living in forested areas would do little to reduce the widespread illegal logging across the country, environmentalists say. Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) Indro Sugianto said the most effective way to combat illegal logging was to develop an integrated law enforcement system to use against the logging "mafia", which was known to be backed by elements in government and the security forces.

However, Indro said the poor economic conditions of people living at or near forests had contributed to illegal logging.

"In some cases, illegal logging is a systematic process -- and certain parties use the desire of people to improve their welfare to lure the poor into (logging) for their profit," he said on Wednesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in coordination with the European Commission (EC), launched a joint program aiming to preserve tropical forests and reduce illegal logging practices by raising the living standards of local communities.

The EC allocated around 1.2 million Euro (Rp 15.5 billion) for the Small Grants Program for Operations to Promote Tropical Forests (SGP PTF) for a two-year term. The program would cover forested areas in Java, South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi.

The grant would be used to pay for livelihood-based projects designed to reduce poverty among the local people often blamed for taking part in illegal logging.

Data from the Forestry Information Center shows that the rate of deforestation increased from 1.6 million to 1.8 million hectares per year between 1985 and 1997, to more than 2.83 million hectares between 1998 and 2000; 80 percent of which was due to illegal logging.

If the trend continued, there would be no forests left by 2010 in Kalimantan and North Sumatra, the World Bank has predicted.

Environment activists said the fight against illegal logging would be a long one because it was supported by endemic corruption at all levels of government and law enforcement.

The high domestic and international demand for timber also contributed to the increase in illegal logging cases, they said.

Luca Tacconi, a senior economist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), said the improved welfare of local communities would not stop them from illegally logging the forests until the law was firmly enforced against the perpetrators.

"We need to look at complementary measures such as the law, economic situations and the right to forest use," he said.

He said an effective monitoring system that could track changes in deforestation and getting the community involved in managing the forests were two measures that could help reduce illegal logging.

The executive secretary of the Alliance of Indonesian Traditional Communities, Emil Kleben, said the main problem with illegal logging was people's misconception about forest use.

"Urban people equalize the forests with the economy because they see only the trees. For tribal communities, forests are the source of life, religion and the economy," he said.

Commenting on the UNDP-EC's program, Elil said, "It will be successful if it pushes the communities to take their own initiatives in forest conservation and not narrow the problems down to economics, which are only advantageous to certain individuals." (005)

Priests call for a halt to sea turtle slaughter

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar -- It clearly was not an ordinary day. The morning sun radiated a warm glow that softly embraced the spacious patch of plush green grass in front of the office of the local education agency in Renon. At the same time, a light drizzle wet the ground while a strong breeze set the nearly pine trees swaying gently.

"That's what usually happens when a large number of high priests gather in one place," said the secretary of Bali's Hindu Dharma Parisadha, Made Mayor Sudharsana. .

"It is a sign that Mother Nature has bestowed her blessing upon this meeting," he said.

Interestingly, the meeting he was referring to had a lot to do with nature. Co-organized by the local branch of the Hindu Dharma Parisadha (the Hindu religion's governing body in Bali) and the WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature), a global conservation non- governmental organization, the meeting on January 15 was focused on the conservation and protection of sea turtles.

It was a unique meeting due to the presence of at least 29 influential Hindu high priests from East Java, Bali and Lombok.

"This pesamuhan (gathering) is the first of its kind. Never before has such a large gathering of respected high priests been called to discuss the issue of turtle conservation," the chairman of the Bali Parisadha, I Made Artha, noted.

It was not an easy task to secure the participation of all the high priests. There were "political" obstacles; the fact that Artha's Parisadha is not the only Parisadha on the island and the existence of slight feelings of mutual antipathy between the Pedanda (high priest of the Brahmin caste) and the Sri Empu (high priest of the Pasek caste). There were also more practical problems, mainly due to the tight schedules of the high priests.

"Fortunately, despite all those obstacles, all the high priests eventually agreed to attend the meeting, even those who supported the other Parisadha," said WWF's turtle campaign leader Ida Bagus Windia Adnyana.

Windia was the person responsible for contacting all the high priests. The fact that he was born into a respected Brahmin family and is thus a candidate for the high priesthood himself, and is well-versed in religious scriptures obviously played a critical role in his ability to win over all the high priests.

"The Pesamuhan went so well that all of those problems mean nothing now," he added.

The meeting did indeed go surprisingly well. WWF Indonesia's executive director Mubariq Ahmad gave a chilling presentation on how the island's turtle trade and consumption, which by the late 1990s resulted in over 20,000 sea turtles being slaughtered per year, was not only robbing the island of its turtle population but was also creating ecological strains in numerous sea turtle habitats around the country, such as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

The presentation apparently brought about a sudden realization of the crisis facing sea turtles on the part of the dozens of Hindu intellectuals and community leaders attending the meeting.

"I never knew that our tradition (of consuming turtle meat) could have such grave ecological impacts in other places," admitted Sri Wahyuni, one of the participants.

For decades, Bali has been the center of the country's illegal turtle trade. Despite all the regulations and law enforcement efforts, between 500 and 1,000 turtles are still illegally imported into the island each month.

Various elements of Balinese society, particularly turtle poachers and traders in the island's main turtle ports of Serangan and Tanjung Benoa, have justified, and thus perpetuated, the trade by claiming that turtle meat is an essential part of Balinese Hindu sacrificial rituals.

According to those involved in the turtle trade, those who sought to protect and conserve turtles were, in fact, trying to destroy the island's cultural and religious heritage. Such arguments have placed local conservation NGOs and law enforcement agencies on a perpetually frustrating defensive footing for years.

The meeting changed all this. "Only the biggest sacrificial rituals require turtle meat. By the biggest, I mean rituals aimed at cleansing the island or the world, certainly not rituals or offerings at the family level. In this context, Hindu rituals only need between 100 and 200 turtles per year," stressed the chairman of the Sabha Pandita (Council of High Priests) of the Indonesia Parisadha, Ida Pedanda Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa.

Meanwhile, another high priest, Ida Pedanda Gde Bang Buruan Manuaba, a passionate conservationist, boldly stated that turtle meat could be substituted for by turtle rice cakes or pictures of turtles. Another alternative was to use a live turtle for the ritual and then release it back into the ocean once the ceremony was over.

"These alternatives are not new as they are mentioned in various ancient scriptures. I have put it into practice. I have conducted a Caru Satya Ahimsa sacrificial ritual, in which no animal was killed, and I have also officiated at a ceremony in Yangapi village, Tabanan that involved live sea turtles. At the end of the ceremony, I released these sacred turtles back into the ocean," he said.

Buruan Manuaba stressed that Hinduism was a religion that not only respected life but also cherished and celebrated it.

"The international NGOs have dubbed the turtle trade in Bali as "Slaughter in Paradise". We must work to show them that life starts in paradise, not death," he told.

"It is simply a matter of educating the Hindu faithful to stop using religious pretexts for non-religious purposes. If they use turtle meat for meals during traditional parties, then they should be honest and admit that they need the turtles for personal consumption rather than for religious offerings," the influential Ida Pedanda Gde Sebali Kenatan of Lombok stated.

At the end of the meeting, the high priests issued a seven-point recommendation, which, among other things, asked Balinese Hindus to stop using turtle meat during in religious ceremonies until such time as the turtle population was deemed stable by the government. "We will present the recommendation at the next Mahasabha (grand convention) of all the country's Parisadha in March in Lampung. There is a good possibility that the Mahasabha will agree to adopt the recommendation as a Bhisama (religious decree)," Ida Pedanda Sebali Tianyar Arimbawa stated.

Securing the high priests' support was clearly a major victory for the conservation NGOs, turtle activists and law enforcement agencies. Not only that, it was also a major triumph for Balinese Hinduism.

"Today, we see that our high priests have courageously taken the first step in revitalizing our religion so that it contains a body of teachings and, most importantly, practices that place the life and well-being of all living things above selfish, petty rituals. To a large extent, it will be a journey back into what Hinduism once was, a religion of compassion and enlightenment," said young Hindu activist Cokorda Yudhistira.

UNDP, EC launch program to preserve tropical forests

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

Bogor -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Commission (EC) launched a joint program on Tuesday to preserve the country's rapidly shrinking tropical forests and improve the living standards of communities in forested areas.

The EC has allocated around 1.2 million Euro (Rp 15.5 billion) for the Small Grants Program for Operations to Promote Tropical Forests (SGP PTF) for a two-year term.

The program will cover all forested areas in Java and some forested areas in South Sumatra and Central Sulawesi.

"Aceh and North Sumatra have also been included in the program in response to the recent tsunami disaster," UNDP environment unit head in Jakarta Budhi Sayoko said.

Non-governmental and community-based organizations, customary communities, tribal communities and small community-based business entities are eligible for grants under the program.

"We have received around 86 proposals from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which will be tightly screened based on factors such as their integrity, and the project's scope and ability to lift the surrounding community's welfare," said program coordinator Elaine Pingkan Slamet.

She said the projects would last for two years and are slated to start in July.

The program could be extended for five years if it is effective and successful, SGP PTF National Steering Committee chairman Effendy Sumardja added.

The SGP PTF has been established in line with one of the five goals set by the Ministry of Forestry during the 2004-2009 period, to improve the welfare of people living in forested areas.

"It is impossible to sustain forests and ignore the welfare of the surrounding communities, and vice versa," said Koes Saparijadi, the director general of conservation at the forestry ministry.

"A forest should be conserved and protected. Therefore, future ecosystem development goals must take into consideration economic, cultural and social values in order to promote community welfare," he added.

Head of the EC's development cooperation division Vernond Copeland said European countries hoped to support civil society directly through development programs in sustainable forest management.

According to SGP PTF regional coordinator Mark Sandiford, people living around forests are generally poor and are often employed seasonally as illegal loggers, despite the risks that such work entails.

"This is extremely dangerous as they could be killed, arrested or attacked by other groups. We offer alternatives, so that once the programs are established and they are educated, they can resist," he said.

Effendy Sumardja concurred with Sandiford, saying the program was aimed at helping curb widespread illegal logging across the country.

"We hope that once educated, locals can act as watchdogs against illegal logging," he said. (005)

Rampant poaching threatens East Java's turtle population

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

Iman D. Nugroho, Surabaya -- Protected turtle species in East Java are on the brink of extinction due to the rampant poaching of their eggs, says an environmental expert.

"People are tempted to take the eggs due to their high price," said researcher Ninil R. Miftahuljannah.

A turtle egg fetches between Rp 800 (0.08 US cents) and Rp 1,700, while the market price of a common chicken egg is around Rp 500 apiece.

Turtle eggs are becoming popular due to the belief that they promote longevity.

Over the past few years, the widespread poaching of turtle eggs has been reported in the eastern coast areas of Java, such as on Marubetiri, Barong and Alas Purwo beaches.

Police officers in Jember regency arrested recently Bunari, who resides near Barong beach in the regency, for removing 1,055 eggs from the beach.

Three years ago, the immigration authority at Juanda Airport, Surabaya, foiled an attempt to smuggle thousands of turtles and eggs through the airport, according to head of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment's (Walhi) East Java office Ridho Syaiful Asyhadi.

Ninil proposed that the government step up its campaign against turtle poaching, and work together with the fishermen to save the turtles and increase the revenue of local fishermen.

"The government would provide the fishermen with better fishing equipment, while, in return, the fishermen would agree not to poach the turtle eggs," said Ninil.

The government could also develop an ecotourism program, which would be aimed at encouraging people to help save the turtles.

"The government could organizes holiday packages that allowed tourists to watch turtles laying eggs or releasing their offspring into the sea," said Ninil.

Walhi activist Chatur said while Law. No. 5/1990 on Natural Resources Conservation prohibited the poaching of turtles and their eggs, the law had been weakly enforced.

"Police officers and forestry officials claim they have limited resources and personnel and cannot prevent turtle egg poaching in remote areas," said Chatur.

Residents of these coastal areas also consider that, as the beaches are part of their ancestral land, the turtle eggs are there for the taking. Also, turtle poaching has become habitual among such coastal communities, making it difficult for the government to eradicate the practice.

Government to seek financial compensation from Newmont

Jakarta Post - January 25, 2005

Jakarta -- Convinced that mining company PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) is guilty of polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi, the government aims to seek financial compensation from the US-based firm.

State Minister of the Environment Rahmat Nadi Witoelar said on Monday that his office had prepared a civil lawsuit against PT NMR and had written to the Attorney General's Office, asking that it serve as legal counsel in the case.

"The letter was sent to the Attorney General's Office prior to the tsunami in Aceh. In the letter, we ask the office to provide legal counsel," Rahmat told reporters after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace.

He was confident that the court would find PT NMR guilty of polluting the environment and order it to pay damages to the state.

Rahmat, however, declined to state the amount of financial compensation sought by the government. "It is confidential," he said, adding that the compensation, if granted, would be allocated to restore the environment in Buyat and relocate its residents from the affected areas.

The government will also press criminal charges against the mining company, he said. "All will generate a deterrent effect toward breaking environmental laws," he said.

In December last year, a government-sanctioned joint team said in its official report that PT NMR was guilty of contaminating Buyat Bay.

It said that the giant mining company failed to effectively monitor the detoxification process of its tailings before they were dumped into the bay, resulting in high levels of metal substances there.

The joint team's report states that levels of arsenic and mercury in the bay's seabed were 666 mg/kg and over 1.51 mg/kg respectively, far exceeding the maximum standards set in the 2004 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marine water quality criteria of 300 mg/kg and 0.4 mg/kg of sediment.

Earlier in December, a number of residents claiming to represent Buyat residents filed a US$543 million civil lawsuit against PT NMR for allegedly causing diseases.

However, some of the residents withdrew the suit, saying there was no evidence to suggest that tailings from the mining company were the cause of a variety of sicknesses that some villagers initially claimed was Minamata disease.

Police have declared six Newmont employees, including president director Richard Ness, suspects in the pollution case.

The first trial for the criminal case on pollution is expected to start later this month at the Manado District Court in North Sulawesi.

The trial will be presided over by judges well-versed in environmental laws.

Islam/religion

Feature: God squads of Aceh

Hong Kong Standard - January 22-23, 2005

Vaudine England -- Father Fernando, aged 70, is more comfortable speaking Indonesian or his native Italian, rather than English. A resident of Aceh for almost two decades, he runs the Catholic church and adjacent school, serving a flock of mainly Chinese- Indonesians.

His twinkling eyes and shaggy white hair are a testament to his survival skills. As usual on a Christmas Day, he had celebrated mass in central Banda Aceh then taken a bus down the west coast to Meulaboh.

There, in a town since made famous by disaster, he held a Christmas mass. The next morning, as he was at the bus station ready to go back to Banda Aceh, he heard the people shouting in panic. With everyone else, the priest ran away from the coast trying to escape the tsunami, but he couldn't run fast enough.

He took refuge in one of the few buildings left standing: on the second floor of a mosque. It was a fitting place. "Yes of course, why not! I have also been giving refuge to Muslims for many years," he says, in reference to his church's program of importing foreign doctors to operate on Muslim children with cleft palates along Aceh's north coast. "I spent four days in Meulaboh," recounts the priest, "moving from one house to another. First we stayed in an Acehnese house, then in a Chinese house, then in a school with many policemen." He slept under a peasant house, with soldiers, so close to a chicken coop he feared getting bird flu, he jokes.

His odyssey reveals the tolerant and cosmopolitan aspects of life atop Aceh's Islamic bedrock. This is where Islam first came to Indonesia half a millenium ago -- and it has generally been confident, erudite Islam rather than its paranoid, more radical cousin.

Even in the midst of what Father Fernando calls "an apocalyptic vision" of destruction, the ties that bound humanity were stronger than those that divided.

But some Indonesians and aid workers worry that the need to let Acehnese think for themselves may be lost in the enormous aid push underway, some of it by ambitious religious groups with agendas that go beyond shelter and food.

One United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official says it's the perfect opportunity for aid groups -- faith-based or not -- to make funding proposals based around the tsunami. "Even in the first week we saw a flood of proposals, with high expat salaries, the works. This disaster will make careers," she says. A key goal early on was to get USAID stickers on to every shipment to make sure the publicity was clear. Some staff have been seen giving autographs.

For many groups pouring into Aceh, it's not only a time to harvest the big bucks of aid flowing in, but to harvest souls.

Veteran aid workers say they are not surprised by the onslaught of unusual groups appearing at the scene of disaster, but fear their impact. "It's the first time I've run into so many different people from so many different agencies in one place," says Wayne Ulrich, emergency coordinator for Catholic Relief Services, a non-evangelical, pragmatic aid organisation.

Many long-term aid agencies might have roots in a particular faith but have decades of experience and they work irrespective of others' race, creed or religion. These ecumenical churches offer broad acceptance of varied faiths and aim their good works at a multicultural world.

Some groups are widely seen as cults, pushing a quasi-religious doctrine of healing and feeling.

Other groups, particularly American evangelicals associated with the conservative politics of the Bush administration, focus on a personal and direct relationship with a defined God through literal adherence to ancient texts. Their temptation, say critics, is to use disaster as an excuse to make converts.

"There are elements here which shouldn't be here," says the director of one of the largest international aid agencies working in Aceh. "There are lots of faith-based groups, and some of them are explicit about the need to spread the word. People will get sick of that pretty quick."

In a city famed for its gracious mosque, built according to an Italian design with Dutch money in 1881, still standing alongside colonial and Chinese buildings, a rich history has survived the tsunami. But it has yet to weather the spiritual after-shocks.

Directly across from the Pendopo, the old Dutch Governor's House in Banda Aceh built in 1880, is a cluster of large green tents with foreigners sitting around in bright yellow T-shirts. The logo: "Church of Scientology."

"We're focusing on emotional stress and trauma," says Gregory Churilov, an Argentinian convert to the cult which promises new life for hard cash. "Here, it's as if everyone's been in a huge car accident, whole families have been wiped out, and Scientology offers a methodology to handle loss and trauma."

He disclaims any intention to garner converts: "We really frown on that. You can look at all this in two ways: that we are getting more exposure because we are greedy for converts, or that we are getting more exposure because we are willing to help."

He and his cohorts are offering the so-called science of "Dianetics," a cathartic form of therapy which includes a form of massage "to get the person in communication with their body." Churilov claims to have mastered a "basic technique to orient people into the present, to snap them out of the past, making them more alert."

But one group of men gathered around a cooking fire at the university's mosque were merely bemused, feeling no need for massage, they said, and having no idea what Scientology might be.

In an unusual twist on the notion of bringing aid to the destitute, Churilov says his group arrived in Aceh with nothing and were given tents by the army and food by friendly locals. Unfazed that the aid flow was meant to go the other way, he used this as an example of how well accepted the Scientologists were by the local people, rather than an example of traditional manners.

But the notion that catching people in a weakened state and exposing them to ideas and practices they have never felt the need for before is disturbing.

"I was at a meeting and I was surprised at how many groups there were saying they were into psycho-social and trauma recovery, and we've never heard of them before," says Indonesian psychologist and London graduate Livia Iskandar. She helps run a group called Pulih (literally To Recover), of professional trauma experts who focus on the need for community-based solutions to conflict or disaster.

"There is a danger of pathologizing people and not giving time for normal recovery to take place. This is a collective trauma -- it's too early to label individuals as traumatized.

"We know the Acehnese are very strong people. Aceh has special characteristics in its culture and religion that even as Indonesians, we need to be aware of. We really appreciate efforts by the international community, but there is a need to respect the traditions already in place," she says.

Radical Islamic groups have received the most attention so far, but aid workers at established agencies also wonder what Christian evangelists, including Mormons, on the streets of Banda Aceh might have to offer.

A strange confluence of need and available money has also drawn groups focused on, say, the trafficking of women, which has rarely been an issue in cohesive Acehnese society. "We're having money thrown at us by the United States government for trafficking programs we haven't even asked for!" says a communications director of a large international agency.

One faith-based group intent on saving women from prostitution, whether they like it or not, is the International Justice Mission (IJM), a group of God-fearing, Harvard-trained lawyers. Describing itself as a "Christ-centered" organization on its Web site, it argues -- and provides biblical references for -- a doctrine of "explicitly Christian" direct intervention.

IJM's Sean Litton, speaking on the phone from Medan wouldn't talk about what he was doing in Sumatra and refers callers to his US head office. "We're in the middle of things it would not be a good thing to talk about," he says.

Drew Bishop of Compassion International is more open and admits that its current work with local partner, PESAT, is a departure from its usual business of training local churches in child development.

"We are channeling funds through local partners and providing a framework for the many volunteers coming in who have no idea what they're doing," says Bishop. "We had looked to contact Christians in Aceh but found most of the churches were filled with bodies. We're still looking, we want to get them involved.

"We want to distance ourselves from Christian groups who are trying to assign blame or judgment. We are here just because we care. We're not asking if recipients are Christian or not. We're saying we can help you to help your own people."

Hans Geni, of PESAT, is an Indonesian Pentecostal Christian but insists his kindergartens all over Indonesia follow the national, not a sectarian, curriculum. The tsunami has given his group an opportunity to enter Aceh for the first time.

It's a different faith but a similar message over at the office of the World Association of Muslim Youth. Hamid Sa-ad from Jeddah has an "open budget" and is overseeing the work of loading piles of food and household kits on to trucks for distribution to camps.

"We have some Islamic programs in education, to explain what Islam is to non-Muslim people. But in Indonesia there is no need for this," he says.

But right next door is the office of a group which aided the rampaging Indonesian military-backed militias in East Timor in 1999. Young men lounging at the offices of the Laskar Merah Putih say they're defenders of Indonesian national unity. "We are friends with the TNI [Indonesian Armed Forces]," boasts Eddie Juliansyah, an Acehnese who helps run the Laskar Merah Putih office.

More recent Islamic entrants include the Front Pembela Islam (FPI), better known for trashing bars and other houses of sin in Jakarta, but now earning plaudits for their volunteer work in collecting Aceh's corpses for proper burial.

Camped out in the Heroes Cemetery on the same street as the expanding Unicef office in Banda Aceh, FPI leaders tried to expel two female reporters who refused to wear headscarves. "This is an Islamic state," they insisted, although Acehnese Muslims rarely insist on such dogma.

Ploughing through the well-funded buffet of groups and ideas now on offer to the Acehnese in this vulnerable time of their lives, it's easy to reach overload.

That's why the non-evangelical, mainstream Indonesian Council of Churches, related to the liberal World Council of Churches in Geneva, has a special taskforce to track just what Christian groups are doing.

"We are sharing information about the activities of all these groups," says Frans Tumiwa, a leader of the Council of Churches. He and his colleagues worry that many conservative Christian groups are giving the rest of the church a bad name.

"The people in Aceh need to be helped, with practical things, with food and supplies. But when people come in saying they're representing this or that Christian group, well, there shouldn't be any talk about religion. Some of these groups can destroy the whole image of the church," he says. He too worries about the number of groups he's never heard of before, charging into Aceh with many thousands of dollars and an explicit evangelical agenda.

"They give a wrong impression about the real mission of the church, which is to be in solidarity with the people of Aceh," he says. Samaritan's Purse is promising an airlift of a helicopter with crucial supplies. This group is run by Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, and is overt about catering to the spiritual as well as the physical needs of victims of the tsunami.

Its Web site offers special prayers with biblical references to help make a difference for the tsunami survivors, promising to meet the needs of victims "with the purpose of sharing God's love through His Son, Jesus Christ."

Just as conversion efforts by radical Islamists have long been rebuffed in Aceh, so too has any other evangelism.

But the Samaritan's Purse promises to "offer more than help. We offer hope. To suffering people in a broken world, we share the news of the only One who can bring true peace -- Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace."

World Relief is another one to watch. One veteran aid agency director recalled seeing World Relief on the Thai-Cambodian border years ago, filling ox-carts with bibles for Cambodians just emerging from the traumatic years of Khmer Rouge rule.

"The bibles became strangely popular and it took us a while to work out why, but it was because the paper they were printed on was such good quality that it could be re-used as cigarette paper. It burned very nicely," the agency director says.

Dr Galen Carey directs World Relief's work in Indonesia and insists he wouldn't dream of sending bibles into Aceh as it would be "too sensitive." He says his work focuses on health, education, agriculture, refugees and trade.

Up to 20 percent of World Relief's funds come from churches, he says, some from private donations, and about half from USAID.

"This is not a time to take advantage of people. What we are explaining is that this is a time of tragedy, it's a time to provide help on a human to human basis," Carey says. "We have no plans to bring in bibles in or any other literature. I can't speak for what has happened before."

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Buddhist group, the Tzu Chi Foundation, is bringing in tents and building homes for thousands of displaced people regardless of faith. "We don't get involved in politics. We have Muslim, Christian and Buddhist volunteers," says Ji Shou, a Malaysian staffer with Tzu Chi.

Aceh: stealthy mission to save souls

Sydney Morning Herald - January 24, 2005

Philip Cornford, Banda Aceh -- "They come as angels. They are our friends," said Almascaty after the fundamentalist's first meeting yesterday with an Australian army captain.

In another place, in different circumstances, Mr Almascaty would probably regard the Australian army as an enemy, an ally of the Great Satan, America. "Then we would attack them," he said, slicing a finger across his throat.

But in the stinking rubble of devastated areas of Banda Aceh, the Aussie Angels and the hardline warriors of Islam have become mutually respectful co-workers.

Mr Almascaty is the leader of 250 men from Laskar Pembela Islam, the Soldiers of Islam, the militant arm of the 800,000-strong Front Pembela Islam. Among them are veterans who have fought in Afghanistan and against Christians in Ambon and central Sulawesi.

But in Banda Aceh they have volunteered for the worst imaginable tasks -- helping the Indonesian military recover bodies from the vast areas of ruins left in the wake of the tsunami. Now they have asked the Australians for help -- and the commander of the First Combat Engineer Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Cumming, said he would be "happy to help them" when he can.

A month after the worst natural disaster of modern times, tens of thousands of bodies lie rotting beneath tonnes of rubble in Banda Aceh and other coastal towns. About 1100 bodies were recovered on Saturday, bringing the total to 94,584. But another 38,000 are listed as missing, and the search goes on from dawn to dusk, seven days a week.

An Australian Army captain and two warrant officers approached the Laskar Pembela Islam on Friday to help them recover a body the engineers had uncovered while clearing rubble.

"We wanted to make sure that the proper recovery and burial formalities were observed," Colonel Cumming said. The Laskar Pembela Islam were impressed and sent a team.

They had their own need for help. The volunteers have no heavy lifting or moving equipment and cannot get to bodies buried under tonnes of rubble.

"They are doing a magnificent job," Colonel Cumming said. "Our job is the removal of building rubble and if they need rubble removed to get to bodies, we will be happy to help them."

There is only one qualification: the job will have to be close to where the Australian heavy equipment is working because it is very difficult to truck it around. At present, they are within 500 metres of an area of huge destruction where the Laskar Pembela Islam estimate there are thousands of bodies still to be recovered.

US relief aid fails to win over Muslims

Straits Times - January 24, 2005

Jakarta -- With US helicopters dropping noodles instead of bombs and soldiers carrying rice rather than guns, the United States was confident its enormous efforts to help Asian tsunami victims would boost its tattered image in the Muslim world.

But nearly a month into the campaign, US President George W. Bush's predictions of a post-tsunami detente with Muslims appear as likely as immediate peace in Iraq or a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"In general, many people here still maintain suspicions about America," said Mr Din Syamsuddin, the secretary-general of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the nation's highest Islamic authority.

A great deal of the US military's aid efforts have focused on Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation and the worst hit by the December 26 tsunamis with more than 166,000 deaths in Aceh province.

Seahawk and Chinook helicopters have saved many lives by delivering water and other emergency relief supplies to isolated communities along Aceh's west coast and bringing injured survivors back for medical treatment. But Mr Syamsuddin and other Muslim religious leaders, politicians, analysts and ordinary people interviewed said the US invasion of Iraq and its pro- Israel policies far outweighed its relief efforts.

"In fact, their quick response is seen here by many of us as a camouflage for their past abuses towards Muslims across the world," Mr Syamsuddin said. (Agence France-Presse)

Armed forces/defense

Reshuffle not House's concern: TNI chief

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said on Wednesday that any decision on the reshuffling of the military leadership rested solely with the President.

The statement was apparently aimed at a number of lawmakers from the House of Representatives' defense commission who recently launched a campaign to pressure President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono into immediately proposing a replacement for Endriartono to the House.

Some lawmakers have gone so far as to urge Susilo to nominate Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, who had earlier been nominated by Megawati for the top military post during the dying days of her administration.

"This matter definitely comes within the sole prerogative of the President," Endriartono said, adding that according to the country's Defense Law the House's role was primarily to approve or reject the President's nominee, and that the House had no right to propose its own nominee for the post of TNI chief.

Susilo met with Endriartono late on Tuesday, but, according to officials present at the meeting, the two only discussed the gradual withdrawal of foreign troops from Aceh as the situation there returned to some semblance of normality.

They said that a reshuffle of the TNI leadership had not been discussed as the President had not yet made up his mind as to whom he wanted to replace Endriartono and when the reshuffle would take place.

Megawati sent a letter to the House in October last year -- only weeks before she came to the end of her term -- nominating Ryacudu to replace Endriartono, who had earlier tendered his resignation.

But upon taking office, Susilo sent a letter to the House revoking Megawati's earlier letter and maintaining Endriartono in his post. He argued at the time that Endriartono was still needed to ensure "consolidation" within the TNI.

Susilo promised that the reshuffle of the TNI leadership would be completed by the end of his first 100 days in office, which falls on January 28, 2005.

Earlier this week, lawmakers from the defense commission held a meeting in which they resolved that it was high time for Susilo to propose a replacement for Endriartono.

SBY seeks to boost defense spending

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- In a bid to create a strong and modern military, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is contemplating up to a five fold increase in defense spending to an "ideal level" of 3-5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the current 1 percent.

Speaking at the opening of a seminar on developing the national defense industry on Wednesday, Susilo described the country's defense system as "under-strength, under-funded and under- capacity" to confront the various potential threats facing the archipelago.

"The time has come for this country to have sophisticated weapons system," said the retired army general, without specifying any time frames.

"Political will alone is not enough, because the aim of achieving an ideal defense system will also depend on the availability of funds, which in turn will depend upon the country's economic performance," he added.

He explained that one of the benefits of having a modern military was the ability of the nation to better cope with major natural disasters such as the tsunami in Aceh, where the country was forced to rely on foreign military because of the Indonesian military's limited equipment, especially helicopters.

"Our Air Force could only get nine aircraft into the air to help (tsunami) survivors, evacuate victims, and distribute aid, while foreign forces, within a matter of minutes, were able to supply twice as much military equipment, and were able to immediately carry out relief efforts," he said.

"Poor weapons systems are also causing difficulties for our soldiers in quelling the guerrillas in Aceh. If we had more sophisticated weaponry, I'm sure our security operations would be more effective there," he said, at time when his top ministers are heading to Finland for peace talks with leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a bid to seek a peaceful solution to the decades-long conflict.

The defense budget of the world's fourth most populous country is considered low even compared to smaller neighboring countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, which a few years ago had already achieved a defense budget of more than 2 percent of GDP.

Indonesia has a 400,000-strong military. But much of its military equipment is in poor condition. For instance, Indonesia has two squadrons of Hercules aircraft, but only 40 of them are airworthy. This is often used by the TNI as a reason for their slow response in sending troops and humanitarian aid to remote areas hit by security disturbances or natural disasters.

Some experts at the seminar suggested that the country should start reducing its dependence on foreign supplies of military equipment by pushing local companies to produce such supplies.

President of Bandung-based arms producer PT Pindad, Budi Santoso, gave a presentation on the company's capability in developing a certain type of rocket as well as modern tanks, but they were facing funding constraints.

"We are now seeking partnerships with foreign companies," Budi said.

It has been reported that some eastern European countries, as well as neighboring ASEAN countries, had proposed cooperation in developing defense industries, but the ministry's director general of defense strategy, Sudrajat, repeatedly said that "all the deals required us to provide huge funds." For the 2005 fiscal year, the government has allocated Rp 21 trillion (US$2.3 billion) for defense expenditure, accounting for only 6 percent of the state budget.

Yudhoyono wants stronger post-tsunami military

Agence France Presse - January 26, 2005

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he wants his country to have a stronger and better equipped military to be able to deal with events such as the tsunami disaster.

Indonesia's armed forces, frequently criticised for human rights abuses despite losing much of the power they once wielded under former dictator Suharto, struggled to cope in the tsunami aftermath, relying on foreign help.

"We are being challenged to build stronger armed forces," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency. "If we had a stronger military, we could have done a lot more," he added.

Foreign military warships and aircraft proved crucial in efforts to bring aid to survivors of the December 26 disaster stranded on remote coastlines, although fiercely independent Indonesia has encouraged them to leave swiftly.

Yudhoyono also said that a military offensive to crush a long- running separatist rebellion in Aceh prior to the disaster could also have been more successful had soldiers been better equipped.

"If our troops had had adequate weaponry, communication equipment and mobility means surely we would have been able to pursue GAM better," he said, referring to the rebel Free Aceh Movement by their Indonesian acronym.

His statement on the rebels comes at a delicate time as government ministers head to Finland for talks with the separatists aimed at securing a truce to allow humanitarian work in Aceh to continue unhindered.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia must improve capability to produce military equipment to reduce dependency on foreign products.

The United States imposed a military embargo on Indonesia in the wake of alleged human rights violations by its troops in 1999 during an independence vote that saw East Timor gain independence from Jakarta.

Although the embargo has been partially lifted to allow the delivery of spare parts for transport planes involved in tsunami relief operations, the US Congress has continued to resist the full normalisation of military ties.

London expressed concerns over the use of British-made Scorpion light tanks by Indonesian forces when they launched an all-out offensive against Aceh's rebels in 2003. The military later withdrew the tanks.

Yudhoyono said such restrictions would not happen if Indonesia could supply its own military needs.

Government muscles in on military businesses

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

Jakarta -- To enforce the new law on the military, the government will start taking over all military businesses in an endeavor to make the Indonesian Military (TNI) professional and help improve the welfare of its personnel.

State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto said on Tuesday that he had recently held talks with relevant officials to discuss the possibility of putting the management of all military business entities under his supervision.

"Three weeks ago we held a coordination meeting with Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin and Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono on the possibility of transferring the management of military business entities to our office," he said on the sidelines of a one-day summit on state-owned enterprises.

He said he had asked minister Juwono to provide in detail a list of all enterprises belonging to the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the TNI Headquarters in order to obtain accurate data on military businesses either in the form of companies, foundations or cooperatives.

However, the coordination meeting involving the three ministers did not formulate any mechanism for the companies' future management, Sugiharto added.

He could not say when the management transfer would begin, which enterprises would first be taken over or whether military personnel would be allowed to be part of the enterprises' new management.

Since president Soeharto's downfall in 1998, the civilian government has been pressured to take over the military businesses in order to complete the internal reforms inside the TNI.

Law No. 32/2004 on the TNI stipulates that the government must take over all business activities of the military within the next five years as part of sweeping reforms within the powerful military.

The law, signed by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in October, strictly bans soldiers from involvement in any business activities to make the military institution professional and to ensure all military personnel focus on their defense role.

The TNI has been involved in numerous businesses since the beginning of Soeharto's New Order era in 1970 because the government was unable to meet the military's financial needs. Almost 70 percent of the TNI's annual budget comes from its business activities.

Minister Juwono recently said the government would take over only enterprises that had assets worth Rp 5 billion (US$550,000) or more while smaller ones would continue to be run by the TNI.

His statement sparked strong reactions from major factions in the House of Representatives, which want the TNI to abandon all business activities to make it professional.

Assets of the business enterprises owned by the military range from Rp 1 billion to Rp 5 trillion.

Police/law enforcement

General suspended for one year

Jakarta Post - January 26, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- A National Police disciplinary hearing has decided to suspend Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko, the national police operations chief, for one year for discriminatory practices against suspects under his investigation.

The hearing, however, cleared Ismoko of a much more controversial allegation that he received bribes from Adrian Waworuntu, a key suspect in the Rp 1.7 trillion (US$187 million) Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal.

Last year Adrian managed to sneak out of the country, fleeing to the United States, in spite of a travel ban imposed on him. There were strong suspicions that high-ranking officers and bureaucrats were involved in assisting his escape.

The disciplinary hearing was presided over by National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Adang Dorodjatun, and it found that Ismoko had violated the police code of ethics.

"As a supervisor of the investigation into the BNI fraud, he (Ismoko) gave unequal treatment to suspects," said Adang, reading out the decision on Tuesday, according to Antara.

Some suspects under Ismoko's investigation were detained in police custody, while others were let free.

Before coming to the decision, the panel of police officers was told that Ismoko had served more than 30 years in the police force without blemish.

Commenting on the decision, Ismoko said that he understand the situation. "I have done my best. If some of (my actions) were considered in violation of the code of ethics, then I can understand it," he said.

Ismoko said, however, that he would consider appealing against the suspension. He has seven days to make an official response to the panel's decision.

Ismoko was earlier accused of having violated three articles in the code of ethics. The first was for discriminatory treatment against suspects in the BNI fraud investigation.

The second was for bribery, in the form of a laptop computer, handphone, television set, and sums of money -- US$20,000 and Rp500 million -- that he was alleged to have received from the suspect Adrian.

The third was the belated hand-over of Adrian to the Jakarta High Prosecutors Office.

Commenting on the disciplinary measure imposed on Ismoko, executive director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) Johnson Panjaitan said that the senior police officer should have been charged under the criminal law for corruption.

"What he did was not merely a violation of the police code of ethics; it was a criminal act in itself and he should be prosecuted under criminal law," Johnson said.

Johnson was concerned that instead of having his career terminated, Ismoko may possibly get an even better position sometime in future, as demonstrated in the past where high ranking personnel in the National Police and Indonesian Military (TNI), who were involved in human rights abuses, were actually promoted.

He cited the example of the then Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Syafrie Syamsuddin who was alleged to have been involved in human rights abuses during the May 1999 riots, and was later promoted to become TNI spokesman.

"This disciplinary measure is part of a plot to vindicate the 'big fish' swindlers of state money and also to give the impression that justice has been done. In fact, he will be rewarded in the future," he said.

Military ties

Widow of American killed in Papua urges Rice to keep ban

Associated Press - January 27, 2005

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta -- The widow of an American schoolteacher killed in a 2002 attack initially blamed on Indonesian soldiers urged the Bush administration Friday not to lift a ban on military ties with Jakarta until the case if fully resolved.

The effort to normalize ties between the two militaries received a boost after last month's tsunami when thousands of US troops were deployed to work with Indonesian forces to handle relief efforts.

"The Indonesian people have suffered through so much because of the latest natural disaster, but we must not let the tsunami wash away the need to address human rights abuses from the past," Patsy Spier said in a telephone interview from her home in Littleton, Colorado.

Her husband Rick, another American teacher, Ted Burgon of Sunriver, Oregon, died in the Aug. 31, 2002 ambush by gunmen near the giant Timika gold and copper mine in Papua province. Eight other Americans -- including a six-year-old child -- were wounded.

Indonesian police blamed a special forces unit for the killings. The attack was seen as an effort by the military unit to discredit the pro-independence movement in the province, whose mainly Christian inhabitants have been strongly opposed to Indonesian rule since the region was forcibly incorporated 35 years ago.

A subsequent FBI probe led to the indictment by a US grand jury of an Indonesian citizen, Anthonius Wamang in connection with the attack. Wamang, who pro-independence activists maintain is a military informer, remains at large.

Washington first imposed a ban on military ties with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, in 1999, after its troops had devastated the Roman Catholic province of East Timor following a UN-organized independence referendum.

Congress later passed legislation making the reestablishment of contacts contingent on Jakarta's cooperation in bringing to justice those responsible for both the Timor and Timika cases.

But the Bush administration, spearheaded by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- a former ambassador to Jakarta -- has been keen to improve military ties with the strategically located nation that straddles critical sea lanes linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Indonesia is also seen as an important ally in the war on terrorism.

Western diplomats in Jakarta predict that new Secretary of State Rice Condoleezza Rice may soon lift the restrictions on Indonesia's involvement in the Pentagon's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.

The training program, worth about US$600,000 (euro460.617,23), is designed to foster professional links between the two militaries. But restoring it is generally seen as a first step in the lifting of the ban on military-to-military ties.

"I am not blaming the Indonesian military for the Timika attack," Spier said. "The whole point is just to have a proper investigation."

She said she disagreed with Rice's testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this month, when Rice said Indonesian authorities had cooperated in the FBI probe which had uncovered no evidence implicating the military.

Spier noted that in the past six months Indonesian authorities have not even issued an arrest warrant for Wamang. "My advocacy in all of this is for a transparent investigation, to find the truth in who carried out the ambush and who ordered it," Spier said.

"What message will the United States be sending to the new Indonesian government if we certify (IMET) funds when the man who is indicted by a US grand jury has not been apprehended."

An entrenched culture

The Australian - January 22, 2005

Sian Powell -- The Indonesian military has a toxic reputation, based on a long history of gross human rights abuses across the archipelago, particularly in Papua, Aceh and the former province of East Timor. Human rights monitors have regularly accused the Indonesian military, or TNI, of a mind-boggling series of crimes including extra-judicial executions, torture, assaults and arbitrary detentions.

Now, after a slow start, Indonesian soldiers have rolled up their sleeves to help in the Aceh disaster zone, carting corpses, trucking aid, and providing medical assistance. Yet even in the midst of the crisis, the accusations continue to fly, with claims the military has also been selling aid, hunting rebels and harassing villagers.

This has not surprised some military analysts, who point out that even though Indonesia has made progress on the political front, it will take time for the armed forces to become a modern and accountable fighting corps.

But with the world's media now busily nosing around Aceh, the Indonesian military is operating under the glare of the international spotlight.

The next few months or so will set the tone for the future, either helping to repair the force's diabolical reputation, or adding another chapter to a long tale of impunity.

The US banned sales of weapons and military equipment to Indonesia after the military opened fire on unarmed demonstrators at Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor in 1991, killing as many as 271 people, and defence ties were cut further after the military and its militia proxies laid waste to East Timor and killed 1400 East Timorese in 1999. More recently, there have been US bans on military exchange and financing programs following the fatal shooting of two Americans in Papua in 2002. Australia, too, severed links with the military's special forces, or Kopassus, after the East Timor violence.

The tsunami disaster has started to warm relations that had already been gently thawing for some time. The Indonesian military is seen by many conservatives as a crucial ally in the battle against global terrorism and, since September 11, even allies with dirty hands have been keenly sought.

These supporters of renewed links, both in the US and Australia, believe the Indonesian military should be coaxed and bribed into behaving more humanely rather than castigated for its abuses. Indonesia's new directly elected president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, they point out, went to the US for part of his military education, and he is now making all the right noises about the importance of democracy and the rule of law. Yet activists retort that Australia's close military relations with Indonesia in the Suharto years did little to curtail the behaviour which culminated in the savaging of East Timor.

The military was general Suharto's enforcement agency, and for 32 years it was free to run Indonesia as it wanted: usually with brutality. Since Suharto was shoved from the presidency in 1998, Indonesia has become increasingly democratic, and the military no longer has an automatically allocated bloc of seats in parliament. Yet it still wields enormous power and allegations continue to be made of atrocities in conflict zones, including Aceh and Papua.

The Indonesian military launched a crackdown on separatist rebels in Aceh in 2003 and, up to the end of last year, more than 2000 suspected insurgents had been killed. For much of the crackdown, the province was closed to foreign diplomats, aid-workers and journalists, permitting the military to subdue the province as it saw fit. An Amnesty International report on Aceh, published last October, condemned the military's impunities in the blood-soaked province, as well as having a swipe at the rebels, or the Free Aceh Movement, for its crimes.

"It appears that little has changed in the way in which the security forces respond to both armed and civilian independence movements," the report said.

Young men, it went on, were frequently suspected of being rebels by the security forces, and were particularly at risk of human rights violations, including unlawful killing, torture, ill- treatment and arbitrary detention. Human Rights Watch made similar allegations in an earlier report on torture in Aceh.

Putting all that to one side, the cries to restore ties with the Indonesian military grow ever louder. On his recent visit, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made it clear he backed renewed ties with the Indonesian military.

"We need to think about how we can strengthen this newly elected democratic government, strengthen the civilian Defence Minister ... to help build the kind of defence institution that will ensure in the future that the Indonesian military, like our military, is a loyal function of a democratic government."

The disaster has already changed the dynamic between Indonesia and the US. Following outgoing secretary of state Colin Powell's visit to Aceh, the US permitted Indonesia to buy crucial spare parts for its C130 planes needed for the relief effort.

The embargo on the sale of spare parts by the US for military aircraft had effectively grounded most of the Indonesian military's C130 fleet. Even before the tsunami pushed matters forward, military-to-military relations between Indonesia and various Western nations were improving. On a visit to Indonesia late last year, Defence Minister Robert Hill said the resumption of full military ties between Australia and Indonesia was proceeding slowly but surely.

Officers from the notorious Kopassus had observed Australian SAS officers in training exercises in Perth, and SAS had in turned been invited to observe exercises in Indonesia. As yet, though, the minister said, there were no plans for joint exercises. "We want to rebuild the defence relationship but we will do it at a pace with which both sides are comfortable," he explained. Indonesia had worked hard to improve respect for human rights within the nation's security forces, Hill added.

Yet beyond a certain point, it is hard to see how much the Indonesian military can improve, when it must find an estimated 70 per cent of its budget from often crooked business dealings. The armed forces have been accused of dealing in drugs, of illegal logging, of racketeering and running protection rackets. Indonesia, struggling with massive debt and endemic poverty, can't afford to pay the soldiers adequately, nor equip them properly, but there is an enormous nationalist fervour which breeds a reluctance to streamline the forces.

And now there is another spectre on the horizon. The armed forces chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, is likely to be replaced soon, and the betting is that army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu will get his job. Ryacudu has suggested "developed nations" are intent on crippling Indonesia to exploit its natural resources, that anyone who opposed martial law in Aceh was automatically a rebel, and that Indonesia has been infiltrated by hundreds of foreign spies.

[Sian Powell is The Australian's Jakarta correspondent.]

Business & investment

Susilo blamed for not improving investment climate

Jakarta Post - January 28, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Today marks the 100th day of the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. According to many assessments, his government has yet to produce results in terms of the economy, having failed to bring improvement to the country's investment and business climate.

Significant inroads have not been made in mending the country's poor business environment -- mainly due to corruption and lack of legal certainty -- and the country's first directly-elected president is still far from meeting his campaign promises in this regard.

A number of disputes between the government and foreign investors over the sanctity of contracts have run aground, putting the government's business credibility on the line.

"The government has lost its momentum in settling outstanding disputes with foreign investors. The disputes have become a gauge of the government's seriousness in improving the investment climate," said Standard Chartered Bank economist Fauzi Ikhsan on Thursday.

"Both local and international business communities are waiting for the disputes to be settled before they feel secure in doing business here. Therefore, the government needs to seriously address the problems immediately." Susilo's administration has named three high-profile cases -- Cemex SA in the dispute over state-owned PT Semen Gresik, the Karaha Bodas Company (KBC) power station dispute, and a row between state firm Pertamina and ExxonMobil over the Cepu gas and oil field -- as its top priority.

Fixing these matters would automatically improve the nation's investment climate.

Indonesia is in dire need of foreign financing for its massive infrastructure projects in an effort to boost the country's economic growth to 6.6 percent annually over the next five years.

The government offered 91 infrastructure projects worth $22.5 billion to foreign and domestic investors during the Infrastructure Summit on January 17 and January 18.

It will need around US$150 billion for the development of all its planned infrastructure facilities. Some $25 billion is expected to come from the state budget; $30 billion from domestic finance institutions; $10 billion from foreign donors; and $80 billion from private and foreign investors.

Susilo's administration has reiterated that its main long-term economic targets are to create a stable and strong economic environment, increase national economic output, and to boost the public's purchasing power.

Aside from ensuring legal certainty for business, the goals are expected to be achieved by providing adequate infrastructure, revitalizing local economies, a focus on agriculture and manufacturing, strengthening of small and medium enterprises, and reform of the tax system.

But as of today, only a few concrete policies have been issued by economic ministers to help accelerate economic reform. Most ministers have only issued plans and projections.

"It is unlikely that Susilo can keep his promises with the economic team that he has in the cabinet. There is a wide gap between him and his ministers," said Rama Pratama, a member of the House of Representatives' Commission XI for financial affairs.

He underscored Susilo's broken promises in reducing the country's ballooning foreign debts by receiving more loans from foreign donors, on the back of the financial impositions for rebuilding Aceh following the deadly tsunami. The December 26 calamity killed at least 160,000 people and devastated infrastructure in the province.

Rama said the deficit in the state budget could be greatly reduced if the government got serious in combating corruption, especially in the tax office.

"We are now losing confidence in the government. There is clear evidence that none of the corrupt key officials in economic ministries have been replaced," said the legislator from the Justice and Prosperous Party, a stout ally of Susilo.

State Minister of National Development Planning, Sri Mulyani, acknowledged that there were still many plans laid out by the government that had not materialized within the promised period.

She argued that the delay was due to the government's caution in issuing policies in order to avoid problems in the future.

"All policies are developed based on prudent management. It is normal if the government cannot immediately decide on a policy as it needs proper analysis to avoid mistakes." The government plans to issue a book evaluating its first three months, with each minister chronicling their achievements, Mulyani added.

Banking industry welcomes central bank's new lending policy

Jakarta Post - January 27, 2005

Leony Aurora, Jakarta -- Major players in the banking industry have welcomed Bank Indonesia's effort to speed up the sector's consolidation through a new policy on the injection of funds into other banks, but urge for more incentives.

President director of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), the country's second largest lender, Sigit Pramono told reporters on Wednesday that relaxing of regulations was in line with the sector's wishes. "The push for banks to consolidate and the (previous) legal lending limit (LLL) policy contradicted one another," he said.

The central bank announced on Tuesday its new policy, which rules that money injected from one bank to another would not be calculated in its LLL, as long as financial reports of the corresponding banks were consolidated.

This opens the doors wide for banks to merge and buy other banks without stumbling on the LLL, which was previously set at 20 percent.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia president Rudjito said the new regulation enabled banks to decide whether to rely on internal growth or make other moves, such as acquiring or merging with other banks.

"The condition now is more open, more flexible," he said.

The banks have already started eyeing other players to decide which is the most suited to partner with.

Sigit said that BNI intended to acquire one bank this year to add value to its services before selling 30 percent of its shares in May or June.

"(With the acquisition) we expect our value to be better in the second public offering," he said.

Although the government in principle has approved the divestment plan, which is expected to raise some Rp 5 trillion (US$547 million), its continuance depends on the House of Representatives, Sigit said.

Last year the House rejected the government's request to sell its shares in BNI to cover the state budget deficit, citing unfavorable market conditions.

Banks that would be attractive to BRI are those with the same focus on micro, small- and medium-sized enterprises, said Rudjito.

"We have not invited partners, but the option is open." Meanwhile, to further accelerate the banking sector's consolidation, Sigit called on the government to offer more incentives, saying the government should lower the cost of converting ownership certificates for assets that change hands in a merger.

"Foreign countries do this type of thing to promote voluntary mergers," he said.

Another thing to consider is the appropriate time to forecast a new bank's financial performance.

"Take for instance NPL (nonperforming loans), the figure taken when a merger takes place would be very different from that taken after the whole process is finished."

Infrastructure investors remain skeptical

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- The many promises and projects offered by the government during last week's Infrastructure Summit apparently were not enough to ease the fears of cautious investors, who still want to see the promises translated into real action amid the country's weak bureaucracy and rampant corruption.

"The summit is just the beginning for the government to show that they can raise investors' confidence. But such confidence cannot only be ensured by words," said Robert Rankin, managing director of UBS Investment Group Asia.

"The government should set up two or three infrastructure pilot projects, in which the process is ensured to be free from irregularities. Investors won't come back if they see the pilot projects are tainted with abuse," he added.

The government faces a daunting task in fulfilling its promises made during the summit, given the fact that most key state officials nationwide seem to be afflicted with a corruption mindset and that the bureaucratic system they work in is poorly coordinated or controlled.

Moreover, it remains unclear as to how the government plans to ensure that the bidding process for each project is conducted fairly and transparently, especially when dealing with companies with close, but informal, links to state officials.

State Minister of National Development Planning/National Development Planning Board chairwoman Sri Mulyani Indrawati said all companies, including those with links to state officials and politicians, could win the projects as long as they managed to meet the requirements.

She said the tender process would be carried out based on the existing regulations, but with enhanced transparency.

The government will need around US$150 billion for the development of various infrastructure facilities. Some $25 billion is expected to come from the state budget; $30 billion from domestic finance institutions; $10 billion from foreign donors; and the $80 billion bulk from private and foreign investors.

In the investment forum, the government offered 91 infrastructure projects worth $22.5 billion to foreign and domestic investors. Another reform commitment promised by the government during the summit was the finalization of all required policies to improve the investment climate as well as the revision of problematic regulations within six months. It also pledged to honor all contracts made with private companies or individuals.

The government also signed a declaration with representatives of companies from 22 participating countries in the summit, designed to underscore the government's commitment to removing the many bureaucratic hurdles to private sector investment.

However, a number of would-be investors at the summit, who preferred not to be named, were pessimistic that the government could come up with concrete changes within six months.

"How can we trust this government if it has already failed to convince the business community of its seriousness in combating corruption within President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first 100 days?" a foreign investor wondered aloud.

He said his existing operation in Indonesia was still having a lot of problems with widespread illegal fees collected by officials from local administrations, the central government, the police and the military. And, he added, there had been no sign that the problems would end.

If such corruption remained, he said, what would happen to private companies involved in these infrastructure projects, since most would require 10 to 15 years to reach the break-even point.

Investment projection for 2005-2009

• Roads 114,800 kilometers Rp 214.2 trillion
• Energy 25,700 Megawatts Rp 287.8 trillion
• Fixed line telephones 12.9 million users Rp 88.8 trillion
• Cellular phones 24.3 million users Rp 62.7 trillion
• Tap water 28.1 million consumers Rp 16.9 trillion
• Sanitation 46.9 million households Rp 18.8 trillion

Total Rp 689.2 trillion

Opinion & analysis

Still waiting for bold steps

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 27, 2005

There was little to talk about when the widely trumpeted first 100-day economic agenda of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's government ended. It is not even an exaggeration to say that the government miserably failed to capitalize on its strong political mandate to launch bold, if unpopular, measures to accelerate the process of regaining foreign investor confidence.

One may argue that during the past month Susilo's government has been preoccupied coping with the impact of the devastating natural disasters in Aceh and North Sumatra on December 26. Therefore, the government has effectively spent only about two months working on its economic agenda.

But even within the first two months (until December 26), the new government could have launched a real set of concrete measures in the top priority areas to build a higher credibility and stronger market confidence.

It is true that the key economic indicators for last year were quite robust, reflecting significant progress from those in 2003. The economy grew by an estimated 5 percent, as against slightly over 4 percent in 2003. Our sovereign rating was upgraded to B+, not yet an investment grade, but quite an improvement. The government's debt to gross domestic product ratio declined to less than 50 percent and the incidence of poverty decreased markedly. The rupiah strengthened and the Jakarta stock market share price index rose to historic highs of more than 1,000. Investment grew by 11 percent, compared to a mere 3 percent expansion in 2003.

But Susilo's government cannot claim any credit for these achievements. They were mainly the fruits of the previous government of Megawati Soekarnoputri, which succeeded in maintaining macroeconomic and political stability and, most importantly, in organizing three peaceful, free and fair elections, including the first direct election of the president.

Susilo rightly selected four disputes involving the government or state companies and foreign investors: the Cemex-Semen Gresik, Karaha Bodas- Pertamina, ExxonMobil-Pertamina and Newmont Mining Company as high profile cases that he promised would be resolved in first 100 days. But none of them have been resolved.

Early on during his first week in office, Susilo promised a set of concrete measures and what he called "shock treatment" in top priority areas of his programs. He buoyed the market by demonstrating, through discussions and working visits to various state institutions, a clear understanding of the gravity of the country's economic situation and the most pressing problems the country encountered in the business sector.

However, promises and symbolic moves, though needed, are not enough to maintain the momentum of market confidence in his administration. Investors and the market require concrete measures because only consistent and effective implementation will make government policies credible.

Businesspeople don't expect instant results in all areas. What they really want to see is a steady progress along the right path in a consistent reform process and not instead a one-off event. Everything does not have to be fixed at once.

More significant progress and many confidence-building steps could have been taken to deal with problems in top-priority areas. There are certainly many measures outstanding that require approval from the House of Representatives; a process that would require an arduous political consultation.

Susilo could have targeted his shock treatment at the taxation and customs directorate generals, two institutions that top most businesspeople's lists of the most graft-ridden and inefficient state entities, to demonstrate that the government really means business when it says it wants to combat corruption and bolster investment.

Moving firmly and consistently to make tax audits more transparent and accountable, expediting the procedures for tax refunds and cutting the number of procedural steps to get merchandise customs-cleared at airports and seaports would go a long way in cutting the costs of doing business.

What is most important is that the government should show clear policy direction. Early, decisive action by the government is crucial to anchor and sustain last year's investment recovery since investment is vital to achieve one of the government's primary objectives -- to accelerate quality growth.

The first 100 days, however, have proved largely to be only a symbolic milestone and Susilo's administration cannot continue to spend its political capital indefinitely. It should act decisively and quickly to spearhead much-needed reforms.

Right now, the government needs to generate more political capital and stronger market confidence so it can build up popular support for such bold, unpopular measures such as raising fuel prices, something it must do soon to reform the economy and raise more money for poverty alleviation and welfare programs.

Rebuilding Aceh

Jakarta Post Editorial - January 26, 2005

It has been exactly one month since the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami devastated parts of Aceh and North Sumatra.

Such time should be sufficient for us to assess and absorb the implications of this unprecedented calamity, not only for those directly in the path of the disaster, but also for the rest of the nation.

We still do not know the exact number of people killed in the two provinces. But whether it is 100,000, 160,000 or even 200,000, such figures have become irrelevant. More important at this stage is the number of people who have been displaced by the disaster, where they are now, and what their living conditions are like.

There is little that we can do for the dead except bury them, but there are plenty of things we can, and should, do for the survivors. Helping to rebuild their lives, their communities and restoring their pride and dignity should be the focus of our attention from here onward.

After one month, the emergency operation is now winding down. Thanks to the massive international and national support, there are no more areas or displaced villagers that are beyond the reach of relief workers. There are enough medical personnel and hospitals to treat survivors, and the threats of outbreaks of diseases associated with natural disasters of this scale have been contained.

There are still some problems regarding coordination but that is understandable given the magnitude of the problem. There are displaced families who still have to share tents and have no private or family lives, and families who only get to eat once a day. But we are sure that these problems will be overcome over time.

There are some encouraging signs that life is slowly returning to normal in Banda Aceh and other towns in the province. Prices of essential goods like food and fuel have gone back to their old levels. Markets are full once again, and many Acehnese are returning to the coffee stalls -- a favorite social gathering place. The local government has resumed services. And beginning on Wednesday, schools are reopening in Aceh.

While life is far from routine, especially for the hundreds of thousands still lingering in makeshift camps, at least some semblance of civil society is now visible.

After one month, the time has now come for the nation, and particularly for the central government, to start thinking about rebuilding Aceh, and to a lesser extent, North Sumatra. The challenge here is equally daunting, if not even more so, than the immediate humanitarian relief operation.

Typically the question is, "where do you start?" Physical reconstruction, like rebuilding roads, offices, mosques, bridges and homes, will probably be the easiest part of this process. Money has been made available for the purpose out of the generosity of foreign governments and people all around the world. It will still take time to complete the job because the government can only move so fast, but this stage of the reconstruction is probably the least of Indonesia's problems.

The harder task will be to rebuild the lives of the people who have not only been displaced, lost their loved ones as well as their livelihoods, but also traumatized by the calamity. Many of them have survived the ordeal but for some, the worst is probably yet to come. Disasters on this scale usually trigger a form of depression in many people, otherwise known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Unfortunately, the sorry state of many makeshift shelters -- muddy paths, leaks, and lack of privacy -- combined with the increased poverty likely from unemployment will increase the likelihood of people developing such problems.

We need to look beyond the physical reconstruction work and help rebuild the lives of these people. A shelter can only be a temporary abode for them and is no place for families or communities.

There is a lot of hard work ahead for the people of Aceh and North Sumatra. The rest of Indonesia must demonstrate that we are with them all the way on the long journey back to their normal lives.

Opinion: Aceh's disaster could herald political change

Jakarta Post - January 24, 2005

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne -- It is a truism in politics that a cathartic experience can result in unrelated change. Conflict, chaos or natural disaster has been the handmaiden to many political changes, not least Indonesia's monetary crisis producing democratization.

So too, Aceh's disaster could herald political change. The announcement by the Indonesian government that it may hold talks with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) at the end of the month is, perhaps, the breakthrough that could be the beginning of the end of Aceh's almost three decade old conflict.

In part, the push for a settlement to the Aceh conflict builds on the electoral promise of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to find a solution to the conflict there. In part, too, it is based on the failure of an escalated military campaign, started in May 2003, to crush GAM, and an inability to keep funding that campaign at what has been an unsustainable level.

But in greatest part, the rising tide of support for a settlement comes from domestic and international recognition that the people of Aceh have suffered more than enough.

However, there are many competing voices over what type of future Aceh could or should have, and how to achieve peace. These competing voices present what appear to be five basic options for Aceh.

The first option, which has been presented by the government as its starting point, is that the fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should take up a government amnesty, lay down their weapons, and accept their place and that of Aceh in the Indonesian state. This offer amounts to little more than GAM's surrender, and this has already been rejected.

Similarly, the second option of the Indonesian government acceding to GAM's demand for either independence or a referendum on independence, has also already been rejected.

The third option, which reflects the first two, is for the Indonesian military (TNI) to destroy GAM militarily. The problem with this option is that the TNI shown that is cannot eradicate GAM, and this tactic has proven to be counter-productive. The greater the military response, the greater the popular support for GAM. Unless the TNI intends to destroy the population of Aceh, this policy cannot succeed.

The fourth option, expressed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, is an immediate ceasefire that at the same time includes an immediate resolution of all outstanding claims. Unless this means an all or nothing resolution, the gulf between the government and GAM is too great, and there is too little trust, to reach a quick resolution.

The fifth option, then, is for a ceasefire between the TNI and GAM, with full attention and resources being given to the reconstruction effort. Such a ceasefire should, over time, build a sense of "normalization" and trust, allowing a meaningful dialogue over Aceh's longer-term future.

The question is, what will that future hold? If the future is to avoid a relapse into conflict, it will need to address most of the key claims being made not just by GAM, but by large sections of Acehnese civil society. Similarly, it will need to accommodate the bottom line in Indonesian, which is the physical integrity of the state.

When Indonesia achieved independence in 1949 it was constructed as a federation, a political model which reflected the aspirations of many anti-colonialists who never the less did not wish to be dominated by their neighbors. Aceh was prime among these aspirants, and the participation of Aceh in the War of Independence was intended to secure Aceh's autonomous place within such a structure.

It was the unilateral ending of this arrangement, and the loss of Aceh's provincial status, that propelled it to join the Darul Islam Rebellion.

That only ended with the promise of "special autonomy". Yet that promise was hollow, and the rapaciousness of the New Order government and its disregard for local sentiment propelled Aceh into a new claim for separation.

The declaration of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) was intended, at least in rhetoric, to address this claim. But NAD has been even more hollow a promise than the earlier "special autonomy". A genuine autonomy, however, might work.

Genuine autonomy is not for the politically faint-hearted. It would require that Aceh become a self-governing state in all matters but foreign affairs, aspects of external defense, and elements of taxation. It would also require locally-based political parties, including GAM. More than anything, it would require that Aceh alone be responsible for the imposition of its own, locally defined, law (be that sharia or otherwise).

But most importantly, genuine autonomy would mean the dissolution of all combatant parties within Aceh. That is, GAM would cease to exist as a military force, militias would be disarmed and disbanded, and the TNI would be required to leave. The imposition of law and order would devolve exclusively to an Acehnese police, obeying autonomously codified law, under the strict and singular authority of a locally elected autonomous government.

In such a model, Acehnese aspirations for self-determination would be functionally met, while the Indonesian state would continue to be able to claim its overarching territorial integrity. The errors of past judgments -- the original dissolution of Aceh, the failed promises of special status and autonomy, and the use of the military to solve a political problem -- would be addressed.

There is no doubt many on both sides would hold out against such a proposal, at least in the short term. But politics is the art of the possible, and of compromise. A sustainable peace is possible in Aceh. But it can only be achieved through real political compromise, on both sides.

[Dr. Damien Kingsbury is Director of International and Community Development at Deakin University, Australia.]