Aceh

Rebel salute or Turkish delight?

Agence France Presse - February 11, 2005

Among the donors to tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh, Turkey stands out. Not for bringing money, shelter or food, but for flying their flag -- an emblem that bears an uncanny likeness to the outlawed insignia of separatist rebels.

The red flag bearing a white crescent and star can be seen across the city of Banda Aceh, fluttering on roadsides and emblazoned on T-shirts in what may be a homage to the Turks, but could also be a cheeky salute to the rebels.

Aceh, which bore the brunt of the December 26 disaster, losing hundreds of thousands of people, has been in the throes of a separatist struggle for almost three decades.

Recent talks between leaders of the rebel Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, and officials from Jakarta have raised hopes of peace, but military efforts to pursue the guerrillas have continued largely unabated.

The action includes the enforcement of a long-running ban on the rebel flag -- identical to the Turkish banner but with the addition of a black stripe, top and bottom.

Americans, Australians, Germans and Japanese have led the parade of foreign aid missions into Aceh but their colours are seldom seen outside the camps of their humanitarian staff. The Turkish emblem, however, is much more prolific.

"Everybody here wants Turkish flags, they can't get enough," said Ilhan Arikhan, a correspondent for Turkey's TRT television spending a week in Aceh to report on the disaster and his country's relief contribution.

The ban on the Free Aceh Movement flag has been strictly enforced since former president Suharto waged a campaign against the rebels, who accuse Jakarta of syphoning off their resource-rich province's wealth.

When the nine year operation came to an end in 1998, authorities said they had greatly weakened the guerrilla movement, but in an act of defiance, outlawed flags were hoisted across Aceh.

The province was subjected to martial law and a new wave of conflict in May 2003, with Jakarta again declaring it had all but broken the rebel movement -- a claim that a renewed bout of emblem-hoisting could call into question.

With spies from both Indonesia's military and the rebels operating across the region, many Acehnese are uneasy talking about the guerrillas and their flag.

"The Turks gave it to me yesterday, it is only for decoration," said Darwin, whose roadside banana stall now sports a giant Turkish flag on its back wall. "We are neutral, we don't support the GAM side or the Indonesian side. The Turks gave it to us and we are grateful for the help they have offered."

Others were equally circumspect, claiming the banner's popularity was solely due to the Turkish aid effort, which includes a round-the-clock bread bakery and pledges to construct homes for survivors.

"It has similarities to the GAM flag, but it doesn't mean that Aceh people are drawing spirit and strength from it," said Budi, a 40 year-old shop owner who also described himself as "neutral" in the conflict.

Ami Hazrami, a streetside sunglasses vendor, said he had heard rumours that people were displaying the Turkish standard in support of the rebels. "But I don't think it's true," he added.

According to Turkish television man Arikhan, Indonesia's military is a little more convinced of the flag's significance.

"We had some trouble at a military checkpoint. The soldiers were pointing at our Turkish flag and shouting 'What is this?, what is this?'. We showed them our passports and told them we were Turkish and they eventually let us go."

Rebuilding Aceh: New towns with new hope

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Gordon G Benton -- It is more than likely that there will be an unholy battle over the desolation in Aceh and North Sumatra on who is going to rebuild the infrastructure, towns and villages.

From reports and information gleaned from the media, it seems abundantly clear that Banda Aceh and the other towns destroyed by the tsunami on December 26 cannot be rebuilt on what's left of these towns' foundations -- for that is what largely remains.

With such huge percentages of the populations killed whilst in their homes, in the streets or on the foreshore and beaches, how can anyone seriously consider building on what has become essentially a massive graveyard? Our compassion is for those that have died and our very real desire as human beings must now be to protect and save the survivors.

Secondly, on a less emotional, but rather more objective level, is the reality that any attempt to restore or rehabilitate the infrastructure and buildings on these urban sites would be both impractical and hugely expensive.

Areas of the towns have been inundated with tsunami-borne sand and other jetsam; other areas where houses stood and roads ran, have been torn out and now lie under the sea.

The alternative is both a solution and an opportunity. There is an alternative to rebuilding these urban entities back on their own foundations, probably at less capital cost and at the same time offer the provinces new hope and peace of mind. That is to rebuild on new selected sites, away from what must now be left a memorial park.

The government has powers of compulsory acquisition, alas seldom used, when it seemed to be important to do so. The process of course must be transparent and clearly carried out in a manner fair to the property owner and with regard to the well-being of the nation.

With a proper evaluation of each destroyed town or village, followed by a selection of sites for the relocation and settlement of the new town, the government, through its compulsory purchase powers, must designate the areas to be acquired.

Given the nature and extent of the catastrophe that has befallen the people of Aceh and North Sumatra, surely this process of the identification and design could be completed in three to six months.

The planning and building of the first critical phases of the townships could be such that the first settlers would be housed within 12 months -- in other words in 15 to 18 months from now.

This could be reduced to possibly nine months if temporary housing was to be built -- for later upgrading and/or used as a transit home. The simple 20 foot container can be adapted for everything from very simple abodes to sophisticated power plants and hospitals. The new town locations do not need to be remote from the old. Indeed as the pain wears off, the survivors, as well as the new citizens, will want to walk over the old town area, perhaps to cry a little over the past or to be just reminded of the immense and sudden power of nature.

The original town sites could be designated as national memorial parks, which while retaining some of the remnants of the lost civilization, all would be landscaped to give walk- and cycle- ways, nature trails, giving back these relatively small but hugely significant pieces of Indonesia back to nature.

Mangroves would be replanted, indigenous trees and plants laid out perhaps in an arboretum concept -- not in a formal man-made regimented design but as if by the hand of nature. Indonesia has enough expertise to do a wonderful job here.

What about those who can prove ownership of a lot or part of the destroyed town? Or those who are relatives of these deceased land owners, or what about those who believe they own or have rights over a particular or property but have no documentation to back it up. There will be a great many in this last category. But there will be a number who will want to take advantage of the chaos to claim what was never theirs.

Whilst this will in may cases seem to be an almost impossible situation to resolve, much of the charity offered to those very people should and surely can be translated into a simple land- transfer offer? 'Socializing' is an Indonesian word that surely could be used here to good effect. Most of the criminals will be exposed by bonafide survivors.

The government has to set up what we could call an 'Urban Renewal Authority' -- a body which would orchestrate the urban plan, then prepare the individual lots -- for handing over to survivors (or whatever terms), and for sale to new settlers or for auction (appropriate for commercial lots).

This would not all happen at once but a start must be made immediately on site selection, land alienation, macro and micro planning. Whilst the government is well aware of its responsibilities in this crisis, it is my contention that the Indonesian private section professionals in urban planning, infrastructure and architectural design, site evaluation, sociological structures -- not forgetting local cultural, language and 'know-how' -- can and should be invited as important and pivotal partners in this immensely important work.

Many Indonesian firms today have had excellent experience in urban settlement design. They are now well used to working with overseas professionals offered specialized experience, and these would naturally be called up to aid in the work.

Can they be trusted with carrying out this task in an organized, responsible and effective manner, incorporating the latest urban technologies, whilst keeping in mind local concerns of course.

I have to say here that there must be leadership -- from those experienced in such work -- and an overall standards' code to which all professionals must adhere. This has to include clear rules on the handling of contracts and overall fiscal accountability.

Decisions on the provision of drinking or non-potable water for all, sewer treatment or septic tanks, traffic-calmed roads or a free-for-all, enforced building regulations or letting 'beggar thy neighbor' attitudes prevail, have to be decided from the start. And at this point, surely this is the one real opportunity to set a benchmark for all new developments in Indonesia.

How these development plans can be orchestrated, and, as importantly, how these hopefully modern townships are to be managed, can be the subject of another presentation, but there is a role there too for the professionals in the private sector.

From disaster can in this way come fortune for the people of Indonesia in general and Aceh and North Sumatra in particular. This extraordinary opportunity should not be lost, Indonesians' own expertise should not be forgotten under the glare of other more powerful interests?

[The writer is an architect and urban planner who has worked in the region for 40 years. This is a personal view.]

Calls for graft scrutiny as tsunami rebuilding begins

Agence France Presse - February 10, 2005

Indonesia has urged the global community to heighten vigilance to ensure rampant corruption does not swallow billions of dollars of tsunami aid as it promises a March deadline to begin large-scale reconstruction in ravaged Aceh province.

Senior Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who leads the government's disaster response team, said his country was gambling its reputation on the reconstruction of Aceh, which will put a pledged war on graft to the test.

Although the United Nations has said it wanted to take a more hands-off role in the effort to aid those affected by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, Shihab said Indonesia was not ready to go it alone.

He said it was vital that donor cash be channelled directly to rebuilding projects to avoid the country's notoriously suspect bureaucracy but where that was unavoidable, heavy scrutiny was needed.

Indonesia has forecast it would cost some four billion dollars over five years to rebuild Aceh.

US aid to Indonesia is also expected to increase, after President George W. Bush announced plans Wednesday to nearly triple aid to 950 million dollars largely for rebuilding infrastructure in tsunami-hit nations.

"I think the foreign donors will provide representatives so they will be part of the whole operation. Actually the government -- if it can be done -- the money will not be in their hands," Shihab said.

"Rest assured that the government is more concerned than the international community, because this is a test case for its integrity and reputation." Indonesia has been named by watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Its renown has led to a fall off in foreign investment, hampering recovery from last decade's regional financial crisis.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rode into office last October on pledges to root out the culture of kickbacks, bribery and collusion at the heart of the problem, but his administration has yet to deliver solid results.

Analysts have warned the huge sums of money pouring into the country in the wake of the tsunami, which killed an estimated quarter of a million Indonesians, will be too much of a temptation to graft-hungry officials.

Shihab has promised to install a series of checks and balances to keep tabs on the cash, recently launching a full investigation on an apparent 20,000 dollar discrepancy which he said was due to a typing error.

The need for close scrutiny has been heightened by a major shift in the aid process as work moves from emergency relief to the huge reconstruction projects involving graft-prone bidding for lucrative contracts.

Indonesian scholars and experts will meet February 11 to hammer out a blueprint for reconstruction, with major work to begin in the following weeks, Shihab said.

"I think the plan will be ready, we are concerned with having the plan as soon as possible because we don't want the donors to wait too long. By March, we will have it ready and start the work," he said.

The UN, which has warned that coming months will prove more of a challenge than the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, has said it wanted Indonesia to take the lead in the next stage.

"We need to agree to a common strategy that we're working on, but we need to put the local authorities and the Achenese in the driving seat," the UN's deputy coordinator in Aceh, Joel Boutroue, said earlier this week.

But Shihab said it was important for the UN to stay highly involved in the coordination process, although there was still a role for regional authorities.

"I think it is only normal that the UN will be part of the supervisory board. The UN will be part of the coordination of the NGOs [non-governmental organisations] and donors. The UN will contribute whatever resources they have to see the construction is carried out smoothly -- but you can't ignore the local government."

Task of collecting dead will take six months: Red Cross

Agence France Presse - February 10, 2005

Teams collecting corpses in the Indonesian province of Aceh have estimated it will take at least another six months to find all the tsunami victims, the Red Cross said. Volunteers have been pulling scores of bodies from the rubble daily since the December 26 disaster, a grim task complicated by rapid decomposition in tropical temperatures.

The Red Cross earlier put a deadline of two months to collect the bodies but with the extent of the carnage still not yet fully known, those involved say it will take much longer.

"According to the information from the local Red Cross volunteers, the collection will go on for six months," Red Cross spokeswoman Yrsa Grune told AFP.

The lengthy collection process means uncertainty over the true death toll will continue. Indonesia's health ministry earlier today revised downwards the number of people dead and missing to 231,300, highlighting the confusion.

Grune said the number of cadavers being collected on a daily basis had declined, but this was not because the number still unrecovered had been significantly reduced.

"We're down to about 70 a day now but this is really due to the fact that there are fewer people out there doing the work," she said. "There are still bodies lying out on the ground waiting for recovery but the work is not just psychologically demanding, it requires a great physical effort as well, climbing over the ruins and moving through swamp and mud." She said Red Cross volunteers would continue their involvement until the task was completed.

Survivors reject new homes for life in the rubble

Agence France Presse - February 9, 2005

Thousands of Indonesians left homeless by the tsunami will be able to move into newly-finished barracks next week, but despite the promise of shelter, food and water, many instead want to return to the windswept piles of rubble they once called home.

At Lambaro, eight kilometres inland from the ravaged shoreline of Aceh province, the last nails were being hammered home on a series of cramped, wooden structures designed to house families for more than a year.

Across the region, similar provisions were being made to accommodate about one quarter of the 400,000 people whose homes were destroyed when the waves rolled in, killing more than 240,000 Indonesians.

But at the same time, planks were also being nailed into place on the coast, half an hour's drive from the main city of Banda Aceh, to finish the only structure standing for miles -- a wooden mosque.

"This is our land, it has been our land for years, handed down from generation to generation," said Subki Basyah, the chief of Meunasah Tuha, the once prosperous fishing village on whose ruins the makeshift mosque now stands. "It is very important we stay here, not in some government barracks miles from the sea," he told AFP.

Like many of those who lived through the disaster, Basyah and his villagers fear that authorities will use the barrack relocation centres as a means of controlling people and dispossessing them of their ancestral land.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group has warned that the government, which has a history of abuses committed during conflict to crush separatists in Aceh, could misuse the camps, particularly if the military becomes embroiled.

It said people may be railroaded into the barracks from their current shelter in tented refugee camps without being given a chance to explore other alternatives.

The government meanwhile has also said it would not let people rebuild their homes close to the shoreline, to prevent a repeat of the carnage in the event of another natural disaster.

For communities such as Meunasah Tuha, there is a fear that they will be relocated so far inland they will no longer have good access to their livelihood, the tuna-rich fishing grounds of the Indian Ocean.

"If the government cares about us so much, why didn't they build something to protect us in the first place," said Basyah. "They should be helping us rebuild our homes now, instead of building the barracks," he said.

For the people of Meunasah Tuha, which lost all but 228 of a population of 1,400, the task of rebuilding their community will be a lengthy and expensive project. Their rickety mosque is only a tiny step forward.

"I have nothing and no one left, this land and this community is all," said Sa'dah, a 48-year-old woman, gesturing to a small clearing in the debris where she has planted rows of pea plants.

Sa'dah lost her husband, mother, three children and 10 sisters in the December 26 disaster. She survived because she was away picking coconuts in an area with quick access to higher ground.

"If the government does not let us rebuild here, then we will ask again, then again, then again. After that, I think we will no longer have the strength to fight." Joel Boutroue, the deputy coordinator in Aceh for the United Nations, which is helping the Indonesian government set up the barracks, defended the camps saying that they took priority over helping people to rebuild their homes.

"Unfortunately, life is never simple, so we can only give one thing at a time," he said.

But he rejected accusations that the camps would be used to indiscriminately move people around the region. "If these people want to go there, they go there, if they want to leave, they leave and as far as I know, the government his committed to that," he said, adding that no-one had yet been coerced into entering the camps.

Nainunis, a religious teacher from the coastal village of Klieng Cot Aron, northeast of Banda Aceh, said survivors would rather remain under canvas with people they know, rather than in barracks with strangers.

"Though our village was destroyed, we still feel at home there. It is better to be there rather than among another community which still has its children, and doesn't understand our tears or even our jokes," said the 35-year-old, who saw all almost of his 200 students washed away as he clung to a palm tree.

PRD activist: reconstruction, not carpetbagging!

Green Left Weekly - February 9, 2005

Zely Ariane has been the secretary-general of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) since 2003. Indonesia's only openly operating socialist party, It played a central role in the movement to overthrow Suharto between 1994 and 1998 and has been at the forefront of attempts to unite the fragmented opposition to the neoliberal economic policies of the post-Suharto governments. Before 1998, the PRD was the only party in Indonesia supporting East Timor's right to self-determination. It is now the country's only party supporting the right of the Acehnese people to self-determination. Ariane herself is from Aceh, her parents having moved to Jakarta in 1996. She spoke to Green Left Weekly's Max Lane about the relief effort.

Over the phone she told Green Left Weekly of her 20-day visit to Aceh in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami. "I went back as part of the mobilisation of members of SEGERA, the Aceh solidarity group, to help deal with the aftermath of the tsunami. We mostly sent Acehnese activists because of military repression.

"Of course, I also visited my family in Aceh. My family comes from the village of Peusangan near Bireuen. It is a salt farming area. I think there were about 1500 people in the village; now only 15 are still living. Almost all my father's family was killed: his mother; his brother and sisters; their children. One sister survived but she was badly injured. It is like that all along the coast. Of the SEGERA activists in Aceh, at least six were killed and another six lost all their family and their home, including the chairperson of the main student group, Students in Solidarity with the People [SMUR]." It was a shocking experience for Ariane, seeing the devastation and hearing the stories of loss and listening to the people wonder about the future. "I overheard so many conversations among the people discussing the future. The sense of hopelessness is so strong. There is no sense of the government doing anything. Even the Jakarta elite's talk of the so-called rebuilding of Aceh never gets down to them. They don't know what their future is now that they have lost everything: spouses, parents, children, villages, livelihoods.

"It is amazing how they looked after themselves without any help. They survived in those horrific circumstances. Most of the refugee camps, especially away from Banda Aceh, were built by the people themselves. They got together the material for the tents; set up the kitchens -- with no help from the government. In some places, they are not waiting for government help, they are building homes in the new camp sites from whatever is available." Ariane explained how within five days of the tsunami, returning SEGERA activists met up with other activists in Aceh. "All the activists who had lost their families and homes combined together to organise themselves to help with the relief effort. We formed CARE Aceh to concentrate on this work. We started off with about 15 volunteers, but now there are more than 50. They have spread out into the more removed areas, away from the cities, taking materials and helping set up aid depots. The money sent to SEGERA from Australian donations has been channeled to help CARE Aceh. Most of the volunteers now are working in the 'closed areas'." Ariane told of how the four regions of North Aceh, East Aceh, Pidie Aceh, and South Aceh had been closed to free aid distribution by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI). "These are areas that the TNI considers to be support bases of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). They are not areas that were hit by the tsunami; they are on higher ground. But they are areas which are receiving the bulk of the refugees from the west coastal regions. Refugees are living with family and friends. This is the majority of the refugees and getting assistance to them is difficult because they are spread out everywhere.

"The trouble is that in these closed areas all aid is supposed to be deposited first with the local military command. The TNI reserves the right to distribute everything. You can be beaten or even arrested if you distribute food or other aid directly to the people ... In some areas, women were mobilised to go to apply for aid as the only way to pressure the TNI to release material. This was later depicted in the media as GAM using village women to obtain aid for GAM fighters." The CARE Aceh activists have been taking material -- mainly rice, sugar, coffee, and cooking oil -- to these areas but also staying on to act as monitors of the aid distribution process. They SMS news to Banda Aceh and Jakarta to make sure that the spotlight is kept on the government's and TNI's activities. There are several groups doing this, including journalists who maintain the Acehkita.com news website.

"There are thousands, maybe more than 10,000 non-Acehnese volunteers in Aceh now", Ariane said. "It is the government and the TNI who are not showing any real effort. There has not been a single announcement by the TNI of how many soldiers it has mobilised to help evacuate corpses and do other relief work. I think they can't release that information because it will reveal what a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of soldiers in Aceh are doing relief work." Ariane explained that most of the people in uniform doing real work in Aceh were from the Indonesian marines and not the Army, the force deployed against GAM. "And the marines also seemed to have no proper equipment. They were just using normal gloves and cheap face masks." She told of how she saw one incident were a few Army personnel were standing on the street issuing orders to civilians to clear up corpses but were doing nothing themselves. "A car-load of marines stopped and lectured the Army soldiers that they had to set an example and work as well. They made the soldiers do push-ups and roll around on the ground where the corpses had been as punishment." "The alienation of the Acehnese people from the government in Jakarta is going to worsen", she said. "It is not just the lack of real commitment of resources from the TNI, which has also been highlighted by comparisons with the serious aid effort by the foreign militaries. It is also the way that the so-called reconstruction of Aceh is being discussed. Already the big Jakarta based companies are being given contracts. The Suharto conglomerate, the Humpus Group, is already getting contracts. West Aceh is reported to be giving projects to the big business outfit of Tommy Winata." Winata is notorious in Jakarta for his attacks on media freedom. "In all of this, there has been no involvement of Acehnese society. Even the Acehnese business elite has been protesting that they are not getting any projects. Both the Jakarta and Acehnese elite are out to get as much of the aid money as they can." Ariane thinks that a major challenge is to mobilise the democratic and community organisations to take up these issues and provide leadership in defending the people's interests in the whole reconstruction process. "Many activists were also killed in the tsunami and many lost their offices. Some are too focused only in the immediate humanitarian issues and not giving a political lead. If this goes on, then the there will be no real reconstruction. Aceh will just be a big chance for carpetbagging as well as a war zone!" Reconstruction requires popular involvement and also peace, she emphasised. "But the TNI is making it clear it is completely opposed to a ceasefire. Every time the government, usually under international pressure, moved to prioritise negotiations, the TNI immediately moved to undermine it. It is in virtual revolt now against the government." On February 1, after the recent round of negotiations between the government and GAM finished in Finland, the army chief-of-staff, Ryamizard Ryacudu told the press, "It's preposterous, with [only] 2000 GAM remaining, why have a cease- fire? The only way that the conflict will end is if GAM surrenders to the TNI." "The TNI commanders have not let up on both verbal and military attacks on GAM since day one after the tsunami. And the government seems unwilling to counter this. One problem is that the political elites in the parliament are also siding with the TNI and have opposed even the ceasefire talks in Finland." For Ariane, key to making any progress in overcoming this impasse is the remobilisation of Acehnese society and its involvement in the political processes.

"All-inclusive dialogue on reconstruction and peace should lay the basis for the eventual implemnetation of a referendum process on the future of Aceh.

"That is why SEGERA supports the demand that a broader spectrum of society be represented in all talks with the government: the religious leaders, academics and doctors, community organisations, the whole political spectrum, as well as GAM, who must have a real role as well. This is crucial. There will neither be peace nor reconstruction if society is excluded from discussions. We do not agree either with the GAM leadership's insistence that it can represent everybody in Aceh. This is also frustrating especially when we know that there are many elements of GAM within Aceh itself who acknowledge the need for this broader involvement.' But it is building pressure to force the military to accept the ceasefire that is the central concern now, she said. "This is the shared focus now of the key pro-democracy groups in Indonesia, such as KONTRAS, Imparsial and all the NGOs in the Aceh Working Group. In Aceh, too besides the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front [FPDRA] and its member organisations, other groups are also more vocal in calling for a real ceasefire and for the whole of Acehnese society to be directly involved in all talks on peace as well as reconstruction."

Wave of destruction - Acehnese minority perseveres

Wall Street Journal - February 8, 2005

Jay Solomon,Medan -- Textile trader Shie Hok Lai lost everything when the tsunami destroyed his shop and home in Indonesia's Aceh province December 26., but the ethnic Chinese businessman is getting ready to start over again -- in the same place.

In a bustling refugee camp in this Sumatra city, Mr. Shie, 28 years old, has signed a formal contract with an Indonesian- Chinese self-help organization, Tolong Menolong, promising to return to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, in exchange for food, transportation and 500,000 rupiah, or about $55, in cash. "By signing this, I'm volunteering to rebuild our community," says Mr.

Shie between puffs on a clove cigarette. "But I also agreed not to come back to [the refugee camp in] Medan."

The relief effort that is helping Mr. Shie return to Aceh provides one clear example of how life has changed for Indonesia's minority Chinese community.

It has been openly and actively organizing assistance for Chinese victims of the tsunami. During the 32-year rule of former Indonesian strongman Suharto, which ended in 1998, Chinese were banned from organizing politically and faced severe restrictions on communal or community activity. Promotion of Chinese language or identity weren't allowed.

But thanks to changes since Mr. Suharto's fall, a group called Tolong Menolong -- a Chinese self-help group running quietly since the 1970s -- is operating openly and working with the Indonesian military and government agencies. Its refugee camp is full of Chinese-language signs.

"If this had happened during Suharto's time, this refugee camp would have been isolated, with no government support," says Tjhin Tjung Maow, the organizer of Tolong Menolong's relief operation in Medan. "Now, there's fresh air. All channels are open."

During the Suharto era, ethnic Chinese -- who account for less than 4% of Indonesia's 220 million people -- were often treated as second-class citizens.

But since 1998, Chinese have become a growing political and cultural factor in multiethnic Indonesia, which is home to the world's largest Muslim population.

Chinese have formed political parties, been appointed to senior government cabinet posts and gained prominence in the arts and the media. Chinese culture, meanwhile, is again flourishing across the archipelago, with Chinese-language schools, Mandarin script and lion dances becoming increasingly common sights.

In the wake of the tsunami, groups like Tolong Menolong -- whose name is Indonesian for "mutual assistance" -- have also taken a central role getting Chinese in Aceh back on their feet. The group has tapped Indonesia's affluent Chinese merchant class to raise large sums of cash for relief operations, though Tolong Menolong declines to give the figure. Overseas Chinese groups from Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan have sent doctors and counselors to Tolong Menolong's refugee camp in Medan, 600 kilometers southeast of Banda Aceh.

The return of Aceh's Chinese business people is seen as essential to the province's recovery, say relief organizations and local officials. Although they make up less than 5% of the population of northern Sumatra, ethnic Chinese form the backbone of the entire region's distribution and trading networks.

In Banda Aceh, Chinese merchants are estimated to own 50% to 70% of the private-sector businesses, and their companies direct the trade of essential goods like cooking oil, rice and coffee.

Thousands of Indonesia's Chinese fled Banda Aceh and the western coast of Aceh province to Medan and Jakarta in the days after the tsunami struck. Many tell stories of having their shops and homes looted, on top of the substantial damage wreaked by the powerful earthquake and ensuing waves. At least 1,000 ethnic Chinese died, according to Tolong Menolong.

Most of the Indonesian-Chinese survivors sought refuge in one of Medan's main Chinese quarters, known as Metal Street. Here, Mr. Tjhin and his son Adriadi opened a camp for survivors and assisted in their evacuation from Aceh aboard trucks and Indonesian military transport planes. Tolong Menolong and other Chinese organizations provided medicine and food to the survivors.

The elder Mr. Tjhin was himself a refugee from Aceh almost 40 years ago and says he felt obliged to help the tsunami victims. In late 1965, Indonesian army forces rounded up thousands of ethnic-Chinese from Aceh and forced them to board ships headed back to mainland China. They were accused of being loyal to Beijing's communist government and of aiding the Indonesian Communist Party in a bid to gain power in Jakarta. The forced departures followed an abortive coup attempt the Indonesian military blamed on the communists; while some Chinese were deported, others were among the huge numbers of people -- some estimates are in the hundreds of thousands -- killed in the bloody aftermath.

But Indonesia-born Mr. Tjhin, now 75 years old, never left. He managed to stay in Medan and eventually developed the sprawling Chinese enclave on Metal Street. He also quietly helped form Tolong Menolong -- as a support network for ethnic Chinese in Sumatra. The group worked on property disputes and trade issues and assisted Chinese during times of unrest, as in May 1998 when mobs razed and looted hundreds of Chinese-owned shops and homes in Medan during turmoil that spawned Mr. Suharto's resignation.

"For three days, we focused on defending ourselves," says Adriadi Tjihn about Tolong Menolong's efforts in 1998. He says Metal Street residents armed themselves with Molotov cocktails and other weapons to keep attackers at bay. "Since then, all the Chinese [in Medan] started to fight back," he says.

At the height of the tsunami crisis, about 7,000 ethnic-Chinese were housed and fed in homes, shop houses, and community centers in and around Metal Street. Medical volunteers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia arrived to help at the camp. And Chinese Buddhist, Christian and Confucian organizations also set up relief centers.

But the Tjihns are now focused on moving back to Aceh refugees that remain on Metal Street. They say they know from personal experience how brief stints as refugees can unexpectedly turn into permanent relocations. "We are making it clear that these aren't permanent camps," says 38 year-old Adriadi Tjhin, who was born in a refugee camp. "We want to get them back to business."

The process of returning begins at a process center in Tolong Menolong's main refugee complex where men wait in line to sign contracts. Many refugees remain wary of looters and the threat of disease in Banda Aceh. But men who sign pledges to go back will act as scouts to assess the damage. They are provided with cash, transportation and temporary shelter in Aceh's Buddhist temples.

In return, they promise not to come back to live on Metal Street.

Lai Fuk Nyen, 60, is one scout preparing for his first visit to Banda Aceh since the tsunami. Mr. Lai didn't lose any close family members, but says his home and business were destroyed. He guardedly holds out hope that he can rebuild his construction business by winning some of the billions of dollars in contracts the Indonesian government is expected to offer to rebuild Aceh.

"If the Chinese people don't go back, the economy won't be functioning well," says Mr. Lai. "If they go back, there will be an improvement." That sentiment is shared in Banda Aceh, where some ethnic-Chinese businessmen and local Acehnese traders are beginning to map reconstruction plans.

The Dharma Bhatia Buddhist temple in the city's central business district serves as a kind of halfway house for Tolong Menolong's program. The streets outside the temple are still clogged with mud and flotsam, but inside an increasing number of visitors discuss business and the future. The back of the temple is being converted into a larger settlement center.

On a recent afternoon, a Muslim Acehnese businessman named Syarafudin came to the temple to see one of his oldest Chinese friends and learn about his family. The two friends, who had lost contact, discuss ways to revitalize Banda Aceh. "It's true that the Chinese run the economy here," Mr. Syarafudin says. "We need to find ways to bring them back."

With Tolong Menolong's help, Joanes Jony Pandy and his wife Maria also have returned to Banda Aceh to reopen their optical shop. "Half of our customers are now dead," says a sad-eyed Mr. Pandy. "Yeah, but half of them are still alive," adds his wife.

Donors fail tsunami survivors on housing, jobs - UN

Reuters - February 8, 2005

Geneva -- Donor countries are failing to provide enough funds for temporary housing and job creation for survivors of December's Indian Ocean tsunami, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.

Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN's special tsunami relief envoy, also urged governments to convert their aid pledges into cash as quickly as possible.

"There are two issues we have to focus on at this stage and over the next six months: providing people with shelter, however temporary, and giving them the opportunity to earn an income," she told a news conference.

"What would really make a difference would be if people could get back to work ... We must not create a dependence on aid, which would create a real problem in the longer term."

Up to 300,000 people in several countries and island states died in the December 26 tidal waves that followed an undersea quake off Aceh province on the northwestern tip of Indonesia -- the area worst hit in the disaster.

But many more in other coastal communities from Thailand to Sri Lanka, southern India, the Maldives, the Seychelles and Somalia in east Africa, lost their homes and jobs. "We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who will need support for at least the next six months, especially in Aceh," Wahlstrom said.

Last month the UN issued an appeal for $977 million in funding to support the relief effort over its first six months. But donors' pledges cover less than half the money wanted for temporary housing and job creation, though other parts of the relief program are fully covered, she said.

Income-generating programs needing support include debris clearing, which could employ local people, and simple boats so that fishing -- a key occupation in the region -- can resume.

Wahlstrom said that so far some $900 million of the $977 million requested had been pledged, but only $360 million had actually been handed over.

Tsunami relief will get more difficult, warns UN

Agence France Presse - February 8, 2005

Banda Aceh -- The United Nations on Tuesday pronounced the often chaotic relief effort to aid Indonesian tsunami victims a success but warned that the toughest part of the operation was still to come.

"The peak of the emergency operation is behind us," said Joel Boutroue, the UN's deputy coordinator in Aceh province, which was home to most of Indonesia's estimated quarter of a million disaster dead.

"I would like to say, all in all, in hindsight it has been a fairly successful operation, thanks in great part to the government of Indonesia."

But with the US and Australian militaries -- key components in the emergency relief operation -- scaling down their presence, Boutroue said the hardest work lies ahead as the humanitarian effort moved into the long-term.

"Without being facetious, I would say that in a way it was the most easy part and the difficult part starts now. We're going into a transition phase where we need to be more focused," he told reporters.

Boutroue's positive assessment came in contrast to earlier reports of poor coordination, which led to bottlenecks of aid supplies building up at airports as thousands of starving people were stranded on remote stretches of coastline.

Problems could be clearly seen last week. Mountains of soaking clothes were left lying on beaches along Aceh's devastated west coast, with no transport to take them to those in need.

The WHO's director of health action in crises, David Nabarro, last week issued a scathing assessment of relief operations, saying the UN could have moved more quickly to prevent delays in delivering aid to those in need.

Military blocks reporter from traveling in Aceh province

Associated Press - February 8, 2005

Indonesian soldiers prevented an Associated Press journalist from traveling in tsunami-wracked Aceh, a war-torn region that was off limits to foreigners before the disaster.

Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, the Indonesian military commander in charge of relief operations in the province, denied Tuesday that there were any "rules or policies" preventing journalists -- local or foreign -- from traveling in the region, and pledged to investigate the incident.

On Monday, a soldier blocked Irwan Firdaus, a Jakarta-based AP reporter who had been working in Aceh for several weeks, from crossing a bridge into the town of Lhoknga. The soldier, who did not identify himself, said the reporter needed permission from the local military commander.

Lhoknga, which was almost entirely wiped out by the tsunami, is about 25 kilometers west of Banda Aceh. The reporter was planning to interview survivors in the town.

The incident reflects the continuing suspicion the military holds toward journalists in the region. Foreign media and aid workers have been banned from Aceh since 2003, when Indonesian troops launched a massive offensive against the province's separatist guerrillas. More than 2,500 people have been killed since then.

The travel ban has not been formally revoked, but since the December 26 tsunami the government has generally allowed foreign journalists and humanitarian officials to travel to and around the province.

Last month, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it was concerned by signs of growing military intolerance toward foreign news media in Aceh after US freelance reporter William Nessen was expelled from the province. It said at least four other international journalists working in the province were either briefly detained or prevented from traveling.

Nessen 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.

Immigration authorities deported him on January 25 after accusing him of entering the country illegally, despite granting him a visa when he arrived three weeks earlier. Nessen said a ban imposed on him after he served the prison sentence had already expired.

The military is concerned that the influx of foreign aid groups and journalists since the disaster could lead to increased international sympathy for the rebels, who have been fighting a low-level war for independence since 1976. The separatists have welcomed the spotlight the tsunami has thrown on their movement.

Human rights groups have accused the Indonesian army of executions, kidnappings, torture and collective punishment of civilians. They say most of the victims of the fighting have been villagers caught up in army sweeps.

Death toll in Asian tsunami disaster nears 295,000

Agence France Presse - February 7, 2005

The number of people believed killed in December's tsunami disaster rose to nearly 295,000, six weeks after the catastrophe, as Indonesia again increased its number of dead.

Indonesia was hardest-hit by the December 26 quake and tsunamis, with a total of 241,687 people listed as dead or missing, the health ministry said in its latest figures.

The ministry said the number of people confirmed dead had risen to 113,913 while the number of people missing and almost certainly dead remained at 127,774.

Thailand's toll remained at 5,393 confirmed dead. A further 3,071 people were listed as missing, more than 1,000 of them foreigners.

The toll in Sri Lanka, which was second hardest hit by the catastrophe, stood at 30,957, according to the Centre for National Operations.

The number of people listed as missing was 5,637, but many were expected to be among those never formally identified, hurriedly buried and included in the confirmed death toll.

In neighbouring India, the official death toll was 10,749 with 5,640 still reported missing and feared dead.

The government was soon expected to draw up final casualty figures in which the missing were declared dead.

Myanmar has said 61 people were killed in the tsunamis.

At least 82 people were killed and another 26 were missing in the Maldives.

Sixty-eight people were dead in Malaysia, most of them in Penang, according to police, while Bangladesh reported two deaths.

On the east coast of Africa, 298 people were declared dead in Somalia, 10 in Tanzania and one in Kenya. Relief workers have said they believe the figure for Somali fatalities to be exaggerated.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.

Death toll

Indonesia: 241,687 Sri Lanka: 30,957 India: 16,389 Thailand: 5,393 Maldives: 82 Malaysia: 68 Myanmar: 61 Bangladesh: 2 Somalia: 298 Tanzania: 10 Kenya: 1 Total: 294,948

[The figures include 127,774 listed as missing in Indonesia and 5,640 in India. In addition, 3,071 people are listed as missing in Thailand and 5,637 in Sri Lanka but not included in the toll because of possible double counting.]

Tensions mount in tsunami-hit Aceh

Australian Associated Press - February 7, 2005

Tensions are rising between militant Islamic groups working in tsunami-struck Aceh and local residents as the outsiders seek to force hardline views on the traumatised local community.

Tempers flared outside a mosque in the capital Banda Aceh where hundreds of supporters of the Islamic Defenders Front, or FPI, have set up tents in a cemetery across the road as they help in Aceh's cleanup and guard local mosques against "unwanted foreign influences".

When a local driver employed by an Australian newspaper was interrogated outside the two-storey mosque about who he was working for, a man who identified himself as a "FPI mujahidin" spat on the ground and accused him of "working for the enemy".

"At the least the Australians are helping us," the outraged driver named Amir shot back. "What would be better? Maybe going around bombing more hotels and killing more people like you people want to. How is that supposed to help us?" he screamed.

The FPI is just one of a number of radical Islamic groups, some with links to terrorism, which are flocking to Aceh to fill a power vacuum created by the deaths of thousands of security forces and officials in the recent earthquake and tsunami tragedy.

Fuelling fears religious instability could worsen the already long-running separatist conflict in the province, the FPI and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) of suspected terrorist leader Abu Bakar Bashir are now in the province.

Others include Laskar and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, which seek to strengthen Islamic sharia law in Aceh to a strict Middle East- style version which would include stoning for adultery and cutting off the hands of thieves.

FPI is best known for conducting "sweeping raids" to smash up bars and nightclubs they deem un-Islamic.

The group now has around 3,000 members in Aceh, helping the army to bury bodies and guard mosques as thousands of foreign military and civilian humanitarian workers work on the cleanup of Indonesia's only province to have adopted Islamic sharia law.

But while most Acehnese are religiously conservative, sharia's implementation was more the result of a political deal between Aceh's clerics and the provincial government rather than strong support among the people.

Adding to tensions is the fierce dislike many Acehnese have for Javanese Indonesians.

At the same mosque last week, local residents arrived in force to demand FPI members stop their two-hour-long morning Koran readings being broadcast on loudspeakers along with the usual call to prayer.

"Do you think you are still in Jakarta," one woman shouted when FPI members tried to bar a Muslim westerner from entering evening prayer. "Don't you dare come here and try to tell the Aceh people how to run their own mosque."

The locals also demanded the FPI allow their more moderate local cleric back into the mosque after he quit the building in disgust several weeks ago when the outsiders arrived. An FPI spokesman said the group was in Aceh only to protect its "Muslim brothers".

But local people accused MMI and FPI of being interested in the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid money pouring into Aceh. "They are insincere in their concern for Aceh. They do not help like the foreigners do," one woman named Dede said. "We need Australia and America and Germany to stay as long as they can, because we need them to rebuild Aceh."

Indonesia's government has set a three-month exit date for foreign military forces, although it said the March 26 deadline was flexible. But is still unclear whether the government will demand the departure of civilian aid workers from the politically-sensitive province where separatist rebels have been waging a long-running battle for independence.

In Jakarta, Indonesia's health ministry said the number of people dead and missing after the earthquake and tsunami had risen by 913 to 241,687. It said the number of confirmed dead and buried was 113,913 while the number of people missing feared dead remained at 127,774.

Officials say the missing will only be confirmed dead after one year. Different government agencies have given conflicting statistics on the casualty figure for the Indian Ocean disaster.

Greater focus needed to rebuild tsunami-hit Aceh

Reuters - February 7, 2005

Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh -- Aid groups, foreign armies and Indonesian officials have prevented disease and starvation from engulfing tsunami-hit Aceh province, but closer cooperation is needed to rebuild shattered livelihoods, government and aid officials said.

Having escaped diseases such as malaria, measles and cholera, survivors of the massive waves that swept ashore exactly six weeks ago to kill nearly 115,000 people and leave another 130,000 missing are now looking for work.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is dark and sad," said David Nabarro, the World Health Organization's crisis chief, referring to Aceh's rebuilding.

Getting back to work is near the top of the priority list for Aceh's residents, including more than 400,000 living in makeshift outdoor camps after the magnitude 9 earthquake and accompanying tsunami washed away their homes on December 26.

Many, including the province's fishermen, also lost their livelihoods. Rice paddies turned to swamps in what was one of Indonesia's least-developed areas even before the tsunami hit.

The US and Australian military, Chinese healers, Scientologists and Islamic militants were among the various groups that flocked to help Aceh when the Indonesian government opened up the gas- rich province, where it has been fighting a near 30-year battle with separatist rebels.

The first target -- preventing a second wave of death from disease and starvation -- has been achieved. But aid officials say the logistical problems that have hampered distribution could stifle efforts to rebuild Aceh's infrastructure.

"We have prevented [disease] outbreaks by getting all the different groups to follow the same basic principle [supplying food, medicine and shelter]," Nabarro told Reuters on a trip to Aceh this week. "But that was the easy part."

Bad organization

Government data on Sunday showed there were 908 medical volunteers representing 85 international and local organizations currently in Aceh. "To say the organization has been perfect would not be the truth," said James Lorenz, spokesman in Aceh for medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

Officials said children in some camps had been vaccinated several times against measles and other diseases, while those in other camps had yet to be immunized.

Aid groups had also stockpiled food at certain camps but delivered nothing to others. Some camps had rice but no cooking equipment; others had cooking equipment but no rice, they said.

They also said extra surgeons were no longer needed in Aceh, as serious injuries had already been treated. What was needed instead are public health officials and midwives.

As survivors look to return to work, the main challenge is now to encourage closer cooperation between aid groups and the Indonesian government, the WHO's Nabarro said, to ensure vital tasks and scarce resources are better allocated.

In a sign this might be happening, the United Nations on Friday for the first time held its briefing at the government's mansions in Aceh, rather than on its own compound.

Indonesian officials consider it a positive sign that so many Acehnese appear willing to return to work. "The spirit is climbing. People are lining up, asking for work," said Aceh's deputy governor, Azwar Abubakar, who lost his wife in the tsunami. "Previously, we thought people were knocked down, messed up."

Aware that restlessness would soon affect those living in the camps, foreign relief agencies began hiring people to help with the clean-up weeks ago. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is one of several aid groups to launch employment programs expected to attract thousands.

"This will inject money into the economy immediately, as people will receive a daily wage," said Mieke Kooistra, the UNDP's spokeswoman in Aceh.

For grieving survivors, like 45-year-old Anwar Arifin, who lost his wife and four of his five children to the waves, the only way to move on is by working. "After one month, I now feel the urge to build a new life," Arifin told Reuters earlier this week.

[Additional reporting by Telly Nathalia]

Profile: Aceh's GAM separatists

BBC News - January 24, 2005

The Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM) was founded on 4 December 1976 by Hasan di Tiro -- a descendant of the last sultan of Aceh.

The group has grown from an initial membership of just 150 rebels to a military strength now estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000.

While Aceh has a higher concentration of Muslims than the rest of Indonesia, GAM is not seeking to establish a fundamentalist Islamic state. Its argument is more about history than religion.

GAM maintains that when the Republic of Indonesia was formed in 1949, the Kingdom of Aceh should not have been included in the package, since, unlike the rest of the territory, it was never formally under Dutch colonial rule.

The rebels claim the Acehnese people were not consulted about the decision to become part of Indonesia, and are therefore fighting for a return of the province's sovereignty.

That struggle has been fuelled by a perception that the Indonesian government is not fairly sharing the province's considerable natural resources with Aceh's citizens.

Reported abuses of civilians by the Indonesian military have helped stoke tensions still further.

Although its leadership is now largely in exile in Sweden -- where some senior GAM officials have been living since the early 1980s -- the separatist organisation still enjoys a high level of public support among the Acehnese population.

Long-running conflict

Since GAM's inception, the rebels have conducted guerrilla-style attacks throughout Aceh, targeting Indonesian security forces. The military has responded by trying to flush out the rebels from their mountain strongholds.

In the early 1990s, thousands of troops poured into the province to crack down on the rebels, but they failed to crush the insurgency.

Over the years, there have been various attempts by both sides to bring an end to the violence -- which has so far claimed an estimated 10,000 lives, many of them civilian.

In December 2002 the government and GAM agreed to a peace deal, which was initially heralded as the breakthrough needed to end the deadlock.

Under the plan, Jakarta said Aceh could have free elections and a partially autonomous government, which would keep 70% of the revenue generated from the province's oil reserves.

In return, the rebels were asked to abandon their claims for complete independence, and hand in weapons.

But GAM's main goal is Acehnese independence, which Jakarta is extremely unlikely to grant -- a fact that was never fully addressed in the peace deal.

Cracks soon appeared in the agreement. The rebels were supposed to gradually give up their weapons, while the Indonesian military were expected to withdraw to defensive positions. Neither side fulfilled their part of the bargain. Negotiations finally broke down in May 2003.

The government then immediately launched an all-out military offensive, imposing marital law in the province and sending tens of thousands of troops into Aceh to keep control.

The security situation was finally downgraded to a civilian emergency in May 2004, but the military campaign still continued.

Even GAM's exiled leadership was affected. For years the Indonesian government had been putting pressure on Sweden to either extradite or prosecute senior GAM leaders in Stockholm, for crimes against the Indonesian state.

In June 2004 Malik Mahmood, Zaini Abdullah and GAM founder Hasan di Tiro were arrested by Swedish police on suspicion of "crimes violating international law".

All three were soon released, however, after a Stockholm court decided that there was not enough evidence to keep the men in custody.

Effects of the tsunami

The result of the ongoing conflict in Aceh is that for the last 30 years, the province's citizens have been living in a low-level war zone -- largely isolated from the rest of the world.

Foreigners -- including aid workers and journalists -- have not been allowed into the region for some time, and accurate reports of the situation have therefore been hard to obtain.

Since the 26 December tsunami, however, all that has changed.

International groups have been pouring into Aceh to provide aid to the devastated coastal regions, and both the government and GAM have declared a ceasefire to help aid get through to survivors.

It remains to be seen what longer term effects the tsunami disaster will have on the separatist conflict.

The government may feel under pressure to open some kind of communication channel with the rebels, and GAM is also likely to feel the need for a conciliatory gesture.

Aceh's beleaguered people have suffered one of the worst natural disasters in living memory, and the last thing they need is a renewal of hostilities between GAM and the Jakarta government.

GAM's exiled leadership

• Hasan di Tiro: Founder and leader of GAM
• Malik Mahmood: known as Prime Minister inside GAM
• Zaini Abdullah: GAM's chief negotiator ( also referred to as Health/Foreign Minister)
• Bakhtiar Abdullah: spokesman for GAM's exiled leadership

A moment of magic amid Aceh's despair

Melbourne Age - February 7, 2005

Matthew Moore, Lamno (Aceh) -- Almost everyone is on a hopeless search, but one family breaks the circle of doom.

Tears of grief are still falling across Aceh's tsunami-devastated west coast, but Cutchairiah is one of the few people here with reason to cry tears of joy.

In a land where everyone seems on a hopeless search for lost loved ones, the primary school teacher was reunited with all three of her children early yesterday, six weeks after she believed the tsunami had swept them all to their deaths.

She had been told two weeks ago that her family were alive, but when reality hit home, the joy was overwhelming.

She was in the classroom where she has been living as a refugee since she lost her house, getting ready for bed with the other women, when she turned towards the opening door.

Through the window you could see in her face that moment of hesitation as three figures ran in, that instant of disbelief as she struggled to accept they really were her children tearing towards her. And then she grabbed them, clutching at each one with arms that said they would never let go, pulling their heads to her breast as she sobbed and sobbed.

With hollow eyes, 30 others in the temporary camp gazed through the glass in disbelief. People such as Martunis, who lost his wife and children and parents and was transfixed by the reunion. "This is the first since I've been here that I've seen a family get back together," he said.

Next to him stood Yusup, getting used to life without a family, who said how happy he was with what he saw. "I hope my family is in some other place and will make it back here, too," he said.

They were happy that someone had finally found their children, but their eyes seem to ask how could it be that one woman got all her children back when they had none.

In a place where newspapers are still half-filled with advertisements seeking information about missing relatives, the idea of finding someone alive is almost beyond belief.

And although she said it was "beyond my dreams" to have found her family alive, their first night together was touched with pain as the children demanded answers about the fate of their friends.

"They asked everything. They asked about each cousin, about who they sit next to at school. I told them they were all gone," she said.

"I told them that those who died are now in heaven. This is the life God has given us, this is the test from God, so the lesson is we should not forget God in everything we do. We have to pray everyday so we survive."

Cutchairiah had been in Banda Aceh, 80 kilometres to the north, buying special foods for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha when the tsunami struck. Her children survived because they were with their father in Meulaboh, 160 kilometres south of their home in Lamno, where they were staying in their grandmother's house.

That house was just 200 metres from the sea, and as each day brought worse news to Banda Aceh about the devastation in Meulaboh, Cutchairiah grew more fearful that her children and husband, Jaddal Husainik, had perished. She had to go home to Lamno, but was too scared of the water to take a boat.

And so, 11 days after the tsunami hit, she set off alone on foot against the orders of family members in Banda Aceh. "I told [them] that even if they kill me I will go. God let me survive so surely they will let me get to Lamno," she said.

She walked all day and all night past hundreds of dead bodies until she got home, where she found that half of the 48 villages in Lamno had disappeared, including hers. Her house was gone and so, too, was her school, and every one of the teachers and the principal.

Not knowing what to do, or the fate of her family, she moved into the classroom where she still lives. Several days later, she met a cousin who told her that her husband and children had survived in Meulaboh. They were out of their house when the tsunami hit and, although caught in water up to their waists, managed to scramble onto the top floor of a shop.

Her husband went to Lamno alone to search for his wife. He found her, collected the children in Meulaboh and spent two weeks taking them across Sumatra to Medan, then up the coast to Banda Aceh, where they boarded the boat that took them to their mother.

[With Katuni Rompies.]

After Tsunami, Acehnese fear forced relocation

Human Rights Watch (New York) - February 7, 2005

The Indonesian government's plan in Aceh to register and relocate more than 100,000 people displaced by the tsunami to semi- permanent camps threatens their right to return home, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First said today. The Indonesian government needs to ensure that any relocation program in the province fully respects the rights of the displaced people.

The Indonesian government announced that as early as February 15 it could begin to move up to a quarter of the 400,000 people displaced by the tsunami in Aceh into semi-permanent, barracks- style shelters.

Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First expressed concern that the new camps could be misused by the military as a way of controlling the population for military purposes unless human rights safeguards are put in place. During years of the brutal armed conflict in the northwestern Sumatra province, the Indonesian military has a record of housing Acehnese displaced by the conflict in secure camps where at times their freedom of movement has been unnecessarily restricted and where serious human rights violations have taken place.

Given the military's poor human rights record in Aceh, its prominent role in the transport of thousands of Acehnese from spontaneous camps to the barracks sites, involvement in camp management, and aid distribution within barracks would invariably create fears among the displaced population. This could prevent displaced persons from making a free and informed choice on relocation, including the option of returning to their place of origin. The participation of the police paramilitary brigade (Brimob) would raise similar fears due to its history of abuses in Aceh.

"In the context of the war in Aceh, a military presence at the camps can be a form of intimidation and abusive control," said Neil Hicks, Director of International Programs at Human Rights First. "Although the military has played a sometimes welcome role in the emergency phase after the tsunami, their involvement in the relocations should be minimized and civilian agencies alone should run the camps."

On Sunday, January 30, the Indonesian government began the process of registering people displaced by the tsunami for relocation. The registration appears intended to collect data on this displaced populationb -- also referred to as internally displaced persons (or IDPs) -- that in part would be used to identify displaced persons for relocation to the shelters for up to two years.

According to the Indonesian military's "Broad Plan on Natural Disaster Relief and Control of Displaced Persons in [Aceh] Province," military forces will be involved in surveying "numbers and locations of displaced persons (DP), planning/preparations for relocation "[and] displacement of DPs to DP camps that have been developed."

At least a third of those displaced by the tsunami in Aceh now live in spontaneous camp sites, while others are staying in public buildings, such as schools and mosques, or with relatives. The Indonesian government has promised a monthly stipend to support displaced persons living with host families. But the authorities have not issued a clear commitment to support those who choose to return to their places of origin immediately.

Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First called on the Indonesian government continue to seek a range of durable solutions for Aceh's displaced population.

"In its haste to solve the problem of shelter the government is failing to inform the displaced population of their options," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "These people have already lost much to the tsunami, but they still have the right to weigh in on how and where they are going to live in the future."

According to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, displaced persons should be relocated only with full and informed consent. The Guiding Principles specifically cover persons forced or obliged to flee as a result of "natural or human-made disasters."

Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First raised concerns that the Indonesian government was registering IDPs without offering them adequate information or proper alternatives about where and how they will be relocated. While some IDPs currently living in crowded tents in spontaneous temporary camps may prefer the option of relocation to barracks, the government registration form omits other options. Options could include a return to one's home area, staying in the current location, or resettling to another part of the province or country.

Many displaced persons have yet to receive information about the imminent relocation plans. To ensure a free and informed choice, the Indonesian government should initiate a mass information campaign and establish a registration and decision-making process that allows families to choose from a full range of options. International involvement in monitoring the registration would help ensure transparency of the process and protection of the data.

"The Indonesian government needs to clarify who will carry out the registration of individuals, what the information will be used for, and who will have access to this data during and after the process," said Adams. "We are concerned this information could be used to target alleged separatist supporters and deny them humanitarian aid."

The relocation shelters are thatched wooden buildings up to 90 feet long, divided into two rows of 12-by-15 foot rooms. The relocation is intended to provide shelter for as long as two years while homes are rehabilitated or reconstructed. Where barracks are the chosen solution, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First called on the Indonesian government to ensure that the construction and maintenance of the barracks met with minimum standards found in the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. These include appropriate site selection, proximity to livelihood and education opportunities.

Conflict with GAM won't become international issue: SBY

Kompas - February 7, 2005

Jakarta -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono explained to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan last night, Friday February 4, that the Indonesian government will not be internationalising the handling of the conflict with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The Indonesian government will not be involving foreign countries in resolving the conflict. The conflict with GAM will be wholly resolved domestically in a framework based on special autonomy and Aceh remaining part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

Yudhoyono's remarks were conveyed to the press after visiting rice fields and holding a dialogue with farmers and members of the public from the Sukamanah village in the Jonggol sub-district of Bogor, West Java on Sunday. During the visit, President Yudhoyono was accompanied only by the Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi and presidential spokesperson Andi Mallarangeng.

Earlier, a UN spokesperson who had been replying to journalist's questions about the appointment of former US President Bill Clinton as the UN special representative said that aside from his duties as the UN's representative to coordinate private international funding in disaster areas, Clinton has also been appointed to resolve the GAM question in Aceh.

"Of course I was surprised because the Indonesian Government and I have never said [we] will internationalise the resolution of the Aceh question. The resolution of the Aceh question is wholly an Indonesian domestic matter. In asking the international community to also support Indonesia's efforts to overcome the conflict in Aceh it was only part of a clarification that we want to resolve the problems in Aceh in the bast possible manner", said Yudhoyono.

The president added that "There will be no international interference, as has happened in other countries. I will indeed be asking for an explanation from the UN Secretary General. He has clearly and explicitly told me that there is no mandate whatsoever [which has been given] to the UN's [special] representative to participate in or take part in resolving the Aceh conflict".

"Of that I an certain. Indeed, however we resolve it in our own framework there are no other [alternatives] except special autonomy and of course the Acehnese people can build for the future in the framework of NKRI", said Yudhoyono. (HAR)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Blues for Aceh much deeper than the deadly sea

Pulsetc.com - February 2, 2005

Most Americans know little about the Indonesian province of Aceh. In fact, before the earth's crust shook and the sea turned homicidal-killing somewhere between 166,000 and 220,000 in Aceh alone-it is fair to guess many Americans had never even heard of Aceh. But they should have.

Long before the waves hit, this was already a wounded land. America has played a part in the wounding and if the neo-cons get their way, the bloodletting will continue. You see, Aceh is another forgotten corner of the globe tainted by American foreign policy and corporate interests.

We need to back up with some history to understand the story. Since 1976 Aceh has been the sad host of a civil conflict between GAM (The Free Aceh Movement), which has been battling for independence, and the Indonesian government.

Aceh has long been a culturally and ethnically distinct entity. The modern conflict started in the wake of WWII. The Dutch colonizers that ruled Indonesia before WWII never fully subjugated Aceh. When the Dutch attempted to return after the war, Aceh joined with the rest of the islands to fight them off. With the Dutch gone, GAM says Aceh never agreed to fully cede independence to the new nation of Indonesia. Therefore, GAM sees itself fighting for a return of Aceh's sovereignty.

But this desire for sovereignty is perpetuated not so much by history, but by fear and exploitation.

One of the reasons help was so slow reaching Aceh after the tsunami was because there wasn't much infrastructure to begin with. Aceh has long been a treasure house for the Jakarta-based government with its abundance of natural resources. Most of the wealth has been siphoned off into the hands of officials. Very little has been returned in the form of money or development for the people.

This is where the US comes in. Since 1969 ExxonMobil has held a contract with the Indonesian government to extract liquefied natural gas in Aceh. This operation is the second largest foreign-currency earner for the Indonesian government.

And it just so happens ExxonMobil also pays a tidy sum of protection money to the Indonesian military (TNI) -- allegedly to the tune of $6 million a year. As a result of this, ExxonMobil has found itself facing a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by the Washington DC-based International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF). The suit is filed on behalf of Acehnese villagers who were murdered and tortured on ExxonMobil property by hired TNI soldiers.

In 2003 the case was effectively silenced when the defense for ExxonMobil brought the US State Department into the mix. They sent a memorandum to the judge stating the case threatened national security by jeopardizing the US relationship with Indonesia in the War on Terror. Indonesia is the world's largest Islamic country.

When the disaster hit, Aceh was already hermetically sealed by an ongoing military operation. That's another reason the response was so slow. There was no one there to help.

In May 2003 martial law was declared in Aceh and all international aid workers and journalists were kicked out. This was downgraded, in name, to a civil emergency in May 2004 but the situation remained mostly unchanged.

Prior to the crackdown the government had agreed to a plan allowing partial autonomy and a 70 percent return on oil revenues. Emboldened by the US actions in Iraq and the inability of the United States to make ethical claims against Indonesia's military actions, the Indonesian government instead poured tens of thousands of troops into the region. Washington's response was weak, again not wanting to alienate Jakarta -- a crucial ally in the war on terror.

The human rights record of the TNI in general and in Aceh specifically, is deplorable. Widespread rape, murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of civilians are well documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Mass graves litter the countryside and acts of barbarity are commonplace. At least 12,000 people-mostly civilians-have been killed in Aceh since 1976. The TNI claims over 3,000 rebels alone have been killed in the last year and half. Refugee reports suggest many of these were civilians and not soldiers.

After the tsunami hit Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in Indonesia, ostensibly to discuss relief, when he told reporters it was time to reconsider restoring military ties with Indonesia. Critics see this as extremely opportunistic. The reality is that the administration has been lobbying on this point for years.

Military relations with Indonesia were restricted in 1991 after a massacre of civilians in East Timor, another area of Indonesia. The US severed ties completely in 1999 in response to military- inspired killings by militia groups there. Ironically, it was President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that had given the green light to the original bloody military invasion in 1975, leading to the decades of oppression.

Since 9-11, the Bush administration has circumvented the restrictions on military aid by offering "anti-terrorist" assistance and some military training not officially under the State Department's hand.

To use the tsunami as a pretext to restore military ties is extremely cynical. Observers warn this sends a direct signal to the TNI that Washington approves, or will choose to ignore, its continual and systematic campaign of human rights violations not only in Aceh but also throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Aceh continues. Despite a ceasefire offer by GAM immediately after the tsunami, attacks by Indonesian troops continue. The TNI reports over 200 rebels have been killed since the disaster. It appears the military hopes to use the tsunami to its benefit, to further decimate the opposition, instead of focusing efforts on relief and reconstruction.

Sadly, the problems for Aceh run much deeper than the natural disaster and the unthinkable numbers of dead. Aid workers in the region report relief supplies have been stolen by the military, sold instead of given away, and used as a political weapon against the people of Aceh.

The majority of the people of Aceh are not involved in the conflict there, but because they are Acehnese they are deemed guilty by the military and suffer.

More than our charity alone, Aceh needs the United States to work for peace. Building opportunistic ties with elements long set on the destruction of the Acehnese is not the way to do this. Instead, the United States needs to promote stability and democratic reforms through tangible actions.

Rhetoric about liberty does the long-suffering people of Aceh little good.

Government scraps Aceh Authority Board plan

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Rendi A. Witular and Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- The government has decided to drop its plan to set up a special authority for Aceh since the tsunami-stricken areas in the province already had functioning local governments, according to Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

"The government has discussed this and decided to scrap the plan," he told reporters on Friday. "This kind of authority only exists in empty, underdeveloped areas, like Batam used to be. It was an empty island back then," Kalla said, referring to the Batam Authority, which governs the industrial island of Batam together with the local administration.

The plan to set up the Aceh Authority came at the suggestion of the House of Representatives during a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the aftermath of the December 26 tsunami disaster.

The authority was supposed to oversee the rehabilitation and reconstruction work in Aceh and would have been directly responsible to the President.

The plan also came as Susilo openly criticized the poor handling of emergency relief operations in Aceh, citing a lack of coordination, a criticism that raised speculation about a rift between Susilo and Kalla as the latter is also the chairman of the National Disaster Management and Refugee Coordination Board (Bakornas PBP), which oversees the relief work.

Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told the press earlier this week that the authority was expected to start functioning on March 26 as the government was still discussing the structure of the organization. Andi said that the members of the authority would include both formal and informal Acehnese leaders to help ensure that the reconstruction of Aceh would be in line with local values and culture.

According to Kalla, Aceh already had an administration and therefore it did not need a new authority to govern the province. It only needed an organizing body that would fit in with the existing rules. "Therefore, it is not feasible for Aceh to be governed by such an authority," Kalla said.

He added that currently the government was still considering the best ways of rebuilding infrastructure in the province. The reconstruction effort would be need to maximize local resources in Aceh so that the country would not become overly dependent on foreign aid.

Nearly two months after the Indian Ocean tsunami ravaged many parts of oil-and-gas-rich Aceh province, the government said that the emergency in the affect areas was nearly over and that the government and foreign agencies working in the region had commenced the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase. The government is now pushing to complete the construction of barracks for the more than 400,000 tsunami survivors.

Meanwhile, foreign volunteers and warships have started to withdraw from the area. The USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier and the first naval vessel to arrive off the coast of Aceh after the December 26 disaster, departed on Friday according to AFP.

Australia was also set to withdraw up to 1,000 of its troops from Aceh. Military contingents from Singapore and Malaysia had previously started to withdraw their troops and equipment from Aceh.

Meanwhile, workers cleaning up the debris left by the tsunami found 1,108 more bodies, increasing the confirmed death toll from the disaster to 112,279, Bakornas PBP said on Friday.

Aceh restoration plan under fire

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh -- A group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has condemned the central government for its failure to involve the public in drafting a master plan to rebuild Banda Aceh.

"The central government has not been participative. They should have introduced the draft of the city master plan to the public before they moved forward with the policy. They should have allowed public scrutiny to improve public policy," said Bambang Antariksa, an executive of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi).

Walhi is one among several NGOs grouped under the Peace Without Corruption Aceh Working Group.

According to Bambang, one clear example of the government's failure to involve the public in drafting the master plan was the government's plan to regreen Aceh's coastal areas with mangroves. The plan dates back to a few days after the tsunami disaster on December 26 when Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban announced his plan to regreen Aceh's coastline with mangrove forests.

Mangrove forests act as a natural barrier to protect the shoreline against tsunamis that could sweep away residential areas near the beaches. Hence, the reforestation plan is deemed crucial to prevent devastation in case of further tsunamis.

The draft of the master plan was then drawn up by the State Planning and Development Body (Bappenas) and the Ministry of Forestry is vested with the authority to implement the master plan.

According to the draft of the master plan, the ministry will regreen beaches along the west coast of northern Sumatra island hit by the tsunami. A fund of Rp 800 billion has been earmarked to regreen 150,000 to 200,000 hectares of beach area with mangroves.

The ministry is currently mapping out the area and gathering data on the condition of mangrove plants along the beaches, before they move forward with the reforestation project.

However, according to Bambang, the government should have involved public, considering that the planned reforestation area was formerly a residential area. "The central government has to arrange compensation in advance and public participation is a must in order to minimize potential social disputes in the future," said Bambang.

Regarding the draft of the Banda Aceh master plan, the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab, had earlier said that the government was ready to accept any criticism.

Separately, Malaysia will send a team to Banda Aceh next week to help prepare a master plan to rebuild the area, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday, as quoted by the Associated Press.

Najib will head a team of town planners and officials from Malaysia's public works ministry for Monday's visit to assess the destruction caused by the tsunami.

Tsunami may yield baby boom

Associated Press - February 5, 2005

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh -- With the birth of her first child just one month away, Wadiana Wahab worries about the world her baby will enter.

She mainly eats rice and instant noodles and has no money for a crib, diapers or baby clothes. And while she expects to deliver at a hospital, she will likely return to the sweltering tent she calls home, where the stench of human waste hangs in the air.

"I never imagined it would be like this," said Wahab, 23, at a makeshift camp for about 5,000 refugees in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province. "It's already eight months and we have bought nothing for the baby."

With the threat of epidemics abating and most injured survivors treated, one of the most pressing medical needs now emerging across tsunami-hit countries is also one of the most basic: ensuring pregnant women stay healthy -- and deliver safely.

Indonesia, the country most devastated by the December 26 earthquake and killer waves, is girding for a flood of newborns in Aceh's squalid refugee camps and ruined villages. Some experts say that birth rates among tsunami survivors may rise next year, as bereaved parents who lost children in the disaster try to rebuild their families.

Pregnant women comprise about 25,000, or 6 percent, of some 400,000 refugees in Aceh's camps, the United Nations says. Every month, some 800 babies are expected to be born in the province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

The figures are similar in Sri Lanka, an island nation off the coast of India, where as many as 5,000 will be delivered in the next few months, the United Nations says.

"What can we say to them? They want someone to continue the family line," said Sri Setiyati, a midwife in Banda Aceh. "It is their right to have children. We can only advise them to wait."

Despite a massive international relief effort, Aceh's devastated public health system is ill-equipped to handle the births. Though a few hospitals have reopened, smaller clinics remain shuttered. Once abdundant, midwives are now scarce, many of them having died when the sea surged.

"The [pregnant] women here are in a bad shape," said Henia Dakkak, a Palestinian public health specialist with the UN Population Fund in Banda Aceh. "If we don't start to do something in a few weeks, then we are endangering people's lives."

Health workers say most pregnant women in Aceh are not eating enough protein, meaning they may have underweight babies or may become anemic and bleed to death during labor.

Indonesian and UN authorities say a shortage of contraceptives means that many women in the camps will have unwanted pregnancies.

Still, things have improved since the disaster's immediate aftermath when many women gave birth without any medical supervision, often in unsanitary conditions in refugee camps.

Midwives flown into Aceh from Jakarta now routinely call on Wadiana and the 40 other pregnant women in her camp. A car is on call to take them to a health clinic, if needed. And a freshly painted maternity unit has just reopened in the city's public hospital, parts of which remain covered in thick mud washed in by waves.

In Sri Lanka, most refugee camps have access to a doctor. UN officials have provided hospitals with 300 emergency reproductive health kits, which include equipment to perform cesarean sections and blood transfusions and treat miscarriages.

For Wadiana, it's not just about health care, though. She said it pains her to think about being unable to prepare for the new member of her family. "Before the tsunami, we were getting excited and readying the house for the birth," she said. "Now all I can do is sit here."

Indonesia's family planning agency has been swamped by requests for condoms and other forms of birth control, agency official Tri Tjahjadi said. The office has about 16,000 contraceptives -- but needs 80,000, he said earlier this week.

Workers from UN and other agencies have rushed to respond, distributing thousands of tons of contraceptives to clinics and health workers in camps, though they've been hampered by damaged roads and poor coordination.

There were concerns that Islamic leaders in this predominantly Muslim region might resist the distribution of contraceptives, sometimes believed to encourage pre-marital or extramarital sex. But UN officials say there have been no complaints in Aceh, where awareness of birth control is high. An estimated 60 percent of couples had used contraceptives before, officials say.

Zamzami and Baruna, a couple who live in a camp attached to a mosque on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, last week had their seventh child, named Rizki after the Indonesian word for "fortune."

"We have gone back to having nothing. Everything we owned was destroyed. Maybe Rizki will bring us good luck," Zamzami said, pointing to the tiny baby being breast-fed by her mother.

West Papua

Papua calls foul over Freeport fees

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Dissatisfied with the disbursement of its share of the royalties paid by mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia, the Papua administration has accused the central government of "dishonesty" regarding the amount of royalties it receives from Freeport.

"The government has refused to disclose the amount of royalties paid to it by Freeport. The figure made public by the Ministry of Finance is too small," Papua Governor Jaap Solossa told the press at the State Palace on Tuesday.

He added that his administration had urged the finance ministry on a number of occasions to disclose the true amount of the royalties paid by the subsidiary of US mining giant Freeport- McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. in Papua, but to no avail.

According to the finance ministry, the royalties amount to Rp 150 billion (US$16.6 million) per year and are paid on a quarterly basis. However, Solossa argued that the royalties should reach at least Rp 500 billion based on his calculations, but he did not give the details of how this figure was arrived at.

Under the Fiscal Balance Law, Papua is eligible for 80 percent of the total royalties paid by Freeport annually, while the central government is entitled to the remaining 20 percent.

Solossa further complained that the government had yet to transfer the royalties for the fourth quarter of 2004 to the Papua administration without giving any acceptable reason for this.

Regarding his administration's plan to acquire a 9.35 percent stake in Freeport, the governor said he was still choosing between six investors keen to form a joint-venture company to secure the stake.

"We are still at the negotiating stage with a number of local investors, assisted by international fund managers, to jointly acquire the stake," he said, adding that the stake would be worth around US$700 million.

After forming the joint venture, the Papua administration would hold discussions with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources with a view to securing the necessary approvals.

At present, Freeport-McMoran controls an 81.28 percent stake in Freeport, with the remaining 9.36 percent being owned by the central government and another 9.36 percent held by locally registered investment firm PT Indocopper, which is controlled by Freeport-McMoran.

Aside from the royalty issue, the Papua administration has also requested the central government and Freeport to show more commitment to the development of Papua, the country's eastern- most province.

The Papuans have requested a fair split of the profits earned by Freeport from mining gold and copper at its Grasberg mine, located in the mountains near Timika regency. The mine is the world's largest gold and the second largest copper producer.

SBY welcomes idea of dividing Papua into five provinces

Sinar Harapan - February 11, 2005

Jakarta -- The idea of dividing West Papua into five provinces has been mooted again. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is reported to have welcomed the proposal which was raised by Papuan governor J.P. Solossa and a number of Papuan groups.

It's realisation however mush be trough the agreement of the soon to be formed Papuan People's Council (MRP).

The proposal was resubmitted by Solossa on Tuesday February 8 at a meeting with the president at the State Palace. According to Solossa, the president welcomed the idea.

"This attempt to divide Papua province will(1) be done not because of political interests, the interests of particular individuals, the interests of the elite, other interests and so on, but [because] the division is being carried out to accelerate Papua's future progress", said Solossa.

Responding to the proposal, Papua political observer Frans Maniagasi told Sinar Harapan on Friday morning (11/2) that the idea is based on comprehensive studies and is very suitable for Papua's future development.

The idea has been around for some time and already submitted to former President Megawati Sukarnoputri but it failed to receive a response. Megawati instead persisted with forcing through the formation of West Irian Jaya (Irjabar).

"The governor's idea which has been around for a long time is very comprehensive. It is in accordance with what exists. It is an idea which came from below, but must be carried out through the MRP based on Article 76 of Law Number 21/2001", explained Maniagasi.

While acknowledging it is in accordance with the public's wishes, to date the idea has not been widely socialised. But Maniagasi is of the view that basically this is what is most desired by the Papuan people. From a number of perspectives, cultural, economic, resources, and on humanitarian grounds Governor Solossa's idea is appropriate and in accordance with the wishes of Papuan society.

"Perhaps there will be regions which will be merged, which will be separated, because there are regions which are deficient in resources so they can be covered by other areas. All of this must be developed through the Papuan People's Council", he explained.

During period of the Dutch administration Papua was divided into seven residential regions based on existing cultural areas. There were five areas of cultural administration. "So it could be divided into seven if necessary", said Maniagasi.

As a consequence of this blueprint, in the future the administrative regions which exist at the moment in Papua could be reordered based on these considerations. "We know this is the era of regional autonomy. The central [government] can't continue to dominate [the regions], but must listen to what is being articulated by society", he said. The idea has also already been studied by the Cenderawasih University and the results were extremely positive.

The five provinces which have been proposed are West Papua province, Teluk Cendrawasih province and a province covering North Papua/Tabi/Mana from Sarmi to Jayapura. The Central Highlands province meanwhile would include Timika, the interior of Wamena as well as Puncak Jaya, and finally there would be a province of South Papua.

"The thinking on this is still being talked through and developed and needs to be discussed further". (ino/ega)

Notes:

1. The original Indonesian language report quoted Solossa as saying "Upaya pemekaran Provinsi Papua itu tidak dilakukan bukan karena kepentingan politis..." or "This attempt to divide Papua province won't be done not because of political interests..." which is probably erroneous and should read "will be done not because..." without the word "bukan".

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Governor wants Papua split into five provinces

Laksamana.net - February 10, 2005

Laksamana.Net -- The government has reportedly accepted a proposal to divide resource-rich and rebellious Papua province into five provinces by 2009, despite the Constitutional Court's recent annulment of a controversial law dividing it into three provinces.

"We plan to divide Papua into five provinces, namely West Papua, Cendrawasih Bay, North Papua, Central Mountainous Papua and South Papua," Papua Governor Jacobus Perviddya Solossa was quoted as saying Tuesday (8/2/05) by Kyodo News.

He was speaking after submitting his proposal to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a meeting at the presidential office in Jakarta.

The governor said his plan to divide the province was based on social, cultural and geographical considerations, as well as the location of human resources and natural resources.

He claimed the creation of five new provinces would lead to a more just and strategic balance in the distribution Papua's resources, thereby boosting the prosperity of the territory's people.

"The president was happy with this concept and legislation will be drafted for the formation of the new provinces," Solossa was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.

Analysts suspect the main aim of diving Papua into new provinces is to weaken the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM), which has been fighting a sporadic battle for independence since the 1960s.

Critics say the move to carve up the province is designed to serve the interests of certain business, military and political groups in Jakarta, instead of the Papuan people.

There are concerns that splitting Papua will increase resentment of the central government and hasten the destruction of the province's rain forests, which provide a major source of income for the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) and timber tycoons with strong political connections.

Solossa did not mention any of the political ramifications of carving up Papua, where the country's two biggest political parties -- Golkar and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) -- fought a pitted battle for dominance in last year's national elections.

In the April 2004 general election, Golkar came out on top in Papua with 24.7% of 945,188 votes cast, followed by PDI-P with 8%. The remainder of the votes were shared among the other 22 parties that contested the election.

In West Irian Jaya province, which was carved out of Papua in 2003, Golkar won again with 24.8% of 285,032 votes cast, followed by PDI-P with 20%.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party scored poorly in the two provinces, winning less than 5% of the vote In the September 2004 run-off presidential election, Yudhoyono defeated Megawati in Papua, where he won 67% of the vote. He also won in West Irian Jaya with 57%.

The upshot is that Golkar is now the dominant party in Papua -- a fact that might have been behind the appointment of Solossa to Golkar's Advisory Council in December. Golkar is now led by business tycoon Jusuf Kalla, who is also Yudhoyono's vice president.

Solossa said that despite Papua's abundant natural wealth, some regions have only limited resources and therefore cannot rely on them for long-term future revenue.

Only certain regions have abundant natural resources, such as minerals, oil and gas, whereas Central Mountainous Papua and Cendrawasih Gulf are more reliant on revenue from agriculture, fishing and tourism, he said.

"Because of this, there must be a united commitment for the strategic resources to be divided and enjoyed for the sake of the prosperity of all people in Papua," he added.

The governor claimed that dividing Papua would prompt the government to fully implement special autonomy legislation for the territory, including the establishment of the Papuan People's Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua -- MRP) as the highest law-making body in the province. "This development does not rule out the possibility of having up to seven provinces," he added.

West Irian Jaya, not Central Irian Jaya

The Constitutional Court in November 2004 overturned a controversial law that would have divided Papua into three new provinces, but ruled that one of the new provinces will remain intact.

Constitutional Court head Jimly Asshidiqie said Law No.45/1999 on the formation of Papua, West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces was no longer valid because it was unconstitutional.

But he said West Irian Jaya had already been established in line with constitutional requirements, including the election of local representatives, so it should remain a separate province.

Many Papuans had demanded the 1999 law be revoked following the enactment of Law No.21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua, which gives locals with "traditional rights to special regions" a greater say in running their province.

Efforts by Megawati's administration to push through the formation of West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces sparked fierce criticism and several deadly clashes.

Background

Reformist former president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2000 passed the legislation granting Papua greater autonomy and a greater share of the revenue from its vast natural resources in an effort to reduce separatist sentiments in the territory.

Wahid's predecessor, ex-president B.J. Habibie had in 1999 enacted the law splitting the province into three, purportedly to accelerate development in the region.

But many Papuans and rights activists saw the law as an attempt to weaken the province's struggle for self-determination. Wahid opted not to implement the legislation and instead allowed Papuans to fly the Morning Star flag b independence movement.

But six months after the fall of Wahid, Megawati in January 2003 issued a decree mandating the division of Papua.

A study released by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) in April warned that splitting Papua into new provinces would increase conflict within the territory and heighten tensions with Jakarta.

Entitled 'Dividing Papua: How Not To Do It', the report said Megawati's decree effectively ruled out any compromise with the Papuan pro-independence movement and could lead to more violence. Other rights groups said the decree would encourage the military to increase its repression in the territory.

Papua Human Rights Institute head John Rumbiak described the Megawati government's decision to divide the province as an attack on the Papuan people's right to self-determination.

He also said the division would increase Jakarta's exploitation and militarization of Papua, as each new province will have a separate military command. Furthermore, troop numbers will likely be increased and there will be greater military control over illegal and legal business operations, such as the lucrative resource industries.

Rumbiak warned that social tensions have been exacerbated by the government's policy of bringing in transmigrants from elsewhere in Indonesia. He also said the members of the military-backed Islamic terrorist group Laskar Jihad -- which is officially defunct -- had been brought into the province.

The Dutch officially left Papua in August 1962 and the region was placed briefly under the authority of the United Nations. But the Netherlands and Indonesia then signed the New York Agreements, under which the territory was handed over to Indonesia in May 1963, on the condition that a referendum on self-determination be held within six years.

The so-called 'Act of Free Choice' was held in 1969 and 1,062 participants voted unanimously in favor of incorporation into the Indonesian nation, allegedly because of threats of violence. Human rights groups and journalists who witnessed the referendum say it was unfair, corrupt and a sham.

West Papua was formally integrated into Indonesia in 1969 and renamed Irian Jaya. Irian is an acronym for Ikut Republik Indonesia Anti-Nederland (Join the Republic of Indonesia Anti- Netherlands), while Jaya means 'glorious'.

Separatists have waged a sporadic guerrilla war against the Indonesian military since the early 1960s. Human rights groups say thousands have been killed.

Analysts say the division of Papua will do little to improve the territory's prospects for peace, especially because the military has announced it will quash Papua's separatists once it completes a massive offensive against rebels in Aceh province.

Secret genocide

The Big Issue (Scotland) - January 27, 2005

Chitra Ramaswamy -- Human rights activists and church organisations predict that, without international attention and intervention, West Papua is in danger of becoming the next East Timor.

Recent reports from coastal towns and highland areas in West Papua indicate that Enrico Guterres, one of the architects involved in terror activities in East Timor in 1999, is operating in the region, distributing shipments of guns to local militia. Guterres, indicted by the Indonesian court for crimes against humanity, has remained free while he appeals his sentence and has been operating in West Papua for more than a year. It is thought that the campaign, labelled by some as "a slow and steady genocide", is being stepped up.

Often referred to as Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia, the western half of the island of New Guinea has been fighting for independence and has effectively been under siege for 40 years, unbeknownst to the rest of the world.

In a 1969 referendum known as the Act of Free Choice, overseen and ratified by the UN, West Papua was handed over to Indonesia in what is widely regarded as a sham: the 1,000 representatives who voted under duress were hand-picked by UN-backed Indonesians resulting in a unanimous victory in favour of Indonesian rule. Human rights campaigners and aid workers alike claim that since that date the UN and international community has turned its back on the troubled region.

Official estimates suggest more than 100,000 West Papuans have died though unofficially the figure is believed to be more than 800,000.

Until December 1, 1999 -- a date that is covertly celebrated as West Papuan independence day -- the raising of the Papuan flag, the red, blue and white Morning Star, was banned and pronounced an act of treason. Prisons across the country continue to hold Papuans -- some for up to 25 years -- for raising the flag while December 1 continues to be marked by violence as freedom movements are threatened by government-backed paramilitary groups.

Last December two men believed to have led the flag-raising ceremony in the capital, Jayapura, were arrested and charged with treason.

Benny Wenda, 31, is the leader of DeMMAK, the Koteka Tribal Assembly -- natives of the Puncak Jaya highland area which is now closed off to foreigners, including aid workers, due to increased violence. In a December 2004 public statement about the violence in Puncak Jaya, Amnesty International called for "urgent and comprehensive action" and reported "extrajudicial executions, attacks by armed groups, widespread destruction of property and the displacement of thousands of local residents, forced to flee into the jungle where they are at risk of illness and starvation."

In 2000 Wenda led his people in a freedom march, raising the Morning Star to commemorate independence day. The Free Papua Movement has been running a campaign of guerrilla warfare against the Indonesian military since 1969. Since the start of the Papuan freedom struggle, every leader has been murdered, most famously Theys Eluay in November 2001 who was tortured and killed by Indonesian troops.

The Indonesian militia discovered Wenda's involvement and he had no choice but to flee into the jungle to escape torture and death. Two years later he returned to meet with the Koteka Tribal Assembly but was arrested on the way. Wenda was charged with attacking a police station though there was no evidence or witnesses and he had to appear in court seven times, during which he was held in prison and repeatedly threatened and tortured. He finally managed to escape and cross the border into Papua New Guinea and from there to the UK where he now lives in Norfolk.

Wenda fears for the Papuan people in the current climate. "I last heard from my people on January 13," he said. "I heard from the president of the Baptist church in Puncak Jaya. He told me the situation is very bad and that it is getting worse and worse. I'm really worried, this is a timebomb waiting to go off.

They have burned 375 villages to the ground, churches, gardens, everything. More than 6,000 people have had to flee from their homes and go into the jungle. The Indonesian military are looking for my people and if they find them, they will kill them. They are already killing them, they are dying in the jungle.

Thirteen military posts have been put up and no one can get into the area. It is difficult for me to hear about what is going on -- my people are really suffering."

Wenda says Guterres is mobilising troops throughout West Papua and describes the government-backed operation as "a secret genocide". He believes more than a million West Papuans have died since 1969. He describes the government policy of transmigration, which many believe is a thinly-veiled programme of ethnic cleansing.

"The government has divided West Papua into three provinces and then into 14 districts," he explained. "This is to break up Papuans and divide them into smaller groups so they are easier to control. Then they are moving the military into each area to get rid of remaining West Papuans as well as bringing in more Indonesians all the time."

In the last four years an additional 25,000 troops have arrived in West Papua and more than a million Indonesian migrants have been relocated. It is thought Indonesians will soon outnumber the 1.5 million native Papuans. In some urban areas they are already outnumbered.

Steffen Keulig, chair of the German section of Friends of People Close to Nature, an organisation advocating for tribal peoples, has spent time in West Papua, particularly in Puncak Jaya. "The violence is escalating," he said, "and what we have is a potential East Timor on our hands. For 25 years everyone ignored East Timor until white missionaries and UN workers were killed and then they started paying attention. Let's not allow the same situation to happen in West Papua."

In a historic move, on December 13, 2004, the British government became the first ever to admit that the people of West Papua were forced into Indonesian rule against their will during the Foreign Office Questions in the House of Lords. West Papuans and activists hope this will be a milestone on the road to peace and independence.

But Keulig remains unconvinced that the West will intervene any time soon. "This is a forgotten war, like the one going on in Aceh. Because of the Tsunami people are starting to notice what has been happening there but after a few months aid workers will be forced to leave and people will forget. Also the west has too many vested economical interests in West Papua. There are logging companies, the Freeport mine is there, BP is there, no one wants to rock the boat."

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the organisation was aware of the humanitarian situation in West Papua and of recent events on the ground but that they couldn't do anything unless the Indonesian government called for their aid. "The UN hasn't dealt much with the situation," Haq said.

"The governments of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have not taken anything up at an official level. The UN acts with governments to deal with and oversee a variety of issues but the governments in question, in this situation, haven't brought the UN in."

Labour issues

SBY gets eggy on face as labor unions strike home

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- A grouping representing 52 trade unions expressed disappointment about what it said was the poor performance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his first 100 days in office, particularly as regards improving the lot of the country's workers.

The trade unions, grouped in the Indonesian Labor Unions Communications Forum, said that Susilo and his Vice President Jusuf Kalla had lied to the public as evidenced by their failure to deliver on their campaign promises.

Forum chairman Eggy Sudjana said during a hearing with the House of Representatives' labor and social affairs commission that the Susilo-Kalla administration had done nothing significant to address the various problems faced by Indonesian workers.

"Despite the ratification of the ILO Convention on labor protection, the government has turned a blind eye to massive redundancies in numerous companies, the underpayment of workers in labor-intensive industries, the rampant violation of the law on freedom of association, and the sale of government shares in PT Dirgantara Indonesia, PT Indosat and PT Semen Gresik," he said, referring to a state-owned aerospace firm, telecommunications firm, and cement producer respectively.

Eggy, who was accompanied by activists from 52 labor unions, said that the government had done nothing to create jobs or to provide legal protection for Indonesians working overseas.

"The government has been tardy in responding to the rampant abuse of Indonesian workers in Malaysia. The government has not displayed seriousness about dealing with the Indonesian illegal immigrant problem there. Despite their status as illegal workers, they are Indonesian citizens who are entitled to protection while earning money overseas," he said.

Meanwhile, Dita Indah Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian Workers National Front (FNBI), said that state-owned pension fund PT Jamsostek was still being used as "a cash cow" to bankroll influential state officials and well-connected businesspeople.

She urged the government to appoint professional managers to run the company. Otherwise, workers who were paying dearly to participate in the social security programs run by the firm would take to the streets.

Lakoni Brama, chairman of the Jamsostek Trade Union, said that Jamsostek workers would not oppose the government if it decided to replace the company's current management as long as the new managers were competent, possessed a comprehensive understanding of social security matters, and were committed to improving the welfare of workers.

"However, we will oppose any serious intervention on the part of the government into Jamsostek's internal affairs. Each time we get a new government, Jamsostek's management is also replaced. This is not healthy and Jamsostek is not a cash cow," he said.

Legislators, including those from the Democrat Party faction supporting the government, said they were behind the labor unions and would convey their complaints to the manpower and transmigration minister.

SBY stands by unpaid workers

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Jakarta -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for equal treatment before the law for Malaysian employers who failed to pay the salaries of their Indonesian workers.

"Indonesian illegal workers are facing punishment for their failure to produce the necessary documents, but the employers who hired them must be punished as well if they do not pay the workers properly," the President said on Sunday during a gathering with farmers in Sukamanah village, Jonggol subdistrict, Bogor, West Java.

The President said the government was following up complaints from some illegal workers that their employers failed to pay them their full salaries.

Thousands of Indonesian illegal workers are reportedly in hiding in Malaysia, as they wait for their salaries to be paid while trying to avoid the authorities there cracking down on illegal migrants.

The President said he would visit Malaysia sometime this week to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for talks on illegal workers. Susilo said he would raise his concerns over unpaid workers during the meeting.

"Of course, my concerns should not be seen as an excuse for the migrants to work illegally as they must respect the Malaysian legal system," Susilo said as quoted by Antara.

Earlier, Indonesian Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris said the government had hired five Malaysian lawyers to sue companies in that country that allegedly withheld the salaries of Indonesian workers. Fahmi is scheduled to meet with Malaysian home minister Azmi Khalid to discuss the issue.

Malaysian authorities have indefinitely delayed a planned nationwide raid on illegal workers, saying they needed more time to prepare for the mass detention and repatriation.

Malaysia had prepared over 500,000 immigration officers, police personnel and volunteers before delaying the raid.

According to authorities there, a large-scale operation to arrest illegal migrants will begin as soon as the data is completed on the number of undocumented immigrants in the country, mostly from Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.

The Malaysian government has extended three times an amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal workers in exchange for their exit from the country.

Under the amnesty, illegal immigrants are allowed to leave the country without fear of being charged under immigration laws that carry stiff penalties, including prison, caning and fines.

The Indonesian government is preparing a "one-roof service" to help about 400,000 illegal workers obtain the necessary documents to return legally to Malaysia. Most of these workers are employed in the construction and plantation sectors in Malaysia.

This service, which will begin sometime in the middle of the year, will be available at 11 ports that are major embarkation points for Indonesians going to work in Malaysia.

The government also will introduce an online system to improve services for Indonesian workers employed abroad.

"We are too dependent on other parties' data regarding Indonesian workers abroad. We have to manage our own data so we can monitor our workers wherever they are," I Gusti Made Arka, the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration's director general of overseas employment placement, said on Sunday.

Students/youth

Aceh students demand free tuition

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Fadli, Banda Aceh -- Hundreds of Syiah Kuala University students protested on the Banda Aceh campus on Thursday to demand that their tuition be waived and that the rector resign for attempting to force them to pay tuition beginning on February 14.

Muhammad Subhan, vice president of the Unsyiah Students Big Family association, told The Jakarta Post some 500 students held the protest in response to a circular from Rector Abdi Abdul Wahab requiring the students to re-register and pay their tuition starting on February 14.

"Many students were victims of the (tsunami) disaster and many of them are still living in shelters after losing their homes. How can the rector not see (their suffering) and issue a regulation requiring them to re-register and pay their tuition on time? If we don't pay, we might not be able to study this semester," Muhammad said.

The students, he said, want their tuition waived this semester and are demanding the rector step down for his failure to recognize the students' suffering.

"We [students] demand the replacement of the Unsyiah rector. Find another person who understands the students' situation," he said.

The protest started at 10 in the morning and lasted until about 1 p.m. "I am now live under Lamnyo bridge because there's nowhere else to live. I came to Banda Aceh from Sigli because I have to re-register. I wonder how the rector can ignore our suffering," said Usman, a 24-year-old student in the university's School of Law.

Students are required to pay Rp 450,000 (US$50) every semester in tuition, a huge amount for those students who lost everything in the tsunami.

"If we didn't have to pay tuition, we could use the money to buy a bed or to find another boarding house. I only have the clothes that I am wearing now. All of my books and my bed were lost in the tsunami," Usman said.

Rector Abdi Abdul Wahab was not at the university during the protest. The rector's deputy of student affairs, Azhar Puteh, met with the protesting students and said the university would make exceptions for students affected by the tsunami.

He said students affected by the disaster had to fill in a form to have their tuition waived. Those students not affected by the tsunami were still required to pay tuition.

According to data from the university, of its 23,000 students, 9,000 of them lost their houses or relatives in the December 26 tsunami. There is no available data on the number of students who died in the disaster.

"The policy is very reasonable. We hope the students not affected pay their tuition, considering the high operational costs of the campus," he said. "I hope the students understand." He said the university's operations costs would be about Rp 5.6 billion this semester.

Students seal off petrol station and Pertamina offices

Detik.com - February 5, 2005

Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta -- Opposing planned fuel (BBM) price increases by the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice-president Jusuf Kalla (SBY-JK), scores of demonstrators from the National Student League for Democracy (LMND) sealed off a petrol station (SPBU) and the offices of the state oil company Pertamina.

The action which was held on Saturday February 5 began at 9.30am at the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) roundabout in Yogyakarta, Central Java. The demonstrators, who came from a number of Yogyakarta schools of higher education, carried posters, banner and red flags with the symbol of LMND.

One particular poster, black in colour, which was carried by the demonstrators read "If BBM goes up = SBY-JK will be brought down and the people will unite to form an alternative government". Other posters read "overthrow SBY-JK", "Cancel the foreign debt", "Try the corrupters" and "If BBM goes up unemployment increases".

In a speech the Yogyakarta LMND chairperson Lalu Hilman Afriandi said that fuel price increases are evidence of the fact that the SBY-JK government and the People's Representative Assembly have failed to bring about the people's hopes for change. The SBY government is not the solution to solve the crisis.

The promise to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism and the try the corrupters within the first 100 days of the administration is obviously just rhetoric. Afriandi said that SBY should use existing evidence to arrest the corrupters and they be called on to prove themselves innocent.

"In other words the mark for SBY's report [on the first 100 of his administration] is totally red. The government of SBY is unpopular because it hasn't sided with the people and isn't pro- democratic", said Afriandi.

After 30 minutes of speeches at the UGM roundabout, the demonstrators then held a long-march towards the Terban SPBU on Jalan C. Simanjuntak. Along the way speeches were given and leaflets handed out to people.

Before sealing off the Terban SPBU, demonstrators gave speeches at the entrance to the station. As a result people wanting to buy petrol and diesel fuel were forced to give up. When demonstrators arrived the 10 petrol station attendants immediately stepped aside and moved near the office. The petrol pumps were only guarded by Yogyakarta city police officers both in uniform and wearing civilian cloths.

The demonstrators then sealed the petrol pumps while others gave speeches in front of them. A length of white cloth which was used as a head band with the writing "oppose BBM price increases" was tied around the hose and canister of a gas fire extinguisher. The pumps were sealed with a message reading "Sealed: This SPBU will supply [BBM] at the old price".

From the Terban SPBU the demonstrators continued the long-march towards the Central Java-Yogyakarta Pertamina Trade Office on Jalan Mangkubumi. There they also sealed of the office with the writing "This office has been sealed by the people". They were not however able to enter the Pertamina office itself because it was already guarded by security personnel and police so they posted the message on the front gate. (jon)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

'War on terror'

Primary charge against Ba'asyir dropped

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Jakarta -- Prosecutors recommended that hard-line cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir be sentenced to eight years in jail for his alleged role in a string of terrorist acts.

Ba'asyir, the alleged leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), an organization linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group, is on trial for allegedly inciting his followers to bomb two nightclubs in Bali in 2002, and the luxury JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003, crimes that could put the 66-year-old preacher on death row if convicted.

But a team of 14 prosecutors failed to come up with sufficient evidence to back up the primary charge that Ba'asyir had incited others to commit acts of terrorism.

"The prosecutors aver that: First, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is not guilty of inciting people to carry out acts of terrorism, as accused in the primary charge. Therefore, he should be acquitted of this charge," said Salman Maryadi, the chief prosecutor, reading from the 312-page indictment during a heavily guarded court session on Tuesday.

"Second, the prosecutors aver that the defendant is guilty of collectively [with other JI members] conducting acts of terrorism. Third, we would urge the court to sentence the defendant to 8 years in prison ...".

Some 200 police officers were deployed around the court as hundreds of Ba'asyir supporters were present in the courtroom. His supporters, some of whom were wearing black vests bearing the slogans "Mujahidin" (Holy warrior) and "Hidup Mulia atau Mati Syahid" (Live honorably or die as a martyr), jeered and heckled the prosecutors.

Ba'asyir has denied any role in the bomb attacks, saying that such acts were against his principles.

He has previously told the court that he was being prosecuted for his critical views of the United States. He was arrested and convicted shortly after the Bali bombings on immigration charges, and was in prison at the time of the Marriott attack. He completed his sentence in April but was rearrested immediately.

Since his trial started in November, prosecutors have struggled to prove that Ba'asyir is a terrorist. Only one witness testified that he was the leader of JI, while most of the witnesses failed to link the cleric to either the Bali or Marriott bombings, which killed a total of 214 people.

Ba'asyir's chief lawyer, Muhammad Assegaff, said that the prosecutors had manipulated the facts used in the indictments.

The trial was adjourned until February 17, when the defense will make its closing statement. (006) The prosecutors' weak case is likely to have prompted them to seek a lighter penalty than the maximum death sentence.

Prosecutor wants Bashir jailed for eight years

Agence France Presse - February 8, 2005

An Indonesian prosecutor sought an eight year jail sentence for hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for allegedly engaging in terrorism acts linked to a series of deadly bombings in recent years.

Prosecutor Salman Maryadi told the south Jakarta district court that evidence clearly showed Bashir was guilty of being involved in acts of terrorism that had led to the endangering or loss of lives.

He urged the judges to declare Bashir as "having been convincingly and legally proven guilty of having, together with others, engaged in the crime of terrorism" to cause widespread fear.

The judges should "hand a punishment to (Bashir) of eight years in jail," Maryadi told the court. He called for the cleric to be placed under detention until the final verdict is announced.

The 66-year-old preacher is on trial for inciting followers to stage the 2002 Bali bombings and a deadly attack on the Jakarta Marriott hotel in 2003, charges for which he could face the death penalty if convicted.

But Maryadi said there was insufficient evidence to back up the primary charge that Bashir and his supporters actually planned the acts of terror or incited others to engage in terrorism.

Bashir appeared calm as some 300 supporters in the courtroom staged a protest upon hearing the proposed jail sentence. He dismissed it as "illogical and caused by pressure from the United States." The cleric has maintained his incarceration was demanded by the United States because he was critical of Washington's policies in the Islamic world.

Bashir, who was cleared in 2003 of leading the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group, was released in April last year shortly after Indonesia's parliamentary polls. He was immediately rearrested by police, who said they had new evidence of terror links.

Prosecutors in their indictment said Bashir, as JI chief, visited a rebel training camp in April 2000 and relayed a "ruling from Osama bin Laden which permitted attacks and killings of Americans and their allies." Bashir has denied making such a visit.

The Bali bombings killed 202 people and the Jakarta Marriott hotel strike left 12 dead. JI has also been blamed for a suicide attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September which killed 11.

Prosecutors earlier suffered setbacks as none of the convicted bombers presented as witnesses in the trial had linked Bashir to the attacks.

Politics/political parties

PDI-P reform movement launched in East Java

Kompas Cyber Media - February 11, 2005

Semarang -- An Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Reform Movement was launched at the Panti Marhaen Building on Jalan Brigjen Katamso in Semarang, East Java on Friday afternoon (11/2).

The event began with greetings from the committee, from the former chairperson of the East Java PDI-P Leadership Board, Mardijo, a reading of the declaration and greetings from the PDI-P's former Research and Development deputy-chairperson Sukowaluyo Mintorahardjo. The statement -- which was read by the People's Representative Assembly/People's Consultative Assembly (DPR/MPR) member from the PDI-P -- in essence expressed concern over the condition of and developments inside the party.

The statement contrasted the increasingly irrelevant policies of the Central Leadership Board (DPP) with the wishes of the ordinary membership, and therefore they declared their support for a non-structural or undercurrent movement which desires reform within the PDI-P. In their statement they also called on the DPP to resolve the problems which they have created in various parts of the country during the upcoming 2005 PDI-P Congress in Bali. "Remember that these local problems have already turned into horizontal and vertical conflicts which have had the consequence of a drop in PDI-P's vote in the 2004 general elections", said Mintorahardjo.

In the name of the undercurrent of the PDI-P they also called on all of the elements of the PDI-P to be open, listen to their conscience as well as be active and astute for the sake of bringing about the reform that they are all hoping for.

Mardijo, who is also the former chairperson of the East Java provincial parliament (DPRD) took the opportunity to instruct the PDI-P members who will be delegates to the PDI-P's congress to have the courage to speak the truth, because if truth is not accompanied with courage to speak out it will deliver nothing of value. "As PDI-P members, don't be paranoid because [party leaders] have seats in the DPR and the DPRD, instead [you] must have the courage to state the truth [because] the truth is in accordance with [your] conscience", he instructed.

He declared that if the PDI-P wishes to again be a party of significance it must be prepared to evaluate itself and be corrected, because without correction the party will fail. "Remember people don't like a party which is arrogant, which pursues material [wealth] and power", he said.

In Mintorahardjo's greeting he touched on the issue of the prerogative rights of the chairperson of the PDI-P's Central Leadership Board [former President Megawati Sukarnoputri] which have become an excuse by its leaders to maintain control the PDI-P. Make no mistake about it, within the party which won the 1999 elections (with 34 per cent of the vote) a hegemony has developed.

He said that that these prerogative right often discourage a spirit of democracy within the party itself, especially over issues of decision making. "It's name is the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, but its democracy has become demo- crazy", he said.

Tightly guarded

The event proceeded smoothly and was tightly guarded by police. Police wearing civilian cloths could be seen mingling with the thousands of people who packed the building. Meanwhile uniformed police officers were spread out around the Panti Marhaen Building complex, including officers in five trucks owned by the Semarang municipal district police.

Some of them were also on guard in front of the entrance to the meeting room, some on the 2nd floor of the Pancasila SMP Building -- which is located not far from where the meeting took place -- and some could also be seen on Jalan Brigjen Katamso, right in front of the entrance gate of the Gedung Panti Marhaen complex. (Ant/Nik)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

VP says president told him to run for Golkar chairmanship

Agence France Presse - February 7, 2005

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was behind his deputy Yusuf Kalla's successful bid to take the leadership of the country's largest political party Golkar, a report said.

Kalla, a wealthy businessman who was Yudhoyono's running mate in 2004 elections, told the Tempo weekly magazine that he decided to run for Golkar's chairmanship in December at the president's behest to boost political stability.

"I entered at the last minute, only five days before the elections. But this was at the instruction of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono," Kalla said.

"The development process needs political stability and therefore support from political parties is needed, not a permanent opposition." Kalla beat incumbent Akbar Tanjung, who had threatened to bolster Golkar's position as an opposition party and hamper Yudhoyono's legislative programme.

Yudhoyono won a convincing victory in the country's first direct presidential election but his Democrat party secured only around 10 percent of parliamentary seats in a general election earlier in 2004.

Kalla's victory has steered Golkar, founded as a political vehicle for ex-dictator Suharto, behind Yudhoyono. It controls 23 percent of the seats in the 550-member parliament.

Kalla pledged to ensure that Golkar provides checks and balance to the government but said it would focus on major issues and not petty details.

"I have asked the Golkar party to remain critical, objective and proportional, so it should remain critical as long as it has strong underlying reasons," he said.

Kalla also reiterated his call for unity in Golkar, saying he has no plans to flush out Tanjung's supporters. "A good leader is one that can lead both his friends and former enemies," he said.

Kalla's leadership in Golkar is seen as a boon to the government. But analysts say it may spell long-term trouble for Yudhoyono as his deputy now has a power base that will stand him in good stead in the 2009 presidential election.

Government/civil service

Legislators query new ministry

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2005

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- What's in a name? Lawmakers on Monday questioned the move by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to create a new Ministry of Communications and Information.

They fear the new ministry could become a powerful and repressive institution -- like its namesake under former president Soeharto -- which would undermine the hard-fought freedom of the press in the country.

Abdillah Toha of the National Mandate Party (PAN) urged the ministry to provide the public with a detailed explanation about the new structure of the ministry.

"There must be clarity -- if the ministry will become a ministry of propaganda or a ministry which only follows the guidelines of Mr. President," he said at a hearing between Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan A. Djalil and House of Representatives (DPR) Commission I for information affairs here.

Fellow legislator Shidki Wahab of the Democratic Party said he was worried the ministry would become more powerful than the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) when dealing with broadcasting affairs.

The ministry and the KPI are currently engaged in a dispute over which has the authority to issue broadcasting licenses.

Last week's presidential decree upgrades the Office of the State Minister of Communications and Information into a portfolio ministry that also absorbs the responsibilities of the Directorate General of Postal Affairs and Telecommunications. The directorate was previously under the Ministry of Transportation.

Meanwhile, Arif Mudatsir Mandan of the United Development Party (PPP) questioned the impact of the new structure on the state budget.

"Of course, the new structure affects the state budget. The government must give an explanation," Arif said.

Responding to the questions, Sofyan A. Djalil assured the Commission the new structure of his ministry would not revive the repressive ministry of information during the New Order regime.

Sofyan emphasized that Suharto's ministry was established during an authoritarian regime, while the current body was set up in a democratic era.

He admitted his officials had been drafting a government regulation that gave the ministry authority to issue broadcasting licenses.

Sofyan, however, promised that he would be ready to seek a legal opinion from the Supreme Court concerning the issue.

"If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the KPI, we will abide by that decision," Sofyan said.

In addition, the minister said the government was considering regulating fund-raising activities carried out by print and broadcasting media, especially in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Aceh and North Sumatra.

The regulations would encourage fund-raisers to make transparent financial reports to the public, he said, which would be drawn up in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance.

Regional governments bemoan election funds shortage

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2005

Nana Rukmana and Rusman, Indramayu/Samarinda -- Central government needed to inject more funds into the Indramayu regency because the administration was short of money to run the local elections, the region's regent says.

Irianto M.S. Syaifuddin said his government could only allocate between Rp 5 billion (US$555,555) and Rp 7 billion to finance the direct election. That amount was far below the estimated election budget.

"According to our estimates, we will need to spend Rp 22 billion in order to ensure the election is a success. Given that we can only allocate Rp 5 to 7 Rp billion, we are short of Rp 17 billion. This is a task for the central government -- to help plug the deficit," Irianto said.

The funds needed would cover election materials, voter registrations and the salaries of thousands of electoral workers, he said.

"We must recruit and train thousands of people to be members of election committees down to subdistrict level, and this is costly." Indramayu is not the only regional government calling for more central government money to help it run the elections.

Association of West Java Regional Governments (APKASI) chairman Dedi Supardi said almost all local administrations in West Java had complained they were short of funds to finance direct elections in their regions. This year, the elections will be held in four regencies and one municipality in West Java.

"All five regional governments have complained that they lacked funds to finance the election. I believe the other 15 regional governments in the province will also have similar problems (in the future)" Dedi said.

He said each regional government needed some Rp 20 billion to hold the direct elections.

Meanwhile, the direct elections in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, could be postponed because of a prolonged dispute between legislative and executive branches of local government.

The direct election is scheduled to take place in May this year.

The conflict was sparked recently following the provincial government's appointment of Awang Dharma Bhakti as the acting regent of Kutai Kartanegara to replace Regent Syaukani.

The regental councillors, backed by thousands of Syaukani supporters, rejected Awang's appointment, which led to a crisis of government in the regency.

"If the conflict is not resolved by May, then we will have to delay the direct election," Ischak Iskandar, the chairman of Kutai Kartanegara's General Elections Commission, said.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Religion 'won't win corruption fight'

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2005

Hera Diani, Jakarta -- Religious leaders have confessed that strict law enforcement and harsh punishments are more effective than religious teachings in combating corruption.

Addressing a seminar on corruption eradication on Monday, Muslim cleric Solahuddin Wahid said that although the country sees its people as religious, and the state's ideology is based on divinity, Indonesia is ranked among the world's most corrupt nations.

"Places of worship are abundant and filled to capacity, some 200,000 people also perform the haj pilgrimage every year. But corruption is still rampant," said Solahuddin, also deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Last year, Indonesia was ranked as fifth most corrupt nation, climbing one place from sixth in the previous year, based on a report from the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI).

Some prominent corruption cases have even occurred within the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

The guilty parties, Solahuddin said, were not deterred by the knowledge that religion prohibits corruption and that God will surely punish them. "Thus, 'worldly' punishments would be more effective than a religious approach in battling corruption," said the brother of former president and Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid.

Minister Weinata Sairin from the Indonesian Churches Association (PGI) said there has been a dichotomy between spiritual life and the professional world. "Religiousness is still a matter of ceremony and symbol. The churches are full of worshipers, but corruption remains," he said.

Solahuddin said the country's educators should teach universal values. "We have to teach our children to be honest, hardworking, loving, understanding and disciplined. That money is not the main goal but rather the fruitage of our hard work," he said.

Religion would continue to play a vital role, Solahuddin said, but more to provide warnings and explanations. "But religion is not limited to prayer. Also, there is no such thing as sharia [Islamic] law if justice is not upheld -- we would hunt down those who did not fast or pray, but free the corruptors -- for what?" Solahuddin said.

Meanwhile, legal expert Romli Atmasasmita urged the government to soon ratify the United Nations' 2003 Convention Against Corruption and translate it into laws and regulations.

"Ratification would grant us the right to file lawsuits, such as the restoration of corruption assets in other countries. It would also oblige the government to obey the regulations of the convention," he said in the seminar.

Another legal expert, Sunaryati Hartono, said that reform was needed at all levels of government to avoid corruption, collusion and nepotism.

"The structure of the administration must be transparent and consist of individuals of the same status, or on the same level, so that it can be more modern, efficient and democratic," Sunaryati said. He said outsourcing was also worth consideration.

According to Sunaryati, at least nine bills should be passed without delay to ensure the government functions at its best. They are those on ombudsmen, public services, governmental ethics, administrative law, the civil service, the division of power between the central and local governments, the witness protection scheme, the administrative court and the bill on freedom of information.

Graft cases mean Rp 267 billion losses

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Samarinda -- The state has suffered at least Rp 267.4 billion (US$29.6 million) in losses from 15 graft cases in East Kalimantan in recent months, in which 21 people have been named suspects by local prosecutors.

The biggest case, in which Berau Regent Masjuni had been named a suspect for allegedly misappropriating Rp 88 billion from the exclusive Forest Resource Provision Funds, was being handled directly by the Attorney General's Office.

"We will do our best to submit the cases to court by the end of February," said head of the East Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office, Masri Djinin.

Kadin warned against colluding with state officials

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Rendi A. Witular and Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta -- While the business community is still facing chronic government red tape in running their businesses here, Vice President Jusuf Kalla is urging them not to use is as an excuse to collude with government officials.

Speaking during a leaders meeting of the country's powerful business lobby -- the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) -- last week, Kalla repeated earlier calls by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to drop corrupt practices in doing businesses.

"It is time for businessmen to detach themselves from collusion practices. It is time for us to run our businesses fairly," said Kalla, who is the former chairman of family-run Hadji Kalla business group.

Kalla's remark was made at a time when the government is in the process of tendering a number of massive infrastructure projects. The first batch offers 91 projects valued at US$22.5 billion, to be followed later in November by a second offering of projects worth about $57.5 billion.

There are concerns that the projects would only be granted to those who have strong political ties.

Meanwhile, Kadin chairman Mohamad S. Hidayat said the calls for "clean" businesses could only take place if corruption within the civil service is reduced and the bureaucratic chains are cutback.

"It is good advice. But the government has to show that it has managed to clean up corruption on the part of state officials and has reformed the bureaucracy. This is the only way to prevent corrupt business practices," said Hidayat.

Critics have said that the Susilo-Kalla administration has failed to produce improvement in the country's investment and business climate during its first three months.

Questions also linger over the seriousness of the government in trying to cut the corruption and collusion chain between the business community and state officials, given the questionable track record of some high-ranking state officials, including Kalla himself.

When Kalla was the coordinating minister for people's welfare under president Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2002, his company PT Hadji Kalla managed to convince state social security firm PT Jamsostek to invest in the company's medium-term notes (MTNs) worth Rp 200 billion (US$22.2 million).

The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), that audited Jamsostek, declared later that the MTNs issued by Hadji Kalla had a high risk of default due to some irregularities during the issuing process.

Kalla has denied the accusation, saying that his company had followed all necessary regulations in issuing the MTNs.

"We have to ensure that Susilo and Kalla are not abusing their authority to allow their family members and friends to receive state facilities. We need that assurance before we can believe in them," said a noted businessman who asked for anonymity.

Recommendations made during Kadin meeting

• Improve coordination between the private sector and the government.
• Provide a minimum rate for air transportation.
• Improve the role and performance of the Supervision Agency for Air Carrier Safety.
• Support the formation of a national profession certification agency (BNSP).
• Set up a national productivity council in a bid to help increase the country's industrial output.
• Enhance the country's product standards.
• Promote the use of local products.
• Reduce rates for value-added tax and income tax.
• Waive taxes for equipment used in research and development activities.
• Revoke departure tax.

Source: Kadin

Media/press freedom

Legislators question revisions to Criminal Code

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- Some members of the House of Representatives have expressed opposition to articles in the draft revision of the Criminal Code that could threaten press freedom.

They said they would challenge the government-sponsored draft, which will soon be opened for deliberation in the House.

"We will oppose any stipulations that are detrimental to press freedom. We will ensure press freedom," Theo L. Sambuaga, chairman of House Commission I for information, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Legislators Soeripto of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Amris Fuad Hasan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said press freedom had to be protected to help promote democracy in the country.

The draft of the new Criminal Code contains at least 49 articles that critics say endanger hard-earned press freedom in the country by allowing the criminalization of the press.

The draft stipulates harsh penalties for journalists and others in the media business for certain offenses. The dissemination of information that undermines the state ideology Pancasila, for example, could be punished by up to 15 years in jail.

Journalists could also face fines of up to Rp 3 billion (US$326,000) for some offenses.

According to the draft, journalists could be punished for offending the president or vice president, the heads of state of neighboring countries and state bodies, races or groups, and religious groups.

"In the democratic era, it would be a setback if we maintained these stipulations that threaten press freedom," Theo said. Amris said that if anyone considered a news story to be libelous, he or she should bring the case to the Press Council.

Soeripto said disputes involving the media should be settled through the Press Council, not the criminal courts. However, he said for this to happen would require maturity on both the part of the public and the media.

Maturity will help people accept settlements through the Press Council, and will help the media improve the quality of its reporting, he said.

New Criminal Code could still threaten free press

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Hera Diani, Jakarta -- In what looks like a return to the New Order bullying of the press, the government's draft of the new Criminal Code contains numerous articles that could threaten press freedom.

The draft, which was completed last month and handed to the President before it is debated by the House of Representatives, contains no fewer than 49 articles that critics say endanger press freedom.

The current Criminal Code, a legacy of the Dutch colonial government, has been criticized for allowing the criminalization of the press.

The draft of the new Criminal Code maintains harsh penalties for journalists and those in the media business, including Article 212 which spells out a 15-year jail sentence for the dissemination of any information that undermines the state ideology Pancasila.

In addition to jail terms, journalists could face fines of up to Rp 3 billion (US$326,000) and a ban from all journalistic activities.

Journalists would also face punishment for offending the president and vice president, the heads of state of neighboring countries and state bodies, races or groups, and religious groups.

There have been several cases over the past two years of members of the press facing criminal charges, with the most prominent incident being the libel case brought businessman Tomy Winata against Koran Tempo daily last year.

In 2003, the chief editor of Rakyat Merdeka daily, Karim Paputungan, was sentenced to five months in jail for insulting then House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung. The daily's executive editor, Supratman, was also jailed for six months for defaming president Megawati Soekarnoputri. Both sentences were suspended.

Under the new draft, members of the press could also be charged with a crime for insulting dead people and provoking people to rise up against a legitimate administration.

Some of the articles of the new draft allow for a great deal of leeway in their interpretation.

Article 308, for example, calls for a fine of up to Rp 30 million ($3,300) or a one-year jail term for anyone spreading "dubious, exaggerated or incomplete news" that could cause a social disturbance.

Members of the press also could face criminal charges for moral offenses, especially the publication of pornography, although the definition of what constitutes pornography remains vague.

The articles on pornography, for instance, ban the media from publishing or screening films, writing, pictures and paintings containing "certain sensual body parts of adults". This implies pictures of scantily clad actors or runway models will no longer be allowed.

These articles do not target only the press, but also filmmakers, music composers, other artists and even Internet bloggers.

Lawyer and press freedom advocate Hinca Panjaitan said these 49 articles in the draft of the new Criminal Code should not be aimed at the media because the country already had the Press Law.

"Let the articles be, but add one more article saying that these articles do not target the press.

"We will criticize the draft and ask the House of Representatives not to approve it unless it is revised," said Hinca, a member of the Press Council.

Local & community issues

Traders protest against new mall

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Padang -- Some 7,000 members of the Padang Market Traders Association (KPP) held a protest against the Padang municipality's plan to build a shopping mall on the site of the Goan Hoat bus terminal, located near Pasar Raya market.

The plan will likely have a serious impact on the traders, as it will block people's access to the market.

Chairman of KPP, Irzal Mudazir, said that the plan to turn the terminal into a shopping mall would mostly affect medium and small scale traders.

The association has conveyed their objections to Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar and the municipal council, but there has been no response as yet.

Human rights/law

Bills place TNI, national police under ministers

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- The Ministry of Defense has finalized the first drafts on the revision of legislation on security and defense, which aim, among other things, to help create more professional military and police forces.

Under the proposed changes to Law No. 3/2002 on defense and Law No. 32/2004 on the military, the Indonesian Military (TNI) will be put under the Ministry of Defense instead of under the direct supervision of the President.

Meanwhile, the National Police will be put under the Ministry of Home Affairs, according to the draft on the revision of Law No. 2/2002 on the National Police.

Consequently, TNI and National Police chiefs will no longer be directly involved in policy decision-making because, "as part of defense and security apparatus, they are merely obliged to follow policy, instead of make policy," said a member of the team responsible for the drafting of the new legislation.

"This move is to prevent the involvement of both National Police chief and TNI chief in practical politics as their presence at Cabinet or other ministerial-level meetings are no longer required," the team member, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post.

For years, critics have campaigned for massive internal reform within the TNI and the National Police to create more professional soldiers and police officers, which is seen as essential to better protect the archipelago and ensure law and order. One of the suggestions is to ban the military leadership from becoming involved in practical politics.

"The revision is also aimed at simplifying the chain of command between the two ministries, which are mandated to define policies on defense and security issues and the TNI, and on the police," the team said in explanatory notes on the draft.

The proposed amendments will also ban lawmakers from intervening in a president's prerogative to appoint a National Police chief and a TNI chief.

According to prevailing laws, the President can appoint and dismiss TNI and police chiefs only after obtaining approval from lawmakers. Under the proposed changes to the law on defense, the president can appoint and dismiss a police chief after taking into account the considerations of lawmakers.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono has said the proposed amendment would enable the president to exercise his or her executive right as the TNI supreme commander.

Meanwhile, the team member said that the Ministry of Defense still wanted to discuss the proposed changes to the law on the National Police with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

He said the team had decided to also amend the law on the National Police because "the legislation is considered one package".

According to the proposed amendment, heads of regional police departments will be answerable to the Minister of Home Affairs and their respective heads of regional governments. Under the current law, heads of regional police answer to their immediate superior.

Indonesia to ratify international bill on human rights

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government is expected soon to ratify the international bill on human rights, a move that could improve the country's image in the global community.

United Nations Human Rights Commission head Makarim Wibisono said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed to sign the bill, which consists of two covenants: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

"The President said that Indonesia is committed to the development and protection of human rights. Therefore, he will sign the international bill on human rights," Makarim said after a meeting with Susilo.

Makarim is a senior Indonesian diplomat who was elected to the new post at the UN in January. He said the ratification of the bill would have "huge international political meaning" by demonstrating Indonesia's commitment to developing and protecting human rights.

"Indonesia's contribution to human rights development and protection will be stronger with a political gesture from the government involving the issue," he said.

The President has instructed Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin to make preparations for the signing of the bill so it will not take long time to ratify, Makarim said.

The two covenants were established in 1966 and came into force some 10 years later. According to the United Nations website, as of mid-2004 there were 149 parties who had ratified the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, and 152 parties who had ratified the international covenant on civil and political rights.

Human rights activists have urged the government to sign and ratify the covenants to ensure the economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of the people in the country.

Makarim said one of his goals as the head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission was to ensure the commission was not used to politicize human rights cases.

"Instead of humiliating certain countries and forcing them into a corner, it would be better to fix the (rights) problems," he said.

Asked whether he was referring to rights violations in East Timor, Makarim replied: "It's not only about East Timor, but other countries have experienced this as well." "The most important thing is that there must be a remedy for any rights violations, whether they occurred in the past or now. If the remedy is accepted by the parties involved and meets international standards, then the international world will accept it as well," he said.

Only one of 18 defendants accused of gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 was found guilty by a human rights tribunal here, much to the anger of international critics.

The violations occurred before and after a United Nations- supervised poll in August 1999, in which the East Timorese voted to break away from Indonesia. More than 1,000 people are believed to have died in the violence.

Susilo and his East Timorese counterpart Xanana Gusmao have agreed to form a Reconciliation and Friendship Commission to deal with the violations.

However, the United Nations has proposed the establishment of a Commission of Experts to assess why a 1999 UN Security Council resolution to try those accused of crimes in East Timor failed. Susilo has phoned United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to convey his opposition to the proposal.

Cover-up in Munir murder case?

Laksamana.net - February 3, 2005

Almost five months after the murder of acclaimed human rights campaigner Munir, police are yet to come up with a single suspect, increasing concerns of a high-level cover-up.

The dire lack of progress has also provoked scathing criticism of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who in November had pledged to do everything in his power to uncover the mystery behind the activist's death. He had even personally promised Munir's widow Suciwati that he would fully support the formation of an independent team to investigate the case.

But Yudhoyono broke his promise, permitting only the formation of a fact-finding team -- chaired by Police Brigadier General Marsudi Hanafi -- to "assist" police with their investigation. The 13-member team was formed on December 22 and given only three months in which to complete its inquiries.

Although the team contains several human rights activists, its members also include representatives of the police, the government and the Attorney General's Office. Hardly the stuff of independence.

Munir, founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), died of arsenic poisoning while on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7.

Rights groups are certain he was murdered by his powerful enemies, possibly by those who wanted to silence his most recent investigations into corruption cases involving prominent government figures. Police have questioned scores of witnesses but are adamant they still don't have any suspects.

Garuda pilot

Rights activists grouped in the Committee of Solidarity Action for Munir (Komite Aksi Solidaritas Untuk Munir -- KASUM) on Wednesday (2/2/05) urged the fact-finding team to put pressure on police to investigate whether a Garuda pilot seen with Munir on the final day of his life was working covertly for a state intelligence agency.

The pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, allegedly telephoned Munir's house two or three days before the activist left for the Netherlands and told Suciwati he would be on the same flight as her husband. He has denied calling Munir's house and insisted he was not involved in his death.

But it has been established that Pollycarpus introduced himself to Munir and Suciwati when they arrived at Jakarta's Sukarno- Hatta International Airport on the night of September 6.

Munir was carrying an economy class ticket when he boarded Flight GA-974 from Jakarta to Amsterdam, but Pollycarpus persuaded him to take his business class seat. The pilot then took a seat in first class.

During the Singapore-Jakarta leg of the flight, Munir ordered and consumed noodles and orange juice, while Pollycarpus was seen pacing nervously between the bar in first class and the cockpit.

When the plane arrived at Singapore's Changi Airport at 11.40pm Jakarta time, Munir went to the waiting room, while Pollycarpus left the airport.

At 12.50am Munir re-boarded the aircraft and this time sat in his economy seat. Within a few hours he was in agonizing pain and suffering severe nausea and diarrhea. He died at least three hours before the plane landed in Amsterdam. Dutch authorities subsequently conducted an autopsy that revealed 465 milligrams of undigested arsenic in Munir's stomach -- more than double the normally lethal dose of 200 milligrams.

The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) swiftly denied murdering Munir. On November 20, a decapitated and dismembered chicken was sent to Suciwati, along with a note warning: "Be careful!!!!! Do not connect TNI to the death of Munir. Do you want to end up like this?"

After police showed virtually no progress in their initial investigation. Munir's fellow human rights began their own investigation. They discovered that Pollycarpus had piloted flights -- ostensibly for Christian missionaries -- in Irian Jaya (now Papua) province over 1985-87 when the military was attacking separatist rebels in the territory.

Pollycarpus later flew planes to evacuate Indonesians from East Timor in 1999 after TNI and its militia proxies had unleashed carnage in there in response to the territory's vote to secede from Indonesia. East Timor's notorious former militia leader Eurico Guterres has admitted to knowing the pilot.

KASUM and the rights activists in the fact-finding team suspect Pollycarpus is no ordinary pilot. They have received anonymous tip-offs via mobile phone text messages alleging that he is a member of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) and has an unlicensed gun from the agency. The pilot has strongly denied having links to any military intelligence institutions.

The activists have not publicly referred to Pollycarpus by name, but only by his initials PC. KASUM now wants police to ask BIN chief Sjamsir Siregar in writing whether PC is one of the agency's members. The group also wants to know whether BIN issued him a gun license.

Rafendi Djamin, coordinator of the Human Rights Working Group, concedes that rumors and anonymous text messages can't be considered material evidence. But he feels police could use the informal information as a basis for further investigation, especially given that the truth is not always clear in Indonesia.

He lamented that Indonesia has no mechanism for the protection of witnesses and a political system that cannot prevent violent action.

Djamin said it appeared the public and the media were more serious than the police were about unmasking Munir's killers. "After almost five months the case of Munir's murder is not clear yet. Furthermore, the police still haven't even found a suspect yet. Apparently the police are quite clumsy and unprofessional in solving this case," he was quoted as saying by detikcom online news portal.

"From this phenomenon it could be seen that the media and the public are more serious than the police in solving Munir's case," he added.

Djamin said the fact-finding team was facing various obstacles and it appeared the case had been manipulated for short-term political gains.

"Actually it's vital to have an open and transparent [investigation] process. What's more, this team is restricted by a time limit of only three months. But the condition that we really regret is that Munir's case has simply been made into a piece of political merchandise. This began to be felt when everyone criticized the first 100 days of the SBY-Kalla government," he said.

Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had promised to make major achievements in their first 100 days in office, particularly by cracking down on corruption and crime. But the government has since failed to transform many of its lofty words into actions and had to scale back some of its promises.

It remains to be seen whether the retired general and tycoon will make it a priority to unmask Munir's killers.

TNI still failing to respect human rights

Suara Pembaruan - February 5, 2005

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Armed Forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia -- TNI) is still failing to respect human rights enforcement. This is evident from the recent promotion of several officers who are still involved in cases of human rights abuses.

Rachland Nashidik, Executive Director of Imparsial, expressed this opinion at a press conference in Jakarta on Friday.

"The appointment of officers who are still considered as being involved in human rights abuses raises a number of questions," he said. "Why is the TNI not promoting other officers who are more professional?" he asked.

The senior officers whose roles are still under a cloud are former commander of Kopassus, Major-General Sriyanto, who has been promoted to become commander of the Siliwangi Command (Kodam III), and infantry colonel, Chairawan, who has been promoted to become commander of Lilawangsa district command (Korem 011) in Aceh.

According to Rachland, Sriyanto's case is still being handled by the courts in connection with the violation of human rights in the Tanjung Priok case (1984); the case is now at the appeal stage before the Supreme Court.

Chairawan was commander of Group IV of Kopassus at the time when a number of activists were abducted in 1998. The army's Officer's Honour Council sacked Chairawan from his post as Group IV commander at the time.

"The recent appointment of these officers shows that the TNI has failed to respect the voices and experiences of the victims and families confronted by human rights abuses," said Rachland. He therefore questioned the level of professionalism in the TNI about which so much is being said there days.

The public also have the right to know the track record of TNI officers, especially those who are still facing cases in the area of the law.

Rachland also said it was necessary for the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to continue to investigate human rights cases. The Commission should also pay attention to promotions within the armed forces.

According to Rachland, in the Philippines, full attention is paid to the opinions of the Human Rights Commission in the promotion of senior officers, he said.

News & issues

Ministry focuses attention on illegal fishing

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2005

Jakarta -- The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has focused its efforts on sea supervision and the issuance of permits in an effort to stop illegal fishing during the first 100 days of the new administration.

The practices of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing reportedly causes the country to lose up to US$1.9 billion per year, in the form of declines in revenue from legal fishing.

In an effort to combat illegal fishing, the ministry has temporarily stopped issuing new fishing permits, the head of the ministry's information center, Aji Sularso, said on Monday.

"We will evaluate the number of already issued fishing permits to make sure they do not surpass the catch limits set by the FAO," Aji said.

Indonesia's 5.8 million square kilometers of sea have the potential to yield 6.4 million tons of fish per year. The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has set catch limits at 80 percent of the total potential yield of the area, or some 5.12 million tons per year.

Aji said Indonesia's total legal catch currently reached only 4.7 million tons per year.

"We will try to identify the total valid amount so that we can detect our losses and our real potential," he said.

In addition to delaying the issuance of new permits, the ministry has also intensified its sea supervision, in cooperation with the Navy, the Air Force and the sea police.

"We have implemented and will continue to implement preventive and repressive operations," said Aji.

In joint operations during the first 100 days of the new administration, these agencies have seized 60 vessels engaged in illegal fishing and investigated 55 others.

The ministry also revoked the licenses of 155 imported fishing vessels operated by local companies for using fake certification, said Aji.

To keep track of legal fishing vessels, the ministry plans to install 1,500 Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) on listed vessels.

"We have installed 1,020 VMSs aboard fishing vessels to help monitor their positions and reprimand those operating outside their permitted areas," he said.

Aji said the ministry had issued first warnings to 319 vessels and second warnings to 70 others, of which 33 were at risk of losing their permits.

All of these measures will help eliminate illegal fishing and reduce the losses to the fishery sector, Aji said.

He said the ministry also planned to improve its transparency and accountability in issuing new permits, once the current ban was lifted.

The ministry will shorten the permit processing to less than seven working days from the current 16 days.

Issued permits will be printed on security paper produced by the state printing company, Peruri, to avoid counterfeiting, he said.

Government 'undermining' Aceh, Papua autonomy

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The government is altering the rules on how regional elections should be carried out in the resource-rich provinces of Aceh and Papua, a move which some say undermines the special autonomy status of the two regions and the independency of the election process.

The changes are seen in the final draft of the government regulation on direct regional elections, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post. The draft is expected to be approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the near future.

The people of various regions in the country are expected to turn out to vote in June for their regional leaders, in what will be the country's first direct regional elections. More than 200 leaders of regional administrations -- including mayors, regents and governors -- will soon end their terms.

According to the draft, the election of governor in oil and gas- rich Aceh will be managed by an independent commission, to be set up by the Aceh Legislative Council (DPRD).

Article 143 paragraph 8 of the draft says that members of the commission will comprise members of the Aceh General Elections Commission (KPUD) and the public.

The article, however, contradicts Article 13 paragraph 2 of Law No. 18/2001 on Aceh's special autonomy status, which says that members of the independent election commission should consist of members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the public.

The government regulation consequently requires the KPUD to report to the DPRD, which critics say undermines the independency of the election process, since the DPRD consists of political parties that propose the candidates who run in the election. They said that the KPUD should instead report to the KPU, to ensure the independency of the election.

Article 41 of the government regulation draft also bans independent candidates from running in the election, which is against the special autonomy law that welcomes independent candidates.

The government regulation also modifies the stipulation on the election supervisory commission in Aceh.

While the autonomy law says that the election supervisory commission in Aceh comprises members of the Aceh legislative council, members of national elections supervisory bodies and the public, the government regulation rules that the commission consists of councillors, police, prosecutors, university officials, the press and independent local figures.

As for the regional elections in Papua, the government regulation is seen to undermine the role of the Papua People's Council (MRP).

Article 36 paragraph 1 of Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua stipulates that the Papua Legislative Council (DPRD) must seek the consideration and approval of the MRP before inaugurating elected candidates.

However, Article 139 paragraph 2 says that consideration and approval from the MRP must be sought on one issue only: the requirement that the candidates are native Papuans.

However, the draft of the government regulation on regional elections stipulates that the DPRD could inaugurate the elected governor of the province should the MRP fail to give its consideration and approval within seven days.

Smita Notosusanto, the chairwoman of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), warned that the government must not degrade the autonomy power it has given to both Aceh and Papua as this could cause a backlash from the local people, some of whom have long campaigned for the sovereignty of the provinces.

CETRO and a number of non-governmental organizations and some KPUDs have filed for a judicial review of Law No. 32/2004 on regional administration in a bid to change the rules of regional elections.

They consider the law is against the Constitution as it fails to guarantee the fair and impartial principles of regional elections, due to the strong involvement of the government in the process.

Environment

Residents fight illegal logging

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Jambi -- Pancakarya residents in Limun district have their own way of fighting illegal loggers, by declaring 400 hectares of forest area as the village's restricted forest.

"The people want to try and keep this forest free from the chainsaw's reach," said Akmal, one of the village's elders.

He said that the residents had reported illegal logging in the area to local authorities, but nothing was done about it.

"We need clear legal regulations to empower us to prevent illegal logging here," he stated.

Environmental agency suggests closure of laundry plants

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- Residents of Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict in West Jakarta will likely win the battle against 51 illegal denim processing plants, which have been blamed for polluting the area.

Head of the City Environment Management Body (BPLHD) Kosasih Wirahadikusumah said on Saturday that the closure of the plants still had to be officially endorsed by Governor Sutiyoso.

Sutiyoso previously advised owners of the companies in Sukabumi Selatan to relocate their businesses to other areas like in the industrial zone of Pulo Gadung in East Jakarta.

On Feb. 2, Kosasih gave the City Council a recommendation on the immediate closure of the companies for several reasons.

"A residential area is not the place for such plants, and they are disposing of hazardous substances, which causes serious environmental damage. And the last reason is that those plants have overexploited the groundwater causing water shortages in the area," Kosasih explained.

Kosasih said that each processing plant, which is used to create pre-faded denim products, used at least 90,000 liters of underground water per day, totalling some 4.5 million liters per day for the 51 plants.

According to BPLHD's investigation, for one batch of jeans, 500 liters of water is mixed with some 250-300 milliliters of detergent or 1.5 kilograms chemical substances known as Generator Desize -- HT (liquid blue substance).

For further processes, the companies also use various whiteners, softeners, brighteners and many kinds of dyes, all of which have chemicals in them.

Kosasih said around 90 percent of the water was dumped in the environment as hazardous waste because there were no liquid waste treatment systems.

According to data from BPLHD, the number of illegal companies had grown very fast in the subdistrict -- there were 34 in 2000, 39 in 2002 and 51 in 2005, and have not built waste treatment facilities or paid for the ground water.

A calculation made by BPLHD on monthly operational costs of a legal denim processing plant reveals that a medium-scale one should be spending some Rp 122.62 million (US$13,777) per month -- Rp 16.87 million for waste treatment, Rp 33.75 million for water usage, and the remaining Rp 72 million for the disposal of some 20 tons of sludge.

According to the government agency, only a few garment firms were operating in Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict in the late 1970s. The denim processing companies were set up later to support the garment industry.

Currently, the companies process some 60 percent of all jeans sold in two major markets in the city -- Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta and Cipulir in South Jakarta.

Health & education

National exam draws more opposition

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

Jakarta -- Teachers and academics doubt the government's planned national final exam will be able to narrow the gap in education between schools across the country.

Rostymaline Munthe, executive director of the Committee of Alternative Children's Education, which runs mobile schools for child workers, said the government could not set a national exam standard for students because schools across the country were not equal in terms of facilities and teachers.

"If the exam is forced in less-developed regions with inadequate teachers, it will do nothing but require children to achieve something that is impossible. Don't force children to achieve the impossible for the government's sake," she said.

She said measurements of educational quality would be more accurate if the measurements were adjusted for different regions.

The Ministry of National Education has said the final exam is intended to map and raise the country's educational standards. A ministerial decree says the exam will be given in May/June and October of this year.

A survey by the ministry to support its national exam policy found the majority of respondents in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Pasuruan and West Sumatra believed standardized exams were necessary for students in junior high school, high school, vocational school and schools for the disabled.

The study used a focus group discussion method involving teachers, principals, directors and staff members of local education agencies, House of Representatives members and education campaigners from related non-governmental organizations.

The House last year demanded the government scrap its national final exam and said it would withhold funds for the exam. It said the state-organized exam violated the national education law, which stipulates that teachers have the authority to measure students' performance.

National Commission for Child Protection secretary-general, Arist Merdeka Sirait, however, said the national final exam would prevent children who did not pass the exam from moving up to the next grade.

"Therefore, systematically and structurally speaking, the exam widens the gap in education," he said.

Eko Purwono, a lecturer at the Bandung Institute of Technology and a member of Bandung's education council, said the national exam could lead to collusion between schools, teachers and students.

"Schools could mark up their students' scores in order not to tarnish their reputation," he said.

He added that the exam should only be used to chart students' performance to see how they did in different subjects. He referred to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the US as an example.

The NAEP cover civics, geography, US history, mathematics, reading, science and writing. Members of the public in the US are also encouraged to send comments and suggestions to improve test questions.

Epidemic in Jakarta feared, five other provinces

Agence France Presse - February 9, 2005

Indonesia's capital Jakarta and five provinces have been placed under alert for a possible dengue epidemic following a growing number of fatalities and infections, officials said.

Health authorities said efforts were being stepped up to prevent a repeat of last year's dengue fever outbreak, that had killed 669 people and infected 59,321 others in 24 of the country's 32 provinces.

"Jakarta has been declared on alert against an extraordinary occurrence of dengue fever," Aida Fatmi, a doctor at Jakarta's health office, told AFP.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying five other provinces -- East Java, East Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara -- were also under dengue watch.

The mosquito-borne disease has led to 102 fatalities so far this year in the six provinces, with 4,700 infections, she said.

Fatmi said measures would be taken in the provinces to prevent a widespread dengue outbreak, including extensive fumigation operations, boosting hospital facilities and an information campaign to educate the public on the disease.

Dengue, usually associated with poor tropical countries, is an annual rainy season hazard for Indonesians.

No outbreak has been reported in the tsunami-battered province of Aceh, where more than 240,000 people have died or are missing, despite earlier concerns by relief agencies of health threats posed by malaria and dengue.

Students lack teachers, classrooms

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Theresia Sufa, Bogor -- Three teachers for an entire elementary school could be considered a lot in Bogor, because many schools in the regency only have one teacher for over 200 students, said head of the administrative unit at the education agency, Bambang SP.

"Bogor lacks about 8,000 elementary and high school teachers. Every year we receive about 200 contract teachers, but it is still not enough," he said.

Another official at the agency, who oversees facilities and maintenance, Lulus Ruslan, added that at least 1,500 schools are in a poor condition.

"Although we have proposed funds to repair and renovate 250 schools last year, only 76 can be included in the project. Currently we're making a list of the schools to be prioritized in the reconstruction project."

One of the worst is Ciherang Pondok elementary school in Caringin district, where the 307 students have to study in shifts in the three classrooms available with only four teachers, including headmaster Hasan Rifai and one voluntary teacher.

"We have had to deal with a building that has all but collapsed and a shortage of teachers for the last 10 years, or ever since I started here," Hasan said.

The Bogor administration repaired only three classrooms and the school office in 2002. "I don't know why the administration left the other four classrooms in disrepair, maybe because it doesn't have the money. We also need two teachers for general studies and one sports teacher," said the headmaster.

Hasan added that the teachers and parents have to collect Rp 100,000 (US$11) every month for the "welfare fund" for the volunteer teacher.

"We cannot keep asking the parents for money ... most of the students here come from poor families; many of them have not paid the annual school fees yet."

Society & culture

Revised code criminalizes public kissing

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Hera Diani, Jakarta -- Watch out all you lovebirds out there -- there is now a chance that lip-locking in public could send you to jail for 10 years and cost you as much as Rp 300 million (US$32,800) in fines.

These new penalties for conspicious, unrestrained lust -- or just perhaps a peck on the lips -- are part of the new Criminal Code (KUHP) draft by a team led by legal expert and former justice minister Muladi.

The same penalties apply for "an adult showing certain sensual body parts." Since the 1960s, there have been calls to revise the Criminal Code inherited from the one drawn up by the Dutch in 1886, which its critics say has many flaws and is outdated.

In early 1980s, the government began working on the new code, and only last month, 20 years later, the work was finally completed.

The revised code includes new regulations on environmental degradation, terrorism and human rights and has 727 articles, compared with the existing code's 569.

Some critics say the draft is repressive in parts and interferes too much in people's private lives, while others say some articles would limit freedom of expression or contravene human rights laws.

The most-criticized articles include those on public morality, especially the proposed sanctions for possessing pornography, kissing in public, adultery and de facto couples.

If the code is passed extant, unmarried couples could be penalized with to two years' jail and a maximum fine of Rp 30 million; the article would also give police and officials the power to raid houses of all those they suspected of living together.

Law expert and women's rights activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said the morality articles were excessive and infringed on the "rights of the body." "To protect children from pornography, we should regulate its distribution, not make it into a crime. And as far as kissing [in public] or living together goes, these new laws go way too far," Nursyahbani said.

"What about those couples who cannot register their marriages because the state does not recognize their religions? The state is not doing its duty but it is criminalizing its citizens." Even a lawyer who helped draft the laws, legal expert Andi Hamzah, said he was surprised about the kissing and de facto relationship laws.

"What about tourists? Will we hunt them down too? I don't think that every 'immoral' act should become a crime. There are still other [non-legal] sanctions," he told The Jakarta Post.

Morality articles would also regulate films, songs, pictures and other art forms, meaning an on-screen kiss could also be a criminal offense for actors or directors.

Others have criticized the new code as unclear, allowing too much interpretation by government officials and lawmakers.

Hinca Panjaitan, a lawyer and a free speech activist, said that 49 Articles in the new draft code could threaten the freedom of the press.

One example, he said, was Article 308, which would fine or jail all persons found to have spread "uncertain, exaggerated or incomplete news" that could cause social disruption.

"This [article] is not right. We are against any criminalization of press activities because there is already a Press Law. My recommendation was to let the draft be, but they had to add one article, saying it would not only cover journalism," Hinca said.

Muladi told the Post the new draft code tried to accommodate the interests of many groups, including religious ones.

"We have talked it through. Besides, it is just a draft -- it is better to include everything than miss something. Otherwise people would have said we ignored them," he said.

The new code did not specifically target the press, he said.

"I agree that freedom of expression must exist. Anyway, as I said, [the bill] is still just a draft. It is open for debate." The draft will next go to the President, who will later send it on to the House of Representatives to be deliberated.

Indonesia to criminalize public kissing, cohabitation

Agence France Presse - February 5, 2005

Public kissing and cohabitation may become crimes in Indonesia in future as the world's largest Muslim nation seeks to overhaul its Dutch-inherited criminal laws, an official said.

The drafting of a new criminal code has finally been completed after 25 years and parliament will soon debate it, justice ministry official Abdul Gani Abdullah told AFP Saturday.

The proposed draft includes provisions banning public kissing, unmarried couples from living together and adultery. Offenders caught kissing in the open could be jailed up to 10 years and fined as much as 300 million rupiah (33,000 dollars) under new penalties.

Some legal experts have criticized the draft, saying the state should not repress citizens' freedom of expression or interfere in their private lives.

But Abdullah insisted the proposed laws were in line with popular wishes. "Kissing in public is a crime if the people around are not happy and lodge a complain. But if they think it's all right, then no action will be taken," he said.

"The same goes with cohabitation. If neighbors think the presence of an unmarried couple living together is a nuisance, they can report to police." The draft also contains provisions governing issues such as people trafficking, terrorism, money laundering and corruption, which were currently regulated in separate laws, he added.

The government began work on a new set of criminal laws in the 1980s to replace the existing criminal code which was drawn up in 1886 and seen as outdated.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated nation but most Muslims practice a tolerant interpretation of the faith.

Armed forces/defense

Army reshuffle: The colonels' return

Tempo Magazine - February 8-14, 2005

Shifts among command posts within the Indonesian Army are underway, with those in Aceh taking the limelight.

A warming-up is taking place within the Indonesian Army rank and file. Pending the replacement of its chief of staff and commander, reshuffles of posts within the corps are the order of the day once more.

Two that drew public interest occurred in Aceh. The Military Resort Command (Korem) 011/Lilawangsa, which was previously headed by Colonel A.Y. Nasution, has been given a new commander in the person of Colonel Chairawan, while Colonel Gerhan Lantara has been replaced in Korem 012/Teuku Umar by Colonel Zahri Siregar.

Chief of the Army's Information Service, Brig. Gen. Hotma Ngaraja Panjaitan, stated that the shifts were but common changes due to the retirement of some senior officers and the promotion of medium-rank officers. Common changes? The replacement of two Korem commanders in Aceh-effected shortly preceding a strong statement by the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, regarding the conflict in the Veranda of Mecca-has given rise to speculations that the Indonesian Military (TNI) will "play tough" there.

In Ryamizard's own words, the conflict in Aceh can only be said to be settled if the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) surrenders. "If they don't surrender, well, then there won't be any settlement." The clause about a ceasefire touched upon in the negotiations between Indonesia and GAM in Finland at the end of last month is something that does not even cross his mind. "If GAM asks for a ceasefire, that's their right. How on earth could we, defenders of the state, agree to a ceasefire. What kind of tale is that?" he said.

The two new Korem commanders, according to military observer Kusnanto Anggoro, possess splendid military competence. In his view, the assignment of the two of them is intended to increase the pressure in the conflict area.

Chairawan's record includes command of Group IV of the Special Forces (Kopassus). Zahri Siregar's most recent assignment was Commanding Officer of the Candradimuka Regiment at the Military Academy. Previously he was Assistant for Operations to the Commander of Division I of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).

Chairawan's name came to the fore in 1997, when he was commanding officer of Kopassus' Group IV. During the political turbulences of that time, one so-called Rose Team, a team that was part of his unit, was known to be behind the abduction of nine student activists.

When the wind of political change blew in 1998, all the members of the Rose Team, which was under the command of Maj. Bambang Kristiono, were dragged to court. Bambang and four officers of the rank of captain were dismissed from military service. Chairawan himself escaped trial, although he was relieved of the command of Kopassus's Group IV by the Officers Code of Honor Council.

He was subsequently relegated to an expert staff post at Army HQ. Many thought then that it marked the end of the colonel's military career.

Kusnanto Anggoro judged the army as being insensitive with respect to Chairawan's present assignment. "His military competence is good enough, but from the ethical and image points of view, he has baggage from the past. This indicates that the army does not care at all what outsiders think," he observed.

Chairawan himself, unfortunately, could not be reached for comment. However, to his defense came Hotma Ngaraja. Hotma said that the assignment of Chairawan and Zahri Siregar was decided on after both passed selection tests.

"In the Military Resort Command course, both scored top ratings," he said. The previous Korem commanders, according to Hotma, were replaced not because they had been unsuccessful but because their time for rotation had come.

Colonel A.Y. Nasution admitted that the security condition in his former area of jurisdiction was not completely as expected yet. "Security disturbances still occur from GAM," he said. The job is now in the hands of his successor.

[Tulus Wijanarko, Sita Planasari (Jakarta), Imran M.A. (Lhok Semawe.]

International relations

Indonesia plans to pull out of OPEC

Jakarta Post - February 8, 2005

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- The government has set up a team tasked with reviewing Indonesia's membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) due to the country's falling crude oil production, which is bringing the country closer to becoming a net fuel importer.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro told a Monday hearing with the House of Representatives' mining and environment commission that despite the advantages of being a member of the oil cartel, the country faced several problems in maintaining its membership.

"We are studying whether we are already a net oil importer and thus no longer eligible to be an OPEC member," the minister said. "The team will forward the results of the study to the Cabinet as any plan for our withdrawal from OPEC will be a diplomatic issue." The team is led by Rachmat Sudibyo, a former chairman of the Oil and Gas Upstream Regulatory Agency (BP Migas).

Purnomo said that Indonesia's crude oil imports and exports were roughly in balance, but that there were some disparities in the import and export value of oil products. The ministry's Director General for Oil and Gas Iin Arifin Takhyan said Indonesia was a net oil importer for four months of last year. The country's oil output has fallen by 5 percent annually over the last decade to less than one million barrels per day (bpd).

He acknowledged that the country's crude oil exports dropped to 30,000 bpd in 2004 compared to 100,000 bpd in 2003.

Reports from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said that oil and gas imports -- including both crude oil and oil products -- increased sharply by 52.36 percent in 2004.

The increasing imports were due to declining oil production from the country's aging oil fields and rising domestic demand of up to 7 percent per year.

Purnomo said that any plan to withdraw from OPEC would have to be a political decision by the government as it "involves our diplomatic ties with other OPEC members, especially the gulf countries." Indonesia joined OPEC in 1962, two years after Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela established the group.

Last month, Indonesia, the only OPEC member in Southeast Asia, only produced 952,600 bpd of crude, well below its 1.4 million bpd quota.

House energy commission members, who backed the withdrawal of the country from OPEC, said the $2 million annual membership fee was to expensive in light of the benefits received.

"The commission recommends that the government withdraw from OPEC as it is no longer beneficial for us to stay in the organization," the legislators said in their response to Monday's hearing.

Winning friends and influencing US foreign policy

PR Watch - February 7, 2005

Diane Farsetta -- "I hope that, as a result of our efforts, as a result of our helicopter pilots' being seen by the citizens of Indonesia helping them, that value system of ours will be reinforced," said Colin Powell, one week after the tsunami wrought havoc across South and Southeast Asia.

Contemplating the public relations benefits of aid efforts following so many deaths may seem callous, but the United States wasn't the only country hoping to benefit from images of uniform-clad do-gooders distributing food and water to traumatized villagers.

The Indonesian province of Aceh, "Ground Zero" for the tsunami, has been under declared or de facto martial law since mid-2003 (and through most of the 1990's before that). In May 2003, the Indonesian military launched its largest offensive in nearly 30 years, in Aceh. Weeks later, Indonesian Communications and Information Minister Syamsul Muarif complained that the news from Aceh focused on "soldiers dragging corpses" instead of efforts to rehabilitate schools. "We are weak in international public relations, and because of that, reports by foreign media are often damaging," he explained.

Most observers say it's a well-deserved bad rap. Indonesia insists its Aceh offensive is targeted at armed pro-independence forces (the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym, GAM). However, the organization Human Rights Watch found "extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and torture" of young men the military believes, "often without evidence, to be members or supporters of GAM."

Amnesty International documented "human rights abuses so pervasive that there is virtually no part of life in the province which remains untouched." They concluded, "The Indonesian security forces bear primary responsibility for these human rights violations, although GAM has also committed serious human rights abuses."

Over the years, a litany of well-documented human rights concerns has increasingly isolated the Indonesian military on the world stage. To help clean up its image, the Indonesian government has turned to US-based PR and lobbying firms.

Hill & Knowlton and White & Case contributed to Indonesia's lobbying bill for mid-1991 through 1992, which totaled $6.8 million. Based on a 1991 communications plan commissioned from the Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller firm, Indonesia "gave foreign journalists information kits, with T-shirts and calendars, which try to explain its side of 'negative stories,'" reported the Australian.

Following the Indonesian military's 1991 massacre of hundreds of peaceful protesters in East Timor, the government paid Burson- Marsteller $5 million, "to help improve the country's human rights and environmental image," according to the Far Eastern Economic Review. In 1996, Indonesia signed another $5 million contract with Burson-Marsteller

In early 2001, Indonesia's Sekar Mahoni Sakti Foundation hired Advantage Associates, "to create a positive view of Indonesia with the US Congress, Administration, and Department of Defense," according to US Foreign Agents Registration Act filings. One goal was "to lift an embargo on spare parts for the C-130 military aircraft." More recently, the war on terror has been Indonesia's PR theme.

Then-Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri was the first foreign leader to visit the United States after September 11, 2001, arriving one week after the attacks. "Jakarta had considered postponing the trip," Stanford professor Donald Emmerson told a Congressional hearing. "In the end, the American side decided it wanted to proceed, knowing the public relations value of early and visible support by the ruler of the world's largest Muslim population."

Indonesia also realized the PR potential. The government retained APCO Worldwide in 2003, to pitch its importance as a "front-line state in the war on terrorism," wrote the PR trade publication O'Dwyer's. The deal included media outreach and legislative meetings. In 2004, Alston & Bird contracted with an Indonesian logging magnate to "position" the country "as a solid ally in President Bush's war on terror and one that is committed to democracy and human rights." In addition to policymakers and reporters, Alston & Bird was directed to sway other US "opinion-shapers," including "think tanks and academia."

Indonesia's most influential ally may be former US Senator -- and current Alston & Bird special counsel -- Bob Dole. In January 2004, the Far Eastern Economic Review reported that Indonesia had hired Dole as a lobbyist. "Among the issues Dole might address is the restoration of a program to train Indonesian military officers in the United States," according to National Journal's CongressDaily.

Shortly afterwards, Indonesia denied having a "blanket contract" with Dole. Government spokesperson Marty Natalegawa said, "There is an expression of readiness from the gentleman to help Indonesia on a case-by-case basis."

Other US image assistance followed. In December 2004, six US Pacific Command officers led a three-day discussion for Indonesian Army, Navy and Air Force members, on "how to present information and news to the press." The Jakarta Post reported, "The officers shared experiences in dealing with the media." One US officer "hailed the Indonesian military program to embed journalists during the operation to crush rebels in Aceh." He remarked, "We did the same in Iraq."

Yet the payoff has been slow in coming. A ban on US military assistance for Indonesia, enacted after the military's post- referendum devastation of East Timor in 1999, remains mostly intact, although it has come under increasing attack from the Bush administration and some members of Congress.

Then came the tsunami. While the Indonesian military's involvement in humanitarian efforts is necessary and normal, local and international observers have complained of aid obstruction and continued operations against supposed GAM rebels. Australian journalists who witnessed a military attack were told by an Indonesian commander, "Your duties here are to observe the disaster, not the conflict."

In a PR faux pas, Indonesia's first head of relief operations in Aceh was Major General Adam Damiri, who has been indicted by a United Nations-backed tribunal for war crimes in East Timor. After he was replaced, the Washington Post remarked, "Damiri's continued role at the air base could have complicated US efforts to provide humanitarian assistance."

Now, the momentum might be on the Indonesian military's side. In January 2005, Powell offered Indonesia spare parts for C-130 military aircraft. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, long a proponent of close military ties, declared during a mid- January visit to the country, "Everybody loses a great deal ... when you cut off [Indonesia's] contact with [our] military." Reports in influential media like the New York Times wrongly claim, "Even proponents of the [Indonesian military] sanctions ... acknowledge that the best hope for developing an army whose conduct fits a democracy is to train officers in the United States."

"The tsunami must not be used as an excuse to sweep away US military restrictions on Indonesia," warned the East Timor Action Network's John Miller. But if that happens, many US PR firms share the blame.

[Diane Farsetta is senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy.]

Military ties

Wolfowitz praises Indonesia, but no decision on restrictions

Associated Press - February 10, 2005

Ken Guggenheim, Washington -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz praised "a new era" of democratic rule in Indonesia, but said no decision has been made yet about lifting restrictions on ties with the Indonesian military.

Wolfowitz lauded Indonesia for replacing military rulers with a civilian government, reducing human rights abuses and cooperating with an FBI investigation into the killings of two Americans in Indonesia in 2002.

"There's a lot of change, in short, and I think as important as it is to work for an accounting of things that were done in the past, I do think that this is a new era," he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the US response to the tsunami.

But Democratic Senator Russell Feingold said despite some improvements, "this doesn't mean there isn't an ongoing, urgent need for military reform in Indonesia."

He said more progress is needed in accounting for past abuses, restricting the military's "many murky financial and business relationships" and in bring to justice those responsible for the 2002 killings of two American teachers at a gold mine in Papua province. US officials have suspected Indonesian military involvement in the deaths.

Congress cut military aid to Indonesia in 1999 when Indonesian soldiers were blamed for violence in the separatist East Timor region. It later prohibited the resumption of military ties until the US government determines that Indonesia is cooperating in the murder investigation.

Wolfowitz, a former ambassador to Indonesia, suggested in a visit to the country last month that closer relations between the militaries could have strengthened the response to the tsunami and would improve Indonesia's commitment to human rights.

Some congressional Democrats and rights advocates say existing restrictions do not impede cooperation on humanitarian missions or human rights training.

Wolfowitz said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would consult with lawmakers on the Indonesia issue over the next couple of weeks.

Bush seeks normalization of ties with brutal military

In These Times - Cover dated February 28, 2005

Tim Shorrock -- The Bush administration and the Pentagon are leveraging warmer post-tsunami relations with Indonesia to convince Congress to lift its restrictions on full military ties with the world's largest Muslim nation.

But lawmakers and human rights groups say the Indonesian government must first account for its past abuses in East Timor and end its repressive military tactics in sections of the country seeking independence.

"Many of my colleagues and I firmly believe that now is not the time to advance efforts toward normalizing military relations," wrote Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, in a January 18 letter to Adm. Thomas Fargo, the commander of the US

Pacific Command who is leading the Pentagon's efforts. Evans' views are widely held in Congress, where even Republicans are wary of the Indonesian army, known as the TNI, and its record of corruption and brutality.

The administration's push began in January, when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz visited Aceh province, where an estimated 220,000 people were killed by the tsunami. The US military relief effort marked the highest level of US- Indonesian cooperation since 1991, when Congress imposed a ban on US training of Indonesian officers under the State Department's International Military Education and Training (IMET) program. Upon his return, Wolfowitz urged Congress to reevaluate the IMET restrictions. "We can have more positive influence that way," he told PBS's "Online News Hour."

The congressional ban, which also includes restrictions on US arms sales to Jakarta, was extended in 2000 after militias trained by the TNI rampaged through East Timor on the eve of the country's historic independence vote, killing hundreds of people and wrecking the capital city of Dili.

Under legislation passed last fall, Congress declared that IMET training cannot begin until the State Department confirms that the Indonesian government has fully cooperated in the FBI's investigation into the August 31, 2002 murders of two American employees of the mining giant Freeport McMoRan during a military-style ambush in West Papua province.

After her televised confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress that the administration is "currently evaluating whether to issue the required determination." But she was unequivocal on the training funds. "IMET for Indonesia is in the US interest," she said in a written response to questions posed to her by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.).

IMET, she added, will "strengthen the professionalism of military officers, especially with respect to the norms of democratic civil-military relations such as transparency, civilian supremacy, public accountability and respect for human rights."

But recent actions by the TNI have not helped the administration's cause. At the time of the tsunami disaster, Aceh had been closed to outside observers and humanitarian groups since May 2003, when martial law was declared. By all accounts, TNI's fighting with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) -- the armed group seeking independence -- has been savage.

Last November, Human Rights Watch said it had "substantial evidence" that Indonesian security forces "have engaged in extra-judicial executions, forced disappearances, torture, beatings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and drastic limits on freedom of movement in Aceh." The watch group also cited the "massive internal displacement" of "tens of thousands of civilians [who] have fled their homes or been forcibly relocated by the military for operational reasons."

A similar situation is unfolding in West Papua in the eastern part of the archipelago. In January, the TNI launched an offensive against the Free Papua Movement (OPM) -- the group fighting for independence there -- driving an estimated 14,000 people from their homes in the Central Highlands.

The TNI responded to the tsunami like it was an extension of war. International aid agencies arriving on the scene objected to the military's severe restrictions on humanitarian operations and its demands that all relief flow through the army. The TNI made the situation worse by launching attacks on GAM units and withholding relief from civilians suspected of supporting the fighters. (In mid-January, the TNI said it had killed 120 rebels and accused them of trying to derail aid efforts, a charge denied by GAM leaders.) Apparently stung by international criticism, the newly elected government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent a delegation to Finland on January 28 to open talks with GAM's leadership.

Many US lawmakers are still deeply uneasy about links between elements of the TNI and fundamentalist Muslim groups inside of Indonesia. Moreover, the Indonesian government's actions in West Papua, the site of the 2002 killings, is raising more questions about the TNI's ties to violent militia groups.

Last July, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that a Washington grand jury had indicted Anthonious Wamang in the attack on the mining employees. Ashcroft identified Wamang as an "operational commander" of the military wing of the OPM. Rice, in her comments to Congress, said that the FBI had "uncovered no evidence indicating TNI involvement" in the murders.

But according to Elsham, an independent human rights group in Papua that has investigated the attack, Wamang has close ties to the Indonesian military. John Rumbiak, Elsham's director, told In These Times that Elsham has evidence that Wamang was "armed, wined and dined" by TNI officers and was once flown by the military to Jakarta, where he stayed in luxury hotels courtesy of the TNI -- his ostensible enemies.

"The truth behind the killings of the two Americans is that the TNI was involved," Rumbiak says. "The issue is, were these military people operating as individuals or as an institution?"

Patsy Spier, a teacher who lost her husband in the 2002 Papua attack and was herself seriously wounded, said in an interview that she has "no doubt" that the FBI -- which collected its own forensic evidence in Indonesia -- had enough evidence to bring a case against Wamang. "But who ordered [the attack], and who supplied the guns and the ammunition?" she asks.

Spier says the FBI has offered to return to Indonesia to help apprehend additional participants in the attack and assist in issuing indictments, but " Indonesia hasn't responded." This case "should remind us why the training funds were held up in the first place," she said. "They've got to be willing to bring to justice those people who committed crimes and are still in service."

[Tim Shorrock, a freelance journalist based in Washington, is writing a book about corporations and foreign policy. He can be reached through his blog at timshorrock.blogspot.com.]

Rights groups urge US not to lift ban on military

Associated Press - February 7, 2005

Kenji Hall, Jakarta -- Human rights groups on Tuesday called on the United States not to ease restrictions on ties with Indonesia's military saying it continues to commit "brutal human rights violations."

The US Congress, which cut military ties in 1999 when Indonesian troops devastated the province of East Timor, is considering easing a six-year ban on training links with the southeast Asian nation.

Congress later prohibited resumed military ties until Indonesia cooperated with a US investigation into the slayings of two American teachers in Indonesia's Papua province.

In recent weeks, the two countries' armed forces have worked together to offer relief to Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, and US officials have suggested they are considering closer contact with Indonesia's military.

But rights officials said that Indonesian generals haven't met congressional demands -- or reformed their brutal ways. "The argument is that restoring ties would improve their behavior. But we think just the opposite would happen," East Timor Action Network's John Miller told The Associated Press, by telephone from New York. He accused Indonesian troops of "nothing less than brutal human rights violations and impunity for crimes against humanity."

The administration of President George W. Bush says it needs the cooperation of the Indonesian armed forces in its global war on terrorism. But critics say the effort is motivated more by Washington desire to counterbalance China's growing economic and strategic clout in Southeast Asia.

Abigail Abrash Walton, with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in Washington, said US officials were trying to capitalize on "post-tsunami politics."

"The Indonesian government has not cooperated fully with the FBI investigation of the brutal murders of two American teachers at the Freeport copper and gold mine in West Papua," Walton said.

"There has been absolutely no progress since June in resolving this criminal attack. How can the State Department credibly claim that more than seven months of stonewalling by Indonesian authorities constitutes 'cooperation'?"

Separately on Monday, rights groups criticized the Indonesian government's plans to relocate to barracks hundreds of thousands of refugees left homeless in Aceh after the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. The disaster killed more than 110,000 people, and left more than 120,000 others missing.

Indonesian officials said they plan later this month to move up to a fourth of the estimated 400,000 refugees in the province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, while villages are rebuilt. The barracks will likely be guarded by Indonesian soldiers, who are feared and disliked by large sections of the population.

In a joint statement, New York-based Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First said military control of the barracks would effectively create ghetto communities with little contact with the outside.

"In the context of the war in Aceh, a military presence at the camps can be a form of intimidation and abusive control," said Neil Hicks, Human Rights First's director of international programs.

Since the 1970s, the country's abusive army has forced thousands of villagers into camps to try to cut off widespread support for Aceh province's separatist guerrillas.

The government has denied it has a political agenda in setting up the camps, and says no one will be forced into them.

Washington warms to Indonesia's unruly army

Inter Press Service - February 7, 2005

Jim Lobe, Washington -- As US President George W. Bush last week reiterated his strong support for spreading freedom abroad, his administration was preparing to remove a major obstacle to restoring full ties with Indonesia's armed forces (TNI), widely regarded as one of the world's most abusive militaries.

According to Congressional offices contacted last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the State Department will soon "certify" that the TNI is cooperating fully in the investigation of the murder of two US schoolteachers in West Papua in 1982. The State Department confirmed Monday that the question is under active review.

Once the certification takes place, Indonesia will be eligible to receive 600,000 dollars to participate in the Department's International Military Education and Training (IMET) programme, from which it has been barred since 1992 after army troops massacred more than 100 peaceful demonstrators in East Timor.

The move, long urged by the Pentagon for strategic reasons, will leave in place only one sanction imposed by Congress against the TNI as a form of pressure to improve its human rights performance and ensure its subordination to Indonesia's civilian-led government: a 1999 ban on the sale of lethal military equipment to the TNI imposed after the army and TNI-backed militias killed hundreds of people in East Timor following a plebiscite in which the population voted overwhelmingly for independence.

Human rights groups and activists, some of whom warned Monday against Jakarta's plans to register and relocate up to 100,000 tsunami refugees in conflict-wracked Aceh province to semi- permanent camps controlled by the police military brigade (BRIMOB), are protesting the move as premature and shortsighted.

"The amount of money for IMET may be small, but its symbolic value is enormous," said John Miller, spokesperson for the East Timor Action Network (ETAN). "The Indonesian military will view any restoration of IMET as an endorsement of business as usual."

"Business as usual," he added, "has been nothing less than brutal human rights violations and impunity for crimes against humanity. In tsunami-stricken Aceh, the Indonesian military continues to manipulate relief efforts and to attack civilians as part of their counterinsurgency war."

Miller's fears were echoed by Edward McWilliams, a retired senior foreign-service officer who headed the political section of the US embassy in Jakarta from 1996 to 1999. "I think the message that would be derived from this is that the US is no longer concerned about real reform of the Indonesian military," he told IPS.

"I think that's a tragic mistake, both in terms of our relationship with Indonesian military and with the people of Indonesia," he added, noting that civil society groups in Indonesia have welcomed the fact that Washington has withheld aid.

"I think they would feel themselves abandoned by this," said McWilliams, who added that the IMET ban was "highly symbolic and thus very important in the dialogue between Washington and the military."

The Bush administration has long wanted restore full military ties with Indonesia. As the world's most populous Muslim nation, occupying an enormous archipelago that controls some of the world's busiest and most important sea lanes, it is seen as a major strategic asset, particularly in the "war on terrorism" and as a possible counterweight to China in Southeast Asia.

It has been constrained from doing so largely as a result of Congress' insistence that the restoration of military aid and sales should be conditioned on demonstrated improvement in the TNI's human-rights performance.

This is particularly true in Aceh and West Papua, where it is also challenged by a low-level insurgency, the prosecution of the perpetrators of serious abuses, including those that occurred in East Timor in 1999, its subordination to civilian control, and, most recently, cooperation with a US investigation of the 2002 ambush of schoolteachers and their families near the giant Freeport McMohan gold mine on West Papua.

Since September 11, 2001, however, the administration has persuaded Congress to drop or water down most of the conditions, leaving only the last place. At the same time, it has opened a variety of new aid channels designed to circumvent the military ban. For example, it has provided several million dollars in "counter-terrorism" assistance and training; provided money for the so-called E-IMET, or expanded IMET, programmes; and carried out dozens of joint military exercises with the TNI.

After the December 26 tsunami, it also facilitated Indonesia's purchase of spare parts for C-130 transport planes to carry out relief operations in Aceh, where some 220,000 people are believed to have been killed.

Washington took an active part in the relief operations in Aceh, and cooperation between its forces and the TNI was cited by visiting Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who served as ambassador to Jakarta in the early 1980s, as another reason to restore ties.

"Cutting off contact with Indonesian officers only makes the problem worse," he said during his visit in mid-January. He also stressed that the advent of Indonesia's first directly elected president, ret.

Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who received extensive military training himself, made it a particularly opportune moment to revisit IMET.

Most critics, such as Dan Lev, an Indonesia specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle, consider Yudhoyono and his civilian defence minister, Juwono Sudarsono, as reformists who want to professionalise the armed forces.

The problem, according to Lev and others, is that they cannot truly control them, particularly the army, which has been the most powerful institution in Indonesia since 1958, shortly after the US first began providing it with major support. "There are professional officers, but they're just overwhelmed by the political ones," Lev told IPS.

Juwono himself conceded in an interview with the New York Times that the military "retains the real levers of power" in Indonesia.

While the Indonesian Air Force and Navy were reportedly particularly helpful during the tsunami relief efforts, reports of army abuses, including continuing its counter-insurgency campaign against secessionist rebels who had declared a unilateral cease-fire, have persisted.

In a lengthy article Monday, the Times recounted abuses committed against Acehnese activists who protested against the army's actions, including hoarding or possibly diverting emergency assistance and forcing displaced people into barracks or camps.

That concern provoked Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Human Rights First (HRF) to warn Monday that the military may be preventing the displaced from returning to their homes by moving them into camps without consulting them. "In the context of the war in Aceh," said Neil Hicks, director of HRF's international programmes, "a military presence at the camps can be a form of intimidation and abusive control."

As to the murder case on which the IMET is expressly conditioned, critics do not see the cooperation that Rice says exists. While the US Justice Department has named one Papuan, Anthonius Wamang, as a gunman in the case, witnesses have reported there were several others.

As pointed out by Sen. Patrick Leahy, one of the TNI's strongest critics, Wamang, who has been indicted, "remains at large even though his whereabouts are reportedly known to the TNI." According to other reports, Wamang was armed by the TNI.

"Right now, the only leverage we have to ensure the FBI investigation can go forward is the IMET ban," noted McWilliams. "The notion they would give up this leverage now on the eve of a very serious FBI effort is simply inexplicable."

US takes steps to mend ties with military

New York Times - February 5, 2005

Jane Perlez, Jakarta -- After a 13-year break, the Bush administration is acting to mend relations with the Indonesian military, the largest in Southeast Asia and a potentially crucial player in its campaign against terrorism.

Washington is seizing on an opportunity that came with the tsunami, when Indonesia accepted the help of the United States military in distributing aid and had daily contacts with the Americans. Congress, concerned about Indonesia's human rights record, curbed military ties in 1992 and cut them back further five years ago after the army was involved in the killings of hundreds of civilians in East Timor, a province that has since gained independence.

Now, administration officials said, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has moved to strengthen American training of Indonesian officers considerably.

Such training allows up-and-coming officers to learn modern warfare methods, the American system of civilian control over the military, accountability and rights issues. Armies in Asia that receive the training, known as the International Military Education and Training Program, include Thailand, Malaysia, India and Pakistan.

In late January, Washington dispatched $1 million worth of spare parts for Indonesia's aging fleet of military transport planes. For the moment, the administration was not planning to push for the removal of the ban on the sale of weapons to Indonesia, although that could come later, a Pentagon official said.

The Bush administration tried once before to draw closer to Indonesia's military, but the effort failed in 2002 when two American schoolteachers were killed in Papua Province, and, American officials say, the Indonesian Army blocked American investigators.

Ms. Rice now plans to certify to Congress that Indonesia is cooperating sufficiently in investigating the Americans' deaths, a step that would remove a major stumbling block to ties, according to an aide to Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. The aide, Tim Rieser, said Ms. Rice told the senator of her decision in a telephone conversation this week. Mr. Leahy is the Congressional architect of the break in relations dating to 1992.

Mr. Leahy and others in Congress assert that the Indonesians first need to "fully cooperate" with an FBI investigation into the American deaths, and in other cases of rights abuse, before full training of Indonesian soldiers in the United States can resume. Congressional approval is necessary for a resumption of the military training.

American military officials who have been hankering since the September 11, 2001, attacks to gain access to the army, a dominant though still largely unreformed force, and the tsunami has presented the opportunity. The Bush administration views Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, as a moderate and increasingly democratic Muslim state.

At the height of the cold war, when Indonesia was under the authoritarian rule of General Suharto, it was viewed by American administrations as a bulwark against Communism in Asia. Over nearly three decades, American training and equipment poured into Indonesia, though its military became increasingly abusive and corrupt.

The Indonesian Army itself, where some factions are viewed by American officials to be sympathetic to Indonesia's Islamic extremist groups, has kept a determined distance from America. But in an interview, the civilian minister of defense, Juwono Sudarsono, who is close to the recently elected president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said he planned to go to Washington in March to make the case for what he called "re-engagement."

President Yudhoyono, a former general and one of the last Indonesian officers to receive training at a United States staff college, is seen as the first Indonesian leader with a military background to be sympathetic to reform of the military, a proud and profoundly nationalist institution that is itself skittish about restoring ties.

Mr. Juwono, who must take that attitude into account, said he intended to make a "calibrated" case to Washington that would emphasize the need for a stable Indonesia having a military with "accountability and legitimacy."

He said Indonesia would not beg on its knees. Indeed, he said, the Chinese had invited Indonesia for strategic talks last November in Beijing, the first gesture of its kind between the nations. The Chinese, he said, offered to sell Indonesia fighter jets at concessionary rates. "They emphasized there would be no conditionality," Mr. Juwono said.

Asked what Indonesia's response was, he said: "We said it depends on the strategic partnership. If it's junior partnership for Indonesia, no way."

Mr. Juwono, who was educated at the London School of Economics, said that even after the widely heralded democratic presidential election here last year, the military "retains the real levers of power." "From the political point of view, the military remains the fulcrum of Indonesia," he said.

To upgrade the military, Mr. Juwono said officers needed more training in management, budget and human rights issues at American military staff colleges. American officials also argue that training in the United States can create a more professional and disciplined force.

But Mr. Leahy said in a speech this week on the floor of the Senate that the United States needed to keep its leverage on the Indonesian military until it accounted for past actions. "Although senior Indonesian military officers have repeatedly vowed to support reform, they have done next to nothing to hold their members accountable for these heinous crimes," he said. "Instead, the Indonesian military has consistently obstructed justice."

After the two teachers' deaths in 2002, American officials said, the army blocked an FBI investigation for 18 months. The Indonesian police concluded in a report soon after the killings that elements in the Indonesian military were responsible for the deaths.

A suspect, Antonius Wamang, who is suspected of having ties to the Indonesian Army, was finally indicted by the United States last June. He remains at large, although Mr. Juwono said he believed that the Indonesian military police knew his whereabouts.

In Aceh, the Indonesian Army, which has been fighting a separatist rebellion for 30 years, has been on full display since the tsunami. Now it is common to see soldiers standing by, fully armed, as strong men among the refugees fight over boxes of food.

Soldiers at the military hangar at the Banda Aceh airport, where large quantities of aid are temporarily stored, severely beat an anticorruption activist, leaving his face swollen, and an eye badly bruised. The military said afterward that the activist, Farid Faqih, whose beaten visage was all over television and the newspapers, had taken aid belonging to the wife of the top military commander, Gen. Sutarto Endriartono. An army captain was arrested in the case after President Yudhoyono said the violence was unacceptable.

Of the incident, Mr. Juwono, the defense minister, said: "It leaves me defending the indefensible. My argument is that as long as you have an undertrained, underfed military you will get these cases."

The army's uppermost concern appears to be to keep a stranglehold on the armed fighters of the Free Aceh Movement, most of whom have been pushed in the past two years out of the urban areas of Aceh and into the more remote hills. But the army is also running refugee camps.

At Seunoddon, about 150 miles east of Banda Aceh, soldiers run three camps with varying degrees of intimidation.

At one of the camps, a village leader, Hassan Sulaiman, showed a letter he had written to the local authorities saying the villagers did not want to be moved to barracks, where many are fearful that they will be controlled by the army, but rather wanted help in rebuilding their homes. The day after he made the letter public, Mr. Hassan said the camp's leader, Cpl. Zulikifri, kicked him in the groin. The confrontation came during the distribution of household goods donated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mr. Hassan said. "The pain of the kicking was nothing compared to the pain to my dignity," he said later.

To help ensure that the rebels do not gain ground on the decimated west coast of the province, the army chief, Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, who rarely speaks with foreign journalists, said in an interview that he planned to rebuild the 200-mile coastal road from Banda Aceh to Meulaboh that was swept away by the tsunami.

The project, which Western engineers estimated could take two years, would be completed in two months with 5,000 soldiers working "night and day," the general said. In addition to reaching out to the people devastated by the tsunami, the army is trying to keep the guerrillas from setting up a stronghold if the area remained cut off.

General Ryamizard, who has strong nationalist beliefs, has boasted of rising to the top of the military without training overseas, and is among those in whom American officials say they have sensed hostility to American overtures. Asked about restoring ties, he said: "America is the one that cut relations. Why are we blamed?"

That impulse in the army to steer clear of the United States has mounted in the past decade, in part out of a sense of resentment that Washington took away what it gave during much of the cold war. For the past four years, for example, the Indonesian Air Force failed to take advantage of a slight easing on the weapons ban, said Robert Gelbhard, a former American ambassador to Indonesia.

But two shipments of American parts are now being fitted onto C- 130 planes that the Indonesians bought from the United States more than 20 years ago. Another American contribution to tsunami recovery arrived this week off the coast of Aceh -- the Mercy, a 1,000-bed United States Navy hospital ship.

American officials said they were thinking of sending teams of the Navy's public health doctors and nurses into villages on Aceh's west coast, provided that the Indonesian military agrees.

Business & investment

Water commands a price

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

The public furor over the 8.14 percent increase in tap water rates charged by PAM Jaya could scare off investors intending to submit bids for 91 infrastructure projects over the next few months following the January 17 and January 18 Infrastructure Summit in Jakarta.

Demands by several narrow-minded Jakarta legislative councilors to repeal the rate increase send the wrong signal, giving potential investors a glimpse of the complexity of the legal, social and political issues they may encounter here.

The current City Council will not do the people, or the local economy, any good if legislators move to cancel a decision that was made through the normal political process. This lack of legal certainty will simply frighten away investors considering doing business here.

The rate increase, effective as of January 20, was based on a joint decision by the Jakarta government and the previous City Council in July 2004, which gave PAM Jaya the power to adjust its rates in response to inflation and other factors every semester between 2005 and 2007.

The rate mechanisms were adopted with a great degree of transparency and accountability after thorough deliberation and discussion by the government and the legislative council.

Anything that is both scarce and in demand commands a price. That is simple economics, even when talking about public goods and basic needs. Water is scarce, so water rates have increasingly been used as an acceptable instrument of public policy to expand supply, improve service and, at the same time, encourage more responsible use of the commodity.

An adequate pricing policy is even more crucial for investments in infrastructure projects and public utilities, which are long term in scope and vulnerable to inflation, especially in developing countries like Indonesia.

An efficient and effective water pricing system provides incentives for efficient water use and for water quality protection, and generates funds for necessary infrastructure development and expansion.

This is the principle the July 2004 decision tried to establish for the water company, to enable it to sustain viable operations and improve and expand services at affordable prices.

True, the quality of PAM Jaya's service is still far below what most customers expect, but this is the very reason the company should be allowed to adjust its rates periodically, to keep up with inflation and to encourage it to make new investments.

The water company, which is owned by the Jakarta administration, is not only profit-oriented but also encourages the efficient use of water through "volumetric" charging, not fixed charges. This means that the more you use, the more you pay because the charges increase with each additional cubic meter of water used. This is contrary to other commodities, which usually charge less for high-volume purchases.

Concern about the affordability of household water services for vulnerable groups, such as low-income households and retired people, has led to the development of a range of policy measures aimed at resolving affordability problems while still meeting economic goals.

PAM Jaya, for example, charges only Rp 550 per cubic meter for low-volume (poor) users and Rp 9,750 for well-off (high-volume) consumers. A similar pricing mechanism and an automatic price adjustment formula are also applied for electricity users.

If the city administration thinks water rates are still too high for many poor consumers, it should not address the problem through across-the-board policies but rather with well-targeted subsidy mechanisms.

Taxpayers in Jakarta will foot the bill if PAM Jaya suffers losses due to tight price controls that do not allow the company to get a reasonable profit margin. The water company will not be able to expand its network to serve more consumers if it cannot make a reasonable income for new investments.

Water charges have increased in recent years because water quality has often gotten worse as a result of overconsumption, especially in heavily populated cities like Jakarta where polluted groundwater necessitates more sophisticated and more expensive treatments, with a consequent need to develop more expensive demand-management or supply-based regimes.

We support the determination of Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who said last week he would push ahead with the implementation of the July 2004 decision on water rates.

The city government and PAM Jaya, however, need to brief the City Council and inform the public about the rationale for the automatic price adjustments and the factors to which these periodical adjustments are tied.

Investment to grow by 15 percent: World Bank

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Leony Aurora, Jakarta -- The World Bank expects investment in Indonesia to grow by 15 percent this year, but warns that further measures to improve the investment climate must be taken to maintain the momentum.

The bank's economist William Wallace said that at the moment there was an excess demand from customers, forcing producers to look for new investment to boost their production capacity to meet and cash in on the rising demand.

"Once the demand is met, it [investment] will settle back down if the investment climate doesn't improve," he said on the sidelines of a seminar held by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) on Friday.

To maintain investment and lure bigger investors -- in mining, oil and gas, infrastructure and the like -- in 2006 and beyond, the government needs to improve the system this year.

Indonesia is in dire need of infrastructure to support the flow of investment into the country. The government has estimated that it would need a whopping US$150 billion in new investment for infrastructure projects over the next five-year period, of which 55 percent is expected to come from foreign investors or loans from donor countries.

The HSBC views that investment in Indonesia has now reached to a point where it would likely be more sustainable.

From the demand side, capacity utilization is rising and factories have started to produce goods again. Profit expectations from companies are also rising following the increasing demand from the people.

HSBC head of sales and global marketing Radianto Kusumo warns, however, that the country should not rely too much on investment as the main drive behind Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

"In 2004, investment contributed approximately 2.2 percentage points to the total GDP growth of 5.9 percent," he said. The rest was contributed by consumption from the government and consumers, both domestic and foreign.

"This is an ideal balance," he added. If investment contributed more than 50 percent of the GDP growth, people would wonder whether the demand would catch up with the excessive investment.

In Indonesia's pre-crisis economy -- which saw massive investment from foreign and domestic players -- investment contributed between 4 and 5 percentage points of the between 7 percent and 8 percent growth, or more than 50 percent.

The World Bank forecast, in its latest report, that Indonesia's economy would grow by 6 percent on average between 2006 and 2009.

Other macroeconomic indicators are also encouraging, as seen in the declining trend in the state budget deficit from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 1.2 percent in 2004, and an estimated 1 percent this year.

Wallace said that Asian countries, including Malaysia, Taiwan, and China, had shown apparent interest in Indonesia. "They're more comfortable with the operating environment here," he said.

"If they continue to make profit, the Europeans, Americans, and the Japanese will follow with bigger projects," he added.

BI urges government to hike fuel prices immediately

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- The central bank is urging the government to immediately raise fuel prices to end uncertainty, since the issue has been used by some parties to speculate over the prices of goods, which then pushes up inflation.

The government should no longer play it safe by constantly delaying plans to raise fuel prices, Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said, saying that a further delay would only put the economy at greater risk.

"There is currently uncertainty over our economy due to the delay. I suggest the government immediately executes the plan or it will put our inflation target in jeopardy," he said at the meeting of a powerful business lobby group within the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), which entered its second and final day on Friday.

The government had earlier said that it would probably raise fuel prices by an average of 30 percent in the near future, as a result of a reduction in the fuel subsidy. Still, the time for the scheduled increase has not been determined.

The plan to raise fuel prices was actually rolled out during the administration of former President Megawati Soekarnoputri, while the current government has been pledging to execute the plan since November.

"The government has conducted an information drive about the plan in order to reduce protests from the public, and that is good. But it remains unclear when it will take place. Some businessmen are now taking advantage of the uncertainty," said Burhanuddin.

According to Burhanuddin, more and more businessmen were now stockpiling their goods in anticipation of the fuel hike to later sell the goods at higher prices, causing a shortage in supply which in turn triggers inflation due to the uncontrollable rise in the prices of the goods.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) announced earlier this week that the inflation rate for January stood at 1.43 percent, the highest monthly level in four years, mostly due to a rise in the prices of basic foods, housing and utilities.

During the meeting with Kadin, Burhanuddin warned businessmen against stockpiling because it would destabilize the current macroeconomic condition. The government has targeted inflation at between 6.5 percent and 7 percent.

A raise in inflation eats up the people's purchasing power and eventually affects consumer spending -- a prerequisite for the robust domestic consumption that has been the driving force behind economic growth since the economic crisis.

Burhanuddin indicated on Thursday that the central bank would raise its benchmark interest rate (SBI) to limit the inflationary impact. At present, the three-month SBI rate stands at 7.42 percent.

Burhanuddin, however, was optimistic that the banking sector would not make an upward adjustment in its interest rates amid stiff competition in offering loans to the real sector.

"I don't think the rise in SBI will prompt banks to increase their lending interest rate. They still have to consider their competitors before taking any decision, or risk lose their customers," he said.

Total case will spook investors: IPA

Jakarta Post - February 5, 2005

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- While the legal battle involving Total E&P Indonesie -- a local affiliate of French oil giant Total SA -- and its contractors is only in its early stages, it is already sending a bad signal about Indonesia's investment climate.

President of the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) Chris B. Newton said the bankruptcy case against Total was not helping the investment climate at all, and feared it would scare away badly- needed foreign investment.

"This is not helping with the overall investment climate. Total is a large company and I am sure they have their reasons [on the case]," Newton told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

IPA groups together oil and gas contractors and service firms in Indonesia.

On January 14, PT Istana Karang Laut and PT Sanggar Kaltim Jaya filed a bankruptcy petition in the Jakarta Commercial Court against Total, accusing the company of breaching a contract over a project in the Tunu field in East Kalimantan, by failing to pay US$7.2 million in claims.

A contract was signed in 2001 between Total and contractor Sanggar Kaltim, but Sanggar later subcontracted the work to Istana Karang. The block's Tunu and Peciko fields supply PT Badak NGL, one of the world's biggest LNG plants.

The contractors argued that Total was $7.2 million short in fulfilling the contract. Total is denying the claim, saying there is no substantial evidence of such debt and insisting that they have fulfilled all of their obligations to the contractors.

Newton added that investors would get confused over the fact that in Indonesia a company as large and financially-sound as Total could be declared "bankrupt" over relatively small amounts of funds. Total SA is currently the world's second largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer.

"The law on bankruptcy is an issue, because it can actually declare a multi-billion dollar company bankrupt over a very small amount of money," Newton, who is also a top executive at Santos, remarked.

Oil and gas analyst Kurtubi also acknowledged the magnitude of the case, and the impact it could have on the industry as a whole. He therefore urged that the court be prudent in deciding the case, and that the country should not be prejudiced from the ongoing trial process.

"Should the court grant the [bankruptcy] petition, it should be made in such a way that it will not burden the country. It is up to the court but they have to keep in mind that this case concerns the state," he told the Post.

However, the contractors' lawyer O.C. Kaligis argued that the case should not be seen as a threat to foreign investors as all companies operating in Indonesia must abide by the law.

"This is a simple case, they owe some money that they have to pay. It is impossible for Total to stay here for so many years without benefiting from their projects," Kaligis said.

People

Pramoedya now lives peaceful, venerable life

Jakarta Post - February 11, 2005

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta -- In a party held to celebrate his 80th birthday at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) building Indonesia's most credible candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, displayed a trait that was in sharp contrast with his customary nature.

"I have done all that I wanted to do and I am already in possession of all that I always wanted to have. I want to spend my old age in peace," the normally defiant Pramoedya told hundreds of his admirers who packed one of TIM's galleries.

Such a sense of complacency would be out of place if put alongside Pramoedya's usual habit of voicing his displeasure of the socio-political conditions around him. As he has grown older, Pramoedya has never lost his appetite for criticizing each ruling regime and the feebleness of every generation that faces the powers that be.

The birthday statement, however, seemed justified considering all that he has gone through during his life.

Silenced by almost every regime for his work, which often detailed the plights of marginalized subjects such as petty criminals, sex workers or street vendors, Pramoedya has experienced the worst kind of oppression, from being banished to a prison island where he lived under a gulag-like conditions, to receiving corporal punishment that has left an everlasting impact on his health.

"I am amazed how I have been given such a long life, considering the fact that I was born premature and have always had a variety of health problems," he said with a chuckle.

Pram, as he is often called, then spoke at length about the panacea for all his health problems, the onion, and advised the audience about the condiment's use.

And by his 80th birthday, his longing for a peaceful old age, it could be said, has been fulfilled.

In a sharp contrast with his earlier hardships, the revered Pram now lives the quiet life in a house on the outskirts of Jakarta with the company of his wife Maemunah Thamrin, the niece of national hero M.H. Thamrin, with occasional visits from his 16 grandchildren.

His 34 books and essays, a continuing inspiration to the country's youth, have now been translated into 37 languages including English, French, Dutch and even Catalan.

Pram now barely writes, apart from signing his pay receipts from the growing sale of books he penned during his productive years, and he says his only current literary activity is collecting information for an encyclopedia on Indonesian geography.

"Youth these days don't know much about their own land. This is why such an encyclopedia is of great importance," he said, before launching into an extended commentary about the failure of younger generations to produce a leader of the caliber of the country's first president, Soekarno.

Pram was born in February 6, 1925 in Blora, a barren and destitute small town in the northern part of Central Java as the eldest son of M. Toer, the headmaster of the nationalist school, Instituut Boedi Oetomo (IBO). His father was also an activist with the Nationalist Indonesian Party (PNI), a political group that worked for Indonesia's independence, which was founded by Soekarno in the late 1920s.

It was his father who gave him a perspective on political affairs, in the same way as his mother tutored him about life principles. "It is my mother who always taught me to count on myself and not ask for God's help in my daily affairs. Praying to God only displays our frailty as human beings," Pram said.

This self-reliance made Pram an individualist -- and a great writer. Pram wrote the 1962 Gadis Pantai (A Girl from the Beach) to pay homage to his mother.

Taking 10 years to complete the seven-year elementary school course at the IBO, graduating in 1939, Pram for the next year did not go to school because his father did not approve the study.

With the money he collected from trading rice with his mother in 1940 he went to Surabaya to continue his schooling and graduated from the Radiovakschool (Radio Vocational School) at the end of 1941. Thereafter, he was conscripted into the radio telegraph section of the Stadswacht (City Civil Defense).

For the first four months of the Japanese occupation, together with a younger sibling, he looked after his family until his mother's death, whereupon they moved to Jakarta.

It was during the Japanese occupation, he joined Pemuda paramilitary organization, and then entered an army unit of the Indonesian Military's Siliwangi Division's Regiment 6, which operated in East Jakarta.

While Pramoedya was a second lieutenant in the division, he was first imprisoned in Bukit Duri jail from 1948 to 1949 by the Dutch for his anti-colonial beliefs. It was there that he wrote the short story collection Percikan Revolusi (the Spark of Revolution) and the novel Perburuan (the Hunting), which won First Prize from state publishing house Balai Pustaka.

In 1953, Pram moved to the Netherlands along with his family at the invitation of the Dutch-Indonesian Institute for Cultural Cooperation, Sticusa. There he wrote Korupsi (Corruption) and Midah si Manis Bergigi Emas (Midah, Sweetheart with Gold Teeth).

Upon his return to the country in 1958, he gained the membership of Lembaga Kesenian Rakyat (People's Art Agency) or Lekra, an organization affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

From 1962 to 1965, he served as editor for Lentera, the cultural supplement of the PKI's Bintang Timur daily newspaper.

Pram's involvement with communist groups meant he was imprisoned again in the anticommunist purge by the militaristic Suharto regime when the general took over from Soekarno.

After being transferred from prison to prison in Java, he was finally locked away on the remote island of Buru, offshore of Maluku. There, Pram produced the works considered to be his masterpiece, the Buru Quartet, consisting of the Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass.

The works only reached the public after they were smuggled out of the prison.

Pram has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature on the merit of the quartet alone.

Asked whether he thought the quartet represented the pinnacle of his efforts Pram said: "All my works are equal in quality. I can't say that one is better than the others.

Pramoedya still going strong at 80

Jakarta Post - February 7, 2005

Evi Mariani, Jakarta -- "I don't know what to say," novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, overwhelmed by the moment, finally uttered at his 80th birthday party with family and friends on Sunday afternoon. After giving a brief thank you to all the people who came to his birthday, he sat down and wiped the tears from his eyes.

The frail writer has to walk with the aid of a stick. He also has difficulty hearing. But in the 80th year of his rich and venerable life, he looked quite strong, healthy and happy. "Oh, I've been taking a break from writing, except for signing my pay receipts," Pramoedya said jokingly, during the function held at the lounge of the luxury Pakubuwono Residence in South Jakarta.

The birthday party, in large part arranged by Indonesian author Eka Budianta, was attended by a wide range of people, from university professor Apsanti Djokosujatno, entrepreneur Bob Sadino in his usual short pants, veteran singer Titiek Puspa, to television soap opera actress Cornelia Agatha.

After being the symbol of the oppressed for the duration of the authoritarian New Order era, Pramoedya is still cast as a literary icon.

Pram, as he is often called, born in Blora in Central Java on Feb. 6, 1925, was jailed for 14 years without trial by Soeharto's New Order regime due to his links to the literary wing of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The years he spent in prisons, in particular the 10 years in a prison camp on Buru Island in Central Maluku, were his most productive years when he created his internationally acclaimed quartet novels -- The Earth of Mankind, Child of All Nations, Footsteps, and House of Glass. They were published surreptitiously in the 1980s by Hasta Mitra, which was managed by Pram's friend Joesoef Isaak.

During the New Order government, the four books became a reference and a kind of "bible" for progressive students and victims of injustice.

Pram, whose works have been translated into 20 languages, won the 1995 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. He rose to prominence after he was nominated several times for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Opinion & analysis

Freedom in transition

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 11, 2005

Not too long ago there was a time when the public, and journalists in particular, lived with a collective daily dose of fear. A fear of speaking out about one's political opinion no matter how benign this expression might be. Any voice that even remotely could displease authorities was self-censored.

Silencing disgruntled voices and alternative opinions ensured "bad" news was rarely heard. Deprived of their capacity to think freely, the public was expected to act like robots -- they had to believe what they were told, and were forced to repeat the lies they were fed.

Dissent became localized. Variance became a sign of harmful radicalism.

Indonesia seems to experience cycles of liberty and repression. As the country completes its sixth decade of independence, it is fortunately undergoing a rise in the freedom of expression.

It was during the decade after independence in 1945 that political and press freedom reached its initial peak. But these freedoms were curtailed as the country entered a phase of despotism.

There was freedom again briefly at the beginning of the New Order -- until Soeharto's regime got stronger.

An explosion of political optimism again brought about new freedoms after the fall of Soeharto in 1998. Since then freedom of expression and that of the press has generally become more widespread.

The different administrations since Soeharto have adopted various attitudes towards the challenge of freedom of expression -- from the supportive, to the indifferent, to the confused. One thing the three post-Soeharto presidents did realize is that it would be political suicide to openly junk these basic freedoms.

However, despite the rapid growth of media organizations, publications, and a competitive press corps, we have also seen newsrooms attacked, journalists indicted as criminals for their writing and demonstrators jailed for simply defacing pictures of the president.

During the festivities for National Press Day in Pekanbaru, Riau, on Tuesday, many government officials and senior figures, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself, attended the commemoration to show their "support" for a thriving national press.

While their attendance was appreciated, the reasons for their presence should be more thoroughly examined.

Was it a simple public relations exercise driven by the realization that in an elective democracy candidates need a amiable press? Or was it out of a true conviction that freedom of expression -- typified daily by the latitude of expressions contained in newspapers, magazines and broadcasts news -- is the very foundation of a meaningful democracy? Many -- some may say confused -- media commentators have also suggested the media is out of control. Their comments should not go unheeded.

It is true that the level of professionalism in journalism needs to be further improved. It is also true that there needs to be mechanisms that allow the public and legal institutions to censure the press when it has overstepped its legitimate boundaries.

All professional journalists should welcome any mechanisms that truly evaluate grievances based on the actual content, not the political suitability of what is published. What the public needs to comprehend, accept and eventually support is that it is not a case of liking or disliking the written word. Whether one supports an opinion or not has nothing to do with the suitability of it being expressed.

The continued reluctance to apply the 1999 Press Law is the most flagrant sign that these precepts have not yet been accepted as a core national belief.

The issue is not simply about freedom of the press, it is also about freedom of expression. Since press freedom has been more widespread we have seen a glut of publishing from writers young and old. Just walk into any bookstore and each week there are stacks of new books being published.

These morsels of Indonesian thought -- books, newspapers, magazines and journals -- are a greater monument to our nation than any high-rise building ever built.

The banners in Pekanbaru may read "National Press Day", but in actual fact the celebration really means "National Freedom Day". The press just so happens to be a gauge of that freedom and any suppression an omen of dark political days ahead.

Many have suggested that freedom of expression in this country is undergoing a period of transition, a process the press has to endure as the country's political system evolves. The question is; a transition or evolution into what?

It's now or never for Jakarta to win over Aceh

Straits Times - February 8, 2005

John Mcbeth -- Moulding tragedy into a political turning point in disaster-stricken Aceh presents both a glittering opportunity and a dangerous pitfall for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's three-month-old administration.

Success could mean the end of nearly 30 years of conflict and bitterness in the once gas-rich province. Failure could well mean the 4.2 million Acehnese -- about 90 per cent of whom were unaffected by the December 26 tsunami -- will never trust the Jakarta government again, with all the long-term consequences which that will bring.

None of this seems to be lost on Dr Yudhoyono himself after the frustrating central role he played in the failed Aceh peace talks nearly two years ago. Nor is there a lack of genuine political will on his part to get the job done. After all, he won 75-80 per cent of the Acehnese vote in last year's presidential election.

But elsewhere in government, in the military and among ministry and provincial bureaucrats, the understanding that there may never be a second chance is perhaps less grasped.

Government sources say political coordinating minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto and other senior leaders are putting much more stock in engineering a solution on the ground in Aceh than in talking to the long-exiled leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Apart from maintaining and even stepping up military pressure, that involves marrying the reconstruction effort to the full implementation of the 2001 Special Autonomy Law and providing Acehnese with a genuine alternative to independence.

The recent Finnish-brokered peace talks in Helsinki between government and GAM negotiators barely got to first base. Few people give a planned second meeting this month any real chance of success, particularly on the fundamental issue of independence.

What the military does not want is any cessation of activities on the ground, as has happened in the past, as that would give GAM a chance to recoup its losses after a year of sustained operations that have allowed the government to win back control of 80 per cent of rural villages.

The gameplan now is to target the two-thirds of GAM that may be susceptible to inducements, ranging from amnesty and limited political power-sharing to free land and direct financial payoffs. That, say Western intelligence sources, would be aimed at whittling down the rebel force from its current strength of 2,500 (only about 800 of whom are believed to be armed) to a manageable hard core of 200 guerillas -- most of them concentrated in east and north Aceh and in inland areas of Bireun and Sigli.

Mr David DiGiovanna, the US Embassy's former Aceh watcher, told the US-Indonesia Society recently that GAM's field commanders have, in the past, shown greater flexibility than the ageing political leaders in Sweden, but have been reluctant so far to discuss policy issues with Jakarta.

Reflecting the views of a growing number of Indonesian leaders, Mr DiGiovanna believes that trying to outwait Stockholm would be a mistake. "Only a comprehensive and inclusive political process based on the Special Autonomy Law has a chance of success in resolving the conflict," he said.

The earthquake and tsunami have shown that only the government can muster the global support needed to get Aceh back on its feet.

For some Acehnese, in a province where everyone has lost a family member to the conflict, revenge over-rides all considerations. There is no question that civilians continue to die. But Mr DiGiovanna and other independent observers say the army's so- called raider battalions, all of which now receive Red Cross human rights instruction, have adopted far more discriminatory tactics than in the past.

Armed forces commander Endriartono Sutarto has vowed that the military will not interfere in the peace process, presumably as long as GAM is not seen to be using the presence of foreign aid workers to internationalise its cause. Reformists worry, however, that the space now available for civil society to make a difference may soon close if the army seeks to reassert its authority under the existing state of civil emergency.

"We have to extend an olive branch and portray it as a way to build a new and more equitable Aceh," says Mr H.R. Dillon, executive director of Partnership, an organisation set up by the government and international lending agencies to facilitate governance reform across Indonesia. "This should not be about rebuilding Aceh, but building a new one altogether."

Like many concerned Indonesians, Mr Dillon is emphatic that Acehnese should be allowed to decide "what they want from us, what we can do for them and what they want to do themselves".

Up to now, that has been problematic. Only 30 per cent of the Aceh provincial government is functioning. With governor Abdullah Puteh under suspension and facing trial in Jakarta for graft, much of the burden has fallen on his respected deputy, Mr Azwar Abu Bakar, an architect and member of Muslim leader Amien Rais' National Mandate Party.

"All the planning seems to be coming from Jakarta," says an Acehnese relief worker. "It's Jakarta this and Jakarta that. There's so little local officials can do in terms of overall planning."

Under fire for not involving the Acehnese enough, the government recently dropped the idea of forming a special authority to manage the reconstruction effort. Clearly, wiser heads saw the flaws in forming an organisation that could end up working at cross purposes to Aceh's provincial and district administrations.

Getting government departments to coordinate their work has always been a problem in Indonesia and, along with fears of rampant corruption, is likely to remain the biggest obstacle in the recovery effort.

Acehnese have not been served well by their elected local representatives either. Three years after the Special Autonomy Law was signed, the provincial parliament still has to pass a raft of 20 regulations that are needed to fully implement the law.

For many reformers, one of the major challenges will be to revamp Aceh's weak bureaucracy and find local replacements for the estimated 2,000 civil servants, many of them schoolteachers, who died in Banda Aceh and along Aceh's west coast.

Abdullah's long-anticipated removal is widely seen as a step towards more meaningful self-government in Aceh. But historic direct elections in mid-year to replace him and select new and presumably more accountable district chiefs and mayors have been postponed indefinitely in areas where voting lists, land title deeds and other personal records were lost in the disaster.

"The government is shocked and confused and doesn't really know what to do," says Partnership adviser Endah Nurdiana. "They work hard, but they don't work smart. There is no fixed mechanism to manage the reconstruction funds. This is a great opportunity for the government to show the Acehnese it cares. But it could also be a real threat. If it fails, it will never have another chance."

[The writer was formerly the Jakarta correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review.]

A distinctively new year

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 8, 2005

The measure of a nation's greatness lies in its ability to reconcile its diversity.

There continue to be many things wrong with this country. Every day, this and other newspapers report an endless stream of injustices that occur across the archipelago. Still, amid all that is wrong it is heartening to find some things so gloriously right.

The continued outpouring of benevolence for victims of the tsunami in northern Sumatra is one such thing. It marks a triumph not only for Indonesians, but humanity as a whole. Without prejudice to religion or race, people donated and contributed whatever they could to comfort those in need.

The upcoming two-day national holiday is another measure of how far this country has come. The commemoration of the Chinese New Year and the Islamic New Year, which fall on consecutive days, shows that plurality can work without the imposition of stringent controls, as was the case during the New Order era.

Less than a decade ago such adjoining public events would have been unthinkable. Chinese cultural traditions were considered taboo. Under a misguided political pretext -- related to the anti-communist hysteria -- anything that was even vaguely connected to Chinese culture was frowned upon.

Few even stopped to ask what Chinese culture, one of the oldest and most revered in human history, had to do with modern Communism? Generations of Indonesians of Chinese descent were forced to suppress their heritage and forsake their identity. The politically correct phrase of the day was "assimilation", but in practice it was closer to discrimination. President Abdurrahman Wahid was the first to ease the cultural restrictions in 2000 by allowing ethnic Chinese to resume and celebrate their cultural identity. President Megawati Soekarnoputri went a step further in providing the ultimate acknowledgement of Chinese culture by declaring the Lunar New Year a national holiday.

The stereotypes have not been completely jettisoned from ignorant minds, but formal acceptance of Chinese culture is a tremendous leap forward. Even non-ethnic Chinese can now enjoy the richness of the occasion.

In similar fashion, the Islamic New Year generates distinct rites and ceremonies that may not be strictly religious in nature.

Satu Suro festivities, for example, always draw a large crowd at the sultan's palace in Yogyakarta, where a hodgepodge of animism and Islamic rituals are intertwined with each other.

Each religion or faith is distinct. One cannot interchange between them. But distinctiveness does not have to lead to differences. Our sense of identity, as Indonesians, draws upon this richness of cultures and faiths, whether or not a person feels tangible links to them.

The ethnic Chinese can appreciate and respect the Islamic New Year just as much as Muslims can enjoy the colorful festivities of Imlek.

Because whether it is the Year of the Rooster or 1426 Hijriah on the Islamic calender, everyone is commemorating and praying for a safe and prosperous 2005.

The price of clean air

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 5, 2005

After years of much talk and effectively no action at all, Jakarta's administrators seem at long last to have arrived at the realization that the problem of pollution in the Indonesian capital has reached the point where any further delay of action is no longer possible.

The grim statistics the authorities have released to back their argument for drastic action have only served to strengthen the public's impression of indecisiveness -- not to say incompetence -- on the part of the city administration in dealing with the problem of pollution that has for decades plagued this city of more than 10 million.

Be that as it may, the indisputable fact remains that for Jakarta's citizenry the time of reckoning has arrived. As of January this year, no fewer than 4.5 million motorized vehicles plied the city's roads. About 4.4 million of them, or 98 percent, were privately owned motor vehicles, comprising some 1.5 million cars and three million motorbikes. Over the past six years, the number of motorized vehicles on the roads has been growing at a rate of between 7 percent and 11 percent annually, giving rise to the projection that by 2014 all of the main roads in the city will be congested around the clock with emission-belching vehicles.

Although relatively small in number, the 600,000 two-stroke motorbikes in Jakarta are major offenders in terms of air pollution, one such vehicle emitting about the same amount of exhaust gas as 20 reasonably maintained cars.

Little wonder Jakarta is ranked among the worst cities in the world -- third after Mexico City and Bangkok -- in terms of air pollution. During the whole of 2004, the city had only 51 environmentally "clean" days, the remaining 314 days being classified either as "reasonable" or "bad".

The city's motor vehicles release 43,171 tons of nitrogen dioxide into the air annually, as well as 33,876 tons of hydrocarbons, 706,123 tons of carbon monoxide and 11,771 tons of carbon dioxide. And the situation continues to grow worse by the year.

In light of all this, no one will dispute the soundness of the argument that the Jakarta City Council put forward late last month that the number of motor vehicles in the city must be kept in check. The City Council initially proposed to achieve this not only by making regular emission checks compulsory, but by banning from the streets all public transportation vehicles older than 10 years and private cars older than 15 years.

Obviously, it is difficult to see how such a plan could be realized without causing social disruption in a city where the overwhelming majority of the population is poor and a great number of motor vehicles, whether public or private, are old and decrepit. The sensible solution was to scrap the age limit on cars, but retain the compulsory emission test requirement. If or when the proposal is passed into law, Jakartans will be fined a hefty Rp 50,000,000 if they neglect to have their cars tested once every six months.

It could be argued that the same heavy penalties, or even heavier, should also be given to polluting industries, which are estimated to account for some 30 percent of the air pollution in Jakarta. Jakartans will no doubt be closely watching whether the authorities make good on their promise eventually to extend the pollution ban to include the industrial sector.

As for smokers, the bad news is that a Rp 50,000,000 penalty will await them if they light up in public places where smoking will be prohibited.

There can be no denying that the new regulations will inconvenience certain parts of the community. However, that is the price Jakarta's citizenry must pay if the Indonesian capital is to escape the lot of becoming an unlivable city by 2014. The important point that must be made here is not that limitations, in whatever form, are unacceptable, but how to make sure that the burden of keeping the city viable as a functioning urban center is spread out as evenly and equitably as possible across the entire community.

Our only hope is that this well-intentioned plan is given the chance to fulfill its objectives and that Jakarta is spared the fate that doomsayers have predicted for the city and its populace.