Aceh

Acehnese refuse to be relocated to government barracks

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Abdul Khalik, Banda Aceh -- Standing in front of his ruined house in Lampu'uk, Lhoknga in Aceh Besar regency, 35-year-old Effendi expressed his determination to stay and rebuild his house no matter what.

"This is our ancestral land. We'll live and die here. Even after the tragedy, I'm not afraid to continue living here," said the man, who lost his wife and all of his children in the December 26 disaster.

He then pointed to a small, unfinished wooden house visible among the many ruined houses in the village. Proudly, he said he had begun rebuilding his house without waiting for the government's assistance. "I collect wood from the debris around here. I prefer living here over living in a tent or some camp," Effendi said.

Located right on the coast on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, Lampu'uk was one of the hardest-hit villages. Out of its approximately 7,000 pre-tsunami population, an estimated 1,000 survived and all of the houses were razed. Only a mosque was left standing.

Half of the Lampu'uk residents now live in camps located among the remains of the houses in the village, while the rest live in camps in other areas.

It was the scale of the devastation that prompted a visit to the village by former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush during their trip to tsunami-hit countries last week.

Effendi's strong will to stay was shared by most of the survivors in the village, who told the former presidents they did not want, for any reason, to be relocated to another area in government barracks. The two retired Americans responded by telling them they would see to it that the villagers' homes were rebuilt

Hasballah, 36, one of the residents who lost all of his family members and belongings in the disaster, said he was happy that the two ex-presidents promised them houses in the village. "We don't want move to other areas. I told the former presidents that the land has given us what we need to live. We can grow rice and other crops and fish in the sea," he said.

However, the Indonesian government has set aside approximately Rp 200 billion (roughly US$22 million) to build over 800 semipermanent barracks to house over 50,000 displaced persons throughout the province.

But many Acehnese are staunchly opposed to being relocated to the government's plywood-walled, tin-roofed housing blocks, with some saying the whole project is waste of money. "Why didn't they [the government] ask us first what we want before building those barracks? I think it's just another project to benefit 'certain' people. Why can't they just build us houses?" asked Muhammad, a 43-year-old survivor currently staying at the Lambaro displaced persons camp.

Hundreds of refugees, who come from a number of tsunami-ravaged areas in Aceh, have been living in Lambaro camp since the disaster struck on December 26. Some of them have, however, agreed to be relocated to the barracks. "I've agreed to move because the government said they would build us permanent houses later. Besides, it's better than living in these tents," said another survivor.

National coordinator for relief aid in Aceh, Alwi Shihab, defended the allegation that the construction of the barracks was a waste of money and would only benefit certain people. "We have around 600,000 people that need a place to stay. The barracks will be useful for many of them while we also plan to build around 80,000 houses for 400,000 people," he said.

The United Nations has estimated that out of the 2.8 million people that have been directly or indirectly affected by the tsunami across Asia, 2 million people are in need of support and over 700,000 people have lost their homes.

Yudhoyono cites progress in talks with Aceh rebels

Associated Press - February 24, 2005

Jakarta -- Indonesia's president praised Thursday the progress made in peace talks between government negotiators and separatist rebels from tsunami-wracked Aceh province, but he cautioned that a speedy solution to the three-decades-long conflict was unlikely.

The comments were President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's first since the rebels and the government ended a second round of peace talks in Finland on Wednesday, a process that has taken on added urgency since the Dec. 26 tsunami. More than 120,000 Acehnese were killed in the disaster.

At the talks, the rebel leadership publicly stated it was prepared to drop its long-standing demand for independence in exchange for greater autonomy in the oil- and gas-rich region of 4.1 million people.

"The road to the end of the conflict... will be long and needs patience," Yudhoyono told reporters in Jakarta.

Since 1976, more than 10,000 people have died in fighting between the military and the separatist Free Aceh Movement.

The rebel announcement led to hopes that a breakthrough may be possible in the conflict, though analysts cautioned that negotiations over details could easily scuttle the talks. An internationally mediated peace deal in 2002 broke down in May 2003 amid violations on both sides.

Yudhoyono declined to give details on the government's negotiating position, but said he received reports "that the developments were becoming increasingly positive. The Indonesian side is prepared to continue with these informal discussions if the agenda is clear," he said.

He said the upcoming discussions should center on the government's offer of greater self-rule for the province.

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who is mediating the negotiations, said he expected a third round of talks to take place April 12-17 in Helsinki.

Aceh peace talks end, major progress reported

Agence France Presse - February 24, 2005

The Indonesian government and Aceh separatists have wrapped up peace talks, setting a date for new talks and reporting major progress, but no breakthrough, on an offer of special autonomy for the tsunami-wrecked province.

A new round of negotiations was set for April, the third since the Indian Ocean tsunamis that devastated Aceh made the need for a settlement more pressing.

Indonesian communications minister and delegation member Sofyan Djalil, speaking after the Helsinki meeting concluded, said the rebels initially had rejected outright a government offer of special autonomy. But as the talks progressed their position "changed dramatically", he told AFP.

"They started talking of the substance, they started inquiring [about] local autonomy, even though they don't agree with that term," he said. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) prefers the term self-government. "The meeting this time from our perspective has some progress," Djalil said, adding: "This is the first time GAM didn't mention independence."

Talks had focused on Indonesia's proposals concerning "local authority, special autonomy, amnesty and other arrangements to integrate GAM people into the community," as well as "about security arrangements... and a timetable," he said.

There would be no lasting ceasefire agreement until all issues were agreed, Djalil said. "Nothing is agreed until all is agreed," he said.

In a subsequent news conference, Malik Mahmud, head of Aceh's self-proclaimed government, said his movement did not reject completely the idea of dropping its independence claims. "This is something that, yes, we have to consider it," he said.

Both sides had had to make efforts to bridge the gap between Aceh's demand for complete independence and Indonesia's offer of special autonomy, he said. But at the same time he insisted that "we are not dropping the independence struggle. The meaning of GAM is the Free Aceh Movement".

It was too early, however, to have a "firm standpoint" on the nature of any future deal on autonomy, Mahmud said. Any proposal would have to go to Acehnese people for approval, he said. "This is part of the process of democracy." The two sides agreed to meet again in Helsinki for a third round of talks April 12-17, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who mediated the talks, said in a statement.

The Helsinki peace talks are considered a milestone in dealings between the warring sides. When they met for an initial round at the end of January, it was the first time face-to-face encounter since May 2003, when the government declared martial law and launched a major military offensive in the province.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since Aceh separatists began fighting for independence for the oil-rich province in 1976, claiming Jakarta plunders its resources and the army commits atrocities against its population.

The renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution were prompted by a need for international aid to reach Aceh, which bore the brunt of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunamis in December.

Although both parties agreed during the first round of talks to "try to refrain from hostilities" during Aceh's recovery, the army has admitted killing more than 200 rebels since the tsunami struck.

And even as the latest round of talks began on Monday, Indonesia's military announced that one of its soldiers and two civilians had been killed when a group of 30 rebels ambushed troops who were on their way to carry out relief work in western Aceh.

Indonesia expects Aceh peace deal by mid-2005

Reuters - February 24, 2005

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta -- Indonesia expects to reach a peace pact with rebels in Aceh province by mid-year, but will not grant any form of direct self-rule to the separatist organisation, vice president Jusuf Kalla said on Thursday.

Kalla said Indonesia needed to study what Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels meant by "self-rule," a concept which they proposed at peace talks this week in Helsinki, in return for dropping a 30-year-old fight for independence.

The latest round of talks ended on Wednesday. GAM has previously rejected Indonesian offers of special autonomy for the gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

"I am confident with the progress. I am confident that around June-July this matter can be resolved," Kalla told government officials during an open meeting in Jakarta.

Asked by reporters later about the use of the term "self-rule," Kalla said: "We will study the definition, but what's important is that independence is no longer an issue."

"Self-rule actually is a stronger form of autonomy. We have not agreed to it yet. The government will govern, not GAM. Self-rule will not be by GAM but by a democratic government."

The two sides were brought together by the December 26 tsunami which devastated Aceh. Almost 240,000 people are dead or listed missing and more than 400,000 were made homeless.

Acehnese rebels have been fighting for 30 years for independence and at least 12,000 people have been killed in the violence.

Despite ceasefire offers since the tsunami, skirmishes continue. An Indonesian soldier was killed on Sunday in what the military described as an ambush of an army unit assigned to rebuild bridges in Aceh and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned GAM to stay clear of military-led reconstruction work.

"I call on GAM in Aceh to not disturb the reconstruction work and humanitarian steps and security maintenance in Aceh," Yudhoyono told reporters on Thursday. "The solution for Aceh is clearly special autonomy. The world, no one, supports Aceh splitting from Indonesia," he said.

Third round

A third round of peace talks will be held in April.

Kalla, a hands-on and powerful vice president, said GAM members who were given an amnesty could run in local elections as long as they were members of an existing political party.

Analysts said the term "self-government" or "self-rule" could be tricky for Indonesia, which is sensitive to separatism and where political parties can only exist at a national level, not just operate in one province or region.

"Some of the signs are very positive, but the devil will be in the detail... Some Indonesian officials may see 'self-government' as little more than code for independence, and with good reason," Edward Aspinall, Sydney University's Southeast Asian studies lecturer, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australian academic Damien Kingsbury, who is advising the rebels, said this week the talks covered possible changes in electoral laws to allow for local political parties, withdrawal of military forces and possible outside monitoring.

Kingsbury said one of the main sticking points had been the form of autonomy Jakarta was ready to offer the Acehnese, who see "special autonomy" as meaning the status quo.

Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto, quoted by the Koran Tempo newspaper on Thursday, said if the term "self- rule" meant "free and detached from the central government, then that's what you call independent."

On GAM's demand during the Helsinki talks that Indonesia's 40,000 soldiers pull out of Aceh, Sutarto likened that to "someone who is afraid of the police because he is a thief."

Many Acehnese have long complained about human rights abuses at the hands of Indonesian soldiers. GAM members have also been accused of abuses and extortion.

Kalla told bureaucrats during the Jakarta meeting that armed conflict with GAM needed to end soon so it would not hamper reconstruction work in Aceh. "One bullet hitting someone in Aceh will trigger a problem. Can you imagine if there was an abduction of two to three UN workers? Everything we've planned would falter," he said.

[With additional reporting by Muklis Ali in Jakarta and Karima Anjani in Banda Aceh.]

Jakarta opposes Aceh self-rule, may allow GAM to join poll

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The government expects to reach a peace accord with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in June or July after two rounds of talks to settle 32 years of conflict in the province.

If a peace deal is struck, there is a possibility that GAM will contest the regional election.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Thursday it would take two or three more meetings with GAM " to end the conflict with honor", saying that both sides must accept each other's conditions.

"Every night, I monitor the development of the talks [in Helsinki]. It's a very fast outcome compared to previous talks. I am sure in June or July everything could be settled," Kalla said in his speech during a ceremony attended by lecturers of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) here.

Kalla was upbeat the peaceful settlement in Aceh would lead to a better quality of life in Aceh, which could be achieved in 2009 with the emergence of "a new Aceh." The Vice President said the possibility was there for GAM members to vie for the posts of regent, mayor or governor in the province.

"If they are granted amnesty, all their political rights will be restored," Kalla told the press after addressing the seminar.

Asked whether the government would accept GAM's demand for self rule in the province, Kalla replied: "It is actually a stronger autonomy. But we are not talking about it. It is the government who can rule, not GAM. "Don't forget that self rule will not be awarded to GAM. It was demanded, but we haven't approved it," he said.

Kalla said security was essential to support the reconstruction and reconciliation process in Aceh, which was shattered by a huge earthquake and killer tidal waves last December. Over 200,000 people were killed or were declared missing and presumed dead in the worst disaster in the country's history.

The second round of informal talks in Helsinki ended on Wednesday, with the third meeting scheduled for mid-April also in the Finnish capital.

Separately, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the press he expected the protracted conflict in Aceh to end as national unity was all that Indonesia needed to rebuild Aceh.

"Frankly, I really wish the conflict in Aceh would end soon, particularly because we must unite to reconstruct Aceh," he said after a meeting with two Indonesian journalists who were recently released after being abducted in Iraq.

The President said the process to end the conflict needed hard work on the part of all parties. "The most important thing is Aceh must remain secure for the reconstruction process in the wake of the tsunami. I call on GAM in Aceh not to disturb the reconstruction process and humanitarian relief there," Susilo said.

Commenting on the GAM's demand for self rule, Susilo said special autonomy was the only solution to end the conflict in Aceh. He asserted that the international community strongly supported the territorial integrity of Indonesia. "No country in the world supports the separation of Aceh from Indonesia," he asserted.

GAM members in the field praised their exiled leaders' agreement to continue the peace talks, saying they had the mandate of the Acehnese people.

"We will follow any decision made by our political and field leaders. If they ask us to lay down our arms, then we will do so," said Teungku Kafrawi, a spokesman for GAM in Peureulak area, East Aceh.

As a consequence of the agreement in Helsinki, GAM troops will stay away from civilians to avoid possible armed clashes with the Indonesian Military, he added.

Hopes high as Aceh peace talks end

Melboune Age - February 25, 2005

Matthew Moore, Jakarta -- The second round of talks to end 29 years of conflict in Aceh has ended with the separatist rebels successfully positioning themselves as moderates prepared to modify their long-held demand for independence.

Three days of negotiations in Helsinki ended without a peace agreement but with a plan for a week of negotiations, scheduled for April, between the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The fact that talks are scheduled to continue for at least another two months is progress itself as it will allow the massive reconstruction effort in the tsunami-damaged province to proceed with some expectation of a lull in hostilities. More than 12,000 people have died in three decades of fighting.

The man co-ordinating the talks, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, made it clear he will be watching what happens on the ground in Aceh and called on both sides "to exercise utmost restraint".

As Australian and other military forces wind down their operations, aid groups are building up their efforts and are watching the peace talks with increasing hope.

Despite the welcome signs, it remains difficult to predict whether a permanent solution to this bitter conflict might be in the offing.

With the tsunami turning the eyes of the world to Aceh, both sides are anxious to take the high moral ground and portray themselves as determined to negotiate a lasting peace. Neither side can afford to be seen as the ones that sabotaged this peace process.

If the headlines over the past week are any guide, GAM will be happy with how things are progressing.

Their decision, first publicised last month, to set aside their long-standing demand for independence to allow a peace deal has been favourably received and brought a new sense of expectation for peace.

"During these three days, not a single word did they mention about independence, so that is a good development," Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan Djalil said.

"We proposed special autonomy, they proposed the term self- government. It's on the table, we need to discuss the concept," he said after the talks ended in Helsinki.

Instead of independence, GAM has talked about "self-government" in these talks. What this means in practice, and how it differs from the idea of full independence, has yet be clarified.

As part of its offer to take independence off the table, GAM negotiators have asked for the withdrawal and/or disarming of Indonesian security forces and their replacement with local Acehnese and foreign police. They also want the Acehnese people to be allowed a vote in the future on any peace package that might be adopted.

So far the Indonesian Government has wisely refrained from responding to these demands, preferring instead to negotiate a whole agreement.

But these are huge concessions and won't be granted lightly. Indonesia will be especially concerned about a vote of the Acehnese that could in any way be seen as a plebiscite on independence.

They allowed a vote in East Timor and have no intention of allowing anything similar in Aceh.

Village gets back to normal despite shortages and doubts

The Guardian (UK) - February 23, 2005

John Aglionby -- Mohammed Yassin has trouble falling asleep at night. But his insomnia is not caused by haunting dreams of a second tsunami -- the sound of construction work until late at night is what keeps him, and other Nusa residents, awake.

"Sometimes it goes on until 11pm or midnight," he said. "Bang, bang, bang. All the time. Every day. And then they start again at 8am." But few people in the village, six miles south-west of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, are complaining, because the work is in a good cause.

"It's barracks for the refugees," Mr Yassin said. "They will no longer have to live in tents or with their relatives but will have somewhere more permanent to live."

The five barracks -- as the temporary accommodation designed and built by the government for the hundreds of thousands of refugees across Aceh has been dubbed -- dominate the village skyline.

Divided into 12 four-by-five metre rooms, with a balcony along one side, the raised wooden buildings with corrugated iron roofs look like modern versions of traditional Indonesian longhouses. Each room has an electric socket and light fitting, and rudimentary bathroom and kitchen blocks are at the back. Five people will be allocated to each room. A mosque is also being built.

Residents of this village of 149 families support the barracks as a stopgap measure to get refugees out of tents and the 70 overcrowded houses that are still habitable. But there are fears that people will be stuck in them for much longer than the two years planned by the government.

"What we really want is to rebuild our houses," said Nurul Huda, 17, who is living in a tent with her family. She is struggling to come to terms with the loss of her younger sister and boyfriend and is resigned to living in a longhouse. "We want the money given to us to rebuild, not spent on barracks."

The dilemma for many of the 350 refugees from Nusa and 360 from surrounding villages who are now living in the village is where to rebuild. "We want to rebuild on safer land," said Abdul Kadir, the village secretary, whose house is one of 40 still standing but too badly damaged to live in. "But the land our homes were on has been in our families for decades. That land is like blood to us."

Food is in short supply, according to the village chief, Mafudz Din, although no one is starving. "There's a serious food shortage in Nusa," he said. "At the outset there was plenty but now we are not receiving nearly so much. The military sent 93 sacks of rice the other day but it's not a regular supply and we only have enough supplies for about a week."

A soup kitchen, financed by the Istanbul municipal authority, provides two meals a day on a daily budget of about 1.1m rupiah (#64), or 4.5p per refugee per meal. "Every three days we go to the Turks in Banda Aceh," said Syamsul Fuadi, one of the village religious leaders who is co-ordinating the kitchen. "We give them our receipts from the last three days and they give us more money. Sometimes they come shopping with us but usually we do it ourselves."

New teachers

The village primary school, which caters for children aged six to 12, has three teachers to replace those, including the headteacher, who were killed in the tsunami. The new teachers are from nearby villages whose schools were destroyed. But there has been little other support; chairs and tables damaged by refugees who fled to the school immediately after the disaster have not been repaired or replaced, for example.

One classroom has been requisitioned as a store for food and other supplies for the refugees, leaving a shortage of suitable accommodation.

"It is lucky we have received help from Unicef," said Salawati Husein, a teacher promoted to headteacher. "They have provided the children with education kits and the teachers with new teaching and recreation resources." The pupils have also received books, bags and T-shirts from private donors, including a local TV station and an American charity.

Of the 115 pupils who attended the school before the disaster, all but two survived. They have been joined by 19 refugees, while four of the original roll have moved to the Islamic school on the edge of the village run by Hidayatullah, an orthodox Islamic organisation from the Indonesian half of Borneo.

"We've taken in an extra 15 students," said Mr Usman, the teacher of the Islamic school, who has lived in Nusa for 18 months and is now helping to look after the refugees camped in his grounds as well as teaching. "We've had tents from Taiwan, the Red Cross, Germany and Switzerland, which have made all the difference," he said.

As in the rest of the village, there are few health problems, thanks to periodic visits from Turkish, Australian, Japanese and Chinese doctors. "The only problems are some diarrhoea and the mosquitoes," according to Mr Usman. "Some Malaysians came about a month ago to spray the mosquitoes, but since then they have been 10 times as bad."

The water main has also been reconnected and several standpipes have been erected, although the village chief, Mr Mafudz, is hoping to have two wells dug as a backup. There is electricity for only three hours each night to a few of the houses still standing, thanks to a couple of generators donated by the Japanese government. "Each person who wants power has to pay 5,000 rupiah a day and then we connect them," said Mr Yassin.

The villagers' priority is to find work. The rice fields are still unusable and, if a UN study released last week is correct, will probably remain so for months. Most of the 70% of villagers who made their living from farming have small plots in the hills where they tend crops such as cassava, chilli and other vegetables. "It is something, but not enough to make a decent living," said Mr Mafudz.

Of the remaining 30%, many worked at the local furniture factory, which was destroyed. "We all helped do some tidying up but we are still waiting for our December wages," said one employee, Muliyadi. "Like many of the men, I spent the first few weeks collecting scrap metal from the fields and selling it to dealers, but there is none left. We do not know what to do now."

Some people have been employed to help with building the barracks and a few have set up small businesses, but many still seem too traumatised. "People want to work so they can earn money, look after their families and not feel dependent," said Mr Mafudz. "But many of us are still too confused to think straight."

Corpse evacuation in Aceh continues: PMI

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Abdul Khalik, Banda Aceh -- Humanitarian volunteers are still finding corpses in Aceh, almost two months after the tsunami struck the stricken province, a relief worker says.

Some 1,850 volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and other organizations were still recovering and burying between 200 and 300 corpses a day, a PMI official said.

Body recovery unit head Eka Susila said that, as of Tuesday, the volunteers had buried a total of 123,142 bodies across the province, while in the past three days alone they had recovered 839.

Eka said most of Aceh's coast areas had been cleared of bodies while volunteers were still finding hundreds in in the west, primarily in regions around Calang, Aceh Besar and Meulaboh.

"While our target was to finish our work by the end of this month, we are still finding hundreds of bodies every day. Most of them are under the rubble of destroyed buildings. We will review our activities on February 26 to decide whether to declare our operation over, or to continue the massive search," he said.

Eka appealed to locals to help search in their neighborhoods and report any finds to the PMI. "However, they are also welcome to bury the dead bodies once they find them by themselves," Eka said.

It was getting harder for workers to evacuate bodies now because many were wedged under large chunks of concrete or piles of timber. Most volunteers were removing their masks to find the bodies by the stench, not by sight, he said. After two months, in many cases they found only skeletons or partial remains.

Difficult road access and lack of heavy equipment had hampered the search and it was still challenging for the PMI, the military and other non-governmental organizations to enter some remote areas. "We have to synchronize our schedules with local institutions in order to be able to use their equipment. Sometimes, we also lack gloves and boots," Eka said.

He denied rumors that many bodies could still be seen hanging in trees in Meulaboh. Volunteers had now removed all the visible bodies from the area, he said. Despite the difficulties, he estimated aid workers had cleared about 90 percent of the tsunami-hit areas.

The National Coordination Body for the Aceh Tsunami reported on Tuesday that 113,397 people were still listed as missing from the tsunamis. While many of these were probably dead, others could still be in refugee camps or have left the province to start new lives elsewhere, the report said.

Details may thwart any peace breaktrough in Aceh

Reuters - February 23, 2005

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta -- Tricky details could trip up an apparent political breakthrough for Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province after rebels agreed to drop a demand for independence for the tsunami-hit region during peace talks in Finland.

Analysts and Indonesian politicians said on Wednesday while the move was a big step forward, hurdles remained, especially defining what the rebels meant by being willing to accept "self- rule" instead of independence.

Separatists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) made clear their position to Reuters in Helsinki on Tuesday. Indonesia has said its best offer is a special autonomy package for Aceh.

"I wouldn't call it a breakthrough yet. We have to find out what the fine print is," said Sidney Jones, Southeast Asia director for the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank and an expert on the 30-year Aceh conflict.

"We don't know what the details are and we don't know what other conditions GAM might demand nor do we know how flexible the Indonesian government will be."

Rafendi Djamin of the Human Rights Working Group said GAM's change of heart could lead to a new deal on a ceasefire. "[Government] negotiators are one step behind in a sense that GAM has shown more willingness to hold a dialogue... they are willing to give up their firm demand, so a ceasefire can be achieved," Djamin said.

Government officials in Jakarta declined to comment but Indonesia's powerful military welcomed GAM's apparent change. "If they have softened, which is what we hoped for, this gives a good indication that the conflict in Aceh can soon be resolved," said military chief Endriartono Sutarto, quoted by the official Antara news agency.

This week's negotiations in Helsinki are expected to end on Wednesday, the second round since both sides resumed talks after last December's massive tsunami brought them together. Both sides expect more talks before any deal is agreed.

A preliminary peace agreement reached in 2002 fell apart partly over the question of autonomy, which the government said could not lead to full independence.

The autonomy deal Jakarta has offered gas-rich Aceh is little different from past positions, which included some concessions towards self-rule, Islamic law, and a bigger slice of the economic rewards from the province's resources.

Theo Sambuaga, head of parliament's commission on security and foreign affairs, said parliament would be willing to discuss more options for an autonomy package if GAM did not push for independence or seek a referendum on Aceh's political future.

Make or break

Sambuaga said the government should stick to a previous pledge of granting an amnesty to GAM fighters and allowing them to return to Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island if they gave up their independence bid. "But in return, GAM must not exist anymore," Sambuaga said, appearing to rule out any political role for the organisation.

Australian academic Damien Kingsbury, who is advising the rebels, said talks on Tuesday covered possible changes in Indonesian electoral laws to allow for local political parties, withdrawal of military forces and possible outside monitoring.

Indonesia, still smarting over the loss of East Timor in 1999, might find such ideas hard to accept, analysts said. "These are the kind of technical details that could make or break the agreement," said Jones.

In Aceh, where the conflict has killed more than 12,000 people, there was some scepticism that any peace deal would be implemented. "If the result is supposed to be peace and no war, we will wait and see what happens here," said Budiman Abbas, a refugee in a camp at the devastated town of Calang on Aceh's West Coast.

[With additional reporting by Telly Nathalia in Jakarta and Jerry Norton in Calang.]

Death, lies and 'humanitarian aid'

Green Left Weekly - February 23, 2005

Matthew Davies -- Publicity about the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia's Aceh province has mostly depicted Indonesia's military (TNI) in an unprecedented favourable light.

But the TNI's own official record has painted a very different picture than that presented to a world shocked by the massive disaster. The TNI's own records flatly contradicted their chiefs' "doorstop interview" claims to have made a serious commitment to the Acehnese population's welfare.

The TNI chiefs' publicity strategy found a receptive foreign audience. The commander of the Australian Defence Force's (ADF) relief contingent, Brigadier David Chalmers, praised the TNI for what he claimed was its rapid, dedicated and professional response. High pro-TNI political stakes underlay such warm publicity.

It was widely hoped that evidence of TNI efforts could defuse long-standing enmities in the bitter blood feud running generations between Aceh and Jakarta. In that spirit, ADF chief General Peter Cosgrove saw the tsunami crisis as a potential "circuit breaker" in Aceh's independence war.

From late December to February, TNI generals and public relations officers made inconsistent assurances to the public that they would task "half", "two thirds" or "all of their forces" in Aceh to the humanitarian operation (other TNI quotes set figures of 12,000 soldiers, then 14,000). The ABC's Four Corners reiterated such claims, citing a purported one-third of TNI troops in Aceh as being tasked with relief and aid.

But on closer examination, reports by the TNI itself showed that its "humanitarian commitment" was minimal, primarily aimed towards Indonesian and Western public opinion and not, as its chief executives and PR claimed, to any genuine humanitarian relief in Aceh. In strict military format and headed "Force Strengths Involved in Humanitarian Aid", the TNI's own detailed report of January 8 listed just over four battalions of soldiers officially tasked with humanitarian work.

The official TNI effort compares to some 40 combat battalions deployed in Aceh, besides yet larger (and also officially admitted) units in the province. The sum "humanitarian" effort was even more modest: barely 2000 troops are working on such work, or as little as 5% of total TNI soldiers counted in Aceh from mid-2003.

The TNI's figures reveal its actually miniscule and token "humanitarian effort", concentrated mostly in Banda Aceh, with smaller contingents along the western coast, alongside an influx by foreign military personnel, international relief agencies and, most significantly, news media.

In a bizarre twist, the TNI displayed its non-combat troops to international media and aid workers: showing an enclave of post- tsunami compassion; welfare troops on show to the cameras in Aceh's wreckage. Thus did the world see a camouflaged "relief effort" that was really a topsy-turvy, modern-day "Petrushka- ville".

[Matthew Davies is a former defence intelligence analyst who has written a forthcoming book about the Aceh conflict Indonesia's War over Aceh: Last Stand on Mecca's Porch.]

Letter from an Acehnese

Green Left Weekly - February 23, 2005

[This letter was sent to Green Left Weekly for publication by Zely Ariane, the international affairs spokesperson of the Aceh solidarity group SEGERA. Green Left Weekly has been asking our readers to assist SEGERA's appeal after the tsunami, for details visit .]

Within a few days of the tsunami hitting Aceh, SEGERA, which has until now primarily been focusing on political campaigning for a withdrawal of the Indonesian military from, and for peace in, Aceh, dispatched activists from Jakarta, almost all Acehnese, to Aceh and North Sumatra.

SEGERA set up an aid depot in Jakarta as well as in Medan, in North Sumatra, just south of Aceh. In Jakarta and Medan, SEGERA collected food, water, blankets and some medicines.

SEGERA activists also volunteered to work with broader NGO coalitions -- like the Civil Society Coalition for Tsunami and Earthquake Disaster, and the Committee of Humanity Emergency -- to help get other volunteers from Indonesia to Aceh.

In Aceh itself, SEGERA set up three monitoring posts and aid depots. Two depot posts were set up in the capital, Banda Aceh and one in the hard-hit area further down on the west coast, Meulaboh. These posts were all staffed by SEGERA activists who originated from the local areas. Of course, these activists were also concerned to find their own families. At least six members of SEGERA were killed in the tsunami and several others lost their whole or most of their families.

SEGERA has always been a political campaigning organisation involving both Acehnese and Indonesians together campaigning for a referendum process, for an end to militarisation, peace and social justice in Aceh. So we decided to set-up a new group in Aceh called CARE ACEH to organise the direct humanitarian work we were doing.

We are very grateful for the donations received from activists in Australia. We have received now $9150 that has been passed on by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (APSN), including so many donations from individual activists. This money, together with other donations from the groups Solidariteit International in Germany -- which we received through the Peoples Empowerment Consortium (PEC) in Jakarta in the form of office equipment and cash directly to Care Aceh; the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers (JRU); CAFOD South East Asia; and the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) has meant that the CARE ACEH depots in Aceh have been able to sustain their staffing and provide direct humanitarian assistance. This has concentrated on the direct distribution of food and medical care. CARE ACEH has been able to cooperate with medical workers to provide some medical care out of these depots.

CARE ACEH would like to expand our humanitarian activities to include establishing supplementary school groups for the displaced children, including the establishment of playgroups and small libraries. We would also like to initiate activities to help people regain a source of livelihood through cooperatives. We are still in search for funding to allow us to proceed with these kinds of initiatives.

While CARE ACEH continues with its operations of direct humanitarian aid, SEGERA has been continuing its campaigning work. The donations received from Australia, Germany, Japan, and the USA have been of great help in ensuring that we have been able carry out both kinds of work. We believe that the political monitoring of the aid effort as well as the campaign for peace and justice in Aceh must continue. In Aceh, activists at the CARE ACEH posts were constantly collecting data on aid distribution, checking for problems and lobbying and campaigning to correct such problems when they occurred.

SEGERA's political campaign activity is concentrated in Jakarta. On January 18, for example, we organised a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. SEGERA was demanding that both sides implement the commitments made by both the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to a ceasefire. Despite the statements by both sides, the conflict has continued, despite the massive humanitarian problem that the people face.

At that demonstration, the SEGERA coordinator Ary Arianto called on the government to initiate negotiations. SEGERA called for the United Nations to be involved in any such dialogue and for groups apart from GAM and the TNI to be involved in any discussions. Talks have since taken place but with no outcome. SEGERA has always argued that negotiations have repeatedly failed because of the refusal to include broader forces from Acehnese society, namely, all those forces that have been involved in the struggle for democracy in Aceh. SEGERA has also made its view known that the reconstruction effort will suffer the same failure if there is not broad participation in the decision-making process on this.

The help from overseas also meant that we could move quickly to organise events to reach out to different sections of the community, especially in the capital, Jakarta. Combining with the Aceh Peoples Association (IKARA) and the cultural group Kenduri Cinta, we organised a major cultural event in the Jakarta Arts Centre, where many large popular cultural events are held, with theme "Rebuilding Aceh through Peace Negotiations". Prominent singers, Acehnese performers and other artists participated. Prominent religious and human rights figures also spoke. They called for better coordination of the aid effort, urgent peace negotiations and the release of GAM negotiators who had been jailed by the Indonesian government in 2002.

This was followed by a talk-back show on 68H radio station, organised by SEGERA in cooperation with the broad non-government organisation Aceh Working Group (AWG). On the radio panel were a member of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), the AWG, the leading Acehnese intellectual and human rights campaigner Otto Syamsudin Ishak, and a commentator from a prominent political think-tank.

SEGERA and CARE ACEH will continue their work -- both humanitarian and political. We thank you all again for your donations.

TNI chief opposes GAM's proposal to withdrawal troops

Tempo Interactive - February 23, 2005

Sunariah, Jakarta -- Armed forces (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has question the desire by the leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for self-government, one of the pre- conditions for resolving the conflict between GAM and Indonesia.

Sutarto, who was interviewed after participating in a cabinet meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday February 23, explained that if self-government meant free and detached from the central government it means the same as independence. "Yeah that's called independence", he said laughing.

As has been reported, the GAM leadership has made a number of proposals to the Indonesian government to resolve the Aceh question. These include self-governance and the withdrawal of TNI troops from Aceh. The requests were presented during the second- round of talks with the Indonesian government which took place on February 21 in Helsinki.

According to Sutarto, if self-government means organising direct local government elections (Pilkada), "Yeah of course that's already in process", he said. The TNI he continued, would welcome it if GAM accepts the offer of special autonomy for Aceh. "If they (GAM) want to accept the Law on Special Autonomy it is something which we should warmly welcome, as long as it is not actually being done as a tactic, but in order to resolve [the Aceh question] and in the real interests of the Acehnese people", he explained.

Sutarto explained that resolving the Aceh question does not have to be done by separating itself from Indonesia, or even by taking up arms. "It will [just] lead to casualties, for what?", he explained at the same time saying that GAM and the government must continue to try to find the best solution to resolve the Aceh question. Sutarto however, does not agree with GAM's request for TNI troops to be withdrawn from Aceh.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Acehnese feelings of 'Indonesia-ness' stronger: survey

Kyodo News - February 22, 2005

The December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster that devastated Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, killing 123,071 people, has strengthened the Acehnese people's sense of Indonesian identify, according to the results of a survey released Tuesday.

The survey, carried out by the independent Indonesian Survey Foundation in collaboration with the government's Social Affairs Ministry, showed that 76 percent of the approximately 700 Acehnese respondents feel proud to be Indonesians and 74 percent would go to war to defend the country.

"Unexpectedly, the sense of Indonesia-ness among the Acehnese people is very high," Denny Januar Aly, the foundation's executive director, told a press conference.

"Politically, the majority of the Acehnese people is proud of being Indonesian... although the disaster they experienced doesn't change the fact that there is a feeling of disappointment with conditions in Aceh," Aly said.

"The data is enough to show that the separatist Free Aceh Movement has not taken roots in the Acehnese community," he added.

GAM, as the separatist movement is known, has been waging a guerilla war in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra since 1976, demanding separation from Indonesia. Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

The rebels have long accused the government of milking the province of its natural resources and failing to keep promises to implement autonomy there.

The two sides are now meeting in Helsinki, with the rebels reportedly saying they would drop their independence demand if Jakarta withdraws troops from Aceh and allows for meaningful self-rule, including provincial elections in which GAM could contest as a political party.

Particularly before the quake and tsunami disaster, the Indonesian military was widely viewed among Acehnese as something to be afraid of because of its bad human rights record.

But the survey showed that almost all Acehnese respondents feel that government soldiers have been helpful to the disaster victims, while only about half feel that way about GAM. "The Aceh disaster can be a momentum to bring the military closer to the Acehnese people and keep them off GAM," Aly said.

Sixty percent of the respondents, however, expressed disappointment that the Aceh reconstruction process has not paid sufficient attention to the wish and aspirations of the Acehnese people.

"The Acehnese people want to be more involved and invited to participate in the disaster management process and Aceh's reconstruction." Aly said.

"It will be very bad for Aceh if local residents feel they only become an object or guest in the process of reconstruction in Aceh that has been dominated by foreigners," he added.

Aceh rebels, soldiers escorting aid convoy exchange fire

Associated Press - February 21, 2005

Banda Aceh -- Separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province exchanged gunfire with Indonesian soldiers escorting an aid convoy over the weekend, but no relief workers were injured, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Sporadic gunfights between the rebels and security forces have occurred despite a unilateral cease-fire declared by the guerrillas after the December 26 tsunami disaster. The insurgents, who are not known to attack foreigners, have also said they would not target aid groups assisting tsunami survivors.

The gunfire broke out Saturday along Aceh's west coast as the UN-affiliated International Organization for Migration was hauling goods and supplies destined for survivors, said Simona Opitz, the organization's spokeswoman.

She said one soldier was slightly injured, but stressed that the IOM was not targeted by the rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM. "The convoys will continue," she said, adding that this was the first shooting incident involving an IOM convoy. "We got caught in the middle, basically, but we weren't targeted."

A separate firefight occurred Sunday in Harapan village in western Aceh, in which one Indonesian soldier was killed and seven others wounded, said Army Col. Narowi, who goes by only one name.

The incidents also came as the two sides were set to meet Monday in Helsinki, Finland after GAM agreed to hear out the government's proposal on wide-ranging autonomy for the province of 4.1 million people.

The rebels, who have been fighting for a separate state in the oil- and gas-rich region since 1976, will demand a full withdrawal of the 50,000 Indonesian security forces from the region as part of a negotiated settlement, a member of the rebel delegation said.

Rebels demand Indonesian troops leave Aceh

Associated Press - February 21, 2005

Separatists from tsunami-hit Aceh province will demand a full withdrawal of the 50,000 Indonesian security forces from the region as part of a negotiated settlement to end the long-running civil war, an Australian member of the rebel delegation said.

The rebels also would insist that any agreement be put to a province-wide vote, said Damien Kingsbury, an Indonesia specialist from Melbourne's Deakin University. He is part of the Acehnese delegation at peace talks that restarted in Helsinki.

Kingsbury's comments were the first details of the rebels' bargaining position as they went into talks with the Indonesian government. The talks are expected to continue until Wednesday and focus on Jakarta's proposal to give the region self- government within Indonesia.

Last month, representatives of the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) met face-to-face for the first time since a previous peace process collapsed in 2003, when the Indonesian military launched a major offensive against insurgents in the gas-rich region.

Since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Aceh on December 26, both sides have been under intense international pressure talk again. After the tsunami, the rebels proclaimed a unilateral truce, saying they wanted to help rescue efforts.

But the Indonesian military said it would continue combat operations until a formal ceasefire was signed, and the army commander has claimed that his troops killed nearly 200 rebels in the first two months after the disaster.

"The [troops] are part of the problem, not the solution," Kingsbury said in a telephone interview from Helsinki. Kingsbury also said the rebel delegation would ask for clarification about Jakarta's special autonomy plan.

In the past, the separatists have rejected anything short of independence, but Kingsbury indicated this position may have softened. "GAM is now prepared to discuss reaching a negotiated settlement," he said, referring to the rebels by their Indonesian acronym.

Kingsbury said an accord would have to include the full withdrawal of Indonesia's notoriously brutal army and police forces, which human rights organisations accuse of numerous atrocities in the province of 4.1 million people on Sumatra island.

"The role of the [army] and police will have to be modified, and functionally they will have to be replaced," Kingsbury said. "That would have to be part of any negotiated settlement." The rebels will also insist that any agreement be put to a province- wide vote.

"There will have to be a vote on the popular acceptance of any deal we reach here," he said. "Democratic principles demand that the people of Aceh ratify any agreement." He said this would not constitute an independence referendum, which Jakarta opposes.

GAM will also demand that it or a separatist party representing it be allowed to take part in future elections for a local legislature, Kingsbury said. This would require changing Indonesia laws, which currently bars separatist parties.

Acehnese reconstruction waits for no plan

Financial Times (UK) - February 21, 2005

Shawn Donnan, Calang (Aceh) -- Almost two months after the Asian tsunamis, survivors in some of the hardest hit areas of Indonesia's Aceh province have begun rebuilding, turning to scavenged wood, recycled nails and aid from abroad to erect homes.

The work comes ahead of Jakarta's March 26 deadline to release a master plan for Aceh's reconstruction. More than 230,000 people were left dead or missing by the December 26 disaster and hundreds of kilometres of coastline were levelled.

While the beginning of building signals a shift in focus by victims from survival to the future, it also highlights a growing frustration with the plodding reconstruction process, even as dignitaries continue to fly in to view the devastation. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush senior toured Aceh on Sunday.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, said over the weekend that he had "instructed all agencies, all government apparatus, that we have to accelerate the process". Mr Yudhoyono said major construction would not get under way in Aceh until July. The government, he said, is also still determining "non- physical" aspects of the reconstruction such as how to protect property rights.

In a closed-door meeting he urged provincial officials not to wait for the central government plan to begin their own projects, according to Alwi Shihab, the minister overseeing the relief effort. Indonesia is also urging aid groups to "go out and hunt" for reconstruction projects while the plan is finalised, Mr Shihab said.

Awash in donations, aid groups are beginning to compete vigorously -- some aid workers say chaotically -- to take part in a reconstruction effort that Jakarta forecasts will cost at least $4.5bn over five years.

Oxfam plans soon to open a shop selling building supplies through a voucher system in one community, and is also helping survivors to rebuild on an island off Aceh's northern tip. UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, has offered to help survivors restore a community on the stricken west coast.

But a growing list of smaller organisations have begun helping to rebuild schools, health centres and homes before the government has decided where such amenities and communities should go and whether they are needed.

At the local level, the construction is driven more by emotion, confusion over what lies ahead and everyday practicalities than by any guiding vision.

In Calang, where nearly 90 per cent of a pre-disaster population of 7,300 was killed and all but four buildings were reduced to their foundations, almost the entire town remains a wasteland. Yet survivors have begun to build homes using foraged planks and recycled nails, together with zinc roofing and tools provided by a German aid group. "People are just getting on and doing their business at the local level," says Ben Negus, head of the local UNHCR office.

Zulfitrika and two brothers have been building a home for their families, a raised longhouse on land owned by one of the brothers which sits closer to the sea than any government-planned coastal buffer area would allow. "I'm a fisherman. I need to be close to the water," Mr Zulfitrika shrugs by way of explanation.

Officials in Jakarta say Calang may have to be relocated because the cost of clearing the former town's rubble will be too high. Yet the local government has decided not to wait for Jakarta's nod and is close to finishing a new office for the head, or bupati, of the local regency on the old site. "This is why the bupati gets headaches and gets confused," sighed Juanda, a 28- year-old former English teacher who co-ordinates the local government's emergency response office. "If we wait for Jakarta we don't get anything done."

[Additional reporting by Taufan Hidayat.]

Feature: From homes to hamlets

Hong Kong Standard - February 19-20, 2005

Vaudine England -- The lonely mosque, the last thing standing in the once-thriving seaside community of Lampuuk just west of Banda Aceh, now plays host to a huddle of tents.

Sand and heat blows through on strong winds, unhindered by any of the hundreds of houses that once stood here before the tsunami of December 26 flattened everything, even the trees. It's a miserable, wasted earth, but for the desperately unhappy people left alive here, this is home and they want to stay here.

Zulkifi Idahim, the sole survivor of his family, wants no place else. He watched from a nearby hill as the wave came and wiped out his wife and four children. Now he hangs around all day and commiserates with Ibu Rohani, who lost two children, four cousins and six grandchildren.

Mohamad Nasir makes up the sad threesome; he lost seven family members. "Tell everyone -- we just want a house! Thanks to the foreigners [international aid agencies], the food and water is OK so we can stay here. And we want to stay here! We don't want other places," Nasir insists.

The message is repeated by others. For people who have lost almost everything, their simple wish is to live in the place they know.

Instead, government and Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) officials are moving the displaced out of refugee camps in their home towns and villages and into semi-permanent "barracks," part of what human rights activists and others say is a ploy to use the tsunami to gain strategic control over the population in an area long torn by sectarian strife.

"Non-food logistics are under the control of the TNI and they are using it to force people into temporary shelters. The idea behind it is for TNI to control people," says Wardah Hafidz, coordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium, a Jakarta-based non-government organization active in distributing building materials and other support in Aceh.

"Anyone who refuses to be relocated is then labeled GAM [Free Aceh Movement]," she adds, in reference to the separatist movement which has been at war with TNI for almost three decades. Once people are told to move into a barracks, she says, their name is deleted from lists at the refugee camps and their daily allocation of food there stops. Clearly, if food is contingent upon moving to a barracks, any notion of choice is irrevocably tarnished.

This schism over where Aceh's distressed survivors must go is the biggest issue facing planners, aid workers and the government.

It is closely related to the other large post-tsunami controversy over whether survivors will be allowed to rebuild their homes on the sea shore. Government planners speak of a 500-metre or even two-kilometer exclusion zone along the coast, presumably to protect people in the event of another tsunami.

But for families who make a living from the sea and have no other asset but the site of their former homes, the exclusion zone seems another ploy to rob them.

At the provincial city of Meulaboh, 245km down the west coast from Banda Aceh, popular resistance to the barracks plan is starkly obvious. Donated tents are pitched directly on top of the foundations of people's former homes. In many cases, the tents are not even lived in. They are there to stake a claim, to say, "this is my house and I'm coming back."

One woman, too shy to give her name, on a public bus running down the coast road out of Meulaboh, has been to the market to buy a large new blue plastic tub. She gaily waves her arm at a tent village perched between wrecked palm trees and the sea. "That is my home," she says proudly. She rejected the new barracks built inland, right next door to a military camp on the outskirts of Meulaboh.

These long wooden structures with corrugated iron roofs are built directly under the gaze of the regional military command. They are also a long trek from the market and any form of employment.

The word that springs to mind is hamletting -- the classic counter insurgency technique developed with deadly effect by British forces battling a communist insurgency in 1950s Malaya, and later used by the United States army during the Vietnam War.

The system is simple. When guerrillas of any kind draw sustenance from the local population -- the people are like water and the revolutionary army like fish, as Mao Zedong said -- the military drains that sea to deprive the guerrillas of support. How to do this? Move the local population into controlled structures called hamlets or barracks or temporary housing.

At rare spots in Aceh now, the new housing is not only well-meant but well done. The village of Nusa, near Lok Nga west of Banda Aceh, lost just 15 people to the waves but much of its housing is gone. The men who gather at the coffee shack in Nusa say the new structure next door is better than a tent even though the cubicles inside are small and hot with no windows. But, in this close-knit community, at least the barracks does not move them away from home.

The Indonesian government insists that any move into temporary housing is voluntary and that international standards of hygiene and comfort have been assured.

If located properly and done with local community support, as in Nusa, the idea can work. But this is an area riven by conflict and, until the tsunami, ruled by the military for almost two years.

At the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) referral hospital near Banda Aceh's sports stadium, the 200 or so daily outpatients must sometimes get through military checkpoints in order to get medical care. The hospital is there by permission of the ministry of health, but soon after it was set up a military camp appeared in front, as if to assert who was really in charge. The ICRC has been in negotiations ever since in an effort to keep the aid clean of military influence.

In such an environment, the voluntary nature of a move into temporary housing is dubious, and that's why the international aid community says it will have nothing to do with the process. Some, such as the Norwegian Refugee Council and Catholic Relief Services, are focusing on delivering wood, nails, hammers and other tools directly to refugees so they can rebuild and reoccupy their homes without using intermediary housing.

Everyone agrees that tent cities are messy and untenable but the tension is between the Acehnese, who just want to get back to normal quickly, and the vested interests of officials who speak of a Master Plan, due out on March 26, as the start of a process they plan to control.

The first relocations to a barracks complex in Banda Aceh took place on February 15. Instructions to move were delivered to the refugees only the night before and by local government employees in the company of soldiers.

"In the context of the war in Aceh, a military presence at the camps can be a form of intimidation and abusive control," says Neil Hicks, director of international programmes at Human Rights First, the American advocacy group formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

In a February 7 statement, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First expressed concern that the new camps would be misused by the military, which has a record of forcibly relocating populations into secure areas where abuses then take place. "The participation of the police paramilitary brigade [Brimob] would raise similar fears due to its history of abuses in Aceh," the rights groups said.

In some locations, barracks are being built on the site of former "transmigration" camps that harken back to the Suharto era, when people were moved from overcrowded Java to outlying provinces in a way that was often criticized for destroying local communities and extending Javanese political control.

The only cheering aspect of the relief process in provincial areas such as Meulaboh is that alongside the government and the TNI's big plans exists their ever-present incompetence. One foreign consultant noted that the government had only 30 percent of the building materials and 15 percent of the land needed to build the barracks they plan.

In the meantime, the Acehnese are doing things for themselves. Along the main road of Meulaboh, men are working, banging in wooden supports, attaching them to felled trees, and rebuilding shacks, often right next to the tents given them by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

In Banda Aceh, entrepreneurs are selling tsunami T-shirts for US$7 each to foreign military personnel at the public hospital. Streets empty of people a month ago now boast open shops and a bus station heaving with custom. Schools have reopened, even though playgrounds are dustbowls scoured by the tsunami.

In the worst-hit areas of northern Banda Aceh, where boats still rest in the front rooms of shattered houses, deliveries of bricks and building sand can be seen. In the shell of a large house, one man is using a sledge hammer to bash in a wall in order to retrieve the valuable wood of a window frame.

The hope of many in the aid community is that ongoing competition for influence between civilian and military forces may cancel each other out, producing a balance of power under which ordinary people can still do ordinary things.

In the western district of Banda Aceh called Ulee Lhe, perhaps one structure remains standing per half-kilometer. The rest is flattened rubble now cleared of corpses, offering nothing but far-reaching sea views. The foundations of stable middle-class homes remain, along with bathroom fittings and sometimes the debris of comfortable lives -- a blender, a ripped mattress, even a typewriter in the sand.

Here and there, small stakes have been driven into the sand and joined by lines of string to demarcate where homes once stood.

For Ibu Rafei Ibrahim, the floor tiles are all she has. On her first visit back, after seven shocked weeks in a refugee camp, she still bursts into tears at the horror of it all. A small scar on her little finger attests to her amazing story: swept upstairs by the tsunami, she was washed a kilometer inland, taking in water three times she says, each time believing she would drown. Instead, her five children drowned and she's left with less than the skeleton of a home.

Her neighbors, Maryam and Suadi, still have their four-year-old girl, Putri Irywan, but their home is gone.

Another neighbor, Bakhtiar, lost his wife and children, but he knows where his house once stood. "Yes I want to live here again," he says. "All my documents are gone and no one from the government has come to make a report on my land or my house. But this is my home."

Planners might mean well, simply hoping that a solid barracks roof is better than a tent. But the issue of housing comes down to deep-seated distrust. Without exception, every Acehnese interviewed in the course of a week, spoke directly, without prompting, about corruption. Even a relatively well-off local such as Saiful Idris Ali, his house in Banda Aceh now cleaned of refuse after three days of labor, says he's had no help from the government. With his family and house intact, he can handle his problems alone, though he wishes the road cleanup would go faster.

"Yes we've had help from governments -- the Australian government, the Malaysian government, the Japanese government. But from our own government? Oh no, not yet," he says.

Just down the road is an improvised dump site where scavengers greet a stream of trucks delivering, in effect, the topsoil of a city. Here, Muhamazen and his wife Norumiati have decided not to wait any longer. With their three children gone and their house destroyed, they've opened the Tsunami Coffeeshop, now a busy hub for resting soldiers, scavengers and the unemployed, in the shell of a once-prosperous home whose owner has fled. Walls have been punched out by the wave, the drains are clogged with viscous mud, there's no electricity or water supply. But fried bananas and strong coffee are available and running the business keeps their minds off their loss.

The coffee drinkers there echo the passengers on the public bus down the coast at Meulaboh: any money channelled through the bureaucracy or TNI shrinks to near nothing by the time it reaches refugees. "We've had a tragedy, but we still have corruption, collusion and nepotism."

Back at the lonely mosque, Nasir is still shouting into the wind, echoing the cries of those who fear not another wave but the imposition of control through barracks, master plans and exclusion zones. "If there is another tsunami, who cares, let it come. All we want is a house, right here," Nasir says.

West Papua

Over 1,700 living with HIV/AIDS in West Papua

Jakarta Post - February 22, 2005

Jayapura -- The number of people living with HIV/AIDS has reached an alarming level in the nation's easternmost province of Papua.

As of December 31, 1,749 people have been recorded as HIV positive, 696 of whom have developed AIDS. Of those 696 people, 232 have died of an AIDS-defining illness, according to the Papua Health Office.

Samuel Baso, a doctor at a Jayapura state hospital, said the government would continue with its campaign to raise people's awareness of the epidemic.

Students/youth

Palembang students protest fuel hike

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Palembang (South Sumatra) -- Dozens of Palembang students protested on Tuesday against the central government's plan to raise fuel prices in the near future.

During the rally held in downtown Palembang, the students carried banners and posters demanding that the government cancel the plan on the grounds that the fuel hike would inflict undue suffering on the public.

"The price of basic necessities will definitely soar if fuel is hiked, and in the end it will be the people who suffer," said Ipung, a protest steward. The central government is set to raise fuel prices on April 1.

Makassar students hijack fuel trucks yet again

Detik.com - February 23, 2005

Gunawan Mashar, Jakarta -- For the umpteenth time, on Wednesday February 23 students from the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar have again hijacked fuel tankers. This time, after hijacking two kerosene tankers they drove them round and round the city.

Around 30 students from a number of Student Executive Councils (BEM) at the Makassar State University (UNM) initially held the demonstration in front of their campus on Jalan Andi Pettarani. The action was in protest against planned fuel price increases and the scarcity of kerosene in South Sulawesi. They then hijacked two fuel trucks which drove by the demonstration.

Feeling that students at other universities were unconcerned about the welfare of ordinary people, the UNM students drove the two tankers to a number of campuses in Makassar including the Indonesia Muslim University, the University 45 and the Hasanuddin University.

"We wanted to arouse [our] other comrades, [show them] where their concerns are about the people [should lie]", said one of the students while giving a speech from on top of one of the fuel tankers.

The action, which was tightly guarded by police from the East Makassar municipal police, didn't finish until around 2pm.

Actions hijacking fuel tankers have occurred frequently in Makassar. Several days ago, State Institute of Islamic Studies students hijacked a diesel truck and drove it to a demonstration at the Makassar Region VII representative office of the state oil company Pertamina. (asy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

'Student protesters have other motives'

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Jambi -- A lecturer said here on Friday that some student groups have hidden agendas for staging protests in the province ahead of the direct elections of regional administrations.

"Some student groups protested against the running of one candidate for regent, while other groups protested against others. This is not healthy for our democracy. The students have abused their right to protest for their own short-term interests," said Sudirman, a noted politics observer from Jambi University.

Furthermore, Sudirman alleged that some groups of students had been used by politicians to promote their interests.

Spokesman of the Jambi National Student Front Ade Jasman concurred, saying that the trend had damaged the students' image. "The students are no longer perceived as being the agents of change. They have been used by politicians to acquire power," said Ade.

War on terror

Prosecutor says Bashir guilty of terrorism by omission

Agence France Presse - February 22, 2005

Indonesian prosecutors accused Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir of failing to prevent militants allegedly under his leadership from carrying out terror attacks, including the Bali bombings.

Chief prosecutor Salman Maryadi insisted that Bashir as the leader of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group knew of his subordinates' activities, including bomb-making classes at a militant training camp in the Philippines.

"Even though the defendant did not take part in the bombings, the defendant knew that military training at the Hudaibiyah camp provided lessons in bomb-making... that the defendant as Jemaah Islamiyah emir [leader] was aware of the consequences resulting from the training," Maryadi said.

"But the defendant did not forbid Jemaah Islamiyah members to carry out bombings," he told Bashir's terrorism trial.

Maryadi reiterated the prosecution's demand that Bashir be sentenced to eight years in jail.

Bashir is on trial for his alleged link to a series of deadly bombings in recent years blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, including the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks in which 202 people were killed.

Bashir, 66, has rejected the charges, accusing President George W. Bush of being behind the allegations to prevent him from campaigning for Islamic law, or Sharia.

Prosecutors dropped a primary charge that Bashir and his supporters actually planned the attacks or that Bashir incited his followers to engage in terrorism, saying they had insufficient evidence.

However they said evidence showed he was guilty of involvement in acts of terrorism.

Bashir, who was cleared in 2003 of leading Jemaah Islamiyah, was released from jail in April last year after serving a sentence for an immigration offence.

He was immediately rearrested by police, who said they had new evidence of terror links and of his leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah.

Prosecutors in their indictment said Bashir, as Jemaah Islamiyah chief, visited a rebel training camp in the Philippines in April 2000 and relayed a "ruling from Osama bin Laden which permitted attacks and killings of Americans and their allies." Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for numerous attacks including a suicide bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September that killed 11 people.

The trial resumes Friday and a verdict is expected as early as next week.

Politics/political parties

PPP needs changes in leadership, LSI survey says

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Jakarta -- A day ahead of the national gathering of the United Development Party (PPP), a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) revealed on Thursday that the popularity of the country's largest Islamic political party may further tumble at the next general election unless changes are made in the party's leadership.

Denny J.A., executive director of LSI, said that based on the results of a recent survey, the party's popularity tumbled to 7th place, garnering only 2.6 percent of votes.

"If an election were to be held today, PPP would not pass the minimum threshold and would turn into a minor party," Denny said at a seminar held by Young Generation of Indonesian Development (GMPI), the youth wing of PPP, prior to a 3-day national gathering of the party starting on Friday.

PPP obtained 8.15 percent of votes in last year's general election, placing the party as the fourth largest in the House of Representatives. However, Hamzah Haz, the party's chairman, lost the presidential election, having garnered only three percent of the vote.

Because of these losses, several groups within the party have for some time insisted on holding a national gathering to accelerate changes in the party's leadership, despite the central board's opposition.

Denny explained that there were signs that former PPP voters shifted their votes to the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), another Islamic-based party, in last year's elections because its campaigns were more attractive to voters.

"There is a new joke now: 'Check out of PPP and check into PKS.' Most of our voters thought the PPP executed some self-destructive maneuvers, such as joining the Nationhood Coalition instead of advocating issues that concern the grassroots," Denny said.

The survey, which covered 1,200 respondents in 150 cities and villages, showed that 33.3 percent of respondents believed that the party had not fulfilled its promises, made in last year's election campaigns, while 11.1 percent said that PPP would have no chance of winning the next election in 2009.

The survey also showed that voters were more concerned about issues such as curbing soaring prices of basic necessities, as well as education, unemployment, corruption and better law enforcement.

"The survey showed that PKS could take over the 4th position [in the next election] now held by PPP. The reason is that PKS has been campaigning for clean governance while PPP has not done anything related to grassroots concerns," Denny said, claiming that his institution was known for its high degree of accuracy.

Denny suggested that changes in leadership and other reform measures must be taken by PPP leaders to prevent further decline in the party's popularity. "In other countries, leaders of losing parties step down just three days after the election. They are aware that they have not performed well," he said.

Irgan Chairul Mahfidz of GMPI said that the national PPP gathering, which is expected to be attended by more than 1,000 participants from 32 provinces, would discuss how to prevent the LSI survey results from becoming reality.

"We don't care what the options are that will be taken by the central board -- whether it is to have an extra-ordinary national meeting or to accelerate the national congress. The bottom line is that the central board must be sensitive to the demands of its constituents," Irgan said.

Reports have previously said that Hamzah and certain other party leaders have opposed the national gathering as it was seen as a move to set in motion a campaign to remove the current leadership.

Government/civil service

House members nearly brawl over Cemex case

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Lawmakers nearly got into a brawl on Thursday after failing to agree on a plan to disclose alleged irregularities in the settlement process of a dispute between the government and Mexican cement giant Cemex SA involving a broken contract with a state-owned company.

The incident occurred during a hearing between members of the House of Representatives' Commission VI with State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto to discuss issues related with the development of state enterprises.

The Commission oversees industry, trade and state enterprises.

The heated quarreling started when House member Azam Azman Natawijana planned to make public his self-proclaimed findings over irregularities involving state officials who have been trying to settle the government's dispute with Cemex.

According to Azam, a lawmaker from the Democrat Party, the irregularities should be disclosed publicly as they could have caused losses to the state.

"I have here some documents and reports of irregularities in the government's options (offered) to Cemex as part of efforts to end the protracted dispute without going to court. The public needs to know this," said Azam.

However, before Azam had a chance to read out the findings, Fahri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) interrupted and shouted at his fellow House member and demanded the findings not be made public. Fachri argued that it would jeopardize the ongoing settlement process.

"As we have agreed earlier, such detailed findings should be discussed only in closed-door meetings. The public should not know it before the government and Cemex finally reach an agreement to end their dispute," said Hamzah.

Fahri's arguments, however, prompted other House members to join in the quarrel, and accused the PKS member of involvement in the irregularities.

"Fahri is trying to protect corrupt state officials. The irregularities should be made public. We should be suspicious over his sudden rejection," said Epyardi Asda of the United Development Party (PPP).

Angered by the accusations, Fahri began screaming at Epyardi, which was followed by a full-fledged cacophony of shouting and screaming by fellow faction members. "You should shut your mouth once and for all," Fahri bellowed.

The hearing erupted into chaos. The rancorous shouting and quarreling lasted about 15 minutes and seemed on the verge of full-scale barroom brawl before the Commission's deputy chairman, Ade Komaruddin, finally was able to restore a semblance of order by getting his colleagues to sit down and stop shouting.

As the meeting continued the commission members agreed to disclose the findings during a closed-door special session next week.

The Cemex-government dispute arose when the government failed to fulfill its side of an investment contract signed in 1998. Under the deal, Cemex was to acquire majority control in state cement producer PT Semen Gresik, but its West Sumatra subsidiary PT Semen Padang staunchly opposed the arrangement and managed to thwart the deal.

Cemex later filed a lawsuit at the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, but that was put on hold after Indonesia convinced Cemex that it was serious about an out-of- court settlement.

The government has come up with some settlement options, however, a number of politicians, along with Semen Gresik's labor union spokespeople have expressed deep opposition over those options, apparently, as they claim, due to fears that foreigners would have too much control over the nation's cement industry.

Councillors to get 15 million monthly housing allowance

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- City councillors now have every reason to smile. Governor Sutiyoso has set councillors' monthly housing allowance at Rp 20 million for leaders and Rp 15 million for members, tripling their income from the previous Rp 6.5 million to over Rp 20 million.

Councillors will also receive a monthly stipend ranging from Rp 130,000 to Rp 326,250 for deliberating bylaws, if they sit on the budgetary committee or become a commission member or are elected a member of council's ethics committee or if they make official visits to constituents.

According to Gubernatorial Decree No. 17/2005 signed on January 25, but which was revealed only on Thursday, each of the city's 71 council members will receive a Rp 15 million housing allowance, while the four council leaders will get Rp 20 million per month.

However, since the four council leaders live in official residences provided by the state, they are unlikely to receive the Rp 20 million allowance.

Previously, council members were paid neither housing allowance nor monthly salaries but did get the Rp 6.5 million stipend.

The payment of a housing allowance for councillors is stipulated in government regulation No. 24/2004 on protocol and financial matters for leaders and members of regional councils (DPRDs).

The regulation states that regional administrations may provide housing allowances for regional councillors if they could afford it.

City councillors had demanded a Rp 12.5 million monthly housing allowance for members and Rp 15 million for council leaders.

The decree also allocates funds for foreign and out-of-town trips for all councillors. Each councillor (leader or member) will receive a Rp 250,000 per day allowance during official out-of- town trips.

For official visits inside Jakarta, councillors will receive local transportation fees per visit -- Rp 1 million for council speaker, Rp 900,000 for deputies and Rp 750,000 for members.

They are also entitled to Rp 1.5 million for speaker, Rp 1.4 million for deputies and Rp 1.25 for members for every official activity during the visit.

Should they make official overseas trips, council leaders will receive US$150 and members US$125.

Commenting on the income of city councillors, chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas Tigor Nainggolan said councillors should not receive a housing allowance because all of them had houses in the capital.

"Although the prevailing regulation allows them to accept such allowances, they do not deserve such facilities. Those facilities are reserved for councillors in other regions, whose houses are far from their offices," he said.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

DPR members suspected to be involved in corruption: ICW

Tempo Interactive - February 24, 2005

Sunariah, Jakarta -- Around 40 members of the People's Representative Assembly (DPR) for the period 2004-2009 are suspected of being involved in corruption. Most originate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (15), the Golkar Party (10) and the United Development Party (8). The remainder are from the Democratic Party (3), the National Mandate Party (3) and the Justice and Welfare Party (1).

This information came from data gathered by Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) which was provided to journalists on Wednesday February 24. In its report, ICW also mentioned the names of assembly members who are suspected of being involved in corruption as well as the type and extent of the corruption they have perpetrated.

Their cases are still under investigation and by law enforcement officials but a number of assembly members have already been confirmed as suspects.

Many other cases of suspected corruption involving assembly members however were not investigated such as involvement in running departments in Hong Kong and South Korea. There have even been some who have been released or the investigation into their cases terminated.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

NGOs accuse parliament of graft

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Jakarta -- A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) unveiled on Wednesday a possible corruption case involving the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) secretariat general in accommodating 118 Regional Representative Council (DPD) members last year.

The coalition, Komplek, said their first investigation found alleged markups of prices, double taxation and violations of procedures in renting the Mercure Hotel and Residence apartment rooms from October 21 to December 31, which caused Rp 1.6 billion (US$173,000) in losses to the state.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, a member of Komplek, said at the Jakarta Legal Aid (LBH Jakarta) office that the Assembly's secretariat paid between Rp 1.6 million and Rp 3.8 million more than the normal price for Mercure rooms.

"If the secretariat paid the prices according to the initial offer, the state could have saved Rp 1.2 billion," said Uchok, who is the director of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra).

The newly inaugurated DPD members were accommodated in the hotel pending the disbursement of state budget money to provide housing for them. The remaining 10 DPD members own houses in Jakarta.

Komplek also discovered that the double taxation occurred because the secretariat added 12 percent in state treasury taxes to the prices offered, which normally include a 21 percent service tax.

"The policy has no legal basis and it cost the state Rp 483.5 million," said Yuna Farhan, one of the coalition's investigators.

Hayie Muhammad, another Komplek member, said the secretariat had violated a presidential decree on procedures for procuring materials or services by appointing Mercure without an open tender.

Deputy Assembly secretary general Eddy Siregar denied the allegations and accused Komplek of using inaccurate data in their investigation.

"We are willing to be responsible and accountable. Anyway, they are making a wrong accusation. The data given to Komplek by Mercure represented prices offered for one year of rent, while prices offered to us were for only two months. Of course they (Komplek) got cheaper prices," he told The Jakarta Post.

Mercure Director of Sales Ansori Abdullah said that on February 7 a group of people came to him, who said they represented DPD members, and asked him for a price list of rooms. He said they also told him that the council wanted to rent the rooms for four years.

Eddy also said there was no double taxation because the secretariat was responsible for paying all the taxes and Mercure had offered prices excluding tax.

"The money went nowhere. It went back to the state treasury," Eddy claimed.

Abdul Malik Raden, head of the DPD faction in the Assembly, defended the secretariat's decision in selecting the apartment without a tender.

"I think we could consider it an emergency, at the time, because the DPD members had to check out of the Mulia Hotel and had no place to stay. Besides, not many apartments have 118 vacant rooms for two months," the representative from Aceh explained.

Governance reform key to fighting corruption: ADB

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta -- Amid growing public discontent over the lack of progress in punishing those involved in corruption, a new study says that because corruption is largely systemic, or institutionalized, the key to solving the problem is to reform the system and improve governance.

While the report by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) does not discuss the effectiveness of law enforcement as the weapon of choice by successive governments since 1998 in fighting corruption, it says law enforcement agencies and the judiciary are among the state institutions most prone to corruption, and thus must be the first to be reformed.

Indonesia, according to the Country Governance Assessment Report due to be released on Friday, has an unfinished and somewhat daunting reform agenda.

The report underlines the need to reform the regulatory system, the management of public finances, the civil service, the police, the Attorney General's Office and the judiciary.

"The widespread perception of systemic corruption afflicting public services is another reason for continuing and accelerating reforms," it says.

The grim implication of the report, while not stated, is clear: no amount of law enforcement will be sufficient to stop corruption as long as the system itself allows or even encourages corruption in the various state institutions.

The report's conclusion is also clear: completely overhaul the civil service and reform the police, the Attorney General's Office and the judiciary.

Almost seven years since the downfall of the corrupt Soeharto regime, Indonesia seems nowhere near to eradicating corruption. There is even the growing feeling that corruption has become even more widespread than before, in spite of announced wars against corruption by four successive presidents since 1998.

This feeling is dangerous because it could lead to public apathy toward the next official declaration of yet another war on corruption. While many people have been investigated and tried in court for corruption, convictions have been few and far between. Impunity remains the rule rather than the exception.

HS Dillon, executive director of Partnership Governance Reform in Indonesia, gave his personal endorsement of the ADB report, which he described as being "close to our heart".

"It is in line with our motto of 'pressure from without, capacity from within,'" he said during a discussion at Kompas daily newspaper earlier this week.

The ADB report says Indonesia "is still far from having a fully developed democracy with an administration and judiciary ruled by law, and with a market economy based on open and fair competition".

"Indonesia's governance system previously operated under a regime in which state institutions neglected good governance and the rule of law, where the state managed essential parts of the corporate sector and where corruption was allowed to rule over common interests."

The 125-page report looks at specific governance sectors where reform is mandated, including legislation, the regulatory framework and policy making process, the management of state finances, the civil service and the implications of decentralization, law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the courts.

The report reserves its harshest words for the civil service, the National Police and the judiciary for their systemic corruption. It says that civil service management practices "nurture and multiply corruption", that corruption is "widespread and institutionalized" in the police force, and that there is "institutionalized and widespread corruption in the judiciary". If reforming these institution seems like a gigantic task, at least Indonesia is heading in the right direction, Staffan Synnerstrom of the ADB and one of the authors of the study said during the discussion at Kompas.

Synnerstrom, who helped in governance reforms for Eastern European countries in the 1990s, said it took 15 years for Poland and many other countries in the region to reform their civil service and their public finance management. "It is a long process," he said.

The ADB report, alluding to the experiences of other countries in transition, says that such "transformation needs time, strong commitment, persistent efforts and determined leadership."

Timber barons protest illegal fees

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Jayapura -- Over 150 people claiming to be timber company employers staged a protest on Thursday in Jayapura, demanding the government put an end to rampant extortion against them.

In the protest, held in front of the Papua provincial council, the protesters said they were routinely charged illegal fees when they were transporting logs into town.

Protest coordinator James Simanjuntak said at each post they had to pay Rp 200,000 (US$22.2) on average. "We pass at least five posts during the trip from the forest to town. You can imagine the losses," said James.

'I paid a bribe to get my free ID'

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

A survey of 1,305 businesses and top managers of local and multinational firms here named Jakarta as the most corrupt city in the country. The survey was conducted last year by Transparency International Indonesia at a time when the city administration was making much-publicize noises about turning Jakarta into a "service city". The Jakarta Post asked residents to relate some of their experiences when dealing with government officials.

Abdullah, not his real name, 22, is an administrator at an Islamic school. He lives in Bogor, West Java: I'm not surprised by the survey. I'm sure that at the ASEAN level, Jakarta would also be the most corrupt city. After all, Indonesia is the world's fifth most corrupt nation and Jakarta is where all the money is here.

The problem is the bureaucratic system. It is full of loopholes that officials can easily exploit. Case in point, the school I work at routinely writes proposals to various government ministries. When I submit a proposal, brokers, who claim to guarantee the proposal's approval, approach me and ask for cut of between 15 percent and 20 percent of the total budget.

Unfortunately, from what I know, this is the only way to get a proposal approved. Hence, I have to go along with it. It is the corrupt bureaucracy that makes Jakarta so corrupt. Get rid of them and everyone would be better off.

Supadi, not his real name, 50, is a driver. He lives with his wife and son in Mampang, South Jakarta: Jakarta the most corrupt city? That's the reality. The governor should admit it. He should see that corruption is rampant even at the lowest level.

Even to get an identity card for my 20-year-old son, which is supposed to be free, I had to pay a bribe of Rp 200,000 to the district administration officials. The excuse they gave me was because he went to school outside Jakarta. This despite the fact that he is listed on our family's Jakarta family registration card and he doesn't have any other ID card.

I mean, if the process of getting something as simple as an ID card is full of corruption, what does this say about other city services?

Fighting graft 'must start at budget debate'

Jakarta Post - February 21, 2005

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- Just like government officials, corruption watchdogs showed no surprise on Friday at the results of a survey placing Jakarta as the most corrupt city in the country, but for quite different reasons.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said that corrupt practices start with budget deliberations that very often take place behind close doors.

"Non-transparent budget deliberations are the beginning of corrupt practices because many backroom deals are made during such discussions," said Fitra executive Yuna Farhan on Friday.

Transparency International Indonesia (TII) unveiled its survey of 21 Indonesian cities, including the capital Jakarta, last Wednesday that showed that Jakarta topped the list as Indonesia's most corrupt city, while Wonosobo in Central Java was rated the least corrupt.

Government officials, however, shrugged off the survey on Thursday, saying that it was totally unacceptable to compare Jakarta with small cities.

Yuna said his organization often received unconfirmed reports of officials offering their cronies in the private sector projects to be financed from the city budget, even while deliberations had not been completed.

He also complained that the administration never opened the draft city budget to public scrutiny despite the fact that it was a public document.

"The administration, for example, never responds to letters from Fitra asking for the draft city budget. It is an indication that there is something wrong with the budget deliberation process," he told The Jakarta Post.

He said that transparent budget deliberations would be an important start in eradicating rampant corruption in the city.

A similar comment came from deputy chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto, who demanded that the city administration establish complaint and information centers on public services.

"The two centers are important because corruption often occurs in public services. Officials frequently demand that residents pay illegal fees," he said.

He said the administration already had a complaint facility -- a 009 mailbox. Residents can lodge complaints through the facility about any irregular conduct, but many people got frustrated because many of their complaints went unheeded.

"The administration should announce how many letters come to the mailbox each month and how many cases are followed up by the City Audit Body (Bawasda). Such responses may encourage the public to take part in monitoring corruption practices," he said.

According to Tubagus, the proposed information center should facilitate access to all procedures and requirements for people who needed particular services.

He added that the center should also mention official fees and time required to complete specific services. Yuna shared Tubagus' opinion, saying that information on public services should also be distributed through the official website run by the administration.

"I think all projects offered to the public must be announced through the website," he said.

Tubagus and Yuna agreed that the City Council had an important role to play in preventing corruption if they wished to prove that they were not actual participants in these practices.

Tubagus said councillors have wide access to internal information in the city administration.

"They can cooperate with non-governmental organizations and the media to disclose their findings if they really want to," he told the Post.

'Officials demand money unshamedly'

Jakarta Post - February 21, 2005

A survey by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) has ranked Jakarta as the nation's most corrupt city. The tax and customs offices have also come under fire of late, for the gross level of corruption within them. The Jakarta Post asked residents for their comments on the issue.

Syandra (not her real name), 30, works for a company on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, South Jakarta. She lives in Sunter, North Jakarta: I personally have had bad experiences dealing with government officials, especially with officers from the tax office. It is bulls@%$ should they claim in the media that their hands are clean.

Every year, when it is time to pay taxes or be inspected by the tax office, I have to deal with officials who unashamedly ask for money. They even bluntly acknowledged that half of it would go to their bosses, while they would share the other half. And they do not ask for Rp 10 million, mind you, they demand a hefty Rp 200 million (US$22,471) for the approval of our documents.

The traffic police stopped me several times, as well, After threatening to ticket me, they offered me an amicable solution: Rp 10,000 to Rp 50,000 in hush money. I don't know what kinds of efforts can be made to eradicate corruption in the country.

Rizky, 23, is a freelance teacher for a school in Bintaro, South Jakarta. She lives with her family in Bintaro: I think corruption occurs everywhere. I have heard that job seekers applying for positions in government offices, as well as private companies, have been asked to pay bribes to up their chances. A relative told me that she was asked to pay Rp 30 million to become a security officer in Blok M, South Jakarta. Another friend let slip that she had been asked to pay Rp 15 million to get a job in a bank.

Corruption certainly makes life complicated. We can take steps to eradicate it though, such as speaking out when local thugs bully public transport drivers for money.

19 councillors named suspects

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Palu (Central Sulawesi) -- Central Sulawesi Police named as suspects on Friday 19 councillors for their alleged involvement in the embezzlement of Rp 2.9 billion (US$322,222) in Buol regency budgetary funds between 2001 and 2004.

Central Sulawesi chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Tatang Somantri division, said the councillors had been named suspects after a report on the alleged corruption published by the Institute for Human Rights and Legal Studies Development three months ago. The study showed various methods used by the councillors to embezzle the state money, including funding requests for fictitious trips.

He said the police had asked the Central Sulawesi governor to approve the questioning of the councillors.

Local & community issues

Release of youth leader demanded

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Kupang -- Hundreds of residents staged a protest on Friday outside the East Nusa Tenggara council building, demanding the release of a local youth leader allegedly detained by soldiers.

Aldi Dalton Ndolu, the chairman of Kayu Putih Youth Organization, was apprehended by soldiers on Thursday after he attended the funeral of a local resident in Kupang city.

Separately, Kupang Military Police chief Col. Helvis confirmed that the military police had detained Aldi for one night for questioning, but the youth leader had already been handed over to the local police headquarters for further interrogation.

Aldi was taken to the military police headquarters for questioning due to his alleged involvement in the beating of a soldier in the city.

Reconciliation & justice

Government must revise reconciliation law

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- A discussion here on Wednesday identified shortcomings in Law No. 27/2004 on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR), and called for amendments to its articles in order to make the much-touted commission actually work.

Institute of Policy Research and Advocacy director Ifdhal Kasim said a stumbling point was Article 27, which recommends that compensation and rehabilitation for victims of human rights abuse be given only after an amnesty is granted for violators.

"What if the culprits don't get an amnesty? Or what if the alleged perpetrators don't apply for an amnesty? The victims will end up with nothing," he said.

Passed in September last year, the law provides amnesty to human rights violators if they reveal the truth and give restitution to their victims.

The mechanism has raised doubts as many see it as an inadequate incentive for alleged culprits to speak the truth because amnesty is not automatically granted, despite their testimonies.

Lawmaker Sidharto Danusubroto, who headed the special committee deliberating the law, said the final verdict indeed lay in the hands of the ad hoc Human Rights Tribunal set up to try rights violators refusing to confess their wrongdoings.

"And like it or not, we have to believe that the tribunal will work properly and fairly to serve justice," he said.

The ad hoc tribunal had acquitted all high-ranking military personnel in the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre, while it sentenced only civilians tried for the 1999 East Timor atrocities and acquitted implicated police and military officers of all charges.

Sidharto admitted that the law was indeed far from effective in helping the commission produce satisfying results, but quickly added that it was "better for it to be born crippled rather than to have it aborted".

He, nonetheless, agreed that amendments could be made, even though the commission itself was not yet established.

Ifdhal said the law also did not define the culprit, making it impossible to prosecute the masterminds of crimes -- a situation dissatisfying for victims and their families because the few who get prosecuted are mostly just carrying out orders from their superiors.

He argued that the commission should actually focus on seeking and revealing the truth by letting the victims be heard.

"It should emulate what the Argentine commission did. It gathered victims' testimonies, and later drew a report about how and why the crimes took place by identifying the involved institutions and allowing systems. It's like rewriting the real history, and the report was later submitted to prosecutors as evidence.

As for the victims, they get proportional compensation and restitution regardless of whether or not the alleged culprits confess," Ifdhal said.

Amnesty offer 'would not reveal truth'

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- A number of international human rights observers have expressed their pessimism that offering amnesty for human rights violators would be effective in revealing the truth of their wrongdoings.

Based on experience in countries such as South Africa and Sierra Leone, the experts concluded that the amnesty offer was insufficient incentive for culprits to come clean about the past.

"In a country where the judicial system is weak and human rights record is poor, there's an enormous doubt that the amnesty mechanism will work," said Howard Varney, a former director at the Sierra Leonean and South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions.

Two things could happen, he explained. First, people would not come forward to apply for amnesty and speak the truth because there was no prospect of prosecution, or, they would come forward but not speak the truth, and yet be amnestied.

"In the end, what you have is no truth and no justice. In Indonesia, where the incapability of prosecuting properly has been evident, it's a mistake. Without serious prosecutions, the mechanism will prove to be a massive failure," Varney warned.

He was commenting on the recently passed law on the establishment of Indonesian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR), which offers amnesty to alleged human rights violators if they confess to their offenses and if the victims, who would be entitled to compensation, forgive them.

Those denying accusations against them would then be brought before the human rights court to face justice, according to the law.

Victims and families affected by various gross human rights abuses in Indonesia have been disappointed with the country's poor record in prosecutions, with most suspects implicated in the cases being let off, while several others seem to enjoy immunity.

It has been acknowledged that problems hampering prosecution of human rights cases include different perceptions between the Attorney General's Office and the National Commission on Human Rights about the elements of human rights violations, and also a lack of financial resources to investigate and prosecute.

A corresponding concern was expressed by Javier Ciurlizza from the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He said amnesty was the last resort and applied only to low level crimes after specific conditions were met.

Other experts, including Jorge Rolon Luna from the Paraguay Truth Commission, also agreed that certain serious international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, could never be amnestied.

Indonesia's Law No. 26/2000 on Human Rights Court, however, includes genocide and crimes against humanity in its definition of gross human rights violations, which can consequently be amnestied by the KKR.

The experts however said that if the amnesty mechanism is applied, it should be granted only to lower-ranking perpetrators who are proven to have carried out the orders and instructions of their superiors.

An effective system for witness protection then becomes necessary. Indonesia has no laws to protect witnesses in criminal or human rights cases.

Foreign experts criticize truth commission

Jakarta Post - February 22, 2005

Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- International experts on truth and reconciliation commissions have expressed concerns about Indonesia's recently passed law on the establishment of such a commission, saying that it contained loopholes that have distinct disadvantages for victims.

Speaking during a convention of managers of truth commissions and representatives from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) here on Monday, ICTJ senior associate Eduardo Gonzalez said one of the loopholes causing concern was that the commission did not have a mandate to conduct historical analyses nor to determine the patterns, spread or systematic character of the crimes in question.

He said the law, passed in September 2004, did not allow the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) to recommend policies to prevent the repetition of the situations that caused the violations in the first place.

Gonzalez, who was also a member of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, added that there was no indication in the law that any aspects of the commission's work would be conducted publicly, which would allow the victim's experiences to be known by the society at large.

Marcie Mersky, a former executive secretary of the Guatemala Historical Clarification Commission, said it was essential to identify the historical cases and the conditions that led to the atrocities and dissenting voices.

"It's important to establish institutional responsibility to open the door to effective reformation in concerned institutions. What happened were not just accidents nor excesses, but were results of very conscious, well-applied policies. It's not just that there were a few bad people, but [it was exactly] the way the political and military systems were set up," she told The Jakarta Post.

The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is mandated by a People's Consultative Assembly decree issued in 2000, which states that Indonesian history has been a witness to oppression resulting from discriminatory practices considered to be forms of human rights abuses.

Within the seven years of its mandated existence, including a two-year possible extension, the commission is expected to resolve cases of human rights violations that occurred before 2000, the year the law on human rights tribunal was passed.

The law on the commission stipulates that human rights violators can receive a formal pardon if they confess to their wrongdoings and the victims forgive them.

If the victims refuse to forgive their abusers, the commission can still recommend that the president grant them amnesty. If the alleged perpetrators completely deny the accusations against them, they will be prosecuted by the human rights court.

Families and victims of various tragedies, including the Tanjung Priok massacre in 1984, the 1989 Lampung incident, the mass disappearances of government critics, the May 1998 mayhem, and the Trisakti shootings in 1998, have opposed the law as it would allow the perpetrators to go unpunished.

The military and police forces, many of whom are likely to be named in rights investigations, have suggested that the cases be reconciled without disclosing the truth, because revealing it would only lead to new conflicts within the nation.

Focus on Jakarta

Busway, not the dream come true

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Shaunak Mazumder, Jakarta -- "You are late for class," my English teacher said, "Sorry, Miss. There is a lot of traffic on the way to school lately." This has most definitely become a regular excuse for many of the people residing in Jakarta. Jakarta is under constant construction to extend the busway service in the city. Unfortunately, the infant stage of this mode of public transportation has brought with it some unpleasant effects.

Many of us are well versed with the traffic problems in Jakarta. Sitting in long lines of traffic for hours on end, whiling away valuable time, missing appointments, being late for meetings and classes, are just a few of the effects of this infectious disease.

With this in mind city officials came up with the busway as a remedy. But its construction has only aided in the spread of the disease.

Construction of busway corridors means taking up at least two lanes of road, one for the busway itself and the other for the construction equipment. Narrowing a three-lane road to only a single lane can cause serious problems. Heavy rush hour traffic only worsens the problem. Cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles all try to squeeze into this bottleneck, ultimately causing a jam that takes at least half an hour to clear.

Once completed, a busway corridor will take up an entire lane of a road, not only increasing problems for vehicles wanting to make a U-turn, but also reducing the road space for other vehicles.

The fraction of traffic reduced by the busway is far less than the traffic it creates. Another effect of the busway is the cutting down of trees. The median strip in the Cempaka Putih area used to be lush with trees, but since it was decided a busway corridor would occupy this space, the trees have been hacked away. This makes the district look like an even bigger concrete jungle.

In my opinion, the government should work toward perfecting the busway dream to cure the traffic disease. By increasing awareness as to how the busway can be used, as well as by making it secure and reliable, it may become a feasible transportation alternative for many people.

Right now a very small percentage of the people use the busway, so the number of cars on the roads has not been reduced, thereby in no way helping the traffic problem. I myself have never taken the busway and I know of few friends who have! By increasing public awareness of the system and by ensuring people know it is reliable and easy to use, the number of passengers will increase. This would not only increase revenue, but also help fight the traffic disease.

Another means of making the system more efficient would be to remove any other forms of public transportation functioning along the busway corridors. Bajaj, buses and motorcycle taxis take up the remaining road space, in effect increasing the traffic problem.

News & issues

Dump mismanagement 'responsible for disaster'

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- Mismanagement at the Leuwigajah dump in south Cimahi was to blame for the collapse of mountains of garbage on Monday, which killed over 55 people and flattened 70 homes, with 101 people still unaccounted for, an official says.

West Java Environmental Impact Management Agency Director Ade Suhanda said on Wednesday that the chief executives of the Bandung and Cimahi municipal, and Bandung regency, administrations all bore responsibility for the disaster.

He said his office has formed a team to investigate the cause of the disaster, but initial observations showed the 25.1-hectare dump had not been managed in accordance with the original plan.

For instance, he said, the dump, which consists of 17 hectares that accommodates around 5,000 tons of garbage from the seven million residents of the three administrations every day, had been in use since February 12, 1989, not since 1992 as claimed by the Cimahi municipal administration.

"Moreover, the dump was supposed to have used an integrated sanitary landfill system operated by the three administrations. However, this did not work and it was then replaced by surface dumping, which caused a rapid accumulation of garbage," Ade said.

To compound the problem, the way in which the trash was dumped did nothing to reduce the dangers posed by the mountains of garbage. For instance, he said, vents should have been dug at the bases of the garbage mountains to permit the escape of the methane gas produced by the rotting trash.

Moreover, he said, the dump should have had equipment to record precipitation so as to provide an early warning of the possibility of collapses. The garbage mountains should also have been separated from surrounding residential areas by sturdy walls.

"When we checked, we found there was only one vent to allow the hazardous methane gas, which is highly explosive, to escape, and the equipment to record precipitation had gone missing. That's what led to this explosion, which deposited garbage up to a kilometer away and buried at least 60 houses," Ade said.

West Java Governor Danny Setiawan also said there had been inadequate supervision at the site. "There should have been a special unit to manage the dump in an integrated manner, from the foul-smelling waste-water runoff to the dangerous gases," he said.

As of Wednesday, 55 bodies had been recovered from the disaster scene, while 101 people were still counted as missing as rescuers continued sifting through shattered homes and under the debris.

Head of East Batujajar village, Syaeful Bachri, said on Wednesday that the missing victims could be presumed dead as the "families of the missing people have confirmed that their missing relatives had not been staying in other areas".

Worried by the possibility of fresh collapses, a group of victims in Cilimus and Cireundeu villages said they wanted to bring a class action.

A resident, 27-year-old Tatang, said he and a number of other residents were determined to sue those responsible for running the dump.

"This is not fair. We have to suffer because the garbage produced by millions of other people is being dumped here. We have long had to put up with the foul-smelling air we have to breathe and contaminated wells. Now, it seems we also have to sacrifice our lives for them, too," he said.

However, the plan was still tentative as many displaced victims were still living with relatives while some 60 of them were taking shelter in the Batujajar II elementary school. The school itself lost 41 of its 415 students.

The class action plan has been supported by several non- governmental organizations active in the environment field. One of them, the Sundanese Forestry and Environment Observers Council, which counts former West Java governor Solihin GP as one of its members, offered to hire lawyers to support the residents.

Meanwhile, West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Muryan Faisal said on Wednesday the police could not start an investigation into the case until they received a complaint from affected residents. "But, so far no one has reported the case to us, so we can only wait," Muryan said.

Governor Danny Setiawan said he would be ready to assist the Bandung and Cimahi mayors, and the regent of Bandung, if they were sued. "Go ahead, we're ready," he said shortly.

Controversy heightens on fuel price hike plan

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Urip Hudiono and Sri Wahyuni, Jakarta/Yogyakarta -- To hike or not to hike. That is the question -- and the fuel for many arguments currently raging about what the price of fuel should be come April 1.

Some economists, welfare groups and students are already protesting the planned cuts to the national subsidies on fuel, which the government said on Tuesday could end up raising gasoline and diesel prices by an average of 29 percent.

In tentative subsidy cuts announced to the House of Representatives Commission XI on financial and budgetary affairs, the government said it planned to increase the price of Premium gasoline to Rp 2,400 a liter from Rp 1,810, while diesel fuel would rise from Rp 1,650 to Rp 2,100.

A closed-door meeting on the plan, led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, took place late Wednesday.

The government said it planned to allocate about Rp 17.8 trillion of the money it saved from the cuts to a low-income assistance package.

Those opposed to the cuts worry about the effect of rising prices on the poor and on the economy as a whole. Meanwhile, others, including some in the House, think the cuts are not coming soon enough.

Commission chairman Paskah Suzetta suggested to the House that the government speed up its plan to increase fuel prices and start them in March instead of April.

Paskah, of the majority Golkar Party faction, said any subsidy cuts would be best be made some time in March as inflationary pressure from the recent year-end holidays of Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year would be at the lowest.

"Inflation is an important factor to be considered in the plan, as every 1 percent hike in fuel prices would result in a 0.03 percent rise in the index," he said. "If the government is planning a 29 percent hike, then it has to prepare for an increase in inflation of 1 percent."

Bank Indonesia has suggested that any subsidy cuts be made during the harvest when the prices of staple food are at their lowest and the rupiah is traditionally at its strongest to minimize large rises in the prices of imports.

Similarly, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), which reported a nationwide inflation rate of 1.43 percent for January, said the government should ensure fuel supplies were adequate around the increase period. Shortages because of stockpiling could hike fuel prices -- and therefore inflation -- further, it said. The government is targeting an inflation rate of 6.5 percent for this year.

At the meeting, the government presented its planned revision to the 2005 state budget, which included changing its oil price assumptions from the previous US$24 per barrel to US$35. With such a revision, existing fuel subsidies would increase to Rp 39.8 trillion (US$4.28 billion) from Rp 19 trillion.

What is not yet fixed is how much the government will reduce the subsidies and what percentage of the money saved it will transfer to the low-income assistance fund for public education and health services.

Legislators Emir Moeis from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Dradjat H. Wibowo from the National Mandate Party (PAN) said their factions would likely oppose any increases in fuel prices.

Paskah, meanwhile, worried about the potential for the assistance fund to be abused. "We hope the government focuses on education and health and does not misuse the [low-income assistance] funds for other purposes," he said.

In Yogyakarta, students staged street rallies to protest the likely rises. Meanwhile several economists rejected the plan, arguing that these economic efficiencies would unfairly burden the lower and middle-income groups.

Economists Mubyarto and Revrisond Baswir of the Gadjah Mada University (UGM) said the fuel price hike plan was unjust because fuel subsidies were not the biggest drain on the state budget.

Most of the money leaving government coffers went to pay foreign debts and the interest on recapitalization bonds for banks during the late 1990s financial crisis, they said.

Economist Edy Suandi Hamid of the Yogyakarta-based Indonesian Islamic University (UII) said the government would be better off transferring the money spent on fuel subsidies to keep food prices down as these were likely rise if fuels did.

Garuda delays Munir probe

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- The investigation into the murder of top human rights campaigner Munir suffered another setback as national carrier Garuda Indonesia canceled a scheduled preliminary reconstruction of the case.

Head of the government-sanctioned fact finding team Brig. Gen. Marsudi Hanafi told reporters on Wednesday that he was disappointed with the cancellation.

"Pak Pranowo [Director of Transnational Security Brig. Gen. Pranowo who is in charge of the investigation into the murder case] told me that Garuda Indonesian had canceled the reconstruction which was supposed to be held last night [Tuesday night] because several of its cabin crews were on duty," Marsudi said.

"This is impossible. Why were the cabin crew not ready since we told them [Garuda officials] about the reconstruction three weeks ago. There should have been enough time to replace the crew if they had been on duty at that time," Marsudi added. He added that the fact-finding team would send a letter to Garuda to question the cancellation.

The investigating team from the police and the fact-finding team have agreed that a preliminary reconstruction of Munir's death would probably be able to give them some answers to questions surrounding the mysterious death of Munir, founder of human rights organizations Kontras and Imparsial, who had been a strong critic of past human rights violations particularly by military officers.

Munir died of arsenic poisoning on board a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam on September 7, 2004.

The preliminary reconstruction would be held on the ground at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta but it would use the same Garuda plane GA-974 and the same cabin crew who flew to Amsterdam on that fateful day.

Separately, Edwin Partogi of Kontras echoed Marsudi's view about the reconstruction cancellation.

Accompanied by Munir's wife Suciwati, Edwin said that he would ask the fact-finding team to force Garuda officials to carry out the preliminary reconstruction since Garuda seemed reluctant to do it and since the investigation had been moving at a snail's pace without any suspect having been named yet.

Apart from the reconstruction, Marsudi also revealed that a team from the police had arrived in the Netherlands to question Emilie Lie Swan Gie, an Indonesian passenger currently seeking medical treatment in the country, who sat near Munir on the Garuda flight.

"Tomorrow the team will leave for Frankfurt to question an Indonesian student who is currently studying at a university in Munich," Marsudi said. The student, named Asiri, was also on the same flight with Munir and probably would have important information to share with the police.

Flooding worsens in south Bandung

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Bandung/Yogyakarta -- Heavy rain over the last two days has increased the area under water in south Bandung regency, with 18 out of 45 districts inundated on Thursday in what is said to be the worst flooding in the last 10 years.

A deficient drainage system and chaotic waste management in Bandung municipality are being blamed for the floods, which have lead to a shortage of food and potable water in the worst affected areas.

Sunarya, a 43-year-old resident of Citepus subdistrict, Dayeuhkolot, criticized the Bandung administration's lack of concern for the flood victims as it was currently focusing all of its attention on the garbage slide at a dump outside Bandung.

She said that the flood victims had received little attention, forcing them to search for food and potable water on their own.

"Our house has been inundated by water for five days now. How can we get food when the factory where I work has also been affected by the floods," said the mother of three.

This time around, the floods have also affected normally flood- free areas, such as Bojongsoang, Margaasih and Majalaya districts. Hundreds of houses in Bandung municipality were also inundated by floodwater of up to 20 centimeters deep.

The director of Bandung regency's Disaster Prevention Coordination Unit, Edin Hendradin, admitted he had little time to concern himself with the flood victims as he was busy attending meetings to deal with the landslide disaster.

According to figures from 18 districts, more than 30,000 homes housing around 100,000 people have been hit by the floods.

"Most of the people there are used to floods and they know how to help themselves. We in the regental administration are still concentrating on the garbage slide. I'm sorry," Edin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Dayeuhkolot residents, especially those in Citepus and Cangkuang villages, urged the administration to dredge the Citarum river. More than 20,000 people in Dayeuhkolot have been living in shelters for the last five days since their homes were inundated by floodwaters of up to a meter deep.

"We want the river dredged as soon as possible as it costs us a great deal to live in the shelters. We can't work and our belongings are all gone," said Inen, head of Dayeuhkolot district's information section.

The lack of concern was clear from the dearth of aid donated to the flood victims. A previous donation from the Indonesian Red Cross is almost finished, with only 30 boxes of instant noodles, two boxes of mineral water and two boxes of biscuits left.

West Java Environmental Impact Management Agency director Ade Suhanda blamed poorly developed drainage systems in north Bandung for worsening the flooding in south Bandung.

"A primitive drainage system, as well as damaged water ducts and garbage result in the runoff from the rain flowing directly into the lower lying areas in south Bandung," he said, adding that any river dredging project would be a waste if the drainage and waste disposal systems were not upgraded.

"The Citarum was deepened by three meters in 1999 but the endless garbage and silt have rendered the effort useless," he said.

Flooding also hit Yogyakarta after heavy rain on Wednesday, which resulted in the Code river bursting its banks and inundating houses with water up to a meter in depth.

Hundreds of residents, who moved to higher ground with their families on Wednesday, returned to their homes on Thursday.

A Jogoyudan resident, Suryanto, said the water level of the river started to rise on Wednesday afternoon and by 8 p.m. that evening, it had reached four meters high at the nearby sluice gate.

"We've been preparing for the worst so when the warning came that there would be flooding, we quickly moved to safety," said Suryanto, whose house was inundated to a depth of one meter.

Local irrigation office director Joko Santoso said that flooding was an annual problem in the area.

Government presses ahead with fuel price hike

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Jakarta -- Despite potential objections from the House of Representatives, the government will press ahead with its plan to increase domestic fuel prices, saying it is only trying to fulfill the fuel subsidy allocation as required by the 2005 state budget.

"We respect the House, but the government must implement the budget, which the House passed into law, and which limits the subsidy to Rp 19 trillion," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters on Thursday. "We have yet to meet this target." The figure was stated in the 2005 state budget, and approved late last year by the House with an assumption that oil prices would average US$24 per barrel.

Kalla explained that without the hike expenditure for fuel subsidies would reach Rp 100 trillion -- taking into account the present oil price of more than $45 a barrel -- which is far more than the amount allocated in the budget.

Against this backdrop, the government has no alternative but to hike fuel prices in the near future, Kalla said, though he refused to say when the hike would actually be implemented.

Kalla asserted that both he and the President were not worried that such an unpopular decision would tarnish their image. "Our image would be worse if we could not deliver good education and health services because of lack of funds," he replied diplomatically.

Under the so-called compensation program, the government would allocate some Rp 10 trillion in welfare expenditure -- mostly on education and healthcare -- in addition to the Rp 7.8 trillion already set aside under the 2005 state budget.

Still, the government's plans will likely meet opposition from some legislators, who have voiced fears over the impact of the price rise on the poor. Top government officials and the House's budget committee were still discussing the issue at 9.30 p.m. on Thursday.

Among the main stumbling blocks in the lawmakers approving the plan is a request by the Commission for an audit of Pertamina's fuel production costs in order to calculate more accurately subsidy allocations for fuel prices.

Based on a rough calculations by the Ministry of Finance, with fuel costing about Rp 2,870 per liter, assuming an oil price of $35 per barrel, and with a current market price of Rp 1,810 per liter, this means that the government is paying a subsidy of Rp 1,000 per liter.

Roes Aryawidjaja, deputy to State Minister of State Enterprises for telecommunication, energy and strategic industries, warned that it would not be easy to accurately calculate Pertamina's production costs, as the state-owned firm is not only obliged produce and distribute fuel for commercial purposes, but also for public service obligations (PSO) also.

Roes added that a clear separation between production costs for PSO and for profit will only be applied sometime this year, meaning that the government will only be able to calculate real production costs for fuel sometime next year.

Elsewhere, Minister of Trade Mari Pangestu said her ministry has taken necessary measures to ensure the distribution of basic food items and to prevent price hikes due to higher fuel costs.

"We have met with related trade associations, and they have given a guarantee to provide sufficient stocks of their goods both before and after the fuel price increase," she said.

In Surabaya, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri expressed her disappointment over the government's plan, saying it was unnecessary and not in line with Susilo's promises during the presidential election campaign.

Although she could understand the government's rationale for the hike, Megawati said that it should not come at the expense of the people.

Meanwhile, observations by The Post have revealed that a shortage of kerosene -- mainly used by low-income people -- has spread throughout the city.

Several kerosene agents had run out of stock two days ago, and said that supply tanks, which usually come once a week, have not been arriving on time.

Police begin quizzing Cimahi dump management officials

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- The Cimahi Police have started questioning officials in charge of the Leuwigajah dump in south Cimahi, where mountains of garbage collapsed on Monday killing 67 people. A total of 89 others are still missing.

Heavy rain at the disaster scene made things even more difficult for rescue teams on Thursday, with the chief of the Cimahi district military command, Lt. Col. Achmad Syaefudin, saying that Monday was the deadline for the winding up of the rescue work.

Cimahi Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Irwanto said his officers had started questioning the officials after the West Java environment agency, with assistance from the Office of the State Minister for the Environment, kicked off a separate investigation into the cause of the disaster and the effects of pollution from the dump on those living in surrounding areas.

Previously, West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Edi Darnadi said the police would not be able to investigate the case until they had received a complaint from one or more of the victims.

"We're questioning the management of the dump, and officials from the sanitation offices in Cimahi municipality and Bandung regency, as well as the Bandung municipal sanitation firm, PD Kebersihan, as these three bodies were responsible for managing the dumping at the site," Irwanto told The Jakarta Post in Cimahi on Thursday.

Apart from the officials from the sanitation offices, the police had also questioned four Cilimus residents as witnesses in the case.

The head of the Cimahi police detectives, Adj. Comr. Slamet Uliandi, said the police, assisted by investigators from the provincial environment office and the environment ministry, not only wanted to find out whether there had been unlawful taking of life as defined by article 359 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in jail, but also whether there had been any violations of the Environment Protection Law (No. 23 of 1997).

Slamet said the involvement of environmental investigators was permitted under article 40 of the Environment Protection Law, which says that apart from the police, authorized officers from the environment office can act as investigators in such cases.

He said that local people had long been complaining about air pollution and ground contamination emanating from the dump. "So, we'll investigate this, along with the causes of the disaster... as well as finding out about the reported explosion of methane gas that is believed to have triggered the garbage slide," Slamet said.

The police would also scrutinize the dump's permits and environmental impact analysis (EIA), while the officers from the environment office would take pollution readings in the areas surrounding the dump.

The first witness, the head of the sanitation unit in Cimahi municipality, Sutisna Sumantri, said he did not know whether the dump had the necessary permits or an EIA, and continued to insist that the dump had only been in operation since 2004.

He said that he was not solely responsible for running the dump as it also received garbage from Bandung municipality and Bandung regency.

PD Kebersihan director Awan Gumelar, who was questioned by police on Thursday, also said he knew nothing about the dump's permits or EIA. "I just continued to use the existing system. I don't know anything about permits or the EIA," said Awan.

When asked about surface dumping at the dump, which was in violation of the requirement to employ the sanitary landfill system, he once again pleaded ignorance. He also said he had no knowledge of what preventative measures had been taken, if any, to reduce pollution from the dump.

"That's only theory [the landfill system] and it's hard to put into practice. The garbage is dumped. The disaster happened, and that's it. We will take it as a lesson to run the dump much better in the future. I'm not worried about [the police] questioning. I'm much more worried about the garbage piling up on the city's streets," he said defiantly.

Slamet said the police would not make a statement on the outcome of the investigation to date, saying it could take up to two weeks before a final decision was made on further action in the case.

160 feared dead in landslide, hope for survivors 'almost zero'

Agence France Presse - February 23, 2005

Rescuers sifting through the debris of a garbage landslide in Indonesia say that any of the more than 100 missing who have not suffocated or been crushed to death have probably died of heat exposure.

As the search went into its third day, officials said the intense heat caused by decomposing refuse meant those trapped in their homes under tonnes of waste, soil and debris stood very little chance of survival.

"There cannot be any more survivors," said search and rescue official Budi Hadiwiguno. Military officials put the number of those feared dead at 160.

"We are not dealing with just soil and mud. The layer of waste is hot on the inside and most of the victims found yesterday had their skin peeled. It is as if they had been in an oven," he added.

The disaster struck in the early hours of Monday as people slept and buried up to 70 homes built in the shadow of a dumpsite at Cimahi, near the city of Bandung, around 200 kilometres southeast of Jakarta.

A local military official, Purwanto, said that 50 bodies had so far been recovered and 95 residents were still listed as missing. In addition a further 15 scavengers had been reported missing.

Ahmad Saefudin, deputy head of the search and rescue task force, said pockets of explosive methane gas were further complicating efforts, creating both unstable ground for the excavators and a potential hazard for rescuers.

Hadiwiguno said the fine compost-like composition of the soil was also hindering the work. "The soil is hard to excavate because it has plenty of plastic material and other non-degradable material in it." The threat of intermittent rain triggering further landslides was of further concern, officials said.

Saefudin refused to be drawn on when the rescue would be called off. "I do not want to talk about a timeframe. Everything will depend on various factors, including the weather, the psychological state of the workers and the limitation of working in an environment with harmful gas."

Hadiwiguno said that rescuers had still to get to many of the buried homes. "We have located the approximate locations of the clusters of houses and we will begin by digging around them and then we will begin the careful excavation." Saefudin added: "We will try to reach ground level around the houses and only after that will we start to look for victims." No survivors have been pulled from the debris since Monday, when a boy was rescued alive from the fringes of the disaster area, some 12 hours after the catastrophe struck.

Steam was rising from the ground covered by the landslide, which Hadiwiguno said had deposited a layer of soil and waste on average seven metres deep. The air was thick with the stench of waste and decay.

"If they had been some 1.5 metres under the waste, they could still be found alive on the second day, but on the third the possibility is almost non-existent," Hadiwiguno said.

"Most of the victims have been found in groups inside their houses. They were mostly caught by surprise by the swift slide of the garbage," which he said moved at an estimated 250 kilometres an hour and left a trail of devastation for up to 900 metres.

But still teams continued to pick through the rubble, with army and police teams painstakingly sifting by hand through mountains of garbage and debris as diggers cleared away tonnes of earth and waste.

Whole houses lay buried or part-covered, with broken brick, crushed plasterboard and wooden beams like matchsticks spread over a wide area. Hadiwiguno said rescue teams would likely continue the search until Monday when they would reassess the situation.

Flooding displaces 50,000 in Bandung

Jakarta Post - February 22, 2005

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- Two days of heavy rain forced over 50,000 residents in south Bandung to flee to safety on Monday as their houses were inundated by floodwaters up to three meters high.

The flood, thought to be the biggest in 10 years in south Bandung, occurred after the swollen Citarum river began overflowing its banks on Saturday, combined with heavy rain all weekend.

Two districts, Baleendah and Dayeuhkolot, were the hardest-hit, as the flood also swamped schools and major roads.

Bandung's main road, the Dayeuhkolot-Banjaran highway, has been impassable since Sunday evening, causing a huge traffic jam for people trying to come to Bandung via the route. Most chose to detour to the Soreang-Margahayu highway or through Cibaduyut.

Tono, a staff member at the Baleendah district administration office, estimated that around 2,900 houses in the district's four villages -- Andir, Baleendah, Rancamanyar and Bojong -- were affected. He added that 12,300 residents were displaced and had sought shelter elsewhere.

On Monday, hundreds of residents from Andir were reportedly holed up inside the Baleendah district office and other offices in Bandung regency.

"We're still having problems evacuating the refugees and in accommodating them due to the lack of tents. But today, we'll build a public kitchen," head of Baleendah district Tery Rusidan was quoted as saying by Antara on Monday.

He added that some residents were trapped on top of their roofs, so a rescue team had to pick them up using the limited number of available boats.

While inspecting the flooded areas on Monday, head of the education office at Baleendah district, Yayat Hendayana, estimated that over 2,600 students would be unable to attend school until the water subsided.

He said his staff had received many phone calls about the disaster. "Many ask us for help but we can't do much since many of the areas are hard to reach," Yayat was quoted by Antara as saying.

A teacher from SD Jati II elementary school, Yetty Nuryati, said her house was inundated by water two meters high. "We can't eat anything because all of our food was washed away," Yetty exclaimed. "We also are having problems finding potable water."

Antara reported that two flood victims in Baleendah, Aji and Nani Herawati, were taken to Al Ihsan hospital for treatment. They nearly drowned and were suffering from severe shock and hypothermia.

According to the hospital's doctor, Tedi Rasmadi, Aji was suffering from hypothermia after he tried to get through the water to save some of his belongings at his house in the Cigado area. "Since the water is two meters high and Aji cannot swim, he had problems," Dr. Tedi succinctly explained to the journalists.

The other victim, Nani, was taken to the hospital after suffering a seizure at a shelter near the Baleendah subdistrict office In Dayeuhkolot district, the worst-hit areas were Dayeuhkolot, Citereup, Cangkuan Wetan and Pasawahan villages where the floodwater reached three meters high.

Head of information section at Dayeuhkolot district, Inen, estimated that around 20,000 families, or around 50,000 residents, had been affected by the floods. "This is the worst flood in the last 10 years. Really bad," Inen told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Evacuation was difficult due to limited numbers of available rubber dinghies. On Monday, only five were available. "We need at least 20 rubber boats," Inen implored. He revealed that the boats were essential for evacuating the victims since many were still trapped in or on their houses.

Head of Bandung's meteorology and geophysics agency, Hendri Subakti, concluded that there had been a lot of rain over the last three days. "Since early February, the total amount of precipitation has reached 300 millimeters, while usually it's about 200 mm," he disclosed, while predicting that there would be more rain over the next two days.

TNI, police won't be reunited: Susilo

Jakarta Post - February 22, 2005

Jakarta -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied on Monday reports that the government would again combine the Indonesia Military (TNI) and the National Police in an effort to boost the coordination of the two institutions.

"The President said that he had no intention of merging the military and the police," said Fadjrul Falaakh, a member of the National Law Commission (KHN), after a meeting with the President in Jakarta.

He quoted Susilo as saying that the separation of the two institutions was part of the country's sweeping reforms marked by the 1998 downfall of Soeharto.

Earlier last week, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono was quoted by national media as saying his office was drafting a law that would effectively reunite the TNI and police, as a means to improve coordination in dealing with domestic security.

Cable thieves stop train service again

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Tangerang -- Cable thieves disrupted trains services between Tangerang and Jakarta for the second time in a month on Friday.

Ahmad Sujadi, spokesman of state railway operator PT KAI, said that 18 trains were affected by the theft.

He said the disturbance was worse than the first incident on February 6, because over 400 meters of cable were cut and it would take 10 hours to repair.

According to Ahmad, the theft took place at about 2 a.m. on Friday. He said that although the alarm sounded, the thieves managed to escape. "It seems it was the same group as the last time," said Ahmad.

Environment

Haze thickens in Sumatra, delays forestry minister

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Medan/Jambi/Pekanbaru -- Haze thickened on Thursday in several parts of Sumatra, causing flight delays and school shutdowns. The flight delays affected many people, including the Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban, who is partly responsible handling the haze problem.

Firman, chief of the Meteorological and Geophysical Agency (BMG) at Polonia Airport in Medan, said that Kaban's flight had to be delayed because of thick haze over the Sibolga area that was in his aircraft's flight path.

The thick haze in Sibolga had reduced pilot visibility to 400 meters, far below ideal visibility of between 2,000 and 3,000 meters, he said. "For the sake of safety, the flight had to be delayed," said Firman.

Firman said that the haze blanketing the Sibolga area was the result of forest fires in Riau and North Sumatra provinces. In Riau province, the agency detected 588 hot spots on Thursday, while in North Sumatra six hot spots were detected.

"The wind has blown the haze to the Sibolga area," said Firman.

The haze lifted in the afternoon, allowing Kaban and his entourage to head to Sibolga. However, the incident certainly inconvenienced the Minister, keeping him waiting for seven hours at Polonia Airport.

Kaban, who was about to inaugurate Batang Gadis National Park in Mandailing Natal regency near Sibolga, finally reached Pinang Sori Airport in Sibolga at 1 p.m.

"We were not disappointed for our own sake. Safety has to be our first priority," said Kaban.

In the Riau capital of Pekanbaru, three schools in the city were closed on Thursday due to the thickening haze.

On Wednesday, visibility in the city was between 500 and 600 meters, but later on Thursday, visibility dropped to 300 and 400 meters.

The thick haze prompted some entrepreneurial people in Pekanbaru take advantage of the situation. Mask sellers became ubiquitous in the city streets. Hendra, a mask seller, said that half of 100 masks he brought had been sold.

In Jambi, haze has blanketed the city for the past month, with no signs that it will soon disappear.

On Thursday, visibility stood at between 300 and 500 meters, with some residents complaining of respiratory and eye irritation problems.

"The government is not serious about tackling the haze problem. It has persisted since last month, but there have been no efforts by the government to tackle it," said Irawati, a Jambi resident.

Joko Fajar, chief of the Forest Fire Management Agency in the province, said that the thick haze prevailed in the city following forest fires in East Tanjungjabung and Batanghari regencies. "There are currently six hot spots in the two regencies," said Joko, who promised that he would deploy firefighters to help put out the fires.

Government agencies implicated in animal smuggling

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Jakarta -- The customs agency, airport security and the Soekarno-Hatta Animal Quarantine office often work in cahoots with smugglers to bring protected animals out of the country, a source at the Soekarno-Hatta Animal Quarantine office says.

"There are a lot of parties involved, you can't just blame one agency," said the source, who wished to remain anonymous, when asked to comment on the smuggling of 50 emerald monitor lizards to Croatia in November.

He said the 50 lizards, which were put in a carry-on bag in the airplane cabin's overhead compartment, had to pass at least two x-ray checkpoints at the Soekarno-Hatta airport.

"Besides customs and airport security personnel, quarantine officers are also supposed to be present at the checkpoints," said the source.

Dalvir Kumar, a Croatian citizen, traveled from Jakarta to Zagreb, Croatia on Nov. 28. At the Zagreb airport, a Croatian Customs Officer told Kumar that his luggage had to be inspected. Kumar then declared to the officer that he was in possession of 50 live emerald monitor lizards. Soon afterwards, airport officials discovered that the emerald monitors were a protected species and that Kumar did not possess the necessary documents, including a CITES export permit from Indonesia.

At least 33 of the monitor lizards arrived back in Jakarta last Thursday.

The source said there are numerous other ways for animals to be smuggled besides being carried on to the airplane cabin.

He said one such loophole often exploited by illegal wildlife traders was to smuggle the animals to a country not bound by the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which protects over 25,000 plant species and 5,000 animal species.

"If the animal is going to a CITES member country, we will only issue a certificate if there is an accompanying CITES document," said the source at the quarantine office. "However, if it is going to a non-CITES country..." For a protected animal, such as the emerald monitor lizard, to leave Indonesia to another CITES country, an export permit must be obtained through the Ministry of Forestry. Once at the airport, the animals are inspected by the airport quarantine, and if healthy, are given a health certificate.

Out of the 191 nations who are United Nations members, there are 24 countries that are not bound by CITES, including Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Haiti, Iraq, Oman, and Lebanon. Both Croatia and Indonesia have ratified the CITES.

The head of the Soekarno-Hatta customs office, Nofrial, could not be reached for comment.

Animal activists also agreed that the smuggling of protected animals indicated collusion between officials in airports and the smugglers.

"Without collusion between relevant officials at the airport, such an illegal practice would never happen," said member of Supervisory Council of the Tegal Alur Wild Animal Center (PPS) Pramudia Harzani on Tuesday.

According to Pramudia, there was also an effort to smuggle some 60 protected animals, mostly birds and monkeys, on February 2, which was foiled by the customs office.

A similar comment was made by Irma Hermawati of the Animal Advocacy Institute (LAS).

She called on the police to investigate the case thoroughly so that such illegal practices could be prevented.

Animal smuggling is a violation of Law No. 5/1990 on biodiversity conservation.

"Without tough action against the smugglers and those who are involved in the practices, such incidents will happen again and again," Irma told The Jakarta Post.

SBY: Police, military involved in logging

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Rendi A. Witular and Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- Military and police personnel along with officials from the ministries of forestry and immigration are all involved in the lucrative business of illegal logging in Papua, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has proclaimed.

His statement, quoted by Ministry of Forestry MS Kaban on Tuesday, drew immediate signals of apparent cooperation from the mentioned institutions. Operations assistant to the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, said the TNI is investigating whether their involvement was limited to their personnel, or whether the institution itself was involved.

Minister Kaban said, "According to the President, personnel of the eastern Navy, the police in Papua, the Trikora Regional Military Command [based in Papua provincial capital of Jayapura], local offices of the ministries of forestry and immigration in Papua, all have indications of being involved in illegal logging in Papua." He had earlier attended an unscheduled Cabinet meeting on illegal logging.

The meeting followed on last week's revelations by the London- based Environmental Investigation Agency and the Indonesian group Telapak. It's report accused the TNI and other officials of smuggling 300,000 cubic meters of timber per month from Indonesia (mostly Papua) to China, with a value of more than US$1 billion.

Kaban on Tuesday named some of the business people allegedly involved, with their main operations taking place in Papua, Jambi, East Kalimantan, Dumai in Riau and North Sumatra -- but he did not name any high ranking officials or military and police officers. "There's no way the TNI is not involved. The ship carrying the illegal timber was guarded by warships," he said.

The President has instructed that an "integrated crackdown" take place in the next two weeks, Kaban said, against all suspected parties, which would cost some Rp 8 billion (about $860,000).

National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said apart from cooperating in the crackdown, his office would conduct "shock therapy" against personnel suspected of involvement in the crime. A former police chief of Sorong regency in Papua and five of his subordinates are on trial for alleged illegal logging in the province.

Also on Tuesday deputy chief of detectives at the National Police Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida said police are seeking funding of Rp 48 billion a year in order to conduct six operations per annum, or Rp 8 billion per operation, against illegal logging.

He said that with the Rp 8 billion spent in an earlier operation, police had managed to recover around Rp 1.5 trillion worth of illegal timber.

Minister vows to curb illegal logging

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban said on Friday he planned to meet with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto to help resolve the rampant illegal logging in Papua, which a recent report says is backed by members of the military.

"It is organized crime and it involves many officials," he said on Friday. He said it would not be easy to arrest and prosecute military or government officials involved in the crime because "they are very tricky."

Kaban was responding to a report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian environmental group Telapak, which revealed a massive smuggling operation of illegal logs from Papua to China by an international syndicate.

The report implicates top military and government officials, Indonesian law enforcers and crooked entrepreneurs in Malaysia, Hong Kong and China in the crime.

The report says about 300,000 cubic meters of merbau (Intsia) logs from Indonesia, most of them from Papua, are being smuggled to China each month. Merbau is one of the most valuable timber species in Southeast Asia.

Separately, State Minister of the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said that his office would soon conduct an environmental assessment of Papua's forests to examine the destruction caused by the illegal logging there.

"Papuan forests are among the few forests left in the country. We must preserve them, therefore, we'll make an environmental assessment soon," he said.

Kaban said that his ministry would conduct a massive offensive on illegal logging in Papua but said that to be effective it must be supported by other ministries and government institutions. "We have conducted crackdowns [before] in Kalimantan, but they have only worked for a while," he said.

Kalimantan used to be the center of illegal logging operations in the country, but as its forests had been greatly diminished loggers were now focussing on Papua, activists said.

Papua's pirated timber going to China: activists

Associated Press - February 19, 2005

Environmental investigators said Thursday they had uncovered massive timber smuggling from Indonesia's Papua province to China in what they described as the world's largest logging racket involving one wood species.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said 300,000 cubic meters of merbau is smuggled out of Papua every month to feed China's timber processing industry. Merbau is a hardwood prized for its strength and durability and used mainly for flooring.

"It's probably the largest smuggling case that we've come across in our time of research on illegal logging in Indonesia," Julian Newman, the group's head of forest campaigns, said. "This illegal trade is threatening the last large tract of pristine forest in the whole Asia-Pacific region."

China is the world's No 1 buyer of illegal timber owing to a continued economic boom, the EIA claims, and Hong Kong is a key cog in the business.

The investigation revealed that in a just a few years, Zhangjiagang - what was until a few years ago a small anchorage near Shanghai -- has been become the largest tropical log trading port in the world, the group said. And a nearby town has become a global center for wood flooring production, with 500 factories together consuming a merbau tree every minute.

Illegal logging in Papua is said to involve Indonesian military and civilian officials, Malaysian logging gangs, multinational companies, brokers in Singapore and dealers in Hong Kong.

Syndicates pay around US$200,000 dollars per shipment in bribes to ensure the contraband logs are not intercepted in Indonesian waters. Indonesia has banned the export of logs.

"There's no denying that military officers are involved in illegal logging," said Muhammad Yayat Alfianto of the Indonesian environmental group Telapak, which worked with the EIA in the investigation.

Sam Lawson of the EIA said merbau smuggling was worth US$1 billion a year based on the wood's value in the West. The profits are vast as Papuan communities only received around US$10 for each cubic meter of merbau felled on their land, while the same logs fetch as much as US$270 per cubic meter in China.

"Papua has become the main illegal logging hotspot in Indonesia," Alfianto said. "The communities of Papua are paid a pittance for trees taken from their land, while timber dealers in Jakarta, Singapore and Hong Kong are banking huge profits."

Aid & development

Government pours trillions in poverty program

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Jakarta -- Prior to its fuel price hike plan in April, which will eventually reduce budget expenditures for the fuel subsidy, the government has been preparing an additional Rp 10.5 trillion (US$1.13 billion) from the budget to assist the poor.

"The Rp 10.5 trillion fund will be added to the Rp 7.3 trillion already allocated for poverty programs in the 2005 state budget," Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie announced on Friday after a Cabinet meeting.

The fund, a new item in the budget this year, is aimed at easing the impact of the fuel hike for low-income families and will total Rp 17.8 trillion, of which the largest portions will be for education, the provision of rice and the construction of rural infrastructure.

Aburizal corrected his own statement, saying that the fuel price hike would be on April 1 instead of April 15 as he had said on Thursday.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla had said earlier that the government would make a decision on the amount of the fuel price hike in the coming weeks.

Regarding the world oil price that surged to more than US$40 per barrel, State Minister of National Development Planning Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government must allocate Rp 58 trillion for the oil subsidy.

She said the government would revise the 2005 state budget by mid March or early April, adding that the decrease in the fuel subsidy and resulting price rise would have a direct impact of between 1 percent and 2 percent on the wallets of the poor.

Previously, the Central Statistics Agency had warned that the fuel price hike would affect the national inflation rate and prices for commodities were likely to increase before the hike.

Responding to the matter, economist Faisal Basri of the University of Indonesia offered several schemes in which the government could minimize the social impact.

"About 70 percent of the fuel subsidy has been enjoyed by the rich. The government was supposedly using the Rp 60 trillion fuel subsidy to help the poor," he said in a discussion with journalists.

Faisal reminded the government that the fuel price hike should not trigger the increase of electricity prices in the country.

"The government should immediately convert the use of diesel fuel to natural gas in an effort to cut operational costs," he said, referring to the diesel-powered generators used to produce electricity.

He also said the price of public transportation should not be raised by much.

Earlier on Friday, Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa said there would not be any increase in prices for inter-city land transportation if the government does not increase fuel price by more than 20 percent.

Faisal also offered another option in which the government should have implemented and provided the fund for the poor first before increasing prices, while adding that housing, food and transportation for the poor should have been made top priorities.

Another speaker Enceng Shobirin of the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) emphasized the need for transparency in the use of the money for the poor.

Low-income assistance fund

Scholarships for 9.6 million students Rp 5.64 trillion Rice for 8.6 million poor people Rp 5.44 trillion Infrastructure development in 26,737 villages Rp 3 trillion Health services for 36.1 million poor people Rp 2.17 trillion Provision of 225,000 low-cost houses Rp 0.6 trillion Subsidy for family planning program Rp 0.1 trillion Subsidy for microcredit interest Rp 0.2 trillion Social services Rp 0.65 trillion

Total Rp 17.80 trillion

Health & education

Amputees receive 'free' prosthetics, at a price

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan -- For the past few weeks, M. Isa, a survivor from Meulaboh, has been trying in vain to help his son get an artificial limb after his leg was badly injured during the tsunami and later amputated.

The father of two said that since arriving in Medan in early January, he had no money because all of his belongings, including his house, were lost in the disaster. But the money requested by the hospital just to get his son measured up for a prosthetic limb, which have been donated by a Malaysian group, is Rp 7.5 million (approximately US$810), a sum of money that may be out of reach, not to mention illegal.

One local doctor agreed to look at his son, Mukhtar, if Isa could come up with half the amount as a "down payment". Without the money, the doctor will not even measure his son's leg. "The doctor will only measure my son's leg if I can get the money. I'll try to settle up the rest when my son gets his prosthetic leg," Isa told The Jakarta Post at the Aceh Sepakat camp for displaced persons in Medan.

Isa, however, was upset because donors from the Basmi Kemiskinan Foundation in Selangor, Malaysia, had visited the shelter a few days ago, offering free prosthetics to tsunami victims who had limbs amputated -- with one condition.

In order to get the prosthetics, however, those in need must first get the required measurements done locally and send them to the foundation so they can give the artificial limbs to the amputees.

Isa said that his son had been treated at the Elizabeth Hospital in Medan for nearly a month after undergoing the amputation in Banda Aceh. He was sent to the hospital by a team of volunteer doctors for further treatment. He said he had never been asked for payment during his son's stay at the hospital because it had been covered by donations. But it is a different case with the prosthetics.

"When I told my son about the news, he was very happy. His desire is to have an artificial leg so he can walk again, but we don't even have the money to have his leg measured," lamented the 61-year-old survivor.

When the tsunami struck on December 26, he was at home with his wife in Meulaboh, while Mukhtar, his wife and children were in Lhok Nga near Banda Aceh.

"Mukhtar's wife and children are still missing, and he had to have his leg amputated," Isa said.

The hope of having prosthetics was also expressed by several other victims who had their limbs amputated as a result of injuries incurred during the massive tidal waves that swept through their villages. Others have been more fortunate than Mukhtar, because some doctors have been willing to measure them for prosthetics at no cost.

However, even for those who have been measured, the promised prosthetics have apparently not arrived. Zamriansyah, a tsunami victim who had his leg amputated, spoke despondently after being asked when the prosthetics would arrive.

"I don't know. They said it was being sent, but it's not here. Many people measured my leg already for prosthetics," said Zamriansyah, 27, a resident of Pelanggahan, Banda Aceh, who is now staying at a temporary shelter on Jl. Mengkara in Medan.

He and two of his friends, Abdan Djali and Husni, also amputees, had been released from the Pirngadi hospital last week. They were allowed to leave the hospital as their health had improved. They now hobble around on crutches. They are still holding out hope that they will some day get artificial limbs and walk somewhat normally. "We want to get the artificial legs as soon as possible so that we will look like normal people," said Zamriansyah.

Head of the North Sumatra Health Office, Fatni Sulani, claimed that due to a lack of funds, there had been no plan yet to provide prosthetics for amputees. Asked whether hospitals were allowed to ask for fees from patients to get their limbs measured up for prosthetics, Fatni stated that such a practice would not be tolerated.

She said it would be illegal to ask for money from tsunami victims, whether they needed their legs measured or not. "We never tell the hospitals to collect even one rupiah from tsunami patients who need help. If that's the case, let me know, it's illegal," Fatni said.

'City should do a better job"

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

On average, 10 people with dengue fever are admitted to city- owned hospitals every day, bringing the total of dengue cases since the beginning of this year to nearly 2,000. The central government has declared an extraordinary incidence of dengue in Jakarta and five other regions, and has urged that extra measures be taken to curb the outbreak. The Jakarta Post asked residents how they deal with the issue.

Ibu Ginting, 48, runs a small stall in her house in Meruya subdistrict, West Jakarta: Nobody in our complex has contracted dengue. Not this year and not last year. And nobody has come to fumigate the neighborhood either.

Do you want to know how we prevent dengue outbreaks in our neighborhood? We clean the area every Sunday to eliminate places for mosquitoes to breed. We do it at our own initiative.

Hendra is in his 40s and works for a private company. The father of two lives in Joglo, West Jakarta: I am not that worried about dengue because no one in our neighborhood has contracted it.

I take extra care to eliminate any places in my house where mosquitoes might breed. I don't think the city administration has done enough. It should do a better job as an outbreak happens every year.

And why are they providing free health care only for dengue patients? They should provide free health care for all endemic diseases.

Armed forces/defense

Ryamizard flaunts achievements

Jakarta Post - February 25, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- In an apparent attempt to lobby for the job as new Indonesian Military (TNI) commander, outgoing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu invited retired and active Army officers for a gathering on Thursday to brief them on his "achievements" while leading the Army.

Wearing a camouflage uniform, Ryamizard insisted that the meeting was not called to talk about the planned replacement of the TNI chief.

"I've invited my senior colleagues [retired generals] to the gathering because I want to provide them with a progress report over what I have done while serving as the Army Chief. I guess we all need to maintain the relationship with our elders.

"It should not be seen that I'm making an effort to look for support," Ryamizard told journalists prior to the closed-door meeting.

The gathering took place a day before Ryamizard is officially set to pass on the Army's command baton to his successor Lt. Gen. Djoko Santoso on Friday, who was also in attendance.

"Only God and the President know who the best candidate is to lead the TNI. I don't want to get involved in speculation as to who will get the top job. I've closed the newspaper and stopped reading them. I've turned off the television. I don't need to watch news about that [the TNI reshuffle]. If only I could play the guitar, then I would just get into the music," Ryamizard explained.

The attendees included former TNI commander Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, former minister of defense and security Gen. (ret.) Edi Sudrajat, former Army chief of staff Gen. (ret) Soebagyo H.S. and former coordinating minister for political and security affairs Gen. (ret.) Hari Sabarno.

Like Ryamizard, all other active high-ranking officers were there, such as Brawijaya military commander Maj. Gen. Ahmad Djunaidi Sikki and Bukit Barisan military commander Maj. Gen. Tritamtomo, dressed in camouflage.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's brother-in-law Maj. Gen. Erwin Sudjono also showed up. He is currently serving as the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief of the first division based in Cilodong, West Java.

Ryamizard is one of four eligible candidates to replace TNI commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who is set to retire soon. The three other nominees are Djoko Santoso, Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Slamet Soebijanto and Air Force Chief Vice Marshall Djoko Soeyanto.

Under Law No. 34/2004 on the military, the President can only pick active senior officers who have held the post of chief of staff to be eligible as TNI commander.

Speculation has been rife that Susilo, a retired four-star Army general, will likely appoint Djoko Santoso as new TNI chief due to his reportedly close relationship with the President.

Pundits say the chances of Ryamizard getting promoted are slim as he will reach retirement age -- 55 -- in April this year. His closeness with former president Megawati Soekarnoputri may be another reason that some said have soured on his candidacy.

Nonetheless, the Air Force has urged the President to consider an Air Force officer as the next TNI commander in chief, saying the rotation among the three forces in leading the military would promote equality, justice and respect among the three branches.

Indonesian military set for shake up

Sydney Morning Herald - February 25, 2005

Hoping to restore closer links with the west, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appears to be preparing to block the rise of a hardline general to the country's top armed forces job.

In a move likely to pave the way for closer defence ties with Australia and the United States, Yudhoyono last week sidelined the ultra-nationalist army commander General Ryamizard Ryacudu in a reshuffle of the three armed forces chiefs.

Ryamizard, who last year claimed more than 60,000 foreign spies were working to destabilise Indonesia, has raised hackles in Washington and Canberra with his flat refusal to accept accusations of human rights abuses in the army.

He has also made veiled warnings of a foreign plot to divide Indonesia and described a group of seven special forces soldiers convicted of murdering Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay as "national heroes".

But, as Yudhoyono seeks to reverse a freeze on defence ties with Washington imposed after Indonesian troops killed more than 270 East Timorese pro-independence supporters during a rally at the Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991, Ryamizard's four stars have fallen.

He has been replaced by the US-educated army chief-of-staff Djoko Santoso, while Vice-Admiral Slamet Soebijanto takes over the navy. Vice-Marshal Djoko Sujanto becomes commander of an air force hobbled by a long-standing US arms embargo.

But while Yudhoyono -- himself a former four-star general turned reform champion -- reportedly favours Santoso to lead the military, or TNI, Ryamizard has not taken the setback lightly.

A camouflage-clad Ryamizard invited retired and serving senior army officers to a closed-door meeting to brief them on his "achievements" just a day before he was officially to pass on the army command baton.

"I guess we all need to maintain the relationship with our elders," he said. "It should not be seen that I'm making an effort to look for support.

"Only God and the president know who the best candidate is to lead the TNI." Among those present was former armed forces chief and failed presidential hopeful general Wiranto -- defeated by Yudhoyono during presidential elections last year -- and Santoso himself, along with several other serving generals.

Ryamizard, who has been moved to an unspecified headquarters role, is still eligible to replace the retiring current TNI commander General Endriartono Sutarto as Indonesia's top military chief.

Yudhoyono must wait at least three months before he can appoint Santoso, while the air force is also lobbying for the top job, which usually goes to the army. He also faces opposition in the fiercely-nationalist parliament, where Ryamizard has strong backing.

If Santoso gets the nod, it may accelerate Australian efforts to restore defence ties drastically pared back after the army-backed slaughter by pro-Jakarta militia in East Timor in 1999.

It could also smooth the way for the full restoration of links to the US military, which the Bush administration backs but which still faces significant opposition in the US Congress.

Air Force wants turn to lead TNI

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Marshall Chappy Hakim has suggested that the President consider a high ranking Air Force officer as the next commander in chief of the Indonesian Military (TNI), saying that a rotation among the three forces in leading the TNI was in line with the spirit of the existing law on the military.

He said that such a rotation would "promote equality, justice and respect among the three branches of the military." "I believe that the President has his own considerations in selecting an officer for the top TNI post. No matter who becomes TNI's next leader, it must be the President's best decision," the Air Marshall said on Wednesday at a press conference with newly appointed Air Force Chief of Staff Vice Marshall Djoko Soeyanto.

"If he picks an Army officer... that will be good. If he picks the Navy officer... that will be better... [but] it would be best if he picks an officer from the Air Force and put the rotation system into operation."

He made the comments amid reports that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is planning to replace the current TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto in the near future as part of an overall reshuffle within the military. He has recently appointed three new chiefs of staff of the military.

According to Law No. 34/2004 on the military, the President can only pick active senior officers who have held the post of chief of staff to be eligible as TNI commander.

Chappy, as well as former Navy chief Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh, are not eligible for the top post because they passed retirement age two years ago. Meanwhile, the previous army chief, Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, could still be promoted into the top post as he has yet to reach retirement age.

The law on the military stipulates that chiefs of staff of the three branches of the military should take turns in leading the TNI, meaning that Djoko Soeyanto should be named, because the last two TNI leaders were from the Army and Navy respectively.

"If the TNI consists of three forces -- the Army, the Navy and the Air Force -- then the rotation system is unavoidable. And we [the Air Force] are ready to take up the opportunity," Chappy stressed.

Djoko, who sat beside Chappy during the press conference, just smiled and did not comment on his senior's statement. Chappy will hand over the force's command baton to Djoko today in a ceremony at Halim Perdanakusuma Airbase in southern Jakarta.

Four ministries to straighten up military businesses

Tempo Interactive - February 23, 2005

Jakarta -- An inter-ministerial work group is now investigating the existence of military businesses.

"How many businesses that will be handled will depend on the findings of the work group," Indonesian Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono told reporters after opening a workshop on Security Strength Professionalism at the Arya Duta Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday (22/02).

The group consists of four ministries -- the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Ministry of Defense -- and has been established not to get rid of businesses under Indonesian Military (TNI) institutions.

The team will work to straighten up the accountability and transparency of the companies that were once managed by military people.

The purpose of the team being established is to monitor and measure the government's target for the welfare of military personnel to be accountable and transparent. "Up to now, benefits from military business are still enjoyed by the upper echelon of the military elite," stated Sudarsono.

He added that the Finance Ministry will be responsible for budget management bearing in mind that military businesses are greatly related to the limited state budget.

The Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Ministry will manage the establishment of legal instruments while the SOEs Ministry will take care of the establishment of business units within the military.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Defense will take care of the strategies for the management policies of the military businesses. "The President has said that help is to be given to straighten out military businesses," stated Sudarsono, quoting Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. (Agus Supriyanto- Tempo News Room)

When political, national interests collide

Jakarta Post - February 21, 2005

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto's term in office has been extended twice. He has also tendered his resignation for the second time earlier this month.

According to Law No. 34/2004 on the military, his term cannot be extended further as he will be 58 in April, the maximum authorized age for a high-ranking TNI officer.

The question will then be who ought to succeed Endriartono as commander, especially after the TNI headquarters has explained that the opportunity to be named as the military's top position is open to not only the most senior officer Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, the former Army Chief of Staff, but also the three newly appointed chiefs of staff -- Lt. Gen. Djoko Santoso of the Army, Vice Adm. Slamet Soebiyanto of the Navy and Vice Marshal Djoko Soeyanto of the Air Force.

Prior to the reshuffle of the military chiefs of staff, Ryamizard was apparently the only eligible candidate for the top post at the TNI headquarters, as the qualifications are that the commander must have held a chief of staff post and be under the retirement age.

However, the latest statement from TNI headquarters has not made it clear who the next commander will be, or when the President will name him.

All four officers apparently have an equal chance as Article 13 of the Law No. 34/2004 stipulates that the President can only pick active senior officers who hold or have held at least a post of chief of staff as TNI commander.

Recently, it has been suggested that new Army chief of staff Djoko Santoso could get the nod. His relatively noncontroversial track record and media-shy style could make him the top contender. Foreign governments also seem to appreciate his diplomatic approach on many cases.

His style is completely different from his predecessor Ryamizard, who is politically controversial due to his no-quarter-given attitude and tough nationalistic stance against separatist movements in Aceh, Papua and Maluku provinces.

Yet, if political aspects are ignored and the 2004 Military Law is adhered to down to the letter, the next TNI chief should be Air Force chief Djoko Soeyanto.

Article 13 of the Military Law stipulates that the post of the TNI Commander should be rotated equally among the three branches of the military. And it is now the turn of an Air Force man to lead the TNI because the last two TNI chiefs were from the Army and Navy.

But apart from the military law, a lower ruling -- the TNI's internal regulations -- suggests a completely different set of dynamics since it states that new chiefs of staff can only be promoted after having undergone their first three-month performance evaluation.

Despite claims from TNI headquarters that all four are equally eligible for the top post, this often forgotten regulation could effectively nullify the chances of the three other officers.

The three new chiefs of staff were only appointed on Feb. 17 and they will not have completed their three month review when Endriartono retires on April 29, due to his age.

And if this is the case, Ryamizard's opportunity to become TNI chief is wide open despite the fact that he himself will be reaching the retirement age of 55 four days before Endriartono's 58th birthday -- the maximum age that President can extend retirement.

Despite these dynamics, Ryamizard may still be named if the President favors him. The President is also allowed to put off Ryamizard's retirement by a year.

Another factor in Ryamizard's favor is that he tops the shortlist of candidates for TNI chief submitted by TNI headquarters to the President. Many things must happen before the President endorses Endriartono's retirement request and appoints a new TNI chief; the consent of the House of Representatives being one of them. There are also some political considerations that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may ponder before naming a successor for Endriartono.

The President must appoint a TNI chief who will have strong control over the military, an institution that has been stripped of its direct and active involvement in politics, but still has great influence on the country's political affairs.

Yet, the President, a retired general himself, must be very careful about how close he gets to the military, as he may have learned from his predecessor Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The President must also consider the voices of the international community, although it should not be the main consideration, before appointing the new TNI chief, especially as it might be a sort of prerequisite before they resume military ties and cooperation with Indonesia.

Replacements to strengthen SBY's legitimacy with TNI

Sinar Harapan - February 19, 2005

Yogyakarta -- The replacement of three Indonesian armed forces (TNI) chiefs of staff which took place yesterday (18/2) is believed by a political observer from the Gajah Mada University (UGM), Riswandha Imawan, to be an effort by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to strengthen his legitimacy within military ranks. Imawan says the three chiefs of staff could unite thinking between the military and civilian government, not like previous appointments which gave an impression of clumsiness.

The following are excerpts from and interview with Imawan which took place in Yogyakarta on Friday February 18.

How do you view the replacements of the TNI chiefs of staff?

I believe this represents a step by SBY (Yudhoyono) to begin to seek out and strengthen his legitimacy in military circles. Because we know with certainty, that SBY's name is "not very popular" in military circles even though SBY formerly held the rank of a general.

Your reasons for saying this?

The people chosen to became chiefs of staff are close confidants, people SBY trusts. Their ideology is the same as SBY. As an example, army chief of staff Djoko Santoso was a former commander of the Pamungkas 072 military command in Yogyakarta, Central Java. It was earlier reported that Santoso was there (Pamungkas 072) at SBY's request. So in choosing a confidant, this can be interpreted in that way. The only problem is, it will be difficult for SBY to find a new TNI chief.

Why?

Recently there have been requests from the airforce to be given a turn as TNI chief, because to date there has never been an airforce officer in the post of TNI chief, while the other wings have all had a turn. So, if the airforce's request to be given the post of TNI chief is granted, this will indeed weaken SBY's legitimacy within the military, especially in the ranks of the army. Everyone knows that the army is like the older brother and as such must be put first.

On the other hand, based on prevailing regulations, the TNI chief must be a former chief of staff, the one available now is army chief of staff Ryamizard Ryacudu. People know Ryacudu is a person who is loyal to former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and SBY could be seen to be tail-ending Mega. So, what SBY needs is a person who is loyal to him but at the same time the people who are loyal to him are currently still serving as chiefs of staff.

So, what must be done by Yudhoyono to overcome this problems in order that his legitimacy within the military can remain strong?

Because the decision over who will become TNI chief is still in the hands of the president, I think SBY will continue to play it carefully. Meaning with the retirement of TNI chief Endriartono Sutarto, he will still make way for Ryacudu to become TNI chief and in six months time he can be replaced. After six months, Ryacudu will be replaced by Santoso because Santoso will have fulfilled the requirements, because he has served as a chief of staff for six months.

This is safer than appointing a airforce officer to become the TNI chief and in six months time Santoso, who is still a Lieutenant-General can be made a full general. It would be odd if a Lieutenant-General were to hold the post of TNI chief wouldn't it.

If Ryacudu is replaced is such a short time, won't this not create another problem, bearing in mind that Ryacudu is also has deep roots within the ranks of the military?

I don't think so because this is merely an issue of command. If right now Ryacudu is made TNI chief, at least it will minimse the view that SBY is too extreme with regard to Mega. Aside from this, SBY needs time to make Santoso a general first. (yuk)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Police/law enforcement

Police shrug off corruption report

Jakarta Post - February 21, 2005

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- The National Police have shrugged off a report that declares it to be the second most corrupt institution in the country, saying the accusation was without foundation.

Director of the Special Economic Crime unit Brig. Gen. Andi Chaeruddin said that he could not respond to the results of the survey because there was no hard evidence to support the claims.

"If someone comes in and gives us a report, bringing along necessary evidence and several witnesses, as determined in the Criminal Code (KUHAP), then we can start investigating," Andi told The Jakarta Post over the weekend. "Without any evidence or testimonials from witnesses -- and there must be more than one witness -- then why waste our time with something so obscure?" Andi added.

Transparency International Indonesia (TII) last week unveiled the results of its latest corruption survey, which named the police as the second most corrupt institution in the country after the customs office.

Survey respondents said they had to pay bribes to the police approximately 12 times a year, with the average amount paid each time being Rp 1.71 million (US$185).

The result of the TII survey is in line with earlier research conducted last year by some 147 Police Academy students. The survey, which took place in 19 regions across the country, found that corruption is deeply rooted within the institution.

Many examples of corruption were given in the research report including the "buying and selling" of top positions and ranks in the police, bribery in the recruitment of new officers, and corruption in the distribution of supplies and police budgetary funds.

Other forms of very common corrupt practices committed by police officers included demanding bribes from motorists violating traffic regulations, extorting money from people obtaining driving licenses, and demanding "protection money" from business people.

In early February this year, the Internal Affairs division at National Police headquarters discovered that officers from the West Jakarta police refused to detain an owner of a gambling den during a raid because the owner had already paid amounts of money to these officers.

According to sources, the owner of the gambling den had regularly paid some Rp 3 billion to the West Jakarta police, the Jakarta police and the National Police every month in order to protect the illegal operation.

Separately, Director of the Corruption Crime unit Brig. Indarto said that he would wait for instructions from the chief of the National Police before following-up on issues raised in the TII report.

"If Pak Da'i gives the instruction for me to investigate the case [the TII report] then I will carry it out immediately," Indarto told The Post, referring to National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar.

Indarto said that so far none of his superiors had given him instructions, thus, he could not start investigations.

"Even if the chief has given an order, the internal affairs unit must investigate first, to see if there are any police officers who have violated the police code of ethics.

"If the unit finds that there is a criminal element in the case, then Internal Affairs will hand us the case and we'll continue it from there, just as in Pak Ismoko's case," Indarto added.

Brig. Gen. Samuel Ismoko was found guilty by a police disciplinary hearing for committing "undisciplined" acts during the investigation of the Rp 1.7 trillion Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scam case.

Ismoko is now scheduled to appear in court for allegedly receiving $20,000 and Rp 500 million in bribes from the main suspect in the case, Adrian Waworuntu.

Military ties

Indonesia: US mulls military aid to Indonesia

Radio Australia - February 23, 2005

The Bush administration is trying to convince the American Congress to restore some US military assistance to Indonesia. But, it must also win over a number of US Senators who are fiercely opposed to the idea because of Indonesia's human rights record. The advantages for Indonesia in the restoration of assistance are obvious. For the US, among the benefits are a commitment to ongoing co-operation in fighting terror and a continuation of democratic reforms in the world's biggest Muslim nation.

Presenter/Interviewer: Mike Woods

Speakers: Major-General Samsudin, former Indonesian military officer, now Human Rights Commissioner; Professor Sheldon Simon, US military policy analyst, Arizona State University

Woods: At a defence level, things turned sour between the US and Indonesia in 1991, after the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor. In that bloodbath, 276 people were killed at the hands of the Indonesian army or TNI. They were armed with weapons supplied by the US. Following this, the US Congress put a clamp on military aid to Indonesia and stopped the international military training program IMET.

Former Indonesian military officer and now a Human Rights Commissioner, Major-General Samsudin, says he knows from personal experience the value of the IMET program.

Sudin: Actually I am a student with the US army war college in 1979, and I got a lot of knowledge in this college. I think it's quite important for us and besides that we have historic good relations between America and Indonesia right now.

Woods: With Indonesia's democratic changes, cooperation in fighting terrorism and the welcoming of US troops as part of the international tsunami relief effort, things have changed. But have they changed enough for the US Senate led by Democrat Human Rights campaigner, Senator Patrick Leahy.

US military policy analyst, Professor Sheldon Simon, from Arizona State University.

Simon: I think Senator Leahy and those who are also strongly oriented towards human rights concerns are still going to be a problem. If Senator Leahy can be convinced that the TNI has indeed changed its behaviour with respect to Indonesia's own population, he might relent and I know that the Bush administration has been trying to give him evidence to that effect for some time.

Woods: Many at the US Pentagon, argue that restoration of programs like IMET are a tool to encourage the Indonesian military to respect human rights and civilian control. Former Australian Defence attache and Indonesian military specialist, Bob Lowry, says programs like IMET help to facilitate reform of the military, returning it to the control of the people.

Lowry: They've come to the conclusion, that it's far better to be able to, in a democratic society anyway, to interact with the military and hope that you can influence reform from the inside. Now that wasn't a feasible option really in the Suharto era, but under a democratic regime you would hope that you add to the general community pressure for reform of the military.

Woods: Major-General Samsudin, says he agrees that closer ties between the US and the Indonesian military will help to change attitudes amongst the TNI's ranks.

Sudin: We change now, change behaviour, not like before, where during Suharto when he was president. (President) Susilo must control the army now.

Before, they said military and civilian (have) consensus, but in reality, it's not the military and civilian consensus. Military control the civilians before. We have the Constitution now, and in this Constitution it's very clear it said, that army only have to defend the country, not (be involved with) politics. What the army did before, that's become a problem in our country.

What's the problem? They've stopped the democracy.

Woods: While he says he's optimistic about reform in the Indonesian military, Professor Sheldon Simon warns that the process may be a long one.

Simon: The main goal here is a kind of long-term, liberal influence on the Indonesian armed forces leadership that would take perhaps ten years or more to really have any significant impact on Indonesian military policymaking.

Woods: There have been security problems in Indonesia, as we all know, but it has had its first direct presidential elections and it is cooperating in anti-terrorism programs. Is it possible that the US may want to hold it up as an example of a Muslim country that can changed?

Simon: I think that's absolutely correct. There is a lot of hope for the future of Indonesia's democracy. There's a lot of hope that this could be not only a bellwether for South East Asia which the Bush administration had identified, in my opinion incorrectly, as the second front of Islamist terrorism. So there's a lot of hope being placed on the future of Indonesia and its democratic system.

Woods: But critics say the Indonesian military's human rights record is nothing short of appalling, with over 1800 people killed in the province of Aceh last year alone. It is also battling an independence movement in the province of Papua, where reports of killings and violence continue. While the Bush administration may succeed in getting the green light for the restoration of the IMF program, Indonesia has a long way to go before the US again begins supplying it with lethal, military hardware. Professor Sheldon Simon says before the US Congress would even consider such a move, Jakarta would need to meet one important condition.

Simon: The judicial system demonstrating that it's seriously prepared to prosecute those Indonesian leaders who are involved in perpetrating the violence in East Timor prior to, and during the 1999 elections. That's been a really major issue for the Congress.

We should be wary of embracing military before it reforms

Weekly Standard - Dated February 28, 2005

Ellen Bork -- Bush administration officials want to upgrade ties with Indonesia's military. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told Congress that the Indonesian military is cooperating in an investigation of the 2002 murders of two Americans and an Indonesian in Papua.

This would clear the way to resume funding for a program called International Military Education Training (IMET), which was limited throughout the 1990s because of Indonesia's human rights violations, most recently following the 2002 murders (in which the Indonesian military may have been implicated).

Before renewing US-Indonesian military cooperation, Congress will want to consider the history of the troubled relationship and ask whether America's association with an unreformed military in Indonesia will help or hurt democratic reform and civilian control there.

IMET funding was first cut off by Congress in response to the 1991 massacre of protesters in Indonesian-occupied East Timor. Despite this and other atrocities, officials of both Republican and Democratic administrations have consistently pushed for closer ties with the Indonesian military.

Visiting Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (a former US ambassador to Jakarta) implied that the current restriction is a bad idea: "Cutting off contact with Indonesian officers only makes the problem much worse."

In fact, some contact with the Indonesian military has been ongoing. Indonesian officers participate in counterterrorism fellowships at the National Defense University and in the US Army's Theater Security Cooperation Program. Training in topics such as human rights and resource management is still available to Indonesian officers. Nonlethal military equipment for humanitarian purposes -- like relief work after the tsunami -- is also already available to Indonesia.

If full IMET is restored, other programs will likely follow, such as the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET), which was halted by the Clinton administration after revelations that the Pentagon used it to circumvent the congressional ban on IMET funding. In reporting her 2003 book The Mission, the Washington Post's Dana Priest found that 41 training exercises had been held with the Indonesian military between 1991 and 1998.

The emergence of Southeast Asia as an important front in the war on al Qaeda makes the closest possible relations with Indonesia's military more attractive to policymakers, who argue that engagement with unsavory military organizations can foster greater respect for human rights as well as valuable relationships.

But the evidence is not clear. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired general who won democratic election to the presidency in September, is cited by Wolfowitz as a distinguished graduate of IMET. However, in 1999, according to Priest, "US officials were chagrined to learn that five of the 15 Indonesian military officers named by the country's human rights commission as allegedly involved in 'crimes against humanity' in East Timor were former IMET students."

As for closer relationships, as Admiral Dennis Blair, commander of Pacific forces, told Priest, "It is fairly rare that the personal relations made through an IMET course can come into play in resolving a future crisis." He also acknowledged that neither he nor his subordinates used their contacts to reach out to Indonesian military officers during the escalating militia violence in East Timor in 1999.

To the contrary, the emphasis on good relations with the Indonesian military contributed to the US decision to continue training operations with an elite special operations force even after officials concluded it was implicated in the kidnapping and torture of student activists during the fall of the Suharto regime.

Today Indonesia is a democracy. While it has exceeded expectations in some areas, military reform is not one of them. The State Department human rights report for 2003 refers to murder, rape, and torture by security forces and notes the promotion of retired and active military officers with records of serious abuses. Jakarta has held no members of the armed forces accountable for abuses in the 1999 violence in East Timor. As recently as last fall, the US ambassador to Jakarta expressed regret that "we don't have the material with which to seriously go to Congress" to make the case for closer ties with Indonesia's military.

The tsunami and the widely admired response of the US military have apparently changed the administration's position. But before any steps are taken, the administration should provide an accounting of past programs and their effectiveness in promoting reform, and outline a strategy that integrates military cooperation into a plan for advancing democracy and human rights in Indonesia.

International pressure has a proven record of helping, not hurting, reformers. If Indonesian president Bambang Yudhoyono is the model graduate of American training that Washington takes him to be, he will understand this.

[Ellen Bork is a deputy director at the Project for the New American Century.]

Indonesia hails US efforts to revive military ties

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Ivy Susanti, Jakarta -- The Indonesian government has welcomed the US government's gesture to restore full military training ties with Indonesia, which was downgraded 13 years ago.

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said however that the US should also revive contacts between military officers from the two countries, and not only the training or equipment purchase programs. "From the ministry's perspective, if we are talking about military relations, this also refers to the renewal of contacts between the military officers, not only the possibility of purchasing military equipment from certain countries," he told reporters on Friday.

In Washington, US new Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signaled on Thursday that she was in the "final stages" of consultations with Congress on certifying Indonesia as eligible to benefit from the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, AFP reported on Friday. "I think it's a good time to do that," Rice told a Senate panel on Thursday, citing what she called Indonesia's "successful" presidential election last year and cooperation in the investigation of the 2002 murder of two Americans in Indonesia.

Marty said that the Indonesian government was of the same view, that the time was right to restore military relations. "This should be the best of times to restore military ties between Indonesia and the US because, as the US has repeatedly said, Indonesia is a democracy and is very important to the US," he said.

Marty also said that the Indonesian government had lobbied the Congress for support but the final decision is still with the US "Because of the US political system, we cannot just work this issue out with the government alone. So we reached out to our colleagues on Capitol Hill to assure them our intentions. There are those who are for and against us, but in principle, we cannot intervene in the decision making process, be that in the Congress or in the government," he said.

The administration of President George W. Bush has been eager to restore military links with Indonesia, largely to help combat terrorism, but has been confronted by a reluctant Congress. But Rice, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the proposed 2006 budget, expressed confidence the move would go through. "I do believe the time may have come to do that," she said.

The top US diplomat said the move, which requires congressional approval, would "restore full IMET privileges to Indonesia" that were suspended in 1992 amid concerns over Indonesia's human rights record.

The United States stepped up sanctions in 1999 after the Indonesian army and pro-Indonesia militias allegedly killed some 1,500 people during East Timor's drive for independence. Ties soured further in 2002 when the Indonesian army was accused of blocking US investigations into the killing of two US school teachers in the country's Papua province.

Relations took an upturn, however, after the US mounted a massive military relief operation to help Indonesian victims of the December 26 tsunami that wreaked havoc in Aceh province. Washington partially lifted an embargo on the supply of military hardware to Indonesia, delivering spare parts for five Hercules transport planes so they could be used to aid tsunami victims.

[A number of recent reports have erroneously reported that Washington partially lifted the embargo by supplying parts for the Hercules aircraft. Indonesia has in fact been allowed to buy the spare parts under US law since 2002 -- JB.]

Business & investment

Pertamina sees declining revenue and profit

Jakarta Post - February 23, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- State oil and gas company PT Pertamina expects a decline in profit and revenue this year due to declining oil production and higher expenses for its public service obligations (PSOs).

In its 2005 business plan that was recently approved by the government, Pertamina projected a net profit of Rp 6.37 trillion (US$700 million), down from its earlier estimate of Rp 7.31 trillion.

"The decline in Pertamina's net profit is mostly attributable to a decline in its oil production and a higher cost for its PSO activities," said Roes Aryawidjaja, a deputy to the state minister of state enterprises.

The Office of the State Minister of State Enterprises oversees state-owned companies.

Roes refused to elaborate, but according to Pertamina's business plan, revenue from crude oil exports is expected to decline to Rp 487 billion this year from Rp 2.52 trillion last year.

In relation to PSO activities, replacement funds from the government to Pertamina for the processing and distribution of domestic fuel is also estimated to drop to Rp 60.13 trillion this year from Rp 71.45 trillion in 2004 The company's income from other sources of revenue is projected to decrease to Rp 4.16 trillion from Rp 8.88 trillion.

In addition, Pertamina expects revenue from fuel sales to decline slightly to Rp 79.27 trillion from Rp 80.91 trillion. Revenue from fuel exports is also expected to decline to Rp 18.45 trillion from Rp 18.76 trillion.

Overall, the company's operating revenue is projected to reach Rp 197.74 trillion this year, from an estimated Rp 213.52 trillion last year.

To help offset the declines, the Office of the State Minister of State Enterprises had urged Pertamina to boost its revenue from the sale of non-oil products for the domestic market, such as lubricants. In its business plan, Pertamina has projected revenue from non-oil sales to increase to Rp 33.69 trillion this year from Rp 29.33 trillion last year.

"To offset the decline in its oil business, Pertamina has to boost its non-oil businesses and reduce production costs so that it can improve its efficiency," said Roes.

Indonesia's business climate in Total mess

Asia Times - February 23, 2005

Bill Guerin, Jakarta -- As Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono and several of his ministers were wooing investors in Singapore last week, the Indonesian affiliate of French oil giant Total SA, the world's second-biggest gas producer, was making a third appearance in court to stave off a demand by two Indonesian contractors for seizure of its assets.

Foreign investors have major concerns about the lack of legal certainty, the difficulties of negotiating and enforcing contracts, arbitration and judgments, and unequal treatment of domestic and foreign companies. Total's Indonesian operations through Total E&P Indonesie cover seven oil and gas fields and more than 500 production wells in remote areas of East Kalimantan, including Handil, Bekapai, Peciko, Tambora and Tunu, that supply PT Badak NGL -- one of the world's biggest LNG (liquefied natural gas) plants.

The dispute is over a US$19 million contract signed in 2001 between Total and a contractor, PT Sarana Kaltim Jaya, for work on the construction of platforms and a gas processing plant at the Tunu field. During the construction phase, technical difficulties in the field necessitated changes to the original budget of $19 million and both Total and Sanggar agreed on several revisions to the contract price.

Total had paid the contractors a total of $25 million by 2003 but the contractor continued to press for more, claiming that further price adjustments were necessary. Total refused to pay any more. Both sides then agreed to call in the Oil and Gas Upstream Regulatory Agency (BP Migas) to mediate. Total agreed to a proposed audit of the project by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), though it made clear it had no contractual connection with the second contractor, PT Istana Karang Laut, as that company had been subcontracted by Sanggar, not Total.

The audit concluded that Total should pay some $7.131 million to the contractors, and last month the two filed a bankruptcy petition against Total, claiming it had refused to pay up. Indonesia's Bankruptcy Law, amended in 1998 after pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), established a separate commercial court system. The IMF insisted on protection of creditor rights as a condition for its $4.8 billion bailout package at the time of the Asian crisis.

Last September, parliament passed a new law in a bid to close loopholes that have been used against foreign investors. Bankruptcy cases against the profitable local operations of British insurer Prudential and Canadian rival Manulife in 2002 resulted in both firms being temporarily shut down after financial disputes that gave rise to bankruptcy proceedings despite both companies' solid financial performance.

In 2002, the commercial court declared bankrupt a local subsidiary of Canadian insurance firm Manulife Financial even though the Indonesian Ministry of Finance declared the subsidiary solvent. The Supreme Court later overturned the ruling. In a similar case two years later, a commercial court in Jakarta declared Prudential's local unit bankrupt after a former consultant to the company accused the insurer of not paying his dues. A court-appointed receiver ordered the London-based insurer to suspend its local operations.

The new law specifies that only the finance minister can file a bankruptcy petition against insurance companies in commercial courts. The attorney general and the central bank are the only bodies permitted to file petitions against banks. Though the amendments to the Bankruptcy Act now prevent creditors from filing bankruptcy suits against solvent banks and insurance companies, any creditor can file a bankruptcy petition in commercial courts over a dispute with other commercial enterprises.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to confiscate the project and two Total office buildings in Jakarta and Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. They have demanded that the court issue an asset- preservation order on assets that belong to the state and are under BP Migas' supervision, including Total's onshore gas process in Senipah, its offshore facility in Tambora, payments from LNG buyers from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the condensate payment from Senipah.

More than three centuries of Dutch colonial rule have left a legacy of the Roman-Dutch version of civil law, where, unlike the reliance on legal precedent and tradition of "common law" prevalent in England, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and India as well as the United States, Indonesian judges depend on statutes.

An earlier Asian Development Bank report noted that the judges are free to apply the law as they see fit, which accounts for the lack of consistency in decision. Judges need commercial training and better pay and higher social stature, the report suggests. Corruption is also a major factor.

Todung Mulya Lubis, one of Jakarta's most famous corporate lawyers and who represents Total, also happens to be the chairman of Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the local arm of the Germany-based anti-corruption watchdog. A TII report released last Wednesday ranked Jakarta as the most corrupt Indonesian city, while the courts and judiciary were ranked the most corrupt public institutions.

TII announced the results of its inaugural Indonesian Corruption Perceptions Index (IPKI), which surveyed 1,305 directors, managers and owners of businesses (1,117 with local firms and 118 with multinational firms) in 21 cities. Lubis said in a press statement that the survey, conducted to find out whether there is a correlation between domestic and foreign perceptions of corruption in Indonesia, shows that "corruption in this country continues to be seen as endemic, systemic and widespread".

Chris B Newton, president of the Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA), was quoted as saying the bankruptcy case against Total was not helping the investment climate at all, and he feared that it would scare away badly needed foreign investment. Legal and judicial-sector reforms remain critical to any sustained improvement in the investment climate, but whether the Total case will hurt sentiment is doubtful, given investors' already-poor perceptions about Southeast Asia's largest economy.

While the case certainly highlights the unpredictability of Indonesia's legal system, elsewhere it would be seen as little more than a commercial dispute. Lawyer O C Kaligis, who represents the plaintiffs, argues 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.

Lubis could even face charges of influencing court proceedings. Kaligis, representing the contractors, reported him to the police for holding a press conference during an earlier hearing of the bankruptcy petition and issuing a press statement while the court proceedings were still under way. During the press conference, Lubis said that should the commercial court accept the petition, it would scare off foreign investors. "Such a statement will influence the judges' opinion, while all we are asking is for the oil company to pay the money it owes our clients," Kaligis complained. "Why should he say stuff like 'the case will scare off investors'? This is a simple case between creditors and a debtor, not about influencing the investment climate."

On the same day the TII report was published in Jakarta, President Yudhyono pledged in Singapore to clear away red tape, corruption and other obstacles that have long deterred foreign investment. Tax, labor and investment laws will be amended to make the business climate more attractive, he said. "We believe that increasing transparency and reducing red tape [are] the necessary first step to address corruption."

The two countries inked a new investment guarantee agreement that gives most-favored-nation treatment to investments between the two countries. Any investment disputes that cannot be resolved will be referred to the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Singapore at least has confidence that the Indonesian president will make progress on problems he has acknowledged himself could not be solved "overnight". Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said investment agreement would be "a very useful signal to investors that Indonesia welcomes investments and is moving to enhance the conditions for investments in Indonesia, and it will be noted by people from many countries".

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

Petroleum industry caught in confusing web of rules

Jakarta Post - February 21, 2005

John Mcbeth (Straits Times, Asia News Network), Singapore -- The recent oil strike by Australian-owned Santos off the coast of East Java and major untapped oil and gas deposits in ExxonMobil's disputed Cepu field will not be enough to head off what appears to be a pending Indonesian decision to end its 43-year membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Slumping crude production over the past decade has undermined Indonesia's status as a net oil producer -- and thus its right to remain in OPEC -- after years of refusing to provide the incentives or the business climate to compete for global exploration dollars.

Senior Jakarta-based oil executives say the over-regulated oil and gas industry is in more disarray than it has ever been. Exploration is at its lowest level since 1968 -- and Indonesia's nationalist legislators are seemingly cheering from the sidelines.

"Without further exploration success and investment in production optimization, production from existing discoveries will decline by 50 percent in the next decade," Indonesian Petroleum Association chairman Chris Newton has warned in an unusually hard-hitting annual report.

Mines and Energy Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro told a recent parliamentary commission hearing that the government was establishing a panel to look into Indonesia's possible exit from the 11-nation OPEC, which it first joined in 1962 -- two years after Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the cartel.

The sharp decline in output has been exacerbated by surging domestic demand, mostly the result of fixed prices and heavy subsidies that have provided Indonesian consumers with some of the cheapest gasoline in the world.

With exports last year plunging from 100,000 to 30,000 barrels a day -- now roughly in balance with imports -- and domestic prices capped at about US$25 a barrel, the fuel subsidy bill has blown out to a record $7 billion, close to the country's total budget for development spending.

In his most difficult decision since taking office last October, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to announce an average 30-percent increase in fuel prices early next month. The government is bracing for widespread protests, but without real civil society leadership, these are unlikely to spin out of control.

Yusgiantoro has said that withdrawal from OPEC is a political decision because of the importance Indonesia attaches to its diplomatic relations with the other OPEC members, particularly those in the Persian Gulf. House energy commission members want the country out of OPEC, saying the $2 million annual membership fee outweighs the benefits it brings.

But oil experts worry about the impact that may have on new spending by foreign production sharing contractors; development investment added up to only $1.1 billion last year and exploration investment is at a 36-year low of $400 million.

Indonesia has been unable to meet its OPEC quota of 1.4 million barrels a day for some years. Production of oil and condensate fell last year from 1.1 million barrels to 1.08 million barrels, while consumption of petroleum products grew by 5 percent, leaving the country a net oil importer for much of the final half of last year.

Analysts blame the decline on the fact that 70 percent of mature fields contribute to 88 percent of production. Only 45 new wells were drilled last year, compared to the 400 which experts in the 1980s said were needed annually to maintain production at existing levels. The United States Department of Energy expects Indonesia to have an oil trade deficit of $1.2 billion this year, and $1.6 billion next year.

Seattle-based energy consultant Al Troner says Santos' recent find, estimated at 500 million to 700 million barrels, will be "a drop in the bucket" against future demand growth, which will escalate only if Yudhoyono can put new life into the country's long-dawdling economy.

And for all its drive to boost foreign investment, the new administration has been reluctant to intervene in an ongoing dispute between the state-owned Pertamina oil company and ExxonMobil over the fate of Java's onshore Cepu field, with its estimated one billion barrels of oil and 85 billion to 140 billion cubic metres of gas. Leaving the oil in the ground until ExxonMobil's contract runs out in 2010 makes little sense.

"Everything is based on nationalism, but no one really knows what to do," says former mines and energy minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.

Some Pertamina officials think Indonesia can develop the field on its own. Oil analysts say it will still need a foreign partner with deep pockets to pay for the $2.5 billion development cost. That may turn out to be PetroChina, the state-owned Chinese company which already owns a small part of the Cepu reservoir and may be ready to pay for a whole lot more.

Overall, however, it is a plethora of legal, regulatory and fiscal risks and uncertainties that is weighing on an industry which still contributes massively to Indonesia's balance of payments. "The government has to recognize that the best way to increase investment is to look after existing investors," says Newton, also the chief executive officer of Energi Meda Mersada, a newly-listed company owned by Economic Coordinating Minister Aburizal Bakrie. "Executives are sitting in boardrooms and making global capital decisions. Indonesia is struggling to compete."

In one sign that it recognizes things must change, the government last month finally abolished tariffs on drilling and other equipment imported for oil exploration. But it failed to address what Newton calls the "nightmare" of reimbursable value-added taxation (VAT). Under the old regime, oil companies were responsible only for income tax, while Pertamina paid for VAT and import duties. But when Oil and Gas Upstream Regulatory Agency (BP Migas) took over from Pertamina as industry regulator under the 2001 Oil and Gas Law, the entire tax burden fell on the companies.

That is not the only complaint. Oil executives say a stifling procurement process, which forces companies to clear all purchases with BP Migas, has brought efficiency down by 50 to 60 percent. "The biggest change they could make is eliminating regulations," says one frustrated Western oilman. "Low level bureaucrats have taken hold of the Oil and Gas Law and made it worse. They can stop us in our tracks just using their own interpretation of contracts. We have no idea what goes on behind the scenes and what the reasoning is."

[The writer is the former Jakarta correspondent for the now defunct Far Eastern Economic Review.]

Indonesia imports 300,000 bpd of fuel in 2004

Jakarta Post - February 19, 2005

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- Indonesia imported about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of processed fuel last year to meet domestic demand for the oil-based commodity, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Local supplies fell short due to reduce oil output and an increase in domestic consumption, the ministry's director general of oil and natural gas, Iin Arifin Takhyan, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

"We are already a net importer of fuel because our refineries don't have the capacity to produce as much as needed," Iin said. Indonesia also imported crude oil last year, although he did not mention how much.

Domestic fuel consumption increases by about 6 percent per year, while annual production of crude oil keeps declining, exacerbated by aging drilling facilities. Should the country fail to find new oil fields to boost output, Indonesia will have to import more fuel to meet rising domestic demand.

Declining production, as well as the need to import oil, has prompted calls for the country to withdraw from the Organization of Petroleum Exporter Countries (OPEC). The government has set up a team to review its OPEC membership.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro has said that the country will need four new oil refineries in the next year or two to reduce fuel imports.

Elsewhere, Iin said that throughout 2004, the country produced 800,000 bpd of fuel, while domestic consumption stood at about 1.1 million bpd.

A statement from the oil and mineral resources ministry shows that oil production in December, plus condensate, increased by 9,530 bpd, which took the country's total production to 1,094,653 bpd.

According to a PriceWaterhouse Cooper survey last year, the country is among the top 10 countries in the world with the largest oil and mineral potential. However, an unhealthy investment climate has stopped investors from investing in the oil and gas industry here.

People

Semsar's dream stays alive, despite his death

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Tabanan/Bali -- Indonesia is mourning the passing of yet another prominent artist. Semsar Siahaan, a socialist-realist painter, passed away early on Wednesday at the Tabanan Hospital. He was 52.

Semsar succumbed to a heart attack only a day after being admitted to the hospital. His body, which was later adorned with Balinese traditional costume, was flown to Jakarta by his family.

Semsar was admitted to the hospital on Monday by his close friend Mahen Icha after the painter complained about sharp pains in his chest and passed out.

"We were looking at the work on his property at Kesambi village in Penebel, Tabanan. Suddenly, he complained of chest pain and fainted. We then took him to the hospital," said Mahen, who was Semsar's college mate at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in the 1970s.

Upon arrival, said Mahen, Semsar was immediately treated in the intensive care unit.

Mahen, whose house is adjacent to the artist's, said Semsar had been building an art studio on his 35-acre plot of land. "He wanted to establish his own art school after completing the studio," Mahen added.

Hundreds of friends and artists gathered at the Ismail Marzuki Arts Center (TIM) late Wednesday. The body will be taken from TIM on Thursday at 11 a.m. to be buried in Menteng Pulo cemetery in South Jakarta.

Semsar's siblings from Jakarta, Citara and Sony, arrived in Bali on Wednesday noon. "We had no idea what he was suffering from. We hardly see each other because we live miles apart," said Citara.

Semsar returned to Bali in May last year after spending six years in Canada and the US. Mahen said that Semsar was depressed following his divorce and the death of his only son, and later decided to leave the country.

The death of Semsar, who had his leg broken after being beaten up by the police during a demonstration against the banning a Tempo magazine by the Soeharto regime in 1994, was also mourned by Tempo senior editor Goenawan Mohamad.

"My friends and I at Tempo will never forget what he did for us. He not only spoke about politics through his works, but also took part in it," said Goenawan, who was also the Tempo chief editor when the 1994 demonstration took place.

Renown poet and playwright WS Rendra said idealists like Semsar "no longer have a place in this world," and that he admired Semsar as a social and political observer as reflected in his work.

Mahen recalled Semsar as an anti-establishment artist ever since he was a student. Semsar once burnt his lecturer's work in a protest against mainstream fine arts which he labeled "rigid".

Semsar, the rebellious artist

Jakarta Post - February 24, 2005

A. Junaidi, Jakarta -- Semsar Siahaan was a powerful artist who revealed the complexities and injustices of society with a clear eye.

Born on June 11, 1952 in the North Sumatra capital of Medan, Semsar died on Wednesday at Tabanan Hospital in Bali after suffering a heart attack.

His passing will be mourned by Jakarta's art community but also by other pockets of society and individuals who knew him as a passionate activist.

Following his involvement in a street rally during the New Order regime against the ban on free press, Semsar, who was the son of an Army major general, fell from the government's favor.

During the rally near Gambir railway station he was shot and beaten by military officers. The incident later became known as the Gambir incident.

That year, 1994, Soeharto's administration banned two magazines, Tempo and Editor, and Detik tabloid, for running pieces unfavorable to the regime.

Constant pressure from the Soeharto regime caused Semsar to leave for Canada in 1997, where he continued to work as an artist for the duration of his five-year stay.

Semsar returned home in 2003 and staged a solo exhibition of his mostly black-and-white works at the National Gallery last year.

Unlocking the impenetrable through his work, Semsar found resolutions and unexpected hope in a world of rights abuses and injustice.

"I adhere firmly to the belief that man is the creation of God and that art is the creation of man. And within conditions in which humanity is threatened, the artists must step forward to convey the values and principles of humanity and humanitarianism," he once said.

Semsar's awesome mural showing soldiers' boots crushing the marginalized hangs in the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Central Jakarta.

Semsar, who was once married to an Acehnese woman named Isnaini had a son, Christo, who died shortly after delivery.

He first studied art in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, when his father Maj. Gen. Ricardo Siahaan became a defense attache at the Indonesian Embassy between 1965 and 1968.

After finishing high school in Jakarta in 1975, Semsar continued his studies in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in the United States.

He returned to Indonesia and studied sculpture at the Bandung Institute of Technology's Visual Art School between 1977 and 1981. The rebellious Semsar was suspended and then expelled from the institute for burning a lecturer's artwork that offended his esthetic values.

Coming from a middle-class family but choosing to live in a modest way, Semsar was often invited to seminars here and abroad to talk about art and social issues.

"Local human rights activists are now disoriented. They fight each other," said disappointed Semsar, who once, having fallen behind with his rent, was almost evicted from a house in Cinere, South Jakarta. He said today's activists lack solidarity and have been co-opted by political and commercial interests.

While some found Semsar difficult to approach, friends and colleagues are quick to speak of his generosity, loyalty and persistence.

Semsar leaves behind him a precious legacy of works and the unfulfilled dream of seeing justice upheld in his beloved country.

Opinion & analysis

Now for the action

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 24, 2005

It has taken Indonesia many years, and an international scandal, for the country to finally wake up to the immensity of the looting that has been going on for decades in its lush tropical rain forests. But now at least it seems that action may finally be taken to do something about it.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono summoned on Tuesday the five high-level government officials most directly concerned with the country's decades-old problem of illegal logging to a hastily assembled meeting and ordered them to arrest 32 timber barons currently on the government's blacklist for allegedly backing the country's notorious illegal timber trade.

Present at Tuesday's meeting were the Minister of Forestry, M. S. Kaban, Home Minister M. Ma'ruf, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, Army Headquarters Assistant of Operations Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri and the Director General of Immigration, Iman Santosa. After it was done, Da'i was appointed to lead an "integrated operation." The five officials the president handpicked to attend were chosen for good reason.

As the president pointed out during the gathering, "many parties" were involved in the murky illegal timber business, among them, personnel from the Navy's Eastern Fleet Command, officers from the Army's various regional commands in timber-rich areas, regional police officers, local administrators, personnel from the Ministry of Forestry, immigration officials and, last but not least, members of international smuggling syndicates.

"The president ordered 'shock therapy'... and a special investigation to be initiated, the findings of which are to be reported [to the president] within two weeks," Kaban said during a news conference given after the meeting.

And to convince the public that the president meant business, presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng added that a detailed report from the non-governmental organization Telapak was already in the president's hands, and "nobody in this country is above the law."

So it seems that, for once, the robbers might be able to see the ominous shadow of the law approaching. On the other hand, it remains to be seen what legal course of action is really open to the government, what political considerations might have to be weighed, and what the possible consequences of "shock therapy" might be for everyone concerned.

Be that as it may, it is obvious that the last drop that caused the bucket to overflow and forced the government into action was the evidence made public by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) along with Telapak in Jakarta last week. The racket apparently involves the smuggling of an estimated 300,000 cubic meters of timber a month from Indonesia -- mostly Papua province -- to China and beyond, and valued at more than a billion dollars.

In a news conference held in Jakarta last week, the environmentalists also made the allegation that the racket -- the biggest case of timber smuggling ever recorded -- was backed and managed by high-ranking Indonesian military officers aided and abetted by local government administrators and other law enforcers. The ring reportedly involves a group of international crime syndicates that are involved in the massive looting of timber to supply the growing demands worldwide, particularly China.

Clearly, the task that Gen. Da'i and his colleagues are facing is formidable indeed. Not only does he have to confront some of the most hardened criminals in this part of the world, he -- and his colleagues, too -- will have to conduct a sweeping clean-up of their own houses as well, with all the possible consequences that implies.

Not to be left behind in all this, the House of Representatives too is busying itself by initiating moves to set up a special commission to "dismantle" the illegal logging business which, legislators realize, has reached alarming proportions.

Whatever may come from all these moves remains to be seen. But the ball seems to be rolling and there can be no turning back. Frankly though, doubts exist as to the capability of those who have been put in charge of bringing the operation to a successful end any time soon, let alone coming up with a credible report within two weeks. It is going to be a tough job. However, if the destruction of our environment is to be brought to a halt, now is the time to act. At stake is the well-being of this entire nation.

Hardliners on both sides threaten Aceh settlement

Sydney Morning Herald - February 24, 2005

Edward Aspinall -- The international community needs to be cautious in welcoming signs of an apparent breakthrough in the recent Aceh peace talks in Finland. Some of the signs are very positive, but the devil will be in the detail.

There has been great international interest in the talks between the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement. Foreign governments, including Australia's, have provided massive funds for post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh. A ceasefire that holds, let alone a lasting settlement, would greatly assist the reconstruction effort.

But there wasn't much optimism leading into these talks. The last round of negotiations broke down in May 2003 when both sides refused to budge on their aims. The movement wanted independence, while Indonesia insisted any settlement must be based on a "special autonomy" law it passed for the province in 2001.

Now it seems there has been a genuine breakthrough. Reports suggest the movement has "dropped" its demand for independence, replacing it with a call for "self-government". An Australian academic who took part in the talks, Damien Kingsbury, said "the demand for independence is no longer on the table", although it is not clear whether this accurately represents the movement's position.

If accurate, this is a dramatic shift. Since the movement was founded in 1976, it has been adamant it would accept nothing less than complete independence.

What might account for its apparent change of heart? One explanation is battle fatigue of some of its commanders. The movement has taken serious hits over the past 18 months of intensified military operations, and there are suggestions of morale problems among its fighters.

Equally important was a feeling by the movement's leaders that they needed to capitalise on the influx of foreigners into the territory after the tsunami and respond quickly to renewed international interest in a peace settlement. Without a dramatic shift on their part, negotiations would remain at a stalemate.

But potential pitfalls are many. Just what is meant by "self- government" is unclear, though it must imply much greater local control than is contemplated under the "special autonomy" formula (which the movement still rejects). Some Indonesian officials may see "self-government" as little more than code for independence, and with good reason. By late yesterday, there were already reports quoting movement leaders denying they had dropped their independence goal.

There are also signs the movement will demand far-reaching concessions which may include withdrawing Indonesian troops from the province, Acehnese control over all aspects of government except defence, and international trials for military officers accused of abusing human rights. None of these is likely to be acceptable to Indonesia.

It is also possible the movement's aim is expanded self-rule, followed by a referendum on independence. Such a plan was central to the recent settlement of the Bougainville conflict in Papua New Guinea, and the possibility has been discussed in recent times. If so, then the movement's shift of position should be viewed as tactical, though still significant. But any settlement involving a future referendum has been ruled out by Indonesia.

Some of Indonesia's political and military elite remain hostile to the idea of a negotiated outcome. Recently, the outgoing army chief of staff, General Ryamizard Ryacudu, said the military would not enter a ceasefire with the movement. He said the only way to peace was for the movement to surrender.

Those in government who favour negotiations see them as a means to persuade the movement to give up its struggle, and aim to sweeten the outcome by promises of economic rewards and unnamed political concessions. The hardline view, represented by Ryamizard, is that such an end should be achieved only in battle and that much progress has been made in this direction over the past 18 months.

There will be suspicion in military and government circles that the latest gambit by the movement does not involve abandoning its goal of independence.

Some will argue the government should not squander its military advantage and, above all, why should the government offer dramatic concessions when the movement is on the defensive?

Even if an agreement is signed, as one was in late 2002, spoilers on the ground could again frustrate it. Military commanders have many opportunities to instigate armed clashes and then allege bad faith on the part of the movement.

It is also possible that some of the movement's fighters may feel betrayed by their leaders and want to keep up the fight.

The international community should welcome any progress in the talks. The shadow of renewed violence has been hanging over the tsunami relief effort and even a temporary reprieve should be encouraged. But there is a great distance to travel before a permanent settlement is achieved.

[Edward Aspinall lectures in South-East Asian studies and history at the University of Sydney.]

Respite for Aceh

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 25, 2005

There never was a good war or a bad peace. Despite the incremental pace of negotiations, the positive mood at the conclusion of a second round talks in Helsinki between the government and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should be welcomed by all.

People in tsunami-ravaged Aceh do not need politics. They are still focused on simply surviving and attempting to rebuild some semblance of a normal life. Any formula that extends peace and defers open conflict in Aceh, even if only temporarily, is welcome.

A flicker of light now seems to be appearing at the end of the tunnel after decades of violence. But we have been down this road before. Hopes have been shattered and promises broken. It is not surprising that the reaction at home to the talks so far has been guarded.

We fear that the flicker may not be the light at the end of the tunnel, but instead a speeding train come to smash the dreams of peace once again.

This is a delicate time in the negotiations. GAM has shown good faith in entertaining alternatives to independence, while Jakarta, to the anger of some, has displayed courage by sending a high-level delegation to the talks.

What is now needed is tact and quiet diplomacy. Senior Indonesian figures should refrain from summarily derogating the position of GAM in public. Critics must not inflame what has been a relatively cooperative mood.

There is still much to be worked out, therefore we should allow the elaborate wheels of diplomacy to proceed accordingly.

We understand that timetables and targets must be set to move the talks forward. However, unduly applying pressure at this early juncture, such as Vice President Jusuf Kalla suggesting on Thursday an agreement could be reached by the middle of the year, is unnecessary.

This initial sit-down phase of talks is probably the easiest part of the negotiations. The hard work is about to begin.

Defining a role for GAM within the context of the unitary state will require exhaustive exchanges, creativity and immense goodwill.

It is also important to remind both parties that the "real" stakeholders in peace in Aceh -- the Acehnese -- should, at some juncture, be actively brought into the process. They must not be treated as passive objects. Without the consent, support and participation of those who actually live in the province, any agreement reached will be in vain.

Regardless of the development of peace talks in Helsinki, we strongly believe there should also be a parallel review of the concept of autonomy in Aceh.

An egalitarian Indonesia, whether in Aceh or elsewhere, depends on the extent of freedom accorded to its people to determine their own path within the parameters of the unitary state.

While jurisdictional control is ceded to the regions, there are questions about whether the current body of laws regulating regional autonomy has truly succeeded in transferring power, not just authority, to the regions.

Without authentic recognition of the rights of regions to be autonomous, local discontent will continue to fester. Aceh is just one example of how such local discontent has evolved into a rebellion.

That, in essence, is the big question facing Jakarta. Is its peace initiative designed to resolve a perpetual headache in a far-off province, or does it truly have the well-being of the people there in mind? The central government needs to ensure that its offer truly has the good interests of the Acehnese in mind, and is not a means to score a diplomatic success.

Similarly, GAM needs to ask who and what they are fighting for when their own people are content simply to regain some normalcy in their lives.

Tsunami could re-chart Aceh's future - Pramoedya

Associated Press - February 22, 2005

Jakarta -- Indonesia's top intellectual and a longtime contender for the Nobel Literature prize believes that the influx of foreigners and aid money into tsunami-devastated Aceh could bring significant change to the war-torn province.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, an outspoken champion of democracy who was imprisoned for 14 years by the US-backed dictatorship of former president Suharto, said recovery, and ultimately peace, will depend on the Acehnese.

"They are the country's bravest, most fiercely independent ethnic group and they cannot be conquered," Pramoedya told The Associated Press in an interview at his home outside Jakarta. "With everybody coming in from around the world, that could bring real change for the Acehnese."

Peace has eluded the Acehnese for decades, and their prosperity has long depended on handouts from Jakarta, despite the province's enormous natural resources.

Since the December 26 tragedy, thousands of foreign aid workers have rushed to Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where at least 122,000 people were killed and tens of thousands are missing. Countries and individuals have pledged more than US$4.5 billion for tsunami recovery in the dozen countries hit.

The international attention on Aceh increased pressure on Jakarta and the region's separatists to resolve their war, and two sides are in peace talks this week in Finland. The rebels on Tuesday dropped their independence demand to focus on self-government arrangements.

But change won't come easily as long as Indonesia's military keeps its tight grip on Aceh, Promoedya said. The military, accused of endemic corruption, is unlikely to cede control of the lucrative rebuilding process.

"In Indonesia, wherever the money is, the military is, and in Aceh, it will be business as usual," Pramoedya said, rubbing rail-thin fingers over a three-day-old white stubble.

The oil- and gas-rich province had been virtually off limits to foreigners since 1989. When peace talks failed in 2003, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri imposed martial law to combat the growing rebel insurgency.

Pramoedya, whose 34 books and essays have been translated into 37 languages, opposes independence for Aceh, but he criticizes newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for perpetuating Megawati's brutal crackdown on the rebels and innocent villagers.

The author, imprisoned for denouncing Suharto, has long championed Indonesia's downtrodden. His "Tales from Jakarta" depicts the misery of the capital's poor, tracking their transformation from hopeful citizens to crazed animals fighting for survival.

The lot of the street vendors, prostitutes and housemaids he portrayed more than 50 years ago has changed little, Pramoedya said. He blames Indonesia's leaders for plundering the nation's resources and lacking the political will to address its problems.

He has accused Megawati of war crimes in Aceh, where rights groups allege that the army is behind executions, disappearances, torture and rape. They say most of the 2,500 victims since 2003 have been unarmed villagers.

Although Pramoedya has been nominated seven times for the Nobel literature prize, his books are little known among today's youth, a legacy of the ban on his writings under Suharto's dictatorship.

His masterpiece, the "Buru Quartet," novels about Indonesia's struggle for independence, evolved from stories he told fellow prisoners at a penal colony on remote Buru island. The stories were later jotted down on scraps of paper he smuggled out of his cell.

Pramoedya was born on February 6, 1925 in Blora, a small, barren town in central Java, the son of a school headmaster. He wrote his first story while in elementary school. "For me writing is giving evidence and proof of reality," he said. "It's not entertainment. It's a national duty."

These days Pram, as he is known, isn't writing at all. He suffers from diabetes, and is nearly deaf and blind. He can no longer use a pen, cannot see the computer screen and refuses to dictate to a secretary.

"Writing is something you do alone," he said. "I do not feel frustration because fortunately, I have written everything I had to say. I have everything I ever wanted. I am at peace."

Command and control

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 21, 2005

The president is the supreme commander of the Indonesian armed forces. The 1945 Constitution -- both in its amended and original forms -- clearly stipulates such. Even top military brass would not argue with the president's official distinction as commander in chief. But the current degree of actual control the president has over this most strategic of state institutions is ambiguous.

Past Indonesian leaders, from Sukarno to Megawati Soekarnoputri, under the prevailing political system of the time, from parliamentary democracy, authoritarianism to direct presidential elections, have had to come to terms with the military in their own way.

Either by prostration or compromise, no president has survived without the "blessing" of the military. It was not public opinion, but rather the military that has determined the political turning points of the nation.

Even during the initial phases of the current era of democratic resurgence, the military was a defining actor in the fate of post-Soeharto administrations. Either by conscious omission or as a sustaining ally, its role was crucial in terminating and perpetuating at least two administrations.

As the nation attempts to nudge its institutions toward egalitarian and accountable norms, it has to be said that the Indonesian Military (TNI) has consistently maintained its exclusiveness. As other state institutions succumb, in varying degrees, to demands for reform, the TNI has continued to jealously guard against external initiatives to transform its institutionalized habits.

After seven years of reformasi, changes within the TNI have only begun to scratch the surface. It is true that the TNI has not prevented the progress of democratic reform. But neither has it been at the forefront in implementing reform.

Hence, suspicion remains of the TNI's true intentions. This suspicion also indicates that despite the democratic elections, there is doubt that the defined commander in chief (the president) has absolute command and control over the TNI.

The election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono brought about an intriguing paradox: the nation is now looking to a retired military general to "impose" important reforms on the TNI.

One question that has yet to be answered in Susilo's 100-plus days in power is how he perceives and intends to pursue the relationship with the institution that taught him everything he knows. Will he seek to make the military a bedfellow, like his predecessor? Or will he seek to "tame the beast", as Abdurrahman Wahid unsuccessfully attempted? One advantage Susilo has over his two predecessors is that being directly elected, he has more legitimacy and a stronger mandate than any leader since the first president, Sukarno.

The impending appointment of the new TNI chief is an important gauge of how Susilo will pursue the relationship with the institution. While TNI Headquarters will submit a list of preferred candidates to replace the departing Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, the President, as the commander in chief, has the right to appoint whoever he feels comfortable with and sees fit to serve as TNI chief.

The President should seriously consider returning to the tradition of rotating the position of TNI chief between the Army, Navy and Air Force. With the last two TNI chiefs being from the Navy and the Army, the appointment of a Navy man as TNI chief would be a logical option. Such a bold decision would help address imbalances within the military resulting from the Army's domination of influence, and potentially tip the political balance in the TNI in the President's favor.

The House of Representatives also has a key role to play in consenting to the President's choice of TNI chief. It is an opportunity for the House to show it is a truly independent body.

We have no specific preference as to who should become the next TNI chief. The four leading candidates, however, have not shown much enthusiasm for our desired goal of civilian supremacy and public accountability over the TNI.

Gen. Ryamizard Riyacudu, Lt. Gen. Djoko Santoso, Air Marshall Djoko Suyanto and Adm. Slamet Soebijanto remain to varying degrees trapped in the conservative mind-set that persists in setting the TNI apart from other public institutions because of its perceived role as the guardian of the state.

We can only suggest that the best candidate is not one whose chest glitters with medals, but rather a soldier whose loyalty resides with the elected president and the nation, and not the institution of the TNI.

The future of our democracy rests in the depth and sincerity of the social, political and economic reforms we are now undertaking. The potency of these reforms depends on the degree to which the TNI is willing to cede to civilian supremacy.

Corruption, who cares?

Jakarta Post Editorial - February 19, 2005

"I don't care," has apparently become a catchphrase among government officials, following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's example.

Responding to a survey showing his declining popularity, the President said earlier this month: "I don't care about my popularity." The President's words have given others in his circle an idea or two.

Minister of Finance Yusuf Anwar, when asked about a survey by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) showing the customs office as the most corrupt institution in the country, said on Thursday, "Just let it go. I don't care."

A similar response also came from Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso over the labeling of Jakarta as the most corrupt city in the country by the TII. Although he did not use the words "I don't care", Sutiyoso retorted that the wrong businesspeople were probably selected as respondents -- those who did not win tenders for city projects.

The indifference of Yusuf and Sutiyoso is particularly worrying as it is in response to corruption within institutions under their command.

The TII's survey, which places the customs office as the most corrupt institution in the country, is actually not surprising. It just confirms public perception, and even a previous survey by the World Bank that ranks customs and also the tax office as two of the most corrupt institutions. The TII survey puts the tax office in 11th place on its list of most corrupt institutions.

Rather than belittling the survey, the minister should have used it as a tool to further pressure the customs office to improve on its performance, or to set about removing corrupt officials from the customs office.

Similarly, Sutiyoso's serious consideration of the results would have been more reassuring than his defensiveness. Actually, his argument -- that it makes sense that most corruption cases occur in Jakarta as 70 percent of financial transactions in the country take place in the capital -- could be spot on. However, stating the obvious as a defense just sounds like making excuses.

At the very least, Sutiyoso and Yusuf should have welcomed the results as a commendable effort from the TII in the fight against corruption.

Indeed, the TII's 2004 Indonesian Corruption Perception Index survey is a good reminder to all of us of our duty to refuse to tolerate corruption in our government, as well as in our society.

Any civil effort, no matter how small, strengthens the campaign against corruption, particularly at a time when the legal institutions at the helm of the corruption fight are struggling in their mission.

One of the most important of these institutions is the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), an independent institution established in 2002, following a prolonged tug-of-war between the government and members of the House of Representatives. While it struggles to bring to justice big-time embezzlers, the latest Constitutional Court verdict was a major blow for the commission.

Although the verdict recognizes the commission's existence, it says the commission can not try cases that predate its establishment.

Another key institution in the fight against corruption is the Attorney General's Office. Interestingly, in a hearing between House Commission II and III and the Attorney General's Office on Thursday, one legislator referred to the office as a "village of thieves", prompting a heated debate. Although this statement was probably politically motivated, it also stirs in us the uneasy feeling that we can not hope for too much from prosecutors in sending major corruption suspects to prison.

Is our battle against corruption really so futile? That all depends on which way you are looking at it. Reassurances can be found, that the country is inching toward its goal of creating clean governance, in the progress made by various civic groups outside the government, such as the TII, the Indonesian Corruption Watch and other anticorruption groups and activists. The next question is, how fast are we are proceeding. Maybe not fast enough, but at least, when public officials are not concerned about combating corruption, somebody else in society is willing to fight in their place.

Book/film reviews

West Papua's long struggle for justice

Green Left Weekly - February 23, 2005

[West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto -- Independence, Autonomy or Chaos? By Professor Peter King. University of NSW Press, 2004. 240 pages, $40 (pb).]

Review by Paul Brownrigg -- The island of New Guinea, our northern neighbour, is a tremendously rich and largely unspoilt island. One half of the island, Papua New Guinea, is often in our news -- not always for good reasons. But what about the other half of the island, commonly known as West Papua? Australia -- and the world for that matter -- rarely hears anything from this mysterious area that currently forms a part of Indonesia. That's why Peter King's new book, West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto, is a must-read for those interested in finding out more about this little known part of the world.

West Papua was occupied by Indonesia from the 1960s. King portrays a David and Goliath independence struggle between Indonesia and multinational mining companies on the one side, and the West Papuan people denied their independence and human rights on the other. The West Papuans are clearly racially and culturally distinct from the rest of Indonesia and have fought a four-decade-long desperate battle to maintain their identity in the face of worldwide indifference.

As King makes clear, Indonesia's army is central to keeping West Papua as an unwilling province of Indonesia that is open for business to huge multinational mining companies. No picture of Indonesia is complete without a close examination of its military and widely corrupt society, which is provided for the reader as background to the situation in West Papua. The Indonesian army, notorious for its human rights abuses in Aceh and East Timor, is ruthless in its treatment of any West Papuans who dare to speak up for their rights.

King's book is valuable for anyone wishing to understand the wider picture in Indonesia. At the same time, it enlightens readers to the largely ignored struggle of the West Papuans for their independence. Despite many hardships, their hopes that a world that has ignored them for 40 years will come at last to their aid persist to this day. Detailed in the book are the various factions of the West Papuan independence movement, and the background to the recent assassination of widely known independence leader Theys Eluay.

While the poorly armed OPM (Free Papua Movement) has been operating sporadically against the odds for over 40 years, King makes a convincing argument that nonviolent and peaceful methods of struggle have a real chance of winning autonomy or even independence for West Papua.

King details the granting of special autonomy to the province by Indonesia in recent years, only for it to be rolled back by elements in Indonesia's power structure that are only interested in the exploitation of the province and in maintaining it as part of the Indonesian federation.

The book presents various alternatives for a brighter future for West Papua, ranging from staying within Indonesia as a self- governing province to outright independence. King takes the reader back to the Cold War period, when the United Nations and the international community originally promised the people of West Papua that they would be allowed to vote on their future.

West Papua was a Dutch colony between 1828 and 1961. The UN had decided when the Dutch left in 1961 that the West Papuan people would be allowed to decide their future in an "act of free choice". Indonesia was mandated to hold the territory until that vote took place. Sadly, when the vote happened in 1969 it was nothing more than an orchestrated sham. One-thousand Papuan tribal leaders were coerced or outright forced by the Indonesian army to vote to become part of Indonesia. The UN noted some of the problems with the so-called "act of free choice", but rubber-stamped the vote and allowed Indonesia full sovereignty over the province.

The reader is introduced to the sad reality of West Papua in the 1960s and how it came to be part of Indonesia today. The book shows how it was used as a bargaining chip by Australia and the United States to keep the wavering Indonesia in the Western camp. Also highlighted is how the US, the Netherlands and Australia were originally in favour of West Papua being independent, but Cold War politics and realpolitik intervened.

As King makes clear, West Papua's loss of its chance at independence was a Cold War act of convenience that the people of West Papua have paid for, for over 40 years. They continue to pay as huge companies mine their mineral resources, nearly every cent leaving the province bound for Jakarta and the developed world.

The destruction of the environment goes on unabated and any attempts by the local people to put a stop to this pillage is brutally repressed by the Indonesian authorities. However, as King points out, the example of East Timor and its long -- but ultimately successful -- battle for independence does give West Papua and its supporters hope for a more independent future.

In describing the events of East Timor, King makes clear the role of Australia's foreign policy elite from 1975, which has sought to appease Indonesia at any cost, regardless of its internal policies. Further, he illustrates the positive role for change that the Australian public can play, as shown by its active role in the East Timorese struggle, which forced a reluctant Australian government and foreign policy elite into action. The end result was the independence of the East Timorese, after many years in which their struggle had seemed hopeless and their plight ignored by foreign governments, especially Australia's.

The active role of an Australian public interested in the human rights of our regional neighbours can play a positive role in West Papua. King draws on his experience to show that the Australian people playing an active part in our regional affairs is feared by the Australian foreign policy elite. King argues that it underestimates Australia's strength and overestimates Indonesia's.

Complicating West Papua's future is the West's interest in Indonesia's assistance to its anti-terrorist crusade. But even with this factor, King offers convincing arguments that it is not in Australia's nor Indonesia's interest for Indonesia to continue to occupy a province that is not racially, historically, geographically or politically part of its federation. He documents the awakening of a global movement determined to see West Papua's rights finally respected.

King's book is a subtle but compelling call to action that gives the reader a view into the history and future of this little- known land fighting for the independence it was promised long ago. It is well worth reading for those interested in learning more about West Papua and how justice can be won for its long suffering and forgotten people.