News & issues

Plea for calm over '1000-goat sacrifice' SMS

Australian Associated Press - April 13, 2005

After cataclysmic tsunami, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which have left more than 224,000 Indonesians dead or missing across Sumatra and surrounding islands, a flood of SMS warnings abound that the country's capital Jakarta is next.

The quakes have steadily been moving south after a devastating magnitude 9.3 quake struck Aceh on Boxing Day. The quake, one of the largest ever recorded, triggering tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean, swallowing entire coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Two weeks ago another powerful tremor hit the surfing paradise of Nias island off the north Sumatra coast, killing more than 600 people and leaving thousands more homeless.

On Sunday, an earthquake hit the west Sumatra capital Padang, causing minimal damage but prompting panic that saw thousands of residents flee to higher ground fearing fresh tsunamis.

And on Monday night terrified villagers fled homes around Padang after the 2599 metre volcano Mt Talang erupted, spewing ash for more than a kilometre around its peak.

An SMS appeal went out in conspiracy and superstition-crazy Indonesia that Jakarta would soon follow and be hit by tsunamis or quakes.

The chain text message appealed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take action. "Mr President, please sacrifice 1000 goats," the mysterious SMS pleaded.

But Yudhoyono shook off the plea while hosting a function at the State Palace. "If I complied with this extraordinary and unique request, I couldn't come to the disaster site or control emergency requests," the former general said.

"We should bring ourselves closer to God and pray not not to be given more difficult tests." Yudhoyono said he had asked Indonesia's police chief General Da'i Bachtiar to investigate the source of the mysterious SMS appeal.

"It's not good," he said, adding that if there any warning of an earthquake or tsunami in Jakarta, it would be instantly broadcast through the media. "Don't be afraid," he said.

He said all the quakes and eruptions could be explained scientifically by recent movements in the earth's crust. "So don't make any superstition about them," Yudhoyono said. "Even if I sacrificed 1000 goats, disasters in Indonesia will not end."

Meanwhile, back in Jakarta

Sydney Morning Herald - April 9, 2005

Matthew Moore -- As is usually the case with those watching him for the first time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left few people unimpressed. On just the third trip ever by an Indonesian president to Australia, Yudhoyono pushed every button he could to reassure his neighbours he knows how they think and understands their concerns.

He did his best to allay fears many Australians have of a country their Government warns is so dangerous it's best avoided. "I am convinced we can take this friendship between Indonesia and Australia far," he said. "Very far," he added, as he urged his audience to "imagine the vast area of democratic peace and co- operation that will be created between the largest archipelago on the equator and the great continent Down Under".

Awarding medals of honour to the Australian Defence personnel who died in the Nias Island helicopter crash was more evidence of his deft political touch, especially when contrasted with his predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, who chose not to attend a ceremony in Bali honouring those who died in the 2002 bombings.

Without saying how, Yudhoyono even suggested he might attend to the problems of Schapelle Corby, who is waiting in a Bali jail while prosecutors decide if they want her executed if she is found guilty of smuggling marijuana: "I will watch closely to make sure that justice is there, because it is important that justice is upheld..." To businessmen he spruiked "a new Indonesia, a new president, a new parliament, exciting new bilateral relations between Indonesia and Australia and a full set of new business opportunities for you".

Listening to all this from a leader who looks and sounds so plausible, Australians would be forgiven for thinking Indonesia is well on the road to a bright and prosperous future. But in Indonesia and among those who watch the place closely, Yudhoyono's words don't resonate so convincingly. In a country with big problems, many are impatient for the reforms Yudhoyono promised a year ago, in the first days of the election process, but which seem as far away as ever.

A University of Indonesia sociologist, Dr Imam Prasodjo, curtly summarised the views many academics, activists and investors have of Yudhoyono's presidency, now just a week shy of the six-month mark. "He's too wimpy... I want him to be more aggressive," said Prasodjo.

Educated at Brown University in the US, Prasodjo is one of a group of energetic, reform-minded Indonesians who struggle to make the country a fairer place. As well as his university work, he runs an aid group helping victims of disasters like the religious clashes in Ambon and gets to see every day how incompetence and corruption grind down the country's poorest.

He supported Yudhoyono's election, backing him as the best candidate to root out corruption, rebuild the economy, education and health systems and appoint a more professional administration.

But he says while the promises sound fine, the changes have not even begun. "I don't feel like Bambang Yudhoyono is unwilling, he's just not brave enough. He's worried about his weak position in Parliament and does not want to take any risks. I am really discouraged... I want him to make structural, systematic changes... I want him to introduce a procurement system because the source of corruption is the budget."

A long-time Jakarta resident and a doctoral student at the Australian National University, Marcus Mietzner, agrees. "He's been good in policy formulation, on the rhetoric side and the symbolic side, but the weaknesses in implementation are obvious. Indonesia is not a radically different place now to what it was in Megawati's time," he said.

After less than six months in office, and with the calamity of the tsunami to deal with, it seems churlish to criticise the pace of reform. But Mietzner says the President's problem is not a lack of time. He points out it was Yudhoyono who promised a 100- day blitz of reform that even included the arrest of key Bali and Australian embassy bombing suspects Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammed Top, both of whom remain at large. "I don't see the shock therapy he said he'd use. My prediction is it won't be much different in the next six months or the year after that."

Yudhoyono was elected on the back of his promises to rebuild the economy by attracting foreign investment and creating jobs. Reducing corruption and reforming a justice system where verdicts routinely go to the highest bidder were critical reforms. He promised to start that process by prosecuting a handful of big public figures widely regarded as corrupt, but few have gone before the courts.

In his first days in office, Yudhoyono visited the four agencies regarded as among the most corrupt: customs, tax, attorney- general's and police, and urged them to change their ways. There's anecdotal evidence these visits had some effect, but the deputy co-ordinator of the Indonesian Corruption Watch, Danang Widoyoko, said he can't yet say if the President is serious about his promised crackdown on graft. "We still have to wait for him to fulfil his promises, at least until the end of the year," he said.

In a corrupt country, there are few more notorious places than Aceh, where the long-running war with separatists has created a environment where corruption flourishes and only the brave or foolhardy dare complain.

Foreign governments and aid organisations that have together pledged billions of dollars are insisting on controls to make sure their money goes where they intend. But few experts believe that the more rigorous accounting systems or other measures to protect aid money in Aceh will be picked up in other parts of the country. Widoyoko says Aceh is "a different case" to the rest of the country. "It will have its own management and law enforcement because of the foreign money, and if there's a corruption case in Aceh, they will speed it up to bring it to the courts." There's no lack of knowledge in Indonesia about how to tackle corruption. The problem is the difficulty of dismantling a system where an army of public servants need their kickbacks to repay the large sums of money borrowed to secure their lucrative jobs.

A Jakarta-based Australian investment adviser, Philip Shah, says although the President has yet to move on these bureaucrats, his promises to do so are creating fears among them and problems for those who deal with them. "People are stressed, [and] the bureaucracy is divided and asking for more money now because they don't know if they will be out of a job tomorrow."

Shah welcomed Yudhoyono's trip to Australia as "all positive and moving in the right direction", but said a lot more was needed before investors would put their money where the World Bank says nine out of 10 businesses report bad experiences with law enforcement and corruption. "He's giving very good speeches, I just hope he has enough power and support to action them."

Shah and many in the foreign business community are uneasy at the lack of movement. "Much was promised in the first three months, but after six months nothing has happened." Despite such complaints, Yudhoyono is clearly a class above Indonesia's recent leaders. He's bright, works hard, has a plan for his country, and makes a real effort to explain it to his public. And although he's criticised as indecisive, he took one of the toughest decisions an Indonesian leader can make when he cut fuel subsidies and increased the price of petrol by 30 per cent promising the money would be put into social programs. When the protesters hit the streets, he didn't buckle.

A US-funded survey done in February showed Yudhoyono retains strong support, with 57 per cent of people satisfied with his performance, although that figure may have dropped following the fuel price increases. The survey, by the International Foundation of Election Systems, shows that as with previous polls where the same questions were asked, Indonesians remain most worried about the economy. Nearly three in four say they are unhappy with Yudhoyono's record in curbing prices and creating jobs.

The World Bank has also let him know that if he wants foreign investment, he should start acting and quickly solve several long-running disputes with foreign companies. "It's now been half a year since the new Government's [election]... this is now a pretty urgent and important matter to tackle," the bank's vice- president for private-sector investment, Michael Klein, told Dow Jones.

A senior fellow from Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Cornelius Luhulima, believes critics are asking too much at this stage and should give the President more leeway. He agrees Yudhoyono must reform the bureaucracy which the World Bank says has a "controlling and exploiting" mindset but great patience will be needed. "He will change the whole bureaucracy, but whether four years will be enough I don't know."

Payment for protest claim an outrageous lie

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Jakarta -- Claims reported in The Jakarta Post that the New Zealand Green Party paid protesters to rally outside New Zealand's Parliament are an outrageous lie, the party's Co-Leader Rod Donald says.

The article, run on the Post's website on Thursday, reported that an Indonesian student in New Zealand claimed the Green Party had paid his college friend NZ$30 to join a protest in support of the independence of Aceh and West Papua.

"The Green Party certainly did not pay people to engage in a protest about the Indonesian Government's treatment of people in Aceh and West Papua," Donald said.

"While in Indonesia it may be common practice for protesters to be paid, in New Zealand this is unheard of. In New Zealand people protest over things they believe in, not for financial gain.

"With and election coming up the Green Party is saving its limited funds for the campaign," Donald said.

Note: We apologize to the Green Party of New Zealand for failing to present their viewpoint in regards to accusations made by a Green Party protester during a visit by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Wellington. -- Editor

Aceh

Indonesian president reasserts sovereignty over Aceh

Associated Press - April 15, 2005

Jakarta -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono insisted Friday Jakarta would never allow Aceh province to separate from the rest of Indonesia, but said a government plan to give the region a greater say in running its affairs must be implemented.

Yudhoyono's comments came as Acehnese rebels and government negotiators met in Finland for a fourth day of talks to find a lasting peace in the province, which lost more than 100,000 people in the Dec. 26 tsunami.

"The unitary state of the Indonesian republic must be maintained and the red and white flag must fly [in Aceh]," Yudhoyono said in a speech to government security advisers. Red and white are the colors of the Indonesian flag.

The Free Aceh Movement, which claims about 5,000 fighters, has been fighting for 27 years for a separate homeland in the oil- and gas-rich region. More than 12,000 people have been killed.

The tsunami disaster brought the two sides to the negotiating table. While both say they are committed to a peaceful solution, analysts say the obstacles to peace remain large and that arguments over details could easily derail the process.

Yudhoyono, a former military general, said the government's policy of "special autonomy" for Aceh must be implemented. Rebel negotiators have said they prefer the term "self-government" to "special autonomy."

While the details of both plans are not yet clear, Yudhoyono's use of the term indicates the government is unwilling to meet the rebels' request, and the issue could be a sticking point in the talks.

After the Dec. 26 tsunami, the rebels proclaimed a unilateral truce saying they wanted to help rescue efforts. But the Indonesian military has continued combat operations.

In January, the two sides met face-to-face for the first time since the peace process collapsed in 2003, when the Indonesian military launched a major offensive against insurgents that has since killed about 3,000 people

A second round of talks was held in late February. Each have been held in Helsinki.

Support for the rebellion in the province is difficult to gauge, but successive brutal military campaigns to wipe out the insurgents have alienated large sections of its mostly poor 4.1 million people.

Interview with GAM spokesman on self-government

Kyodo News - April 15, 2005

Aceh rebels fighting for the independence of Indonesia's northernmost province have told the Indonesian government in peace talks that they see Bougainville in Papua New Guinea as a model for self-government, a rebel spokesman said Friday.

"We can't accept the 'special autonomy' proposed by Jakarta because it's taboo for the Acehnese people, but we need self- government," Free Aceh Movement spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told Kyodo News in an interview Thursday in Helsinki.

The interview was held on the sidelines of the third round of six-day talks between the group, also known as GAM, and the Indonesian government in the Finnish capital, which began Tuesday.

Asked whether it means the rebels would give up seeking independence, Abdullah answered, "Our main goal is still there, but independence is not the main agenda in the current negotiations."

He gave the Bougainville autonomous government as an example of the kind of self-government that GAM wants.

After a decade of civil war, in 2001, representatives from the island of Bougainville and from the Papua New Guinea government signed a peace agreement establishing an autonomous government in Bougainville and envisaging a referendum on independence in the future. Bougainville Island is located between the island of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Under the agreement, the Bougainville autonomous government has its own public service, police, tax regime, commercial banks and courts. The Papua New Guinea government retains control over defense and foreign affairs. On Dec. 15 last year, the PNG National Executive Council endorsed Bougainville's own Constitution. In May, an election will be held to elect a Bougainville president and 33 members of the island's legislature.

"We have reached mutual understanding [on the issue] and there will be further negotiations on it," Abdullah said. "There are many offers being made by Indonesia, even to GAM fighters," including economic compensation, during the negotiations, he said. "But we feel it is not appropriate for them to make such an offer to us, because if we have our own government, we will be able to solve the issue."

"This is not a fight for compensation. We don't want to receive any compensation. We never ask for money with regard to our rightful claim to our resources," he added.

Last week, legislators and officials at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said the government would offer some concessions, mostly in the form of economic compensation, to GAM as long as GAM consistently accepts the special autonomy offer, hands over at least 900 weapons to the Indonesian military and lets the Indonesian military and police maintain a presence in Aceh.

In a related development, Indonesia's information minister, Sofjan Djalil, said GAM submitted its written proposal to Indonesia on Thursday, the third day of the talks.

Indonesia, he said, can accept some points in the proposal that include the management of natural resources, including in the forestry and fishery sectors.

In the proposal, GAM demands its own flag and anthem, but Djalil said, "We can only accept that after they revise the points." He did not elaborate.

However, on GAM's demand that members of Indonesia's House of Representatives should have the right to veto any government- proposed measures affecting Aceh, Jakarta totally rejected it "because it violates our Constitution," the minister said.

In the proposal, GAM also elaborates on the terms "self- government" and "self-governing territory." "We can accept the term of self-government, but not for self-governing territory," Djalil said, but did not go into detail.

Djalil said Indonesian negotiators will submit the proposal to the lower house for consultations before giving an answer within two weeks.

GAM has been waging a guerrilla war since 1976, seeking independence for Aceh. The rebels accuse the central government of human rights violations in Aceh and of squandering the province's natural resources while leaving the Acehnese in poverty. Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

Three indonesian soldiers injured in Aceh clash

Bloomberg - April 15, 2005

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta -- Three Indonesian soldiers were injured in a clash with Aceh rebels, as peace talks aimed at ending three decades of conflict continued near Helsinki.

The soldiers were shot by the rebels in a fight yesterday in Pasie Raja sub-district in the south of Aceh, Ari Mulya Asnawi, a military spokesman said in a statement today. Another clash occurred in the district of Aceh Besar with no injuries, the statement said.

Six separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, have been killed in several clashes since a third round of peace negotiations started on April 12 near Helsinki, Asnawi said in a phone interview yesterday. The Indonesian government rejected a request by the rebels for a cease-fire during the talks that resumed in January in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami which left more than 164,000 dead or missing in the province.

Fighting has been going on since 1976 in the resource rich province.

Aceh had 9.66 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves in 2003, or about 5.5 percent of Indonesia's total, BPMigas, the state oil and gas regulator, said in a report published last year. The region also has strategic importance as the gateway to the Strait of Malacca, one of the busiest sea lanes in the world, with 40 percent of global trade passing through the waterway.

Next meeting

Both sides, the Indonesian delegates and GAM leaders, said progress is being made in the discussions and the next meeting will probably take place next month or early June.

Damien Kingsbury, an adviser to GAM, said in a phone interview the proposal for both political settlement and economic issues was put in writing yesterday.

"The political framework of self government for Aceh has been put on the table and how that would be manifested in a concrete form is now being considered," Kingsbury said. The meeting, which is scheduled to end Apr. 17, also discussed in more detail issues surrounding the allocation of natural resources. In the next few days, the negotiation will focus on security arrangements.

Indonesia's government estimates there are 2,500 rebels still operating after a government military offensive that began in May 2003 killed half the force.

More than 12,000 people have died in the insurgency. The tsunami disaster forced the government to let relief agencies and international military units enter the province, which was previously closed to overseas visitors.

Going well

"Talks are going well so far. There is no agreement yet but we now know what they want," Djalil said in a phone interview today. "There are requests which we cannot fulfill because it will mean a violation to our nation's constitution but some others can be fulfilled," Djalil said, declining to provide details.

Indonesia's government said before the talks started its goals at the meeting are for the rebels to accept its offer for special autonomy and to agree on a permanent end to the conflict. Under a special autonomy package, Aceh has been given greater power to determine policies and manage its own finances, government officials have said.

Djalil said the government may consider involvement of an external monitoring body in Aceh "if it is for the sake of keeping a peaceful situation."

The Crisis Management Group set up by former Finish President Martti Ahtisaari, is mediating the talks. "We thought about ending talks sooner but CMI thinks we should take the advantage of the momentum and get through a complete agenda before we go our separate ways," Kingsbury said.

Almost 12% of displaced children malnourished

Bloomberg - April 15, 2005

Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta -- Malnutrition was found in almost 12 percent of children in Indonesia's Aceh region who were displaced by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami, according to a survey by the government and aid agencies.

The survey in February and March of 4,030 children age 6 months to 5 years showed that wasting, or acute malnutrition, was found in 11.6 percent of displaced children and 11.4 percent of the region's remaining children, the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, said today in an e-mailed statement.

While the "immediate" nutritional needs in tsunami-affected areas have been met, the finding of stunted growth in 38 percent of Aceh's children under 5 shows poor nutrition is a chronic problem related to poverty, inadequate sanitation and lack of security, Unicef said. Continued attention to the region is necessary, it said.

Joining Unicef in the survey were the Ministry of Health, Indonesia's Nutrition Research Development Center, the UN's World Food Program and several non-government organizations. The agencies didn't provide data on malnutrition among children in Aceh before the disaster. Indonesia was the worst-affected of the 12 Indian Ocean nations hit by the tsunami.

The survey of 13 tsunami-affected districts on the north, east and west coasts of Aceh province also showed a high rate of illness among children under 5, Unicef said. In the two weeks preceding the survey, cough affected 28 to 65 percent in that age group, fever affected 26 to 74 percent, and 7 to 52 percent were ill with diarrhea.

Deaths

More than 220,000 in the 12 countries have been listed as dead or missing since the magnitude-9 earthquake in December triggered giant waves that devastated coastal areas. Indonesia had 165,932 dead or missing as of yesterday, the country's National Coordination Agency for Disaster Relief said in a faxed statement. There are 594,356 displaced people, the agency said.

The Indonesian government last month said the cost of rebuilding roads, power plants, buildings and other infrastructure destroyed by the disaster may reach 45 trillion rupiah ($4.7 billion).

Aceh, located near the Strait of Malacca, is a conflict area where the Indonesian government has been fighting separatists for almost three decades. The province was previously closed to overseas visitors until the disaster forced the government to allow relief agencies and international military units to enter the region to distribute aid.

Jakarta rejects Aceh rebels' cease-fire offer

Detik.com - April 15, 2005

Jakarta -- The Indonesian government will not accept the option of a cease-fire offered by GAM [Free Aceh Movement]. The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Widodo AS, has said that the Indonesian government's mission is fixed, namely the acceptance of special autonomy for Aceh and the complete and permanent termination of conflict.

Widodo said this in response to the GAM request, during the third round of negotiations between Indonesia and GAM in Helsinki, that the Indonesian government take part in a cease-fire.

"The view on the issue of the termination of conflict is that it must be truly permanent. A cease-fire isn't permanent, so we must really look for a solution," Widodo said, following a cabinet session at the Office of the President in Jakarta on Thursday (14 April 2005).

Widodo explained that one measure of the permanent termination of conflict is arms. "At least one measure of it is arms. Now, only if the arms have been handed in or blocked can it be said to be permanent. But we know, don't we, that a cease-fire is just temporary," he said.

According to Widodo, President SBY [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] wants a permanent resolution. [passage omitted]

When asked about "self government" [this phrase received in English], which GAM had put on the table, Widodo was of the opinion that the concept had already been accommodated in a number of Indonesian laws, such as the Regional Autonomy Law, the Law on Fiscal Balance between the Centre and the Regions and the Special Autonomy Law.

However, when asked whether he was optimistic that the negotiations would produce results, Widodo was reluctant to answer. [passage omitted]

"But whatever is discussed, what is important is that there is an understanding of what we want to achieve, namely the acceptance of special autonomy and the permanent termination of conflict," he stressed.

[BBC Worldwide Monitoring Service.]

War-weary Acehenese demand concrete peace

Agence France Press - April 15, 2005

Optimism prevailed as Jakarta and Aceh separatists sat down for a third day of peace talks in Helsinki, but on the ground war-weary Acehnese expressed less confidence in the negotiations as the Indonesian military sent in more troops to hunt down rebels.

"The atmosphere is positive," Maria-Elena Cowell, a spokeswoman for the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) foundation organizing the talks, told AFP after the day's talks drew to an end.

Her comments echoed upbeat statements on Wednesday from both delegations claiming they had reached a "point of understanding".

The expressed optimism in Helsinki stood however in stark contrast to continued fighting on the ground in Aceh and to the sentiments of ordinary Acehnese, disillusioned by nearly 30 years of fighting and exhausted from the devastating effects of last December's tsunami on the region.

"If they really want to struggle for the Acehnese they must prove it by creating peace in Aceh," said 32-year-old Fauziah, one of almost half a million people who lost their homes in the tsunami disaster in which 126,000 people in the province died.

"Both sides must be honest. They made agreements in the past but the fighting continues because they are not honest.

Now that Aceh has been hit by the tsunami, they have to think about the Acehnese who are suffering," agreed Muhammed, 40, who also lost his home to the tsunami.

Aceh has been the battleground between government and armed rebels since 1976 when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) launched its campaign for independence, angered by what it said was Jakarta's exploitation of the province's resources.

When government and GAM delegations met for a first round of Helsinki talks in January it was the first time they had stood face-to-face since May 2003, when Jakarta declared martial law and launched a major military offensive in the province.

The renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution were prompted by a need for international aid to reach the province worst hit by the December 26 tsunamis.

The effects of that catastrophe on the region could spur the delegations to push harder for peace, according to experts.

"Due to the tsunami, neither party wants to lose the hearts and minds of the Aceh people. They can't afford to do so now," said the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue mediation advisor David Gorman, who brokered peace talks between Jakarta and the rebels from 2000 and 2003.

"There is a better chance now than ever before of them finding a solution," he said in a telephone interview with AFP on Wednesday.

The situation on the ground in Aceh however appeared to go in the opposite direction, as the Indonesian military, which has admitted to killing more than 260 rebels since the tsunami, announced that it would send another 3,000 troops into the province.

"There is quite some hostility for [the] peace process from the military and sections of parliament," London-based director of the Human Rights Campaign group Liem Soei Liong told AFP.

"The peace process will remain extremely fragile unless it broadens to Aceh and Indonesian society as an all-inclusive dialogue, otherwise there can be sabotage by the military," he added.

During the first day of talks on Tuesday, GAM asked Jakarta to call a ceasefire, but Indonesian officials both at home and in Helsinki merely shrugged off the suggestion, thus possibly undermining the peace efforts.

"Our view is that the termination of the conflict should really be permanent. A ceasefire is not permanent," Security Minister Widodo Adisucipto told journalists in Jakarta.

Rufriadi, a rights activist and lawyer in Aceh, disagreed. "The third round of talks should at least result in a ceasefire, even if both sides can't reach an agreement. So far violence is still being committed by both sides. A ceasefire would allow the peace process to continue," he said.

The talks are scheduled to wrap up on Sunday and like two previous rounds in January and February are being mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

The two parties have so far this round discussed economic arrangements and the reintegration of GAM members into Acehnese society once a peace is reached, as well as how limited autonomy could be implemented in the region, according to CMI's Cowell.

Indonesia to reinforce troops as peace talks continue

Agence France Presse - April 14, 2005

Indonesia is to reinforce its military presence in the tsunami- ravaged province of Aceh, even as peace talks with separatist rebels in the province make progress, an army spokesman said.

The military, which continues to pursue the rebels despite pleas for a ceasefire, will send three battalions, or up to three thousand men, as part of a wider deployment to shore up its presence in troubled areas of the country.

Three battalions will also be sent to remote eastern Papua province, at the other end of the archipelago to Aceh, where separatists are also a headache, and one will head to central Sulwawesi island, a hotbed of sectarian violence.

"The seven battalions are in the process of being formed and prepared and they will be considered as permanent local battalions," army spokesman Colonel Hotmangaraja Panjaitan told AFP. "These reinforcement are aimed at restoring security stability in these conflict areas," he said.

Aceh has been the battleground between government and armed rebels since 1976 when the Free Aceh Movement launched its campaign for independence, angered by what it said was Jakarta's exploitation of the province's resources.

The conflict, which has claimed 12,000 lives, was stepped up in May 2003 after a peace deal collapsed prompting the government to begin a major military operation to crush the rebels, placing Aceh under temporary martial rule.

After the December 26 tsunami, which devastated Aceh, both sides have agreed to return to the negotiating table and peace talks are currently under way in Helsinki.

In Papua, the Free Papua Organisation has been waging a low- intensity warfare since the 1960s, but the movement is poorly armed and split into several small fractions with poor coordination between them.

Sulawesi's Poso region has seen years of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians since 2000. Although the government brokered a peace deal in 2001, sporadic attacks, including shootings and bombings, have continued.

GAM reaches 'point of understanding' in Helsinki

Agence France Presse - April 14, 2005

Aceh separatists and Indonesian officials said they had reached a "point of understanding" following a second day of peace talks aimed at ending a conflict that has killed more than 12,000 people.

"We made a lot of progress today [in a] good atmosphere, friendly atmosphere, and we reached what we call a point of understanding," Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin told AFP after the talks wrapped up for the day.

"The meeting was very constructive and we are making progress," agreed the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)'s Stockholm-based spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah.

The peace negotiations, which are scheduled to wrap up on Sunday, are like two previous rounds in January and February being mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) began fighting for independence for the oil-rich province in 1976, claiming Jakarta plunders its resources and the army commits atrocities against its population. GAM has also been accused of abuses.

The first round of talks in January was the first time the delegations had stood face-to-face since May 2003, when the government declared martial law and launched a major military offensive and barring foreign press and aid workers from the province.

The renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution were prompted by a need for international aid to reach the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, the territory worst hit by the devastating tsunamis in December.

Organizers and experts on Wednesday said the devastating effects of the tsunami on the region, where more than 126,000 people were killed, could help pave the way towards a lasting peace.

"Due to the tsunami, neither party wants to lose the hearts and minds of the Aceh people. They can't afford to do so now," said the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue mediation advisor David Gorman, who brokered peace talks between Jakarta and the rebels from 2000 and 2003.

The fact that Indonesia last year held its first direct presidential election, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono winning a large majority in Aceh, also made the timing of the talks opportune.

"It's more legitimate now," Gorman said. "The previous government did not believe in the process... This president is much more favorable. He was part of the previous peace processes," agreed London-based director of the Human Rights Campaign group Liem Soei Liong.

Despite the upbeat comments, the situation on the ground in the war-torn province has threatened to cast a cloud over the ongoing negotiations.

The Indonesian military, which has admitted to killing more than 260 rebels since the December 26 tsunami, killed a local Aceh separatist chief and one of his men on Tuesday, according to the province's Serambi newspaper.

During the first day of talks on Tuesday, GAM asked Jakarta to call a ceasefire, but the issue was not discussed during the second day of negotiations. "It is unnecessary to have a cease fire. The past experience did not work," Awaluddin said categorically.

GAM spokesman Abdullah however said he hoped the ceasefire proposal could be discussed on Thursday or Friday. "It is important to discuss the workable substance first," he said.

Among the issues that have been agreed upon is the autonomy offered to the province shall be described as "self-government of Aceh province within the Republic of Indonesia".

Which term to use, which had previously been a sticking point, "is no longer a problem", according to Matti Kalliokoski, vice president on the board of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) foundation organizing the Helsinki. The parties "can now look at what is behind that title, the substance", he said.

Aceh separatists ask Indonesia to call for ceasefire

Agence France Presse - April 13, 2005

Aceh separatists urged Indonesian officials to call a ceasefire as a gesture of goodwill as the two parties held a third round of peace talks n Helsinki aimed at ending a conflict that has killed more than 12,000 people.

"It is time that the Indonesian government show some good faith... and call a ceasefire as a gesture of good will," Damien Kingsbury, a political advisor to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), told AFP. The fresh peace negotiations, which were driven forth by the need for international aid to reach the tsunami-struck Aceh province, are scheduled to last six days and, like the first two rounds in January and February, are being mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

Talking on the phone from the Koeningstedt estate outside Helsinki where the talks were being held, Kingsbury insisted that GAM had already shown goodwill by coming to the talks and agreeing to not push its claim of full independence, which Indonesia has said is unacceptable.

"GAM is now asking that the Indonesian government reciprocate," he said, adding that the continued fighting on the ground in Aceh was "seen as a sign of bad faith".

Negotiators for the rebels have called on Indonesia to ensure a ceasefire "at least for the period of the talks", Kingsbury said, insisting that the government "needs to show not just that it has the will, but also the ability to halt the fighting".

Negotiators for the rebels have requested a response from the Indonesians within the next 24 hours, he said.

GAM has been fighting for nearly 29 years for a separate homeland in the western Indonesian province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region's mineral wealth and leaving its people trapped in poverty. GAM has also been accused of abuses.

When the two delegations met for the first round of talks in January it was the first time they stood face-to-face since May 2003, when the government declared martial law, launching a major military offensive and barring foreign press and aid workers from the province.

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 last December. More than 126,000 people were killed in that region alone.

It is hoped that the six days of discussions, scheduled to wrap up on Sunday afternoon, will give the parties time to flesh out the details and a timetable for proposals concerning topics like special autonomy, security arrangements, economic relations, amnesty and outside monitoring.

While full independence is not on the table, GAM insists that sovereignty remains its ultimate goal. "Independence is still not on the table, since there would be no negotiations if it was, but this does not mean that we will stop our main struggle, which is for independence," GAM's Stockholm-based spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told AFP last week.

And although the second round of talks ended on a positive note with both sides reporting progress towards an agreement on a special autonomy for the region, continued fighting on the ground appears to have clouded the horizon. The Indonesian army has admitted to killing more than 260 rebels since the tsunami struck on December 26.

Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), which is organizing the talks, meanwhile expressed cautious optimism as the first day of talks were wrapping up. "There is generally quite a constructive mood. There was no real tension in the meeting," CMI director of state-building and democracy Meeri- Maria Jaarva told AFP as the parties were sitting down for dinner together at the end of the day.

Aceh rebels split over peace talks

The Australian - April 12, 2005

Sian Powell, Jakarta -- Splits have emerged among Aceh separatists on the eve of peace talks with the Indonesian Government in Helsinki, with one faction damning the Finnish negotiators and flatly rejecting special autonomy and another expressing cautious optimism.

Rebel negotiator Nurdin Abdul Rahman yesterday tried to hose down a stinging statement issued by Sofyan Dawood, a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman in Aceh. "Of course the statement has been confirmed by us," he said. "In the field they have the freedom to express their ideas and how they think or feel."

However, Mr Rahman took a different "tone", he said, adding he preferred to wait for negotiations to continue rather than fight the battle in the public domain.

Special autonomy, he said, had not been ruled out. "We cannot determine whether we will accept special autonomy or anything else, such as self-government. It all depends on the process of the dialogue."

The rebels have been fighting for independence for almost 30 years in a conflict that has left thousands dead. The Helsinki talks which begin today are the first formal negotiations since Jakarta launched a military offensive against the rebels in May 2003.

Sporadic fighting between the Indonesian military and the rebels has continued since the Boxing Day tsunami devastated Aceh, with fire-fights in recent days.

The statement released by Mr Dawood at the weekend roundly condemned a notice on the website of the Finnish negotiators, CMI. "GAM is shocked and dismayed by the recent CMI statement on its website about the supposed aims of the ongoing negotiations," he said in the statement.

"By these statements, CMI betrays the trust the people of Aceh and GAM have given it to act as a neutral mediator. GAM has never agreed that the conflict will or should be resolved within the framework of special autonomy, as CMI states."

In the statement, Mr Dawood asked for the release of Acehnese negotiators held in Javanese jails, and the release of Mohammed Nazar, an activist and Acehnese leader. The CMI website was changed over the weekend, and it is understood the organisation has apologised to the rebels.

GAM dismiss autonomy offer, demands release of negotiators

Associated Press - April 11, 2005

Jakarta -- Separatists from Aceh province have dismissed a government offer of self-government for the tsunami-hit region ahead of a new round of peace talks in Finland this week.

In a statement received Monday, the rebels also demanded the release of four of their negotiators who were arrested by Indonesian authorities two years ago -- despite a government guarantee of safe-conduct.

"We will now ask publicly that our negotiators held in jails in Java be released to continue the duties they performed previously," the statement said.

Officials and mediators say that Indonesia's government and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement made significant headway during the previous two rounds of talks in January and February in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

The next meeting between the warring sides is scheduled to open on Tuesday.

Indonesia's vice president has predicted an agreement could be reached by July on the basis of the so-called special autonomy law which the government in Jakarta adopted three years ago but never implemented.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) announced a unilateral truce in the war because of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 130,000 people in the province. But government troops have continued anti-insurgency operations.

Damien Kingsbury, an Indonesia specialist from Australia's Deakin University who is part of the Acehnese delegation, said he did not regard the Indonesian autonomy proposal as acceptable. "The Special Autonomy proposal is inadequate and provides a framework only for continued repression in Aceh," Kingsbury said.

GAM has been demanding free elections for a regional legislature, the full withdrawal of the 50,000 Indonesian troops and paramilitary police deployed to the province, and a UN- supervised independence referendum.

"It may be possible to reach a negotiated political settlement in Aceh under an alternative political arrangement [which] must ensure effective and sustainable self-determination," Kingsbury said.

The rebels also demanded the release of Mohammed Nazar, Aceh's most prominent human rights advocate, who was imprisoned and sentenced in 2002 to five years in jail for appealing to foreign governments to help end the war.

Aceh farms to recover in five years

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2005

Jakarta -- The Dec. 26 tsunami that swept Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam not only devastated infrastructure but also caused extensive damage to agricultural land, with some areas needing up to five years before returning to full production.

"The rehabilitation of those (agricultural) areas will take between two and five years," Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono told a conference on agribusiness held by his alma mater, the Bogor Institute of Agriculture on Saturday.

He said the possible production losses over the five year rehabilitation period could top Rp 701 billion (US$73.8 million).

These losses did not include damage to agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation, machinery and buildings, valued at Rp 297 billion, and the loss of 1.6 million head of livestock.

The government has allocated around Rp 400 billion in funds to help rebuild the agriculture sector in Aceh.

Over 37,000 hectares of rice fields and 28,000 hectares of plantations in nine regencies in the province were severely damaged by the calamities.

Anton pointed to layers of sediment -- full of salt deposited by the surging sea water -- of up to 10 centimeters deep that was found covering over 30,000 hectares of rice fields, affecting the livelihoods of about 75,000 families.

Manual removal of the mud sediments would be economically impractical as a 10-centimeter layer of sediment spread across one hectare of land is equal to 1,500 tons, while each hectare of land can yield about seven tons of rice each year.

As such, Anton added, the most cost-effective method of removing the layer and restoring the land would be by watering, either by rainfall or irrigation.

According to Anton, the main problem was not the mud sediments but the salt that had infiltrated the soil.

Salinization causes reverse osmosis where higher concentrations of salts in the soil causes water to be drawn out from a plant's roots, causing it to wither and die.

Anwar, a farmer from Aceh attending the conference, said the high concentration of salt had made the soil unusable.

"Some trees that were still standing after the tsunami have now wilted because of the salt," he said.

"The only trees left are coconut trees, which are more tolerant to salt."

GAM accuses Jakarta of stepping up campaign ahead of talks

Associated Press - April 10, 2005

Separatist rebels in Aceh province accused Indonesia's military of stepping up their campaign in the tsunami-shattered region, a charge that underlines the obstacles to peace ahead of a crucial third-round of talks in Finland later this week.

"The Indonesian military are increasing their numbers and killing more and more of our people," Abdullah Zaini, a rebel negotiator living in exile in Sweden, said late Saturday. "That is against the sprit of the negotiations, that is what we do not understand."

An Indonesian army spokesman denied that troop numbers were being increased, but said that military operations against the rebels were ongoing in the oil and gas-rich province, which has been wracked by conflict for 27 years.

Officials and mediators say that Indonesia's government and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement made significant headway in ending the war during the previous two rounds of talks in January and February in the Finnish capital of Helsinki. Indonesia's vice president has predicted an agreement could be reached by July.

The rebels have hinted they may accept a self-government package in exchange for dropping their independence demand. However, analysts have warned that disagreements over the details, and opposition from nationalist Indonesian military generals, could easily derail any agreement.

"There is hope, that is we are continuing the talks," Indonesian Communications and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told The Associated Press. "We want to hear what they want," said Djalil, who is also a delegate to the talks.

Neither he or Zaini would disclose the agenda of the negotiations, scheduled to begin on April 12 in Helsinki, but both said the talks would touch on "substantive" issues. The process is being mediated by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.

An earlier peace process collapsed in 2003, when Indonesian generals opposed to a cease-fire arrested rebel negotiators, kicked out international observers and launched an offensive that has killed about 3,000 people.

The Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami in which at least 127,000 people in Aceh perished helped restart negotiations, partly because of the international scrutiny the disaster brought to the conflict.

Thousands of soldiers, aid workers and journalists from around the world poured into the province of 4.1 million people, a war zone formerly closed to foreigners.

Fishermen return to an industry all at sea

South China Morning Post - April 9, 2005

Nick Gentle, Banda Aceh -- Darmin's first catch since the tsunami is a good one.

In a little less than 12 hours, the three-man crew of his eight- metre fishing boat has hauled in more than a tonne of tuna, mahi-mahi and something the locals call cakalang -- all good- eating fish worth up to 60,000 rupiah ($50) apiece when they get to the local fish market.

So why isn't he smiling? "Yes it's a good catch," he says as he dumps the fish into the back of a small truck. "But this is the first time one of my boats has gone out in 10 weeks, and I used to have 15 of them. Now I have three."

Also preying on his mind is the fact that all the fish will have to be sold in Banda Aceh. The tsunami destroyed the cold storage facility and ice plant the fleet relied on to ship their catch overseas.

And, as another fishing boat owner, Baktiar Talib, explains, selling fish to the people of Banda Aceh has been a difficult proposition since the tsunami swept a great number of their neighbours away. "No-one is eating fish.

It's like they have developed an allergy to it. Before the tsunami, every household in the city ate about a kilo of fish a day. Now they don't want it. It's good for the fish, but terrible for me."

Mr Baktiar used to run two 20-metre boats, each employing a crew of 20. One boat was destroyed in the tsunami, and since then he has been leasing the other to a government contractor, shipping relief supplies to devastated towns down the coast.

"The road down the coast is still broken, so the government has to use boats to get the supplies in. It's not more money than fishing, but it's not charity. It isn't regular -- if there is a request we go."

He estimates that 100 of the 250 or so 20-metre vessels that used to work out of Banda Aceh were destroyed in the tsunami, putting at least 2,000 fishermen out of work. Carrying relief supplies down the coast requires a crew of only five, so a further 15 people are put out of work every time one of the remaining boats is put to such use.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that the fishing industries of Aceh and northern Sumatra will suffer losses of more than 5.7 trillion rupiah as a result of the tsunami. It anticipated annual output would drop 60 per cent due to the loss of so much of the fleet and 15 to 20 per cent of the 100,000 people employed in the industry.

Someone trying to redress those figures, albeit in a small way, is fisherman Agus. While pleased that his boat received widespread media attention after it ended up on the road outside Banda Aceh's Hotel Medan, he would have preferred it to be floating.

"We've been working on it for about a month now," says Mr Agus. "We had to wait to get it back because there were so many boats spread around [town]."

His boat, the Ikan Terbang -- or Flying Fish -- was eventually returned to the waterfront by a team of Australian army engineers, who were given the task of removing all the miscellaneous watercraft from Banda Aceh's streets. All the waiting around left the Flying Fish's crew with very little to do, and with the Indonesian government predicting that up to 30 per cent of the Acehnese labour force would become unemployed in the disaster's aftermath, they were thankful to be able to get on with the task of making her seaworthy again.

"We're just happy to be able to work on her at this time," says crew member Mohammad Nur, 56, who earns about 30,000 rupiah a day.

Nearby, in what was once the village of Lampulo, Sulaiman, 31, watches as 24-year-old boat repairer Mahdi planes a new beam for another grounded fishing boat. "I was a fisherman before the tsunami," he says, "but now I just work on cleaning the city up.

"There is nothing else for me to do. The boat I worked on was destroyed, my house is gone and my wife, my son and my brothers and sisters were all killed. Me and my neighbours, we are all working together to clean up the village. Once that is done, then we will rebuild and start again."

In Banda Aceh, revival is a tale of two cities

South China Morning Post - April 9, 2005

Nick Gentle, Banda Aceh -- In the streets surrounding Banda Aceh's grand mosque, the city's commercial heart is starting to beat again. The stunning white building stands about 2.5km inland, yet its minarets and domes bear the scars of the tsunami.

Opposite the mosque's gate, Mimi Lau -- a 27-year-old ethnic Chinese Protestant born and raised in Banda Aceh -- has been working to reopen her party-supplies shop for more than a month. "We've been cleaning the stock for more than three weeks now," she says, placing a freshly cleaned doll back on the shelf. "We had to throw 40 per cent of it away because it was ruined in the tsunami."

The yellow gloves worn by her five workers combine with the gaudy trinkets already arrayed on her shelves to add a splash of colour and life to this street, Jalan Cut Ali. Most of the buildings survived but many of their occupants did not.

"I used to work here with my father, but he was killed so now I have to run this store and three others on my own," Ms Lau says. Despite her losses, which she puts in the realm of 10 billion rupiah ($8.2 million), she is optimistic about the future. "People always need to have parties. Some of our regular customers are already ordering things, and as soon as this place is cleaned up we will fill their orders. "We will have a big party of our own when we reopen."

Elsewhere on the street, more and more shops are reopening. In one, a bookseller is drying the pages of moisture-swollen volumes; a brown stain extending two metres above the floor marks the height of the flood. A few doors away, a locksmith works to open a gold trader's safe, while street vendors hawk everything from fruit and vegetables to fried noodles and the latest top- selling VCDs. One of them, Tsunami Aceh, is a compilation of footage from the tsunami and its aftermath. "I want to be able to show my grandchildren what happened here," says one recent purchaser of the disc.

The traditional commercial area around the mosque is just starting to regain its vitality. Much of the trade it once enjoyed has moved south, settling in the areas that escaped destruction.

Traders in the Lamlagang area, once one of the city's minor market districts, are doing a roaring trade. It is mayhem in slow motion as people weave in and out of the stream of scooters, vans, dogs and relief-agency vehicles.

In backstreets, aid agencies have taken over mansions vacated by tenants who fled. The agencies are prepared to pay rents inflated by a shortage of accommodation and a huge influx of foreign cash.

But less than a kilometre away, a line crosses Banda Aceh, splitting it roughly across the middle. There is destruction on one side and normality on the other, there are those who have lost everything and those who have not, those working to rebuild and those who must wait.

Entering from the landward side to the south, Banda Aceh appears much like any Indonesian city. Rice paddies give way to stalls. They, in turn, give way to crowded marketplaces full of food, clothing, two-stroke scooters, miscellaneous shops and, most of all, people.

But enter it from the north, from the sea, and it looks like London after the blitz or Hiroshima after the bomb. From the coast looking in, there are lonely expanses of bare earth punctuated by the shells of gutted houses, an occasional palm tree and the fluttering of flags set up by survivors to mark the sites of their former homes. There are few people to be seen.

But they can be found. Here and there, people are returning to places they last saw on the morning of December 26; places where only memories survive.

"I was here in the village and I saw the wave coming, so I [fled] on my motorbike," says 32-year-old fisherman Hasbi. He stands amid the ruins of Alue Deah Teungoh, a shrimp-farming community on Banda Aceh's seafront where three-quarters of the population, including his wife, daughter and parents, died that morning. "The water missed me by about 200 metres, but my family was destroyed," he says.

Hasbi has just returned with a group of other survivors from the neighbourhood, to plant mangrove seedlings along a waterfront drastically reshaped by the tsunami, which killed up to 60,000 people in Banda Aceh alone. "This was a beautiful place," he says, gazing out across a body of brackish water that used to contain sheltered shrimp ponds and mangrove beds. Now it is open to the sea, and home to nothing more than splintered trees.

"This was my base. It was close to the water -- close to the fishing - and I also used to sell clothes and shoes to make a little more money for my family. Now I have nothing," he says. "I just want to be able to move back here and start again."

The site is barren but Hasbi is moving back to the village along with all but one of the other 382 residents who survived out of a population of 1,520. They intend to rebuild, with funds from a collective savings account and support from Oxfam.

Their story is one being played out in varying ways across Banda Aceh. Throughout the disaster zone, people are putting December 26 behind them and trying to rebuild what they can of their lives.

The other side of the line might have escaped the tsunami, but collapsed buildings dot the landscape. They are silent reminders that the city was also hit hard by the magnitude 9.3 earthquake that spawned Boxing Day's deadly waves, and whose aftershocks still rock Banda Aceh on a regular basis. It is in the shadow of one such toppled building that the children of Primary School No33 spend their lunch hour.

The school lost three teachers and eight students, but was able to reopen exactly one month after the disaster. They rebuilt with a little help from the government and the United Nations' children's organisation, Unicef, to replace damaged materials.

Year-six student Surya Darma is one of 20 children sent to attend classes there after their own schools were destroyed. "School is the same as always -- it is safe. It's all right, but some things are a bit strange... like that building," the 13-year-old says, gesturing towards a crumpled pile of wreckage that looms over the playground. "Every now and then the workmen push a bit of it down and it crashes into the schoolyard."

But despite that, he says he is settling in well. "I am happy to be at this school because I have made some new friends here. Some of my other friends died in the tsunami, but most of them are okay."

He adds that his father "drank some of the tsunami" and was very sick for a while, but has recovered and is back living with his family in a shop they rented after their home was washed away.

But while Darma's family survived and has the capacity to rent suitable accommodation, others are not as well off.

In the verdant hills behind Banda Aceh, 45-year-old housewife Ramleh is watching a team of workers erect a set of crude barracks made of timber and corrugated iron.

She lost 180 of her extended family in the disaster, and currently shares a couple of tents in a nearby camp for displaced people with the remaining 10 members of her family. "I don't really know if these barracks are for us," she says. "We have to wait for information from the government."

Ramleh is one of about 139,000 people from the greater Banda Aceh area currently living in camps dotted throughout the city and its immediate surrounds. Most of them have lost close to everything, and are resigned to waiting in temporary housing for their homes to be rebuilt -- preferably in their original locations.

"I have marked out where my land is, but we need some [clearer notice] from the government about when we will be allowed to live there again," she says.

She is anxious to return to her community of Lampuuk -- 15 minutes' drive from the centre of Banda Aceh -- where the tsunami left nothing standing except its mosque. It is perhaps the ultimate contradiction that, in this place where so many of their family and friends were taken away by what is seen as an act of God, people like Ramleh take the survival of the mosques as a sign He will still come to their aid. "I want to move back -- it is beautiful there -- but it is in God's hands," she says.

This unshakeable faith is something that Aceh's acting governor, Azwar Abubakar, is counting on to be a key driver of recovery. So strong is Islam in the province that Aceh is sometimes referred to as the verandah of Mecca, or serambi Mekah in Bahasa Indonesian.

"We believe that this was a test -- an examination from Allah," Mr Azwar says. "An examination through a little fear, a little hunger, the loss of property, the loss of souls and the failure of crops. He wants us to see that although our treasures are gone, our souls remain."

The religious rationalisation in Aceh goes like this -- all the people lost in the disaster gained access to paradise because they died bringing God's message to the rest of the world.

This trust that the dead have gone to a better place explains to a large degree why people like Ramleh and Hasbi, and even the Protestant Ms Lau, show little grief when discussing their personal tragedies. Instead, they look to the future.

"It is up to those left behind to be kind and good and patient, so they can follow their loved ones to heaven," Mr Azwar says. "If they are not, and they sit around complaining about everything, then they will lose their family, their treasure and their future.

"In just 15 minutes, He can take away 250,000 souls. It seemed as though we were all worthless to Him. But on the other hand, those that are still alive will be able to recover and lead a normal life again because of the help of the global community.

"So this has also given people a real understanding of humanitarian values," he says. "And this has given them hope."

Tsunami recovery, rediscovery

South China Morning Post - April 9, 2005

Nick Gentle, Banda Aceh -- Out of all the countries affected by the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami, Indonesia was dealt the heaviest blows, and now the country is facing up to the most daunting rebuilding task.

A much-anticipated blueprint for the regeneration of Aceh is now being circulated among community leaders in the shattered province, to get their comments before it is approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

For those at the helm of the recovery effort, the challenges are immense. "If you consider there are 400,000 internally displaced people here, and we take a rough estimate of four people per house, that means we need to rebuild at least 100,000 homes," says Azwar Abubakar, the acting governor of Aceh province.

Last month's earthquake, which devastated the island of Nias, rubbed salt in the wounds and diverted Jakarta's attention from the wider reconstruction job.

The blueprint foresees a five-year process, with a 40 trillion rupiah ($32 billion) budget. The rehabilitation phase -- primarily restoring public services -- will run from April 20 to the end of next year. The reconstruction phase, in which public facilities will be rebuilt, is scheduled to begin midway through 2006.

Crucially for those wanting to move home, the document will outline if, where and how their residences will be resurrected.

The plan also provides for compensation to victims: 28 million rupiah for the destruction of a house, 10 million for a damaged one, 2 million for individual economic losses, and 15 million for losses suffered by a group.

Officials are optimistic the blueprint will be the cornerstone of the creation of a better Aceh out of the rubble of the old one. "When we rebuild Aceh using the donations of the global community," says Mr Azwar, "we hope we can make the people prosperous throughout the province, not just in the cities.

That would be very good for promoting peace as well, so you see the coin has two faces."

Before the rebuilding gets into high gear, the government as well as the International Organisation for Migration and other agencies have been erecting temporary settlements designed to house people for up to two years. "Our main priority is moving people from tents to the settlements," says Mr Azwar.

Indonesia is expected to receive by far the largest share of the more than US$7 billion pledged by the international community in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. International organisations such as the UN children's body, Unicef, have been assisting with some of the more immediate needs of the recovery, like restarting an education system reeling from the loss of almost 2,500 teachers, thousands of pupils and countless resources. "It is very important," explains Unicef spokeswoman Lely Djuhari of the need to get children studying again, "not least because it is a normalising act to get them back into the classrooms with their friends... if they have any left."

But before that can happen, every school building has to be assessed by engineers and, in a further blow to returning teachers and students, sometimes torn down.

The Asian Development Bank has estimated that more than 2,000 educational institutions of all levels were damaged throughout Aceh and the west coast of Sumatra, at a total cost of 1.03 trillion rupiah.

In the longer term, Unicef, which also has responsibility for child protection issues in the disaster area, will be training teachers and other personnel in how to spot, and intervene in, cases of delayed trauma and domestic violence.

"The danger of domestic violence is very real," Ms Djuhari says. "Especially when you have a lot of people living in close proximity in the camps and there is not much for them to do."

Getting the population back to work and, where possible, out of the camps so those sorts of conditions do not prevail is another priority for those steering the reconstruction.

One of the primary methods being utilised is the use of work programmes, which operate at a village level and put money directly into the pockets of local residents involved in reconstruction projects. "The village leaders come to us with ideas for projects," says Oxfam spokesman Kim Tan, "and we see what we can do for them."

More than 10,000 people were expected to have been paid through such programmes by the end of last month. "It gets the people out of this mentality of dependance that is one of the most destructive features of the camp environment... and it really kicks into the local economy," Mr Tan says.

But, according to the secretary-general of the Indonesian Department of Public Works, Budiman, a number of villages will not be rebuilt. In some cases there are just not enough survivors.

"Some of these areas are not going to be able to be used again, but these people are very close to their land. This is why we are working very closely with universities and local leaders to find a way of dealing with this issue," says Mr Budiman. "Building a consensus is not easy. We cannot please everyone, but these problems can and will be solved equitably."

Indonesia hopes to sign Aceh peace deal by July: report

Agence France Presse - April 9, 2005

Indonesia hopes to sign a peace deal ending three decades of conflict with separatists in Aceh province in July, its vice president said in an interview.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla expressed optimism over the peace process ahead of a third round of talks due to get under way in Finland next week.

"If all substance can be moved and then principally agreed, we hope in July we can finalise the whole principle of the agreement," Kalla said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

"Of course now we hope at this meeting we are going to discuss the substance. We're hoping we can discuss the substance of the peace." Mediators have been more guarded about prospects for the Helsinki talks, which start on Tuesday.

"We are pleased that both sides have agreed to continue the process of negotiations, but as the conflict has been going on for such a long time, and there are many difficult issues to be settled, one should remain realistic about the outcome of the talks," Meeri-Mariia Jaarva of the Crisis Management Initiative, a non-government group that has organised the talks, said in an e-mail on Friday.

Rebels of the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting for 28 years for a separate homeland in the western province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region's mineral wealth while leaving its people trapped in poverty.

The last formal ceasefire between the two sides broke down in May 2003 as Indonesia launched a major military assault to crush the rebels, placing the province under martial rule and barring foreign press and aid workers.

But the conflict took a new turn in the wake of the December 26 tsunami, which killed more than 126,000 people in Aceh and destroyed vast areas of coastline, when both sides agreed to return to the negotiating table.

The first two rounds of discussions, also in Helsinki, have focused on a government offer to grant Aceh special autonomy, with the rebels indicating they may drop demands for full independence if certain conditions are met.

Self-rule demand a crunch issue in new GAM talks

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- A top-level government delegation will hold a third-round of peace talks with officials of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Finland next week in a bid to seek a peaceful way to end nearly three decades of armed conflict in Aceh.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the team of ministers, who would fly to Finland on Sunday for the six-day talks starting on April 12, would among others seek explanation from GAM about its proposed self-rule concept.

"The agenda (will) lead to a settlement," he said after a Cabinet meeting in his office late on Thursday. Kalla said previously that the government expected to reach an agreement with GAM by June.

The Indonesian delegation includes chief negotiator Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin, Minister of Communication and Information Sofyan Djalil and several other high-ranking officials. Coordinating Minister for Security, Legal and Political Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto will serve as the supervisor to the delegation.

Meeri-Mariia Jaarva of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a Finland-based non-government organization that has organized the talks, confirmed the planned meeting, saying that it would be held on the outskirts of Helsinki.

"The next talks will cover similar issues as the previous talking rounds: the special autonomy, security arrangements, economic relations, amnesty, outside monitoring... " Jaarva was quoted by AFP as saying.

GAM rebels have been fighting for an independence of the oil and gas-rich Aceh province for 28 years. They have accused the central government of human rights violations in Aceh and of squandering the province's natural resources while leaving the Acehnese in poverty.

The last formal cease fire between the two sides broke down in May 2003, prompting the Megawati Soekarnoputri government to launch a major military assault to crush the GAM rebels, putting the province under martial rule. It later downgraded martial law into a permanent status of civil emergency, barring all foreign press and aid workers.

However after the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami, the government allowed foreign aid workers, troops and journalists to enter the province. The disaster also led both sides to resume peace negotiations.

The first two rounds of discussions, both in Helsinki, have focused on a government offer to grant Aceh special autonomy, with the rebels indicating they may drop demands for full independence if certain conditions are met. During the last talks in February, top GAM officials demanded a form of self-rule for the province.

Sofyan Djalil said the government would seek an explanation from GAM about its proposed self-rule concept.

"They want self-government. We don't know what it means," Sofyan said. Indonesia, he said, still stuck to its offer of special autonomy for Aceh as "a peaceful and dignified settlement" to the conflict.

"It needs to be discussed further. What is the meaning of this [self-rule] term? The most important thing is the substance. Hopefully, the upcoming talks will lead to an agreement," he said.

During the talks, the government would no longer object to the involvement of Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who served as an adviser to the GAM delegation, he said.

Meanwhile, Kingsbury was quoted by Reuters as saying that the Indonesian government and GAM could reach a historic peace deal by August.

"I think there is not so much problem with the term self- government. The issue is around content obviously. Now there is concern in Indonesia that this is a back door to independence," Kingsbury said.

"Now what the Free Aceh Movement have to do is to persuade them that this is not in fact a back door to independence, but is self-government within the (Indonesian) republic," he said.

"I think at the moment they are looking at August, if it's possible, assuming this goes well and subsequent rounds go well. I think an August timeline would be feasible, but I'm not underestimating the difficulties, he said referring to a peace deal."

West Papua

Papuans facing genocide says World Evangelical Alliance

The Christian Post (San Francisco/USA) - April 14, 2005

The indigenous Christian Papuans in Eastern Indonesia are facing genocide and in desperate need of support and prayers.

The indigenous Christian Papuans in Eastern Indonesia are facing genocide and in desperate need of support and prayers, a researcher for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) stated in a recently released report.

"Papuans, often Christian leaders, are frequently killed by the TNI [the Indonesia military], who are constantly trying to provoke retaliation that could be claimed to justify a full scale massacre against the 'separatist threat,'" reported the RLC's Elizabeth Kendal.

"The TNI terrorizes Papuans from helicopters, shooting civilians, burning villages and churches, and forcing thousands to flee their homes and hide in the jungle where they die of starvation, illness or injury," Kendal continued in the Apr. 13 Religious Prayer Bulletin distributed by the RLC.

Eastern Indonesia's Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) is the western part of the island of New Guinea. Although it has been memorably highlighted in Don Richardson's well known missionary tales 'Peace Child' and 'Lords of the Earth,' many people worldwide have not even heard of Papua or confuse it with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in the eastern part of New Guinea According to Operation World, more than 90 percent of the indigenous Papuans are officially regarded as Christian, mostly Protestant b were animists and headhunters only 50 years ago.

Since 1969, Papua has had a history of violent oppression by the Indonesian military (TNI), with demographic dilution through a government program of massive transmigration of Javanese Muslims, Kendel stated in her report.

"Papuans are politically marginalized, racial tension and religious intolerance have flourished, and Islamic Indonesian culture dominates," the RLC researcher added.

Kendel stated that what is "of utmost concern is systematic 'ethnic cleansing' by military operations, and the [possibly deliberate] introduction of AIDS and infected pigs. [Melanesian Papuans eat pigs but Indonesian Muslims do not.]"

Officially, some 100,000 Papuans have been killed directly due to Indonesian occupation, but the unofficial figure is 800,000.

"The Indonesians do all this for economic gain. They want Papua so they can exploit its timber and mineral resources. The notorious and systemically corrupt TNI also profits from 'business' in Papua," Kendel added. "Meanwhile the UN and various Western governments turn a blind eye for political gain. They want Indonesia as an ally."

According to Kendel, the TNI's allies -- the pro-Indonesian militias and the Laskar Jihad (Islamic warriors) -- are armed ready for a major ethnic cleansing campaign.

"Papua, as part of Indonesia and the 'dar al-Islam' [land of Islam], is being 'Indonesianised' and Islamised," she stated. "The Papuans are facing genocide while those with worldly power turn away."

However, as one Papuan Christian leader recently said to Kendel, "We are not alone. We have our Lord, Jesus Christ. He created us and put us here in this land of Papua.

It is his will that we are here. We have his Spirit. And we have you, our brothers and sisters who support us and pray for us. We are not alone, we are together."

In the recently released Geneva Report titled, "A Perspective on Global Religious Freedom: Challenges Facing the Christian Community," the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) noted that countries influenced by Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism have all recently seen their share of this form of religious intolerance in various expressions.

"In some cases, we see it with the face of government sponsored religious nationalism, and in others, with that of non-government factions engaged in extremist activities, often with the tacit approval of their governments," the WEA reported.

The global ministry said that in its various expressions, the use of political might to enforce religious conformity continued to be a disturbing trend around the world.

Troops pour into Papua amid signs of intensified repression

World Socialist Web Site - April 12, 2005

John Roberts -- Even as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono postures as a "democrat", his government has given the go-ahead for the dispatch of an additional 15,000 troops from the military's Strategic Reserve Forces (Kostrad) to the province of Papua. Like the huge operation launched in Aceh in mid-2003, the build up of Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) units in Papua is aimed at intimidating the local population and crushing separatist groups.

Kostrad commander Lieutenant-General Hadi Waluyo announced the troop reinforcement on March 16. When complete, the total number of security personnel in the province will be 50,000 for a population of just 2.1 million, of whom 1.3 million are ethnic Papuans.

Waluyo claimed that the troop movement "was based on considerations about the direction of threats to Indonesia's defence". But the only countries immediately adjacent to the province are Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has a tiny military, and Australia, which has publicly declared it will not back separatists in Aceh and Papua. The only apparent external "threats" are isolated border incidents involving villagers crossing the land border from PNG.

A further indication that the troops will be used for internal repression is the establishment of a new territorial command in the Papuan town of Merauke, one of 22 such commands throughout Indonesia. The territorial command system, set up under the former Suharto dictatorship, involves the TNI directly at all levels of administration from the provincial down to the village. The UK-based human rights group Tapol alleges that the decision is bound up with plans to partition Papua, placing its resource- rich areas more firmly under the control of Jakarta and the military.

The military presence is not simply directed against the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM). Its loosely organised and poorly equipped guerrilla fighters have been waging a sporadic war against the TNI since the late 1960s, when under US pressure, the UN ceded the former Dutch colony to Indonesia. The OPM has proven ineffective in challenging the TNI and has not launched any significant attacks recently.

The military reinforcements are aimed primarily at stamping out any expression of dissent and tightening Jakarta's grip over the province.

Despite a ban on journalists entering the province, reports have emerged indicating a new round of violent repression that parallels the methods used under the Suharto dictatorship. A Dateline program on Australian Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) television on March 16 provided evidence of TNI violence. It was based on information, including videos and photographs, provided in part by human rights investigators and Papuan sources, as well as comments by a Papuan Baptist minister in Australia.

Photos showed the aftermath of a TNI attack on the highland village of Wunin in February in which schools and churches were burned to the ground and elderly villagers murdered. Citing Papuan sources, the program claimed that violence by the military had forced 15,000 to 20,000 people to flee their homes. Many refugees are living in appalling conditions. Dateline showed an eleven-month-old baby girl who had died of malnutrition.

Several informants insisted that the TNI was building up militia, including the Islamic-based Laskar Jihad, as it had done in East Timor.

One of those interviewed had infiltrated one of the militia and confirmed that the military was preparing to use such groups to intimidate the local population. Baptist minister Sofyan Yoman claimed that, in order to fund its operations, the military had siphoned off two and a half billion rupiah in funds intended for implementing schemes under the 2001 Special Autonomy Law.

Decades of military repression along with ongoing economic backwardness and social deprivation have fueled deep-going hostility to Jakarta and enlivened demands for independence. Dateline showed footage of a large demonstration in Manikwaru in February at which Papuan leaders repeated their demands for end to what they called ethnic cleansing and for UN intervention.

The SBS program comes on top of earlier reports by human rights groups of repression in the remote Puncak Jaya regency of the Central Highlands.

In August, Indonesian authorities seized traditional land from the Tabuni tribe for an airstrip and road, provoking as series of clashes that continued into December.

John Rumbiak, the Australia-based spokesman for the Papuan human rights group ELSHAM, stated that, as of mid-December, at least 23 Puncak Jaya villagers, mostly children, had died of starvation after being forced away from their food sources. The military closed off the area, preventing relief efforts by Papuan humanitarian organisations.

ELSHAM, the Sydney University Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and the Uniting Church of Australia issued a joint statement on November 18 dismissing Indonesian claims that the military was responding to OPM attacks. It pointed to evidence of the TNI's involvement in an incident on November 12 in which a police officer was killed and two government officials badly wounded. One of the wounded officials, the head of the Puncak Jaya finance department, had reported the TNI for extorting $A250, 000 in development funds.

According to Rumbiak, Meky Wenda, a native Papuan policeman who was wounded on the same spot on December 17, said both ambushes took place just 500 metres from a TNI post. Rumbiak told the media: "It is likely that Papuans have been used to carry out this [November] attack by the army special forces, Kopassus, who have been using local groups in Papua in the same way they manipulated East Timorese to fight their own people...."

The stepped-up repression has not been limited to remote areas. Human rights groups have cited eyewitness accounts of police opening fire on a pro-independence rally on December 1 in the provincial capital of Jayapura. Eight demonstrators were shot and another 18 arrested at the Trikora soccer field in the suburb of Adepura.

For the TNI leadership, the stakes are high in resource-rich provinces such as Aceh and Papua. In early December, TNI chief General Endriartono Sutarto told the parliamentary defence commission that 70 percent of the TNI budget came from its business enterprises. As well as supplementing operational budgets, the officer caste has used the TNI's nationwide business enterprises to enrich itself.

Papua is one of the most lucrative areas for TNI business activity, including legal and illegal logging operations and extortion.

Management at the giant US-operated Freeport gold and copper mine admitted that it had been paying $US5.6 million annually for "protection" to the TNI, in addition to providing $37 million to build a new military base.

In 2004, the Indonesian parliament passed a law requiring the TNI to end all business activities within five years. On December 8, however, Yudhoyono's defence minister Juwono Sudarsono announced, apparently in defiance of the law, that the government would take over only those military businesses worth $US550,000 or more. Others would remain in TNI hands "to help fulfill the soldiers' needs".

Clear signs that Washington and Canberra are reforging ties to the TNI, despite its continuing abuses, are emboldening the military in Papua.

On February 26, the US State Department announced the end of a ban on Indonesian participation in the International Military Education and Training program (IMET). In doing so, the Bush administration has brushed aside evidence of the TNI's involvement in an ambush on Freeport employees in August 2002, which resulted in the deaths of two US citizens and an Indonesian.

During his visit last week to Australia, Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed a broad economic and security framework that paves the way for a defence pact. Howard was at pains to reassure the Indonesian president that Australia respected "Indonesia's integrity".

Australia and the US will no doubt turn a blind eye to the TNI's escalation of violence in Papua, as they have in Aceh for nearly two years.

Significantly, the TNI's decision to dispatch 15,000 more troops to Papua came just over two weeks after Washington announced the lifting of its IMET ban. The Yudhoyono administration and the TNI clearly interpreted the decision as the green light to assert control in Papua and other areas using the old methods of the Suharto junta.

Military ties

Australia, Indonesia hold 1st military exercise for 6 years

Associated Press - April 12, 2005

Canberra -- The Indonesian and Australian air forces have launched their first joint military exercise since relations between the two countries plummeted over Jakarta-sponsored violence in East Timor nearly six years ago, the government said Wednesday.

Indonesia scrapped a defense treaty with Canberra when Australia led a UN military force against pro-Jakarta militias who razed East Timor and killed up to 1,000 people after the Indonesian province voted for independence. All joint military training was canceled.

But relations have been on the mend in recent years, with both sides working closely together after the 2002 Bali bombings and the December tsunami.

Last week, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed an agreement to create a new security pact when he made his first official trip to Australia. As part of the agreement, Prime Minister John Howard guaranteed Australia would not support secessionists in the provinces of Aceh and West Papua.

Defense Minister Robert Hill said Wednesday the joint air force exercise which began Tuesday reflected the renewed commitment between the two countries to strengthen their defense relations.

"Exercise Albatros Ausindo is a further opportunity to build the relationship and it demonstrates the cooperation and our shared commitment to maritime security," Hill said in a statement, adding that both sides would look for ways to deepen their military ties.

The exercise involves maritime surveillance conducted by an Indonesian Air Force B737 Surveiller aircraft and a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion and will run until the end of the week. The exercise was last conducted in 1998.

The Indonesian navy will participate in a regional defense exercise in northern Australian waters in August, Hill said.

A joint naval exercise between Indonesia and Australia involving patrol boats was also being considered for later this year, he said.

Human rights/law

Probe into death of Munir suffers new setback

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- The probe into the death of a noted human rights campaigner has suffered another setback, with top Garuda Indonesia officials denying any role in the case and giving conflicting statements regarding pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto's assignment letter.

Pollycarpus was the first person to be declared a suspect by police in the Sept. 7, 2004 murder of Munir. Pollycarpus was aboard a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam, ostensibly as an aviation security officer, when Munir was poisoned by arsenic.

The suspect has claimed that he was assigned by Garuda's vice president of corporate security Ramelgia Anwar to assist the company's unit in Singapore. Before the flight, Pollycarpus had called Munir to make sure the latter left Jakarta that day. During the flight he offered Munir his business class seat.

Police have charged Pollycarpus with "facilitating" the murder and with document forgery. The assignment letter from Ramelgia was signed and typed on Sept. 17, more than a week after the incident.

Ramelgia denied on Friday that he had issued an assignment letter for Pollycarpus to fly to Singapore on Sept. 6 last year. "I never issued such an assignment letter to Pollycarpus," he said after being questioned by police investigators.

Also being interrogated over the case were former Garuda president director Indra Setiawan, secretary to the chief pilot Rohainil Aini, chief pilot Carmel Sembiring and flight schedule supervisor Hermawan.

The six-hour questioning was aimed at verifying statements that Garuda executives have made regarding the case.

Garuda's lawyer Wirawan Adnan said Indra Setiawan had issued a letter on Aug. 11 asking Pollycarpus to assist Ramelgia's corporate security department.

Later, Ramelgia assigned Pollycarpus to check a Garuda aircraft that was damaged in Singapore, but did not specify the date when the suspect had to fly there. Ramelgia then went to Makassar, South Sulawesi, from Sept. 2 to 16.

On Sept. 6, Pollycarpus called up Rohainil Aini, saying that he would leave for Singapore that day. Later, Rohainil prepared a travel permit for him and contacted Hermawan to adjust the schedule.

However, Garuda's operational director Rudy A. Hardono found that Pollycarpus had left without permission and grounded him for two weeks.

In order for Pollycarpus to reimburse his travel costs, Ramelgia issued an inter-office memo to Carmel on Sept. 17, but later changed the date to Sept. 4 since the letter should have been made before his departure to Singapore.

"I only wrote an inter-office memo to Captain Carmel, but not an assignment letter. The memo was made to back up his travel permit. That's all," Ramelgia said.

"It was Pollycarpus himself who wanted to go to Singapore on that day (Sept. 6), because I was in Unjungpandang (Makassar) at that time. So he lied to Rohainil about his assignment," Ramelgia added before his lawyer stopped him from talking further.

A source within National Police headquarters said Rohainil told investigators that she wanted to call Ramelgia to make sure that Pollycarpus had really been assigned by him, because Pollycarpus had failed to show his assignment letter.

But Pollycarpus told her not to do so and promised her that Ramelgia would call her eventually, the source added.

Ramelgia, Rohainil and Pollycarpus are scheduled to undergo a cross-examination session next week to verify their conflicting statements to the police.

Aside from Pollycarpus, Garuda employees Oedi Irianto and Yeti Susmiyarti are also suspects in Munir's murder. The two served meals to business class passengers on the flight, including to the poisoned human rights activist.

An autopsy conducted by Dutch authorities found an excessive amount of arsenic in Munir's body, but it remains unclear whether the poison was added to Munir's meal during the first leg of the flight from Jakarta to Singapore.

Reconciliation & justice

Rights groups urge cooperation with Commission of Experts

Kompas - April 14, 2005

Jakarta - Indonesian non-government human rights organizations have asked the government to cooperate with the United Nations' Commission of Experts. This cooperation should be directed towards providing visas to the commission so that they can enter Indonesia and provide access for them to hold discussions with the Attorney General, the Supreme Court, the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal on East Timor and human rights groups.

This statement was conveyed by the coordinator of the Human Rights Working Group, Rafendi Djamin, the executive director of the Institute for Public Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the chairperson of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), Johnson Panjaitan, and the secretary-general of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Mufty Al Makarim, on Wednesday April 13 in Jakarta.

According to Djamin, it is reasonable to question Indonesia's attitude towards the commission. The East Timorese government demonstrated a cooperative attitude by providing access to the three members of the commission when they were in East Timor between April 3-9.

On April 9 a number of Indonesian human rights organisation activists met with the commission in East Timor. From these meetings they obtained the information that the commission planned to visit Indonesia between April 11-18 but their visa applications were rejected by the government.

"They only got a one-day transit visa dated April 10. Because of this, they returned directly to Geneva. However, they are still trying to apply for a visa for a second time so that they can come to Indonesia", said Djamin.

When he was attending a session of the UN's Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Djamin was able to raise the question with Indonesia's permanent deputy-representative in Geneva, Edy Haryadi, who explained that although the Commission of Experts was only given transit visas there is a possibility that they would be given a visa on arrival.

The Indonesian government's refusal to work with the commission not only damages Indonesia's image but also damages groups in other countries trying to improve the mechanisms to protect and uphold human rights.

When contacted by Kompas yesterday, Indonesian foreign affairs spokesperson Yuri Thamrin said that for the moment the government had given them transit visas. Meanwhile for a visa to enter Indonesia, consideration is still be given to the timing because the issue of the Commission of Experts' visit to Indonesia is actually more basic. "Our position is clear. First give the Truth and Friendship Commission a chance [to do its] work because its members have only just been chosen. Plus [we see] the arrival of the Commission of Experts in Indonesia as a preemptive act", said Thamrin. (SON/LUK)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Former members of PKI fight for their rights in court

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2005

Jakarta -- Patience, they say, is a virtue. And that's probably more true for former members (and their families) of the outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), than anyone else.

After almost four decades of living as social and political pariahs, a session on Wednesday at the Central Jakarta District Court -- even though it too was delayed -- marked the beginning of their fight to get their rights back as legitimate citizens of the country of their birth.

"Since only one of the accused's legal representatives was present, this session will be delayed," presiding judge Cicut Sutiarso of the Central Jakarta District Court announced.

"We have been waiting for our rights for 40 years now, another week or two will not hurt," said John Pakasi, one of the representatives of the former PKI members, after listening to the judges' decision to delay the court's hearing of a class action suit they had brought against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and four previous Indonesian presidents; Soeharto, Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri.

John, a resident of Manado, was dismissed as a civil servant and imprisoned in his North Sulawesi hometown for 12 years for allegedly having links to the PKI, a party which had been accused by the Soeharto government of masterminding the abortive 1965 coup, which led to a massive purge and millions of killings. Historians, however, still debate the role of PKI in the event.

Soeharto, who rose to power following the failed coup, ordered that all people linked to the PKI must be imprisoned without trial, he then effectively banished their rights as citizens.

Almost 100 elderly people including world-famous author Pramoedya Ananta Toer waited for almost two hours for Wednesday's session to begin.

"They demand that their economic, social and cultural rights be restored and that the government revoke any discriminative laws against them," legal representative of the group Uli Parulian said.

Previously, a handful of discriminative laws were revoked, which allowed PKI members to vote during the previous legislative election. Former president Abdurrahman Wahid had also officially apologized for the years of discrimination against former members and sympathizers of the PKI and their families.

However, Uli said, 24 discriminative regulations still remain in force. Among them is Ministerial Decree No. 24/1981, which bars alleged Communist Party members from taking government jobs or becoming teachers or members of the military or police.

"We were forced to quit our jobs as civil servants and later on, after we were freed from prison, we could hardly make a living," Pakasi said. "Not to mention that our children, and grandchildren have also been discriminated against and barred from receiving a proper education." The discrimination also targeted close friends and relatives of PKI suspects, some of whom were infants when they lost one or both parents in the bloodbath of 1965 to 1967.

Uli said the class action suit also included a demand to restore the plaintiffs' dignity by apologizing via the national media and paying material losses in amounts to be specified later, plus Rp 10 billion (US$1.07 million) in non-material losses. "We want to emphasize, however, the restoration of their basic rights by revoking discriminative laws, rather than money," he added.

The judges, however, said they would only review the validity of the suit when all five of the accused (the president and four former presidents) were present in court, so that the trial could proceed.

In the first court session on Wednesday, only the legal representatives of former president Abdurrahman Wahid was present.

1965 victims want Suharto to be tried

Detik.com - April 12, 2005

A group of twenty men and women who are victims of human rights violations in 1965 have called for the Commission on Truth and Reconciliation (KKR) to be disbanded until such time as there has been a proper historical account of the G30S/PKI. (G30S - September 30 Movement)

The group were all from North Sumatra and are members of the Action Committee of Victims of the 1965 Human Rights Violations. They gathered outside the MPR/DPR (Parliament and Consultative Assembly) in Jakarta on Monday. Most of them are over 60 years old. They were carrying banners on which was written: 'KKR = Ignoring Human Rights Violations', 'Disband the KKR' and 'Try Suharto, the Mastermind of the Massacres in 1965'.

The coordinator of the event, Jiman Karo-Karo said that they are calling for a rectification of Indonesian history and for all those responsible for the 1965 events to be put on trial. 'In particular, Suharto, the one who was most responsible for the slaughter of millions of people in 1969 - 1968, should go on trial.' They also called on the government to disband the KKR which they said was unconstitutional and was doing nothing to provide justice for the 1965 victims.

Jiman gave details of the many injustices being suffered by the 600,000 victims of 1965 in North Sumatra. They include the seizure of land and other property, unfair dismissals, murder and rape, as well as disappearances.

Unfortunately they were unable to meet leaders of the DPR or the MPR, even though activists from the human rights organisations PBHI, the Legal Aid Institute and North Sumatra People's Advocacy had earlier tried to make contact with the secretariats of these bodies.

They were told that they could not meet assembly leaders as they were away and had other engagements. On hearing this, the group shouted their protests: 'We have come all this way but they don't want to listen to us.' They are not Representatives of the People, they are Deceivers of the People, they said.

Labour issues

Workers protest unfair payment

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2005

Batam (Riau) -- About 650 docksiders working for two shipping companies in Batam protested outside the city council on Monday, demanding the firms pay them the meal, overtime and transportation allowances they were entitled to.

Jose, the protest coordinator, said that the workers at PT Pan United and PT Inter Media Engineering Service (IMES), had only received overtime rates of Rp 5,500 (US$0.55) an hour since December last year, below the normal rate of Rp 7,000 an hour. Each employee's overtime was estimated to be between five and nine hours a day so the Rp 1,500 difference would be significant for workers, Jose said.

Councillors later met the workers and promised they would take their demands to the company bosses.

Politics/political parties

PAN's younger members cast doubt on newly-elected chair

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2005

Hera Diani and Suherdjoko, Semarang -- The younger generation of the National Mandate Party (PAN) expressed disappointment on Monday over the election of Soetrisno Bachir as the party's leader, saying the process was undemocratic and only accommodated the party's elite instead of the grassroots.

Imam Addaruqutni from the Muhammadiyah Youth, one of PAN's larger support bases, said the election process last weekend was proof that "authoritarianism still endures in the party." "It does not exclusively occur in our party, but all parties," Imam claimed as he spoke to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said although founding leader Amien Rais remained a charismatic figure in the party, his decisions were not always correct. Therefore, Amien's effort to lobby on behalf of Soetrisno, a businessman with no political experience whatsoever, was a disappointment for Imam.

"Maybe he has financial power, but money isn't everything," Imam rationalized, referring to Soetrisno's successful ventures in shrimp farming, real estate and investment.

Actress and PAN member Paquita Wijaya said under a new leader with no track record in politics, the party's direction would not be clear.

"All we can do is just wait and see. But to become a party with a strong voice, it has to reform itself first," she said.

Former leader of Muhammadiyah Youth Djoko Soesilo, meanwhile, was a little more optimistic, saying that perhaps Soetrisno's strong business background would bring more professional skills in managing the party.

"But it's not an easy task. It depends on the team Soetrisno appoints, which should accommodate a variety of interest groups," Djoko, who is now a House of Representatives member, said.

Both Djoko and Imam emphasized the importance of embracing Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country, which remains the backbone of the party's support.

During the 1999 election, however, PAN became "too secular" and estranged conservative Muslim voters from Muhammadiyah, which recently urged a group of younger members of the organization to form a separate party, citing disappointment with PAN.

"Without considering the majority base, Soetrisno's position will be difficult as his election was the result of a top-down process. He must also shy away from the party's authoritarianism system and form his own system by approaching majority stakeholders," Imam said.

Djoko added that since the new leader was not very well-known, the rest of his team must consist of more familiar faces, and meet the quota of at least 30 percent women.

"The team must also comprise scholars, activists and people with international contacts. The young members must also be accommodated, as well as those from groups of fisherman, farmer and the mass media, which have not really been considered," he said.

Failure to form a good team, he added, would prevent the party from excelling in the next election.

PAN ranked sixth in the 2004 election, with its popular vote down slightly from 7.5 million in 1999 to 7.3 million last year.

Amien was aware of criticism against his prominent role in the party despite his relinquishing the top job.

"In the next six months to a year, I may still be involved a lot in the party as the head of the advisory council, but it is only in terms of a political learning process for Soetrisno," Amien said.

The PAN congress in Semarang closed on Tuesday with Soetrisno unveiling a 12-person team that would select the party's central board members. The team included Amien and Soetrisno's contenders for the party's top post, Didik J. Rachbini and Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa.

Speaking to journalists, Soetrisno said his first item on the agenda was to help PAN win 40 regent posts in the upcoming regional elections.

PAN - a vase of flowers in a china shop

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2005

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta -- Even before the new National Mandate Party (PAN) leader, Soetrisno Bachir, was elected in Semarang, Central Java, over the weekend, a close confidante of its charismatic outgoing leader Amien Rais, spoke ominously of the party's future.

"It's like a vase of flowers standing in the corner. It's nice if it's there but it really doesn't matter if it isn't".

Irrespective of its new leadership, PAN looks set to be depicted as a case study of unfilled potential in political science textbooks.

For a political organization that promised so much, it failed so miserably in fulfilling its potential. Its trajectory contrary to its proxy, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) -- one started with a bang then sunk to a whimper, while the latter began humbly but is now reaching stratospheric political heights.

Unlike the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), PAN -- particularly Amien Rais -- recognized the need for a new leader to take the helm ahead of the 2009 election. Unfortunately, while PDI-P risks becoming tiresome by reelecting Megawati Soekarnoputri, PAN without its charismatic leader and a distinct agenda is already passe.

At its inception in 1998, PAN was the most liberal and progressive among the many parties that sprung up in post- Soeharto Indonesia. It openly advocated federalism and broad pluralism.

But it was the very things that made PAN so unique that resulted in its downfall -- it was neither this nor that.

In an election where patronage played a big role to guide a confused electoral mass, PAN in the 1999 election became too secular and estranged conservative Muslim voters from Muhammadiyah, which to this day remains the backbone of party support.

Meanwhile its claim to being secular was not based on a solidly built network. It relied heavily on (somewhat pretentious) "intellectual" figures, who at the end of the day, were nothing more than media nameplates with very little real grassroots support.

In 2004, PAN shifted to a more conservative platform aimed at recapturing Muhammadiyah and Muslim voters. However this move shattered whatever mainstream credibility it had left. Even though they got more seats than in 1999, in absolute votes PAN's returns were fewer -- from 7.5 million votes or 7.1 percent of total votes in 1999, to 7.3 million or 6.4 percent in 2004.

The advent of a new leadership does nothing to resolve PAN's two main challenges. The first is a clear constituency. The party, because of its ideological flip-flops, has not endeared itself to a solid block of political voters.

None of the final three leading candidates in PAN's leadership race -- Soetrisno Bachir, Fuad Bawazier or Hatta Radjasa -- have the mass appeal of Amien, nor can any claim to bring the backing of a solid constituency base. Neither does the new leader, or any of the final contenders for that matter, have a distinct ideological platform to build upon.

Despite the new leadership they will likely continue to rely on the charm of Amien and the loyal Muhammadiyah following.

Some have suggested that the party adopt the National Awakening Party (PKB) strategy of being declared as the de facto formal party of Nahdlatul Ulama. If PAN could do the same with Muhammadiyah it would have a solid constituency base from which to spring, albeit at the cost of alienating some secular voters.

The success of such a strategy could depend on whether Amien himself is able to recapture the Muhammadiyah organization's leadership at its congress next month. Amien is likely to face a strong challenge from Din Syamsuddin who is believed to be harboring his own political aspirations for 2009.

The second challenge is for PAN to find a new cause celebre. Amien was once the "face" of reform and PAN carried with it the banner of post-New Order Indonesia. But nowadays everyone touts reform and reformasi is a tattered symbol. It is in fact the PKS who now represent hopes for change and clean governance.

The PKS has imbued the spirit that PAN pioneered but could never manifest. Consequently, many of the young, urban middle-class Muslim voters, which PAN was one confident of as followers, have clearly switched allegiance to the more dynamic PKS.

They say the first step toward curing any problem is to admit that the problem exists. In this respect PAN has done well to reduce its dependence on an aging figure, which many young voters in 2009 may no longer identify with.

The task now is to clearly define who and what PAN is. If it can do so it has a strong identity and constitutional footing heading into 2009. At the very least then, by the next election, it will have a base of dedicated supporters instead of being a vase (in a shop full of china) that most people are oblivious to.

Violence mars PAN congress

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Suherdjoko, Semarang -- Violence marred the second day of the National Mandate Party's (PAN) national congress on Friday after a significant number of participants failed to obtain registration cards.

The violence has not only blemished PAN's reputation as being a middle class and reform-minded party, but also made the competition much fiercer among those vying for the PAN leadership.

The fracas began in the morning when a group of PAN members were about to register as congress participants. The registration process went smoothly. But later, it turned violent when some people, who said they were PAN members from Papua, Bali and other areas, were still not given registration cards even though they had been issued with cards by the committee on the first day of the congress on Thursday.

The cards are required in order to be able to vote for the PAN leader, who will head the party from 2005 and 2010.

Enraged by their failure to get cards, those who had been denied went on a rampage, turning over tables and breaking glasses on the floor of the lobby of the Patra Jasa Hotel in Semarang, the capital of Central Java province. The congress committee attempted to calm down them down but to no avail.

Amien Rais, the outgoing PAN leader, who is still very popular among PAN members, stepped in to stop the violence.

Along with outgoing PAN secretary-general Hatta Radjasa, Amien assembled the chairmen of all of the party's chapters and branches nationwide in order to resolve the dispute peacefully.

After the meeting, Amien explained to the media that the problem had arisen as some executives of party's chapters and branches claimed that they had been elected by the PAN central board as party regional executives, while at the same time others contested the legality of the resolutions. "Thus, all those people were claiming that they had the right to participate in the congress," said Amien.

At last, the committee selected those participants who were eligible to participate in the congress, much to the disappointment of those who were not selected. Among these were Nurhasan, a secretary with PAN's Cimahi regency branch, who claimed that he was in possession of a resolution dated Dec. 20 last year stating that he was a PAN regional executive. "There is are efforts afoot to ensure the victory of a certain candidate in the leadership race," said Nurhasan, who was barred from participating in the congress.

The dispute, which had brought the congress to a standstill, finally dissipated after Amien led a prayer to cool things down. As of last night, 18 out of a total of 33 party chapters had accepted Amien's accountability report.

The dispute, nevertheless, raised the tension in the competition for the PAN leadership. Seven people have nominated themselves for the leadership post, but there will only be two candidates left on the final day of the race, namely, Soetrisno Bachir, who is backed by Amien Rais and rich businessman Fuad Bawazier. Hatta Radjasa was also one of the chairman hopefuls, but there is speculation that he withdrew from the race after a meeting with Amien Rais.

Government/civil service

Ombudsman commission faces budget constraints, criticism

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Hera Diani, Jakarta -- Since its establishment five years ago, the National Ombudsman Commission has experienced many dark moments in their offices, quite literally.

Not only does it have to face ignorant and negligent government bureaucrats and institutions, but its minuscule budget has often made it impossible for the Commission to pay its electricity bills, to the extent that power was cut off.

"We even had to ask the State Electric Company not to cut the electricity permanently," the Commission's head Antonius Sujata told a media conference on Friday.

They have been having trouble in paying telephone bills as well, he added, let alone paying commission members' salaries.

According to Commission member Teten Masduki, who is also chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the government established the Commission and appointed members in 2000, only to then neglect it.

Members had to struggle to find offices to carry out their programs, with an initial budget of only Rp 500 million (US$52,900) to cover its activities all over the country.

"We've asked for funds from several institutions, like the ministry of finance, but they just demanded bribes," said Teten.

"Finally, the government said they would give us new budget of around Rp 8 billion, but it's not supposed to be disbursed until May. Right now, we rely on loans for our operations. Many programs have had to be delayed until the budget is available." Aside from its limited budget, the Commission also faces the possibility that it will be dissolved, as detractors consider their performance poor saying that the country does not need another commission.

Comprising 32 members, the Commission's main responsibility is responding to reports or information about irregularities in public services performed by state institutions.

Teten said the poor evaluation of the commission was unfair, as public service in the country was still very poor, and that the Commission could not work on its own, especially with such a limited budget and legal powers.

"True, we have to improve our performance. But the problem is, our recommendations are not legally binding. There are no sanctions whatsoever if an institution decides not to abide by our recommendations," he said.

Over the past five years, for instance, there have been 4,638 cases received by the Commission, but only 12 percent of them have been settled.

There are 1,174 cases in which the relevant institution did not even respond.

The most frequent cases are prolonged legal processes, abuse of power, bribery and corruption.

A high profile case was that reported by Steve Sugita, 64, who is now paralyzed and unable to walk after an expired gas bottle he bought exploded. State institutions blamed one another for the incident, refusing to take responsibility. The case is still going on after three years.

Another problem faced by the commission is a lack of awareness among the public.

A survey held in February by the US-based International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) showed that only 12 percent of the total population are aware of existence of the ombudsman.

Commission deputy head Sunaryati Hartono, a law professor, said that many law graduates and even lawyers do not have the slightest idea about the ombudsman.

"So don't say this country doesn't need an ombudsman commission. Even in developed countries, ombudsman commissions are still needed as an alternative to resolve conflicts outside courts more efficiently.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Illegal logging costing billions in lost revenue

Radio Australia - April 15, 2005

The illegal logging trade in Indonesia is estimated to be costing the government about four billion Australian dollars a year in lost tax revenues. Over the past few weeks authorities have had some success in cracking down on the trade, but environmental groups say putting a stop to illegal logging in the long term is a major test for Indonesia's new President.

Presenter/Interviewer: Gavin Fang

Speakers: Julian Newman, Environmental Investigation Agency Agustinus Wijayanto, Conservation International Indonesia

Fang: In Indonesia's Papua Province illegal loggers are plundering once pristine forests... The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency estimates that more than 300- thousand cubic metres of the hardwood Merbau is being smuggled out of Papua every month. In the process the illegal trade is doing untold environmental damage to one of Indonesia's most bio-diverse regions. Julian Newman from the Environmental Investigation Agency.

Newman: Its having an effect by opening up the forest canopy which causes more flooding it also has an impact on bio-diversity we're hearing that in areas that have been logged worse the number of species are declining but it also has a bad impact on the communities there as well often this logging takes place with the involvement of the military and it involves threats and intimidation so its having a social impact as well and it results in a loss of revenue to the indonesian government which can barely afford to lose that revenue.

Fang: According to Indonesian Government figures released yesterday, illegal logging costs the country more than 4 billion dollars a year in lost tax revenues. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reportedly instructed his Forestry minister to crackdown on the smuggling trade. And environmental groups say that has helped dry up the supply of logs across Asia over the past few weeks. But Julian Newman says putting a stop to illegal logging over the long term is a major test of the Presidents credibility.

Newman: I think its interesting that the timing of this has come with a new administration with a directly elected president who has been elected on an anti-corruption ticket and obviously the problem of illegal logging is not just about trees its about the way the country is governed and about the rule of law and how resources are managed and also corruption so I think this issue is part of the presidents agenda to try and crack down on corruption.

Fang: The logging trade is linked to wider organised crime syndicates that have representatives in Singapore, Malaysia and ultimately China where the vast majority of the logs end up. But Agustinus Wijayanto from Conservation International Indonesia says the trade couldn't go on without the compliance of corrupt Indonesian officials. He says 58 cases of illegal logging have been brought to the attention of authorities by conservation groups this year, only 12 have been prosecuted.

Wijayanto: In Indonesia wildlife traders can touch the judges and the criminal justice system in Indonesia so we said that our enforcement is so low because just the little cases have been brought to the court so far.

Fang: Catching the Mr Bigs of the logging trade and successfully prosecuting them may yet prove to be to tough for Indonesian authorities. Ultimately what's at stake is not just Indonesia's forests but in the eyes of environmental groups, its reputation.

Newman: We'll reserve our judgment we'll wait and see who's caught in this net and whether it will result in any prosecutions we've seen in other places in Indonesia temporary enforcement operations but they don't last very long and they don't result in any of the major players facing the court that's a key element we need to see some of the high up people who are behind this crime being tried and until that happens it will carry on.

Army officers linked to illegal logging

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2005

Jakarta -- The Army has started its investigation into officers allegedly involved in illegal logging in Papua province.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Djoko Santoso said on Wednesday a middle-ranking military officer, Capt. Kaspar, had been named a suspect, while two other officers were currently undergoing interrogation by a joint military-police investigation team.

"The Army, however. plays a minor role in the widespread illegal logging," Djoko said.

Kaspar was the deputy head of a military police unit in Papua.

A number of police and navy officers have been arrested in connection with illegal logging activities since a crackdown against the practice began in February.

Corrupt governor gets 10 years' jail

Sydney Morning Herald - April 12, 2005

Matthew Moore, Jakarta -- In Indonesia's highest profile graft case, the new anti-corruption court has jailed the governor of Aceh for 10 years for improperly "enriching himself" by more than $500,000.

In the first case the court has heard since it was set up near the end of Megawati Soekarnoputri's presidency, five judges found Abdullah Puteh had inflated the price of a Russian helicopter he bought with state money and siphoned off the difference.

The Mi-2 helicopter, delivered in February 2003, was supposed to be new but had two second-hand engines and was not bulletproof as promised, the judges said.

Puteh had failed to call tenders, allowed money to be paid before any contract was in place and had opened his own special bank account into which the money was transferred.

The court also fined Puteh about $68,000 and ordered him to repay more than $500,000 made from the deal. The judges said the total loss to the state was close to $2 million.

The court's decision was initially due last week but was postponed when Puteh, who has been in prison since December, was too ill to attend.

He failed to attend yesterday and his lawyers walked out in protest when the judges decided to read the decision in his absence.

Puteh has long been seen as one of the most corrupt officials in Indonesia and his prosecution has been viewed as a test case for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's promise to attack corruption.

Foreign governments and aid agencies donating aid money to help tsunami victims in Aceh had been worried Puteh could return to his former position.

Although the investigation into Puteh's corruption began under the former government, Dr Yudhoyono has linked himself personally with the case.

When the new anti-corruption commission suddenly arrested Puteh last year, Dr Yudhoyono's spokesman said the president was "in constant communication" with the commission and was "fully backing them".

Dr Yudhoyono has promised a series of high-profile prosecutions of officials widely regarded as corrupt but has been criticised by some observers disappointed that few cases have so far been brought to court.

Prosecutors in Puteh's case sought an eight-year prison sentence, well below the maximum of 20 years' jail the law allows for.

While the decision against Puteh was unanimous, two of the five judges, including the chief judge, felt the court should not have heard the case.

They agreed with arguments from Puteh's lawyers who said the court had no jurisdiction in the case because the anti-corruption commission, which brought the case, was formed after the crime had been committed.

Local & community issues

Protesters set government cars alight in Riau Islands

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2005

Puji Santoso, Rokan Hilir -- Protesters vandalized and set on fire three government cars on Tuesday evening during a violent protest to demand that the capital of Rokan Hilir regency, on Riau Island be moved to the town of Ujung Tanjung from Bagan Siapi-api.

No fatalities were reported during the incident, which ended on Tuesday evening after some 250 police personnel were deployed to Simpang Poros area, Bagan Siapi-api, where the protest took place.

Hundreds of protesters filled a street in Simpang Poros area on Tuesday morning where Rokan Hilir Regent Tamsyir Hasyim was set to meet them at 11 a.m. The meeting was part of an attempt to resolve the protesters' demand for the transfer of the capital from Bagan Siapi-api to Ujung Tanjung area.

However, the regent failed to turn up until the evening, sparking anger among the protesters. As the sun set, the protesters began to vandalize a car belonging to an official at nearby Rimba district. The protesters later vandalized two other cars belong to two other Rokan Hilir officials parked near the protest site. The three cars were then pushed into the middle of Jl. Simpang Poros and set on fire.

Hundreds of police personnel were quickly deployed to the area and forcefully dispersed the protesters, who were all Ujung Tanjung residents. Scuffles between the police and protesters broke out but no fatalities or injuries were reported. The situation was finally brought under control an hour later. Some 40 protesters were taken in for questioning, while others fled the area, said Rokan Hilir Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Wawan Darmawan on Wednesday. During the incident, the police confiscated 26 motorcycles, two cars and some sharp weapons belonging to the protesters, said Wawan.

The incident followed a protest held several days ago. The protesters argue that the town of Ujung Tanjung is located in the middle of Rokan Hilir regency making it the logical choice for regency capital, whereas Bagan Siapi-api is located by the beach.

Environment

Pollution makes life a hell for many in East Java

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2005

ID Nugroho, Surabaya -- Siti, a 50-year-old woman, is one of thousands of people living in modest rented houses in the village of Lebak Jaya in Kenjeran, Surabaya, East Java, situated near the factory walls of PT UBS.

The place she calls home measures 12 square meters and is crammed with beds, a cupboard, a small table and a television set. She lives with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchild.

Siti and the thousands of residents in the area have to deal with the noise from the factory, not to mention the factory emissions and problems with their groundwater.

Water drawn from wells in the area is murky and has a bad smell. Many residents prefer to buy water sold by residents who are customers of the local tap water company.

After living with the situation for almost 15 years, residents decided not to stay quiet any longer, filing a complaint with the Surabaya municipal council.

The municipal council persuaded the municipality, through the provincial environmental office, to check the groundwater in the area for pollutants and to test the air around the factory in the middle of 2004.

Water pollutants in the area were found to exceed the normal standard density of 64 milligrams per liter.

Fifteen residents of Lebak Jaya are suffering from lung disease, with three of them dying, while dozens of others have bronchitis, pharyngitis and frequent diarrhea.

Data from the East Java branch of the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi) indicated that many married women in the area suffered from sterility, ovarian cancer and abnormal births.

The Surabaya municipal council recommended that the provincial administration close down the gold processing plant.

However, the plant, which was built in the 1990s, continues to operate to this day.

"The situation has not changed," Agung, a Lebak Jaya resident, told The Jakarta Post recently.

This is not the only area in the province struggling with pollution problems. The head of the East Java branch of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), Hartoyo, recently announced that 16 companies in East Java were violating pollution regulations.

The companies are located in large cities such as Surabaya, Sidoarjo, Gresik, Pasuruan, Mojokerto, Malang and Nganjuk.

"All 16 companies have polluted the soil and rivers in East Java," said Hartoyo during a hearing with Commission D of the provincial legislature.

The companies, which are being investigated by the provincial police, were identified only by their initials: PT UBS, PT SPM and PT WJ (Surabaya); CV TPI and PT WS (Sidoarjo); PT TAS, PT MP and PT TMS (Gresik); CV LJ, PT SC and PT SSL (Pasuruan); PT DS (Mojokerto); PT EMF and PT PBA (Malang); and PT JK (Nganjuk).

Two of the companies have been fined by district courts. They are PT Sorini Corporation in Pasuruan and PT Djabes Sejati in Mojokerto.

"PT Sorini Corporation has been fined Rp 1 million and PT Djabes Sejati Rp 500,000," said Hartoyo.

A case involving PT TIS is still making its way through the Sidoarjo District Court.

Meanwhile, the South Surabaya Police discovered hazardous waste of the B3 type (highly flammable and not recyclable) being disposed of at the Jambangan dump at the end of March.

According to Government Regulation No. 18/1999 on the environment, such waste can only be disposed of at the Cileungsi dump in Bogor, West Java.

After an investigation, the police found a number of serious violations, including the forging of scrap waste disposal permits and the illegal disposal of hazardous waste.

The police have identified two suspects but have not detained or charged either man.

The East Java branch of Walhi does not believe either the police or Bapedal are doing enough to deal with pollution in the province, pointing out that the authorities have not used Law No. 23/1997 on environmental management to punish polluters.

For example, the two companies that were fined Rp 1 million and Rp 500,000 respectively in district courts, could have faced fines of up to Rp 500 million if charged under Law No. 23/1997.

"Fines of Rp 1 million and Rp 500,000 mean nothing to polluting companies. The money is not enough to repair the environment damaged by their pollution. The government is not serious about handling pollution case," said the executive director of East Java Walhi, Saiful Ashadi.

Health & education

Government needs valid database on the poor

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Jakarta -- Sutinah and her husband, residents of Rawa Badak, North Jakarta, have to feed six children, not to mention her parents, who all live in the same house. Rundown and crammed with cheap plastic furniture, their 30-square-meter dwelling represents the family's difficult economic condition well.

Despite the fact that government health subsidies for the poor have been available since 1999, Sutinah, a 37-year-old mother, and her family have only enjoyed the free health care service for two years.

"I did not have the time to do the paperwork to obtain the kartu sehat (health card) since I had to work," she said. Her business, a door-to-door laundry service, was extremely time-consuming, she explained.

"But, when I delivered our third baby, things became so expensive that my husband decided to ask for the health card," she said, showing a stained green card labeled Kartu Gakin 2003, bearing the names of her family members.

Although the family's living quarters should have been proof enough, they had to spend considerable time applying for the service before receiving the assistance already earmarked for them.

"Previous Social Safety Net health programs, aimed at giving support to poor families, were ineffective," the head of the Indonesian Health Consumer Empowerment Foundation, Marius Widjajarta, said on Friday.

Earlier programs were not well monitored, with the funds disbursed directly to health care providers, such as doctors, hospitals and community health centers, without having a solid database to identify poor people in the country, he said.

He said YPKKI found out that some families were getting more than one card and selling the extra card for Rp 150,000 (US$16.30) to Rp 300,000 in Cilincing and Purwakarta, West Java.

"We hope that the disbursement of the current health subsidies in the form of insurance will be based on valid data," Marius said.

The new data compiled by state-owned health insurance company PT Askes and local administrations indicates there are 60 million people eligible for the government's program to assist those hardest hit by the recent fuel price hikes -- not the 36 million recorded by the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) last year.

The new figure accounts for more than a quarter of the country's population.

However, an expert said he doubted the validity of the larger number.

Gadjah Mada University professor Mubyarto told The Jakarta Post the criteria to define poverty should be based on the financial ability to cover primary needs, including health and education, and not the $2 daily income stated by the World Bank.

Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said that such a large increase in the estimated poor population was realistic and was not caused by the fuel price hike.

"The number would have probably been that large even before the fuel price hike, if the previous data compiling process had been accurate," she said.

After having completed validating the data on poor people, the government now had to monitor and evaluate the performance of the program, Marius said.

"If we still find problems in identifying and distributing the health cards in the future, maybe the government will need to make the mechanism for issuing the cards part of a binding law or regulation," he said.

Armed forces/defense

Controversy as Sjafrie given key defense post

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- The Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday a major reshuffle that has seen Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin take up the key post of secretary-general.

The appointment of Sjafrie, who has been linked to human rights violations in Jakarta and East Timor, comes as defense minister Juwono Sudarsono steps up efforts to restore full military ties between Indonesia and the United States.

A decree on the reshuffle, signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono late on Wednesday, also assigned Juwono to take over the work of outgoing director general of defense planning Mas Widjaja, pending the appointment of his replacement.

Defense ministry spokesman A. Aziz Manaf, who unveiled the reshuffle, would not disclose the reason why the President was keeping the post vacant. Indra Djati Sidi, currently the director general of primary and secondary education at the Ministry of National Education, was earlier assumed to be a candidate to fill Widjaja's shoes.

As a result of the reshuffle, Maj. Gen. Dadi Susanto, who is intelligence assistant to TNI's chief of general affairs Vice Marshal Wartoyo, was named director general of defense strategy, replacing Maj. Gen. (ret) Sudrajat. Dadi was the defense attache at the Indonesian Embassy in the US in 2000.

The director general of defense empowerment at the defense ministry, Rear Marshal Pitter Watimena, was shifted to the Directorate General of Procurement, replacing Maj. Gen. (ret) Aqlani Maza. Pitter's old post went to Brig. Gen. Suryadi.

"The reshuffle was conducted in coordination with the ministry and TNI headquarters." Aziz said.

Apart from the structural appointments, Juwono also picked businessman Adnan Gantoe and former National Resilience Institute governor Lt. Gen. (ret) Sofyan Effendi as his economic and military advisors respectively. Juwono will install the new officials on Friday.

Adnan Gantoe is an Aceh native who now runs Morgan Bank, while Sofyan once served as Aceh military commander.

Rights activist Usman Hamid of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said the reshuffle was a reflection of the government's failure to promote internal reform within the military.

"It has maintained the impunity for controversial military officers with poor human rights track records," Usman said, referring to Sjafrie.

Sjafrie was the Jakarta military commander when the capital was hit by ethnic riots that led to the ouster of former dictator Soeharto in May 1998. Thousands died in the rampage. Sjafrie also served in East Timor when widespread violence broke out after the autonomy plebiscite in 1999.

Commenting on the criticism, Sjafrie said: "It doesn't matter. The public will see who is right. The most important thing for me is that the accusations have never been proven, even outside a court." He said he would focus on helping the ministry draw up broad national defense policies.

Deputy chairman of House Commission I for defense Effendy Choirie expected Sjafrie's appointment would not affect Indonesia's efforts in seeking the lifting of the US arms embargo, which has been in effect since the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre in Dili, East Timor in 1991.

TNI won't demand payment for business takeovers

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- The Indonesian military (TNI) will not seek financial compensation in return for the relinquishment of its businesses to the state, but has asked the government to improve the welfare of soldiers.

TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said on Thursday that the military's top brass had agreed not to seek compensation from the government since the decision to withdraw from business was part of the TNI's compliance to the prevailing military laws.

"We will not ask for any financial returns since it is our obligation and commitment not to be involved in any business activities. But the government should seek other ways to improve the welfare of the troops," said Endriartono at the State Palace.

Law No. 34/2004 on the TNI (not No. 32/2004 as mentioned before) stipulates that the government must take over all business activities of the military within the next five years as part of sweeping reforms. The law bans soldiers from involvement in any businesses to ensure the military focuses on defense, not commerce, and its professionalism is boosted.

The military has been involved in businesses since the country gained independence in 1945 -- with the government failing to meet the military's financial needs -- but it actually flourished at the beginning of the New Order era in the early 1970s. Almost 70 percent of the TNI's annual budget comes from its business activities. Business assets owned by the military are estimated to be worth up to 10 trillion (US$1.06 billion).

Endriartono said, once the government took over the businesses, the military would not intervene in any future policies issued by any ministry, or ministries, which were tasked to manage, oversee or supervise the companies after the takeovers.

"We won't have any authority once the business entities are taken over by the government. But I expect businesses that are running at a loss will be shut down, while profitable ones should be managed for the welfare of the soldiers," he said.

The TNI announced earlier that it would divest its vast business interests within the next two years to the government since the enactment of the TNI law last year.

Meanwhile, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said that as a consequence of taking over the businesses, the government would significantly increase military spending. "We have to pay attention to their welfare," he said.

At present, a task force headed by Juwono is still assessing the business entities run by the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and TNI headquarters. The entities are in the form of companies, foundations and cooperatives.

He said the assessment would be completed in October before a special team consisting of officials from various ministries would come to a decision on the mechanism for the takeovers.

"In October we will decide what to do with the businesses. We will examine them and draw up a plan. The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights will deal with the legal aspects while the Office of the State Minister of State Enterprises will take care of the business side," said Juwono.

Military vows to give up business interests

Radio Australia - April 13, 2005

Indonesia's powerful military has volunteered to close up shop on its huge business empire -- three years earlier than the law requires. The armed forces commander, General Endriatono Sutarto, made the decision with the apparent agreement of the heads of the army, navy and air force. The surprise announcement puts renewed pressure on the government in Jakarta to come up with the money to fully fund the military.

Presenter/Interviewer: Karon Snowdon, Finance Correspondent

Speakers: Bob Lowry, former Australian defence force attache; Professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Humanities Deputy Chair at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

Snowdon: Bringing down the shutters on the multi-billion dollar business empire of Indonesia's military is easier said than done. Its tentacles reach into big and small businesses, legal and illegal, from hotels and construction to logging and arms sales.

It all started as a means to fund its operations because the government, since the Suharto years, has paid only one third of the military's budget. But it's developed into get-rich schemes of the powerful and has bred some of the worst and most dangerous corruption in Indonesia.

Professor Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Humanities Deputy Chair at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, says the news from military headquarters is to be welcomed.

Anwar: Usually strong resistance from within the military itself and now the statement being made by the military commander, I think that's a good sign.

Snowdon: As one of the new President's often quoted commitments to rooting out official corruption this is the most important first step, according to an expert on the matter, Bob Lowry, a former Australian defence force attache.

Lowry: Well if it carries across the whole of the public services and the police force it will be quite significant because the President has already declared war on corruption, and this should be seen as part of that general process of professionalising not only the military, but the public service overall and the police force as well.

Snowdon: We wish them luck actually...

Lowry: Yeah that's right exactly, it's a difficult process and you have to start with the military and the police, because if you don't start with the military and the police the chances of you carrying it through to the rest of the public service is pretty slim.

Snowdon: It wasn't possible to contact the military for a comment, but it revealed last week one of its officers is being held on suspicion of being involved in the most recent controversy involving the military.

The world's largest illegal logging racket was last month uncovered by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, in cooperation with Indonesian authorities.

The smuggling of 300-thousand cubic metres of one species every month from Papua to China contributes to Indonesia's loss of forests the size of Switzerland every year.

Whether this contributed to General Endriartono's press conference announcement is open to conjecture.

Rather the two year deadline to sell out the military's businesses probably has more to do with getting the parliament to work faster at ensuring the military's budget is increased. Bob Lowry again.

Lowry: There are probably two things, first of all there is a push both from probably from the President and from overseas governments for them to professionalise more quickly, but there is also the question of the government's budget process and the military's been trying various ways to get the government to increase, especially the parliament to agree to increase its budget.

Snowdon: So is this General Endriartono pushing back?

Lowry: No it's probably something he wants to do and he's indicated on various occasions that he wants to professionalise the military, but he can't do it without increased government funding.

Snowdon: So are we to assume that General Endriartono is a committed reformer from this action?

Lowry: He's certainly given indications of that in the past, but he's always said that to reform requires that the government increase the formal defence budget.

Snowdon: And how's the Indonesian government going to do that, it's going to cost an awful lot isn't it?

Lowry: Well a lot of the money made from business doesn't actually flow to operations, military operations, it flows to fleshing out the pockets of senior military officers. So it's not necessarily so that the government has to replace the total off- budget income that the military's receiving.

Snowdon: The new law enacted last year set what is probably a more realistic five year timetable for the changes supported by the Defence Minister.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar sees the two year deadline as a good will gesture on the part of the military leadership. Whatever the timeframe proves to be, many officers are going to be unhappy at the prospect of losing substantial ill-gotten gains.

Anwar: Most people don't think that Indonesia as a nation is committed to move forward from a more consolidated democracy to the development of a more professional military. So I don't think that people who have enjoyed privileges will be happy, but certainly in order to make it work the government should not only take the businesses away from the military, but that they should be given compensation, they should be given enough salary to live on and they should be given enough hardware to be a professional military.

Government to assess TNI businesses before taking over

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- The government is now in the process of quantifying all enterprises belonging the Indonesian Military (TNI) to obtain accurate data before it moved to take them over.

State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto said a special task force set up by the Ministry of Defense was still detailing the businesses run by the Army, Navy and the Air Force before his ministry would be involved further.

"After the defense ministry completes its data on the businesses, we will then assess the performance and the profile of the enterprises," he said at the State Palace on Wednesday.

Sugiharto said he expected the businesses would be put under his ministry's supervision until after there was a decision to take them over, or there were clear details about the businesses.

Business assets owned by the military are estimated to be worth up to 10 trillion (US$1.06 billion).

The government is planning to take over all military-related businesses in an endeavor to make the military professional and help improve the welfare of soldiers.

Law No. 32/2004 on the TNI stipulates that the government must take over all business activities of the military within the next five years as part of sweeping reforms. The law strictly bans soldiers from involvement in any businesses to ensure the military focuses on defense, not commerce.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie, meanwhile, said the government's fact finding process was not a financial audit.

"We are unlikely to audit the companies until after we take them over and turn them into state enterprises. We will audit them later on [after the acquisition], and if there is a problem in their books we will fix them immediately," he said.

Aburizal said the government had no plans to immediately bail out the companies if they suffered losses or were heavily indebted.

The military has been involved in numerous businesses since the beginning of former president Soeharto's New Order era in the early 1970s when the government was unable to meet the military's financial needs. Almost 70 percent of the TNI's annual budget comes from its business activities.

Both Sugiharto and Aburizal, however, could not say when the management transfer would begin, which enterprises would first be taken over, whether the military would get compensation from any takeovers, or whether military personnel would be allowed to be part of the management of the new businesses.

Army forms seven more battalions for conflict areas

Media Indonesia - April 14, 2005

[Excerpt from report by Indonesian newspaper Media Indonesia web site on 14 April.]

Jakarta -- KSAD (Chief of Army Staff) Lt-Gen Djoko Santoso said that the army was readying seven additional battalions to restore stability in conflict areas, namely Aceh, Poso and Papua [Irian Jaya].

"These additional battalions will be tasked with stabilising security in a number of trouble spots," said KSAD. He was speaking during a break in the Army's Unit Commander and Leadership Conference held in I Division Kostrad headquarters at Cilodong, Bogor yesterday (Wednesday 13 April).

Three extra battalions will be sent to Aceh, three to Papua and the other one will go to Poso. KSAD said that the addition of these battalions demonstrated a commitment by the army to do its utmost to restore security in conflict regions. The formation of the seven additional battalions was in its early stages and would be completed shortly.

KSAD added that generally, the threat to Indonesian sovereignty was becoming more and more evident and it was therefore necessary to anticipate and move additional forces to areas deemed to be trouble spots.

When asked to consider the possibility of army troops perpetrating human rights violations in conflict areas, KSAD stressed that TNI would be improving the sense of duty and discipline within the psyche of its personnel by providing training on legal ramifications, discipline and protection of human rights when carrying out their duties in operational areas.

"So we will not have any more soldiers breaching procedures, regulations or violating human rights," he said.

The army would also increase monitoring of its military administration system to prevent the misappropriation of operational funds. It would be obligatory to account for all spending transparently.

TNI Professionalism

At the same event, TNI Commander Gen Endriartono Sutarto emphasised solidarity and professionalism in his soldiers. These were the key elements in facing up to and removing any threats to security and defence.

"TNI solidarity is the main thing and most important when facing up to every challenge," he said after he briefed the conference.

[BBC Worldwide Monitoring Service.]

TNI to divest businesses in two years: Endriartono

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- In a bid to boost professionalism, the Indonesian Military (TNI) has decided divest its vast business interests within the next two years, TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono said.

The announcement to completely withdraw from the business sector faster than initially planned was made following a meeting on Tuesday at TNI headquarters with top military brass including the three military chiefs of staff.

Speaking to reporters, Endriartono said that loss-making businesses would be shut down, while profitable ones would be either acquired by the government or sold to the private sector.

He did not provide details on how the divestment process would be carried out.

Under Law No. 34/2004 on the military, commercial ventures acquired by the TNI during the former dictatorship of President Soeharto must be surrendered within five years.

Critics have argued that the military's involvement in business activities has increased corruption and undermined military professionalism.

Endriartono acknowledged that the involvement of the military in the business sector had provided ways for certain TNI personnel to engage in what he termed "negative behavior", instead of using the businesses to improve soldiers' welfare.

Law No. 32/2004 on the TNI stipulates that the government must take over all business activities of the military within five years as part of sweeping reforms within this once all-powerful institution. The new law strictly forbids soldiers from involvement in any business activity in order to ensure professionalism in the military and to ensure that all military personnel focus on their primary role, national defense.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono, along with several related ministers, including State Minister of State Enterprises, previously said that the government would take over military business enterprises that have assets worth more than Rp 5 billion (US$526,000), while smaller ones would continue to be owned by the TNI.

As a consequence of the stripping of TNI's business interests, the government plans to increase military spending, which is currently the lowest in the region, as the state could only currently cover around 30 percent of the defense budget.

The TNI has been involved in numerous businesses since the late 1950s because the government was unable to meet the military's budgetary needs.

Almost 70 percent of the TNI's annual budget comes from its business activities, and Endriartono warned the state to start designing concepts "on how it will deal with military (financial) needs."

Business & investment

Traders blame hypermarkets for decreasing earnings

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2005

Jakarta -- When Amisah, 47, and her husband opened their business at Senen Market in Central Jakarta in 1976, their income steadily increased until it reached as high as Rp 75,000 (US$8.3) per day in the 1980s.

Now, however, they are complaining that their earnings have steadily decreased, with an average income of Rp 35,000 daily due to mushrooming hypermarkets in the capital.

"Would you have guessed that I could earn up to Rp 75,000 per day during the 80s? Now I only earn about Rp 35,000," she said.

Amisah and her husband opened their business in 1976, when the Senen Market first opened. They sell mainly vegetables and fruit. According to her, she could earn more previously because she had more power when customers would bargain.

"People were willing to pay high prices for fruit and vegetables. Now, they will leave if I do not want to reduce my price," she said.

Darus, 40, a local resident, has observed a decrease in visitors since the Atrium Plaza was built.

"I think that the situation is due to the existence of Atrium Plaza," he said. "It is just across the road from one of the market's blocks." The Matahari Department Store logo on the Atrium Plaza, only 300 meters away, can be seen over the asbestos roof of the vendors' stalls. According to City Decree No. 2/2002, any non-traditional retail store like the Matahari Department Store, which sells food among its products, with a floor size of up to 200 square meters must be located at least half a kilometer from a traditional market, while a hypermarket with a floor size of more than 4,000 square meters must be at least two-and-a-half kilometers from a traditional market.

Many hypermarkets in the capital, however, are located very close to traditional markets. For example, Slipi Plaza in West Jakarta, which also has a Matahari Department Store, is located just a few hundred meters away from the Slipi traditional market.

The bylaw also requires large shopping centers and commercial complexes to allocate between 10 percent and 20 percent of their space for informal, traditional or small-and-medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Most companies managing shopping centers, however, opt to pay a sum of money to the administration as compensation to the SMEs for the space that should have been allocated for them. While legal, this practice has long been criticized by councillors and others, as most of the compensation money does not go to the SMEs.

Even the commercial complex touted to have been the first to embrace the law, the Jakarta City Center in Waduk Melati, Central Jakarta, allocates no more than 6 percent of its space for SMEs.

Out of the total area of 13.6 hectares, located in Waduk Melati, Central Jakarta, only 7,200 square meters, or no more than 6 percent, will be dedicated for what it calls an SME center.

Much of the five-story wholesale center will be occupied by offices, a hotel and a convention center.

This commercial complex is about 400 meters from Kebon Melati traditional market, 800 meters from Kebon Jati market and one kilometer from Gandaria market.

The developer, PT Jakarta Realty, asserted last year that the center would be fully operational by the end of 2005.

The Indonesian Market Retailers Association (APPSI) alleged last week that the city administration had ignored the decree by allowing mini-markets, supermarkets and hypermarkets to be built too close to traditional markets.

"Nine traditional markets have closed so far, due to the violation of this decree. If this continues, it will be the end of the 151 traditional markets left in Jakarta," a member of the APPSI advocacy group, Ryad Charil, said.

Hypermarkets kill small businesses: Traders' group

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Jakarta -- The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) is looking into allegations that the city administration has violated regulations on hypermarket development in the capital.

The Indonesian Market Retailers Association's (APPSI) Jakarta branch chairman Hasan Basri said that the rapid development of hypermarkets had ruined the businesses of traditional market retailers in the city.

"Most hypermarkets are built without considering the survival of little people like us. The Jakarta administration seems to take the side of large businesses and break its own rules," he said on Friday.

According to City Decree No. 2/2002, a hypermarket with a floor size of up to 200 square meters must be located at least half a kilometer from a traditional market, while a hypermarket with a floor size of more than 4,000 sq m must be at least two-and-a- half km from a traditional market.

The decree also stipulates that between 10 to 20 percent of a hypermarket building must be allocated for traditional or informal businesses.

Hasan alleged that most hypermarkets in the capital were located close to traditional markets, causing nine traditional markets to close down and affecting the lives of thousands of retailers.

"I just want to say that the traditional market retailers in Indonesia are not afraid to take a stand on this matter. The market vendors are now so angry that they could start closing the hypermarkets down themselves," he said.

"We don't, however, want to do that. That's why we came here to ask the KPPU to help us deal with the municipal administration ourselves," Hasan added.

A member of the APPSI's advocacy group, Ryad Charil, said, "If such flagrant violations of the law continue, it will be the end of the 151 traditional markets left in Jakarta." According to Ryad, a study conducted by AC Nielsen indicates that the growth rate of traditional markets in Indonesia is currently 8 percent. Comparatively, the growth rate of hypermarkets and franchises is about 32 percent a year.

"The growth has contributed to the closure of nine traditional markets so far," he added.

Some traditional market retailers, who attended the meeting, shouted and demanded that the KPPU pay attention to their plight and help them ensure that any hypermarkets breaking the law are shut down.

"We are only little people affected by the monopoly of the business giants," one said, complaining that the French supermarket franchise, Carrefour, had monopolized supplies.

"Some retailers must now go to buy their stock from Carrefour because the suppliers will not sell to us anymore, therefore we are forced to resell it at a higher price than they offer," he added.

KPPU commissioner Pande Radja Silalahi said that the KPPU would do its best to tackle the problem.

"Legal violations are an issue that we take seriously. We have actually predicted the negative effects of hypermarket growth, based on our experience, working on the previous Indomart case," he said.

KPPU member Mohammad Iqbal said that the principle of democratic economics is a factor that needs to be seriously considered by the government.

"If the government empowers the traditional markets, they can survive," he said.

"Outside Indonesia, for example in Singapore and Japan, the law only allows big hypermarkets to operate outside the city fringes, which means that customers must use their cars to get to those places." "But in Indonesia, regional administrations are not yet capable of doing such things," he said. "We must ensure that competition only exists between markets of the same size and type." He added that the KPPU is restricted to pressuring the local government to properly enforce regulations. However, he said, other problems outside of legal violations, such as pricing, can be directly handled by the commission.

Opinion & analysis

Rooting out corruption

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 13, 2005

The first of many, or just one of the few. That is the question on many lips after the conviction of Abdullah Puteh on corruption charges.

The 10-year sentence imposed on the suspended Aceh governor -- found guilty for the illegal mark-up of a helicopter purchase -- is a tribute to this nation's anticorruption drive and a shot in the arm for a government eager to back up its campaign promise of zero tolerance for corruption with concrete action.

But we have been in this situation before -- high profile case, big headlines, severe punishment, reprieve and back to business as usual.

Puteh's conviction, irrespective of whether the verdict is overturned on appeal, represents a positive first step for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). It serves as a test case of the KPK's ability to investigate and build a case for prosecutors to take to the Anticorruption Court against a senior and powerful local official.

It attaches credence to both novel institutions -- the KPK and the Anticorruption Court -- as jointly forming the vanguard against the pillaging of state resources.

The KPK is investigating other cases that will likely be taken to court in the near future. The outcomes of these cases will either solidify or negate the perception of the KPK as being able to bring those who engage in corruption to account.

High profile cases such as Puteh's and the others being investigated by the KPK by themselves will do little to prevent malfeasance in the future. However, they constitute an essential factor in the success of any system that is put in place to deter corruption.

The investigation and conviction of senior officials will do wonders in shaping moral standards. In a hierarchical society, such as Indonesia's, where the voice of the public is only now beginning to be taken into account, norms and values are defined by those at the apex of the societal structure. If the public perceives their leaders as being able to get away with "murder", than the only logical conclusion is that such behavior is acceptable.

The conviction of people like Puteh also empowers the general public. It ends the cycle of impunity often attached to individuals of rank and wealth.

Furthermore, this latest case helps prove that Indonesia now truly has an independent mechanism -- free from political influence and executive intervention -- to deal with corruption.

The KPK and Anticorruption Court will become, we hope, the new "untouchables", relentlessly pursuing those who would sacrifice the public weal to their personal greed.

With such a good start, it is now important for the public to get involved. To assist in the disclosure of information and the maintenance of the KPK's moral parameters so as to ensure that its members do not succumb to the same temptations as those whom it is investigating.

It is important to also note that one solitary case will not be sufficient. Honesty is a state of mind, not a single, defining action. More Putehs need to sit in the dock, and several guilty verdicts will have to be handed down before this nation can even begin to claim that it is on the way to eradicating corruption.

"Anticorruption" is as overused a word as reform. Everyone of our last four presidents -- Soeharto, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri -- waxed lyrically about eradicating corruption and launched high profile anticorruption campaigns. All of which were to no avail. Not one of these even began to correct the international perception of Indonesia as being one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Worst of all, not a few of these four presidents left office under a cloud of suspicion of having facilitated, if not directly participated in, the misappropriation of state funds.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has made corruption eradication a key part of his election platform. He has repeatedly declared, both at home and abroad, his stance of zero tolerance for corruption and that no one will be immune to prosecution.

Puteh's conviction represents too small a step to be taken as proof positive that the President's promises are more than mere rhetoric. We need more proof, visible action and tangible policies before we can say that we are now finally weeding out the corruptors and doing what's right for the nation.

Acehnese, Islam and foreigners

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2005

Aguswandi, London -- Do the Acehnese hate foreigners? Do they want the many foreign aid workers laboring to help them to leave their villages? Are the Acehnese, you may ask, fanatical Muslims? The departure of some foreign aid groups and all foreign troops from Aceh signaled the supposed end of what the government called the emergency post-tsunami period (not to be confused with the civil emergency still in place ion Aceh), and given some of the mendacious statements made about the foreign presence in Aceh in this period, it is important to offer some clarification about the Acehnese, Islam and their view of foreigners.

Without such clarification the path is left clear for incorrect assessments, like last month's statement by Indonesian defense minister Juwono Sudarsono in Washington D.C. Juwono reportedly hinted that Christian groups needed to leave Aceh because the locals were uncomfortable with their presence.

The same could be said of the actions of members of some militant Islamic groups being allowed into Aceh. In a mosque in Banda Aceh, members of these groups have urged the Acehnese to rise up against foreigners. They have also been very active writing graffiti such as "Foreigners out of Aceh" in some areas. Some groups have also spread rumors that foreign aid workers are attempting to Christianize local people.

However, in a refugee camp in Aceh Besar, an image quite contrary to these sentiments could be seen. A banner raised by Acehnese stated, "Don't leave Aceh", in an appeal to foreign aid workers. Even more interestingly, in western areas in Aceh, people prefer to seek medical aid from foreign posts than from the nearby government post. In many places the locals have greeted foreigners with a warm welcome. Many of those asked have stated that they are very grateful for the presence of numerous foreign troops and foreign aid workers.

So while we are hearing statements about the Acehnese hating foreigners from non-Acehnese groups claiming to speak on behalf of the locals, we can also see quite clearly that the locals actually feel very comfortable with the presence of so many foreigners in their villages. What is dangerous is if outsiders have little or no knowledge about Aceh, as they may believe that the locals really do not want a foreigner presence as they are fanatical Islamists.

Misrepresenting the Acehnese as fanatical and claiming that they hate foreigners, and Christian groups more specifically, is just one of the cheap propaganda lines being put out about Aceh. It is quite easy to present the local community as hostile to non- Muslims as the Acehnese are predominantly Muslim. In this odd world of ours today, being a devout Muslim is seen as synonymous with fanaticism or, even worse, terrorism. But in the case of Aceh, as in many others, this is absolutely wrong. The people of Aceh are not fanatics.

It is a historical fact that the Acehnese are immensely tolerant of foreigners, regardless of their religion, skin color or ethnicity. This is in part due to the geographical location of their island, which promoted high flows of travel to and from foreign lands. Historians have made special note of the high level of Acehnese interaction with other peoples, notably during the golden age of Aceh's sultanate. As sociologist Otto Syamsuddin has said, this historical mobility gave the Acehnese a very cosmopolitan legacy.

The ongoing conflict in Aceh has also prompted many Acehnese to broaden their understanding of the meaning of their relationships with other peoples. Those of different religions or skin color can be friends, while those that supposedly share their beliefs may not necessarily be friends.

This has led to a more flexible definition of us and them, foreign and non-foreign, infidel and devoted. Ordinary Acehnese use the word kafir (infidel) in reference to those who visit injustices upon them, regardless of their religion. This word can also apply to Muslims. Infidels may be friends, irrespective of their religion, as long as they do not visit injustice on the locals. The issue here is not one of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, the only infidel is a perpetrator of cruelty.

As a result of the lack of Muslim solidarity for the plight of the Acehnese, many Acehnese distrust Muslim nationalists in Indonesia. A clear indication of this fear can be seen in the many demands by Acehnese groups for the international community to help them resolve the conflict in Aceh. The Acehnese understanding of what it means to be Islamic has become increasingly inclusive. The province's Islam is becoming somewhat unique; friendly to those that have different beliefs, and deeply suspicious of some of those who claim to share the same religious values as them.

It was, therefore, an absurdity when in 2001 the central government imposed sharia (Islamic) law in Aceh. They suggested that it would be a route to solving the conflict in the province. Yet the locals had not been asking for sharia, they had been asking for justice to be done and for those that had committed crimes against the Acehnese to be, regardless of their religion, brought to justice. The present conflict in Aceh has nothing to do with religion. It is a conflict based on injustice practices and policies from a central government -- which happens largely to be Muslim as well.

People of different faiths are not a problem for the locals because the most important thing is not the name of their faith, but what these people are doing in Aceh. This was clear even during the 1998 riots across Indonesia where Chinese and Christian communities were targeted -- yet this did not happen in Aceh. Those groups felt safe in Aceh. There has never been any conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims in Aceh. There have been no incidents caused by religion disputes. There are two major Christian churches in Aceh, and not only did they survive the tsunami but they have been protected by locals from any harm.

Islam has often been used by interested elements, predominantly non-Achenese, to distract people from the real issues in Aceh. Now, once again, the fact that the Acehnese are Muslim is being used to drive a wedge between those that would help and those that need help. This must be challenged and prevented from undermining the reconstruction and the longer-term peace process in Aceh.

[The writer is an Acehnese human rights activist working for the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign in London.]

Human rights: Between image and reality

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2005

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta -- The trouble with praise or accolades is that when you get too much, you get too high. And at the ongoing 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Indonesia is getting plenty of praise, and deservedly so, one might argue.

Virtually all of the 52 delegations to the commission, when taking the floor for the first time, have complemented Indonesia on its successful democratic and peaceful elections last year. They also have praised the appointment of Makarim Wibisono, Indonesia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, as chair of this year's session. His appointment to lead this prestigious rights agency is seen as recognition of Indonesia's current international standing when it comes to the issues of democracy and human rights.

Indonesian delegates to the six-week gathering have not missed an opportunity to highlight the achievements the country has made in recent years in forging a democracy and addressing human rights problems at home.

There will be more praise this month when Indonesia hosts the Asia-Africa Summit and the 50th year commemoration of the Asia- Africa Conference in Bandung. This historic gathering in the West Java town of Bandung in 1955 sent a powerful message to the world of the demand of people in Asia and Africa for their most basic right: independence.

Let us indulge in this praise and let us bask in the international spotlight. It is not often that this country gets such attention from all corners of the world for the right reasons. In the recent past, the spotlight has been turned on us mostly for the wrong reasons, such as man-made and natural catastrophes.

But at the same time, let us not become intoxicated by this lavish praise.

Indonesia has come a long way in the last seven years to claim the designation as the third largest democracy in the world. But we have a long way to go yet in reaching the ideals of a just and prosperous nation, as set out by our founding fathers nearly 60 years ago when they proclaimed Indonesia's independence. Our work is not over yet.

There seems to be a gap, albeit perhaps narrowing, between the image that Indonesia is projecting abroad in its dealings with human rights, and the reality at home.

The promotion and protection of human rights are part and parcel of the means by which we shall attain the lofty goals of the country's founders. That much was agreed upon when the country embarked on the path of reform after the end of the 32-year tyrannical regime of Soeharto in 1998.

Nearly seven years later, we are seeing some of the fruits of our labor. The direct presidential election last year was the culmination of the hard work that went into the national reform agenda since 1998. With all its imperfections, the 2004 election placed Indonesia firmly in the ranks of the world's democracies.

Many more human rights principles are now firmly enshrined in the 1945 Constitution, thanks to a series of amendments carried out in recent years. A new human rights court has been established, and the National Commission on Human Rights has been given greater power to do its job more effectively.

The nation has adopted many of the UN conventions on rights and amended its laws accordingly to comply with the international norms set out in those conventions. The government has assured us that it will soon send the two main UN documents on human rights -- the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights -- to the House of Representatives for ratification.

A new law on a truth and reconciliation commission has been passed, which should enable the nation to face up to its dark past without fear of retribution.

When it comes to human rights, no one can accuse Indonesia of not doing its part in setting up the necessary legal framework, norms and mechanisms.

What we are not doing is very much what the United Nations also is not doing. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, arguing for reform in the way the world body oversees human rights, said in Geneva last week: "The era of declaration is now giving way, as it should, to an era of implementation." In the case of Indonesia, we should usher in an era of consistent implementation.

For in spite of the progress the country claims to have made on the human rights front, not one person has been punished for gross rights violations that we know took place in Aceh, Papua, East Timor when it was under Indonesian occupation, Jakarta and many other places. The perpetrators, whether they were part of the state apparatus of the Soeharto regime or not, are still roaming free.

Impunity remains the rule here rather than the exception when it comes to dealing with human rights violations, just as it is with corruption cases.

As long as impunity remains the order of the day violations will continue unabated, and Indonesia will be unable to claim to be part of the global human rights mainstream.

Punishing the perpetrators will go a long way toward closing the gap between Indonesia's image of a nation championing the cause of human rights, as projected here in Geneva, and the hard reality back home.

Ambassador Makarim has warned that unless we change the reality, it will soon catch up with our image. When that happens, it will be difficult for Makarim and his team of diplomats to sustain Indonesia's current high international standing on human rights.

[The writer is chief editor of The Jakarta Post. He visited Geneva at the invitation of the Indonesian Mission to the United Nations.]

Both sides must grasp chance for Aceh peace

South China Morning Post editorial - April 11, 2005

Some positive statements made by both sides ahead of the Aceh peace talks, which resume today, suggest a historic agreement may be in the making.

Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla told this newspaper last week he hoped a deal could be struck by July, bringing almost 30 years of conflict to an end. A spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) later expressed cautious optimism about the negotiations. He said the rebel separatist movement expected "something positive" to be achieved.

These constructive statements reflect the momentum for peace that has been building since December's tsunami. Aceh was the biggest victim of the disaster.

The huge relief effort that followed has brought the troubled province under renewed international scrutiny. Both the government and the rebels seem to appreciate that the ambitious reconstruction plans for Aceh currently taking shape will be hindered and possibly frustrated unless a peace deal is struck.

But there are some very big obstacles to overcome if the negotiations are going to be successful. The first two rounds of talks earlier this year have brought the two sides closer. GAM has accepted that the talks will go nowhere if it pushes for independence. It has sensibly agreed to focus on "self- government" instead, although this term has not yet been defined.

Jakarta prefers to talk about "special autonomy" for the province, a description which at least some of the rebels do not find acceptable, as some of them made clear yesterday.

In practice, it should not matter what the arrangements are called. It is much more important to develop a detailed plan and to start with areas upon which the two sides are able to agree. The priority must be to build trust.

Key issues are expected to be discussed in Helsinki over the next six days.

They include the crucial self-governance question, but also security arrangements -- including the withdrawal of Indonesian troops. Future economic ties and the monitoring of any peace deal are also likely to feature. There is a hope that a political solution based on democratic elections for Aceh's government will be found. That would involve changing the law to enable GAM to stand -- paving the way for it to become a political party instead of a rebel movement.

But the diehards in each camp must be persuaded to accept the need for such a solution. It remains to be seen how much control GAM's exiled political leaders in Sweden have over rebel forces on the ground in Aceh. And the Indonesian government must not allow the vested interests of military leaders -- who have much to gain from a continued presence in the province -- to prevail.

The road ahead will be rough but the talks do offer the chance that something positive could emerge from the terrible tsunami. Both sides should do all they can to make sure the negotiations succeed.