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Indonesia News Digest 31 - August 16-23, 2005
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Jakarta/Semarang/Medan/Surabaya/Jayapura/Cirebon -- Student
protests and record-breaking attempts highlighted the 60th
anniversary of the nation's independence on Wednesday with the
Netherlands formally recognizing the date.
The student protests broke out in Yogyakarta and Surabaya as
students demanded that the government get more serious in
combating corruption. "We have been celebrating independence for
60 years ago, but our country has not been free from corruption.
It's now time that the social disease gets dealt with seriously,"
said Hanta Yuda, the president of UGM's Student Executive Body in
a protest attended by dozens of UGM students. While Yogyakarta
students demanded freedom from corruption, Surabaya students
demanded that the government provide people with affordable
medical care and education, while expressing their opposition to
the evictions of poor people from disputed land.
In Jakarta, in conjunction with the Independence Day celebration,
the Indonesian Record Museum (MURI) gave an award to Sea World
Indonesia after they staged a tug-of-war inside a shark aquarium.
Earlier on the same day, the Semarang-based museum gave awards to
Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) management, which produced the
largest national flag -- 45 meters x 67.5 meters -- and Mangga
Dua Mall, which organized what was believed to be the world's
largest cracker-eating contest (2,940 cracker enthusiasts). Taman
Impian Jaya Ancol organized a greased pole climbing competition
with the largest number of poles every recorded -- 260 in all.
Jakarta's festive mood also prevailed in most other areas of the
nation as millions of people celebrated on the day. In Semarang,
residents celebrated with offices and schools holding flag-
raising ceremonies and with neighborhoods festooned with
red-and-white flags and bunting. Community games were also held
in Semarang's neighborhoods, such as the old standards, the
marble 'n' spoon race and the cracker-eating contest.
In Jayapura, the local administration held a boat race off of Dok
II Beach just in front of the Papua Governor's Office, much to
the delight of the many residents who came out to watch or
participate. Earlier, Papuan Governor J.P. Salossa ordered all
Papuans to actively take part in the celebration of Indonesian
Independence Day.
In Cirebon, West Java, the celebrations were not as festive as
past years as the increase in the price of fuel had reduced the
purchasing power of many local people, forcing them to tighten
their budgets and spend less on the commemoration.
In Medan, North Sumatra, the party was disrupted by choking haze,
which has blanketed the city for the past three days. Due to
health concerns, many residents chose to stay home.
In Denpasar, Bali, convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby
mingled with fellow inmates while they watched a Bali cultural
performance held in conjunction with the independence
observances. The Australian, who in May was given 20 years in
prison for smuggling marijuana into Bali, seemed to enjoy the
cultural performance.
Meanwhile back in the capital, a grand commemoration was held at
the State Palace. This year's was quite special as it was
attended by Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot. After the
celebration, Bot expressed, on behalf of his government, regret
for the suffering that the Netherlands inflicted upon the people
of this nation during the colonial period, which had put it "on
the wrong side of history."
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Jakarta/Tangerang/Bogor -- Blackouts that affected much of Java
and Bali on Thursday resulted in massive traffic jams, stalled
trains and delayed flights in the capital and neighboring towns.
Thousands of train passengers were forced to wait for hours
inside crowded compartments when they were caught between
stations by the blackout. They were also left in the dark by
authorities.
"We are in the middle of nowhere. I do not know how long we have
to wait here or why we are stuck here. I am already late for
work. The thing is, nobody is telling us what is happening. We
are not sure whether to take a bus instead," Rusman, 34, who was
on a train that was stalled between the Tebet and Manggarai
stations, told The Jakarta Post.
That was only one of 28 trains transporting thousands of
passengers from Bekasi, Bogor and Tangerang to Jakarta. The
trains came to a sudden stop when the electricity went off at
about 10:30 a.m.
Thousands of other passengers were left waiting at stations
between Bogor, Kota and Tanah Abang, as well as between Bekasi
and Kota.
In Bogor, station officials returned the money of some 1,000
people who had purchased tickets before the power outage.
The head of the Greater Jakarta operations control center for
state railway company PT KAI, Mauluddin, said railway officials
were unaware of what was going on and thus could not inform
passengers about the blackout.
"PLN did not tell us anything. When we called then, they said
they were not sure. All we can do is tell passengers waiting at
the stations to take another form of transportation," he told the
Post, referring to the state power company.
Mauluddin acknowledged it was difficult to pass on this
information to passengers inside trains stuck between stations.
Later in the afternoon, he told the Post that power had returned
to the railway system at 1:20 p.m.
The blackout also caused chaos on the roads because of the lack
of traffic lights.
Thousands of vehicles crept slowly along Jl. Hayam Wuruk, Jl.
Gajah Mada and Jl. S. Parman in West Jakarta, Jl. Thamrin and Jl.
Sudirman in Central Jakarta, and Jl. MT Haryono and Jl. Gatot
Subroto in South Jakarta.
Rudy, 30, who was caught in the traffic on Jl. Gajah Mada, said
it took him an hour to pass by the street, compared to 20 minutes
in normal conditions.
"All of the drivers were just so selfish. It made the traffic
worse because everyone was trying to be the first to go through
the intersections," he told the Post.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said the police deployed
about 18,000 officers to direct traffic and to secure strategic
locations during the blackout.
"We also sent up several helicopters to monitor the situation
from the air," he said.
The blackout also forced four domestic and four international
fights at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to be delayed.
Waspan, a spokesman for airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, said
the blackout did not cause any serious disturbances to services
at the airport because the backup generator automatically kicked
in when the airport lost power at about 11:30 a.m.
He said the generator was able to supply sufficient power to
vital facilities such as the navigation guidance and passenger
services at the airport terminal.
Aceh
West Papua
Human rights/law
Reconciliation & justice
Labour issues
Corruption/collusion/nepotism
Business & investment
Opinion & analysis
News & issues
Student protests color Independence Day
Power outage paralyzes Jakarta
More troops pulled from Maluku
Jakarta Post - August 22, 2005
Ambon -- More troops were withdrawn from Maluku in response to the prevailing peace in the formerly riot-torn province.
As of Thursday, two battalions of Army soldiers from Jakarta and East Kalimantan, and a company from the Brawijaya Military Command in Surabaya, returned home after a 15-month tour in Maluku. One battalion consists of about 600 troops and one company consists of some 100 troops.
"The number of troops stationed in Maluku is gradually being reduced as security improves. But the Indonesian Military and the police are still maintaining a presence in areas prone to sectarian conflict," said Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Adityawarman on Friday evening.
Maluku province was rocked by sectarian violence between 1999 and 2002 that killed thousands of people. The violence forced hundreds of thousands of residents to flee their homes.
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Protests colored the closing day of the West Java Infrastructure Summit on Friday when about 500 people from Jatigede, Sumedang regency, staged a rally outside the venue at the Savoy Homann hotel in Bandung.
The protesters were objecting to the ongoing dam project in their area, claiming that they had been cheated in the land acquisition compensation payment.
West Java Governor Danny Setiawan has refused to hold talks with the residents, saying the issue had been settled last year. He also claimed the dam construction has received loans from China during President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to the country last month.
"The dam project is under the authority of the government. The government has allocated a loan from China of about Rp 2.7 trillion (US$270 million) and we hope the project development will start next year," Leks Laksmana, the West Java governor's assistant for economic affairs, said.
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Evi Mariani, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara -- While people in big cities begin to take up food combining, complete with the complicated calculations of daily consumed nutrition, most people in villages in Sumba still lag far behind in diet knowledge, regarding eating merely as a way to fill their stomachs.
They even seem to be oblivious to the basic diet credo launched by the government in 1980's: Empat Sehat Lima Sempurna, meaning a diet of four elements, namely carbohydrates, animal protein, plant protein and vitamins will provide you with a healthy diet and adding another element, milk, would give you a perfect diet.
When asked about their daily meals they would answer timidly: "Rice, sometimes mixed with corn." Every day? With no vegetables and protein-rich side dish? "Well...," they usually did not answer clearly. Meat? "Yes, sometimes. We eat meat in parties, like wedding ceremonies, funerals, farewell parties," they said.
Sumbanese people like parties. They usually make any occasion a reason to throw a party. They keep their livestock -- pigs, buffaloes and cows -- for parties or dowry.
Visitors who expect to find red meat in local markets or warung (food stalls) will be disappointed. For many Sumbanese the term for party is even "eating meat".
Strangers also rarely find fish in Sumba, where most people are farmers, not fishermen.
Sumbanese also regard instant noodles as a special side dish in addition to rice.
"Yes, we like instant noodles. We eat it with rice," Rambu Hamu, a schoolteacher in Tanarara, East Sumba, said.
At tiny kiosks in remote villages instant noodles become one of the essential items besides cheap liquor and cigarettes.
The lack of knowledge of a healthy diet leads to malnutrition, which is apparent in their physical appearance. Most Sumbanese people are skinny or slender at best, while some have brownish hair caused by deficiency diseases. Most children are bony and reserved as if they did not have enough energy to be cheerful.
In fact, in June, the statistics on malnutrition recorded East Sumba regency as among three in East Nusa Tenggara that experienced a worrying state of malnutrition.
Of course, poverty is where malnutrition begins.
Sumba island, which now consists of East Sumba and West Sumba regencies, is a place where poverty prevails.
According to poverty information and data issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2004, some 42.04 percent of West Sumba's 400,000 population lived under the poverty line of Rp 93,882 (US$10) a month. Neighboring East Sumba was slightly better off, with 40.32 percent of its 198,186 population living under its poverty line of Rp 110,479.
In comparison, in barren Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta, notorious for the number of its residents who have hanged themselves out of pverty-driven frustration, 25.19 percent of the population struggled on incomes below the poverty line of Rp 121,436 a month.
From 350 regencies all over the archipelago, West Sumba ranks the 336th and East Sumba the 335th in terms of percentage of poor people.
Most people on the island merely subsist rather than earn a living. Although some farmers are wealthier from exporting horses, cows, buffaloes and, more recently, vanilla, most Sumbanese merely grow plants for their subsistence and shepherd other people's cattle on their vast savanna.
The woes of poverty are aggravated by a lack of knowledge about health and facilities.
Due to its topography of hilly, extensive savanna, many Sumbanese live far away from each other and, as a consequence, far away from public facilities like clinics and schools.
On a typical weekday morning, a public area of an elementary school building and a small clinic at a village in Matawai La Pau district looked deserted, with closed doors and windows. The nearest patrons, four families, lived about 10 kilometers north of the buildings.
Nutrition campaigners would certainly have to walk dozens kilometers to reach and talk to the villagers.
However, Sumba people, who are well-known for their stoicism, seem to be at ease with their situation.
As one Sumbanese once told The Jakarta Post: for us, having a meal every single day is enough," said Daniel L. Ledy.
| Aceh |
Agence France Presse - August 23, 2005
Banda Aceh -- At least 60 separatist guerrillas have left their rebel stronghold in Indonesia's Aceh province after a peace pact was signed last week.
The move comes a day after 1,300 Indonesian soldiers withdrew from Aceh province, the first major step by Indonesia to begin implementing the historic peace.
Major Priyo Purwoko, an Aceh military spokesman, confirmed that the rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had descended from their mountain camps and said they would be placed under military protection. "We have received confirmation on the surrender of rebels in South Aceh," he told AFP.
The guerrillas have been leaving their jungle hideouts in groups since the historic peace pact was inked on August 15 and are now staying at a house in Simpang Tiga village in South Aceh district, the state Antara news agency said.
Among the 60 leaving the jungle hideouts were a subdistrict military commander and his deputy, the local subdistrict chief M. Nasir was quoted as saying.
"They have come without their weapons but said that the weapons were currently stored at a particular location and would be surrendered once an order from their superiors is received," Nasir said.
Under the pact, the rebels have to surrender their weapons at specified locations to the international Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), which will be composed of officials from the European Union and Southeast Asia. The mission is only due to begin operations on September 15.
"They have begun to drink coffee with military personnel from the nearest posts there," Nasir said, referring to the popular tradition in staunchly Muslim Aceh for men to socialize at coffee stalls.
South Aceh district military chief, Lieutenant Colonel Jamhur Ismail, told AFP that the rebels would not be officially described as having surrendered until foreign monitors, some of whom are already on the ground preparing for the formal start of the AMM, approve the process.
Several GAM members have surrendered to the authorities, carrying their weapons with them, since August 15, but this is the first reported case of rebels coming out in public without being arrested.
Both sides have said they will refrain from making statements or taking actions which may jeopardise the peace pact, which paves the way for an end to a 29-year conflict in which some 15,000 people have lost their lives.
Fpdra.org - August 22, 2005
Miswar, Banda Aceh -- Indonesian negotiator Sofyan Djalil who is also the minister of information and communication, has started to manipulate the text of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). This could be seen clearly at a press conference held in Banda Aceh where Djalil said that what was meant by local political parties is GAM can establish parties or parties with a local basis and national character. He gave the example of the Abulyatama Party in the 1999 elections.
If in the future GAM wants to establish a party it must fulfil the national criteria, that is must have offices in 16 provenience. If they are only able to establish them in 15 provinces, the government will assist them in fulfilling these standards he explained.
The other issue elaborated on by Djalil was the question of revisions to Law Number 18/2001 on Special Autonomy. Djalil took the occasion to say that a human rights court which was agreed to in the MoU is for human rights violations since the MoU was signed. It will not be retrospective.
In response to this, the chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), Thamrin Ananda, said that Djalil has started the manipulate the text of the MoU in interests of those in power in Jakarta.
On the question of local parties, this is understood by the Acehnese people as meaning every Acehnese person has the right to form a local parties on the basis of active involvement in democracy in Aceh in 2009. In addition to this, what is even worse is the problem of human rights violations which ignore the past and will be unable to address the desire for justice on the part of victims of human rights abuses.
If the perpetrators of human rights crimes remain free and are not tried, then it will become an embryo for the destruction of the peaceful atmosphere as occurred in the earlier peace process said Ananda.
Ananda hopes that Djalil will not act in a counter-productive manner in socialising the MoU to the Acehnese people, because this could disrupt the peace process. "I also hope that the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) and the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) will monitor the results of the socialisation of this agreement. Because this problem is extremely sensitive and contains a risk or threatens to thwart the peace process", he said.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Associated Press - August 21, 2005
Banda Aceh -- Civilians who lost family and friends during a three-decade separatist war in Indonesia's Aceh province deserve justice, rebels said Sunday, days after an agreement was signed to end the fighting that claimed nearly 15,000 lives.
The peace accord paves the way for the creation of a human rights tribunal, but the government says warring factions agreed during negotiations in Finland that the tribunal would not be used retroactively. Only violations that occur after Aug. 15 will be heard.
Rebel spokesman Sofyan Dawood said neither the government nor separatist leaders have the right to make that decision for the victims -- most of whom were civilians. "That should depend on the Acehnese people whose rights were violated," Dawood said. "We cannot claim to represent them."
Human rights groups have accused Indonesian soldiers and police -- and to a lesser extent Free Aceh Movement rebels -- of killings, torture, kidnappings, rape and disappearances during their 29-year conflict.
Many of the alleged atrocities occurred when Aceh was under tight military control and escaped the international spotlight. Before the Dec. 26 tsunami, the province was closed to foreign journalists and aid workers.
Information Minister Sofyan Djalil explained to reporters Sunday that the human rights tribunal is being created for "future needs, not for the past." "The principle we're operating on now is to forgive, but not forget," he said.
The peace deal should ease the flow of aid to victims of the tsunami, which killed more than 131,000 people in Aceh and left half a million homeless.
Though several earlier accords have collapsed, it is seen as the best chance in years to bring a permanent end to the fighting.
Both sides made major concessions this time. The rebels agreed to disarm and gave up their long-held demand for independence, and the government offered the rebels amnesty and the right to political representation.
Indonesia will also withdraw more than half of its 50,000 troops from the oil- and gas-rich province on Sumatra island's northern tip.
Dawood, the rebel spokesman, said he did not object if political leaders in Finland decided that Indonesian troops and rebels fighters should not be held accountable for crimes carried in the course of their conflict.
"This could be considered the consequence of a struggle," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "But they have no right to decide about human rights violations against civilians, the common people."
A rebel commander, Tengku Muksalmina, took an even tougher line, calling for an international tribunal for Aceh -- like the ones held in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. "To be fair, both GAM and Indonesian troops should be held accountable." GAM is the Indonesian abbreviation for the Free Aceh Movement.
Aceh Kita - August 20, 2005
AK-34, Jakarta -- Responding to a plan by the Aceh regional house of representatives (DPRD) to issue a new by-law soon, an activist from the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), Thamrin Ananda, says that they cannot just issue new regulations because there are a number of important issues that must be considered first.
According to Ananda, the DPRD's members which exist today are unable to represent the Acehnese people if viewed in terms of the peoples wishes and not in terms of the results of an undemocratic elections. "The present Aceh DPRD is the result of an election which took place under [a state of] martial law", he told Aceh Kita on Friday August 19.
Ananda also said that amendments to or the passing of new regulations must be done after the next elections, that is in 2009. And if there is such a stipulation in the peace agreement, the DPRD must first consult with the authorities in Aceh, in this case the governor.
In addition to this, Ananda expressed his regret over the position being taken by the armed forces chief who has given the impression he wants to avoid the issue of human rights violations in Aceh. It is wrong not to take up the past, especially on the grounds that the TNI has evidence that human rights violations in Aceh have been committed by the Free Aceh Movement.
Ananda added the comment that retroactivity in human rights courts should not depend upon the perpetrator of the crime. "Whoever is proven to have committed human rights violations must go before the courts, and there is no need for reconciliation", he said. [asf]
[Translated by James Balowski.]
Straits Times - August 20, 2005
Salim Osman, Banda Aceh -- All hopes for peace in the troubled Aceh province now rest on about 200 monitors who will oversee the implementation of the accord, with mistrust still prevailing between the Indonesian government and rebels.
The monitors will supervise key aspects of the accord reached on Monday -- from demobilising the rebels to destroying weapons and supervising the withdrawal of government troops.
Each of these tasks is fraught with difficulties, said analyst Indria Samego from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
The team, known as the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), will comprise unarmed personnel from the European Union and Asean countries. More than 300 elite police guards are expected to provide round-the-clock security for them. The monitors will spend up to a year in Aceh.
The team is slated to begin work on Sept 15 when the rebels are expected to turn in their arms at 12 centres and receive help for reintegrating into society.
Under the accord, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will disband its 3,000 rebels, who have to surrender their arms by December. In return, each combatant will receive 2ha of land and start-up supplies to become a farmer or fisherman in the province.
Rebels and political prisoners will be granted amnesty by the end of this month.
Already, an advance team of 80 AMM officials, led by Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, is in Aceh to do the groundwork, namely to set up the centres and plan their work ahead.
Mr Feith, in his remarks to reporters in Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe, was upbeat that the peace accord could work this time. He said he held enough authority to make the rebels and government abide by the accord.
The Indonesian government has agreed to cut the number of troops by half to 14,700 by December and to reduce the police force to 9,100 by the end of the year. 'This time, the head of mission has a greater authority as recognised by the two parties to take binding decisions,' said Mr Feith.
He added that he had authority over an amnesty arrangement for rebels which forms a crucial part of the pact and that he had greater authority 'in the day-by-day management of the operation' than earlier arrangements.
'If there is no willingness to abide by my decisions, I will report to the highest levels of authority in the government and in the GAM political leadership as well as the European Union and the Asean contributing states,' he said.
The appointment of monitors from the EU and Asean 'provides better leverage to ensure full implementation of the agreement', he added.
The pact stipulates that as a rule, all disputes will be resolved by the head of the monitoring mission, whose decisions will be binding on the parties.
Previous attempts to end the 30-year-old conflict had ended in failure partly because of the ineffectiveness of the monitors and weak enforcement.
In December 2002, the government and GAM had signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement which was brokered by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre.
This was followed by the establishment of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) to monitor the peace process.
But Jakarta accused GAM of failing to disarm its rebels and clashes continued in areas declared by the JSC as the peace zones.
The extended talks in Tokyo collapsed and Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was Indonesian president at the time, on May 19, 2003 signed a decree imposing martial law and ordered the offensive in Aceh.
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Hera Diani, Jakarta -- The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have agreed to only bring human rights violations cases in Aceh to court that occur after the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Monday.
Indonesian chief negotiator Hamid Awaluddin, who is Minister of Justice and Human Rights, said on Friday that using retroactive principles when setting up a human rights tribunal in the province would open old wounds and disrupt the peace-building process.
"If we keep looking back to the past, we will continue to blame each other and there would be no end to it; there would be no peace in Aceh. So, we have decided to look forward," he said.
The government, he said, was making the decision in line with 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which will be ratified this year.
Hamid's statement came after the coordinator of the Commission on Missing People and the Victims of Violence (Kontras) Usman Hamid said settling all past atrocities carried out in Aceh was necessary to build a lasting peace in the province.
The MOU agreement signed in Helsinki orders the settlement of human rights violations through a human rights tribunal.
"The government officials have been interpreting this point wrongly. As the only country in the world with national human rights court, there is the possibility of trying past violations, or using retroactive principles," Usman said on Friday as quoted by Antara.
Retroactivity, he reminded, was adopted in human rights tribunals in Nuremberg, Tokyo, Yugoslavia and Rwanda, as well as crimes against humanity in East Timor.
Hamid, however, said the government should not worry about trying those responsible for past human rights violations in Aceh, as those trials would likely implicate both Aceh rebels and soldiers.
Most cases brought to the country's ad hoc human rights court since its inception in 2002 have involved soldiers.
Usman said that the MOU did not elaborate the point about the human rights tribunal, therefore the government should refer to the existing law on human rights, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the law on the human rights tribunal.
Domestic and international rights activists have long pointed to human rights violations in Aceh, particularly when the province fell under a special military operation between 1989 and 1998. No alleged rights abuses occurring in Aceh have ever been settled.
Retroactivity in trying cases, meanwhile, can only be adopted upon approval from the House of Representatives.
Hamid said while the MOU might not be perfect, it had already succeeded in creating peace in Aceh, where around 15,000 people have died since the armed rebellion began in 1976.
"We have managed to maintain our basic positions, that is to sustain the unitary state of Indonesia, the Constitution and Aceh's status as part of the country," Hamid said. The Constitution, he said, was clearly stated in the second paragraph of the MOU.
Critics have said the contents of the MOU were flawed and open to interpretation. They pointed to the absence of GAM's acknowledgement of the 1945 Constitution, the use of the term "Aceh government", and the authority of an Aceh council from whom the House of Representatives must seek agreement on Aceh issues. Those privileges, they said, might end up leading to Aceh separating from the country.
Countering, Hamid said the term for the Aceh government and the high authority of Aceh Council were nothing new, as had been earlier laid out in the Law No. 32/2004 on regional autonomy.
"It doesn't mean that House of Representatives must bow to the Aceh Council. In regard to international agreements, for instance, legislators do not need to seek agreement from Aceh councillors." The same went for the province's hymn and flag, which were cultural symbols and Aceh, like other provinces, could not borrow money offshore unless it had approval from the Ministry of Finance, Hamid said.
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Jakarta -- Criticism about the contents of the peace accord between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) continued on Friday, with legislators questioning the role of the foreign monitoring mission that they said was too powerful and was an "internationalization" of a domestic conflict.
Legislator Sutradara Gintings from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) had given the Aceh Monitoring Mission, which comprised of peace monitors from the European Union (EU) and five ASEAN countries, excessive powers to settle possible conflict during the implementation of the peace deal.
"The mission's tasks show that it doesn't only monitor, but also rules on disputes and on complaints and alleged violations. The mission's decision is binding and cannot be vetoed," Sutradara said during a discussion here on Friday.
The MOU's sixth article on dispute settlement says that all disputes should be discussed collectively between parties, but all final decisions would be in the hands of the mission.
Should dialog fail to bring agreement, the mission would then deliberate with Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, GAM leader, the chief of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) and the EU political and security committee, the MOU says.
A decision would then later be drawn up by the CMI, which was the facilitator of the informal peace talks that led to the signing of the MOU on Monday.
"If we take a look at former conflict facilitators in other countries, like in Moro, Cambodia or Vietnam, they didn't get such great authority," said Sutradara, a member of the House Commission I on defense and foreign affairs.
"Don't you think it's too much to give such overwhelming authority to people we don't know? People whose real intent we don't know... people who don't grasp the spirit of Indonesia?" he said.
Former Army deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. (ret) Kiki Syahnakrie said the government could not guarantee that the foreign mission would be fair in its dealings.
"No one's monitoring them. They can monitor and decide and cannot be vetoed, but who can ensure their independence? Who can ensure that what happened in Timor Leste wouldn't recur?" he told the discussion.
Indonesia lost Timor Leste in 1999 after the former province voted for independence during a United Nations-sponsored referendum. Shortly before the referendum, the former Indonesian province was administered by United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA).
But Golkar legislator Theo L. Sambuaga, who chairs the House's Commission I, said the presence of the mission was nothing unusual.
"When there's a conflict, it's normal to have a third party that is deemed as neutral as a facilitator. It needs to have powers to make sure that neither parties cheat or stray from the agreement," he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda agreed. "There is an opinion that the Aceh Monitoring Mission comprising foreigners from EU and ASEAN will 'internationalize' the Aceh problem. We have to first understand the nature of their presence in Aceh: They are invited by us to help us implement the MOU. This is something that everyone has agreed upon, or in other words, their presence is in line with our interests."
"Members of AMM are bound by the rules of the game, which are stated in the MOU and later in the Status of Monitoring Agreement (SoMA). So please don't use the term 'internationalization' just because they are foreigners," Hassan said on Friday at a separate event.
Tempo Interactive - August 19, 2005
Jakarta -- The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has criticized the number of Indonesian Military (TNI) organic personnel, which exceeds the number of TNI personnel in other regions.
According to Munawar Lisa, Secretary-General of the Aceh Centre in the USA, external dangers in Aceh are just the same as in other areas "The number of TNI personnel in Aceh is more than 14,000 whereas in other countries it's only between 6,000 and 7,000," said Lisa.
According to her, the size of the Indonesian Army allocated to Aceh is not in line with the real situation as Aceh requires more naval and air strength. "The task of the military is to guard against external threats and geographically, the sea and air are more dominant," said Lisa.
She also said she hoped that in the implementation of the peace agreement, the police would have a larger role in securing and controlling security in Aceh.
In addition to organic troops, this GAM representative also asked for the disbandment of militia groups in Aceh. "We have recorded that there are more than 10,000 militia members under different names, such as Beurantas and Geurasa, in several areas including Takengon," said Lisa.
These militia, she continued, are trained to use weapons and have places where weapons are assembled. "We already have the names and the number of people involved," said Lisa.
GAM is worried that the existence of the militia could end up becoming a problem. "Especially when GAM members come out of the forests and hills and surrender their weapons to the Aceh Monitoring Mission," stated Lisa. (Yophiandi-Tempo News Room)
Suara Pembaruan - August 19, 2005
Jakarta -- Commander in Chief of the TNI, General Endriartono Sutarto said he hoped that all sides in Aceh, incluuding the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) would not bring up mistakes that occurred in the past. He asked all those concerned to think about the future so as to enable the Acehnese to re-build their region.
He was speaking to journalists during a ceremony at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap on Thursday (18/8). He was asked about the establishment of human rights courts in Aceh, a point in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the government and GAM in Helsinki on 15 August.
'If one side starts using the retroactive approach in the present situation, others will do the same thing,' he said. 'We have evidence of mass graves for victims of GAM.' said Endriartono. 'If people go on talking about the past, there will be no end to the issue. This is a time when all people want to start re- building and restore normal conditions.'
A military expert, Hasnan Habib said the Memorandum of Understanding is unclear in particular with regard to the human rights courts in Aceh. He predicted that these courts would certainly meet with resistance from TNI circles.
The commander in chief also said that in two weeks' time, the TNI would withdraw two battalions from Aceh. 'This is a mark of goodwill from our side,' he said. 'I hope that GAM will also show goodwill. When they are asked to hand over their weapons, they should do so,' he said.
Agence France Presse - August 19, 2005
Jakarta -- Indonesia's military, often accused of human rights violations, is likely to stick to a fresh peace pact in Aceh province despite frustrations over concessions to separatist rebels, analysts said.
Aceh rebels and the Indonesian government signed a peace accord in Helsinki on Monday aimed at ending 29 years of fighting in the resource-rich province which was decimated by last year's tsunami.
Under the accord, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) dropped its long- held demand for independence for a form of local self-government and agreed to disarm and demobilize its 3,000 fighters.
Indonesia in turn promised an amnesty, to allow the creation of political parties in the province and to withdraw non-local security forces by the end of the year, leaving behind about 14,000 military and 7,000 police.
For the rebels, the last issue is one of the most sensitive, with GAM leaders complaining even as the ink was drying on the historic pact that the number of troops to remain in Aceh was too high.
Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group think-tank said she expects the military -- criticized in the past for violations in East Timor, Papua, Aceh and other areas -- to adhere to the pact. "I think at the moment the commander of the TNI [the military] is committed to upholding the letter of the peace pact," she said.
However, she added, "the moment there is seen to be any sliding on the part of GAM, then there is going to be a lot of determination in the military to respond." Jones did not believe the military would be first to break the accord.
"I actually don't believe that they'll take the first step and I don't think we'll see efforts to undermine it from the outset, but I don't think they are happy campers," she warned.
"I don't think there are many people within the military who are at all happy with this kind of arrangement, with some of the concessions made to GAM," she said.
"And that means that while they'll obey the commander-in-chief, who is the president, I don't think they'll let very much slippage in the agreement go without a forceful response," she said.
More than 200 unarmed monitors from the EU and Southeast Asia will observe the implementation of the peace pact, putting both the military and GAM under the international spotlight.
Kusnanto Anggoro, a researcher with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said both sides were equally likely to commit violations, particularly among lower ranks.
"It will be difficult to control everyone down to the lowest command in the field and this will be true not only with the military but also with the GAM," he said.
After the Dec. 26 tsunami, which left some 131,000 Acehnese dead and spurred peace negotiations, military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said he had offered a ceasefire in Aceh but clashes continued on the ground.
Munarman, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute, said the true position of the military would be clear soon enough.
"This will be a test for the civilian leaders of the military -- in this case the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, and the president -- on whether they can enforce their authority," he said.
Munarman said if they were successful, violations would be kept in check. "This time, any disobedience will be construed as a military crime and therefore any offender will face court- martial," he said.
The international group Human Rights Watch cautioned this week that factions within the military with lucrative business interests in the province could try to undermine the deal.
"Many senior military leaders within the military have made a lot of money out of Aceh's natural resources and would not be willing to give that up to the Acehnese," said Brad Adams, the group's Southeast Asia analyst.
GAM's uprising, aimed at creating an independent state on the westernmost tip of Sumatra, was launched in 1976.
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed an historic peace agreement, though not the first, on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.
Noted lawyer and human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, who is on the board of the Jakarta-based Tifa Foundation focusing on empowering civil society, shared his thoughts with The Jakarta Post's Tony Hotland.
Question: In general, what is your opinion of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)?
Answer: I personally welcome the signing of the peace accord in Helsinki. This is a new historical beginning, an essential moment for Indonesia. The challenge, of course, lies ahead and I have my own concerns.
What concerns?
If we read the contents of the MOU, there are six major points: the governing of Aceh, human rights, amnesty/reintegration of former GAM members into society, security arrangements and the establishment of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) and dispute settlement.
My particular concern is over the possibility of multiple interpretations of the articles in the MOU by the two parties... differences in interpretations, which could lead to different implementation on the ground.
For example, about the governing of Aceh. It says that a new law will be promulgated and will enter into force not later than March 31, 2006. This could mean an amendment to Law No. 18/2001 on Special Autonomy for Aceh or an enactment of a completely new law. It is not clear.
Another example, is when it says that Aceh will exercise authority within all sectors of public affairs, which will exclude the fields of foreign affairs, external defense, national security, monetary and fiscal matters, justice and freedom of religion. But in his speech after the signing, the GAM representative did not mention nor acknowledge these exclusions. It is possible that GAM sees this as full self-governing with the establishment of a completely new law.
It is likely that there are two different minds, and also two different objectives. We assume that the accord was signed within the spirit of a united Indonesia, but none of the representatives explicitly mentioned that spirit in their speeches. It was implicit, but not explicit. Are we then the ones who have to read between the lines?
But both parties supposedly already detailed the content and the interpretations of the peace deal during the rounds of discussion since January?
I do suppose that they must have ironed these out. But we need to remember that to implement the contents of the accord will require participation from other institutions, like the House of Representatives for amendments to laws or the various civil society groups in Aceh. Without proper and adequate involvement of these other parties, whose roles are crucial, the room for multiple interpretations becomes quite large, from which obstacles are likely to appear.
Let me take another example. The government said it would grant amnesty for GAM political prisoners, but not those prisoners charged with common criminal offenses. There are certainly gray areas here.
What about those who were illegally collecting taxes? They will say that they did it as part of GAM's activities although non- political, but the police see them as common criminals.
Many consider that the Indonesian government bowed down too much to GAM's demands. How do you see this?
I can see that the government is really accommodating many of GAM's demands. I understand this as I am sure it is costing the government too much to finance the war... over 30 years of conflict and trillions of rupiah that could have instead been spent on development projects.
The generous accommodation by the government should be reciprocated with genuine intent on GAM's part to terminate fighting or no peace will be accomplished. What is important now is the confidence-building measures in the implementation of the MOU within the first months after the signing because although there seems to be a prevailing euphoria, there are also doubts and concerns that this too could fail just like the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA).
What do you think caused the COHA to fail in 2003, and what could be done to prevent it from recurring?
I think it was the disarmament process that did not work. There was mutual distrust between the two sides. The government even said that GAM was trying to reorganize and reconsolidate itself during the process, but not for the purpose of peace. And I am sure GAM had their own doubts about the government.
This time, both parties should be consistent in taking this MOU seriously because there are still mixed feelings in Aceh now.
With this generous accommodation by the government, do you see any chance for other areas, especially where separatist movements already exist, to make similar demands?
Sure this peace deal will be an inspiration for other regions, particularly for those where separatist movements are present, to make similar requests. So this should be seen not only as a peace deal with GAM, but also with other separatist movements.
And it would be naive to think that people in other regions would not read the contents of the MOU, which will remind them of their discontent with the economic, political and social conditions in their respective regions.
The key to stifling these movements is to be just and equal. (We need to) be consistent in implementing the regional autonomy that has been granted to the provinces, instead of trying to hamper the process, so that the central government becomes the one that supports the development process and gives direct benefits for all people equally.
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- Following the signed peace deal between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group, Aceh will still adhere to most of the key fiscal and monetary policies set by the central government with some exceptions.
Based on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the government and GAM representatives on Monday, the exceptions would include the rights to set interest rates beyond that set by Bank Indonesia (BI), Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said on Wednesday.
"There are several special rights given to Aceh in managing certain economic affairs," he explained.
With those rights, he added, the Aceh administration would have the right to set up provincial banks and allow those banks to decide their own interest rates for its deposits and loans without having to stick to the central bank's benchmark rates.
At present, Bank Indonesia's benchmark interest rate stands at 8.71 percent. "There is no way that Aceh can set up its own central bank with the existing legal framework. Their provincial banks will have the freedom to set their own level of interest rates if they believe they can benefit from it," Aburizal said.
BI Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said the board of governors would soon convene to study the points in the MoU, which gave some monetary authority to the Aceh administration. "We are still studying the MoU to see if the points in it will require the government to revise certain laws or regulations. BI has yet to come to any conclusions," he said.
The peace pact also included points on Aceh's rights to raise funds from foreign loans and to retain 70 percent of the revenues from all current and future hydrocarbon deposits and other natural resources in the oil-rich territory. Additionally, the province will have jurisdiction over living natural resources in the territorial sea surrounding the province.
Indonesia currently has proven oil reserves of 4.7 billion barrels and estimated reserves of 9.0 billion barrels, with much of it stored beneath Aceh's soil and sea. Indonesia also has proven natural gas reserves of 92.5 trillion cubic feet, and is the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer in the world. Aceh is believed to have a huge amount of untapped gas resources.
Aburizal emphasized that the points were not new to the government, because they had already been included in the Special Autonomy Law passed in 2001, but the MOU just emphasizes them for the government to fully implement the law.
Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil, who had been a member of the negotiating team, said the economic arrangements in the MoU were unlikely to trigger any jealousy from other provinces. "Aceh is a special case. I believe other provinces will not demand the same economic arrangements as Aceh," he said.
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Tiarma Siboro and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh -- The peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) faced its first test on Wednesday when plainclothes police threatened rebels who were released from the Jantho penitentiary in Aceh Besar regency.
One of the officers took a picture of a GAM prisoner, Jamal, near a rebel flag inside his cell, while two others pulled out and brandished their handguns at the departing prisoners.
Jamal is among 48 GAM inmates imprisoned in Jantho who received remissions on their sentences in conjunction with the independence anniversary. He was immediately free thanks to the sentence cut. Other former prisoners chased after the gunmen, defying warnings from prison wardens.
The tensions intensified when the gunmen managed to escape and joined their colleagues, who were also equipped with rifles and waiting in a Kijang van outside the jail. Families of the prisoners, mostly women, who had been waiting for a reunion, scattered in panic.
"We are not going to leave the prison unless there is a guarantee that we can walk unharmed," one of the GAM prisoners shouted, while the other began to break down the prison gate.
Aceh Besar Police are investigating the four officers in connection with the scuffle, while some GAM prisoners were on Wednesday night still refusing to leave the jail.
The government has awarded sentence cuts to 754 GAM prisoners across the country, 285 of them in Aceh.
More GAM prisoners will soon breathe the air of freedom following the signing of peace pact between the Indonesian government and the GAM leaders in Helsinki on Monday. A key point of the agreement stipulates an amnesty for GAM fighters and other political prisoners.
Also in Aceh Besar regency, villagers residing in a GAM stronghold in the Indrapuri subdistrict refused to celebrate the anniversary of independence, saying they would rather hoist GAM flags and part with Indonesia. "We are still traumatized by the military, although a peace accord has been signed," a woman said.
She said dozens of her neighbors had been killed or had gone missing since the government imposed martial law on Aceh in mid- May of 2003. Most of the men in the village had also sought protection from GAM guerrillas, whose hideouts were located in several hilly areas nearby.
Another woman also claimed that soldiers came to their village early in the morning on Wednesday and forced them to raise the red-and-white flag. "If we refused, they came into our house and took the flag and hoisted it themselves," she said.
In the rest of the province, the celebrations ran peacefully. In Banda Aceh, red-and-white flags have been flying since early in August.
A modest ceremony took place in the Blang Padang field, presided over by Iskandar Muda Military Commander Maj. Gen. Supiadin A.S.
"We would be grateful if GAM members participated in the celebration," Supiadin said. "I don't mind if they fail to attend (the ceremony) and decide to continue their struggle, but if they carry weapons we will treat them as criminals."
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- A number of politicians have voiced strong criticism of the Aceh peace deal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with opposition bloc the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) demanding a court ruling to revoke it.
PDI-P has moved to file a motion with the Constitutional Court against the peace accord for violating a number of laws, including those on political parties, on special autonomy for Aceh, on the central bank and on the Indonesian Military.
"There is no such stipulation awarding a region a 70 percent share of revenue from natural resources. What will happen if East Kalimantan, Riau or other rich regions demand the same privilege?" PDI-P secretary-general Pramono Anung Wibowo said on Wednesday.
He was referring to the peace agreement which ensures Aceh, among other things, 70 percent of revenue from all current and future hydrocarbon deposits and other natural resources in the province.
The Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed the accord in Helsinki on Monday, after months of negotiation facilitated by the Crisis Management Institute.
The MOU was officially made public only minutes after its signing, but many legislators apparently had yet to be briefed about its detailed contents as of Tuesday afternoon.
The House of Representatives had previously urged the government to seek the advice of the legislature, which will play a dominant role in implementing many of the MOU's key elements.
"I was shocked when I read the full contents as it's like giving authority to Aceh to fully govern itself," chairman of the PDI-P faction in the House Tjahjo Kumolo said.
The English version of the MOU was read out by Vice President Jusuf Kalla during a consultation meeting last week, which was attended by House leaders.
Speaking on the sidelines of the first House plenary session of the 2005-2006 session on Tuesday, Tjahjo claimed that only general information on the MOU had been provided and that copies of the agreement had not been distributed to lawmakers.
He said he would call on the House to hold a session with the government to explain the MOU and the reasons behind it.
An even stronger response came from Acehnese legislator Anhar, from the Star Reform Party (PBR), who expressed his intense disappointment over the government's failure to provide full information on the MOU beforehand.
"This is almost like a state within a state as Aceh will be granted full autonomy in all economic fields, something that could cross the acceptable limits. GAM must be coordinating with neighboring countries in the economic field," he said.
Anhar said that the level of autonomy being granted could in time lead to a second Timor Leste, which voted for independence from Indonesia through a United Nations-brokered referendum in 1999.
The chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction in the House, Abdillah Toha, was restrained in his comments, however, saying that he had yet to receive a copy of the MOU.
But there must not be provisions that could instigate envy in other areas, he warned.
However, support for the peace pact came from Golkar faction chairman Andi Matalatta as well as House Speaker Agung Laksono, who is also from the Golkar Party, which is led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
"Golkar maintains its support for all peace efforts, including those designed to terminate conflicts with dignity. But the government will need our approval when it comes to granting amnesties and any amendments of the law," Andi said.
Constitutional Court President Jimly Asshidiqie said the MOU would not be legally binding until it had been incorporated into national law.
In his State of the Nation address to the House on Tuesday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono defended the MOU, saying the government had "steadfastly followed a principled position, namely, preserving the integrity of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia".
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
I. Christianto, Contributor, Helsinki -- In spite of the amnesty offered by the Indonesian government to all people linked to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), many of them who are living in exile overseas have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, with no immediate plans to return home.
Munawar Liza Zainal or Warzain, the secretary-general of the Aceh Center in Pennsylvania, the United States, said he planned to first observe whether the peace deal was implemented properly before booking a ticket home.
"Actually, I can go to Aceh any time I want, and when I am needed there. But I will wait for the appropriate time to return to Aceh," he said after Monday's signing of the memorandum of understanding on the Aceh peace agreement.
The appropriate time for a homecoming would depend on the full withdrawal of troops that were recruited outside of Aceh, the transfer of power to the police to maintain law and order, the real political participation of the Acehnese and the absence of human rights violations, he added.
Warzain was involved in the Helsinki peace talks from the onset early this year. He was a member of the support group for the Aceh negotiating team, the duties of which included technical and information affairs.
"I can't specify a timeframe to determine an appropriate time, but I expect it will be soon," he said.
Another pro-GAM activist, Shadia Marhaban, who is a permanent resident of the US, said she would wait for the word from GAM as to whether she was needed in Aceh or overseas.
"I have learned there are still militiamen roaming around Aceh, and this is not right. This is what continues to cause me worry, even though the peace agreement has been signed. I am sure my family and relatives and the province of four million people are also worried about that," she said.
Shadia, the wife of American activist and freelance journalist William Nessen, has been living in the US since 2003 and is active in the Aceh campaign across the country as well as other nations.
"I have been actively involved in the peace talks in Helsinki since the beginning, but as a civilian. This is to prove that GAM is involving civilians in the process," she said.
The issue of militia groups also worries Tgk. Yusuf. He said that GAM had evidence that militiamen acting under Indonesian Military (TNI) orders remained present in Aceh, even though the Indonesian government had always denied this.
In its press release dated Aug. 14, the day before the MOU's signing, GAM quoted a leaked TNI intelligence document as saying that there were nine militia organizations in Aceh with some 10,000 active members who vowed to kill GAM members after they were disarmed.
Nonetheless, Yusuf, plans to return to Banda Aceh, his hometown, by mid-September at the latest.
Meanwhile, adviser to GAM Damien Kingsbury said he would love to go to Aceh again once Indonesia allowed him back into the country. "I was banned from entering Indonesia last December. Perhaps because I am too critical of the TNI," he said.
Kingsbury, the author of Power Politics and the Indonesian Military, is an Australian academic who is always among the Acehnese delegation in the Finnish capital.
Meanwhile, Bakhtiar Abdullah, GAM spokesman and negotiator in the peace talks, said he would not give up his Swedish citizenship just to return to Aceh after the deal was signed.
"From bullets, GAM is now dealing with ballet. The peace deal, however, hasn't made and won't make our organization over. And in my case, I won't give up my Swedish citizenship," he said, adding that he remained undecided as to when to visit Aceh.
Other GAM negotiators Malik Mahmud, Nur Djuli and Zaini Abdullah agreed with Abdullah.
Indonesian negotiator Sofyan Djalil, who is Minister of Information and Communications, said the peace agreement did not force those GAM supporters living overseas to return to Aceh.
"It's very understandable, if an Indonesian has abandoned his or her Indonesian citizenship and is enjoying the comforts of living abroad and holds the citizenship of a certain foreign country, he or she will think twice before regaining their Indonesian citizenship as Indonesia does not recognize dual citizenship." he said.
Responding to the issue of proxy militiamen, raised by GAM, former Aceh military commander Maj. Gen. Bambang Dharmono said TNI had never maintained militiamen, adding that such a worry was part of the process of trust building.
Blogspot.com - August 17, 2005
Allan Nairn -- The TNI/POLRI is now saying that they have about 35,000 men in Aceh, which, if true, would mean that under the Helsinki deal with GAM signed yesterday they will be temporarily withdrawing about 32% of their troops, not much more than a normal rotation.
It is often said that there are more TNI/POLRI bases than there are schools or mosques in Aceh, and traveling along the roads and counting suggests that in many zones that might well be true. In populated areas of the main Medan -- Banda Aceh road one encounters a marked base or post every few hundred meters, not including the unmarked Intel and Kopassus bases, which are sometimes known to residents.
In Langsa, plainclothes Kopassus officers can be seen smoking in their undershirts outside a run-down commercial building where local civil servants have been dragged in and had their faces mauled on suspicion of giving food to GAM.
The Kopassus men have money and are wordly; they move all over the archipelago, and their foreign trainers have included Americans, Australians, Germans, and Taiwanese. But it is the TNI's cruder street level militias -- not counted in official troop numbers -- that are now in the spotlight since people fear that if the Jakarta generals don't get enough payoff from the GAM surrender deal, they may unleash the militias in order to provoke the GAM into taking up arms again.
That scenario may be unlikely, but everyone knows from experience in Timor and elsewhere that it is not impossible, and that hanging possibility of supra-normal terror creates leverage for TNI/POLRI, both within Aceh and in their lobbying for restored aid overseas.
It is a classic good cop-bad cop con: the smooth lobbyists (like the President, Gen. Susilo, and Juwono Sudarsono, the defense minister) say to the foreigners: 'Look, these generals are crazy! You'd better buy them off with aid, or God know what they'll do. And as much as I'd like to stop them I can't be responsible for their actions. '
So on top of the continuing rule by their oppressors there's an implicit blackmail hanging over Aceh: if the generals don't get what they want -- like restored US guns and money -- they may take it out on Aceh and burn it, as they did to Timor in 1999.
Blogspot.com - August 17, 2005
Allan Nairn -- In Central Aceh, the TNI has an ethnic Javanese and Gayo militia force that is estimated to be larger than the Aceh-wide GAM. An investigator who speaks the local Gayo language puts their strength at 12,000 people and 6,000 weapons -- some homemade, some military issue. The Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Indonesia and GAM has a clause (4.9) for the "decommissioning of all illegal arms" but only those held by "illegal groups and parties," and under Indonesian law state- organized militias can be construed as legal.
Arms held by the TNI/POLRI are, of course, implicitly defined as legal, a privilege which every country in the world grants to its security forces.
Some theorists say that the very definition of a state is its monopoly on legitimate violence. So the state's arms are always legal, even if routinely used for illegal acts like murder and theft, or to carry out policies like illegal invasions or occupations.
Reuters - August 16, 2005
Dan Eaton, Banda Aceh -- Indonesia's military and Acehnese rebels on Tuesday cautiously welcomed a peace pact but each expressed doubts the other would stick to the deal.
The pact, signed in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Monday, stipulates the rebels should surrender all arms, ammunition and explosives in four stages before December 31 in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
In return, the Indonesian military must halve its current force to 14,700 troops, using a timeframe matching the decommissioning of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.
"We will move all of our striking teams to residential areas. They will no longer conduct offensive operations to seek and destroy GAM," Indonesia military chief General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters after meeting soldiers at a base near the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. "Their job will be protecting people... and if people are harassed we have the right to secure their safety," he said.
The truce also requires the Indonesian police to withdraw their troopers and cut its force in Aceh to 9,100 personnel.
GAM's armed wing told Jakarta-based Radio Elshinta they wanted to see the truce -- which essentially ends the rebels' three-decade long fight for an independent Aceh -- succeed but raised concerns whether the military would stick to the deal, the third truce in five years.
"What is important is all elements of the Indonesian side must obey what is written in the agreement," said GAM senior commander Sofyan Dawood. "All GAM members in Aceh will not conduct any armed activity and we will avoid all actions that can disrupt the Helsinki agreement. In 2006, there will be no more members carrying arms."
Been there, done that
The two warring sides have been in similar positions before twice, only to see the situation spiral into chaos and conflict months later.
Military spokesman Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki said since the truce signing there has been no exchanges of fire with the rebels.
Under the deal, the military also must notify the head of the 250-strong Aceh Monitoring Mission, comprised of monitors from the European Union and five Southeast Asian nations, whenever troops more than a platoon size move in the province.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tried to convince parliament that the presence of foreign monitors in Aceh should not be seen as foreign interference. Several legislators oppose the move to negotiate with rebels and criticize the role of foreigners in the agreement.
While parliament chief Agung Laksono supports Yudhoyono's peace policies, he voiced the concern of his peers in a speech opening the parliament's sitting session.
"Along the lines of the principle opposing the internationalisation of Aceh, the government is asked to be alert over any possibility of hidden agendas of other parties after this truce," he said without elaborating.
In Aceh there were mixed views of the international role. "I disagree if the monitoring team is all foreigners. They have little understanding of Indonesia and Acehnese politically and culturally," said Aswani, 25, a local worker for an NGO.
But Nora, 24, a female university student, said foreign involvement made her optimistic. "I think we need that because Indonesia and GAM find it hard to cooperate. If two people are angry you need a third to keep things on track."
Also optimistic was Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who heads the agency charged with rebuilding the province, shattered by the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that left nearly 170,000 Acehnese dead or missing. "It means a lot. It was a big day for us. Things will be faster. Distribution of building materials can be faster," he said regarding the peace deal in an interview with Reuters.
He said aid agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which had restrictions on the travel and working hours of their staff due to the insurgency, will now be able to operate with greater freedom as they carry out a $5 billion reconstruction program over the next several years.
Agence France Presse - August 16, 2005
Jakarta -- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has pledged to honor a historic agreement with separatist rebels from Aceh province and has urged the guerrillas to do the same.
The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a peace accord on Monday after six months of negotiations, paving the way for an end to three decades of bloodshed that has claimed about 15,000 lives.
"All items that appear on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) shall be consistently implemented," Yudhoyono said in a state-of-the-nation address to parliament to mark the country's 60th anniversary of independence Wednesday. "Therefore, I would like to call on the former GAM activists to also abide by that MOU," he said.
The agreement contains provisions for an amnesty for separatist rebels, the creation of political parties allowing ex-guerrillas to run for office in the province and a withdrawal of non-local security forces by the end of the year.
An amnesty is due to be granted to GAM members and political prisoners within two weeks, a human rights court and a truth and reconciliation commission is to be established, and Jakarta is to grant the province 70 percent of revenue from its natural resources.
GAM agreed to decommission its arms and demobilise its 3,000 troops under the accord, which will be monitored by 200 unarmed foreigners.
Yudhoyono tried to allay concerns that the presence of monitors from the European Union and five Southeast Asian countries in Aceh amounted to foreign interference, saying Indonesia had also sent its own troops to conflict-hit countries to monitor peace agreements.
"The conflict in Aceh is a domestic issue. We never intended to internationalise it. The presence of foreign monitors from the European Union and ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)... is not foreign interference into our domestic affairs," he said to applause.
Both sides have been cautiously optimistic that the agreement will open the way for lasting peace, a hope lent renewed urgency after the December 26 tsunami which hit Aceh the hardest, killing at least 131,000 people.
In his address, the president also promised to seek a peaceful end to an insurgency in easternmost Papua province, Indonesia's second separatist hotspot, through limited self-rule.
"The government wishes to solve the issue in Papua in a peaceful, just and dignified manner by emphasising dialogue and a persuasive approach," he said.
US Congress last month passed a bill calling for unfettered access to investigate how Jakarta gained control of Papua 40 years ago and highlighted human rights abuses in the province, prompting criticism from Jakarta.
Separatists, who are split into badly coordinated factions, have been fighting a sporadic guerrilla war since 1963.
Like Acehnese, Papuans have complained they did not get a fair share of the province's rich natural resources. Human rights abuses by troops also fuelled separatist sentiment.
Jakarta Post - August 16, 2005
Following are key passages from a seven-page Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group, signed on Monday in Helsinki.
"The Government of Indonesia (GoI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) confirm their commitment to a peaceful, comprehensive and sustainable solution to the conflict in Aceh with dignity for all.
Governing of Aceh: A new Law on the Governing of Aceh will be promulgated and will enter into force as soon as possible and not later than 31 March 2006.
Aceh will exercise authority within all sectors of public affairs, which will be administered in conjunction with its civil and judicial administration, except in the fields of foreign affairs, external defense, national security, monetary and fiscal matters, justice and freedom of religion, the policies of which belong to the Government of the Republic of Indonesia in conformity with the Constitution.
Aceh has the right to use regional symbols including a flag, a crest and a hymn.
Political participation: As soon as possible and not later than one year from the signing of this MoU, GoI agrees to and will facilitate the establishment of Aceh-based political parties that meet national criteria. Understanding the aspirations of Acehnese people for local political parties, GoI will create, within one year or at the latest 18 months from the signing of this MoU, the political and legal conditions for the establishment of local political parties in Aceh in consultation with Parliament. The timely implementation of this MoU will contribute positively to this end.
Upon the signature of this MoU, the people of Aceh will have the right to nominate candidates for the positions of all elected officials to contest the elections in Aceh in April 2006 and thereafter.
Economy: Aceh has the right to raise funds with external loans. Aceh has the right to set interest rates beyond that set by the Central Bank of the Republic of Indonesia.
Aceh is entitled to retain seventy (70) per cent of the revenues from all current and future hydrocarbon deposits and other natural resources in the territory of Aceh as well as in the territorial sea surrounding Aceh.
Rule of law: An independent and impartial court system, including a court of appeals, will be established for Aceh within the judicial system of the Republic of Indonesia. The appointment of the Chief of the organic police forces and the prosecutors shall be approved by the head of the Aceh administration. The recruitment and training of organic police forces and prosecutors will take place in consultation with and with the consent of the head of the Aceh administration in compliance with the applicable national standards.
Human rights: A Human Rights Court will be established for Aceh.
A Commission for Truth and Reconciliation will be established for Aceh by the Indonesian Commission of Truth and Reconciliation with the task of formulating and determining reconciliation measures.
Amnesty and reintegration into society: GoI will, in accordance with constitutional procedures, grant amnesty to all persons who have participated in GAM activities as soon as possible and not later than within 15 days of the signature of this MoU.
Political prisoners and detainees held due to the conflict will be released unconditionally as soon as possible and not later than within 15 days of the signature of this MoU.
As citizens of the Republic of Indonesia, all persons having been granted amnesty or released from prison or detention will have all political, economic and social rights as well as the right to participate freely in the political process both in Aceh and on the national level.
GoI and the authorities of Aceh will take measures to assist persons who have participated in GAM activities to facilitate their reintegration into the civil society. These measures include economic facilitation to former combatants, pardoned political prisoners and affected civilians. A Reintegration Fund under the administration of the authorities of Aceh will be established.
Security arrangements: GAM undertakes the decommissioning of all arms, ammunition and explosives held by the participants in GAM activities with the assistance of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM). GAM commits to hand over 840 arms.
The relocation of non-organic military and non-organic police forces will begin on 15 September 2005 and will be executed in four stages in parallel with the GAM decommissioning immediately after each stage has been verified by the AMM,and concluded by 31 December 2005.
Establishment of the Aceh Monitoring Mission: An Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) will be established by the European Union and ASEAN contributing countries with the mandate to monitor the implementation of the commitments taken by the parties in this Memorandum of Understanding.
Monitors will have unrestricted freedom of movement in Aceh. Only those tasks which are within the provisions of the MoU will be accepted by the AMM. Parties do not have a veto over the actions or control of the AMM operations.
Dispute settlement: As a rule, eventual disputes concerning the implementation of this MoU will be resolved by the Head of Monitoring Mission, in dialogue with the parties, with all parties providing required information immediately. The Head of Monitoring Mission will make a ruling which will be binding on the parties.
If the Head of Monitoring Mission concludes that a dispute cannot be resolved by the means described above, the dispute will be discussed together by the Head of Monitoring Mission with the senior representative of each party. Following this, the Head of Monitoring Mission will make a ruling which will be binding on the parties."
Democracy Now (US) - August 16, 2005
Speakers: Malik Mahmood, GAM chief negotiator; Hamid Aaluddin, Indonesian Justice Minister; Allan Nairn, award-winning journalist and activist. His article on the Aceh peace agreement can be found at newsc.blogspot.com
A peace accord is signed between the Indonesian government and the Acehnese rebels. The deal disarms only one side, leaving the Indonesian military in place. We speak with award-winning journalist and activist Allan Nairn.
The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, signed a peace agreement today in Helsinki that brings to a close nearly thirty years of armed conflict on the island. Under the deal, GAM will disarm and be allowed to form a recognized political party. However, that party will not be allowed to seek a referendum on Acehnese independence from Indonesia.
Journalist Allan Nairn who has long been covering Aceh and East Timor wrote on his blog today, "If [the Acehnese] continue to speak for referendum they will likely continue to die, but they may now get something for it, since the fog of two-sided combat will presumably no longer obscure the one-sided repression by [the Indonesian military]."
The Indonesian government hailed the agreement as a beacon of peace in Aceh.
Amy Goodman: This is GAM chief negotiator Malik Mahmood.
Malik Mahmood: We come to this day at the conclusion of six months of talks aimed at achieving a peace agreement for the future of Aceh. But more importantly, we come to this day after almost 30 years of GAM's struggle for the liberation of the people of Aceh. We come to this day, after almost three decades of military violence and repressions against the people of Aceh. The people of Aceh have a long and proud tradition of resisting aggressions from outsiders, and we have a long and proud tradition of justice. The saga that we have wished for this many years has been to achieve justice for the people of Aceh. There has not been peace in Aceh because there has been no justice in Aceh.
What we hope we have achieved with the signing of this peace agreement is the beginning of a process that will be bring justice to the people of Aceh.
Justice means insuring that the people have a voice and that they are listened to and their wishes are followed. This means that the creation of a political system that encourages freedom of speech, many opinions, and the ability to fully participate in and be represented by that process. That is, ladies and gentlemen, the only way to insure peace in Aceh is through the implementation of a genuine democracy.
Genuine democracy does not restrain the creation of political parties. It encourages the creation of political parties. Genuine democracy does not limit the range of ideas that inform those parties. It encourages the full flowering of ideas. And genuine democracy does not bow in the face of violence and injustice. It is the means of ending violence and injustice. AMY GOODMAN: GAM chief negotiator, Malik Mahmood. The Indonesian government hailed the agreement as a beacon of peace in Aceh. This is the Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Aaluddin.
Hamid Aaluddin: Ladies and gentlemen, with this peace accord, we are hoping that no more children become orphans. We cannot afford our women to become widows. Parents will not lose their lovely children anymore. Tears and blood must be stopped. Sadness must be ended. We have to say clearly and loudly, no more, and no more, and no way.
Amy Goodman: That was the Indonesian Justice Minister.
As we turn now to award-winning journalist and activist, Allan Nairn, who has written about the Aceh peace agreement and has covered Aceh and East Timor for many years. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Allan.
Allan Nairn: Thanks. Good to be with you.
Amy Goodman: It's good to have you with us. Talk about the significance of this day, of the peace accord between the GAM and the Indonesian government.
Allan Nairn: Well, it's not really a peace accord, since the Indonesian military and police, which have been the main violators of peace, they retain control, they retain their weapons. Their officers will not be prosecuted. Only one side disarms under this deal. The Acehnese GAM, they get farmland, they get amnesty and they get the right to form a local political party.
But in exchange, they in effect take a political vow of silence. The thing that they have stood for, their reason for existence, independence for Aceh, or at least a referendum for Aceh, under which the Acehnese get the right to hold a free vote on their political future, the new GAM political party will not be allowed to call for that under Indonesian law.
So, it's basically a victory for the TNI; the Indonesian military remains the sovereign in Aceh. The military will retain their troops in Aceh. They will still have -- the troops will still have their weapons. They will still have the right to use them.
They're withdrawing some troops, but since it now remains -- Aceh remains still their country, they can bring them back later whenever they want, and even in the transition period of the next few months, when there will be about 200 foreign observers, some of the most notorious Indonesian military and police units, the Intel people who run the torture centers, the air force which has bombed the villages, BRIMOB units which have done rapes and abductions at checkpoints, they're all allowed to stay as long as their troops are technically reclassified as being organic troops.
And above and outside the deal, the Kopassus, US-trained special forces, the most feared group that specializes in kidnapping and torture, both local activists and military people agree that they will be staying in Aceh and continuing to do their operations undercover.
Amy Goodman: Allan, under the agreement, on human rights, it says a human rights court and a truth and reconciliation commission will be established in Aceh to reveal past atrocities and bring closure to the war-torn society, and Indonesia will grant amnesty to all GAM members beginning in late August and free thousands of Acehnese jailed across the Indonesian archipelago.
Allan Nairn: Well, it's a good thing they are freeing the prisoners. It's not clear how many, though, will be freed. Some estimates are it will just be in the hundreds. The human rights court has no specified powers, same with the truth and reconciliation commission. The basic fact for Aceh is that the Indonesian military and police will -- first, that they will still be living under the repressive laws that governed all of Indonesia that originally derived from the Dutch colonists. And those laws prohibit free speech. They prohibit anything that can be interpreted as expressing hatred for the leaders or the government of Indonesia. And most importantly, Aceh will still be de facto occupied by the Indonesian military and police.
But there is one big change under this deal, and that is it puts the armed GAM out of business, and that's a good thing. They should have -- GAM should have disarmed a long time ago. This now will clarify the situation. If now people in Aceh choose to speak out in favor of referendum, they're still liable to be killed. They run the same risk as before, but now at least there's a chance they won't be dying in vain, because up to now, the deaths of civilians, which is the basic fact of life in Aceh, had been obscured by the two-sided combat between the GAM and the Indonesian military. That's what's gotten all of the attention, obscuring the one-sided repression. But now that the GAM is out of the way, if Acehnese are still brave enough to try to stand up and speak and call for a free vote, and if they're again struck down and imprisoned, there's at least a chance now that their sacrifice will get some outside attention. And that outside attention is what's needed. That's what made it possible for Timor to win freedom. That's what the Timor case led to the cutting of US military aid to Indonesia, which helped facilitate the downfall of the previous dictator, Suharto.
But in the end, I think whether the deal ends up helping or hurting the situation really depends on what's done by the US and Europe and Australia and the other outside powers, the executive branches in those powers. If they use this deal as an excuse to restore military and police aid and increase military and police aid to the TNI and the POLRI of Indonesia, that will strengthen those institutions. It will make matters worse. It will be a catastrophe both for Aceh and also for Papua in the eastern part of Indonesia, where 15,000 coast guard troops have been recently sent in, where there's mass killing of civilians, also the north and central islands of Indonesia, where the military and police have been fomenting Christian-Muslim grassroots violence. If this is used as an excuse to restore aid, it will end up making matters worse. So, a lot is hanging on the actions of the US, and it was previously grassroots activism that got the US working through Congress to cut the military aid, and people have to do that again now, or this will be a disaster for Aceh and Indonesia.
Amy Goodman: Allan Nairn, what role did the tsunami play in this?
Allan Nairn: Well, it was, you know, of course, one of the greatest disasters in history. It killed more than 150,000 Acehnese, wiped out entire villages. It also killed many of the GAM, many of their field fighters.
It also brought in billions in international -- pledged international aid. That affected the strategy of General Susilo, the Indonesian President. He saw that if they could get that aid continuing flowing into Indonesia, there will be vast possibilities for corruption, for skimming of funds for the Indonesian government in Aceh and the military occupying Aceh, and there have already been extensive reports of this.
Susilo's plan apparently is to use the money they can skim from the reconstruction aid to compensate the military people, the generals, for the losses they will suffer by pulling out of Aceh -- well, not by pulling out of Aceh, but by stop -- agreeing to end combat in Aceh. Aceh has provided the vast corruption funds from illegal timber, from prostitution, from extortion, from offshore fishing rackets that use child labor, all sorts of things. Those will be a little less lucrative now in non-combat conditions.
But in exchange, the idea apparently is they will be able to get more foreign reconstruction aid, and most importantly, General Susilo hopes, restored military and police aid. That will then strengthen the TNI and POLRI nationally.
So the tsunami in a way set the stage for Susilo agreeing to make that deal. And from the GAM side, I think it convinced the GAM, well, finally, they had to listen to the entreaties from civilians who were saying, look, by having an armed movement, you're only making matters worse. You're not helping the situation. Please lay down your arms, and the GAM, weakened by the tsunami, finally listened to them.
Amy Goodman: Finally, Allan Nairn on a wholly different subject, we just have about 30-45 seconds, you have extensively covered Haiti. The latest news is that Jodel Chamblain, number two man in FRAP, has been released from jail by the US-backed interim Haitian government. Your response? He was in Haiti.
Allan Nairn: Well, it's outrageous. The FRAP, a paramilitary group, which killed thousands of activists from the Little Church, the grassroots movement in Haiti, the FRAP was a creation of the US
Defense Intelligence Agency. They were formed -- Emmanuel Constant, the man who was number one had formed the group, did so at the behest of the local US Intelligence Agency attachA(c). Constant told me that a number of years ago when US intelligence people confirmed it. And Constant was carried on the payroll of the C.I.A. Chamblain, one of the most notorious hands-on killers in Haiti, was part of that US-backed apparatus, and now he's been freed, and they call this democracy. If there were some kind of civilized legal system working in the world, he would face real justice, as would the US officials from the C.I.A. and the D.I.A., and hire in the Executive Branch.
Amy Goodman: We have to leave it there, Allan. I want to thank you for being with us, Allan Nairn, journalist and activist. His website newsc.blogspot.com.
Tempo Interactive - August 16, 2005
Helsinki -- After having been at conflict for almost 30 years, the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have made a historical step by signing a peace agreement.
Both parties still have differences of opinion in terms of human rights violation trials.
The draft peace agreement, entitled "Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement," was signed by Hamid Awaluddin, the chairman of the Indonesian government negotiation team and Malik Mahmud, Prime Minister of GAM.
Martti Ahtisaari, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Crisis Management Initiative, also signed the draft as a witness. More than 100 journalists covered the signing event at the Government Banquet Hall, Etelaesplanadi 6, Helsinki, Finland.
The draft agreement was not much different with the draft that had been unofficially distributed, including the matter of the establishment of human rights trials.
However, the Indonesian government and GAM still have different interpretations regarding this. M. Nur Djuli, one of the GAM negotiators, said that these trials would be effective retroactively.
Nur Djuli said that during the negotiations, discussions regarding these trials shall refer to the Nuremberg agreement under which human rights violations cannot be annulled by peace agreements or other agreements. "That is the principle," Nur Djuli told TEMPO reporters in Helsinki, Nezar Patria, after the signing.
Prior to the establishment of human rights trials, Nur Djuli said that foreign observers will remain in Aceh.
Sofyan Djalil, the Minister of Communication and Information and a member of the Indonesian government's negotiation team, stated a different opinion. These trials will only try human rights violations that take place following the peace agreement.
Human rights trials, Djalil said, would not handle violations that took place during the time of military operation areas or military emergencies. "We have nothing to do with this," he said.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the Indonesian people should be proud of this peace agreement.
Yudhoyono also conveyed his gratitude to the people who made the agreement a reality, in particular Hamid Awaluddin. (Oktamandjaya/Dimas/Budi Reza-Tempo News Room)
Detik.com - August 16, 2005
M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta - If former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members are granted amnesty, then what about the fate of convicted activists and political prisoners jailed as a result of the Aceh conflict?
"If it is only for former GAM members, I believe, it was indeed civil society which greatly assisted [finding a solution to] the Aceh question and who have been the casualties. So activists should also become the subjects to obtain amnesty", Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) chairperson Munarman explained to Detik.com at his office on Jalan Diponegoro in Jakarta on Tuesday August 16.
He is also asking that the Indonesian government and the Aceh Monitoring Mission team (AMM) pay attention to the issue. Moreover this represents one part of the third point in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indonesia and GAM.
These activist Munarman explained, are human rights, non- government organisation and student activists who were arrested and charged with subversion during the Aceh conflict. "The AMM must note this and it be a priority for [them] to obtain amnesty, including unofficial prisoners, or those disappeared in the forests, or disappeared at the hands of security forces", he said.
MoU Indonesia-GAM
With regard to the MoU which was signed in Helsinki, Munarman believes that although it is still in the framework of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, it also represents a foundation to build peace in Aceh and Indonesia as a whole.
He also believes that in political and social terms, the MoU is indeed a step forward but the problem will be on the commitment by the two sides to implement the points of the MoU. "So I believe, the MoU still needs a more operational agreements, to [ensure] commitment to the implementation of the MoU can be carried out on the ground", said Munarman.
From an economic perspective, such as the regional and central balance, Munarman believes that there is actually no problem and there is no need to make a fuss about Aceh getting a larger share. He believes that there has been misinformation about this issue and it needs to be cleared up.
"[On the] question of concerns over foreign intervention, there is also much misinterpretation. There are parties that fundamentally and ideologically oppose the MoU. But in fact they were silent before when Indonesia was disrupted or interfered with", explained Munarman. (sss)
[Translated by James Balowski.]
| West Papua |
Jakarta Post - August 22, 2005
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura -- After the Helsinki peace deal that brought peace to Aceh, the central government has been urged to focus more on resolving the problems in Papua.
"There is mounting resentment against the central government as shown by the big protests two weeks ago. The government has to respond to it seriously otherwise Papua will remain a pebble in the shoe of the Indonesian government in international forums," said Papuan leader Fadel Al Hamid, the secretary of the Papua Tribal Council.
The protests that Fadel was referring to took place on Aug. 12 and were participated in by some 10,000 people in Jayapura and other Papuan cities. During the rallies, the protesters condemned the central government for its failure to implement the special autonomy scheme.
The massive expression of disappointment came just weeks after some members of the US Congress proposed a bill questioning the validity of the process that led to the 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in Papua, when a group of some 1,000 selected Papuan leaders voted unanimously to become part of the Republic of Indonesia. The protests were seen as an avenue through which more pressure cut be put on the central government to pay attention to the plight of indigenous Papuans.
According to the protesters, special autonomy has failed as there has been no improvement in the economic circumstances of native Papuans.
The economy in Papua is largely controlled by migrants. Traditional markets and strategic outlets, especially those along the streets are controlled by the newcomers who mostly hail from Java and South Sulawesi province, while Papuan traders have less strategic outlets, thus causing them to earn less money. The Papuans are also less experienced at trading and local activists argue that the government has to come up with strategies to narrow the gap.
Providing protection for indigenous Papuans in the economic realm is mandated by the Special Autonomy Law, said Fadel.
Edi Togotlit, the chairman of the Keerom Church Association, echoed Fadel's comments. Despite the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law, which gives greater powers to the Papuan government to manage its own affairs, most Papuans still live in abject poverty.
"Strangely, shortly after the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law, many Papuan bureaucrats suddenly became rich. But the people are still mired in poverty," said Edi. Edi argued that the special autonomy scheme contained major flaws and had to be improved.
The director of the Civil Society Strengthening (ICS) organization, Budi Setyanto, said that the government had not been consistent in implementing special autonomy. After the Special Autonomy Law took effect in 2001, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued Presidential Decree No. 1/2003 to facilitate the establishment of the new West Irian Jaya province, thus partitioning Papua province.
The issuance of this presidential decree was followed by the actual establishment of West Irian Jaya, which fueled resentment among Papuans as it blatantly violated the Special Autonomy Law, which states that the establishment of a new province must be approved by the Papuan People's Council, while, in fact, West Irian Jaya was established before the MRP had even been set up.
If the central government wants Papua to remain part of Indonesia, it will have to implement the special autonomy scheme in a consistent manner, said Budi.
There have been concerns in the Indonesian government that Papua could ultimately secede from Indonesia. These concerns emanate from fact that the Papuan separatist movement actively campaigns for Papuan independence abroad. The armed wings of the Papuan separatist movement have also been waging a low intensity insurgency since Indonesia took control of the mountainous, jungle-clad territory from the Dutch in 1963. The annexation of Papua took place a year after independence-minded Papuans announced independence on Dec. 1, 1962.
However, unlike the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the separatist movement is not yet a significant threat to the Indonesian military as it is split into many uncoordinated factions.
Jakarta Post - August 22, 2005
Carmel Budiardjo, London -- The historic agreement concluded this week between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been widely welcomed, both in Indonesia and abroad. It was also highlighted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), in his Aug. 16 address to the nation to mark the 60th anniversary of Indonesian Independence Day on Aug. 17.
Now that the Aceh conflict has been resolved, for the time being at least, attention has predictably turned to West Papua. In his address to the nation, SBY drew attention to the differences between Aceh and Papua. Unlike Aceh, he said, Papua has only a small armed movement. He also acknowledged that Papua touches on historical matters that have elicited interest from abroad. It would therefore require "a political settlement".
Quite predictably too, SBY said the settlement should be made within the framework of special autonomy as part of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia. In other words, while showing flexibility, the President at the same time imposed constraints on issues that lie at the very heart of the problem.
For a correct analysis of the issue, we need to focus on the current situation in West Papua. In the first place, there are the contradictory policies being pursued by Jakarta. Having granted the status of special autonomy according to a law adopted in 2001, Jakarta has nevertheless pressed ahead with an earlier law to partition the province. One of the provisions of the Special Autonomy Law was the establishment of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), which should be consulted on major government decisions. This would certainly include the partitioning of the province. But the MRP has not yet been set up while it remains unclear whether it will have powers broad enough to have a say on such matters.
Meanwhile, the partitioning of West Papua is proceeding apace; a new province called West Irian Jaya has been created and preparations are underway for local elections to be held there. While a decision by the Constitutional Court earlier this year found that partitioning was unlawful, the court refrained from calling for the dissolution of the West Irian province as this would have meant taking a retroactive decision. This appears to have left the Special Autonomy Law in tatters.
In its recent action to "hand back" the Special Autonomy Law, the Papuan Customary Council did not draw attention to the existence of this new province, which is surely the most serious challenge to the law's legitimacy. After bringing forward the date of its action from Aug. 15 to Aug. 12, the customary council went ahead with the decision, taken at its Third Congress in February this year, to hand back the Special Autonomy Law.
The demonstration in Jayapura was attended by more than 10,000 people, many of whom occupied the building of the provincial assembly, the DPRP, in Jayapura. As the organizers had promised, the action was entirely peaceful and the security forces appear to have decided to lie low and let the action proceed. While this is certainly out of character for the Indonesian Military (TNI), it is likely that they were under orders to avoid clashes and casualties so as not to take the shine off the government's success in clinching a deal with GAM, which was signed in Helsinki on Aug. 15.
The customary council's Aug. 12 action has certainly drawn international attention to the unsatisfactory nature of special autonomy, the law will remain in place, albeit mired in confusion. Little has been said about the impact of the law on the daily lives of the Papuan people but reports being received from West Papua show that conditions have not improved in the three years since its enactment.
One sustained criticism is that money allocated for the implementation of special autonomy has been used unlawfully to finance military operations. According to the head of West Papua's Baptist Church, Rev. Socratez Sofyan Yoman, funds amounting to Rp 19 billion allocated to the Puncak Jaya district, are being used for military operations, which have been underway there since August last year. There are also allegations of corruption on the part of West Papuan Governor J.P Salossa and members of his staff, which has led to the threat of defamation charges being filed against the customary council.
One of SBY's points distinguishing the situation in Papua from Aceh was that the armed movement there is small. He might have added that the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has already declared its intention to forego military actions and focus on making West Papua a Land of Peace. This being the case, why did the President allow the Army to announce plans in March to increase the number of troops in Papua by 12,000 to 15,000 men, bringing the total to around 50,000? The TNI has also announced plans to set up new resort and district military commands and to deploy a new division of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (KOSTRAD) in the province. Claims that the military build-up is necessary to guard the border with Papua New Guinea make little sense as there have been no reports of OPM operations on either side of the border.
Furthermore, while the President spoke of his intention to resolve the conflict by means of dialog, he failed to acknowledge the fact that the churches in Papua, which are acknowledged as being the most important institutions speaking out on behalf of the Papuan people, have for years declared their attachment to creating a land of peace in Papua, while calling for dialog.
Surely SBY should recognize that the last thing Papua needs is more troops; on the contrary, all troops recruited from outside of Aceh should be withdrawn without delay, and an early date set for disbanding the Army's territorial structure in West Papua. More than anything else, this would prove that Jakarta's peaceful intentions are genuine.
But most important of all, SBY referred in his address to "historical issues". This must surely refer to the way in which West Papua was incorporated into the Indonesian Republic, which brings us to the central issue, the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969. Just over a thousand tribal chiefs were coerced into declaring unanimously for integration; they had no choice and the Act was not free. This happened during the days of military rule under Gen. Soeharto when the level of repression was far too heavy for Papuans to take action.
Today, Indonesia can take pride in having its first directly elected president in sixty years. Of all people, the man who was elected should have the courage to acknowledge that what happened in 1969 is an appalling stain on Indonesia's history, which cannot be upheld in a country that prides itself on being a democracy.
This historical issue will continue to rankle with the people of West Papua. It is surely within SBY's powers to set in motion diplomatic moves to annul this fraudulent Act and to enter into dialog with Papuan leaders on the future status of the province.
SBY has expressed his anger that Papua was included by the House of Representatives in the 2006 Appropriations Bill for the State Department, requiring it to "reinforce efforts to promote human rights in Papua and Aceh" and has set in motion diplomatic efforts to have this deleted. Were he to succeed, it would only draw more attention to the Papuan problem and infuriate many senators, congressmen and congresswomen.
International interest in West Papuan has certainly grown in the past few years and there is nothing the Indonesian President can do to reverse this. Indonesia's international reputation can best be served by a courageous move at the very top to revise the government's policy on West Papua, to withdraw its troops, and, as a matter of urgency, to enter into dialog with representatives of the people of West Papua. If SBY were to move in this direction, he would have another important success to be proud of in next year's anniversary address.
[The writer is the founder of TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, set up in 1973.]
Sydney Morning Herald - August 19, 2005
Tom Allard -- The Indonesian military has murdered independence activists, raped women and razed villages in Papua, a report by University of Sydney researchers alleges.
Citing witness accounts and testimony from church groups and other activists, the report, Genocide in West Papua?, has renewed calls for a change in attitude from Australia.
Both the main Australian political parties have told Jakarta they support its sovereignty over Papua.
A former Dutch territory, resource-rich Papua was fully incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 under a highly controversial United Nations-supervised ballot involving only 1025 voters in a region with a population of almost a million at the time.
However, the report says most indigenous Papuans still want independence and that a build-up of Indonesian troops in recent months has been accompanied by new abuses and repression.
"Military operations have led to thousands of deaths in Papua and continue to cost lives," it says.
Kopassus troops -- Indonesian special forces -- were responsible for the death of a pro-independence priest, the Reverend Elisa Tabuni, last year, the report said, citing the Papuan Baptist Church as its source.
Indonesian troops were also responsible for burning 371 homes in Puncak Jaya and stealing livestock at the end of last year, it said. Soldiers raped at least one woman during the operation, unnamed witnesses said. More than 6000 displaced Papuans were said to remain in hiding in the jungle.
It is also alleged that as recently as February, more property was destroyed in Papuan villages while Jakarta-backed militias had also murdered dissidents.
The report also outlines corrupt Indonesian military activities including illegal logging, rigged construction projects and theft of aid, as well as prostitution and the spread of HIV/AIDS.
A spokeswoman at the Indonesia embassy in Canberra denied the allegations and called on the University of Sydney researchers to hand over evidence so it could investigate.
SBS Television - August 18, 2005
The Indonesian military has been blamed for systematic violence, including rape, arson and torture, in the province of West Papua, according to a new report by Australian researchers.
The Australian Democrats have criticised the federal government for ignoring the human rights abuses to avoid upsetting Indonesia.
The Genocide in West Papua report, released by Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, sets out detailed accounts of Indonesian military involvement in violent acts. The report took up to four years to compile.
Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, who launched the report along with the Australian Greens party in Canberra, said Australia needs to do more to tackle the issue.
"You have constant stories of torture, of death, of attacks on the citizens and yet, in terms of Australia, very little action or response," Senator Stott Despoja told ABC radio before the launch. "In fact, we're so timid in our response to West Papua. We're terrified of upsetting our relationship with the Indonesian government," she said.
Centre director Stuart Rees echoed her comments, saying the Australian government needs to take the issue seriously. "We're saying that Australia is a signatory to the convention on genocide and that makes us have a legal obligation, as well as a moral obligation, to tell a wide public what is going on," Professor Rees said.
The report warns that the survival of Papua's indigenous people will be under threat if the concerns raised are not addressed.
West Papua, also known as Irian Jaya, is a former Dutch colony 250 kilometres north of Australia. Indonesia took control of the jungle-clad, resource-rich region in 1962, and a referendum found most West Papuans opted to stay with Indonesia after a territorial tussle with the Netherlands.
Earlier this week, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono highlighted the Papuan insurgency, foreshadowing a limited self- rule method similar to the Aceh deal.
His comments come after the US Congress last month passed a bill calling for access to investigate how Indonesia gained control of Papua 40 years ago and also pointed at human rights abuses in the province.
Guerrillas in Papua have waged a separatist war since 1963 over complaints they do not get a fair slice of revenues gained through the province's rich natural resources.
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Ivy Susanti, Jakarta -- Indonesia expressed displeasure over a report from a group of Australian researchers, who accuse the Indonesian Military (TNI) of committing genocide in Papua, and condemned the study as "baseless".
The University of Sydney's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies released a report on Thursday entitled Genocide in West Papua, which details eyewitness accounts of Indonesian military involvement in rape, arson and torture in the province.
While not directly calling into question the credibility of the research center, Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesman, suggested that they should concentrate on matters on their home soil rather than on international affairs.
"The report is completely baseless and does not contain even a hint of truth. The center would do well to stop pontificating and sounding like a broken record and should rather focus its so- called research on matters which are closer to home," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Indonesia's deputy military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Bibit Santoso, dismissed the findings. "I believe that the study is incorrect and untrue. First of all, there are no militias in Papua and only Indonesian soldiers are stationed there," he told AFP.
He said the government had banned Muslim militants from operating in Papua and members of the Java-based Laskar Jihad hardline Muslim group, who once operated there, had "all been sent home."
"Testimonies by infiltrators claim some groups have links to extremist Islamic organizations," AFP quoted a summary of the report, suggesting the Muslim militants were being used to counter separatists among the territory's native Melanesian population. The Center's director Stuart Rees was quoted as saying by ABC Online on Thursday that it had carried out four years of research to produce the report and asked the Australian government to take it seriously.
"We're saying that Australia is a signatory to the (UN) convention on genocide and that makes us have a legal obligation, as well as a moral obligation, to tell the wider public what is going on," Prof. Rees was quoted as saying.
The Center, along with the Papuan church and human rights investigators reported that the survival of the indigenous people was under serious threat if the concerns they raise are not addressed.
"Even though I am usually cautious about the use of the word genocide, this significant document details the destruction of a people, their land and prospects," Prof. Rees was quoted by AFP as saying.
The report details a recent increase in major military campaigns, which it said were "decimating highland tribal communities" already suffering from an explosion of HIV/AIDS infections and chronic underdevelopment.
The report quoted eyewitnesses who detailed acts of arson, theft and destruction of property, rape, torture and arbitrary disappearances during these campaigns.
It also said uncontrolled migration from Indonesia's main island of Java, and a "Papuan depopulation program" had created a rapid demographic transition, which could eventually see the Papuans become a minority in their own land.
"What will be of enormous concern to neighboring countries are revelations of the introduction of illegal arms, clandestine militia training and religiously based terrorist recruitment," the report said.
One of Papua's leading church figures, Rev. Socratez Yoman, was quoted as saying: "Wherever there are Indonesian soldiers, the militia and jihadists are there too. They are inseparable." The report comes two days after Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to seek a peaceful end to an insurgency in Papua.
The government signed a peace pact with separatist rebels in Aceh province on Monday, and Susilo said the government was now aiming to provide "special autonomy" for Papua.
Separatists proclaimed the state of West Papua on Dec. 1, 1962, but Indonesia took control of the mountainous, jungle-clad territory from Dutch colonizers the following year. The separatists, now split into badly coordinated factions, have been fighting a sporadic and ill-armed guerrilla war since then.
The president also added that no foreign "interference" would be accepted.
But Rees said on Thursday: "We now have a responsibility to say that enough is enough and that the human rights abuses documented in this report should be brought to the world's attention."
| Human rights/law |
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Jakarta -- The granting of sentence remissions to some 103,000 prisoners in observance of Independence Day has come under fire, with observers noting the recipients included high-profile inmates convicted of terrorism, murder and corruption.
Although the move is justified by a government regulation, some critics could not understand why former National Logistics Agency (Bulog) chief Rahardi Ramelan was among the prisoners who received sentence cuts on Aug. 17, when he had began serving his two-year term just two days earlier for graft.
Many have also questioned why former president Soeharto's son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who was convicted of murdering a high court judge and illegal gun possession, also had his 10-year prison term cut by more than a year without any public explanation. Earlier this year, Tommy's then 15-year sentence was cut by five years by the Supreme Court.
Controversy also surfaced over the granting of remissions to those convicted for terrorism offenses and Australia has protested Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's sentence cut of four and a-half months from his 30-month jail term for conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Legal experts urged the government on Friday to be transparent when it gave sentence remissions to inmates in order to empower the prison's function as correctional institution.
"As correctional institutions, all prisons should have reports on all prisoners which should be evaluated before giving them sentence remissions," said Rudi Satrio from the University of Indonesia.
Rudi believed many prisoners received jail cuts because of their "better relations" with prison chiefs, wardens and other top officials.
Rudi and Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, another legal expert from the same university, said while Government Regulation No. 32/1995 stipulated that all prisoners had the right to receive remissions, they were not automatically entitled to jail term reductions every Independence Day or religious celebration.
"First of all, the government must be transparent as to why Tommy, Rahardi and Ba'asyir were granted sentence remissions to avoid any confusion among the public," Rudi said.
The chief of the Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap, Central Java, where Tommy is serving his term, should have explained the reasons for Tommy's reduction, he said.
Rudi said he believed Ba'asyir was granted the remission because of a perceived "unfair" decision by the court that sentenced Ba'asyir to imprisonment for conspiracy leading to the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings. The bombs killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
However, Rudi urged the Australian government not to intervene into Indonesia's internal affairs regarding Ba'asyir.
Harkristuti, meanwhile, said Rahardi was entitled to sentence cut of two months not because he had gone to jail two days before Independence Day but because he had earlier been detained for 10 months last year. Such a sentence remission was a right all inmates were entitled to, she said.
Rudi and Harkristuti agreed with calls for the government to revise the regulation so the decisions granting sentence remissions would seen as be fair and just.
Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said the government was considering a plan to revise the regulations on remissions to exempt prisoners convicted of serious crimes.
Jakarta Post - August 18, 2005
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- Lawyers for an Indonesian pilot charged with poisoning leading human rights campaigner Munir Thalib Said, have accused government prosecutors of making up motives behind the murder, saying prosecutors should arrest the real murderer, instead making a scapegoat out of their client.
Mohammad Assegaf who led a team of lawyers representing Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, the only suspect on trial in the case, appealed to the panel of judges to drop the murder charges against their client and asked the prosecutors to look for the real culprit.
"The prosecutors have fabricated the motive to trap the defendant in the murder (case) because of their inability to arrest the true murderer," he told the Central Jakarta District Court here on Tuesday.
The wife of Pollycarpus and Munir's wife have made an impassioned plea for the defendant to come out with the truth about his involvement in the murder and to name other players.
Munir died in the business-class cabin of a Garuda flight from Jakarta to the Netherlands in September last year. An autopsy conducted by the Dutch authorities, found excessive amounts of arsenic in his body.
Pollycarpus who was on the flight but not on duty has been indicted with conspiring with two Garuda Indonesia flight attendants to poison Munir, a charge he has denied. The two, Oedi and Yeti, have not been indicted and remain free.
Prosecutors in their indictment described Pollycarpus as a staunch nationalist who saw Munir as "a hindrance to the implementation of the government's programs".
Assegaf said the flimsy accusation showed investigators still had a lot of work to do and must further expand their investigation to include other parties that may be involved in the case.
"It doesn't make sense that a pilot would feel disturbed by Munir's activities. They should be looking for people behind Polly, if indeed he is involved," he said.
Neither the prosecutors nor the lawyers have been able to link Munir's murder to any other parties, including the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), since the government has not yet disclosed to the public the results of the fact-finding team's inquiry into the case.
In its final report, the government-sanctioned team said it had evidence that Pollycarpus was in frequent telephone contact with certain BIN officials before and after Munir's death.
Munir had made many powerful enemies in his crusade to promote human rights and condemn human rights abuses that involved the security authorities.
Outside the court hearing, Munir's wife Suciwati and Pollycarpus's wife Herawati called on the defendant to tell the court the true story about the murder case for the sake of justice.
Suciwati along with dozens of activists from human rights groups Kontras and Impartial said she was convinced that Pollycarpus was not the real murderer of her husband and he should reveal the mastermind.
Herawati said: "Polly, you're a gentleman. Please, confess if you did in fact commit murder, or reveal another name for the sake of justice if you didn't. You should not think of us (Herawati and their children)."
| Reconciliation & justice |
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Indra Harsaputra, Malang -- Tied to an iron pole, the red-and- white flag waves in front of a house on Jl. Piranha Atas Selatan II/5, Malang, East Java.
The house belongs to Tjahjono, one of the victims of the New Order's drive to crush the September 30 Movement, a 1965 coup attempt allegedly masterminded by the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party, and also chief of the local chapter of the Institute of Struggle for the Rehabilitation of Victims of the New Order Regime.
In his neighborhood, Tjahjono's flag is the cleanest and brightest, a symbol that the owner has kept his fighting spirit aflame.
"My wife and I always cry upon seeing the red-and-white flag being unfurled in front of our house close to Independence Day," said Tjahjono on Monday afternoon, his eyes slightly red as he tries hard not to shed tears.
In his old age, he can still vividly recollect the incident on November 10, 1945, in which a number of young Indonesian freedom fighters tore off the blue part of the red, white and blue flag of the Dutch, which was then being unfurled at Hotel Yamato, now Majapahit hotel, Surabaya.
Tjahyono, a militia member of the Indonesian Students Association, was inside the hotel building and witnessed the incident.
Shortly afterward, as testament to the valor of the young Indonesian freedom fighters, a fierce battle, better known as the Battle of Surabaya, broke out between Indonesian militiamen and the Dutch and Allied forces in Surabaya.
A lot of bloodshed ensued. Although many freedom fighters laid down their lives, those who survived were not deterred. They withdrew from Surabaya and set up defenses outside the city in Sidoarjo, Malang and Mojokerto.
The Battle of Surabaya inflicted great losses on the Allied forces. The battle has gone down in history as claiming more lives than the battle between British and Japanese forces in Burma in 1942.
Thanks to his involvement in this battle, Tjahjono later received from Sukarno, Indonesia's first president, the title of a veteran freedom fighter of the Republic of Indonesia. The title was conferred on him by Brig. Gen. Sambas Atmadinata, then Indonesia's minister of veteran affairs.
Tjahjono studied civil engineering in 1952 at Kediri government technical school for four years. He then joined the Engineering School in Yogyakarta and after graduation became a teacher at state technical school No. 1 in Malang. In addition, he also taught at the teacher training institute in Malang.
On November 8, 1965, four days before he was to be installed as principal of school No. 1, he was arrested and thrown into Lowokwaru penitentiary without due process, as he was alleged to have been an activist of the Indonesian Communist Party.
He was arrested in front of the principal's room, just after he had finished teaching. Handcuffed, someone stamped on his back, an act of violence that has left him with back problems even today.
Tjahjono was accused of being a sympathizer of the Indonesian Communist Party. Because of this arbitrary arrest, his idealism as a teacher was lost. Worse still for him, his wife was fired from her teaching position at a school in Malang in June 1966.
His two children, Yuningtyas Hartanti and Sasmoko Hercahyo, both who knew nothing of the activities of the Indonesian Communist Party, were also sent to a juvenile penitentiary for 16 months.
Besides that, 12 of Tjahjono's relatives in Tulungagung, most of whom were teachers, were kidnaped and never reappeared. One of them was Partodiwiryo, the principal of an elementary school in Tulung Agung.
A survey conducted by the Malang chapter of the Institute of Struggle for the Rehabilitation of Victims of the New Order Regime showed that as many as 14,583 people in Malang were kidnaped and disappeared following Sept. 30, 1965, and some 4,500 others were incarcerated.
They included teachers, lecturers, Indonesians of Chinese descent, businessmen, members of regional legislative assemblies, secretaries to village heads and reporters.
"I have lost all documents relating to my veteran freedom fighter status and my university diploma. I was imprisoned for 13 years and after my release I could not get a regular job," said Tjahjono, who was born in Madiun on July 5, 1928.
He said that the New Order regime committed a lot of heinous crimes. They accused people of being members of the Indonesian Communist Party without evidence and sent them to prison without due process.
Several middle-ranking military officers even took the wives of Indonesian Communist Party detainees and forced them to remarry. The rector of a university in Malang, Tan Hwi Lion, was killed and his wife was forced to marry a military officer.
Even after he was released from prison, Tjahjono found it difficult to get a steady job because he was labeled a political detainee.
To support his family, Tjahjono decided to work as a supervisor in a house construction project, earning less then Rp 600,000 a month. In his old age, he has still kept his job. He was involved in the construction of a house of a Kompas daily newspaper reporter in Malang in 2002, for example.
Tjahjono's eldest child, Yuningtyas Hartanti, 45, who was imprisoned when she was just six years old, was unable to get a teaching job at a junior high school in Pontianak, Kalimantan, in 1980 because her identity card had the code number 001, an indication that she is from a communist family. That is why she earns a living as a dressmaker.
Tjahjono's second child, Sasmoko Hercahyo, 43, who was detained when he was just four years old, could not join the civil service. A graduate of an Australian theology college, he is now a church minister at the Salvation Army Church in Malang.
As for his youngest child, Nawangsih Respitorini, 40, she opted for a job at a private real estate consulting company in Malang.
"This Independence Day, I'm grateful to God for the good health He has bestowed upon me and the fortune He has blessed upon my children. We harbor no revenge toward anybody. We know that what has befallen us is God's wish, for which we must be thankful," said Tjahjono, while looking at photos of his three children as youngsters.
Although he has neither a computer nor a typewriter, Tjahjono has never stopped writing his testimony of the alleged crimes of the New Order regime.
He will send his handwritten testimony to the National Commission on Human Rights as part of the material in the lawsuit filed in Jakarta by victims of the New Order that linked them to the Indonesian Communist Party.
Tjahjono is also actively organizing a number of New Order victims like him in Malang and has continued to seek information on the whereabouts of the missing victims.
"We won't feel free unless we are rehabilitated and the historical record is corrected. In Surabaya in 1945, we took up arms but now our struggle is confined only to writing our testimony of history," he said.
Jakarta Post - August 16, 2005
Surabaya/Kutai Kartanegara -- For the suspected members of the outlawed Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and their families, the country's anniversary celebration has always been a bitter time, bringing back old memories.
Tjahjono, 70, could not control his emotions and broke down into tears as he recalled the time last year when his daughter was denied an application to become a teacher in an elementary school in Pontianak simply because of the "special mark" on her identity card.
The card bears the code 001, a "scarlet letter" that was forced upon everybody related to PKI's accused members. And his daughter was not the only one who suffered. Tjahjono's three other children also were turned down by private and state institutions, and now are all unemployed.
"I feel disappointed in the government because my children have to suffer, although they don't even know what really happened at that time," the chairman of New Order Victims Rehabilitation in Malang told The Jakarta Post.
The former civil engineering lecturer at the Malang Teachers Institute, who lost his job after accusations that he was a PKI supporter, claimed he was accused simply because he was close friends with PKI supporters.
"I knew nothing about PKI, but people just didn't care. They thought that because I was close to some supporters, I was one of them," he said.
The PKI was accused of masterminding the bloody failed coup by on Sept. 30, 1965 -- referred to by Indonesia's historians as the September 30 Movement, or GS-30 -- which resulted in the killings of several military generals. Former president Soeharto rose to power after the failed coup, and his government sent thousands of PKI members and their relatives to prison without trial. In the years following the fall of Soeharto, general conditions were less hostile to the suspected PKI members and their families. Early last year, the Constitutional Court restored the political rights of those linked with the communist party by allowing them to vote and contest the legislative election.
Tjahjono said that before he was accused, which got him thrown in Nusakambangan prison and later Buru island for 10 years, he was an independence fighter, who once fought the Allied Forces in Malang. But instead of being appreciated as a war hero, he and his family were branded as PKI members.
He tried to bring up the problem at various discussions to press the government to restore their civil and political rights, but unfortunately for him, nothing has changed.
In the East Kalimantan town of Kutai Kartanegara, 85-year-old Gusti was ailing in bed in his wooden house. "The pain I'm suffering is nothing compared to what the country has done to me and others accused as traitors. We're left in misery," he said.
The country's anniversary celebration has no meaning for the man since he still feels alienated and is not free from the accusations of being a PKI member. "We fought against the colonial rulers. We helped set the country free from aggressors, but we end up being sacrificed by our own country," Gusti sighed.
For the man -- as well as around 175 other ex-prisoners accused of being PKI members who live in Argosari, a poor and isolated village nicknamed by locals as the "PKI village" -- the country's Independence Day on Aug. 17 brings back old memories that they, as well as their family members, are not free.
"We earlier hoped that the government of (former) president Megawati Soekarnoputri would restore our names. But it didn't happen. We still are not completely free," said another ex- prisoner, Oentong Soeyatno, 65, secretary of the Group of New Order Victims in the province.
Political observer Daniel Sparringa of the Airlangga University said many relatives of former PKI members had lost their basic rights as citizens -- particularly for equal rights under the law. He said the government should restore their rights through rehabilitation efforts and compensation.
"The government should straighten out our history, either by exposing the PKI's cruelty or the manipulation of the PKI organization by the New Order regime," he told the Post.
| Labour issues |
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta -- Labor activists and observers predict that more state enterprises will be threatened with massive strikes since most of their staff are underpaid.
Federation of State Enterprises' Trade Unions (Federasi SP BUMN) chairman Abdul Azis Hasan said strikes were seen as the last resort to force the government to improve the employees' remuneration standard, which is lower than that of civil servants.
"After employees of several state-owned companies (threatened to) walk off their jobs recently, PT Pelni workers are likely to follow suit because the sea transportation firm can no longer compete with airline companies," Abdul said on Thursday.
He underlined that labor unions in state enterprises had grown stronger amid the reform euphoria, which made employees much more aware of their rights.
Most state enterprises do not comply with core labor standards in accordance with the Labor Law. Of 158 state enterprises, only 60 percent or 94 companies have adopted a collective labor agreement with their management, Abdul said.
"A series of threatened strikes involving employees of aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia, railway company PT KAI, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and oil and gas firm Pertamina reflect not only mismanagement and inefficiency, but also the government's violation of core labor standards," he said.
Separately, International Transport Federation (ITF) country representative Hanafi Rustandi said that state enterprises in the transportation sector had lost out to private competitors because of mismanagement and inefficiency.
"Garuda, Merpati, KAI, Pelni and Damri are not competitive because of severe financial difficulties and rampant corruption which has led to inefficiency," he said.
State enterprises, he added, had long served as cash cows for the government and ruling political parties, making them unable to improve their employees' welfare.
Hanafi and Abdul both said that poor labor conditions were a time bomb that could explode at any time if no radical measures were taken to improve the companies' performance.
The coordinator of BUMN Watch, Naldi Nazar Haroen, said the government's failure to take bold measures against inefficiency and corruption would result in many state enterprises collapsing in coming years.
"Most state enterprises remain unhealthy since they have been subordinated to technical departments controlled by politicians. The companies will continue functioning as money machines for the bureaucracy and ruling parties," he said.
A recent BUMN Watch study revealed that only 15 of the 158 state enterprises had booked annual profits over the last few years. Of the profitable firms, only a few have adequately improved their employees' welfare.
Naldi said that to boost profits, the enterprises should first of all be divided into profit-oriented and public service-oriented ones. Learning from Malaysia, the companies should be overseen by a holding company chaired by a professional, instead of a minister.
"Profit-oriented companies have to develop professional modern managements and be required to meet certain targets," he said.
Under such a structure, Malaysian state enterprises contribute to 85 percent of the country's annual state budget.
State enterprises in Indonesia control Rp 1.158 trillion in total assets, but contribute only 2 percent or Rp 23 trillion annually to the state budget, Naldi said.
Jakarta Post - August 20, 2005
Jakarta -- The government should immediately issue a regulation requiring occupational safety and health (OSH) programs in small enterprises and home industries to avoid unnecessary accidents at work and a reduction in employee productivity, according to an expert with the International Labor Organization.
"Extending legal protection to all workers, in both the formal and informal sectors, will increase the safety culture at workplaces," said Ingrid Christensen, the senior OSH specialist for the ILO's subregional office for South Asia.
She said that Sri Lanka had enacted legislation that required all companies, regardless of how many workers they employed, to implement OSH programs.
"Thailand is also preparing similar legislation to cover domestic workers," she said.
More than two million people die of work-related causes and 160 million fall ill globally due to workplace hazards each year, according to data from ILO. A significant number of deaths come from workers in small enterprises, where conditions are often very poor and employees have no form of labor protection.
Although Law No. 13/2003 on labor stipulates that all employers must have an OSH system in place, the necessary government regulation to implement the law has not been issued.
The Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration said last year that they were preparing a draft regulation that would provide guidelines for OSH standards in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that employ less than 50 people. More than 90 percent of the 170,000 companies registered with the ministry are SMEs, which employ the majority of Indonesia's workforce of about 95 million.
As of last year, less than 400 of the approximately 15,000 large companies in Indonesia had complied with the OSH requirements, according to the ministry's data. The ministry has blamed the lack of labor inspectors for the low compliance rate. Data from the state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek, showed that last year, seven people died of work-related causes each day, while 38 workers suffered accidents daily.
The ILO estimates that this number is higher due to underreporting and because Jamsostek only covers 7.5 million active workers. It estimated that work-related accidents claimed 46 lives daily last year.
| Corruption/collusion/nepotism |
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta -- Thirty-one alleged corruption cases involving more than Rp 3 trillion (US$303 million) in state losses have been investigated since last year, but there has been little progress in taking these cases to court.
A document from an anticorruption team at the Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises, a copy of which was obtained by The Jakarta Post on Thursday, shows that the preliminary investigations into seven of the 31 cases have been completed and the case files submitted to the National Police and an interdepartmental antigraft team for further investigation.
Authorities believe these seven graft cases may have caused some Rp 2 trillion in state losses. The companies involved in the alleged cases include state-owned power firm PT PLN, state bank PT BRI, airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I and fertilizer producer PT Pupuk Kaltim.
According to the document, the cases include an alleged Rp 745 billion bad loan from BRI to the Domba Mas Group, the alleged misuse of Rp 70 billion to procure IT equipment for the same bank and an alleged Rp 23.6 billion markup in the purchase of a ship for state-owned ferry company PT ASDP.
The other three cases involve an alleged markup of $2.2 million in the purchase of a South Korean ship by PT ASDP, the alleged markup in human resources consultation fees at PT Angkasa Pura totaling Rp 1.92 billion and an alleged violation in an investment agreement at insurance firm PT Asuransi Jiwasraya worth Rp 830 billion.
There was also an alleged Rp 337 billion graft case involving PT PLN's customer information system.
A source close to the probes by the antigraft team at the Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises said the team had submitted the seven cases, along with evidence, to legal authorities for further investigation.
However, no suspects have been named by the police or the interdepartmental anticorruption team, the source said.
The source said the team also submitted two other graft cases to the Attorney General's Office and the police -- one allegedly involving the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) and the other linked to the distribution of bonuses for PLN employees.
Only JICT president director Wirjawan has been named a suspect by the police, the source added.
Lendo Novo, who heads the team at the Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises, criticized the slow police investigations into the cases.
However, he acknowledged the police faced difficulties in accelerating the probes, given their lack of experience with such cases.
"The police do not have enough experts in investigating white- collar crimes, especially bank fraud, so they take quite a long time to complete the investigations," Lendo said.
He said the police should recruit experts from the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) to speed up the investigations, or send officers to the BPKP to server two or three-year internships.
"The public knows there are a lot of corruption cases in the country, especially at state enterprises, and they are wondering how come the investigation process is so slow and so few suspects have been named," Lendo said.
He said the BPKP and the Supreme Audit Agency were the two most important elements in the corruption eradication effort.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Soenarko said the police were working with institutions such as the Financial Transaction Reports Analysis Center to investigate bank fraud cases.
"If we take time to investigate these cases it is because we want to make sure the investigations are done correctly," Soenarko said.
Agence France Presse - August 23, 2005
Jakarta -- Indonesia has made scant progress in changing the outlook of government officials who remain indifferent to providing public service and continue to engage in corruption, the president says.
Despite seven years of reform begun after the fall of dictator Suharto aimed at eliminating the Indonesian bureaucracy's notorious corruption, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said little had been achieved.
"The tendency for (officials to want) to be served is still felt in various state institutions and bodies, even though the duty of the state apparatus is to serve the people," he told regional officials in an annual speech on development.
"The ills of corruption, collusion and nepotism are still happening and with the handing over of financial autonomy to the regions, we can also feel the tendency for irregularities in the regions," Yudhoyono said.
The country's move to decentralise government had led to an array of inefficiencies, such as overlapping taxes and levies imposed by the central and regional governments, he said.
"The government is now trying to overcome these (problems), not only by taking firm measures against the practice of corruption, collusion and nepotism, but also by heightening supervision over state finances," he said.
When taking office last October, Yudhoyono declared war on the corruption that flourished during the three decades under Suharto, but the country is still ranked as one of the world's most graft-prone.
Scores of active or former officials and legislators are facing charges of corruption or have been jailed by courts across the country in the past year.
| Business & investment |
Jakarta Post - August 23, 2005
Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta -- With the primary aim of boosting investment in the private sector, the government has drafted a fairly sound and competitive value-added tax (VAT) and income tax system in its recently completed draft revision of the tax laws, according to an official.
Head of the tax law revision team, I Made Gde Erata, told The Jakarta Post the directorate had accommodated demands from the business community for the new laws to be competitive for businesses without harming state revenues from taxes.
"We are trying to make the laws as balanced as we can. We want businesses to gain advantages from them, but we also want state revenues to be sustainable. For sure, the laws are drafted to make it (the tax system) simple," said Erata.
As reported earlier, the ministry of finance's Directorate General of Taxation completed the revision of Law No. 18/2000 on VAT and luxury tax, and Law No. 17 on income tax on Aug. 16, which feature a progressive taxation system, both in term of rates and the types of taxes levied.
According to the draft law on VAT and luxury tax, which was made available to the Post, the government plans to scrap the VAT in a merger of companies, as well as certain activities in the agricultural and banking sector.
The government will also scrap the VAT on capital goods for companies that export services, including software, franchise and consultancy products.
The draft also shows that the government will allow companies just starting up their businesses to pay their VAT on capital goods in installments until after the companies commence production.
At present, the VAT is set at 10 percent, with no changes planned under the new draft.
Based on the 2006 state budget, the government expects to reap Rp 126.7 trillion (US$12.67 billion) from VAT and luxury tax, up from Rp 99.41 trillion for this year.
Meanwhile, in the income tax areas, Erata said the government would focus more on increasing the number of taxpayers as well as decreasing the rate of tax evasion.
Under the draft law on income tax, also made available to the Post, taxpayers who purchase shares or assets through a special- purpose vehicle (SPV) registered overseas will be subject to paying income tax.
Taxpayers are also liable to the tax if they transfer their shares or assets here to an SPV registered in a tax-haven country.
Several prominent companies operating in Indonesia have tried to reduce the amount of income tax they pay in the country, or have evaded paying it altogether, by setting up SPVs overseas.
The tax directorate previously indicated that potential tax revenue losses for the state from such practices could reach at least US$300 million annually.
"There are several practices of evading taxes that we have eliminated or limited in the draft laws. The financial system is so complicated nowadays and we should keep up with it in order to avoid potential tax revenue losses," said Erata.
Another example in the draft law aimed at limiting tax evasion is the requirement that all contractors operating in the energy and mining sector register themselves as permanent institutions here in order for the government to be legally able to collect their taxes.
At present, some foreign contractors and consultants operating in Indonesia in the sector have refused to set up permanent registration in order to avoid paying taxes. Based on the prevailing law, the government can only tax companies that are permanently registered in the country.
The proposed law also stipulates that aside from the primary taxpayers registration number (NPWP), an individual who is in business should have an additional registration number for his or her other addresses. This is to prevent businesspeople from running away to other areas to avoid paying their taxes.
Under the state budget, next year's income tax target is set at Rp 198.3 trillion, up from Rp 166.6 trillion this year.
Key points in the draft laws: VAT and Luxury taxes
Income tax
[Source: Directorate General of Taxation.]
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
The financial market has reason to be uneasy about the 2006 state budget proposal President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unveiled to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
It seems the key assumptions used for revenue and spending estimates deviate far from what most market players expected.
While most analysts anticipate that oil prices will fluctuate at a range of US$55-60/barrel within the foreseeable future, as against the actual average of $50.50 in the first seven months of this year, the draft budget assumes an average price of $40 for the whole of next year.
It is completely unreasonable to expect such a steep fall in oil prices from the current assumption of more than $63 within the next four months to bring them down to an average $40 next year even though, as the government supposes, the world demand for oil will decline and supplies from OPEC will increase.
The government seems unwilling to learn from its current fiscal debacle, which was caused by its gross mistakes in underestimating the oil price cycle.
As the government stubbornly deluded itself into believing that the era of cheap oil would soon return, it initially predicted for the 2005 state budget that oil prices would average $24 for the whole of the current fiscal year. But the government was forced to revise the price estimate to $35 in March. This was the price used as the basis for setting the 29 percent increase in domestic fuel prices in that month. But the estimate was again revised in June to $45 before the government finally accepted, in its latest estimate for the current budget, that the average price for this year would hover at least at $50.60.
The government also seems overly optimistic of economic growth for next year, as if denying that the skyrocketing oil prices are likely to damage growth prospects and affect macroeconomic stability.
While the International Monetary Fund has predicted a decline in the world economic growth to 4.3 percent this year from 5.1 percent last year, and the Central Statistics Agency announced on Monday that the rate of Indonesia's economic growth fell from 6.2 percent -- year-on-year basis -- in the first quarter to 5.54 percent in the second quarter, the government still expects a robust growth of 6.2 percent next year.
As the country is already a net oil importer with a daily import need of around 350,000 barrels, grossly underestimating the oil price average could result in misguided fiscal policies and threaten macroeconomic stability as fuel subsidies and the budget deficit would reach unsustainable levels, thereby causing inflation to spiral and pushing down the rupiah and forcing interest rates to skyrocket.
Higher-than-estimated oil prices would also severely hurt the country's balance of payments, cut into foreign reserves and consequently trigger stronger speculative attacks on the rupiah. To defend the rupiah, the central bank would have to raise interest rates and this credit crunch would choke the business sector.
Likewise, the overly optimistic economic growth estimate could upset the targets of a 26.4 percent increase in income tax receipts and 27.5 percent rise in value added tax and luxury sales tax revenues set for next year, which together are responsible for about 61 percent of total domestic revenues.
This potential vicious circle should be among the apprehensions of market players in reading the budget proposal, and this negative perception is quite worrisome because a budget plan is supposed to communicate the right signals about bureaucratic behavior, prices, priorities, intentions and commitments.
Further down the road, uncertainty caused by the unrealistic budget estimates would prompt most investors to further wait on the sidelines and this in turn could abort the target of a 15.2 percent expansion in investment set for next year.
It would have been much better, in terms of policy adjustments, if the government was more conservative in regard to an oil price estimate, gearing up for the worst situation with oil prices foreseen above $50. After all, it would be much easier to reallocate a budget surplus in case oil prices turned out lower than the estimate, rather than having to take painful measures to cover a bigger budget deficit in case oil prices are much higher.
Predictability is important for the efficient and effective implementation of policies and programs because the public sector will perform better where there is stability in macro and strategic policy and the funding of the prevailing policy. However, this draft budget is instead causing uncertainty.
It is, therefore, imperative for the House of Representatives and the government to revise the key assumptions for the draft 2006 budget and consequently estimates for revenues and expenditure closer to market realities.
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Jakarta -- The massive blackouts that swept parts of Java and Bali have caused industries to suffer billions of rupiah in financial losses due to disruptions in their operations.
The Indonesian Textile Association estimated that more than 100 spinning, weaving and garment industries in Greater Jakarta suffered losses of about Rp 55 billion (US$5.53 million).
"Many of our members complained that their machines stopped operating for six hours plus, (and it took) an additional two hours to warm up the machines soon after the power went on again," association executive secretary EG Ismy said on Thursday.
That figure, he added, did not include the extra losses from the delays of shipments to customers.
At 10:23 a.m. on Thursday, a glitch in 500 kilovolt (kv) transmission line between Cilegon and Saguling in West Java cut state utility company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN)'s power supply and caused several power plant units to disengage from the network.
Elsewhere, the Indonesian Automotive Parts and Components Industries Association executive Yos Rizal Anwar said many businesses in the automaker support industry shut down for up to eight hours due to the blackouts. He estimated losses of more than Rp 400 million for each company.
"If this (blackout) continues, it will make our products less competitive than China or India's manufactured goods. It also happened not long after PLN announced its plan to increase the electricity price for industry," he said.
Both Ismy and Yos called on PLN to provide an international- standard service if it wanted the industry to pay "international rates" for power.
Many large offices and industries did, however, have backup generator systems in place. "Alhamdullilah (Thank God), we didn't have any problems at the JSX," bourse administration director Wawan Setiamihardja said.
Wawan said all computers at the capital market were connected through an uninterrupted power system that enabled them to continue working for the hour that power was disrupted.
In Surabaya and Semarang, star-rated hotels did not experience blackouts, also switching to generator power supplies.
Hyatt Hotel Surabaya spokesman Prima Soemarso said it would be uneconomic for hotels to rely on generators if PLN's power supply was disrupted for a long period.
"If we keep using the generators, our operational costs will increase drastically," he said.
| Opinion & analysis |
Jakarta Post - August 23, 2005
Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta -- A young East Timorese once inquired, "Do you people also experience atrocities?" I said, "What? Of course not." Where did she get such an idea? Youngsters in Indonesia's big cities were not only free of "atrocities", they were out blissfully shopping and loitering in malls, and moaning about the traffic.
A few years later, third president BJ Habibie led the controversial move to allow East Timor's referendum, and we teased our colleagues among the Dili press, asking, "So, what are you going to vote for?" And they would just give their gentle, mysterious smiles. East Timor became free; life was tough, but they have never voiced regret.
My Timorese friends came to mind in the wake of the Aug. 15 signing of the historic peace agreement between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). I recalled that my Acehnese colleagues would spell "Aceh" -- in their emails or text messages -- as "Acheh" or "Atjeh", in accordance with the spelling of Aceh used by GAM; a gesture I belatedly figured out was similar to the Timorese.
From these friends' subtle expressions and evasions of "sensitive" issues, it was as if they were saying, "I am indeed your friend, but we may need to become separate from you one day because of circumstances that you may not understand, and I'm not telling you outright because I don't want to argue with you; it's a long story, and we've found that you people never understand -- you cannot, or refuse, to see our point of view and you will make me listen to the same lecture all over again."
This quiet attitude reflects the seeming impossibility for an open dialog among fellow Indonesians between, for instance, those from Aceh, or pre-independent East Timor, even when they're of the same age group or profession, with those who grew up in the "center" -- mainly Java or the capital -- who never seem to have any doubt about the "truth."
Even if you dozed all through your history and civics classes, being spoon-fed government-approved versions of the truth, you grew up with either veteran elders and their heroic stories of defending the red-and-white; or you grew up simply ignorant, with no curiosity, on why any Indonesian could harbor a wish to separate themselves from our republic.
The wider public has thus largely become convinced that the Acehnese are not aware of their own history; that they are an indisputable and integral part of the Indonesian republic. And even if they were aware, any demand for independence and any support for GAM could only be short-lived, even though these people say they suffered atrocities at the hands of the Indonesian military. After all, we think, these are just necessary excesses that occur during wars in order to crush the enemy.
Among those living outside Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, and earlier, East Timor, we indeed knew that much information of history and living conditions were hidden from the public eye for a very long time. But amazingly, the basic views remained -- that no part of Indonesia could separate itself because of our "holy legacy" of the "unitary state", fought for with the blood and tears of our forebears. Settling any wrongdoing by breaking away, as in the East Timor case, was a stupid mistake and a betrayal of the nation.
Rare has been the view that we might not deserve the land nor its people who we keep neglecting, extorting and oppressing.
In 1998, the eyes of attendants in a Jakarta conference room were moist when women from Aceh for the first time in public recited experiences under the 10-year military rule, shortly after it was declared to have ended that year.
A few years later, an Acehnese sociologist described how virtually every male, 14 years upwards, had experienced being slapped by Indonesian security forces, a contributing factor to the recruitment of GAM apart from the fact that many youngsters had been witness to violence against family members by police or military personnel.
But knowing of such experiences in Acehnese life did not lead to much reflection and public debate ahead of declaration of martial law, which would include another phase of military operations. Instead, "Crush GAM, uphold the unitary republic" was the main message coming from phone-in calls to talk shows.
Some Acehnese had said they had wanted to make their differing views known, they had tried to join the polls broadcast on television, but somehow they couldn't get through. An Acehnese scholar had said yes, military operations might be the way but why all across the province? Such views were drowned out.
Media surveys such as those from the Institute of Studies on Information Flow (ISAI) strongly suggested that the media shared much of the blame for the absence of Acehnese voices in public discourse; they showed that coverage in the mainstream media became increasingly slanted to the needs of the military while the disputing parties of the government and GAM went back and forth on the earlier peace talks in Geneva, which eventually collapsed.
Today the absence or drowning out of the "Acehnese perspective" in public opinion persists -- resulting in a gulf of views between the public inside and outside Aceh (and any other area mulling ungrateful rebellious thoughts like Papua), a gulf molded by both years of comfortable life under the New Order and a mask over real life experiences in Aceh.
Such experiences have only been exposed as occasional dramatic stories, too sporadic to make the wider public refrain from judgment and lecturing, "all Indonesians stick together forever, you've got all our sympathy, now we'll strive with you to make things better; there's no point on relying on GAM anyway, they're led by old men who've been away from Aceh for so long."
So we hector them about local political parties and all the other "concessions" given to GAM: They've done nothing and yet we're bribing them with all this land and amnesty, they get direct access to foreign loans and get to set their own bank rates! But look closer at the MOU, at the potential dangers in the lack of explicit language on GAM dropping their demands for independence.
It is indeed the business of experienced negotiators and concerned patriotic citizens to be aware of all the flaws.
But Acehnese remind us that we haven't really looked at what counts most; what do they want? In the "MOU controversy" we've forgotten that the Acehnese are some hundred thousand short of their original 4 million population figure; they're what's left of the devastating tsunami.
An Acehnese said, "Why all the fuss over local political parties? We might not even consider choosing them! Wasn't it a breakthrough that GAM no longer demanded independence?" In other words, we've forgotten the main actors behind the disputing parties who want to get on with their lives as best as they can, after surviving decades of war, and the pain of losing loved ones to violence, and later the tsunamis.
Ironically it's taken an official to remind us, "Use your conscience when criticizing the MOU; do we really want more of our mothers to become widows, and more children to become orphans, because of the violence?" Justice minister and chief negotiator Hamid Awaluddin may sound defensive, but millions of Acehnese may agree -- and they might not be telling us.
[The author is a staff writer for The Jakarta Post.]
Jakarta Post - August 19, 2005
Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta -- The Aceh peace accord signed in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Aug. 15, 2005 was indeed a gift and sweet prelude for the Indonesian people and government prior to celebrating the country's 60th anniversary of independence.
The historical event marked a new era for the Indonesian people, especially the Acehnese, as it ended the lengthy political instability and the three-decade-long campaign by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to establish an independent state, separated from Indonesia.
The event also provided a good example that peaceful diplomatic measures can be used to resolve such a prolonged and complex separatist problem rather than engaging in military operations to crush the movement.
Such an approach could have been successful in settling the "similar separatist movement" in the former Indonesian province of East Timor and can also be applied in another troubled province, Papua.
So tremendous is the achievement that the only remaining question is whether a lasting peace can be maintained in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, known as one of the most serious trouble spots worldwide.
The question is not easy to answer as a lasting peace will require total commitment by both sides -- GAM and the Indonesian government, including the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the police -- to complying with all points agreed in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on Monday.
And, based on legal practice here, the government should issue a regulation, which is higher in the legal hierarchy than an MOU, in order to incorporate the peace accord into national law.
Extra caution will need to be exercised during the political transition as the previous system and practices may collide with the new system. It is good that the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) is already present in the country's westernmost province to observe the implementation of the peace agreement.
However, doubts are increasing as to the sustainability of the agreement as the Joint Mission will not be in Aceh forever. They will only be there for a one year. It is not inconceivable that once the European Union-ASEAN monitoring team leaves Aceh, insecurity and disorder will return to the province.
Past experience also shows that previous peace agreements collapsed within a very short period of time, with the last agreement in 2003 collapsing just five months after it was signed with GAM and the government blaming each other for violations of the agreement.
Such doubts arise not only because of the critical transitional period, but also because so many interests are involved and could play influential roles in future decision- and policy-making processes in the province.
It has become an open secret that most government elements in the province have their own interests and businesses that may prevent the successful implementation of the Aug. 15 agreement.
The provision of "protection" to both legal and illegal businesses by military and police units, the seemingly untouchable marijuana fields in some parts of Aceh and increasing gambling are only some examples of how the problems in the province are interrelated.
On the ground, the transitional period in Aceh will not be free from possible tension and conflict, either. The return of former GAM officers and members to normal life, mingling with other Acehnese, may not be as smooth as it is written on paper.
It will not be easy for those Acehnese whose relatives were killed by whatever side to forgive and forget. Only an intense public information campaign by GAM and the local government promoting the opening of a new page in Aceh's history will help accelerate the reconciliation process in the province.
Another important aspect that the central and local government should bear in mind is that they must not only focus only on the reconciliation process involving former GAM members and activists, while neglecting the interests and aspirations of those Acehnese who remained loyal to Indonesia. The process will only create new problems if it alienates pro-Jakarta Acehnese.
A new era for Aceh is now beginning. The big challenge is whether we -- former GAM members, the Acehnese and Indonesians in general -- can use the momentum to rebuild Aceh after the devastating tsunami and conflicts of the past.
Jakarta Post Editorial - August 18, 2005
It was arguably the most important scheduled political speech since the President took office in October. It was not bad, but it was certainly far from inspiring.
Economists may by poring over the numbers and statistical data presented by the President during his first State of the Nation address, but to the average layman it was uninspiringly average.
A disappointment, really, for someone who has built up a reputation as being a skilled public performer.
Filled with platitudes and triteness, the speech utterly failed to inject renewed hope at one of the most important stages of the year.
Instead, the President stuck to his typical style of making lofty promises and declarations of intent. His vocabulary has become predictable and his delivery stale.
To be fair, the President did do what was required of him in such an address: a general account of the state of the nation, his past achievements, challenges for the future, a general elaboration on the budget, and the immediate targets of his administration.
It is a time-tested formula that has persisted for four decades under presidents Soeharto, B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Soekarnoputri -- perhaps this also explains why they too were often uninspiring.
One cannot blame Susilo for playing it safe. But one would also have hoped that a President so well versed in public relations would have used the opportunity as a rallying point to galvanize the nation, especially on the heels of the historic Aceh peace treaty and the eve of Indonesia's 60th anniversary of independence.
We believe that apart from the technical necessities, a State of the Nation address should be a source of motivation for the difficult work what lies ahead.
There was some impromptu improvisation on the part of the President during his speech, but this were not particularly rousing. Maybe it was the President's delivery, or perhaps the President needs a new speech writer. Whatever the case, Tuesday's State of the Nation address left no lasting impression, if any at all, on most Indonesians.
Many parts of his speech sounded like campaign slogans with pledges of "this" and "that", but little in the way of how these pledges are going to be achieved.
For example, the President acknowledged fuel price increases "may even cause an increase in poverty". He goes on to claim that the government is "striving to adopt" promotion programs in education and welfare.
Frankly, these remarks wear thin on the millions of parents being fleeced by elementary school registration fees while the government's (empty) pledges of free education still ring loudly; or the millions who have to line up for hours for gasoline and kerosene at inflated prices because of poor management in the supply and distribution chain.
Susilo further talks about agriculture, fishing and forestry as being "the core solution to solving unemployment and poverty".
While these three sectors have great potential and can contribute much, does he mean that we are about to send millions of young Indonesians each year into the fields or out to sea on fishing boats? The President in another part of his speech addresses the question of infrastructure development. He carefully neglected to mention that the Infrastructure Summit held earlier this year has not produced anything like the expected results.
Most major infrastructure investors continue to be hesitant due to various factors, including a lack of government guarantees. Those that have been convinced and are expected to start work in the coming year are only doing so because they have been promised concessions for natural resources exploitation.
Even the government's seven developmental priorities for 2006 are a redundant wishlist. They are verbose in that all of these areas -- including eradicating poverty, increasing investment and employment opportunities, improving law enforcement, etc -- are issues that the government should be fully focusing on anyway irrespective of whether they are on any list.
The question is: What is he going to do about the problems facing the nation? Any sort of answer would have provided hope and direction to the increasingly impatient millions.
If Susilo thought before Tuesday's speech that it was merely a ceremonial affair, he was wrong! Someone should remind the President that the election campaign is long over, and political promises have a short shelf life. What Indonesians wanted to hear, they did not get.
Jakarta Post Editorial - August 16, 2005
Indonesia as a nation reaches a milestone today with the celebration of 60 years of independence. There is every reason to rejoice at this achievement: we have survived as one nation in spite of the many forces that constantly threaten to divide us. In spite of our diversity, we have overcome trials and tribulations, and come out intact as one nation.
But therein probably lies the real problem. We as a nation have been too consumed with forging unity out of a collection of peoples who cannot be more divided in terms of race, ethnicity, language, culture and religion.
Our national leaders' obsession with unity has come at the expense of a genuine nation-building process that would have made Indonesia a democratic and pluralistic nation that is, in the very words of our founding fathers, "just and prosperous".
Today, we are a nascent democracy, a process that only began in 1998, but we are still a long way from being just and prosperous.
Looking back, we can find very little in the way of nation- building efforts to celebrate. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that we have squandered time, opportunities and resources these six decades.
Sukarno helped to liberate the nation from the shackles of colonialism, but he wasted the next two decades trying to fulfill his personal ambitions, which ultimately brought the nation to near bankruptcy, and precipitated his own ouster.
Soeharto spent a good deal of his 30 years in power suppressing our freedoms. He brought about economic development, only to allow his relatives and cronies plunder the nation, bringing us right back to where we started out from in 1965.
The years of reform since 1998 have been occupied with undoing the damage inherited from decades of Soeharto's and Sukarno's misrules, and only now we are emerging as a democratic society.
But there is still a nagging feeling that we are not making up for lost time in nation-building as we should.
Instead, our leaders constantly engage in petty bickering. Meanwhile, many people are still struggling to fight for their rights as citizens. Some are treated as second-class citizens, others are marginalized; and many face discrimination and prejudice. Economic development has widened rather than narrowed inequalities, and millions still live in abject poverty.
We are squandering the resources that belong to our children and grandchildren even as we speak. The Rp 130 trillion in domestic fuel subsidies spent this year to sustain the cheap oil policy is symptomatic of how we waste resources when they could be better spent on education, health and investing in the nation's future.
Any celebration today will really be celebrating our false sense of nationhood. We are united as a nation, but inequalities in many areas are the order of the day. And justice for most people remains a distant dream. We have yet to learn that genuine unity is based on visible social justice and appreciation of each other's ethnical background and religious affiliation. Our unity is more symbolic, and statements like "Unitary Republic of Indonesia to the death" only serve once again to divert attention away from the real and substantive nation-building issues to the question of national unity.
If a part of the nation-building process is the formation of national character, then pity Indonesia for what we have become. Today, the characteristics most typify Indonesians range from corruption and greed, cruelty and intolerance, to laziness, unreliableness and incompetence. Add hypocrisy for good measure given that we keep proclaiming ourselves to be very religious in spite of all these negative characteristics.
We wished those few Indonesians who are committed to good governance and the pursuit of justice would come out more forcefully and set the tone of our national characters.
Today, as we mark our 60th Independence Day, it is worth asking ourselves: What have we really achieved as a nation? The honest answer is a mixture of gratitude, disillusionment and hope: Gratified because we have come this far in laying down the foundations of a democracy, but disillusioned and at times even despaired because we have squandered historical opportunities to push Indonesia forward.
But we are also hopeful that there are many Indonesians who are truly and sincerely committed to the goals of a just and prosperous nation and who are working hard to achieve them. It is to them today that we turn as we mark Independence Day.
Melbourne Age Editorial - August 16, 2005
For Australians, August 15 is the date World War II finally ended. In years to come, it may also mark the day one of Asia's longest-running wars ended.
A peace treaty signed yesterday by representatives of the Indonesian Government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is hugely significant, both for Indonesia and its reformist President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and for relations with Australia.
Since Dutch colonial rule, Aceh has been locked in separatist conflicts, which resumed less than a decade after Indonesia's 1945 declaration of independence. The modern phase of the conflict, in which 15,000 people have died, began with the founding of GAM in 1976. In May 2003, Indonesia sealed off Aceh.
More than 3000 people were killed and rights atrocities multiplied in a brutal "secret war" that offered little hope of a peaceful resolution.
Then the Boxing Day tsunami hit with catastrophic force and Aceh bore the brunt of it, losing more than 130,000 people. The calamity transformed the political atmosphere. The scale of human loss and of the reconstruction task brought both sides to their senses.
Aceh was opened to foreign troops and aid workers -- despite the Indonesian military's obvious reluctance.
Peace talks also began. The tsunami was a catalyst for this and for Australia's huge investment in its relationship with Indonesia through a $1 billion aid and reconstruction program. Australia had an obvious interest in peace talks and academic Damien Kingsbury was involved directly as an adviser to GAM.
As he cautions, it remains to be seen whether the treaty holds. The presence in Aceh of militia backed by the Indonesian military (TNI) arouses fears that the province could be in for the same horrific destabilisation East Timor suffered in 1999.
Corrupt business worth an estimated $400 million gives the TNI an interest in running Aceh; the Government's challenge is to run the military. Dr Yudhoyono was the first president directly elected by Indonesians, who voted for him because he promised real reform that would free them from the grip of the corrupt elite that survived the collapse of the Soeharto regime in 1998.
His promise of a democratic Indonesia, governed by the rule of law, is incompatible with the old approach to subjugating Aceh (or any other provinces).
Aceh is a test of the democratic credentials of Indonesia and its President. Dr Yudhoyono deserves Australia's support, having done much to help the countries' relationship recover from the rift over East Timor.
Human rights abuses are still an obstacle to the full restoration of ties with the US and Australia, despite the mutual interest in security co-operation, so they must hope the TNI bows to the authority of its elected government.
It is hugely important not only for Aceh but for Indonesian democracy and prosperity that the peace holds and reconstruction of the oil-and-gas-rich province proceeds.
Indonesia lacks the money and means to go it alone, but it should not be seen simply as a charity case -- for one thing, Jakarta is a key advocate for Australian involvement in the region. Australia, in return, is in the happy position of being able to draw on its postwar prosperity to help its ally seize the opportunities that peace and democracy create.
Jakarta Post Editorial - August 16, 2005
The Aceh peace accord was signed in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Monday, the culmination of six months of tough negotiations. The accord could not be more timely as Indonesia celebrates its 60th year of independence on Wednesday. One could choose to look at the Helsinki accord as an Independence Day gift for the country, although a more pessimistic view could see it as a failure on the part of Indonesia to resolve an internal conflict on its own.
Either way, no sane Indonesian will oppose the signing of the agreement. It is now time to rejoice and to provide unwavering support for peace efforts in the resource-rich province. It is therefore appropriate to thank all of the peacemakers who worked so hard in Helsinki, foreigners and Indonesians alike, for their perseverance. The ray of hope now shining down so brightly on Aceh would not have been possible without their conviction that they could put an end to almost 30 years of conflict between the government and the rebels.
The mood of Independence Day is compatible with the mood of peace now blooming in the country's westernmost province, so now is a good time to ask: What is the point of freedom if there is internal conflict? To put it crudely, a peace accord is just a piece of paper. It is a historical milestone, but is not the same thing as peace itself. Of greater importance is the implementation of the agreement in the field. This involves sensitive matters and a multitude of issues not unusual in any prolonged conflict, such as amnesty for prisoners, compensation for former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members, battling jealousies that might arise from non-GAM members who are not eligible for the compensation, the disarming of GAM fighters, the withdrawal of government troops and dealing with violations of the truce. It is a precarious road that will require cool heads, magnanimity and the ability to draw lessons from previous peace efforts that went sour. This is easier said than done and will be the hardest part of the truce.
The rules agreed upon in the truce should be followed meticulously by both sides in a climate where potential "peace spoilers" could interfere. The continued violence in Aceh after the truce was informally agreed upon last month is testament to the dangers that lie ahead, because long-term conflict breeds warmongers and all kinds of groups who have their own interests in keeping the war going. These interests can bring the government and the military into conflict.
A positive sign is that both the executive and the legislative branches have come out in support of the truce, something that was absent in the past.
This, coupled with the cruel intervention of nature in the form of the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed more than 129,000 Acehnese, has been the main booster for peace in Aceh this time around.
With the 12,000 people who died unnecessarily in Aceh over the past 30 years, there is every reason to support this peace accord at all costs. The relentless quest for peace in the province must be on the minds of all the parties involved in peace building in Aceh, including local government officials, foreign peace monitors, the Acehnese and security officers.