News & issues

Residents block road, burn tires

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2006

Tangerang – Some 500 residents blocked Jl. Ciater Raya in Bumi Serpong Damai on Monday morning to protest being forced off their land.

Their eviction from some 9,880 square meters of land in Rawa Mekar subdistrict, Serpong district, Tangerang, was scheduled for later that day.

Tempo Interaktif reported the residents formed a human chain across the road at 8 a.m. and burned tires on the intersection toward Ciputat-Pamulang.

Protest coordinator Tomi Patria said the residents were prepared to defend their property, which was bought by many of them in the 1950s. He said the land ownership certificates produced by the evictors were fake.

'1965' film calls for reconciliation

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2006

Lisabona Rahman, Jakarta – A group of elementary schoolchildren carefully take notes as a guide takes them around Lubang Buaya (Crocodile's lair), a monument for the seven army officers killed in a failed coup presumably carried out by the Communist Party (PKI) in 1965.

A white-haired man stands to the side, smiling subtly as he observes the tour. He is Balinese poet, writer and acupuncturist Putu Oka Sukanta, who was once a political prisoner accused of being a communist.

Putu Oka's visit to Lubang Buaya is recorded on Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam (Sowing Light Within the Darkness), a documentary by filmmaker IGP Wiranegara, a lecturer at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) who is also a survivor of the 1965 tragedy.

The Sept. 30, 1965 murders of the army officers triggered a nationwide wave of persecution against communists and their sympathizers. Many people, particularly intellectuals and artists who did not toe the line of government rhetoric, and their families innocent of such accusations were also swept up in the incarcerations and disappearances that followed.

While hundreds of thousands of "communists" are believed to have been killed, no truth and reconciliation investigation has been opened into the incident.

"My father was summoned by the civil militia at midnight sometime in 1966. He was forced to seek refuge in a neighbor's house," he recalls of the dreadful years. Since then, Wiranegara and his family have endured decades of prejudice from both relatives and friends.

"I came to know Putu Oka from a friend in IKJ, who is his acupuncture patient. I introduced myself and told him what had happened to my family, and he encouraged me to make a documentary about survivors and reconciliation," Wiranegara said.

Wiranegara began making documentary films when he enrolled at the IKJ. His first film is about the Sultan of Solo, Pakubuwana XII, and reveals the king's solitude and powerlessness, especially following Indonesian independence. PB XII Berjuang untuk Sebuah Eksistensi (PB XII's Struggle to Exist) earned him the Citra award for Best Documentary Film at the 2005 Indonesian Film Festival.

"I am unconsciously drawn to historical topics. Initially, because I know the Sultan personally, and then I started to hear many stories about his life. His environment also connected me to a lot of important people in Indonesia's history and then of course, my personal background also pulled me closer to this subject," Wiranegara explained.

The research he conducted for Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam sometimes brought him face to face with the hidden sides of people he previously knew. He was very surprised to see how the 1965 tragedy and its consequences forced people to hide a part of their histories.

Wiranegara believes that the experiences his family and other survivors endured must be told for the sake of coping with a tragic era in modern Indonesian history.

"I think most survivors like me don't want revenge against the New Order government. What we want is to make peace with the past and the kind of acceptance (recognition) that comes along with the correction of negative labels that were imposed on us," he said.

The plea for reconciliation is clearly conveyed in Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam, most of which features stories as told by survivors, each contributing their personal experience of the tragedy. The stories are sometimes cruel and sometimes sad, but also include some comic tales.

The survivors show consistently that what they have is an open wound, rather than a grudge, and that the wound must heal.

"I had a good discussion with some survivors who saw an earlier version of this film. They were mainly concerned about the image of the guide at Lubang Buaya... They thought it wasn't appropriate to place that man against all our tragic stories, because he believes in the wrong version of history not because he chose to, but rather because of a lack of knowledge," Wiranegara said. "And this shows that we cannot just accuse anybody, a state or military official, of being responsible for what happened... it was the system and situation that made them do what they did."

The fact that this film touches upon a highly politicized period in Indonesian history did not discourage the documentarian from making Menyemai Terang dalam Kelam. In addition, he said he did not encounter any difficulty in obtaining permission or stories from survivors to make the film.

"I think that working with Putu Oka helps a lot, because most survivors know that he's a well-known writer and an advocate for reconciliation. And of course, after going through this kind of experience, you want your story to be heard."

Why is maternal mortality rate still so high?

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2006

Indraswari, Bandung – According to Indonesia's Demographic and Health Survey, in 2002 the maternal mortality rate (MMR) was 307/100,000, meaning that for every 100,000 births, 307 mothers died from maternity-related causes.

Compared to her Southeast Asian neighbors, Indonesia's MMR is currently 65 times Singapore's, 9.5 times Malaysia's, 8.9 times Thailand's, and 2.3 times that of the Philippines.

Why is our MMR getting so high? Part of the reason is the patriarchal society, in which there is a strong tendency to see pregnancy and childbirth as women's business rather than a part of the society. As a result there is ignorance of problems related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Culturally, there is also a belief that maternal death is God's will. It is not uncommon to hear people saying that it is a blessing for a woman who dies during childbirth and that she will be rewarded with heaven.

Subordination takes place in many aspects of women's lives, and leads to the negligence of their reproductive rights. Women become powerless to make decisions related to childbirth and pregnancy. In a patriachal society, it is the husbands or other male figures of authority who make the final decisions for the women.

In terms of family planning programs, we should be aware that the use of contraception in developing countries differs to that in developed countries. In developed countries, contraceptive methods give more control to women with regard to their reproductive capacity: Whether or not they want to have children, and, if they do, when and how often they want to get pregnant.

In developing countries, the use of contraceptives does not necessarily aim to serve women and to support them to be more autonomous with their bodies. Critics of the family planning program in Indonesia highlight the fact that the program is still not implemented for the sake of women.

Instead it is more as a tool to serve political and economic interests – that is to say, population control. As a result, more than three decades after its implementation, the program has done little to reduce the country's MMR – a task which is supposed to be one of its main goals.

Women lack access to and control of information, education, employment and financial resources (among many other issues). Their limited access to information is closely related to literacy and educational levels, of which data from the Human Development Report shows that in 2000 Indonesia's women's literacy rate reached 82 percent, while the rate for men was 7 percent higher. In all educational levels the female student participation rate was lower than that of male students, and became worse the higher the level of education.

Society tends to consider education to be more important for boys than girls. When girls are denied schooling as adults they tend to have limited exposure to information, including on reproductive health matters.

With low educational qualifications, women only have access t jobs as the bottom of the employment hierarchy, jobs that often lack welfare services. Even work does not automatically grant economic independence, since women do not always have control of their income. This lack of control of financial resources makes women unable to make independent choices about their reproductive health or seek necessary services.

Poverty makes the situation worse. There is considerable evidence that women comprise the majority of the poor. UN data shows that women account for 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people worldwide who live in absolute poverty.

As for Indonesia, the United Nations Development Fund for Women estimates that within the period of 1965-1988, 68 percent of the rural poor were women. Among the poor, women are the poorest because their poverty is likely to be affected by factors that do not affect men.

Subordination and lack of access and control lead to women getting less than men in intra-household distribution of resources such as nutrition and healthcare. Poverty and patriarchal norms lead women to prioritize to give the limited resources to their children and husbands first.

This situation systematically denies women adequate nutrition and healthcare, which contributes to the lower quality of women's life and causes various problems later when they reach a childbearing age. Reproductive health is a matter of concern not only when a woman gets pregnant, but is an accumulated process started from childhood.

Of all human development indicators, the MMR shows the greatest gap between developed and developing countries. Data from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities says the world's average MMR is 400/100,000, but there is a sharp contrast between the developed regions' average of 20/100,000 and the developing regions' 440/100,000. In every country, MMR is closely linked to macro economic conditions and women's relative position to men. Therefore it is no coincidence that the UN's Millennium Development Goals listed the reduction of MMR as a targeted program. By improving women's status and alleviating poverty, together in this country we can make the high MMR history.

[The writer is a lecturer at Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.]

Weapons purchaser claims order was for TNI

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2006

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) continues to maintain its weapons purchases have been completely legitimate, despite claims of one of the parties under investigation in a massive arms smuggling operation that it filled orders exclusively for the military.

Indonesian Military Chief Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto told Antara newswire Wednesday that there were no plans to buy Sidewinder missiles last year.

An order for the missiles "would not be from the TNI," he was quoted as saying, adding that such purchases were only done on a government-to-government basis.

However, in a signed written statement, a businessman from Singapore-based PT Ataru Indonesia, a company acknowledged by the government as an Air Force supplier, said he dealt with supplying and purchasing spare parts for US-made military aircraft, including only days after the US restored full military ties last November.

Washington slapped a partial embargo on military cooperation following the 1992 massacre in Dili, East Timor. Joint training officially resumed last year; selling of spare parts for Hercules helicopters was permitted following the 2004 tsunami. Last November's official lifting of the 14-year embargo included allowing sales of lethal military hardware, although the US said it would depend on Indonesia's human rights record.

Hoedaifah Koeddah, a relative of one of the detained Indonesians who are accused by US investigators of plotting an illegal arms purchase, on Wednesday denied allegations the company's activities were illegal.

Hoedaifah took issue with the statement Monday by Defense Ministry secretary-general Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin that there was no order from the military. He countered that PT Ataru Indonesia's only customer for its business transactions was the TNI.

In the statement, also signed by his lawyer Tommy Sihotang, he said Ataru purchased military equipment compatible for US-made military aircraft, such as F-5 and F-16 jet fighters as well as Hercules transport carriers, from "a third party".

He cited documents that one of Ataru's business partners was Detroit-based Orchard Logistic Service (OLS), and said the company took steps to facilitate payment through local banks. Due to the embargo, he said Ataru set up two Singaporean-based companies, Indodial Pte. Ltd and Eastar Logistic Pte Ltd.

"Such transactions are labeled black market activities because they have never been officially published," Hoedaifah told The Jakarta Post and Kompas daily at his office in South Jakarta.

Indonesians Hadiyanto Joko Djuliarso, who is a relative of Hoedaifah, and Ignatius Ferdinand Suherli, co-partners of Ataru, Singaporean Ibrahim bin Amran and Briton David Beecroft, were detained on April 9 by US investigators in Honolulu for allegedly trying to purchase 245 Sidewinder missiles, 882 Heckler & Koch (HK) MP5 guns, 880 HK 9mm handguns, 16 HK sniper rifles and 5,000 rounds of ammunition.

The alleged illegal transactions took place when the company was involved in a US$600,000 contract with the Indonesian Air Force for the purchase of an aviation radar.

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said Monday the partnership with Ataru, who he characterized as a "recalcitrant" business partner, would be reviewed.

The contract on the procurement of the radar shows it was approved on Nov. 30, 2005, when the embargo for lethal military hardware had been lifted for a week. A copy of the document shows the contract involved then top-ranking TNI officials and Ataru's subsidiary company Indodial.

Two middle-ranking Air Force officers – identified by Air Chief Marshal Herman Prayitno as Lt. Col. Hadi Suwito and Lt. Col. Edi Supriyanto – accompanied Hadiyanto for final rechecking of the aviation radar at its storehouse in Honolulu, but the US investigators have released the two officers without questioning.

Herman said the two officers were invited during the display of HK MP5 guns at its storehouse, "but my officers were the passive parties at that time".

He acknowledged the Air Force had proposed the procurement of Sidewinder missiles in 2004, but the project had been dropped because of the US embargo.

Prior to their arrest, Djuliarso and Amran had already transferred more than $455,000 from Asia to the United States, US investigators say.

'Angel Gabriel' Lia goes on trial for blasphemy

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2006

Jakarta – "I have no religion, but I believe in God," said Lia Eden on Wednesday, the first day of her blasphemy trial at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Judge Lief Sufijullah wanted to determine the religion of the 58-year-old – who also goes by the name Lia Aminuddin – early on in the trial. Lia believes she is both the Angel Gabriel and the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Lia had distributed brochures, books and VCDs about her teachings, which, it is charged, are irreverent toward Islam.

"The defendant's statements are aimed at a certain religion, which is Islam, and those statements are at odds with the basic tenets of the religion," prosecutor Salman Maryadi told the court.

Clad in a white robe and a crown, Lia was unusually tense as she was led into the court room.

However, when the judge asked for her response to the indictment, she barely hesitated: "Neither this trial, nor any other trial in the world has the authority to persecute me because I am the Archangel Gabriel who speaks in the name of God."

Lia was arrested on Dec. 28 after thousands of Muslims demanded police shut down the Kingdom of Eden headquarters on Jl. Mahoni in Central Jakarta and disperse her followers, who call themselves Salamullah.

Saor Siagian, Lia's lawyer, said the charges were vague as no one could be tried because of his or her faith. "Faith is so abstract, it cannot be proven.

"It's ironic, this trial is going ahead though none of the people involved in the attack on the headquarters has been tried," he said.

Muslim intellectuals Dawam Rahardjo and Siti Musdah Mulia attended the trial to support Lia. "I'm here to defend freedom of religion," said Dawam, one of the country's prominent campaigners for pluralism. "The government should not interfere, even if one has decided to worship a rock."

Bali bomber Amrozi makes torture claim

Australian Associated Press - April 19, 2006

Death row Bali bomber Amrozi proved he had lost none of his chilling bravado and humour despite being near execution as he made a rare court appearance to testify for radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.

In scenes closer to carnival than courtroom, Amrozi traded jokes with judges, demanding coffee and lecturing them on their poor education as hundreds of supporters wearing "mujahidin" fighter headbands and jackets roared approval.

He also claimed that he and another Bali conspirator had been tortured by police after their arrests.

Nicknamed the "smiling assassin" because he laughed at the carnage caused by the 2002 Bali bombs, Amrozi smiled and appeared relaxed as he denied reporting to Bashir and seeking his blessing ahead of the attack.

Told by chief judge Agus Sutarno to relax, he quipped "where's the coffee" as his adoring supporters shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great).

Moments later Amrozi chided judges who asked him to slow his testimony for notes. "Where was your school?" Amrozi shot back, prompting howls of laughter including smiles from the bench.

Amrozi, the former village mechanic and handyman turned 2002 attack quartermaster, told the court he had only ever met Bashir to discuss installing a makeshift phone line. "I can make many things," he added in veiled warning, saying the pair enjoyed "coffee and bread" over afternoon tea.

Bashir was sentenced last year to 30 months in prison for his involvement in the 2002 conspiracy, which killed 88 Australians among 202 victims.

But prosecutors relied heavily on testimony from another prisoner jailed for his role in the bombings, Mubarok, who told authorities that he and Amrozi met Bashir at the cleric's home two months before the attack.

When told about the bomb plans, Mubarok alleged Bashir told the pair: "It's up to you. You are the ones who know the situation on the ground". Amrozi denied this was ever said.

"This old man had nothing to do with this," he told the court in testimony which will be passed to the Supreme Court in Jakarta to support a legal appeal lodged by Bashir.

"If the followers are punished then okay, but this old man has only a little life left." He chided Mubarok for involving Bashir, Amrozi said, and Mubarok claimed he had been tortured by police interrogators.

"I told him to just name (former Indonesian National Police chief) Da'i Bachtiar," Amrozi said to fresh gales of laughter.

Wearing a white skullcap, beige robe and spectacles, Amrozi looked to have put on weight in the maximum security Nusakambangan island prison, dubbed "Indonesia's Alcatraz".

It is there that Amrozi and two co-conspirators – older brother Ali Gufron and Imam Samudra – are awaiting execution after instructing their families this month not to seek clemency.

Almost 500 police and marines, including the bomb and dog squads, as well as black-clad paramilitary police armed with assault rifles, were posted outside the two-storey courthouse as Amrozi arrived in an armoured car.

His brief court appearance underscored why Indonesia authorities want Amrozi and the others as soon as possible to avoid them becoming heroes to more extremists.

Lawyers and several officials kissed Amrozi's cheeks afterwards, while one judge Muslich Bambang Lukmono admitted praying together with Amrozi in prison and throughout the hearing treated him deferentially.

"I'm sorry that for this hearing we couldn't give the best possible terms for the witness," he said, appealing for Amrozi's backers to stay calm amid occasional chaotic scenes as prosecutors sought to challenge Bashir's lawyers.

"You're stupid prosecutors, Jewish prosecutors," Amrozi's faithful interjected.

Fauzan Al-Anshari, the spokesman for the hardline Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (Council of Islamic Holy Warriors) founded by Bashir, said he was pleased with Amrozi's showing.

"He said he was still giving himself to God and he prays God gives him strength and courage to tell the truth, and I think his prayer has been granted," he said.

Bashir's lawyer Wirawan Adnan – one of four high-powered defence counsels – said Amrozi had proved Bashir was never involved in terrorism, despite US and Australian accusations that he is a terrorist leader.

"He said he feels sorry for Abu Bakar who is in jail for something that he did not do," Adnan said.

Communist graffiti gets Bogor riled up

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2006

Theresia Sufa – Five hammer-and-sickle emblems spray painted on rubbish bins around Sempur soccer field, Bogor, had officials beating the drums of war against communism Tuesday.

No less than Bogor Military Command officers, administration officials, city authorities and chairman of the Bogor chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) came out in arms, hastily erasing the Communist symbols for fear they would cause public unrest.

The fact that anonymous people painted the Communist symbols means the ideology is still alive and well in the country, Bogor MUI chairman Adam Ibrahim said, adding that people should be wary of the return of Communism.

Regional Military Commander Col. Edy Rianto further surmised the existence of the emblems meant Communist sympathizers were now coming together. "We've been aware of their presence for a while now, but couldn't take action because we don't have hard evidence," he said.

Edy said the TNI had detected Communist sympathizers from various regions consolidating and holding clandestine meetings in Cianjur and Sukabumi, West Java. "We believe they may want to expand to other regions," he said.

Edy said Communist groups were trying to revive the Communist ideology, to revenge the termination of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) following its failed coup in 1965. The group was now trying to discredit the Army and Muslims held responsible for their downfall, he said.

PKI material being circulated in Bogor

Detik.com - April 18, 2006

Ken Yunita, Jakarta – The appearance of Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) paraphernalia and symbols is natural and can be understood because the Constitutional Court has already declared that former PKI members have the right to participate in the 2009 elections.

This was conveyed by former People's Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais following a discussion titled "Singapore's Control of State Assets" at the Nikko Hotel on Jl. MH Thamrin in Jakarta on Tuesday April 18.

"So now if they want to surface with paraphernalia such as symbols or even the hammer and sickle flag it is understandable, because a Constitutional Court's decision represents the highest possible decision in the state of Indonesia that allows or gives the rights to [former PKI members] to vote and be elected", explained Rais.

Earlier, the deputy head of the national police headquarters public relations division, Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam, said that the police had deployed a team to investigate the spread of paraphernalia with pictures of the hammer and sickle in the West Java city of Bogor. The intelligence team will investigate the perpetrators and the motive for the circulation of the material.

The pamphlets and material with pictures of the hammer and sickle were circulating in the Bogor area on Monday April 17. Symbols that were once used by the PKI were painted using spray paint. There were at least five such symbols painted on the road right in front of the Bogor State Palace.

On February 24, 2004, the Constitutional Court accepted a request for a review of Article 60(g) of Law Number 12/2003 on General Elections. In its decision, the panel of judges declared that Article 60(g) conflicted with the principles of human rights as regulated by the 1945 Constitution and therefore declared that the article has no binding legal force.

Article 60(g) reads "Candidate members for the House of Representatives, the Regional Representatives Council, the Provincial House of Representatives and the Regional/City House of Representatives must fulfil the following conditions: (g) not a former member of the banned organisation the Indonesian Communist Party, including its mass organisations, or not a person that was directly or indirectly involved in the G30S PKI or other banned organisations". (iy)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Aceh

Rebel chiefs return, 'dangerous' Billy Nessen banned

Paras Indonesia - April 23, 2006

After living abroad for decades, the self-exiled leaders of Aceh's rebel movement have returned to Indonesia to support the province's peace process, but a prominent American journalist remains banned from entering the country.

Nine leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) touched down in the North Sumatra capital of Medan on April 19 and later took a connecting flight to Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh. For most of them, it was their first visit since they fled abroad after GAM began its struggle for the independence of Aceh in 1976.

While the senior rebel leaders lived safely in Sweden, Malaysia and Singapore, fighting between Indonesian forces and GAM left about 15,000 people dead over 29 years. There seemed no end in sight to the war until the December 2004 tsunami that killed about 130,000 people in Aceh and brought massive international attention to the province. A peace agreement was signed in Helsinki in August 2005, with the rebels agreeing to disarm and drop their independence bid in return for greater autonomy and the right to form local political parties.

GAM has since surrendered its weapons and demobilized its fighters, while Indonesia has withdrawn most non-local security forces from Aceh. But the government has failed to meet a March 31 deadline for the passing of a law on local political parties and elections. Both sides have said the delay in the law, now being debated by parliament, will not derail the peace pact.

Some nationalist legislators have complained that allowing GAM to form a political party could lead to national disintegration.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, a key architect of the peace deal, on Sunday (23/4/06) said local elections could be held in Aceh in August if parliament passes the law by May. Under the terms of the peace pact, Aceh's first direct gubernatorial election was to have held in April.

Kalla was speaking after a meeting in Jakarta with visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who pledged ongoing EU support for the peace deal.

Among the rebel leaders returning to Aceh were prime minister Malik Mahmud, foreign minister Zaini Abdullah, spokesman Bakthiar Abdullah, Teuku Hadi and Zulfikar. They entered on short-stay visas and are yet to decide whether to give up their foreign citizenship and become Indonesian citizens. GAM's aging president Hassan Tiro was noticeably from the party due to his poor health.

Aceh military commander Major General Supiadin Adi Saputra told Reuters he was pleased the GAM leaders had returned as their presence should strengthen the peace process. He said they would not be accorded any special security as they had not requested such treatment.

The rebels said they would examine the economic and political developments in the province, as well as the post-tsunami reconstruction process.

Indonesia had only three years ago been demanding that GAM's exiled leaders in Sweden be extradited to face charges of terrorism and treason. But it was all smiles when the group arrived at Medan's Polonia Airport at 8.20am on board an Air Asia flight from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

No Nessen

Joining the GAM leaders on the flight to Medan was US freelance journalist and filmmaker William 'Billy' Nessen, who in 2003 was jailed for 40 days and deported from Indonesia after spending time with rebel fighters.

Nessen, who was traveling with his Acehnese wife Shadia Marhaban, was detained at the airport and put on the next flight back to Malaysia. Authorities justified the move by accusing him of being a "danger" to Indonesia.

Under the guard of two immigration officials, Nessen held an impromptu press conference at the airport, complaining that he did not understand why he was denied entry, as he only wanted to visit relatives and friends in Aceh.

He said he expected the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) or the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) were behind the decision to expel him.

Immigration official Supriatna Anwar said the journalist from New York would be allowed to enter the country later this year. "Nessen is banned from coming into Indonesia until September this year. He is a danger to the country and not useful," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Anwar declined to explain why an unarmed reporter was considered dangerous. Nessen has written extensively on Aceh and recently released a documentary film, The Black Road: Inside Aceh's Struggle for Independence, which is not due to be screened any time soon in Indonesian cinemas.

Marhaban, who was allowed to enter the country, said she will send a complaint to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono because there was no reason for her husband to be banned.

Nessen fell out of favor with Indonesian authorities in 2003 when he spent three weeks with GAM members during the government's massive military campaign to destroy the rebel movement. During his time with the separatists he contacted foreign reporters and expressed fear the military wanted to kill him.

Despite his fears, Nessen eventually surrendered to TNI on June 24, 2003. Local authorities then charged him with immigration violations for failure to produce his passport and other documents, which had been lost during his time with the rebels. He was also accused of espionage, although these charges were later dropped. On August 2, 2003, he was sentenced to 40 days in jail. Having already served 39 days in jail, he was released on August 3, deported the following day and banned from entering the country for one year.

On January 2, 2005, Nessen returned to Indonesia and was issued a visa on arrival in Medan. Authorities later detained him in Aceh, claiming his visa had been erroneously issued due to an administrative oversight. He was then sent to Jakarta for questioning and deported on January 24.

International press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders voiced dismay at Nessen's latest entry ban and called on Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda to ensure he will be allowed to enter Indonesia freely in future.

"The press freedom situation has improved considerably in Aceh since the peace accords were signed last year, but now this arbitrary decision casts doubt on the readiness of the highest authorities to open the province to journalists who denounced the army's atrocities during the war," the organization said in a statement.

"It seems as though some people in the government have not yet turned the page on the terrible years," it said.

Kalla sets August target date for Aceh elections

Associated Press - April 23, 2006

Jakarta – Indonesia's vice president set an August target date for elections in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province. The elections are a key part of a peace agreement reached last year to end a 29-year civil war.

Jusuf Kalla said he would ask the European Union to extend its Aceh peace monitoring mission two months beyond its June expiration so they could oversee the elections, in which former rebels will run.

Local elections – a key rebel demand – were initially scheduled to take place this month but Indonesia's parliament has failed to pass necessary legislation, sparking allegations of foot- dragging.

But Kalla told visiting E.U. policy chief Javier Solana that the government remained committed to the peace process and hoped to pass a bill by late May.

"Then we'll need three months (to prepare) for a local election," he said. "So the election will probably be held in early August."

Communication Minister Sofyan Djalil was more specific: He said the polls could be held between Aug. 5 and 12, though the dates depend largely on the timing of the bill's passage.

Solana, who wraps up a three-day visit to Indonesia Sunday, reiterated the E.U.'s commitment to the peace process and said, despite a few hiccups, he was pleased at the progress so far.

"As far as the EU is concerned we are going to accompany the process until the end," he told reporters after meeting Kalla.

Efforts to end fighting that claimed 15,000 lives picked up pace after the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami crashed into Aceh's coastline, killing or leaving missing at least 180,000 people in Aceh.

Seven months later a peace accord was signed, with the rebels agreeing to hand over all of their self-declared 840 weapons and give up their long-held demand for independence.

Strong resistance to human rights court in Aceh: Billah

Kompas - April 24, 2006

Banda Aceh – National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) member MM Billah believes that there is strong resistance from a certain circles against trying the perpetrators of human rights violations in Aceh during the period of armed conflict. In general this resistance is most likely from those groups of people who committed the violations.

"There are strong obstacles in terms of the law and politics. Komnas HAM itself has decided to continue floating this", said Billah at a joint discussion with victims of the conflict and a number of non-government organisations in the Acehnese provincial capital of Banda Aceh on Monday April 24.

According to Billah, Komnas HAM has already conducted an investigation into human right violations in Aceh during the period of armed conflict. From these reports it was concluded that there are indications that gross human rights violations took place in Aceh during the Military Operation Zone period [1989 to 1998] and the periods when Aceh was under a state of martial law and civil emergency [May 2003 to May 2005]. These reports were handed over to the government in early 2004, "But up until now there has yet to be any follow up on the reports", said Billah.

Billah said that what is needed at the moment is a strong movement from Acehnese society itself to push law enforcement agencies to follow up reports of human rights violations. A greater level of pressure must be applied in order that the legal process is not neglected. Upholding human rights he said, was also part of the mandate of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Free Aceh Movement and the Indonesian Government.

Billah believes that an honest and fair human rights court does not exist yet in Indonesia let alone Aceh. "The obstacle is that not everyone want's it to be put into effect", he said.

Khairani, an Acehnese women's activist, said she believes that many institutions and members of the public are not interested in a human rights court. Aside from social problems and feelings of shame in the case of rapes in Aceh, the public still feels threatened and no legal guidance exists for the public. "It would be very unfortunate if we forget a human rights court in Aceh, it will harm [Aceh's] future", she said.

According to Khairani, there are also many who think there is no longer any need to demand justice for human right violations in Aceh because the victims of the conflict have already been incorporated into one of the groups that has received reintegration funds in Aceh.

The head of the Aceh Reconstruction Agency, Usman Hasan denied that the provision of reintegration funds to the public was meant to silence the victims of the conflict and stop them from demanding justice. "The government has an interest in assisting social conflicts, it doesn't mean that with these funds [the resolution of] human rights [violations] must end", he said. (AIK)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Payments taint Aceh bill

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The controversy over the payment of "incentives" to legislators during the deliberation of the Aceh governance bill is causing tension in the House of Representatives.

Home Minister M. Ma'ruf has admitted to paying Rp 5 million (about US$550) to each House member deliberating the bill as a special "incentive" to speed up the process.

The controversy over the payments broke when some lawmakers refused the money because they doubted its legality. Ma'ruf said the money was part of a Rp 1.6 billion (about US$177,000) fund the government had allocated specially for the Aceh bill deliberations.

But Ma'ruf's critics say the money is unnecessary because House members are already paid to make laws. They suspect the payments are being used to bribe lawmakers to favor the government version of the draft bill and to disregard the one proposed by the Aceh provincial legislative council. Giving lawmakers honorarium is a practice that is common in the House.

House Disciplinary Council chairman Slamet Effendy Yusuf has said he "regretted" the payments and has called on the Anti-corruption Commission (KPK) to investigate.

The differences among lawmakers over the payments were made public by Permadi, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). After the controversy became public, some House members gave back the money.

The PDI-P is the only political faction in the House of Representatives, which was against the government's policy to sign last year's peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Members distrust GAM and fear the accord will only strengthen GAM's bargaining position in its eventual push for Aceh independence from Indonesia.

Ma'ruf said on Tuesday the Rp 1.6 billion fund was meant as an "incentive" to speed up the deliberations of the bill, which was originally scheduled to be endorsed in March. The House allocated Rp 500 million for deliberation of each bill this year.

Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, the chairman of the House's 50-member special committee assigned to finalize the bill with the government, insisted the payments from the government were legal. "I'm responsible for the fund. It's origin and accountability are all clear. It's all right if people relinquish the money – we will give the money back to the government," Ferry said.

Deputy chairman of the deliberating committee, Radja Kami Sembiring Meliala, claimed he knew nothing about the origin of the money. "We all received the fund but it will not effect our respective stances on the bill," he said.

The bill is expected to be endorsed next month. It will become the legal basis for Aceh's first direct elections tentatively scheduled for September.

Acehnese activists rally in support of draft law

Aceh Kita - April 21, 2006

Radzie, Banda Aceh – Hundreds of activists from the Acehnese Democratic Network (JDA), students and local people held a parade though the streets of Banda Aceh on Friday April 21. The convoy was organised to convey their support for the Draft Law on an Aceh Government (RUU-PA) that is currently being deliberated by a special committee of the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta.

The convoy, which was held following Friday prayers, made use of dozens motorbikes and motorised pedicabs. The rally followed a route through Blang Padang, Jl. Teuku Umar, Lamteumen, Pendopo, Simpang Surabaya, Jambo Tape, Simpang Mesra and Simpang Lima, ending in front of the Baiturrahman Great Mosque.

During the rally, the activists gave speeches supporting the Acehnese Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) version of the RUU-PA. When the protesters were gathered at the Simpang Lima roundabout, Rahmad Jailani from Student Solidarity for the People (SMUR) read out a statement.

Jailani said that the deliberations on the draft law have entered a critical stage with agreement that a number of crucial issues in the law are to be discussed by working committee. "The importance issues representing the wishes of the Acehnese are currently confronting a political test at the DPR. In fact these issues concern problems of justice and the people's welfare as a manifestation of the peace process for the advance and betterment of the Acehnese people", said Jailani speaking though a sound system.

He also added that if the law fulfills the Acehnese people's wishes it will be an entry point towards a peace that is just and that addresses welfare issues in Aceh. "However if crucial articles and [issue that] determine the welfare of Acehnese people are debated and fail to be agreed to, then it will almost certainly threaten the Aceh peace process", he said.

The head of the RUU-PA Advocacy Team from the Acehnese DPRD, Abdullah Saleh meanwhile, said that the DPR's special team is currently discussing around 600 items from a list of 1,446 contentious issues. The crucial items will be discussed at the level of a working committee. "Such as the question of Acehnese authority, the sharing of natural resources and the issue of a name for the law", Saleh said when speaking with journalists at the Acehnese DPRD on Friday April 21. [dzie]

[Translated by James Balowski.]

GAM chiefs return 'good sign for peace'

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The return of exiled leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) indicates that a permanent and peaceful resolution to the three decades of conflict in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam is just around the corner, an observer says.

However, two senior politicians in Jakarta beg to differ. Acehnese political analyst Fachry Ali said Thursday the decision from 11 senior GAM leaders to return to Aceh after a lengthy self-imposed exile was made only after a serious calculation that little could derail the ongoing peace process in the province.

"There's no way they (the GAM leaders) would return home if the situation in Aceh was still volatile. They also said that the road to peace is getting clearer," Fachry told The Jakarta Post.

The much-publicized return of the exiled GAM leaders would also improve Indonesia's stature internationally and give short-term economic benefits to the country, he said.

"The return of the GAM leaders gives the right signal (to international investors), that if members of a former rebel group can return here, then investors can too," he said.

On Wednesday, 11 exiled former GAM leaders including former "prime minister"-in-exile Malik Mahmood and "health-minister" Zaini Abdullah arrived in Banda Aceh to a warm reception.

The GAM leaders' return to Aceh marked another milestone in the peaceful resolution to the conflict in Aceh that kicked off with the signing of a peace accord in Helsinki, Finland, on Aug. 15, 2005. The peace accord is expected to bring an end to a 30-year- old conflict that has claimed in excess of 15,000 lives.

Senior government officials including Home Minister Moh. Ma'ruf, Telecommunications and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil and State Intelligence Agency head Sjamsir Siregar welcomed the return of the exiled GAM leaders.

Ma'ruf said that the GAM leaders would have the right vote in future local elections in Aceh once they became Indonesian citizens.

Speaking in a function held to welcome the returning GAM leaders in Banda Aceh, Mahmood anticipated that the peace in Aceh would be a lasting one. "It is our hope that the peace will be permanent and can bring good to Aceh and its people," Mahmood was quoted by Antara as saying.

In Jakarta, however, several politicians were pessimistic that the presence of former GAM leaders in Aceh would help the ongoing peace process. Lawmaker Permadi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said the leaders' presence would only precipitate the breakdown of the Helsinki accord.

"It is only a matter of time before the GAM leaders reject the new law on the Aceh Administration and undo the Helsinki accord," Permadi told the Post. The House of Representatives (DPR) is currently deliberating the bill on the Aceh administration.

Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid said that the returning GAM leaders did not deserve a generous welcome. "They are not our leaders, not our heroes but we welcome them as if they are," he said.

Aceh leaders return home after 30 years in exile

Agence France Presse - April 19, 2006

Banda Aceh – Leaders of the former separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) returned to their homeland after 30 years in exile, the latest step forward in a much-hailed peace process. The group, including former "prime minister" Malik Mahmud and "foreign minister" Zaini Abdullah, were greeted by about 500 well-wishers, including former GAM guerrilla commander Muzakir Manaf.

Eight members of the group were returning for the first time while the ninth, spokesman Bachtiar Abdullah, had come back to the Indonesian province in October last year.

The men were whisked to their former headquarters – now the location of the Committee for Aceh Transition – where Mahmud delivered a speech.

"This is historical for me, because I have been outside Aceh for 30 years and now Allah has given me, together with others, a visit to Aceh, the veranda of Mecca," he said.

"Let us all pray that we can continue to remain together as now, to build Aceh again according to our own aspirations, which are now in our own hands, and in cooperation with the government of Indonesia and the world."

He passed on greetings from Hassan Tiro, GAM's founder who is known to be in poor health and did not return, "thanking the people of Aceh for their loyalty in the struggle and their readiness to give their lives and property." Zaini Abdullah said that when they told Tiro of their plan to visit Aceh, he had cried.

"He also misses (Aceh) and wanted to come home... But his return will depend on the situation," he said.

Mahmud said during his stay he would observe developments in Aceh following a peace pact signed with the government in August last year, as well as after the devastating 2004 tsunami. That killed 168,000 Acehnese and prompted both sides to make concessions to reach peace after nearly 30 years of conflict.

"Now is the time for us all to rebuild Aceh, to rebuild the economy of Aceh so that the Acehnese, given huge richess by Allah, can become more prosperous. Now it is up to us to manage this," Mahmud said. He also thanked the government of Indonesia for allowing his return.

The peace pact aims to end almost three decades of violence involving GAM guerrillas and Indonesian troops and police in which 15,000 people – mostly civilians – died. Earlier, Bachtiar Abdullah said some matters still needed to be settled, including a delay by Jakarta in passing a law granting Aceh wide-ranging autonomy which according to the peace deal should have been passed by March 31. The law is still being debated.

A report by the International Crisis Group think-tank last month warned that the law had been diluted by the home affairs ministry and that the toughest times for the peace accord lie ahead.

So far the process has been smoother than expected, with the rebels disarming and more than 25,000 non-local security forces departing from the staunchly Muslim province at the tip of Sumatra island.

Separately US freelance journalist William Nessen, jailed in Indonesia in 2003 for immigration violations after reporting on separatist rebels, was refused entry into Indonesia at Medan airport hours before the leaders arrived.

"He is officially still on the list of people banned from entering the country," immigration spokesman Cecep Supriatna told AFP, adding that the ban would only expire and be reviewed in September this year.

LSI: Acehnese feel safe but economic situation poor

Kompas Cyber Media - April 19, 2006

Heru Margianto, Jakarta – What are conditions like in Aceh six months after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government was signed in Helsinki? The answer – safe but the economic situation is poor say Acehnese.

The Acehnese public says that on the ground the Helsinki agreement is running well and as a result genuinely feel safe from further armed conflict in the province. Nevertheless they have complaints about the poor economic situation with the price of goods rising while jobs are difficult to find.

These were the findings of a survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) on the peace process and local politics in Aceh. The results of the survey were outlined to journalists by LSI executive researcher, Anies Baswedan, at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel on Tuesday April 28.

The survey, which was conducted between March 8-18, took a sample of 1015 respondents using a multistage random sampling method. The survey's margin of error was less than 3.1 percent and the level of confidence 95 percent.

Feeling safe but no more

Baswedan went on to explain that 76 percent of the Acehnese public stated that the security situation in the province was good. But this sense of security was limited to feeling safe from armed conflict and the public still does not enjoy freedom and justice.

"In the areas that were once a basis for GAM, there are still concerns about talking politics. The public also feels afraid to organise. There is a fear of being arrested by security forces", said Baswedan.

Furthermore explained Baswedan, the survey showed that 38 percent of respondents representing Acehnese society as a whole still feel afraid to talk politics. In the former regencies where GAM had a basis meanwhile, this level of fear is higher, 48 percent.

The survey also found that half (50 percent) of Acehnese are still afraid of being arbitrarily arrested by security forces. Moreover, this level of fear is higher in former GAM areas, that is 59 percent. "This could be because of the traumas of the past", said Baswedan.

The main problem the Acehnese are confronting at the moment explained Baswedan is economic, the evidence being that only 22 percent of Acehnese stated that the economic situation in Aceh is good or very good.

In both rural and urban areas in relation to the above issue the public complained about the economic conditions with almost half of the Acehnese population (40 percent) stating that the economic situation was poor or very poor.

In answering the question of what is the most important issue in Aceh, 43 percent said that the price of basic good are too high with 33 percent saying it is difficult to find employment.

Aside from these two issues, law, security, transportation, education and leadership are also regarded as important issues for the Acehnese people although this was the case for less than 5 percent of respondents.

In responding to the survey, two members of the House of Representatives, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan and Farhan Hamid expressed the view that the economic difficulties confronting the Acehnese are a general problem that is the case in all parts of Indonesia.

Hamid, who is also the chair of the special committee deliberating the Draft Law on Aceh Government (RUU-PA), was of the view that the in factual terms the economic situation in Indonesia is less than adequate. Thus according to Hamid, it is difficult cite economic problems as a measure of the main problems in Aceh at the moment.

Hamid also said that Acehnese people's appreciation of the peace process should be seen positively and the signing of the Helsinki MoU must also be realised as soon as possible through law in the form of the RUU-PA.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Rp 354 billion in Aceh funds unaccounted for, BPK says

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2006

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) revealed Thursday that the use of the emergency fund overseen by the National Disaster Management and Refugee Coordination Board (Bakornas) for tsunami victims in Aceh and Nias was rife with irregularities.

BPK chief Anwar Nasution said abnormalities abounded in the disbursement of the Rp 5.4 trillion (US$600 million) fund collected through 1,200 accounts opened by government agencies. The fund collected money from domestic and foreign donors, who gave money for the tsunami victims.

Bakornas collected a total of Rp 5.8 trillion in the months after the tsunami, which killed more 130,000 people in Aceh and left some 500,000 homeless.

Bakornas, which was initially responsible for the government's humanitarian operations in Aceh and Nias, was headed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla and then coordinating minister for the people's welfare Alwi Shihab as Barkornas vice chairman.

Anwar said the BPK team had found a total of Rp 354 billion leftover from the collected fund, which was unaccounted for. The money was not sent to a government account opened at Bank Indonesia, he said.

"We urge the government to quickly decide on the status of the remaining money so that it can be controlled by the government and reduce the potential of it being misused," Anwar said after a meeting with House of Representatives leaders to present the team's findings.

Details from the report said the irregularities included a disbursement of the relief funds long after the tsunami emergency period was over, instances where the value of aid contributed in foreign currencies was marked down and the absence of authentic documents to validate the disbursement of the funds.

The team found a Bakornas task force in North Sumatra made erroneous conversions on funds received in foreign currencies. Instead of using the middle rate set by the Bank Indonesia for foreign currencies, the task force applied the lowest rate, deflating the real amount of foreign aid.

There were also instances where officials at the task force erroneously discounted the actual value of aid, the team said. "We found that assistance worth Rp 19 billion was reported as only Rp 1.9 million. We also found that what was recorded as Rp 3.5 trillion was in reality only Rp 35 million," BPK auditor Ikhtaria Syaziah said.

BPK auditors also discovered the bulk of the materials bought with the aid were still sitting in warehouses in Jakarta, with many of the purchases made long after the tsunami emergency period was over.

The goods, ranging from stationery, medicines, clothing and books, could be found in the warehouses of the National Police, the Ministry for National Education and the Ministry of Health, the report said.

The BPK also found irregularities in the use of a Rp 1.9 trillion emergency fund taken from the 2004 state budget.

Anwar said that BPK could not conclude the irregularities meant there was graft in the use of the funds.

"Only the police can launch an investigation into whether corruption has taken place," Anwar said. House member Tengku Nurlif of the Golkar Party, who also sits on a team overseeing the use of the fund, said the House should throw its weight behind BPK efforts to investigate Bakornas.

"The House must support any efforts to punish those who have misused the relief fund," he said.

No fanfare for GAM leaders' return

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2006

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – No special preparations are being made for the return of several exiled Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders to the province, the group's senior representative at the Aceh Monitoring Mission said Tuesday.

The GAM leaders, who are scheduled to arrive Wednesday aboard a Lion Air flight, will be welcomed by local GAM members in a modest ceremony at the group's office in Banda Aceh, Irwandi Yusuf said.

He also said no special security preparations were planned. "We only asked the police to escort the leaders, and some former GAM members will provide them any assistance they require," Irwandi said.

Among the officials expected to arrive in Banda Aceh on Wednesday are GAM Prime Minister Malik Mahmud, Health Minister Zaini Abdullah and spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah.

That the GAM leaders are returning to Aceh after living in exile in Sweden for 30 years is a sign of the group's sincere desire to see the peace deal it signed with the Indonesian government succeed, peace activist Rufriadi said Tuesday.

"We should see their return as an expression of their commitment to peace," he said.

Soon after signing a peace agreement in Helsinki with the Indonesian government Aug. 15 last year, GAM leaders in Sweden dispatched Bakhtiar and deputy spokesman Munawar Liza Zain to Aceh.

That visit was followed by one involving several GAM leaders in Malaysia, Nur Djuli and Nurdin A.R., who were also members of the negotiating team for the Helsinki peace agreement.

Bakhtiar said earlier that during the upcoming visit, GAM Prime Minister Malik would help set up a political party from the newly established Free Aceh Movement Council, also known as Majelis GAM.

Several candidates have been proposed to lead the party, but Bakhtiar refused to go into detail. "It is about time GAM leaders met the people of Aceh after years of living in exile," Bakhtiar said from his base in Stockholm.

Massive fraud hits tsunami aid

Sunday Times (London) - April 16, 2006

Michael Sheridan, Banda Aceh – This was supposed to be the scene of the world's greatest aid effort, but endemic corruption has drained it of millions of pounds while leaving tens of thousands of tsunami victims stranded in tents.

Banda Aceh was ground zero in the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, which claimed more than 200,000 lives across the Indian Ocean. More people died here than anywhere else.

Now two charities that raised unprecedented sums in Britain have fallen victim to rip-offs that ruined their efforts to house the survivors and have forced them to suspend key projects.

Save the Children and Oxfam were both targeted by unscrupulous building contractors who took their money, only to build structures so flimsy that a new wave would wash them away.

Save the Children may have to write off more than #400,000 worth of building contracts. Oxfam, which counts its losses in "tens of thousands of pounds", has stopped its construction work around Banda Aceh until investigators establish the extent of the abuse.

Indonesian anti-corruption campaigners, who uncovered the Save the Children case, have also assembled a dossier of fraud and incompetence that reveals why the Jakarta government and international aid agencies have failed in their promises to the survivors of Aceh.

"We calculate that 30% to 40% of all the aid funds, Indonesian and international, have been tainted by graft," said Akhiruddin Mahjuddin, an accountant who investigates aid spending for the Aceh Anti-Corruption Movement.

The movement is partly funded by foreign donors and its findings are regarded as credible by embassies and aid agencies. The betrayal is all the more cruel because it has been committed, in the main, by the Acehnese themselves.

Indonesia, which lost more than 131,000 people, got the most pledges of aid, totaling $6.5 billion (#3.7 billion). It has already collected $4.5 billion in funds. The aid effort won praise for saving thousands of lives by prompt action to stop disease and to restore clean water supplies.

Yet the bereaved, the orphans and the dispossessed are eking out their 16th month in tents and shacks flung down amid palm groves and rice paddies around this sweep of ravaged coast, ringed by sharp-toothed green mountains, in the north of Sumatra.

Funds have been frozen. Projects wait on hold while worried aid administrators fly in and out of Banda Aceh clutching audit reports. Bureaucratic and political paralysis means only 10.4% of the funds allocated by the government have actually been spent, said Akhiruddin. Of the 170,000 homes promised to the people of Aceh, only about 15,000 have been built, one year and four months after the tsunami.

Save the Children intended to help bridge the gap by funding 741 buildings, including schools, in the Bireun, Pidie and Lhokseumawe districts of the province, issuing contracts worth #404,000.

Akhiruddin displayed the list of 15 contractors on his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, showing a web of companies and subcontractors. Most appear to be controlled by a few individuals related to one another.

"They were supposed to sink foundations up to 60cm," he said. "But we found they'd just propped wooden stilts on stones and dug no foundations at all. The timber was substandard and already warping."

His team recommended that Save the Children demolish all 741 buildings and start again. The contractors have been dismissed but neither compensation nor criminal proceedings are likely, he said.

Save the Children issued a statement to the Indonesian media, acknowledging problems with the Aceh projects and promising to put them right.

Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children, said this weekend: "During routine evaluation and monitoring, we discovered the poor workmanship and immediately took steps to rectify the situation, including terminating the contract and instigating repairs. We will tolerate nothing less than the most efficient and effective use of money."

Oxfam has sent in five investigators, including a former police officer, to unravel the skein of apparent corruption that has led to losses in its Banda Aceh office and forced it to suspend construction.

"We took the decision because of the need for accountability and also to make it clear that aid agencies are serious about these issues," said Craig Owen, a spokesman. "We are committed to spending #42m here over three years and you have to remember that this is like rebuilding an area the size of Birmingham: it's a challenge."

Oxfam plans to resume work in phases while the investigation team prepares its report and recommendations.

According to Akhiruddin, however, these woes are a mere fraction of the frauds. Among the cases that his investigation uncovered were:

• Indonesia's government reconstruction agency spent #6.3m on temporary housing that was either overpriced or fictitious. "I went to one site in Aceh Besar and found no barracks had been built at all," said Akhiruddin.
• More than #40,000 was embezzled from a children's food distribution centre.
• One aid group paid for 70 new houses, only to find that its own local staff had occupied most of them.
• Another bought 100 new fishing boats for #1,166 each when a fair price was #800 per vessel. The cost difference came to #86,600.
• A German aid group sent #1.4m raised from provincial newspaper readers, promising to rebuild 400 homes. So far one has been built.

The government reconstruction agency is trying to fight internal corruption, said Akhiruddin. It cancelled 90% of tenders in one two-month period last year. But having issued a blacklist of 18 companies deemed unsuitable for contracts, it hastily withdrew the list. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the agency's head, is respected for his personal honesty and has pledged to clamp down.

Last week Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's president, vowed there would "be no safe haven" for the corrupt. He was backed up by Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, who has spearheaded tough lending guidelines for borrowers such as Indonesia.

But the politics and scrutiny all take up time. "The consequences are that people's suffering is being prolonged unnecessarily," said Akhiruddin.

While the contractors and their accomplices enjoy the fruits of their misdeeds, one young survivor, a girl named Fajriyana, is still living in a blue plastic tent in the mud.

The Sunday Times found Fajriyana there last December and told her story of miraculous survival, of the loss of her mother and her reunion after many months with her father and sisters, who had believed that she was dead.

Fajriyana celebrated her fourth birthday in the tent on February 4. "I have scraped together all our savings to buy us a small piece of land," said her father, Nasruddin, a mechanic. "Now we are waiting for the government, God willing, to build us a new house." It may be a long wait. And the soaking rains, with their cargo of dampness and disease, are coming over the teeth of the mountains soon.

Aceh Jaya residents demand revocation of logging permits

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2006

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Residents in Aceh Jaya regency have urged the government to suspend the reissuance of three forest concession permits intended to facilitate the Aceh reconstruction program in the area for not accommodating people's aspirations living around the forests.

"We live near the forests, and if anything goes wrong, we are the first to bear the brunt of it," head of the Aceh Jaya Community Union, Syarifuddin told The Jakarta Post.

Syarifuddin expressed regret over the government's decision to reissue the permits without consulting local residents because Aceh Jaya residents have been suffering from the impact of rampant logging activities there.

"Many rivers have dried up, and when it rains for just a short time, it floods almost immediately, particularly in Teunom and Krueng Sabee districts in Aceh Jaya," said Syarifuddin.

He suggested that forest concessions be replaced with community forests, in which area residents decide which forests can be logged and at the same time protect them.

"It has often been seen that forest concessions only bring disadvantages as a result of the arbitrary cutting of trees," added Syarifuddin.

Residents from six districts in Aceh Jaya will meet from April 24 to 29 to discuss the permit issuance and formulate a community logging scheme applying mechanisms and systems closely supervised by the community.

The forests in Aceh Jaya are in a dire state now and the government must be more prudent in making decisions that relate to environmental issues, Syarifuddin continued.

The government had previously issued logging permits to five companies in Aceh to exploit 367,550 hectares of production forests to expedite the Aceh reconstruction program.

Aceh has only 600,000 hectares of production forests remaining. The Aceh office of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) deplored the decision of the provincial forestry office for not acquiring the latest data on the remaining area of production forests.

"We know that illegal logging continues unabated, so the figure of 600,000 hectares is no longer relevant," said Dewa Gumay from Walhi.

Wahli has proposed the use of confiscated timber – with volumes reaching 7 million cubic meters throughout the country – for the Aceh reconstruction program. Aceh alone has 50,000 cu.m. of timber seized during illegal logging operations.

"The government should use the seized timber for the reconstruction program. Opening up forest concessions is not a good idea due to the adverse impact it will have on the community," Dewa added.

West Papua

Papua aid to soothe a relationship on the edge

Sydney Morning Herald - April 22, 2006

Louise Dodson and Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Australia is ready to offer economic aid to help Indonesia smooth the introduction of Papuan autonomy, as the two countries try to restore relations under stress over the treatment of refugees.

Talks in Jakarta last night failed to resolve the rift over the granting of asylum to 42 Papuans. The atmosphere during the talks with the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Michael L'Estrange, was "quite cool", said an Indonesian spokesman, Desri Percaya.

Australia is believed to have vetoed plans for a joint press conference after the talks, indicating the sensitivity of the row. Mr L'Estrange went to great lengths to avoid the media, switching the location of his original talks and using security officials to rebuff any attempts at questioning during his departure.

He was scheduled to deliver a statement but is understood to have been gagged by the Prime Minister, John Howard.

Mr L'Estrange was dispatched by Mr Howard to explain Australia's new policy to deter Papuan asylum seekers. But Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, said he only wanted to hear what Australia was going to do about the 42 Papuan refugees.

"By adopting a kind of Pacific solution deals with the future problems, but how do we deal with the existing problems of 42 Indonesians of Papuan origin having been granted [protection visas]?" Dr Wirajuda asked.

Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has ordered a review of all co-operation with Australia and suspended negotiations for a new security treaty until the row is resolved, claiming Australia is undermining Indonesia's sovereignty.

On Wednesday, federal cabinet will be briefed on yesterday's meeting and will consider economic aid to help with the introduction of the Papuan autonomy package, if that is what Jakarta wants. Indonesia is negotiating measures to give Papua some autonomy.

The Herald understands Indonesia's Foreign Ministry has been asked by some of the extended family members of one of the Papuan refugees, four-year-old Anike Wanggai, to help them launch a custody battle to get the child back from Australia. The child travelled to Australia with her father, who also obtained a protection visa, while her mother is in hiding in Papua New Guinea, her Australian lawyer, David Manne, said.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, played down expectations of Mr L'Estrange's visit, saying: "Nobody has ever said that his visit was going to smooth out all of the difficulties."

He defended his decision to send Mr L'Estrange to Jakarta, and not go himself. "We're engaged in a diplomatic process and the first sensible thing to do is to ask the secretary of the department to go and talk to his counterparts..."

But the Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, said Mr L'Estrange was a "human shield" for Mr Howard, who should have gone to Jakarta.

The former governor-general and Labor foreign affairs minister Bill Hayden said the Government had been too quick to appease Indonesia at the expense of its commitment to refugees.

Indonesian police have been unable to find any of 18 suspected asylum seekers missing since their boat capsized off Papua on Sunday morning.

[With Cynthia Banham, Linda Morris and AAP.]

Papua nationalists look to Australia for support

The Australian - April 22, 2006

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – "You should send the Australian military into Papua. Why not? The sooner the better. It would be a humanitarian operation."

Senior Papuan independence campaigner Willy Mandowen has a twinkle in his eye as he makes his provocative suggestion, but the humour masks a steely intent. Mandowen, 46, pitches his struggle as that of the righteous oppressed who must eventually best his brutal coloniser. In this case, the bad guy is Indonesia.

Mandowen knows how to play the freedom-fighter game. Invited to Jakarta last week to address a parliamentary committee on why a boatload of 43 of his fellow Papuans fled their homes for the relative safety of temporary protection visas in Australia that 42 of them have received, he spoke frankly to the country's leaders.

"We told them that the asylum-seekers who went to Australia felt unsafe in Papua and it is normal anywhere in the world to move from where you feel unsafe to somewhere where you will feel safe," he says, sporting a well-worn beanie in the colours of the banned Papuan independence flag.

That same flag, the Morning Star, was flown by the bedraggled group that landed on Cape York in January and it was first raised by Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay in 1999, two years before his murder at the hands of Indonesian special forces troops. Eluay was followed as head of the Papuan People's Presidium, a kind of informal government often regarded as the political wing of the armed Free Papua Movement (OPM), by Papuan elder Tom Beanal, who spoke alongside Mandowen last Wednesday.

"We asked the committee to see the Papua issue not only from the perspective of political sensitivity but also of human rights," Mandowen says.

However, for many Indonesians, sensitivity is precisely the issue; Australia's lack of sensitivity, that is, to its neighbour's territorial integrity, as evidenced by Canberra's support in 1999 for East Timorese independence, as well as the fear of latent Australian backing for a breakaway Papuan state.

It's a fear that plays large in Jakarta and among decision- makers. A prominent letter last week in Kompas, Indonesia's most respected daily newspaper, accused Australia of having "a huge interest in Papuan independence; with rich natural resources and a relatively uneducated population, economic domination of Papua would be easy".

Says Theo Sambuaga, head of the committee that heard Mandowen and Beanal's pleas: "We understand there are elements in Australia that support separatism in Papua. We know they are there: in academia, in the press, people at large, even among certain members of parliament. And although we know the Australian Government supports Indonesia with Papua as a part of it, people here have the suspicion that Australia supported East Timor's independence and that now it wants Papuan independence too. Well, we listened to what [Mandowen and Beanal] had to say, but they will never get independence in Papua, don't worry about that."

The question of national integrity goes to the heart of Indonesian identity in this nation, whose proper name – although it's rarely translated in full into English – is Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia, or the Unitary Nation of the Republic of Indonesia.

Generations of schoolchildren grew up with the geographic spread of their archipelagic motherland drummed into their heads. Indonesia's greatness stretched from Sabang (off Aceh's far northeastern tip) to Merauke, the southernmost port city in the former Dutch New Guinea (later known variously as Irian Jaya, Irian Barat and, for anti-integrationists, West Papua) and the final embarkation point for the latest leaky boat of international trouble. The land from Sabang to Merauke was Indonesia's version of being girt by sea, and it made sense because it corralled into one newly constructed nation all of the former Dutch East Indies, itself a geographical artifice based on 300-plus years of European colonial convenience. However, Mandowen believes mere geographical convention can be reversed in Papua's case and that Jakarta's elite is right to fear an Australian role in the process.

Even though Canberra has clearly stated its support for a unitary Indonesia, including the belated official incorporation of Papua, thanks to a flawed UN-administered referendum in 1969, "it's obvious that in this situation it is not only state security but also human security that is at stake", he says.

"We think actually that hearts and minds in Australia are already behind us. We know that people there are already very concerned about human rights violations in West Papua and clearly, once hearts and minds are with us, they will go with Papua."

He also believes Papua's secret weapon could be its vast reserves of natural resources, including gold and copper at the giant Freeport McMoRan mine on Mt Grasberg, oil and gas being exploited by BP, PetroChina and others, and a planned joint Indonesian- Russian satellite launch from Biak island.

"There you have four vital UN states [US, Britain, Russia and China] with an interest in Papua. That could shift the balance of power," says Mandowen, who is careful to stress that Freeport's operations, of late the focus of violent and bloody protests, have come in for unfair criticism and been the victim of mysterious forces. It's an astute politician who knows not to scare off foreign investment, especially one who wants outside support for his independence drive.

He alleges as an example of political manipulation the student demonstration a month ago outside Cendrawasih University in the capital, Jayapura, which was supposed to call for the closure of the Freeport mine. It turned ugly, however, when police stormed protesters, rocks were thrown and five military personnel were beaten to death. "I believe both the police and the students were the victims," Mandowen explains. "It was others who came in there, others who had been given strong drink, who caused the trouble."

He insists there are forces at work in Papua that have nothing to do with Papuan independence or with Indonesian territorial integrity. "The military have fingers in many pies here," he explains. "[Cendrawasih] was a way of undermining the role of the police and we already know that illegal logging involves elements of the military." Mandowen believes there are retired and current generals, as well as businesspeople, former ministers and other government officials, who have been stirring up the Papua issue "to provoke things".

He says student protests against Australia's granting of visas to the asylum-seekers and foreign investment in Papua have been carefully planned and even funded from Jakarta, including by regressive Islamist groups.

He also believes terrorists are likely to be targeting Papua because of its strategic location bridging the southern Philippines and Pacific nations, and that Canberra should be paying more attention to this issue.

"Australia shouldn't let this problem come to it, otherwise Australia itself will become the next front for terrorism," he says. "Papua could become a window for problems like this. Look at Indonesia: terrorism has gone very silent [for now] but it's ready to go again."

Again the twinkle: "But let us know first, so that if Australian troops are coming, we can prepare and help them. If they have not enough food in the jungle, we will find it for them. We can hide them. We can pray that the rain and the clouds are closing down so that nobody can fly in until they are ready on the ground."

Jakarta attacks Uniting Church over West Papua

Melbourne Age - April 20, 2006

Mark Forbes – Indonesia's ambassador to Australia has blamed the Uniting Church for fomenting unrest in West Papua and criticised Canberra's response in comments likely to inflame the continuing diplomatic rift.

In another attack on the Government, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley said yesterday that John Howard's "grovelling" to Indonesia had failed and he and his ministers were hiding in "coward's castle" rather than going to Jakarta to deal with the problem.

The ambassador, Hamzah Thayeb, who was recalled last month in protest at Australia's decision to grant temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers, told the Indonesian Parliament's foreign affairs committee that Canberra's actions were "really disappointing".

Senior Australian politicians and church groups supported West Papuan independence, Mr Thayeb said, singling out the Uniting Church. He claimed he had met senior church officials who maintained that civilians were being murdered in West Papua.

A spokesman for the Uniting Church said a meeting of church leaders on Tuesday had formally rejected supporting West Papuan independence – but they would continue to express concerns about human rights abuses in the province.

One of the officials named by Mr Thayeb was John Barr, who heads the church's Indonesia section. Yesterday he said there were "definitely huge human rights abuses and intimidation" in West Papua. Indonesia's actions could lead to genocide, he warned.

"Our position is we support a just and peaceful resolution for the conflict in Papua," Mr Barr said. "We don't support independence – that's an issue for the Papuans, not for us."

Mr Beazley yesterday attacked the dispatch of Foreign Affairs secretary Michael L'Estrange to brief the Indonesians on Australia's new asylum policy – changed after Indonesia's response to the 42 Papuans being granted visas – accusing ministers of being "card-carrying cowards".

"What do they pay the Foreign Minister for? What are they paying the Prime Minister for?" he asked. The Prime Minister had "effectively apologised to the Indonesians for actually doing the right thing", Mr Beazley said.

"We've not done anything wrong but, as a result of John Howard's inept and basically incompetent actions in changing our law – seemingly under international pressure – we've got more of a problem than we would have had otherwise. So this has got to be fixed by Howard and his ministers."

Mr Thayeb told Indonesia's foreign affairs committee that "a total diplomatic effort towards Australia" was necessary. Committee member Sabam Sirait suggested Australian ships should be barred from travelling through the Lombok Strait, "so they understand our country is important".

Mr Thayeb also said he told Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone that the Papuans' claims of mass killings were untrue. "But she said that Australia would process the granting of asylum anyway," he said.

All major parties in Australia and much of the community had supported the granting of asylum, he said. The Indonesian Government is yet to decide when Mr Thayeb will return to his post in Canberra.

[With Michelle Grattan.]

Howard rejects Australian support for Papuan independence

ABC World Today - April 19, 2006

Reporter: Alexandra Kirk

Eleanor Hall: To tensions with Indonesia now and the Prime Minister has this morning discounted an opinion poll, out today, which shows that more than three quarters of Australians support independence for the Indonesian province of Papua.

Mr Howard says the last thing Australia would want is a fragmenting of Indonesia, and his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has again reassured the Indonesian Government that the Australian Government won't back any push for Papuan separatism.

But the Australian businessman who commissioned the poll has started campaigning for Papuan independence, arguing that most Australians agree with him and not the Government.

From Canberra, Alexandra Kirk reports.

Alexandra Kirk: Ian Melrose is a businessman. He says he doesn't belong to any political party, but spent a lot of money recently on television ads attacking the Federal Government for failing to treat East Timor fairly in negotiations over oil and gas rights and revenue.

Now he's shifted his attention to Papua, commissioning Newspoll to ask 1,200 people if they're personally for or against self- determination for Papuans, including the option of independence.

Ian Melrose: I think it's fairly clear to all Australians that Indonesia's occupation of West Papua is an improper and wrong occupation. It's highly probable that Indonesians' actions in West Papua will be the same or very similar to that of East Timor.

Alexandra Kirk: The survey was done the day after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono demanded proof that Canberra respected his nation's sovereignty over the province of Papua.

The poll found 77 per cent of those questioned believed Indonesia should no longer have a role governing Papua. Only five and a half per cent supported the status quo; the rest didn't know or were undecided.

Mr Melrose says it shows most Australians don't support the Federal Government's position and he's considering campaigning for Papua. He says Papua deserves a better deal from Indonesia or should get another vote on self-determination.

Ian Melrose: I'm not happy just to sit on the couch and watch things go by and do nothing. I think somebody's got to stand up for the West Papuans' rights and it appears that the Australian politicians aren't going to do that. The reality is that the West Papuans deserve self-determination. The vote that was held in 1969 wasn't at all a fair and free vote.

Alexandra Kirk: It's a thorny issue for the Federal Government trying to get relations with Indonesia back on an even keel after Australia granted 42 Papuans Temporary Protection Visas.

On Macquarie Radio this morning, the Prime Minister was playing down the significance of the poll.

John Howard: It's a very complex and difficult issue. A comment on the poll – it depends a bit what question do you ask. If you said to people: "Do you want Indonesia to disintegrate?" you'd probably get and overwhelming majority of people saying no.

I can understand sympathy for Papuans, because there's an affinity in people's minds between the Papuans of Indonesia and the Papuans of Papua New Guinea.

Alexandra Kirk: Indonesia's Ambassador is still in Jakarta, but Embassy spokesman Dino Kusnadi says the poll is flawed. He says the question of self-determination is very outdated. The matter, he says, was finalised long ago, and just last month Papuans directly elected their own Governor.

Dino Kusnadi: Even Mr Melrose is ill advised of the current development in Papua. The issue of Papua is not the issue of self-determination. The issue of Papua is how to bring welfare, justice and human rights issues to the people of Papua.

And that issue is, I think, is being addressed with the Special Autonomy, so the issue of self-determination itself is just misleading. It brings back them to the time(?) of a different time.

Alexandra Kirk: John Howard says the treatment of Papuans isn't perfect, but he defends Indonesia, saying things have improved and Indonesia has to be given a lot of marks.

John Howard: It's the last thing we want. If you really want a problem on your doorstep, have a fragmenting Indonesia. So it is in Australia's interests that we keep a united, unified Indonesia.

Alexandra Kirk: And it's a message echoed by the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Alexander Downer: Let me make it absolutely clear that the Government, and for that matter, if I may be so bold as to speak for them on this occasion, the Opposition Labor Party, support West Papua remaining part of the Republic of Indonesia and will continue to do so into the future. There's no question of there being any change of Australian Government policy in relation to West Papua's integration into Indonesia.

And it's important that we convey that message. If we didn't support West Papua's integration into Indonesia, I think there would be a real breakdown in regional security. I think it would create a crisis that would be very detrimental to Australia's interests.

Eleanor Hall: And that's the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, ending that report from Alexandra Kirk in Canberra.

Leaders 'out of touch on Papua:' Australian Greens

The Australian - April 19, 2006

Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley have misjudged public support for Papuan independence, The Greens said.

Greens Leader Bob Brown said a Newspoll released today, showing 77 per cent of Australians support independence for the Indonesian province, proved the major parties were wrong.

"The Prime Minister is horribly out of touch with Australian values," Senator Brown said. "While this nation backs freedom and a fair go for our West Papuan neighbours, Mr Howard backs Indonesian military occupation."

The nationwide poll of 1200 people conducted a fortnight ago was funded by businessman Ian Melrose.

Only 6 per cent of respondents were directly opposed to independence for Indonesia's eastern-most province, while 77 per cent were in favour, with 17 per cent undecided.

Mr Melrose has campaigned for a better deal for East Timor over oil and gas rights in the Timor Sea. East Timor, a former Indonesian province, won independence after the intervention of the UN.

"I am delighted that Australians so overwhelmingly support the West Papuans," Mr Melrose said today. "It is a shame that John Howard and Kim Beazley do not match the Australian people's inherent decency when it comes to basic human rights and justice."

He said Indonesia's actions in Papua, if left unchecked, would deliver the same atrocities seen in East Timor.

Senator Brown said The Greens would move a motion supporting self determination for Papua when the Senate resumed in a fortnight.

Mother of Papuan refugee not pressured by military

Agence France Presse - April 18, 2006

Jakarta – Indonesia denied Tuesday that its military had pressured the mother of a four-year-old Papuan asylum seeker into demanding that Australia return her daughter, as alleged in a media report there.

In an emotional appeal last week Siti Pandera Wanggai told Indonesian reporters that the father of her daughter Anike had taken her to Australia without her permission and that she wanted her returned to Papua.

But Australian newspaper The Age reported Tuesday that Wanggai, who has since fled to Papua New Guinea, only did so because of pressure from military intelligence and two members of her family.

Indonesian foreign affairs spokesman Desra Percaya denied Wanggai's claims. "I don't believe that this is the case, because I had the opportunity to speak with Mrs Siti a couple of days ago," Percaya told AFP. "She asked Deplu (foreign affairs) especially for help for the return of her daughter," he said.

Anike is one of 42 asylum seekers given temporary visas in Australia after they fled Papua in a small outrigger boat in January, sparking a diplomatic row between the neighbours.

Indonesia had asked Australia to return Anike, arguing that under international conventions on the rights of the child, the "best interests is for the child to stay with her mother," Percaya said.

But Wanggai said in a written statement to The Age: "I was taken away by them (intelligence and her relatives) and told to agree to the entire contents of the statement that was made by the three of them."

The report said that Wanggai fled to Papua New Guinea last week because she feared for her safety, just as she was due to fly to Jakarta to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

It added that Wanggai was happy her daughter was in Australia, even though she was not informed she would be taken there.

Wanggai's uncle also told AFP that he doubted she had sought the return of her daughter. "We understand that the father would bring her up, not mother," Agus Waromi said by telephone from Jayapura, adding the couple had separated around a year ago.

Waromi said it appeared that Wanggai had been sponsored by the military to travel to Jakarta to meet Yudhoyono and perhaps that had frightened her. "In my opinion, maybe she was afraid and ran. Maybe she got pressure," he said.

The asylum seekers in Australia accused Jakarta of genocide in the province, where a separatist movement has rumbled for decades, claims denied by the government.

Indonesia won sovereignty over Papua, formerly a Dutch colony, in 1969 after a referendum widely seen as a sham.

Report warns opportunity knocks for Papua

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2006

Jakarta – A prestigious American think tank is urging the Indonesian government to make use of a "window of opportunity" to resolve unrest in Papua, and also calls on the international community to help expedite the process.

The Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations said the emergence of a democratically elected government and the dawn of peace in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam have provided a conducive climate for positive change in Papua.

"The next two years are a critical period in which the government and Papuans should embark on bold initiatives toward peace, before the 2009 presidential and legislative elections begin looming," said the 35-page report titled Peace in Papua: Widening a Window of Opportunity.

"Within Papua, conditions are also ripe for a solution... The Papuan public has appeared willing to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt".

While the report focused on the available opportunities, it also warned that lethargy on the part of the central government was beginning to reverse the positive views. It suggests some Papuans are becoming frustrated by the lack of respect for their concerns, and are beginning to regard the current administration as no different from previous ones.

Compounding difficulties is the controversy over Papua's division into smaller provinces. Furthermore, while money is being channeled to the region, local officials seem ill-prepared to deal with the influx of developmental funds.

The author of the report, Blair A. King, encourages the Indonesian government to, among other things, fully implement special autonomy, engage with legitimate representatives of the community, improve local governance and reform security arrangements to end rights abuses.

Fluent in Indonesian and a seven-year resident of this country, King is currently senior program manager for Asia at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington DC.

Rather than stooping to Indonesia bashing, the report encourages the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to help prod Indonesia forward through "quiet but firm diplomacy".

The report also advocates a joint US$50 million technical assistance package to help improve local governance.

"Failure to take advantage of the current window of opportunity will prolong the suffering of the Papuan people, rendering a peaceful resolution of the conflict increasingly unlikely," it said.

Pornography & morality

Colorful rally enchants Jakarta

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2006

Jakarta – Hundreds of activists, artists and cultural communities – decked out in colorful garb – bedazzled passersby and spectators along the city's main thoroughfares Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta and Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta in a peaceful protest against the endorsement of the pornography bill.

No! To Zero Culture was the theme the protest organizer, Diverse But One Alliance, picked to convey their message: The country is rich in cultural diversity and therefore a law in the name of morality will only be a conduit to destroy the harmony of that diversity. Saturday's event began with speeches at the National Monument (Monas).

"The carnival is our way of reminding all parties, the legislature, the government, and all Indonesians about our identity, an Indonesia according to the republic's foundations, the 1945 Constitution, Pancasila and its motto, unity through diversity," said alliance chairwoman Shinta Nuriyah Wahid.

Shinta, reminded everyone that the alliance was against all forms of pornography, but passing a law that would regulate people's morality would create a different situation.

The bill, she said, had the potential to cause national disintegration and it was an act of treason against the Constitution and Pancasila which bound the country's many cultures. "...We also object to the use of a law which dehumanizes people," said Shinta.

In order to eradicate pornography, the lawmakers and the government must make good use of the existing institutions and also take measures against indecency in television programs, dismiss corrupt law enforcers, make effective the Film Censorship Board (BSF), the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), and consistently uphold the Criminal Code.

Movie director Nia Dinata who also joined Saturday's protest said the government and lawmakers must respect human rights and cultural diversity. "If their is no diversity, there will be no more arts," she said.

Prolific woman writer Ayu Utami said that the government had not been doing what it should. "The panacea is already there but it has not been taken," said Ayu about existing regulations which were enacted into law to control pornography and indecency. "We can never heal a problem with the wrong medicine." One of the alliance's coordinators playwright Ratna Sarumpaet said that the alliance had already made future plans to block the endorsement of the bill.

"We plan to hold a national congress on culture which will give birth to the Indonesian culture manifesto," said Ratna. "If the legislature has still not taken action, we will hold another festival which will be larger and with even more representatives from all the regions." A 36-year-old housewife Siti Khomariah brought her two children along to see the parade and the colorful performances to give support to the activists fighting against the bill. She even let her children skip school to watch the rare protest.

She asked The Jakarta Post about what would happen to housewives who wore a nightdress at home and within their complexes. "Would they then be arrested because of being considered indecent", she queried. "We are now even more convinced that we must not be oppressed," she said.

Cultural groups rally against anti-pornography law

Deutsche Presse-Agentur - April 22, 2006

Jakarta – Thousands of people from various cultural groups rallied Saturday against the implementation of Indonesia's much- debated obscenity law.

Marching peacefully under the theme of Alliance of Unity in Diversity, the protesters included the wife of Yogyakarta's sultan and the wife of former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

'We are against pornography in the mass media that ruins our children, but we are also against the porn bill draft,' Sinta Nuriyah Wahid told the rally.

The legislation, initially proposed in 1999, is strongly supported by orthodox Muslim groups. But its vague definitions could allow multiple interpretations and cause confusion and conflict, critics say.

The draft bill's language has been introduced in selected provinces before being put to a vote. Some provinces, such as Bali and Papua flatly reject the draft, saying it doesn't accommodate local cultures and tries to push a certain religious belief.

Particularly controversial are regulations on public dress and restrictions on nudity in the media and art.

If the bill became law, women who bare their shoulders or legs, or artists who include nudity in their work, could be prosecuted for indecency and could jailed or fined up to 2 billion rupiah (more than 200,000 dollars).

Indonesian president Yudhoyono urged Indonesians and their parliament to come to a peaceful solution on the matter, saying that a country with Indonesia's cultural background 'can come to a logical' agreement on the matter.

Indonesia's population of 220 million is 90 per cent Muslim, making it the world's most largest Muslim country.

Playboy and hardcore violence

Asia Times - April 21, 2006

Gary LaMoshi – The debut of Playboy Indonesia this month unfolded predictably. The magazine flew off the shelves despite its premium price of Rp39,000 (US$4.35). Religious leaders condemned the publication as immoral, despite its total lack of pictures of naked women.

The Islam Defenders Front (FPI, for Front Pembela Islam) leader Habib Rizieq threatened to "go to war" against Playboy last week, just before white-robed protesters pelted the publication's offices with stones while police watched passively. Muslim extremists returned the next day, but Playboy's office had already moved. FPI and other thugs settled for harassing and intimidating vendors and seizing the few remaining unsold copies with impunity.

Reaction to the attack from Indonesia's leaders was also predictable. Police Commander Wilardi Wizard, whose officers failed to stop the violence, urged the magazine to stop publishing because of the strong public reaction. Wizard's boss, Police General Firman Gani, suggested that the publisher leave town.

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammidyah, one of Indonesia's allegedly mainstream Muslim mass organizations with some 30 million members, blamed Playboy for the violence and called for the magazine to cease publishing. Political leaders who dared to speak out apologized for the constitutional freedoms that allowed Playboy to publish and pledged to search harder for a pretext to close the magazine.

Violence, real and threatened, was a hallmark of the Suharto era, and the habit has stuck. The Pemuda Pancasila youth wing that provided goon squads for the New Order hasn't disappeared; it has been copied by political parties and religious groups. As Suharto's corrupt machine lives on without a firm guiding hand, and law enforcement remains for sale, there's added opportunity and incentive for people to take the law into their own hands.

The old power centers of the Suharto era have not disappeared and remain largely above the law. The murder of civil-rights activist Munir Said Thalib that independent investigators linked to military intelligence officials was a stunning reminder that might still makes right in Indonesia's new democratic era.

Radical Islam and the Indonesian military are usually considered to be on opposite sides, but in fact they have numerous convergent interests, including undermining civil society and civil liberties. Each side probably figures that after eliminating its common enemies it can prevail over the other.

The Playboy attack is another sign that strong-arm tactics pay dividends for Indonesia's Muslim extremists. An editor admitted on Monday that the magazine might not publish a second issue, despite strong advertising and newsstand sales for the premiere edition.

Whose traditional values?

The Playboy attack also comes amid a national debate on a proposed anti-pornography bill, which was energized by Playboy's announced plans for an Indonesian edition last year. Ostensibly, the bill sets common community standards for decency, yet it is hard to find a common standard in a country as populous and diverse as Indonesia.

Opponents see the bill as another step in the creeping Islamization of Indonesia, a nation that has the world's largest Muslim population but also a substantial non-Muslim minority. Many proposed standards, such as requiring women to be covered head to toe, aren't representative of Indonesian values and customs but are imported from the Middle East. "In Java, the tradition is here," said a Muslim woman, drawing a hand just above her bust to indicate the cut of native dress. "And in Bali it's here," she added, drawing a hand across her waist.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS, for Parti Keadilan Sejahtera), an Islamic party that made eye-opening gains in the 2004 general election running on an anti-corruption platform, is a key player in the anti-pornography drive. But pushing the extreme Islamic side of its agenda rather than the clean government part has already eroded its popularity.

In legitimate elections going back as far as 1955, Islamic parties have consistently polled about 38% of the vote, with about half of that going to extremists advocating imposition of sharia law, such as PKS. Even with its emphasis on civic virtue, the PKS surge came at the expense of other Islamic parties nationally, rather than expanding the base. Limited popular support explains why FPI and other radicals prefer rocks and sticks to the ballot box. If violence is as American as apple pie, then strong-arm tactics to influence public policy or frighten rivals is as Indonesian as nasi goreng (fried rice).

The Muslim-military nexus

Links between Muslim extremists and the military go way back. After the generals seized power from president Sukarno in 1965, Islamic groups carried out many of the estimated 500,000 murders of reputed communists across the country. Military agents revived Islamic militias, then scapegoated them in the 1970s – a key step in radicalizing Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the alleged spiritual leader of the reputedly al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombing and other attacks targeting Westerners.

In 1999 the military supplied and transported jihadi recruits to Ambon and Sulawesi to escalate Christian-versus-Muslim violence that cost tens of thousands of lives. While the recruits likely fought sincerely in the name of Islam, they were following the military's game plan to undermine president Abdurrahman Wahid (see Terrorism links point to Indonesia's military, October 8, 2004). Similarly, devotion may motivate FPI raiders that attack alcohol vendors during Ramadan, but they reportedly hit only those establishments that skip payments to local police.

Seeing FPI's antics in terms of corruption or general lawlessness misses the bigger picture. As long as police, politicians and the public continue granting immunity to anyone wearing a white robe and waving the Koran, unwelcome questions are raised.

Perpetrators of last July's assault on a complex of the Ahmadiyah religious sect in Bogor not only went unpunished but achieved their objective: the sect left the area and went underground. Questioned about the Ahmadiyah attack, Indonesian Ulemas Council deputy chairman Ma'ruf Amin, also a member of mainstream Nahdlatul Ulama with 40 million members, shrugged, "No data [have] been presented to me on that. But anyway, Ahmadiyah has been widely known as a heretical sect. Should the government protect them?"

That remark didn't come at Friday prayers in Central Java but in an interview in the Jakarta Post, without a challenge from the public, religious leaders or the government. In their new democracy, Indonesians have already shown themselves to be sophisticated voters, but they remain less discerning in religious matters.

Indonesia wants to project an image of a moderate, tolerant Muslim-majority state – a picture that the US, Australia, Britain and friends are keen to push as part of their "global war on terror", as well as counterbalancing China's growing influence in the region. But to live up to that ideal, Indonesia can't keep interpreting its constitutional guarantee of religious freedom as freedom for Muslims (or local majorities in Hindu Bali or Catholic Manado in North Sulawesi) to dominate and suppress other beliefs.

Indonesians also must stop tolerating violent extremists. A tradition of ignoring mistreatment and abuse as long as it doesn't encroach on one's personal circle helps explain how such an affable nation could have been ranked as one of the world's leading police states for more than three decades. National public opinion didn't decisively oppose terrorist bombers whose targets ranged from the Jakarta Stock Exchange to Jimbaran Bay's seafood restaurants on the beach in Bali until Vice President Jusuf Kalla pressured Muslim leaders to preach against terror last October.

This tolerance of Islamic violence could enable a small minority of radicals to impose their views on a compliant Indonesian majority. As in Pakistan, the religious extremists could find a happy accommodation with the military. We may come to see the good side of the Suharto era yet: indulging the strongman's children and golfing buddies beats pandering to religious extremists who sow violence.

[Gary LaMoshi has worked as a broadcast producer and print writer and editor in the US and Asia. Longtime editor of investor rights advocate eRaider.com, he's also a contributor to Slate and Salon.com, and a counselor for Writing Camp]

Experts decry sexist bylaws as threat to the nation

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2006

Jakarta – The crop of bylaws on sex and morality, which have been enforced by several regencies and municipalities, are unconstitutional, gender-biased and threaten to splinter the country, experts warn.

A researcher from the Freedom Institute, Syaiful Mujani, said the Constitution's guarantee of gender equality was contravened by several rulings that treat women as second-class citizens whose behavior should be carefully monitored.

Many municipalities have made sharia-inspired bylaws on public behavior, with a focus on morality and, inevitably in a patriarchal society, the conduct of women.

In Tangerang, the administration issued a bylaw stating any women in public after 7 p.m. would be considered prostitutes and arrested. Syaiful described the bylaw as "humiliating" to women.

There were demands for the administration to withdraw the bylaw after public order officers arrested a pregnant married woman on her way home after work. The officers accused her of being a sex worker, fined her Rp 300,000 and detained her for four days.

"The government must take action to review all bylaws so that the bylaws do not run counter to the Constitution," he said after the launching of five books, published by the Freedom Institute and publishing house Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Other areas also are pushing through moralistic regulations, often derived from sharia principles.

In South Sulawesi, several regency administrations make it obligatory for female civil servants to wear Islamic attire. Government employees are required to be able to read and write Arabic.

Currently, Depok City Council, south of Jakarta, is preparing a bylaw on sex workers, alcohol and morality. The bylaw has been discussed by the council, and some Muslim groups, including the Islamic Defenders Front and the Indonesian Ulemas Council.

According to Syaiful, the state has the obligation to protect its citizens without discriminating between the sexes. The government must first set out a clear platform as the reference for municipalities wanting to formulate bylaws. "The platform must refer to the Constitution," he said.

A researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Mochtar Pabotinggi, agreed that bylaws proscribing sexual behavior and morality violated the essence of democracy, which is contained in the Indonesian Constitution. "In a democracy, no majority group can dominate others," he said.

He said that the bylaws concerned only Muslim group's interests and ignored those of other religious beliefs. "We have to respect other people who have different religions and not push them to do what Islam teaches. For instance, we cannot tell every woman who lives in Aceh to wear Muslim attire."

He added that in the past four years, the regional autonomy program had paid no attention to the existence of the state. "The state is important to unite a nation despite all the differences, especially a country such as Indonesia," he said.

"Many municipalities have made their bylaws without referring to the Indonesian Constitution's stipulations concerning pluralism." The administrations should remember the country's multiethnic, multi-religious composition, he added, before pushing through bylaws pandering to the interests of one group, even if it is the majority.

"Our Constitution appreciates pluralism as an Indonesian way of life. Administrations have to make bylaws that do not contradict the Constitution," he said.

"We cannot utilize two systems of law to regulate a society. The bylaws have the potential to endanger the country's unity since they ignore the essence of pluralism."

'The government must stop controversy over adult magazine'

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2006

Playboy Indonesia has had a rough beginning in the country. Long before the printing of its first edition, it had already sparked protests from political youth groups and Muslim organizations. A day after its first edition, the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) attacked the magazine's editorial office in South Jakarta. The Jakarta Post talked to some people about the issue.

Siti Yulaekha, 21, is a journalist with a local television station in West Jakarta. She lives in Joglo, West Jakarta: Although I disagree with the printing of Playboy in Indonesia, I don't support FPI's attack. There must be a better way to stop the magazine from publishing here.

The attack will only give the impression that Islam is a religion of violence to non-Muslim communities.

I think it is already too late for the country to stop the publishers from printing the magazine, since the government has issued them a business license. But it would be better if the government set regulations regarding the distribution of such magazines, so that children and juveniles would not read them.

Rini Murbaningsih, 22, is an employee of an insurance company in Cipinang, East Jakarta. She lives in Bintaro, Tangerang: I think it's OK for people to have different views, but when it comes to attacking an office with stones, that's brutality.

I'm not totally sure about this, but it seems that it's FPI's mission to violently attack any (business or organization) with a different viewpoint to its own, so the members get the itch for violence each time there is a difference in points of view.

Besides, why only Playboy? Why don't they protest about other porn magazines being circulated here? Several licensed magazines and tabloids here do actually provide "real" porn.

In the end, I think it's the government's responsibility to stop all the controversy over the magazine. The government can't always act as if nothing has happened.

If attacks like that happen again, other investors may think twice about starting a business here.

Adi Ferdiyan, 24, is a student at a state university in Bogor. He lives in Jakasampurna, Bekasi: Of course I am against FPI's attacks. When Muslims fight against being labeled terrorists with more violence, they only proved that Islam is a violent religion.

Just take a look at what happened after the attacks, Playboy's sales are in fact increasing. People are even more curious about it than before.

And what is it left for the FPI? They have to deal with police interrogations for damaging the magazine's editorial office.

The magazine is totally protected by law in Indonesia, since the government has allowed them to operate here. Only the government can stop the magazine from being published.

Labour issues

Left wing groups may infiltrate May Day actions

Liputan 6 - April 24, 2006

Jakarta – The head of the Jakarta metropolitan police General Firman Gani and the Jakarta military commander Major General Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo have warned workers to be careful during the protests planned for May 1.

It is suspected that leftist groups will take advantage of the actions. Gani and Purnomo conveyed the warning during a dialogue with leaders of the Betawi Children's Communication Forum (Forkabi) at the Jakarta police headquarters on Sunday April 23.

Gani gave as an example the vandalism that took place during the worker demonstration on April 5 in Jakarta, which was not committed by workers but by another groups that that had joined in the protest. "I have instructed the district police chief to be on watch for people that will infiltrate [the protests]", said Gani.

The Jakarta military commander even said he suspects there will be parties that will create a riot at the May 1 action. "According to intelligence reports in the field there are indications in this direction", said Purnomo. (IAN/Tim Liputan 6 SCTV)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Cement company supports May strike

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2006

Bogor – Cement producer PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa is allowing workers at its factory in Citeureup to take part in nationwide demonstrations planned for May 1.

Human resources director Iwa Kartiwa said Wednesday the workers would protest the proposed revision of the Labor Law.

"We have a harmonious relationship with the workers, so their representatives can go to the rally," he told visiting students from Airlangga University in Surabaya.

Iwa added that the company was granting scholarships to 392 students from 17 universities across the country.

Major labor unions renew opposition to amendment

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2006

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Ten major trade unions renewed their opposition Tuesday to the government's plan to revise the 2003 Labor Law.

Among the 10 unions are the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperity Labor Union (KSBSI), the National Workers Union (SPN), the Indonesian Trade Union Congress (ITUC), the Indonesian Seafarers Association (KPI) and the Consortium of Labor Unions in Jakarta and Outskirts.

The unions were involved in organizing the recent wave of massive labor rallies, which pressed the government to drop the controversial amendment plan.

KSBSI chairman Rekson Silaban, who spoke on behalf of the unions, said they would continue opposing the revision of the law because the government was doing little else to improve investment in the country. "The government only wants to revise the labor law but is doing nothing to eliminate the problems that scare foreign investors away," Silaban said.

The unions wouldn't be fooled by the alternate academic draft to the law prepared by the government with the help of state universities and Cabinet ministers, he said.

Silaban said the government should enlist academics from the five state universities in Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Makassar to assess investment in Indonesia and identify all the problems hampering it. "If the government goes ahead with the process of preparing a new draft law, workers will go on a national strike in observance of May Day," he said.

ITUC vice president Khoirul Anam said the main hurdles to investment in the country were not labor laws but unfavorable taxation regulations, weak law enforcement, a corrupt bureaucracy and the poor infrastructure in regions.

"Despite the recent reforms of investment procedures, the investment laws in China and Vietnam are far better and than ours although the labor costs in the two countries are higher than those in Indonesia," he said.

NGOs fault MoU on migrant workers

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2006

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Hundreds of non-governmental organizations and labor advocacy groups accuse Indonesia and Malaysia of ignoring fundamental rights in a draft of a memorandum of understanding on workers due to be signed in May.

The consortium of 260 institutions has sent an open letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia expressing its concerns about the drafts of the MOU by the respective governments.

The groups' policy analyst, Wahyu Susilo, said Sunday they believed many basic rights – including for workers to keep their passports and set up labor organizations – were missing from the drafts, which are scheduled to be discussed Monday.

"For instance, the drafts explicitly give authority to Malaysian employers to hold the passports of Indonesian workers, while they also clearly prohibit workers from forming an association or union. We demand that workers can hold their own passports and form organizations," he told The Jakarta Post.

Wahyu said that points included in the current drafts were merely an "operational mechanism" which regulates the recruitment process and benefit recruitment companies, without mentioning essential rights of workers.

The consortium demands equal protection for Indonesian workers under Malaysia labor laws, minimum labor protection rights, including a 24-hour rest period per week and a fair minimum wage, as well as stronger regulations governing recruitment and employment agencies that would prohibit direct recruitment.

"We still have time to make the MOU better. And both governments should allow representatives of workers to attend the draft discussion because it is about their fate," Wahyu said.

Indonesia and Malaysia reached an agreement to sign the MOU on protection of Indonesian workers during Vice President Jusuf Kalla's visit to the neighboring country in late March. The MOU is considered an important step to dealing with recurring reports of physical abuse and unfair treatment of Indonesians by Malaysian employers. There are approximately 300,000 legal Indonesian workers, mostly domestic helpers, in Malaysia, a number which fluctuates marginally over time.

Many Malaysians choose to employ Indonesians because they are cheaper and considered more compliant than those from other Asian countries, such as the Philippines.

Separately, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya confirmed the Indonesian delegation was now in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the details of the MOU.

"Officials from Indonesia have left for Malaysia to discuss the content of the MOU. We welcome any input from the public," he told the Post.

Government/civil service

SBY warns of vested interests in high places

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2006

Rendi Akhmad Witular And Tony Hotland, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned policymakers not to jettison the public interest in favor of the interests of their relatives, ethic groups or associates when formulating development plans and policies.

Speaking before local leaders and bureaucrats Monday, Yudhoyono emphasized the need for accountability in respect of every decision as the government was directly elected by the people.

"Although we may have ethnic, family, political or religious affiliations, we must prioritize the public interest and be accountable to the public. We must be true nationalists. This is what the people are longing for.

"We must not perform our duties in a short-sighted way that only benefits our particular political party, relatives, ethnic group or religion," said Yudhoyono.

Despite a crackdown on corruption, various surveys and reports have confirmed that graft continues to be widespread, with many public officials still abusing their powers so as to benefit their favored causes or associates.

Concerns have been expressed that some development programs at the local level, economic policies at the central level, and planned government-sponsored infrastructure projects directly favor companies linked to top local and central government functionaries.

Although Yudhoyono has never specifically pointed the finger at anyone in particular, his recent remarks show that these concerns have reached the President's ear.

"President Susilo knows well that there are a number of senior functionaries who are taking advantage of their positions so as to advance the interests of certain beneficiaries. The President is determined to take steps to prevent this," said an official at the Presidential Palace.

In his speech, Yudhoyono said that he would set up a special team consisting of government officials, non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives and academics to review the overall development planning process.

The review would cover the issues stressed by the President during the presidential campaign in 2004. These include reducing poverty, reducing unemployment, improving education and health, upgrading infrastructure, improving public services, overhauling the bureaucracy and combating corruption.

Although still popular, Yudhoyono currently finds himself in a dilemma as a result of his inability to quickly attract new investment to the country – a crucial prerequisite for job creation and poverty reduction.

Government still trying to control press: Observers

Jakarta Post - April 20, 2006

Jakarta – Government interference in the media did not end with the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998, academics and journalists said Wednesday. Speaking during a discussion on media at the Press Council building, the University of Indonesia's Effendi Gazali said although the government did not control the press as strictly as it did in the New Order through issuing licenses, it continued to intervene in more subtle ways.

Participants said the Ministry of Communication and Information's current plan to register all print media in the country and the persistent rumors that a politically sensitive TV show could be banned indicated an increased trend toward state intervention in the media.

Leo Batubara from the Press Council said that the ministry's plan to register publishers would bypass the Press Council's authority. "If the government wants to list publishers, why not ask the press council board (to do it) instead?" he said.

The government's attitude toward the politically satirical TV show Republik BBM – or "Drunken Republic" – indicated a shift away from press freedom, Effendi said.

Effendi is a co-host of the outspoken show which airs on Indosiar at 10 p.m. every Monday.

"Although the Vice President (Jusuf Kalla) has denied (trying to) ban the show, the controversy over the possible banning of the program reminds us of the sensitivity of the government to critics," he said.

Kalla reportedly raised the show in a closed-door meeting on April 8 with the owners of seven private television stations.

Kalla also reportedly asked the owners to reduce the graphic or controversial content of their stations' shows, including programs containing violence, sexuality and supernatural stories.

The meeting between Kalla and the owners created fear among observers that the government might still want to control the press.

"The recent meeting has resulted in persistent rumors of the banning of the Republik BBM program," Effendi said.

"I expect the government to stop having such unscheduled meetings because they are likely to trouble the public." Effendi proposed that the government hold more frequent open meeting with the mass media, not only media owners. "The meetings must also include independent bodies," he said.

Environment

Government claims victory in war on logging

Jakarta Post - April 19, 2006

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The government claimed success Tuesday in its war on illegal logging, saying that a recent clampdown on the industry had cut national deforestation by up to 70 percent during the past year.

However, an environmentalist doubted the government's claims and said there was evidence illegal logging in many areas was continuing unchecked.

Forestry Ministry statistics show during the past 12 months, Indonesia lost an estimated 3 million cubic meters of timber from illegal logging, compared to about 10 million cubic meters annually the previous years.

Speaking at his official residence in Central Jakarta, Forestry Minister Malem Sambat Kaban said: "I believe we can end illegal logging this year."

Last year, the government, the National Police and the military launched a series of security operations, mostly targeting illegal loggers in Kalimantan and Papua. Officials arrested hundreds of perpetrators and confiscated more than 500,000 cubic meters of timber and many units of heavy machinery.

Kaban said one indication the war on illegal logging had been successful was the increasing number of timber processing companies going bankrupt because of a lack of wood.

"That is an unavoidable consequence because they were running their businesses without taking into account the amount of supply of legally sourced timber," he said. The country's total official timber production quota stood at only 8 million cubic meters in 2006 but milling capacity here is much more.

Environmentalists believe illegally cut timber fills in the huge gap between the legal national quota and demand, which they say stands at around 30 million cubic meters a year.

To revive the timber processing industry, the government plans to expand the existing 2.5 million hectares of industrial timber estates to 5 million hectares by 2009, providing an estimated capacity of 53 million cubic meters a year, Kaban said.

However, Yayat Afianto of environmental group Telapak doubted the minister's claims. He said Telapak's evidence showed timber smuggling from the country was still rampant and smugglers were finding new ways to evade the authorities.

"The fact that the world's timber industry still growing shows that it still has enough supply. And this supply is mostly covered by logs cut here illegally," Yayat said.

Telapak still received reports of massive timber smuggling operations from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua and there were many actions the government should take before claiming victory over illegal logging, he said.

"I praise the government's bold initiatives in fighting this crime. However, other problems should be settled first, such as empowering people living nearby the forests (so they don't cut down the trees to sell)."

NGOs call for logging moratorium

Jakarta Post - April 17, 2006

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – To curb the destruction of the remaining natural forests in Papua, a coalition of environmental groups has reiterated its call for the government to halt all logging activities in the resource-rich province.

"Unless such an initiative is taken, Papua and the rest of Indonesia are facing serious threats of ecological losses, which will lead to forest fires, massive floods, loss of biodiversity and accelerated climate change," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director Emmy Hafild.

The call was made Wednesday after Forest Watch Indonesia and Greenpeace completed their latest forest mapping of New Guinea island, the world's second largest island after Greenland. The mapping found much of the island's large intact forests had vanished due to logging activities.

New Guinea island consists of the two Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya, and the neighboring country Papua New Guinea, a former colony of Germany and the United Kingdom.

The mapping also showed the region's remaining pristine forests were facing threats of further destruction, as more than 25 percent of the more than 60 million hectares of forest on the island had been given away as concessions to scores of logging companies.

In the two Indonesian provinces on the island, the two groups found that 17.9 million hectares of a total 39.7 million hectares of forest were categorized as intact forests, housing abundant trees hundreds of years old and largely untouched by humans. However, these remaining forests could certainly be lost in the coming decades, as much of the area is crisscrossed by the 11.6 million hectares of logging concessions handed over by the Indonesian government to 62 timber companies.

"Of the over 11 million hectares given to logging companies, four million are in Papua's remaining intact forests," said Christian Poerba of Forest Watch Indonesia.

He said that in the next two to three decades, the remaining intact forests would be further degraded as logging concession periods spanned between 25 and 30 years.

Furthermore, there is no strict monitoring in place to ensure logging companies do not cut trees in areas outside their concessions, he said.

"A handful of companies have wiped out much of Indonesia's forests. They must be stopped from finishing off our last intact forests in Papua," said Emmy Hafild of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, a former chairwoman of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment.

She urged the government to save these forests by declaring a moratorium on logging operations while reviewing national and local forestry policies.

Environmentalists have dubbed New Guinea island "Paradise Forest", because it has tens of thousands of plant species and hundreds of mammals, of which only half have been identified.

Earlier this year, a group of researchers from Conservation International discovered a host of new plant and animal species near Foja mountain in Papua. The researchers described the area as "the closest place to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth".

However, Forestry Ministry spokesman Masyhud dismissed the call for a logging moratorium, saying the government had taken into account the conservation of Papua's pristine forests by allocating only production forests to be exploited by logging companies.

"We have protected Papua's intact forests by declaring them national parks and conservation sites, banning any exploitation. We will ensure that logging firms operate outside of these areas," he told The Jakarta Post.

Gender issues

Women's movement confronts challenge of religious right

Jakarta Post - April 22, 2006

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The landmark year 1998, with the bloody May riots, the mass rape of Chinese-Indonesian women and the fall of the Soeharto regime after 32 years of authoritarian rule, was a tumultuous turning point for social movements in the country.

Included among them were women's rights groups, with outrage at the rapes triggering a renewed sense of activism. Issues of violence against women and women's political rights came to the fore.

In hindsight, chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) Kamala Chandrakirana says many non-governmental organizations were thrust into a confusing state of unprecedented change after many years of repression.

"NGOs had been around for over two decades by then, but they were not used to organizing big scale activities. And then suddenly everyone could voice their rights independently. NGOs then had to redefine their identity," she said Wednesday.

The organizations also faced internal issues, she added, suddenly having to learn to be democratic within themselves.

Eight years on, Kamala said the women's movement was still dealing with confusion and "disorientation", like the rest of the country in the haphazard transition to democracy.

"Democratization is an ongoing affair. But I see a lot of improvement within women's activism, such as the accountability system has started to be established, and the issue of conflict of interest and ethics also have been addressed," she said.

"But it has to be appreciated that the movement has been vibrant and growing. There are multiple faces of the women's movement emerging, not just antiviolence and political rights. There is the whole new, young generation coming up. We have reason to be confident it is happening." Milestone have been achieved, she said, such as several laws, including one on domestic violence, supportive of women's rights.

However, Adriana Venny of Jurnal Perempuan (Women's Journal) said that despite the strong network of the women activists in the country, there was still much that needed to be done for women's equality.

"It's good that we have affirmative action as well as the law on domestic violence. But there are many things we don't have, such as laws on sexual harassment, witness protection and many others."

Activist and legislator Nursyahbani Katjasungkana of the Nation Awakening Party is concerned the women's movement is divided instead of integrated, and seems to be working from project to project instead of along a long-term, goal-oriented plan.

She also feared the struggle for women's political representation appeared to have fallen by the wayside after the 2004 general election.

"Yet the activists need to fight more for political rights, so that there many women in the legislative body who, of course, 'understand' women's rights. It's time for the women's movement to unite and find the 'common enemy'."

Many activists agree the clearest example of the latter is growing religious radicalization, which, as Kamala believes, wants to impose a monolithic idea of Indonesian women in society.

In recent months, there has been a concerted push for the passage of the pornography bill by religious hardliners, as well as the enactment of a number of bylaws that single out women for punishment, including on how they dress in public, interaction with the opposition sex, even to imposing limits on what time they can be in public places.

"The pornography bill is not about pornography at all, it attacks women's identity. This is such a big challenge. It is not only a problem for women, but through their (radical groups) efforts to control identity of women, they also redefine the nation. Yet we are a diverse nation," Kamala said.

In meeting the challenge, Venny said women's groups were divided on "sensitive" issues like pornography, abortion and lesbianism. "Whereas we have to be critical when we see the issue of morality," she said.

Kamala said women activists must make the country's diversity a focus of their stance in facing the challenge of the groups, and uphold the Constitution providing rights for all. "The battle is now in the regions where the bylaws emerged," she said.

Muslim scholar and women's movement observer Nazaruddin Umar said the activists must use the same language in taking on the hardline groups extolling persuasive moral arguments.

"They have to use religious language to show that every religion is in fact fair to women. Work together with the ulemas on this issue. The family planning program was a failure until it involved ulema in the campaign," said the professor of Islamic studies at the Islamic State University.

The State Ministry for Women's Empowerment also has to do more for women's rights, she added. "It is good that we have such a ministry, but so far, it doesn't function well. It has to improve its performance."

Women discriminated against in business

Jakarta Post - April 23, 2006

Jakarta – Dress smart if you want to convince the bank manager you deserve a loan. But for businesswomen, they should also bring their husbands along.

"Bank people tend to underestimate women. When I first tried to apply for a loan for my own business – not my husband's – the banker doubted my ability to do business.

Instead of explaining about the procedures and interest rates, the banker told me to bring my husband along so he could explain all that to him instead," the Indonesian Women's Business Association (IWAPI) chairperson Suryani Sidik Motik said, when sharing her not-so-emancipating experience.

In this era of reform, women have yet to feel free from discrimination. Sharia bylaws and the much-debated pornography bill aside, the banking sector also contributes to the dim outlook of gender equality in the country.

For women to succeed in business, they need at least three times the effort men make, Suryani said Thursday during the launching of a report Voices of Women in the Private Sector issued by the International Finance Corporation Program for Eastern Indonesia SME Assistance (IFC-PENSA) and IWAPI, in conjunction with Kartini day, on April 21.

An analyst for IFC-PENSA, Sandra Pranoto said that the report revealed that the culture in Indonesia was discriminative against women, resulting in a bias in education, law and policy, and business sectors.

She said that IFC-PENSA's preliminary study on women's access to bank loans for business carried out in a major bank, showed that only 11.5 percent of the bank's total credit for business was given to women, with the remaining 88.5 percent going to men.

"This low figure shows that there is a misperception about women entrepreneurs in the banking sector as women are actually better than men in paying back loans," Sandra said, adding the percentage of women paying back loans is 96.5 percent, higher than the 95.5 percent of men.

Suryani, who heads the 16,000-member association, of which 85 percent of the members are engaged in small and medium enterprises, said that empowering women in the economic sector would empower the nation.

Data from the State Ministry for Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises shows that of the 40 million SMEs in Indonesia, 60 percent are owned and managed by women.

"SMEs contribute a lot to the economy as they have the highest capacity to survive in a crisis," she said, adding that SMEs provide 99.7 percent of jobs in Indonesia.

Suryani, citing a study from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said that 51 percent of enterprises run by women experienced growth, compared to only 49 percent of enterprises run by men.

Suryani said that it was time for the government to pay more attention to women's contribution to the economy.

According to Suryani, empowering women economically would also reduce gender-related problems such as domestic abuse and even the rising number of malnourished children.

"Women, who are vulnerable to domestic abuse, are usually financially dependent on their husbands. If they were independent they could stand up for themselves. Meanwhile, for children's nutrition, we all know that mothers always put their children first, so a rise in women's economic strength could improve the quality of children's health and education," she said.

Assistant director of the economics department for the State Ministry for Women's Empowerment Sulikanti Agusni said that changing people's perception on women was imperative. "It has been imprinted in the back of people's minds that men comes first, while women come second," she said.

She said that once an executive of a major bank said that the bank's reason for not giving so many loans to women was to avoid the increasing number of divorces. "That just doesn't make sense," she said.

Suryani added that gender mainstreaming should be implemented in every governmental agency. "Officials in the State Ministry for Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises, for example, should know how to interpret gender mainstreaming into policy."

Sulikanti, citing research conducted by the World Bank, said that an increase of just 1 percent in the percentage of women with secondary education in Indonesia would increase Gross Domestic Production (GDP) by US$735 million. Having this in mind, educating more women would surely give better results in raising the country's economic growth, compared to the current national trend of telling women how to dress or keeping women off the streets at night.

Business & investment

Slow government spending threatens economy

Jakarta Post - April 21, 2006

Rendi Akhmad Witular and Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The Indonesian economy remains exposed to possible slower economic growth this year as government spending, which plays a key role in fueling the economy, continues to fall far behind schedule.

While the government has huge amounts of cash at its disposal, there have been virtually no major spending initiatives nor any concrete key economic policies this year that are capable of giving the economy the boost it needs.

Bureaucrats in the central and local administrations are primarily at fault for the sluggish spending, with most of the available money apparently invested in government bonds and the stock market for short-term gains before finally being put to work on tangible projects.

The Finance Ministry has reported that only around 5 percent of planned 2006 government spending actually took place during the first quarter.

According to this year's budget, government spending is set at Rp 647.7 trillion (US$71 billion), some Rp 48.1 trillion of which is allocated for the procurement of goods and services, Rp 45.02 trillion for capital spending and Rp 77.96 trillion for routine expenditure. Another Rp 220.1 trillion is allocated for the local government sector.

During the first quarter alone, the government had available cash amounting to around Rp 117.9 trillion, excluding carry-over funds from the 2005 budget, which amounted to Rp 15 trillion.

"The low level of spending is really disrupting economic activities here. It will definitely affect the government's economic growth target," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told The Jakarta Post recently.

Higher government spending is needed to offset a slowdown in the economy after the private sector found itself badly affected by last year's double fuel price hike, which triggered higher inflation and soaring interest rates.

Mulyani explained that among of the factors leading to low expenditure were the slow pace of bureaucratic reform and corruption in the public service.

While remaining optimistic that spending would accelerate soon, Mulyani failed to specify any concrete measures through which this would be brought about, especially given that the central government no longer has direct management control over local administrations.

In fact, it is difficult to see how spending will be higher in the coming months as most local administrations now prefer to invest their funds in high-yielding financial market instruments.

The ongoing campaign against corruption has also had the unexpected result of making officials nervous about spending state money on development projects, fearing that they could be accused of corruption if something went wrong.

"Unless the government really accelerates spending, there will be no improvement in the economy. We had hoped that the government could really play a greater role this year," said economist Fauzi Ichsan of Standard Chartered Bank in Indonesia.

Although he expressed optimism that the economy would grow at 5.5 percent this year – slower than Mulyani's forecast of 5.7 percent – Fauzi warned that first quarter growth would be less than expected at about 4.3 percent. If this comes to pass, it would be the lowest growth for the last seven quarters.

Bank Mandiri economist Martin Panggabean shared Fauzi's concern, saying that first quarter growth was likely to be in a range of between 4.5 percent and 4.75 percent due to the lack of investment.

"First quarter growth could have potentially reached 6.5 percent. But due to unrealized government spending, coupled with slowing activity in the real sector and declining consumer purchasing power, this figure will not be attained," said Martin.

He explained that the situation could become even worse in the next quarter given the fact that oil prices were likely to remain at above $70 per barrel, thus triggering higher global inflation and requiring the government to spend more on fuel subsidies.

Rising oil prices in the middle of last year caused a mini meltdown in the Indonesian economy, Southeast Asia's largest, after the government decided to contain runaway fuel subsidy spending by raising prices.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its 2006 growth forecast for Indonesia from 5 to 5.8 percent, with rising Japanese consumer spending and faster-than-expected expansions in China and India being the main driving factors.

However, the Fund warned that threats to Asian economic growth included avian influenza, rising oil prices and a possible increase in trade protectionism in developed countries.

Breakdown of 2006 government spending

• Wages and benefit spending on Rp 77.95 trillion state employees and pensioners
• Procurement spending Rp 48.09 trillion
• Capital spending Rp 45.02 trillion
• Interest and debt servicing Rp 76.62 trillion
• Subsidies Rp 79.5 trillion
• Social spending Rp 27.31 trillion
• Miscellaneous spending Rp 36.55 trillion
• Contingency spending Rp 36.55 trillion
• Local government spending Rp 220.1 trillion

Total Rp 647.7 trillion

Source: Finance Ministry

2005 last-quarter confidence down: Survey

Jakarta Post - April 18, 2006

The steep fuel price hike during the last quarter of 2005 severely dented consumer confidence, with 40 percent of Indonesians surveyed back then saying that they were worse off than a year ago.

The results of the survey, conducted by PT Roy Morgan Research, were released over the weekend.

The number of respondents saying they were worse off was 14 percentage points higher than the previous quarter, the Australian-based research firm said, with the number saying they were better off dropping by 6 percentage points to 20 percent.

During 2005's final quarter, 76 percent of Indonesians said that it was a bad time to buy major household items, with only 18 percent saying otherwise. The survey also found the 39 percent of respondents expected the poor economic conditions to continue this year. However, 40 percent said they expected to be better off financially this year, while 15 percent said they expected to be worse off.

Despite all the gloom, Indonesians were still relatively positive about the long term, with 79 percent expecting better economic conditions over the next five years.

Overall, the research firms's Indonesian Consumer Confidence rating fell 14 points to 105.2 from 119.2 in the third quarter.

"Any rating over 100 is still in positive territory. As such, the petrol price hike took a heavy toll but did not erase confidence altogether," said Debnath Guharoy in a press release announcing the results of the survey.

Roy Morgan interviews some 6,000 respondents aged 14 and upwards in 16 provinces for its quarterly surveys. The 2005 final quarter survey was based on interviews with a total of 6,244 respondents.

Opinion & analysis

Indonesia's rift with Australia

Sydney Morning Herald Editorial - April 21, 2006

If there was one thing John Howard wanted as Prime Minister it was to differentiate himself from his Labor predecessor, Paul Keating. Ten years later, Mr Howard finds himself accused of kowtowing to Indonesia over Papua. The Prime Minister is lampooned in political cartoons in much the same way as Mr Keating, who was portrayed as a small, compliant figure at the feet of the former dictator, Soeharto.

It is not what Mr Howard, or Australia, was expecting from the young Indonesian democracy or its first popularly elected President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Mr Howard has made much of his firm affection for Dr Yudhoyono, and with good reason. Dr Yudhoyono's pro-Western views and reform campaign distinguish him as our most likely good neighbour to date. His election was the best news for the volatile Indonesian-Australian relationship since the fall of the authoritarian Soeharto regime in 1998.

Yet when the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Michael L'Estrange, sits down in Jakarta today to try to ease tensions over Papua, the atmosphere will be decidedly chilly. And Dr Yudhoyono will certainly not be glad-handing the Australian visitor.

Australia has again ended up at Indonesia's feet partly because the Howard Government, and much of the Australian pubic, misjudged Indonesian fervour over Papua. But it is also realpolitik; no matter who is in power in Jakarta, Australia's trade routes run through Indonesian waters, our border protection depends on Indonesian co-operation and our regional counter- terrorism strategy relies heavily on the capacity, and willingness, of Indonesia's security forces to break local terrorist cells and its courts to prosecute.

At the same time, it is reasonable to expect meaningful change in Papua; when Dr Yudhoyono came to power he pushed the grinding misery of separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua to the top of his agenda. Aceh has since won autonomy and demilitarisation.

But Aceh did not win independence and this is also where the line is drawn for Papua. Australia's perceived undermining of Indonesian sovereignty in Papua – by granting protection visas to 42 Papuans, including independence campaigners – has united Indonesia's political factions. Any personal rapport with Mr Howard aside, rising nationalist sentiment means the Indonesian President has no choice but to stand alongside Australia's most vocal critics.

Contrary to the simplistic view held by many Australians, Papua is not the next East Timor; it is far more complicated. East Timor was of relatively minor economic interest to Jakarta; Papua's Freeport gold and copper mine alone has pumped $US33 billion into the Indonesian economy since 1992, almost 2 per cent of gross domestic product. And Papua is no fledgling nation-in- waiting. While its indigenous Melanesian Christians have no cultural or ethnic affiliation with Indonesia's majority Malay Muslims, they are, themselves, deeply fractured along tribal lines.

The biggest losers in the bilateral row are the long-suffering Papuan people.

While Australia is demonised, the real problem – decades of Indonesian military abuse and the grossly unfair distribution of Papua's natural wealth – can be ignored. Papua's best hope still lies in re-engaging Dr Yudhoyono and his promise of meaningful autonomy, within the Indonesian nation. That is a cause Australia can usefully champion.

Australia's Papua stance not helping Indonesian democrats

Melbourne Age - April 20, 2006

Kenneth Davidson – The Government is playing with the lives of West Papuans. Australia's foreign policy establishment seems incapable of learning from recent history. Australia is following the old East Timor policy of appeasement on West Papua.

It will fail too because opinion in Australia (and elsewhere) will become sickened by the increasingly repressive Indonesian state terrorism that will be required to destroy the movement for self-determination.

This policy is not doing the democratically elected Government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono any favours in promising to co-operate with the Indonesian military (TNI) to make it difficult for refugees to escape from rights abuses in West Papua.

By adopting the Pacific Solution instead of taking refugees directly into Australia, the prospect is that the problem of asylum will be internationalised. When the next boatload of West Papuan refugees is turned back with the assistance of the Australian navy, or is diverted to one of Australia's client states, and the refugee status of the boat people has to be assessed by the UNHCR or the Red Cross and other countries are asked to provide asylum because of Australia's meanness, the international hubbub is unlikely to be to the advantage of either Australia or Indonesia.

Since coming to office in 2004, Yudhoyono has been trying to shift power from the TNI and bring it under civilian control. The Pacific Solution will shore up the TNI and weaken his authority.

The TNI receives only 30 per cent of its budget from the central government. The balance comes from a mixture of legal and illegal businesses, including logging and protection rackets.

In East Timor, TNI's main source of income was from coffee, sandalwood and marble and in West Papua it is from illegal logging, smuggling rare fauna and the massive gold and copper Freeport mine.

The best chance the Indonesian Government has to stop the flow of refugees and contain the pressure for Papuan independence is to stop the transmigration program, demilitarise the province and offer West Papua genuine autonomy.

According to Dr Clinton Fernandes, senior lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, there is still a chance that West Papuans may be willing to settle for autonomy. He points out that the Papuan catchcry "Merdeka" can still be understood as "a moral crusade for peace and social justice on earth", not necessarily as a rallying cry for independence.

He points out that the military commander who was in charge of West Papua, Mahidin Simbolon, served six tours of duty in East Timor and was a key actor in the Indonesian military campaign of state-sponsored terror against the East Timorese.

"In 2001, Simbolon was promoted to major-general and given command of West Papua. The same militia tactics from East Timor began to be employed there soon afterwards," Fernandes says.

The US non-government organisation Global Witness's 2005 report, Paying for protection: the Freeport mine and the Indonesian security services, which examines who was responsible for the murder of three teachers (two American and one Indonesian) employed by the mine in an ambush in August 2002, singles out Simbolon for special mention as he was being paid directly by Freeport, Rather than through the Government or military.

The murders were investigated by the Indonesian police, led by I. Made Pastika, who investigated the Bali terrorist bombings in October 2002. His leaked preliminary report, in the records of the US Congress, concluded "there is a strong possibility that the(ambush) was perpetrated by the members of the TNI". Statements to the investigation claimed the soldiers had carried out the ambush to extort more from Freeport.

An FBI investigation of the murders also initially pointed towards the Indonesian military as prime suspects, based in part on evidence by witnesses organised by the Indonesian human rights group Elsham.

According to an Indonesian human rights blog (Paras Indonesia) on January 10 and 11, 2006, there were two meetings in Timika between two FBI agents and witnesses who were promised that those accused by the TNI would get a fair hearing in the US.

Instead, the delegation was arrested by a police taskforce minutes after the FBI officials left the meeting. The blog details the names of the FBI agents and details of those detained, including two boys who would have been 11 and 12 at the time of the ambush.

The Global Witness report points out that Simbolon was the military commander of East Timor when torture by soldiers was prevalent and was known to have been chief of staff of the regional military command, whose troops committed crimes against humanity in East Timor.

According to Fernandes, an Australian intelligence officer leading up to East Timor's liberation, TNI is still coming to terms with its loss of power in a democratising Indonesia.

An Australian government, concerned about the country's long-term interest in the region, would be backing those democratising forces to help create the space in which Yudhoyono can win against the thugs in TNI who were responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor and who are repeating the exercise in West Papua.

[Kenneth Davidson is a senior columnist.]

Editorial: Cool heads needed

The Australian - April 19, 2006

Australia's relations with Indonesia are at their lowest ebb since East Timor. The granting of temporary protection visas to 42 asylum seekers from Papua has outraged the central government in Jakarta, which fears that this is the first step towards an Australian-led push for independence for the restive province.

Despite the assurances of the Howard Government, which radically re-wrote Australian refugee policy in an attempt to assuage Jakarta's concerns, on Monday Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered a blistering speech criticising Australia's actions.

Dr Yudhoyono demanded "concrete proof" that Australia respects Indonesia's territorial integrity, saying, "Don't insult us, don't toy with us and don't deny us justice". He also said it was impossible to both respect Indonesian sovereignty while at the same time granting asylum to Papuan independence seekers. Certainly a fair bit of Dr Yudhoyono's rhetoric is designed for domestic consumption, but the temperature of the invective is disturbing.

John Howard, for his part, has done his best to calm Jakarta's fears while defending the Immigration Department's granting of visas to the Papuans.

Yesterday, Mr Howard categorically ruled out an apology to Indonesia, saying that while he respects Jakarta's sensitivity on this matter, Jakarta must meanwhile respect Australia's own domestic processes and not expect them to change to suit foreign interests.

This is exactly right. Unfortunately, the Howard Government's attempt to calm Indonesian fears regarding future Papuan refugees by radically rewriting our commitment to the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention makes it that much harder to dissuade Jakarta of their ability to drive policy in Canberra.

Contrary to Dr Yudhoyono's assertions, there is no reason that the Australian Government cannot both support Indonesian territorial sovereignty while at the same time weighing the claims of Papuan asylum seekers on their individual merits. Australia accepts refugees and asylum seekers from around the world – some 13,178 such humanitarian visas were allocated in 2004-05 – and decides applicants' fate using established criteria. But accepting a refugee from a separatist region in another country does not mean the Government supports that refugee's dreams for his homeland.

Time and again, Canberra has asserted its support for Indonesian unity and democracy and a belief that Papuan independence would be the worst outcome for all concerned. As Paul Kelly points out on the opposite page, it is in Australia's interest to keep Indonesia together, especially in an age of international terrorism. And there is no way that granting asylum to 42 refugees could be construed as an attempt to pull the archipelago apart.

The ball is clearly in Indonesia's court right now. The air is already thick with words like "appeasement" and "kowtowing", and any further concessions by Mr Howard would bring back bad memories of Paul Keating's uncomfortably cozy relationship with Suharto.

In fact, the best way for Jakarta to eliminate the Papuan refugee problem would be to improve conditions in their eastern-most province. Jakarta could go a long way towards ameliorating many of the Papuans' grievances. Curtailing their transmigration program, which imports huge numbers of Javanese Muslims into a region that is Melanesian and Christian, as well as giving locals a bigger share of the proceeds from Papua's massive Freeport copper and gold mine, would be a good start.

So, too, would be repairing the failed 2001 autonomy program for Papua; here the example of Aceh, where a separatist movement was quelled by such a deal after the Boxing Day tsunami, provides a good roadmap. These are the messages top diplomat Michael L'Estrange must carry to Indonesia's Foreign Minister on Friday. In the meantime, having proved his nationalist bona fides at home, it is up to Dr Yudhoyono to improve his diplomacy overseas.

The politics of power

Jakarta Post Editorial - April 19, 2006

Were it not for the corruption-infested public procurement system and the potential conflicts of interest of several members of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Cabinet, the proposed crash program to build several coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 10,000 megawatts within the next three years would not have set off such a heated controversy.

The country urgently needs to expand its power generation capacity to prevent an electricity crisis within two to three years. It is also urgent to minimize state power firm PLN's dependence on oil-based generation, which now is estimated at between 30 and 35 percent of its total capacity, to control the electricity subsidy and keep the fiscal deficit at a manageable level.

Since most analysts have predicted the era of cheap oil will never return, it is economically imperative to diversify power generation into coal and natural gas-based plants whose costs are three to four times cheaper than diesel oil, which by itself will be responsible for the almost US$3 billion power subsidy the government has to bear this year.

Certainly, a crash program requires a much faster implementation process, even the possibility of directly awarding power projects to bona fide contractors, to meet the demands of an emergency situation.

However, the government's plan to "expedite" the tendering of the projects and the fact that the crash program was allegedly derived from a proposal by Vice President Jusuf Kalla's younger brother Achmad Kalla, the chairman of the Bukaka engineering company, has caused great concern about the possible abuse of inside information, conflicts of interest, collusion and corruption.

Moreover, if the idea of the crash program truly came out of Kalla's private talks with his younger brother, that would appear strange because the national electricity blueprint was just revised last year as part of infrastructure policy reforms.

Concerns about excesses in the tendering of projects under this type of crash program are reasonable.

Even the standard government procurement system, which is quite elaborate and designed with comprehensive built-in anticorruption mechanisms, has always been the biggest source of corruption and inefficiency within public sector spending. The system is prone to corruption and collusion, lacks transparency and fails to achieve its objective of procuring goods and services with maximum economic efficiency through fair competition and equitable treatment of all suppliers, contractors and consulting companies.

Most of the irregularities discovered by the Supreme Audit Agency during its annual audits of the state budget implementation are related to procurements. Most foreign creditors, notably the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have frequently expressed concern about malfeasance within the public procurement process.

In late 2002, for example, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank abruptly stopped loan disbursements for projects in South Sulawesi and North Sumatra, on the suspicion of conspiracy among bidders and collusion between bidders and officials in the tendering of the projects.

The risk of blatant collusion and questionable practices would be even greater under the proposed "expedited" tendering process from the usual one year to three months, because there are only a small number of local contractors qualified to build major power plants. What makes the public more apprehensive is the fact that the families of senior politicians and some Cabinet members, including Jusuf Kalla and Aburizal Bakrie, the coordinating minister for the people's welfare, control the largest of the big contractors.

Strong noneconomic influence (political lobbying and collusion) over public procurements has often substantially raised the costs of public projects and services, thereby imposing punitively high taxes on the intended beneficiaries of government investments – the poor and the vulnerable groups who can least afford them.

As long as these potential conflicts of interest among Cabinet members are not dealt with under a credible system of checks-and-balances and the government procurement system remains notoriously corrupt, the tendering of major projects will unnecessarily cause controversy. And national contractors, many of which have connections to senior officials, will always be under suspicion of collusion and the abuse of inside information.

The government therefore should execute the long-delayed plan to set up an independent national public procurement office to reform the procurement system.

The economic and social benefits of a credible procurement system would be huge, given the tens of billions of dollars worth of goods and services are purchased by the government and state companies every year.

Pacific gulag for Papuans

Sydney Morning Herald Editorial - April 17, 2006

When is Australia not Australia? When Papuans want to land on it. The Howard Government is planning yet another contortion of the immigration laws and refugee treaties.

It's no longer enough to excise outlying islands and reefs from Australia, now we must excise Australia from Australia. Any asylum seekers who land anywhere in Australia will be treated as outside Australia's migration zone and put behind barbed wire, probably on the baking, mineral-stripped plateau of Nauru, now too destitute to afford even a telephone service.

And all this to save Australia the embarrassment of embarrassing the Indonesians. The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, makes it clear this exercise in nastiness is to prevent future asylum seekers from Papua using Australia as a "staging point of protest". That is, to prevent them putting their case to any audience other than immigration officers assessing their application.

Senator Vanstone also seems to think there's something wrong and suspect about Australia becoming a country of first asylum. That's for countries a long way from Australia, she implies. However, Australia's territory is a relatively easy canoe journey across waters that have been traversed by local peoples for centuries, and, moreover, in Papua there are widespread and continuing human rights abuses, as well as a strong separatist cause. If more seek to follow the 43 who landed on Cape York in January – 42 have so far been assessed as having well-founded fears of persecution if they return – it will be because of the actions of Indonesian authorities in Papua.

Senator Vanstone also tries to convince us the "Pacific solution" provides a quicker, more fair hearing of asylum claims. People with a "legitimate" claim would find it easier to win an Australian protection visa because the process is shorter offshore, she says. This is disingenuous: it's shorter because asylum-seekers outside Australia's jurisdiction are denied the appeals available inside the country. Claims are not always immediately clear, and interviews are subjective. By removing reviews and appeals, the Government seriously weakens our adherence to treaty obligations to assess asylum claims thoroughly, as well as making harsh confinement and isolation the first experience of our system.

At least the Government seems to have dropped its earlier notion of asking the Indonesians what they think, and identifying applicants to them. But it still plans joint patrols in the Torres Strait to head off further arrivals.

What will be the rules of engagement for our armed forces and civilian agencies? If boatloads of people are turned back, or into the custody of Indonesian authorities, what will happen to them?

The original "Pacific solution" may have helped police forces stop people-smuggling but it also caused a lot of suffering and trauma. Most of those shipped off to Nauru and Manus Island were eventually assessed to be refugees. Australia was soon at war with two of the regimes involved, and may yet go along with a war against the third. The policy's revival looks even more dodgy and repugnant, and the Government deserves its excoriation by church and legal figures. It should be dropped.