| Indonesia News Digest Number 46 - November 25-December 1, 2002 |
| Labour issues |
Jakarta Post - November 26, 2002
Jakarta -- A labor activist vowed on Monday to continue the struggle for the rights of former Shangri-La hotel employees by regularly staging demonstrations at the hotel until the case was settled.
"We will not retreat back because we feel that we are not guilty," Odie Hudiyanto, secretary of the Independent Labor Union Federation (FSPM), told The Jakarta Post.
Underlining that the former hotel workers always staged peaceful rallies, he denied a statement made by the hotel management that the protests were disrupting public order. "We've never committed any vandalism, either," he said.
The dispute started in December 2000, when hundreds of hotel employees went on strike to demand better conditions, and were subsequently dismissed by management.
After a long process, most of them accepted their dismissals based upon the compensation package offered by management. But the remaining ex employees brought the case to court, demanding that the hotel reemploy them. The case is now before the Supreme Court.
| Students/youth |
Jakarta Post - November 28, 2002
Jakarta -- Due to personal commitments, a South Jakarta District Court judge postponed on Wednesday for the second time the hearing into a criminal case involving a student accused of insulting President Megawati Soekarnoputri.
Judge T.H. Tampubolon left the court without giving prior notice to waiting defendant Kiastomo, prosecutor Adnan and court clerk Marsunu. On Monday, the judge also postponed the hearing because he had to attend a funeral.
Wednesday's session was supposed to hear the judge's decision into whether or not the court would continue the trial, which is the second under Megawati's administration. The case revolves around the burning of a paper-and-bamboo puppet which was fashioned as an image of Megawati.
According to Kiastomo's lawyer, Nila, the act was held on July 26 inside the compound of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences in South Jakarta, as part of a performance designed to lighten a student gathering on evaluating the government.
Kiastomo is accused of igniting the fire and therefore the offense, under Article 134 of the Criminal Code, of insulting the president. The article carries a maximum penalty of six years' imprisonment.
| Aceh/West Papua |
Foreign Policy in Focus - November 27, 2002
Anthony L. Smith -- Two Americans and one Indonesian were killed on August 31 at the hands of an unknown assailant near the Freeport mining operation in Timika, Papua.
Initially the Indonesian army blamed a radical wing of the Free Papua Movement. However, according to a report by FBI officers investigating the case, the army fabricated evidence. Also, the Indonesian police have stated that they believe soldiers were very likely involved in this attack.
This incident has occurred against a backdrop that raises serious questions about the nature of Indonesia's rule over the province, and the role of the military in particular, since Indonesia took effective control in 1962.
Papua, until recently known as Irian Jaya, constitutes more than 20% of the Indonesian landmass, but has a relatively small population of just over two million (about one percent of Indonesia's population), with about 65% of that population being ethnic Papuan. Papua is, however, extremely diverse, with an estimated 250 to 300 tribal groupings and languages. Most of these tribal groupings had no contact with the outside world until the 1960s.
Papuans oppose merger
Papua's merger with Indonesia has not always been a happy one. It is commonplace in Papua itself to argue that the Indonesian government has exercised colonialism over Papua in a more heavy- handed way than the previous Dutch imperial administration. Indonesia's founding president, Sukarno, made it a point of national pride that Papua rightfully belonged to the Republic of Indonesia, based on historical claims.
This annexation was made formal by a 1969 plebiscite, in which approximately 1,000 carefully selected Papuan leaders unanimously opted for integration with Indonesia. The United Nations simply "noted" the plebiscite has having occurred, but it never actually endorsed its outcome. At the time, UN officials, diplomats, and journalists observed that many, probably most, Papuans were unhappy with the merger.
Papuan resistance to the merger was ruthlessly and indiscriminately suppressed by the Indonesian military, including counterattacks in which many noncombatants were the victims. Large numbers of refugees, escaping the violence, have periodically crossed the border with Papua New Guinea.
The discovery of Papua's immense mineral wealth -- including oil, gas, gold, and copper -- has seriously aggravated the preexisting tensions. In the case of the Freeport investment, the Damal and Amungme people were displaced without compensation for their land -- their occupancy was not recognized as ownership. The Freeport mining operation has grown from 10,000 hectares of land in 1972 to 2.6 million hectares today.
Very little of the returns from this type of investment have remained in Papua itself. Despite the fact that Papua has consistently registered the highest provincial GNP in Indonesia due to its vast mineral wealth, the people of Papua have remained Indonesia's poorest.
Autonomy a step forward
Indonesia's democratization in the aftermath of Soeharto's resignation in May 1998 created new opportunities for Papua. Members of the ethnic Papuan elite founded a new independence movement and mounted a challenge to the legal process by which Papua came to be included in Indonesia.
Papuan demands, while falling short of gaining independence, did result in a very generous regional autonomy package that will allow Papua to retain 80% of oil and gas revenues, and high proportions of other types of revenue generation. The autonomy deal also gives privileges to ethnic Papuans, giving them advantages in employment and reserving high-level administrative positions for indigenes.
Multinational corporations have been forced to adapt to the new reality by plowing assistance back into local communities, as they can no longer rely on Jakarta's rule to guarantee their concessions.
Human rights abuses still rampant
In one crucial respect, however, little has changed in Papua. The human rights problem, and the general lack of due process of law remain nightmarish issues for the province.
After a period of brief political openness in the late 1990s, the military and police moved to violently suppress independence sentiment. For example, on 6 October 2000, a number of demonstrators were killed at Wamena by the police simply for attempting to raise the independence flag (the Bintang Kejora).
Routine human rights violations by the security forces have been noted by local and international NGOs and the Indonesian government's own official human rights body, and regularly feature in the US State Department's annual human rights' reports for Indonesia.
In recent times several independence leaders have died under highly suspicious circumstances. An investigation by the Indonesian government concluded that the murder of independence leader Theys Eluay late last year involved members of Indonesia's Special Forces. The security forces stationed in Papua have shown a tendency to act as judge, jury, and executioner in many cases.
The recent deaths at Timika raise further questions about the role of the military; in particular the bogus evidence they produced to blame separatists for the deaths, which largely rested on presenting the dead body of the supposed assailant, which Indonesian police have now concluded could not possibly have been the suspect. The dead "suspect," produced by the army, was shown by the police to have been killed hours prior to the attack. FBI officers, however, said that evidence was both removed and planted around the crime scene.
What was the military trying to achieve with all of this? A chorus of voices in Papua have been quick to blame the military itself for the deaths, largely based on the pattern of atrocities in the past, although the truth behind this event may never be fully known.
Despite the great gains that Indonesia's new devolution of power has delivered to the Papuans, human rights have barely improved since authoritarian times. The lesson that the Indonesian military appears unwilling to learn is that this ongoing violence helps reinforce an increasingly robust independence sentiment.
[Anthony L. Smith is a senior research fellow at the Asia- Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu and writes for Foreign Policy In Focus on regional issues. The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author.]
Radio Australia - November 27, 2002
[For several decades there have been allegations that a referendum held by the United Nations on the handover of Papua from Dutch to Indonesian control in 1969 was not free and fair. The small group of Papuans who were allowed to vote on their country's future in that poll, have since claimed they were intimidated into voting in favour of an Indonesian takeover. And now new evidence has emerged about UN misconduct in the organisation of the poll.]
Transcript:
Fitzgerald: John Saltford the author of "The Anatomy of Betrayal" claims he has found new evidence that the United Nations strayed from its responsibilities in organising the Papua referendum in 1969.
He says he has data to show the UN breached an international agreement it brokered on how Papua's future status would be determined.
For example, obligations under the so-called New York agreement required that all Papuans over the age of 18 should be allowed to vote on their territory's future. But, in fact only just over 1,000 handpicked Papuans were in the end permitted to vote.
Saltford: "Now when the vote took place and when the Secretary General made his report, he said an act of free choice has taken place, or an act of self-determination has taken place in accordance with Indonesian practice. And then they changed this word international, to Indonesian with no explanation, just let it go through. I mean that's deceit.
"Another article, Article 16, a number of UN experts were supposed to remain in the territory following the transfer of administrative responsibility to Indonesia in 1963.
"This was after the UN left and the task of these UN experts was to advise and assist the Indonesians in their preparations for Papuan self-determination.
"Now in fact the Indonesians weren't very keen on these UN experts coming in and the UN didn't bother pressing it and so none of these UN experts were there.
"So for a whole five or six years before a UN team arrived the act of self-determination, none of these experts had been on the ground."
Fitzgerald: Dr Saltford says the UN abandoned its impartiality in conducting the poll and says senior UN officials actually lied to the UN General Assembly about opposition to any Indonesian takeover.
Saltford: "I mean there's evidence from Australian and UN documents as early as 1963 that certainly Indonesia and the UN and the Dutch privately thought well we could have an act of self-determination involving just eight or 900 representatives with no need for a proper referendum of plebiscite.
"So the UN knew this years ago and yet in '68-69 they were claiming otherwise.
"Another example would be in the Secretary General's actual official report to the UN General Assembly, this is the official record of the whole procedure, he said that there had been petitions on pro and against the Indonesian position in West Papua and he said that the majority of these had been in favour of Indonesia, they seemed pro-Indonesian.
"Now I actually went to the UN archives, I requested a lot of information be declassified and I'm very grateful that they did do that. But having looked at the list, there's a basic list of these petitions and a synopsis of each one, it's just not true, the majority were in favour of genuine self-determination.
"So it's just another example of how the UN were happy to collude."
Fitzgerald: Is there anything really new in these findings though? I mean it's been alleged for some time that the act of free choice vote, which was held back in the '60s that passed Papua over to Indonesia wasn't free and fair. What's really new about your findings?
Saltford: "What I hope I found is by looking at UN documents, by going to New York looking at those, they were declassified as I say at my request ... Looking at Australian documents in Canberra, British documents here in London and for American documents and talking to people what I hope I found is actually putting the evidence to show that the UN collaborated with Indonesia.
"The UN was prepared to turn a blind eye, the UN was prepared to do all it could really to see that the whole process would go through and that meant denying the Papuans their right to self- determination, which was actually guaranteed in a UN brokered agreement, this New York agreement."
Fitzgerald: Doctor Saltford believes the UN is no longer the same body it was back in 1969. He says new members like Vanuatu have joined up, countries who are more interested in the fate of indigenous peoples like the Papuans. But, he says some UN officials directly involved in the Papuan handover still hold senior positions within the UN bureaucracy.
Jakarta Post - November 28, 2002
Nethy Dharma Somba and Fabiola Desy Undjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta -- Police in Manokwari, Papua, arrested on Wednesday 13 people who raised the Morning Star flag to mark the fifth anniversary of Papuan independence.
Also on Wednesday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree banning of all ceremonies celebrating Papuan independence.
The spokesman for the Papua Police, Sr. Comr. Josef Iswanto, confirmed here on Wednesday the 13 people were detained after they raised the Papuan flag in the yard of the YPK Kanindi elementary school in the town of Manokwari.
The police do not know if those arrested belong to any political or social groups. The Papua Presidium Council (PDP) said earlier it would hold a flag-raising ceremony on December 1 at the former residence of PDP chairman Dortheys "Theys" Hiyo Eluay, who was allegedly killed by soldiers on November 10, 2001, in Sentani, some 40 kilometers north of Jayapura.
Antara news agency reported from Manokwari the police has arrested some 40 people in the regency, including the 13 involved in the flag-raising ceremony.
PDP secretary-general Thaha Al Hamid said he received information that followers of separatist leader Michael Kareth would celebrate Papuan independence in Manokwari on November 27, because according to them Papuan independence was declared in Sweden on November 27, 1997. He added that the PDP was not responsible for any independence celebrations other than the one to be held in Sentani.
Ade Heatubun, deputy chairman of the Manokwari legislative council, said that according to information he received a few days ago, the 13 detained Papuans belonged to Kareth's group.
Also on Wednesday, Megawati called on the authorities in Papua to take strict action against those celebrating Papuan independence. She did not specifically refer to the planned celebration at the late Theys' residence in Sentani.
"No activities are allowed to commemorate the self-proclaimed Papuan independence on December 1. The government will take stern measures to disperse any such activities," Megawati said as quoted by Indonesian Evangelist Association chairman Rev. Bambang Widjaja.
Bambang said that during the meeting the President asked him to help deliver the message to Christian adherents in Papua. "Churches were asked to circulate news of the ban as part of our commitment to supporting the country's territorial integrity," Bambang said.
December is always a crucial month for the security authorities in Aceh and Papua, two provinces that celebrate their own independence anniversaries. PDP and Free Papua plan to celebrate the 41st anniversary of Papuan independence on December 1, while the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will celebrate the 26th anniversary of Aceh independence on December 4.
The police warned Papuans against raising separatist flags, which deny Jakarta's control over the territory. "It has been regulated that the raising of the separatist Bintang Kejora flag is totally prohibited," said Indonesian Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Basyir Barmawi. According to Basyir, the Indonesian Police would not tolerate any parties who ignored the warning.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said foreign intervention was hampering TNI's efforts to maintain Papua as an Indonesian province.
In an hearing with House of Representative Commission I for security and foreign affairs, Endriartono said a number of foreign countries with interests in Papua were harming the security situation in the country's eastern-most province.
"I am not optimistic we can solve the separatist problems in Papua ... because the province has more potential [than Aceh to become independent] because it has the support of many foreign countries," Endriartono said without elaborating.
The TNI's chief of general affairs, Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago, said the separatist movement in Papua used diplomacy to seek international support for the province's independence, leaving the military at a loss as to how to deal with the problem.
"We can only deal with armed struggles like in Aceh ... we are not allowed to deal at a political level ... that's the difference between the separatist movements in Papua and Aceh," Djamari said.
Separatist movements in both Papua and Aceh, two resource-rich provinces, gathered pace after the government proved itself unable to improve the welfare of the people in the provinces or to bring justice those guilty of human rights abuses in the areas.
The situation in the provinces is still tense even though the government has offered them special authority to handle their own affairs under special autonomy schemes.
Jakarta Post - November 28, 2002
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto welcomed on Wednesday the planned Tokyo meeting on Aceh, but warned that any foreign assistance for Aceh should have no conditions attached.
Speaking in a hearing with House of Representatives Commission I for political, security and foreign affairs, Endriartono said that the security of the Acehnese people could not be regarded as a bargaining chip.
At least 23 foreign countries have confirmed their participation in a meeting in Tokyo on December 3, barely one week before the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government are due to sign a peace deal on December 9, 2002.
The meeting, organized by Japan and the US, as well as the World Bank, is designed to discuss possible financial assistance for rehabilitation and reconstruction in the troubled province.
"I welcome the planned meeting on Aceh and consider it as part of foreign concern regarding serious issues in the province. However, should the meeting come to a conclusion that would produce no benefit to this country, such as asking the military to withdraw from the territory, we would have to reconsider the meeting." He did not elaborate.
Following the downfall of former president Soeharto in 1999, the government changed its policy on Aceh from a military approach to one of diplomacy. The peace approach, however, has been in contrast to the presence, currently, of more than 21,000 military reinforcement personnel in the troubled province.
TNI's leadership also revived the Iskandar Muda Military Command in February, a move that many observers and human rights activists feared would only worsen the situation there.
In 2000, Swiss-based, non-governmental organization Henry Dunant Center (HDC) started facilitating peace talks between the Indonesian government and GAM in order to seek a peaceful solution to the Aceh question.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, meanwhile, asserted that post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation in the province would be carried out simultaneously with the operation to manage and stop armed conflict there over the following six months.
The military also vowed to continue its siege of a GAM stronghold in Cot Trieng, North Aceh, until the rebels agreed to sign a government-prepared peace pact.
"Thus far, we have tolerated a series of delays to the peace agreement between the government and GAM as we believe that a peaceful solution is the best way forward for all of us. However, if GAM tries to manipulate us [Indonesia], and that series of delays is one of its efforts to buy time, I think we will have to explore other solutions to stop the Acehnese from suffering," Endriartono said, without elaborating.
Reuters - November 27, 2002
Banda Aceh -- A lawyer of two foreign women on trial for visa violations in Indonesia's restive Aceh province said on Wednesday their clients have to face long trials and the prosecution was moving too slowly.
In a message to a correspondent sent after the judge announced the women's trial would be adjourned until December 19, Briton Lesley McCulloch said she was very stressed and fellow defendant American Joy Lee Sadler was on a hunger strike. But one of their lawyers said he could not confirm if Sadler was on hunger strike.
"[Sadler] said she might take such actions but I don't know whether she has started or not. So, I can't confirm that yet," lawyer Johnson Pandjaitan told Reuters.
The trial of McCulloch, who lectures at the University of Tasmania in Australia, and Sadler, who has nursing experience with refugees in conflict zones, began on Monday and several witnesses testified on Wednesday. Both women have denied wrongdoing and have said they were maltreated when they were arrested and during their detention -- accusations authorities have rejected.
The judge said the next session would not be until December 19 because of the holiday surrounding the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr, which falls on December 6.
Pandjaitan said the trial could go faster if the prosecution had been ready to demand sentences for McCulloch and Sadler this week.
"Yes, there is the cultural factor that everything seems to halt in Aceh the three weeks surrounding Eid Al Fitr," but he said among the biggest factors was "the lack of seriousness from the prosecutors". "My clients' rights for a quick trial have been obstructed," he said.
On Wednesday, Sadler told the court she hoped the trials could be fast so she could return to her home in Waterloo, Iowa, for Christmas. Sadler wept at times during the session.
Witnesses told the court the two women entered Aceh as tourists but some said they should not have gone to the southern Aceh village where Indonesian troops picked them up in a security sweep on September 11.
"Pulau Banyak was a tourist destination but Mangamat village was not," tourism official Hamidy testified, referring to the island where the women said they were supposed to go and the hamlet where they were captured.
Police have said the women were carrying materials on the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) suggesting they were associating with the separatist rebels before they were caught last September.
But lawyers said their clients could not reach their destination because they were confronted by armed men who led them to the South Aceh village. "It's clear that they were tourists. And they were victims of the conflict because they went from one armed group to the other armed group ... the soldiers," said Pandjaitan, who declined to identify the first armed group.
Authorities said the women violated their tourist visas. If they are convicted for that offence they would face a maximum five years in jail or a fine of 25 million rupiah ($2,771) for immigration offences.
Agence France Presse - November 27, 2002
A terminally-ill American nurse whose trial on immigration charges resumed here said she fears the process will drag on for weeks.
Joy Ernestine Sadler has been in custody for more than two months since she was arrested along with British academic Lesley McCulloch for visa violations and now fears she will not be home for Christmas.
Wiping away tears as she stood behind bars at a holding cell in Banda Aceh district court, Sadler told AFP Wednesday that she is terminally ill. "I am very sick and I am very sad because they said it will be a long process till Christmas time," she said. "This is not fair. The judge wants to finish the case immediately but the jaksa [prosecutor] does not."
The pair's Jakarta-based lawyer Johnson Panjaitan said their trials may not finish at least until after the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday which ends December 10.
"I want to see my family. I want to celebrate Christmas with my family," Sadler said. "I don't eat. I feel I am sick. The doctor comes two or three times a week for medicine, special medicine from America they have to bring," she said.
Sadler and McCulloch are being tried in separate courtrooms in the capital of the troubled Aceh province, the scene of a long- running conflict between separatist rebels and government troops.
McCulloch has said the military is angry with her for writing about abuses in various Asian newspapers. She was speaking before the trial resumed with the first witness testimony. It began Monday.
During Monday's court hearing, prosecutor Muhibuddin said Sadler and McCulloch had "taken photographs, gathered data and documents and provided medical treatment" in a village in South Aceh where they were supposed to be on a tourist trip.
Both women have been held since September 11 when security forces stopped them in the south of the province. The women are being detained in a room at Banda Aceh police headquarters. The charge is theoretically punishable by five years in jail.
An estimated 10,000 people have died since the conflict began in energy-rich Aceh province on Sumatra island in 1976. Rights activists put the toll for this year alone at more than 1,200.
The Christian Science Monitor - November 26, 2002
Dan Murphy Special, Jakarta -- For more than a month, the Indonesian military's Special Forces Command have been the key suspects in a mine ambush that killed two Americans and one Indonesian.
The August attack occurred on a lonely mountain road in the province of Papua, in the shadow of the world's largest copper and gold mine -- owned by the Louisiana-based Freeport McMoRan. The victims: teachers at a Freeport-run school. However, US and Indonesian investigators say the politically sensitive investigation has stalled. They've uncovered a trail leading back to Kopassus, as the special forces are known, and can go no further. "We don't have the authority to question soldiers," says Brigadier General Raziman Tarigan, the deputy police chief for Papua. "It is in the military's hands."
The world's largest Muslim country has been a focus of the US war on terror since the Al Qaeda-linked October bombing of a nightclub on Bali. The mine attack came as the Bush administration was pushing to resume military relations with Indonesia, severed three years ago. Diplomats now warn that the Freeport investigation looms as the biggest obstacle to new ties and could have grave consequences for military relations between the US and Indonesia. "Very serious questions are going to have to be answered," says a US official. "Until there is a full, transparent investigation of what happened at Freeport, resuming military ties will be extremely difficult."
Kopassus has run so-called black operations for more than 20 years, particularly in conflict areas like Papua, Aceh, and the former province of East Timor, usually without any civilian oversight. The US broke military relations with Indonesia in 1999, largely because of rampant human-rights abuses -- including the military's alleged use of Kopassus operatives to create militias in East Timor that murdered and tortured hundreds of civilians after they voted for independence, according to an Indonesian government investigation. "[The Freeport] incident must not be seen in isolation: It's part of a troubling pattern of abuse that, if anything, is on the rise," says a Western diplomat in Jakarta.
History of abuse
While Indonesian police have implicated Kopassus in a string of human-rights crimes -- from the disappearance and torture of democracy activists in 1998 to the 2001 assassination of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay -- efforts to prosecute soldiers largely have been dismissed as a whitewash by foreign governments. The military and Kopassus have also been involved in previous operations against Freeport.
Freeport executives blamed the military for a 1996 riot near the mine, a charge bolstered by comments of former Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono to a foreign academic in 2000. He said that elements in the military were seeking to underscore their importance by frightening the US firm.
The Indonesian military often demands protection money from big businesses to fund its operations -- particularly mining and oil and gas companies, according to executives at four foreign firms in Indonesia. After the 1996 riot, Freeport built a $35-million base for the military. Similarly, Indonesian police and Western diplomats say, extortion was a probable motive for the August attack. Freeport makes payments of more than $10 million a year to the Indonesian military, but has been shifting resources to the police since the fall of the Indonesian dictator Suharto -- himself a former general -- in 1998. Freeport employees say that in the past year local commanders have complained that their payments were too low. Freeport has also been making payments to Papuan groups with ties to the independence movement, angering the military.
Lots of leads, little commitment
Under Indonesian law, the police handed responsibility for investigating the case to the military more than a month ago. Since then, Mr. Raziman says, the military has shown few signs of commitment to following the trail to Kopassus. "It's a pity for the police, but the law gives the military the right to investigate and prosecute its own." In particular, he says, military investigators have appeared uninterested in the testimony of Deky Murib, a Papuan native who worked as a porter and assistant to Kopassus field teams. Mr. Murib told the Indonesian police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in September that he helped 11 Kopassus members prepare for the attack. Diplomats also say the US has been passed radio intercepts that appear to include discussions among Indonesian soldiers about "operations" against Freeport.
Western diplomats say that could now leave the FBI, which was getting full cooperation from the Indonesian police, out in the cold. A preliminary FBI report, conducted here and in Australia -- where survivors of the attack went for medical care -- also found that Kopassus was the likely culprit in the attack, according to a source who has seen the report. But that information has not yet been released to Congress. The FBI has been planning a return to Timika, the town that serves as the base for the Freeport mine, for a fuller investigation. But the military now has veto power, and is unlikely to provide the access investigators will need.
That suspicion increased Monday when Colonel M.R. Saragih announced that the 10-man military team investigating the Freeport killings had exonerated the military. "These [accusations] have been spread to undermine the military," he said.
The work of rebels?
"The evidence so far shows all the hallmarks of a military operation," says John Rumbiak, who runs the Papuan human rights group Elsham. Elsham has been one of the leading critics of the military's role in Papua, and has been at the forefront of the investigation into the attack at Freeport. On October 11, the Elsham office in Jakarta was trashed by a group of men with military haircuts, according to Alberth Rumbekwan, Elsham's Jakarta representative. Elsham documentation and computer diskettes were carried away by the men. "We think they were military, but we can't prove it," he says.
The office of the Indonesian military spokesman didn't return phone calls or respond to a fax requesting comment on allegations that the military was involved in the Freeport attack. Major General Sriyanto, the Kopassus commander, denied the allegations in a brief interview with Indonesian reporters two weeks ago. "I very, very much trust that my men are not involved," he said.
Papua military commander Major General Mahidin Simbolon has blamed the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM) for the murders. Most Papuans, who are ethnically and culturally distinct from Indonesia's dominant Javanese culture, support independence. A small band of rebels lives in the highlands near the Freeport mine. Yet foreign investigators point to inconsistent statements made by the military. For instance, the day after the August 31 attack, the military produced the body of Danianus Waker, a Papuan man they said was a rebel who participated in the Freeport attack, and claimed had been killed in a shootout near the road where the killings took place. But an Indonesian police autopsy found that Mr. Waker died at least 24 hours before the military claimed he died. He was also found to have suffered from a condition that would have made it unlikely he could have participated in the long, dangerous hike to the site of the attack.
The narrow road where the Freeport employees were killed twists back treacherously for about 35 miles from Freeport's operational base in the swampy lowlands to its mill at 9,000 feet. Indonesian garrisons control all vehicle access on the road. The only other way to get onto the road is to scramble along difficult mountain paths for miles. The teachers were part of a two-car convoy and had spent the day visiting the mill and were returning to a Freeport community in the lowlands.
The attack involved far more firepower than the OPM has ever been known to use. About 15 men armed with Indonesian military standard issue M-16 and SS-1 assault rifles riddled the lead car with over 400 rounds. Eleven other Freeport employees were injured. While the OPM has occasionally stolen rifles from the Indonesian military, they are largely armed with bows and arrows and are unlikely to have wasted so much hard-to-get ammunition.
Jakarta Post - November 27, 2002
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Some 23 countries are planning to hold a meeting in Tokyo on December 3 to discuss possible financial aid for rehabilitation and reconstruction in Aceh, but no representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have been invited to the talks.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said here on Tuesday that the military would launch an attack on GAM if it went ahead with its plan to commemorate the anniversary of its founding on December 4.
Endriartono stressed that the TNI wanted a peaceful solution to the Aceh conflict, but if GAM insisted on an independent Aceh, then as "we [Indonesians] are against the separation, the TNI will crush them," Endriartono said at a breaking of the fast gathering with journalists and high-ranking TNI officers.
The TNI chief also warned that the security forces would continue their siege of a GAM stronghold in Cot Trieng, North Aceh, until the rebels agreed to the peace deal scheduled for signing on December 9.
Representatives from the Indonesian government and GAM are scheduled to meet in Geneva on December 9 to sign the peace pact. GAM backed off from an earlier plan promoted by the Indonesian government to have the peace deal signed in early November.
Despite announcing a Ramadhan cease-fire and its stated commitment to a non-military solution to the Aceh conflict, GAM seems to be continuing to build up arms. The Indonesian Navy said on Tuesday it sank two Thai ships being used to smuggle arms to GAM.
Rear Adm. Djoko Sumaryono said as quoted by Antara that the two ships were Thai fishing vessels believed to have been pirated last week by members of GAM to smuggle arms into the Aceh.
The ships were flying Indonesian flags and were reportedly pirated in the Straits of Malacca. He said that crew members held hostage on board the vessels by the separatist rebels were rescued, Antara reported.
"The Indonesian Navy's western fleet fired on and sank two ships carrying smuggled arms. The ships opened fire and our fleet had to send them to the deep," Antara quoted Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh as saying.
More than 11,000 people -- mostly civilians -- have died as a result of clashes, torture and revenge tactics in Aceh over the past decade. Human rights groups say more than 1,200 have died this year alone in Aceh.
Earlier on Tuesday, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the 23 countries due to gather in Tokyo included members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), ASEAN, as well as several Western countries such as Germany, France, and Denmark.
"There will also be six Acehnese representing the province, while the HDC will attend the meeting to represent the aspirations of GAM," Susilo told, referring to the Swiss-based Henry Dunant Center, which has been facilitating peace talks between the Indonesian government and GAM for almost two years.
Asked why GAM had not been invited to the meeting, Susilo said: "GAM does not represent an independent country, and Aceh province is still part of Indonesia." Susilo's remark came after a meeting at his office with 23 ambassadors to discuss several key points for the planned meeting in Tokyo, which is being sponsored by Japan, the US and the World Bank.
"During the meeting, we also briefed the ambassadors on the progress in Aceh, as well as the fate of the peace talks through our facilitator, the HDC, and the agenda that we will follow should both parties -- the government and GAM -- sign the peace agreement in Geneva on December 9," Susilo told the press.
He also explained the outline of the agreement, including a plan to undertake post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation in the province, but underlined that "we will continue our operation to manage and stop the armed conflict there over the next six months." He did not elaborate on what such a security operation would entail.
From 1989 to 1998, Aceh was designated a special military operations area (DOM). During this period thousands of people, mostly civilians, died as a result of clashes, torture and acts of vengeance. The conflict has also left thousands of orphans and widows who badly need social assistance.
The government has repeatedly claimed that it has failed to rebuild Aceh because of continuous attacks blamed on GAM.
Despite it being Indonesia's richest western province, Aceh will likely become the second province in the country to receive World Bank financial aid due to the prolonged armed conflict.
Previously, donors from around the world pledged US$523 million in aid to Indonesia's former province of East Timor after pro- Jakarta militiamen went on a rampage, reportedly killing up to 1,000 people and devastating towns, following a vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999.
Meanwhile, Japanese Ambassador Yutaka Iimura, who was present at the meeting in the minister's office, said the Tokyo meeting was expected to be the first in a series of meetings on various issues concerning the Aceh problem.
"I think a peaceful solution is the best way for Aceh so as to allow for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh," Iimura said. Iimura declined to put a figure on the total funds that might be provided by donor countries.
Reuters - November 25, 2002
Banda Aceh -- The trials of two foreign women accused of associating with separatist rebels in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province began on Monday with prosecutors saying they had violated visa regulations.
Briton Lesley McCulloch and American Joy Lee Sadler have been in police custody for more than two months and face a maximum five years in jail or a fine of 25 million rupiah for the immigration offences.
"Lesley has violated the visa permit and has been charged with activities of collecting data or documents related to GAM," chief prosecutor Kamar Zaman told the court in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, referring to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.
Both women have denied wrongdoing and said they were maltreated during their detention -- accusations authorities have rejected.
McCulloch, accompanied by her lawyer and a representative of the British embassy, appeared relaxed and smiled to journalists during the court session, which lasted for about 30 minutes. The beginning of Sadler's trial immediately followed.
A lawyer for the women said his clients wanted the case to end as soon as possible so they could go home.
Asked if they would plead not guilty, lawyer Johnson Pandjaitan said: "Yes. Our clients have said that they visited Aceh as tourists." Indonesian troops picked up the pair on September 11 in a security sweep in the remote southern part of Aceh, where GAM rebels have been fighting for independence for decades.
The trials are due to continue in Banda Aceh, 1,700 km northwest of Jakarta on Wednesday when witness statements will be heard.
McCulloch lectures at the University of Tasmania in Australia and has written academic papers on Aceh. Sadler is from Waterloo, Iowa, and has nursing experience with refugees in conflict zones.
The trials begin as tension remained high in the staunchly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where police shot dead four rebels in a village in western Aceh on Sunday.
Aceh police spokesman Taufik Sugiyono said the clash happened during a patrol by security forces. "The police and military were patrolling in the area. Four GAM members were killed and there were no casualties from our side," Sugiyono told Reuters.
International mediators say the two sides are expected to sign a fresh peace deal on December 9, which observers hope will end years of violence in which thousands of people have been killed.
More than two years of peace talks brokered by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre have failed to end the violence with several ceasefire agreements ignored by both sides.
Jakarta Post - November 25, 2002
Jakarta -- Six people including four alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have been shot dead in Aceh despite an expected peace deal, AFP reported.
Troops shot dead the four members during a 15-minute firefight at Seuneubok Teungah in West Aceh on Sunday afternoon, said Aceh military spokesman Maj. Edi Fernandi. No soldiers were hurt and two AK-47 rifles were seized from the victims, he said.
About five GAM members ambushed a patrol of six soldiers on Sunday and wounded one of them at Bandar Masin, on the outskirts of Lhokseumawe town, he said.
Residents said one civilian was killed by stray bullets and one woman wounded. Local GAM spokesman Tengku Jamaica denied that the ambush was carried out by his men.
"The shooting took place between TNI [Indonesian armed forces] members and Brimob [paramilitary police] members," Jamaica said.
Meanwhile gunmen wearing military fatigues killed a village chief near the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Sunday, residents said. They said five gunmen beached a boat near the chief's hut, shooting him dead and setting fire both to his hut and to others nearby. The chief's body has not been found.
An estimated 10,000 people have died in the province since the start of GAM's struggle for an independent state in 1976.
The Guardian - November 25, 2002
For Lesley McCulloch, the story of Aceh is a forgotten tragedy. The British academic is one of the world's leading authorities on the remote Indonesian province, blighted for decades by a bloody civil conflict. Thousands have died since fighting erupted in the 1970s when separatist rebels launched a campaign for independence and the military responded with a brutal crackdown. Beyond Indonesia's troubled hinterlands, however, Aceh has made few headlines.
McCulloch, 40, a lecturer in the faculty of Asian languages and studies at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, often travelled to Aceh, on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, for research, cataloguing alleged human rights abuses. She has written extensively on the subject and has spoken before the UN on the plight of the Acehenese people.
She was so passionate about the place that when she had time off between jobs this autumn she chose to visit the province and spend time with friends. She had just turned down a job at the Pentagon to concentrate on her post as principal researcher on the Internal Conflicts in Asia Project being conducted by the East-West Centre for international relations in Honolulu.
She packed the summer dresses her mother had bought her for her 40th birthday and talked of travelling around and doing nothing much. But days after she arrived, on September 10, McCulloch and her companion, Joy Lee Sadler, a 57-year-old American nurse, were hauled off a bus by an Indonesian army patrol in south Aceh and thrown into jail. The authorities say the women had violated their tourist visa regulations by contacting rebels during the trip, an offence punishable by up to five years in jail. The proof, they said, was documents and a video relating to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) which were allegedly found in McCulloch's bag. The women vehemently deny the accusations.
In the first few days after their arrest they were allegedly denied proper access to diplomats, lawyers or even a phone, and were assaulted, threatened, sexually harassed and deprived of sleep. In snatched conversations and messages relayed to family and journalists, McCulloch accused the authorities of a catalogue of abuses and a "slanderous attack" on her integrity and character by claiming she had covered up previous involvement in the region when seeking her entry visa. McCulloch has insisted she was in possession of a research visa but had not used it for her trip because she was on holiday and not working.
"Held seven nights, denied right of contact with embassy, abused by army, knife held at my throat by army, not allowed to make report re two points above, sleep deprivation, denied medical assistance, intimidation, sexual harassment by police, they tried to force us to sign false statements, lack of translator," she wrote in one smuggled note.
The women were eventually moved to an unlocked cell in a police facility in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, where they will go on trial today, on the visa violation charge. In Australia, McCulloch's arrest has been raised in the senate and a fundraising campaign launched to pay for legal fees. In the UK, her plight has been virtually ignored.
At her home in Dunoon, in Argyll, Mattie McCulloch only learned of her daughter's arrest when an Australian friend phoned. "It was all over the news there, on the hour, every hour," Mattie says. "We contacted the Foreign Office and they said they were aware of the situation and were monitoring it. But no one told us. I remember I lay awake all night. I thought, no one is going to do anything.
"She had come to see us in Scotland just before she went and we had a lovely time. I had bought her all these bits and pieces for her birthday, the little slip dresses the young people like, she said they were ideal because she was going to have at least 10 days on a beach." The McCullochs say they have felt abandoned by the UK government. They say the Indonesian guards have made fun of their daughter because she has so few visits from British officials while Joy Sadler has been lavished with attention by US diplomatic personnel. "The soldiers taunt her because the American girl is being better looked after. 'When are the British coming?' they laugh at her," says Mattie. The Foreign Office says the honorary consul in Medan is in weekly contact with McCulloch and that her case has been raised by senior UK and European officials, including Lord Chancellor's office minister Baroness Scotland, foreign office minister Baroness Amos and the EU commissioner, Chris Patten. An official from the British Embassy in Jakarta will be with McCulloch for the trial.
"We are fully aware of Lesley's situation and we take it very seriously," says a Foreign Office spokeswoman. "We can't interfere with the legal process of another country. We are there to ensure that she has full legal assistance and she is being treated in a fair way." The McCullochs, meanwhile, fear Lesley's previous work on Aceh is being used by the authorities to make her a scapegoat. Friends and colleagues say she has witnessed much during her trips there and her outspokenness has made her an obvious target. Some have said they fear for her life.
"What they have been trying to do, the police, the army, they are trying to get more information on her," says Mattie. "They wanted a charge of espionage. They have not found anything. The lawyer said the police file on her is growing bigger by the minute. She has written a lot about conditions there. She is so passionate about her work. She loves that country and the people." Her worst "crime", the family says, may have been helping Joy Lee Sadler hand out first-aid supplies to villagers near where they were picked up. There had been fighting in the area and they had come across some people who were injured.
McCulloch has a badly slipped disc and is said to be in terrible pain. "A missionary visited and was so appalled at the conditions they were in that she went straight to the commandant and protested," says Mattie. "They suffered after she went." The McCullochs' first reaction had been to travel to Indonesia to try and see her daughter but they were advised against it, particularly following the Bali bomb blast. Mattie believes she can do more here, keeping up the pressure on the government. News that the trial is going ahead has brought some relief from the uncertainty.
It is hoped the women will simply be reprimanded or fined and told to leave the country if they are found guilty by the court. But a jail sentence cannot be ruled out. "We don't know what the outcome will be," says Mattie.
The Guardian - November 25, 2002
John Aglionby, Banda Aceh -- A British academic and her American colleague have revealed the extent to which they have allegedly been assaulted, intimidated, harassed and forced to witness hour-long torture sessions while being detained in Indonesia.
Scottish academic Lesley McCulloch and her American friend Joy Sadler go on trial today after spending most of the past 11 weeks in a 15-foot square room with no external windows.
Accused of violating their tourist visas, they said yesterday that they will not contest the charges. They are expected to be released within the week.
Lesley McCulloch, 40, from Dunoon in Argyll, and Joy Sadler, 57, from Iowa, speaking exclusively to the Guardian from their prison cell, accept that they did not have clearance to be researching the 26-year-long separatist conflict in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra and its effects on the local population when soldiers arrested them on September 10.
Ms McCulloch announced their strategy in a two-hour clandestine meeting she and Ms Sadler held with the Guardian yesterday in their cell at the Aceh police headquarters, their first in-depth interview since being arrested.
Both women and their lawyer are convinced that the main reason the process has dragged on for so long is because the army and intelligence agencies are enraged by Ms McCulloch's research papers on Aceh, particularly about the military's alleged myriad illegal businesses in the province.
"The level of pure hate towards Lesley has been so great," Ms Sadler said. "I was really honest to God afraid they would take her out. I've never seen such hate." At the beginning of their ordeal they were kept round the clock in the sparsely furnished cell. Ms McCulloch has a back condition.
"We just had to stay in here," Ms McCulloch said. "But then I couldn't walk and ended up in the emergency department of the hospital. The doctor told the commander we had to be allowed to walk and we had to have mattresses -- which we didn't have -- and chairs." But they say their treatment has been luxurious compared with the regular severe beatings suffered by other inmates, which the women claimed often keep them awake at night.
"Sometimes the torture sessions would go on for half an hour and sometimes an hour," Ms McCulloch alleged. "Then they might take the prisoner back to the cells for a bit and then they would drag him out again.
"Once Joy went to help a guy who had been beaten and when she came back I asked her if he was afraid but she said he was in such a terrible state she was unable to notice any emotions." Ms Sadler has refused to leave Ms McCulloch, even when her health started to deteriorate rapidly due to her catching illnesses related to her HIV-positive condition.
The American nurse has since received medicines flown in from her doctor in the US.
Ms McCulloch said she is hugely indebted to her fellow prisoner. "Joy's been my buffer zone," she said. "From early on they wanted to process her case quickly and get her out of here but she insisted that her case remained linked to mine and the lawyers said she has been my protection." One of the ways the women said Ms Sadler was able to ingratiate herself with the chief detective, senior commander Surya Dharma, was by tending to his officers when they fell sick and allegedly helping to patch up local detainees after they had been tortured to extract confessions. "They call me Mother Teresa," Ms Sadler said.
The picture the women paint of life in detention is a combination of regular harassment and intimidation towards them interspersed with moments of genuine kindness and incomprehensible idiosyncrasies. One of the regular latter acts is the vase of scented fake flowers the women are given every month even though the officers do not have the budget to buy the paper and ink needed to take their statements.
| Rural issues |
Jakarta Post - November 30, 2002
Jakarta -- Thousands of poor people in Banggai and Banggai Islands in Central Sulawesi are reportedly facing famine, following the sharp decrease in theLuwuk logistics sub-depot's rice stocks, Antara reported.
"The rice stock in our warehouse has gone down to 920 tons, which only sufficient to supply the people for one week," Luwuk logistics sub-depot chief Nicolas Mawuntu said on Friday. He did not elaborate further.
He said that it was clear that the long drought had caused widespread harvest failure in his work area. He also cited pests as another factor for the sharp drop in local rice production.
To prevent the danger of famine in the twoneighboring districts, he urged the provincial administration to send in new supply.
| Neo-liberal globalisation |
Straits Times - November 25, 2002
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- A much-anticipated plan to privatise Indonesia's national television station, TVRI, to save it from bankruptcy has been thwarted by parliament because of concerns that station operators would focus only on making profits.
The decision was made on Thursday evening, when a parliamentary team endorsed the Broadcasting Bill which, among other things, says the state-owned TVRI should remain a public concern.
Team member Djoko Susilo told The Straits Times: "We think that by privatising TVRI, its public mission would be neglected. It is impossible for a profitable company to stick to its social mission."
The move has come as a big disappointment to many Indonesians who believe that selling the moribund station to private investors would be the only way to rescue it from the brink of bankruptcy.
The 40-year-old station's popularity has been on the decline for nearly two decades ever since private TV stations were given licence to broadcast.
The most widely accessible station in the country has been struggling to keep afloat with a government subsidy that covers a mere 10 per cent of its operational cost.
It is supposed to receive 12.5 per cent of gross revenue from the country's private television stations but some stations have not been able to pay their dues since the onset of the economic crisis.
TVRI has been allowed to air advertisements since the beginning of this year but this has brought meagre earnings to the station, which faces stiff competition from the existing nine private stations.
Furthermore, some 35 new regional TV stations outside of Jakarta are set to begin operation by next year, posing a further challenge to TVRI, which has so far dominated the airwaves in remote areas of the archipelago.
A former executive for the station, J. B. Wahyudi, told The Straits Times: "The government only has two choices, either liquidate TVRI or privatise it. But in order to privatise it, it must first purge all the corrupt, status-quo people from it so that a modern management could be applied."
Legislators have argued that TVRI is a national asset that should remain under the government's control. They have also warned that privatising the station would lead to a massive retrenchment programme among its 7,000 employees.
Sources said the latest decision had occurred as the result of severe infighting at the station since veteran producer Sumita Tobing was named TVRI president in 2000. Mr Sumita has been behind a move to privatise the station, causing a stir among other executives who fear they would lose their positions should the plan proceed.
He told The Straits Times: "A lot of people have been benefiting from the opaque management in the station -- every project is marked up, and and bribes and kickbacks are expected from news sources in exchange for covering them." But now, others are working at Mr Sumita's removal.
| 'War on terrorism' |
Straits Times - November 29, 2002
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Indonesia's plans to beef up its intelligence network by reviving its regional intelligence posts throughout the country, has led to some questioning about whether the body was becoming too powerful.
The state intelligence agency (BIN), under fire for failing to detect terror threats in the past, plans to place more people at various posts throughout the region.
BIN spokesman Muchyar Yara told The Straits Times: "We had regional posts before, but only 50 per cent of the provinces are covered due to financial and human resource difficulties. We are now proposing an increase in budgets and recruitments to fill in the posts in regions that are still uncovered."
He added that BIN would now take charge of the Bakorinda units in the region that was previously with the military. During President Suharto's era, intelligence gathering at the regional level was conducted by the Regional Coordinating Body for Intelligence or Bakorinda. The agency, reviled for its interrogation and detention of Suharto's opponents, lost its power after the Indonesian leader's fall in 1998.
In addition to filling up the posts, Mr Muchyar said BIN was also preparing a new system to improve coordination between all the government's intelligence units.
Under the Intelligence Community Forum, that begins next year, BIN would act as the coordinator of the intelligence divisions of the Indonesian Military, National Police, Immigration Office, Attorney General's office and Customs, he said.
The planned moves are aimed at coordinating intelligence gathering outside the capital to anticipate threats to domestic security. But the plan has triggered fears of the return of abuses, rampant during the Suharto government.
Human rights activists Bambang Widjoyanto told The Straits Times: "We do need a good intelligence system but we must make sure that the function of the intelligence agency would not be expanded to executing policies as in the past that would certainly give rise to human rights abuse. The problem is that in Indonesia, situations like this are often used to expand the power of certain institutions without being accompanied by a mechanism of accountability."
Said military observer J. Kristiadi: "The government should first issue the Intelligence Law to spell out BIN's scope of work and limitation."
BIN's plans received some measure of support within Parliament when it was first revealed, but some legislators from the Muslim factions expressed fears that Muslim figures would be targeted.
BIN has been under a lot of pressure after the Bali blast last month that killed nearly 200 people. Many people blamed it for failing to anticipate such a massive attack.
But many also blamed the ineffectiveness of intelligence gathering to inter-department rivalry as the police, military and BIN rarely share the intelligence data that they have gathered, resulting in uncoordinated policies.
Said Mr. Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic International Studies: "Terror groups have made use of the weakness of our intelligence system, including its lack of coordination -- and the Bali blast should serve as a wake up call to our intelligence community to shape up and work together."
Laksamana.Net - November 27, 2002
For the second time in their continuing nationwide hunt for the Bali bombers, the police uncovered a cache of arms and ammunition in a house rented by the allegedly principal planner of the bombing, Imam Samudra.
The arms, found at Sukohardjo in Central Java, included eight American-made M-16 magazines and Russian 4 AK-47 magazines.
Amrozi, the first to be captured, led police to a cache in a forest in the Lamongan area of East Java, where police found M-16 automatic rifles and another American make, the AR15-A2, two British Lee Enfields and two Belgian-made pistols.
These discoveries by the police of heavy firepower raises the question of where these standard army issue weapons came from.
Checking who is supposed to have the guns should be a relatively easy task, given that they are likely to have come from the regional military command or other regiments, especially the the Strategic Reserve (Kostrad) and the Special Forces (Kopassus).
A source close to military circles told Laksamana.Net that the task of identifying the weapons is not proving because access is being denied by the military. The army has stated that the arms were stolen, a statement many analysts are reluctant to accept.
Some are more pragmatic, pointing to a long-standing arms trade out of the back door of government arms factory PT Pindad.
In February 2000, Jakarta police found vehicles carrying M-16 and AK-47 ammunition and weapons including FN pistols, SS-1 rifles and Mausers. The weapons were still packed in boxes labelled "Pindad". The shipment was on its way to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Then Jakarta Police Chief Nurfraizi, a close associate of then President Abdurrahman Wahid, snapped that the case would be settled thoroughly, no matter who the culprits might be. "We are now the reformed police, the police of the people," said Nurfaizi.
Events were to demonstrate otherwise. People familiar with the clandestine arms trade knew very well who Nurfaizi was referring to: the military is the only agent capable of transporting arms. PT Pindad sells only to the military -- owning firearms is illegal in Indonesia -- and a few less significant foreign clients.
Reports have it that some workers run their own arms business outside the factory. Turnover is big, say the sources.
Since the rioting and looting of May 1998, businessmen, company executives, and wealthy families have become a market for handguns. While some are no doubt smuggled into the country, some are also known to come from Pindad, usually via a military officer.
"With the proliferation of guns in the capital, it means crime and terror or violence will increase," says a sociologist who declined to be named, "This also raises the likelihood of political crimes, even assassination."
As far back as 2000, shots were fired at the central office of the United Development Party [PPP]. Nobody was reported hurt in the incident and police found no suspects or motive for the attack. Speculation spread at the time that the incident was a warning signal from Suharto's youngest son Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, at the time facing serious corruption charges.
In the same year two men attacked Matori Abdul Djalil, chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB), at his residence in a south Jakarta housing complex. One man hit Matori on the back of his head and on his right arm with a machete but police discovered not only the machete but also a FN-46 gun and two bullets.
Matori, co-chairman of the Peoples' Consultative Assembly (MPR) suffered only minor injury, but the presence of a gun established a new point in Indonesian politics.
Green Left Weekly - November 27, 2002
John Pilger -- "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?", asked the great WWI poet Wilfred Owen. His famous line might have been written for those who perish in today's secret wars and terrorist outrages.
Owen's generation never used the word "terrorism", but the slaughter they suffered was terrorism on a breathtaking scale, whose perpetrators were not shadowy zealots but governments: men who spoke up for king and country while blowing millions of human beings to bits.
The October 12 atrocity in Bali, like the September 11, 2001, attacks on America, did not happen in isolation. They were products, like everything, of the past. According to US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and now Australia's prime minister, John Howard, we have no right to understand them. We must simply get the criminals, dead or alive.
The fact that the Bush posse has caught no terrorist of proven importance since 9/11 makes a grim parody of Bush's semi-literate threats and Blair's missionary deceptions as they prepare a terrorist attack on Iraq that will be the horror of Bali many times over. "Terrorist attack" is not rhetorical; the British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, has told the UK government that it could find itself before the International Criminal Court if it goes ahead.
State terrorism is a taboo term. Politicians never utter it. Newspapers rarely describe it. Academic "experts" suppress it. Yet, in many cases, it helps us understand the root causes of non-state atrocities like Bali and 9/11. It is by far the most menacing form of terrorism, for it has the capacity to kill not 200, but hundreds of thousands. In each shower of cluster bombs that will fall on Iraq there will be countless Sari Clubs. The dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima was the equivalent of the horror of the Twin Towers 100 times over.
State terrorism, backed by the US, Britain and Australia, has scarred Indonesia for the past 40 years. For example, the source of the worst violence is the Indonesian army (TNI), which the West has supported and armed.
Today, TNI troops continue to terrorise the provinces of Aceh and West Papua, where they are "protecting" the US Exxon-Mobil oil company's holdings and the Freeport mine. In West Papua, the TNI openly supports a terrorist group, Laskar Jihad.
The TNI is the same army which the Australian government trained for decades and publicly defended when its terrorism became too blatant.
In 1999, when the people of Australia's closest northern neighbour, East Timor, which had been invaded and annexed by the Indonesia dictatorship of General Suharto, finally had an opportunity to vote for independence and freedom, it was the Howard government that betrayed them. Although warned by Australia's intelligence agencies that the Indonesian army was setting up militias to terrorise the population, Howard and his foreign minister, Alexander Downer, claimed they knew nothing; and the massacres went ahead. As leaked documents have since revealed, they did know.
This was only the latest in Australia's long complicity with state terrorism in Indonesia, which makes a mockery of the self- deluding official declarations that Australia "lost its innocence" in Bali. Certainly, few Australians are aware that not far from their holiday hotels are mass graves with the remains of some 80,000 people murdered in Bali in 1965-66 with the connivance of the Australian government.
Recently released files reveal that when the Indonesian tyrant Suharto seized power in the 1960s, he did so with the secret backing of the US, British and Australian governments, which looked the other way or actively encouraged the slaughter of more than half a million "communists". This was later described by the CIA as "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th Century".
The Australian prime minister at the time, Harold Holt, quipped: "With 500,000 to a million communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it's safe to assume a reorientation has taken place." Holt's remark accurately reflected the collaboration of the Australian foreign affairs and political establishment. The Australian embassy in Jakarta described the massacres as a "cleansing process". In Canberra, officials in the Prime Minister's department expressed support for "any measures to assist the Indonesian army cope with the internal situation". Suharto's bloody rise might not have succeeded had the US not secretly equipped his troops. A state-of-the-art field communications system, flown in at night by the US Air Force, had high frequencies that were linked directly to the CIA and the National Security Agency advising President Lyndon Johnson.
Not only did this allow Suharto's generals to co-ordinate the killings, it meant that the highest echelons of the US administration were listening in and that Suharto could seal off large areas of the country. In the US embassy, a senior official drew up assassination lists for Suharto, then ticked off the names when each was murdered.
The bloodbath was the price of Indonesia becoming, as the World Bank described it, "a model pupil of the global economy". That meant a green light for Western corporations to exploit Indonesia's abundant natural resources. The Freeport company got a mountain of copper and gold in the province of West Papua. An American and European consortium got the nickel. The giant Alcoa company got the biggest slice of Indonesia's bauxite. Other companies took the tropical forests of Sumatra and Kalimantan; and Suharto and his cronies got a cut that made them millionaires and billionaires.
In 1975, the violence that had brought Suharto to power was transferred to the Portuguese colony of East Timor. Suharto's troops invaded, and over the next 23 years more than 200,000 people, a third of the population, perished. During much of East Timor's bloody occupation, Suharto's biggest supplier of arms and military equipment was Britain. In one year, a billion pounds' worth of Export Credit Guarantee loans went to Indonesia so that Suharto could buy British Aerospace Hawk jets.
Today, Suharto has gone, but decades of foreign plunder, in league with one of the greatest mass murderers, have produced fault-lines right across Indonesian society. The "model pupil" of the global economy is more indebted than any country and millions of Indonesians have descended into abject poverty. It is hardly surprising that there are resentments and tensions, and support for extreme religious groups.
Who was responsible for the Bali bombings? We do not know, but Indonesia's generals have plenty of motives to destabilise the elected government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. A number of them are implicated in war crimes, and, unlike the Balkans, there has been minimal pressure from the West for the guilty to be tried.
Democracy has ended important army privileges, including a block of guaranteed seats in the parliament. In September, the army appeared to be sending a message that it is now targeting foreigners when troops in West Papua staged an "ambush" they claimed was the work of local guerrillas and two Americans were murdered. What is likely is that the pressure exerted by the US, Australia and Britain on the secular government in Jakarta to "crack down" on Islamist groups, in a mostly Islamic country, will polarise communities. To some, this will seem a familiar game of the powerful.
In the 1960s, the West backed the Islamist groups when they thought Indonesia would "go communist". They were expendable. When Bush, Blair and Howard are next shedding their crocodile tears and grinding the language into a paean of cliches about the "war on terror", those in Indonesia with long memories might be forgiven for thinking nothing has changed.
Sydney Morning Herald - November 26, 2002
Matthew Moore in Jakarta and Cynthia Banham -- Security experts fear that Indonesia faces a new wave of terrorist attacks involving kidnappings and the assassination of Westerners, crimes foreign to the country.
The Australian Federal Police said yesterday it believed a suicide bomber was very likely responsible for the blast in Paddy's nightclub, a view supported by the apparent discovery of a suicide note from the alleged bomber, Iqbal.
The police spokesman for the Bali investigation, General Edward Aritonang, said last night police were not certain that the note was genuine and it had to be compared with other documents and letters to determine its authenticity.
The Indonesian newspaper Kompas reported that in the note Iqbal had apologised to his parents and friends for his decision to martyr himself.
This first apparent suicide bombing, the increasing size and number of terrorist cells being revealed, and the discovery of large quantities of ammunition and automatic weapons in houses rented by members of the Bali gang, have fuelled concerns about new types of attacks.
While kidnappings and shootings, like suicide bombings, have been established techniques in other countries, they have not yet taken a foothold here.
Some security experts believe the discovery of the weapons and ammunition means this could change. The AFP has similar fears, with the general manager of national operations, Ben McDevitt, saying the use of a suicide bomber added a "new dimension" to the investigation.
"What we're talking about now is not only someone wishing to inflict enormous casualties on innocent people, but the desire to do so is so strong that they're actually prepared to sacrifice their own life in achieving that aim," he said.
Police believed the device used in the bombing comprised between 500 grams and one kilogram of TNT, and might have been surrounded by shrapnel.
Three more suspects were caught in West Java early yesterday, suspected of possessing about eight kilograms of explosives.
Indonesian television reported that one of them admitted he was given the explosives by Abdul Rauf, who has been arrested and is accused of being a bodyguard of Imam Samudra, the confessed mastermind of the Bali bombings.
Original police estimates that seven to 10 people were involved in the Bali attack continued to look conservative as Kompas reported that Samudra's cell alone comprised 13 men from Banten province.
The New York Times quoted an intelligence official saying there were believed to be about "200 Islamic militants organised into secret cells and capable of carrying out more attacks".
Indonesian intelligence agents were hoping to detain about 25 leaders who had trained in Afghanistan, the paper said.
While Indonesian police have yet to publicly confirm suspected links between Samudra's group and international terrorist organisations, Time magazine has reported that a senior al-Qaeda operative from Yemen is one of three "critical" suspects being sought.
The magazine said this suspect, Syafullah, was involved in the 1996 bombing of a United States military barracks in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 servicemen.
One of the other two "top tier" suspects was an Indonesian militant, Syawal, who was an instructor at an al-Qaeda-linked training camp on the island of Sulawesi.
Another key suspect was a Malaysian, Zubair, who is said to have fought in Afghanistan in the late 1980s and is suspected of leading the surveillance and mapping team for the Bali attack, Time said. The two confessed bombers arrested so far, Samudra and Amrozi, both spent several years in Afghanistan, where they are said to have received weapons training.
Samudra was yesterday brought to Jakarta to face interrogation over a series of bombings in the capital which he has confessed to organising.
"This is a sacred struggle, not a heinous one ... Allah is great," he said calmly as he was taken into police headquarters, according to the Detikcom online news service. He also briefly met his brother Lulu, whom he hugged and told to "be patient".
| Government & politics |
Jakarta Post - November 29, 2002
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The House of Representatives endorsed on Thursday a bill on political parties despite the protest of a number of legislators demanding the adoption of specific rulings to ensure gender equality in politics.
The endorsement of the bill on political parties, which will replace Law No. 2/1999 on political parties, is expected to pave the way for the 2004 general election.
Eight of the nine factions in the House endorsed the bill, with the lone holdout the Reform faction -- consisting of legislators from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Justice Party (PK) -- which objected to the bill's failure to address the gender issue.
"This bill does not accommodate the aspirations of women, who demand a quota of 30 percent for women in political positions. Please, note my objection," Reform faction chairman Achmad Farhan Hamid said during a House plenary meeting.
The meeting began 45 minutes behind schedule as leaders waited for legislators to show up. It was opened by House Deputy Speaker A.M. Fatwa at 9:45 a.m. with only 188 legislators in attendance.
Besides the Reform faction, at least five female legislators protested the passage of the bill. They were Eka Komariah Kuncoro of the Golkar Party, Ida Fauziah of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Khatijah Harun Saleh of the United Development Party (PPP), Tumbu Saraswati of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Nurdiati Akma of the Reform faction.
Their protest drew applause from activists of the Women's Network of Politics, who watched the passage of the bill from the balcony of the assembly hall.
Female legislators had joined with women's activists to urge the special committee deliberating the bill to include a specific clause mandating a quota of 30 percent of political seats be allocated to women.
After a series of debates by the special committee, the legislators reached a compromise on the issue.
Article 7 (e) of the bill states that the recruitment process for political positions are to be governed by democratic mechanisms that take into consideration gender equality and fairness.
Dissatisfied with the compromise, the women's activists unfurled banners after the plenary meeting protesting the bill. The activists accused the House factions of betraying them, and threatened to campaign against existing political parties during the 2004 elections.
The chairman of the House special committee that debated the bill, Yahya Zaini, said there were four substantial issues addressed by the new bill, including the requirements for establishing a political party.
According to the bill, a political party must have offices in at least half of all provinces, in half of all regencies in these provinces and in one-fourth of all districts in each regency.
The new bill also empowers the boards of political parties to dismiss party members from the legislative body. Also, legislators will lose their seats if they lose membership in their political party.
The bill also governs donations from individuals and corporations to political parties. The bill stipulates that individual donations to a political party may not exceed Rp 200 million (US$22,200) per year, while donations from companies or enterprises cannot exceed Rp 800 million per year.
Key points of the bill
Article 2 (3): A political party must have offices in at least half of all provinces, in half of the regencies in these provinces and in one-fourth of all districts in each regency.
Article 12: Legislators can be dismissed from the House of Representatives for specified reasons.
Article 16: Conflicts or disputes involving a political party regarding the stipulations of this bill will be heard by the District Court. The court must resolve the case in no less than 60 days. If a party appeals, the Supreme Court must resolve the case within 30 days.
Article 18: Personal donations to a political party may not exceed Rp 200 million ($22,200) per year, and donations from companies or enterprises may not exceed Rp 800 million per year.
Jakarta Post - November 26, 2002
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- President Megawati Soekarnoputri warned on Monday against excessive democracy, saying that it would endanger the ongoing reform movement in the country.
Speaking before participants of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), Megawati said that "ultra democracy" was making a comeback and threatening the country's unity. "We have seen many mistakes happening again now as happened in 1955, mistakes that Mohammad Hatta called ultra democracy," Megawati said.
Hatta, the country's first vice president, popularized the term "ultra democracy" in 1955 when the country was adopting the liberal democratic system. "The country tends to abuse democratic rights and this phenomenon will ultimately endanger the reform movement itself," she continued.
Megawati, who has been criticized for her lackluster performance, did not elaborate on current practices and mistakes that she considered ultra democracy, but she has often criticized the freedom that the country has enjoyed after former dictator Soeharto stepped down in 1998, who heavy-highhandedly led the country for more than three decades.
Since Soeharto's forced resignation in May 1998, the country has been enjoying, among other things, freedom of the press, freedom of association, including setting up labor unions, and the freedom to establish political parties. The House of Representatives (DPR), which under the Soeharto regime became a rubber-stamp legislative body, has emerged as a powerful force, so much so that the President often appears powerless against the House.
Megawati, who was ushered into the presidential post in July 2001 after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) removed then president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid for incompetence, has repeatedly criticized the national press, the poor performance of the House and other checks-and-balances that have limited the power of the executive branch.
On Monday, the President expressed her annoyance with the presence of many political parties, which she said were a possible threat to national unity.
Over 200 political parties have registered with the justice and human rights ministry to participate in the upcoming general election in 2004.
In the 1999 general election, considered the most democratic election in the country's history to date, a total of 48 parties passed selection by the National Election Commission (KPU) and participated in the elections.
The President cited that for the second time since 1955, political parties once again hold key positions that form the country's political life, warning them not to repeat the same mistakes of 1955.
She pointed out that the use of religion and race as the basis of the establishment of a political party would only provoke conflict among the people. "Therefore, real democracy needs qualified political parties that are able to produce capable legislators and officials for the country," Megawati stressed.
She also said that the election of legislators would be a crucial point in ensuring the quality of democracy in the country. "We have heard public criticism against the quality and performance of the legislators, we have to listen to and heed that," Megawati said.
Jakarta Post - November 25, 2002
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta -- City administration agencies are overstaffed, corrupt and mismanaged, resulting in huge numbers of complaints from a frustrated public.
Civil servants employed by the agencies spend most of their days reading newspapers, playing computer games, watching television, chatting with friends or running their side businesses, many of which involve corruption.
"I finished my jobs an hour ago, I'm free now, therefore I can chat with my friends," said Syarief, 52, not his real name, the head of a small division at the City's Protocol and Information Center Bureau.
He said his office was overstaffed, causing confusion over who did what and shortages of work to actually do. Syarief said many staff ran side businesses during work hours, saying their monthly salaries could not support their families.
Syarief, with the bureau for 30 years, is paid Rp 1.5 million per month. "Without a side business, I cannot afford education fees for my two children studying at university." He said his business "helped" people obtain various documents, including land certificates and construction permits. The previously described scenes are mirrored at central government departments.
Jajang, 30, not his real name, lives in Serpong, Tangerang and works for a government agency in South Jakarta. He usually leaves home at 9.30 a.m. and returns around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. "I have no specific jobs at my office, therefore I can arrive and leave anytime. There are many employees there who can do my job if I'm not there," Jajang told The Jakarta Post recently.
The city administration and central government are aware of the problem. Vice Governor Fauzi Bowo said the city administration had 21,000 people too many.
The City's figures show the excess is due to the transfer of employees from various ministries closed by former president Abdurrahman Wahid during his tenure from 1999 to 2001.
The transfer of teachers from the central government to the city administration, following implementation of regional autonomy, was also attributed to the increase.
State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin has said that three million of its five million civil servants nationwide were unproductive, unprofessional and corrupt.
To increase efficiency, the city administration was in the process of cutting staff numbers from 96,998 to 75,000, though the process had hit problems.
Many employees have rejected tempting early pension packages of between 100 million and 200 million rupiah as they will lose easy jobs with numerous fringe benefits from corruption.
Sudirham, 51, also not the real name, from the City's General Bureau, said he would not accept the golden handshake as he would not know what to do with the money.
City Administration spokesman Muhayat said problems with shedding 21,000 employees was the cost of Rp 2 trillion to Rp 4 trillion in pension and redundancy packages.
Another problem was that the administration had no legal basis to lay off staff, he said.
| Media/press freedom |
Interpress Service - November 28, 2002
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta -- It took Indonesia's House of Representatives more than two years of often-heated debate to pass a controversial broadcasting bill on Thursday, but critics here say the law is a return to the repressive measures of the Suharto regime.
"Media businessmen in Indonesia should get ready to go to jail," said Karni Ilyas, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Television Broadcasting (ATVSI), referring to criminal offences that a breach of the act could entail.
At least a third of the bill's 63 articles carry the threat of fines or imprisonment, says the Indonesian Society of Press and Broadcasting.
Particularly offensive, say free speech advocates, are articles that restrict domestic programming, with the official intent to control news, editorial and entertainment deemed to promote violence, pornography, gambling, and unethical behavior.
Also tightly controlled will be any material that has the potential to aggravate tribal, racial and religious relations in this country of 220 million people.
The government fears certain types of media coverage could bring the country's fledgling democracy -- already rocked by communal clashes, racial rioting and inter-religious hostility -- under increasing stress.
Another controversial aspect of the law is the authority of the industry regulatory body, the Indonesian Broadcasting Committee (KPI).
Critics are concerned about the KPI's powers to control broadcasting content, set the limits to media ownership, decide the licensing process for frequencies and broadcasting, limit advertisements, and decide the punishment for breaches of these regulations.
The passage of the law represents the single biggest shake-up of the Indonesian broadcasting landscape since the 1998 fall of the Suharto regime, which controlled the media for 30 years with an iron fist. But critics here say the broadcasting bill drafted by the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri bears too many similarities to Suharto's notorious Information Ministry, which exercised almost absolute control over the publishing and broadcast media.
Throughout the Suharto years, the Information Ministry closed down 237 press publications and obliged privately operated television and radio stations to relay news from the state-run Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) and the state-run Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI).
President Abdurrahman Wahid -- Megawati's predecessor who stepped down in October 1998 -- dissolved the Information Ministry but later established the State Information Dissemination Bureau, which was filled by the Information Ministry's employees but without the power of controlling the press.
The post-1998 years have seen new media outlets mushroom across the country. Since Suharto's fall, Indonesia has seen the number of radio stations increase by 50 percent to 1,100, and that of commercial television stations double to 10. The country also now has 15 regional television stations.
But the bill undercuts the gains of Indonesia's young democracy, experts say. "The bill chains the freedom of the media. It hinders the media to develop and grow," said Yanto Soegiarto, chief editor of Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia (RCTI).
"There is no need for the KPI," said Yanto. "If we do something wrong, let our audience take legal action and let the courts find us guilty or not guilty. The KPI is nothing but the rebirth of the defunct Information Ministry," Yanto added.
The broadcast act also restricts cross ownership of the media, forcing media-ownership firms to decide whether to concentrate their media holdings in print, television or radio. The bill stipulates fines of up to 20 billion rupiah (2.2 million US dollars) and a two-year jail term for breach of the cross- ownership laws.
"If a media company violates the regulation, it would be a sort of administrative violation, but the punishment is a criminal one," said Komariah Sapardjaja, a member of the Indonesian Press Council.
The law envisages a two-year adjustment period before the cross- ownership laws come into effect, but most big media companies here have diverse cross-ownership arrangements and complain that two years is too short a transition period.
"If they fail to meet the time limit, then media businessmen should prepare to spend time in jail," Komariah asserted.
Djafar Assegaff, a senior journalist, said the emergence of multimedia technology has made cross ownership unavoidable. "The media is becoming more and more integrated. It's getting difficult to separate them," he said.
But Dedy Mulyana, a media expert from the Bandung-based Padjadjaran University, said the cross-ownership restrictions are justified in Indonesia to prevent oligopolies gaining control of a media industry adjusting from a controlled to a democratic environment.
"I think the regulation is aimed at preventing monopoly in this business. If a number of media control big capital and this capital builds alliances with certain political organizations, this will greatly harm the people's interest," Dedy said.
Without adequate regulation, the situation "would turn into a monopoly in information. This would then be against freedom of the press itself," he added.
Local television broadcasters have thrown their weight behind the cross-ownership restrictions, which they see as "good for the local media, which still needs a little protection from the government," Satria Naradha, head of the Association of the Indonesian Regional Television (ATVLI), said.
"The bill has so far guaranteed pluralism by setting limits in frequency and scope for national broadcasting, so that local TV and radio stations can co-exist with them," he said.
Jakarta Post - November 29, 2002
Jakarta -- The House of Representatives passed on Thursday a controversial broadcasting bill despite protests it will curtail press freedom.
"The bill was endorsed by all but one faction," legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf told AFP, referring to the small Unity and Nationhood faction who wanted the passage to be delayed to allow a further review, he said.
The bill provides for the establishment of a National Broadcasting Commission, which is answerable to the office of the president. The law has drawn criticism from local broadcasters.
On Thursday, scores of employees from nine television stations, including soap opera actors, rallied outside the House to demand legislators delay passing the bill. "The broadcast bill stupifies the public," read one of the posters.
Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a letter dated Wednesday to President Megawati and cited by AFP, urged the Indonesian government to review the bill, saying it contained numerous undemocratic provisions that threatened a burgeoning free press.
Indonesia's press became one of the freest in Asia after the fall of autocratic president Soeharto in 1998. His government imposed strict control on the media and closed down publications which carried unfavorable reports.
Jakarta Post - November 25, 2002
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta -- The nation will soon have a new repressive broadcasting law after the government and the House of Representatives reached an agreement last week to pass the broadcasting bill into law on Monday.
At the same time, those opposing the bill have decided to stop their fight in the House as both the House and the government had agreed on the passage of the bill.
The opposition groups have, nevertheless, vowed to continue their fight by bringing the case to the Supreme Court with a view to asking the court to conduct a judicial review of the controversial bill. Media observer Wiwiek Awiyati of the Coalition for Freedom of Information said on Saturday that those in the broadcasting sector as well as the media should not stop fighting because the bill gave a carte blanche to the government to suppress public access to information.
The bill also gave the authorities a new power to interfere in broadcasting activities, which would eventually lead to some kind of censorship.
Zainal Suryokusumo of the Indonesian Press and Broadcasting Society (MPPI) agreed and said that the broadcasting bill was designed erroneously. "That bill has the potential to violate public rights," Zainal told The Jakarta Post here on Saturday.
Zainal, who is the director of the Radio Network for Electoral Monitoring, added that the broadcasting bill was not in line with the essence of the people's rights as set out in Article 28 (f) of the 1945 Constitution.
This article says that everyone has the right to communicate, obtain information, develop their personalities and social environment, and to seek, obtain, possess, store, analyze, and disseminate information by using all available means. "This means that radio frequencies, which come within the public domain, should be used for the benefit of the people. The government must not interfere in this matter," Zainal added.
Worse still, the bill would arbitrarily impose new restrictions on the country's television stations. Under the bill, television stations would not be allowed to broadcast nationwide. If a television station still wished to have nationwide coverage, it would have to collaborate with local partners to form a national network.
If a television broadcaster was unwilling to establish such a networks, then it would have to close down its relay stations. This would ultimately curb the people's access to information.
The new bill is more or less similar to the draconian Law No. 24/1997 on broadcasting. The 1997 broadcasting law, which fell into abeyance following the dissolution of the Ministry of Information by then president Abdurrahman Wahid, gives power to the government to intervene in the broadcasting industry through 23 government regulations.
In the meantime, the new broadcasting bill gives similar powers to the government to issue about 15 government regulations to put flesh on the bones of the law.
In addition, the bill also mandates the establishment of a very powerful body, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission, which will have sweeping powers over the broadcasting industry. Based on Article 8 (2), the commission has the authority to issue broadcasting regulations and guidelines.
Leo Batubara, MPPI chairman, earlier described several articles in the bill as "monstrous", and said he planned to seek a Supreme Court judicial review.
One of the "monstrous articles" was Article 32 (4) which provides that a broadcasting license and its extension are to be issued by the state after receiving the green light from the commission.
This licensing requirement would likely force broadcasters, especially TV stations, to keep in with the powerholders toward the end of their license periods so as to ensure that their licenses would be renewed.
| Regional/communal conflicts |
Radio Australia - November 28, 2002
[In Indonesia, one strand in the complex hunt for the Bali bombers has taken police to the troubled Maluku islands. Amrozi, one of the confessed conspirators in the Bali terrorist attacks, says he also helped to make bombs that were sent to the eastern island of Ambon in 2000. The admission provides further evidence of the role of outside actors in inflaming sectarian violence in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku that claimed an estimated 6,000 lives in three years. But, according to the region's Catholic Bishop, a peace accord that was signed in February this year, is working.]
Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares
Speakers: Bishop Petrus C. Mandagi from the Diocese of Amboina in eastern Indonesia
Mandagi: We didn't hear any more bomb blasts. And the Christians and Muslims could come together and the reconciliation process is underway.
Mares: For the past eight years, Bishop Mandagi has been in charge of the Catholic Diocese of Amboina, which covers Indonesia's two troubled eastern provinces of Maluku and North Maluku. Catholics make up only about five percent of the two million people of the Maluku or Moluccus Islands, which has allowed them -- and Bishop Mandagi -- to stand somewhat apart from the years of violence that have engulfed the region's dominant Muslim and Protestant Communities.
Bishop Mandagi says the situation in Maluku has improved greatly since the signing of the so-called Malino agreement in February, when 35 Muslim leaders and 35 Christian leaders pledged to end the conflict and all kinds of violence:
Mandagi: I've seen that the people want peace and both government and people, Christian people and Muslim people made a lot of effort to implement this agreement.
Mares: A key element of the Malino peace agreement was a pledge to uphold the rule of law, and Bishop Mandagi says the recent arrest of fourteen members of the so-called Coker gang has helped to restore peoples' confidence in the police.
Mandagi: The Coker gang consisted of young people mostly, jobless. And people in Moluccas, especially Ambon, were threatend by Coker gang. And especially this Coker gang put bombs in different places in Moluccas, especially in Ambon, including in the Christian area. As you know this Coker gang are Christians, but to me they show that they are not faithful in Christianity.
Mares: Bishop Mandagi says the police and military are now behaving in a much more neutral manner than in the past, when different branches of the security forces took sides in the sectarian conflict. Another positive development is the disbanding of the Muslim militia force, the Laskar Jihad Warriors -- a Java-based extremist group that had intervened in the Maluku conflict:
Mandagi: As you know, the coming of Laskar Jihad created problems in Moluccas, not only for Christians but for local Muslims also. The local Muslims told me that their arrival in Moluccas create problems for them. They came as a coloniser for the local Muslims so some moderate Muslims told me that yes they are very happy now that the Laskar Jihad Warriors are out of Ambon.
Mares: Despite the positive trend in the Maluku islands since February, Bishop Mandagi warns that the peace is fragile. There is now some intermingling of communities at shared markets, and at events sponsored by non-government organisations to promote reconciliation. But, Muslims and Christians still keep mainly to their own areas. It's suspected that both sides have hidden stockpiles of weapons in case fighting breaks out once again, and the presence of 145,000 displaced people in and around Ambon means the potential for violence remains high. Bishop Mandagi says local elections to choose the governor of Maluku province could be a flashpoint.
Mandagi: We are anxious or afraid that this election could provoke conflict because the candidates come from Muslim and Protestants and the point is that this election could provoke both, you know. And maybe the government could not be elected and conflict will come up.
Mares: The term of Maluku's current governor was supposed to expire on November 11, but was extended by one month by the central government. Bishop Mandagi has proposed that Jakarta postpone local elections for six months and appoint a neutral caretaker government to organise the polls. It's a suggestion he expects will be taken up. Bishop Mandagi's greatest concern is that the Maluku islands will once again victim to violence, not due to local tensions and conflicts, but as the spill-over effect of political competition at the national level in the lead up to Presidential elections in 2004.
Mandagi: Yes, it's difficult to be confident in Indonesia you know, because politics still control our lives, not law. And you know Indonesia is controlled by central government, by Jakarta, so the situation in our provinces is dependent on Jakarta. Remote control is in Jakarta. If the political group in Jakarta is stable, our country will be calm and Ambon will be calm. I hope that conflict in Maluku will stop because people in Maluku already suffer very much from this conflict.
Jakarta Post - November 26, 2002
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan -- The situation in the North Sumatra town of Porsea is still tense with hundreds of local people taking refuge following the week-long riot in which 17 locals, including two church ministers, were arrested.
More and more police personnel supported by the local military were deployed to enhance security in the small town in connection with increasing protests against the planned re-operation of pulp sawmill PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL), the new name of troubled PT Inti Indorayon Utama (IIU).
The executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) in North Sumatra, Erwin Nasution, said many residents of Porsea had gone to Pae Radja in Tarutung, North Tapanuli, to take refuge since security personnel were intimidating local people opposed to the sawmill's planned re- operation.
"Most people are living in fear following the arrest of 17 protesters and continued intimidation," he said, adding the number of refugees was expected to increase as people continued to be threatened.
Erwin said locals had been threatened with arrest and prosecution unless they stopped protesting against the operation of the sawmill.
The 17 residents were arrested for their alleged involvement in the ransacking of the office of the head of the Sirait Uruk district early last week.
Chief spokesman for the North Sumatra Provincial Police, Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim denied the allegations of intimidation on Monday, saying security personnel were deployed to restore security and order and to enhance security in the town.
"Our main task is to restore security and order and protect national assets and the local people due to the increasing protests at the sawmills," he said, citing that police had no interests in the sawmills.
Asked to comment on the arrest of protesters, Amrin said they were arrested because they ransacked the district office building. He said those who orchestrated the ransacking were identified as Musa Gurning and Krisman.
Hundreds of local people staged a demonstration early last week to protest the resumption of operations at TPL following the government's decision to temporarily halt its operation due to environmental and social problems.
The local people which were supported by a number of local non- governmental organizations and several churches, have rejected the sawmill operation as they fear it would result it environmental and social problems as it had done in the past.
The IIU had been blamed for waste water that has polluted Asahan River. The factory has polluted the air, according to local residents, causing skin diseases and respiratory problems.
The company which was built with the approval of officials from president Soeharto's regime had faced protests for its insignificant contribution to the local development program in the past. The company has also failed to carry out a social development program for local people living around the plant.
Walhi in cooperation with the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) has set up a team of lawyers to accompany those arrested.
Jhonson Pandjaitan who led the lawyers' team, said he would file a lawsuit against the police for the arrest his team considered was conducted arbitrarily.
"The arrest was conducted to pressure local people and their leaders so that they will no longer protest about TPL's operation," he said.
| Human rights/law |
The Australian - November 30, 2002
Don Greenlees, Jakarta -- Indonesia's Human Rights Court acquitted three army and police officers yesterday over charges of human rights crimes in East Timor -- maintaining its unbroken record of refusing to convict senior security force personnel.
Only two days after handing down the stiffest penalty so far in the East Timor trials against deputy militia commander Eurico Guterres, the court dismissed charges that two lieutenant- colonels from the army and one from the police had failed in their command responsibilities by allowing two massacres to occur.
The court, set up in response to international pressure for justice over the crimes in East Timor in 1999, has acquitted nine police and army officers. Yesterday's verdicts mean acquittals are certain in outstanding cases against two generals and one full colonel -- the most senior officers to go on trial.
In the first of the two verdicts yesterday, the court freed former Dili military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Endar Priyanto on charges he failed to intervene to prevent a massacre of at least 12 people in the Dili home of independence figure Manuel Carrascalao on April 17, 1999.
Hours later, the court acquitted the former Liquica military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Asep Kuswandi, former police commander Lieutenant-Colonel Adios Salova and former mayor Leoneto Martins of the same offence in connection with a massacre of up to 60 people in the Liquica church on April 6, 1999. Prosecutors put the death toll at 22.
The verdicts, rejecting requests from prosecutors for 10-year jail terms, confirm anxieties among human rights groups that the court is prepared to deliver convictions only in softer cases against militiamen and former provincial administration officials.
In the toughest penalty to date, Guterres, the commander of the Dili- based Aitarak militia and deputy commander of all militia forces, was sentenced to 10 years' jail on Wednesday for inciting the massacre at the home of Carrascalao. Guterres remains free while he appeals.
Although the case against Lieutenant-Colonel Priyanto was also tied to the Carrascalao massacre, chief judge Amril dismissed the case on the grounds there was conflicting testimony over whether soldiers were present. He pointed to one witness claim that soldiers in the crowd came from the Maubara area, 45km west of Dili, and witness claims denying soldiers were involved.
In the Liquica case, chief judge Sutiarso said the massacre was carried out by the Besi Merah Putih militia, but maintained there was no link proved to the defendants.
Witness accounts and independent investigations have established a clear link between the massacre in both places and security forces.
Witnesses in Liquica said they were ordered by soldiers and police to dispose of bodies. On the weekend of the Carrascalao massacre, militiamen and out-of-uniform soldiers and police killed at least 20 people in Dili, observed by scores of people, including journalists.
Troops in Dili under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Priyanto, a member of the Kopassus special forces, were seen fraternising with the assailants.
Jakarta Post - November 26, 2002
Debbie A. Lubis, Jakarta -- Among the most vulnerable to acts of violence, women in Indonesia have nowhere to turn for protection because weak laws and a culture of impunity that often allows violations to go unpunished, activists said on Monday.
Grouped under Kaulan Perempuan, women's activists from 21 non- governmental organizations from across the country urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to pressure the government to do more to protect women from violence.
"The commission should force the country to investigate, disclose and bring to court whoever commits violence against women," the group said in a statement.
The statement was released on Monday in conjunction with the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The National Commission of Women, one of the NGOs in the group, has recorded some 3,169 cases of violence against women committed by individual, collective and state actors in 14 regions in the country.
The cases include Indonesians forced to serve as comfort women for Japanese soldiers during World War II, the murder of labor activist Marsinah, rapes during the 1998 Jakarta riots and incidents of sexual abuse in Aceh, Papua and the former Indonesian territory of East Timor.
Most of the cases are individual or gang rapes, domestic violence, sexual harassment and violence in the workplace, exploitation of female laborers and trafficking women.
"Only in East Timor have these cases reached the judicial process. However, of 13 dossiers on rape cases submitted since February this year, none have gone to court," the group said.
Most of the cases failed to proceed because of an absence of evidence and an unwillingness on the part of victims and witnesses to testify, according to the NGO.
"Witnesses and victims are afraid and reluctant to testify because our laws do not provide protection for witnesses or victims," the group said.
Many victims are reluctant to testify because they do not want to relive their assault in front of judges, lawyers and their accused attackers, the group said.
Another NGO, the Legal Advocacy Body of the Association of Indonesian Women for Justice, said it had dealt with 255 cases of violence against women in Jakarta. Kaulan Perempuan also said the refusal to allocate 30 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives to women was another form of violence against women, because it marginalized them in the realm of politics.
Komnas HAM deputy chairwoman Zoemrotin K. Susilo said often the commission was unable to take cases to court because the process also depended on other institutions such as the Attorney General's Office and the police.
She also said the commission would work to keep the public informed about the progress it was making on cases.
"There are too many political factors that are beyond the commission's reach. So the public will know where and what factors have stalled certain cases. The public also will find out who does not have the good will to resolve cases," Zoemrotin said.
| Environment |
Laksamana.Net - November 29, 2002
State agencies responsible for managing and protecting the environment have come out in favor of a proposal to establish an integrated agency to deal with environmental crimes, but the affected industries remain entrenched within complex business, government and criminal networks left over from the corrupt regime of former president Suharto.
Integrated agency
The Indonesian Center for Environment Law (ICEL) first proposed the concept of an integrated agency to supervise, investigate and prosecute violations of the environment law after related ministers and the police expressed mutual dissatisfaction with the recent handling of several high-profile cases.
The National Police, Attorney General's Office and Environment Ministry at an ICEL seminar on November 22 announced they supported the establishment of the agency to help overhaul the current ineffective mechanism for dealing with environmental crimes.
Police representative at the seminar Brigadier General Edi Darnadi said Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim and National Police chief Dai Bachtiar must sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) if the integrated agency is to become a reality.
ICEL senior counsel Ahmad Santosa said his organization has suggested five proposals to the Supreme Court for improving the prevailing mechanisms for the prosecution of environmental violations.
He said judges should be trained in environment law as well as environmental problems and solutions, while the justice system should incorporate several new bodies to deal with cases: an ad hoc court, a special court chamber for environmental matters, and a special court similar to the State Administrative Court.
Many high-profile cases are already before the courts and many more seem bound for complex and convoluted legal wrangles, as the following brief overview of cases and issues reveals.
Supreme courting of environmental disaster
A controversial government regulation allowing mining in protected forests is about to be challenged through a judicial review at the Supreme Court at the instigation of an alliance of non-governmental organizations.
People's Forestry Communication Forum (FKKM) member and executive director of the Natural Resources Law Institute (IHSA) Sulaiman N. Sembiring filed their case on Tuesday.
He said Regulation No. 34/2002 issued in June is riddled with legal inconsistencies, not least that it allows open-pit mining in protected forests in direct contravention of Law No. 41/1999 on Forestry which clearly bans such mining activities.
The regulation allows the president to give the go-ahead for mining in protected forests, whereas Law No. 41/1999 stipulates that such a decision must be approved by the House of Representatives.
Sembiring said the regulation also incorporates a number of articles that recentralize authority to manage forests in violation of the spirit of Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy and Regulation No. 25/2000 on the authority of central government and regional governments.
Under the regional autonomy laws, which came into effect on January 1, 2001, local governments are given broad powers in regulating their industries, as well as 70% of oil and gas royalties and 80% of mining, forestry and fisheries royalties.
Action by the Association of Regional Administrations (Apkasi) against the regulation is still ongoing.
Sembiring said FKKM encompasses several NGOs concerned with forest conservation, including Forest Watch Indonesia, the Alliance of Adat Societies of Indonesia (AMAN) and the Environmental Law Foundation (IHSA).
They are urging the government to issue policies that conserve the country's forests rather than exploit them.
Monitoring the monitors
Meanwhile, the government is also embroiled in deciding just which companies will get to keep their permits to exploit forest resources.
The Forestry Ministry last month appointed 12 auditors and warned that companies found to have neglected environmental standards would have their licenses revoked.
Called the Independent Verification Institute (LPI), the auditors will be paid to assess whether 412 logging concessionaires operating over a massive 37 million hectares of forest area have obeyed government requirements on reforestation and other environmentally sustainable practices in their concession areas.
LPI was due to begin work late this month and the ministry expects to have 296 logging companies audited by the end of 2003, reported Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
But the ministry has been forced to establish a supervisory body to monitor LPI following reports that at least three of its auditors have business links to logging concession holders, including timber tycoon Bob Hasan, a notorious business crony of former president Suharto currently serving a six-year prison term for corruption.
The supervisory body may remove forest auditors suspected of corruption or collusion with concessionaires, The Jakarta Post reported.
Agus Setyarso, a member of the supervisory body, said the supervisory team would check the audit results and verify them against on-field conditions in the concessionaires' areas.
The Forestry Ministry has also set up an advisory council to settle concessionaires' complaints of unfair treatment by the auditors.
Court delays
While these new initiatives with the support of NGOs represent a major turning point in the effort to control the forestry industry, the legal 'ins and outs' also represent barriers to enforcement.
Ironically, as pointed out by Forestry Ministry secretary general Wahjudi Wardojo at the ICEL gathering, the judicial review of the regulation on mining in protected forests would delay the government's plan to revoke the licenses of forest management companies found guilty of damaging the environment.
The Forestry Ministry revoked the Industrial Plantation Forest (HTI) concessions of 15 companies at the end of last month and as many as 14 of them are now suing Forestry Minister Mohammad Prakosa at the State Administrative Court.
Indonesian Forestry Society (MPI) chairman Sudradjad said he hoped the lawsuit would prompt the minister to restore the permits and seek a mutually beneficial solution with the companies.
He said restoration of the permits would enable the firms to continue their development of timber estates and maintain payments of reforestation funds, whereas revocation of the licenses would cause the loss of up to 28,000 jobs in the sector. "The condition would no doubt raise the intensity of social upheaval," he added.
Sudradjad also argued that revocation of the permits would leave the timber estates susceptible to uncontrolled illegal logging.
Deddy Kusmayadi of the Indonesian Forestry Companies Association (APHI) said loss of the estates would render the forestry firms unable to repay their debts.
APHI lawyer Riza Suarga said the association had no other recourse but to refer the case to court.
One of the affected companies, Singapore-based pulp firm United Fiber System Ltd, formerly known as Poh Lian, on 13 November declared the ministry had no legal basis to revoke the forestry concessions of its subsidiary PT Hutan Rindang Banua, previously known as PT Menara Hutan Buana.
"The company has been advised by its Indonesian legal counsel that the ministry does not, pursuant to the Indonesian legal provisions relied upon by it, have a legal basis to revoke the concession," the firm said in a statement.
On paper
State-owned plantation company PT Perhutani maintains that robbery and pillaging of its concession areas has seen five million cubic meters of timber "lost" over the last five years.
Logging over the last five years reached 243,158 cubic meters from its teak plantations and 932,979 cubic meters of natural forest timber, company spokesman Bambang Adji Sutjahjo told Bisnis Indonesia.
He said Perhutani would not reach its target this year of 20,694 cu.m and had only produced 4,224 cubic metres over the January- May period.
But forestry companies operating in Indonesia are notoriously bad at reaching their targets. Why? Because the illegal trade is massive -- by some estimates 60% of the wood processed every year is illegally felled.
Last year, the Kompas daily reported that 45 of 54 forest concession holders were active, each cutting down an average of around 25,000 cubic meters of timber annually, just 22% of their official logging targets.
Log production from West Papua between 1995-2000 was 1.7 million cubic meters per year or just 37% of the annual target of 4.5 million cubic meters.
In 1999, the World Bank predicted that all lowland commercially viable forests in Sumatra and Kalimantan would be exhausted within five to ten years, while Indonesian NGO WALHI estimates Papua's vast forests will only last another 14 years. The total land area of West Papua is around 41 million hectares.
Between 1985 and 1997, forest cover in Papua was reduced by around 1.8 million hectares, compared with 10 million ha in Kalimantan and 6.5 million ha in Sumatra.
Perhutani Violence in Blora & Banten The events outlined below show that state-owned plantation company Perhutani remains an unreconstructed Suharto-era firm, using violence and intimidation to deal with community opposition to its plans.
This undermines the company's attempts to present itself to foreign buyers as a socially and environmentally progressive producer.
Perhutani has already run into trouble over certificates issued by international eco-labeling organization, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In August 2001 Smartwood, an FSC- accredited certifier, suspended certificates for timber from four Perhutani plantations in Java. This year, the Indonesian forestry NGO LATIN pulled out of its relationship with Smartwood over problems with certification of Perhutani units.
Recent incidents of violence and destruction in Blora and Banten will do nothing to improve Perhutani's record.
Tortured to death in Blora
A 40 year-old villager died last month, allegedly after being tortured by a Perhutani official on Blora, Central Java.
According to a local media report circulated by the NGO ARuPA, Wiji from Jomblang village, Jepon subdistrict, was abducted in October by Perhutani staff while on his way home from buying timber in Payaman -- a village located in forest land in Jiken subdistrict.
After being tortured by an official from Perhutani KPH Cepu for three hours, Wiji fell into a coma and suffered bleeding from his ear. He was taken to hospital but died a few days later. His family has demanded compensation for hospital and medical fees, and damages, and want the man responsible to be sacked.
In response, the Blora District Association of Village Heads issued a list of demands, including an immediate end to violence and the torture of villagers in Blora; prosecution of those responsible; reform of forest management in Blora in order to benefit forest-dependent villagers, and the setting up of a working group to monitor actions taken by Perhutani to address conflicts over forests. (Source: Radar Bojonegoro 14/Oct/02; ARuPA 20/Oct/02 and others.)
Banten: victimization of peasants continues
Perhutani staff have carried out arrests and house-burnings in Cibaliung village, Banten province, in an attempt to evict farmers from land claimed by the company.
In a series of incidents in September and October 2002, the Perhutani men burned or destroyed at least 56 houses, destroyed crops and burned down a village meeting hall used by the farmers. They also made threats against farmers and their families who refused to stop planting crops on the land.
In late October, two Cibaliung farmers were arrested. One of them, Roji (45), was arrested by Perhutani staff and police, who fired shots in the air when other farmers tried to find out why he was being arrested. The second detainee, Durahman (85), was arrested by police.
Roji had earlier been told by Perhutani staff that he must plant teak on the land if he wanted to continue farming.
The arson attacks, arrests and threats are a continuation of Perhutani's campaign of violence and intimidation against the Cibaliung farmers.
In November 2001, 47 farmers were rounded up in a pre-dawn raid on the village. Some were handcuffed and beaten during the raid, which involved armed members of the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police and the military. While in detention their homes and possessions were burned. The farmers were arrested because they had reoccupied their own land, which had been taken over by Perhutani in 1980.
Nine of these farmers, all but one of whom are members of the Banten Peasants' Union, remain in detention. They were charged with timber theft and forest destruction under the 1999 Forestry Law and in May this year were sentenced to jail terms ranging from one year and one year and 10 months. Another member of the union, Dasa (54), was arrested in June 2002.
The Banten land conflict was one of two cases investigated in April this year by an international fact-finding team from human rights organizations and farmers' movements from 6 countries (Germany, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and East Timor) and members of peasant organizations from several provinces of Indonesia. The mission was carried out as part of the Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform, launched by FIAN International and La Via Campesina.
In February, the two organizations issued a call for concerned citizens to write to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, urging her to investigate the matter and ensure that the land be returned to the peasant farmers.
Jakarta Post - November 30, 2002
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan -- Pressure is mounting on the police to release 16 people arrested for protesting against the planned reopening of the PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) pulp mill in Porsea, North Sumatra, as the Sweden-based NGO, Jij Vecht Tegen Onrecht, protested the arrests on Friday.
The Jij Vecht Tegen Onrecht director for Asia, Mr. Vandevoort, delivered a letter to National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar to protest the arrests, calling for the immediate release of the detainees.
"The police's move to arrest the protesters, whose rights are protected by law, is actually a form of terrorism aimed at supporting the reopening of PT Inti Indo Rayon, which has now changed its name to PT Toba Pulp Lestari," he said in a letter, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The detainees, including two church ministers, are still undergoing intensive interrogation in Tarutung police station, North Tapanuli. They were arrested for their alleged involvement in the ransacking of a district head's office during a protest last Thursday.
Vandevoort said the detainees should be released to avoid more protests, and the security personnel deployed to protect Porsea should be pulled out.
TPL, whose operations were halted temporarily, is widely opposed in the province for its failure to work together with Porsea residents and to comply with environmental regulations.
Separately, Johnson Panjaitan, coordinator of the advocacy team for the Porsea residents, condemned the arrests, which he said were part of a systematic strategy designed by the authorities and the mill management to reopen the factory.
He said he was very disappointed with the police because the detainees were not allowed to receive visitors or to have lawyers present during interrogation.
Johnson who, along with Tunggul Sirait, a member of the House of Representatives, was refused permission to meet with the detainees, said those arrested were in a weak state as they had been mistreated during interrogation.
The advocacy team has sued the police for what he called "arbitrary arrests". Johnson said hundreds of Porsea residents would stage another demonstration near the pulp mill in Sirait Uruk on Saturday to greet Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, who was scheduled to hold meetings with local officials and traditional leaders at the mill site.
Sr. Comr. Iskandar Hasan, the provincial police chief of detectives, denied that the detainees had been mistreated.
"The interrogators would be punished if they were found guilty of abusing the detainees," he said. He said nobody was being allowed to visit the detainees as the investigation was still underway.
Iskandar said the police would enhance security in Porsea in connection with the minister's visit. While people could stage demonstrations, they would have to be held in accordance with the law.
| Health & education |
Jakarta Post - November 27, 2002
Debbie A. Lubis, Jakarta -- Virtually unknown just a decade ago, drug use through injection is now a major source of HIV infection in Indonesia, which now affects 43,000 people, 9,000 of whom are women, the latest report on the AIDS epidemic revealed on Tuesday.
Titled The AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2002, the report said that the women were infected sexually by men who inject drugs.
The agency added that the vast majority of injecting drug users (IDUs) were male, and behavioral data indicated that over two- thirds of them were sexually active.
The report, published by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) ahead of World AIDS Day next Sunday, is part of a twice-yearly update on the global crisis.
"If current high-risk injecting behavior continues, it is estimated that the number of [IDUs] living with HIV could almost double in 2003, accounting for more than 80 percent of new HIV infections nationwide," the report said.
Official estimates suggest that 124,000 to 196,000 Indonesians are now injecting drugs. "With needle-sharing the norm, HIV is likely to spread much more widely throughout this population in the next few years," the report said.
It also said that, apparently, a sharp rise in injecting drug use, with the risk of rapidly increasing HIV, was fueled by social and economic upheavals that had hit the country recently.
The report also cited data from the largest drug treatment center in Jakarta, which revealed that the incidence of HIV had risen very steeply among drug users, from zero in 1998 to 50 in 2001. The agency said that AIDS had killed 3.1 million people this year, including 1.2 million women and 610,000 children under 15 across the world.
In South Asia and Southeast Asia alone, six million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with the incidence in adults estimated at 0.6 percent since the epidemic started in the late 1980s.
It is estimated that by the end of this year, some five million people in the world will have been newly infected by the virus, including two million women and 800,000 children under 15. Currently, some 42 million people are infected with the virus, half of whom are women.
The fact that more than 50 percent of the HIV-positive people are women is worrying because it could cause more babies to be borne HIV-positive, and women have traditionally been carers.
"There is a vital need to expand activities that focus on people at most risk of infection, as well as a need for more extensive HIV/AIDS programs that reach the general population," the report said.
The agency also said that the AIDS epidemic could rob households and communities of the capacity to produce or afford food, turning a food shortage into a food crisis.
"If such an emergency is allowed to persist, it could generate further social displacement, disrupting education and health systems, spurring migration and worsening the sexual exploitation of women and children -- all factors that favor the further spread of HIV/AIDS," it said.
The agency regretted that only a tiny minority of people living with HIV/AIDS received or had access to life-saving drugs.
It also regretted the absence of minimal services that could protect drug users against HIV infection in certain countries, especially those in the Asia and Pacific regions.
| Armed forces/Police |
South China Morning Post - November 28, 2002
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Jakarta's East Timor trials were supposed to be the place where Indonesia would prove that its military had reformed and could no longer escape punishment for human rights abuses.
Instead, the trials of those who instigated the bloodshed at the time of the East Timorese referendum in August 1999 have become a chance for the military to yet again rewrite history by claiming that the violence which destroyed the province three years ago was the result of warring Timorese civilians and that the armed forces were helpless to stop it.
Yesterday's conviction of the former militia leader Eurico Guterres, along with a three-year sentence for Timor's former governor, Abilio Soares, in July, makes them the only two people, both civilians and Timorese, to be convicted of any crimes against humanity for the 1999 violence.
And this fits perfectly with the Indonesian military version of what happened in East Timor in 1999 -- the violence was just a conflict between pro- and anti-independence Timorese factions, not something that they had masterminded and directed.
Throughout the trials, which have seen the acquittals of six security personnel, including a former police chief, and military officers accused of ordering the massacre of up to 150 people -- according to Church estimates -- in a church in the East Timorese border town of Suai on September 6, 1999, defendants have said that they were powerless to stop the violence.
Although the attorney-general's office has been provided with comprehensive evidence from an Indonesian investigation, as well as from United Nations prosecutors, proving that the militias were created, trained and backed by the military, prosecutors have used little of this.
Instead of constructing a case to prove that the massacres, and the forced removal of 250,000 people into West Timor, were orchestrated by the military, the prosecution has only tried to charge the police and military with the failure to stop violence.
This skewed evidence reinforces the Indonesian military's original propaganda about why they invaded East Timor in 1975 -- to stop a violent civil war.
There are still several other military and police personnel whose trials continue, but given the acquittals of the other military officers in August, nobody expects them to be found guilty.
Analysts say there has been little focus on reforming the military since President Megawati Sukarnoputri took office last year, and this is illustrated in the Timor trials, which were supposed to show that the military could be held accountable for atrocities. "Reform in the military is dead now," said one Western analyst.
| International relations |
Jakarta Post - November 30, 2002
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- Indonesia has expressed optimism over the possibility of the United States Congress allowing Indonesian Military (TNI) officers to rejoin the US International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.
Congress is expected to make a decision sometime next month. If the program is reinstated, this could be considered as one step closer to the restoration of full military ties between the two countries.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Friday that significant political changes in favor of Indonesia had taken place ahead of next month's congressional session.
"The US Congress is dominated by Republicans, who look more favorably on Indonesia. Due to the political changes that have taken place, the coming joint session might turn out to be beneficial for us," Hassan said.
"From the latest reports I have received, most of them [congressmen] agree on the need to improve military ties with Indonesia, and we just have to wait for the plenary session's decision," he claimed.
The foreign ministry's director for North and Central America, Dino Patti Djalal, also expressed optimism that the US Congress would approve the restoration of the IMET program for Indonesia.
"It is a step up from only allowing sales of non-lethal equipment. Now they might be prepared to permit training for Indonesian soldiers," Dino said.
The US government has been excluding TNI officers from the IMET program since the early 1990s following the TNI's massacre of East Timorese protesters in Santa Cruz in Dili.
The US also halted arms sales to Indonesia following the mayhem in East Timor in 1999, when the territory voted to secede from Indonesia. The European Union also imposed a military embargo on Indonesia following the East Timor violence of 1999. A year later, however, the EU lift its embargo
The US, however, has chosen to only partially lift its embargo pending the outcome of the ongoing trials in Indonesia of those responsible for human rights crimes in East Timor.
Given the US non-lethal-equipment policy, President Megawati Soekarnoputri has been forced to look for other sources of weaponry in Eastern Europe. Restoration of full military ties with the US is still a remote possibility considering the verdicts brought in so far in the human rights trails.
All military and police defendants in the trails have been acquitted, and only civilian defendants, who also happen to be East Timorese in origin, have been convicted and sentenced by the ad hoc court.
Congress has repeatedly said that the calling to account of those responsible for violating human rights in East Timor would be a key precondition for the restoration of full military ties.
| Economy & investment |
Radio Australia - November 29, 2002
Japanese technology company Sony Corporation will close its audio equipment manufacturing plant in Indonesia due to labour and tax problems.
Japan's industry and trade minister, Rini Suwandi, has been quoted as saying Sony had been facing labour problems since early this year.
She would not elaborate on the nature of the labour and taxation problems, but says the government must give the two issues priority to prevent other companies from leaving the country. Ms Suwandi says Indonesian labour laws have given workers too much freedom to protest or hold demonstrations.
Sony says it will stop making audio equipment at its Indonesian subsidiary, PT Sony Electronics Indonesia, by March 2003 as part of its "overall global restructuring effort".
Asia Times - November 28, 2002
Bill Guerin -- Indonesia's once-mighty footwear industry is in danger of collapse if urgent measures are not taken to enable it to reassert itself in a market long dominated by China. Buyers are increasingly moving to Vietnam as Indonesian shoemakers lose their competitive edge.
The Indonesian footwear producers' association last week renewed calls for the government to help the industry, warning that in the absence of concrete measures to boost their competitiveness, many shoemakers would fold.
Shoe exports peaked in 1996 at US$2.2 billion before the regional financial crisis. In the first semester of this year, exports declined by 10 percent compared to the same period last year. Exports of brand shoes from January to March this year earned only $350 million, down almost 13 percent on the same period last year.
Djimanto, secretary general of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo), highlighted a range of issues that adversely affect the ability of Indonesia to compete with China, Vietnam and Myanmar.
The biggest barrier is price. Rising production costs due to sharp hikes in electricity and fuel costs, high interest rates from the few banks who will lend to producers, and increased labor costs have made Indonesian shoes at least 10 percent more expensive than those of its biggest rivals. Sports shoes, for example, cost $4.60 a pair to produce in Indonesia but only $4 in China and Vietnam. Brand goods fare no better. Nike, the world's largest sports-shoe maker, claims the cost of producing its brand, at $10 a pair, is also much higher than in China and Vietnam.
Nike, Reebok and Adidas do not actually own factories in Indonesia, choosing instead to contract local factories to make their goods, thus making it easier for them to shift production if problems arise. And there has been no shortage of such problems.
Police last week had to fire several warning shots to dispel an estimated 2,500 protesters who were demanding severance pay from PT Doson Indonesia, which claimed its closure in September was a direct result of the ending of its supply contract with Nike. Doson has been a Nike subcontractor for 10 years.
The island of Java is the industrial heartland of Indonesia. With its dense population and advanced infrastructure, Java was well suited as the base for footwear manufacturing area with Bandung, the capital of West Java, the main center. Production gradually shifted nearer to the Jakarta industrial belts through the 1990s, much of it to Tangerang regency.
In those days, Indonesia posed an increasing threat to Taiwanese and Korean shoemakers, some of whom entered into strategic alliances with Indonesian producers or even moved their operations.
Doson was one example of a Korean-owned manufacturer operating from Indonesia. Although Nike ended its contract with Doson, it is still using seven subcontractors in the Tangerang regency alone. These factories together employ 20,646 workers out of a total of an estimated 60,000 for all nine Indonesian shoe plants -- even with Nike reducing this year orders by an estimated 40 percent.
Nike works with no less than 47 contract footwear, clothing and equipment contract factories across Indonesia, employing over 120,000 people. However, Indonesia's share of Nike worldwide shoe production has fallen from 38 percent to around 26 percent over since 1996.
In a recent report, Canton, Massachusetts-based Reebok International Ltd, the world's second-largest sports-shoe maker, also said Indonesia will remain the second-biggest recipient of its global shoe investment.
This may have appeared to be good news for the 19,700 workers Reebok employs at three Indonesian factories, but workers claimed that a Reebok move earlier in the year to stop orders from West Java-based manufacturer, PT Primarindo Asia Infrastructure, cost 5,400 jobs.
Industrial-relations problems continue to affect all industries. Workers stand to gain substantial severance pay under a Ministry of Manpower decree that changed the law two years ago. This followed pressure from increasingly militant workers and their unions.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, himself a onetime labor activist, issued a decree on October 1 that had the effect of permitting the company to dismiss the workers, although it obliges them to pay the severance pay and any unpaid salaries for September. They should also set up a compensation fund for housing for the laid-off workers.
However, following a suit filed by Doson against the minister's decision, the district court then ordered the company's directors and management to sell their assets so they would have enough money to pay these obligations and ordered a postponement of execution of the decree.
Productivity has also slipped in Indonesia, with factories in China and Vietnam able to turn out three times the number of shoes a day made by their Indonesian counterparts.
Djimanto said at least 100 Indonesian shoemakers had folded in the last three years, and he predicted that the country's footwear exports would decline to $1.4 billion this year, from $1.6 billion last year. All in all, total value of shoes made in Indonesia has dropped by some 25 percent since 1996.
Last year's regional autonomy had a widespread impact on production costs as bureaucrats in individual provinces sought to increase their power and incomes. The incidence of illegal fees and levies being demanded from manufacturers increased exponentially and, of course, contributed to the high cost of production.
Security and legal worries were also partly to blame for foreign buyers shifting to China and Vietnam as they were afraid orders with Indonesian producers might not be delivered. Last year, twelve shoe manufacturers "diversified" their operations to Vietnam. Many Japanese and South Korean firms are also said to be considering voting with their feet.
The chairman of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo), Antonius Joenoes Supit, while rejecting analysts' predictions that the country's shoe industry may go belly up within the next five years, agreed it faced a major challenge to stop the relocations to other countries. Supit cited human rights, labor relations, security issues and environmental factors as combining to create an image problem that scared foreign investors.
Nike has stated that it is still committed to producing shoes in Indonesia, and not renewing the Doson contract was one result of their ongoing evaluation to develop a more versatile Indonesian manufacturing base that is compatible with its global footwear strategy.
In June, Reebok canceled orders to one of its subcontractors, Bandung-based PT Primarindo Asia Infrastructure, which then had to retrench 5,400 workers. Reebok was unhappy with the subcontractor and Hugh Hamill, Reebok's vice president for Far East Asia, said several factors contributed to the decision to withdraw from the relationship. "Reebok International found that other factories that produce Reebok shoes in Indonesia perform better than Primarindo," Hamill said.
Declining global demand for shoes, especially in the United States, has caused a slump in orders everywhere and added to the Indonesian woes. Reebok, for example, showed a 2 percent drop in sales in the second quarter this year.
One obvious problem for foreign and local producers alike is the weakness of the rupiah against the dollar and the fact that an estimated 80-90 percent of raw materials need to be imported.
In 1998, international brand shoes made up 93.93 percent of Indonesian shoe exports. There are now signs that Indonesia is fighting back against what is effectively a stranglehold by foreigners as some Indonesian shoe manufacturers may start developing their own brands instead of relying on overseas orders from industry giants. The Ministry of Trade also intends to encourage firms to increase their competitiveness and may offer to help them develop their own brands for international markets.
The government will hold talks with relevant industry bodies in an effort to improve cooperation in the export markets. Ministry spokesman Achdiat Atmawinata said this week: "We could boost our export of non-branded products to the Organization of Islamic Conference member countries or the African market under bilateral cooperation and develop the counter-trade scheme.
"Competition in obtaining orders from world outsourcing producers has become very tight, prompting us to boost the export of non- branded goods," Achdiat added.
Jakarta Post - November 25, 2002
Haidir Anwar Tandjung and Apriadi Gunawan, Medan/Pekanbaru -- Tembilahan, a small coastal town in the Riau regency of Indragiri Hilir, has drawn a lot of attention from small-scale businessmen over the last few months as it has become a gateway for used clothes into the provinces of Jambi, South Sumatra and Lampung.
It has two major markets especially offering imported products to local businessmen who distribute them to other markets in other cities in the provinces.
Many local people have left their daily jobs as fishermen and coconut farmers to become suppliers and middlemen for imported used clothing and fabrics. They bring in the imported commodity from Malaysian and Singaporean suppliers via the Malacca Straits.
Maman, 45, a trader in Tembilahan, conceded that the business was quite lucrative because he could sell between five and ten bales of second-hand clothes every day. "We buy the used clothes at the price between Rp 500,000 and Rp 1.5 million per bale. We can gain a profit of between Rp 1 million and Rp 2 million per bale after all other expenses because a bale contains around 200 pieces with the prices between Rp 15,000 and Rp 35,000 per piece depending on their quality and condition," he said.
Maman, also a civil servant at the Indragiri Hilir administration, cited that around 1,000 bales of used clothing entered through the town every day.
Despite the government ban, the second-hand textiles imported from Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea through the two neighboring countries, continue flooding Sumatra and Java.
Many markets and shopping centers in Medan, Tebing Tinggi and Pematang Siantar in North Sumatra offer second-hand clothes which are brought in through Tanjungbalai seaport.
"It is easy to find cheap used clothes in Pasar Baru and Senen shopping areas in Jakarta. The used clothes have entered the Indonesian capital through Tanjungpriok seaport," Brig. Gen. Deddy S. Komaruddin, chief of the Riau Provincial Police, said here recently.
He acknowledged that the police had "difficulties" in eradicating the lucrative smuggling of used clothes because of the large coastal areas in the province and the increasing demand for the commodity.
"Apart from the violations of law, we should be realistic that the increased flow of clothes had a lot to do with increasing demand at home. The crisis has hit the purchasing power of a majority of the people so that they are unable to purchase new products locally in malls.
"Everyone wants to wear a new set of clothes especially to celebrate Idul Fitri but most people would be financially incapable of doing that if it were not for these lower priced clothes," he said.
Acin, a Chinese trader, conceded that the entrance of used clothes has affected the local products but said he could do nothing because the smuggling could not be stopped by local relevant authorities.
Indragiri Hilir Regent Rusli Zainal said the illegal entrance of the used clothes was really a dilemma for the local authorities because Indonesia, including the province, has been a dump site for second-hand goods from foreign countries but at same time, the demand for the used clothes was still on the rise at home.
"We must be extra alert in handling the problem. We have not imposed taxes on traders or importers because we have not completed publicizing Ministerial Decree No. 22/1997 banning imports of used commodities, including textiles and cars." Some 80 used cars granted by the Singaporean Police to state universities in the provinces have been seized by the local tax and excise office because of the government ban.
The coordinator of the Forum for Indonesian Youths (FIM) in Medan, North Sumatra, Fadli Nurzal, criticized the government ban that has affected 200,000 traders and thousands of workers in the seaport in Tanjung Balai who have been earning their livelihood from the used imports.
"More than 200,000 used clothing traders have to seek new jobs after the local authorities banned imports. To be consistent, the government should also take actions against the import of used cars from Singapore and Japan," he said.
Rijal Sirait, a member of the North Sumatra provincial legislative council, concurred and said the government should control the rising price of domestic products and improve the people's purchasing power.
"The government should not be manipulative in making controversial rules but make policy and regulations benefiting a majority of the people," he said.