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ASIET NetNews Number 21 - June 8-14, 1998
East TimorStudents return to assembly in protest Slayings of students transformed a nation Bali politicians ready to quit `Suharto pulls the strings'` Strikers attack police Strikiers give Pakpahan hero's welcome
Political/economic crisisEast Timor students step up pressure Ex-commander of Timor rebels arrested Armed police smash Timor student rally Amnesty eases prison blues East Timorese seek independence Historic meeting in Dili, East Timor
Human rights/lawFresh violence hit town in Central Java Habibie: Indonesia in a hole
PoliticsHarrassment of press freedom by owner Brave sleuth for truth in Jakarta Widespread reports of rapes of Chinese More than 39,000 dead in Aceh
Economy and investmentNU set to establish new political party
Multinationals demand protect their interests It's Payback Time
| Democratic struggle |
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- More than 2,000 student protesters gathered outside the Indonesian Parliament here yesterday demanding a special session to push forward political reforms in the country.
Three weeks after their repeated demonstrations forced former President Suharto's downfall, students in the capital again repeated their calls for change, hoping to influence the agenda of the new Habibie government.
Students from 34 universities and tertiary institutes arrived at the Parliament in 20 buses at midday, causing a traffic jam along the busy Jalan Gatot Subroto. The authorities did not allow all of them into the compound.
But they gave in eventually and 15 student representatives were allowed in to meet the armed forces (Abri) faction leader Lt- General Hari Sabarno and Golkar representative Abdul Gaffur.
Sources said that the students presented a signed petition which called for: A special People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session within the next 30 days and fresh elections thereafter. This session should, among other things, reject current state policy guidelines which were implemented by the Suharto administration. Assurances that the government would not raise prices of basic food items, which have skyrocketed with the worsening economic crisis.
According to a source, who was at the hour-long meeting between the students and MPR leaders, both sides agreed to "give the new government some breathing space" before calling for any special session.
As the meeting took place, thousands of other students in the green, red, blue, yellow and orange colours of their respective universities, waved banners and chanted "Merdeka" (freedom) as they waited outside the barricaded Parliament grounds -- the scene of the largest student protest in the country just weeks ago.
About 100 Abri personnel armed with riot gear and automatic rifles were deployed at the scene but the protest passed without any violence.
Senior Abri sources disclosed that the military was now on "alert one" status in the capital and other parts of the country as they anticipated another wave of student protests.
This was complicated by labour demonstrations and anger directed at the Habibie administration from others in society. "There is always a fear that the situation could just get out of hand if the students are joined by others to register their demands," said a senior intelligence officer.
That is exactly what happened in the Central Java town of Tegal on Tuesday when hundreds of civilians joined thousands of students marching down to the town hall complex to demand the mayor's resignation for alleged corruption.
Riots broke out when they were barred from entering the complex and the mob began to pelt shops around the central square with stones and other missiles.
They smashed dozens of shops and looted some of them. Up to 75 shops, five banks and three supermarkets were damaged but no one was injured. Police and soldiers fired warning shots to break up the mob.
Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta -- Indonesia Elang Mulya Lesmana's parents first noticed changes in their son at the beginning of April. He started reading newspapers, asking questions about the country's economic decline, becoming more politically aware. Then he brought out his dark blue university blazer and asked his mother to sew on all the school patches, declaring, "Starting tomorrow, I'm going to wear this every day!"
The one day Elang forgot his jacket was May 12, the day of the big demonstration here at Trisakti University, called to demand the end of President Suharto's 32-year-old authoritarian regime. When the shooting started, he must have stood out at the top of the school steps, a sole T-shirt amid a sea of dark blue blazers, waving his arms and directing the other students to safety. That's when a sniper's bullet ripped through his chest.
Elang, 19, was one of four Trisakti students killed that day by unseen gunmen. Hery Hartanto, 21, was killed by a bullet in the back after he paused during a lull in the chaos to wash the tear gas from his face and hands with water from a plastic bottle. Henriawan, 20, was shot twice while running, once in the back and once in the neck; he managed to make it to the base of a flagpole in the center of the campus to sit down and die. Hafidhin Royan, 21, a quiet young man who had never gotten involved, died instantly when a bullet pierced his head, just above the ear.
More than any other single incident during months of political and economic turmoil, the shootings at Trisakti University led to the toppling of Suharto and the emergence of a new political order in Indonesia. The slayings triggered massive rioting here in the capital that left more than 1,000 people dead, and they led the armed forces to decide that Suharto had to go before the security situation in the capital became untenable. And they added new urgency to demands across Indonesian society for a more democratic political system.
A reconstruction of the Trisakti shootings offers a revealing look at how and why Suharto's government collapsed so suddenly and raises questions about the role of powerful military commanders that still haunt Suharto's successor, President B.J. Habibie. The stories of the slain Trisakti students show that these four average young men from middle-class families, like many young people across this archipelago of 204 million people, were swept up in a rapid political awakening this spring that transformed their lives and ultimately made them unintentional martyrs.
An investigation of the shootings suggests strongly they were a deliberate act supported by hard-line military elements opposed to reform. Interviews with students at the scene that day, including two of those still hospitalized -- as well as friends, family members, human rights investigators and diplomats -- indicate the shootings were not random acts by security forces firing blindly into a crowd. Almost all the victims, killed and wounded, were shot in the head, neck, chest or back.
"It was not a sudden burst of fire," said a Western diplomat who also has studied the incident. "It was slow, deliberate fire, for over an hour, and that can be proven... You're talking about targeting -- that counts for the high number of kills for the number of wounded."
On Saturday, the military announced it was charging two police officers, 1st Lt. Agus Tri Heryanto, 29, and 2nd Lt. Pariyo, 30, of the police anti-riot brigade, with disobeying orders and not controlling their troops. An internal military investigation has blamed the police for using live rounds, instead of rubber bullets, when dispersing the students.
But police officials have denied issuing any live rounds to officers on May 12, and defense lawyers and other Indonesian sources said they suspect the police are being made the scapegoats for a military unit that was really behind the Trisakti slayings.
Several sources said they suspect elite units of the army special forces, called Kopassus, of masterminding the incident because of the skill needed to carry out the shootings. Those units were once under the command of Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, a tough and ambitious officer who is also Suharto's son-in-law.
In March, Prabowo was promoted to head the much larger Army Strategic Reserve Command in Jakarta, but he maintained his influence over the Kopassus forces he helped train and equip, with assistance from the US military.
"This was not an unfortunate action," said Marzuki Darusman of the government- sponsored National Commission on Human Rights. "There was a great deal of planning. The high degree of skill that went into Trisakti and the sophisticated weaponry indicates only certain units which have that," he said. He added that witnesses have come forward suggesting that Kopassus was behind the attack.
Prabowo was relieved of his strategic reserve command after Suharto's May 21 resignation, but he remains in the army, teaching at a staff college in Bandung, 75 miles southeast of Jakarta. Five days after the Trisakti shootings, and before his reassignment, Prabowo visited the home of one of the slain students, Hery Hartanto. As Hartanto's startled parents looked on, Prabowo took a copy of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, held it above his head and swore before God that he did not order the Trisakti slayings.
"It was the first time in my life I've ever seen anything like it," said Hartanto's father, Sjahir Mulyo Utomo, 70, a retired army 2nd lieutenant. After that display, he said, he now believes Prabowo was not involved.
Unlikely heroes Whoever did order the killings may not have realized that the day's violence would give a new set of martyrs to Indonesia's popular uprising. And to those who knew them, the four who died were the unlikeliest of heroes.
Elang Mulya Lesmana was worried about forgetting his blue Trisakti jacket that day. Since only students were allowed in the demonstrations, he knew that anyone without the distinctive dark blue university blazer might be suspected of being one of the police informants who infiltrated all such anti-government protests. He had left at 6 a.m. for the 90-minute bus ride from his parents' spacious home in the far southern corner of Jakarta to the Trisakti campus in the northwest. He told his parents he was going to take a final exam that day, the last of Trisakti's academic term.
Since the beginning of the year, Indonesian students had been mounting steadily larger protests, demanding that Suharto resign. The unrest was touched off by the collapse late last year of Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, which forced a massive bailout by the International Monetary Fund and induced a severe economic crisis marked by massive layoffs, soaring prices and the collapse of the banking system.
But the students were not just protesting prices; they were demanding that Indonesia embrace democracy after decades of Suharto's authoritarianism. Trisakti University, a private institution that attracts students from many leading Indonesian families, had recently become a focal point of the demonstrations; students there were pressing to move their marches off campus and into the streets of Jakarta.
Elang, his parents said, was an average teenager, fond of playing basketball in the evening with neighborhood friends and playing the guitar in a band. But his parents said they knew Elang was changing when he began wearing his Trisakti jacket and had his mother sew on all the patches.
"From the beginning, when he brought down that jacket and started wearing it, he started getting up earlier, he was reading the newspapers, he started asking questions about the fall of the rupiah," said his father, Bagos Yoga Nandita, 49, a graphic designer. "At the time, I was really proud that my son was getting more involved."
Only later, when they were called to the hospital morgue to collect Elang's body, did his parents discover that their son had become a key student activist, organizing on behalf of the architectural school where he studied. "Maybe he didn't want to worry his parents, so he never told us he was going to demonstrations," said his father.
Hery Hartanto underwent a similar transformation. The son of a well-to-do family, he had a wide circle of friends and was always lending money to those in need. It was in February, his parents said, that he discovered political activism. "I told him not to join in with the other students," said his mother, Lasmiati. "But he was becoming very concerned about the economic situation, so it was impossible for me to stop him from going."
At dinner conversations, Hartanto grew vocal, once saying adamantly that Suharto had to resign. "I told him not to talk about such things," Lasmiati recalled. He was young, his parents thought, and strong-headed.
Serious misgivings
The demonstration was to begin in the late morning of May 12. The protesters were becoming bold -- encouraged, many believe, by the armed forces' relative leniency even as they pushed their rallies farther beyond the campus gates. This time, the students planned to take their protest a few miles down the highway to the national parliament building. Suharto was out of the country, attending a conference in Cairo.
Just before 11 a.m., the red-and-white Indonesian flag in the center of campus was lowered to half-staff, and the students, joined by faculty members, began singing the national anthem. There was a moment of silence, a sign of respect for the country's poor and suffering, followed by a series of fiery speeches. The crowd was getting revved up for the march.
Hafidhin Royan didn't care much for demonstrations. A reserved engineering student who never got involved in the campus protests, Hafidhin had come to school that day only to finish his assignments before returning to his home town, Bandung, for the summer break. He had told his mother he was going home on May 13.
When he arrived at Trisakti, Hafidhin found that all classes and exams had been canceled because of the demonstration. He could have left then. But friends say Hafidhin was a follower, not a leader. He stuck around, "out of solidarity with the students," said his engineering school classmate, Agung.
Just after noon, students noticed that security forces were gathering on an elevated toll road that swings past the campus as it winds toward Jakarta's international airport. Some became angry. Elang was growing nervous.
Elang told a friend he wanted to go home because he was feeling "uncomfortable" about the demonstration. Another friend said he was going off to pray, but Elang stopped him. "If you go pray, we may never see you again," Elang said.
Then the friends threw their arms around one another and posed for a photograph -- Elang without his blue jacket.
Just before 1 p.m., students began moving out of Trisakti's main gates en route to parliament. Hafidhin turned to Agung, his classmate, and said, " 'Gung, we shouldn't move out, we shouldn't go. We'll get shot!" The friends became separated. On the street outside there was a lengthy standoff, with two rows of riot police, later backed by truckloads of reinforcements, refusing to let the students pass.
For hours, the students alternately negotiated with police to be allowed to move and sat on the pavement in protest. They made speeches, sang patriotic songs unable to move forward, refusing to retreat. They held their ground through a brief but heavy downpour.
Henriawan had already gone home at 2 that afternoon; his uncle, Subanning, saw him talking with other neighborhood youths. Then, without saying a word to his uncle, Henriawan went back to rejoin the students.
Subanning was not particularly worried about his nephew. He never knew Henriawan to be involved in politics, although lately they had started discussing Indonesia's economic crisis at the dinner table. Subanning, a Jakarta city government employee, took night classes at Trisakti. He arrived near the campus at 4:30 and found the scene to be "chaotic."
But as Subanning looked on, the students began to file back to campus. Two faculty administrators apparently had brokered a deal with police to end the standoff peacefully. The students would retreat to campus, and the police would move back their line.
But just then, a Trisakti dropout, identified by students as "Mashud," appeared and began shouting obscenities at some of the female students. A small group of Trisakti students suspected "Mashud" was a police informant or was being paid to stir up trouble and chased the intruder back toward police lines.
Just then, at about 5, the police charge began. They fired tear gas, swung their batons at the retreating students and opened fire with rubber bullets. The slow move back to campus became a wild stampede.
"What was that?" Subanning asked, hearing the cracking sound. Someone yelled back, "They're firing at the students!"
Henriawan made it as far as the campus gates. The first bullet hit him in the right side of the neck, twisting his body around. The second bullet caught him in the middle of the back. Once on campus, Henriawan was able to walk as far as the flagpole; a friend saw him sit down on the concrete base and keel over.
Hery Hartanto thought he was already safe because he was back on the university grounds. He had run far and fast, and he and a friend stopped at the foot of the stairs in front of the M Building to catch their breath and wash the tear gas from their faces with a bottle of water when Hartanto fell forward suddenly. "Oh, my God!" he cried. "I've been shot in the leg!" The friend looked at him and said, "It's not your leg." The bullet had gone straight into Hartanto's upper back lodging near his heart. Hafidhin's friends could not say clearly where he was, because he had stayed on campus for fear of being shot. But some witnesses said they remember him making a call from a row of telephones near the Student Union.
He had just replaced the receiver when a bullet tore into the right side of his head, just above his ear, and came out his back. The path of the bullet suggests that whoever shot him fired from above, from the direction of the elevated toll road.
The students realized quickly that some of the bullets flying into their campus were not rubber, but lethal ammunition. Elang took responsibility for making sure others got to safety. He climbed to the tile expanse at the top of the M Building steps and shouted to the others to run inside.
"Get in! Get in! As fast as you can!" he was shouting, waving both hands. Then the bullet entered his chest.
'Clearly targeted'
Two wounded students remain hospitalized. Tammu Abraham Alexander Bulo, 20, who was shot in the neck, said he believes the Trisakti students were targeted.
The bullet "definitely came from up top and came down," he said from his hospital bed. "The people that died were clearly targeted in the head, the neck area or the chest."
Elang's father visited the spot where his son was slain while the white tiles were still fresh with blood.
"If you look at exactly where he was shot [in the chest], it could not have been a random, accidental occurrence," he said. "It must have been someone with weapons training. It was so precise."
Seven days of anti-government protest on the Indonesian resort island of Bali have led to all 46 members of the local legislature agreeing to resign.
The protests were directed against the President, Dr Jusuf Habibie, and Bali's former governor, Mr Ida Bagus Oka, who is now Population Minister, the Jakarta Post reported today.
Yesterday, 20,000 people thronged the compound of the legislature building, demanding that Mr Oka resign and legislators sign a statement refusing to recognise Dr Habibie as President. The protesters accused Mr Oka of corruption during his time as governor.
The newspaper said the speaker of Bali's legislature, Mr Ketut Sundria, told the protesters that all legislators would resign after the necessary administrative procedures were followed. But they refused to sign the anti-Habibie statement.
Dr Habibie took over from the long-serving and autocratic Mr Soeharto, who stepped down last month amid economic crisis and rioting in which more than 1000 people died.
Bali, famed as a holiday paradise that had been largely unaffected by the protest movement elsewhere in Indonesia, has appealed to the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, to lift a travel warning telling American citizens to stay away from Indonesia because of the risk of violence and unrest.
In Java, tens of thousands of factory workers today entered the sixth day of a strike while 900 of them picketed the provincial Parliament to press demands for better working conditions.
The picketers, crowded into six trucks, left the factories of PT Maspion, a household appliance producer in nearby Sidoharjo, and headed for the East Java provincial Parliament building in Surabaya. They vowed to stay there until a decision was taken on their demands for allowances for food, transport and overtime.
Maspion factories in Sidoharjo and Gresik remained paralysed by the strike, which began last Thursday. Yesterday 30 people were injured and several vehicles damaged when about 25,000 Maspion workers clashed with police who tried to stop them from marching to the Parliament building.
In another development the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, said today that Indonesia could consider releasing jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao as a part of a political solution for the troubled former Portuguese colony.
"I say, we can consider it (Gusmao's release) not now, but as part of an overall, comprehensive solution," Mr Alatas said after meeting President Habibie.
He said the government remained of the view that Mr Gusmao had been sentenced for criminal activities and under normal circumstances, would not be eligible for government amnesty.
"We have continuously considered the release of Xanana (Gusmao) within the framework of a comprehensive settlement over East Timor ...under such a framework, that can be considered," Alatas said.
[According to a posting by Miranda Suryadjaja, on June 12, I Ketut Sundria said in Jakarta that he and other members were not ready to quit. Although he had told protesters that he and his deputies were going to Jakarta to with the letter of resignation, in Jakarta he talked about the mechanism for the election of the new governor in Bali and nothing was mentioned about the intention to resign. According to the posting Sundria is one of the closest cronys of Ida Bagus Oka, Bali's former governor who is now minister of family planning and settlement - James Balowski.]
Robert Kroon - Muchtar Pakpahan, founder of Indonesia's first independent labor union, SBSI, in 1992, was imprisoned by the Suharto government for "subversive activities" in 1996. After Mr. Suharto stepped down on May 21, Mr. Pakpahan was one of the first political prisoners to be released. The 45-year-old activist from Sumatra was invited by the World Confederation of Labor to attend the annual assembly of the International Labor Organization in Geneva this week. He discussed his country's problems and prospects with Robert Kroon for the IHT.
Q. The Indonesian government Tuesday accepted the ILO convention on workers' freedom of association, which puts you in the driver's seat as leader of Indonesia's first free labor movement. Do you think President B.J. Habibie is now seriously committed to social and political reforms?
A. Not really. He has always been Suharto's puppet and Suharto is still pulling the strings behind the scenes. That goes not only for Habibie, but also for his cabinet, which retained several ministers from the corrupt Suharto era. The reform process is much too slow. Habibie wants to hang on until the next century. The MPR, the People's Consultative Assembly, must be convened as soon as possible to install a new and more credible transition government and prepare for early general elections. We have given Habibie until June 15 to make up his mind about this special MPR session. If he keeps stalling, we will organize mass demonstrations of Indonesian workers and students to force Habibie out of office and speed up reforms. Indonesian workers are the main victims of the economic crisis resulting from the corrupt Suharto regime.
Q. In the present climate couldn't mass demonstrations trigger a new wave of violence?
A. I am against violence and the demonstrations will be peaceful if there are no provocations from the military. The attitude of the ABRI, the armed forces, in the reform process remains unclear. The military establishment is split in nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist factions. Armed forces chief General Wiranto claims he wants democratic reform, but he is an ambivalent factor in the military equation. He relieved General Prabowo Subianto, Suharto's son-in-law, from his command of the elite Strategic Reserve, but Prabowo remains a dangerous man.
Q. Isn't there a danger that Indonesia could turn into a fundamentalist state?
A. I see three negative possibilities: A military takeover, total anarchy, or a fundamentalist state. Freedom of religion is one of the underpinnings of the Indonesian republic and it must be respected. The general election should be a free and fair contest between political parties that are constituted according to democratic and not religious principles. Myself, I am a Christian from North Sumatra and SBSI, our independent labor union, was founded on the basis of religious tolerance. We started with a few hundred workers and now we already have half a million members.
Q. With Habibie still at the helm, what are your more immediate priorities?
A. The people do not trust the present government because it carries the imprint of the former regime. Suharto should be put on trial for enriching himself and his family at the expense of the Indonesian nation. Future support from the IMF to help Indonesia out of its present predicament is urgently needed, but the money should be disbursed in a transparent way for the benefit of the people. The $4 billion allotted by the IMF to Indonesia since November have disappeared without a trace. We also need aid from Western governments to alleviate the people's current hardships. Also, there are still some 150 political prisoners in jail and they should be freed immediately. That includes Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the East Timor resistance movement. Gusmao and I were in the same Jakarta prison. The East Timorese should decide on their own political future in a referendum and if they opt for association with Indonesia I told Xanana, he should accept it.
[According to a June 8 Agence France Presse report, Pakpahan warned he would organise street protests to push for faster reform and new date for elections saying: "In two weeks' time, perhaps we will organise national demonstrations to stop Habibie" - James Balowski]
As many as 10,000 striking workers scuffled with, and threw rocks at, anti-riot police when they staged a 10km march through the streets of Indonesia's second city, Surabaya, yesterday.
Police and witnesses said violence broke out when a line of police blocked the path of the marchers as they approached East Java's provincial parliament building.
At least five police and three protesters were hospitalised. Some were bleeding after being beaten with sticks or hit with rocks.
Police later let the crowd pass and stage a noisy rally outside the legislature in Surabaya, about 650km east of Jakarta.
The protest was the biggest since Indonesia's new President B.J. Habibie last week relaxed tight restrictions on labour unions and signed an International Labor Organisation convention on respect for workers' rights.
The workers, employees of a household appliance manufacturer, went on strike last Tuesday demanding higher salaries and better conditions as the effects of Indonesia's worst economic crisis in 30 years began to bite.
In Jakarta, students staged demonstrations to demand the dissolution of the ruling Golkar party and reforms to the other two authorised parties.
Dozens of Muslim students protested at the Ministry of Home Affairs to step up pressure on Golkar, Mr Suharto's main political vehicle for 32 years.
Jakarta -- Hundreds of striking bus drivers of the state-run PPD bus company gave a rousing welcome yesterday to released labor union chair-man Muchtar Pakpahan as he paid them an impromptu visit.
Drivers said it was the first time the leader of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), released from prison on May 25, was in their midst. Many claimed membership in his union. Muchtar, who arrived at noon with his secretary-general Sunarti in a hastily arranged addition to his hectic schedule was greeted with cries of "Long live Pakpahan!". Drivers had gathered since morning at PPD headquarters on J1. Permata Halim Perdanakusuma in East Jakarta.
Muchtar disappeared in the throng of drivers trying to get close to him. They eventually quieted down as he addressed them.
Drivers are striking over a demand that wages be in line with regulations of state-run companies.
"Some of us who have worked for more than 10 years still receive a monthly wage of about Rp 150,000," one driver said. "A colleague received Rp 25,000 in retirement money after 25 years of service," another added.
Banners proclaimed their demands for a stop to corruption in the company and investigation of their pension and health insurance schemes. "Tomorrow we will bring our wives and children if necessary," a driver said. They planned to spend the night at the facility unless Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris gave them a satisfactory answer.
Muchtar met with PPD director Dwi Wahyono and employee representatives including the company's SBSI branch chairman Godfried Aritonang. Wahyono, who became director in 1996, said he was "honored" to meet Muchtar. He said the management was trying to eradicate various causes of chronic losses.
As a result of the measures he said losses were reduced from Rp 29.7 billion in 1996 to Rp 18 billion in 1997. One resort was through ending nonprofitable partnerships. A management source said one of the terminated partner-ships was with Humpuss, the business group owned by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, former president Suharto's youngest son. The cooperation involved the renovation of double-deckers.
"I know that your losses are also influenced by outside parties," Muchtar said. He cited a concept drawn up by SBSI three years ago, that monthly wages could be at least Rp 600,000 for drivers while the company could still profit. "That was when the rupiah was around 2,500 to the (US) dollar," he said. He told drivers that the union could work with management to stop corruption and inefficiency, but drivers should do their part to save the company and make it profitable.
"I support your wish if you want to stay here," Muchtar said after drivers rejected his suggestion to go home and leave matters to their representatives. "As long as you promise to safeguard against any destruction and maintain your health. "
He also told drivers and management that SBSI was no longer banned. "There is no reason anymore on the part of the company to reject SBSI unions." On Monday, SBSI, set up in 1992, was officially registered as a union. Previously, the only government-sanctioned union was the Federasi SPSI, the All Indonesia Workers Union Federation. "Hardly any of us are (FSPSI) members," a driver said.
[On June 12, two SBSI members, Faradiba and Wandi, were acquitted and freed by a court in Jakarta. They had been arrested at a demonstration on March 9 during the special session of the MPR - James Balowski.]
| East Timor |
Jakarta -- Some 1,000 East Timor students rallied Saturday against Indonesian rule in provincial capital Dili and called for a referendum on self-determination, following a day of similar protests here.
About 1,000 students from various universities in the East Timor capital Dili defied an order from the local governor and held an anti-Indonesian rally at the Timor Timur university, a source there told AFP.
The students joined by civilians held a free-speech forum to air their grievances against Indonesia's rule and to demand self- determination of the people of the territory, the source said.
The protest followed a similar action in Jakarta at the foreign ministry on Friday by some 1,300 students who were forcibly rounded up by the Indonesian military and had their identities recorded. The group was preparing to leave the Indonesian capital on Saturday.
East Timor Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares on Thursday had ordered the students not to demonstrate. "The governor's warning has only further reinforced the students' faith in their mission to fight for a free state," the East Timor source told AFP. "The students in their free speech forum demanded for (East) Timor to have the freedom to determine its own state," he said.
The students also demanded an immediate referendum as well as the liberation of rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, who is serving a 20- year jail term here for plotting against the state and illegal possession of weapons.
The university, a known hotbed of pro-independence student activists, has held daily free-speech forum since Wednesday.
Lisbon -- A former commander of the East Timorese separatist rebels, M'a Huno, was arrested late Friday in Dili and could be facing torture, a pro-independence East Timorese group warned Saturday.
In a statement sent to AFP in Lisbon, the Socialist Association of Timor said M'a Huno was arrested by Indonesian troops stationed in East Timor.
The association also sent a warning to the human rights organisation, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and the international community concerning the troubled state of East Timor.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta -- Riot police yesterday violently broke up a Jakarta demonstration by about 1,500 East Timorese who were calling for a referendum on the future of the territory.
About 250 soldiers and police armed with guns, rattan sticks and riot shields dispersed the crowd of mainly students who had rallied in the grounds of the Foreign Ministry.
Two East Timorese women and a security guard were taken to hospital, a ministry spokesman said.Some demonstrators hurled bottles, rocks and shoes at the troops as they were beaten with sticks and forced on to waiting buses. Several female students wept as they were carted away, many without shoes and their handbags, which were left strewn in front of the building, a witness said.
A military spokesman said the protesters were taken to a boarding house owned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and bus stations on the outskirts of the city. Pijar pro-democracy group activist Bonar Tigor Naipopos was bundled into a military car and taken to an unknown location.
Police confiscated protesters' flags, banners and pictures of jailed East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao. Earlier, the crowd had waved the red, yellow and black East Timorese flag, rarely seen in public because of its association with the outlawed guerilla group Fretilin. In open defiance, they displayed giant photographs of Gusmao, calling him their president and leader.
Protesters called for a United Nations-sponsored referendum on the future of the former Portuguese territory. "Today, we want to shout to the world and the Indonesian Government to respect our rights and give us a referendum," said student leader Dioniso.
But the military's handling of this most significant demonstration indicates a split between what Mr Habibie's administration wants and how the military handles dissent.
Don Greenlees -- More than 250 prisoners in Dili's Becora jail refuse to return to their cells for the past nine days and have eaten little food as part of a protest calling for political reforms, human rights activists said yesterday.
But 12 jailed East Timorese students walked out of Becora's walls yesterday morning, accepting amnesties granted by President B.J. Habibie. They had delayed their departure by a day in a gesture of solidarity over the jail protest.
Human rights activists, who greeted the students on their release, described them as in a weak condition after several days outside in the prison courtyard.
The protest was sparked by a mass food poisoning in the jail on June 2. The director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, Manuel Abrantes, told The Weekend Australian the authorities had ceased to provide food to the 253 inmates in the courtyard but church groups were being allowed to send in some supplies.
"They are demanding a fact-finding investigation of the (food) poisoning and better treatment inside the prison -- an end to harassment, an end to punishment, an end to ill-treatment," Mr Abrantes said. "They are also demanding the release of all East Timorese political prisoners, including Xanana Gusmao."
He said the 12 students, serving sentences ranging from several months to three years for "anti-Indonesian" activities, were given a medical check at the Commission for Justice and Peace and reunited with their families. East Timorese student leaders and activists welcomed their release yesterday but are insisting on freedom for up to 70 others, including two who are serving life sentences in Becora for guerilla activities.
As hopes rise of a solution to the protracted international dispute over the status of East Timor, Australian ambassador John McCarthy arrived on a fact-finding mission in Dili yesterday.
Students from the University of East Timor are planning another demonstration in territory's capital today, in which they will attempt to march on the office of the Jakarta-appointed Governor, Abilio Soares.
The students are calling for a referendum to determine whether the former Portuguese colony, annexed by Indonesia in 1976, should gain independence. Student-lead demonstrations in Dili have attracted as many as 4000 people since Dr Habibie's administration signalled a more conciliatory stance on human rights and the territory's future status.
Christopher Torchia, Dili -- Rejecting a presidential promise of special status for their homeland within Indonesia, thousands of East Timorese demonstrated today for the right to vote for full independence.
More than 3,000 students and others gathered on the grounds of the state-funded University of East Timor.
"We want total independence. We want to be free," said Licinio Branco at the noisy but peaceful rally.
Organizers called for a full and free referendum on the future of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesian troops in December 1975 and annexed in January 1976. Since then, the territory has endured human rights abuses and separatist rebels have fought a guerrilla war.
The protest, organizers said, was the biggest since euphoric celebrations marked the awarding of the 1996 Nobel peace prize to Roman Catholic spiritual leader Bishop Carlos Belo.
Belo had asked the protesters to abandon plans to march through the streets of Dili, fearing it would only lead to a violent confrontation with the Indonesian military.
Demonstrators stayed safely on campus, raising their fists in the air and singing rebel songs. Some briefly held up outlawed rebel flags; others stood on rooftops and chanted anti-Indonesian slogans.
President B.J. Habibie signaled a possible easing of Indonesia's tight control over East Timor on Tuesday, saying he's ready to grant special status to East Timor in exchange for peace in the disputed territory.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Habibie also said he had signed a decree to release 10 jailed East Timor rebels.
The new Indonesian leader emphasized, however, that special status did not mean political autonomy, and that imprisoned East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao would remain behind bars. He is serving a 20-year prison term in Jakarta's Cipinang Prison.
East Timorese activists said Tuesday's gesture was not enough for them to end their long-running guerrilla war against Indonesian rule.
"They are rehashing an old position, which requires first that the United Nations recognize the illegal annexation of East Timor by Indonesia," said Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning independence activist for East Timor.
"Only then might they consider some wishy-washy 'special status' for East Timor," Ramos-Horta told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
"This is not a serious proposal, and I am stating unequivocally that we reject it."
Although the granting of special status for the territory would be largely a symbolic gesture, Habibie's offer is regarded as a significant shift in policy. Longtime President Suharto, who ordered the 1975 invasion, steadfastly refused to make any concessions toward East Timor.
A report just received by ETISC from reliable sources in Dili, East Timor confirms that a very significant gathering took place there on Saturday 6 June.
A forum on the future of East Timor was held in the meeting place behind the Governor's residence attended by a number of prominent East Timorese and a capacity crowd of about 2,000 invited guests and members of the public, who were described as vocal but well ordered.
Those present included the current Governor Abilio Soares, former Governor (and chair of the meeting) Mario Carrascalao, businessman Manuel Carrascalao and Domingos Soares. The Indonesian appointed 'Roving Ambassador' Francisco Lopez da Cruz was expected but did not appear.
The meeting canvassed a number of options for East Timor's future. Governor Abilio Soares spoke initially supporting autonomy and offered to travel to Jakarta to put the case for this to President Habibie. Observers described the reaction as a roar of jeers accompanied by waving of banners for freedom and a referendum. The meeting eventually adopted a four point resolution that:
The Indonesian armed forces, ABRI, did not interfere in events. Residents have reported that the actions of the Indonesian troops have been moderated since Suharto stepped down and that the International Red Cross have received no reports of arbitrary detentions for three weeks.Called for the release of all political prisoners, including Xanana; Asked both Indonesia and Portugal to agree to a joint administration for an interim period and the removal of ABRI from East Timor; Requested that the UN send in peacekeeping troops; Preparations be made for a referendum.
The main meeting was one of three meetings held to discuss options for East Timor's future. Another simultaneous meeting discussed the human and business resources available in East Timor and how they might be best utilised in future whilst a meeting at the University campus later involved discussion amongst students about their role and input.
One observer commented that there appeared to be a lot of coordination taking place and that care was being taken to avoid confrontation, noting that it was recognised that the current administrators would continue to be needed to play a role in future developments. He commented that although there was a new sense of freedom in Dili, it appeared that developments were being discussed in a realistic and pragmatic manner.
This is the first time that the population in Dili have been able to participate in an open discussion to canvas future options in such a public forum.
[A June 8 report by Suara Pembaruan described the meeting quite differently. It said it had been organised by the governor for the different political parties in East Timor to resolve their differences. But because copies of the invitation had been photocopied and distributed widely, a number of youth were present who "disrupted" the event turning it in to a "free- speech" forum which only "opened up old wounds" - James Balowski.]
| Political/economic crisis |
Jakarta -- Fresh violence has broken out in a small town in the Indonesian province of Central Java, with rioters damaging scores of shops and offices, reports received here said Saturday.
Hundreds of people went on a rampage in Parakan, Temanggung district, on Thursday, pelting and damaging 35 shops, banks, houses and government offices there, the Kompas daily said. There were no reports of casualties or injuries in the new riots, the daily said.
The violence followed a Moslem gathering for prayers in the town, Kompas said, adding that order was restored Friday morning. The report gave no other details but the local leader of the influential Islamic movement Nahdlatul Ulama has appealed for calm and condemned the violence as against Islamic ethics.
Habibie does not have a firm grip on economic policy or political power. If the country does not return to stability soon, say Peter Montagnon and Sander Thoenes, it could be set back years
First came a landmark deal to reschedule private sector debt, then the launch of an ambitious privatisation programme. Today, the International Monetary Fund resumes its review of Indonesia's economy with a view to reactivating the country's $43bn (#26bn) international rescue package.
Events have moved at such a cracking pace during the past few days that it might appear B.J. Habibie, Indonesia's new president, was consolidating his grip on policy. It might seem also that he had strengthened his hold on the presidency, thrust upon him last month after the abrupt departure of President Suharto.
Neither is true. Few Indonesians believe such frenetic activity will do much to resolve their country's fundamental problems. Not withstanding a few radical gestures, such as the freeing of political prisoners and recognition of hitherto illegal trade unions, Mr Habibie's administration is viewed as weak and transitional. The economy remains in virtual free fall, and there can be no revival of investment until political stability returns.
The failure of the rupiah to rally on last week's $80bn debt rescheduling underlines this concern. "The rupiah should strengthen," says Mohammad Sadli, a former energy minister. "If it does not happen, it is clear that the stumbling block is political confidence."
Mr Sadli has put his finger on the basic dilemma. There can be no economic recovery without a resolution of political uncertainties; yet the collapse in the economy is making political solutions harder. The failure to plan properly for the transition that everyone knew would inevitably follow the departure of former President Suharto risks producing a power vacuum; the danger is that economic and social development could be undermined for the best part of a decade.
The immediate problems are daunting. By the government's own calculations, the economy is expected to shrink by 10 per cent this year, though most private sector forecasts are closer to 20 per cent. Official unemployment is expected to rise to about 17 per cent, and inflation is already more than 50 per cent and heading higher. A large swathe of Indonesia's indebted corporate sector has been rendered bankrupt by the plunge in the currency. The local banking system has all but collapsed under a mountain of loan losses.
This litany of troubles would sorely tax even a well-established administration. Mr Habibie's chances of achieving economic normalisation are "close to zero," says Sjahrir of the Ecfin economic consultancy.
Among the tasks facing him -- and the IMF team -- is the need to determine a reasonable level for the budget deficit. It was an attempt to reduce spending by increasing fuel prices that sparked the final violent upheaval of Mr Suharto. "Physical infrastructure can be cut, not job and social safety net programmes," says Ginandjar Kartasasmita, co-ordinating minister for the economy.
Some economists believe significant savings could be achieved simply by ending the payments siphoned off by cronies of the former Suharto administration. But this looks a forlorn hope, especially considering the collapse of the tax base. Given the additional pressure on food supplies created by drought, the government may need to run a deficit of between 6 and 10 per cent of gross domestic product. That would be unprecedented for a country in the midst of an IMF programme, says Mari Pangestu, director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
On top of that comes the cost of bailing out the banking system, which Ms Pangestu puts at about $20bn. So far Indonesia has made little progress in this regard. IBRA, its bank restructuring agency, has taken many banks under its wing but has done little to close bad institutions, merge others and create a viable banking system.
All this will require massive amounts of international aid. But the question facing the IMF, as well as bilateral donors who gather next month for their annual meeting on Indonesia, is how far to pump in money before the political transition is complete. While humanitarian considerations call for basic assistance, there is a risk that money will go down the drain if it is given to a government without a real mandate.
"The longer Habibie stays, the more painful it will be for the country," says Rizal Ramli, a critical economist. "It would be advisable for the IMF and the World Bank to withhold money. It would just go to the same corrupt regime."
But the circumstances in which Mr Habibie will give way to a successor able to command real popular support are impossible to predict. A diminutive former science minister with a passion for grandiose and eccentric development schemes, Mr Habibie was taken aback by the realisation of his own unpopularity when he was catapulted into office, according to diplomats.
Much of what he has done since has been simply to follow the advice of others. In the economic field he is dependent on Mr Ginandjar, just as he is on General Wiranto, head of the armed forces, for military support. Yet his desire to defer parliamentary elections until the end of next year suggests he hopes to consolidate his own position and develop a power base for the longer term.
Two factors militate strongly against this. First, the same public revulsion at the way the previous administration milked the economy is turning against Mr Habibie. His own wealth, as well as that of his family, is coming under public scrutiny. The other is that he simply cannot survive the continuing deterioration of the economy.
Mr Ginandjar, widely thought to harbour his own ambitions, is among those who disagree with Mr Habibie's election timetable. For the sake of economic confidence, he thinks elections should be held early next year.
At the weekend Emil Salim, a respected economics professor who is also sometimes touted as a possible presidential candidate, called for more speed. "Why should we have to wait until late next year if we could hold an election within six months?" he said. "The quicker the political problem is resolved, the quicker the economy recovers."
The precise timetable also depends on another set of imponderables. Some believe that, with universities due to close for their annual vacation, the student pressure that brought down Mr Suharto may abate, particularly since divisions are emerging in student ranks.
More important, the struggle for power only really began after Mr Suharto's resignation. Golkar, the government party, is in the process of disintegration. All the main actors need time to group and consolidate. While that process is under way it serves their interests to have a weak president.
It is noticeable that the two opposition politicians with the deepest popular support -- Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of former President Sukarno, and Amien Rais, the Moslem intellectual -- have been careful not to rock the boat. Diplomats say General Wiranto has been supportive of Mr Habibie partly because he wants a constitutional and orderly solution to the political dilemma. But he has also not yet completely consolidated his hold over the armed forces - in spite of the sidelining of General Prabowo Subianto, Mr Suharto's ambitious and temperamental son-in-law.
Another solution would be the formation of a formal caretaker government. Indonesia's constitution provides for the appointment of a triumvirate to run the country on a temporary basis. Such a group has been much discussed. It would include a military figure such as Gen Wiranto, former vice-president Try Sutrisno or former defence minister Edi Sudradjat. It would also contain a popular politician such as Ms Megawati, and a Moslem figure such as Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama grouping, or an economic technocrat such as Mr Salim.
The failure of such a solution to materialise indicates the extent to which leading figures are pursuing their personal ambitions. In that vacuum, there is a risk of a new and violent convulsion as rivals clash and Indonesia's economic problems go unaddressed. "Decent people will become anarchists. They will have to, because they need to eat," says Mr Sjahrir.
It need not happen like this. For all the economic gloom, some analysts point to the resilience of the informal economy and the possibility of a sharp revival in agriculture now the drought is over. The rupiah devaluation has also spurred exports of some products such as pulp and paper, as well as of non-traditional ones such as marble. These factors could keep the wolf from the door until a more orderly political solution materialises.
But the foreign investors who are supposed to finance Indonesia's recovery realise it may be years before the former dynamism returns. The longer political uncertainty and economic distress continue, the greater the fear that Indonesia could compound its problems by settling on a government that is inward- looking, Islamic in orientation, and hostile to foreign capital.
"Our tragedy is that we have waited so long for this to happen," says Ms Pangestu of Mr Suharto's departure. "Now the opportunity is there before us, and we don't know what to do."
[According to the June 11 edition of FEER, Wiranto is quietly weeding allies of Prabowo. These include Brig.-Gen. Eddi Budianto, an academy classmate of Prabowo head of the important Bogor military district who has been transferred to the Coordinating Agency for the Maintenance of National Stability. Days later, another classmate and friend, the assistant for naval planning Vice-Adm. Achmad Sutjipto, was moved to head the Armed Forces Academy. FEER also said that speculation surrounds the future of Jakarta regional commander Maj.-Gen. Sjafrie Syamsuddin, military intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Zacky Anwar Makarim and Marine Corps commandant Maj.-Gen. Suharto, all considered close to Prabowo. Analysts also predict a spring- cleaning of commanders at Kopassus, which Prabowo headed before being sacked - James Balowski.]
| Human rights/law |
The Alliance of Independent Journalists condemns Bob Hassan's action in closing the tabloid, ParOn, on 9 June 1998.
As the owner of the weekly tabloid, Hassan took the decision without any prior discussion with the journalists and workers.
The official reason for the closure is that the weekly was not selling well. Yet the closure took place after Paron had increased its circulation dramatically from 30,000 to 70,000 in the last month.
According to AJI's information, the closure took place because Paron journalists wanted to practice press freedom, inspired by the recent wave of political reform. For instance, by conducting an investigation into Soeharto's hidden wealth. In the last two editions, Paron's cover stories were "Action to Reveal Soeharto's Wealth" (1 June edition), and "Soeharto Family's Land as Big as Jakarta" (8 June edition). This, despite the fact that ParOn's Managing Director had warned the editorial staff not to publish anything linked to the controversy surrounding former president Soeharto, who is a close friend of Bob Hasan.
Hasan's action is another form of banning, which AJI warned about 3 years previously, on the grounds that Soeharto's policy on share holdings in the mass media threatens Indonesian press freedom from two sides: the government as power holder, and the owner as investor. The closure of Paron proves it: banning can be carried out by media investors.
Nicole Gaouette, Jakarta -- They noticed the grenade after lunch. It lay just inside the courtyard, a tiny space crammed with boxes, cars, volunteers on break, and two warbling songbirds in cages.
The Rev. Sandyawan Sumardi, who runs the Jakarta Social Institute, an advocacy group for urban poor, didn't think it was real. Dusty green, it looked like a tiny pineapple - a toy left by a neighborhood kid.
But as he cradled it in his palm, he felt its heft and saw the gleaming pin. He put it down gently and went to phone the police, who later told him the grenade was Army-issue ordnance. "It was a warning," the Jesuit says with a quiet smile.
Indonesia without its long-time ruler, Suharto, is beginning to see more freedoms, but reports of military rivalries and political intrigue ricochet through Jakarta daily.
In this climate, Fr. Sandyawan and his team are probing an incendiary theory: that the violent May 14 riots were instigated and coordinated by groups with possible ties to the military. "I've been anxious that all conflicts between the elites harm the grass roots," he says. "My anxiety came true."
The riots hit hard the poor people he serves, prompting him to hunt down reports that the mass looting was deliberately instigated. The 1,188 now estimated to have died May 14 were mostly poor Jakartans caught in fires that witnesses say were set. The respected National Human Rights Commission has noted the involvement of "organized groups" in a report on the riots.
Sandyawan's volunteers think they've found more evidence. Witnesses have told them they recognized provocateurs they knew to be members of Army intelligence. If that proves to be true, it would lend credence to theories that the military provoked riots as a way to pressure former President Suharto to resign, perhaps to replace him with a military man. (Suharto was able to have his vice president, B.J. Habibie, take power.)
Organized riots?
While the riots have been attributed to a mass explosion of frustration over the economy and the deaths of six anti-Suharto protesters, Sandyawan argues "the effort to create a riot was done [in an] organized [fashion], systematically and professionally."
Indonesia's uprising against President Suharto has many heroes, from student protesters to Cabinet technocrats who refused to serve him any longer. Sandyawan and his team are among many who have risked retribution for seeking justice.
His institute's workers tell of being followed, harassed, of their relatives being thrown in jail. Reed-thin, with a gentle air and dark curly hair, Sandyawan doesn't look the part of a revolutionary, but he has faced a variety of charges, including public declaration of hostility against the government and contempt of those in authority. He is not permitted to leave Indonesia.
Sitting around a table near the institute's entrance, Sandyawan and one of his investigators, lawyer Antonio Pragasto, dismiss the risks of activism as they sip glasses of sweet, hot tea. "We're open about what we do," says Mr. Pragasto. "Violence can only be faced by nonviolence."
Sandyawan responds, "As a human being, I get afraid." Then, with a firmness grounded in his faith, he adds, "But the only proper reaction is to submerge myself in prayer, and surrender to the God of love."
A few of the Institute's 126 volunteers wander through the large ground-floor room as the two men talk. Funded by donations, the operation is strictly no- frills, with worn wicker chairs and a bare stone floor. A wall-mounted whiteboard documents their progress under headings like logistik, litigasi, and investigasi. On another wall, a rough oil painting depicts their clientele. The canvas shows a garbage-strewn dirt path hemmed in by rickety wooden shacks and women bent over buckets of laundry. A sleek modern building looms in the background, a monument to Jakarta's wealthy, its pristine white curves a sharp contrast to the slums below.
The scene is an almost exact reproduction of one of the neighborhoods Pragasto and the institute's lead investigator, Palupi, visit in the course of their job. (Many Indonesians go by only one name.) Usually, the institute clothes and feeds street children, and offers health care and legal aid to the poor, work Sandyawan calls "the expression of God's bright love."
But on an outing last week, Pragasto and Ms. Palupi looked for people who lost relatives in the citywide rioting and for witnesses to the events. For hours they explored a poor east Jakarta neighborhood, not far from a shopping center where 202 people died after it was set ablaze.
Palupi led the way through a maze of streets and passageways, some no wider than her shoulders. As they passed, barefoot children stared and chickens scattered. In the 90 degree heat, the air was thick with the odor of open sewage.
In home after home, the two sat on damp floors to ask questions and explain their goal. Palupi, a former sociology professor, methodically took notes. Each visit yielded parents who lost a child to the fire. Some listened dully, but in one home a mother, Ruminah, was animated by anger.
Her young son had snuck away from the house to go to the shopping center with friends when the looting began. As people hauled off TVs they could never afford, Gunawan and his school friends were on the fourth floor doing something that tempts children the world over: jumping up and down on mattresses in the bed department.
A mother's reason to find truth
Ruminah's voice was steady as she told her story, but her hands were clenched. She had sent one of Gunawan's older brothers to search for him, but he arrived to find the plaza in flames. She went to the police, only to be told he was probably dead, like most of the looters.
When her older sons found Gunawan at a local hospital the next day, they were only able to identify him by his basketball shorts. "He was just a child," she said, holding up his yellow- and-pink teddy bear. "He never caused problems, he wouldn't take anything. I don't want him to be dismissed as a looter."
Her anger runs all the deeper because of the story her son Budhi tells. The afternoon of the riots he left work to go to the plaza with friends. Watching from across the road, unaware his younger brother was inside, he saw a red Colt truck pull up. It carried about 30 men, who he thought were there for free booty. "They looked just like us," he remembers. As they piled out of the truck, he saw each man carried a plastic bag full of liquid or a plastic jug. As Budhi approached the plaza entrance, he saw them pile clothing on the floor, pour liquid, set the piles on fire, and return to their truck empty-handed. "They were only there 20, 30 minutes," he said. "It was just like they were on a timetable."
Sandyawan's investigators have collected similar accounts from witnesses throughout Jakarta and they argue that a pattern is clear: The riots were begun, directed by provocateurs.
Today, they plan to take witnesses and relatives who lost family to the National Human Rights Commission to tell their stories and ask for an inquiry. Ruminah intends to go. She sees the process as cathartic. "Palupi and [Pragasto] came and they listened to me. The police and officials simply call my son a looter," she says. "I want to know what really happened."
Seth Mydans, Jakarta -- Human rights and women's aid groups have begun to document what they say appears to have been an organized campaign of assaults, gang rapes and killings of ethnic Chinese women during three days of rioting in Jakarta last month.
The aid workers say they have talked with dozens of victims or relatives of victims, and they estimated on Tuesday that more than 100 women and girls may have been attacked and raped in Jakarta alone as their neighborhoods were burning between May 13 and 15. There were reports of similar attacks during riots in other cities that preceded the fall of President Suharto on May 21.
One worker at a women's aid center, Sita Kayam, said she believed that hundreds of women were receiving physical or psychological help at hospitals here.
Other aid workers said most of the victims remained too traumatized to talk about their experiences and too terrified of reprisals to report their ordeals to officials or even to unofficial rape centers. The police said no reports of rape had been brought to the authorities.
Another worker at the women's aid center, Ita Nadia, said some women had committed suicide after their ordeals.
The reported attacks ranged from the degrading and humiliating to the horrific; from women who were made to strip and perform calisthenics in public to women who were repeatedly raped and then thrown into the flames of burning buildings.
The reports involve girls and women ranging in age from 10 to 55, the aid workers said. Some were gang-raped in front of a crowd in the Chinese commercial district of Glodok, said Rita Kolibonso, executive director of the women's group Mitra Perempuan.
"Some of the rapers said, 'You must be raped because you are Chinese and non-Muslim,"' said Ms. Ita, who works at a crisis center called Kalyana Mitra. Ethnic Chinese citizens, who control much of the country's commerce, have been targets of violence in Indonesia for years.
The consensus among human rights workers and rape counselors is that the attacks were mostly organized by unknown groups, in the same way that increasing evidence suggests that organized groups were involved in instigating attacks of arson and vandalism aimed largely at ethnic Chinese neighborhoods during the rioting. This evidence is based on reports that groups of men arrived simultaneously at various targets in the city with gasoline bombs and other weapons and initiated the violence.
Albert Hasibuan, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, said human rights workers had talked with a participant in the riots who said he had been recruited, briefed, paid and transported by unidentified men, who provided him and others with stones and gasoline bombs. The commission is the official government human-rights monitoring agency, but since its formation in 1996 has often been critical of the government.
Because of the organized nature of many of the reported assaults and because of some physical descriptions of the attackers, the aid workers said they suspected that some elements of the armed forces might have been involved. Some witnesses said they observed men with muscular builds and military haircuts, and one victim said she was raped by men who had a military uniform in their car.
Human rights groups have reported similar suspicions about reported instigators of the looting and arson, who traveled in groups through the city in vehicles.
Hasibuan's group reported last week that at least 1,188 people had died in the rioting in Jakarta and that 40 large shopping centers, 4,083 shops and 1,026 private homes had been attacked, burned or looted.
Lt. Col. Iman Haryatna, the Central Jakarta police chief, told reporters that victims were welcome to come forward but that the police had so far received no reports of assaults on women during the riots.
Because of a widespread mistrust of security forces both among the victims and human-rights workers, the reports of rapes are being gathered instead by two prominent women's crisis centers and three well-established human rights groups.
Two aid workers said they had received telephone threats warning them to stop their investigations and their aid to victims. One of these, a Catholic priest named Father Sandiyawan who works at the private Jakarta Social Institute, said someone had sent him a hand grenade in the mail as a warning.
The other said she received a telephone call on Saturday in which a man said: "Do you know that a week ago we sent a grenade to Father Sandiyawan? Do you want more than the grenade we sent to Father Sandiyawan?"
Ms. Ita said that three weeks after the riots it is still very difficult to approach the victims of rapes and harassment "because their trauma is very deep."
"Even for myself, I will tell you that it is really emotionally difficult because I have to confront the experiences of the victims," she said. "It is really very, very bad."
Slowly and painfully, she and other counselors have compiled accounts like the following: * A student was abducted at a bus stop, taken to a swamp near the airport and raped by four men in a car. There was a green uniform in the car and she asked her abductors if they were police officers. "If you are police, you have to save me," she told them, according to Ms. Ita. One of them answered: "No, I have to give you a lesson. You are a woman and you are beautiful and you are part of the Chinese."
Meanwhile, arsonists entered the lower floors and set fire to the building. "After they had raped her two sisters, the two men said to her, 'We are finished and we are satisfied and because you are too old and ugly we weren't interested in you.' So they took her two sisters and pushed them to the ground floor where there was already fire, and they were killed.In the midst of the riot, a group of men stopped a city bus and forced out all the non-Chinese women. "Then they chose the beautiful women among the Chinese and raped them inside the bus," Sandiyawan said. "The victims of that incident are really depressive. They are in the hospital with their families. They are trying to hide themselves from the public." A 10-year-old girl returning from school discovered that the shop-house where her family lived and worked had been burned. As she went in search of her parents, she was seized by two men and raped in front of her neighbors. One woman, a bank officer, told a local reporter that she was seized from the back of a motorcycle in the middle of the riot and thrown to the ground by a group of men. "She told me she was so hysterical and she was so panicked that she does not remember what happened," the reporter said. "But she showed me a lot of bruises on her body, especially on her legs." In an incident of public humiliation, a group of about 15 men entered a bank where 10 ethnic Chinese employees were taking refuge from the riot. The men locked the door, made the women take off their clothes and ordered them to dance. In a similar incident during a riot in the city of Medan on May 4, 20 female students at a teachers' training college were stopped by police officers when they tried to flee the violence on their campus. The officers forced them to take off their clothes and perform calisthenics. In both cases, the women reported that they were fondled but not raped. In another incident of harassment during the riot in Jakarta, a number of ethnic Chinese women were reportedly stripped and made to swim in a pond. Ms. Ita told of an ethnic Chinese woman who hid in her house with her two younger sisters as the rioters approached. About 10 men came into the house and found the sisters on the third floor. They made the two younger women take off their clothes and told the older sister to stand in a corner, "because you are too old for us."
"When her mother heard the news, she had a heart attack and died," Ms. Ita said. "So now this woman is in a psychiatric hospital. Sometimes she cries when she tells the story and sometimes she is normal again. That is one of the stories we have confirmed."
Jakarta -- More than 39,000 people have been killed in military operations against a separatist movement in the northern Indonesian province of Aceh in recent years, a rights group said.
The Aceh Non Governmental Organisation Forum also said that between 1,000 and 3,000 people from the province who were deported by Malaysia this year were still detained by police because of suspected links with the separatists, press reports said today.
The government-funded Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) has said it will take up events in the north Sumatra province with General Wiranto, the defence minister and head of the military (ABRI).
A commission member BN Marbun said "we will ask ABRI to pull out all soldiers deployed to crush the separatist rebel movement as well as lift the military operation region status in the province," the Jakarta Post reported.
A special military status exists in Aceh, the former Portuguese colony of East Timor and Irian Jaya because of separatist movements. The movements of diplomats and foreign journalists are strictly controlled in the regions.
The Aceh National Liberation Front has been fighting for independence since the 1970s from what the group calls "Javanese colonisation." The province is rich in natural gas.
The Indonesian authorities launched a major operation against the rebels at the start of the 1990s. The actions of the Kopasss elite force in Aceh, Irian Jaya and East Timor have been regularly condemned by international rights groups such Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Aceh NGO Forum said that between 1,000 and 3,000 people from Aceh who were deported from Malaysia as illegal immigrants were still in dentention camps because of suspected links with the separatist movement.
| Politics |
Semarang -- Hundreds of leaders of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) have agreed to set up a political party -- 14 years after Indonesia's largest Islamic organization shunned politics.
The scholars gathered at the Raudhatul Thalibien pesantren (boarding school) in Central Java town of Rembang on Saturday to discuss their stance following the opening of political corridors that enables individuals and organizations to set up their own political parties.
Attending were, among others, Cholil Bisri, Syukron Makmun and Matori Abdul Jalil from Jakarta, Attabik Ali from Yogyakarta; Yusuf Muhammad from Jember, East Java, Rawasid As'ad from Situbondo, East Java; and Aziz Mashuri from Jombang, also East Java.
NU was established in 1926 as a socioreligious organization. Prior to 1984, NU was involved in politics, first as a political organization and later as a faction within the United Development Party (PPP) which was a fusion of several Moslem parties. In 1984, it broke away from PPP out of disappointment over party executives' policies and vowed it would shun politics.
Recently some NU figures flirted with the notion of establishing a political party, which was neither discouraged nor encouraged by the executive board.
Chairman Abdurrahman Wahid, however, insisted that NU members await the board's directives on the issue.
Cholil, also a member of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), said the time had come for the NU to again play a role in the national political arena.
The Indonesian Women's Party (PP), the Indonesian Workers Party (PPI), the Musyawarah Kekeluargaan Gotong Royong (MKGR), the Chinese-Indonesians for Reform Party (Parti) are several political parties that have been established recently. The NU leaders and scholars also agreed to assemble again in Jakarta on Aug. 17, to officially form the new party.
Existing laws say only the dominant Golkar, PPP and the Christian-nationalist alliance Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) are allowed to contest general elections. President B.J. Habibie's government is preparing a draft to amend the laws and enable more parties to participate in polls.
PDI Meanwhile, several local PDI chapters in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, and in Lampung declared Saturday their support for ousted PDI leader Megawati Soekarnoputri. They called on her rival Soerjadi, who with government support ousted Megawati in 1996, to step down and let her lead the party to win the next elections. The Deli Serdang PDI chapter issued a statement, signed by 11 activists in Lubuk Pakam on Saturday, calling on Soerjadi's executive board to stand down and voluntarily hand over leadership to Megawati.
The chapter also urged Megawati to replace members of PDI factions in the House of Representatives (DPR) and MPR who obtained their seats through alleged practice of collusion and nepotism.
Activist Effendy Manulang said PDI secretary-general Buttu Hutapea, House Deputy Speaker Fatimah Achmad and Panangian Siregar now minister of environment, should be dismissed from the legislative body because they did not win the minimum votes required in last year's elections.
| Economy and investment |
Mike Head -- Some of the biggest American, European and Japanese transnational corporations have demanded -- in no uncertain terms -- that the regime headed by President B. J. Habibie protect their multi-billion-dollar investments in Indonesia that involve partnerships with Suharto family members.
"If the government reneges on this contract, they'll get absolute turmoil," Ronald P. Landry, chief executive officer of Paiton Energy, told Business Week magazine last week. He invoked the threat of phone calls from US President Bill Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on behalf of the Paiton consortium, which includes General Electric and Mitsui.
Landry was referring to the document Paiton signed with the Suharto regime in 1994 to build a $US2.5 billion power plant, due to go on-line next year. This deal is just one of an estimated $73 billion worth of projects personally approved by Suharto between 1967 and 1995, involving corporate giants such as Siemens of Germany, BP of Britain, Nestle of Switzerland, Merrill Lynch of the US, NEC of Japan, Hyundai of Korea and BHP of Australia.
As is typical in joint ventures in Indonesia, the American and Japanese conglomerates in the Paiton project obtained the contract by giving large equity shares to Suharto's second daughter, Siti Hedijati Hariyadi (Titiek), and her brother-in-law Hashim Djojohadikusumo. Hashim, a billionaire, is the brother of Titiek's husband, Major-General Prabowo Subianto.
Habibie's government is facing mounting demands from workers and students, as well as various Indonesian business interests, to confiscate or at least make inroads into the financial empire amassed by the Suharto dynasty and its corporate associates. "The political pressure is just beginning," one corporate chief complained to Business Week. "It will get bigger and bigger," said Sofjan Wanandi, head of the Gemala Group, whose foreign partners include Nomura Securities and Glaxo Wellcome.
Popular hostility toward the Suharto family is now so great that the military has reportedly advised members of the family not to leave their mansions. Business figures have acknowledged that family members had to quit their board positions on public companies, lest the companies lose their ability to trade. That was why Suharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo resigned as president- director of Bimantara Citra, which has $1.3 billion worth of joint ventures with Deutsche Telekom, Hughes Electronics, Hyatt, Hyundai and other firms.
Much of the Suharto wealth -- estimated at up to $40 billion -- was accumulated over the past decade by requiring transnationals to create multi-million-dollar equity holdings for family members in joint ventures. In addition, an array of kickbacks, bribes and consultants' fees were paid to the Suharto clan in return for investment approvals, government tenders and rights to impose inflated charges for services such as electricity and water.
In the case of the Paiton plant, for example, there was no formal bidding system for the contract in 1994. The government agreed to pay an inflated price of 8.5 US cents per kilowatt hour for its energy -- far higher than prevailing rates. Now the cost is astronomical, given the 80 percent plunge in the value of the rupiah and the collapse in industrial and commercial demand for electricity over the past year.
In at least one instance, the Habibie-led regime has quickly buckled under the pressure of the transnationals and their governments. That occurred when the Jakarta Water Authority decided on June 1 to give France's Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and Britain's Thames Water International complete control over key water purification and supply systems in Jakarta.
Following strenuous interventions by the Blair Labour Party government in Britain and the Jospin Socialist Party government in France, these firms were permitted to buy out the equity stakes of Suharto's son Sigit Harjojudanto and his associates from the Salim family, Indonesia's largest ethnic Chinese business empire.
Many other such projects exist -- particularly in the mining sector, where massive profits are at stake in gold, copper and oil. Among them are two projects involving Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold (US-based, but one-third owned by British- Australian giant Rio Tinto), the Indonesian government and Suharto's Nusamba investment company. The first is a $3.2 billion gold and copper mine in Irian Jaya (West Papua), and the second is a $650 million copper smelter. The highly profitable mine (it made $245 million last year) was exempted from company tax last August, just months after Suharto's Nusamba was given a 10 percent stake in the project. The smelter, awarded a generous five-year tax holiday, also has a Japanese partner, Mitsubishi Materials.
As one Indonesian reader of the World Socialist Web Site has pointed out in correspondence, the next generation -- Suharto's grandchildren -- have begun to assemble business fortunes. Suharto's eldest grandson, Ari Haryo Wobowo Sigit, 27, the son of Sigit Harjojudanto, runs the ARHA Group, which has activities in commodities, telecommunications, tourism and manufacturing. His 28 companies run a fibreglass plant, infrastructure projects and a power station. His most recent venture is a consumer label -- Sexy -- specialising in clothes, cafes, soft drinks and beer. He achieved notoriety in February 1996 when he tried to impose a special levy on beer and alcohol sales on the island of Bali.
But this grotesque cronyism goes far beyond the Suharto clan. That is only the most visible feature of an interlocking corporate web that extends right into the Habibie cabinet, the puppet parliament, the military high command and the bourgeois opposition led by figures such as Amien Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Within the cabinet, Habibie himself has a $60 million network of 83 companies in the Timsco Group, operated by his brother, and the Repindo Group, run by his son, most of which had contracts awarded by government agencies controlled by Habibie during his 20 years as technology minister.
Ginandjar Kartasasmita, the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry, a member of Suharto's cabinet since 1988, has a significant share, through a brother, in the Catur Yasa Group. Its 18 companies have profited from government licences, approvals and contracts in areas that closely mirror Ginandjar's past ministerial portfolios.
Hartoto Sastrosoenarto, Co-ordinating Minister for Development and National Reform, a minister since 1983, runs the Garama Group through three sons and two daughters. Its 30 companies have benefitted from government supply contracts.
Harmoko, the Speaker of the parliament and the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR), served as Suharto's Information Minister between 1983 and 1997. As he administered the dictatorship's tight control over the media, he took over much of it. His PosKota Group owns some of the biggest circulation newspapers and a newsprint mill.
Many in the bourgeois opposition have similar interests, or, alternatively, seek to become the new partners of the transnationals. Megawati, for example, is married to a businessman. Professor Sumitro Djojohadikusumo, a prominent member of Amien Rais's opposition Peoples' Council (MAR), is General Prabowo's father and was an economics adviser to both Suharto and his predecessor, Sukarno.
Others on the lists of Suharto foundation (yayasan) directors include aspiring opposition presidential candidate, former Suharto minister Emil Salim, and Habibie's debt negotiator Radius Prawiro.
In line with their vested class interests, the bourgeois opposition leaders have joined General Wiranto in trying to quell the popular demand for action against the Suhartos and their collaborators. Both Rais and Megawati have appealed for calm and restraint. However, few people have accepted the regime's announcement of a limited inquiry into Suharto's wealth, to be run by the government's own Attorney General.
Another group has sprung up, calling itself Citizens Who Care About the National Wealth, seeking to divert the unrest into a lawsuit. "The people are adamant about it -- the wealth has to be returned," said its spokesman, lawyer Albert Hasibuan. "The people are poised to take the law into their own hands. It's better for us to start formal legal proceedings." Such manoeuvres are designed to protect the Habibie-led regime and reassure the multinationals that their interests will not be threatened.
Having profited immensely for years from their intimate dealings with the Suharto family, the transnational banks and corporations are now dictating new terms to the financially bankrupted and politically unstable Jakarta regime. Under the cover of belated concerns about corruption and nepotism, they are demanding even less restricted access to the profits to be made from the natural wealth and cheap labour of Indonesia. This is the essential purpose of the restructuring plans imposed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Both the regime currently headed by Habibie and the bourgeois opposition are committed to enforcing the demands of global and Indonesian capitalism against the pauperised masses. None of the factions in ruling circles will take even the first steps toward freeing the Indonesian masses from economic and political oppression: the repudiation of the foreign debt and the appropriation of the assets of the Suharto empire and its business partners.
David Liebhold, Jakarta -- If Suharto had hoped that by stepping down he could assuage the anger of the Indonesian people, he is likely to be disappointed. After 32 years of allowing family and friends to squander the public wealth, it's payback time. Jakarta street vendors are selling photocopied lists of companies the Suharto family owns, complete with mug shots of his children. Magazines and newspapers are falling over each other to cater to a public obsessed with unmasking the Suharto fortune. "The people are adamant about it -- that wealth has to be returned," says Albert Hasibuan, a lawyer who helped found Citizens Who Care About the National Wealth, an independent group investigating the Suharto assets and gathering evidence for a lawsuit. "The people are poised to take the law into their own hands. It's better for us to start formal legal proceedings."
The strength of the popular outrage about the tainted wealth of the former First Family and their cronies has surprised even many of Suharto's political opponents. Prominent pro-democracy leaders are calling for restraint, arguing that there are more urgent priorities and warning that a witch-hunt could go badly wrong. Even though both democracy icon Megawati Sukarnoputri and popular Muslim leader Amien Rais are appealing for calm, the momentum may be impossible to contain. "Ever since the students brought it up, the issue of the money has been unstoppable," says author and retired Catholic priest Mangun Wijaya. "It's one issue that the people fully understand."
In the face of growing pressure, the government of B.J. Habibie has already announced that it will investigate the proceeds of corruption and nepotism, including, if necessary, the dealings of the Suharto family. At the same time, groups of citizens who doubt the enthusiasm of the attorney general -- a Suharto appointee -- have launched their own inquiries. Last month, Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander General Wiranto publicly undertook to protect the former President and his family, but he did not make any guarantees about their money. "As far as I'm aware the protection promised was only physical," says Jakarta military analyst Salim Said, who does not expect army leaders to block efforts to recover national assets held by the Suharto family. "I think ABRI should rehabilitate itself and show the people that its leaders are no longer cronies of Suharto." It is hard to imagine a worse turn of events for President Habibie, himself a Suharto protege with no significant independent power base and a reputation for awarding contracts to the dozens of companies controlled by his own family. "Nepotism and corruption are not limited to Suharto," says editor Gunawan Muhamad. "Habibie is also known to be a practitioner of those arts." With little legitimacy to begin with, the new President can hardly be seen to be protecting Suharto from the course of justice. Already last week thousands of students returned to the scene of earlier protests at the parliament building with a banner reading depose habibie! bring suharto to justice!
Together, Suharto and his six children are estimated to be worth as much as $40 billion. The fortune traces to the 1950s, when then-Colonel Suharto began trading and smuggling in cooperation with Liem Sioe Liong, who would become one of the country's wealthiest businessmen. After seizing power in 1966, Suharto established his first company, PT Hanurata Co. Ltd. It still exists, holding an estimated 3,000 sq km of forest concessions, mainly in East Kalimantan. In 1968 Suharto granted lucrative clove import licenses to his half-brother Probosutedjo and Liem, and the following year he gave Liem monopoly rights over wheat milling.
In the early 1970s, under Probosutedjo's direction, Hanurata began importing oil drilling equipment from the United States and Japan. Suharto also set up a sugar mill in southern Sumatra and his wife Tien was involved in arms imports, but neither of these ventures was actually turning a profit. "At the end of the 1970s Suharto didn't have much money," says business consultant Wilson Nababan. "What wealth he did have would mostly have been from commissions and kickbacks." These mostly took the form of price mark-ups on equipment he sold to state companies, adds Nababan. The big money started to accrue in the early 1980s. Three of the Suharto children -- Bambang Trihatmodjo, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana ("Tutut") and Hutomo Mandala Putra ("Tommy") were given lucrative concessions in the petroleum trade, as intermediaries between the state oil monopoly and its customers and suppliers. "That was the money machine," says Nababan. "If you assume 50 cents per barrel per day, that's already about $140 million a year." Last week, under popular pressure, Pertamina announced that it would review these longstanding arrangements.
Since the late 1980s, all six children have broadly diversified, acquiring interests in virtually every sector in which there was money to be made. The list includes aviation, broadcasting, automaking, shipping, sugar, toll roads and telecommunications. As the kids moved into new fields, the blatant favoritism they thrived on became increasingly obvious -- and public resentment grew. Yet the former President and his children didn't hold back. One of the family's last and most audacious business schemes was Tommy's "national car program," begun in 1996. It allowed the youngest son to import Kia Sephia sedans from South Korea without paying the 50%-plus import duties and luxury tax to which all other such cars were subject. They were then sold as Timors.
In a measure of how low the Suharto clan has fallen, Minister of Justice Muladi says he is prepared to impose a travel ban on the family if the attorney general requests it. Already the children are said to be on an informal Immigration Ministry blacklist, which would prevent their going abroad. Informed sources say the Suhartos are currently confined to their homes, having been told that the military cannot guarantee their safety if they venture out. It gets worse. Like most Indonesian companies, the Suhartos' ventures have been hit hard by recession and the 80% drop in the rupiah's value. And like so many other Indonesian businessmen, the children were caught out with unhedged foreign-denominated loans. "If Suharto Inc. had to pay all its debts, it would be bankrupt," says Nababan, who estimates that the family's corporate debts alone exceed $6 billion.
Whether or not the children will be brought before the courts on corruption charges will probably depend on how long Indonesia's recession continues. "If the economy gets better, they could escape that," says Sofyan Wanandi, a director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. "But if the crisis gets worse, a scapegoat will be needed." Assuming they can stay out of jail, the Suhartos have diverted enough wealth overseas that they probably won't ultimately be bankrupted. "They have already built multinational corporations," says George Aditjondro, a sociologist from Australia's University of Newcastle. "The Suhartos were much smarter than the Marcoses or the Mobutus." Tutut has toll-road projects in the Philippines, Tommy owns a major stake in Italy's Lamborghini automaker and Bambang's offshore interests include Singapore-based Osprey Maritime Ltd., one of Asia's largest oil and gas tanker fleets.
The Suharto family has spirited an estimated $1 billion overseas in cash, says Jakarta-based business consultant Christianto Wibisono. "They put it in many different banks in different places -- to make it harder to trace and seize," he says. Most of the money is thought to have been stashed in Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and Morocco. "They also have real estate in the US, Britain and New Zealand," says sociologist Aditjondro. Recovering the Suharto billions won't be easy, but Indonesia's campaigners against corruption say there is more at stake than just money. "Even if we don't get a single rupiah, the attempt is important as a form of political education, as well as a means of improving our image abroad," says Hasibuan. With that kind of conviction sweeping the land, Suharto's problems may have only just begun.