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ASIET Net News 9 – March 1-7, 1999

 Democratic struggle

 East Timor  June 7 elections  Political/Economic crisis  Human Rights/Law  
Indonesian solidarity

Brutal treatment of protesters deplored

Jakarta Post - March 6, 1999

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) condemned Friday security personnel's brutal treatment of student demonstrators and journalists.

PBHI said in a statement that it would sue the Jakarta military commander and the city police chief for the security personnel's alleged brutality.

"We demand that the chiefs of the security personnel responsible for the incident be fired. We also call for a thorough investigation of the incident," the statement said.

Dozens of students, three photographers and one journalist were injured in violent clashes between protesting students and security personnel in Central Jakarta on Thursday.

AJI strongly condemned the beating of the photographers and journalist, who had shown their press cards.

"The journalists were only there to record the facts and did not intend to undermine the Armed Forces. Whether the security personnel deserve condemnation or praise depends on how they behave," the statement said.

The journalists beaten by security personnel were reporter Toto Irianto from Pos Kota daily Jawa Pos daily's photographer Agus Wahyudi and Detak tabloid's photographer Rusman. AFP photographer Eddy Purnomo also suffered minor injuries after being hit by stones allegedly thrown by students.

At Husada Hospital in West Jakarta, Toto Irianto said on Friday that he was beaten even after he had shown his press card and shouted that he was a reporter. He quoted a soldier as saying, "It is you people who drive us into a courner [through your reports]. " The soldier even challenged Toto to write down his name.

Iin Farida, Toto's wife. said a spokesman from the Army had come to visit Toto. The spokesman expressed apologies and said that the soldiers were only human. "I told him that this incident does not concern only my husband and this should never happen again," Iin told The Jakarta Post.

Toto, a father of two, was beaten on the back of his head and kicked in his legs and back.

The Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) also deplored the incident. It urged all parties to avoid violence and uphold the principle of mutual respect, especially in dealing with journalists working in the field.

Meanwhile, 17 students were found guilty by the Central Jakarta District Court on Friday and fined Rp 2,000 (25 US cents) each for participating in an illegal rally on Jl. Proklamasi in Central Jakarta. One student was found not guilty.

The 17 students from various universities grouped under the United Students Committee denied that they took part in the rally. They claimed that they were arrested on the campus of ABA-ABI Foreign Language and Banking College on Jl. Matraman Raya, East Jakarta at 4pm.

Although two police officers who testified at the trial could not identify the students. the presiding judges, Judge Pangeran Siregar and Judge Hupoyo found 17 of the defendants guilty.

Dozens of the defendants' colleagues booed as the judges' read out their verdicts. At least 200 students attended the trial. Some of them waited outside the courtroom singing and giving speeches.

The defendants immediately decided to appeal the judges' verdicts. "This was an engineered trial to end student protests," one of the students' lawyers, Pablo Christalo, said.

Pablo, from the Student Movement Lawyer Team, said the judges did not consider the students' testimonies and based their decisions only on the police dossiers.

He also said the two police officers, identified as Yustiansah and Sarwanto, gave contradictory testimonies.

Yustiansah told the court that the students were arrested on Jl. Proklamasi, while Sarwanto said that the students were arrested on Jl. Matraman, he said.

The students, who were accompanied by 20 lawyers, told the court that they were beaten and kicked by soldiers and riot police at the ABA-ABI campus.

Two of the defendants suffered bruises around their eyes and still seemed to be in pain as they covered their eyes with towels during the trial.

"We don't deal with the police's treatment of you. 'We just examine whether you took part in the rally or not," Judge Siregar said. Heri Julianto, one of the students on trial, was found not guilty.

Seventeen of the defendants were found guilty of violating Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of speech and Article 510 of the Criminal Code on conducting a rally without police permit.

The defendants arrived at the court at 1:30pm, where they were greeted by their supporters who had arrived at 10am.

Azet Hutabarat, one of the students' lawyers, said Friday that the 18 defendants w ere among the 30 students arrested during Thursday's rally.

33 students still being held after protests

Suara Pembaruan - March 5 1999 (summary)

33 students from several universities are still being held at police headquarters in Jakarta after taking part in a demonstration outside the ABA-ABI (Indonesian and foreign languages colleges) campus in East Jakarta.

A journalist from Pos Kota, Totok Irianto, 36, was injured when he was struck by a hard object. He is still under treatment in hospital.

Much damage was inflicted on the campus building and in the surrounding area. Students panicked when members of the security forces entered the campus and started arresting students inside.

The detainees are accused of violating several articles of the Criminal Code and Law No 9/1998 (on Freedom of Expression).

In addition to the students at police HQ, three are in hospital and have not yet been interrogated. The students charged under the Criminal Code will undergo further questioning. Altogether 18 students are being charged for petty offences under Law No 9 and will appear in court Friday.

A police officer said that several policemen had also been injured. A joint force including police and army troops were involved in the action.

The security forces used improper procedures to curtail the students protest, as a result of which a number of people were wounded. They say they did so in order to prevent the action from spreading to other parts [of the city].

Troops, students fight pitched battles

Agence France Presse - March 3, 1999

Jakarta -- Troops and police fought pitched battles in the streets of Jakarta Thursday, after the security forces tried to block a march by some 2,000 students calling for Indonesian President B.J. Habibie to step down.

Several students and some photographers were seen injured as the troops waded into the students with batons, and the two sides traded rocks in a running series of battles.

The troops, most of them armed with batons and plastic riot shields, had formed a barrier across a road leading to a central city monument marking Indonesia's independence proclamation.

When they tried to stop the marchers reaching the monument, the students responded with a hail of stones, which the troops threw back.

Police were also arresting passers-by outside the campus of the ABA ABI foreign and Indonesian language academy where hundreds of the students fled to escape the clashes. Some troops entered the campus and were arresting students there.

Five students were arrested in the first clash, and police sirens wailed signalling the arrival of buses to detain more of the students.

Shouting "Revolution Now," the students had marched some three kilometers en masse from the Salemba campus of the University of Indonesia calling for a transitional government until elections can be held.

Student spokesmen denied the march had been timed to coincide with the arrival of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, scheduled to land in Jakarta later in the evening. "The march was planned long before," said one leader.

35 arrests in protests over Suharto probe

Agence France Presse - March 1, 1999

Jakarta -- Police arrested some 35 students taking part in demonstrations here Monday to demand a faster investigation of former president Suharto.

In one demonstration outside the forestry ministry, next to the parliament building, 35 students from the Protesting People's Action Alliance (Alarm) called for Suharto to face trial.

"Try Suharto and his cronies before the (June 7) elections," the group said in a press release.

About 100 military and police anti-riot troops surrounded the students and prevented them from moving, and an hour later hurded them into police trucks, an AFP reporter said.

Some 150 students of the Communication Forum of University Students in Jakarta (FKSMJ) picketed the office of Attorney General Andi Ghalib, calling on him to step down over the pace of the investigation into Suharto.

"Ghalib quit" and "Investigate Suharto thoroughly" read placards waved by the students as police stood by.

"If Ghalib doesn't come and face us today, then we'll come back tomorrow," one student screamed outside the building.

They then marched to the defence ministry to call for a reduced military role in politics, but later dispersed.

The FKSMJ protest came two weeks after a weekly magazine, Panji, published the contents of an alleged telephone conversation between President B.J. Habibie and Ghalib.

In the transcript, the contents of which Habibie has not denied, the two appeared to be discussing ways not to inconvenience Suharto by the probe, launched last year, into the alleged wealth he accumulated during his 32 years in power.
 
East Timor

Australian troops destined for Timor

The Australian - March 2, 1999

Robert Garran -- Australian troops, police and civilians are likely to be sent to East Timor early next year as the backbone of a UN peacekeeping force up to 2000-strong.

Sources told The Australian last night that the Australians would help the East Timorese rebuild the territory's civil and law and order infrastructure if, as expected, they opt for independence from Indonesia.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer foreshadowed the deployment yesterday, saying that if East Timor chose independence, Australia would provide police, under UN command, to work alongside East Timorese police.

It is understood the Government expects to play the lead role in organising and possibly commanding a UN-administered force that would move into East Timor as the Indonesians withdrew.

Government sources said roughly half the UN force, which might comprise up to 2000 personnel from Australia and other countries, would be civilians.

"Events have moved with breathtaking speed in the past few months. But they have not passed us by," Mr Downer said in a speech last night to the Australia-Asia Institute.

"There will almost certainly have to be some international confidence-building and administrative presence in East Timor from an early stage.

"At this stage, we do not favour a UN peacekeeping force of the kind involved in Cambodia."

Mr Downer also said Department of Foreign Affairs records, covering Indonesia's incorporation of East Timor between 1974 and 1976, would be released.

Australia believed military personnel would be needed in the UN force to collect and verify the decommissioning of weapons, but would not take a role keeping warring factions apart, sources said.

Police, including some from the Australian Federal Police, would help train a new police force, with the aim of building confidence by bringing some impartiality into dealings between pro-independence Fretilin supporters and pro-Jakarta elements.

Civilians would help establish a transitional government and assist in running hospitals, schools, transport, the customs system, revenue raising and setting up a central bank and new currency.

The timing and make-up of the UN peacekeeping force will depend on how quickly Indonesia pulls out. Indonesia insists on handing East Timor back to Portugal, which is expected to place it immediately under UN administration that could last six months to a year, sources say.

Mr Downer said in his speech last night the most difficult hurdle for the East Timorese over the coming months would be managing security in the territory.

Mr Downer said Indonesia would only make security and administrative resources available if the cost was borne by the UN.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton said Mr Downer's approach "completely fails to come to grips with the deteriorating situation on the ground".

Mr Downer's decision to release East Timor documents was a "shabby partisan exercise" because it did not go beyond 1976, Mr Brereton said.

The Government should also include documents that clarified the extent of the Fraser Government's knowledge of the widespread atrocities early in Indonesia's occupation.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke warned yesterday that Northern Australia might face another wave of boat people if Indonesia went ahead with threats to abandon East Timor.

Food shortages fuel East Timor tension

The Australian - March 5, 1999

Huw Watkin -- Residents in East Timor's capital are turning to the Catholic Church for relief as supplies of rice and other essential foodstuffs continue to dwindle amid fears of escalating civil unrest.

Sporadic clashes in recent weeks between groups advocating autonomy from Indonesia and those favouring continued integration have driven hundreds of mainly Indonesian residents to leave the city and several observers predict the political situation will soon deteriorate further.

East Timor imports most of its rice from other parts of Indonesia, but the past month has seen those imports dry up.

Retailers in Dili are reportedly hoarding what few supplies remain and people in the city claim they have been unable to buy rice for two days.

One Timorese businessman, who requested anonymity, claimed the shortage was being engineered by authorities in what he maintained was "a political game".

"They know that 80 per cent of East Timorese want to break away from Jakarta, so they are punishing us," he said.

"But we have survived 23 years of this sort of thing. We are very tough and they will not break us. They will just make us angry." He said he had obtained rice from a Catholic priest.

A source close to the territory's Governor denied the rice shortage had been created to punish East Timorese calling for autonomy or independence.

"The Government only supplies rice for its civil servants and the military," he said. "All other rice is imported by businessmen and they don't want to risk losing their stocks if there is an escalation of trouble here."

But Basilio Araujo, the spokesman for the pro-Indonesian Forum Persatuan Demokrasi Dan Keadilan, said it was unlikely the Government would take steps to ease the food shortage. "The Government has become frustrated with the situation in East Timor and this is one way of forcing a solution," he said. "By not paying attention to the problem, this will force the people to show whether they want to be part of Indonesia or not."

The food crisis comes amid a continuing shortage of drugs and other medical supplies, which expatriate medical personnel claim could lead to more than 100 deaths a day.

An estimated 200,000 thousand East Timorese have died -- many of them from starvation and disease -- since Indonesia annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1975.

Albright urges peace in Indonesia

Associated Press - March 5, 1999

Laura Myers, Jakarta -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright implored Indonesian President B.J. Habibie today not to allow East Timor to break down in bloody violence if the territory chooses independence over remaining an utonomous part of his country.

"A cycle of violence will not lead to a resolution," Albright said, referring to both the question of East Timor's future and June 7 parliamentary elections. "... What we have been supporting is a nonviolent approach and free and fair and open elections."

Habibie, in turn, vowed not to let the territory erupt, as it did in 1975 when the Portuguese abandoned what was then its colony and before Indonesia took over.

"We will not walk away," Habibie told Albright during a nearly two-hour meeting with her at the presidential palace, said a senior US official who was present.

Albright met afterward with Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, a separatist East Timorese rebel leader now under house arrest. He revealed to her his blueprint for determining East Timor's future, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Gusmao suggested elections could be held to select representatives from about a dozen districts in East Timor, which could then each decide whether or not to accept an autonomy plan, now being negotiated with the help of the United Nations, the official said.

In a turnaround from former President Suharto's regime, which fell in May after 32 years of rule, Habibie said earlier this year that East Timor can become independent if a majority of its people reject autonomy. But the government ruled out holding a referendum, fearing it could lead to more violence between separatists and those seeking autonomy.

Gusmao and Albright agreed that whatever mechanism is selected for determining the will of the people of East Timor, an international peacekeeping presence would likely be needed, the US official said, but not necessarily a UN force.

International monitors would ensure combatants are disarmed and they would train new security forces to replace the Indonesian military, often accused of human rights abuses.

Albright told Gusmao, "We want most of all to make sure we don't have this time what happened in 1975" when the Portuguese left East Timor, the US official said.

Albright, in a speech to about 300 Indonesian civic leaders, said Indonesia must not allow violence and unrest between groups, including fighting Muslims and Christians, to knock the nation off its path toward true democratic government.

"For Indonesia has the chance for a new birth in freedom," she said. "Violence is the enemy of democracy, security and prosperity."

Gusmao and Albright met at the Indonesian foreign ministry to avoid dozens of East Timorese activists and journalists gathered outside the small home in central Jakarta where he's been held under house arrest since January.

Gusmao, jailed in 1992 for leading separatists seeking independence for East Timor, asked Albright to press the government to release him and dozens of other political prisoners, some of whom have been held for decades and are now in their 70s.

"All political prisoners must be released," he said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. Albright didn't specifically ask for Gusmao's freedom, but she did call for the release of political prisoners during her meetings with Habibie, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and Justice Minister Muladi, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, US officials said.

"We spoke specifically about the importance of human rights and allowing people the possibility of participating within the various democratic processes," Albright said during a joint news conference with Alatas at the presidential palace.

Habibie's government has suggested Gusmao could be released as part of a plan to ease tensions while deciding whether East Timor, a half-island territory of 850,000 people, should gain autonomy or independence.

In general, Albright had high praise for Habibie's government, saying there has been "a huge improvement" in human rights since Suharto's government troops violently clashed with rioters last year as the Asian financial crisis hit. But she urged the government to further investigate alleged abuses by the military, US officials said.

With nearly 50 political parties qualified to participate in June 7 parliamentary elections, Albright also heralded a "new spirit of democracy that is blossoming here." The voting will lead to selection of a new president by a special assembly later this year.

Transcript interview with Xanana

Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now - March 3, 1999

[The following is a preliminary transcript of an Interview with Xanana Gusmao Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, prepared by the East Timor Action Network/US.]

Allan Nairn: Can you tell us who has created these militia groups, these paramilitaries that are now attacking civilians in East Timor?

Xanana Gusmao: We have concluded that it is [Indonesian] military intelligence. They organized the civilians and they gave them weapons to intimidate the population in order to create an appearance in East Timor that the situation is uncontrollable to show the international community that there would be some threat of civil war. In my opinion, it is the military intelligence service (SGI). It is part of a process that wants to create a situation of instability in East Timor and force Indonesian society, the international community to accept that if there is a referendum or an independence choice, there would be civil war.

Referendum

AN: If the people of East Timor had a free choice in a referendum do you believe they would choose independence?

XG: I don't believe, I am sure. Only a few people who have received privileges during these 23 years [of Indonesian occupation] would want integration because they do so well during this time, or because they fear reprisals from [pro-]independence people. I have already assured them that nothing will happen to them if East Timor came to independent. They know a great majority of our people are asking for immediate independence. We have to accept a period under the United Nations to prepare ourselves.

AN: This January, Habibie said if people of East Timor reject autonomy, Indonesia would consider granting independence to East Timor. Do you believe that the Indonesian government is truly ready to grant independence?

XG: I don't see the question from this angle. I see this from another angle. President Habibie has to be aware that he has a commitment to the international community, not to the East Timorese community. I don't worry about his sincerity of the Indonesian government. The Indonesian government has a commitment to the international community. If East Timor people reject autonomy, we will have to be granted independence.

Meeting the Secretary of State

AG: What do you plan to say to Madeleine Albright on Friday?

XG: It is difficult question to answer, but I can say to you I will explain the real situation in the territory. I will explain the role of a 3rd party in the process and I will explain how we see the consultation process I will tell her about the need for a UN police force.

UN Police Force

AN: Will you be calling for UN troops to come into East Timor or just unarmed UN personnel?

XG: United Nations police force, police presence.

AN: And why do you think that's necessary?

XG: We, Falintil, are ready to be disarmed, and we have asked for the disarmament of everyone, all parties: even the East Timorese in ABRI and the paramilitary groups who have fought against us, while ABRI has be withdrawn from East Timor

AN: And you would call for ABRI to be withdrawn from East Timor and a UN force to come into East Timor?

XG: Yes, there will be no peaceful consultation process if all parties are not disarmed. It is the best way to assure everybody that there could not be any chance, any possibility, of civil war ... ABRI has to be withdrawn from East Timor to permit a favorable atmosphere for the consultation process.

AN: How long will you expect the UN to stay in East Timor?

XG: During the consultation process, and I maybe for six months more, because we have to consolidate the reconciliation process. We have to show to each other that we are sincere in our commitments in the reconciliation before the consultation process. We have to consolidate mutual confidence between East Timorese, and I feel that six months would be enough for the UN police force to be there.

AN: After the six months and the UN police force leaves, what would happen then?

XG: After the disarmament process, the UN police force could select and instruct candidates from FALINTIL and East Timorese in ABRI and policemen formed by Indonesian government and create police corps of East Timorese [for] all territory. I think that if we get a peaceful process in the consultation period, we would get also a peaceful atmosphere [after] the consultation process. After three, six months we can work together to avoid any violence and any attempts at conflict.

Consultation Process

AN: The Indonesian government has said they will not accept a referendum in East Timor. Without a referendum is there any way to determine the will of the people of East Timor? Is there any way to make a decision?

XG: We are trying to find a mechanism which [is both] democratic and representative ... because if the choice is not democratic, it will not satisfy everybody and we are trying to seek the best mechanism.

AN: What kind of mechanism?

XG: Elections to choose a representatives to a consultative assembly. The consultative assembly will decide if the East Timor people accept or reject the proposal of autonomy.

The Militias

AN: You have been meeting with various generals from the Indonesia armed forces. Have you discussed with them why they are creating and arming militias in East Timor?

XG: We have many arguments, but we already seen that there are some sections of ABRI who don't accept psychologically ... losing East Timor war. I mean the veterans of war and maybe they are ... the Kopassus faction, military service intelligence service faction.

US Military Training

AN: The Kopassus was for many years trained by the American military in sniper tactics, psychological warfare, etc. What impact did this support for the Indonesian army have on the conduct of the Indonesian army in Timor and within Indonesia itself?

XG: I think that the impact was in preparing Indonesian soldiers to go to East Timor to kill East Timorese people. I think the Kopassus is not a combat army, but an intelligence service of ABRI. In the war, in the 20 years of occupation, the Kopassus were involved in capturing, torturing, killing, jailing people. I think that the impact of this training by the US of military education, was really bad in East Timor.

AN: There are now proposals in the US Congress to cut off, to end, all weapons, ammunition and training to the Indonesian army, to stop supplying them. Do you think this would be a good idea, to stop supplying all weapons, all training, to ABRI?

XG: I think it is a good idea, but it is not enough. I think that as I told you the military intelligence service is doing very bad things in East Timor now. I would prefer that the US government could pressure the Indonesian government to end the SGI presence in East Timor. Because if Habibie has presented to the East Timorese two options, there is no more basis or argument for the SGI to stay there. Although I am sure that if SGI is brought out of East Timor, we East Timorese can work together, can meet each other to prepare ourselves for this crucial period of the consultation process.

The Presidency

AG: Xanana Gusmao, do you plan to run for president of an independent East Timor?

XG: [Laughing] Please don't ask me that question. I am trying every hour these weeks and months to think about how difficult this time is; how great are the challenges we are facing. Please don't ask me about the presidency because there are people being killed by the military. It is not yet time to ask me this question, sorry.

Santa Cruz Massacre

AN: Xanana, in November of 1991, in the days leading to the procession of Nov 12, 1991, from the Moteal Church to the Santa Cruz cemetery, the procession that was massacred by the Indonesian army, what was your expectation? How did you think the Indonesian government would respond to the procession to the cemetery? What did you expect them to do?

XG: Frankly, I didn't expect so brutal reaction from ABRI. I thought because East Timor was in the front pages of the world because of the failed visit of the [Portugese] parliamentary delegation, I thought they would restrain themselves. But after the massacre I was sad, but I was not, but I accepted it was a consequence of our struggle. And unlike that massacre, there were many, many others without being known, without being investigated. And yes I was very, very surprised by the brutal reaction of ABRI

AN: Why do you think the ABRI opened fire on the crowd that day?

XG: It is usual [for the] ABRI to think that the East Timorese can be [intimidated by] the deaths and we would surrender. The ABRI generals never thought about the conscience of the people ... And it is their failure, they never considered our conscience, they never considered our inner most way. They only thought that if they punished us, we would automatically give up our ideals, our aims. I think that it is what happened.

AN: Do you think the massacre, and what happened after, was a turning point?

XG: I think so. I think so because before the massacre, we tried very heavily to say to the world that many, many people were killed but nobody -- not so many people -- believed us. And the image you took of the massacre was proof and could be shown to the international community that not only of that situation, but maybe the situations where it had happened in East Timor [before].

US Role

AG: Do you think the US government owes East Timor compensation for supporting the Indonesian army in its genocide against the people of East Timor?

XG: What we are trying to say to the United States is please tell the Indonesian government to stop the violence in East Timor and to withdraw from East Timor the military intelligence service because we believe that this is the third party who is playing an important role to disturb the solution and to discredit the Indonesian government itself.

AN: During the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, 200,000 people, one-third of the original population has been killed, what effect has it had on the society of East Timor?

XG: The very important impact is that the military occupation has united East Timorese, has consolidated the nationalist feeling, and a stronger patriotism.

AG: You have been listening to Xanana Gusmao, the rebel leader of East Timor, speaking to us from house arrest in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.

The Jakarta Lobby: mea culpa?

The Age - March 4, 1999

Scott Burchill - President Soeharto's sudden fall from power in May last year and East Timor's impending independence together constitute Australia's greatest post-war diplomatic failure. Neither event was anticipated by Canberra: the former came as a complete surprise, the latter has been strenuously opposed for more than two decades.

Primary responsibility for this failure rests with the Jakarta Lobby, an informal group of bureaucrats, academics and journalists who have tightly controlled Australian foreign policy towards Indonesia and East Timor.

The Jakarta Lobby has long regarded Australia's relationship with Indonesia as an exceptional case requiring careful management by "experts" with a proper sympathy for and understanding of Jakarta's difficulties. As former Foreign Affairs head Richard Woolcott said in 1995, "We cannot allow foreign policy [in this area] to be made in the streets, by the media or by the unions." Or it seems, in the case of the secretly negotiated Australia-Indonesia Security Agreement, by the Federal Parliament.

Until recently, the Jakarta Lobby had been remarkably influential. Consider, for example, its success in presenting the Soeharto regime in a favorable light to Australia's political leaders. A CIA report on the purges organised by the Indonesian military against the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) soon after Soeharto came to power in 1966 claims that "in terms of the numbers killed the anti-PKI massacres in Indonesia rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the Second World War and the Maoist bloodbaths of the 1930s (sic)".

No one seriously contests Soeharto's responsibility for the bloodbath. He is as clearly culpable for it as Pol Pot was for Year Zero in Cambodia, though no Australian politician has suggested that he be charged with crimes against humanity.

On the contrary, Soeharto has been lauded by the former Prime Minister Paul Keating for producing a "tolerant society" and bringing "stability" to the region, praise that has been echoed by Kim Beazley, who in 1989 claimed that "Australians pay far too little attention to the value to us of the stability" that the Soeharto dictatorship "brought to the Indonesian archipelago". If the PKI "had been victorious in the mid-1960s", said Beazley, "our security prospects over the last two decades would have been very different from the favorable circumstances we enjoy today". Half a million deaths clearly haven't weighed too heavily on the conscience of the Labor Party.

Not to be outdone, the Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fischer, last year recommended that "when magazines look for the man of the world of the second half of this century, they perhaps should not look much further than Jakarta".

Soeharto's victims, on the other hand, including 200,000 East Timorese in what has been described as the greatest slaughter relative to a population since the Holocaust, may suggest they look elsewhere.

For three decades, Soeharto's human rights "failures" were routinely balanced against his "economic achievements" -- now only a fading memory, and which were in truth rather modest by regional standards. Presumably there are still commissars in Russia saying similar things about Stalin's legacy.

Soeharto's regime was characterised as "moderate" by Professor Jaimie Mackie, an Indonesian specialist at the ANU, and in a eulogy that would have made the dictator blush, journalist Greg Sheridan has argued that "even in human rights there is a case for Soeharto".

It shouldn't therefore come as a surprise that in three biographical reviews written in May last year by Mackie, Sheridan and his colleague Paul Kelly in The Australian, Soeharto's role in one of the century's worst bloodbaths was passed over in silence. Can anyone imagine an obituary for Pol Pot that failed to mention the killing fields?

The "friends of Indonesia" regularly demonised Jakarta's critics. The imputation was always clear: Indonesia comprised Soeharto and the military elite that ran the state. No one else mattered. Criticism of them was a slander on the entire Indonesian nation.

Apologising for Soeharto led his Australian supporters into a state of denial. Shortly before the students brought Soeharto down in May last year, Richard Woolcott was arguing that in Indonesia "there will be no `people power' movement, comparable to that in the Philippines in 1986", a view endorsed by Paul Kelly in The Australian: "Indonesia in the 1990s is not a re-run of the Philippines of the '80s. There is no political reform movement ..."

The Jakarta Lobby was faced with a public relations challenge whenever evidence of another slaughter by the Indonesian military surfaced. Their strategy, as articulated by Woolcott just before Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975, has been to "act in a way which would be designed to minimise the public impact in Australia and show private understanding to Indonesia of their problems".

Predictably, the two separate massacres in Dili, East Timor, in November 1991, resulted in some of the Jakarta Lobby springing into damage-control mode. Concerted efforts to offset community outrage, deflect moral judgment and mute public criticism were made. The number of victims was minimised and evidence of a second massacre dismissed entirely. Sheridan and Woolcott blamed Portugal for the killings, while former ANU Economics Professor Heinz Arndt called the massacre a tragedy, not because of the loss of life but because it inflamed anti-Indonesian hate campaigns in Australia.

Australians were urged to show understanding to the perpetrators of the crimes, rather than the victims. Such was the success of the campaign in exculpating Jakarta, the then Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans, found himself describing the latest in a long list of atrocities as "aberrant acts".

But it's not just the Jakarta Lobby's moral credentials that are in question. As recent events have shown, some of their political assessments were as deeply flawed.

Only three years ago Richard Woolcott claimed that "the East Timor Lobby should accept that the time for an act of self- determination after 20 years has passed and that demanding independence is a lost cause which raises false hopes, prolongs conflict and costs lives".

Similarly, Evans repeatedly argued that Indonesia's takeover of East Timor was "irreversible" and that "it's quite quixotic to think otherwise". The poverty of this analysis is now obvious to all.

However, the political changes that have begun in Indonesia are already proving to be a concern for those who mistakenly equate "stability" in the region with supporting the status quo. Following Soeharto's departure, Woolcott has argued that "it is foolish to suggest the fragmentation of Indonesia into a number of independent states need not concern Australia".

Putting to one side the question of Australia's capacity to prevent such a development, one lesson of the post-Cold War period seems to have been lost on "experts" such as Woolcott: political and territorial boundaries are clearly not immutable.

It is quite normal for nation-states to come into and go out of existence, as it is for their boundaries to shift. The USSR, Yugoslavia, and East Germany are merely recent examples of how transient political communities really are. Woolcott's claim that "historically, no state has willingly accepted dismemberment" will come as a surprise to Czechs and Slovaks.

Far from being a threat to Australia's national security, the partial fragmentation of Indonesia may well defuse tensions that have been simmering in Aceh, West Papua, Kalimantan, East Timor and elsewhere. It is "unrealistic" to believe that Java can thwart these centrifugal forces.

Scare campaigns by the Jakarta Lobby, whether they be attacks on the principle of self-determination, exaggerated prospects for civil war, concerns about the Balkanisation of Indonesia, the fear of Islam, or the cost to the Australian taxpayer, will not forestall these developments.

In the aftermath of the Cold War, some in the Jakarta Lobby frequently excoriated the left in Australia for its support of communist regimes, demanding apologies, corrections and regret. In light of their own enormous failures and moral transgressions, can we now expect the same from them?

UN special envoy feels civil war not a fear

Agence France Presse - March 1, 1999

Jakarta -- The UN secretary general's special envoy on East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, Monday said he felt fears of a civil war erupting in East Timor over an independence offer from Indonesia were ill-founded.

"I don't think there will be a civil war as such, (despite) the very disquieting reports" of an increase in arms flowing into the troubled territory, Marker told CNN television in a live interview.

Marker said he based his confidence on the fact that people "of the highest calibre" were involved in determining the future of the former Portguese colony which has been under virtual military rule since being invaded by Indonesian troops in 1975.

He cited East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, now under house detention in Jakarta, and Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, who announced on January 27 that Indonesia was prepared to consider letting East Timor become independent if its people rejected a Jakarta offer of broad autonomy.

Their influence, along with that of the "two bishops" -- Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximines Belo of Dili, and Basilio do Naciamento, bishop of Baucau --was key to a relatively peaceful transition, he said.

Indonesia, whose representatives Marker said would sit down with those of Portugal in New York March 10 to finalize an autonomy offer which if rejected would result in independence, has ruled out a referendum on self determination, citing civil war fears.

Marker said he was optimistic mass bloodshed would be avoided, despite what he calld the "very disturbing increase in the availability of arms in East Timor."

Instead of a referendum as a way of determining what the 800,000 people of the troubled territory want -- an option ruled out by Indonesia -- he said one option under consideration was a suggestion by Gusmao for a local election, the winners of which would decide on autonomy or independence.

"It is one of the options which we have," he said, adding whatever means was used to sound out the East Timorese people, it must be "credible."

In the CNN interview Marker also praised Habibie for what he called the Indonesian president's "tremendous foresight and statesmanship" in changing Jakarta's policy after 23 years.

The CNN interview came as 300 Indonesian school teachers in East Timor demanded Monday that Jakarta withdraw them from East Timor because they feared for their lives, and as settlers from Indonesian provinces were packing their bags for home.

The teachers' protest followed similar demands by Indonesian hospital workers last month, and raised the prospect of major civil service breakdowns in the former Portuguese colony, which Marker described as "very, very poor."

An estimated 200,000 East Timorese and possibly as many as 20,000 Indonesian troops died as result of the Indonesian occupation, according to historians.

In we go: Timor help team

Sydney Morning Herald - March 2, 1999

Peter Cole-Adams -- Hundreds of Australians may be involved in monitoring, administrative support and policing in East Timor within months as part of a United Nations-sponsored international effort.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, said last night an international confidence-building and administrative presence would be necessary in the territory "from an early stage". This would ensure its smooth transition to either independence or autonomy within Indonesia and would undoubtedly involve Australians.

If the East Timorese chose independence -- and President B.J. Habibie wanted them to make their decision either way before the June 7 Indonesian elections -- some international police presence would probably be needed alongside the East Timorese police.

Mr Downer did not say how many Australians were likely to be involved in the international effort, but a spokesman said current thinking envisaged hundreds rather than thousands. Nor did the minister say whether any of the Australian contingent would be armed for self-defence, or just what "confidence- building" would involve.

"It is necessary now to prevent bloodshed," he said, but did not specifically mention the problem of disarming rival groups.

Speaking to the Australia-Asia Institute in Sydney, Mr Downer said that if the East Timorese chose independence, the United Nations would play a role in the territory's administration for "a couple of years" before the local people took full control.

In the meantime, Australia had offered to provide support for a representative gathering of the leaders of all political factions in the territory to work towards reconciliation and a transition to a new status.

A spokesman said it had not been decided where such a meeting might be held. New Zealand and Australia both hosted meetings of the warring factions in Bougainville in the lead-up to a ceasefire there.

Mr Downer emphasised that Australia did not, at this stage, favour a United Nations peacekeeping force of the kind involved in Cambodia. "None of the actors in this drama are calling for that," he said.

"First of all, for there to be a peace-keeping force there has to be a peace to keep. "There is no point in sending in masses of troops into a conflict to die. We wouldn't certainly want to see Australians killed ... young Australians killed trying to bring warring parties together.

"We would like through a process of diplomacy, the warring parties, if you could call them that, to come together."

In a wide-ranging speech outlining prospects for what he predicted would be a frantic political year in Indonesia and East Timor, Mr Downer also:

Timorese students support referendum

Green Left Weekly - March 3, 1999

On February 21 Green Left Weekly's SAM KING Spoke with MARCOS DA CRUZ, the chairperson of Renetil (National Resistance of East Timor Students) Yogyakarta.

Question: There has been much pessimism in the Indonesian media and in certain sections of the reform movement recently, saying that a referendum in East Timor is impossible or undesirable because it will lead to increased violence. How do you respond to that suggestion?

Basically, I describe it as black propaganda from the Indonesian government and from the pro-integration forces. It comes from the reality that the Indonesian government does not want to allow a referendum.

Habibie is not serious about the two options that he publicly supported, federated autonomy or independence. If the Habibie government seriously supported those options, it would pull out the troops that remain in East Timor now. It would stop organising and arming the minority pro-integration civil militias.

So far the policy of arming civil militias has meant that 1000 automatic weapons have been supplied for all seven zones in East Timor. The Indonesian armed forces [ABRI] also train the civil militia groups, called perlawanan rakyat [people's struggle] in how to use the weapons.

The number of armed people struggle groups is very high; that fact is obviously a major problem. Horizontal conflicts [between civilians] are the Habibie government's aim. That kind of conflict allows it to keep its authority in East Timor.

Question: What concrete measures do you think the independence movement can take to stop the kind of civil conflict you described?

The first step we are taking is initiating a dialogue between the pro-integration and pro-independence forces on March 5. This will be a kind of reconciliation meeting. It will occur in Java, especially Jakarta, and in East Timor.

Reconciliation is a strategy to avoid violence around the referendum. If the dialogue becomes deadlocked, then we have to take further steps in the process.

Question: What conditions do you think need to be present before a referendum can take place?

Firstly the withdrawal of ABRI. Another is that ABRI stop organising the militias and take back the arms they have distributed.

Another is dialogue with Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the East Timorese resistance. This dialogue would have to address some sort of compromise between Indonesia and East Timor. For example, this should include compensation for the victims of military repression during the period of occupation.

Question: Has there been much discussion in East Timor or amongst East Timorese people abroad about what to expect after a referendum, or what path the society will take?

At the moment, we feel it's too far away to predict what will happen, because the preconditions for a referendum are not yet present. At the moment we are focusing on establishing the preconditions.

Question: At this stage, what is best response the international community can give to support the struggle of the East Timorese people?

We want the UN to pressure the Indonesian government to withdraw its troops and weapons. Secondly, we ask that the UN send a peacekeeping force to guarantee the safety of the Timorese people.

Tools of oppression

Green Left Weekly - March 3, 1999

Rick Mercier -- A recent wave of killings in East Timor, coinciding with a propaganda offensive proclaiming the imminence of civil war, indicates that the Indonesian military has discovered the usefulness of paramilitaries in suppressing dissent while still presenting a humane face to the world. The Indonesian army has admitted that it provided arms to paramilitary groups that killed civilians in East Timor in January. "We control [the militias] and we only lend guns to them", army spokesperson General Sudjarat said in an interview with the BBC. He emphasised, however, that the paramilitaries "are not supposed to be killing civilians".

The general said he had no knowledge of the paramilitaries using army-supplied weapons to kill civilians, but the leader of one of the most powerful paramilitary groups in East Timor told the BBC that his forces used guns given to them by the Indonesian army in an attack that left six dead, including a pregnant woman and 15-year-old schoolboy.

Kansio Lopez, head of the paramilitary group known as Mahidi, said he led the attack using M-16 and Chinese-made SKS assault rifles that he had received from the army. Two days earlier, Lopez's group had killed another four civilians suspected of sympathising with the East Timorese resistance, which is fighting against an illegal occupation of its homeland by Indonesia that has resulted in 200,000 deaths, according to independent human rights observers.

The BBC says: "Lopez's account reveals an alarming degree of cooperation between the unofficial militias and the Indonesian army at a time when diplomats are trying to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor".

East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao has told reporters that he believes the military has armed about 20,000 civilians and is paying each of them about US$30 a month -- a considerable sum of money in a place where the annual per capita income is $340 and where the unemployment rate is particularly high among young men.

Pro-government paramilitaries invariably receive the same mission wherever they appear: to do state security forces' dirty work so that the government can plausibly deny responsibility for politically related violence.

Armed civilian groups are not a new phenomenon. They have operated for years in Colombia, where they have killed tens of thousands of civilians. During the '80s, the Guatemalan army formed "civil defence patrols" in Mayan Indian communities to help it put down an insurgency. And El Salvador's infamous "death squads" of the '70s and '80s must also be considered to be among the progenitors of today's paramilitaries.

In the '90s, paramilitaries have emerged as preferred instruments of repression in regions where governments are waging low-intensity war against civilian populations. In Chiapas, Mexico, where government-sponsored paramilitaries have actually made the term "low-intensity war" a misnomer, an army general who was an adviser to state police revealed in early February that the arms used by a paramilitary group to massacre 45 pro-rebel villagers in December 1997 were purchased by state police officers in Guatemala and sold to paramilitary groups operating in the northern part of Chiapas.

General Julio Cesar Santiago Diaz said the primary suppliers of weapons to paramilitary groups that are suspected of killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands since 1995 are state police officers and retired military personnel. He also said that soldiers are hired to train indigenous paramilitary recruits.

Mexican and Indonesian military strategists have realised that the trick to a successful paramilitary campaign is drawing paramilitary members from the same segment of the population that the opposition movement counts on for its support.

This is vital for propaganda purposes, and is made possible by the poverty and powerlessness experienced by subjugated groups. There has never been a lack of oppressed people willing to collaborate with the oppressor, and now, as always, the lure of easy money -- not to mention the power that comes with wielding an assault rifle -- is too much for some to resist.

And if these temptations fail, security forces can always rely on coercion to scrounge up paramilitary members.

Once their ranks have been filled with local civilians, paramilitaries can carry out acts of terror against other civilians, and security forces can portray themselves as extraneous to it all. Meanwhile, on the propaganda front, government and military officials frame the violence in a phoney context of long-simmering civil tensions -- which security forces, naturally, have played no part in stirring up.

This disinformation ploy works all the better if the communities targeted by the paramilitaries should decide to arm and defend themselves. Then, the government and army can cast the internecine violence as a sure sign of the all-out civil war that would follow a withdrawal of troops from the troubled area.

We have seen this scenario unfold in Chiapas, and now in East Timor. It is time for us to see through and denounce this vicious deception.

No-one doubts that the roads to liberty, justice, democracy and peace in East Timor and Chiapas will be bumpy. The long- suffering peoples of these battered corners of the world, however, do not need government armed forces that are doing their utmost to increase the amount of death and mayhem that will be encountered on these roads.

[Rick Mercier is co-founder and co-director of the Sanin- Mexico Peace Network, a citizens' group in western Japan that assists indigenous people displaced by the conflict in Chiapas.]
 
June 7 elections

Habibie accepts poll monitors

Reuters - March 5, 1999

Jonathan Wright, Jakarta -- Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has accepted the need for international monitors for the June 7 parliamentary election, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Friday.

Habibie pledged the election, expected to be the most volatile and violent in Indonesia for years, would be free and fair, she told reporters after an hour-long meeting at the Presidential Palace in central Jakarta.

"The sense that I got from talking with the president is that he is obviously devoted to having this happen -- a free, fair and open election," she told a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.

"There was a recognition that often a country going through this kind of electoral process can benefit from having outside technical assistance," she added.

Indonesia's 125 million voters will elect a new 500-seat parliament in the country's first taste of democracy in four decades.

Pressed by a wave of large pro-democracy protests, Habibie agreed to bring the election forward from 2002 and to implement wide-ranging reforms, including ending the three-party system dictated by disgraced former President Suharto.

Albright said Indonesia's human rights record had greatly improved since Habibie took over from Suharto after bloody riots last May. Democracy was blossoming in the world's fourth most populous nation, she said.

"Obviously from my sense there was a huge improvement in the human rights situation. We consider continued work on human rights issues very important to what I see as this new spirit of democracy that is blossoming here in Indonesia," she said.

But Albright pressed Habibie to push ahead with reforming the banking sector and to "do everything possible to keep the economic reform rolling."

"The president accepted the fact that all that was necessary," she added. Economists say banking reforms are vital to efforts to drag Indonesia out of its worst economic crisis in three decades.

But last week, the government abruptly delayed a planned announcement of which banks would be closed and which would be saved under its rescue package for the debt-laden sector.

In a last-minute change of plan, Albright's travel itinerary was switched and she will leave Indonesia for London Friday, a US official said, for talks which may be related to the crisis in Kosovo.

Albright has a busy day meeting the main opposition leaders including Megawati Sukarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle, Amien Rais, who heads the National Mandate Party, and Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of the mainly Muslim nation's largest Muslim group.

She also met East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, who was released from house arrest to meet her at the Foreign Affairs Department.

Gusmao pressed Albright to urge the United Nations to send a police force to his bloodied homeland immediately to help restore peace during international negotiations about the territory's fate, his lawyer, Johnson Panjaitan, told reporters.

Jakarta is offering East Timorese a choice between independence and enhanced autonomy as part of Indonesia.

The issue has blackened Indonesia's international reputation since it invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975. The United Nations does not recognize Jakarta's rule there.

Thursday Albright said she was concerned at violence in East Timor and at reports that the Indonesian armed forces supplied weapons to pro-Jakarta loyalists.

Indonesia has denied arming civilian militias but says it has given guns to official paramilitary units charged with helping security forces maintain peace.

Albright brought up the wider question of the communal violence which has ravaged many parts of Indonesia.

"The call I have been making in all my statements is the importance of solving all these problems in a non-violent way," she said. "The cycle of violence will not lead to a resolution of the various issues."

Indonesia has been racked by waves of violence over the past year as ethnic, religious and social tensions boil over amid a ravaging economic and political crisis.

Election observers warned over visas

Agence France Presse - March 5, 1999

Jakarta -- Indonesia has threatened to deport foreign nationals here to monitor the run-up to the country's June 7 elections if they do not have proper visas or are not registered with Jakarta's United Nations office, reports said Friday.

The Indonesian Observer quoted a senior foreign affairs ministry official as saying that "errant expatriates" were coming into the country posing as tourists "but actually giving lectures on election monitoring at univerity campuses and other places."

The official, the ministry's head of research and development Adian Silalahi, said discussions were underway with several embassies over the alleged visa violations.

Silalahi declined to say how many of the election observers were already here on tourist visas, but said they were guilty of "violation or misuse of their entry permits," the newspaper said.

The government, he said, recognized only those foreigners listed by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as election observers.

Any others would be "dealt with sternly, expelled and sent back to their countries," he added.

The June 7 polls, the first since the fall of former president Suharto in May of last year, have been billed by Suharto's hand- picked successor, President B.J. Habibie, as the fairest the country will have seen in decades.

On Friday US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said after meeting with Habibie that she got the sense that the president was "obviously devoted to having this happen, a free and fair and open election."

Habibie had even inquired whether former US president Jimmy Carter, who has led election monitoring teams in several countries, might come to observe the June 7 polls, Albright said.

State Department Spokesman James Rubin said later that an invitation to Carter from Indonesian officials was "a real possibility."

Some 48 political parties, including one which was once banned, were Thursday said to be eligible to take part in the polls.

PRD for the popular multiparty society

People's Democratic Party statement - March 6, 1999

On March 4, the Minister of Home Affairs and "traditional enemy" of People's Democratic Party (PRD), General Syarwan Hamid, signed a statement saying that the government had approved the PRD's registration to participate in the June 7 election after considering the recommendations of a report from the Team of Eleven.

The PRD will be running for coming election along with 48 other political parties. For us, this is still a shame when more than 60 political parties have been disqualified from participating in the election. Every political party has a right to run for the election even though they may only have a small number of followers.

In fact there are still many obstacle that will face the PRD and another political parties under the new undemocratic electoral laws. Although the number of appointed People's Consultative Assembly members is significantly less than 575 appointees in previous elections, 238 members will still be appointed by the president. Only 462 members will be elected directly by the people. Thirty eight seats will also be given to the armed forces which represents around 9-10 million votes, and is proof that the dual social and political role of the military remains.

Although the PRD will sit on Election Commission next Monday, this is still an undemocratic body. Of the 53 members, five are government representatives who have a 50 percent vote in the commission compared to the 48 representative from political parties who have the other 50 percent.

We believe this is an unfair election and although we oppose parliamentarian, we will try to use this election as a way of speaking to the people and to build the working class movement in Indonesia to build a better, more humane society.

We call on all pro-people organisations and the international solidarity movement to assist the PRD in the coming election.

Hendri Kuok
For the PRD Central Leadership Committee

UNDP to assist three poll watch networks

Jakarta Post - March 2, 1999

Jakarta -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is to focus its assistance on three poll monitoring networks considered among the most prepared in their programs.

UNDP advisor Erna Witoelar identified them on Monday as the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel) and the Rectors Forum.

UNDP is also studying 20 proposals from various other groups concerning poll monitoring and voter education. "Hopefully, we can determine eligible donation receivers on Tuesday, she said.

From several private poll watchers, the three were considered the most prepared in offering concrete programs ahead of the June 7 general election.

"Together, the Rectors Forum and Unfrel will focus on training a total of 600,000 poll watchers, mostly students, who will be spread across respective areas among the provinces," Erna said on the sidelines of a media briefing held by Community Recovery Program (CRP).

Erna is a former facilitator of CRP which is in charge of distributing private donations to the country's needy. She has repeatedly warned of abuse of loans and use of funds to buy votes. "KIPP is concentrating on training for non-governmental organizations," such as student groups, she said.

UNDP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, stating it would coordinate foreign countries' donations for this year's polls. Donations, projected to reach up to US10 million, cannot be used to cover poll costs, estimated at Rp 1.3 trillion.

The three poll watch networks have established a joint code of conduct in monitoring the elections and have agreed on a standard for poll watchers to maintain credibility, said Erna, UNDP's facilitator on donor funds for election monitoring.

UNDP has received about US30 million in grants, she said. "The funds are to be channeled for the future National Election Committee and the monitoring poll programs run by civil society before, during and after the election. Erna did not disclose the amount of funding for the three monitors. "A special monitoring team of donors has also been set up to avoid possible malfeasance. Later, all donations, such as from AusAID or USAID, will be coordinated through the UNDP.

Meanwhile, Unfrel announced recruitment of 5,000 students from universities in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, to monitor the polls. Unfrel's South Sulawesi coordinator M. Darwis said the province needed about 20,000 poll watchers.

Erna also warned of the possibility of money politics through donations outside of UNDP control. "Various funds are coming directly from foreign non-governmental organizations straight to political parties or other organizations ... which are not properly supervised. Such huge, uncontrollable amounts are dangerous.

To avoid possible abuse, the government should monitor the donations through the secretariat, Erna said. "If they are found to have violated the existing rules, then they must be banned," she added.

The new law on political parties states an organization or corporation can donate a maximum of Rp 150 million per year. Individuals proven to have donated more than the permitted limit to political parties face maximum penalties of 30-day jail sentences or a fine of Rp 100 million. The law does not state sanctions for the parties involved.

Political observer Emil Salim, also CRC chairman, said money politics was unavoidable in the election process. "Parties, especially the ruling one [Golkar], will do anything to buy votes," he said. "Golkar is the one which has the money, the power to buy influence.

But through a strong monitoring mechanism run by independent poll watch networks, the media and all members of society ... at least such practices should be curbed.

Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung recently urged members to reach out to the public by responding to their needs in providing basic commodities and fertilizers.

DR newsweekly last month reported that chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council Baramuli distributed Rp 100,000 to each of about 200 village chiefs in East Nusa Tenggara -- which he described as "money to buy clothes" -- along with food packages during a Feb. 8 visit to the province. Baramuli is advisor to Golkar's central board.

Team of 11 recommends 48 to join election

Antara - March 4, 1999

Jakarta -- The Commission on Elections (P3KPU), popularly known as the Team of Eleven, announced on Thursday that it is recommending 48 political parties to contest in the June 7 general election.

Commission chairman, Nurcholis Madjid, made the announcement following a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid here to submit the results of the team's verification of the registered parties' qualifications.

The 48 parties are the Republic Party, Indonesian Democratic Party for the People's Struggle, Syarekat Islam Indonesia Party, Justice Party, National Awakening Party, National Democratic Party, Justice and Unity Party, Peace-Loving Party, MKGR Party, Crescent and Star Party, the National Mandate Party, Indonesian People's Party, Indonesian National Union Solidarity Party, Nahdlatul Umat Party, Moslem Society Party, Party of Indonesian Moslem Society, People's Deliberation Party, Indonesian National Christian Party, Marhaenist Mass-Indonesian National Party, People's Awakening Party, the National Labor Party, People's Democratic Party, Catholic Democratic Party, 1905 Syarekat of Indonesian Moslem Party, Labor Solidarity Party, Alliance of Indonesian Democratic Party, National Independent Party, People's Sovereignty Party, Generation of Indonesian Independence Party, People's Chosen Party, the Marhaenist-Front Indonesian National Party, National Loving Democratic Party, the Supeni-led Indonesian National Party, Indonesian Workers' Party, Indonesian People's National Party, Indonesian Moslem Awakening Party, Unity Party, All-Indonesian Labor Solidarity Party, New Masyumi Party, Indonesian Uni-Democratic Party, the Islamic Political Party of Indonesian Masyumi, Unity in Diversity Party, Islamic Democratic Party, New Indonesian Party, Abul Yatama Party, Golkar Party, Indonesian Democratic Party, and United Development Party.

Nurcholis said his team had carried out the factual and administrative verification of more than a hundred parties which had registered at the Attorney General's Office on February 22-27 and March 2-3.

On Feburary 22-27, he said, his team verified the parties with branches in 16 provinces -- North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Jambi, Bengkulu, Lampung, Riau, South Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Central Sulawesi and North Sulawesi.

On March 2-3, the team verified the parties in 10 provinces with the highest number of political parties -- North Sumatra, Lampung, Bengkulu, Jambi, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, North Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara.

Islamic pitch sells well in election

Christian Science Monitor - March 3, 1999

Sander Thoenes, Jakarta -- The leaders of the Justice Party put their money where their mouth is. The soft-drink cooler at party headquarters in Jakarta is unlocked, relying instead on a Koranic verse to admonish members to pay for what they take: "If you pay the exact amount you already did justice," a sign reads. "Do justice, since justice is closer to piety."

Islamic values color the party platforms, slogans, and banners of dozens of Muslim parties taking part in the first democratic elections in Indonesia in 44 years. In previous votes, only three parties were allowed to run. One was Muslim but forced to hide its Islamic credentials and symbols. This time they will compete against dozens of upstarts, ranging from mass organizations to one-man shows.

Although the campaign formally kicks off only six weeks before the poll on June 7, lampposts and trees of the capital are already covered with flags the color of Islam -- green decorated with crescents, stars, and the Kaabah, the holiest building in Mecca.

The Justice Party is among the most up front about its devotion to Islam, which had been forcefully kept out of politics under the authoritarian rule of former President Suharto but has come back with a vengeance since he resigned last May.

"We introduce ethics and morality into politics," says Nur Mahmudi Ismail, the party's president. "We want to teach citizens to understand their role in building this society, to become honest, to become disciplined."

Lacking experienced pollsters, Indonesians are at a loss to say who will do well. But the Justice Party is considered a dark horse because of its active grass-roots organization, with 216 party branches in 25 of 27 provinces. The Crescent Moon and Star Party, another newcomer, appears well financed but its leaders are distrusted by many Muslims because of their ties to Mr. Suharto.

The Justice Party calls for a role in government for the ulemas, the Islamic scholars, for removal of Western-style laws that conflict with Indonesian culture, and for censorship of Western arts entering the country. Mr. Ismail believes gay activists should be jailed. He defends laws that allow parents to block a daughter's wedding but not a son's. The party office has separate waiting areas for females and males.

Many Indonesians, both in the Christian minority and the Muslim majority, are uncomfortable with the sudden prominence of Islam in politics. Some fear it will only divide the nation at a time economic and political chaos has sparked religious and ethnic riots.

But the soda on sale in the Justice Party's cooler is American cola and root beer. Its founding members teamed up through the Internet while studying in the United States and Australia. Women make up more than half of the rapidly growing party rank and file. While its leaders can get carried away in conversations and reveal intolerant ideas, the Justice Party and other upstarts market themselves as moderate, tolerant, and open-minded.

"No Muslim can suffice with relying on lessons from Islam and ignoring other lessons," its leaflet reads. "Justice should be done towards anyone regardless of race, skin color, or religion."

While some blame the recent wave of clashes between Christians and Muslims on the revival of religious politics, Ismail insists it is the moral vacuum that is to blame. "The main reason is a lack of understanding of religion. The more you learn about religion, the calmer you are," he says. "Islam does not teach that everything of others is bad."

None of the parties advocate replacing secular law with sharia, or Islamic law, although Ismail and others concede they would prefer to introduce at least some of the sharia to the Indonesian legal system, which was drafted largely by the Dutch colonial government that ruled Indonesia until 1949.

"We must transfer the values of the Koran into the law," said Anwar Haryono, founder of the Crescent Moon and Star Party, shortly before his death late last year. "But those values can be acceptable to everybody. Not like in Saudi Arabia but more like Malaysia." For his party, that means women could still drive cars or become president; it wants banks to share profit rather than charge interest, and courts to focus on reconciliation rather than mere judgments.

Indonesians are among the world's most moderate and tolerant Muslims, blending traditional beliefs with Koranic dogma the way they mix Western and Indonesian clothes. Muslim clerics have allowed a famous male singer to have a sex change and head an Islamic school for orphans, while a gay government minister sparks public jokes, but not protest.

Instead of a sudden swing to fundamentalism, the high number of Muslim parties cropping up in Indonesia reflects the diversity of religious practices in the largest Muslim nation in the world. Some cater to traditionalist Muslims, others to nominal Muslims in Java who mix their Islamic beliefs with Hindu and animist beliefs, while the Justice Party and others appeal to the more educated, modernist Muslims in cities and universities. "We all have our niche markets," says Ismail.

But the preponderance of Islam in Indonesian politics also reflects the search for some unifying ideology in Indonesia, at a time when the economy is teetering, law and order are breaking down, and the government has lost all respect. Suharto had thousands of Communists massacred and nudged Islam out of politics, effectively deideologizing his country by imposing Pancasila, an amorphous state dogma that was more symbol than substance. That lack of guiding principles is reflected in the major party platforms, including that of the Justice Party, which are vague and interchangeable but for a few details.

"There are no substantial differences," says Ahmad Syafii Maarif, acting chairman of Muhammadiyah, a modernist party that is one of the country's two largest Muslim groups. "They all want to be leaders. They did not look at the Islamic doctrine before they entered politics. Political calculations are more important to them."

If intolerance proves a good sell, the moderation of Indonesia's Muslim parties may well fade away, particularly if it is a veneer. While its program appeals for tolerance, the Justice Party has put some very intolerant slogans in the diaries it hands out as promotional material.

"Whoever accepts a woman as leader will not be successful," says one slogan. Another is, "If the Muslims are united we can face the others together."

"Religiously this country is very tolerant," says Mr. Maarif. "But once politics enters religion it is very dangerous. They should be very careful when quoting the Koranic verses -- it can divide the Muslim community."

"It depends whether you are using religion for the party or working for religion," counters Ismail. He may be right, but like many of his competitors, he has yet to prove whether Islam is a means or an end.

Albright checks out reforms, polls

Reuters - March 4, 1999 (slightly abridged)

Jonathan Wright, Jakarta -- Indonesia told the United States on Thursday it was arming and training local militias but had no interest in inciting conflict in East Timor between supporters and opponents of independence.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright raised the subject at a meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas after reports that Indonesia's armed forces were giving weapons to East Timorese who want to stay Indonesian.

"I did raise the issue because we are concerned," Albright said shortly after her arrival in Jakarta.

Albright is visiting Indonesia to see how the government is handling its financial crisis and to check on preparations for its first post-Suharto elections in June, polls which Washington hopes will help restore political and economic stability to the battered country.

President Suharto, a longstanding US ally, resigned last May amid the worst economic crisis in decades, riots and anti- government protests. But change at the top has not yet stabilised Indonesia, which has seen outbreaks of communal and other violence, most recently on several outlying islands.

Indonesian President B.J. Habibie in January offered East Timor either autonomy or independence, possibly breaking the long deadlock over the future of the former Portuguese colony, which Indonesia annexed in 1976.

But some critics of the Indonesian government have questioned its sincerity, citing the arming of pro-Indonesian militias and the government's reluctance to call a referendum.

Fighting between pro-independence and pro-Indonesian groups of Timorese has increased since Habibie's announcement, with fears of outright civil war if Indonesian forces pull out.

Alatas told a joint news conference with Albright that the armed forces were not arming pro-Indonesian groups. He went on to explain that across the country the government was reviving a militia force known as the People's Guard.

"One of the things we had to battle with was a shortage of police to deal with incidents of violence. So we have reactivated the People's Guard, selectively training them and selectively arming them, sometimes with wooden sticks," he said.

Some militiamen have rifles but must leave them in their barracks, the minister said. The government was doing its best to stop clashes between pro-independence and pro-integration groups in East Timor, he said.

"Some of these groups turn out to have firearms but these are definitely not firearms supplied by our armed forces. We have an interest in East Timor remaining quiet," he added. Indonesia did not fear losing East Timor, he said.

Albright said the minister had an explanation for the reports but she did not indicate whether she accepted it. Alatas said a referendum in East Timor would take too long, would be too complicated and could lead to violence.

The Indonesians have not said exactly how they will assess the wishes of the East Timorese but are consulting on this with the United Nations, the Portuguese and East Timorese leaders.

Albright is expected to meet on Friday with East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, whom the Indonesian authorities have moved from jail to house arrest. Alatas said Indonesia would have no problem setting Gusmao free. She will also meet Habibie and Defence Minister Wiranto.

Albright said the United States was encouraged by the progress Indonesia has made in preparing for democratic elections, possibly the first in more than 40 years.

"We support the process, which we hope will be peaceful, free and fair ... This is the pivotal moment in the history of one of the world's great nations," she added.

A senior State Department official travelling with Albright said successful elections were Washington's highest short-term priority for Indonesia.

"They constitute a necessary if not sufficient condition for the restoration of political stability and economic recovery in Indonesia," he added.

Some 60 parties expected in June poll

Jakarta Post - March 2, 1999

Jakarta -- The independent Team of Eleven revealed on Monday only around 60 of the 104 political parties it was examining were expected to pass screening to contest the June 7 general election.

Mulyana W. Kusumah told The Jakarta Post by telephone from Semarang in Central Java on Monday he had in his hands the names of 12 parties which have met all legal requirements to contest the elections.

"We checked 56 political parties in the first round of the verification stage last week and found only 20 eligible for the polls," he said.

He said the team was making a two-day visit to ten provinces, including Central Java, Lampung, North Sumatra and South Sulawesi, to examine 40 of the last batch of 48 parties which have been registered with the team.

"The other eight will not be verified because they have chapters in less than nine provinces," he said.

He said the team led by Muslim intellectual Nurcholish Madjid would hold a plenary session Tuesday night to discuss party eligibility for the elections.

Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid called on the newly registered political parties not to be frustrated if they were disqualified for failing to meet the minimum requirements set by the government.

Separately the PKP (Justice and Unity Party) claimed on Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the PKB (National Awakening Party) and the PDI Perjuangan (Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) to establish a coalition to contest the general election and in forming a new government.

"We have reached the agreement. We only need to discuss technical problems," PKP deputy chairman Tatto Pradjamanggala said in Bandung, West Java.

Tatto said the agreement was recently reached by PKP chairman Gen. (ret) Edi Sudradjat, chairman of PKB's Mathori Abdul Djalil, and leader of PDI Perjuangan Megawati Soekarnoputri. He refused to give further details.

Chairman of the PAN (National Mandate Party) Amien Rais however, played down the significance of the coalition plan.

"PAN can set up a coalition with any parties. But it will depend very much on the result of the elections," he said after attending a PAN gathering in Bandung.

Meanwhile, in a bid to prepare for possible violence in Central Java, the leaders of 11 political parties including Golkar, PAN, PKB, PKP and Partai Keadilan (Justice Party) agreed on Monday not to mobilize their supporters during the campaign period. Instead, they will hold public debates. "The mobilization of the masses is a very dangerous exercise," according to Prabowo from PKP

Meanwhile, the chairman of Central Java's PPP (United Development Party), Karmani, expressed confidence that the 26- year-old party would win at least 22 percent of the votes. "This number would be adequate for us to nominate our own presidential candidate," Karmani said.

Separately the political leaders in Lampung deplored on Monday the beating of the chairman of PDI (Indonesian Democratic Party) Budi Hardjono in Lampung by his opponents and said such a shameful act would endanger the growth of democracy.

"Differences of views should not be handled physically. This is an arrogant act, and can not be tolerated at all," said chairman of the pro-founding president Sukarno Marhaen Party Andi Achmad.

Budi was leading a ceremony to commemorate PDI's 26th anniversary in Bandar Lampung on Sunday, when the supporters of PDI Perjuangan, chaired by rival Megawati Soekarnoputri, suddenly ambushed the venue and beat him up.

"It is regrettable that a party should act in such an sympathetic way," provincial Golkar executive Martubi Makki said on Monday.

Pakpahan backs Megawati for president

Indonesian Observer - February 26, 1999 (posted March 1)

Jakarta -- The political party founded by independent labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan yesterday announced it will nominate opposition figurehead Megawati Soekarnoputri for the presidency.

The National Labor Party (PBN) will solicit public support for Megawati's nomination in the November presidential election when the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) convenes, Pakpahan said in the Bali capital of Denpasar yesterday.

Pakpahan is leader of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (PBSI) and was released from jail last year after the fall of ex-president Soeharto. He was in the resort island to attend the launch of a provincial PBN branch. Bali is one of the strongholds of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party Perjuangan (PDI Perjuangan).

Pakpahan said Megawati, daughter of founding president Soekarno, is qualified to be a presidential candidate, because she is attuned to the needs and problems of the oppressed masses.

She also has a strong sense of nationalism, with which she will be able to successfully carry out various national duties, Pakpahan added. Apart from that, he said Megawati's honesty, sincere fighting spirit and political consistency have already been proved, particularly when she was persecuted by the corpulent Soeharto's New Order government.

"We feel that Megawati Soekarnoputri as leader of PDI Perjuangan will be able to attract the sympathy of many people, and that can be seen by witnessing her many supporters," Pakpahan was quoted as saying. He said the PBN will set up a coalition with Megawati's party and the National Awakening Party (PKB), which was established by the nation's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Both PDI Perjuangan and the PKB have similar platforms with the PBN in fighting for grassroots people.

Pakpahan, who is also chairman of the PBN advisory board, called on other parties whose supporters are lower-class people to form alliances with his party, PDI Perjuangan and the PKB.

Megawati has officially been nominated by her party to challenge incumbent President B.J. Habibie and outspoken opposition figure Amien Rais. Other leading hopefuls include Megawati's close friend Abdurrahman Wahid, leader of the 40- million strong NU.

In the Central Java capital of Semarang, Deputy Chairman of the United Development Party (PPP) Karmani said his party will nominate one of its own cadres for the presidency.

He said it's "unethical" to nominate another party's leader for the presidency. Earlier, PPP Chairman Hamzah Haz said his party may nominate President B.J. Habibie as its presidential hopeful. Karmani said that if that happens, it means the PPP doesn't trust the abilities of its own cadres.

"If the next president is later elected from another party, it's no problem. However, the PPP will announce one of its cadres as its presidential candidate," he said.

Ruling Golkar Party Chairman Akbar Tandjung on Wednesday night insisted that Habibie is still its best candidate, but said an official decision has not yet been made.

"Officially, the would-be president has not been determined, and we will discuss it at the appropriate time through Golkar's organizational mechanisms," he told Golkar cadres in Surabaya, East Java.

Party loyalists beat up party rival

Agence France Presse - March 1, 1999

Jakarta -- A mob of loyalists to popular Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputi's beat up the chief of a rival state backed party which she used to lead, reports said Monday.

Budi Hardjono, the head of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI), was severely beaten up and briefly kidnapped by Megawati supporters Sunday during a visit to Lampung on the island of Sumatra, the Berita Buana newspaper said.

Megawati in 1996 was ousted from the leadership of the PDI in a state-backed political maneuver which triggered rioting in Jakarta, but retained her popularity and formed a new party.

The new party, the Indonesian Democracy Struggle Party (PDI Perjuangan), will contest the upcoming June 7 elections.

PDI-Struggle loyalists demanded Hardjono, who was inducting new provincial executives, leave Lampung. He and his entourage hid in a room for a couple of hours but were beaten and kicked by the mob when they left the building, the report said.

Security forces could not control the mob, which went on to nab Hardjono and some of the executives in a car, but elite police troops later rescued them.

Hardjono, speaking Monday on the private Surya Citra Television news, said he was "fine and well," but that PDI- Struggle should bear responsibility for the incident.

He added he could press charges against any suspect the police found guilty.

Moslem chief demands followers' votes

Reuters - March 1, 1999 (slightly abridged)

Jakarta -- The leader of Indonesia's largest Moslem group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has ordered his followers to vote for the group's political party in the June election, local newspapers reported on Monday.

"The economic crisis will be solved by our National Awakening Party (PKB) if we win the elections," the Jakarta Post English- language newspaper quoted NU leader Abdurrahman Wahid as saying. "We will choose qualified officials for our government," he said.

The PKB party was set up by senior NU members. "It is not true to say that NU followers can vote for any party," he was quoted as saying in the Media Indonesia daily.

Wahid told thousands of supporters at a party congress: "This nation belongs to the people and we are the people -- therefore I am sure that PKB will win the upcoming election."

Wahid has not yet announced if he will stand for parliament or contest the presidential election due in November.
 
Political/Economic crisis

Two killed in renewed unrest in Ambon

Reuters - March 6, 1999

Jakarta -- At least two people have been killed and several injured in a fresh outbreak of violence on the strife-torn Indonesian island of Ambon, witnesses said on Saturday.

One man was gunned down when the occupants of a car opened fire on residents manning a civilian roadblock at Silo church about 2.00am on Saturday.

"The people inside the car refused to open the window -- instead, they got out and fired wildly into the people before they left," Reverand Patinaya from the Maranatha Christian refuge told Reuters from Ambon, 2,300 km (1,440 miles) east of Jakarta.

Security forces had fired warning shots to disperse a crowd stoning Silo church on Friday, which was also hit by two petrol bombs.

More than 200 people have died in and around Ambon in two months of communal fighting between Christian Ambonese and Moslem migrants from elsewhere in the vast archipelago.

Late Friday night, an 83-year-old man was stabbed to death as he walked through a Moslem neighbourhood, a local reporter said.

"People are scared to go out alone now, especially after the incident yesterday," he told Reuters. Ambon city was quiet but tense on Saturday.

Nightmare at the gateway to paradise

Sydney Morning Herald - March 4, 1999

Louise Williams -- In a city littered with the bodies of the dead and mutilated, where the markets have been burnt to the ground, where soldiers hire out their protection services for cash, and where Christians and Muslims live barricaded behind gangs of wild, armed young men, Donny Lufki no longer believes in the law.

Instead, he says, he has promised to seek justice himself and to bring the severed head of his brother's killer and present it to the local police on the riot-torn island of Ambon, capital of the remote Moluccas in eastern Indonesia.

"I marched into the police station and announced I am going to kill to get revenge," he shouts down the telephone, from the outskirts of the city, where his house lies in ruins and his family weeps in mourning for their youngest son, a recent victim of six weeks of religious violence between Muslim and Christian neighbours who once lived in peace.

Donny's 21-year-old brother disappeared two weeks ago. He was, he says, taken by a Muslim gang out into the brilliant blue waters of the harbour of Ambon, once the strategic port of the famed Spice Islands.

There, he says, he was put into a sack with rocks and dumped into the water to drown, never to be seen again. So, Donny is hunting for an old Muslim friend called Simpson, because he believes this terrible story of his brother's fate, and must kill his long-time neighbour to avenge his death.

The city of Ambon is humming with too many stories of such cruelty, on both sides of the religious divide. The line between fact and fiction seems blurred by religious hatred, but the rumours are as important as the reality in fuelling the anger of the armed mobs on the streets. On the ground Christians and Muslims have barricaded themselves behind roadblocks guarded by their own, both accusing the police and military of taking sides, both continuing to lob petrol bombs at the neighbours and slashing with machetes and harvesting knives at those who breach their lines.

"It is very difficult to solve the problem here now because there are too many victims, lots of people have died, lots of houses have been burnt, there is too much pain," says Protestant Rev Apeng Telo, from the Silo Church on the outskirts of the city. "If a member of your family dies it is not easy just to forget the pain, unless you put who is behind the riots on trial."

His own head is being sought as a symbol of Christianity. "Yes, I am worried, of course. We are receiving threats that if we go out on to the streets we will lose our heads." Since the violence was ignited during Idul Fithri, the most holy of Muslim celebrations marking the end of the fasting month in January, more than 150 people have been killed, at least 350 injured and 3,500 houses burnt. Thousands have fled by boat or are huddling in mosques and churches for protection.

Originally, locals said fighting broke out when a Muslim mob attacked a Christian suburb, claiming the Christians had insulted Islam by being drunk during Idul Fithri. But many political analysts believe the violence is being fanned by agent provocateurs to discredit the Habibie Government, or to create chaos to strengthen the hand of the powerful armed forces in national politics.

On the Muslim side the tragedy is just the same. A student volunteer, Safri, who is helping organise some 3,000 displaced people sleeping at one of the city's mosques, says he saw the bodies of five family members himself: the pregnant mother, father, and three young children.

The bodies, he says, were mutilated. Less reliable, though, is his insistence that the Muslim family was held hostage by a Christian gang, forced to convert to Christianity, and then shoved into a pig sty, the ultimate insult to Muslims who consider pigs untouchable.

"Every time you go out into the street you see bodies lying around," he says.

About 1,400 military re-inforcements arrived in Ambon yesterday, to back up 1,000 troops stationed in the city, but scared residents were critical of the security forces, saying the soldiers were "guns for hire".

According to a local price list, armed escorts through the barricades cost from 200,000 rupiah ($A40) to 400,000 rupiah a trip. Another Ambon resident said: "Food supply is a problem because the market has been burnt down, and the food that exists is twice the normal price.

"There are times when we can't get water because the pipes are cut. Even those people who go to the office finish at lunchtime. Officially, the schools are still open but most of the teachers don't turn up, so the children don't go either."

'Holy war' call against Christians

South China Morning Post - March 4, 1999

Jenny Grant, Jakarta -- Muslim students demonstrated in Jakarta yesterday demanding a holy war against Christians in Ambon. About 2,000 students massed in a central square shouting "jihad" and accusing the military and Christians of ethnic cleansing in Ambon.

The calls came as the first elements of 3,200 troop reinforcements were deployed on the riot-scarred island and the provincial police chief was sacked.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's top human rights activist claimed Jakarta's policy of placing Muslims in top posts on the mainly Christian Maluku islands lay behind unrest which has seen more than 150 people killed since mid-January, 38 of them in the past week. The 300 troops deployed in Ambon yesterday were Marines, trained to cope in riot situations.

As they took to the devastated streets of the provincial capital, armed forces chief General Wiranto announced he had ordered the dismissal of the Maluku police chief, Colonel Karyono. He also said he was withdrawing a battalion of troops drawn from mainly Muslim South Sulawesi out of Ambon.

General Wiranto said he had instructed the new troops sent to Ambon to take "very firm and tough" action against anyone who "destroys, burns, or disturbs the peace, regardless of their background".

On Monday, four Muslims were shot dead outside a mosque in Ambon, reportedly by members of the security forces. General Wiranto promised "firm action" against those involved.

In Jakarta, demonstrator Muhammad Najib, of Bogor Agriculture Institute, said the military was too late and too savage in its response to the Ambon riots. "We urge the military leadership to solve this problem or we will travel to Ambon to solve it ourselves," Mr Najib said. Later 50 mainly Christian migrants from Maluku staged a peaceful demonstration urging the military to stay neutral.

A source at the Maluku provincial office in Ambon put the number of people who had fled the island since the violence broke out at 30,000, and said 13,676 had sought refuge at mosques, churches and military bases, most because their homes had been destroyed.

Marzuki Darusman, the head of the National Commission on Human Rights, said that Jakarta in 1997 had forced the appointment of Muslim Saleh Latuconsina as Maluku governor. The governorship had traditionally been given to a Christian.

He said that such moves, and the migration of large numbers of Muslims from South Sulawesi and Java, had led Maluku's Christians to feel their culture was under threat.

Two killed in renewed unrest in Borneo

Agence France Presse - March 2, 1999

Jakarta -- Two people were killed and a house torched in fresh violence between two ethnic groups in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, police said Tuesday.

"Two people were killed yesterday [Monday] in Pemangkat subdistrict 30 kilometers north of Sambas at three in the morning," Sergeant Major Pranoto of Singkawang district police in Sambas told AFP.

Pranoto said the two victims were immigrants from Madura island, adding that one died of stab wounds and the other of bullet wounds. "I can't say that the situation is safe now. Violence may break out at midnight," he said.

Violence between Madurese and ethnic Malays first erupted on February 21 when a Madurese refused to pay the fare on a public transport vehicle in Tebas. The fare collector, from the Malay community, insisted that he pay.

The Madurese later went to the collector's village of Semparuk and attacked and seriously wounded him. The Malay community responded by torching 20 houses in Tebas.

A mob also attacked a cabin housing road workers and killed two people there. A third man found dead in Tebas is also believed to have been killed by a mob.

At least 12 people have been killed and 65 houses burned in the violence involving Malay and Madurese ethnic groups since mid-February.

Ambon tense with new deaths

Agence France Presse - March 2, 1999

Ambon -- The riot-torn Indonesian city of Ambon was gripped by tension Tuesday, with troops posted at key trouble spots amid rumours Moslems were gearing up for a protest and the discovery of the bodies of a man and a woman stabbed to death.

A resident source said the bodies of Lucas Domingus Paliama, 34, and Merlene Sitanala, 30, were found early Tuesday in Ambon's Air Kuning village, the latest victims of Moslem-Christian violence that has claimed more than 150 lives since mid-January.

"The two bodies were found today but it is unclear on when their exact time of death," the source who requested anonymity told AFP.

Paliama died of stab wounds to his head and neck. Sitanala's body had been claimed by her family, he said. There was no official confirmation of the couple's religion but their names indicated they were Christian.

Many groups of Moslems and Christians in the devastated city blocked off streets with makeshift barricades in anticipation of new eruptions of violence, residents said.

"There are rumours that the Moslems are going to hold a peaceful protest today, although nothing has happened yet. But it has caused tension throught the city," a man from the Ambon Cathedral who identified himself only as Benny told AFP by phone.

Police and military sources could not be immediately contacted for comment on the Moslem demonstration plans, which were believed to stem from four killings on Monday.

[On March 1, Reuters reported that armed forces cheif General Wiranto had launched a crack anti-riot force to quell the most "brutal rioting" in Indonesian history. The 3,300-strong force will be raised from the army, police, navy, airforce and intelligence agency. He said the elite force would be rushed to trouble spots, isolate the unrest to prevent it spreading and then quell the strife. Intelligence officers will seek to determine who caused the trouble - James Balowski.]

1,000 fresh troops to be sent to Ambon

Agence France Presse - March 1, 1999

Jakarta -- Indonesia will send 1,000 more troops to Ambon and neighbouring islands in Maluku province where more than 150 people have died in Moslem-Christian violence since mid-January, reports said Monday.

"They will reach here in a short time," Colonel Karel Ralahalu, chief of the Pattimura military command overseeing Ambon, was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post.

Ralahalu said armed forces commander General Wiranto had agreed to the new deployment. He said helicopters would be made available to ferry soldiers to outlying trouble spots in Maluku, of which Ambon is the capital.

Military sources said Wiranto was expected later Monday officially to anounce the reinforcements, who will support 1,000 police and 1,400 soldiers already in the area.

The violence in Ambon flared again last week, with troops shooting on sight to try to contain it. By last report on Sunday some 26 people had died during the latest troubles.

Contingents of the new troops would repair facilities damaged in the savage rioting, Ralahalu said. More than 300 have been injured and tens of thousands of panicky citizens have fled by ship for other provinces.

Reports Sunday said thousands of residents in three areas were without drinking water because of damage to a municipal water plant and an attack on a building housing employees of the state water company.

Maluku governor Saleh Latuconsina was quoted by the Post as saying in Ambon that the city had arranged a joint Christian- Moslem coordination centre to try to end the violence.

He said he hoped the centre, aimed at eliminating suspicions between the disputing groups would be operational Tuesday.

On Sunday opposition politician Megawati Sukarnoputri offered to travel to Ambon to try to calm the situation.

"I am ready to cooperate with Pak Amien and Gus Dur if we are asked to bring peace there," she was quoted by newspapers as saying, refering to Moslem opposition leaders Amien Rais and Abdurrahman (Gus Dur) Wahid.

Megawati's Indonesian Democracy Party had traditionally embraced Christians.

[On March 1, Reuters reported that according to witnesses, police shot and killed nine people in Ambon when they fired without warning on Moslems leaving a mosque after early prayers. "Suddenly we were attacked by police, they were Christians", said a witness - James Balowski.]
 
Human Rights/Law

PRD/PKI prioners may be released soon

Kompas - March 6, 1999 (slightly abridged)

Jakarta -- The Attorney General, Muladi, has said that he will recommend clemency for jailed People's Democratic Party (PRD) activists, including the chairperson of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, who is presently interned at Cipinang Prison and Dita Indah Sari, who is in the Tangerang Women's Prison.

The request for clemency will be handed over to the Supreme Court next week by the Director General of Public Courts and the State Administrative Court, Parman Suparman.

"The armed forces will not be burdened by the release of the PRD activists. President Habibie has also given the green light over the PRD activists' release. Because of this I will request that the Director General of Public Courts and the State Administrative Court present a request for clemency for the PRD activists", explained Muladi to journalists in Jakarta on Friday (5/3).

The Attorney General also said that he had already recommended to President Habibie that September 30 Movement/Indonesian Communist Party (G30S/PKI) political prisoners should also be released soon. The G30S/PKI prisoners to be freed include up to ten people, however Muladi admitted he did not remember their names.

"The recommendation to free the G30S/PKI political prisoners was made some time ago. Now it is in process. The reason for the recommendation is for the sake of humanity, because most of them are old and sick", he said.

"In presenting the request for clemency, it is hoped that the PRD activists will be freed as fast as possible", said a former member of the National Human Rights Commission.

Muladi admitted that the release of the PRD activists can be done through a process of giving amnesty as with previous political prisoners but that would have to be done though an inter-departmental team and would take longer. The inter- departmental team which has been reviewing the release of political prisoners up until now will be informed however.

According to the Attorney General, he could not himself be certain if all of the eight PRD activist will be let out of prison through a request for clemency. The Department of Justice will study it first along with hearing input from the inter- departmental team which handles issues of political prisoners.

"Legally their is no problem with the PRD, because they have already accepted Pancasila and have been officially registered [as a political party] by the Department of Justice. But as individuals the PRD activists are not the same as the party itself. This means that the PRD must be differentiated from its individual members. The Department of Justice must first study the individual PRD activists case by case", he said.

If the PRD activists who are presently in jail have not been involved in other criminal acts such as violent crimes, the possibility of their release will be greater. "But in order to be sure of this it requires that the matter be viewed on a case by case basis", he said.

Muladi added that the policy of releasing political prisoners as already outlined by the government will continue and is not just a "political trade-off". Of around 250 political prisoners, 180 have already been released.

[Translated by James Balowski, ASIET Publications and Information Officer. The title was the translator's choice.]
 
News & Issues

US may offer arms to Indonesia

Financial Times - March 5, 1999

Sander Thoenes, Jakarta -- Madeleine Albright, US secretary of state, is expected today to offer a resumption of US military aid to Indonesia if the armed forces halt human rights abuses in East Timor and other parts of the archipelago, diplomats said.

The US embassy confirmed that Mrs Albright, who arrived last night, had requested a rather unusual one-hour interview with General Wiranto, commander of the armed forces, in addition to her meetings with President B.J. Habibie, the Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao and several opposition leaders. The timing and content of the talks were not revealed.

Mr Gusmao called on the US this week to cut off all training, weapons and ammunition sales to Indonesia and to push Gen Wiranto to withdraw military intelligence officers - whom he blames for setting up paramilitary groups - from East Timor. The paramilitary groups have clashed with pro-independence groups, sparking fears of civil war.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Mr Habibie's foreign policy adviser and de facto spokeswoman, said yesterday Indonesia would not agree to a referendum in East Timor on independence but could accept an indirect vote by an assembly of Timorese delegates.

"The president has been quite firm about the horrendous implications of a referendum," she told the Financial Times, dismissing reports that Mr Habibie had changed his mind. "It is not considered practical. The whole of [the military] would have to be withdrawn, peacekeeping troops would be needed, and international observers."

Instead, she added, Indonesia was considering proposals to allow East Timorese villages to send delegates to an assembly which could negotiate with Jakarta and then vote on the issue.

"A two-tiered election process may be one option, but we don't want to get ahead of the talks in New York," she added. Ms Anwar was referring to a meeting between diplomats from Indonesia and Portugal at the United Nations next week that may deliver a breakthrough agreement on a transition to autonomy or, more likely, independence.

Mr Habibie has sprung surprises on his staff before, however, saying in January that Indonesia would pull out of East Timor if his earlier offer of autonomy was rejected. His foreign minister and other officials had for months insisted only autonomy was an option.

Barrier to amend Constitution revoked

Kyodo - March 1, 1999

Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Jakarta -- The Indonesian House of Representatives on Monday revoked a much-criticized law made by former President Suharto, that has been a barrier for more than a decade to amending the country's 1945 Constitution.

All the four House of Representatives factions from the Indonesian Armed Forces, the ruling Golkar party, the Muslim- based United Development Party and the Christian-and-nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party unanimously agreed to remove the 1985 law that required a referendum be held to determine whether amendments to the Constitution might be made.

"Regulating a referendum through the 1985 law was not in line with the spirit and the principles of 'representatives'," Hadi Sutrisno, member of a House committee dealing with home affairs and discussing the revocation, told parliamentarians during a plenary session attended by Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid.

"It also caused a legal bias to our Constitution," Hadi said.

An earlier two-day discussion seeking to annul the law took place last week after the People's Consultative Assembly, the highest constitutional body, assigned the House to do it in November.

The government of President B.J. Habibie has said the referendum law had caused "judicial redundancy," as Indonesia does not adhere to the principle of a direct democracy state.

The House of Representatives also said referendums were not recognized by the Constitution. Amendments, as stipulated in Article 37 of the Constitution, simply need the backing of two- thirds of the Assembly's members.

Suyanto, spokesman for the Indonesian Democratic Party faction, said the law on referendums was a piece of "constitutional engineering" to give the president the ability to abuse his power, as it is difficult to hold such referendums.

"The rights to amend the Constitution are actually fully in the hands of the People's Consultative Assembly as stipulated in the Constitution itself," Purwoto of the armed forces faction said, adding that therefore, no other laws are needed.

"The making of such laws should be avoided in the future as it will harm the process of political education," he said.

The 1985 law was seen as part and parcel of the widely criticized "five political laws," which include the laws on elections, on political parties other than the Golkar party, on Golkar and mass organizations, and on the structure and position of the House and the Assembly.

In late January, the other four laws were revoked and altered by three new political laws regulating elections, political parties and the composition of the House and the Assembly, as well as the provincial and regency councils.

One of the most disputed articles in the Constitution is that on the presidential term of office. Under it, a president can be reelected after his or her term of office ends, but it does not limit how many times he or she can be reelected.

The article made it possible for Suharto to be reelected six times. Scholars and political observers have said such a loophole allows for abuse of power such as Suharto engaged in during his 32-year rule.

Talk of amendment, or debate on the state ideology "Pancasila," were taboo under Suharto's government and anybody doing so faced the risk of being labeled subversive.

In March 1980, Suharto told military officers, "Rather than use arms to face down changes to the 1945 Constitution and the Pancasila, we had better kidnap one of the two-thirds of Assembly members who intend to make the change."

Habibie upset by Ghalib's denials

Jakarta Post - March 6, 1999

Jakarta -- Attorney General Lt. Gen. A.M. Ghalib on Friday again expressed his doubts about the authenticity of the recently leaked bugged conversation he allegedly had with President B.J. Habibie. At the same time he blasted the press for exaggerating the issue.

Ghalib also told the press after an unscheduled meeting with Habibie at Merdeka Palace that he would hold a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) to clarify his side of the controversy

"Whether the voices in the cassette are truly the President's and mine, further evidence should be sought because with sophisticated technology it is not impossible these voices were either engineered or manipulated," Ghalib said.

Ghalib was initially reluctant to talk to journalists, but later spoke briefly to them after distributing a written statement.

"The [scandal] has had an extreme effect on my concentration while I am handling big cases which need quick and thorough solutions," he hinted.

Habibie has implicitly confirmed the authenticity of the bugged conversation, and ordered Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto to trace the phone tappers.

A palace official said on Friday Habibie was upset with Ghalib's continued denial because it would only undermine his own credibility.

"The publication of the tapped conversation without my confirmation has indeed violated our rights and it was a very unpleasant act," Ghalib said. He added he had not heard the tapped communication, but promised to explain the matter to the House of Representatives on Tuesday

He conceded the magazine had in fact solicited his confirmation prior to the publication but said he was too busy to meet with its journalists at the time.

Ghalib also acknowledged that Habibie often telephoned him, and that they sometimes used their cellular phones. But he insisted the President never asked him to violate the law.

"Never in any conversation has he ever ordered me to do anything against the law or the prevailing legal procedures," he asserted.

Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung, who is Golkar chaimnan, described as "irrelevant" the United Development Partv (PPP) faction's motion to summon Habibie over the issue. He said he had instructed the Golkar faction to block any attempt to summon the President to the House of Representatives.

Former Golkar leader Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said in Bandung on Friday that political interests would determine whether Habibie would really appear at the House to clarify the matter.

He believed certain factions' motion to summon Habibie was more of a marketing gimmick of their parties in the run-up to the June 7 elections.

ABRI could have taken over

Agence France Presse - March 5, 1999

Jakarta -- Indonesia's military had the mandate to take power during the turbulent days of Suharto's downfall last May, but didn't, armed forces chief general Wiranto was quoted Friday as saying.

"At the time of transfer of power from Suharto to to B.J. Habibie, I already carried a mandate (from Suharto)... which stated that the president... could take steps to restore national security," the Jakarta Post quoted Wiranto as saying.

"The mandate was passed on to me," he said. "I could have pressed the government to declare ... a state of emergency and take over power ... that would have been the easiest way," he said during a discussion held at a hotel Thursday on the role of the military during the upcoming elections June 7.

"But the armed forces, and I as the leader ... did not pursue [the mandate] because I realized that if I did so, there would be enormous bloodshed," he said.

The Post said during the discussion Wiranto "lashed out at" those who accused the military of exploiting the volatile conditions in Indonesia with the aim of taking over control of the country.

"Such suspicions are not realistic. We could have taken over before. I myself could have done that," he said, adding the military was loyal to the state and the system "not to individuals."

"The person [holding the presidency] may change but the Indonesian armed forces' loyalty to the constitution is consistent."

The armed forces chief, who is also defence minister, also pledged the military's neutrality in the June 7 polls, the first since Suharto's downfall, and repeated pledges that they were ready to withdraw from politics -- but not yet. We will eventually leave the political stage ... but it has to be done gradually.

"As a logical consequence of the demand for reform within [the armed forces] and regarding its dual function ... the armed forces will no longer be involved in practical politics," he said.

Indonesian students, who were in the forefront of the push to topple Suharto, a former army general, accuse Wiranto of remaining close to the former president, and have staged repeated demonstrations calling for the military to quit politics altogether and return to the barracks.

The country's upper house of parliament, the Supreme Consultative Assembly in a compromise decision has reduced the military's seats in the lower house from 75 to 38.

But the top echelons of the central and provincial governments remain loaded with active and retired military officers.


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