• Top Timor analysts named in warrant - Sydney Morning Herald
• Jakarta starts to disarm Timor militia - Straits Times
• Soldiers quizzed about UN murders - South China Morning Post
• Secrets and lies: failed Timor policy there for all to see - Sydney Morning Herald
• Need for food by refugees in West Timor is worsening - New York Times
• Indonesia puts militia on notice - Sydney Morning Herald
• Files show Australian government lied about Timor deaths - Reuters
• The Indonesian-Australian invasion - Green Left Weekly
• Howard covers for the Indonesian military - Green Left Weekly

• Top cop failed to carry out arrest orders - Agence France-Presse
• Sacked: Second TNI general in three days - Straits Times
• Leaked documents outline top-level plot to oust Wahid - Detik
• Indonesia in denial - Sydney Morning Herald
• Wahid goes to war - Time Magazine
• Rizal, Ibra chief battle for control of state-owned firms - Business Times

• Ten killed in sectarian fighting in Maluku - Associated Press
• `Black magic' woman beheaded - Straits Times
• Two dead, 19 injured in attack on ferry in Ambon - Agence France-Presse

• General sees foreign plot to seize province - Associated Press
• Violence claims more victims in restive Aceh - Agence France-Presse
• Blasts rock capital of Indonesia's Aceh province - Agence France-Presse
• Five killed in Aceh province violence - Agence France-Presse

• Nike's cover-up campaign - Green Left Weekly

• Two Indonesian ex-servicemen jailed in forgery case - Agence France-Presse
• Jakarta's legal system needs clean-up: Darusman - Straits Times
• Terror, madness and myth - Far Eastern Economic Review
• Key Suharto crony's corruption trial starts - South China Morning Post
• Indonesian general cleared of corruption - Straits Times
• Timber barons face court over reforestation funds - Indonesian Observer

• Indonesia to probe $38 million scandal `Kostradgate' - Straits Times
• Molotov cocktails fly as Jakarta students clash - Straits Times
• Surly nation needs friends and money - Sydney Morning Herald
• Professionals rally at JSX building - Jakarta Post
• US adopts hard line on Wahid - Wall Street Journal

• A fight to the death: And the military seems to be winning - Asiaweek

• Security firms cash in on violence in Jakarta - Straits Times
• Indonesia to open railways to foreign capital - Agence France-Presse
• Jakarta tycoons selling off assets quietly - Straits Times
• Indonesia to extend repayment period for liquidity support - Agence France-Presse
• Happy days again for Jakarta's rich - Straits Times

Around 300 protesters demand stop to violence

Jakarta -- Around 300 demonstrators from various non-governmental organizations and other group of society staged protests near Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, yesterday urging all parties to stop committing violence throughout the country.

Among the organizations which took part in the anti-violence protests were the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi), and the Mothers Voice. They invited all elements of the society to reject violence, following the bomb blasts at the Jakarta Stock Exchange last week killing at least 15 persons and wounding several others.

Among the activists who joined the anti-violence campaign were Executive Director of Walhi Emmy Hafild, political analysts Andi A. Mallarangeng and a lecturer from the University of Indonesia (UI) Imam B. Prasojo. "This is part of our action to show solidarity to the victims of violence," said Hafild. Prasojo pointed out that the riots have put so many common people in misery and that he and his fellow protesters are concerned about problems of security and safety.

The proyest action was not only attended by activists but also common people as well as children because the organizers have urged all parties to joint their action through television campaign. They later went on to hold a long march towards the National Monument (Monas) Square and joined hundreds of people who were jogging there. They also unfurled 50-meter long banners demanding the police to be serious in investigating bomb blasts.
 

East Timor

Top Timor analysts named in warrant

David Lague -- Four key government intelligence experts on East Timor were named in the warrant police used on Saturday to search a Federal Opposition staff member's home in an inquiry into official leaks that last year embarrassed the Howard Government.

The intelligence specialists are two Army officers and two civilian analysts. One of the Army officers is a highly regarded analyst who is believed to have played an important role in preparing intelligence assessments of the situation in East Timor last year.

The warrant to search the home of Mr Philip Dorling, an adviser to the Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Laurie Brereton, shows that the Australian Federal Police was seeking evidence that public servants and journalists from The Bulletin, The Age and ABC Television's The 7.30 Report and 4 Corners had unlawfully disclosed government information between January last year and June this year.

It also shows that the AFP is investigating what appears to be a serious security lapse, with 79 classified documents listed, many of them secret or top secret, from key intelligence, defence and security agencies, along with notes to government ministers.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, last year implied that people in the middle or junior ranks of the Defence Department were responsible for the embarrassing leaks.

The Saturday morning raid on Mr Dorling's Canberra home has angered the Labor leader, Mr Beazley, who yesterday wrote to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Neil Andrew, complaining of a "grave breach of parliamentary privilege".

The letter said the raid was an improper interference in the performance of an MP's duties and could be a contempt of Parliament. It called for the House Privileges Committee to consider the complaint.

Mr Brereton yesterday wrote to the AFP Commissioner, Mr Mick Palmer, complaining that the search was an "outrageous and disgraceful trespass" on his parliamentary privilege.

Earlier the Opposition had won a court order forcing the AFP to hand over the small amount of material reportedly collected from Mr Dorling's home, but this restriction on the police lapsed yesterday.

Some of the documents listed in the warrant were intelligence assessments from the controversial period last year when the Howard Government was engaged in high-level international diplomacy over East Timor's move to independence from Indonesian occupation, and the deployment of an Australian-led multinational peacekeeping force.

A number of media outlets last year published material from a range of classified government documents showing that the Indonesian military was involved in inciting militia violence before East Timor's independence vote.

Despite these warnings, the Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had insisted that Indonesia would be responsible for security during the referendum. Mr Brereton exploited the publication of this material to attack the Government on its handling of the East Timor crisis.

Mr Downer late last year confirmed that the Government was pursuing the leakers. "I think we are pretty much tracking down where this material is coming from now," he said.

The warrant served on Mr Dorling showed the AFP was seeking documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Defence Intelligence Organisation, the Defence Signals Directorate, the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Theatre Joint Intelligence Centre, the Australian Defence Force Intelligence Centre and the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.

Jakarta starts to disarm Timor militia

Atambua -- Bowing to international pressure, Indonesia has begun to disarm pro-Jakarta Timorese militias even as Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman said that the Indonesian Military (TNI) should not continue denying that it has a connection with militias currently operating in West Timor.

Militiamen in West Timor surrendered hundreds of weapons to police yesterday in the first step of what the Indonesian government and the international community hope will be a total disarmament.

Just down the road from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office where three foreign aid workers were slaughtered by a militia mob on September 6, 12 gang members arrived at a local police station with three cars packed with weapons.

In all, seven automatic rifles, nine grenade launchers, 485 homemade guns, four grenades and 687 rounds of ammunition were handed in by members of the Thunder militia group, one of many gangs that killed hundreds of people during last year's rampage in East Timor after the independence ballot. More weapons will come in over the next few days, a source said.

The regional military commander who oversees West Timor, Major- General Kiki Syahnakri, was quoted by Antara as saying that he would quit if the disarmament process failed.

But armed forces chief Admiral Widodo Adisucipto has warned that the disarmament process will be slow and difficult. "It cannot be done all at once. It requires a socialisation process which is to be followed later by warnings, but steps which later lead to disarmament will definitely be taken," he said. The Attorney- General noted that the difficult disarmament process is one of the consequences of the military's relationship with the militias.

"It's no use for the military to keep denying the fact that the militias are backed and aided by them," he said. "It's not that simple to disarm, let alone dismiss, militia groups, for there is a psychological relationship between old elements in the TNI, recent troops deployed in East Nusa Tenggara and the displaced militias," he told journalists at his office.

While yesterday's weapons surrender was a positive first step, hundreds of other militiamen have yet to come forward to surrender their guns. Indonesia's government has promised to use force to disarm and disband any militiamen who do not surrender their weapons by Tuesday.

Soldiers quizzed about UN murders

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Several soldiers are among six suspects being questioned by Indonesian authorities over the murder of UN relief workers and an East Timorese militia leader in West Timor, it emerged yesterday.

"There are several [soldiers] among the suspects currently being questioned over the attack on the UN office in Atambua," M. A. Rachman, of the Attorney- General's office, said in Kupang, the main town in West Timor.

Mr Rachman, the head of a team investigating human rights violations in neighbouring East Timor, who is also assisting in the probe into the UN deaths, declined to give further details, saying soldiers from a local military unit were being questioned by police in Atambua.

Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman was not sure of the ranks of the soldiers involved, but stressed the suspects were rogue elements of the armed forces and were acting outside the chain of command. A spokesman for the armed forces, Air Vice-Marshal Graito Usodo, confirmed members of local army units in West Timor had been arrested in connection with the killings on September 5 and 6.

The murders provoked condemnation and economic pressure from the international community and intensified the pressure on Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to gain control over his military.

"More heads will be rolling," said H. S. Dillon, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights and an adviser to Mr Marzuki, after a week in which both the police chief and the deputy armed forces chief were dismissed.

"These sackings and reshuffles are all part of an attempt by the Government to clear out the ancien regime from the armed forces and the police. It is that ancien regime which is thwarting our transition toward democracy," Mr Dillon said.

The decapitated body of Olivio Moruk, 45, the head of the Laksaur pro-Indonesia militia, was found near the West Timorese border town of Atambua on September 5. The following day hundreds of militia hacked to death three foreign UN aid workers -- an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian -- and a local member of staff, as well as 11 villagers.

"There are now seven suspects in connection with the Olivio case and six in connection with the killing of the UNHCR workers," Mr Marzuki said.

Efforts by Mr Wahid's Government to get a grip on spiralling violence, both in West Timor and in the terror attacks on Jakarta, have featured several claims of intended arrests or accusations that have later proved to hold little water. One confidant of the President wondered if there was indeed firm evidence about military involvement in the killings.

But he said even if there was not, the Government was effectively sending a message to the public that the military's impunity was coming to an end. And in a further bid to placate international criticism following the UN deaths, it was announced that a four- day military operation to seize firearms and other weapons from Jakarta-trained militias would begin today. "Yes, it is true that there will be a disarmament between September 22 and 26 so that the international community can see that we are serious," said the military spokesman, Vice-Marshal Graito.

Mr Marzuki also said yesterday that whether former president Suharto was made to appear at his own corruption trial was a matter of law, not medicine, adding to reports that Suharto may be forcibly brought to court regardless of doctors' reports.

"We don't see how the Presiding judge can rule other than that the defendant will have to be there for the judge himself to see, whether he is fit or unfit to continue with the trial," Mr Marzuki said.

"There is an added dimension to this case. The public needs to be assured that we are not merely going through the motions of the legal process, but coming out in full. It is time now to mobilise the people, to mobilise public pressure against the police, against parts of the military and so on."

Secrets and lies: failed Timor policy there for all to see

Bruce Haigh, Sydney -- Critics of the Federal Government's failed policies towards Indonesia and East Timor have been targeted by the Government. The Federal Police have issued warrants to search for documents in the homes of people suspected of dealing with "secret" information relating to Indonesia and East Timor. I am one of those people named.

These actions highlight a number of issues. Anyone with an understanding of Indonesian politics and the role of the Indonesian military (TNI) does not need access to "secret" material to analyse developments in the archipelago. The information is publicly available.

The protection of information relating to failed defence and strategic policies is not related to national security but, rather, the Government's wish to protect its failure from scrutiny. The Government has been publicly embarrassed at the exposure of its shortcomings and therefore is seeking to hit out at the critics. The recent release of selected papers relating to East Timor over the period 1974-76 makes this point all too clearly.

This is a government caught on the back foot, bereft of ideas and strategic vision whose regional defence and foreign affairs policies are governed by a fear of Indonesia. By seeking to bully and intimidate critics, it is behaving like the regimes it professes to find abhorrent. From where I sit, it has all the hallmarks of the former white-supremacist apartheid government of South Africa.

Three weeks of the Olympic Games will not deflect attention from its actions. The search warrants were executed to coincide with the Games. No doubt the Government hopes that saturation coverage of the Olympics will keep its actions off the front pages and out of news bulletins.

There are questions that the Opposition and other concerned Australians need to ask. The warrants contain references to a large number of cables and other official documents that were allegedly leaked. The list represents a massive failure of security which demands further investigation.

Why was the Government's security system so lax that so many documents could find their way into the public domain without authorisation? The warrants contain very broad conditions open to discretionary interpretation, so what is the purpose of the exercise? Is it a "fishing" expedition? Is the Government seeking to intimidate, and, by so doing, restrict the flow of information and close the debate in Australia on its policies towards Indonesia and Javanese control of the archipelago? If so, its actions will achieve the opposite.

Rather than discrediting those people named in the warrants, the Government's ill-conceived action brings discredit upon itself and throws into disrepute its administration of foreign and defence policies. This government is behaving in the same manner as its predecessors with respect to the formulation of regional foreign policy. It is not being honest with the Australian public over the nature of Javanese control of the archipelago and the intentions of the TNI with respect to East Timor, Ambon, Indonesian Papua and Aceh. It seeks to hide its lack of ideas by attacking those who advocate a different course of action and would like a more open debate.

This is a government which is dangerously weak and lacking in direction in a number of fundamental policy areas. For those weaknesses to be allowed to shape Australia's future direction in the region does not augur well for the nation.

The Government's repudiation of the United Nations committee system and its treatment of refugees is a further manifestation of an administration floundering in the real world.

Appeasement comes at a price, one that is now being experienced within the nation in terms of the assault on democracy. Issuing search warrants is dangerous and divisive and affects the political and social health of Australia.

[Bruce Haigh is a former Australian diplomat. He was director of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Indonesia section from 1984 to 1986.]

Need for food by refugees in West Timor is worsening

Calvin Sims, Jakarta -- Indonesia, September 20 Tens of thousands of East Timor refugees living in squalid camps on the West Timor border face starvation by the end of the month, government officials and aid workers on the divided island said today.

The officials called for quick intervention from the Indonesian government or the international community, saying they feared violence if the refugees became desperate for food.

International aid organizations had been providing some food and medical assistance to the camps. But those groups withdrew from West Timor early this month after the vicious killings of three United Nations workers by militiamen linked to the Indonesian military.

With little medicine and with food and water supplies dwindling, conditions for the estimated 120,000 refugees in the camps are deteriorating.

"There is only enough food to last for a few more weeks, and after that people will start to starve," Petrus Ribero, head of the Indonesian Red Cross in Kupang, the West Timor capital, said in a telephone interview.

Mr. Ribero said that though Red Cross workers are no longer being harassed by the militias and are freely visiting the camps, they do not have enough supplies to distribute. He said the refugees are particularly in need of housing now that the rainy season has begun.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled East Timor last year when pro-Indonesia militia groups went on a killing rampage after the territory voted for independence from Indonesia. Aid groups have said they will not return to West Timor until Indonesia improves security there.

With the withdrawal of the United Nations and most international aid organizations from West Timor, the refugees are more vulnerable than ever. Father Alex, a Catholic priest at a church in Atambua that was involved in distributing food to the camps, said that militiamen continue to roam the streets without any interference from the military and that some militiamen are stopping vehicles to extort food and money.

"As of today, I have not seen any evidence of the security forces disarming the militia," Father Alex said in a telephone interview. "I fear more violence because the refugees would do anything, including rampaging on the church or government offices or commercial warehouses where food and supplies are located."

The head of West Timor's social services department, Yos Mamulak, said the local government had distributed 1,040 metric tons of rice about 2.9 million pounds, the last of its stock to the camps on September 9. He noted, however, that to feed the estimated 120,000 refugees, the agency needed more than five million pounds.

Mr. Mamulak said that the provincial government was waiting for more supplies from the central government and that he hoped the militia and refugees would not resort to violence. "It is terrifying for us here," he said.

Indonesia puts militia on notice

Mark Riley, New York -- Indonesia has ordered the West Timorese militia to surrender their arms or have them forcibly removed, as the Wahid Government moves to avert the threat of economic and military sanctions.

The militia will be given three days from tomorrow to hand over their weapons before the Indonesian military and police conduct armed sweeps through villages and refugee camps near the East Timor border.

Indonesia has invited officers of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor (UNTAET) to observe the weapons round-up but not to play an active role. The plan was outlined by Indonesia's Chief Politics Minister, Mr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and Foreign Minister, Mr Alwi Shihab, to a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday night.

It follows extreme international pressure since militiamen, armed with machetes, hacked to death three UN workers and at least six civilians on September6 .

The United States Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, has threatened to block international loans and extend the US military blockade on Indonesia if the Government does not act decisively to smash the pro-Jakarta militia.

After the Security Council meeting, diplomats warned privately that this would be Indonesia's last chance before facing unilateral sanctions.

The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who attended the meeting, said Indonesia should disarm the militia and dismantle the refugee camps within three months. "And until that is done, their own reputation and their relationship with the world can become compromised."

Mr Yudhoyono outlined a plan to disarm the militia within weeks and said the Government would move swiftly to repatriate the estimated 120,000 East Timorese in refugee camps.

However, Mr Yudhoyono and Mr Shihab failed to convince an increasingly sceptical Western bloc of Indonesia's true commitment when they again refused to support a council mission to Jakarta and Timor. Mr Yudhoyono said after the meeting that Indonesians did not trust the UN and would see such a visit as "interfering in the domestic affairs of Indonesia".

Mr Shihab conceded that Security Council members had shown a similar lack of trust in Indonesia and its repeated promises to crack down on the militia. "There is a crisis of distrust and we have to solve this," Mr Shihab said. "We are not defying the UN. It is only the time. If this mission should be dispatched now it will be seen as an intervention, it will induce reaction and will incite emotions within the Indonesian community."

However, several Security Council members indicated that their patience had already worn thin and demanded to see concrete evidence that measures were being taken to muzzle the militia. The British representative on the Security Council, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said he welcomed the weapons round-up but would still continue to push for the council mission to visit Indonesia. Mr Yudhoyono suggested countries' ambassadors to Jakarta should go to West Timor as an interim measure and that Indonesia would invite the Security Council when the time was right.

Humanitarian agencies are concerned that food and medicine may be fast running out in the West Timor refugee camps, and are stockpiling supplies for a possible mass relocation of many refugees back to East Timor.

Yesterday, West Timor's deputy governor, Mr Johannes Pakepani, said provincial authorities would stop supplying rice to East Timorese refugees because stocks had run out. "We've already been giving them what rice stocks we have, which was enough for two weeks. So after September 21 it will stop," he said.

A spokesman for the Australian Red Cross, Mr Vedran Drakulic, said yesterday that aid workers had no way of assessing the plight of more than 120,000 refugees in the West Timor camps. "Until we can get unhindered access to the camps, we just don't know," he said. "This is a race against time. The longer they are without assistance, the more concerned we are."

A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Canberra, Ms Ellen Hansen, said planning for a possible "mass influx" of refugees back into East Timor was in place. This included stockpiles of rice, beans, water and medical supplies for up to 100,000 refugees.

Files show Australian government lied about Timor deaths

Andrea Hopkins, Canberra -- Secret files released on Tuesday show the Australian government lied about its knowledge of the murder of five journalists in East Timor weeks before Indonesia invaded in late 1975, political analyst Des Ball said.

The files show the government was informed that the journalists were dead on October 16, the same day they were reported missing, Ball told reporters at a news conference at which 70,000 pages of diplomatic documents were made public.

The government did not confirm the deaths for days and six months later said investigations were still under way. Successive administrations have told parliament and the next of kin they did not know the details of the deaths. The funerals were delayed for months and only charred bits of bone were ever produced as remains.

The files expose "the most shameful episode in the history of Australian foreign policy," Ball told reporters at the release of the files at Australia's national archives. Ball, an Australian National University professor who has written a book about the events, was selected by the government to summarise his findings from the secret papers.

Australians Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart, Britons Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters and New Zealander Gary Cunningham, aged 21 to 29, were killed in the Timorese town of Balibo several weeks before Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975. The files showed four of them were killed while they hid or were held in a house. Charred bones were found in the home.

A fifth body, also burned, was found nearby, which Ball said confirmed rumours that one journalist had escaped from Indonesian troops before being captured and killed in a way that is "too horrible to recount."

Ball said the files show Australia has long known about the journalists' deaths at the hands of Indonesian troops. They show "how the Australian government connived with Jakarta over Indonesia's covert invasion ... how it dealt with the killing of the five Australian-based journalists at Balibo ... and how it lied to the Australian parliament and public, including next of kin, over the ensuing quarter of a century," he said.

The documents showed then prime minister Malcolm Fraser's coalition government kept its officials in the dark, sending a team to investigate the "presumed deaths" six months later. Fraser, now head of CARE Australia, was not immediately available for comment.

Secret memos, cables and letters sent and received by the foreign department from 1974 to 1976 are being released ahead of the usual 30-year wait in a bid to clear the air over one of the most controversial events in Australian history.

The Indonesian-Australian invasion

Max Lane -- Prime Minister John Howard's Coalition government has released foreign affairs documents relating to the 1974-76 period in a cynical ploy to use Australian people's outrage at the 1975 invasion and occupation of East Timor to score points against the "opposition" Labor Party. The documents confirm what was obvious from the public actions and statements of then ALP prime minister Gough Whitlam: the Australian government urged and encouraged the Suharto dictatorship to invade East Timor.

In September 1974, in central Java, Whitlam told Suharto that East Timor was "too small to be independent". The internal documents confirm that this was government policy. "I am in favour of incorporation but obeisance must be made to self- determination", one document quotes Whitlam as saying.

The legal front for the Indonesian military's black operations at the time, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recognised this stance in Whitlam's private secretary, Peter Wilenski. The centre was so convinced of the Australian government's support that it immediately began briefing the Australian embassy on its planned covert operations. Thus it was that the embassy knew three days beforehand that Indonesian troops would attack Balibo, where the five Australian journalists were killed.

The documents underline that all public references to self- determination in East Timor were part of a pretence to this principle by the government, to prevent "argument in Australia" as one document described Whitlam's concerns. This pretence was part of a greater pretence: that the Australian government supported democracy in the region in general.

Like the previous Liberal governments, Whitlam's Labor government heaped praise on Suharto and engaged in so-called batik shirt diplomacy. The murder of 1 million Indonesian workers, peasants and left-wing activists in 1965 and 1966, during and after the military coup that brought Suharto to power, was welcomed by both the Labor and Liberal political elites as a blow against the threat of communism.

Whitlam's support for the incorporation of East Timor into Indonesia meant support for East Timorese people living under the same dictatorship conditions as Indonesia's workers and peasants. Whitlam knew that "obeisance to self-determination" could only be a pretence given that he was dealing with a military dictatorship with a horrendous record.

Liberal hypocrisy

Answering a question about the documents, Howard said that he wouldn't comment on past governments' record, but asserted that his government had an "honourable" record. This is hypocritical on two counts.

First, Howard was a member of the opposition at the time of the invasion, an opposition that enthusiastically supported the Whitlam government's pro-dictatorship position. Later, Howard was a member of Malcolm Fraser's Coalition government, the first government to declare de jure recognition of the integration of East Timor into Indonesia. The Fraser government also massively increased material aid to the Indonesian military throughout the late 1970s, when it was engaged in its most savage operations against the East Timorese guerilla resistance.

Secondly, Howard's own government was a no less enthusiastic supporter of Suharto than Whitlam's, or Bob Hawke and Paul Keating's later Labor governments. While Hawke raised the champagne glass to Suharto and declared, "Your people love you, Mr President" during his 1983 visit to Jakarta, Howard described Suharto as a "caring and sensitive leader".

The Howard government continued previous governments' policy of holding joint military exercises with Indonesia and training its military.

It was also the Howard government that wrote to Indonesia's President B.J.

Habibie (Suharto's successor) suggesting that he try to con the East Timorese into dropping their resistance by promising a vaguely described act of self-determination at some indefinite time in the future. When this backfired and Habibie, afraid of having to finance the occupation of East Timor for another 10 or 15 years and still lose it, called a referendum in 1999, the Howard government did its best to aid the pro-integration militia in East Timor. It refused to apply any pressure on the Habibie government to rein in the army and militia.

Howard and his foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer repeatedly assured the Australian people that they could rely on the Indonesian military to do the right thing in East Timor, even as the militia violence against East Timorese independence supporters was being broadcast on television sets worldwide.

And it was the Howard government that refused to press Habibie to allow the referendum process to be protected by an armed United Nations force.

The Howard government stood by as the post-referendum violence exploded, afraid of any confrontation with Jakarta. Only massive public anger at its passivity in the face of these developments forced the government into a frenzied lobbying of the United States to pressure Habibie into surrendering East Timor to UN forces.

Continuity

Today, as Jakarta refuses to take any serious action against the persistent militia violence in West and East Timor, Howard and Downer express their confidence in President Abdurrahman Wahid's stated commitment to improving the situation -- just as they did with Suharto and Habibie. But it has been obvious for a long time that Wahid is not interested in subjugating the militia in East Timor. He has made no statement during his tenure criticising the militia atrocities and the situation in West Timor was not even raised for discussion during the recent sitting of Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly.

The Howard government would know that Wahid is a member of the CSIS advisory council and that Wahid appointed Yusus Wanandi, a key crony businessperson and a central figure in the CSIS, to a top advisory role in the government.

Wahid maintains close contact with the infamous General Benny Murdani, who was in charge of the 1975 invasion of East Timor.

When Wahid visited East Timor before the referendum, the anti- independence Aitarak militia provided the security outside his residence. His long-time friend and vice-president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has appointed the Aitarak leader, Eurico Guterres, head of her party's youth organisation in West Timor.

All Australian governments, Liberal and Labor, have been and remain complicit in the oppression of East Timor. Any international war crimes tribunal should not only haul Suharto and his military and political cronies before it, but also Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard and all the other Australian government accomplices to the crimes committed against the East Timorese people.

Howard covers for the Indonesian military

Jon Land -- When news of the killings in West Timor of workers from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) by pro-Jakarta militia reached Prime Minister John Howard, he acted quickly to show support for the Indonesian government and defend the ability of the Indonesian military (TNI) to resolve the crisis.

After a brief meeting with Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid at the United Nations Millennium Summit, Howard told reporters: "I do understand Indonesia's difficulties and I've certainly had very strong assurances from President Wahid ... of the determination of his government to do what it can to control the situation more and to track down those responsible for what has happened."

With his call for militia leader Eurico Guterres to be arrested, foreign minister Alexander Downer diverted attention from the role played by the TNI in the incident at Atambua. In his first comments on the attack on the UNHCR compound, Downer neglected to mention that the Indonesian military failed to intervene against the militia mob.

The response by the Howard government to the situation in West Timor is almost identical to those it made last year regarding the militia's actions in East Timor in the period leading up to the August referendum on independence. The government then -- as now -- expressed complete confidence in the ability of the TNI and police to provide security. Failure to control the militias was due to "rogue" elements, rather than deliberate TNI policy.

Downer and Howard's call for the TNI to restore law and order and disarm the militias sidesteps the reality that the refugee crisis in West Timor and the recent round of violence by the militias are directly attributable to the TNI.

Since crossing into West Timor last September, the militia have conducted their activity with little or no restriction. The Indonesian military is actively aiding the militias in keeping the refugees held hostage, allowing the gangs to use the refugee camps as bases for their terror campaign.

A recent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, for example, notes that former Kopassus leader General Prabowo Subianto was seen meeting with Guterres in Kupang two months ago. FEER also claims that Western intelligence agents have seen Prabowo in Kupang three times this year, most recently on August 31.

There is little evidence to suggest that the TNI or Indonesian police are going to stop supporting and directing the militias. There is a mountain of evidence indicating otherwise.

Indonesian legal expert Munir, who was also a member of the body established by the National Human Rights Commission to investigate various incidents that occurred in East Timor last year, told Agence France Presse on September 11: "As far as I remember, this is the fifth time since November that the Indonesian authorities are promising to disarm the militias. Do you see any change? ... The difficulties lie in the lack of seriousness of the Indonesians to honestly seek a settlement."

TNI leaders claim that "outside" sources are fomenting the violence in West Timor. After meeting with armed forces chief General Widodo and the head of police, General Rusdihardjo, the minister for security, Susilo Yudhoyono, made the incredible statement, "The armed forces commander just explained that the militias have been disbanded since 1999 and that more than 600 weapons were seized. However, there are reports that now say the militias still exist and have weapons."

The hand of "neighbourly understanding" is being held out by the Howard government to the TNI leaders responsible for the West Timor crisis and other acts of repression throughout Indonesia. Both the government and the Labor party opposition share the view that rebuilding the relationship with the TNI is a priority. During the carnage inflicted by the Indonesian military and the militia gangs in East Timor last year, Australia, the United States and the European Union suspended military ties with Indonesia. But aid to the Indonesian military has been slowly resumed. Junior TNI officers have been invited to study in Australia.

Similar overtures are being made by the United States, which has indicated a willingness to renew cooperation with the TNI -- ranging from training through to the provision of military equipment -- as a "reward" for Indonesia's transition to democracy.

In this process of normalising ties with the TNI, Australia, the US and other states are continually faced with the problem of having to cover up for the actions of the TNI, which remains a real threat to democratic change in Indonesia.

Not one of the Western leaders gathered at the Millennium Summit made any public statement supporting the call by East Timorese leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta for the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to try TNI officers and militia leaders responsible for killings and human rights abuses in East Timor last year.

Australia and other allies of Indonesia face the predicament that if the TNI's political and repressive role is weakened, then progressive and radical forces within Indonesia will be provided with greater opportunity to campaign for democratic reforms more far-reaching than those the Wahid government is prepared to implement.

A weakened TNI also means greater potential for Indonesian workers, students and farmers becoming more active in opposition to the austerity measures imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Despite the September 8 resolution of the UN Security Council condemning the crisis in West Timor and calling for the militias to be disarmed, member states of the council have backed off, claiming too much pressure is being placed upon the Indonesian government at the moment.

French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine stated on September 13, "We must think carefully before exerting new pressures". He was joined by the US representative, Richard Holbrooke, who urged that the proposed UN delegation to Jakarta delay its departure until hearing from Yudhoyono on what steps the Indonesian government is taking to resolve the situation in West Timor.

"Now is not the time to quibble over whether too much pressure is being applied on the Wahid government over the crisis in West Timor", Max Lane, national chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, told Green Left Weekly.

"The TNI and the militias in West Timor will not cease their activities unless they are forced to do so. The hypocrisy and excuses from Western powers must end now."
 

Government/politics

Top cop failed to carry out arrest orders

Jakarta -- Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday he had sacked the national police chief because the latter had refused to arrest a son of former president Suharto and a Muslim leader he had linked to the recent bomb attacks in Jakarta.

"I had ordered the police to question, even arrest the suspects but it was not obeyed. So I replaced the police chief," he said, speaking after Friday prayers.

On Monday, Mr Abdurrahman dismissed police chief General Rusdiharjo, saying "the security situation requires the replacement". Gen Rusdiharjo's sacking was blamed on his failure to solve or prevent the series of bombings, the last of which killed 15 people and injured 27 in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building.

The Indonesian president apparently took the police by surprise after Friday prayers last week. He announced he had ordered the arrest of Mr Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, in connection with blasts. He said at the time there was "plenty of evidence" against the 37-year-old Tommy, a wealthy businessman.

Mr Abdurrahman said a second person, local Muslim leader Ali Baaqil, should also be arrested. Mr Ali Baaqil said he would sue the president for defamation, then later said he had talked to the president and dropped the idea.

During Friday's session with a Muslim congregation, the Indonesian leader defended his arrest order saying it was intended "to prevent further bloodshed". "The nation should be informed about who we want to investigate," he said.

Police have since said there is "not enough evidence" to arrest Tommy, but they invited him to Jakarta police headquarters last Saturday for "clarification". Tommy left police headquarters after more than two hours saying he was "disappointed" with the president's order.

The timing of the September 13 exchange building blast, on the eve of the second session of the corruption trial of Mr Suharto, reinforced the widespread belief in Jakarta that the blasts were connected to loyalists of the former president. An explosion blew up a bus in the capital on the eve of the first session of Mr Suharto's trial. The next session is due on September 28.

On Wednesday, the Indonesian Observer reported that the governor of Jakarta intended to call in the notorious Kopassus special forces to help restore security in Jakarta.

Sacked: Second TNI general in three days

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta -- President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday dismissed a second senior general as his government raised the ante to try and solve the growing violence in Indonesia.

Palace sources said General Fachrul Razi, the Indonesian Defence Force (TNI) deputy chief, was replaced because of his alleged links to several radical Islamic groups and his possible complicity in attempts to destabilise the year-old government.

His removal was also a precursor to an imminent military shake up. Speculation is rife that chief Admiral A.S. Widodo and army commander Gen Tyasno Sudarto could be axed from their positions in a matter of weeks.

"The President wants to show that he is getting tough against people -- even generals -- who are sponsoring unconstitutional acts in the country," said a palace insider who did not want to be named.

The announcement by presidential military secretary Budhy Santoso did not give an underlying reason for the sacking. He said it was a "normal change in the military command structure".

A presidential decree was issued yesterday to "eliminate the position of armed forces deputy commander as part of streamlining", he said. The decree discharged Gen Fachrul with honour. But political analysts said it was aimed at softening the humiliation for the four-star army general.

Observers were intrigued why the TNI or Admiral Widodo did not make the announcement. It has led some to suggest that there is a widening rift between the military and Mr Abdurrahman. Gen Fachrul did not make any comments to the media yesterday.

A source in the State Secretariat said Mr Abdurrahman was upset with reports from his informal intelligence network that the general, who is of Arab descent, was "very close" to radical groups. This included the Front for the Defence of Islam, Masyumi, Kisdi and links to individuals like Mr Habib A. Baaqil -- Mr Abdurrahman has accused him of involvement in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building bombing. Gen Fachrul is also considered to be a member of ex-military strongman Wiranto's TNI faction which still carries political clout.

Sources said Mr Abdurrahman could now be going on the offensive against the military to further neutralise the generals, particularly those linked to Gen Wiranto's group.

Leaked documents outline top-level plot to oust Wahid

Suwardjono/Fitri & GB, Jakarta -- In Indonesia, the appearance of leaked documents outlining high-level plots to promote the interests of certain groups is becoming a regular feature of the political wranglings of the President and his enemies. The latest documents to surface are arguably the most significant to date and detail a series of 14 meetings convened with the express aim of plunging Indonesia chaos in the lead up to last August's Annual Session of the Assembly and ousting the President.

The documents have surfaced at a time when the government is struggling to maintain security, particularly in the capital, Jakarta, and outlying provinces with a history of violent clashes, such as Aceh and Ambon. Moreover, there appears to be a concerted effort to destabilise the security situation through bombings, particularly at the Jakarta Stock Exchange last week which left 15 people dead. It is in this context that the appearance of the document is particularly significant.

In general, the `usual suspects' are listed among those attending at various times a series of 14 meetings from May to July prior to the Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly in August at several locations, including the Hotel Borobudur, Hotel Shangri-La and the Hotel Novus in Bogor, West Java.

According to the document, frequent attendees included, former Indonesian Armed Forces Commander in Chief under Suharto and Habibie, General Wiranto, former Army Strategic Reserves (Kostrad) Commander Lt.Gen Djaja Suparman, former chief of the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen (retired) Zacky A Makarim, and Jakarta Military Area commander Maj.Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin. The former three are heavily implicated in the systematic mass destruction of East Timor one year ago following the referendum on independence and continue to control inestimable but undeniably large factions of the army.

Apart from the military's top brass, other participants include prominent politicians such as Fuad Bawazier (National Mandate Party, PAN) and Priyo Budi Santoso, Amir Husein Daulay and Betor Surjadi of Golkar -- the ruling `party' under Suharto's authoritarian militarist regime.

A variety of figures from several `civil' organisations also formed part of the plotting group. The document mentions the Habibie Centre, established by Suharto's presidential successor BJ Habibie as a kind of `think tank', as the group's basis for building relations through the Center's considerable international networks.

Habib Rizieq of the Front for the Defense of Islam (FPI) -- one of Indonesia's new hard line Islamic groups linked previously to elements of the military -- was also prominent. Interestingly, the President ordered the detention of Rizieq, along with `Tommy' Suharto, in connection with the JSX bombing but later claimed the statement to detain Rizieq was a mistake.

Also prominent in this category were Hariman Siregar, a leading figure of the 1966 youth movement, several figures linked to the Association of Muslim Students (HMI) such as Burzah Zarnubi, Eggi Sudjana of the Brotherhood of Muslim Indonesian Workers (PPPMI) and members of the Indonesian Committee for World Muslim Solidarity (KISDI).

Previously, the document only circulated in limited circles. Detik actually received the document from a Muslim cleric from the Front for the Defense of Islam (FPI). The FPI received it from the Malaysian Embassy. According to the source, the FPI received the document after the Malaysian Embassy was bombed because the Embassy was listed among bomb targets and, "the Malaysian Embassy wanted to clarify this because we are fellow Muslim countries," the source said.

The source admitted that the document also listed the Jakarta Stock Exchange as a target. Leader of the FPI, Habib Rizieq, also confirmed that the FPI had received the document from the Malaysian Embassy. "I assume the document was produced by the perpetrator of the bombing," said Habib. Habib was outraged that his name was listed, claiming it was pure slander.

Other bombing targets included the Hotel Indonesia, Istiqlal Mosque, Blok-M area, Attorney General's office, Cathedrals, Bina Graha presidential offices, Gambir Train Station, Atmajaya University, Trisakti University, Sarinah Shopping Centre, United States Embassy, Australian Embassy, Malaysian Embassy and buildings around `Monas', the National Monument in the heart of Jakarta.

Regions outside Jakarta had also been prepared as battle grounds: Ujung Pandang (South Sulawesi), Purwokerto, Pekalongan Yogyakarta and Semarang (Central Java); Bandung, Cianjur, Tasikmalaya, and Garut, (West Java), Surabaya (East Java), Ambon (Malukus), Medan (North Sumatra), Lampung and Palembang (South Sumatra), and Bali

Besides creating chaos through bombings, the group also allegedly developed a comprehensive strategy which involved two overlapping strategies: fueling the fires of social, economic and political turmoil while pushing various agendas. In the end, they allegedly aimed to build support for turning the Annual Session into a Special Session to remove Wahid.

The first strategy of fueling the fires of social, economic and political turmoil would be ensured through: creating anarchy at anti-Suharto student demonstrations and portraying the student movement as `communist', promoting Islamic issues (ironically referred to as the `Politics No, Islam Yes' campaign), exacerbating frictions within and between factions in the police and military, printing false bank notes, sabotaging distribution of basic goods such as food and petroleum and feeding erroneous information through government channels.

Their second strategy, to promote an agenda which discredited the President and ultimately supported the convocation of a Special Session of the Assembly, also involved numerous tactics: pushing for the parliamentary investigation of cases concerning the President and his inner circles' use of funds from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and from the Sultan of Brunei, fueling the fires beneath the `interpellation' motion (when the President was called before the Assembly to account for the sacking of two Ministers), influencing the press to support the agenda, lobbying foreign parties (Libya is mentioned) to support the President's removal and even send terrorists to partake and approaching other parliamentary leaders such as the Speakers of the House and Assembly, Akbar Tanjung and Amien Rais respectively, to also support the plan.

With the exception of the lobbying activities and the fact that bombs were not exploded at most of the target areas, perhaps all of the above mentioned phenomena made headlines in the lead up to and during the Annual Session.

The document also claims that 2,000 provocateurs, including members of the Laskar Jihad returned from Ambon, had been trained and equipped. Molotov cocktails were prepared, snipers trained and members of the civilian paramilitary groups associated to the former militaristic regime (Pamswakarsa) recruited.

However, while the parliament was the site of daily demonstrations during the session, the situation did not deteriorate to the extent that other very recent convocations of the parliament have.

Naturally, several persons listed have denied the allegations within the document when contacted by Detik. "I never had any contact with Wiranto. Let alone go to a meeting and orchestrate to blow up bombs. The document was intended to give me a bad name," said Priyo Budi Santoso of Golkar.

Eggi Sudjana from the Indonesian Muslim Workers Brotherhood claimed he knew nothing about the document. He even said he hadn't read the article or been told about it. "We hate violence, let alone using bombs," he added.

Equally naturally, supporters of the President are quick to point to the uncanny correlation between the documents contents and reality before, during and after the Annual Session. Support is particularly evident within the National Awakening Party (PKB) nominally headed by the President.

Effendie of the PKB Choirie said the document was directly related to the recent string of bomb attacks. "Whether the document is real or false, reality has happened close to the concepts described in the document," he said.

Rodjil Ghufron also of the PKB told Detik that it was natural for those listed on to feel disappointed in the government, many had obtained and lost or never attained positions of power. "They're what you'd call disillusioned elements," he said assertively.

Clearly, the substance and truth of the document are unclear. It is also clear that the forces of destabilisation are growing stronger and the is Presient facing mounting domestic and international pressure to come up with the goods. He may have survived the Annual Session in tact, but he must soon find out who is seeking to unseat him and not rely on the rumour mill to keep his head above water.

Indonesia in denial

Sydney -- Leading figures in the Indonesian Government have said some extraordinary things about events on both sides of the Timor border over the years, but nothing to match recent comments by the new Defence Minister, Mr Mahfud. At the weekend, he accused unidentified countries of trying to suppress the real desires of the East Timorese people who, he said, wanted to reintegrate with Indonesia. On Monday, when the US Defence Secretary, Mr Cohen, was in Jakarta, Mr Mahfud suggested the US was partly to blame for the violence in West Timor because it was refusing to supply the Indonesian armed forces with equipment needed to deal with the militias.

This is preposterously silly stuff, but also worrying. It indicates that at least some senior members of President Abdurrahman Wahid's Cabinet are reacting to mounting international pressure by retreating deeper into denial of Indonesian responsibility for the terrible things that are happening in an Indonesian province.

They include this month's brutal mob murder of three United Nations aid workers at Atambua, which the Indonesian army and police did nothing to prevent, and the continuing intimidation of East Timorese refugees by militia thugs.

It is true that Mr Wahid and some of his other ministers have been trying to send out a different message. The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, said in New York yesterday that his Indonesian counterpart, Mr Alwi Shihab, and other senior officials had assured him the Government in Jakarta was determined to disarm the militias and would be talking to the UN Security Council about a timetable. Mr Downer said he hoped the West Timor refugee camps would be disbanded before the end of the year. Wisely, he added the caution that what was needed was not just an oral commitment, but implementation.

That, of course, is the problem. The Indonesians have been promising to control the militias for months, but the gangs are still doing what they please in West Timor, with the backing of elements of the armed forces.

Indeed, an official travelling with Mr Cohen has told reporters that the militias have become better organised and armed in recent months and that active and retired Indonesian military officers are suspected of training them. The official said Indonesia's leaders did not recognise the importance of last year's independence vote in East Timor and did not want to.

If the US official is right and Mr Mahfud's comments and events on the ground in Timor suggest he is the outlook is grimmer than Mr Downer wants to believe. The only hope seems to be that Mr Wahid and his more capable ministers will be able to persuade their colleagues, and the military, that the world is running out of patience with Jakarta's broken promises, procrastination and rationalisations.

Certainly, international pressure is mounting. Mr Cohen was brutally frank during his brief Jakarta visit, demanding quick action to disband the militias so that those refugees who want to return to East Timor can do so safely. He warned that failure to disarm the gangs could lead to Indonesia being internationally isolated and losing economic aid. The president of the World Bank, Mr James Wolfensohn, had a similar message, declaring that the Wahid Government could lose financial support if it did not show it was serious about tackling the militia before next month's meeting of nations donating to Indonesia.

The question is whether Mr Wahid is listening and, if he is, whether the key players in Indonesia are listening to him. Hopes that the recent reorganisation of the Government would improve its performance and coordination have not been realised. The President is preoccupied with growing instability and violence in the capital. Bomb attacks have coincided with attempts to bring the former president, Mr Soeharto, to trial. Mr Wahid has reacted with typical impetuosity, ordering the arrest of one of Mr Soeharto's sons and then abruptly sacking the nation's police chief when the man was released. The eyes of the world may be on Timor; Jakarta is focused on itself.

Wahid goes to war

Terry Mccarthy, Jakarta -- Saludin, a newly hired driver for Coca-Cola in Jakarta, was waiting in his car in the underground parking lot of Jakarta's stock exchange when a bomb exploded last Wednesday.

"There was a loud bang and the windows of my car were shattered," the 27-year-old Indonesian recalls. "There were flames everywhere." Saludin jumped out of the front window of the Mitsubishi Galant. The second-floor basement was filling up with black smoke, but he followed signs leading toward the exit ramp. He made it to the first floor and collapsed -- "my lungs were full of smoke, and my heart felt it would explode from my chest." Rescue workers found him on the ground, bleeding from the ears and half-conscious, and carried him out to safety.

Not everyone was so lucky: 15 people died in the bombing, many of them from smoke inhalation as they tried in vain to find a way out of the underground lot. The nation was shocked, and the stock exchange -- already battered by months of negative economic and political news -- shut down for the rest of the week.

President Abdurrahman Wahid maintained an ominous silence before dropping a bombshell of his own at a mosque after Friday prayers. Exhibiting a rarely seen streak of decisiveness, he said he had evidence linking the youngest son of former President Suharto, Tommy, with the bombing. Gus Dur, as Wahid is popularly known, told mosque-goers he was ordering the police to arrest him, along with a Muslim activist named Habib Alwi Ali Baaqil. The announcement was greeted by applause by worshipers. "This does not mean they are guilty, but we consider there is enough evidence to arrest them," said the ever-enigmatic Wahid. "What for? To prevent incidents like the Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing from happening again."

The police later said they needed more evidence before they could arrest Tommy, but on Saturday morning the 38-year-old tycoon turned up voluntarily at the Jakarta police headquarters, smiling confidently to reporters waiting outside. After two hours inside, Tommy emerged saying, "Ask them [the police] for the evidence. I am really disappointed with Gus Dur's statement." Later, Harry Montolalu, chief of the Criminal Investigation Division at police headquarters, explained the police's position: "To conduct an investigation we have to have evidence. At the moment there is no evidence [against Tommy]. The President hasn't given us any evidence." He said Tommy had just provided "clarification of the matter."

The two most burning questions in Jakarta last week remained unanswered. Who set off the bomb? And, no less critical, did the blast shake Wahid out of his political slumber? Initial hopes that the President was serious about naming names began to dissipate when it became clear that, at least for the time being, he had no real evidence to implicate Tommy Suharto. His statement in the mosque began to look like another of the off-the-cuff remarks he often makes that lack substance. But the country desperately needs the President to take back the initiative. In recent months a series of bombings in Jakarta, coupled with violent clashes in the provinces, have seemed designed to destabilize his government and make the half-blind Wahid appear feeble. Two weeks ago militiamen in West Timor killed three United Nations aid workers just as Wahid was flying to New York to attend the UN

Last week's fatal bombing of the nerve center of the country's financial system upped the stakes, amounting to a declaration of war against Wahid's rule. With former dictator Suharto due to appear in court the following day on corruption charges, few Indonesians had any doubt as to where the threat was coming from. "Every time the old man or any of his children is to be questioned, a bomb explodes somewhere," says Arbi Sanit, a professor at the University of Indonesia. "It has to have some link to him." There was no evidence, just a widely shared conviction that the former President still has powerful allies who would do virtually anything to protect their interests. The only question in many Indonesians' minds was: How decisively would Wahid respond?

Aware of the power that Suharto and his family still possess, Wahid was weighing his options carefully. Early on Thursday morning, before the final death toll from the stock exchange bombing was known, a confidant of Wahid's met with him in the Presidential Palace and urged him to "cut off the head of the snake" -- by which he meant taking direct action against the Suharto clique.

Wahid, who seemed more upset than angry over the bombing, told the confidant obliquely: "We are getting closer." At an emergency cabinet meeting later that morning, Wahid named several Suharto cronies as likely suspects, according to Defense Minister Mohamad Mahfud. But the cabinet deliberations weren't made public. Wahid was still calculating how to grab the snake without being bitten.

The circumstantial evidence is plentiful. In July, just hours after Tommy Suharto was questioned in the Attorney General's office over corruption allegations, a bomb went off in the building. On August 31, the night before Suharto was first scheduled to appear in court on charges of embezzling $570 million of state funds, a bomb went off in a bus parked outside the makeshift courtroom set up in the Department of Agriculture where the trial was set to begin. When Suharto failed to appear in court the following day on grounds of ill health, the judge demanded the prosecutor and Suharto's lawyers bring in a team of doctors to testify and ordered the court to reconvene September 14. Like clockwork, the stock exchange bomb went off on the eve of the new court date. "There is a perception that any time the government raises the pressure on Suharto or any of his cronies, these things happen," says Attorney General Marzuki Darusman, who is managing the government's case against the 79-year-old former President.

Tommy -- whose full name is Hutomo Mandala Putra -- is widely regarded as Suharto's favorite child, but also the one most disliked by Indonesians because of how he flaunts his wealth. Now 38 and married with a son of his own, he struggled through school. But he developed an early love of cars, and raced competitively in Indonesia and abroad. Tommy headed the Humpuss group of companies, which had investments in the domestic Sempati airline, oil and gas exploration, the Lamborghini sports-car manufacturer and the failed project to build "Timor" cars in Indonesia. Tommy also controlled the clove monopoly that supplied the country's fragrant kretek cigarettes. The target of several corruption investigations since his father fell from power in 1998, Tommy has seen his business interests suffer, and his Humpuss group is now the third biggest debtor to the Indonesia Bank Restructuring Agency, owing about $655 million. Despite all of this, Wahid's call for his arrest astonished many Indonesians, who have grown accustomed to thinking that the Suharto family could operate above the law.

Wahid is desperate. With foreign investor confidence at an all- time low and no economic relief in sight, concern is mounting throughout Asia about Indonesia's very survival. Separatist and ethnic conflicts are breaking out across the archipelago, pulling the country down into a self-destructive vortex. As tensions increase, nationalist hackles are also rising, and politicians are quick to interpret any action by the international community as interference in the country's sovereignty.

On Friday representatives for Indonesia and the UN transitional administration in East Timor signed an agreement to form a committee to secure the border between East and West Timor, and to cooperate on the repatriation of refugees. But no deadline was given for solving the refugee problem. In Manila visiting US Defense Secretary William Cohen called on Indonesia to take "strong action" to control the militias in West Timor. But many military analysts believe the violence in West Timor was provoked by elements in the armed forces who hope to block the government's attempts to put senior officers on trial for last year's human rights abuses in East Timor.

Meanwhile despite an official ceasefire in the province of Aceh, killings and disappearances continue in the oil-rich area. On Friday provincial governor Ramli Ridwan said that 444 people had been killed and an additional 96 had disappeared in Aceh in the past year. Two weeks ago the body of Jaffar Siddiq Hamzah, a US- based anti-Jakarta activist who had been visiting Aceh, was found in a ravine with four other bodies -- police say they don't know who was responsible for his abduction and killing. With the growing sense of insecurity, the military is maneuvering to strengthen its hold on power. "Time bombs left over from the past are now going off," says Indria Samego, a military analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. "If the civilians don't get the situation under control we could possibly see a military takeover."

Wahid's presidency started on an upbeat note last October. The jocular Muslim cleric, who beat out rival Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia's first democratic presidential election in 44 years (she became his Vice President), promised democratic reforms, the removal of the military from politics and sincere efforts to battle corruption. Despite good intentions, his government has failed to make much progress. Wahid soon took to murmuring about covert maneuverings directed at undermining his rule. Initially such talk was dismissed as mere conspiracy theories, aimed at disguising Wahid's own shortcomings in government.

But with mounting disturbances culminating in last week's bombing in Jakarta, the theories seemed to be proving true. "The forces of [Suharto's] New Order are still too strong," says legislator Hatta Rajasa, secretary general of the Islamic-based National Mandate Party led by opposition leader Amien Rais. "They are determined to see a return to the past. They are trying to corner Gus Dur."

Indonesia is a two-tier country, split between an Elite strata of rich businessmen, generals and politicians, and a mass of orang kecil, which literally translates as "small people." The Elite believe they are naturally entitled to their chauffeur-driven, air-conditioned, dollar-denominated privileges in this hierarchical society. They expect the "small people" to stay in their place, out of sight in basement parking lots or servants' quarters, until needed. Wahid threatened to spoil the arrangement with his policy of reform. His pursuit of Suharto for embezzlement became a litmus test, a duel of strength between those who were getting fat on the status quo and those who genuinely felt Indonesia needed to change. The Elite has everything to lose, and the bombings suggest they aren't ready to cede anything. "There are people here who are willing to undertake a scorched earth policy to protect their vested interests," says Arian Ardie, an international business consultant and adviser to the American Chamber of Commerce. "They are prepared to bring the entire economy down."

The only force in society that can guarantee stability is the military. To take on the old order Wahid needs the army's support, and he may have to make a pact with the devil. Knowing that Wahid cannot take on Suharto on his own, the military would be able to drive a hard bargain in exchange for its backing. This could involve backtracking on the promise to reduce the army's influence in politics. "The sad truth about this country is that we're stuck with a military that is too strong," says Kusnanto Anggoro, a military analyst at Jakarta's Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Eventually we will need a leader with authority to deal with it. Gus Dur has the legitimacy to lead, but not the authority." In the end, Anggoro says, Wahid "will have to cut deals with the military to be able to run this country peacefully."

By week's end the rupiah had dipped to 8,675 to the dollar, down 17% since the beginning of the year, and the stock exchange, which was at its lowest level this year even before the bombing, remained closed. The country's future seemed as black as the basement car park, where twisted remains of cars had been ripped open like sardine cans and severed wires hung from the roof like macabre jungle vines. As the drivers and others caught in the explosion recuperated in public wards at the Pertamina hospital, Suharto and his son Tommy continued to hold fort in their spacious, well-guarded residences on Jalan Cendana. Wahid has said he is serious about stopping the violence, but Indonesians are wary of further bombings. Fears center on two events -- the possible arrest of Tommy Suharto and the next session of his father's trial, now set for September 28. Presiding Judge Lalu Mariyun has ordered Suharto's lawyers to present their client in court on that day. But the aged former dictator, and the cronies he fostered, have shown no signs of giving up peacefully.

[With reporting by Zamira Loebis and Jason Tedjasukmana/Jakarta]

Rizal, Ibra chief battle for control of state-owned firms

Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta -- A major turf battle for control of Indonesia's state-owned enterprises is unfolding between chief economics minister Rizal Ramli and the junior minister for national economic restructuring, Cacuk Sudarijanto, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra).

Sources told The Business Times that Mr Cacuk, who as Ibra chairman already controls 85 per cent of the country's private corporate sector, is now attempting to also bring the over 100- odd state-owned enterprises under his command.

He is, however, facing stiff resistance from Dr Rizal, who wants to use the proceeds from the privatisation of the state-owned companies to fund his public infrastructure and agricultural policies.

"The two major sources of revenue for the government is going to come from Ibra asset sales and the privatisation of state-owned enterprises," said a well-placed source. "Whoever has control over both these institutions effectively controls the economy."

Just last week, Dr Rizal announced that he would require all state-owned enterprises to contribute one per cent of their net profit to programmes targeted at small families and small-scale enterprises.

BT understands that there is also some jostling between the two men on who has greater seniority in the Cabinet. Although Dr Rizal was appointed as the coordinating minister for the economy by President Abdurrahman Wahid, he falls behind Mr Cacuk when it comes to experience in running both private companies as well as state-owned enterprises.

Before he became Ibra chairman, Mr Cacuk was president director of state telecommunications companies PT Telkom and Indosat as well as headed Bank Mega, a privately owned medium-sized bank.

Dr Rizal, on the other hand, made his name as a brilliant economist when he headed the Advisory Group in Economics, Industry and Trade (Econit), a private think tank. He was appointed to head the State Logistics Board (Bulog) just earlier this year by President Abdurrahman before assuming his current position.

There is also a growing rift between Dr Rizal and Minister of Finance Prijadi Praptosuhardjo over the future direction of state owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), which Mr Prijadi was once nominated by the president to head. He, however, failed the "fit and proper" test by the central bank in January.

While Dr Rizal wants to sell BRI's corporate loans book to other banks, which is estimated at around 6.2 trillion rupiah (S$1.2 billion), and return the bank to its core focus of providing loans to small and medium-sized businesses and agribusiness, Mr Prijadi argues that such a move would leave the bank without enough interest income to stay afloat.

The dispute also occurred just one week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to the plan under the latest Letter of Intent. The Fund announced last week that it would release the next tranche of US$398 million but added that the government must continue to restructure the banking industry.

According to political observer Umar Juoro, the rift between the economic ministers is still manageable as it is more personality driven and due to misunderstandings. "I am not really concerned that it will explode like the previous economic team but such misunderstandings could hamper the implementation of policies," Mr Umar said.
 

Regional conflicts

Ten killed in sectarian fighting in Maluku

Ambon -- At least 10 people were killed when fighting between Muslims and Christians erupted Friday in the eastern Indonesian island of Saparua, a Muslim official said.

Thamrin Elly, the coordinator of the Muslim task force, said dozens of other people were also injured in the fighting that broke out after Friday prayers.

"Eight Muslims and at least two Christians were killed in the fighting between Christians from Nolot villages and Muslims from Iha," Elly said. "A number of houses were also set ablaze."

He added that the Indonesian navy dispatched two warships to block armed infiltrators from other parts of the archipelago from reaching Saparua, which is located just east of Maluku's main island of Ambon, 2,600 kilometers northeast of Jakarta.

The latest deaths brought to 22 the number of people killed since Monday, when the latest round of sectarian bloodshed broke out. Three Muslims and two Christians were killed on Thursday.

Maluku and neighboring North Maluku provinces, collectively known as the Spice Islands during Dutch colonial rule, have been plagued by fighting between Christians and Muslims that has claimed nearly 4,000 lives since January 1999.

`Black magic' woman beheaded

Jakarta -- Murders of alleged practitioners of black magic are on the rise in the west Java city of Cianjur, with the latest victim beheaded and mutilated.

Dozens of people dressed in white robes entered a house early on Friday and pushed 70-year-old Radi onto the floor, accusing her of being a witch, reported the Indonesian Observer.

Her husband Wirya tried to protect his wife but was kicked and punched until he lost consciousness. The white-clad mob, apparently Muslim extremists, gouged out Radi's eyes, chopped off her head and then cut off her limbs. They then left the house nonchalantly, pausing only to carelessly toss parts of the severed body onto the road, said the Observer.

Locals, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, said some members of the community believed Radi had put spells on a few people, causing them to fall ill.

Over the past two years, sporadic murder sprees have targeted alleged shamans in various parts of Java. The worst killings occurred from mid- to late-1998 in the east Java city of Banyuwangi and surrounding areas.

Well-organised groups of thugs dressed in black as ninjas would attack certain Muslim clerics, accusing them of being evil wizards. Although the spate of killings eventually subsided, alleged black magic practitioners are still hacked to death intermittently.

Often they are branded as shaman by business rivals who want to take over their land or commercial enterprises. Sometimes, a community member, jealous of a person's status, may declare him or her to be an evil sorcerer and round up locals to kill him or her.

"People have cruelly been murdering other people, simply because they hear that someone has been branded as a shaman," Unang Margana, the head of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation's branch in Cianjur, told Antara on Friday.

Two dead, 19 injured in attack on ferry in Ambon

Jakarta -- Two people died and 19 others were wounded on Tuesday when a ferry carrying 100 Christians was attacked in the bay of Indonesia's strife-torn city of Ambon, hospital staff and a report said. The two died of gunshot wounds, a duty anesthetist at the intensive care unit of the state Haulussy hospital told AFP.

"Currently being treated at the ICU are one female and two males, all of them victims of the boat shooting incident at the bay," the anesthetist, who identified himself only as Michael, told AFP by telephone. "Two people, a male and a female, died in the incident. They were both still alive when admitted, but they didn't make it," he said.

Quoting witnesses, Michael said the attack took place at around 4pm when "at least five speedboats with armed men opened fire" on the Anda II inter-island passenger ferry. A male nurse at Haulussy told AFP on condition of anonymity the hospital had also received "16 other patients badly wounded" by the gunmen.

The state Antara news agency quoted the ferry's captain, David Yosep, as saying he and his men were taken by surprise when "five speedboats approached us and opened fire ... causing panic among some 100 passengers."

Ambon last week was re-opened to large passenger ferries of the state shipping company PT Pelni, after a ban imposed in July to prevent the arrival of people from outside the province who could stir up more trouble in Ambon.

The Maluku islands, of which Ambon is the capital, have been riven by Muslim-Christian violence for almost 20 months, leaving more than 4,000 dead.

Antara did not say whether the 100 aboard the Anda II were fleeing Ambon. In July an inter-island feerry carrying some 500 Christian refugees sank in high seas. Only 11 people were rescued, one of whom later died.
 

Aceh/West Papua

General sees foreign plot to seize province

Jakarta -- A senior Indonesian general has warned that foreign powers -- including the United States -- may be plotting to take over the remote province of Irian Jaya, the official Antara news agency reported yesterday.

Major-General Kiki Syahnakrie, regional army commander for much of eastern Indonesia, said the country must strengthen national unity to prevent a foreign invasion.

"We have to take measures to prevent Irian Jaya from becoming the next target of international moves following the holding of a joint exercise by US, Singapore and Australian armed forces near the territory," he was quoted as saying. Maj-Gen Kiki said he expected something major to happen in the territory in December, but did not elaborate.

But Australia and the US yesterday rejected Maj-Gen Kiki's claims that they were working to split Irian Jaya from Jakarta's rule. The US maintains a naval presence in Singapore, conducting exercises with regional navies frequently. However, a US embassy official said yesterday that the US navy had not taken part in any joint training near Irian Jaya for several months. Australia, the US and Singapore all recognise Indonesia's sovereignty over Irian Jaya, which is also known as West Papua.

Violence claims more victims in restive Aceh

Banda Aceh -- A soldier was killed and nine people injured in fresh violence as crude bomb explosions rocked the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said Thursday.

At least four explosions, all believed to be home-made bombs planted at various locations on the main road linking Banda Aceh in Aceh Besar to Sigli in neighbouring Pidie district, seriously injured one policeman Thursday, police said.

One of the explosives went off when a pick-up truck, one of more than 10 trucks carrying soldiers and police searching for the bombs, ran over it in Lampaku in the Indrapura subdistrict, Aceh Besar police chief Superintendent Sayed Huisaini said. One policeman on the pick-up was thrown off by the blast and severely injured, Husaini said.

Another bomb exploded as a car of the state Bank Rakyat Indonesia heading for Banda Aceh, passed Saree in Aceh Besar district but noone was injured in that blast. No casualties were reported from the other two blasts in Aceh Besar district.

In a separate incident a trooper was killed and five soldiers injured in an ambush sprung on three trucks carrying soldiers and supplies on a steep hill in Blang Mangat sub-district in North Aceh on Wednesday, North Aceh district police chief Superintendent Abadan Bangko said.

The attackers, numbering about 20 men, used grenade launchers and rifles, he said, adding that an ensuing exchange of fire lasted for 30 minutes. The injured were rushed to the military hospital in Lhokseumawe, the main town in the district.

A group of armed men also attacked a vehicle of Bank Rakyat Indonesiain Seunobok Nalan, in the North Aceh sub-district of Jeunied on Wednesday, seriously injuring three bank employees, he said. The attackers also used a grenade launcher, Bangko said. Residents said swarms of police and soldiers later combed the area, trying to flush out the attackers.

Blasts rock capital of Indonesia's Aceh province

Banda Aceh -- A series of explosions and arson attacks rocked the capital of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh overnight but caused no casualties, police and residents said Tuesday.

A homemade bomb exploded in the early hours of Tuesday at the office of the National Family Planning Agency in Baet, some six kilometres north of Banda Aceh's central area, police spokesman Yatim Suyatmo said.

"The office was destroyed and burned by a homemade bomb set up inside the building," Suyatmo said. The blast, and other incidents in Banda Aceh that night, left no casualties, Suyatmo said.

About four hours earlier, another explosion hit the Syiah Kuala sub-district office and the nearby religious affairs office in Banda Aceh, he added. The religious affairs' office was gutted by the fire that broke out following the blast while the sub- district office was only slightly damaged, Suyatmo said.

The fish auction centre in Lampulo village in the Kuto Alam sub- district of Banda Aceh was torched by a group of men at about the same time the bomb went off at Syiah Kuala, a resident there said.

The village hall in Krueng Cut, in the Darussalam sub-district near Banda Aceh, was also devastated by a homemade bomb about one hour before midnight, Suyatmo said. "I see these blasts as having been done by one group, the GAM," Suyatmo said refering to the Free Aceh separatist movement that has been fighting for an independent Muslim state since 1976.

"The aim [of the bombings] is to show their presence and spread terror among the population," he said. There was no immediate statement from GAM officials. Residents said that electricity was cut for the duration of the incidents.

Five killed in Aceh province violence

Banda Aceh -- Three Indonesian soldiers, a policeman and a rebel were killed in separate incidents of violence in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh on Monday, police said.

"Three soldiers securing the Dayah Tanoh village in the Gleumpang Tiga subdistrict of Pidie district were killed this morning," Aceh police operations spokesman Senior Superintendent Kusbini Imbar said here.

He said the three soldiers were part of a team of 10 deployed to guard the area, some 18 kilometres east of the district town of Sigli, to ensure security against the Aceh Merdeka separatist movement (GAM).

The trio were resting at a small outpost when rebels attacked with a grenade launcher, Imbar said, adding that the soldiers died on the spot. But a local journalist said the soldiers were killed by a homemade bomb placed under the outpost, and troops immediately conducted a sweep of the area to find the rebels.

Imbar also said that in the Tiro subdistrict of Pidie, unknown gunmen shot a policeman dead on Monday. The policeman was riding a motorcycle with his wife when he was shot. "He was in civilian clothes and was unarmed," Imbar said.

In North Aceh, one of some 20 rebels ambushing a military patrol in Singgah Mata village was killed in an ensuing exchange of fire, North Aceh district police Chief Superintendent Abadan Bangko said. The rebels attacked a convoy of five trucks carrying soldiers on patrol in the area, Bangko said.

But the deputy commander of the North Aceh GAM forces, Abu Sofyan Daud, denied the rebel, a member of an elite force, was killed during an ambush. "GAM did not launch an ambush, but our men inadvertently met with the patrol," Daud said.

The killings came just days ahead of Friday's talks between rebel and government representatives in Switzerland on a possible extension of a violence-marred three-month truce in Aceh which ended September 2. The truce, which reduced but did not halt the violence in the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, is now under a temporary extension.

Sympathy for the GAM, which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state since 1976, has grown as a result of a 10-year military campaign to crush the separatists.

Resentment is also high because of the syphoning off by the central government of the province's natural resources.

Jakarta has said it will not tolerate an independent Aceh, and has offered autonomy instead. The rebels say that despite entering the truce, they will not abandon their goal of independence.
 

Labour struggle

Nike's cover-up campaign

Simon Butler -- Nike is the world market leader in sports shoes. Its profits amounted to US$965 million in 1999. This huge figure in part flows from the sales generated from the vast volume of advertising Nike subjects the planet to. But mostly, Nike's profit margins are huge because it thoroughly exploits its workers.

Nike factory workers in the Third World receive as little as US$1.25 for 15-hour working days. Nike is notorious for manufacturing in countries that restrict the right of workers to organise.

Community Aid Abroad-Oxfam Australia (CAA/Oxfam) recently released a report as part of the NikeWatch campaign. Like Cutting Bamboo: Nike and Indonesian Workers' Right to Freedom of Association documents the exploitation and abuse of human rights Nike workers in Indonesia suffer. The report was compiled from interviews conducted in April and May.

Nike workers around the world are paid the bare legal minimum working wage, with the one exception: Indonesia. The official minimum wage of an Indonesian worker is US$33.65 a month; Nike says it pays its workers there US$35.30 a month.

But this small increase does not mean that Nike workers have a sustainable income. The Indonesian government itself estimates that the official minimum wage amounts to only 80% of what is needed to cover the minimum physical needs of one adult worker. Indonesian humanitarian and workers' organisations argue that the government significantly underestimates living costs.

Nike has argued that productivity bonuses push its workers' wages above the minimum subsistence level.

However, Nike has refused to publish details of these bonuses so that they can be independently verified.

Even if Nike is sincere about the bonuses, they would cover only the needs of one adult worker. The needs of the workers' children and other dependents would not be met. It is thus clear that Nike factory workers exist well below the poverty line. Jim Keady is a former professional soccer player who lost his job as assistant soccer coach at St. John's University in New York in 1998 because of his public protests against the university's relationship with Nike. He spent August in Indonesia trying to live on the before- overtime wages of Indonesian workers who make Nike shoes. He went hungry.

In Indonesia, Nike has a long history of restricting workers' rights to organise in independent unions for better wages and conditions. During the Suharto era, independent unions were outlawed. All workers were automatically members of the tame government-sponsored SPSI trade union.

Nike collaborated closely with the Suharto dictatorship and the armed forces to quell industrial disputes.

In 1996, for example, a union organiser who organised a strike was sacked by Nike and then detained and tortured for seven days by the military.

The fall of Suharto in 1998 brought with it the legalisation of independent trade unions. Nike factories are now usually covered by both government and independent unions.

Like `cutting bamboo'

Interviews with Nike workers in the CAA/Oxfam report reveal the persecution faced by those who join independent unions rather than the SPSI or the SP TSK (a post-Suharto split-off from the more discredited SPSI, also known as SPSI reformasi; few workers feel that the SP TSK has reformed much).

Many workers said they were afraid to make complaints to the SP TSK because in the past factory supervisors have been informed. Workers who make complaints are often intimidated. At one Nike factory visited by the report's compiler, the leader of the SP TSK branch was the factory supervisor.

Factories also commonly employ preman (hired thugs) to assault troublesome union officials and to break strikes and picket lines. In 1995, a union organiser in a Nike factory resigned after thugs came to his house and stabbed him in the face, arms and shoulders. Death threats have been made to other independent union organisers. One worker from the PT Adis factory in Balaraja, West Java, described the mistreatment suffered by members of the independent union SPBS as being "like cutting bamboo". "Every month the number of workers who join SPBS grows and also every month [the number of SPBS members] are reduced at the same time because the management dismisses members", the worker said.

Workers are encouraged by management to consider the independent unions as illegitimate or even illegal organisations and to fear that people who join could face arrest.

Those involved in independent trade unions are told that they will never get promotions as long as they remain in the union. They are routinely threatened with the sack and often forced to work extra jobs without any increase in pay. Officials of the SP TSK, however, are typically provided with promotions, pay rises and office space in an attempt to separate these elected leaders from the workers they are supposed to represent.

Forced overtime is rife in the Nike factories. Some workers toil up to 70 hours a week, from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Friday. Workers are expected to work a half-day on Saturday and occasionally even on Sunday.

Indonesian workers are entitled by law to 12 days of annual leave. Factory management, in collaboration with the SP TSK, commonly intimidates workers out of taking this leave.

Working conditions in Nike factories are extremely hazardous. Many workers are exposed to toxic chemicals.

Before 1997-98, Nike used petroleum-based glue which contained the chemical toluene. A prolonged exposure to toluene vapour causes miscarriages.

CAA/Oxfam also reported that management told workers that if they cause too much trouble, Nike will close the factory and move to another country. With Indonesia's unemployment rate at around 35%, this threat makes many workers afraid to insist on their rights.

Nike's spin doctors Due to the growing international campaign against Nike's exploitative practices in Indonesia and elsewhere, Nike has sought to rebuild its image.

According to Nike's spin doctors, critics are outdated and don't recognise the progress Nike has made.

Nike has reformed itself, they claim. Nike really does care and now "works very closely with our factory partners in ensuring that workers are paid appropriately, treated fairly, and that their rights are protected at all times", they say.

Nike's major (and highly publicised) program designed to protect its workers' rights is a study undertaken annually by PriceWaterhouseCoopers. However, workers who have been interviewed under the program report that their confidentiality has not been kept. Factory owners are easily able to discover and persecute workers who have been interviewed. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the study has uncovered little dissatisfaction among its work force.

Another public relations stunt Nike has begun is "Transparency 101". Its success is difficult to gauge because Nike has refused to release details of how workers were selected to be interviewed, how much time was spent interviewing them, what questions were asked, or whether confidentiality is kept. Not one of the resulting "action plans" released involves respecting union rights.

A further program trumpeted by Nike is the provision of medical clinics at all its factories. According to the CAA/Oxfam report, however, these clinics are more about repressing workers than providing health care.

Any female worker claiming menstruation leave must first go through a humiliating examination at these clinics. This alone is enough to dissuade most women from taking the menstruation leave they are entitled to. Those who do apply often have to argue their case with the factory doctors.

Revealingly, Nike has refused to allow any thorough independent monitoring of its human rights record. The Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC) is an organisation established in the United States by student activists, supported by academics, trade unions and labour rights organisations. Fifty US universities are affiliated to the WRC. Nike has refused to continue negotiations with the WRC over labour rights standards; WRC has launched an international campaign to expose Nike.

In April, Nike chief executive Philip Knight retaliated by cancelling a US$30 million donation to the University of Oregon (a WRC affiliate). Knight declared, "The university inserted itself into the new global economy where I make my living [but it] inserted itself on the wrong side".

Knight, obviously concerned that his living was under threat, was forced last year to increase his salary and annual bonus to $2.54 million, up from $2 million in the previous fiscal year.

NikeWatch

Nike has sought to discredit human rights activists, publishing a document on its web site attacking Jim Keady for self-promotion! The site includes interviews with supposed Indonesian factory workers who marvel at the "continuous improvement" in their working conditions and appreciate Nike's "regular fire drills [that] are fun and refreshing for the workers".

In Australia, Nike has refused to sign the Homeworkers Code of Practice, initiated by the FairWear campaign and the Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Union. Nike argues that it won't sign the code because all wages paid to its workers comply with Australian law. But this raises the obvious question: if Nike complies with the Homeworkers Code of Practice, what is stopping it from signing it?

Tim Connor from NikeWatch told Green Left Weekly that Nike has not stopped its abuse of workers' rights.

"Nike claims to have reformed as a result of criticism", said Connor, "but the reality is that any reforms Nike has undertaken have been minor, ineffective and grudging".

NikeWatch is demanding that Nike:

• work with international unions and human rights organisations to set up a genuinely independent factory monitoring program;
• make the monitoring reports public;
• establish a confidential complaint mechanism, overseen by an independent body, which can be accessed by workers; and
• make public the addresses of all factories producing for Nike and the levels of orders from each factory.

Two Indonesian ex-servicemen jailed in forgery case

Jakarta -- Two elderly Indonesian ex-servicemen have been jailed for printing 2.2 million dollars worth of fake bills, despite pleading the army chief had ordered them to make the money to pay Timorese militiamen, reports said Friday. A Jakarta district court judge Thursday jailed Ismail Putra and Eddy Kereh for seven and four years respectively, the Jakarta Post said.

Judge Purwanto cited the pair's exemplary military service records as a reason for not imposing a maximum 15-year sentence. "The defendants are in their 60s. Eddy in particular has devoted his life to the country and earned many medals during his service in the navy," Purwanto said.

Putra, 64, a former member of the army's combat intelligence unit, had argued in his defence that he was acting under the orders of now-Indonesian army chief General Tyasno Sudarto, who in 1999 was chief of miltiary intelligence.

"General Tyasno told me that General Wiranto had picked BIA [the military intelligence agency] to run the counterfeit money operation to fund the [pro-Indonesia] East Timorese militias," he said after the verdict. "He [Tyasno] told me that the army could not afford to lose East Timor. He said I had to do this for the army," Putra said.

General Wiranto was chief of the Indonesian military until October. He was held "morally responsible" by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission in a probe into the militia violence which erupted in East Timor last year after the people voted in a UN-ballot for independence from Indonesia.

Both Putra, and Eddy, who is already serving an 18-month jail term for another counterfeiting conviction, chose to defend themselves against the charges of churning out 19.2 billion rupiah (2.2 million dollars) in counterfeit notes. During the drawn out trial both the prosecution and the judge refused to summon Tyasno, despite Putra's allegations, which the general has denied as "lies" and "slander."

Prosecutor Sujitno, speaking to reporters after the guilty verdicts were handed down Thursday, defended his decision not to summon Tyasno. "It was the job of [police] investigators to involve the military police in this case, and to find out if General Tyasno was involved. This case is about counterfeit money. I have evidence that both defendants were involved in its production," he said.

The two ex-servicemen, who were arrested at the printing plant in a house in West Jakarta in February, were given seven days to decide whether or not to appeal the case.

Jakarta's legal system needs clean-up: Darusman

Jakarta -- Indonesia's Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman said the country's legal system is in desperate need of a complete overhaul in order to restore confidence in the judiciary.

He said complicated problems thwarting his office and other judicial institutions could be overcome if current figures in the judicial bodies were replaced by new corruption-free staff, the Indonesian Observer reported yesterday.

"We need to replace people to combat the problems," he told a business forum in Jakarta on Thursday. "There is evidence that bribes have been paid to judges to influence their decisions," he said, referring to bribery involving senior judges within the Supreme Court and other courts.

He also said Indonesia's corrupt legal system is embarrassing. "Our current judicial system is an embarrassment. The recent decisions rendered on bankruptcy, corruption and administrative malfeasance cases have been heavily criticised," he noted.

Without going into specific details, he added that the existing judicial system is "archaic" and "cannot not fully respond" to efforts by his office to bring former President Suharto and his "cronies, errant bankers, recalcitrant debtors and corrupt public officials" to trial.

He said Indonesia's Supreme Court will soon have a new Chief Justice, who is expected to be a person of high integrity and will restore respectability "that the high office deserves". "The Chief Justice and his judges must now be persons above reproach," he added.

Among the candidates vying for the position of Chief Justice are former Justice Minister Muladi and human-rights official Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, the Indonesian Observer report said.

Blaming the rot in the justice system as a "result of the past three decades of neglect of the rule of law" when Mr Suharto was in power, Mr Marzuki said that for foreign and domestic confidence to be restored, a complete revamp of the judicial system was needed.

Indonesia has been trying to clean up its courts by selecting new High Court judges, but even trying to pick 18 honest and experienced Justices has been hard. Two months ago, an integrity test for aspiring judges passed only eight of 46 potential candidates.

Finding suitable candidates is difficult because frequent scandals have lowered the reputation of judges, and the country's judges are also paid poorly. Earlier in the year, Minister for Law and Legislation Dr Yusril Ihza Mahendra even suggested importing Dutch judges to sit on the High Court due to the shortage.

Terror, madness and myth

Dini Djalal, Jakarta -- Tragedy is routine for Munir, Indonesia's foremost human-rights advocate. But the early September day when he learned of the death of Jafar Siddique Hamzah was especially grim. The body of the 36-year-old human-rights worker, an American citizen, was among five found in a ravine near Medan, trussed and bearing the marks of torture. Hamzah, who had worked to draw international attention to government-sanctioned atrocities in Aceh, had been missing for a month.

Munir is no stranger to such violence. But of late, things have been particularly bad. "It was a warning for us," says Munir of his friend's murder. While Indonesia strains under its painful transition to democratic norms, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, which he heads, is dealing with an increasing number of kidnappings. In Aceh, scores of activists have disappeared. Four land-rights campaigners recently returned from two weeks in abduction. Fear is returning to the community of non-governmental organizations, spreading outward from kidnap victims and their families.

Compounding the mood of unease has been a constitutional amendment, passed last month, that rejected the use of retroactivity in human-rights prosecutions, meaning new legal standards cannot be applied against those suspected of past atrocities. Many in the NGO community suspect the measure will provide a blanket amnesty to perpetrators of abuses.

"Before, our biggest challenge was legal reform. Now we have an even bigger enemy -- it's the constitution!" laments Munir. The public, he says, is again losing trust in the legal system, hampering efforts to get victims to push for prosecution -- and efforts to convince families to keep searching for their missing sons and daughters. Kontras says more than 900 people have gone missing in recent years.

But Munir, a lawyer, is no stranger to crisis. It's challenging enough under normal circumstances to seek justice for victims of abuse. Under the smothering constraints of the Suharto regime, such litigation amounted almost to a suicide mission. Munir didn't care. Instead he honed his troubleshooting skills, set up Kontras in March 1998, and held tight to that most vital tool for change: optimism. "I get discouraged and cynical," he says, "but I don't let it get to me. If you want reform, you have to go on."

Today Kontras, which functions nationwide, is run by 22 full-time staffers and hundreds of volunteers, among them journalists who give their spare time to help Munir's team compile a database. It's a modest, unconventional operation; Munir describes it as "a big family, rather than a typical NGO." Indeed, his tiny office at Jakarta's Legal Aid Foundation, with its filing cabinets held together with tape, has a feel of family bustle. Seated beneath a poster that reads "Destroy the New Order," Munir gossips and jokes about the current rash of tawdry political scandals. He's happy to talk straight politics, too -- even with those he often chastises: Munir's human-rights work involves occasional lectures at police and military academies.

He doesn't count the military as an enemy, but he understands why some generals think he is theirs. "When they snicker and make slanderous remarks, that's to be expected," he says. "After thirty years of being in power, it must be difficult for the military to face criticism."

One could assume the politicking is preparing Munir for a bigger podium. But he declines offers to join political parties. Politics is a tool, he says, but not his game.

Sure, he helped the Independent Election Monitoring Committee supervise Indonesia's first free vote in decades last year, but he himself didn't vote -- there's no one to vote for, he maintains.

The hope for happier outcomes motivates Munir to press on. "Telling the parents that their son or daughter has been found -- that's what I love about this job." For this privilege, he forsakes personal safety. Together with his wife he campaigned for labour rights in Surabaya, getting detained along the way. But he refrains from disclosing his own bitter history with the police, maintaining that others have had it worse. And he doesn't like what he calls "cry-babies, because they spread this myth of terror, and I want the public to stop being paralyzed by this myth." Unfortunately, with more people disappearing, terror will likely become more entrenched.

Key Suharto crony's corruption trial starts

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- The trial of former president Suharto's golfing partner, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, opened yesterday but was adjourned for a week after prosecutors outlined corruption charges against him. The prosecution accused Hasan of "enriching himself" at the state's expense. If found guilty, he faces up to 20 years' jail.

Unlike his former mentor, Hasan appeared at his own trial but unlike the former president's son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, who avoided arrest with a smile on Saturday, Hasan found little to be cheerful about. In detention at the Attorney-General's compound off and on since March, the friend of the International Olympic Committee and former timber tycoon sat quietly in court and entered no plea.

About 360 police guarded the Central Jakarta District Court's grounds, banning vehicles and limiting access to pedestrians. Prosecutor Arnold Angkow told the trial Hasan had cost the Government and timber industry association more than US$240 million by failing to carry out a forestry mapping project.

"The defendant ... in a time period of 1989 to 1998, did a series of actions that enriched himself by giving the state, directly or indirectly, some loss," Mr Angkow told the court. "In total, he has caused losses to the state of as much as US$75.6 million and he has caused losses to the [timber] association of as much as ... US$168.1 million. He was assigned to map 88 million hectares of forest but he did not do what he was assigned."

Hasan has previously denied wrongdoing. His lawyer, Augustinus Hutajulu, said he still had objections to the charges and would be filing them on Monday. He added that investigators had taken charge of several of his client's belongings as evidence, including documents, a BMW sedan and the Mapindo Parama office building in Senayan, South Jakarta. The trial was adjourned until September 27 and Hasan was expected to remain in custody.

Before Suharto's fall in May 1998, Hasan served briefly as his trade and industry minister in a digression from his usual work as a businessman. At one stage, Hasan virtually ruled Indonesia's timber trade and had stakes in about 300 firms spread across the country's economy, including banks, insurance, advertising, paper, copper, oil and media.

Last week, the International Olympic Committee caused a stir when it admitted asking President Abdurrahman Wahid to release Hasan so he could attend the Sydney Games.

Indonesian general cleared of corruption

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- An Indonesian Army auditing team has cleared a general of corruption allegations after it concluded an investigation that sceptics suspect is a mere cover-up.

The Army Inspector-General, Major General Djoko Subroto, said yesterday that Lt-General Djadja Suparman was found free of corruption during his four-month term in the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) last year. "Based on our team's findings, we concluded there was no corruption within the Kostrad under Lt-Gen Djadja, only administrative irregularities," Maj-Gen Djoko told a press briefing.

Lt-Gen Djadja was suspected early this year of having unaccountably used almost 200 billion rupiah (S$42 million) of the Kostrad's Dharma Putra foundation. The foundation owns several profit-making companies, including private carrier Mandala Airlines. He has dismissed the allegation.

Maj-Gen Djoko said Lt-Gen Djadja had not done anything wrong. The money was only used to improve troops' welfare and finance purchase of equipment like bullet-proof vests and parachutes for his commands. At the time, it was not illegal or unethical to do this," he said.

His junior officer, Kostrad's treasurer Colonel Fahmi, was instead found guilty of "administrational flaws which had triggered suspicions that there was corruption in the Kostrad", he said. Col Fahmi will face disciplinary sanction that will be determined by his current commander Maj-Gen Ryamizard Ryacudu.

Yesterday's announcement raised concerns that nothing had changed in the country's most cosseted institution, despite talks that reforms were under way. "I doubt that there was ever a serious intention to investigate the case," military analyst Indria Samego said. "Democracy does not exist in the military -- how can we expect the audit team to probe their three-star generals?" he added.

Mr Indria, who has written a book on the businesses of the military in the country, said top military officers might have intervened in the investigation process for fear that its result would affect other military units where corruption is also rampant.

The team said yesterday that the State Supreme Auditing Body had also not found indications of corruption in the Kostrad, and that the public accountant, appointed by Lt-General Agus Wirahadikusumah, had refused to give an opinion on the matter. But some officials had earlier said the public accountant was not given access to audit Kostrad.

Last July, the then Kostrad chief, Lt-Gen Agus, had ordered an audit into financial irregularities in the Dharma Putra foundation under Lt-Gen Djadja's leadership. Many people linked Lt-Gen Agus' removal from his post a month later to his campaign to uncover the missing money.

Tempo newsmagazine reported in July that aside from withdrawing money from Mandala and the Dharma Putra foundation, there were some indications of mark-ups in the supply and purchase of land and equipment, and the financing of project developments under Lt-Gen Djadja.

Yesterday, the Army's audit team said the only thing it found was that "poor communication" between the Kostrad, the foundation and its companies had led to undisciplined financial administration. The foundation had never been audited since its establishment in 1964, the team said.

Aside from Mandala, the Dharma Putra foundation owns partial shares in various companies. These include a toll road operator and an importer of luxury cars.

Timber barons face court over reforestation funds

Jakarta -- The Plantation and Forestry Department is set to bring a score of timber tycoons to the arbitration court for failure to repay Rp 96.9 billion in loans taken from the department's reforestation funds (DR). Debtors include timber baron `Bob' Hasan, once ex-president Soeharto's golfing buddy, and timber tycoon Prajogo Pangestu, a close associate of Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.

"The department will bring the timber estate (HTI) businessmen to arbitration if they are still unwilling to repay Rp 96.9 billion in loans, which are already overdue," the department's acting secretary general Suripto told Astaga.com.

Suripto said the five companies are Prajogo's PT Mudi Hutan Persada with debts totaling Rp14.4 billion due July 1999; Hasan's PT Surya Hutani Jaya (Rp56.428 billion due July 1998); Hasan's PT ITCI Hutani Manunggal (Rp15.7 billion due July 1998); Sumalindo Group's PT Sumalindo Utami Jaya (Rp7.3 billion); and state-owned PT Inhutani II (Rp3 billion due January 2000).

"Before we go to arbitration, we will first send them a warning followed by an administrative sanction in the form of fines," Suripto said, adding that the amount of the fines is still being calculated.

Under Soeharto, who was forced down in May 1998 after 32 years in power, corruption flourished in all sectors, including the forestry sector, with cronies as well as high-ranking military and government officials enjoying the lion's share of the country's then-vast tropical forest area.

As if the looting was not enough, the reforestation funds were also channeled to irrelevant sectors, including to money-losing aircraft manufacturer PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara, the pet project of Soeharto protigi BJ Habibie, who replaced Soeharto as president.

"The five companies have asked for a rescheduling of their debts, citing forest fires and the prolonged economic crisis as factors that have caused losses. "Nevertheless, we will keep going after them," Suripto said.

Debt rescheduling violates Presidential Decree No. 16/1994 and Forestry Minister's Decree No. 375/1996 which stipulate that loans from the reforestation funds must be repaid ten months later.

In another development, the department also demanded that PT Gatari Hutama Air Service, controlled by Soeharto's son Hutomo `Tommy' Mandala Putra, return three helicopters the company used to operate on behalf of the ministry.

Similar to many shady deals made under Soeharto, the department's deal with Gatari has made it a laughing stock, since the department pays handsome fees to fly its own choppers, operated by Gatari. The Attorney-General's Office is prepared to bring the graft case involving Gatari to court. Gatari used to operate eight helicopters and one Skyliner plane.

Five choppers and the aircraft were later impounded by the Attorney-General's Office and retained as evidence. "The company was supposed to return the other three one month before the Attorney-General's Office brings the case to court in early October," Suripto said. "The choppers have not been returned yet because they are now in a very bad condition. We want them back, intact and in good condition," he added.
 

News & issues

Indonesia to probe $38 million scandal `Kostradgate'

Jakarta -- The Indonesian Parliament plans to investigate allegations of a 189-billion-rupiah (S$38 million) corruption scandal at a foundation run by the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), although the allegation has been dismissed.

House Deputy Speaker Muhaimin Iskandar told reporters on Thursday that the House, currently still in recess, has included the "Kostradgate" in its upcoming agenda. "If the House finds indications of irregularities, it will ask the Attorney-General's Office to initiate legal proceedings," he said.

The scandal first surfaced in April when executives of the Dharma Putra Foundation could not account for a 189-billion-rupiah fund which had been withdrawn from its subsidiary company, PT Mandala Airlines.

The House's Commission I for defence and foreign affairs, and Commission IX for finance and state budget, have been assigned to handle the probe, the Deputy Speaker said. The two commissions will hold a hearing with the State Audit Agency (BPK) and the army's Inspectorate-General to discuss the results of their audits into the foundation's finances.

The army's Inspectorate-General this week cleared Kostrad of any corruption charges in the foundation, although it admitted that the foundation's finances had been managed improperly. BPK has also audited the foundation's finances, but the results have not been made public.

The Deputy Speaker said the House's investigation was necessary to ensure public accountability of all the military's businesses, including Kostrad's foundation. "None of the military units have publicly disclosed the sources of their funds aside from those allocated in the government's budget."

Mr Taufiqurrachman, chairman of the Nation Awakening Party (PKB) faction, said the military is not immune to the law. "This Kostrad case will serve as a good lesson for the military," he said.

Molotov cocktails fly as Jakarta students clash

Jakarta -- A full-scale brawl, involving more than a thousand students from the Christian University of Indonesia (UKI) and the University of Bung Karno (UBK), left scores of people injured in the capital.

Kompas daily, in its Internet edition, yesterday reported witnesses as saying students pelted stones and Molotov cocktails at each other, while others fought using bamboos, samurai swords, metal plates, sledgehammers and batons.

The brawl, which took place in front of the city hospital, RSCM, started on Thursday night and ended yesterday afternoon. It was not immediately known what sparked the fighting.

One version has it that a group of students from one university, after demonstrating near the residence of former President Suharto at Jalan Cendana, gathered at one street and demanded money from passing motorists. Several students from another university, who saw what was happening, tried to stop them -- only to trigger a fight.

Another version has it that the clash was due to a misunderstanding when a group of students made advances towards female students of one university. A kidnap theory is also making the rounds here involving a student who has allegedly been kidnapped by students from another campus in Salemba district.

As yet, the actual reason behind the brawl could not be ascertained clearly, as the students had chosen to remain silent, said Kompas. Several students were wounded badly with the police staying aloof. The brawl ended only after academic staff from the two universities intervened.

Surly nation needs friends and money

Lindsay Murdoch -- Probably more than any other country Indonesia needs international help as it undergoes a historic and difficult transition from dictatorship to democracy. But its leaders are showing deep resentment to outside criticism, particularly from Western countries, and a propensity to blame others when the Government falters.

And this could cost it international goodwill. Many countries, including Australia, are disappointed at the performance of the new Defence Minister, Mr Mohamad Mahfud. Diplomats in Jakarta saw an attempt by Mr Mahfud last week to shift blame from his Government to Australia over the killing of three UN aid workers in the West Timor town of Atambua on September 6 as outrageous.

Until Mr Mahfud apologises for the accusations, which got wide coverage in Indonesia's media and could endanger the lives of Australians in Indonesia, it will be difficult for Australian ministers and defence chiefs to give him respect.

Mr Mahfud and the Vice-President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, have been claiming, without any evidence, that East Timorese are regretting their vote last year to separate from Indonesia.

Mr Mahfud even counter-attacked the US's tough-talking Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, who was in Jakarta on Monday to demand the disarming of the West Timor militias. The Americans should not forget that in "the Vietcong case, the Government needed 10 years to disarm the militias", he said.

The target of much of the criticism among Jakarta's political elite is America's outspoken ambassador in Jakarta, Mr Robert Gelbard, who has warned that Indonesia's intelligence agencies are failing to focus on terrorist networks setting up bases in the country. Mr Gelbard has also taken a tough stand against the failure of the government to disband militias in West Timor.

"If Gelbard continues to interfere ... I will write to Bill Clinton to withdraw ambassador Gelbard back home," said Dr Amien Rais, the parliamentary Speaker. Dr Rais said Indonesians should not be afraid of pressure from the US or any other country. "If the US wants to chastise and stand cockily with hands on hips, and we withdraw, we'll be considered weak."

It appears as if Indonesia has yet to overcome its humiliation at losing East Timor. The country's new leaders prefer to look towards their Islamic brothers and sisters in the Middle East than to Western countries like the US, which they see as hectoring and lecturing, diplomats say.

Mr Cohen delivered an unpalatable ultimatum this week: disband the militias in West Timor or face cuts in international economic support. The importance of this could not be missed on a country that has more than $US12 billion in loans outstanding to the World Bank and desperately needs continuing financial assistance just to stay afloat.

Professionals rally at JSX building

Jakarta -- Hundreds of people of different professions rallied at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) building on Monday, condemning last week's bomb attack at the building which left at least 11 dead and dozens injured.

The protesters, including lawyers, bankers, stock brokers and engineering consultants who work at the building and other business centers in the capital, rallied at the main entrance of the 34-story building during their lunchtime.

During the rally, some of them went to the front of the crowd and delivered speeches, condemning the masterminds behind the bombing. "These professionals want to show their opposition to violence and terror, which have been terrifying society," coordinator of the rally, Hotasi Nababan, said.

Among the protesters were JSX's chief commissioner Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, deputy secretary-general of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Bara Hasibuan and former state minister of investment and state enterprises development Laksamana Sukardi.

Laksamana said that the latest bombing in the capital had tarnished the country's image. "We now have an image of a barbaric country," Laksamana said at the rally.

"Whoever was behind this bombing, whatever their motives are, they should know that they only killed their own brothers," Laksamana said. "If they disapprove of the behavior of the government or politics, let's talk and discuss it together." Laksamana said the bombings had significantly affected economic activities in the country. "Today, we witnessed the fall of the Composite Index (at JSX)," Laksamana said, adding that the drop was one of the objectives of those behind the bomb attack.

The JSX Composite Index on Monday closed at 411.033, 7 percent lower than closing on Wednesday in which trading was suspended due to the devastating blast in the parking lot in the basement of the JSX building. Monday's closing was the lowest in 17 months.

The participants of the rally also collected money to be donated to victims of Wednesday's bomb blast. The dead and injured in the JSX bombing were mostly drivers.

While the professionals were staging a rally at the JSX building, hundreds of students grouped in the City Forum (Forkot) held a protest with a slightly different theme at the same site.

The students in their statement said that former president Soeharto was behind recent bomb attacks in the capital. "Acts of terror and the spreading of fear were patterns used by Soeharto to retain power," one of the orators said. "Yesterday they bombed JSX, may be tomorrow they'll blow up our campus or other offices," he added.

The students continued their rally by placing a large banner stating their demands on the lawn, including the immediate arrest of the former president. The two rallies ended peacefully when the professionals went back to their workplaces and the students left the compound for their campuses.

US adopts hard line on Wahid

Jay Solomon, Jakarta -- The US is taking an increasingly hard line toward President Abdurrahman Wahid's government as Washington tries to promote democracy and accountability in Southeast Asia's largest country.

But Mr. Wahid's increasingly feeble political position makes it uncertain whether the Clinton administration's harsher stance will help stabilize Indonesia or exacerbate the country's multiple woes. Indeed, last week's bomb blast that killed 15 people in the heart of Jakarta's financial district is widely seen as further evidence of just how little control Mr. Wahid has over this fractious nation.

Washington's ire towards Jakarta reached a new peak this month after members of East Timorese militias -- which have been backed by the Indonesian army -- killed three foreign United Nations refugee workers in the province of West Timor. Top US officials had been asking Mr. Wahid and the Indonesian military for months to restrain the militia groups, which have been intimidating the more than 100,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor, as well as the UN staffers providing them assistance. The killings sparked calls in Washington to continue an US arms embargo against Indonesia. And Clinton administration officials have raised the threat of cutting financial support for the debt- ridden Jakarta government.

"It's clear that the Indonesian government has convinced itself that the international community will support them no matter what they do," said a senior US government official involved in policy-making on Indonesia. "The US and other governments have decided that they need to take a more direct means to make Indonesia take responsibility for its actions."

Official visit

US Secretary of Defense William Cohen arrived in Jakarta Sunday for an official visit and warned Mr. Wahid's government it risked "isolation" if it didn't cooperate on West Timor. The issue will likely surface yet again at a World Bank-sponsored Indonesian aid donors meeting in Tokyo next month.

Commercial disputes have also divided Washington and Jakarta in recent months. In Indonesia, US business deals struck during former President Suharto's 32-year-long rule continue to come under attack from nationalists and reformers alike. US officials have been particularly critical of Indonesia's refusal to abide by contracts to buy electricity from a number of US power companies. Some in Jakarta maintain that the contracts were detrimental to the country because they involved allegedly corrupt arrangements with members of Mr. Suharto's family and their cronies -- charges Washington and the US companies deny.

Disputes over mining, oil and gas, and telecommunications ventures have also caused diplomatic friction. In one instance, US officials have threatened Mr. Wahid's government with expropriating Indonesian assets overseas should Jakarta fail to pay out a $290 million insurance claim lodged by the US government's political-risk insurer, the Overseas Private Investment Corp.

So far, Jakarta has resisted Washington's heavy hand. Last week, senior Indonesian military officials said they were seeking to buy military hardware from Russia to skirt the US arms embargo. Indeed, Indonesian officers have complained that supply shortages have made it difficult for the armed forces to deal effectively with separatist and sectarian conflicts that have flared across the archipelago since Mr. Suharto was forced from office in 1998.

"We'll need to find third countries" to provide spare military parts, said one Indonesian general, citing Indonesia's long- standing reliance on the US for airplane equipment.

Repeated public criticism of Indonesia's government and military by US Ambassador Robert S. Gelbard has also rankled lawmakers and bureaucrats. Among other things, Mr. Gelbard has openly voiced US concerns over the security situation in West Timor, rising terrorism in Jakarta, and a deteriorating business environment. He has also complained that some Indonesian government officials were acting in an "anti-American" fashion. Some Indonesians legislators have demanded that Indonesia's ministry of foreign affairs formally reprimand Mr. Gelbard for his outspoken comments. "The US Ambassador has repeatedly made interventionist statements regarding our internal policies. If necessary, he could be considered persona non grata," said Yasril Ananta Baharuddin, chairman of Indonesia's parliamentary commission on foreign affairs.

An official at the US Embassy in Jakarta said last week that Mr. Gelbard's comments were appropriate "and made in the best intentions of improving US-Indonesian relations." Another US official said Washington "has tried everything" to make Jakarta deal with rising security and terrorist threats, adding that the Wahid government hasn't responded.

A fine line

Washington is walking an increasingly delicate diplomatic tightrope with its aggressive stance, diplomats here said. "If you don't say anything, nothing gets done," said one Western ambassador, who supports the US's toughened position. "But if you say something publicly, the Indonesians charge you with backing them into a corner."

Indeed, the biggest fear is that Washington's high-profile complaints could produce a nationalist backlash. Mr. Wahid has been struggling during his 11 months in office to push democratic reforms while trying to assert civilian control over the widely disliked, but still powerful Indonesian armed forces.

"If you push too hard, you could push the civilian government back closer to the military," says Dewi Fortuna Anwar, who served as chief foreign policy adviser to former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie.
 

Arms/armed forces

A fight to the death: And the military seems to be winning

Penny Crisp and Dewi Loveard, Jakarta -- It was, said President Abdurrahman Wahid, an incident designed to embarrass him. But leaving aside motives for the slaying of four United Nations workers in Atambua, West Timor, on September 6, the president should indeed be embarrassed -- and should have been long before this mess exposed his lack of control over Indonesia's military to an international audience.

One military intelligence officer has revealed that just before the latest violence, a group of special forces was sent to West Timor to stir up trouble. They succeeded. Then, according to witnesses, soldiers and police merely stood back and watched. Observes one foreign diplomat: "Wahid is avoiding confrontation with the military because he's afraid of diminishing his own power by issuing orders that aren't obeyed."

Perhaps. But certainly the president, previously credited with reining in the military, is looking less able to keep the peace. Beset by business scandals, a moribund economy, a raft of separatist conflicts and a series of unexplained bombings (the latest at the stock exchange), Wahid is now the target of international ire over his inability to protect those trying to help.

After the deaths in West Timor, the UN immediately pulled the rest of its team from the area. Indonesia is now obliged to comply with a UN Security Council resolution that militias there be disarmed and disbanded. A UN delegation is on its way to assess progress -- though the government has said it is not welcome and has refused to meet its delegates. The US, the country's major investment benefactor, has issued strong condemnations. Even the World Bank has produced a veiled threat about continued support. Some are calling for the navy -- which has restored some order on strife-torn Maluku, and is trusted -- to be sent in. Instead, the government has dispatched an elite police squad and a division from the army's Strategic Reserve Command. "The Indonesian military has failed to disarm feuding factions [elsewhere]," says Munir, chairman of the country's Committee for Victims of Violence and Missing Persons. "West Timor is no different."

It is more than a year since rampaging militias, backed by the military, reduced East Timor to rubble. No one has been brought to trial, although 19 have been summoned, including the military chief in charge of East Timor during the independence ballot. Absent, however, is the former armed forces commander, Gen. Wiranto. And summoned at the last moment was Eurico Guterres, the former head of a militia allegedly responsible for a score of murders. Guterres is also the youth wing leader of Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle. His lawyer says it is unlikely that he will answer the summons. Megawati says all the militias have been disbanded anyway. Perhaps a dose of wishful thinking. Meanwhile, the 120,000 refugees who fled, or were herded, to West Timor face starvation in the wake of the UN pullout.

Then there is former militiaman Olivio Moruk, one of the 19 suspects, whose murder in West Timor apparently triggered the attacks against the UN Reportedly used by Kopassus, the army's elite special force, as an intelligence agent in East Timor, Moruk was virtually given a military burial (televised nationally), with armed guerrillas standing in ranks alongside military and police units. "The fact that he continued to operate as a thug with complete impunity in West Timor indicates how unwilling the Indonesian government has been to act," says Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Six people have been arrested in connection with Moruk's death. Those who butchered the three foreign and one local UN staffers have not been found.

That is not surprising. First reports said a 1,000-strong mob attacked the UN office, killed the workers and left. UN staffers now say those responsible were 25 men on motorcycles, who killed one worker, regrouped at the police station, no less, then went back to kill the others. Gathering again at the police office, the killers returned a third time to burn the bodies.

Certainly hardliners within the armed forces are hard nuts to crack, but international patience is wearing thin. "Our international friends demand us to do this and that, but they don't give us the necessary tools to operate," Wahid has complained. Taking away aid still due to be given may well be the next step.
 

Economy & investment

Security firms cash in on violence in Jakarta

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- As wary residents brace themselves for more surprise attacks after the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, businesses offering security-related products have moved to cash in on the moment.

One such product, a type of window film that can reduce the impact of broken glass, is growing in demand, going by the product's increasingly aggressive advertising campaign. Known as the "security film" as opposed to the regular tinted "solar film", has long been a standard device for the buildings of high-profile embassies, such as the US embassy. Now retailers are trying to grab the attention of lesser-known embassies, offices and even ordinary homeowners.

Ms Eli Halim, whose company distributes the US-made 3M, said her list of major clients in Jakarta -- which includes the US embassy, the United Nations building, Citibank and several other multinational companies -- had increased since the September 13 explosion that ripped apart the basement parking lot of the stock exchange building.

In the last six months, PT Saiba Kurnia Sentosa's sales of the window film for buildings and homes had risen 30 per cent, she said, adding that the company is "currently in negotiations with two foreign embassies".

Another company, PT Perisai Sakti Indonesia, entered the market selling USafe window films just early this month, shortly after two bomb attacks in July and last month, but before the stock exchange blast. "We have researched the market since last year, and concluded that this business could grow here because the issue of security still remains a concern," Company General Manager Georgius Herman Gunawan, told The Straits Times. "Our perfect timing is coincidental."

The security window film is not a designated lifesaver. It cannot prevent a glass from breaking, but can instead, with its specific adhesive material, hold the pieces of broken glass together for a little longer. This way the glass will not shatter into pieces. The security film can also hold broken glass caused by quakes or a major tremble such as that in a bombing incident.

Ms Eli said during the bombing of the Philippine envoy's residence on August 1, a diplomat living five doors from the blast site, was spared having pieces of shattered glass strewn around, because of the window film.

Still, it may be a while before the security film make its way into many Indonesians' homes. The average price for a square meter of the film for domestic use varies between US$30 and US$33 (S$51 and US$56), a price which only very affluent Indonesians, embassy staffers and expatriates can afford.

This is why the two companies, one of a number of existing distributors of the product, are focusing more on selling window films for cars where the prevalence of street crimes make it immediately relevant to buyers. The most notorious of these is the attack by "ax-wielding robbers" who ambush a lone driver at a traffic light, break the window, and take whatever they can before disappearing into the frenzied traffic.

Indonesia to open railways to foreign capital

Jakarta -- The Indonesian government is to open its railways sector to outside capital, allowing foreign investors to hold up to 95 percent stakes in new rail lines, a report said Thursday.

"They [the foreign investors] can own up to 95 percent of the assets as long as they are dealing with new railway networks," the transportation and telecommunication ministry's secretary general, Anwar Supriyadi was quoted by the Republika daily as saying. But he added that the stakes for foreign investors would be limited to 49 percent for expanding existing rail networks, such as in Java.

Supriyadi did not say when the new regulation would come into effect, but added that it was designed to encourage the development of railway services in the islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. "There are practically no [railway] networks there, they can also open up a trans-Sumatra or trans-Kalimantan network," Supriyadi said.

Sumatra has only short, unconnected stretches of rail tracks in a few of the eight provinces on the island. There are no railways in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island. In the past Indonesia's railways has been monopolized by state railway company PT Kerata Api (KA).

Jakarta tycoons selling off assets quietly

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia's tycoons are privately selling millions of dollars worth of assets to their foreign partners, but government officials who are just becoming aware of the trend want to clamp down on such deals.

A source close to economic czar Rizal Ramli said that in addition to completing these low-key transactions, some businessmen had kept prime assets off the table during asset-for-debt negotiations two years ago.

Recent sales by the diversified Bakrie and Salim groups of stakes in two separate petrochemical projects, and deals rumoured to be in the works involving two sons of former president Suharto and timber tycoon Prajogo Pangestu have ignited government calls for a renegotiation of earlier agreements.

"There is a clear indication that conglomerates kept the good stuff out of the negotiations and instead pushed forward questionable assets," the source said.

While insisting that "there is no need to make a big deal about the matter now", he indicated that the government would re-engage the conglomerates next month to discuss how to minimise financial losses to the state.

"Setting the figures straight may involve targeting government acquisition of key assets that are currently still in the hands of the conglomerates," he said.

The government, through the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra), is currently sorting through a paperwork morass as it attempts to restructure and sell off transferred assets.

The source declined to elaborate further on which companies may be in the government's sights, saying: "It is not difficult to come up with blue-chip assets that can more sufficiently cover certain conglomerates' remaining obligations. "The government hopes for cooperation and urges those who will sit across the table to come clean."

Legislator Benny Pasaribu, who chairs parliament's finance committee, told The Straits Times there was a widely-held view that some Indonesian business leaders have engaged in transactions to "cheat the country". "Conglomerates who still owe money to the state should need approval from Ibra, or the Ministry of Finance, if they want to sell assets independently," he said.

Allegations that assets transferred from conglomerates to the state were over-valued by as much as 70 per cent surfaced prior to the dismantling of President Abdurrahman Wahid's first Cabinet in August.

Former economic tsar Kwik Kian Gie brought the issue into the open when he revealed in July that the 108 former Salim Group companies under Ibra management might be worth as little as 20 trillion rupiah -- or 40 per cent of Salim's obligations to the state.

Government officials were also keen to point out that some conglomerates have not repaid loans to banks that were taken over by Ibra in the wake of the banking meltdown in 1998.

"Conglomerate owners who are potentially pocketing money through these sales, while they have not shown the goodwill to repay loans, are walking a very thin line," said Mr Benny. "In that case, it will be up to the state to act in a decisive manner to recoup public funds."

Indonesia to extend repayment period for liquidity support

Jakarta -- The Indonesian government said Tuesday it plans to extend the repayment period for millions of dollars in emergency liquidity extended to banks in 1998 if the bank owners inject additional assets and offer personal guarantees.

"The debtors will be asked to inject additional assets," if the assets they pledged earlier are not enough to cover the emergency liquidity they received, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Rizal Ramli said.

Ramli said the decision to extend the repayment period was based on the results of a meeting on Wednesday of the Financial Policy Review Committee, which he chaired.

"Secondly, we will ask them to hand over personal guarantees, so that if the value of their assets deteriorates in the future, their personal assets would also be handed over as well," Ramli said, speaking after a consultative meeting with the lower house of parliament.

"In return, if they are cooperative, the government would be ready to extend the repayment period of their obligations," Ramli said, without indicating how long the extensions would be. The original settlement agreement -- signed by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and former bank owners in 1998 -- gave the owners four years from 1998 to repay their debts. The agreement also called for the bank owners to surrender their assets to repay their debts to the government.

Ramli said the one of the reasons for the extension is that "there has not been much economic activity in the past two years. In addition, there have been no decisions [to improve value] on the assets, hence their value deteriorated."

If there were no more bomb explosions or repeats of the Atambua case, he said, the economy would grow by 6-7 percent annually over the next four years, which should enable the owners to repay their debts, Ramli said.

He was referring to the bomb explosion in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building last Wednesday which left 10 dead, and the killing in the town of Atambua, West Timor of three UN staff.

The two incidents combined to send Jakarta share prices plunging to a 17-month low on Monday, and the killing of the UN staff brought a warning from the World Bank that investor and donor confidence could suffer.

Ramli said however that the final decision on the debt settlement rested with the lower house, adding that the government would hold another consultative meeting with the lower house on October 3-4 to discuss the issue. There was no immediate comment on the plan by IBRA, which was set up to get the banking system back on its feet.

The central bank poured some 144.5 trillion rupiah (17 billion dollars) into commercial banks in liquidity loans in a vain attempt to stop them collapsing at the height of the financial crisis in 1998. But the State Audit Agency has since disclosed that the lion's share of the loans, 138.4 trillion rupiah, was misused.

The audit office said the loans should have been used solely to reimburse depositors during bank runs, but instead recipient banks used them for currency speculation and to lend to affiliated businesses. Forty-two active and retired officials from Bank Indonesia (BI) face questioning over the fraudulent disbursement of of the liquidity loans.

Happy days again for Jakarta's rich

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Hunting for an apartment in Jakarta is a walk in the park, unless the objective is to land the priciest of the available bunch.

The problem is twofold: Limited supply and extremely high demand from well-heeled Indonesians and expatriates who have snapped up residences costing upwards of US$600,000 to own and over US$4,000 to lease even during the economic crisis.

"There are only a few thousand units on the market while the list of potential buyers or tenants is growing," said Ms Dina Pattiasina of Colliers Jardine (Jakarta). "In a way, top-layer housing sells itself. Some people want the best possible services and amenities, and can pay for that level of privilege," she added.

Ms Dina, who is currently working with the Four Seasons Regent Residences complex in the heart of Jakarta, went on to talk about private lift access, 24-hour concierge service, state-of-the-art security system, imported marble and gold trimmings, lushly landscaped grounds and sparkling blue swimming pools.

Name recognition is also something that she and other marketing executives bank on. "Tenants are assured the same level of service and professionalism that guests at the Four Seasons Regent hotel across the street receive," said Mr Simon Bessant, the Regent's marketing director.

Other elite residences (or "oasis of opulence" as one brochure boasts), such as the Dharmawangsa Apartments and the Kempinski Apartments, report similar approaches. "There is a focus on rich Indonesians and expatriates, those who can fulfil the price standard," said Ms Joan, a marketing officer at the Kempinski.

"Prices have remained high since the onset of the crisis, showing that people are still willing and able to pay for more luxury," she added. Occupancy rates at both the Dharmawangsa and the Kempinski have remained at over 90 per cent through the last two years. The Regent, which completed construction last year, is already 60 per cent full on its two available towers.

While extremely wealthy Indonesians have bought units to rent out or occupy themselves, a large share of tenants come from the expatriate community, most of whom spend only a number of years in Jakarta and insist on getting the same standards that they are accustomed to back home.

"The trend is different from the past, however, with more high- level executives arriving today as opposed to middle management or technical personnel in the past. The living standards have accordingly gone up," said Ms Dina.

The Regent, which is waging a promotion campaign to sell 28 already tenanted units in Singapore last weekend, listed executives from Citibank, British Petroleum Amoco, Gulf Resources, Newmont and other high profile global companies on their tenant roster.

The demand is expected to rise continually over the next few years. "As Indonesia recovers, the market will only get hotter with more high-powered expatriates flowing into Jakarta," said Mr Bessant. "Prospects for investors who buy units to rent out are very good," he added.