Provisional list of elected district representatives

• Fretilin (all districts except Oecussi) 12
• Independent (Oecussi) 1

[Subject to certification by the Board of Electoral Commissioners.]

Fretilin party officials outline post-election priorities

BBC Monitoring Service - September 5, 2001

For Fretilin [East Timor Revolutionary Front] -- the party most likely to win the recent Timor Lorosae (TL) elections -- there are three main things which need to be maintained [from 1975] should the new country finally become a reality. These include the country's name as the Democratic Republic of Timor Lorosae (RDTL), the Proclamation of Independence of 28 November 1975 and the RDTL flag as the national flag.

These commitments from the Fretilin party were made by two of its party officials, Fransisco Kalbuain and Jose Reis, during a discussion in Dili on Tuesday afternoon (4 September). Both are party officials from the central executive board.

Leading up to the elections, Fransisco Kalbuain was entrusted with management of the campaign process while Jose Reis was acting as his representative. Reis was also often unofficially Fretilin's spokesman. The East Timor Independent Electoral Commission (KPI) announced that by Tuesday afternoon, Fretilin was easily in the lead and out of the seven districts which have completed their vote-counting, Fretilin had won in six.

The six districts are Covalima, Viqueque, Lautem, Manatuto, Liquica and Ainaro. Fretilin's loss in Aileu was merely on a national level, but on a district level Fretilin was well in front. The two were not surprised by the results. "This result reflects all our hard work since 1975. Fretilin has remained committed to the struggle and this resistance increased during TNI [Indonesian National Military Forces] attacks," they said...

Jose Reis explained that RDTL had already in 1975 produced a constitution, an official country name, a national flag and named an official independence day. However, they admit now that the former constitution has no real relevance to the current situation. "Besides the constitution which needs to be re- formulated, the three other things need to be maintained by TL because that was our commitment from before," stressed Jose Reis.

East Timor's national leader Xanana Gusmao has long disassociated himself from Fretilin.

What is their party's view of Xanana? According to Jose Reis and Fransisco Kalbuain, Fretilin still considers Xanana the central figure in Timor Leste. "We will continue to support him should he be nominated as president. Our support has not waned at all even though Xanana has shafted Fretilin on several occasions," added Jose.

Will Fretilin dominate the country's new government? Fransisco said that was unlikely, as it was not Fretilin's philosophy. "All parties will be involved whether that is Fretilin or the others. What is most important is their ability to carry out their government duties. There is no need to fear that Fretilin will be dispose of capable officials simply because they are supporters of other parties," he said.

Fransisco, who still has family in Indonesian refugee camps, added that Fretilin hopes those refugees will soon return to TL...

On another topic, they added that once TL became a definite country, their first priority would be to develop close and harmonious relations with the international community, especially Indonesia...

[Source: Kompas Cyber Media web site, Jakarta, in Indonesian September 5.]

24 women in 88-seat Constituent Assembly

Lusa - September 6, 2001

Results of last week's elections in East Timor indicate that the territory's new 88-seat Constituent Assembly will have a total of 24 women members.

The full breakdown on female representatives gives the Fretilin party 17, the PSD three, the ASDT one and the PST and PNT one apiece. The party with the lowest female representation is the second- placed PD, which elected no women candidates.

The results of the August 30 election were announced earlier Thursday in Dili, with Fretilin winning 55 seats in the assembly, followed by the PD (Democratic Party) with seven and the PSD (Social Democratic Party) and ASDT (Timorese Social Democratic Association) with six each. Remaining seats were split among eight minor parties and one independent candidate.

The participation of a significant number of women in the elections is taken to be a positive sign by some of the main women's rights organizations in East Timor.

During the electoral campaign some of these organizations said they had collected more than 10,000 signatures for the first petition to be presented to the Constituent Assembly. The petition's organizers hope that a women's rights charter can be incorporated into the future constitution.

Many East Timorese women's rights activists are critical of traditional dowry systems in the territory which, the petition claims, reinforce a patriarchal society system.

Final election results announced today in East Timor

UNTAET Daily Briefing - September 6, 2001

Dili -- The Chief Electoral Officer of the East Timor's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Carlos Valenzuela, today presented the full and final results of the 30 August Constituent Assembly elections.

"It is my fervent hope that the elections this year will have proven to the people of East Timor that elections can and should be peaceful events," Valenzuela said today. "This would be the greatest legacy of this election."

Fretilin is the winning party, with 43 seats in the national election, and 12 of the 13 district seats. The 88-member assembly will consist of one representative from each of East Timor's 13 districts, with the rest of the seats divided on a proportional representation basis. The seat allocation on national seats is as follows:

1. Frente Revolucionaria do Timor-Leste Independente (Fretilin): 57.3% of the vote, 43 seats;
2. Partido Democratico (PD): 8.7%, 7 seats;
3. Partido Social Democrata (PSD): 8.1%, 6 seats;
4. Associacao Social-Democrata Timorense (ASDT): 7.8%, 6 seats;
5. Uniao Democratica Timorense (UDT): 2.3%, 2 seats;
6. Partido Nasionalista Timorense (PNT): 2.2%, 2 seats;
7. Klibur Oan Timor Asuwain (KOTA): 2.1%, 2 seats;
8. Partido do Povo de Timor (PPT): 2%, 2 seats;
9. Partido Democrata Cristco (PDC): 1.9%, 2 seats;
10. Partido Socialista de Timor (PST): 1.7%, 1 seat;
11. Partai Liberal (PL): 1.1 %, 1 seat;
12. Partido Democrata-Cristco de Timor (UDC/PDC): 0.6%, 1 seat.

Twenty four of the 88 new Assembly members are women, totaling 27 % of the members.

The results for the final remaining district, Dili, were announced separately earlier in the day. The district representative is Cipriana da Costa Pereira from Fretilin.

In the national representative results, Fretilin received 66% of the vote; Associacao Social-Democrata Timorense (ASDT) received 10.7%; Partido Democratico (PD) received 5.8%, and Partido Social Democrata (PSD) received 4.7%. The other parties and independent candidates each received less than 3% of the vote.

Parties and independent candidates have until 6pm on 8 September to lodge complaints for the IEC Board of Commissioners to consider. The Board will respond to the few complains lodged so far by the certification deadline of Monday, 10 September. The results will not be official until they are certified by the Board of Commissioners and formally handed to SRSG Sergio Vieira de Mello at a ceremony on Monday. Valanzuela praised the elections as "the most peaceful" of the more than a dozen he has worked on.

UDT congratulates Fretilin, but contests election process

Lusa - September 6, 2001

Despite its decision to contest the election process, East Timor's UDT party congratulated Thursday the Fretilin party for its victory in last week's voting for the 88-member Constituent Assembly.

A statement sent to Lusa indicates that the UDT (Timorese Democratic Union) "reaffirms that the election process was neither free nor democratic and that the system used was open to irregularities".

However, the party congratulates Fretilin and offers its best wishes for "success in conducting the destiny of the newly- emergent nation". Such successful effort will be the basis for the "success of East Timor", it adds.

The UDT, like Fretilin, one of the half-island's historic independence parties, dating back to before the 1975 Indonesian invasion, obtained only 2.36 percent of the vote in last Thursday's ballot, for two seats in the assembly.

Fretilin was the unrivalled winner, winning 57.37 percent of the vote and 55 assembly seats in the election contested by 16 political parties.

UDT leader Joao Carrascalao guaranteed Thursday that his party would accept the final results. The UDT "accepts with total humility the electoral defeat" and thanks all party supporters who "continued to believe" in its ideas, states the text sent to Lusa, signed by Joao Carrascalao.

It does not indicate that the UDT will contest the result of the elections, but specifies that by denouncing irregularities in the process the party is fulfilling its "civic duty" as a "citizen of any democratic organization".

The statement also congratulates the people of East Timor for their "dignity" during the election process and urges "all political forces

Fretilin wins, but may be forced into coalition pact

Sydney Morning Herald - September 7, 2001

Mark Dodd, Dili -- Fretilin, the party that led East Timor's 24- year struggle for independence from Indonesia, has won the fledgling nation's first democratic election. But it fell short of the two-thirds majority in the new Constituent Assembly needed to draft unilaterally the country's Constitution, and may be forced into a coalition.

Announcing final results, the chief electoral officer, Mr Carlos Valeunzela, said: "It is my fervent hope that the election this year will have proven to the people of East Timor that elections can and should be peaceful events. In my view this would be the greatest legacy of this election."

Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, won 55 seats in the 88-seat Constituent Assembly. The win acknowledges the party's popular support and its spearhead role in ending the brutal Indonesian occupation of the half-island territory that began with a bloody pre-dawn invasion on December 7, 1975.

Fretilin secured 12 of the 13 district seats in the one-chamber assembly. Of the 75 national seats, Fretilin took an overall 57.37 per cent share of the vote to give it 43 seats -- well under the 80 to 85 per cent share of the vote predicted by the party's secretary-general, Mr Mari Alkatiri.

Its nearest opponent, the Democratic Party, won seven seats, the left-leaning Association of Timorese Social Democrats and the Social Democrat Party -- led by the former Indonesian governor Mr Mario Carrascalao -- both won six seats.

The new assembly will be officially inaugurated on Saturday week and will include 23 elected women members, or 27 per cent of the total.

After being sworn in next week, it will have 90 days to adopt the first Constitution for an independent East Timor. The Constitution will pave the way for another election, possibly in April, to choose a president. The former guerilla leader Mr Xanana Gusmao is almost certain to win.

Fretilin's president, Mr LuOlo (Francisco Guterres), promised a government of national unity would soon be formed. "Fretilin would like to solemnly reaffirm that it wants to form an all- inclusive government, a government that is transparent, an efficient government without corruption or nepotism, a state in which morality and ethics prevail in the public interest."

The United Nations' transitional administrator, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, said he would appoint a new government next week after the election results were certified. The government would be headed by an all-Timorese Council of Ministers and Chief Minister, the composition of which would be discussed with Mr Alkatiri on Thursday, he said.

Speaking at a news conference with Mr Gusmao, Mr Vieira de Mello congratulated Fretilin on its victory and applauded the strong voter turnout and peaceful ballot. "East Timor has once again defied and proved wrong those sceptics who doubted its political maturity and indeed the eloquence of its democratic feelings," he said.

Mr Vieira de Mello said the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Hassan Wirayuda, had phoned him on Wednesday to offer his Government's congratulations and had invited senior East Timorese and UN officials to visit Jakarta next week for talks with President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Courts will continue using Bahasa Indonesia and Tetum

Timor Post - September 5, 2001

The Deputy President of the Dili District Court Rui Pereira dos Santoas stressed that the Timor Lorosae Judiciary will continue using Bahasa Indonesia and Tetun in all proceedings for about 10 to 15 years despite Portuguese being made the official language of the Constituent Assembly.

Rui Perieira said that though four languages -- Bahasa Indonesia, English, Portuguese and Tetun -- were used in the courts in accordance with UNTAET regulations, in reality however the most used language was Tetun and Bahasa Indonesia.

"This is because most of the documents presented to court are either in Bahasa Indonesia or Tetun," he said. "The courts will not risk using a language that is not understood by the majority of the Timorese people," he added.

Xavier do Amaral decides not to run for presidency

Lusa - September 5, 2001

The leader of East Timor's ASDT party, Fransico Xavier do Amaral, told Lusa Wednesday in Dili that he would not be a future candidate for president.

Xavier do Amaral, whose party's strong performance in last week's Constituent Assembly elections surprised many observers, said his decision was due to a lack of adequate funds and support.

Interviewed by Lusa, he said he had considered running "during the last few days" but subsequently decided to "give up the idea". "I am not going run for president. The ASDT is bankrupt and we can't run risks in these matters", he added.

The ASDT leader had said last week that he would consider running for the presidency of East Timor, which is expected to achieve independence early next year. The announcement of a possible candidacy came in the wake of former resistance leader Xanana Gusmao's about- face decision to stand for the presidency in the future election, whose date has yet to be determined.

Gusmao "continues to have a lot of popular support" but even so "he can't become president indirectly", the ASDT leader said. "There will have to be direct elections. The president has to be chosen directly by the people, if not he will be rejected by the ASDT", he added.

The ASDT chief told Lusa he had already congratulated the Fretilin leadership on their success in last Thursday's elections. He specified that, "given the shared ideologies", the ASDT was prepared to "offer its services" in the process of ratifying the legal foundations of the future independent nation of East Timor.

Xavier do Amaral was among the 1974 founders of the ASDT, which in a subsequent transformation became Fretilin. On November 28, 1975, he presided over the flag-raising ceremony marking Fretilin's unilateral declaration of independence. Indonesia launched a massive invasion a week later, and occupied the now UN-run territory until 1999. He subsequently broke with the Fretilin leadership and spent most of the occupation period in Indonesia, returning recently to relaunch the ASDT.

Unofficial final results of last Thursday's elections in East Timor showed Fretilin winning 55 of the 88 seats in the Constituent Assembly, followed by the PD (Democratic Party) with seven seats, and the PSD (Social Democratic Party) and ASDT with six seats each, with the remainder split between eight minor parties and one independent candidate.

New twist in tale of Balibo deaths

Canberra Times - September 3, 2001

Lincoln Wright -- Two star witnesses behind the allegation that Defence knew beforehand of the murder of five Australian journalists at Balibo in 1975 now maintain they never saw an intelligence intercept warning that Indonesian forces were planning the killings.

Ian Cunliffe and George Brownbill, who worked for the Hope Royal Commission in the 1970s, have denied they saw a translation of a prior order to kill the journalists from Indonesian General Benny Murdani to his commander in the field, Colonel Kalbuadi Dading.

They claim they only saw an intelligence report of the killings "after" they occurred in the early hours of October 16, when Indonesian special forces, under the command of Yufus Yuniah, stormed Balibo and murdered the Australian media party.

The clarification of what Mr Cunliffe and Mr Brownbill actually saw, contained in two new letters to Quadrant magazine, is expected to have a big influence over intelligence watchdog Bill Blick's investigation into the Balibo affair.

Mr Blick, the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, is now aware of the latest development in the case and his report, now largely complete, has been passed for comment to the Defence Signals Directorate, the intelligence agency at the heart of the dispute over Balibo.

The allegation that Australia had prior knowledge of the Balibo murders but failed to act has been based on mostly unnamed intelligence sources, and until now the testimony provided by Mr Cunliffe and Mr Brownbill was regarded as crucial.

The different charge that Australian intelligence knew after the fact that the murders had taken place, but that it covered them up, is more generally accepted, and Mr Cunliffe and Mr Brownbill stand by that claim.

The testimony had been used by Professor Des Ball and journalist Hamish McDonald in their book, Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra to argue that Australian officialdom not only knew of the killings after they had occurred, but also beforehand. Their testimony had also been used by Dr Paul Monk, a former intelligence analyst, who had written a piece for Quadrant speculating about the intercept, which he called 'M-15'.

The implication of Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra was that Australia might have had time to contact Indonesia and stop the murders, but that did not happen because Defence wanted to keep secret its electronic listening activities.

The authors of the book had described this "missing" intercept about General Murdani's intentions as 'one of the most tightly guarded secrets in the history of the Australian intelligence community'.

But Mr Cunliffe has told Quadrant he did not know of any such intercept "supporting the proposition that Benny Murdani told a Colonel Dading on or about 15th October 1975 to kill the journalists then at Balibo".

"I gave evidence to the second Sherman Inquiry into these matters ... But my evidence to Sherman was not about the alleged intercept which Monk calls 'M-15'. I know nothing of M-15 except what I read in Dr Monk's article," Mr Cunliffe said.

In his letter, Mr Brownbill told the magazine much the same thing, and that his testimony to the second Sherman Inquiry did not support the argument of Death in Balibo that Australia had prior knowledge.

Mr Blick was asked in January by the then defence minster John Moore to investigate claims that intelligence material relating to Balibo may have been mishandled.

Mr Cunliffe and Mr Brownbill had visited Australia's secret listening station at Shoal Bay, near Darwin, in 1977 where they were shown a translated interception of a communication between Indonesian soldiers about the Balibo murders. That intercepted message apparently said, "Among the dead are four [sic] white men. What are we going to do with the bodies?"

Xanana Gusmao: All cabinet members will be Timorese

Suara Timor Lorosae - September 4, 2001

Xanana's interview with Tempo magazine:

Tempo: At first you dithered on being nominated as president. But you changed your mind later. Why?

Xanana: It was a difficult decision. There were three reasons that made me change my mind. Firstly because of the request made by the Timorese people. Secondly because of the requests made by the political parties. And thirdly because of international pressure. Each time I went to the villages in the districts people came up to me and said they wanted me to be their president. The political parties in their campaigns mentioned my name as their presidential candidate. The international community said I had to be responsible for the fate of the Timorese people. They [the international community] requested that I stand as president.

Tempo: To reject and then accept -- isn't that a political tactic?

Xanana: No, I am serious. If you want to be true, then be president. I can assure you that it won't be a pleasant job. Our country is at the crossroads -- a really important phase in our lives.

Tempo: What will be the total number of Cabinet members and what will be the composition in its transition phase?

Xanana: The new Cabinet will be formed in mid-September. So I'm not really sure. But what is clear is that its size will be bigger than the Cabinet before the election. All members of the new Cabinet will be Timorese. They will be responsible to the Transitional Administrator until Timor Lorosae gains full independence.

Tempo: At this moment what problem have you prioritized to be solved?

Xanana: I think all problems have to be prioritized. The economic question is very important. There is about 80 per cent unemployment. If this problem is not overcome the crime rate will climb.

Tempo: On the question of independence, don't you think the Timorese people have too high expectations?

Xanana: At first, yes. Many people thought independence would instantly change their living conditions. Fortunately, however, people have now come to a realization that they have to work hard to make their dreams come true.

Tempo: What will be the model for the people of Timor Lorosae?

Xanana: We have enough natural resources to be exploited. But for the first few years, I hope the international community will keep helping us. After five years, I think we can stand on our feet based on the rich natural resources we have. We are indeed starting from zero.

Tempo: What is your opinion about the international court to try human rights abuses committed in Timor Lorosae?

Xanana: When we talk about human rights abuses, we have to also go back 24 years ago and not only concentrate on what happened in September 1999.

Defense force willing to accept Indonesian aid

Lusa - September 3, 2001

East Timor's Defense Force would be willing to accept Indonesian military aid if the offer was made by Jakarta, the force's commander said on Monday. "If they decide to help us, then we are willing to accept the offer because we want to improve relations with Indonesia", Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak said.

He was referring to statements made last week by the deputy commander of the Indonesian army, Kiki Syahnakri. Syahnakri, who oversaw the martial law period in East Timor after the 1999 independence plebiscite, said his country's armed forces wanted to "forget past enmity" and were ready to aid East Timor via cooperation, education or even training.

Matan Ruak, a former resistance commander, denied Monday that there were contacts between the two sides regarding military cooperation, but said he was open to help from East Timor's larger neighbor and former occupying power. However, he cautioned that any decision on such aid was up to East Timor's current UN transition administration (UNTAET).

Ramos Horta criticizes attitude of UDT leader

Lusa - September 3, 2001

Jose Ramos Horta said Monday in Dili he was "profoundly sad" about the "unhappy", "lamentable" and "incendiary" criticism of the East Timorese election process leveled by the leader of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), Joao Carrascalao.

In comments to Lusa, the foreign minister in East Timor's transition administration likened the UDT leader's attitude to that of rebel leader Jonas Savimbi in Angola. "It was Joao Carrascalao himself who more than once compared East Timor to Angola. There is no possible comparison. I can only recall that Jonas Savimbi also refused to accept the result of elections in Angola", Ramos Horta said.

His reaction followed Joao Carrascalco's weekend announcement that the UDT would contest the results of the Thursday Constituent Assembly elections in East Timor. "The UDT considers that the election process was conducted by personnel of the Independent Election Commission in a manner that was very unprofessional, immature, negligent and irresponsible", Joao Carrascalao charged.

The UDT leader made reference for the first time to the brief civil war in 1975 and forecast violence after results of last Thursday's ballot are announced. He also criticized the Fretilin party, shown with 20 percent of the vote counted to have obtained about half the votes, urging the UN

to investigate the 1974-75 period in East Timor, to prevent East Timor from being governed by "criminals".

The territory's UN transition administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has also reacted strongly, saying Saturday that Joao Carrascalao's statements were "alarmist" and "totally against the spirit of the national unity pact signed by the parties". "The ballot boxes will speak. If Joao Carrascalao or any other person has any irregularity to report, it will be assessed by the Independent Electoral Commission. That's how democracies function", the Brazilian UN diplomat said. "Waking up old demons is not in the interest of this country and this people, who have shown that they are not interested in opening up the wounds of the past", he stressed.

Poll winners consult public on constitution, watchdogs say

Agence France Presse - September 3, 2001

Dili -- The winners of last week's historic election in East Timor must listen to the people when drafting a constitution as a prelude to independence, two watchdog groups said Monday. "It is imperative that the constituent assembly provides further opportunity to connect people with the decision-making process rather than attempting to encompass the aspirations of their diverse electorate," said a report on the poll from the Yayasan HAK, a rights and democracy organisation.

Some 91 percent of voters took part Thursday in the territory's first free election, for an 88-member constituent assembly. It will draft a constitution and become the national parliament by early December in preparation for independence by mid-2002.

But Joaquim Fonseca, chairman of the Yayasan HAK, said constitutional issues were not raised during the election campaign. People must be educated further on the issues, he told a press conference.

The International Federation for East Timor (IFET), another rights and democracy group, agreed there was little information about the constitution during the campaign. "A great deal of care must be taken to make sure that the [drafting] process is democratic and transparent," said Charles Scheiner, the group's representative to the United Nations. "There needs to be ... more attention given to education and involvement of the East Timorese people in this process." IFET report's also said the 90 days given to the assembly to outline a constitution was too short. "The assembly should not be confined to a 90-day period timetable," it said.

The party at the core of the 24-year struggle against Indonesian rule, Fretilin, is expected to dominate the polls. Its leaders are predicting around 85 percent of the votes. Provisional results are expected on Wednesday or Thursday. One issue to be decided in the constitution is the division of powers between the president and parliament. Independence hero Xanana Gusmao is virtually certain of the presidency in elections early next year.

Sixteen parties and five independent candidates contested Thursday's poll, which brings the impoverished territory a crucial step closer to independence after more than four centuries of oppressive rule by foreign powers. Portugal's colonial rule wound down in 1974. In December 1975, nine days after East Timorese leaders declared independence, Indonesia invaded. An estimated 200,000 East Timorese died under Jakarta's 24-year rule, which came to a violent end two years ago after a UN-organised plebiscite.

UDT to challenge results of first free elections

BBC Monitoring Service - September 1, 2001

Presenter: Sergio Vieira de Mello, head of UNTAET, the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor, has replied to the fraud accusations, made by UDT (Timorese Democratic Union) leader Joao Carrascalao, after the (30 August) elections (for the constituent assembly). Sergio Vieira de Mello said these comments were alarmist and violated the spirit under which the political parties signed a national unity pact. He also said that the results would talk for themselves and that all irregularities pointed out by Joao Carrascalao, or anyone else, would be investigated by the Independent Electoral Committee. Vieira de Mello also underlined the fact that Timor and its people would not benefit from the reopening of wounds inflicted in the past. Speaking in a press conference, the UDT president blamed Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) for crimes against humanity and demanded the UN to carry out a probe on the territory's history of the period between 1974 and 1975. He added that this was a necessary step to preventing criminals from ruling the country. Jose Veladas reports on the irregularities allegations made by the UDT:

Reporter: According to the president of the UDT, these elections were fraudulent and corrupt. He said that the Independent Electoral Committee has allowed a number of irregularities which benefited mainly Fretilin.

Carrascalao: (The elections were) Corrupt and probably fraudulent. Following these irregularities, the UDT is going to challenge the results of the elections.

Reporter: Joao Carrascalao said there a campaign of fear had been carried out in these elections. He alleged that the people had been intimidated by Fretilin, its political opponent. The results of the elections are only due next week but the UDT has nonetheless requested UNTAET to investigate the crimes allegedly perpetrated by Fretilin in Timor between 1974 and 1975. The party wishes to see those who they are now accusing judged for crimes against humanity. Joao Carrascalao said he does not wish to see criminals joining the government:

Carrascalao: The UDT does not want to risk having, at any time, a country ruled by individuals who have been directly involved in crimes against humanity. The UNTAET has now the opportunity to carry out this probe. I trust the security of the key members of the UDT to the hands of the UNTAET...

Presenter: Replying to these accusations, Mario Alkatiri (leader of the Fretilin and former economy minister of the transitional administration) said that this was not the appropriate time to make this sort of statements. He guaranteed that there was no risk of violence in the territory and added that the electoral system was a reliable one.

Alkatiri: I do not know why these assumptions are being made. We do not anticipate the possibility of violence once the results are announced, also because I believe the entire electoral process which was put in place was a reliable one. The results which will be announced will surely reflect the people's vote, so I do not think there is any reason to anticipate the possibility of violence...

[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese September 1.]

Labour struggle

Disbursement of teachers' back pay to be speeded up

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2001

Jakarta -- Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said on Friday that the central government would assist certain regional administrations that were unable to pay teachers' salary back pay.

Speaking at the legislature building after President Megawati Soekarnoputri unveiled the 2001 state budget, Jusuf said that the calculation of funds for regional administrations would end this week. He said regions considered eligible to receive the funds were those whose regional incomes (PAD) were less than 30 percent of the routine budget from central government.

A week-long nationwide teachers' strike has plagued many of the country's provinces, including East Java, West Java, Lampung, Jambi, Southeast Sulawesi, North Sulawesi and South Kalimantan. In Jambi thousands of teachers continued their strike on Friday and refused an offer from Jambi's city administration which had promised to disburse 50 percent of the back pay this month.

Jusuf said that basically, teachers' salaries fell under the responsibility of regional administrations. "But if they really have no funds, we will help them," he said.

In Bandar Lampung, spokesman for the city administration Syaiful Anwar said that Bandar Lampung Mayor Soeharto had asked for a Rp 19.65 billion loan from the provincial and central government, Antara reported.

He said one copy of the letter had also been sent to President Megawati. "If the loan is granted, the disbursement of teachers' back pay will be made before October 15," he said. If the provincial administration and central government could not lend the money, the mayor would seek a loan from the Bank of Lampung.

On Thursday, thousands of teachers staged a protest at the office of Bandar Lampung mayor.

Central government has insisted that it has disbursed the funds for teachers' salary back pay through the so-called general allocation fund (DAU), but a number of regional administrations have failed to disburse the back pay from this year's budget. The government increased the salaries of public school teachers in April by 14 percent to 30 percent but has failed to pay the increment for six months now.

In the Central Java town of Magelang, members of the local legislative council and of the teachers' association (PGRI) will soon meet to discuss the back pay problem. So far there has been no teachers' strike in this regency, but Chairman of Magelang PGRI chapter Sungadi could not guarantee that the teachers would not follow the moves made by their colleagues in other regions. "As executives of PGRI we only act as facilitators so that the teachers will not go on strike or hold street rallies," Sungadi said.

Thousands of teachers continue widespread strike

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2001

Jakarta -- Thousands of public-school teachers in several regions continued their strikes on Thursday as their demands for six- months' back pay got the cold shoulder from regional administrators.

In the East Nusa Tenggara town of Atambua, a state senior high school decided to close on Friday and Saturday after its teachers went on strike on Thursday.

In Lampung, the provincial capital of Bandar Lampung, thousands of teachers staged a rally at the mayor's office. Thousands of their colleagues staged similar rallies in Jambi province, the West Java capital Bandung, the South Kalimantan capital Banjarmasin and the North Sulawesi town of Gorontalo.

Thursday's strikes were a follow-up to a string of strikes in the East Java towns of Madiun and Purbalingga, the Central Java town of Purbalingga, and Muna regency in Southeast Sulawesi province last week.

The six-month back pay problem boiled down to the government's failure to pay it in July, as it had promised earlier. The payment should have covered salary increases within the range of 14 percent to 30 percent announced in April. Exacerbating the problem has been the new autonomy law, which took effect this year, and shifted disbursement of the pay from the central to regional administrations.

Education analysts agreed that the snarl-up appeared to be the result of inadequate preparations for regional autonomy. Central government and regional administrations blamed each other over the delayed disbursement of the back pay.

Education Minister Malik Fajar and other ministers said central government had allocated funds for back pay through the General Fund Allocation, but several regents said that they had not received the funds.

Antara reported from Atambua that the decision to close the school for two days was made by headmaster of Atambua Senior High School Sebastianus Manek, after a meeting with the teachers on Thursday.

Beforehand, students of the schools staged rallies at the Local Legislative Council building in Belu. "After a brief meeting between the teachers and the headmaster, he told us that we would have two days off in view of the teachers' strike," said chairman of the school students organization Rochus Gonsales Funay. He demanded the National Education Ministry and members of the local provincial legislature help the teachers win their cause.

In Jambi, some 1,000 teachers, from kindergartens to senior high schools, threatened to continue their strike after they were unable to reach an agreement with the Jambi city administration. The teachers rejected an offer of 50 percent of the back pay offered by Speaker of Jambi City Council Zulkifli Somad during a demonstration held by teachers and their students in the Council building.

The teachers and the students threatened to repeat their protests in the Council building. "Members of the Council have discussed the issue with Jambi City administration. But the administration has no funds," stated Zulkifli.

Secretary of the administration Hasan Basri Agus said that the back pay for 7,720 civil servants might be paid next year, as the administration had no funds. He said his administration needed some Rp 117.3 billion to pay the salary of 7,720 civil servants, but it had received only Rp 111.5 billion from central government.

Thousands of teachers in Bandar Lampung staged protests as the local administration had failed to disburse back pay. The rallies were held after the Indonesian Teachers Dignity Forum (FMGI) distributed some 100,000 circulars about their strike campaign to teachers all over the province.

Minor clashes broke out when teachers tried to enter the office of Bandar Lampung Mayor Suharto. After a meeting between the mayor, Council Speaker Ridwan Sangkut, Deputy Speaker M. Jimo and 10 teachers' representatives, including FMGI Chairman Murni Sulaeman, Mayor Suharto promised to disburse the back pay on Oct. 15.

In Bandung, some 100 private school teachers (who did not have civil servant status) went to West Java Legislative Council to ask for a pay rise. They demanded that the central government increase the national education budget and local state budget. Government policy dictated that private schools got 35 percent of the education budget and public schools 65 percent, Sali Iskandar, a spokesman for the teachers said.

In Banjarmasin, teachers held their fourth day of protest at the city mayor's office. They demanded that the city administration disburse their back pay, based on a statement by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Yusuf Kalla who said that he had allocated the funds.

In Gorontalo, the senior vocational school teachers' strike deprived some 750 students from attending their classes. "The teachers came to school, but they merely gathered together in the teachers' room. There was no activity in the classrooms," Karim, a third-year student, was quoted by Antara as saying. "Teachers' salaries are small enough, and although we are entitled to back pay, they have delayed its disbursement," one of the teachers said.

Manpower minister criticizes ILO convention

Jakarta Post - September 4, 2001

Jakarta -- Minister of Manpower Jacob Nuwa Wea here on Monday criticized an International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention which permits as few as 10 employees to establish their own workers' union.

During a meeting with the Indonesian Employers Association, Jacob said the Convention, which Indonesia has ratified, seems to be ill-suited to conditions here. "You can't equate conditions here to those in Belgium which has the size of about a single district in Indonesia," he said.

"As a result of that Convention there are now some 52 workers' unions ... Most of them are nothing more than a union of provocateurs with practically no members," he charged. He further claimed that many non-governmental organizations allegedly fighting for workers' rights have actually little understanding of labor issues.

Aceh/West Papua

Activist killed in Indonesia's Aceh before Megawati visit

Agence France Presse - September 7, 2001 (slightly abridged)

Jakarta -- A human rights worker was Friday found shot dead and eight alleged rebels were reported killed in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh on the eve of a visit by President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Police and troops were deployed on every corner of the capital Banda Aceh and residents deserted the streets towards dusk in fear of violence, witnesses said.

A human rights advocate from the US-funded East Aceh Coalition for Human Rights, Yusuf Usman, was found dead in East Aceh, coalition director Yusuf Puteh told AFP. Usman had been kidnapped from his home by unidentified gunmen on Thursday night and later shot in the head and body. Usman's work had involved providing advocacy to victims of human rights abuses in East Aceh.

The US embassy expressed shock and deep sadness at another high- profile murder Thursday, that of Dayan Dawood, chancellor of the state Syiah Kuala University near Banda Aceh. Dawood was shot dead by unidentified attackers three days after he offered to help mediate in the 25-year conflict between security forces and separatist rebels.

"We urge the Indonesian government to pursue and bring to justice the perpetrators of this senseless crime," the embassy statement said Friday.

Dawood, 55, was the second top academic gunned down in the province in the past year. The chancellor of the state-run Institute of Islamic Studies, Safwan Idris, was killed in front of his home late last year.

"We condemn this senseless murder, and call on President Megawati to do everything in her power to ensure the perpetrators are found and brought to justice," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch.

The pressure group said both the military and separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) forces had carried out political assassinations in Aceh. Both sides accused each other over Dawood's murder.

In South Aceh Thursday five suspected GAM rebels were killed by troops raiding a suspected rebel base in the village of Rundeng, local military chief Lieutenant Colonel Agus Purmana told AFP. Provincial military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus said three rebels were also killed in a gunfight Thursday with troops in the North Aceh village of Sawang.

Local GAM spokesman Teungku Jamaica confirmed the deaths of the three rebels, and said that 20 Indonesian soldiers had also been killed in the crossfire. Firdaus denied any soldiers had died.

The rebels have released one of three crew members belonging to state television station TVRI, the state Antara news agency said meanwhile. The other two would only be released if station executives meet rebels to hear their complaints of biased reporting, Antara quoted GAM spokesman Ishak Daud as saying.

Killing another blow to Aceh's battered psyche

South China Morning Post - September 8, 2001

Vaudine England, Jakarta -- Combatants in Aceh's separatist war like to use visits by Jakarta dignitaries to make brutal political points -- and President Megawati Sukarnoputri's trip to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, today is no exception.

Thirty-six hours before she was due to fly to Aceh, Dayan Dawood, the rector of Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University, was assassinated as he drove home from work. Only days before, he had offered to help broker peace talks between Ms Megawati's new Government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist guerillas.

An Hawaii university graduate, he was also the head of Aceh's branch of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organisation, and chairman of the Golkar Party in Aceh.

"The killing represents not only the loss of a respected intellectual leader -- it means another major blow to civil society and fundamental freedoms in Aceh," Asia director of Human Rights Watch Sidney Jones said. "People were already fearful of speaking out on any subject that could be misconstrued by either side. This murder is going to make them terrified." GAM members had demanded money and vehicles from Dawood in the past and he knew he was at risk whatever he did. "He was clearly afraid of both sides," Ms Jones said.

His murder is the ninth of prominent Acehnese figures since January last year and, alongside the slaughter of more than 1,100 civilians this year alone, highlights the impediments facing Ms Megawati and her hopes of solving the Aceh problem.

Her desire to find a solution is not in doubt. She has signed a law on special autonomy for Aceh, met non-separatist leaders, authorised the armed forces to send more troops and the navy to intensify patrols to stop gun-running from neighbouring countries.

She also has formally apologised in an independence day address for abuses committed in Aceh and stressed that dialogue is the only sure way ahead. She ordered her ministers to secure the release of six GAM peace negotiators who, despite carrying safe- conduct passes from the Jakarta Government, had been arrested by police in Aceh.

But solving the Aceh problem is not so easy. While Ms Megawati was offering sweet words in Jakarta, her military was forcing Acehnese residents to fly the Indonesian flag. Near-daily reports come in of killings, torture, house-burnings and more. A member of a US-funded human rights group was found shot dead yesterday, and eight alleged rebels were reported killed.

Recent visitors to Aceh insist there is little concept in Jakarta of just how disenchanted the Acehnese are with the Government's pledges. Promises have been offered since 1945, in particular by Ms Megawati's father, but no key pledges have been implemented.

In addition, most Acehnese can now claim at least one family member or friend as a victim of military and police abuse so that to them, the debate is not merely over what percentage of oil and gas revenues they deserve but over securing justice for crimes committed by the state. Again, Ms Megawati has offered the right words, but few observers seriously expect her to put the key generals on trial.

Dawood's murder will likely join a long line of unsolved crimes. "It is in neither side's interests to have an early end to the fighting in Aceh. Both are busy making themselves more integral to any search for a solution," a Jakarta-based analyst said.

Ms Jones said: "There is no question that both sides [GAM and the Indonesian armed forces] have been responsible for unlawful killings, as well as a wide range of other abuses. But the Government has a particular responsibility to ensure those who are supposed to uphold the law do not themselves become violators of it. In this, it has failed utterly."

Indonesia's Megawati visits rebellious Aceh

Reuters - September 8, 2001

Tomi Soetjipto, Banda Aceh -- Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri flew into rebellious Aceh on Saturday on a fleeting trip aimed at bringing peace to this war-torn province.

Megawati's visit to Aceh is a key test of her goal to stabilise Indonesia after four years of political and social upheaval, but analysts have ruled out the possibility of a quick fix to halt spiralling bloodshed in the staunchly Muslim, resource-rich province.

Wearing elaborate, traditional Acehnese dress and a purple Muslim headscarf, Megawati went straight to the governor's office in the local capital Banda Aceh amid moderate security to hold closed- door talks with community leaders.

Troops and police guarded key points of the city, including the main mosque where Megawati is expected to meet ordinary residents later in the day. The dusty streets of Banda Aceh were quiet, as many people stayed home and shops closed for the day. The city lies 1,700 km northwest of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on the tip of Sumatra island.

Political analysts doubt Megawati's trip will do much to curb growing demands for independence in Aceh, end decades of violence which has killed thousands of people or reverse suspicions over countless broken promises to the Acehnese.

"A one-day visit cannot change the situation, the Acehnese are tired of promises of justice and peace. The situation here is so acute and complex," said Humam Hamid, a political analyst at the state-run University of Syiah Kuala in Banda Aceh.

Although Megawati will not meet rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and has flatly refused to heed demands for the province's split from the rest of the country, the separatists have said they would not disrupt her trip.

Megawati has taken personal responsibility for resolving the increasingly bloody conflict in Aceh, but has said little about her policy plans apart from a special autonomy package she signed last month.

Acehnese say that for Megawati to have any hope of rolling back suspicion of Indonesian leaders that extends back to her father, founding President Sukarno, she would need to launch serious investigations into years of human rights abuses, often committed by the security forces.

Officials said Megawati would formally declare the implementation of the autonomy package during her six-hour trip. The deal gives the resource-rich territory of four million people wide-ranging powers to handle its own affairs and a greater share of the province's wealth that locals complain has largely been siphoned off by Jakarta over the decades. The province is a major oil and gas producer and a key source of revenue for the cash-strapped central government.

Aceh leaders in firing line

Police declined to say how many personnel were deployed to safeguard the visit, but said they had not imposed excessive security for Megawati despite the assassination of a prominent university rector in the capital this week. Local media have said Dayan Dawood, who was gunned down on Thursday as he drove home from the Syiah Kuala University, was the ninth prominent Acehnese to be assassinated in two years.

"The situation is quite safe so there is no need to put out maximum security because it will only create fear. More troops and police will be put on stand-by but only at strategic points," Aceh deputy police spokesman Sudarsono told Reuters.

Aceh is one of Megawati's toughest challenges among the woes she inherited from the erratic Abdurrahman Wahid, who was ousted as leader by the top assembly in July for incompetence. Like all previous Indonesian presidents, he failed to halt violence in Aceh. More than 1,500 people, mostly civilians, have died since January in heavily militarised Aceh, where 40,000 soldiers and police are trying to quash the separatist rebellion.

Aceh threw its support behind Jakarta's fight for freedom from the Dutch, lured by a promise of special autonomy and the right to implement Islamic Sharia law by Sukarno. But Aceh was only allowed to impose Sharia law last year.

Rector shot dead in Aceh

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2001

Banda Aceh -- State Syiah Kuala University rector Dayan Dawood, 54, was shot dead by unidentified people on his way home from campus here on Thursday, just two days ahead of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's visit to the restive province.

Dawood is the ninth public figure/official to be shot dead by unknown people in the last two years. Police have yet to solve any of the killings.

Ayah Sofyan, spokesman for the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), charged that the assailants must have been military or police intelligence officers because all rebels had been forced out of Banda Aceh prior to the planned visit of President Megawati Soekarnoputri to Aceh on Saturday. "Banda Aceh and its surrounding areas are now 'sterile' [before Megawati's visit]," he told The Jakarta Post

Dawood and the chairman of Aceh's branch of the Muhammadiyah Muslim organization, Tengku Imam Suja', had earlier offered this week to mediate a dialog between GAM and the Indonesian government. GAM totally rejected the offer.

Eyewitnesses, who asked for anonymity, said that the victim had left the campus in his car, driven by Misran, when two unidentified men on a motorcycle approached the car from the left. "Two gunshots were heard. And the driver, apparently aware of the shooting, rushed the victim to Zainoel Abidin General Hospital, which is only 300 meters from the accident site," a local said.

The shooting took place at 2:50pm on Jl. Teuku HM Daud Beureuh, only 200 meters from City Hall. The car had traveled about half of the eight-kilometer distance from the campus to the victim's residence in the Ateuk Pahlawan area, which is located around two kilometers south of Banda Aceh.

The bullets were apparently fired through the rear window and hit the victim in the left cheek. Hospital staff member Sayed Ishak confirmed that the surgeons found two gunshot wounds in the victim's head and chest. "The team of surgeons had failed to save him. He died around 30 minutes after his arrival at the hospital."

Spokesman for the police's Aceh Law and Order Operation Adj. Sr. Comr. Sad Harunantyo confirmed by phone from Banda Aceh that the attackers were two men on a motorbike. "They most likely stalked the victim for some time. Pak Dawood's driver, who survived the incident, is currently being questioned at Aceh Besar Police station," the officer said.

Governor Abdullah Puteh, who was briefing local journalists about Megawati's visit at his residence, was shocked upon hearing of Dawood's murder. He said there would be no change in Megawati's schedule despite the killing.

Dawood, born in Banda Aceh on May 2, 1946, is survived by a wife and three children. His eldest son, a doctor, had planned to get married on Saturday, September 15. Dawood, who was chairman of Aceh's Golkar Party, was appointed rector of Syiah Kuala University in 1995.

He is the second academician to be gunned down by unidentified people over the past year, after the rector of the Banda Aceh's Ar-Raniry State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN), was killed in front of his home late last year.

Dawood's killing affected the atmosphere in the area. People rushed home from their workplace, while groups of people talked about Dawood's death and speculated on who was responsible. "Transportation vehicles are operating as usual," one local said.

Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung called the killing barbaric. "Golkar condemns the uncivilized deed, which is against humanity, and urges that the government, especially security authorities in Aceh, investigate the case thoroughly. To the victim's relatives, Golkar conveys its deepest sympathy and condolences," he said in Jakarta on Thursday. "Those found to be behind the killing must be brought to court, whoever they are."

Acehnese leaders flee province

Straits Times - September 6, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- With the police and military leaders repeatedly labelling him an agent of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Mr Nasir Djamil knows it is no longer safe to stay in his hometown.

Just look at what happened to Mr Zaini Sulaiman Ishaq, a fellow member of the Aceh provincial legislature (DPRD), who was shot dead by unknown visitors at his own home last Saturday, Mr Nasir said. The cold-blooded attack took place days after Aceh police chief Chaerul Rasyid said in a closed meeting with DPRD members that there were "GAM members among the legislators". So heeding advice from friends and friendly local journalists, Mr Nasir has decided to leave for Jakarta tomorrow to "get some fresh air and a medical check-up".

He is one of several Acehnese figures who will leave or will have left before President Megawati Sukarnoputri's weekend visit to the strife-torn province.

Having been labelled a 'GAM sympathiser', Mr Nasir would hardly have made the guest list in planned dialogues with the President anyway. He and his vocal friends in the legislature were not even allowed to meet a delegation of Cabinet ministers who visited Aceh two weeks ago.

Ms Megawati revealed yesterday that she would not meet GAM rebels nor discuss anything pertaining to separatism during her visit. Observers say the DPRD members, known to be critics of the central government and its militaristic approach in cracking down on separatism, are hardly supporters of the separatist cause.

They, too, have reportedly been attacked by the rebel group that has been fighting for independence from Indonesia since 1976. The late Mr Zaini, who headed a committee working on the Aceh special autonomy Bill, and several local legislators and officials were once picked up by the rebels and released only after they were "debriefed" at the rebels' hide-out.

In another incident, the GAM members took away Mr Nasir's official car.

When he went to the local GAM command centre and demanded his car back, he was threatened and was forced to resign from the legislature.

"In the last five months, since the security operation started, it has come to the point that if you criticise or differ in opinion with the government or the military and police, you'll be stigmatised as a GAM ally," said Mr Nasir. "This worked on some of my friends, who have since kept their mouths shut."

A number of other legislators have also quit town or are planning to, citing the most convenient excuse: 'Attending family matters'.

Even the Director of the Rehabilitation Action for Torture Victims in Aceh, Mr Nurdin Abdul Rachman, fled the province in May after a series of threats.

With so many legislators leaving town, Acehnese are even more sceptical that the President's visit would bring any change to their situation.

Rebels warn ships to seek their permission to use Malacca Strait

Agence France Presse - September 3, 2001 (abridged)

Banda Aceh -- Ships using the Malacca Strait -- one of the world's busiest sea lanes -- should "seek permission" from separatist guerrillas in Indonesia's Aceh province, a rebel leader said Monday.

Ishak Daud, spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for East Aceh, denied involvement in a pirate attack on a Honduras- registered ship in the strait, off Aceh's east coast. on August 25,

But he added: "If they [shippers] do not want to seek permission from us, then they should not blame the GAM if cases such as experienced by the Honduran-flagged Ocean Silver ship repeat itself again."

A group of armed men on a speedboat attacked the coal- transporting "Ocean Silver" and forced the crew to sail to a small port in East Aceh. The pirates, whom the military said were GAM rebels, held six of the 12 crewmen, all Indonesians, and demanded 300 million rupiah (34,000 dollars) for their release. Six other crew members were freed.

Daud accused the military of staging the incident so that rebels "are seen as terrorists in the eyes of the international community. "How could we have pirated that ship when the waters of Aceh are daily crawling with war vessels of the Indonesian navy which has stepped up its patrols?" Daud told AFP.

He said the Indonesian government could not protect ships passing through the Malacca Strait but the GAM could. "We are also able to secure the Malacca Strait but the Indonesian navy warships should not be there."

Indonesian waters, including the strait between Malaysia and Indonesia, are the world's most pirate-prone.

Daud also called on member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) not to help Jakarta in the "massacre" of the people of Aceh. "ASEAN countries, especially Malaysia and Singapore, should never attempt to assist Indonesian in massacring the people of Aceh ... If they still do, we will take firm actions, among others by ruining all their interests in Aceh and Sumatra," Daud warned.

Legislator, five civilians killed in Indonesia's Aceh

Agence France Presse - September 2, 2001

Banda Aceh, -- A provincial legislator and five other civilians have been killed in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said Sunday.

Zaini Sulaiman, 43, a legislator of the Muslim-based United Development Party in the Aceh provincial parliament, was gunned down late Saturday at his home in Meusara Agung, some five kilometres (three miles) south of Banda Aceh, a witness said.

The witness, who declined to be identified for security reasons, said several men had knocked on the door of Sulaiman's house at around 7pm. One of them had started shooting when the legislator opened the door.

Aceh police spokesman Commissioner Sudarsono blamed the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the killing. "The reason is the victim was recently abducted by the GAM and taken to their headquarters for several days. The movement had asked him to suspend the activity of the provincial parliament because it did not represent the aspiration developing in the society in Aceh," Sudarsono said.

But GAM spokesman Ayah Sofyan denied the charge. "Our enemies are the military and the police of Indonesia, not Aceh civilians," Sofyan said.

In another incident, three refugees from the Central Aceh district were Saturday found dead with gunshot wounds in Matangkuli, North Aceh, residents said. Residents, quoted by a local journalist, said the three had been arrested the previous day in a sweep operation by the Indonesian armed forces.

The three were among 234 refugees from Central Aceh who had sought refuge in Paya Bakong, North Aceh, since July 3. They had fled violence in their village by alleged pro-Indonesian militias there. Deputy GAM commander for North Aceh, Sofyan Daud, claimed the military had shot the three on suspicion they were rebels.

Also in North Aceh, a civilian was shot dead by security forces during a sweep operation in Matangkuli on Saturday, the journalist said. He was shot as he ran away upon seeing soldiers entering the village, he added.

In the district of Bireun, villagers in Gandapura found the body of a man with a gunshot wound in the head on Saturday, a local humanitarian activist said. The activist said the victim had been abducted along with a younger brother by unidentified men on Friday. The whereabouts of the brother was unknown.

The GAM has been fighting for an independent sultanate for 25 years in Aceh, a resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Violence in Aceh has claimed more than 1,200 lives this year alone.

GAM rebels make contact with proindependence East Timorese

The Jakarta Post - September 2, 2001

Jakarta -- An East Timorese claimed on Saturday that members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have made secret contacts with proindependence East Timorese, asking how the latter won their freedom from Indonesia, Antara reported.

A Dos Santos, who worked for an Indonesian telecommunications company when East Timor was still an Indonesian territory, said the contacts were made through the Internet.

"They [GAM members] often ask [me] about the East Timorese struggle until we got the chance to determine our future through the United Nations-organized plebiscite. I answered all their questions honestly. I hope Indonesia would be careful. Do not let the provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya become independent like East Timor," he said as quoted by the news agency.

Santos, who is currently working for an Internet service company in Dili, further noted that the GAM rebels took the initiative to make the secret contacts. "The communication between the two groups has intensified because the GAM rebels have begun paying serious attention to the struggle of the Falintil and CNRT, especially in winning the hearts and minds of the international community," he said. Falintil was the armed wing of the National Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT).

Santos recounted that many East Timorese felt that Indonesia had done many good things for them. However, he said, due to the military's brutality in handling the insurgency, the sympathy of the East Timorese toward Indonesia vanished.

He said the military operations carried out in East Timor ought not be carried out in Aceh or Irian Jaya because antipathy was one of the reasons East Timor wanted to separate from Indonesia, he said.

Government/politics

Megawati under fire over policy on defense budget

Jakarta Post - September 8, 2001

Jakarta -- Legislators questioned on Friday President Megawati Soekarnoputri's policy for increasing the 2002 defense budget by 18 percent.

Aberson Marle Sihaloho, a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said the significant increase in the defense budget was not urgent at the moment as the situation in Southeast Asia was relatively peaceful and Indonesia was not facing any serious threats from outside the country.

"Megawati's defense policy could spark criticism from numerous sides, while the government at this time is expected to give more attention to helping the economy recover. The significant increase will be a heavy burden for the people because the state budget comes from foreign loans," he said on the sidelines of the House of Representatives plenary session on Friday, at which the President unveiled the 2002 draft state budget.

The government raised the defense budget by 18 percent to Rp 9.4 trillion from Rp 7.9 trillion in 2001. The hike puts it in second place after the social welfare sector.

Ali Masjkur Musa, the chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction at the House, expressed the same opinion, saying that Indonesia did not need powerful armed forces amid the peaceful situation in the region, but professional National Police officers to maintain security and public order at home and to enforce the law.

"There is no urgency for the country to have a powerful armed force as a peaceful situation in Southeast Asia prevails and there is a plaguing economic crisis facing the country," he said.

Aberson also questioned the government's lack of attention to domestic security concerns, including separatist movements in restive Aceh and Irian Jaya. "It is quite strange that the government allocated only Rp 5 trillion to the security sector while the defense sector gained Rp 9 trillion," he said.

Aberson called on the House's budget committee to remain critical in deliberating the draft budget so that the security sector could get adequate attention to create a conducive climate for foreign investment. "The security sector must receive serious attention to help create a feeling of safety among the public and minimize security disturbances in order to give certainty to foreign investors," he said.

Aberson also said the government should transfer a majority of soldiers in the Indonesian Military to the National Police which lacks the personnel to maintain security at home. "Besides making the force efficient, the transfer would help the National Police cope with the personnel shortage," he said.

Ali Masjkur said the government should double the budget for security affairs and the police to encourage a total reform in the police organization and to make them professional in carrying out their duties. He further said that his faction would not have opposed the defense budget's significant increase if the country had not been facing an economic hardship, while the military should accept that the defense budget was decreased during the economic crisis.

Meanwhile, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil defended the government's defense policy to revise its artillery, including out-of-date machinery, in the Indonesian Military. "The defense budget will be spent mostly on updating the Navy and Air Force fleets. The two forces are still operating ships and planes that are between 30 and 40 years old," he said.

Factions reject NGOs' proposal on commission

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2001

Jakarta -- Most factions in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) turned down on Thursday the proposal advanced by NGOs for the establishment of an independent constitutional commission. The proposal was rejected based on the grounds that it would conflict with the MPR's power to amend the Constitution.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) was the only faction that came out in support of the proposal. Yusuf Muhammad, chairman of the PKB faction, commended the NGO's proposal, saying that his faction was considering the possibility of bringing it before the working committee's next plenary session.

"The MPR should not be allergic to the NGOs because they have also played an important role in launching the reform movement and have contributed to the upholding of democracy in this country. Why is the Assembly allergic to good ideas and the vision of bringing about a comprehensive amendment of the constitution?," he said.

An alliance of NGOs had earlier demanded the establishment of an independent commission with full authority to comprehensively amend the Constitution. According to the NGOs, the commission should consist of various elements in society, including experts, religious figures and informal leaders.

The factions representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Golkar Party (Golkar), United Development Party, Reform and Societal Group asserted that the sole authority to amend the constitution or to draft a new constitution was in the hands of the Assembly. This authority could not be delegated to other parties, including non- governmental organizations.

Hobbes Sinaga, spokesman for PDI Perjuangan, said it was impossible for the MPR's working committee to subcontract the duties it was required to perform by the Constitution to other parties, including the NGOs.

"We will never take the NGOs' proposal into consideration because besides being against the Constitution, it is not applicable and is ineffective. Moreover our faction has also made its own proposal for the establishment of a commission subordinated to the working committee to bring it into line with the Constitution," he said on Thursday.

He further explained that despite being much criticized, the PDI Perjuangan faction would go ahead with its plan to bring its proposal to the attention of the working committee's next plenary session before bringing it before the Assembly's annual session in November. "If the proposal gains no support from the working committee, we will bring it directly to the annual session for deliberation," he added.

According to the PDI Perjuangan proposal, the constitutional commission, which would consist of experts and religious figures and would be subordinate to the working committee, would be responsible for formulating fundamental principles of the Constitution for approval by the working committee.

Jacob Tobing, chairman of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on the amendment of the Constitution, denied accusations that the factions on the subcommittee were only interested in pursuing their own political interests as regards the amendment of the Constitution.

"So far, 30 experts from various disciplines have been involved in the amendment process and not a single faction has tried to force its will and its political interests. The amendment process is slow because of differing perspectives on various matters in the Constitution," he said.

Theo Sambuaga, spokesman for the Golkar faction, said the NGOs' proposal was inapplicable and ineffective. "Besides being against the Constitution, it would be very difficult to recruit members of the independent commission," he said.

Patrialis Akbar of the Reform faction and Lukman Sjaifuddin of the United Development Party (PPP) faction echoed Theo's remarks, saying that the Working Committee should continue its work and draft the necessary amendments by 2002.

Indonesian government sees flaws in autonomy law

Reuters - September 5, 2001

Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta -- A senior Indonesian official said the government wanted to change controversial laws giving greater autonomy to its provinces, warning that hurried legislation which took effect in January threatened the country's unity. The laws, created in the aftermath of the collapse of autocratic former President Suharto's rule are vague and have been blamed by analysts for adding yet another deterrent to investment in the troubled country.

State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, a close aide of taciturn new President Megawati Sukarnoputri, conceded it would be no easy matter to convince parliament and newly empowered regions to agree to revisions. But he told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday that there were fundamental flaws in the new laws, which remain thin on detail about how they will work.

"This is a real problem which could endanger the principal of a unitary state," he said. "The best thing is to talk openly [about the issue] but not in an offensive manner," he said.

Investors in the country's huge array of natural resources have been particularly critical of the new laws which they complain have created so much confusion over who has rights to what that it would be foolhardy to put in substantial funds now.

Any revisions to the laws are certain to touch a raw nerve in many provinces which will see them as an attempt by the central government to snatch back their powers and wealth after years of watching Jakarta loot their wealth and give little in return.

Kesowo dismissed suggestions the government was slipping back to the bad old ways of Suharto who ruled for 32 years until he was finally forced to step down in 1998 amid revolt and economic crisis from which the country is still trying to recover. "We don't wish to take away the power [of the regions] ... there must be decentralisation and autonomy," he said. But he warned that in their current form the regional autonomy laws failed to do their job.

He pointed as an example to the division among local governments over the sea which defines the giant Indonesian archipelago. On a recent trip to one area, he said Megawati was confronted by a fisherman who complained of being detained by a neighbouring region when he fished in its waters. "That's crazy. The president sees that there is something wrong with the concept of the law," he said. "We don't need to reject the law. We need to improve and correct the law. Lawmakers have got to be persuaded. The principle is correct. The only thing we need is interpretation. A unitary state is better than federalism."

Federalism has long been a dirty word in the politics of Indonesia, a country made up of dozens of ethnic groups and hundreds of languages and whose fragile unity is the relic of centuries of Dutch colonial rule which was only finally shaken off in the late 1940s.

Kesowo said he preferred a "staircase" approach under which the central government is responsible for a unified state, moving down to the provinces and then districts in order. Currently districts can ignore the local governments of the provinces they are in.

The issue of regional autonomy has plagued Indonesia throughout its history and two major provinces -- Aceh and Irian Jaya -- remain home to armed separatist movements.

The government, Kesowo said, would have to take time to win over the public to its view. One of the key issues remains how to spread wealth around the largely impoverished nation from some of those provinces which have abundant natural resources while others have to scratch a meagre living from thin soil and poor fishing grounds. "We have got to start thinking about our problems as a nation...if certain areas develop very fast and others do not, there will be unfairness," Kesowo said.

Corruption/collusion/nepotism

Lack of accountability major challenge to economic reforms

AFX Asia - September 4, 2001

Jakarta -- The gap between transparency and accountability within Indonesia's public sector is a major challenge to its economic reform program, according to Mark Baird, World Bank country director for Indonesia.

Baird said that while political reforms since the fall of the Suharto government have enhanced transparency and thus made the country's problems much more evident, there is a huge gap between that level of transparency and accountability.

"We don't really have proper accountability to deal with these problems and that gap is posing a major challenge to Indonesia," he said in a presentation at the launch of Phase II of the Technical Assistance Management Facility aid project administered by AusAID.

The solution is to maintain transparency while increasing accountability, under the leadership of new president Megawati Sukarnoputri's government.

The latest letter of intent from Indonesia with the International Monetary Fund contains some measures for enhancing accountability but such reforms "cannot be imposed from the outside", Baird said. "Government reforms should not be a knee-jerk reaction to donor demands," he said, adding they should be formulated in line with Indonesian culture and practice to reflect ownership by the people, rather than ownership by the IMF.

Baird said while the IMF's reform agenda is critical to poverty alleviation, it has been criticised for potentially creating civil unrest through controversial policies such as fuel subsidy cuts. He said such policies, which may hurt the poor in the short-term and trigger social unrest, must be assessed more in terms of their medium-term impact on poverty reduction and economic stability. "That's the type of analysis we need to make for all key policy decisions in Indonesia," he said. "This short-term priority for stability is essential but in the medium-term if the recovery is to be sustainable, Indonesia needs a much more fundamental reform agenda."

Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, Indonesia earlier this year started cutting the fuel subsidy, leading to increased fuel prices and creating inflationary pressures on other goods and services. It plans to eventually eliminate the subsidy altogether. "The first people to suffer from inflation is the poor," Baird said. However, he said if the money saved from the subsidy cut is used effectively to reduce the budget deficit and reallocate spending to poverty alleviation programs, then raising fuel prices will actually benefit the poor.

"If we cannot get a healthy financial sector, if we cannot get a performing civil service, if we cannot get a judiciary that upholds the law, then we will not be able to sustain growth in this country and (increase) investor confidence at anywhere near the levels needed to create jobs and reduce poverty," he added. He said a stable economy that encourages investment and growth is critical to reducing poverty long-term, despite the short-term consequences of making tough economic decisions.

Audit commision faces rising criticism

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2001

Jakarta -- High expectations by the public of a thoroughgoing eradication of corruption have turned into strong criticism of the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN), due to its poor performance.

The commission has been strongly criticized over the last few days for its lack of transparency concerning its internal assessment processes for wealth audit reports. KPKPN has also been the target of criticism because of its vague stance on the provision of "unidentified grants" to public servants by wealthy businessmen, without being able to trace them.

KPKPN Chairman Jusuf Syakir stated here on Thursday that the public expected too much of the audit commission in further speeding up the battle against corruption, without realizing that there were also other elements that played a major role in upholding good governance.

Jusuf said the public had assumed that KPKPN had the sole authority to investigate, prosecute and bring delinquent public servants to court. "In fact, however, we cannot do all of this. The authority the commission has deals only with preventive functions, by evaluating the wealth of public servants," Jusuf said at a seminar titled "Public Monitoring of the Wealth of Public Servants to Prevent Corruption, Collusion, and Nepotistic (KKN) Practices."

In its official announcement every Tuesday, KPKPN classifies the wealth of public servants only into three groups: revenue, inheritances and grants.

Anticorruption campaigner Todung Mulya Lubis said that KPKPN provided an insufficient explanation about when and from whom a grant came. Therefore the "grants" classification could be used by public servants to conceal wealth possibly obtained from questionable sources.

Former finance minister Fuad Bawazir, for example, listed his Rp 30 billion (US$3.33 million) assets under the category of grants.

Chairman of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki feared the "grants" classification would be used as an excuse by alleged corruptors to escape prosecution. "I predicted many public servants would resign because they would have been unable to give an adequate explanation about the source of their wealth. But my prediction has turned out to be wrong," he said.

He suggested that KPKPN trace from whom the grant received by the public servant came. He said that the disclosure of donors would enable the commission to determine whether the grant was a bribe. If the grant were considered to be a bribe, it could undergo further legal investigation.

Jusuf explained that his team would soon discuss the matter. He admitted it took a long time for the commission to decide whether a public servant was involved in corruption. He said that his commission often resorted to voting to decide whether the revenue of certain public servants could be classified as being the result of corruption.

He said the voting was carried out because the audit commission was required to make a decision. "If there is no conclusion after a few days, we have to vote on it," Syakir added. He stated that up to the present, the commission had publicly announced the wealth of 2,504 public servants. "We are now assessing 157 of those declarations and are expected to complete 1,500 by December," he said.

Meanwhile, Todung praised the audit commission's move, saying that empowerment of the public within an anticorruption campaign was no less important. "Regardless of the substantial weaknesses in the legal instruments, this must be seen as an initial step in the drive to eradicate corruption," he said.

Senior journalist Djaffar H. Assegaff said that along with the audit commission, the media had a role in monitoring the wealth of public servants as well.

Poor bear brunt of corruption but powerless to resist

Agence France Presse - September 6, 2001

Jakarta -- Millions of Indonesia's poorest are among the worst hit by corruption since they feel powerless to stand up to greedy local officials and policemen, according to a high-level study.

"The poor are more vulnerable to requests for bribes because they are not assertive enough to inquire about official prices and regulations let alone report [offences]," says a preliminary report on the study, obtained by AFP this week.

The survey of 1,250 households in Jakarta, the central Java city of Yogyakarta and Makassar in South Sulawesi province was conducted by the Partnership for Governance Reform Indonesia, which is part of the United Nations Development Program, in conjunction with the World Bank.

It cites the state-run electricity company PLN, the police and schools as particularly corrupt institutions. Bardiyo, a Yogyakarta resident, had to pay 50,000 rupiah (5.50 dollars) more than the official tariff to have electricity installed at his house. Otherwise he would have had to wait for months.

Schools often ask parents to pay extra charges for uniforms, textbooks and building maintenance. Police often demand money for the release of petty criminals.

A construction worker in Jakarta, who was caught stealing a bicycle, was asked to pay 200,000 rupiah for his release. A mother, Maemunah, was forced to pay interest on her son's school registration fee because she paid by instalments.

Social safety net programs are also prone to corruption. A pedicab driver, Kusnan, said he often received less than he should but did not complain to officials in charge of the disbursement for fear of a comeback. "I'm worried that if I question it I would no longer get the assistance," Kusnan said.

Even garbage collections in some districts attract extra "charges".

In crowded slums in East Jakarta, each household must pay two fees -- one to the local community units that manage the garbage disposal and another to the Office of Sanitation. There is no clear reason for the dual charges.

The report notes that most ordinary people are prepared to pay bribes to get things done, whether applying for an identity card or settling a case with police. In one example, several motorcyclists interviewed in Yogyakarta said they chose to pay bribes to police of between 15,000 and 20,000 rupiah for traffic offences rather than go to court.

Migrants applying for a Jakarta identity card have to pay between 100,000 rupiah and 150,000 rupiah to the neighborhood chief for their application to be processed.

The report says the poor see the effects of corruption as mainly negative but notes that some of them "appreciate the practical benefit of speeding things up or circumventing existing laws." It added that "in daily life acceptance is the common response."

Petty corruption by low-level officials stems from governance problems at higher levels. the report says. "These problems trickle down and the burden is borne by the last in line."

The report calls for joint efforts between local non-government organisations, the media and communities to start pilot programmes to reduce graft at grassroots level. It notes that the 1998 political and economic crisis "dramatically reversed Indonesia's success in poverty reduction.

"Within a few months, millions of people were thrown into extreme poverty. Today, more than one in two households are vulnerable to poverty, i.e. face a 50 percent risk of falling into poverty over a three year horizon."

The report says the political system was "increasingly eroded by "KKN" (corruption, collusion and nepotism) during the 32-year rule of former dictator Suharto. "While corruption is known to have detrimental effects on economic and social development it hurts the poor disproportionately," it adds.

"In Indonesia, among others, acquiring permits, access to government services, and identification cards are opportunities for corruption, bending the rule of law and putting an extra financial burden on the poor."

Indonesia's poor hard-hit by graft, says survey

Straits Times - September 4, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- Millions of poor Indonesians are among the hardest-hit by corruption, as various unofficial levies charged by low-level officials are eating into their meagre earnings.

A recent survey conducted by the World Bank and the Partnership for Governance Reform Indonesia showed that the poor were affected by corruption in almost all aspects of their lives -- right down to their waste disposal.

According to the study on "Corruption and the Poor" -- which interviewed 1,250 households in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Ujung Pandang, South Sulawesi -- corruption involving garbage disposal ranked as one of the most common of all irregularities. In densely populated slums in East Jakarta, for example, each household has to pay two different garbage collection fees -- one for the local community units that manage the garbage disposal, and another for the Office of Sanitation. There is no clear explanation as to why each household has to pay twice.

Officials with the state-electricity company (PLN), the police and schools are considered by the poor to be the most corrupt. Other abuses also occur in the issuance of identification cards and in the disbursement of the social-safety net aids. PLN officials are notorious for offering speedier services at higher prices to install or increase power capacity to customers who do not want to wait for the regular, sluggish PLN service that could take three months.

The police force is notorious not just for soliciting bribes from traffic violators, but also for extorting people they apprehend. A 45-year-old construction worker, who was caught stealing a small bicycle for his three-year-old son, was asked for 200,000 rupiah to be released by the police. "If I had that much money, I would not have stolen to begin with," the man said.

Ironically, schools are also where much corruption takes place. In public schools, parents are often asked to pay various charges for everything from uniforms and textbooks to building maintenance. One school charged students 100,000 rupiah each for building maintenance fees, despite the 35,000 rupiah fee that the government limits schools to charge. Sometimes, individual teachers blatantly ask for money from parents, as in the case of Madam Chotijah, who had to pay 15,000 rupiah to a first-grade teacher in order to get her daughter's grade-report book. One high school even charged a mother a 30-per-cent annual interest rate on the payments she was making on a 350,000 rupiah "donation" she had to pay for her son's entrance to the school.

Project coordinator Stefanie Teggemann said the poor were powerless and their lack of education made them more susceptible to abuse. She added: "The rich people can use corruption in their favour -- they can influence policy-making or buy legal decisions -- whereas the poor people are powerless. They are more vulnerable to requests for bribes because they are not assertive enough to ask for official prices and regulations, let alone reports."

She said there should be more community empowerment to disseminate the idea that people can resist or stand up to corruption. But Mr Hamid Awaluddin of Partnership for Governance Reform said the fight against corruption should start from the top, with President Megawati Sukarnoputri declaring 'an anti- corruption regime' and beginning a massive clean-up of the bureaucracy.

Fake IDs - the pass to an easier life

Straits Times - September 3, 2001

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta -- They are valuable for criminals on the run; handy for men who want to take a second wife, and indispensable for people with little tolerance and time for the Indonesian bureaucracy.

The items in great demand are identification cards or KTP -- a must have for Indonesians over 18 -- issued by the government but bearing fake information.

Many people give false information when applying for their KTPs so as to avoid detection by the authorities. Some even apply for a second or third card, although having more than one KTP means a possible seven-year jail term.

Indonesia's disintegrating public-records system and its notoriously overlapping red tape makes this possible. Unless individuals are high-profile fugitives, famous celebrities or vulnerable politicians, most people get away with providing false information on their KTPs.

One famous personality who recently had a brush with the law over falsified data on his KTP is Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Some disgruntled former members of his Crescent Star Party revealed that he had given a false address on the card, which he allegedly used to open two bank accounts to receive large amounts of illegal donations for his party.

Last month, the police found out that the fugitive son of former President Suharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, had managed to get a legitimate identity card for himself bearing the name Ibrahim. He has been in hiding from the authorities after being sentenced for 18 months for corruption.

Although used nationwide, the KTP is issued by the lowest level of administration dubbed the Kelurahan, with the approval of the local neighbourhood group (RT) and the community group (RW).

In Jakarta alone, there are 267 Kelurahans and more than 2,000 RTs and RWs. With middlemen colluding with underpaid Kelurahan staffers, getting a KTP is a breeze. "People use our service because we make their lives easier," said one middleman. "For less than 100,000 rupiah, you can have anything on your KTP." The sum is equivalent to S$20.

The authorities say most Indonesians use the middlemen to avoid the gruelling process of dealing with the bureaucracy. But it is known that some men obtain a second KTP in order to get a licence for their second or third marriage without the required consent of the first wives.

Some women who have children with a foreign spouse also resort to falsifying information on KTPs. Under the Indonesian patrilineal law, children of mixed nationalities naturally follow their father's nationality. But sometimes, the father's country of origin refuses to admit the child.

As in the case of well-known actress Ayu Azhari, who is married to a Finn. She is being investigated for using a fake birth certificate to get a passport for her three-year-old son.

The birth certificate, essential for obtaining a KTP, is another frequently forged document. In most cases, the authorities cannot do much to stop the rooted practice.

Immigration Department spokesman Ade Dahlan says the department cannot do checks to verify the details on the KTPs of those applying for passports. "We just have to trust them," he says. And even the police think they have "more pressing priorities" than to double check the data on the KTP unless individuals are caught committing crimes.

Human rights/law

Police accused of abusing students

Jakarta Post - September 6, 2001

Jakarta -- The police physically abused two student activists arrested during a demonstration protesting the recent fuel price hike, their lawyer told a court here on Wednesday.

Heppy Sebayang, the lawyer, said during the trial of the two students that several police officers had violated the students' human rights during their arrest, questioning and detention.

Mixilmina Munir, 22, a leader of the Jakarta students' City Forum (Forkot), and Aris Wardoyo, 25, a member of Forkot, were being tried in the South Jakarta District Court for violating Article 160 of the Criminal Code on inciting disorder. The offenses were alleged to have taken place during a Forkot demonstration on June 16.

Sebayang remarked that several police officers slapped both defendants when they refused to answer questions during questioning. "There are human rights violations involved in this case," he asserted. He also said that the indictments were inaccurate and incomplete as they failed to specify the precise time and place of the alleged crime.

Mixil and Aris said in their respective defenses that they had never incited disorder as alleged by public prosecutor Lukimanto. "We reject the indictment as we are innocent," they said. They also quoted the words used by the late Baharuddin Lopa (former attorney general) who said: "We must uphold justice even if the sky is falling down."

Judge Abdul Majid Rahim adjourned the trial until next week to hear further prosecution arguments.

Before the trial started, some 200 students from Forkot and the Jakarta Network (Jarkot) staged a rally on JL. Ampera Raya outside the courthouse in support of their colleagues, causing a traffic jam. They displayed banners reading "Free our friends" and "Dismiss the National Police chief, provincial police chief and the state prosecutor."

The students then attended the hearing, during which they clapped their hands and launched interruptions, all of which resulted in the proceedings becoming very noisy.

Informal sector/urban poor

Complicated procedures face street vendors

Jakarta Post - September 1, 2001

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta -- Complicated bureaucratic procedures await street vendors who wish to claim their belongings after being confiscated by the city public order officials during crackdowns across the city.

The procedures are time consuming and cost them relatively a lot of money before they manage to get back their belongings.

They have to go back and forth to several different offices, including the subdistrict administration office, mayoralty office, the city administration and the district court to prepare all the necessary documents to claim their belongings at the city's warehouse in Cakung, East Jakarta.

Quite often, visits to these offices must be made several times as the officials claimed to be too "busy" to issue the necessary documents.

Udur Hutabarat, one of the vendors, told her experience to The Jakarta Post last week. She ran a sidewalk tire repair shop in Cengkareng of West Jakarta. But recently, the city administration's public order officials raided all the street businesses there, and confiscated her compressor.

She said that she had come to the Cakung warehouse for the second time, but was still unable to collect her compressor. Having with her all the necessary documents, including a letter from the West Jakarta District Court showing that she had paid the Rp 15,600 (US$ 1.30] fine for violating the city bylaw No. 11 on public order, she returned to the warehouse last week hoping to be able to collect her compressor.

Instead, she was told to return to the city administration office to register her letter from the court. "I have rented a public minivan today because I thought I would be able to take back my compressor. But I couldn't. I don't know why. In fact, I have followed all the procedures," Udur said exasperatedly.

"For the transportation alone, including renting the minivan, I had to spend almost Rp 300,000 (US$35.30) as I had to go to various offices several times," she said, adding that she often had to wait for a long time at the offices just to be told to return the next day because her papers were not done yet. "When I complained, they told me that I'm not the only person with documents to be processed," she remarked.

Udur has visited the city administration four times and she would come again to the warehouse for the third time. "I live in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, while this [warehouse] is in East Jakarta. It's very tiring to shuttle back and forth like this," she said.

But according to the public order office at the city administration, the claiming procedures are quite straightforward. Jalil, a staff member of the office, said vendors usually went to Cakung to make sure that their belongings were there, and then went to court to pay the fine.

Later on they came to the city administration office to get a clearance letter and then they could claim their belongings at the warehouse. "We don't charge them anything. They only need to pay the fine to the court," he told the Post

The Cakung warehouse is used by the city administration to keep all the street vendor's belongings such as carts and merchandise, which are confiscated during raids across the city. It is also used to keep the three-wheeled pedicab, locally known as becak, confiscated during raids.

The duty officer at the warehouse told the Post that all of the vendors' belongings were properly secured until the owner came to claim them. Pedicabs, however, will be destroyed and would be later sunk at sea, he said. "But not many of the street vendors come to get their belongings," he said.

Broken

Hendar, a vendor who sells cigarettes and soft drinks on the sidewalk outside the Landmark building in South Jakarta, recounted his experience when his business was raided in 1998.

"They took my cart and merchandise. Before going to court to pay the fine, I went to Cakung to check my belongings," he said. "But to my surprise, they were all broken and some of them were missing."

Despite the frequent crackdowns, street vendors are persistent in continuing their businesses, even though the raids could turn violent and result in them losing their merchandise.

Suyadi, a vendor on the sidewalk in front of Atmajaya University in South Jakarta, for example, not only lost his merchandise during the recent crackdown, he also lost his two front teeth.

"When the officers hit my cart as they drove by, my cigarettes were falling, so I bent down to pick them up. All of a sudden one of the officers kicked me in the mouth and I lost two of my teeth," he said, looking very sad.

But after the crackdown, the vendors returned to the same spot as they consider moving to other places would not make any difference. "I'll just stay here. If there is crackdown, I'll disappear for a while and then return again, as I have to earn a living for my family," Dodi, another street vendor, said.

News & issues

Indonesian plea to speed up refugee processing rejected

Sydney Morning Herald - September 8, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta -- Australia has rejected an Indonesian plea to fast-track people assessed to be genuine refugees from Indonesia, despite pressuring the Government in Jakarta to do more to stop asylum seekers reaching Australia.

The Immigration Minister, Mr Ruddock, one of three Federal ministers visiting Jakarta, said yesterday that more asylum seekers would try to reach Indonesia if they thought obtaining refugee status in the country was so "fast and expeditious over places elsewhere".

Holding out little hope for quick resettlement of hundreds of people assessed by the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) who are trapped in Indonesia, Mr Ruddock told journalists: "You have to get the balance right in relation to the outcome." He said Australia would eventually only accept people with "significant linkages" to Australia and that other developed countries were expected to accept the rest.

Earlier, Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Mr Hassan Wirayuda, said Indonesia "regretted" that so many of those granted refugee status had not been taken to third countries, including Australia. The UNHCR grants people refugee status if they are found to have a genuine fear of persecution if they were to return to their own country.

During two days of talks with Indonesian ministers in Jakarta Mr Ruddock, the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, and the Defence Minister, Mr Reith, discussed what they called a "comprehensive strategy" to fight people smuggling, but failed to announce any concrete deal. Ministers from both sides agreed to push for a conference involving South-East Asian nations to discuss a joint regional approach to combat the problem.

During the talks Indonesian ministers declined a renewed offer from Australia to build a detention centre in Indonesia where asylum seekers could have their status assessed. But Mr Downer said Indonesia had instead agreed to boost the capacity of about 17 existing immigration quarantine centres around the country, most of which are poorly guarded and allow illegal arrivals to come and go freely. He said Australia would help provide the funds.

The Indonesians agreed to review their laws to crack down on people-smuggling syndicates, including the possibility of extraditing smugglers to Australia to stand trial. Ministers from both sides agreed to boost co-operation between the defence forces of both countries. Talks would begin as early as next week in Bali.

Meetings of senior immigration and police officials from both countries to improve co-operation are also being arranged. Mr Downer said at the end of the talks: "We have been very pleased with the response we have got. This is a very significant problem for both Indonesia and Australia and, for that matter, for other countries in the region."

The Indonesian President, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, declined to meet Mr Downer, Mr Ruddock and Mr Reith during the visit, prompting speculation that she was unhappy with Australia over its handling of the Tampa crisis. She refused to take a call from Mr Howard after he had demanded that Indonesia take back the asylum seekers on the Tampa. But officials at the presidential palace said the three ministers were scheduled to meet Ms Megawati last night.

Yesterday she delivered her annual budget address to parliament. She is scheduled today to visit Aceh, where police and troops are accused of slaughtering scores of civilians during a military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement.

Cases against Abdurrahman revived

Straits Times - September 7, 2001

Jakarta - The National Police are reviving investigation of several defamation cases against former president Abdurrahman Wahid.

"We have studied all the cases and we think that the public are entitled to legal certainty with regard to the complaints they made to us," spokesman Didi Widayadi told reporters last week.

He denied rumours that the police were seeking revenge against Mr Abdurrahman.

The cases include complaints filed by the former chief of the state news agency Antara, Mr Parni Hadi, following his dismissal, and by the Forestry Ministry's suspended secretary-general Soeripto.

Eight officers finally released

Jakarta Post - September 7, 2001

Jakarta -- National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro finally released on Thursday afternoon the eight middle-ranking officers who had allegedly breached police discipline, a lawyer representing the officers said.

"The eight have now been called to National Police headquarters by Bimantoro. I hope they will reconcile their differences and settle the matter internally," Suci Madio, the lawyer, told The Jakarta Post. "And I heard after the meeting that they won't be going back to detention but straight to their houses," Suci said.

Despite the release, the lawsuits against Bimantoro would continue and would not be immediately dropped should a reconciliation be arrived at. A pre-trial process is currently ongoing.

The eight officers were arrested on Bimantoro's orders while holding a meeting at a cafe in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on July 22, and have been detained at the National Police's Mobile Brigade headquarters in Kelapa Dua, East Jakarta, ever since.

Trapped

Sydney Morning Herald - September 6, 2001

Lindsay Murdoch -- The smugglers' plan went like clockwork. Paid up asylum seekers were flown in small groups from Pakistan to Jakarta, transiting in Bangkok, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

There was little fear of their fake Indonesian visas and Afghan passports being rejected in Jakarta, which has one of the most corrupt airports. The smugglers even paid for special passes so they could wait inside the customs area and arrange for their clients to be processed in a side room and not have to wait in queues like other new arrivals.

Faizullah, a shopkeeper, was happy with the service he got for the $US12,000 he had paid to smugglers in the Afghan capital Kabul, the Pakistan city of Lahore and Jakarta to bring his pregnant wife Fatima and their two children to Australia.

One of the smugglers even travelled with them, making sure nothing went wrong during the trip to Indonesia, but keeping his distance. "He told us to ignore him," Faizullah says. "In Jakarta another man, a Pakistani, was waiting for us at the airport. He took us to a rented house and told us not to talk to any neighbours, stay inside and wait until he came to take us on the final leg of the trip."

Over several months the smugglers, from one of six major people- smuggling syndicates operating in Indonesia, had parked clients, who had paid them more than $US700,000, in safe houses across Jakarta and its outlying suburbs.

Abdul Rashid Matin, a 35-year-old nurse from Kabul, was surprised the arrangements went so smoothly for himself, his wife and four children. In Pakistan he was even shown a photograph of the smuggler who would be waiting for him among the teeming faces of taxi drivers and con artists who tout for business at Jakarta airport. "The smugglers fulfilled every promise until the time we stepped on to the boat," Matin says. "That's when we realised we had been left to a terrible fate."

It was almost dark by the time the smugglers had collected 138 people from the safe houses and brought them to a port on the southern coast of Java (the smugglers warned their clients not to reveal the location). There was no time to properly check out the KM Harapan Jaya II because the tide was moving fast, the smugglers said, and the police might come. But they were to find out later the boat's hull was rotting, there were no working pumps or life jackets as the smugglers had promised, and it would have been overcrowded if only a dozen had boarded, let alone 138.

As the boat chugged out to sea a couple of teenagers who had picked up basic Bahasa Indonesia while staying at their safe house learnt from the four Indonesian crew that the trip to Christmas Island was expected to take seven days and seven nights. The smugglers had told them 30 hours.

But there was barely time to digest that news. The boat hit the rocks off Nusa Kembangan, Indonesia's "Devil's Island", in the early hours of the morning. When water started to fill the hull, the asylum seekers tried to bail it out with their hands. Said Sakhi, 20, fell into the sea as waves washed over them. "For God's sake help me," he screamed before slipping away and drowning.

Fatima, 20, clutched her baby, Murtaza Roni, who had been born in Indonesia 2 months earlier. But as the boat split into pieces she lost her grip and the baby fell into the water. "We could see him. But nobody could reach him," says Abdul Rashid Matin. "The rest of us managed to get ashore and then we found the body. It was a huge shock to all of us."

Three weeks later, Fatima sits on the concrete floor of a dormitory in the jail on Nusa Kembangan, her sad eyes only looking downward, the look of shame and despair. She has not spoken for days. "We had to come even though we lost our baby," says husband Faizullah, 24. "In Afghanistan the Taliban was going to kill me because I refused to fight for them. But I feel now that if I could stay anywhere in the world it would not make up for the loss of our baby."

Many of the hundreds of asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries who are stranded in Indonesia have similar horror stories.

Boats carrying hundreds of people have sunk, drowning all aboard. Like the Vietnamese boat people before them, the new asylum seekers trying to reach Australia have been the targets of modern-day pirates and rapists and the victims of cruel smugglers.

And Indonesian authorities have at times helped push boats out to sea, knowing they are not seaworthy and the passengers' chances of survival only slim, some survivors say.

The survivors of the KM Harapan Jaya II and hundreds of other asylum seekers who have failed to reach Australia are unwelcome in Indonesia, where authorities are becoming increasingly impatient with them. When they are caught, Indonesia's policy is to place them in "quarantine" -- usually a jail compound with criminals or at a guarded hostel or cheap hotel pending assessment of their status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. But they often escape, or are allowed to walk away by officials fed up with them. Their only option then is to try to arrange passage with other smugglers.

Even if they are assessed to be refugees, third countries including Australia have been slow to accept them, leaving Indonesia, a country struggling with its 1.5 million internally displaced people, with the burden of coping with the rapidly growing numbers.

Lukmiardi, a senior official at Indonesia's Justice Ministry, says that placing all the asylum seekers in quarantine is proving impossible "given that their numbers are reaching into the thousands and are likely to increase". He urges the building of proper detention facilities "to convey the message that Indonesia is not a transit point for illegal migrants".

Tensions are running high on Nusa Kembangan, the prison island off the central Java city of Cilacap that houses some of Indonesia's most notorious criminals, including Bob Hasan, the one-time golfing partner of the former dictator Soeharto. "Our job is to provide security for Indonesian criminals, not foreigners," says Djono, a guard on the island that has been a prison since the Dutch colonial era. "The presence of these people is a big problem for us."

Abdul Rashid Matin, the nurse from Kabul, speaks for the group of survivors, many of whom are unwell because of the lack of food and water, and the primitive conditions on the island. "As you are Australians please report to your country that we are suffering and appreciate very much your humanitarian program," he tells the Herald. "You have taken in many Afghans before. We know that. We hope you will please help us." Abdul Ghani, 20, presses to the front of the group. "Please can you tell us. Should we stay here or escape? Please tell us. We are desperate."

The presence of refugees who share houses in Indonesian cities, towns or villages has often caused problems in the local communities, including gang fights. Some asylum seekers turn violent. When 33 Iraqi people were caught arriving on North Sumatra recently, two men cut their chests open and a mother threw her baby to the ground to protest being taken to a local immigration shelter instead of Jakarta.

Gira Prawijaya, the head of the police foreign monitoring office on Lombok, where several hundred Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers have been staying, says the situation has become intolerable: "They [the asylum seekers] are so outrageous. They come to this country with fake passports but act like nobles, demanding first class facilities and services."

Often those in immigration shelters go on hunger strikes. A few have sewn up their mouths or cut their tongues to protest the refusal of Indonesian authorities to take them to Jakarta where smugglers are easily found, usually in the city's biggest McDonald's after 9pm every day.

An Indonesian policeman who worked undercover for months in an international squad funded by Australia to track the smugglers says each syndicate has a field co-ordinator for each country who employs hotel providers, boats and crews, the producers of passports and visas and travel agents. He says network members are usually of Arab descent. The two best-known syndicate bosses are Pakistani. They fly first or business class, use at least four aliases and always travel with four to six bodyguards. "They are very dangerous, deceitful, untouchable," says the policeman, who asked not to named.

While drug smugglers face execution in Indonesia and possessing a firearm can send a person to jail for 20 years, the laws covering people smuggling are vague and untested.

One syndicate boss, known as Captain Bram, who was recently in Cambodia with 241 Afghan and Pakistan people trying to get to Australia, has often been arrested in Indonesia but is always released because of the lack of evidence. "Money talks," the policeman says.

Smugglers often meet clients openly in the jails and immigration shelters. "The syndicates work very secretly and are hard to infiltrate," the policeman says. "Jobs are given on a need to know basis."

The policeman says the operation, from the start until the asylum seekers board a boat for the last leg of the journey, is sophisticated and highly professional. Passports are usually genuine, but the names and visas fake. He says the asylum seekers are told to destroy their travel documents when they arrive in Indonesia by either plane or boat from Malaysia, which has emerged as the people smuggling hub because the country allows visa-free entry for people from most Muslim countries. Without proof of where they are from, asylum seekers cannot be sent home.

There are two main sea routes out of Indonesia. One is through the eastern

islands to the tiny, uninhabited Ashmore Reef 200 kilometres north-west of the Australian mainland. The smugglers know that if their cargo reaches there, Australian Navy and Coastwatch patrols will carry them to immigration authorities.

The other route to Christmas Island is faster but more risky because of the notoriously rough seas that can blow up at any time.

On Nusa Kembangan, the Afghan survivors have been told by prison guards and workers about the drama involving the people on the Tampa and how they were plucked from their sinking boat off Christmas Island. "If we get another another chance to go, we will go," says Abdul Ghani. "Those people aboard are being taken to be resettled in a third country. That is all we are asking for ourselves."

Osama `eyeing Indonesia as a launching pad'

Straits Times - September 5, 2001

Jakarta -- There is increasing concern that Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organisation are looking to Indonesia as a potential springboard for their operations. Indonesian and foreign military and government officials were concerned that such operations could include targeting foreign, particularly US, interests in Indonesia or using it as a launching pad for activities elsewhere, said The Australian yesterday.

Quoting Indonesian officials, the newspaper said concerns over terrorism and the activities of Osama's organisation were raised during talks between Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who was in Jakarta early last month. The Australian said the issue could also be on the agenda during talks in Washington between Ms Megawati and her US counterpart, George W. Bush, later this month.

A top Indonesian military officer has also warned that the country could expect an increase in foreign terrorist activities over the next three years. It could involve attempts to recruit Indonesian militants into international terrorism, he added. "The chances are very high that in the next three years, we will fight terrorism, specifically international terrorism that enters Indonesia," said deputy chief of the army, Lieutenant-General Kiki Syahnakri. "We also received information from America, as well as other parties, of Osama bin Laden's presence in Indonesia," he told The Australian in an interview.

Osama has been accused of masterminding a string of attacks against US targets around the world. Lt-Gen Syahnakri's warning was endorsed at the weekend by the visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly.

He said he would "certainly share the caution" of the Indonesian authorities over the potential terrorist threat. The Indonesian military has also disclosed that it was planning to step up counter-terrorist training. Lt-Gen Syahnakri said Indonesia was hoping to strengthen co-operation with US agencies, including the FBI and the CIA.

There have been several bomb blasts in Indonesia in recent months and all of them have been attributed to home-grown groups. Last month, the US embassy in Jakarta fuelled concerns about terrorist activity in Indonesia when it said that extremist elements might be planning to target US interests in the country, including tourists. The State Department advised American citizens to defer all non-essential travel to the country.

Refugee group in threatens hunger strike in bid for asylum

Associated Press - September 1, 2001

Chris Brummitt, Nusakambangan Island -- A group of Afghan refugees detained for two weeks after their ship sank off an Indonesian prison island threatened Saturday to go on a hunger strike unless the United Nations agreed to their asylum demands.

The 138 refugees were sailing from Indonesia to Australia's Christmas Island last month when their rickety boat sank in a storm. A mother and child drowned. The others managed to swim to the shores of nearby Nusakambangan Island.

The group is separate from the 460 mainly Afghans languishing on a Norwegian cargo ship since Monday after both Australia and Indonesia refused to accept them. New Zealand and the Pacific republic of Nauru agreed Saturday to take them in to assess their eligibility for asylum. In Indonesia, officials from the UN International Organization for Migration have visited the 138 refugees twice, but have yet to make a decision on their fate.

"We will go on a hunger strike on Monday unless we are allowed to leave this place," said Abdul Rashid, 34, a dentist who said he was fleeing political persecution by Afghanistan's hardline Islamic Taliban rulers. "No one is listening to us or helping us."

Hundreds of illegal migrants now live in Indonesia after being caught trying to sail for Australia and New Zealand without visas. Authorities rarely detain them and usually allow them to live in the community while waiting for the United Nations to process their applications for political

asylum in Western countries.

However, with Indonesia coming under intense international pressure to crack down on the increasing flow of illegal migrants passing through its territory, the government seems determined not to free this particular group. Many of the illegal migrants here have skin diseases. There is little to eat, and their drinking water is brown.

Economy & investment

Social budget

Straits Times - September 8, 2001

Train crashes, crumbling schools, power blackouts and children begging on crowded intersections -- these are legacies of Indonesia's budget crunch in recent years. The new budget, with its stated emphasis on social welfare and regional development, aims to address some of the inequities. This is how Indonesia intends to cut down overall spending, but still build necessary social infrastructure.

More money

• Education: 11.6 trillion rupiah (S$2.2 billion, 19-per-cent increase). Mandatory nine years of schooling is to be enforced. More schools to be built and scholarships up for grabs.
• Health care: 4.3 trillion rupiah (14-per-cent increase). New clinics and medical workers to take better care of the poor, elderly, handicapped and orphans.
• Building infrastructure: 6.5 trillion rupiah (35-per-cent increase). Neglect over the past four years has caused train crashes, late airplane arrivals and traffic jams. The government now wants more roads, seaports, airports and rail tracks.
• Energy: 3.5 trillion rupiah (41-per-cent increase) to bring power to the country's rural areas. Power lines are failing, and electricity plants are ageing. Wiring projects that have been on hold since 1997 will now get funding.
• Agriculture: 6.6 trillion rupiah (3.8-per-cent increase) to develop agriculture, forestry and marine resources. Cheaper fertilisers for farmers and aid for plantations switching to lucrative export crops.
• Housing: 1.01 trillion rupiah (52-per-cent increase) to house the poor, refugees and those living in disaster areas.
• Development: 3.4 trillion rupiah (9.2-per-cent increase) to speed it up, especially for regions located in the eastern parts of Indonesia.
• Military: 3.4 trillion rupiah (41-per-cent increase) for new tanks, boats, guns and planes.

Less money

• Civil service: 809 billion rupiah (5.7-per-cent drop) for training, travel and other allowances.
• Business development: 1.2 trillion rupiah (80.2-per-cent drop). Less money on sponsored road shows, but the government will focus on supporting SMEs. Local government and private sector expected to take up slack.
• Science and technology: 602 billion rupiah (4.8-per-cent drop). Less money for research and development, but private organisations are expected to take charge.

Total revenues

• 289.4 trillion rupiah (1.1-per-cent increase from last year, 17.1 per cent of GDP)
• 204.2 trillion rupiah (17.2-per-cent increase) from domestic taxes.
• 12.6 trillion rupiah (14.4-per-cent increase) from international trade taxes.
• 72.6 trillion rupiah (28-per-cent drop) from oil, gas, mining and resources revenues.

Total expenditure

• 332.5 trillion rupiah (2.3-per-cent drop from last year, 19.6 per cent of GDP)
• 90.34 trillion rupiah to regional governments under decentralisation scheme.
• 40.7 trillion rupiah pays salaries of government workers.
• 87 trillion rupiah services Indonesia's domestic and foreign debts.
• 46.2 trillion rupiah subsidises petrol and electricity.
• 47.1 trillion is devoted to development budget.

Total deficit

43.03 trillion (21-per-cent drop, 2.5 per cent of GDP)

To be financed by asset sales and privatisation proceeds, and loans from international creditors.

Budget assumptions: 5-per-cent growth, 8-per-cent inflation, 8,500-rupiah exchange rate, 14-per-cent interest rate and US$22 per barrel oil price.

Megawati's battle to make the budget work

Straits Times - September 8, 2001

Susan Long, Jakarta - You know surrealism is a way of life here when your mobile phone begins trilling as you peer into the smoky cauldron of the active volcano Bromo in East Java. Nothing but lava sand covers the vast emptiness between mountain peaks, but Telkomsel's reception here is even better than in the heart of urban Jakarta.

But if the 15-year-old horse called Manis (Sweet) you are on should stumble and throw you onto the crater floor as his 10-year-old jockey pulls him into a trot, chances are that no one will call for an ambulance. For there is no emergency hotline to call in this tourist mecca, or a well-equipped emergency room for miles. You are better off getting someone to drive you the two or three hours into Malang, where local doctors recently worked with Singapore volunteers to build and staff a modern ER. Or you can try the private, high-tech, paperless, high-rise hospital in Surabaya that has yet to open for lack of a top management team.

And you will be lucky -- half of all accident victims here never make it to a doctor. But those who do and survive, will have all their medical expenses taken care of by a state accident insurance scheme.

This juxtaposition of developed world amenities and rudimentary living conditions after some 30 years of central planning may explain why most Indonesians will probably greet their new President's first budget statement with indifference, after some mortified shouting over the planned hikes in petrol and electricity prices.

Yet, it should be reassuring for Indonesians that, despite a debt trap that makes fiscal prudence a non-optional virtue, President Megawati Sukarnoputri's maiden Budget does make a credible link between her policy agenda and its implementation.

If there is still any doubt, it should be clear by now that at its most fundamental, her definition of reformasi is giving each Indonesian equal access to at least nine years of education, basic health care, shelter and the means to a better way of life, regardless of where they live in the archipelago.

It should also be clear that eradicating corruption requires giving civil servants decent wages while cutting out pork-barrel spending and bureaucratic waste. Maintaining national security also means equipping the troops with the weapons to deter disintegration.

And so if Parliament approves her budget allocations, Manis the horse will probably still have to haul tourists up Mount Bromo each dawn, but his boy-jockey will be in school and perhaps grow up to be the CEO of a modern hospital. Accident victims will be able to get basic medical attention in any village health post, which a doctor will man because he gets a living wage out of it. And Telkomsel with its excellent, and spotty, nation-wide coverage will be privatised to raise cash to pay off Indonesia's creditors.

Articulating a people-first vision and putting numbers to it is, of course, not sufficient. Ms Megawati will still have to convince Indonesians of the necessity of putting up with the, hopefully, temporary pain of steeper petrol and electricity rates, and the inflationary effect on food prices of higher transport and production overheads.

Blaming previous governments for sinking Indonesia into a US$150 billion debt nightmare that sucks up 25 per cent of the budget in repayments is the easy part.

Ensuring that whatever revenues remain available to the bureaucracy is wisely spent and will deliver promised services to the people is a little more difficult. As a wit once said, any jackass can plan a balanced budget on paper.

Then the real battle begins -- getting the budget enacted by Parliament, and making sure civil servants spend the money on programmes which carry out the President's priorities.

With her own party controlling one third of Parliament and the crucial Commission 9 which will scrutinise the budget, Ms Megawati's government will probably not have to lobby too hard to stop MPs from dickering with the details. But even with a policy agenda that is more realistic than ambitious, maintaining momentum is crucial.

And so a President who can seemingly do no wrong now should make sure no one doubts her commitment to putting her people first.

Fuel subsidies that benefit mainly the rich are slashed

Straits Times - September 8, 2001

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- Each week, as a Toyota landcruiser roams the streets of Jakarta consuming half a tank or 50 litres of petrol, the Indonesian government is subsiding its relatively wealthy owner about 260,000 rupiah per week (S$50). This is about 60 per cent of a factory worker's salary.

But in its latest Budget, Jakarta has announced deep cuts to one of the world's most generous fuel subsidies and said it would raise fuel prices by 30 per cent.

Critics say the proposed hike is politically risky. The poor and lower-middle classes -- most of whom have not seen their incomes recover since the economic crisis -- will undoubtedly be furious as the cost of basic goods is pushed up by increased transportation costs.

A government study found that the fuel subsidies were overwhelmingly benefiting wealthy car owners. Comparing petrol pump prices in Indonesia and Singapore, 80 per cent of petrol costs are subsidised by the Indonesian government, which equates to around 14 million rupiah per year for a landcruiser owner.

International creditors such as the IMF yesterday praised the fuel subsidy cuts. They said the government is curtailing its generous subsidies for the middle and upper classes, and reigning in its budget blowout to within 2.5 per cent of GDP, from 3.7 per cent of GDP this year.

But fuel price hikes in the past have not gone down well with the lower and middle classes. In June, when the government raised fuel prices by 30 per cent, electricity costs by 20 per cent and kerosene prices by 10 per cent, the cost of staple foods rose by 20 to 30 per cent and several cities were paralysed by violent protests. Fuel price hikes in 1998 also led to massive demonstrations and the eventual downfall of then president Suharto.

But economists said the fuel price rise this time round would not have such a dramatic impact on the cost of staple foods. "In the short term, the price of goods will increase but the rupiah can play an important role in reducing the impact. If it strengthens to 8,500 rupiah to the US dollar, then staple goods will not increase too much," said Johannes Salim from HSBC securities.

He attributed the June price increases to the weakness of the rupiah, which has stabilised since Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected President. Mr Johannes said the poor and lower classes would be worst hit by an increase in the cost of kerosene, used by the poor as a cooking fuel.

The proposed fuel price hikes, which would include a 30-per-cent hike in petrol, a 6-per-cent hike in electricity and around 10- per-cent hike in kerosene, would probably take effect next January, said chief economic minister Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti.

Analysts said some political parties such as the Muslim Central Axis might use the sensitive issue to score some political points. However, they felt that Parliament would probably back the move as there was little other way of containing the Budget.

Indonesia's 2002 draft budget a balancing act

Reuters - September 7, 2001

Joanne Collins, Jakarta -- Indonesia's new government handed down its 2002 budget on Friday, walking a tightrope between fiscal prudence and stimulating growth in a bid to keep the debt-weary economy afloat.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first budget, which shows a 2.3 percent contraction in spending, is being closely watched by investors and donors anxious for an end to four years of crisis.

But the largely conservative blueprint, which must still be signed off by parliament, makes measly increases in development spending, slashes socially sensitive fuel subsidies and offers little for the millions of poor.

It forecasts economic growth increasing strongly to five percent from 3.5, but the top economics minister has already warned such an increase could be hard to achieve.

Major tasks ahead

Along with a bitter separatist war in resource-rich Aceh province, a major source of gas revenue, one of the toughest tasks facing the daughter of Indonesia's founding president is reviving the economy and restoring investor and donor confidence.

Megawati's predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, failed to push his 2001 budget through the feisty parliament unchanged. The House dumped him in July over charges of incompetence and corruption.

Megawati is likely to face a smoother run. Her party is the largest in parliament and although it still lacks a majority, her diverse coalition remains united so soon after coming together to oust Wahid.

Finance Minister Boediono said the government had done its best in the January-December budget to juggle its mountain of debt and spurring growth. "The government is trying to strike [a balance] between two main objectives: one is fiscal consolidation ... the other objective is to use as much as possible in our budget to stimulate the economy," he told a budget briefing.

Principle payments on foreign debt will double to 41.52 trillion rupiah ($4.6 billion) from 20.16 trillion which takes into account a previous debt rescheduling deal with the Paris Club of official creditors.

The government also cut fuel subsidies 40 percent to 32.29 trillion rupiah which will please foreign creditors and donors but result in hefty price rises -- a potentially explosive move which has triggered bloody riots in the past. "We will find the best way to minimise the burden on the people," Boediono said.

Development spending inched up to 47.15 trillion rupiah, or 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), from 45.47 trillion in 2001, which will do little to speed the rebuilding of the country's crumbling infrastructure.

The government also set a more ambitious asset sales target, which will not only help plug the deficit but signal its commitment to offloading banks and companies whose value is shrinking. The cash target for selling assets under the powerful Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) was set at 35.3 trillion rupiah, up from 27 trillion.

Growth optimistic

The privatisation target was unchanged at 6.5 trillion rupiah, a realistic goal given the government is yet to raise a cent for the 2001 target. "We are proposing a policy that we will not use all [the privatisation revenue] to finance our budget deficit. We will use some to retire our domestic debt," Boediono said.

Key macroeconomic indicators were in line with expectations, but the five percent GDP growth could be regarded as optimistic. Chief economics minister Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti has already said Indonesia would be hard pressed to achieve this.

A rupiah exchange rate of 8,500 to the dollar was also expected as the government had said it was eyeing 8,000-9,000. But dealers were hoping for a level at the weaker end of the scale, given the currency's propensity for wild swings which caused the rate to be revised mid year in the 2001 budget.

Businessmen fume over red tape in Indonesian regions

Straits Times - September 7, 2001 (abridged)

Jakarta -- An avalanche of red tape caused by Indonesia's attempts to devolve power to the local authorities has left business leaders fuming. According to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), regional administrations have issued 1,006 new regulations since being handed extended powers by a decentralisation law that took effect on January 1.

"There are so many regional regulations that are hindering, some are even senseless," Kadin chairman Aburizal Bakrie said, according to the Bisnis Indonesia daily. "Kadin demands that these regulations which are hindering business be revoked," he said after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

The decentralisation law allows district and municipal administrations to raise their own revenues. Mr Aburizal said this had led to a flurry of new taxes on businesses. The executive director of the Indonesian Mining Association, Mr Paul Courtier, said companies in the mining sector frequently had to deal with overlapping levies imposed by different regions.

Indonesia's mega-asset sale

Straits Times - September 7, 2001

Robert Go, Jakarta -- Indonesia is already hard-pressed to meet asset-sale targets of over 33.5 trillion rupiah (S$6.7 billion) this year, but President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Budget proposals, due to be announced today, will set an even higher goal of nearly 42 trillion rupiah for 2002.

This money will be raised through divesting stakes in state-run or nationalised assets. Finance Ministry sources said the government will use a "60-40 formula" to determine how revenues generated by asset sales are used.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra) and the state- owned Enterprises Ministry, both government agencies, are tasked with selling the assets. Of the money raised by them, about 25 trillion rupiah, or roughly 60 per cent of the next year's total target, will go towards financing part of the Budget deficit. The other 40 per cent will be used by the government to retire some of the 650-trillion rupiah worth of high-interest bonds that have been issued to prop up the country's failing banks since 1998.

Finance Ministry officials described their asset-sale projections as "ambitious but achievable". They admitted, however, that mounting pressure stemming from the state's debilitating US$150- billion debt and the overall severity of Indonesia's financial woes are forcing the government to put more and more assets on the auction block.

A close aide to Finance Minister Boediono, said: "It has to be an aggressive target. It's possible. There are lots of good assets to be offered. The reality is that we have many obligations to fulfil and very few options."

Indonesia has several prime assets that could attract foreign investors and their cash into the country, and could be offered for sale in the future. Analysts consider Bank Central Asia (BCA), which was previously owned by the Salim Group and is the country's biggest consumer bank, as a "steal at current market prices". Parliament is now debating whether to approve plans to sell 51 per cent of BCA before the end of the year, after blocking several previous government attempts to sell it. State- run telecommunications operator PT Telkom, with nearly US$1 billion in total sales last year, is another blue-chip asset that could be unloaded quickly.

But despite the availability of assets, and the climate of optimism that has come to prevail in Jakarta since Ms Megawati's ascension to the presidency in late July, analysts have predicted a continuing struggle for the asset-sale programme.

Dr Sri Adiningsih of University of Gadjah Mada said: "It will be a tough process. It's a confidence game, and if the government does not meet its target this year, it will make next year that much more difficult."

Ibra, now led by its sixth chairman in less than three years, is tasked with selling off nationalised assets valued at nearly 600 trillion rupiah, but has raised only 14 trillion rupiah so far this year.

New state-owned Enterprises Minister Laksamana Sukardi, who now oversees the operations and possible sale of state assets worth around US$130 billion on paper, said recently that it would be difficult to sell any before the end of December.

Indonesia's 2002 budget to be drained by debt

Reuters - September 5, 2001

Joanne Collins, Jakarta -- Indonesia will unveil on Friday a draft budget constrained by a mountain of debt that has left President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government with barren coffers and few options to prove it can fix the shattered economy.

The new government has given little away on what to expect but economists are betting on a conservative blueprint for 2002 with slightly more aggressive revenue targets.

Jakarta will also be banking on a last minute reprieve from the Paris Club of official creditors, which it has asked to reschedule an additional $6 billion of debt which falls due between April 2002 and March 2004.

It is unclear how much of that debt will mature next year, but analysts said the deal would likely free up funds for urgent development or social spending. Paris Club officials, due to meet on Monday, will also decide on the second phase of last year's $5.8 billion debt deal, which amounts to $2.8 billion and will impact the 2002 budget.

That deal is conditional on an active IMF programme and is set to be approved following Jakarta's recent breakthrough with the Fund after an eight-month deadlock.

No miracles

The budget -- due to be presented to parliament at 8:30am on Friday -- will test the government's ability to tackle nuts and bolts fiscal matters but no one is expecting miracles.

The budget will also need approval from parliament, often a thorn for recent Indonesian governments, and depend on a stable rupiah to avoid a revision of the figures as happened mid-2001.

"This budget is just going to be the usual sort of budget. It's not going to kickstart the economy," said Fauzi Ichsan, global markets economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Jakarta. "They will be playing around with the figures and keeping the budget deficit at a reasonable level to please the IMF -- that's reality, they can't do much," he added.

A preliminary budget deficit of 2-3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) was agreed between Jakarta and the IMF last week, down from this year's 3.7 percent forecast. Indonesia will also be relying on generous pledges from the umbrella group of donors, the Consultative Group for Indonesia (CGI), when it meets in November to help plug that deficit.

The CGI pledged $4.8 billion last year but donors will expect Jakarta to crank up asset sales in return for a similar reward. Not a cent has been raised from a 6.5 trillion rupiah ($725 million) privatisation target and the powerful bank restructuring agency (IBRA) still holds billions of dollars worth of assets it took over during the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s.

"If the government can sell off some key bank or telco assets in the next three months then perhaps we can expect the target to be increased for next year's budget," said an analyst from Merrill Lynch in Jakarta.

Bonds a headache

Indonesia's massive bank rescue programme, one of the world's most costly, will continue to sap the budget with interest and principal payments on recapitalisation bonds estimated at around 81.5 trillion rupiah for 2002, similar to this year's 82 trillion.

That cost will rise following parliament's decision late on Tuesday to approve an additional 40 trillion rupiah of bonds for a deposit guarantee scheme to further prop up the banking sector. Parliament is also considering a government proposal to replace a large chunk of troubled Bank Internasional Indonesia's (BII) debt with some $1.05 billion worth of bonds.

Development funds scarce

With the cost of servicing total public debt of $150 billion -- or 115 percent of GDP -- Indonesia has little left to maintain basic infrastructure, neglected after four years of crisis.

"Its not about GDP growth, the inflation rate, the exchange rate, or the SBI, the biggest problem the government will face next year is still domestic debt because over time our domestic debt burden will be increasing and that is a source of fiscal unsustainability," said Raden Pardede, from state-run Danareksa Securities.

Another analyst added: "The only option they have is if they're seen to be doing a good job by the World Bank they could get a little bit more development expenditure to play with."

Lowering hefty oil subsidies will also ease pressure on the budget and economists say the stronger rupiah will lessen the need for the price support.

Preliminary figures from the Finance Ministry show Jakarta will raise fuel prices by an average 30 percent in January.

The draft budget will reflect regional autonomy laws that took effect in January and which give local areas 30 percent of gas revenues and 15 percent from oil.

Jakarta this week said it wanted to change the controversial laws, casting confusion over outlays for the regions.

"The government will probably try to restrain disbursing more funds to the regions. The allocation may be the same but in reality it could be less," Standard Chartered's Ichsan said.