Labour issues

'The seven per cent wage hike means nothing to me'

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Leo Wahyudi S -- The city administration, employers and labor unions agreed last Monday to raise the provincial minimum wage by 7 percent, from Rp 590,000 to Rp 631,000, starting next January. Workers gave The Jakarta Post various responses to the issue. Bambang, 31, is a quality control staff member at an Australian- owned company in Tangerang. He has been working there for four years: The new wage hike is still far from what most workers expected. It's still not enough for people to make ends meet.

The hike won't cover the inflation rate because I'm sure that in a couple of months all the prices will be put up along with the wage increase.

Basic needs will no longer be affordable. Worse still, the price of fuel, electricity, telephone and water is also increasing. So does this 7 percent wage hike mean a better chance at survival? I think not.

As a worker, I feel that the minimum wage in Jakarta or Tangerang should be more or less about Rp 800,000.

I have earned only Rp 700,000 a month after working here almost four years. I have to support my daughter and wife. Fortunately, my wife's income is a bit higher than mine. She brings home Rp 800,000 a month after working nine years at a shoe company.

Our monthly expenses of rent, telephone, electricity and water amount to Rp 1.5 million. There is nothing left over to save.

Workers only expect their wages to cover the inflation rate. The government should think of them as a precious asset that needs to be maintained in order to generate the economy. How can workers be productive if they are barely getting by? Sodikin, 38, is a supervisor at a textile factory in Tangerang, where he has been working for 18 years. He has two children and a wife: The 7 percent wage hike will amount to nothing for me. What is it for? The hike will not cover our basic needs after the price hike.

To be honest, the 7 percent will only cover one of my nine basic needs. What about the other things that are still unaffordable? Would the government be kind enough to help us survive? I don't think so! The government should have taken a look at the grassroots level. It is going to be tough for low-income earners to cope with the accompanying hike in fuel prices, transportation, electricity, water and telephone, children's schooling and other basic needs.

After working 18 years, I only earn about Rp 850,000 a month, which includes the regional minimum wage plus allowances.

How can I survive if I have to spend that much every month on my family. We spend Rp 15,000 a day on meals and my children get Rp 10,000 a day as pocket money.

I manage to survive by earning extra income from doing orders for paintings. Fortunately, my wife helps me support the family by running a small shop in our housing complex.

I wish the minimum wage was at least Rp 1 million. I'm sure once workers get a proper wage, their job performance and productivity will improve, too.

I'm not sure if I will get a wage increase because there was a fire at the factory earlier this month.

Lami, 23, has worked at a garment factory in Tangerang for two years. She lives in Bermis, Kutajaya, Tangerang with her friends: The wage hike will not be enough for me even though I know it all depends on how you handle your finances.

At the moment, I get Rp 700,000 a month, which is the regional minimum wage and a transportation allowance.

My rent is Rp 250,000 and food for the month comes to Rp 300,000. I also need to buy new clothes and make-up. Saving is just a dream for me as I usually have nothing left over after my expenses.

Sometimes I get a little extra from doing overtime, even though I start work at 7:30 a.m. and finish at 9:00 p.m. It's exhausting but that's the only way to survive here.

I'm just afraid that the new wage will be followed by a new quota at the factory. Normally, our sewing department should put out 100 pairs of trousers in an hour. What if they increase the load to 200 pairs after the wage hike? That would drive me crazy. I just hope that won't happen to me.

Aceh/West Papua

Indonesian diplomat leaves Vanuatu 'empty handed'

Pacific Weekly Review - October 28-November 3, 2002

Ben Bohane, Port Vila -- A senior Indonesian diplomat who went to Vanuatu last week on a mission to try and persuade the Vanuatu government against supporting the West Papuan independence movement has left without success, according to a statement from Vanuatu's Foreign Affairs department.

Vanuatu's Deputy PM and Foreign Affairs Minister Serge Vohor met with Mr Imron Cotan, who is deputy chief of Mission to the Indonesian embassy in Australia, but said that while Vanuatu hopes to maintain a friendly and co-operative relationship with Indonesia, on the issue of West Papua, Vanuatu will continue to support the West Papuan people's struggle for independence.

The issue has bi-partisan support within Vanuatu and is not likely to change, he said. "We believe, as Melanesians, that the whole island of New Guinea was once our ancestral homeland. Therefore we feel it is only right that we support our brothers and sisters from West Papua in their legitimate claim to become independent" said Mr Vohor.

He blamed the United Nations for "mishandling" the West Papuan case in the 1960s and said he was willing to lead a delegation to Jakarta if President Megawati Sukarnoputri herself wished to continue a dialogue on the issue.

The West Papuan Peoples' representative in Vanuatu, Andy Ayamiseba thanked the Vanuatu government "for its maturity and for sticking to its principles". He said the Indonesian diplomat left "empty handed".

The arrival of the Indonesian diplomat around the same time as a senior delegation from Australia and New Zealand were in Vanuatu to examine the security situation has led some observers to question whether Mr Cotan was able to slip in under the cover of the Australian delegation. "I find it curious that the Indonesian delegation coincided with the Australian and New Zealand delegation here" said Mr Ayamiseba.

The Australian High Commissioner in Port Vila, Steve Waters, dismissed any connection saying that the timing was "a coincidence" and that he was unaware of the presence of any Indonesian diplomat mission. Asked whether the Australian government had any objections to Vanuatu's strong stand on the West Papuan issue, including the imminent establishment of a West Papuan diplomatic office in Port Vila, Mr Waters said "Australia has made it clear that we recognise Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua but Vanuatu is a sovereign nation and any decision it takes on this issue is up to the Vanuatu government".

Ambushed US teachers say they were shot by Papuans

Reuters - November 3, 2002

Paul Tait, Sydney -- At least three Papuan men fired about 200 rounds from rifles and shotguns into a convoy of mainly US teachers, killing three, near a huge gold mine in Indonesia's Papua two months ago, ambush victims said on Sunday.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the August 31 ambush, the eight US survivors of the attack described in an e-mail to Reuters they were trapped for about 30 minutes as the gunmen fired methodically into their vehicles. "We waited in sorrow and pain, preparing to die," the victims said of the ambush, in which 10 people were injured.

Their account is the first reliable description to emerge of the ambush, which is still under investigation. Speculation over who was responsible has swung wildly from Papuan separatists to the Indonesian army or Papuans working for Jakarta's military.

US teachers Saundra Hopkins and her husband Ken Balk said they had expected to die and said good-bye to each other and their six-year-old daughter Taia as they lay wounded. "They cried and hugged and told each other how much they were loved," the victims said.

Hopkins said the party was returning from a picnic to the high- altitude town of Tembagapura along a winding, narrow road near the world's largest gold and copper mine, operated by US miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc in the province formerly known as Irian Jaya.

She said she saw one of the gunmen clearly in profile. "He was Papuan, with bushy hair held back by a head band," Hopkins told Reuters. "He was wearing a black T-shirt and dark brown camouflage pants. He was holding a rifle," said Hopkins, who had been working with her husband at a Tembagapura school for Freeport employees for about a year.

She said she saw other men, one of whom was wearing a green army jacket, run down an embankment from the road.

Investigations continue

Indonesian police say they are investigating several possibilities, including whether the Indonesian military were involved in the ambush.

An Australian newspaper reported on Saturday that US intelligence services had intercepted messages between Indonesian army commanders that implicated them. The Sydney Morning Herald said a source close to the US embassy in Jakarta suggested the ambush was linked to a protection racket targeting the mine.

Australian academic Dr Harold Crouch said identification of the gunmen as Papuan did not rule out military involvement. He pointed to the military's use of militias that killed hundreds in East Timor after it voted for independence.

"It doesn't even have to be militia, it can be Papuans in the army for that matter," said Crouch, senior fellow in Indonesian politics at the Australian National University in Canberra.

The Free Papua Movement, which has fought a low-level guerrilla war against Indonesian rule for decades, has denied responsibility for the ambush. It blamed the Indonesian military.

US teachers Ted Burgon and Rick Spier, sitting in the front seat of the first of two four-wheel drive vehicles, were hit by shots fired through the windscreen and died almost immediately. Indonesian Bambang Riwanto also died in the first vehicle.

Hopkins said she stood during the attack and screamed "Gurus, gurus, escola Amerika" -- Bahasa Indonesia for "Teachers, teachers, American school" -- to try to deter the gunmen.

An unwelcome mat in Papua

The Bulletin (Australia, with Newsweek) - October 30, 2002

John Martinkus -- As Australia contemplates renewed military ties with Kopassus, Indonesia's special forces, the people of Papua fear an increase in military operations against their pro- independence leaders by the same organisation.

Indonesian security forces have been carrying out a program of political assassinations that began with the killing of the popular leader Theys Eluay last November and have allegedly claimed the lives of at least another two leaders from the same pro-independence body, the Papuan Presidium Council, this year. Ironically, one of the 12 Kopassus members charged with Theys' killing was trained in Australia on a young officer exchange program. A similar joint program, suspended due to the military abuses in East Timor, is being proposed again by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to instruct officers in counter-terrorism.

The military was widely blamed for the poisoning of Yafet Yelemaken, a leader from the PNG Highlands, on June 23, while another Presidium member from Fak Fak, in the province's west, was alleged to have met a similar fate. Another leader, Benny Wenda -- held in prison in the capital Jayapura -- was the victim of a jail axe attack by a man he identified as being in the employ of Kopassus. An assistant who intervened was seriously injured with axe blows all over his body.

Tapol, an organisation that campaigns against human rights abuses in Indonesia, issued a report last month stating it had received leaked documents detailing a current Indonesian police operation in Papua, codenamed Adil Matoa, which aimed to build cases against Papuan organisations that supported independence in order to arrest their leaders and dissolve their organisations. The documents, signed by the head of the Papua police force, Made Mangku Pastika, list all the traditional Papuan organisations alongside the OPM (Free Papua Movement) and state they challenge the authority of the central government of Indonesia by not accepting Jakarta's autonomy plan. The leaked documents also say these organisations "make use of global issues such as human rights or the handling of the Theys case in order to achieve an independent West Papua". In other words, organisations that complain about human rights abuses are now technically illegal. Pastika has been put in charge of the investigation into the Bali bombings.

The police operation has long been feared by Papuan independence organisations monitoring the emergence of military-sponsored militia organisations and the arrival of Laskar Jihad Islamic fighters from nearby Ambon in the past two years. Many Papuan church officials and leaders have drawn links between the Indonesian military in the province and the unhindered arrival of thousands of Laskar Jihad troops. Laskar Jihad officially disbanded hours before the bomb blast in Bali and 700 members have reportedly left Ambon, where they have been embroiled in the sectarian violence on the side of the Muslims, in many cases with the assistance of the Indonesian army. Papuan church leaders have reported Laskar Jihad still present and active in Papua despite the disbandment.

Papuan leaders have also claimed that thousands of young migrants have been sent to the province this year, paid for by the Indonesian military, to act as a recruiting pool for the formation of militia and Laskar Jihad groups. Thom Beanal, leader of the Papuan Presidium Council, which proposes a non-violent path to independence and is trying to declare Papua "a zone of peace", says the military-sponsored movement of people to the province is intended to provoke violence between Christian Papuans and Muslim settlers.

But in the camps of the OPM-TPN (armed forces of the Free West Papua movement) along the Papua-PNG border, the men are training again. They have a few old weapons; most parade with sticks, spears and bows and arrows, pretending they are guns. The message from the commander, Mathias Wenda, is blunt: "We don't want autonomy and the governments of the US and Australia should convince Indonesia to get out."

In the wake of the Bali bombings and proposed increased links between the Australian military and the Indonesians, this seems unlikely. The inevitable abuses by the Indonesian military as it deals with independence movements in Papua and Aceh will attract little attention as that same military is courted by Australia and the US to take action against those responsible for the Bali attacks. But in Papua, the Indonesian military has sided with Islamic organisations to fight against Papuans who call for independence.

[John Martinkus is the author of Quarterly Essay #7, Paradise Betrayed: West Papua's Struggle for Independence, Black Inc, $11.95.]

Indonesia military allegedly talked of targeting mine

Washington Post - November 3, 2002

Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, Jakarta -- Senior Indonesian military officials discussed an operation against Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. before an ambush near its mine in Papua province that killed two Americans and one Indonesian on August 31, according to intelligence obtained by the United States, a US government official and other sources said.

The discussions involved the top ranks of Indonesia's military, including Endriartono Sutarto, the influential commander in chief, and were aimed at discrediting a Papuan separatist group, the Free Papua Movement, said the US government official and another American source. A spokesman for Sutarto denied the discussions occurred.

The attack took place near a mine operated by New Orleans-based Freeport; the three victims were contract employees. The intelligence was based on information supplied after the ambush by a person who claimed to be knowledgeable about the high-level military conversations. The source was described in the report as "highly reliable."

This information was supported by an intercept of a conversation including that individual, said the US government official and the American source. The intercept was shared with the United States by another country, identified by a Western source as Australia.

The discussions described in the intelligence report did not detail a specific attack, nor did they call explicitly for the killing of Americans or other foreigners, but they clearly targeted Freeport, the US official and the American source said. Subordinates could have understood the discussions as a direction "to take some kind of violent action against Freeport," the government official said. It could not be learned precisely when the discussions took place. The intelligence report was provided to the State Department about two weeks after the ambush, the official said.

If confirmed, evidence of Indonesian military involvement could seriously impair Bush administration efforts to restore US assistance to the Indonesian military, suspended in 1999 to protest the involvement of the armed forces in human rights atrocities in East Timor.

Such evidence would also represent a setback to a key US foreign policy goal in Southeast Asia of engaging the Indonesian military, known by the initials TNI, in the campaign against terrorism. Maj. Gen. Syafrie Syamsuddin, an armed forces spokesman, said today that top officers had never discussed an operation targeting Freeport. He said Sutarto is a disciplined officer who would not become involved in activities that violate the strict rules and ethics of the Indonesian military. Syamsuddin also said top officers do not get involved in "technical matters" such as planning specific attacks and ambushes. He added that to ambush Freeport employees as a way of discrediting the separatist group would be "illogical." "This is probably something made up to discredit the TNI," he said. Asked who might have sought to tarnish the army, Syamsuddin said he did not know. Sutarto said last week that no Indonesian military officers were involved in the attack, which took place in Indonesia's easternmost province, on a misty mountain slope near the world's largest gold and copper mine.

His comments came after Papua police investigators told the commanders of military intelligence and military police that they believed Indonesian soldiers likely were behind the attack, according to senior military and intelligence officials. The US government official today confirmed that the FBI briefed State Department and embassy officials about three weeks ago on the bureau's own investigation of the attack. FBI investigators have visited Papua as part of the probe. "The indications have pointed in that direction [of the military] but are not conclusive," the official said. The FBI is still interviewing witnesses, Freeport contract employees and their family members who have returned to the United States, he said.

The intelligence report, completed separately from the FBI investigation, indicated the military was "thinking or contemplating some kind of measure to accomplish the goal" of prodding the United States to declare the Free Papua Movement (OPM) a terrorist group, the official said. The OPM is a loose organization of Papuan rebels waging a long-running independence struggle marked by sporadic, low-level violence.

The military's claims that the separatists carried out the August 31 attack have been met with skepticism from some analysts, who said it was not OPM practice to target foreigners or to use automatic weapons. The ambush was carried out with assault rifles, which the attackers used to spray two vehicles with bullets, killing three teachers and wounding 12 people, mostly Americans.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to Indonesia and the administration's senior Indonesia expert, said Friday that it was "very disturbing" the military might be involved. "We take it very seriously," he said. "And if it's true, I think it's extremely important for the government to get to the bottom of it." But that is not a reason to resist reestablishing ties with the Indonesian military, he argued. Giving the military "more contact with the West and with the United States and moving them in a positive direction is important both to support democracy in Indonesia and to support the fight against terrorism," he said. "Unfortunately, we've been isolating them for a decade. It's not a policy that's working." Wolfowitz was not asked in the interview about the intelligence report. A State Department spokeswoman said the department did not comment on intelligence reports.

Critics of renewed military aid for Indonesia expressed concern. "These revelations should trigger a complete and public congressional investigation," said Mike Jendrzejczk, director of Human Rights Watch/Asia. "This should also take up the question of the US-Indonesia military relationship generally. But the focus has got to be on getting to the bottom of these allegations."

On Friday, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, said that if the Indonesian military was found to have planned the killings, then the administration's proposed military training aid, $400,000 for fiscal 2003, should not go forward. "It should surprise no one that the Indonesian army may have been involved in this atrocity," he said. "It has a long history of human rights violations and obstruction of justice. The fact that the perpetrators apparently believed they could murder Americans without fear of being punished illustrates the extent of the impunity."

Freeport's vice president of corporate communications, William Collier, said the company could not comment on an ongoing investigation. "We hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, whoever they may be," he said.

Regional analysts and sources familiar with the investigation said the military had been troubled by Freeport's practice beginning in 1996 of providing 1 percent of the Papua operation's gross revenue to the local community for development projects. Military officials have repeatedly expressed concern that a portion of that money is being diverted to the separatists.

About one week after the shooting, a police official, an army general and a high-ranking official from the office of the coordinating minister for security flew to Papua to speak to Freeport officials about what they believed to be Freeport's financing of a trip to Australia by pro-independence Papuans, said a source familiar with the investigation. The delegation was not convinced by assurances that Freeport had not financed the trip, the source said. Collier said today that Freeport money does not go to OPM. "We're not financing the separatist movement in any way," he said. "It's just not true."

Kopassus accused of Freeport ambush

Sydney Morning Herald - November 2, 2002

Hamish McDonald Herald, Jakarta -- United States intelligence agencies have intercepted messages between Indonesian army commanders indicating they were involved in staging an ambush at the remote Freeport-McMoRan mine in which three schoolteachers -- two of them Americans -- were killed, according to a source close to the US embassy in Jakarta.

As a result of these "indications" of prior awareness of the attack at "higher levels of command", intelligence analysts have been carefully studying records of communications intercepts around the August 31 attack to build up a clearer picture, the source said, but it was unclear whether any firmer evidence had been put together.

According to this source, the ambush was to pressure the giant mining company to continue an annual protection payment of more than $US10 million ($18million) to the army command responsible for Papua, the huge and rebellious Indonesian province covering the western half of New Guinea.

Mounting evidence that Indonesian soldiers ran the ambush, whether or not they had higher direction or intended to kill foreigners, is becoming a serious diplomatic embarrassment as the US Administration looks for ways to help improve security in Indonesia after the October 12 Bali bombings.

The source believes US officials are deeply worried that such intelligence material, plus the results of a three-week investigation at the Freeport-McMoRan mine township at Timika by four FBI agents, could cut across the wider thrust of current US policy to reopen links with Indonesia's violence-tainted military. "They know the killing of the two Americans was initiated by Kopassus [the Indonesian army's special forces] but they sit on the information because it hurts their larger interests," the source said.

The three victims were among a group of 10 teachers from the company-sponsored school in Tembagapura for children of employees who were travelling in two vehicles outside the town when they were ambushed. Several reports citing senior military and intelligence sources say Indonesian police have already zeroed in on army soldiers as the chief suspects. However, the head of the Papuan police force, General I Made Pastika -- who has been switched to head the Bali bombing investigation -- this week would only say it was "one of the possibilities".

Indonesian defence headquarters sent its military police commander, Major-General Sulaiman, to Papua a week ago to confer with police about the case. But this Thursday, the armed forces commander, General Endriartono Sutarto, denied hearing from any source that army personnel were involved.

A separate case, the killing of the Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay nearly a year ago, has led to murder charges against 10 Kopassus and other personnel, including a lieutenant-colonel.

According to the new source, the Timika incident arose from a breakdown in the regular flow of funds to the military from the mine, part of a network of unofficial revenues that account for about two-thirds of the Indonesian armed forces' actual operating budget. The company, Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc of New Orleans, had been finding it more difficult to account for the protection pay-off in the climate of tighter auditing scrutiny in the US following several financial scandals.

As well as paying the costs of troops stationed around the mining township at Timika and the mine itself high above on Grasberg mountain, the source said Freeport had been making the large cash payment to the Cendrawasih (Bird of Paradise) Kodam or regional command in the provincial capital Jayapura. On many years, around the time the payment was due, the military had staged riots and other incidents attributed to Papuan separatists to remind the company of security dangers that could arise. "This year was different because of the pressure for corporate transparency," the source said. "It's not as easy as two years ago to spend $US10 million or $US11 million without it showing up in the books."

The "indications" of higher-level involvement would have come from intercepts made by the US National Security Agency or Australia's Defence Signals Directorate. They allegedly include references showing knowledge that an "incident" would be staged at the Freeport facilities.

Two other sources among Western military experts here said they were not aware of any specific intelligence pointing to who was responsible for the attack. Nonetheless, both these defence experts believed the ambush was conducted by Indonesian soldiers, whether from Kopassus or an infantry batallion stationed in Papua.

Militants accused of Papua rampage

Courier-Mail (Australia) - November 1, 2002

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Islamic militant group Laskar Jihad had relocated from Maluku to Papua province where it was attacking churches and mosques, church sources said yesterday.

This made a mockery of the group's claims that it had disbanded after the October 12 Bali bombings, they said.

A handful of suspected Laskar Jihad members reportedly tried to burn down churches and incite Christian reprisalsin West Papua's capital city of Jayapura one week ago. However, when the masked men tried to enter villages in Abepura and Sentani, suburbs of Jayapura, they were attacked by local people, with at least three of the men being severely beaten.

The attackers admitted they had been paid to attack Christians and their churches, said Pastor Menusaafar from Jayapura.

"They admitted to witnesses that they had been paid to burn churches or else a mosque," he said. "They said that if they were successful they would get a bonus of 15 million rupiah ($3000) if they burned a church or mosque and 50 million rupiah if they killed a priest."

The three men admitted to the witnesses that they were from Laskar Jihad and that their commander had moved from Ambon where Laskar Jihad and other Muslim groups have fought against Christian militias for the past two years.

Laskar Jihad announced it was disbanding just over two weeks ago and several hundred members left Ambon, the main island in Maluku.

However analysts say the timing of their move suggests that military elements, who had long been suspected of backing the militants had advised them to go underground in the wake of the Bali massacre.

The Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELS-HAM), a Papuan non-government group, said several hundred Laskar militants had arrived in Jayapura after the group announced it was disbanding.

At least 300 hundred Laskar members had arrived last Saturday, from Ambon, said Aloi Renwarin from ELS-HAM. He said his organisation estimated there were around 3000 Laskar members spread across several towns in Papua such as Sorong, Manokwiri and Jayapura.

However police denied that Laskar Jihad members had tried to attack Christian villages. "They were just men looking for work and people suspected maybe they were trying to stir up conflict so they beat them," said spokesman Yosep Iswanto.

US links aid for Jakarta to investigation into ambush

Financial Times (UK) - November 1, 2002

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta -- A key member of the US Congress yesterday tied resuming military aid to Jakarta to solving the killing in September of two Americans -- for which members of the Indonesian military are now prime suspects.

Police in the remote province of Papua said this week that members of the military (or TNI) were the main suspects in the ambush that left the two teachers and an Indonesian colleague dead, and a dozen others injured.

Diplomats and analysts were quick to point to the military in the days after the attack. But the move by police this week marks the first official public accusation against the TNI, which has blamed separatists in the province. Indonesian soldiers are employed by Freeport McRowan to provide security at the Grasberg gold mine, the world's largest, which is located near to where the attack took place.

In Washington, Senator Patrick Leahy, the author of a law that prohibits US military aid to Indonesia, said bringing those responsible to justice was vital to any resumption in aid. US military aid to Indonesia was cut off in 1999 following atrocities in East Timor that were blamed on the military and military-backed militias.

Mr Leahy said the military was "a corrupt, abusive institution that has a long history of killing civilians and lying about it. The fact that they apparently believed they could murder two Americans in broad daylight and get away with it illustrates the extent of the impunity".

General Endriartono Sutarto, chief commander of the TNI, yesterday denied the military involvement in the Papua ambush. He also claimed the military had not yet been notified of police findings, although a group of generals from Jakarta visited Papua on October 10 and were briefed by police.

Analysts caution that even if members of the faction-ridden military were found to be responsible, the attack might have been the result of a local dispute rather than any operation ordered by Jakarta.

But they say that police suspicion of the military is already making more difficult a resumption of US-Indonesian relations and complicating the disbursement of US help to Jakarta to fight terrorism in the wake of the Bali bombing.

During a visit to Jakarta in August, Colin Powell, US secretary of state, said the US was "starting down a path toward a more normal relationship" with Indonesia and announced a three-year, $50 million anti-terrorism assistance package.

Most of that money was earmarked for the police, however, and analysts say that, in the short term, the military is the only institution with the capabilities needed to fight organisations such as Jemaah Islamiah, the group suspected of the Bali attack.

Indonesia and Aceh rebels to meet for talks at weekend

Agence France Presse - October 31, 2002

A long-awaited round of peace talks between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels from Aceh province will get underway on November 2-5 in Switzerland, Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh said here.

"The schedule of the negotiations is that they will be held on the second, third and fourth of November," Puteh told a mass rally for peace in the grounds of Banda Aceh's main Baiturrahman Mosque on Thursday.

Indonesian and officials from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as well as those from the Henry Dunant Center, which has been facilitating the talks since 2000, had previously not given a date for talks.

Puteh said part of the Indonesian delegation has already flown to Geneva but he, Aceh House Speaker Muhammad Yus and Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, would leave on Saturday.

Puteh expressed optimism that the government and the GAM would reach a peace agreement at the talks.

Some 2,000 people gathered at the rally to hear speeches from various government and non-government leaders.

The organisers of the rally, a movement calling itself the "Peace-loving Community", handed the governor a statement demanding that both sides work hard to reach a peace agreement.

"We also urge both sides to cease the violence and respect the rights of civilians in Aceh," it said. "We also encourage both sides to halt their enmity." The statement also demanded that both sides respect whatever agreement they reach in Geneva.

Officials have said the implementation of any agreement will be monitored by a team representing the government, GAM and the Henry Dunant Center.

Previous ceasefire deals have always broken down with each side accusing the other of bad faith.

At their last talks in May, the two sides agreed to hold a "democratic all-inclusive dialogue" based on autonomy for Aceh as an Indonesian province and to set up measures to implement a ceasefire.

But bloodshed has continued since then in the energy-rich province on Sumatra island.

Rights activists have said more than 1,200 civilians have been killed and hundreds more are missing because of violence between government forces and separatist rebels this year.

"In the first ten months of this year, at least 1,228 civilians were killed in the violence while 330 others have remained missing," said Rufriadi, chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) Aceh chapter.

He said the records, gathered by the institute's volunteers across Aceh, also showed 1,854 civilians were tortured and 973 others were arrested without charge during the same period.

Rights activists have said more than 10,000 people died since 1976 when separatist rebels from the GAM began fighting for an independent state.

Espionage charges set to be dropped against academic

Radio Australia - October 31, 2002

[With the world's media spotlight heavily focused on the Bali bombings, the plight of Australian academic Lesley McCulloch has been largely forgotten. For the past seven weeks, the British- born Australian resident has been held in a police station in the Indonesian province of Aceh. Lesley McCulloch has been charged with violating her tourist visa -- a charge that carries a five year prison sentence. She is expected to face trial next month.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti

Speakers: Harry Ponto, part of the legal team for Australian academic Lesley McCulloch

Ponto: "Right now, we heard from the Prosecutors office that they agree they will only charge her based on the immigration law violation of the immigration visa permission."

Lopresti: Violation of her visa, her tourist visa?

Ponto: "Right. But we also have a problem with some partys are interested to bring this case not only for violation of visa, but also espionage, something like that."

Lopresti: Espionage charges?

Ponto: "Yeah, but then we heard from the Prosecutors office, and also from the Police Department as well, that basically they are ready only for the violation of visa, so in regard to immigration law."

Lopresti: Who are these other people you're saying that what to press ahead with the espionage charges?

Ponto: "We heard they're probably from the Intelligence Office, or something like that, but officially there's not information about it right now. But up until now, we know from the documents, they charge only about the immigration law."

Lopresti: If she is found guilty of violating a visa charge, the charge carries a penalty of I understand of up to five years jail. What do you think would be the likely sentence?

Ponto: "In our opinion probably they will send them out of the country, once they've decided that yes, there's a violation of visa, then most likely they will send Lesley out of the country."

Lopresti: So she'll be deported?

Ponto: "Yeah."

Lopresti: What can you tell us about her health at the moment? I understand that she was having some back problems, what kind of shape is she in?

Ponto: "Yeah, I met her about the end of September and the team also went there about two weeks ago, the team from Jakarta, but our team in Aceh have contact with her so basically she has back pain at that time. But basically, she's okay, because she is allowed to go out in the morning you know, take a walk around the police office -- in the morning and the afternoon. But what she needs is basically a hard mattress, they have one to support her back. But she's okay, because it's covered also by the media, they put it on TV and everything and she's basically okay and less worried about back pain."

Lopresti: What about her mental state? You've obviously spoken to her, her lawyers have spoken to her, is she hopeful of a positive outcome when this trial goes ahead?

Ponto: "Oh yeah, basically she's okay. She knows everything, we discuss the case and she really understand what we talk about. She wishes that this case can be put on trial as soon as possible, and hopefully only for the violation of visa."

Lopresti: And your experience as a lawyer, is it quite common for foreigners to be detained for so long for a visa violation?

Ponto: "There are two things that they might do. The first thing, once they find it, they just deported immediately, but in this case there's also the possibility that they'll put her on trial, and so far it's still within the reasonable time, but it's our job also to extradite the proceedings, but especially we have a little bit of a problem because we need to move the trial from south Aceh to Banda Aceh, so it will take a time but we are pushing this, so that we can have the trial as soon as possible."

Papuan separatist leader breaks out of jail

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2002

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura -- The Police have deployed hundreds of personnel to Indonesia's border area with Papua New Guinea (PNG) to prevent Papua's most wanted man, Benny Wenda, from escaping to the neighboring country after he escaped from jail on Sunday.

Benny, whose trial is still ongoing at the district court, where he is charged with masterminding the attack on the Abepura police station and burned two shops in the small township on December 7, 2000, escaped the Abepura prison along with another inmate Lazarus Walela early on Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Raziman Tarigan, deputy chief of the Papua Provincial Police said here on Wednesday that the police would continue to hunt for the fugitive so they could resume the trial.

Raziman said he believed the two escapees were still hiding some place inside or outside of Abepura, "and that is why we've deployed our personnel to the border area to prevent them from escaping to PNG." Soedarsono, head of the Abepura prison, confirmed on Tuesday that Benny, along with Lazarus, escaped through a prison bathroom.

"They broke the bathroom's ceiling and its ventilation to get out of the prison. The escape occurred early on Sunday," he said.

He explained that Benny was put in the prison on the order of the Abepura District Court while he was being tried for his alleged role in the December 7, 2000 attacks. "The incident occurred when some 50 Papuan people, led by Benny, attacked the police station and torched two shops. A policeman was killed in the attack and a security guard was found dead near the shopping compound," he said.

Benny is the younger brother of Mathias Wenda, the field commander of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) allegedly operating on the Indonesian-PNG border area.

The two brothers helped evacuate some 500 Papuans to the central highlands of Jayawijaya because they felt unsafe in Jayapura city with its heavy military control. Last December, the Papuan group was believed to be behind the killing of six workers in a sawmill in the area.

Following the attacks, the local police and military conducted a bloody raid on houses which were suspected as the attackers' hiding places. Four people, all students, were killed during the raids.

The killing sparked protests and criticism from numerous sides, including human rights organizations, with an increasing demand for the police to investigate the killing they called serious human rights abuses. No investigations ever commenced.

Benny's lawyer Yohannes G. Bonay said the December 7 attack and the subsequent raid where the students were killed must be separated because the first case was a simple criminal case while the second was a human rights violations.

"If my client Benny Wenda is found guilty in court, the killing of the four students must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to trial," he said.

A.B. Aronggear, chief of the local Justice and human rights office, said that he had set up a team to investigate Soedarsono because of the two detainees' escape, as there seemed to be some suspicion surrounding the circumstances.

Four more killed in restive Aceh

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2002

Banda Aceh -- Four people, including a woman, are the latest casualties of decades-long violence between government and separatist rebel forces in Aceh province, residents said on Wednesday.

They told journalists that two men, including an 18-year-old high school student, were found dead in a oil palm plantation in Paya Rambong, East Aceh, on Tuesday.

The bodies had gunshot wounds and traces of torture. Both had been abducted by unidentified gunmen while riding a motorcycle in the area the previous day, the residents said.

Meanwhile, a local humanitarian activist, as quoted by AFP, said that a woman who had been shot in the chest was also found dead on Tuesday in Meunasah Dayah in the district of Bireuen. On the previous day, the activist added, residents found the body of a man in the Paya Kareueng area in the same district.

The deaths came as representatives of the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were heading to Geneva to attend another round of peace talks.

More than 10,000 people have died since GAM began fighting for an independent state in 1976. At least 1,000 have died in Aceh this year alone.

Three people injured in Lhokseumawe bomb blast

Jakarta Post - October 30, 2002

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh -- Only a couple of days before the peace talks resume between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an explosion rocked Lhokseumawe on Tuesday, wounding three people, including servicemen.

First Pvt. S. Ma'arif, Second Pvt. Marsuri and a shop attendant who suffered light injuries were rushed to the Lilawangsa Military Hospital in Lhokseumawe.

Maj. Zaenal Muttaqin, spokesman for the security restoration operation in Aceh, said here on Tuesday that the homemade bomb exploded when the two servicemen, both from the 327 Infantry Battalion were shopping in a military supplies shop in the town.

Zaenal accused GAM of being behind the bomb blast. He said the bomb contained nails and glass shards and was placed in front of the shop inside a plastic bag.

"The bomb will not affect the government's plan to go ahead with the peace talks with GAM in Geneva in a few days," he said.

The town, one of GAM's strongholds in the restive province, has been rocked by many homemade bomb blasts over the last 10 months.

In a related development, six Acehnese civilians have confirmed their participation in the peace talks between the government and GAM in Geneva this week.

The six, mostly independent experts from universities and academies in the province, are Tengku Iman Suja, Muslim Ibrahim, Daniel Djuned, Isa Sulaiman, Alyasa' Abubakar and Hakim Nyak Pha.

They said they were invited by the Henry Dunant Center, which will facilitate the talks, to give objectivity about the situation in Aceh.

"We are expected to give input for a comprehensive solution to the Aceh issue and to witness the signing of a peace agreement between the two conflicting sides," said Imam Suja, also chairman of the Aceh branch of the second largest Muslim organization, Muhammdiyah.

Iman said they would urge the conflicting sides to end the conflict, which has killed thousands of innocent civilians over the last 26 years since first erupting in 1976.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people supporting the Forum for Acehnese People staged a demonstration in the city, demanding the two conflicting sides to accept the proposed cease-fire and the presence of international observers to observe the situation in the province.

"We call on the government to allow the presence of an international peace-keeping force to maintain security and order and to protect Acehnese people against being killed," Tarmizi, coordinator of the forum, said in a free speech forum the demonstrators held in front of the governor's office.

Office of rights group probing Papua shootings attacked

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Jakarta -- A gang of unidentified men raided the Jakarta office of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy for West Papua (Els-Ham Papua Barat), a Papuan human rights group that has accused the military of involvement in an ambush that killed two Americans, its coordinator said here on Monday.

Alberth Rumbekwan, Jakarta coordinator of Els-Ham Papua Barat, told AFP that the men broke down the fence and seized documents, describing the men as having "military characteristics". A spokesman for the Indonesian Armed Forces denied all knowledge of the incident. During the raid, the men seized documents and computer diskettes containing Els-Ham reports on the August ambush that killed two Americans and an Indonesian in Timika, near the giant Freeport mine in Papua. They also seized Els-Ham reports on the murder last November of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay. Rumbekwan added that none of the information was confidential and had already been made public.

Els-Ham alleges that soldiers from the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) were implicated in the August Freeport killings, which also wounded 12 other mine employees, most of them American. Army officials previously blamed the ambush on Kelly Kwalik, leader of a poorly armed and disorganized separatist army. Kwalik denies involvement.

In the Eluay case, the military has said seven Kopassus soldiers would soon face a court-martial for alleged involvement in his death, which Els-Ham has called a crime by the state.

The brief raid at Els-Ham's office occurred on October 11, but Rumbekwan said he was only able to notify AFP on Monday about the incident. "They were looking for me," said Rumbekwan, who was not in the office at the time. He said he was now under surveillance and planned to return to Papua. Three other Els-Ham employees hid in a bathroom during the raid, he said.

A spokesman for the Indonesian Military (TNI) denied any involvement in the raid at Els-Ham's office, which is located in a house in a quiet South Jakarta neighborhood. "TNI doesn't carry out security operations like this," said Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki. "I didn't hear about an intelligence operation like that." Rumbekwan said he reported the case to South Jakarta Police. After Els-Ham released its report on the Freeport ambush the TNI chief threatened to sue the group for libel.

Aceh peace talks delayed, agreement set for next week

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2002

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta -- The planned dialog between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group has been postponed, but Jakarta expects a new peace deal could be approved before the Ramadhan fasting month begins next week.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Monday that the talks had been postponed because GAM had asked for more time to discuss the draft of cessation of hostilities with ulemas.

"The government had expected that the peace deal could be signed late this week, but GAM asked for more time. We hope that it will take place before the beginning of the fasting month," Susilo said.

Ramadhan looks to begin on Novemeber 6, pending a decision from the Ministry of Religious Affairs after consulting Muslim organizations. "We hope that by Ramadhan peace will prevail in the province in accordance with the wishes of the Acehnese," Susilo said.

The cessation of hostilities stipulates the formation of a joint monitoring team to ensure the agreement is upheld. The team will consist of independent observers, including foreigners, who are authorized to determine which side violates the peace accord.

A cease-fire was attempted under a "humanitarian pause" in 2000, but it failed as the period was used by both sides to consolidate troops across the restive province.

Like previous dialogs, the upcoming peace talks will be facilitated by a Switzerland based non-governmental organization, the Henry Dunant Center (HDC).

Susilo said the two sides were of the same opinion that the monitoring team would incorporate different parties. "Government, members of GAM and HDC will have representatives on the monitoring team," Susilo said.

He added that the following peace talks after next week's negotiation would be conducted in Indonesia under an all- inclusive dialog aimed at seeking a comprehensive settlement to Aceh's problems.

GAM's decades-long fight for an independent state is considered by many to be a result of Jakarta's failure to meet demands for welfare and justice in the natural resource-rich province dating back to the tenure of founding president Sukarno.

Thousands of civilians have been killed during armed conflict between security forces and rebels.

Separately in Banda Aceh, Iskandar Muda Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djali Yusuf claimed that security in the province was improving, with only minor disturbances occurring once in a while.

"We hope the coming dialog will bear better fruit than the previous dialogs and will be able to bring about order in the province," Djali said as quoted by Antara.

He asserted that the Indonesian Military would continue daily operations to secure people's activities in Aceh.

Teachers targeted in GAM areas

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2002

Nani Farida, Langsa, East Aceh -- The Human Rights Forum (PB HAM) deplored on Monday the continued violence against civilians, especially teachers, in war-ravaged Aceh on the eve of the Indonesia-Free Aceh Movement (GAM) peace talks scheduled for October 31, 2002.

Mohammad Jusuf Puteh alias Neksuh, coordinator of PB HAM, told The Jakarta Post here on Monday that he had continued to receive reports of wanton violence against civilians without any investigations or explanations, from authorities.

He said he had just received a report of two civilians who disappeared over the weekend and so far, security authorities had given no explanation. Ridwan, a 25-year-old resident of Alue Lhouk in Peureulak Timur, in East Aceh, disappeared after visiting relatives in Kuala Simpang, Aceh Tamiang, on October 24, 2002. Ahmad, 66, a resident of Peureulak was abducted by gunmen as he was sitting on the verandah of his own home.

Neksuh said his organization had received hundreds of reports of abductions, disappearances and murders, as well as the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the last ten months.

Another shocking recent report was about a man named Sulaiman, a resident of Baroh village in Langsa, who was murdered in front of his children on October 25, 2002 when he was working in his field. The gunmen fled.

Sulaiman's body was recovered the following day after his family reported the incident to PB HAM.

Relatives of teachers who were abducted or killed by gunmen in East Aceh also expressed their disappointment with the administration for allowing the perpetrators to act with impunity in the regency.

Irwati Usman, 40, said her brother Irjani Usman, 29, was abducted on Sept. 9, 2002, and so far, the administration had paid no attention to the incident.

"We don't know whether he is still alive or not and he has three children. If he has been murdered, we want to see his grave. The horrible thing is that the local authorities have been totally silent about his disappearance," she said.

Irwati said her brother was abducted as he was returning home from his school where he was a teacher in Langsa.

"According to eyewitnesses, he (Irjani) was abducted by two gunmen riding a motorcycle. And now he is gone...," said Irwati, also a school teacher in Langsa.

Neksuh called on the conflicting sides to stop targeting civilians because they knew nothing about the prolonged conflict.

"Both sides should stop the violence ahead of the planned peace talks to help create peace in the province. Most people are sick and tired of this war that has claimed thousands of lives," he said.

He admitted that more than 50 teachers had this year been confirmed murdered. Both the military and GAM deny responsibility. In GAM strongholds, such as parts of East Aceh, school curricula is often tailored to include a local view of history and other subjects.

Nearly all of the civilian victims have been ethnic Acehnese as a large percentage of the huge numbers of Javanese transmigrants have fled the province in fear of GAM attacks. GAM had reportedly targeted the Javanese, but rarely harms local people unless they are found to be informants.

Caning comes into effect in Aceh on 1st day of Ramadhan

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Jakarta -- The Aceh provincial administration is to introduce caning as punishment in the upcoming fasting month Ramadhan for Muslims who do not carry out their religious obligations.

Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) chairman Muslim Ibrahim said on Saturday that caning would be meted out on Muslims in Aceh who took lunch during the fasting month.

During Ramadhan, Muslims are supposed to refrain from eating, smoking and having sex from dawn to dusk. This year, Ramadhan is expected to start on November 6. Close to 85 percent of the country's 215 million population are Muslims.

Aceh, where secessionist group Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been fighting for independence since 1976, was granted special autonomy status in 2001, under which the province was allowed, among other things, to implement Islamic law (sharia) in the territory.

Following the introduction of the special autonomy status, the Aceh provincial administration drafted a bylaw, locally known as Qanun, on sharia to be implemented in the country's westernmost province, where close to 98 percent of its population are Muslims.

"Caning will be introduced for Muslims who do not fast and are caught eating lunch in public places in the upcoming Ramadhan," Ibrahim was quoted by Antara as saying on Saturday.

Provincial authorities, he said, would still discuss how the caning would be carried out and how many lashes of the cane would be administered. He suggested that the caning be carried out in open places for public viewing.

It is still unclear how the political elite in Jakarta would react to the move.

Last in August, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais reacted angrily to the Malaysian government's decision to cane illegal Indonesians workers in that country, arguing that caning was inhuman and therefore totally unacceptable.

"Frankly, I feel disappointed, angry, and unable to accept the fact that Malaysia, a modern country which belongs to the same Malay ethnic group [as Indonesia], has resorted to punishing illegal Indonesian workers in a way that is really inhuman," Amien said. Several Muslim politicians also shared Amien's view.

According to Ibrahim, who is also a lecturer in post graduate studies at the Arraniry Darussalam State Islamic University, ulema in Aceh province have chosen caning over other forms of punishment such as fines or stoning to penalize those who do not observe the fasting month.

He said the ulema agreed not to choose fines as a punishment as it would only encourage more crimes or sinful acts for the people who were well off.

"Yes, we all agreed to adopt caning, not fines or stoning, because fines would be too easy for rich people," Ibrahim said. However, he fell short of saying that stoning was too heavy a punishment for violators.

Acehnese pray for peace ahead of dialog

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Banda Aceh/Jakarta -- Nearly 2,000 Acehnese gathered and prayed on Sunday for peace, ahead of the next set of talks between the government and the Aceh Separatist Movement (GAM).

More than 1,000 people from all walks of life flocked to the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, while 700 others packed an open field in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, to take part in the same prayer. Iskandar Muda Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djali Yusuf was among the top provincial figures joining the mass prayer.

The local administration organized the prayers, which were aimed at asking for the success of the planned dialog between the government and GAM in Geneva sometime next week. "We are all hoping for peace in Aceh and that the conflict here ends as soon as possible," Djali said, adding that he called on all Acehnese to pray for peace.

No specific date has been set for the upcoming round of negotiations, which are a follow-up to the last set of talks in May. Both the government and GAM were scheduled to restart the dialog in July.

After being in limbo for months, both sides gave a strong signal to engage in another dialog by early next month and they are set to agree on a cessation of hostility.

One of the contentious issues left for negotiation is the possibility of including foreigners, who will form an independent monitoring team to ensure a halt to the violence in the province.

Separately, various groups in the province rallied on Sunday to demand that foreigners be included on the independent monitoring team. They said noted foreigners would guarantee the team's independence. They also asked both soldiers from GAM and the military to go back to their barracks to ensure peace.

Jakarta, although agreeing to establish a monitoring team, has refused to go into detail on whether it would support the inclusion of foreigners as members of the team.

Jakarta top negotiator Wiryono Sastrohandoyo said on Sunday that he was waiting for an order to leave for Geneva for the peace talks. "The government has said that the dialog is going to occur early next month at the latest and almost 90 percent of the items to be negotiated have been discussed," Wiryono told The Jakarta Post.

He underlined that the negotiation process would live up to Jakarta's expectations, with the upcoming dialog to be aimed at reaching an agreement to end the hostility. But Wiryono refused to go into detail, saying that it would jeopardize the negotiation process.

After the Special Autonomy Law for Aceh was agreed on in May of this year, the government has aimed to secure a deal to end all violence in the province.

Wiryono once said that after all hostility had ceased, both sides were expected to move to an all-inclusive dialog for all Acehnese, which would be followed by an agreement on a direct gubernatorial election by 2004.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed optimism that the peace agreement would be signed in the coming days, saying that both sides had agreed on most points on the draft.

Jakarta has been engaged in peace talks with GAM since early 2000 to end the secessionist movement that started in 1976. Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in armed clashes between security troops and GAM.

The government has set a deadline for GAM to return to the negotiation table by the end of the Muslim fasting month of December, or else a harsher crackdown would be launched against the separatist rebels.

Army lied about Papua ambush: FBI

The Australian - October 28, 2002

Don Greenlees -- Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Western diplomats believe Indonesian soldiers fabricated evidence after the August 31 shooting of two American and one Indonesian employee of the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

The belief that soldiers tried to plant false evidence and removed other evidence from the scene of the killing has fuelled concerns that elements of the Indonesian military were involved in the ambush of the Freeport employees. Western diplomatic sources also claim communications intercepts pointed to Indonesian officers and soldiers either trying to cover up the identity of the perpetrators or to strengthen their case that the killings were carried out by members of the rebel Free Papua Organisation (OPM).

But they said it was not yet clear whether this was a case of "planting drugs on the drug trafficker" or trying to confuse the identity of the true perpetrators. The Indonesian military has insisted from the beginning that the killers were a hardline element of the OPM. An FBI team made a second visit to Papua last month to assess the conduct of an investigation by the Papuan provincial police and came away with a stronger conviction that military elements might have been involved, according to sources familiar with their conclusions. But the sources said the FBI expressed doubts about the credibility of a witness being held in police custody who claims to have first-hand knowledge of the involvement in the killings of members of the army's special forces, Kopassus.

Among the issues concerning diplomats and police is the discovery of the body of a Papuan man allegedly killed by Indonesian soldiers in a shoot-out the day after the ambush of the Freeportemployees. A later post-mortem revealed he was dead hours before the shoot-out reportedly occurred. The position of the body and the wound was inconsistent with accounts given by soldiers of the exchange of fire in which the Papuan died. A brand new M-16 magazine found on the body is also believed to have been planted. The Washington Post newspaper, quoting a senior military officer and a high-ranking spy, reported yesterday that Indonesian police carrying out theinvestigation had told military counterparts they believed soldiers were responsible for the killings. I Made Pastika, the Australian- trained chief of the Papuan police, now heading the investigation into the Bali bombing, told the head of the Indonesian military police of his conclusions about a week ago, according to the paper.

Security sources said Papuan police so far had compiled about 30 dossiers on Indonesian soldiers. They said Mr Pastika was leaning to the culpability of members of the military, but had not reached a firm conclusion. A respected officer, Mr Pastika led the Papuan police during the investigation into the murder of independence leader Theys Eluay, which concluded that Kopassus was responsible.

Neo-liberal globalisation

New group plans Indosat class action

Laksamana.Net - October 28, 2002

A new grouping of trade unions from state-owned enterprises and student groups linked to former ruling party Golkar are planning to use the planned sale of sale of telecommunications giant Indosat as a class action "test case" in their attempts to thwart the government's privatization program.

The Front to Save State Assets (Barisan Penyelamat Aset Bangsa: BPAB) said they were tired of being sidelined by the State-owned Enterprises Minister, Laksamana Sukardi.

If the government continues to push ahead with the privatization of strategic national assets in the absence of a Law on State- owned Enterprises, they would begin a class action against the minister and the government, BPAB Presidium member Zubeir Halim told detikcom Thursday.

The new group announced its formation and platform at a press conference in Jakarta last Wednesday.

The group's main aims are: a) stop the privatization of state- owned assets; b) the immediate formulation of a Law on State- owned Enterprises (UU BUMN) and; c) the replacement of Sukardi's ministry with an autonomous body to manage state assets.

The group admitted that it has not conveyed its demands directly to the ministry but said member organizations had attempted on numerous occasions to meet the minister to discuss privatization but had not been granted a hearing. They are now planning to meet leaders of the House of Representatives (DPR) as well as Vice President Hamzah Haz next week.

Another BPAB presidium member, Abu Syukur, said the privatization push should stop until the government and House endorse the Law because the government has privatized state assets in violation of legal procedures.

The group believes the sale price for the first stage of Indosat's privatization was too low -- at Rp12,000 per share -- after the company raised and spent trillions of rupiah to expand its business and make the company more attractive to foreign investors.

The group is not only focusing on the upcoming sale of a 41.9% stake in international call and cellular operator Indosat.

Although the detikcom report made no mention of possible industrial action by member organizations, they apparently have the potential to mobilize large numbers of supporters.

The group comprises trade unions from state-owned enterprises, private sector trade unions, non-government organisations as well as the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) and the Student Executive Council of the University of Indonesia (BEM UI).

The latter two groups have been linked in the past to the party that dominated Indonesian politics under the dictatorial regime of former President Suharto -- Golkar.

When Indonesia's first democratically elected president, Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, was toppled in July last year, these two groups were also at the vanguard of student demonstrations that many believed enjoyed the full support of rival Muslim political parties.

Under Wahid's successor Megawati Sukarnoputri the resistance to the privatization program sponsored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international creditors has festered.

But since the failure to privatize Bank Bali in 1999 amid massive protests against foreign ownership, the only major hurdle has been the case of the country's largest cement producer, Semen Gresik.

The greatest resistance to this sale came from Gresik's West Sumatra-based subsidiary, Semen Padang, where local legislators and the judiciary have blocked the government's every attempt to sell the parent company.

The government had planned to sell its stake in Semen Gresik and two subsidiaries for $525 million to Mexican cement company Cemex under a put option that matured in October last year.

BPAB Presidium member Zubeir Halim is also chairman of the workers union at the East Java-based Semen Gresik factory.

The Gresik mess is currently going through the courts in Jakarta as the government seeks to override the provincial ruling against the convening of an extraordinary shareholder's meeting in which to oust the recalcitrant board of directors.

At present, no legal hurdles per se are blocking the Indosat sale and Sukardi indicated two weeks ago that the October bombings in Bali would not affect the government's plans to sell the stake this year if the bids remained 'satisfactory'.

Other lose amalgamations of trade union groups opposed to privatization have made similar demands as the newly formed BPAB and even launched strikes and mass demonstrations in the past.

It remains to be seen if the new grouping represents further consolidation of this movement and if it will clash openly with the government, which remains committed to its privatization program as agreed with the IMF. Indosat Plans At Indosat, it's business as usual and strong market reaction to a Rp1 trillion bond offering prompted the company to raise the offering to Rp1.25 trillion in mid-October.

Indosat finance director Junino Jahja reiterated the company's continuing commitment to develop its lucrative cellular businesses next year and said Indosat has no plans to issue any new debt in the next three years.

Junino also told Dow Jones Newswires that Indosat has no plan to raise more funds by offering shares in its cellular business to the public.

He said Indosat was concerned to maintain its leverage at a reasonable level. As of June 30, Indosat's leverage was around 0.5, which analysts have said is a reasonable level for a telecommunication company of its size.

Junino said Indosat's plans to merge Satelindo, the country's second largest cellular operator, with its other cellular company, Indosat Multi Mobile Media (IM3), should be finalized by September 2004.

Satelindo currently has around 2.5 million subscribers and IM3 has around 250,000 subscribers but Junino said the number of cellular subscribers to Indosat's units would increase to around 4 -5 million next year.

Meanwhile, analysts forecast the number of nationwide cellular customers should nearly double to around 13 million next year from about 7 million currently.

Telstra Still Keen Despite evacuating nearly all its staff in Indonesia after the Bali bombings, Australia's Telstra last week said the Indosat stake was still well within its sights.

Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski said the company remained interested and would "review our opportunities in Indonesia" although the Bali bombings heightened the risk surrounding any purchases in Indonesia.

"The appalling events of the last week, however, do not completely shut down our evaluation of potential future opportunities in Indonesia," he said, reported Asia Pulse.

Switkowski added the outlook for the telco industry remained very cautious, therefore there was no rush to make decisions at this point given that asset values had yet to stabilise and were still sliding in some areas.

Indosat's debt is not sliding in the eyes of state-owned ratings agency PT Pefindo, which last week announced that it was maintaining its AA+ rating on a range of the company's obligations.

The debt papers in question are the Rp1 trillion offered in 2001, the recent Rp1.25 trillion and the Rp175 billion in floating and fixed rate bonds of the "Syari'ah Mudharabah" offering, reported Bisnis Indonesia.

'War on terrorism'

Bali bombings point to military link

Toronto Star - November 3, 2002

Catherine Porter -- John Rumbiak has a theory about the recent bombing in his native Indonesia. It wasn't the work of Muslim extremists in cahoots with the Al Qaeda terrorist network, the human-rights activist says.

If it was the work of Muslim extremists, it was only in conjunction with the Indonesian military. "The widely held opinion is that Muslim radicals were responsible for this," says Rumbiak, who is in Toronto on a mission to expose military brutality in his home province of Papua. "That might be true. But people have to look further and study the relationship between the military and this group. They couldn't do it themselves. "The military wants to regain its power. Since the fall of Suharto, they have been forced to go back to the barracks. This is their basic line to regain power in Indonesia."

What at first blush might sound like a ripe conspiracy theory has been gaining ground both inside Indonesia and out, among human- rights groups, non-governmental organizations and political scientists. "It's very popular among Indonesians," says Abagail Abrash, former director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in Washington. "Everyone from intellectuals to grassroots community people believes it because of the well- documented history of military involvement in other acts of provocation and violence like this one."

The theory goes something like this: For 32 years, the military ruled Indonesia's 17,000 islands under the dictatorship of Suharto. Since 1998, when the vast country gave way to a shaky democracy, the generals have tried to regain that stature by covert means -- by spurring civil strife in disparate regions. Hotspots have been Maluku, where fighting between Christians and Muslims has killed at least 5,000 people since 1999, and East Timor, where paramilitary forces killed more than 1,000 civilians in the run-up to a UN-sponsored referendum on independence. Once chaos is created, the theory goes, the military will be summoned to keep the peace.

"It's a pattern," says Rumbiak, who runs the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy based in Papua. "Reflect on East Timor. It's a very good example the world community already knows. They [the generals] paid off the militias in order to justify their presence and regain their power."

Rumbiak, whose two-week speaking tour in Canada is sponsored by KAIROS, an ecumenical human-rights and environmental agency, says there has been similar intrigue in his birthplace. Papua, or what many Indonesians still call Irian Jaya, is the most eastern province in Indonesia and, arguably, its most remote.

Its resources were exploited by the colonizing Dutch. When the Dutch left in 1963, Indonesians from the ruling island of Java moved in, legitimizing their annexation with a 1969 referendum by about 1,000 hand-picked elders. The "Act of Free Choice" has since been denounced as whitewash by its original sponsor, the UN Since then, an independence movement has simmered. More than 100,000 Papuans have been killed by army special forces, Rumbiak says, including independence leader Theys Eluay, who was murdered last year after leaving a military-hosted ceremony.

Says Abrash: "We think of the military as a defence force that works to protect our borders. In Indonesia, it's the opposite. It's there to maintain internal order."

Another key piece to the puzzle is the military's funding. It comes largely from private security contracts with international companies like Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which helps run the world's largest gold and copper mine in Papua. Two Americans and an Indonesian were killed at the Freeport mine in an ambushing August. The murders, which made headlines around the world, were blamed by the military on local independence guerrillas opposed to the mine's environmental and economic impact.

But Rumbiak's investigation points to the military. "Their message to international companies is: 'There are terrorists in Papua and we need your support to get rid of these people.'" Those arguments have landed Rumbiak into hot water. He says he's been threatened with a lawsuit by the army chief of staff, Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, who denies the allegations. His organization's Jakarta office has been ransacked. His staff have received ominous warnings. And the military presence has increased on the island. Rumbiak says the intimidation has worsened since the bombing at a night club in Kota Beach that killed more than 190 people three weeks ago.

The official view that the bombing was the work of terrorists stampeded the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri into passing a bill that permits special military and police teams to arrest and detain suspected terrorists without trial for up to six months, provided a court agrees. "Under the new law, groups like ours fall into the classification of terrorist," Rumbiak says. "They will target us."

Andri Hadi, counsellor for public affairs at the Indonesian embassy in Ottawa, says theories are only theories until the bombing investigation is completed. "I can't say whether this is military or Al Qaeda or other parties because our government is still collecting evidence," he says. "People can speculate anything."

But Minister of Defence Matori Abdul Djalil and others have linked the act to the Jemaah Islamiah, a local Muslim extremist group, and the Al Qaeda network. And cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was the first bombing suspect to be arrested by Indonesian police, was identified as a member of the Jemaah Islamiah.

Jeffrey Winters, a professor at Chicago's Northwestern University specializing in Indonesian politics, says Indonesia's linking Al Qaeda to the bombing supports Rumbiak's view. In fact, Winters says, the Al Queda network had nothing to gain from the attack.

But the tidy theory that the bombing was the work of global terrorists coincides with America's reinstituting funding to the Indonesian military, cut off in 1999 in response to the military's role in the East Timor massacres. Before the bombing, the country was loath to act against terrorists, despite American pressure. "The explosion in Bali makes it more likely that Megawati will finally act and Al Qaeda's easy access will end," Winters says in an interview. "This outcome serves the US far more than it does Al Qaeda."

Ba'asyir's devotees stage protest

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2002

Sri Wahyuni and Tarko Sudiarno, Surakarta/Yogyakarta -- Hundreds of alumni from Al-Mukmin Islamic Boarding School went on strike in Yogyakarta on Wednesday to protest the police arrest of their headmaster and terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.

Calling the methods used by police to forcibly remove the suspect an "abduction", the protesters gathered at the state-run radio station RRI in the city. After demanding that Ba'asyir be released immediately, the protesters marched to the nearby Yogyakarta provincial legislature building.

They accused the US of waging war against Islam and Muslim people ever since President George Bush's government and its allies began to notice that many terrorist acts had been the work of Muslim figures.

"As Muslims and citizens, we declare that we will continuously fight against the US's arbitrary policy aimed at discrediting Islam," said Fachrurrozi who led the demonstration.

Meanwhile, the situation in nearby Surakarta has been tense, but relatively calm in the last two days despite a violent clash between the police and the disciples of Ba'asyir during his forced removal from Surakarta to Jakarta.

The students from the Al Mukmin Islamic Boarding School in Ngruki, who had been on guard at the Muhammadiyah hospital in the town to block the police from arresting him, have reportedly gone back to their campus.

The police, however, have made a concerted effort to strengthen security in several areas of the city, especially in Sebelas Maret University's campus and the Islamic Boarding School in Ngruki, Sukoharjo.

"We are here in anticipation of possible violence amid strong rumors that Ba'asyir's supporters will disturb the security in the town to protest Ba'asyir's detention in Jakarta," said one policeman.

Hundreds of Ba'asyir loyalists were involved in a bloody clash with security personnel when the police took Ba'asyir from the hospital by force on Monday. Several security personnel and protesters were injured in the incident.

Beforehand, Ba'asyir's followers also staged a demonstration in the city to protest the police's decision to declare Ba'asyir a suspect in the alleged plot to kill President Megawati Soekarnoputri and the bombing of several churches in the 2001 Christmas.

On Tuesday, some 100 members of the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IMM) went on strike in the town to protest Ba'asyir's arrest with a call for Megawati to ask for "divine inspiration", instead of bowing US President George Bush's demands, in fighting terrorism.

Ba'asyir became sick and checked himself into the hospital on October 18 with an unspecified illness when he was declared a suspect for masterminding series of bombing attacks in the country and a plot to kill the president.

Ba'asyir has denied the charges for which he could face the death penalty, saying the charges were manufactured by the US and its allies to discredit Islam.

According to Ba'asyir, his arrest was illegal as doctors had not yet recommended that he was healthy for the police interrogation. The police, however, claimed he was fit enough to be taken to Jakarta.

Ba'asyir is now in the National Police Hospital in Jakarta, where doctors have examined him and declared him physically fit for police interrogation.

A number of politicians, including Vice President Hamzah Haz, who was once a vocal Ba'asyir defender, has expressed his support for the police investigation of Ba'asyir.

TNI suspected of role in Bali bombings

Green Left Weekly - October 31, 2002

Graham Matthews, Melbourne -- Some 400 people on October 23 attended a forum on the Bali bombings. It was organised by Asialink and was also simulcast on Radio National and was addressed by academics Arief Budiman, Merle Ricklefs and Tim Lindsey, as well as Greg Fergin, political counsellor for the US embassy.

"There is bound to be some link to the [Indonesian] military, not the high command necessarily but rogue elements within it", Lindsay declared. He explained that the Indonesian military (TNI) excelled at using bands of militia, disaffected youth and thugs to achieve its goals. This was evident in East Timor in 1999 and as early as 1965 when it organised gangs to attack left-wing activists and sympathisers. "International intervention" might be crucial to ensure that the government of Megawati Sukarnoputri does not fall victim to the TNI's tactics, Lindsay said.

Budiman argued that the TNI stood to gain from the blasts, as did the US and its pro-war agenda. "From the professionalism of the blasts, we think that international terrorists or the military were behind them", he said.

While the TNI's role in Indonesian politics has been gradually reduced -- the military stands to lose its parliamentary representation in 2004 -- it remains "the strongest political institution" in the country, Budiman explained. In contrast, "radical Islam" was a negligible part of the Indonesian political landscape.

Ricklefs warned that Jemaah Islamiyah and other radical Islamic groups could be linked to the TNI. Realising that it was a suspect in the minds of many Indonesians, Ricklefs noted, the military has officially denied involvement in the blasts.

Fergin was heavily criticised for his promise that the US would be pumping tens of millions of dollars into "training and education" of the Indonesian police and military. Host Peter Mares argued that "the military was the greatest source of terror for many Indonesians, especially for those living in Aceh and West Papua".

Fergin said it was important to continue to "engage" with the TNI. Mares retorted that decades of "engagement" by Australian and US governments had not made an impact on its human rights abuses.

Mares said the key to defeating terrorism was to strengthen the democratic structures in Indonesia and "work with the mass of the largely liberal Indonesian Muslims".

Anti-terror laws, foreign influence debated

Green Left Weekly - October 30, 2002

Max Lane, Jakarta -- While Indonesian police investigations, conducted in cooperation with Australian, US, British and other police forces, continue into the October 12 Bali bombings, the policy responses to the bombing by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government have created a storm of debate.

Two key issues have emerged. One is whether or not the Megawati government has surrendered Indonesia's national sovereignty and is making decisions under pressure from the United States and Australia and whether US and Australian demands for the suppression of Islamicist groups in Indonesia is a strategy to gain political dominance in the country.

A second issue is whether the new anti-terrorism decree approved by the government on October 19 is opening the door to a return to the repressive politics of General Suharto's 32-year New Order regime. The decree gives the police the authority to detain any person for three days based on a report by an intelligence agency. A judge can then order the detained person to be held in custody for up to six months for further interrogation without charge.

It is widely perceived across almost the whole political spectrum that the US and Australian governments, as well as most of the Western press, are equating Islamic fundamentalist organisations with terrorist activities.

It is also perceived that the Western governments and press have been urging the Megawati government to "take action" against these groups. As no evidence that could hold up in court has been presented by the US or Australia or anybody else tying any fundamentalist group with a terrorist act, it is therefore also assumed that "taking action" means detaining people outside the normal legal processes requiring evidence and a presumption of innocence.

The perception that Western governments and media are demanding the detention of leaders of fundamentalist groups despite a lack of hard evidence was reinforced when Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer hailed the introduction of the new anti- terrorist decree.

Bashir arrest The situation is further complicated by the fact that fundamentalist or "hard-line" Islamic groups in Indonesia are many and varied. Western media and government attention has been focused on Abu Bakar Bashir, who runs an Islamic school in the Javanese city of Solo.

Bashir was imprisoned for several years by the Suharto regime for campaigning for an Islamic state. He later moved to Malaysia and was in contact with fundamentalist groups there. He is accused by the Malaysian authorities of being a member and leader of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which the Malaysian and Singapore governments accused of preparing terrorist acts.

The Western media now routinely report that JI exists in Indonesia or is even based in Indonesia. To date, however, there is no evidence that any organisation of that name exists in Indonesia. While it is true that some Islamic groups, mainly based around a particular teacher, consider Osama bin Laden a hero, there is still no evidence that Bashir or any Indonesian organisation is a part of a JI operation.

Furthermore, even if it turns out that there is such a clandestine group, or even if Bashir is implicated, Indonesian public opinion is already hostile to the sloppiness and laziness of Western analysis and reporting of Indonesian and Islamic politics which so reeks of patronising, racist attitudes.

In fact, there are a whole variety of fundamentalist Islamic groups, i.e., groups calling for the imposition of Islamic law or an Islamic state, which do not resort to violence in any of their campaigning. There are fundamentalist political parties, such as the Justice Party, that have been consistent critics of both corruption and the repressive use of the state apparatus and the military.

There are also "hard-line" groups which have mobilised their forces for violent action, such as Laskar Jihad, which until recently, was involved in the Christian-Muslim fighting in Ambon.

Laksar Jihad, even though arming its militia and being accused of human rights violations, has at the same time been a critic of Osama bin Laden, since even before the attacks on the World Trade Center. Laskar Jihad and Bin Laden follow different schools of Islamic thought on the nature of jihad (holy war).

Anti-Western sentiment The anti-Western sentiment among Indonesians manifests itself in many ways. For example, there is widespread criticism of the government for acting under Western pressure in such a way as to threaten hard-won democratic rights. The arrest of Bashir on October 20 for questioning on bomb attacks on Christian churches in previous years is perceived as the result of direct pressure from the US and Australia.

Bashir was only arrested after an Indonesian police team interrogated Omar al Faruq, a Kuwaiti national arrested in Indonesia earlier in the year and then, with no legal process, handed over to US authorities who imprisoned and interrogated him in Pakistan.

There is broad-based suspicion of statements given by any US War on Terror prisoner, and there is suspicion about why Faruq was so quickly removed from Indonesia when he had clearly broken Indonesian laws, at the very least illegal entry.

Human rights and pro-democracy groups have all condemned the anti-terrorism decree.

Protests from these groups, as well as the general anti-Western sentiment, have put constraints on the Megawati government's "anti-terrorism" repression. The most draconian aspects of the decree apply only in relation to the Bali bomb investigations and judges have the right to declare intelligence reports an inadequate basis for arrest.

The main proponents of the decree within Indonesia, as might be expected, are spokespersons for the government, and especially the military and intelligence services. Highly articulate spokespersons have been appearing in the media presenting the case for stronger police and security agency powers.

However, it is a reflection of the public scepticism of the motives of the government, and any institution of the political elite, that these security apparatus spokespersons feel that they also have to present their case within the framework of defending democracy. They usually fall back on emphasising the different general situation today as compared with the repressive situation during the Suharto era.

They claim that, unlike during the Suharto era, there is now a "free press" and an "active" parliament, and that elected representatives and lawyers can monitor and halt any excesses by the state apparatus.

This argument, however, is unconvincing to most Indonesians. Most opinions polls show an overwhelming majority of respondents are suspicious of the government's desire to have extra powers of surveillance and detention.

Activists urge House to reject antiterrorism rules

Jakarta Post - October 30, 2002

Debbie A. Lubis and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta -- Activists urged the House of Representatives on Tuesday to reject government regulations in lieu of laws on terrorism and instead amend the Criminal Code in a bid to provide a stronger legal basis to fight terrorism.

Speaking during a meeting with House Commission I on defense, foreign, and political affairs, the activists said the country did not need to apply the regulations because they were against democracy and prone to human rights abuses.

"The government is seeking a shortcut to fight terrorism by imposing the regulations. It will only last for a maximum six- month period. Actually, what we need is just to add or change some articles in the Criminal Code," Todung Mulya Lubis, a noted lawyer and human rights activist, told The Jakarta Post after the meeting.

Todung was accompanied by activists from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), and the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Democracy (Infid).

A week after the Bali blasts, which killed at least 191 people on October 12, the government issued Government Regulation No. 1/2002 and No. 2/2002 on fighting terrorism.

The government will submit the regulations to the House for approval, as required by the Constitution. In addition, the government also plans to submit the Antiterrorism Bill to the House to replace the regulations.

Todung said the government should not waste its energy submitting the Antiterrorism Bill because it could cooperate with the House to ratify 12 international conventions on terrorism on land, sea and air.

He said the government could supplement the conventions by modifying or improving some articles in the Criminal Code to support the government's fight against terrorism.

Todung said the regulations and the Antiterrorism Bill would give the state license to conduct state terrorism to intimidate and terrorize its citizens.

Munir of Kontras said the regulations should be rejected because they allowed intelligence agents to infringe on peoples' private lives by monitoring their phone calls, bank accounts and mail for one year. He said the regulations' retroactive principles were against the 1945 Constitution and the 1949 Geneva Convention that said the principle could be implemented in cases of crimes against humanity but not terrorism.

Smita Notosusanto of Cetro said the articles in the regulations were too open to interpretation. "I'm afraid that the regulations will hamper the works of the election monitoring body. Just think of who is profiting from these regulations," she said.

Smita suspected some interest groups had tried to degrade the quality of the 2004 election or were even attempting to cancel them.

"They can end the election process in conflict areas such as Aceh and Ambon on the grounds that they are trying to avoid terrorism," she said.

Commission I legislator Ishak Latuconsina said the House would consider their opinions and would discuss the regulations when the government submitted them to the House.

Based on the fourth amendment to the 1945 Constitution, the House has to approve or reject the regulations during the current sitting.

Permadi, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said that based on the Constitution, the regulations were issued when the country was in the state of emergency while in the regulations the government did not mention the emergency situation. Therefore, the House should reject them, he said.

Moderate Muslims back terror crackdown

Straits Times - October 30, 2002

Salim Osman -- The leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation backs tough government measures to tackle terrorism and radicalism, saying it was in the country's interests to clamp down on them.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi, speaking at a forum in Singapore yesterday, also said that neighbours should not be alarmed by the presence of radical groups in Indonesia.

This is because "only a minority of Indonesian Muslims can be considered as radicals; mainstream Muslims are moderates", he told the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies forum.

As such, it was regrettable that Indonesia's reputation has been tarnished by allegations that it was a hotbed of terrorism in South-east Asia. "We are actually the victim of terrorism, not its perpetrators," he said.

He called for regional cooperation between Indonesia and its neighbours, including Singapore, to forge a common vision and battle terrorism. "If Indonesia suffers from it, the region will also be hit," he said.

The leader of the 40-million-strong NU said he backed tougher anti-terrorism measures because "terrorism can lead to anarchy and this has to be destroyed".

His view was supported by fellow speaker Bahtiar Effendy, a leading intellectual of the 30-million-strong Muhammadiyah movement, the second largest Muslim group in Indonesia.

He said the authorities must tackle law and order problems posed by groups claiming to uphold Islamic principles -- but which are no more than criminal gangs.

They vandalised nightclubs and even carried out "sweeps" earlier this year against foreigners in several towns. "The criminal acts committed by such groups must be dealt with," said Dr Bahtiar, head of Muhammadiyah University's post-graduate programme.

Both men said that weak political leadership, undue focus on democratisation and poor intelligence-gathering by the police contributed to the rise of radicalism.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri must not only focus on such issues, but also convince the Muslim ground that recent actions against terrorism were not undertaken at the behest of the West.

Referring to the arrest of alleged Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakar Bashir, Dr Bahtiar said Jakarta's case against the cleric was based on statements by detained Al-Qaeda operative Omar Al- Faruq and allegations made by Malaysia and Singapore. "The government must produce strong evidence against Bashir. Otherwise it will be Bashir's words against Faruq"s,' he said.

Mr Hasyim said that during the Suharto era, radicalism was kept in check because "there was strong leadership although there was no clean government. But in the present situation, we don't have strong leadership. Neither do we have a clean government," he said.

He said the fall of the Suharto administration in 1998 saw the emergence of left- and right-wing radicals as the country was swept up in the euphoria of democracy. "Communist elements tried to make a comeback and this prompted the emergence of rightist Muslim radicals who opposed them," he said.

There were also underground groups that operated unfettered as the military's intelligence network was unable to function properly.

In the post-Suharto period, sentiment was opposed to the military continuing to enjoy a dominant position, and they were effectively confined to their barracks, he explained.

He added that the October 12 Bali blast could be the work of such groups whose cause had nothing to do with Islam.

Dr Bahtiar felt that too much focus on democracy had not helped the country's development because "Indonesia is in a weak state, without the ability to govern". The country needed to deal with a host of issues before it could push for "full-fledged democratisation", he added.

Both men agreed that what had aggravated the country's woes was the fact that the political elite were focused on the 2004 general and presidential elections. "If the national leadership cannot bring about a speedy economic recovery and enforce the law, then this radicalism, this extremism will prevail," Dr Bahtiar warned.

Yudhoyono denies two generals implicated in blasts

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2002

Jakarta -- Coordinating Minister for Defense and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rejected on Monday rumors of two generals being involved in the bomb blasts in the tourist destination of Bali two weeks ago.

"Many rumors have been making the rounds about the Bali bomb terror. Only one-hour-and-a-half ago I discussed with the Indonesian Police chief the rumors about the involvement of two generals in the Bali bomb explosions," Susilo was quoted by Antara as saying. The senior minister clarified that no generals had been mentioned in intelligence reports nor in the investigation into the Bali tragedy, which killed more than 180, mostly foreign tourists.

"I would like to call on all parties concerned to allow the process of the investigation to continue and refrain from making any conclusion pending the conclusion of the investigation," Susilo said, reminding that making undue conclusions might lead to the rise of friction among social groups and even national disintegration.

The rumors about the involvement of the two generals originated from the manifest of an Indonesian airliner for a Jakarta- Denpasar flight at about the time of the bombings, which included their names.

The spokesman for the joint inquiry team on the Bali explosions, Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang, said they did not have any information about the presence of a retired three-star police general nor an active three-star Army general on the island for unclear reasons prior to the explosions.

Two generals possible suspects in Bali probe

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Tiarma Siboro and I Wayan Juniartha, Denpasar -- The tedious investigation into the bomb attack on Bali has resulted in another bizarre twist following reports that linked the blast with two generals, one from the military and one from the police, who mysteriously visited the island on the day of the carnage and left the next day.

An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the two generals arrived on Saturday morning October 12 before the bombs were detonated in front of two popular nightclubs close to midnight and left the province the day after. The source, however, refused to go into detail about the generals' activities during their short visit.

The police's joint inquiry team did not deny or confirm the reports, saying they did not yet have enough information about the presence of a retired three-star police general and one active three-star Army general on the island for reasons which remained unclear prior to the explosion that claimed nearly 200 lives, mostly foreigners.

"I don't have any information on that. I cannot tell you more about this topic because I don't want to go into sensitive areas about parts of the ongoing investigation," the team's spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edward Aritonang said.

But Aritonang confirmed that the team had asked several airlines for copies of the passenger manifests for all flights deemed relevant to the investigation. "There were thousands of people on this island when the explosion took place, so we should not focus only on these two people [generals]," Aritonang said.

Speculation has also been rife about the presence of a former East Timor militia commander on the island at about the same time as the generals.

Aritonang also disclosed that the investigators were still trying to identify the owner of the Mitsubishi L-300 minivan, which was nearly demolished by the explosion. An unspecified amount of bomb residue was found on the vehicle's wheel axle, which investigators believe could be the car used for the bombing.

A team of experts from Mitsubishi are currently assisting the investigators in tracing down the owner of the minivan. "There were several indications that whoever used the vehicle had deliberately scratched out the identification numbers on the van's engine and chassis," Aritonang said.

The team members have also investigated another vehicle, a Toyota Kijang minivan, which was believed to play some part in the bombing. They claimed to have identified and found the owner of the minivan, but were still pursuing the driver.

Without disclosing any specific details, Aritonang revealed that the investigators had searched several houses, hotel rooms and car dealerships in and around Denpasar. Those places were believed to have a connection with several items found at the crime scene, as well as to the movement of the bombers prior to and after the explosion.

"The owners of those places were very cooperative with our investigation. They have provided us with some good information," Aritonang said.

The investigators, Aritonang added, were trying to determine whether the presence of certain vehicles and people at the blast site were purely coincidental, or were directly connected to the perpetrators. "I cannot be more specific than that. All I can say is that the evidence would be residue, DNA traces and fingerprints," he said.

In a separate investigation being conducted by Bali police officers into 10 Pakistanis, Aritonang said so far no connection was found between the foreigners and the three composite sketches of suspects created by the investigators.

Aritonang maintained that as yet the investigators had not found any link or connection between the bombing and the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) group, recently labeled a terrorist group operating in Indonesia, by the UN and others.

Regional/communal conflicts

Two killed, one injured in attacks on Lampung villages

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2002

Oyos Saroso H.N., Menggala, Lampung -- Two men were killed and one man was seriously injured when gunmen launched a three-day attack on the inhabitants of almost a dozen villages in Lampung.

Mindi, 34, died instantly on Tuesday while Made Warse, 45, died several hours after arriving for treatment at Abdul Muluk General Hospital in Bandar Lampung. Both were residents of Wirabangun village in Tulangbawang.

Dozens of residents from the neighboring regency of Ogan Kemring Ilir in South Sumatra launched an armed attack on Sunday night on 11 villages in Simpangpematang subdistrict, Tulangbawang. The attack ended on Tuesday.

The attackers, armed with homemade rifles, set dozens of homes on fire and attacked the residents. More than 200 families were displaced as they fled in panic to neighboring villages.

Sukardi, a resident of another village, is listed in critical condition with multiple injuries at the hospital.

The situation remained tense in the village on Wednesday and hundreds of villagers were on alert as rumors circulated that the perpetrators were regrouping for another attack.

The local police have questioned five eyewitnesses, but no one has been arrested yet.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Purwanto, the chief of the police precinct in Tulangbawang, said that the attack could have been in retaliation for the murder of a resident of a nearby village the day before.

"A resident of Pematangpanggang was killed for stealing a goat belonging to someone from Simpangpematang," he said, adding that he would work with the police in Pematangpanggang to find and arrest those responsible for the attack.

Hadi Sunarto, the head of Simpangpematang village, agreed with Purwanto and said that four others had escaped when they were caught stealing the goat.

"I regret that they took the law into their own hands [by killing the alleged thief] and that the residents of Pematangpanggang were also unable to control their emotions, which resulted in the bloody attack," he said.

However, he said that relatives showed no anger over the killing of the alleged thief when the residents of Simpangpematang, mostly transmigrants from Java and Bali, handed the body over to them.

Clashes between villages happen frequently in Lampung. The last one was in 2000 when hundreds of homes in Kampung Bali in another regency were destroyed during a clash with an indigenous tribe.

Brig. Gen. Sugiri, the chief of the Lampung Provincial Police, said that he had sent additional personnel to Tulangbawang to restore law and order to the regency.

Human rights/law

The conundrum of Jakarta's anti-terrorism moves

Straits Times - November 2, 2002

Leonard C. Sebastian -- The Indonesian government has responded to the Bali bombing by issuing two anti-terrorism regulations generally modelled on Canada's anti-terrorism legislation Bill C-36.

Indonesians support the initiative, but are at the same time wary of their abuse, as happened to subversion and state emergency laws during former president Suharto's regime. The 1999 State Security Law issued by then president B.J. Habibie was similarly never enforced due to strong public opposition. What are the new regulations?

They are not an emergency decree as often stated in the popular press, but a government regulation in lieu of a law (Perpu, Peraturan Pemerintah Penganti Undang Undang). The House of Representatives (DPR) is still debating the anti-terrorism Bill, so President Megawati Sukarnoputri has the authority to issue government regulations in lieu of laws during a state of emergency based on Article 22 of the 1945 Constitution.

The regulations provide a legal basis for the security agencies to investigate and prevent acts of terrorism and are consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution No 1373 (2001). They demarcate categories of terrorist acts, give broader powers to law enforcers and intelligence agencies to take specific measures, and include a retroactive principle. They fill the legal vacuum until DPR deliberations for a formal anti-terrorism Bill are concluded.

The existing Indonesian Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedures Code give law enforcers limited scope for action. The new regulations allow the death penalty for those convicted of committing or threatening to commit acts of terrorism resulting in mass destruction and deaths.

Unlike an earlier and now withdrawn anti-terrorism Bill, it does not define terrorism as a political crime based on political motives. Membership of a suspect group is not itself grounds for suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Neither is espousal of its views or ideology. The regulations enable police to detain suspects for three days on a lower threshold of evidence, but also provide important protection for the rights of the suspect and the accused through the involvement of the judiciary.

They enable the government to form anti-terror teams consisting of various departments, including the Indonesian military (TNI) and police, to conduct wide-ranging intelligence operations. The results of intelligence operations may be used as prima facie legal evidence after being approved by a court of law, with approval taking no longer than three days.

While a certain degree of coherence is emerging, the principal concern is whether momentum can be sustained. The biggest question mark remains the implementation of the regulations. Indonesia's Achilles' heel will be its weak and rivalry-riven intelligence mechanism, and its corrupt and politically- influenced judiciary.

Even if the law enforcement agencies can assemble credible evidence, the good work can be undone during court proceedings if prosecutors do not have a professional commitment to upholding the law. A repeat of the East Timor tribunals, where the state lost most of its cases, would further compromise the credibility of an already dysfunctional legal system.

The new regulations also contain loopholes that raise complicated questions. Article 46, for instance, provides for retroactive application, in apparent contradiction to Article 28I in the amended 1945 Constitution, which stipulates that citizens may not be prosecuted retroactively. While legal experts acknowledge the need for a retroactive principle to specifically tackle the Bali bombings, they remain unclear whether this sets a precedent. Many previous acts of terror in the country remain unsolved. The Istiqlal Mosque bombing in 1978 and Gedung Seminari Alkitab in Malang in 1984 remain unresolved, as well as widespread abductions and terror tactics directed at anti-Suharto activists. Human rights activists argue that victims of these atrocities also need justice.

The government is in a conundrum. Does the retroactive principle go against the amended 1945 Constitution? If so, should the Constitution be changed to overcome this anomaly? Is the retroactive principle a breakthrough that should be implemented to try perpetrators of terror attacks during the rule of former president Suharto?

Expect a protracted debate to ensue between human rights activists and constitutional law experts when the DPR convenes. Despite the government's assurances, concern remains over how much power should be conceded to the government and the police (with the military as the supporting force) in fighting terrorism.

Hard-line Muslim leaders warn that the authorities will misuse these powers. They point to the arrest of militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, but this is mistaken as he was arrested under the Criminal Code.

Non-government organisations argue that terrorism allegations, which derive largely from US sources, could be used by the military for its own agenda, either to improve its relationship with the US, or as an opportunity to revive its political role, which it had during Mr Suharto's regime.

These concerns are unfounded for now. During Mr Suharto's New Order era, the security institutions had absolute authority to act against those found or suspected of disturbing security and order. The powerful institution called Kopkamtib (Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order) was set up to underwrite the law.

Today's new anti-terrorism regulations are not a blank cheque. They deal with terrorism-related issues only. The security agencies are not granted special powers to enforce the regulations. In addition, the regulations can be repealed when the DPR passes the anti-terrorist law. Under the amended 1945 Constitution, a regulation in lieu of law issued by the government can come into effect immediately upon its issuance. But if the House rejects it in the next session, it must be withdrawn.

President Megawati staked her credibility by issuing the regulations. It could be a costly move if the latter get thrown out by the DPR. By issuing the regulations, Indonesia signalled its desire to respect international law while trying to protect its fledgling democracy.

Its belated entry into the war on terror will come as a relief to South-east Asia, which faces the immense challenge of preventing terrorism from sinking roots so deep that the region turns into a permanent second front.

[The writer is a senior fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University. He contributed this comment to The Straits Times.]

Democracy activists jailed for one year

Green Left Weekly - October 30, 2002

Max Lane, Jakarta -- In a scene reminiscent of the Suharto era, on October 24 a Jakarta court sentenced two pro-democracy activists from the Popular Youth Movement (GPK) to one year in prison for "insulting the head of state".

The two activists -- 21-year-old busker Muzakir and 20-year-old street peddler Nanang Mamija -- were arrested at a picket on June 24 outside the Presidential Palace. During the picket, attended by 30 protesters, the two activists stomped on photographs of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Muzakir and Nanang admitted attending the demonstration to demand the resignation of President Megawati and vice-president Hamzah Haz for their inability to lead the government and solve the problems of the poor. Their lawyers argued that the law being used against them should not be implemented in a democracy.

According to a report in the October 26 Kompas newspaper, the judges rejected this argument, stating that the law concerned was "entirely appropriate in a Pancasila society from a moral, ethical as well as politeness point of view" (Pancasila is the official state ideology introduced under the Suharto military dictatorship).

The judges stated that the accused men's actions violated ethical norms and could intensify "tensions between groups" provoking "splits in the nation".

"These sentences, one year each for stamping on a photo, are the beginning of the government's moves to prepare the way for large-scale repression", Ricky Tambah, secretary-general of the GPK, told Green Left Weekly.

"Repression will be the only way it can stay in power. The Megawati government is already facing a lot of discontent. Next year the subsidies on prices of basic goods will disappear completely and prices will rise again."

Anti-terrorism decree a threat to basic rights

Tapol Press Release - October 28, 2002

The Anti-Terrorism Decree enacted by President Megawati Sukarnoputri on 18 October, in the wake of the Bali bombing outrage that killed over 180 people, represents a grave threat to basic rights in Indonesia, says Tapol, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

While the Decree makes no direct reference to the Indonesian armed forces, the TNI, some of its provisions will open the way for the TNI to play a decisive role in identifying individuals to be detained for up to six months without charge or trial and could open the way for a return to the authoritarianism of the Suharto era.

Terrorism is defined in such a way as to include ordinary crimes committed during legitimate political activities and activists in Aceh and West Papua are especially fearful that the decree will be used against them.

"The perpetrators of the Bali atrocity must be brought to justice, and similar outrages must be prevented, but that must not be at the expense of fundamental rights and freedoms," says Carmel Budiardjo of Tapol.

"The grave danger is that this renewed emphasis on internal security will lead to the neglect of pressing issues, such as military and judicial reform, and will allow the security forces to reinforce their political power and influence.

"Moreover, it will divert attention from widespread and systematic acts of state terror, which in the past four decades have claimed thousands of times more victims than the Bali bomb," she said.

Enactment of this Decree means that Indonesia has now agreed to be a part of the Bush Administration's "war on terror". For many months prior to the Bali outrage, Indonesia was under intense pressure from Washington for failing to deal with the danger of terrorism.

The Anti-Terrorism Decree, known as Perpu No 1 or Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang RI Nomor 1 Tahun 2002 Tentang Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Terorisme (Government Decree in Lieu of Law) No 1, 2002, was enacted in great haste by the Megawati government under intense pressure from the international community, especially governments whose citizens had been killed or wounded when a huge bomb ripped through the Sari nightclub in Kuta, Bali on 12 October.

The Decree was enacted because Parliament, the DPR, had failed to agree to an anti-terrorism bill after months of controversy among MPs and vigorous protest from human rights activists. In other words, because the country's supreme legislative body had mounted strong resistance to the Executive's attempts to push through an anti-terrorism law, the bomb outrage of 12 October was used by the Executive to override Parliament and get its way.

The Decree defines terrorists primarily in Article 6 as "Persons who deliberately use violence or the threat of violence to create an atmosphere of terror or spread fear among the general public or create victims on a mass scale by depriving persons of their liberty or their life, or inflict damage or destruction on strategic, vital objects or the living environment or public facilities or international facilities."

The maximum punishments are death or life imprisonment.

While the Decree then goes on to identify a whole range of acts of terrorism such as plane-hijacks and other threats to aircraft, the import of explosives, nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, the broad definition stipulated at the outset encompasses ordinary crimes, such as criminal damage or common assault, which might occur during legitimate political actions such as protests outside mines and energy projects.

By virtue of their status as "vital projects", such assets are routinely given special protection by members of the armed forces. Within twenty-four hours of the Bali bomb outrage, the minister for security and political affairs, General (retired) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, announced that armed forces protection of energy and mining operations would be stepped up.

The major enterprises in this category are US corporations, Exxon in Aceh, which drills and exports liquified natural gas (LNG), and Freeport in West Papua, the world's largest copper-and-gold mine. It is precisely in the vicinity of these enterprises that some of the worst human rights violations have occurred because of the presence of the military. British Petroleum is currently in the process of establishing a major LNG project in West Papua where similar abuses may occur.

The Decree specifically provides that "intelligence reports" may be used to initiate a formal investigation. "Intelligence reports" are first and foremost the product of agencies run by the armed forces and the police. According to Munir, one of Indonesia's foremost human rights lawyers, this gives intelligence agencies more power to arrest any suspected terrorist on the basis of preliminary evidence, which would normally be insufficient for charges to be brought. It may amount to no more than a mere suspicion that a person is involved in terrorism.

Indonesia's top intelligence agency is Badan Inteligen Negara (BIN) the State Intelligence Agency, headed by retired Lieutenant-General Hendropriyono who was himself implicated in a grave atrocity against Muslim groups in Lampung in 1987. This highly dangerous provision in the Decree gives BIN and the military a direct and possibly decisive role in identifying suspects and ensuring their arrest and detention.

The decision on whether there is adequate evidence for an investigation to proceed is made by a district court in closed session (Article 26). This removes an important safeguard for suspects, namely the public scrutiny of the investigation process. It is especially disturbing given the power of the investigator to detain a suspect for up to six months without charge or trial (Article 25).

Investigators who have been granted permission by a district court to proceed are given powers to intercept and confiscate the suspect's mail and other communications, and may tap his or her phone so as to monitor possible preparations for an act of terrorism, for a period of up to one year. (Article 31, para 2)

These are worrying departures from the procedures under Indonesia's Criminal Procedure Code, known as KUHAP. The Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who, with chief security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had the task of drafting the Decree, argued in the press at the time of the Decree's enactment that KUHAP is inadequate for the purposes of fighting terrorism, but many of Indonesia's leading human rights lawyers have said there was no need for a special Decree. According to them, KUHAP and Indonesia's Penal Code already include the necessary provisions for dealing with terrorist crimes.

Perpu No 1, 2002 means that Indonesia is now pursuing the security approach which was the hallmark of the New Order regime under General Suharto, giving primacy to a wide range of security measures against so-called acts of terrorism while ignoring the pressing need for reform in many areas of government.

It would be more appropriate for the authorities to take steps to establish a properly functioning legal system capable of upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights. The Indonesian justice system is riven by corruption, institutional weaknesses and a lack of protection for individual rights and was described by the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, during a visit to Indonesia in July this year, as one of the worst he had seen.

The recent acquittals of six army and police officers charged in specially created ad hoc human rights courts with crimes against humanity in East Timor are indicative of the major flaws in the judicial system. The indictments were seen from the start as being seriously deficient and unlikely to secure proportionate verdicts for the officers suspected of being in charge of some of the gravest atrocities in East Timor before, during and after the UN-conducted ballot there in August 1999.

The Decree's inclusion of the death penalty and its retrospective provisions are violations of the fundamental right to life and the right not to be tried and punished for an act which was not a crime at the time it was committed. These rights are supposed to be protected by the Indonesian Constitution.

The Decree avoids the sensitive matter of establishing a special unit or command to oversee implementation but confers powers on the President to "take operational measures for the implementation of the Decree" (Article 45). As many Indonesian commentators have noted, the creation of a special command as part of the Decree would have provoked a wave of anger at the re-appearance of a body reminiscent of Kopkamtib, Suharto's special command for the restoration of security and order, and its successor, Bakorstanas, which held a grip on political life in Indonesia for the thirty-three years of Suharto's New Order.

The composition of the body that President Megawati will set up is not yet known but it will be placed under the overall command of her chief security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and incorporate the armed forces, the Indonesian Police Force and all the leading intelligence agencies.

Tapol believes that Perpu No 1 2002 is a serious setback for human rights in Indonesia. Terrorism is clearly a grave threat to life and limb for all citizens, Indonesian as well as foreign, but Tapol believes that this can only be effectively dealt with by root and branch reforms of the judiciary and the military. The Indonesian government should not allow the Washington sponsored 'war on terror' to force it to compromise Indonesia's faltering advance towards democracy and the rule of law.

Tapol supports the growing tide of criticism of Perpu No 1, 2002 within civil society in Indonesia and call on the international community to urge the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to withdraw the Decree.

Focus on Jakarta

No money, no job? Jakarta has 'no place for you'

Straits Times - November 1, 2002

Jakarta -- Undeterred by fierce criticism of his policy, Jakarta governor Sutiyoso has reiterated his intention to close the city to migrants who do not have sufficient money to live on, job offers or a house to stay in.

'We have certain requirements; not all migrants can enter the city,' he said after opening a seminar on population at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel here on Wednesday.

He said migrants who wanted to enter the city should have sufficient money to live on, for a while. He said they should also be able to find accommodation, possibly with relatives.

"Or the people should have already arranged employment here. They should not come here without definite job prospects or just to seek a job," said Mr Sutiyoso, who was re-elected for the second five-year term this month.

He admitted that such a policy would be similar to that in Batam, which is also facing an influx of migrants. He said the plan to close the city to migrants would be included in the draft by-law on population, being formulated by the city administration.

Last year, he announced his plan to close the city ahead of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays -- a time when many migrants usually come to Jakarta.

The administration estimates that some 250,000 newcomers enter the city every year, with most of them arriving after the Muslim holidays.

Former governor Ali Sadikin supported Mr Sutiyoso's policy to close the city to migrants in an effort to solve urban population problems.

"There should be a limitation on the number of people entering the city or the city will face a huge population problem," said Mr Ali on Wednesday. He was recently installed as Mr Sutiyoso's adviser on population and city planning.

He said the city, which was designed by the Dutch colonialists to accommodate only 600,000 residents, could no longer accommodate its current population of 10 million. With a total area of 650 sq km, Jakarta's population density is about 13,000 people per sq km.

In certain areas, such as Tambora, in West Jakarta and Senen in Central Jakarta the population density reaches up to 20,000 people per sq km.

Mr Sutiyoso's planned policy to close the city has been criticised by activists as a violation of the right of citizens to travel across the country and seek employment.

Last week, city councillors also criticised him for trying to copy Batam's policy, saying that it was not appropriate for Jakarta, as it was the capital .

"The policy would not work. Jakarta belongs to all people in the country," said councillor Wasilah Sutrisno of City Council Commission E for social welfare affairs.

In the past fortnight, the city administration has evicted thousands of street vendors from the Pulogadung and Kampung RH3mbutan bus terminals in East Jakarta.

Evicted residents in rally seek compensation

Jakarta Post - October 29, 2002

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta -- Hundreds of people from West Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta visited the city council on Monday, demanding the city administration to reconsider an eviction order from the houses and land they have been squatting upon.

The residents' leader Priono claimed the people had been living on the 20-hectare piece of land for dozens of years and most of them had identification cards.

"Many of our houses have telephone and electricity connections and we are customers of city-owned tap water firm PAM Jaya. How come we are categorized as illegal residents?" Priono asked during a meeting with the council's commission A for legal and administrative affairs.

He said the land was occupied by about 290 families who were now living on a nearby riverbank since the forced eviction began last Thursday.

The residents clashed with dozens of city public order officers and police officers trying to carry out their duties on the land owned by a private developer, PT Sari Kebon Jeruk Permai.

A number of residents were injured when police shot them with rubber bullets as they resisted. The land is set to be used build a new shopping mall.

Another resident, Heri, who has been living in the area since the 1970s admitted that they had no ownership certificate of the land, and she believed the land belonged to the state and was hoping for a cash reward.

"But other residents in other parts of the area who were evicted in 1989 and last year got compensation from the city administration. But now, we have not been offered compensation," Heri complained.

Without mentioning the amount of payment they wanted, he said the residents demanded that the administration give them money according to the market value of the taxable property (NJOP) on which they were squatting.

The land, which used to be a swampy area, like most of Jakarta before the Dutch developed it and introduced water management, was reportedly developed in 1950 by local people. Most of the residents are simple street vendors, drivers and construction workers.

Commission A deputy chairman Syarifien Maloko who met the crowd of evictees on Monday, telephoned North Jakarta Mayor Subagyo to ask him to temporarily stop the eviction. "Pak Subagyo has promised me to temporarily stop the eviction until it was discussed further with the residents," Syarifien of the Crescent and Star Party (PBB) told the residents.

He said it was unfortunate that the administration had forcibly evicted them and injured some.

Syarifien and other councillors will fulfill the residents' demand to inspect the location on Tuesday.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's policy on slum dwellers and squatters has been repeatedly criticized for its "militaristic approach and violence, such as forced eviction".

Sutiyoso, who was recently reelected for his second term in September, started his eviction policy two weeks ago in Pulogadung bus terminal, where about a thousand undocumented street vendors were forcibly evicted.

A few days after his inauguration as a governor, the former Jakarta military commander announced that the administration would expel undocumented migrants (those from other parts of the country, mostly rural Java) from the metropolis.

News & issues

Nationalism plunges to lowest level: Youth activists

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2002

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta -- In observance of the Youth Pledge Day on October 28, some activists were saddened that nationalism in the country had fallen to one of its lowest levels ever due to numerous conflicts, violence and terrorist issues threatening the country's survival as a nation state.

Leaders from the Indonesian National Students Movement (GMNI), and the Indonesian Catholic Students Association (PMKRI) said separately on Sunday that the prolonged conflicts in Aceh, Maluku, Papua and the series of terror bombings were threatening the country's national unity.

GMNI Presidium Chairman Bambang Rumada said the bloody conflicts in Aceh and Maluku and other regions had a lot to do with the inequality of power distribution and the absence of justice during the New Order era.

"As long as the distribution of power and justice are considered unfair, national unity will remain threatened. People will become more and more cynical about nationalism," he told The Jakarta Post.

In addition to domestic threats, globalization with its free market system also posed a threat to people of losing their national identity, he said.

According to him, globalization was affecting the country since international organizations and institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank had dictated to the country to save it from bankruptcy. "We can't stop globalization, but we must be able to develop our character, our ability to compete with other nations, not just follow orders from other nations," he said.

He added the oaths of one nation, one language and one motherland youths uttered in 1928 were real challenges for all the groups of people to cope with the problems, including the present terrorist issue.

PMKRI Chairman Robert J.E. Nalenan said that nationalistic feelings needed to be "refreshed" to prevent the nation from collapse.

He said the country had so far failed to develop a common national character, but only produced people who believed in communal politics and primordialism.

"We must dare to get out of our obsolete frame of mind to maintain our national unity. Better understanding of pluralism is needed, otherwise the country will collapse," he told the Post.

He said bloody conflicts in Poso, Central Sulawesi, and in Maluku and demands for separation in Aceh and Papua were part of the failure to understand pluralism.

Consequently, Pancasila, national ideology, had been weakened because everybody was reluctant to talk about it, he said. Pancasila comprises five virtues on one god, humanity, national unity, democracy and social justicem.

Robert also urged the government to seriously implement decentralization to meet regional demands so they would have wider power to manage their own regions.

"In the past, centralization [overall control from Java] only created problems of unfair wealth distribution and injustice to all the outer islands. So don't just pretend to carry out decentralization to appease people," he said.

Religion/Islam

Muslim leader condemns arrest of suspected JI leader

Radio Australia - October 31, 2002

[There is a growing backlash in Indonesia over the arrest of Abu Bakar Bashir. A powerful visitor went to visit him in hospital recently, the chairman of one of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisations, Muhammadiyah. After the meeting, Professor Ahmad Syafii Marrif said that Bashir is a "scapegoat", arrested only after pressure from the United States. Tony Jones asked Professor Syafii about the comments which have had extensive coverage in both Australia and Jakarta.]

Transcript:

Tony Jones: Well, there's a growing backlash in Indonesia over the arrest of Abu Bakar Bashir.

A powerful visitor went to visit him in hospital recently, the chairman of one of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisations, Muhammadiyah.

After the meeting, Professor Ahmad Syafii Marrif said that Bashir is a "scapegoat", arrested only after pressure from the United States. His comments have had extensive coverage both here and in Jakarta, from where he joins us now.

Tony Jones: Professor, thanks for joining us.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, chairman Muhammadiyah: Thank you.

Tony Jones: Why do you say that Abu Bakar Bashir is a scapegoat?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah, because -- I think the police have not enough evidence, hard and legal evidence to arrest him, you see. So I still, I have still to wait for further evidence for this. Otherwise people will speak out about his arrest, you see.

Tony Jones: You've also said he's only been arrested from pressure from a dictating country, the US. What did you mean by that?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah, that's one of the possibilities, because Abu Bakar was arrested based on the statement made by Omar al-Faruq before. Who was captured by the Indonesian police before that.

But then the -- one mysterious thing happened, you see. Al-Faruq was not investigated in Indonesia. The Indonesian intelligence offered him to the US intelligence agency. I think this is a mystery, you see.

Tony Jones: Sorry to interrupt you, but isn't that because it was clear that he was working with the al-Qa'ida organisation?

And let me ask you this, if I can, do you accept the evidence that Omar al-Faruq has given the US and now also Indonesian investigators points directly at Abu Bakar Bashir as a central figure planning terrorist acts?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah, I asked when I visited Abu Bakar Bashir last week, I ask him, "Mr Bashir, please tell me sincerely, do you know Mr Al-Faruq?" The answer I got was, he knew nothing about this guy, you see. I think the problem is -- is Mr Al-Faruq had been taken to US base in Afghanistan. So it would be not very easy for us, you see, to come to conclusion that Abu Bakar was the -- one of the masterminds of many bombings in Indonesia.

Tony Jones: Abu Bakar Bashir has said many things, among them he's claimed the Bali bombing was engineered by foreign intelligence services. He points the finger at the US for having organised that bombing. Do you agree with him there?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: No, no. That's too early to say that, you see, because we are still waiting for further evidence for this.

Tony Jones: The Australian Government has also identified Bashir as the leader of Jemaah Islamiah, and called for his arrest. I mean, do you believe that they also are dictating to Indonesia?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: I do not know because the -- the name of Jemaah Islamiah, I just know this name recently, you see, because before we knew nothing about this Jemaah.

Tony Jones: So you don't believe what you and most Indonesians that read the 'Time' magazine that set out the allegations of Omar al-Faruq. Do you not believe, for example, that Jemaah Islamiah exists inside Indonesia, that you have terrorists there?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah, I think until the al-Faruq is taken to -- is brought to Indonesia and to confront him to Mr Bashir, it will be very difficult for me to believe that Abu Bakar Bashir was part of al-Faruq's networking.

Tony Jones: What do you think of the religious teachings of Abu Bakar Bashir? For example, this is from one of his sermons, "Allah has divided humanity into two. The followers of Allah and the followers of Satan."

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah. That's -- that's his interpretation, you see. I think Abu Bakar Bashir is a single-minded person, I think.

So I do not agree with his understanding of religion, and I don't agree with his strategy to achieve his ideal, you see, because last year he was -- he invited me to his office in Jakarta and I came.

And then we made a dialogue and at the end of that I told him my different interpretation and opinion cannot be reconciled, therefore I told him we have to stop our discussion now. Although we are still brothers.

Tony Jones: Don't you think, though, it's very dangerous what he's been doing here? He says himself that he's taught his students about jihad, that that's the highest Islamic lesson. Isn't it dangerous to be teaching young men to go off and fight a holy war?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: I think his followers remain insignificant until now. I told you I do not agree with him about this. I can advise him to understand Islam more properly and wisely, you see.

But this radical group, this militant groups, I think appears in Indonesia because of the domestic problems, because of the domestic problems because of the non-existence of justice and also the law enforcement does not function well in Indonesia.

And also corruption is rampant everywhere. These social ills, you see, have encouraged the radicalism and militancy takes a role in Indonesia.

Tony Jones: Professor Syafii, that has also happened in other countries like Egypt and the Saudi Arabia and the end result has been the development of organisations like al-Qa'ida, like Jemaah Islamiah. Is it so hard to imagine that those young men who he says have gone off from his school to fight the jihad in Bosnia, Chechnya and other places that they've also become connected to al-Qa'ida, many of them appear to have, his own students?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Yeah, the danger of course -- of course the element of dangers are there. But not all Muslims agree with this interpretation. Islam as a belief system is one. But the interpretation of it can be many and varied, you see.

I also -- what happened in US before there are also militant groups -- Jones, I forget his name. Also he developed some kind of religious radicalism there. Radicalism is -- yeah, OK.

Tony Jones: Do you see the point that I'm making here? You have come out now and said the reason he's been arrested is because Indonesia has been dictated to by the US. When in fact the reason he's been arrested is that people are afraid of what he's been doing in your country.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: No. I think -- because he was arrested mainly because of the statement made by al-Faruq, you see, as we can read in 'Time' magazine a few weeks ago. I am still waiting for enough evidence for -- OK.

Tony Jones: Are you then worried that his arrest will serve to radicalise many young, now moderate Muslims? Will they see him and think that he's going to become a martyr?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Ah, no. I hope this will not happen. Because Muhammadiyah has moderate Muslims organisations who will monitor this possibility.

Tony Jones: The Indonesian Government now has the power to keep him under arrest, under these emergency decrees, for many months, if necessary, while they investigate what he's done. Do you think they should do that, they should keep him away from his students until they completely investigate this matter and the Bali bombing, for that matter?

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Why did the Indonesian Government do it just recently? Why didn't the Indonesian Government do it before? Because I think...

Tony Jones: Perhaps because you've had on your soil the worst terrorist act since September 11.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: That's what I have to weigh the evidence, otherwise I cannot speculate about this.

Tony Jones: Alright, we will leave it there. Professor Syaffi, thank you very much for joining us. We do appreciate you for taking the time.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif: Thank you, very, very much.

Where youth are moulded for militancy

Straits Times - October 28, 2002

Devi Asmarani, Solo -- An Osama bin Laden picture adorns the wall calendar at the infirmary of the Al-Mukmin Pesantren, the Islamic boarding school which has acquired a reputation for being a militant breeding ground. It is a place where students and teachers alike profess their admiration for the man they call the Muslim "hero".

T-shirts with his pictures are favourite fashion items among the students, and everyone thinks he leads a brave campaign against the crusaders and the Zionists.

During Friday prayers at the mosque, his name and US President George W. Bush are mentioned in the same breath. But they pray for God's blessings for the former, and condemnation for the latter. Mr Bush's anti-terror campaign is seen here as being targeted towards Islam.

Among students, the latest fad is to carve the word "Israel" and "USA" on their slippers to symbolise their revulsion of the two countries they think most hostile towards the Muslims. "The Quran says that Christians and the Jews will not let us Muslims live peacefully until we follow their religions," said 19-year-old Abdul Mufi.

And he thinks that as part of the grand design to undermine Muslims, his teacher and Al-Mukmin founder Abu Bakar Bashir was wrongly accused of masterminding several bombings in the past two years.

Bashir, named as one of the leaders of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terror network, has been under police watch at the Muhammadiyah Hospital here for the past week after collapsing a day before he was named a suspect. The school has since deployed dozens of senior students to prevent him from being taken by the police.

They refuse to believe that their "fatherly" ustaz (religious teacher), who teaches Quranic Interpretation to final-year students, could inspire any terror attack. "Ustaz has been slandered, he did not mastermind any attack," said Abdul. Said 16-year old Retno Wulandari: "He is a peaceful, spiritual man."

In the 1980s, Bashir, who co-founded the school with the late Abdullah Sungkar in 1973, ran afoul of the Suharto regime with his radical Islamic interpretation. That led to his exile to Malaysia before he decided to return home three years ago.

But now that he is under local and international spotlight, locals are concerned his radical followers, a minority group in the mostly moderate Indonesia, are turning off visitors to the sultanate city. "Even I'm scared of them. They are fanatics," said one university student.

Squeezed in the middle of the residential area of Ngruki, the school is moulding young men and women into Muslim clerics who will struggle for the supremacy of the religion. The writing and calligraphies on the walls in classrooms and hallways call for Muslims to wage jihad or holy war.

The two-hectare compound is divided into women's and men's quarters. Anyone caught crossing over is punished. There are 1,100 male students and 900 female students living in the two dormitories.

Curriculum emphasis is heavy on maths and the sciences, in addition to the religious classes. And only Arabic and English are supposed to be spoken in the compound.

Mr Ibnu Annifah, the vice-assistant director, said: "We already speak Bahasa Indonesia, and we think we have to master English to follow the technology." By their second year here, most students can communicate fluently in Arabic, as almost all classes are taught in the language. Graduates have gone to study in various universities in the Middle East.

The students observe a regimented daily schedule that starts at 4 am with prayers and exercises. Music is forbidden here, and students found smoking and bringing in "un-Islamic reading material" will be punished. Rows of books in Arabic line the library, and the only papers available are the local Islamic publications and the Saudi-based Muslim World.

Said vice-director Wahyudin: "We want to create an environment that is conducive to apply what we teach, by limiting influence that can cause the students to commit sins."

Armed forces/Police

Partners in crime

Sydney Morning Herald - November 2, 2002

Hamish McDonald and Matthew Moore -- Early this week, a military attache with a Western embassy in Jakarta was given a tip-off by senior officers in Indonesian armed forces headquarters: the head of the counter-terrorism unit with the Indonesian army's special forces had been identified as a source of the explosives used in the October 12 bombings in Bali.

The attache and other defence analysts quickly identified what this was all about: discrediting the father-in-law of the officer mentioned, who happens to be retired general A.M. Hendropriyono, the head of the state intelligence agency, or BIN, which is eclipsing the military role in anti-terrorism.

That such a transparent piece of disinformation could be attempted at relatively high levels of the military -- and be met with a ho-hum reaction by its recipients -- testifies to an astonishing level of credulity here about what agencies of the state are capable of doing.

One conspiracy theory after another has hit the media or circulated around the Jakarta elite this week. One front-page story had two prominent generals as masterminds of the Bali bombings. Another theory pointed to former defence minister General Wiranto. On Wednesday, US ambassador Ralph Boyce had to fend off renewed questioning from local reporters suggesting the CIA had a hand in the attack. On Thursday, newspapers quoted police chief General Da'i Bachtiar raising suspicions about separatists in remote Aceh province. Way down the list of suspects, it seems, are the organisations that Western governments most strongly suspect: Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group from the Middle East, and Jemaah Islamiah, a similar-minded local group of radical Islamists who aspire to create a pan-Islamic state including all believers in South-East Asia.

Indonesians don't know much about these two groups. The first is remote from their experience, the second a fringe group with outlandish ideas. But Indonesians do know about their own military, police and intelligence agencies, which is why these conspiracy theories fly.

Over decades, Indonesians have seen their security agencies stage all kinds of provocations and fake terrorist incidents for political ends. They also know them to be deeply corrupt. The country has opened up immensely since the 1998 fall of former president Soeharto, whose authoritarian rule has been replaced by election-based politics. But the security forces remain their own masters and, in the eyes of many critics, continue to foment violent outbreaks and exacerbate crises around Indonesia to justify their special role.

The armed forces, or TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia), still largely fund themselves from a mix of legal and illegal business activities that raise an estimated $6.4 billion a year, as against their funding from the Government budget of only $3.2 billion. TNI-controlled "charitable foundations" run 64 companies in everything from shopping centres to airlines to logging, while the army, navy and air force have their own empires. But by far the most lucrative are protection payments paid by private enterprises, from huge resource companies down to criminals behind gambling, drugs and prostitution.

This wasn't such a security problem until Soeharto's fall. Since then, the military's grip on its cash flow has been challenged from other quarters. The police, previously run as the fourth branch of the armed forces, were taken out of the Defence Department and put under civilian control two years ago. While the military have been left with their network of domestic garrisons known as the Territorial Command structure, a new law also gives the police responsibility for internal security -- without extra funding or resources.

Another major change has been the devolution of political authority from Jakarta to the 30 provinces and 400 local governments, which have gained direct access to much of the tax revenue from mining and timber. Alongside the power and funds, corruption and extortion have also been decentralised.

The result is that police and army units are now fighting for control of protection rackets and other sources of income across the country. Last month, at Binjai in North Sumatra, an army airborne unit tied up its officers and attacked two local police stations using rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, killing eight police and civilians, in a squabble over 1.5 tonnes of cannabis.

On the eastern island of Flores, police and the army have battled repeatedly in the streets of the main city, Maumere. Protection money has emerged as a possible motive for the attack on 10 teachers at the American-owned Freeport Mine in Papua in August, in which two Americans and one Indonesian died.

According to Marcus Mietzner, a German scholar researching the Indonesian military for a doctorate at the Australian National University, some companies are paying protection money to as many as 14 groups, including army, police, ethnic militias and the "security units" or Satgas attached to political parties. "It has become a very crowded protection sector," Mietzner said. "This is why they are getting more and more desperate and why they are crossing lines they have not crossed before. Why they are killing police officers and probably even foreigners."

This doesn't mean that the security forces would carry out a giant atrocity like the Bali bombings. For one thing, Mietzner points out, the military has direct investments in Bali like the giant Nusa Dua resort, hotels and golf courses, as well as extracting protection money from other tourism operators.

For another, the TNI is no longer under threat from the reform push that two years ago seemed likely to wind up the territorial commands. That pressure has all but vanished since the TNI- friendly Megawati Soekarnoputri took over the Indonesian presidency in August last year and the September 11 attacks made the US worry more about security than human rights or corruption.

"There is little reason for the TNI to be dissatisfied with the current situation," Mietzner says. "Everything [has been] going their way." But it does mean that the Indonesian security apparatus is not much of a barrier to serious terrorists. A determined terrorist with enough money can buy his way in and out of the country and acquire all the explosives and weapons he needs.

The security forces are also in disarray at the top. With vacillating leadership from President Megawati and her top security minister, former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the chiefs of the various security agencies are busy competing for control of the massive investigation to catch the Bali bombers. As well as the police team working with the Australian Federal Police, FBI and other foreign experts in Bali, separate investigations are being run by BIN's civilian intelligence agents and by the army intelligence arm called BAIS.

Throughout the investigation, they have made wildly conflicting claims about their progress. BIN's spokesman claimed a week ago that the agency knew the identity of three of the 10 suspected bombers, a claim the police said was a mystery to them.

Since the bombings, the Howard Government has said it wants closer contact with Indonesian security. The US Government has said the same. The problem is that many of the Indonesian security chiefs have themselves organised large-scale violent activities, such as the "Laskar Jihad" (Holy War Warrior) campaign against Christian communities in eastern Indonesia and the anti-independence militias in East Timor.

The unit best prepared for anti-terrorism duty is the notorious army special forces command known as Kopassus, responsible for extensive assassinations of government opponents. "Any government that sees the TNI or indeed BIN as a solution to the terrorist problem has got to look really carefully at what these people have done in the past, and what they may be doing now," says Sidney Jones, Indonesia director of the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based privately funded monitoring body.

Since BIN handed over the wanted al-Qaeda operative Omar al-Faruq to the CIA in June, American officials have seemed prepared to overlook the controversial career of BIN chief Hendropriyono. This week's presidential decree making BIN the co-ordinator of counter-terror operations -- involving personnel from each armed service, police and the allegedly less-tainted Unit 81 of Kopassus -- may open the way for foreign forces to bypass the politically untouchable Kopassus.

But experts such as Mietzner call this a "quick fix" which will achieve very little. He argues the only way to lift the quality of Indonesia's security forces is to address the problem of military finances, by insisting on full transparency and accountability and possibly considering international aid for the transition.

That may be a multi-billion-dollar program. But as long as the TNI is self-funded, it is outside the Indonesian Government's control and inherently corruptible, and there will continue to be a huge gap in the region's security. "If you just pump money and resources into the existing system you just perpetuate what is already there," says Mietzner.

Editorial: Don't isolate Indonesia's military

Wall Street Journal - November 1, 2002

News that Indonesian soldiers might have been involved in an August ambush in Papua that killed two Americans and an Indonesian and wounded 11 isn't surprising. The history of the chaotic province has been marked by separatist revolts and reprisals; civilian deaths at the hands of the army have occurred before.

Yet Jakarta's acknowledgment that soldiers may have been involved in the August abuses has brought new demands from human rights advocates that foreign governments shun the Indonesian military. Even if the worst-case scenario is true and military personnel opened fire on a group of unarmed school teachers, what the international response should be is not easily reduced to a simplistic formula. Certainly it's best to wait and see if Indonesian authorities mete out justice before meddling in a nation's internal affairs, even when foreigners were among the victims.

The initial Indonesian response was a claim that anti-government insurgents were responsible for the attack, which is certainly a plausible theory in the absence of more solid evidence. But recent government actions show that Jakarta is seriously trying to get to the bottom of the crimes. For starters, local officials are reported to be cooperating openly with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, a refreshing improvement from a government that had been dragging its feet in helping America with the war on terror.

More to the point, it was an Indonesian police investigator named I Made Mangku Pastika who first went public with the news that members of the elite Kopassus army unit might have had a role. An investigation by Mr. Pastika last year led to the arrest of several other Kopassus members for assassinating a Papuan rebel leader. Allowing a serious prober such as Mr. Pastika to enter the case suggests that there is no conspiracy to cover up official complicity.

The bloody hand of international terror indirectly has brought increased attention to the two-month-old Papua atrocity. President Megawati Sukarnoputri has also designated Mr. Pastika to head the investigation into last month's Bali bombings -- a high-profile appointment that was likely to put the media spotlight on his career and recent cases. After Bali, the international pressure on Ms. Megawati to quickly prosecute and punish any Indonesians responsible for the deaths of foreigners in the archipelago adds impetus to efforts to find the culprits in the Papua killings.

But cutting off US aid to or communication with the Indonesian military is hardly an intelligent answer to the problem of dark deeds by rogue military units. What is needed now is not a weaker military but one that is better trained, better disciplined and obedient to civil authorities. That can best be furthered by contact with such a force in being, specifically the US military.

Beset by ethnic violence and independence movements, the country relies on the steady hand of government for stability. As the nation's democratic institutions mature, they strive to bring the military under their own control. But Indonesia will continue to need a strong army to help keep the peace among the diverse peoples spread across more than 17,000 islands. In the past successful programs have brought officers and cadets to US

military academies for training. Increased contact with the world's most powerful fighting force would inevitably convince Indonesian soldiers that unquestioning deference to civilian rule and respect for human rights in no way diminishes the importance of a nation's military.

Indonesia's armed forces have been consistently ceding more power to the civilian government since Suharto stepped down in 1998. Earlier this year, President Megawati announced another series of reforms, including an accelerated schedule for removing the seats reserved for military officers in the national parliament. This is progress.

It's also important to note that excesses by some notoriously tough and independent units in far-flung outposts of a country that stretches for 3,000 miles does not necessarily mean that the central command in the capital condones random violence. The difficult job of controlling renegade units was made clear when an army airborne battalion went so far as to attack two police stations during a rampage in North Sumatra on September 29.

The most important reason not to isolate the Indonesian military is that it would set back the world war against terror. After the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, and especially following the October Bali bombings, international leaders have asked Ms. Megawati to take bold steps to crack down on radical Islamic groups operating in Indonesia. There is no way jihadist organizations can be controlled in the world's most populous Muslim nation without the assistance of strong armed forces.

In the ring: intelligence and police

Laksamana.Net - October 29, 2002

Being appointed coordinator of all intelligence activities in the days after the Bali bombing, head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), Hendropriyono, has found himself at war not only with terrorism but also the police.

BIN spokesman Muchyar Yara opened the bidding, apparently under the impression he now had strong authority, by stating within a few days of the bombing that an arrest could be expected soon.

He praised the work of the BIN investigative team led by Maj. Gen. Muchdie P.R., who he said was hot on the trail of the perpetrators.

"We are monitoring them and will act soon. This shows that BIN can do its job. Even before Bali, we had told the others about terrorists, but they disregarded the information," he said.

Deputy head of public relations for the national police, Edward Aritonang, denied that BIN had shared information. "I've received no information from BIN. We don't have any suspects in mind yet," he said.

Aritonang said police investigators were sifting clues found at the scene of the blasts, and relying on their own intelligence efforts.

The force has its own intelligence division, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Affairs (Dit Intelpam), an organization which is placed under the Deputy for Operations.

Its function has potential to overlap with the intelligence operations conducted by BIN or the military intelligence agency (BIA). Intelpam's function covers investigation, counter- intelligence and support/covert operations in the context of carrying out preventive and repressive police operational duties including defense and security operational duties allocated to the police.

While the police were still integrated into the Armed Forces, police intelligence officers were involved in a number of highly political cases, since the definition of the term "criminal activities" was in the hands of the military authorities.

In the post-Suharto era, BIN is supposed to be a civilian-type intelligence organ focusing its activities on intelligence gathering, information and analysis. But when President Megawati Sukarnoputri appointed former Jakarta regional military commander Hendropriyono as her intelligence chief, BIN was destined to remain very much influenced by the military mind and to act like combat intelligence.

This has at times led BIN to become involved in overt operations, losing the elements of secrecy and surprise that covert work might have achieved.

BIN's reputation fell when it disclosed that terrorists were training in a camp in Poso, Central Sulawesi. BIN stated that al Qaeda fighters were being trained there.

This allegation emerged originally in testimony given to a Spanish judge by eight al Qaeda activists. They claimed 200-300 fighters had trained in Poso and mentioned an Indonesian, Parlindungan Siregar, as a pivotal figure.

The claims were taken up by Hendropriyono, who stated publicly in mid-December 2001 that his officers had found evidence of foreigners training near Poso. By making a public announcement, Hendro was seen to have blundered.

"When he received the information regarding terrorist activities in Poso, what he should have done was to conduct a silent operation to root out the terrorist suspects," says one analyst. "Announcing the existence of terrorists in Poso only warned them that their presence had been exposed. Thus they decided to escape immediately."

Worse still, Hendropriyono's public warning on terrorist training in Poso was denied by senior Indonesian police and military officials, who said that, while there were certainly Indonesian paramilitary training bases in Poso, they had no evidence of outsiders training there.

The obvious lack of respect between BIN and the police intelligence is just part of the story that suggests that BIN is unable to act decisively as the peak intelligence organ in the fight against terrorism.

The personal record of Hendropriyono does not endear him to human rights activists, creating yet another source of friction.

Apart from bungling the issue of al Qaeda bases in Poso and arousing controversy over his role in the arrest of Indonesians Tamsil, Balfas and Dwikarna in the Philippine, Hendropriyono was also involved in the massacre of more than a hundred Muslim villagers in Talangsari, Lampung, in 1989. Many more were imprisoned.

At that time commander of the Garuda Hitam batallion, the crackdown on members of the Warsidi sect was a typical Suharto- era response to extremist Islam: stop it in its tracks. To this day, Hendropriyono remains dogged by demands for justice from the relatives of some who died or were imprisoned.

He has attracted adverse press attention over his extensive business interests and his name has been mentioned as being involved in the killing of Papuan leader Theys Eluay.

The record of BIN itself is little better. It has been publicly ridiculed for its inaccurate and often politically loaded reporting. In early 2002, it was derided by ministers and senior politicians when it emerged that BIN had written separate and contradictory reports on the economy for cabinet ministers and a parliamentary committee.

BIN also prepared an error-filled briefing for parliament's Foreign Affairs and Security Commission prior to John Howard's visit to Indonesia in February. Among other things, it alleged that Australia's Lt. Gen. Peter Cosgrove had written an autobiography denigrating Indonesia's role in East Timor. It also asserted that the Howard government had formed a secret twelve- person committee to engineer Papua's secession from Indonesia.

Referring to BIN's unreliable reports, the police rebuttals of spokesman Muchyar Yara's claims to prior information on the Bali bombing has strengthened the assessment made earlier by Vice President Hamzah Haz: BIN is no action, talk only (NATO).

Indonesian military makes political comeback

Asia Times - October 29, 2002

Richel Langit, Jakarta -- Indonesia's war on terrorism is drawing the country's powerful military back on to the political stage, threatening to put an end to political reforms and progress toward fuller democracy.

The appointment of two retired generals to key positions in the anti-terror drive highlights President Megawati Sukarnoputri's reluctance to divest the military off its political role, which dominated the country's life for more than three decades under the leadership of the dictator Suharto.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a retired four-star army general, has been appointed coordinating minister for political and security affairs, heading the country's anti-terrorism drive, while a retired three-star army general who heads the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), M A Hendropriyono, has been made coordinator of all of the country's intelligence.

Currently, Indonesia has four intelligence units: BIN, which reports directly to the president; military intelligence (Bais), which is under the auspices of the military chief; police intelligence (Intelpam), which the responsible of the police chief; and an intelligence unit responsible to the attorney general.

The appointment of Yudhoyono and Hendropriyono has raised concerns that the military is making a comeback after members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body, agreed to end the military's political role officially by 2004, when the country is to hold a direct presidential election.

There is no doubt that Yudhoyono and Hendropriyono will greatly influence the government's policies against terrorist networks, blamed for the deadly bomb explosions in the county's prime tourist destination, Bali, once considered a symbol of peace and order. Hours before Megawati issued two government regulations on terrorism, she consulted Yudhoyono and Hendropriyono as well as military chief General Indriartono Sutarto, while Attorney General A M Rachman was ignored.

Megawati seems to have left everything to Yudhoyono and Hendropriyono; she did not address the nation about the terrorist attacks until almost 13 hours after the bomb blasts, and has not done so again since. Yudhoyono has been holding regular news conferences to unveil government policies and security measures taken in dealing with terrorism. He has also warned the population of possible new terrorist attacks, and on Monday he spelled out government measures against terrorism and urged Muslim groups to demonstrate that they are against violence and terrorism.

Given the police's poor intelligence, Megawati will have to rely heavily on military intelligence to unravel the terrorist attacks, which may push the country into another round of economic crisis. Already, military intelligence says it has identified the bombers, but the police say they have no leads to possible suspects. This shows that the military intelligence apparatus was not only more prepared to deal with terrorism but that the military was not willing to share its information with the police, which was separated from the military in January 2001. This is despite the fact that BIN has been appointed to coordinate the work of the country's intelligence. The military is intent on going it alone and taking the credit for itself.

The Bali bomb blasts, which killed at least 190 and injured more than 300 people, mostly foreigners, has awakened the country to the fact that terrorist networks are operating in the country and that they are out to shatter peace and order in the world's biggest Islamic country. There was a prevailing feeling among Indonesians after the terrorist attacks that military personnel should be deployed throughout the country to reduce its vulnerability to terrorist attacks. The military was seen as possessing the qualified personnel to safeguard vital infrastructure across the archipelago and to track down those responsible for the Bali attacks. Indeed, the military has the most qualified intelligence personnel.

And that is exactly what the Megawati administration has done. Almost immediately after the Bali blasts, the government instructed military leaders to be on the alert, with thousands of military personnel deployed in vital potential targets such as mining companies, electricity and telecommunication installations, and airports throughout the country.

The return of the military into politics and the use of intelligence data, as stipulated in the government regulation on anti-terrorism, to arrest, detain, question, and prosecute suspected terrorists revives memories of human-rights violations, which if they reappear could put an end to the democratization drive. During Suharto's 32 years of leadership, intelligence data were often used to silence his political opponents and government critics.

The recently issued anti-terrorism regulations stipulate that investigators should obtain court approval before arresting, detaining, and bringing to court suspected terrorists. The problem, however, is that the country's judges are not used to using intelligence data to bring somebody to court. Human-rights abuses are likely to go unchecked. During Suharto's rule, the label "communist" was often used to put an end to someone's career, or even his life. This labeling was often used by feuding groups in order to gain support from the government. New fears that political careers will now be destroyed with the "terrorist" label are all too real.

International relations

Treading warily with Indonesia

Canberra Times - October 31, 2002

John Walker -- As Australian policy makers attempt to analyse the implications for Australian-Indonesian relations of the bomb attacks on Bali, it is important that they maintain a realistic appreciation both of the nature of our immediate region and of Australia's longer term strategic interests.

The tenor of some public comments by ministers and commentators alike suggests that this will not be easy to achieve.

Within days of the Bali bombings, the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, openly canvassed his preparedness to reconsider the question of the Australian SAS training with the Indonesian special forces, Kopassus. Opposition leader Simon Crean called for a regional summit to discuss measures to combat terrorism in South-East Asia.

Notwithstanding the grief of relatives and the hyperbole of politicians, there is no evidence yet that the recent simultaneous bombings in Bali and Sulawesi have changed Australia's strategic environment. It is unfortunate that only after the deaths of so many Australians have our political leaders and policy makers recognised that Indonesia has been the target of terrorist attacks for some time. Some estimates put the number of significant explosions in Jakarta during the past two years at 20, with targets including the Jakarta Stock Exchange and shopping centres.

These attacks, as much as Australia's support for President George W. Bush's "war on terrorism", provide the context for analysing the Bali attacks.

Although many of the victims of the Bali bombs were Australian, a principal target of the attack is likely to have been the processes of democratisation and liberalisation in Indonesia itself.

Political violence was used to destabilise the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid and has continued to confront the authority of his successor, Megawati Sukarnoputri. Terrorist attacks in urban centres, as well as organised mass violence in Ambon and other areas, are aimed at stalling the processes of democratisation and liberalisation. The reported links between some elements of the Islamic organisation Laskar Jihad and some former senior military officers suggests that, in political violence and in other elements of Indonesian public life, the military is ever present.

This should surprise no-one: it is the inevitable result of a doctrine of dual function which has ensured that no part of Indonesian society, legal or otherwise, is quarantined from military influence. Some commentators have contrasted the apparently increasing chaos in Indonesia with the "stability" and "order" of the New Order regime of President Suharto.

For such analysts the lessons are clear: Indonesia is a turbulent giant which requires a "strong" hand to preserve all our securities. Such views are premised on the assumption that the New Order was stable. It was not.

Like all authoritarian regimes it was able to resist pressures for change by progressively increasing the threat and use of violence against its citizenry.

And like other authoritarian regimes, pressures for change eventually overwhelmed it. Australia's longer-term strategic interests require that Australia supports Indonesia's attempts at achieving greater democracy and pluralism, the rule of law and the subordination of the military to civilian control. The easiest policy response the Australian Government could make, bolstering support for the military, including Kopassus, would be the most destructive to our longer-term interests.

Kopassus's record of human-rights abuses in Papua, East Timor and Aceh ought to remove any possibility of a resumption of Australian military training. One response of proponents of increased military cooperation to these criticisms is to suggest that Australian training and cooperation might increase Indonesian military professionalism and military understanding of and respect for human rights.

Our previous cooperation and training clearly failed to have this affect, and there is no reason to suppose that such expectations would be realised in the future. Indeed, any Australian expectation that our neighbours need only to associate more with us to assume our values is at best patronising.

When soldiers torture and kill civilians, it is already in the knowledge that they are abusing their power and others' rights. Human-rights abuses are used as tactics: they are not the result of an oversight.

Although it is too early to identify the perpetrators of the Bali attacks, the possibility that members of Kopassus or other military elements were involved should not be discounted. Many commentators suspect that elements of Kopassus were implicated in this year's assassination of the Papuan leader Theys Eluay, whilst Kopassus is also believed to have been behind the recent ambush and murder of two US citizens and an Indonesian near the Papuan town of Tembagaputra.

The other main policy response from the Australian Government to the Bali attacks has been to encourage President Megawati to tighten political controls.

Megawati is proud of her father's political legacy. Almost 40 years after Sukarno's removal from office it is easy to forget that part of that legacy was the creation of authoritarian ideologies and power structures that subsequently were used so effectively by President Suharto.

It should be a matter of concern to Australian policy makers that President Megawati last week created by presidential decree powers for her Government to arrest and detain without trial suspected terrorists. Any retreat from the reform process to more authoritarian modes of government will detract from the longer- term security of Indonesians, Australians and our region.

[John Walker teaches South-East Asian politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, University of NSW, and is co-organising an international conference on regionalism and identity in Indonesia and Malaysia at ADFA next month.]

Exploiter and exploited - Australia and Indonesia

Jakarta Post - October 31, 2002

Max Lane -- The relationship been Australia and Indonesia has always been complex. One of the main reason's for this has been, as Mark Otter explained in his article in Jakarta Post on October 29, the difference between governmental (i.e. elite) and public opinion.

The Australian political elite, as represented by the political leaderships of the two major party groupings as well as the bureaucratic and military elite, has always been sympathetic to the policies and interests of the Indonesian political elite, including during the period of the Soeharto-GOLKAR dictatorship.

Public opinion has been more sympathetic with the plight of the victims of political repression, both in Indonesia proper and East Timor. Over the last two decades, there has also developed a wide range of relationships between what is now referred to as "civil society", i.e. the spectrum of liberal and humanitarian community, trade union, intellectual, cultural and educational organizations and institutions. This spectrum also tended to prioritize human rights and democracy above "economic development" and company profits.

A clich in the discussion about Australian Indonesian relations is that there is a large cultural gap between the two "cultures". Australia, although increasingly multicultural, is a European based culture; Indonesia is "Asian" with a different value system. Ironically, however, in the field of politics, where tensions are often greatest, there is the greatest overlap in cultural perspectives. The struggle for Independence drew on a wide range of international political thinking. Indonesia's first President, Sukarno, popularized ideas taken from Islam, from Asian thinkers, such as Sun Yat Sen, but also from the French Revolution, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln as well as Karl Marx.

The period of Soeharto-GOLKAR rule created a vacuum in political culture. Militarist, bureaucratic and consumerist values grew as the basis of the political outlook of the elite. In the wake of the 1997 economic crisis, this politically bankrupt elite is incapable of dealing with all the consequences of an socio- economic crisis that threatens both social and national disintegration.

Australia is not much different in the ideological field. As the Australian Labour Party has grown more and more similar in ideology to John Howard's Liberal Party, ideological debate has also virtually disappeared. The Australian political elite is also bankrupt.

The aftermath of the Bali bombing points to some of the deeper issues that these bankrupt elites cannot handle. John Howard has been milking the sympathy and fear of the Australian community for all it is worth.

Of course, much of the Australian community is shocked and frightened by the bombing to death of almost 200 people and the injury and maiming of another 200. Many Indonesians have reacted in the same way. But Howard has not reacted with a serious search for the reasons why such a thing could happen nor a serious discussion of the implications of the event.

Australian narrow nationalism has surfaced, for example, in some of the coverage in Australia of the Bali attack. There is a constant criticism that Indonesia hasn't done enough and should "take action now!" against "terrorists". In a situation where no specific person has been proven as a perpetrator of a terrorist act, "take action now" can only be taken to mean to detain somebody before there is any or sufficient evidence. "Innocent until proven guilty" as a legal principle is abandoned. Neither elite has ever cared about this principle (except when they are the accused), but it would be a backward step if Australia public opinion also decided it was OK for Australia to press for the abandonment of this principle in Indonesia.

Another example is some disparaging comment on the level of health services in the hospitals in Bali. More intelligent commentators have pointed out that this is to be expected due to the fact that Indonesia is a poorer country. It is true, of course, that another difference between Australia and Indonesia is that Australia's economy, despite a much smaller population, is much bigger than Indonesia's economy.

But it is not just a rich poor gap. It is an exploiter -- exploited gap. The Australian economy has prospered as a result of Australia being part of the Western world, which has exploited the Third World, including most of Asia, for more than three centuries. There are many Australian businessmen who are now are extremely wealthy because of their operations in Indonesia during the Soeharto-GOLKAR dictatorship.

These companies benefited from the absence of trade unions, of no environmental laws and so on. Australia now actively supports the International Monetary Fund policy towards Indonesia, which is resulting in the transfer of Indonesian productive assets into foreign hands and dumping into Indonesian of cheap goods from the rich Western countries.

Even Australian tourism to Bali has an aspect if this distorted relationship. Many Australian tourists who visit Bali do make genuine friends with Indonesians in Bali. However we must also ask the question as to why is it possible for tens of thousands of mostly working class Australians to holiday overseas in Bali? The reason is that the cost of living, of accommodation, food, drink, entertainment and so on, is so cheap. Many Australians enjoy a level of accommodation and comfort that they could not afford in Australia. Why is the cost of living so cheap? Because the material standard of living is also low.

Why is it low? Because economic development in Indonesia has been held back by three centuries of Western colonialism, followed by five decades of Western interference in Indonesia's economic development aimed at maximizing exploitation for foreign profit, with only the tiniest regard for developing a rounded, developed Indonesian economy.

The Australian people need to think more about this exploitative nature of Australia's economic and political relations with Indonesia and work to bring an end to it.

The bankrupt elite in Australia is not interested in this but only making more money and whipping up more narrow nationalism. The bankrupt Indonesian elite, even if it makes some anti-Western commentary, is also not interested: They are the business partners of the West.

In the end the task of changing the peoples' thinking on these issues will fall to the liberal democratic, green and progressive political spectrum in both countries. If this spectrum cannot provide a solution to the deep crisis in the region, then the atmosphere will become even more conducive to people adopting desperate measures; more conducive to all kinds of maneuvers and machinations from within the elites and more conducive to the rise of narrow nationalism in the exploiter countries.

[Max Lane is a Visiting Fellow, Center for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.]

Economy & investment

Fixing Indonesia's economy no labor of love

Asia Times - November 2, 2002

Bill Guerin -- The financial crisis of 1997 brought Indonesia's previously spectacular economic growth to an abrupt halt. Going through the ensuing rigors of massive political change, economic reform and decentralization has left the country ill-equipped to face the very latest challenges of encouraging new inward investment.

The bombings in Bali not only dealt a body blow to earlier whiffs of optimism that the economy was truly on the mend, but also have cast a giant shadow over the short-term future of Indonesia.

Substantial improvement had taken place in the macro-economy, external debt had been successfully rescheduled through the Paris and London Club deals and the massive sovereign debt had been reduced both as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and in total amounts. Inflation had been threatening danger but the rupiah and the Jakarta stock market had strengthened.

Then the bombers struck in Bali, the tourist resort island that was said to have been many people's only knowledge of Indonesia.

The carnage in Kuta has forced a brand-new set of priorities on the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, and the fight against terrorism will perforce take precedence over the priority of providing jobs for Indonesians.

The problems are multi-dimensional: the sheer scale of the jobless figures, the friction between workers and employers, the very limited availability of government funds, the stalled privatization program and doubts about the will and commitment of the government all make the burden a heavy one.

Jobs are desperately needed. Though last month's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) survey estimated the number of jobless Indonesians at only 8.4 million, former manpower minister Bomer Pasaribu says the figures are totally out of touch.

Pasaribu said the number of unemployed was between 40 million and 45 million because the "disguised unemployed" or those working less than 35 hours per week were not included in the BPS survey results. This squares with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (KADIN) estimate that 50 million adults nationwide, half of the current labor force, are out of work or not fully employed.

In an era of drastic change in Indonesia's labor situation, as fledgling labor unions experiment with new freedoms and the government struggles to draft new legislation that protects the rights of both workers and businesses alike, continuing controversy over the government's failure to deal with labor legislation to the satisfaction of all parties has played a part in the negative investment sentiment.

There are 62 labor unions registered at the national level but they have been unable to succeed in satisfying the demands or needs of their members. The labor laws currently in force leave workers out on a limb, as there is no time frame specified for settlement of an industrial dispute, and neither are any penalties proscribed for employers who ignore a tribunal's verdict in favor of the workers.

Indonesia's most famous labor activist, Muchtar Pakpahan, head of the SBSI (Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union), says the two new embryo labor bills in parliament have been modified so much by the House of Representatives (DPR) that "they don't please either workers or investors, but they please politicians".

The absence of clear guidelines for relations between employers and workers, added to increasingly strident labor demands, is a recipe for disaster and certain to spook further would-be investors lurking outside a country that is seen as doing precious little to promote its advantages or put its house in order.

Wages are also a highly contentious issue. Before regional autonomy was implemented last year there had been standardized regional minimum wages, or UMR (Upah Minimum Regional), which were determined unilaterally by the Ministry of Manpower in Jakarta. Central government no longer plays a part. Local bureaucracies determine regional minimum wages through tripartite wage committees and the deals need to be approved only by the provincial governors.

The problem with this is that many employers do not pay the agreed rates, either because they are genuinely unable to increase the cost of the labor component of their business, because they know the workers rights are so weak or because of the ease with which they can hire thugs to bully and intimidate workers into submission.

The labor unrest, foreign-investor disputes with local shareholders because of the almost complete absence of legal certainty, the Manulife fiasco and now the widespread security fears were all crucial factors in causing a dearth of foreign investors.

The government has also been unable to kickstart its struggling privatization program, once seen as the salvation of the economy. Reform has scarcely touched the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and with such a high fiscal deficit, the government's options remain limited. Privatization has turned into a string of postponements, cancellations, inactivity and neglect. Increasing investor skepticism was hardly surprising.

The poor performance and misuse of resources in many of these state companies is a public secret. While some progress has been made since 1998 in reducing blatant corruption, the ongoing climate of legal impunity in Indonesia, coupled with the difficulties of introducing best practices into SOEs, means that the core problem of corruption remains a major impediment to an improvement in performance.

The socio-economic plight of the workers and the poor of Indonesia needs to become a matter of daily priority and concern for the politicians. This is all the more crucial given that increased poverty and despair may spawn a breeding ground for the rabid fundamentalism that, until now, has originated only from a few small pockets across the country.

But can the politicians rise to the occasion? In the mad dash to generate budget revenues and argue over new regulations, few in the corridors of power in Jakarta have been asking themselves: How will our decisions affect the investment and business climate?

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) this week complained that legislators were responsible for delays in the planned selloffs of three banks. For example, IBRA wants to sell 71 percent of the government's 99.36 percent stake in Bank Danamon, as part of the reform agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last Letter of Intent. Bank Danamon should have come under the hammer by the end of July but the sale of the "crown jewel", Bank Central Asia (BCA), took almost two years to conclude.

IBRA chairman Syafruddin Temengung said progress was so slow that he had asked State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi to send a letter to seek the support of the legislature. Although state-asset sales do not require the DPR's approval, the government is clearly wary of bypassing legislators who are likely to create a political furor if they have not been asked to agree the specifics of each and every selloff of national assets.

IBRA was accused last month of offering bribes to some legislators to smooth the path. A couple of legislators blew the whistle but IBRA denied the charges.

The 2003 state budget in any case left little room to maneuver and was mainly geared at servicing the country's massive sovereign debt levels rather than drive the economy and stimulate growth. The most recent (August) amendment to the draft budget proposed a Rp54.5 trillion (US$5.9 billion) expenditure, equivalent to some 2.8 percent of GDP, on development.

A substantial increase in development spending, most of it on infrastructure, will be needed to stem the rising jobless figures. The government has announced that it will do just that, saying on Tuesday it would raise development spending for 2003, but has given no figures or details of what will be involved.

Any increase in development spending and the consequent hike in the budget deficit need to be accompanied by new and creative ways of stimulating the badly needed growth that will follow on from meaningful increases in job opportunities. Growth will follow on from any increased domestic consumption by those who are currently out of the loop, ie, the jobless.

The deficit in the August version of the draft budget was about Rp26 trillion or 1.3 percent of GDP, but injecting sufficient cash for development will widen the gap substantially.

During most of the New Order era, agriculture was the backbone of healthy employment figures, which rarely rose above 3 percent, but now this sector is reeling from the poor state of the economy and is no longer be able to absorb those thrown out of work in the factories and thus mask the specter of massive unemployment. Yet creating the jobs needed for the estimated 2 million workers entering employment each year needs an annual growth rate of at least 6 percent.

This level of growth can only be attained through investment. Most local companies are not able or willing to make substantial investments, and domestic banks are currently unable to carry out their role of financial intermediaries thus eliminating a major source of capital for domestic business.

Sustainable economic growth can only be achieved through investment. The past two years saw Indonesia reach 3-4 percent growth on the back of strong domestic consumption amid the drop in foreign and domestic investment and falling exports.

For the foreseeable future Indonesia will only be able to count on foreign investors, though it is fairly safe to assume that creditor countries will be ready, post-Kuta, to provide more loans to help cover the larger-than-expected budget deficit. The country will be dependent on such external resources, either investments or loans, for a long time to come.

Allocating the funds needed for infrastructure development in Bali alone will widen the budget deficit. The plunge in hotel occupancy rates in Bali, now down to single digits, in effect means the island is on the brink of collapse, and needs emergency aid to rebuild the infrastructure. Confidence is another matter altogether. Not only did the bombers knock Bali off the radar screens of would-be tourists, but they reached out to the international business community, bolstering the already negative perception of Indonesia.

Conservative estimates suggest that Indonesia will need more than $130 billion in investment over the next decade to provide an infrastructure that can support the growth of 6-7 percent per annum necessary to absorb these new entrants into the labor force and prevent the country from lagging farther behind its competitors, such as China and Vietnam, as a competitive industrial platform.

Short of a revolution in state practices, a more equitable distribution of Indonesia's undoubted wealth, and a true reformation of society, the stage is being set for a crisis in government.