News & issues

Big gambling centers left untouched

Jakarta Post - July 14, 2005

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta -- Raids on gambling dens have started in the capital, but the public at large complained Wednesday that police were only targeting small-time gamblers.

Ara, 37, a resident of Kota Bambu Utara, West Jakarta, said police raided two small gambling dens in the neighborhood, but turned a blind eye to gambling dens in buildings in their area.

"There are many other bigger gambling places in this area. Why didn't they shut them all down? I am afraid this move is only a gimmick and after several weeks the gambling dens will be back," Ara said to The Jakarta Post.

Ara helped police from West Jakarta precinct raid gambling dens in Kota Bambu Utara on Tuesday afternoon soon after city police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani ordered his precinct and subprecinct chiefs to close down all gambling dens in their respective areas within three days.

A total of 15 gambling dens in Kemanggisan, Tanjung Duren, Pedongkelan, and Cengkareng have been raided, with police detaining dozens of gamblers since Tuesday.

However, police seemed to have only targeted small-time gamblers, raiding gambling dens in small neighborhoods and arresting agents of illegal numbers rackets known as togel.

In North Jakarta, an area with a high number of big gambling dens in the capital, only eight jackpot and roulette machines were confiscated and no big-time gamblers were arrested.

In Central Jakarta, several machines from household gambling dens were confiscated but big casinos along Jl. Gajah Mada and in Lokasari were left untouched.

A gambler who requested anonymity told the Post Wednesday that he was still gambling at one of Central Jakarta's five-star hotels on Tuesday evening.

"What raids? I still play at my favorite place yesterday and today. I don't know about tomorrow, but I doubt the police have the guts to raid big gambling dens in hotels," he said.

Data from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) showed that there were at least 27 big gambling dens in the capital.

In Tangerang, virtually all billiard places, suspected of being used as gambling places, on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Jl. Beringin Raya Karawaci and Taman Cibodas housing complex were closed on Wednesday.

Tangerang police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Raja Erizman promised that all gambling dens in his jurisdiction would be closed down and that the owners would be arrested.

Meanwhile, Bekasi precinct chief Sr. Comr. Edwardsyah Prenong and East Jakarta precinct chief Sr. Comr. Anang both said that they had closed down all gambling dens in their areas. However, there were no reports of any arrests of big-time gamblers on Wednesday.

A senior police officer at the Jakarta police headquarters, meanwhile, said that all the raids were half-hearted efforts with police chiefs only aiming to save their positions without really intending to eradicate gambling.

"For a long time many police chiefs have received money from casino owners. So, they inform owners before any raids. Many owners temporarily close down their gambling dens, and after the public forget, they open up again," he told the Post.

Business is buzzing again in battered Bali

Agence France Presse - July 10, 2005

Tomi Soetjipto -- Sun-bathing topless on Bali's famed Kuta beach, Joanna Lee seems unfazed by the sight of giggling Indonesian tourist policemen buzzing by on a golf cart.

"We're happy that tourism in Bali is back because our job is more fun now," says police officer I Wayan Karna, laughing and joking with a colleague about sun-loving travelers.

The two policemen then briefly exchange small talk with a group of Japanese tourists on the crowded beach where hawkers selling sunglasses, tattoos, and animal-horn cigarette holders mingle with bikini-clad women and bare-chested wannabe surfers.

"But write this," Karna says as he continues his afternoon patrol, "we're doing this job seriously because we're here to protect the tourists."

As for Joanna, a shop assistant from Newcastle in Australia, security seems her least concern on her frequent visits to the island she loves for the beaches and the "fun atmosphere." "It's quite obvious really, the beaches are great... people are just so friendly," said Lee, now clad in a loose shirt with oversized rectangular sunglasses sitting on her nose.

"Once you come here you always want to come back, no matter what."

Travellers flocking back

Indeed, more than two years after Islamic militants bombed packed night clubs in Kuta, -- killing 202 people, most of them foreign tourists -- travelers are finally flocking back to the island.

Dubbed the "Island of Gods" for its myriad Hindu temples and never-ending religious rituals, Bali escaped the effects of the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami that struck many tourist destinations in Southeast Asia.

While tourism in areas such as Sri Lanka and Phuket in Thailand suffered major blows, Bali has enjoyed a revival. The island lies more than a thousand miles away from Aceh, the area of Indonesia hit hardest by the tsunami.

Overseas arrivals on the temple-studded island have increased more than six percent in the first six months of this year to around 700,000 from the same period last year. That figure broke the island's all-time high set in 2001.

In May leading credit card company Visa International reported a hefty jump in travelers' spending on the island and described Bali as a bright spot in Asia's generally gloomy tourist industry.

"Bali's bright future is already here now and is looking brighter than ever," Bali tourism chief Gede Nurjaya told Reuters. "We did have initial fears of a setback after the tsunami but as it turns out there have been no significant cancellations."

High-end goes upward

Away from the hustle and bustle and neon lights of Kuta, Bali has enjoyed an upscale makeover, with the mushrooming of luxurious villas and high-class spas on secluded beaches and in the misty hills.

Italian jewelry house Bulgari is to open its second resort -- and the first outside its home country -- next year on the cliff peninsula of Uluwatu.

Last year, the Conrad hotel group opened a resort in Nusa Dua and COMO unveiled its $4,400-a-night boutique residence in the island's picturesque Ayung valley.

Fancy restaurants and posh nightclubs have all emerged, adding glamour to the once sedate scene.

"The whole thing has become a lot more sophisticated over the last few years," says David Wilson, general manager at the five- star Ritz-Carlton.

"We see that Bali is more (demanding of) luxury accommodation, whether it is luxury villas or luxury hotels," he told Reuters.

"2005 is looking very strong... enough that we'll be showing a growth of 30 percent in revenue. Most of it is being driven by the growth of the luxury segment," he said.

A high-profile case in which a young Australian woman, Schapelle Corby, was jailed for smuggling in marijuana, brought talk of a Bali boycott but to little effect.

A more serious hindrance to an even more rapid recovery is the fact that some countries, such as the United States and Australia, still warn against travel to Indonesia because of the threat of terrorist attacks.

Security remains a top priority for authorities in Bali, which draws most of its foreign tourists from Japan and Australia.

In a recent interview, Bali police chief I Made Pastika said police were on alert for possible attacks because some key players in the 2002 bombings were still at large.

But French tourist Alexander Rybosad, taking pictures of locals performing a Hindu ritual on one of the quieter stretches of Kuta beach, said security and fears of bombings were not an issue for him.

"I'm not afraid. I think it's possible that it could happen anywhere, but I hope it doesn't happen in your country again," said the avid surfer, who has been staying in Bali for two months.

Din's Muhammadiyah win another blow to Amien

Jakarta Post - July 9, 2005

Muhammad Nafik and ID Nugroho, Malang -- In a foregone conclusion, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) secretary-general Din Syamsuddin was officially declared the new chairman of Muhammadiyah here on Thursday after winning unanimous support from the newly elected executive board of the country's second biggest Muslim organization.

His victory appeared to be a new blow to former Muhammadiyah chairman Amien Rais who was eliminated in the first round of last year's presidential election.

Amien launched political maneuvers in an apparent attempt to block the election of Din, although the former People's Consultative Assembly speaker had vowed to retire from the political arena after his failed bid for the presidency.

Amien had supported Abdul Rosyad Sholeh to challenge Din in the leadership race. On the other hand, Amien could also have accepted any candidate other than Din, to replace Ahmad Syafii Maarif as the Muhammadiyah leader for the 2005-2010 period.

But when Rosyad failed to get more votes in the election of the organization's 13-member central board on Tuesday and only came sixth in the poll, Amien had to acknowledge the popularity of Din.

In an about face, Amien publicly urged the 13 names, elected by a total of 2,041 voters from a list of 39 candidates to sit on the board, to immediately name Din as the new chairman of Muhammadiyah, so as not to tarnish the democracy that it has been promoting.

With Din unanimously elected on Thursday to take the top post of Muhammadiyah, it shows that Amien's influence and charisma has further diminished in the organization he once chaired.

Speculation surfaced among Muhammadiyah activists that Amien might still have ambitions to contest the next presidential election, when he moved to exercise his influence on the Islamic organization, which claims some 30 million members nationwide.

For that reason, Din's campaign team and young Muhammadiyah members accused Amien of meddling in the leadership race in the hope that he could have used the organization to back his possible presidential bid in 2009.

Amien still holds a firm grip on the National Mandate Party (PAN), which he formerly led and founded with other Muhammadiyah leaders in 1998, after his handpicked candidate, businessman Sutrisno Bachir, won the party's top post in April.

Din's inner circle said Amien was expecting Muhammadiyah under Din to support his second bid for the presidency in 2009, which Din rejected given Amien's waning popularity.

Din was one of Amien's main campaigners in the presidential election last year.

The growing opposition of young Muhammadiyah intellectuals to Amien also played a role in his faction's loss in Thursday's election.

On the other hand, the youths' support for Din boosted his popularity in the organization by middle class Muslims.

For young members, Din is considered the most eligible figure to lead Muhammadiyah among other candidates including Rosyad Sholeh, Haedar Nasir and Malik Fajar. They believe that Din, who obtained his doctorate in Islamic studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is a "progressive Muslim scholar with a global vision".

Joining Din's campaign team were several political scientists and Muslim scholars, including Bachtiar Effendi from the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) and Rizal Sukma from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Close relations between Din, a professor of Islamic studies at UIN, and liberal intellectuals in Muhammadiyah further improved the support for him.

Accusations that Din defended or protected radical Islamic groups in Indonesia were not considered a serious problem for him and Muhammadiyah, although many non-Muslims worry whether he could be as tolerant and moderate as his predecessor Syafii Maarif.

Last month, Din was invited by the United Nations to address a forum in New York to discuss religious pluralism. Earlier, he also spoke at a similar conference on Islam in Russia. This all apparently signaled an international recognition of his Islamic credibility.

His prominent role in Golkar's executive board during the Soeharto era is often considered a negative factor for him because he is often perceived as an opportunist. His past role, however, apparently did not reduce his popularity among Muhammadiyah members.

Support for Din also came from other groups on almost all levels of Muhammadiyah, where he served as vice chairman under the leadership of Syafii Maarif.

His frequent visits to the organization's provincial and regency branches proved to be effective in his efforts to solicit support for his successful leadership bid. Fortunately for him, many current Muhammadiyah executives in the local branches also serve in the MUI, a reality that further strengthened their structural ties with Din in the organization.

The election of Din took less than two hours, with all 13 elected members of the new central board unanimously naming him the new chairman.

Now the question becomes: Can Din perform better than his predecessor Syafii, who won international recognition for his inclusive and moderate stance, in improving the lives of Muhammadiyah members?

Agung defends controversial budget for overseas travel

Jakarta Post - July 14, 2005

Jakarta -- House of Representatives Speaker Agung Laksono defended on Wednesday plans to jack up state budget allocations next year for financing overseas travel for lawmakers, despite the current weak financial state of the government and mounting criticism over the effectiveness of such trips.

He was quick to add, however, that there would be a more selective process for trips and comparative studies overseas in the future.

Agung said that overseas trips were necessary for legislators to boost their lawmaking expertise and function to keep up with their working partners in the executive.

"Of course, trips for attending parliamentary events cannot be ruled out, such as the International Parliamentary Union or the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization," he said.

Agung said he would consult with the House's inter-parliamentary body to elaborate on planned overseas travel and, if possible, to minimize the budget for overseas travel.

The House's ways and means committee has earmarked Rp 32.4 billion (US$3.34 million) for legislators' overseas travel in 2006, up 100 percent from the Rp 14.06 billion in 2005 and Rp 14.1 billion in 2004. The request is contained in a 2006 budget draft proposal, which also includes a request to increase allowances for all 550 House members.

The latest proposal will be discussed by the House budgetary committee before being submitted later to the Ministry of Finance.

Budgetary committee member Djoko Susilo said he was of the opinion that many overseas trips could be cut if the objectives of such trips could be achieved through less expensive means.

"I've proven there are less expensive ways to achieve objectives, such as exchanging expertise or opinions with other legislature members, or to compare works," he said.

Djoko said many international civil organizations, such as UNESCO, were willing to facilitate meetings between members of parliament.

"It's much less expensive to read books in libraries or browse through the Internet. We can invite experts and I'm sure many are willing to share their expertise without us having to go to far away countries," said Djoko, an outspoken legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN). He said he would oppose the planned increases.

The House has been a target of criticism once again after two of its bodies went ahead with their plans to visit foreign countries for "comparative studies", which would cost billions of rupiah.

Members of the House's legislative body plan to visit the United States and France, while the ways and means committee plans to go to Thailand and South Korea.

Observers have said that most of these trips in the past have not yielded concrete results, let alone increased legislators' expertise and skill in representing the people.

The request, they said, could not have come at a more inappropriate moment since the country was struggling to cope with ballooning fuel subsidies and widespread health problems.

Results of domestic and overseas trips are usually reported during House plenary sessions.

Tommy gets treated in Jakarta once a month

Jakarta Post - July 16, 2005

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Nusa Kambangan -- In theory, the "official residence" of convicted murderer Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the son of former president Soeharto, is in the Batu penitentiary on Nusakambangan prison island.

Unlike his fellow prisoners, including the two henchmen he hired for the assassination of a Supreme Court justice in 2000, Noval Hadad and Maulawarman, who were sentenced to life, he has been allowed to leave his cell and come to Jakarta for one week every month since December last year, at the least.

"It is (Tommy's leave) made possible because of the recommendation from RSPAD, with his medical record attached. It's not based on our doctors here," said Sudijanto, the warden of the Batu penitentiary, on Thursday, referring to the Jakarta-based Gatot Subroto Army hospital.

The hospital recommendation says the high-profile convict must undergo medical treatment for a tumor near his eye for one week each month.

The hospital's chief administrator Brig. Gen. Mardjo Subiyandono said on Wednesday that Tommy had a blood vessel constriction in his neck and brain, which causes migraine headaches and could bring about a stroke at any time.

Sudijanto said that the treatment began in December. "I don't know whether he had underwent the treatment before, because I took the post in December last year," he stated.

With two guards from Batu prison and several police officers from the Cilacap Police department, Tommy comes to Jakarta either by a chartered helicopter from the island's helipad or aboard commercial planes from Cilacap's Tunggul Wulung airport.

Tommy, who was convicted in a series of criminal cases including the murder of Supreme Court Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, personally pays for the transportation to Jakarta and for the extra "allowances" for the officers that get to escort him.

"We don't give preferential treatment to him. It's for humanitarian reasons. Other convicts are allowed to do that as long as they have a recommendation and can pay our way," Sudijanto said.

According to the warden, Tommy rarely leaves his cell in the morning and afternoon because "he cannot bear the sunlight".

This month, Tommy has been allowed to receive medical treatment in Jakarta from July 11 to July 18.

Tommy's lawyer, Elza Syarief, had said earlier that Tommy had developed tumors behind his eye. One of them has been removed but the second is inoperable. The treatment is mandatory to prevent it from spreading, she said.

Elza admitted that her client had been brought every month to Jakarta to carry out "tests on whether the tumor was benign or not".

Meanwhile, Sudijanto said that Tommy was likely to leave the prison with the status of conditional release.

"We haven't got the copy of the Supreme Court verdict. But, if his sentence period has been reduced to 10 years (as has been reported recently), it is likely that he would leave the prison for conditional release next year since he has been in prison since 2001," he said.

The Supreme Court recently reduced the sentence period for Tommy from 15 years to 10 years following a judicial review of the case.

Aceh

GAM demands international war crimes trials for troops

Associated Press - July 15, 2005

Helsinki -- Aceh separatists on Friday called for the Establishment of an international tribunal to try Indonesian troops accused of Committing war crimes in the province.

Bakhtiar Abdullah, spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement, said Government forces had committed numerous war crimes but that very few of these had been prosecuted.

"What (the Free Aceh Movement) seeks is for Indonesia to subscribe to the international convention of holding to account the officers and politicians who have ordered these crimes," Abdullah said.

The appeal, which came during the fifth round of peace talks in Helsinki, is potentially troubling for Jakarta which is already being pressed by The United Nations to bring to justice members of the security forces responsible for the devastation of East Timor in 1999.

Last month, a UN panel recommended to the UN Security Council that A tribunal akin to those for Rwanda and ex-Yugoslavia be formed within Six months to try Indonesian commanders accused of violence in East Timor And attacks on the world body's mission there.

"The time for denying war crimes and not holding to account those who order them must end," Abdullah said.

He also demanded that the authorities capture Lt. Col. Sudjono, who is accused of leading a company of troops that executed 56 boys and their teacher at a religious school in central Aceh in 2000. Although 24 soldiers were found guilty at a subsequent trial, Sudjono -- who like many Indonesians uses only one name -- mysteriously disappeared from a military jail.

Human rights groups say Sudjono -- who is reportedly living openly in a Town in Central Java -- is the link to the army generals who ordered the massacre.

Aceh peace talks run into 'disastrous' hurdle: rebels

Agence France Presse - July 15, 2005

Peace talks between Indonesian officials and Aceh separatists have run into a "disastrous" hurdle in discussions of political participation, the rebels said, claiming Jakarta had "sabotaged" the process.

"It's going diasastrously," Free Aceh Movement (GAM) political advisor Damien Kingsbury told AFP before a fourth day of talks got under way.

His comments come less than a day after the separatists optimistically announced that the Indonesian government appeared to be willing to concede to their demands for the right to create local political parties that are not controlled by Jakarta.

GAM said late Thursday that it had received a written proposal from Jakarta suggesting how to resolve the issue, and said it acknowledged that Indonesia now "endorses the basic democratic principles of freedom of association regardless of place or number of members".

But later, Kingsbury said Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin made public statements that revealed confidential details of The proposal. He allegedly emphasized an offer from the government to appoint GAM members to political positions instead of going through an electoral process, something the separatists have flatly rejected.

"Such a sweetheart deal for GAM (is) ridiculous and wouldn't allow the inclusion of other parties in Aceh... It's not democratic," Kingsbury said. "They've basically sabotaged the process," he said, adding that he now did not think the parties would be able to reach an agreement on the issue by the time the ongoing round of talks, which have been described as decisive, are scheduled to wrap up on Sunday.

"We thought we were getting towards an agreement (but) now I don't think there's any way of finalizing this time... Awaluddin's comments were not very helpful," he said.

Indonesian Communications Minister and delegate at the talks Sofyan Djalil meanwhile remained upbeat on the prospects of resolving the issue. "We'll find a very good solution for this," he told AFP.

Nearly 15,000 people have been killed since GAM launched its campaign For independence for the western Indonesian province of Aceh in 1976.

While four previous rounds of talks held in the Finnish capital since January have led to few concrete advances towards ending the conflict, hopes Have been high that the current fifth round would lead to a genuine settlement and that a peace treaty could be signed next month.

Indonesia tsunami aid blockages fixed - UN

Agence France Presse - July 15, 2005

The United Nations said on Friday international aid was flowing smoothly to tsunami-hit areas of Aceh, denying reports of large numbers of containers languishing on Indonesian wharfs.

Michael Whiting of the UN Joint Logistics Center in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, said early blockages were largely due to the inexperience of many non-government aid groups that flocked to the region after the Dec. 26 disaster.

"It's well within manageable proportions now," Whiting said. "Everyone has been extremely cooperative and we are all focused on the same thing. Get the stuff to the people who need it as quickly as we can," he told Reuters.

The international community has pledged billions of dollars in aid to tsunami-hit regions around the Indian Ocean, with the lion's share going to Indonesia. Some media reports in recent weeks have pointed to hold ups in aid delivery.

The elimination of red tape and the prevention of corruption has been a major concern for donors in the world's fourth most populous nation.

Whiting, responsible for aid logistics in Sumatra, said that in April a backlog of some 1,500 containers had built up on the docks at Medan's main Belawan port, but that as of July 12 there were only 300 containers of aid, half of which had been there for only a week.

"Everyone was pointing the finger at the Indonesian government," Whiting said of the earlier backlog. "In fact, when I looked into it, they'd done everything they could to make it work and it pointed more to the lack of logistic capacity in the NGO community. They didn't know what a bill of lading was and so on."

At the height of the emergency relief effort, there were more than 180 non-government aid groups operating in the isolated Indonesian province.

In Aceh's provincial capital Banda Aceh, the man who leads the reconstruction of tsunami-hit areas told reporters the government should also take the blame for aid distribution glitches.

"The bureaucracy is too complicated and the central government's sense of emergency or sense of crisis is little. We have received many reports on fundings, but it hasn't arrived here yet," said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto.

On Friday, he received a list of reconstruction projects approved by parliament worth almost 4 trillion rupiah ($430 million).

The approved government budget for rehabilitation of tsunami-hit areas is at 8.4 trillion rupiah ($900 million) for 2005. The remaining 4.4 trillion rupiah for 2005 will be funneled through government ministries, the reconstruction body said.

Ex-GAM members involved in crime won't be granted amnesty

Detik.com - July 13, 2005

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta -- The government will not grant amnesty to members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who have been involved in criminal activities. Amnesty will be granted in the context of it being given to those who have been involved in the conflict in Aceh.

"Amnesty will not just be just [granted] automatically, there will be a study which will be the legal [basis for] considerations on those who are to receive amnesty. Amnesty will not be granted in the context of criminality", explained the Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Widodo A.S., when stopped by journalists at the minister's offices on Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat in Jakarta on Wednesday July 13.

Widodo explained that amnesty would only be granted to GAM members who agree to an end to the conflict in Aceh. Those who receive amnesty will automatically be able to rejoin their local communities and likewise have the same political rights as other civilians.

Meanwhile, with regard to GAM members who are nominated to run in regional elections in Aceh, Widodo said they must first receive amnesty. This is because after receiving amnesty, the requirements as contained in Law Number 32/2004 on Local Government such has loyalty to NKRI(1), the state ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution, don't need be made an issue any more, except in cases where they have committed criminal acts which carry a punishment of five years jail.

Widodo also explained that with the system of laws and regulations that exist in Indonesia, forming local political parties in Aceh are impossible. "If for example we give the right [to form] local parties in one region, it will be questioned by other regions, because at the moment Aceh's position is the same as other regions", he explained. (asy)

Notes:

1. NKRI - Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. A term which is often used in the context of nationalism and the desire to maintain the integrity of the Indonesian nation.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

MPR opposes GAM forming local political parties

Detik.com - July 14, 2005

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta -- The Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) wish to form local political parties in Aceh has been in vain. The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has rejected the proposal because it violates the law on political parties.

MPR chairperson Hidayat Nurwahid supports the government's promise not to accommodate GAM's wish to establish local political parties in Aceh. "If indeed GAM is no longer demanding independence and GAM acknowledges that Aceh is a part of RI [the Republic of Indonesia], that means that GAM acknowledges the laws and regulations which is in force in RI. One of these, is the law on political parties where [it stipulates] there are to be no local political parties", explained Nurwahid at the Niaga Building on Jalan Sudirman in Jakarta on July 14.

According to Nurwahid, the best thing is to further maximise special autonomy in Aceh. "If there local political parties then later those asking [to establish local parties] will not just be Aceh but in other regions. Aceh has already been given special autonomy and this can be maximumised within the framework of NKRI(1) though the political parties that exist", said the former president of the Prosperity and Justice Party.

The political parties he continued have already agreed to and are prepared to nominate or support people who have been active in GAM if they wish to run in the regional elections. The other condition, which must be fulfilled, is the proposal that GAM change its name.

"If GAM already acknowledges NKRI [and are] no longer demanding independence, I think that they can be involved in the regional elections and no longer use the name GAM but change their name to the Aceh Development Movement (Gerakan Aceh Membangun), the Advance Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Maju) or the Aceh Prosperity Movement (Gerakan Aceh Mensejahterakan). If [they] use the acronym GAM it will still reflect of their desires", he explained. (aan)

Notes:

1. NKRI - Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. A term which is often used in the context of nationalism and the desire to maintain the integrity of the Indonesian nation.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Deadlock looms in Aceh peace talks: Widodo

Jakarta Post - July 14, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- The ongoing peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Finland may end in deadlock with Jakarta refusing the rebels' demand for the establishment of local political parties and self government.

Chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto said on Wednesday that the government may have to declare Aceh in status quo and immediately hold an "internal consolidation" to withdraw from the ongoing fifth round of negotiations, should GAM insist on pressing the demands.

"The government's stance is quite clear. The demand for local political parties cannot be accommodated. It is already firm that we cannot accept it because our existing legal system only recognizes national-scope political parties.

"There are negotiable and non-negotiable items, and our framework is clear... that the results of the talks should not go against the concept of the unitary state, the 1945 Constitution and our existing regulations," he said at his office.

However, GAM leaders on Wednesday said "amazingly surprising" advances had been made so far in the peace talks.

As a second day of negotiations got under way on Wednesday, delegates said they were pleased that they had already managed to cover all the points in a draft peace treaty, saying they were now prepared to discuss all the suggested changes.

"It's amazingly surprising that we managed to discuss all the issues already yesterday (Tuesday)," GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told AFP in Helsinki, Finland. "Now we can discuss the new draft today," he added.

Widodo, a retired four-star Navy admiral and former armed forces chief, chairs the government's supervising team monitoring the peace talks.

He said the government would continue to guarantee the safety of foreigners in tsunami-ravaged Aceh, where they are currently involved in reconstruction work, in the event the current peace talks collapsed.

"I am not pessimistic, but I believe that both parties will make all efforts to avoid the process from suffering a deadlock," Widodo said.

Facilitated by the Finland-based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), the Helsinki talks are aimed at seeking ways to end the three decades of fighting in Aceh, in which at least 15,000 people have been killed since 1976.

The July talks could be the final round of informal meetings between the government and GAM, and a final memorandum of understanding (MOU), expected to be the basis of a possible peace accord, could be outlined in August.

The MOU contains several crucial points, including security arrangements, economic development, amnesties and integration processes for former rebels and Acehnese political representation.

A dispute over Aceh's political representation continued during the negotiations, with GAM insisting that the government should allow Acehnese to establish local political parties as a fundamental basis for the demanded system of self-government.

Self-rule was a key condition set by the rebels as they dropped their long-held demand for an independent Aceh, instead allowing the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra to remain as an integral part of Indonesia.

Bakhtiar Abdullah said the Indonesian government must show that it sincerely wants peace by accepting the demand for self- government in Aceh based on elections contested by local political parties. "If Indonesia wants to be considered a democratic country, it must accept internationally recognized standards of democracy."

The other major hurdle -- the demilitarization of Aceh -- has been largely overcome after a tentative agreement was reached to sharply reduce the massive Indonesian contingent there in exchange for disarmament of guerrilla forces.

The demilitarization process would be overseen by several hundred observers from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has officially assigned Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, who was the Aceh military operations commander when Jakarta launched an offensive operation to crush GAM members in 2003, to join the ongoing talks with the task of monitoring all security arrangements discussed in the dialog.

TNI welcomes GAM's recognition of Indonesian Republic

Tempo Interactive - July 14, 2005

Jakarta -- Indonesian Military (TNI) information center head Major General Kohirin Suganda Saputra said that the TNI welcomed the statement made by high-rank officers of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during the fifth-round talks in Helsinki, Finland.

"We (TNI) prayed that GAM would return to the Indonesian Republic," said Saputra at the forestry department in Jakarta on Wednesday (13/07).

GAM spokesman in Sweden Bachtiar Abdullah said that on Monday (11/07), GAM has agreed to talk in the framework of the Indonesian Republic. However, Abdullah said, the Acehnese must be given an opportunity to determine their own fate.

According to Saputra, there has been much progress as regards the government's efforts to create peace in Aceh.

Saputra rejected the accusation that the TNI wished to maintain the conflict in Aceh by creating unsafe situations.

When asked about the TNI's current work in Aceh, Saputra said that the TNI would still carry out joint operations such as the operation to establish security.

"The legal requirements are clear, as according to the presidential regulation that joint operations must still be conducted," he stated. (Agus Supriyanto-Tempo News Room)

GAM demands self-government, rejects 'special autonomy'

Agence France Presse - July 13, 2005

Separatists in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province have reiterated their demand for self-government to end a decades-long war, saying democratic local elections are a basic right.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said its agreement this week that the province would not try to separate from Indonesia did not mean it accepted the present system of special autonomy, which it said had led to bloodshed and corruption.

The agreement has raised hopes of success at peace talks between the rebels and the government under way in Helsinki.

GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said self-government would be a compromise that would end the rebel uprising, which started in 1976 and has claimed nearly 15,000 lives, mostly of civilians.

"We have offered the compromise position of self-government as a way of resolving the Aceh conflict," Abdullah said in a statement.

The system of self-government should be based on elections contested by local political parties, he said. "What we are proposing is nothing less than basic democratic rights," Abdullah said.

However Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last weekend the government would not allow local parties to stand in elections in Aceh as this would be against the law, although former GAM members would be allowed to stand.

The government has also said the position of governor would be off limits to the former rebels, although they could run for the vice governorship post and those of districts chiefs and mayors.

Abdullah said GAM "categorically rejects the status quo of special autonomy', which has produced only bloodshed, corruption and the denial of the fundamental rights of the people of Aceh to determine their own affairs."

The system, implemented in 2001, allows Aceh to take profits from its wealth of natural resources, partially implement Islamic Sharia law and control its own judicial and education system.

Saying that GAM had already made "major compromises", Abdullah called on Jakarta to make similar concessions to end the bloody conflict.

The first day of a fifth round of informal peace talks between the government of Indonesia and the GAM was held in Helsinki on Tuesday.

The December 26 tsunami which devastated most of Aceh's coastline and killed more than 130,000 people there prompted both sides to reopen the peace talks in January.

The talks stalled in May 2003 when Jakarta declared martial law and launched a major military offensive in the province.

Aceh rebels prepared to lay down arms

Associated Press - July 12, 2005

Banda Aceh -- Separatist rebels in tsumami-ravaged Aceh province said Tuesday they are prepared to lay down their weapons if a peace agreement is reached this week in Finland.

"We will follow any order that comes from our leaders," Teungku Muharram, a rebel field commander for the Free Aceh Movement, told The Associated Press from his jungle hideout.

Peace talks that open Tuesday in Helsinki -- the fifth and final round since the Dec. 26 tsunami -- are seen as the best chance in years to end fighting that has killed nearly 15,000 people since 1976.

Analysts warn, however, that Indonesia's refusal to allow separatists a political role threatens to derail the process.

Muharram, who would not say how many troops he commands, said Tuesday the rebels would fight until a deal was reached. "Otherwise we will die," he said in a telephone interview, noting that his men continue to face attacks by the Indonesian military.

Though people in Aceh province said they wanted to see an end to separatist fighting, many were skeptical Tuesday that talks in Finland would result in a lasting peace. Several initiatives to end the fighting in recent years have collapsed.

Hundreds rally in Jakarta for Aceh peace

Green Left Weekly - July 13, 2005

James Balowski, Jakarta -- Hundreds of Acehnese residing in the Indonesian capital Jakarta demonstrated on July 4 in support of the current peace negotiations being held in Helsinki, Finland, between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Wearing headbands reading "self-government", the Acehnese demonstrators marched from the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta to the State Palace, stopping at the UN offices, the US embassy and the offices of the security minister.

Although representatives of the marchers were able to discuss their demands with UN staff, US embassy officials refused to meet with them.

The march was organised by the Aceh Peoples Association (Ikara), People for Peace (Mukad) and Traders Solidarity for Peace (Sepakad).

Ikara chairperson Faisal Saifuddin called on the Indonesian government not to be stubborn over special autonomy for Aceh as the only option to resolve the conflict in the province.

"We want the government to continue the Helsinki [negotiations]. The government mustn't be too rigid on the offer of special autonomy, because GAM has already withdrawn its demand [for independence] in favour of self-government", Saifuddin said.

Saifuddin expressed disappointment at the attitude taken by some members of the Indonesian parliament who have called for the negotiations to be ended and expressed concern that the issue is being internationalised.

The Ikara leader called on the UN and countries providing humanitarian aid to Aceh following the December 26 tsunami to support the negotiations. He argued that without peace, reconstruction and rehabilitation will be impossible.

Thamrin Ananda, the chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), told Green Left Weekly that the Aceh conflict should be of concern to all nations and there is absolutely no reason for this to worry Indonesian lawmakers.

"What has made the Aceh question become an international issue is the presence of the TNI [Indonesian armed forces]", Ananda said. "They continue to commit human rights violations and are undermining the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation." Despite the parliamentary opposition and the TNI's refusal to end military operations against GAM, the government seems determined to make the negotiations a success. On July 5, communications minister Sofyan Djalil announced that the next round of negotiations, to be held on July 11-18, would focus on drafting an agreement aimed at resolving the conflict peacefully and permanently.

Djalil also said that one of the points of the agreement would be the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from Aceh. "In the next [round of] negotiations a MOU [memorandum of understanding] will be signed which will include no more illegal weapons being present in Aceh", Djalil was quoted as saying in the Jakarta daily Kompas.

"If the conflict is ended permanently, what else are these illegal weapons for. The TNI will also no longer be present in Aceh, except troops that are normally [deployed at the provincial level] or the organic [troops] there", he said.

Djalil added that "90%" of the issues had been agreed on by the two sides and the remainder will be resolved in the next round of talks.

The TNI has responded cautiously, saying it will wait for a decision by the government. While claiming to support a peaceful resolution, the head of the TNI's information centre, Major General Kohirin Suganda, said that the TNI's basic task remains to crush GAM, although he could not say how long this would take.

PDI-P denies it supports dialogue with GAM

Detik.com - July 12, 2005

Anton Aliabbas, Jakarta -- The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has denied that it supports the dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki. The PDI-P is even calling for the official government representative to take responsibility for the fifth round of the informal negotiations going ahead.

"The government's negotiations with GAM overseas should have already been stopped", said the chairperson of the PDI-P's board of directors, Tjahjo Kumolo, in a discussion with Detik.com on Tuesday July 12.

Earlier, Vice President Jusuf Kalla had said he was convinced that the PDI-P would accept the outcome of the Helsinki negotiations. Kalla believes that the attitude by a number of PDI-P fraction members in the People's Representative Assembly (DPR) who oppose the Helsinki dialogue are out of sync with the position taken by PDI-P chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri.

"So, there is one of the PDI-P members who does not follow the instructions of their general chairperson", said Kalla on Monday July 11. As has been reported, PDI-P fraction members such as Effendi MS Simbolon and Permadi have consistently opposed the Helsinki dialogue. Permadi has said he is disappointed that the negotiations in Helsinki have gone ahead while the DPR's Commission I has recommended that the dialogue not be continued.

"We continue to request that the national police and TNI [armed forces] conduct security operations in Aceh against the separatist movement which is undermining the sovereignty of NKRI(1)", asserted Kumolo who holds the post of PDI-P fraction chairperson in the DPR.

He added that the government should no longer compromise with GAM. "The DPR in its recommendation has clearly rejected the dialogue, the government should not recognise GAM as a state within the territory of NKRI", said Kumolo.

The PDI-P is asking the government to further prioritise development and improve the welfare of Acehnese society. "They have already suffered for a long time as a result of the conflict, hopefully rehabilitation and the acceleration of development in Aceh will no longer disappoint its people", he asserted. (ton)

Notes:

1. NKRI - Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. A term which is often used in the context of nationalism and the desire to maintain the integrity of the Indonesian nation.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Government asked to control military in Aceh

Aceh Kita - July 12, 2005

AK-38, Jakarta -- The Aceh Working Group (AWG) says there have been systematic efforts to ensure that the peace negotiations with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fail. This effort has being launched by a small section of People Representative Assembly and TNI (armed forces) military officers. "We see there are systematic efforts to thwart the Helsinki negotiations", said AWG activist C. Anam at a press conference at the offices of Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) on Tuesday July 12.

Anam added that it is the military, which has most consistently opposed to the Helsinki negotiations, which are expected to end in a peace agreement in the fifth round. This can be seen from the increasing number of armed clashes over the last few weeks in Aceh. AWG is of the view that the security situation is becoming more dangerous is being used by the TNI to strengthen its bargaining position in relation to the government in order continue the military operation in Aceh.

"Armed criminality is increasing. Militia groups are taking civilians hostage. Humanitarian volunteers are being shot. Mysterious shooters are free to spread their terror. This is all being used by the TNI in order for them to request deeper involvement in the post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Aceh", he explained.

In relation to indications that the peace process may fail, AWG is proposing that the government needs to take a firm position with regard to those parities that are trying to thwart the peace process. In addition to this, the government also needs to push for the involvement of civil society to create peace, which will be a basis for the rehabilitation and reconstruction in Aceh.

"The government must take a firm position against parties who oppose the peace process in Aceh. The government must control the TNI by making clear regulations on operations being organised in Aceh so that are peaceful not military operations", explained another AWG activist Otto Syamsudin Ishak.

According to Ishak, if the government does not take a firm position there is a possibility that there will be a repeat of the efforts to thwart the peace process during the period of CoHA or the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement(1). It is believed that efforts to thwart the peace process after the fifth round of the Helsinki negotiations include mobilising the public to oppose peace zones, opposing monitoring teams, increasing the level of violence and the strengthening of militia groups.

The second possibility of failure explained Ishak, is the debate over the basic rules for the joint team, which will be formed following a peace agreement. This debate will result in the joint committee being unable to work optimally. "Without government control over the military, the failure of the peace process in Aceh is looming. The failure of the peace process during the CoHA period will be repeated", he asserted. [dzie] Notes:

1. COHA: On December 9, 2003, Indonesia and GAM signed the historic Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) in Geneva, facilitated by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC). The agreement required both sides to begin demilitarisation within two months and a Joint Security Committee (JSC) was tasked with monitoring the peace process. Although there were numerous violations of the agreement, the first two months saw a dramatic decline in violence. Jakarta however complained that GAM was taking advantage of the cease-fire and following a series of attacks by TNI backed militia on the JSC offices peace monitors were forced to withdraw from Aceh. In late April, Jakarta seized on a request by GAM for a postponement of negotiations to call off talks altogether. When talks finally resumed on May 18, Jakarta set out to sabotage the process by arresting five GAM negotiators the day before then introducing a new set of conditions which GAM could not possibly agree to and which were never covered in the original the agreement. Claiming that GAM was refusing to talk about "substantive issues", government negotiators walked out and on the following day President Megawati Sukarnoputri signed a decree declaring a status of martial law and launching a six-month military offensive.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Civil society supports involvement of foreign parties

Aceh Kita - July 12, 2005

AK-1, Jakarta -- The meeting between representatives of Acehnese civil society and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Stockholm on July 9-19 has resulted in a number of recommendations on Aceh's future. The meeting, which was facilitated by the Olof Palme International Center, resulted in three main recommendations concerning Aceh post-tsunami, the peace process and the role of civil society in determining Aceh's future.

On the question of the Aceh peace process, the meeting expressed the hope that the Helsinki negotiations will be able to create a situation which is peaceful, democratic and which respects human rights. "For as long as the conflict continues in Aceh, this cannot become a reality. Because of this therefore, civil society [groups] hope that the Helsinki dialogue will be able to produce an agreement to end the conflict", they wrote in a press release.

In order to resolve the conflict, which has lasted for years, they see the need for the involvement of foreign parties. They are of the view that the involvement of the international community is something that has been commonplace in countries were an armed conflict is taking place. They then gave as an example international involvement in resolving the conflicts in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Darfur Sudan. Because of this therefore, they expressed their appreciation to the European Union and ASEAN who have already sent delegations to Aceh.

Still on the issue of the peace process, they also support the demand for self-government which has been taken up by GAM and expressed their regret over the position taken by the governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) and the politicians in Senayan (parliament) who are opposing the Helsinki negotiations. In addition to this, the meeting, which was attended by scores of Acehnese civil society representatives also, urged the Indonesian government to declare a ceasefire.

The meeting also called on the conflicting parties to provide a sense of security, peace and an end to violence in order to restore the spirit of the Acehnese people who where inundated by the tsunami disaster which struck the country's most western province.

Because of this therefore, a ceasefire between the Indonesian government and GAM needs to be put into place immediately in order to support the dialogue and process of recovery in Aceh. "This is in order to provide the maximum amount of space to the local and international community to fully participate in the process of rebuilding Aceh post-tsunami", continued the press release.

The civil society representatives also called for the upholding of human rights, democracy and peace in Aceh. They also agreed to develop the consolidation and participation of society in the framework of advancing the peace process and reconstruction process. "Promoting the participation of Acehnese women in the peace process and reconstruction of Aceh [is essential]", said the final point of their recommendations.

Today, the Indonesian government and GAM will hold the fifth round of negotiations in Helsinki. According to Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) who is facilitating the negotiations, they are in the process of preparing a draft agreement, which represent an initial peace deal. This draft has been formulated based on the points, which have been reached as "mutual understandings" during the four previous rounds of negotiations.

"The respective parties will discuss the draft agreement during the fifth round [of negotiations]", said CMI chair Martti Ahtisaari who is also a former president of Finland. [dzie]

[Translated by James Balowski.]

GAM agrees to Aceh remaining Indonesia

Jakarta Post - July 12, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have agreed to a demand by the Indonesian government that the tsunami-hit province should remain a part of Indonesia, but they spelled out conditions that the Acehnese must be allowed to govern the territory under a system of self-government. "Self- government is a political system, which provides genuine democracy for all of the Acehnese as we put aside our demand of being independent.

"And the establishment of local political parties that enable the Acehnese to participate in direct local elections as the key point of the system," GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said on Monday.

Such conditions were crystallized during a two-day consultation meeting involving dozens of representatives of Acehnese civil society, including activists from the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), and GAM's leadership in Sweden, over the weekend.

During the meetings, which were facilitated by the Sweden-based Olof Palme International Center, most attendees agreed that "the only way to a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Aceh was through a negotiated agreement that gives to the people of Aceh the right and capacity to determine their own affairs within the context of the Republic of Indonesia." "The Acehnese must feel free to talk about politics without being interfered with by the central government (in Jakarta)," Bakhtiar told The Jakarta Post from Sweden.

The Indonesian government and GAM leaders will meet in Helsinki for a final round of informal peace talks to end the three decades of bloody conflict in Aceh, the hardest hit region in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster. Chief facilitator of Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), Martti Ahtisaari said the round would last for six days, beginning from July 12.

The government of Indonesia has insisted that any peace talks should be held within the context that Aceh remains a part of Indonesia.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the government could accept demands that former GAM rebels be allowed to run in local elections for the positions of mayors, regents and vice governor.

But the government seems to be against the possibility of the establishment of local political parties, as the law stipulates that all political parties in Indonesia must be organized on a nationwide basis. This means that former GAM members must join existing, mostly Jakarta-based, parties if they wished to run for mayors, regents or vice governor in local elections.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla met last week with some leaders of political parties, calling on them to allow GAM members to participate in local elections through their respective parties.

The peace talks in Helsinki had been strongly criticized by some lawmakers, who claim that the Aceh issue is solely a domestic problem. They also criticized the proposed involvement of foreign monitoring team in Aceh.

Kalla responded on Monday to the criticism by saying that a "peaceful solution will be the only way to stop the bloodshed in the conflict-torn province," where over 15,000 people have been killed since the GAM began its independence bid in 1976.

Separatist leaders bow to demand not to seceede

Agence France Presse - July 11, 2005

The exiled leadership of the Aceh separatist movement has agreed to a demand by Jakarta that the tsunami-hit province should remain a part of Indonesia, the rebels said in a statement.

Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Bachtiar Abdullah said in the statement sent to AFP from Stockholm that the separatists and representatives from Aceh civil society groups agreed to the demand, a key prerequisite for peace talks.

During consultations in Sweden at the weekend, both sides agreed "the only way to a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Aceh was through a negotiated agreement that gives to the people of Aceh the right and capacity to determine their own affairs within the context of the Republic of Indonesia."

Jakarta has said any peace talks to end the conflict in the resource-rich province at the westernmost tip of Sumatra island could only proceed in the context of Aceh not seceding from Indonesia.

Indonesian government and separatist rebels will meet this week in Helsinki for a final round of informal peace talks amid optimism an end to three decades of conflict is in sight in Aceh, the hardest hit region in the December 26 tsunami disaster.

However, in the same statement, the GAM also reiterated its demand that Jakarta allows for the establishment of local political parties in Aceh, a request that has been consistently rejected by the Indonesian government.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last week the government could accept that former rebels run in local elections for the positions of mayors, district heads and deputies and of vice governor. But he ruled out allowing local parties saying the laws only recognized national political parties with representations in the region.

In the statement, the GAM expressed commitment for a negotiated peace and said genuine democracy in Aceh would include "the establishment of local political parties under a system of self- government."

The participants to the meeting also expressed concern about continuing military activities in Aceh by the Indonesian armed forces, and opposition to the peace process "expressed by some opportunistic politicians in Jakarta," the statement said.

Several parliamentarians have criticized the government for opening peace talks with separatist rebels and lashed at Jakarta for agreeing on the involvement of foreign peace monitors saying it may internationalize the conflict.

Yudhoyono has since approached and obtained the support of the leaders of several key political parties for the peace talks.

The GAM statement did not identify or give details on the number of representatives of Aceh civil society groups attending the meeting held in Lidingoe, Sweden, with the assistance of the Olof Palme International Center.

Almost 15,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Aceh since the GAM began its independence bid in 1976, with accusations of widespread rights abuses levelled at both sides.

An uneasy peace agreement was struck in 2002, but collapsed early the next year as the government launched a major operation to crush the rebels, placing the resource-rich region under temporary martial law. The region has now returned to normal status.

Shooting of foreign volunteers effort to isolate Aceh

Aceh Kita - July 10, 2005

AK-17, Banda Aceh -- The Aceh Coalition of Human Rights Non- Government Organisations (Koalisi NGO HAM Aceh) believes that the shooting of foreign volunteers in Aceh is an attempt by certain parties to isolate Aceh from the international community. This is the reason that the coalition is asking the government to form an independent team to investigate the incident.

The director of Koalisi NGO HAM Aceh, Jehalim Bangun, says that a fact finding team is needed to show that the government is serious about providing security guarantees to humanitarian workers in Aceh. "At the same time this will prevent counter accusations by security forces and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who are the two armed [forces] in Aceh", Bangun told journalists in Banda Aceh on Sunday July 10.

According to Bangun, the shooting of foreign volunteers is an effort to create the impression that the security situation in Aceh is unstable and at the same time isolate Aceh from the international community. "This very dangerous for the reconstruction process in Aceh", he said.

On July 7, a foreign volunteer working with the Centre for Child Protection Studies (PKPA), Marije Mellegers was shot in the city of Fajar 30 kilometres from Tapaktuan in South Aceh. Last June an International Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteer, Eva Yee Wayeung, was also shot in the Lamno region of Greater Aceh. So far there has been no thorough investigation into the two incidents. The TNI (armed forces) and the Indonesian police have accused GAM as being the perpetrators while GAM has accusing the TNI/police of the shooting.

Bangun says that the shooting of foreign volunteers will have a psychological impact on other volunteers who are in Aceh at the moment. "A thorough investigation is needed to prevent such incidents being repeated", he said.

The coordinator of the Aceh Judicial Monitoring Institute, Rufriadi, is concerned that acts of violence against foreign volunteers will influence the negotiations between the Indonesian government and GAM, which are taking place in Helsinki. "Don't let the peaceful atmosphere which is being build be clouded by violence which could cause the negotiations to fail", said Rufriadi.

PKPA's program coordinator Sulaiman Zuhdi Manik meanwhile, says that the shooting of Mellegers occurred after she and another volunteer, Azmiati Zuliati, had been questioned at a police post by three armed men wearing Mobile Brigade (Brimob) uniforms. The location of the shooting was around 200 meters from the Kluet Utara sub-district military command (Koramil). "Their car was hit by a volley of gunfire on the right side", said Manik.

According to Manik, after being questioned by police, the rental car they were travelling in was slowed down by a vehicle in front of them and fell behind the convoy of vehicles. Prior to this, since leaving Meulaboh in West Aceh, the Toyota Kijang carrying five men and three women was part of a convoy of other vehicles. Manik said that the whereabouts of the driver and vehicle being use by Mellegers is still unknown. Mellegers is in the final semester of a post graduate degree in humanitarian assistance at the University College Dublin in the Netherlands. [dzie]

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Disarmament of GAM crucial to peace deal: Government

Jakarta Post - July 9, 2005

Jakarta -- The government said on Friday that the disarmament of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam would be the final crucial issue to be discussed during the upcoming peace talks aimed at ending the decades-long conflict in the tsunami- devastated province.

The fifth round of peace talks is slated to kick off on Tuesday in Finland.

"It is the key to solving the problem, namely, that there will be no more illegal weapons in Aceh," said State Minister for Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil, who has been playing an active role in the peace talks. He added that the government was hopeful that the issue could be resolved during the talks.

Sofyan said that the government and GAM had reached agreement on 90 percent of the outstanding issues. He added that the government would also grant GAM members amnesty, meaning that their civil rights would be restored, including the right to contest elections.

On Wednesday evening, Vice President Jusuf Kalla invited President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and leaders of the major political parties to talks over dinner at his official residence in a bid to seek political support for the peace process in Aceh.

Kalla, who is also the leader of the giant Golkar Party, has been playing a crucial role in promoting the cause of peace in Aceh. The government has offered greater autonomy in Aceh, but in return is demanding that GAM drop its claim to independence.

During the gathering, Kalla asked the party leaders in attendance to allow (former) GAM members to stand in local elections through their respective political parties. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was not represented at the gathering.

The country's restrictive electoral law does not permit independent candidates to contest local elections, a prohibition widely seen as being designed to maintain Jakarta's hold on the regions. All political parties in the country must be organized on a nationwide basis, a requirement which would effectively prevent ex-GAM members from establishing a recognized political party or from standing in local elections in Aceh unless they are nominated by one of the established, Jakarta-dominated political parties.

The Indonesian government and GAM's exiled leaders commenced the peace talks in February this year after the oil-rich province was hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. GAM has been seeking independence for the oil-rich province since 1976.

During a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, GAM self-styled prime minister in exile Malik Mahmud said that he was confident that GAM members would receive the overwhelming support of the Acehnese people should truly democratic local elections ever be permitted in the province by Indonesia.

Meanwhile, PDI-P Secretary General Pramono Anung Wibowo said that his party would allow former GAM members to stand in local elections as long as what he termed "legal and political clarification" had been carried out.

"If the former GAM members have gone through legal and political clarification, it would not be a problem. Otherwise, the door will remain closed.

Military ties

Court setback could set back US ties

Inter Press Service - July 11, 2005

Jim Lobe, Washington -- A recent appeals court decision to acquit 12 soldiers convicted last year of a notorious 1984 massacre in Jakarta could complicate efforts by the administration of US President George W. Bush to normalise military ties with the Southeast Asian nation.

The acquittal, which was reported last week by the BBC but has yet to be officially confirmed, follows a series of court decisions that have freed military officers from responsibility for major abuses of human rights, particularly the 1999 rampage by military-backed militias in East Timor.

It also follows approval by the US House of Representatives of an administration request to lift all restrictions on military aid for Indonesia in next year's pending foreign aid bill.

The Senate, however, is expected to approve its own version later this summer, according to one aide, who warned that the reported acquittal will make it more likely that the upper chamber will maintain existing curbs.

This kind of action suggests that it would be premature to drop existing restrictions, said the aide, noting that a recent finding by a commission appointed by Jakarta's Indonesia's president, ret. Gen. Bambang Yudhoyono, that agents of the military-run State Intelligence Agency (BIN) were behind the murder-by-poison of a prominent human rights activist would also bolster lawmakers who opposed rapid normalisation of military ties.

Human Rights Watch also strongly denounced the reported court acquittals in the case of the so-called Tanjung Priok massacre, which took place in September 1984 when security forces fired on Muslim protestors during anti-government demonstrations in north Jakarta, killing 33 people. The demonstration was held to denounce the arrests of several key Muslim leaders.

Whether it is a massacre from the Suharto era or killings in East Timor, these verdicts show that the Indonesian military continues to get away with murder, said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director. There is clearly no political will in Indonesia to address this kind of impunity.

The acquittals, he added, also made clear that, in spite of Yudhoyono's election and the reformist complexion of his government, the military remained a law unto itself.

Because Pres. Yudhoyono was elected democratically, many now wrongly believe that Indonesia's military has been reformed, he said. This is not the case. The military remains above the law, apparently too powerful for the courts to tame.

The Tanjung Priok case was one of two decreed in 2001 by then- President Abdurrahman Wahid based on a law passed by the Indonesian parliament the year before that established special human rights courts.

The other was aimed at investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the 1999 rampage in Timor in which hundreds of people were killed and most of the territory's infrastructure was destroyed. Sixteen military officers and two civilians were put on trial.

Last year, an appeals court overturned the convictions of all of the military officers, including Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, the highest-ranking military officer to be convicted of crimes against humanity.

The only convictions that were sustained were of ethnic Timorese civilians, including a militia leader, whose sentence was reduced from 10 to five years in prison, and the former governor of the province, Abilio Jose Soares, who is currently serving a three- year term.

The appeals court decision elicited protests from the Bush administration which, however, has made little secret of its desire to normalise military ties that were initially restricted following the massacre of over 200 civilian demonstrators in Dili, East Timor, in 1991 and then virtually severed altogether after the 1999 rampage.

As the world's most populous Muslim nation, and one where Islamic extremists have made some inroads, the Pentagon, in particular, believes that Jakarta has a key role to play in its global war on terrorism (GWOT).

Since 2001, the Pentagon and the administration have waged a relentless and largely successful effort to ease restrictions on US military ties with Jakarta and open up new channels of military aid, mostly through the provision of anti-terrorism assistance and military exercises.

Under administration pressure, Congress gradually dropped a series of conditions on the resumption of military assistance after 2001, including accountability for the East Timor rampage and subordination of the military to civilian authority.

The administration's courtship of Jakarta received a major shot in the arm after Washington sent an aircraft carrier task force to take part in relief operations in strife-torn Aceh province alongside Indonesian soldiers.

By late last year, only one condition on renewing military aid and non-lethal military sales to Indonesia remained -- that the secretary of state certify that both the armed forces were cooperating fully with a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation of the August 2002 killings of two US schoolteachers and an Indonesian colleague in an ambush in Papua province.

In late February, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice certified accordingly, despite the fact that the individual named by the FBI as a perpetrator of the killings had well-known links to the local armed forces commanders and was probably acting at their behest.

Indeed, the suspect, Anthonius Wamang, remains at large in Papua and has yet to be indicted, let alone arrested, fueling suspicions that he has received military protection. The certification paved the way for the renewal of Indonesia's eligibility for the International Military Education and Training (IMET), a giant step towards the Indonesian military's full rehabilitation.

This was followed late last month by the House, acting at the behest of the Pentagon and its Republican leadership, agreeing to lift all restrictions on military aid for Indonesia, beginning the start of fiscal year 2006 on Oct. 1.

The action has angered human rights and church groups, 53 of which signed an appeal to Bush just before Yudhoyono's visit here in late May.

If the Bush administration and its allies in Congress were serious about promoting democratic reform and human rights in Indonesia, said Karen Orenstein, Washington coordinator for the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), they would not be seeking to prop up the Indonesian military, the country's least democratic institution.

In its statement Monday, HRW said the appeals court decision on the Tanjung Priok killings means that, as in East Timor, no Indonesian military officer will be held accountable.

Fourteen active and retired military officers originally stood trial for the massacre. Two other soldiers accused taking part in the incident were acquitted last year, including the current head of Indonesia's special forces, Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntrasan, who was then North Jakarta military commander.

One of Muntrasan's predecessors as special forces commander, Maj. Gen.

Muchdi Purwopranjono, has been implicated by the presidential commission in last September's assassination of rights activist Munir Said Thalib, who was poisoned with a lethal dose of arsenic while traveling on Indonesia's commercial airline, Garuda, from Jakarta to Amsterdam to attend a rights conference.

Muchdi, who has denied any responsibility for the murder, was deputy director of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) at the time and reportedly received more than two dozen calls on his confidential number from one of the main suspects just before and after the poisoning. Muchdi served as special forces commander in the late 1990s.

Human rights/law

Susilo urged to speed up probe into Munir's murder

Jakarta Post - July 16, 2005

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Rights activists on Friday urged the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to speed up the investigation into the murder of the country's top rights campaigner Munir.

The call came after a special team tasked to assist the police in the investigation submitted its report on the case to the President at the end of its tenure three weeks ago.

A former member of the now-defunct fact finding team, Rachland Nashiddik from the Indonesian human rights watchdog Imparsial, also asked the President to set up a commission that would monitor the work of the police and make sure that people implicated in the murder case be put on trial.

According to the fact-finding team's report, several former and active members of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) were implicated in the case. The 100-page report, which has not been released to the public, also explains the roles of each of the suspects in the murder case.

Munir died in September last year on board a Garuda aircraft flying from Jakarta to Amsterdam. According to an autopsy carried out by Dutch authorities, the activist, who had been a strong critic of the military for their human rights violations, died from arsenic poisoning.

"About ten days ago we submitted to the President's close aide several names to join the commission. Now, we are waiting for the President as to whether he will agree to our proposal.

"One thing for sure is that the commission must have the power to ensure that the case proceeds properly," Rachland told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said that the political support of the President was crucial to ensure a thorough investigation of the case.

Police have declared a Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, as a suspect in the murder case. Pollycarpus, whom many believe was also a BIN agent, had been accused of facilitating the murder when he offered Munir his business class seat during the flight.

The fact-finding team in their report also criticized the police for their poor performance in handling the case, although Rachland acknowledged that after the investigation team had been replaced with new faces the police seemed to work more seriously. The investigation team is now led by Brig. Gen. Marsudhi Hanafie, who was previously head of the fact-finding team.

Still no follow up on Munir Fact Finding Team's report

Kompas - July 14, 2005

Jakarta -- Twenty days after the Fact Finding Team (TPF) investigating the case of the death of human rights activist Munir handed over the conclusions and recommendations of their six months work to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, there has still been no information on what follow up measures are to be taken by the government.

Indonesian police chief General Sutanto, when asked about what measure have been followed up by the government in the case following a meeting on fuel shortages at the presidential offices on Wednesday July 13 only responded briefly. No. No. We haven't discussed it, he said.

Last month on June 24, when the Munir team's conclusions and recommendations were handed over to the president at a press conference, TPF chairperson Police Brigadier General Marsudi Hanafie said that the president had promised to respond to and deal with it quickly.

Cabinet secretary Sudi Silalahi also asserted that the president would immediately analyse and seek a resolution to the case and summon a number of related government officials. The officials were the Attorney General, the National Police Chief, the Chief of the Armed Forces, the director of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Minister of Justice and Human Rights and the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

When asked if he had already received the TPF's conclusions and recommendations and about what follow up measures had been taken, Sutanto only smiled and declined to comment. Later, it will be [explained] later, he said as he left.

Separately, the head of the Attorney General's legal information centre, Soehandojo, said that Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, a suspect in Munir's murder, would soon be sitting in the dock. Within two to three days the Prosecutor General will have prepared the charges against Priyanto which will be handed over the Central Jakarta State Court.

According to Soehandojo, Priyanto will be charged with violating Article 340 of the Criminal Code on premeditated murder and Article 263 on the falsification of documents. The dossier on the case meanwhile refers to 32 witnesses, which will give evidence in the case.

The Deputy Attorney General for the Attorney General's office of Public Crimes, Agung Prasetyo, has given an order though the deputy head of the Jakarta Prosecutors Office to prepare charges to be handed over to the Central Jakarta State Court. (IDR/inu)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Witness protection law 'crucial'

Jakarta Post - July 12, 2005

Tony Hotland, Jakarta -- As lawmakers gear up to deliberate the long-awaited law on the protection of witnesses and victims of violence, experts have said that it must be comprehensively discussed and detailed in order to push forward judicial reform.

The House of Representatives agreed last month to sponsor the bill, which is just one of 55 bills on a priority list for enactment this year, and is as seen crucial in order to crack major cases that often go unresolved because witnesses are unwilling to testify.

Lawmakers said witnesses have not been given adequate rights in order to ensure their safety.

A draft of the bill seeks to establish facilities to provide protection to witnesses and victims through the whole process of a trial heard in either public or in military courts.

According to the draft, protection will be provided by a special agency under the President. It would have seven members who come from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the police, the Attorney General's Office, the justice ministry, academics, and non-governmental organizations.

A person who feels threatened may make a request for protection to this agency. A decision as to whether or not to grant protection would be determined within seven days of the request being filed.

A witness or victim would need to sign an agreement in which he or she promises to abide by all rules set down by the agency, including not making contact with particular persons.

Under the draft, a witness or victim will be entitled to certain rights, including protection from physical or psychological threats that may result from his or her testimony in a criminal case. They will also have the right to legal assistance.

Witnesses or victims may be given new identities. They would be given information on the progress of the case, as well as bring notified if persons sentenced to terms of imprisonment as a result of the case have been released from prison.

To ensure confidentiality, a witness or victim would be allowed to give testimony without having to be present in the court, with the approval of the judge presiding over the case.

Acts of violence towards witnesses and/or victims that result in them not being able to testify would carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison and/or maximum Rp 200 million (US$20,408) fine.

Anyone found guilty of revealing information about a protected witness or victim would be subject to a maximum three years in prison and/or a maximum Rp 100 million fine.

Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Usman Hamid said the law should also spell out the basis on which witnesses or victims are granted protection.

"Whether it's on the basis of the profile of the case or on the possible level of threat, because it's not possible to provide protection in every criminal case," he said, taking gross human rights violations and corruption cases as examples.

Usman said the government should empower existing institutions instead of setting up a new agency to avoid overlapping and to cut through red tape.

"We already have the Corruption Eradication Commission, Komnas HAM, the police, and the Attorney General's Office. It's already part of their job to protect witnesses or victims.

Apart from this, setting up branches for a new agency across the country would be costly. In addition, any new agency would be non-judicial in nature, while the existing institutions are already judicial," he argued.

Noted lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said providing protection to witnesses and victims was quite complicated, thus coordination among related institutions was essential.

The House is slated to start deliberating the bill after its current recess ends in August.

Legislator bemoans appalling conditions in prisons

Jakarta Post - July 12, 2005

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar -- A senior legislator revealed on Monday that 80 percent of the penitentiaries in the country, including those in Bali, were currently way over capacity.

"Most are between 40 percent and 300 percent over capacity. In one prison, with a capacity of 300 people, it is filled with 800 inmates," said Akil Mochtar during his working visit to Bali.

During the visit, Akil and 13 other legislators from the House of Representatives (DPR) went to Kerobokan Penitentiary in Denpasar.

The legislators from Commission III on security, legal and human rights affairs earlier visited others nationwide, including in East Java, Jakarta, North Sumatra, Palembang, Batam, Riau and East Kalimantan. Of all the penitentiaries, those with the worst conditions were in Jakarta, East Java, Riau and Batam, he said.

The overcrowded conditions had created extra problems for the prison management and the government, said Akil. As the number of inmates far outnumbered capacity, the government had to spend much more money on food for all the inmates, Akil argued.

According to the legislator, in the past six months, the government had not paid its debts of over Rp 80 billion to the private companies that supply meals for the hundreds of penitentiaries nationwide.

"If the private companies stop supplying food to the penitentiaries as the government fails to pay its debts, it would then create another problem," explained Akil.

He said that actually, the funds to cover the meal expenses for the inmates had been allocated by the government in the state budget, but it was not clear why the money had not been disbursed yet.

Akil urged the central government to add more money to the budget allocation for prison management so that in the future, the inmates could be treated with dignity. Some of the money could also be used to build more prisons across the country, suggested Akil.

The overcrowded conditions have been blamed for the escape of many inmates in recent years. The situation was discussed nationwide after 52 convicts escaped by sawing through the bars of their cells in a detention center in Batam, Riau province in September two years ago. Some have been recaptured, but many are still at large.

A similar case was reported a year later when 31 adult inmates, who were being kept temporarily at a juvenile detention center in Medan, escaped, raising public concern over poor security and overcrowding in prisons. Three of them, however, were reportedly recaptured a few hours after the escape.

Indonesia should ratify covenant on political rights

Jakarta Post - July 11, 2005

Ridarson Galingging, Jakarta -- The government is expected to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ratification will make the ICCPR a binding legal instrument that can be enforced domestically.

But what is it that makes it crucial for the current government to ratify it? Indonesia in fact already has human rights laws, a Human Rights Commission, and apparently, is the only country in the world to establish a human rights (ad hoc) court.

The ICCPR, which was adopted by the UN in 1966, is one of the most important international legal instruments for human rights protection. This covenant regulates how states should treat their own citizens by applying a single global standard of human rights norms. The ICCPR is a basic "human rights code" and some of its provisions have become international customary law referred to by judicial bodies worldwide when human rights are being discussed or cases decided.

This human rights treaty contains fundamental rights ranging from the right to life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, due process rights, protection of the family and children, rights of political participation and minority rights, among many others.

Ratification will reflect a strong commitment by the government that Indonesia is serious in its effort to promote and protect human rights domestically and internationally.

Ratifying the ICCPR will mean that when the country talks about human rights, Indonesia will join the rest of the world and use a "universal human rights language", not its own version of human rights, often used in the past by Indonesian state officials and judicial bodies.

The government will also show its readiness to face legal claims from its own citizens and the international community whenever it fails to obey and enforce the ICCPR provisions.

Thus the ICCPR will be complementary to the incomplete rights contained in the 1945 Constitution, and it also provides alternative forums for Indonesian citizens who can claim that their constitutional rights have been violated by the state.

If the government wants the country to have stronger human rights mechanisms, it should also ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that criminalizes individuals who commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

The ratification will not bring all the legal changes needed overnight. Human rights are complex, and violations involve the military, entrenched power interests, and an existing anti-human rights culture.

Indonesia still has a lot of work to do in order to integrate the values and norms contained in the ICCPR into the country's domestic legal system and institutions.

Many laws and regulations need to be amended. ICCPR training should be provided to judges, prosecutors, attorneys, and the police. The state also needs to allocate funds from its already limited budget to support all these programs that will promote the ICCPR.

A further consequence of the ratification is that the Indonesian judiciary and judges need to familiarize themselves with the decisions and jurisprudence of the world's leading judicial bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter American Court of Human Rights, and the Human Rights Committee, which is the ICCPR monitoring body.

To make the ratification impact be felt directly by every individual citizen, the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR should also be ratified. The ratification of this Protocol will make it possible for individual citizens to file a direct complaint to the Human Rights Committee if they feel that a domestic judicial body's decision violates ICCPR provisions.

The government will be required by the ICCPR to submit periodic reports to the Human Rights Committee on how far the country has put into practice all its commitments to bring all its laws and regulation in line with ICCPR provisions.

There are certain issues that will be the focus of the Human Rights Committee later if Indonesia ratifies the ICCPR. A relevant example that would be the subject of scrutiny would be the imposition of flogging as punishment in Aceh.

Indonesia needs to justify its consent to the imposition of flogging as a punishment by Aceh local authorities. The justification is required because in 1997 the UN Commission on Human Rights stated that "corporal punishment [such as flogging] can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, or even torture."

The practice of "freedom of religion" in Indonesia would also be questioned, related to the application of Article 18 of the ICCPR. Indonesia only recognizes five "official religions". The existence of other religions outside of these five official religions is not tolerated. How then will the government respond to the ICCPR provision that recognizes every individual's right to freely practice his or her religion or beliefs whatever that religion may be, even if it is not an "official" or "recognized" religion?

Despite all the above-mentioned obstacles that will certainly not be easy to overcome in the short term, Indonesia, nevertheless, will gain several legal and political advantages by ratifying the ICCPR.

Ordinary Indonesians will get access to alternative forums to address their human rights problems when domestic laws, institutions and procedures fail to guarantee and protect their ICCPR rights.

The Indonesian judiciary and judges will be challenged to produce pro-human rights decisions and jurisprudence if they don't want to see their decisions scrutinized and reviewed by the Human Rights Committee.

The Indonesian legal system will be challenged and forced to conform to the ICCPR provisions and the system's image will thus (finally) be improved at home and abroad.

[The writer (r-galingging2004@law.northwestern.edu) is a lecturer in law at Yarsi University in Jakarta and a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago.]

Reconciliation & justice

Indonesian acquittal has shades of the past

International Herald Tribune - July 13, 2005

Vaudine England, Hong Kong -- The recent acquittal of 12 soldiers in a politically sensitive court case in Indonesia is seen to indicate the failure of the nation's human rights tribunals and the continued impunity of the armed forces, analysts and rights activists said Tuesday.

The case involved the massacre of at least 33 civilians, possibly as many as 100, by Indonesian Army units at Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's port district, in 1984.

After a series of interim verdicts over the years, the appeals court pronounced its verdict in the Tanjung Priok case in closed sessions in May and June. The decision was made public July 7.

Two senior military officers who had also been charged in the case were acquitted last year.

Separately, those Indonesian citizens thought to have played a role in the violence that swept East Timor in 1999 have also been acquitted.

With the fall of the authoritarian regime of General Suharto in 1998, rights advocates had hoped that the prosecution of military officers would at last be possible. But today, progress is uncertain.

"Even now, the armed forces of Indonesia still have powerful influence in Indonesian politics," said Usman Hamid, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, a local nongovernmental organization that has long represented the victims at Tanjung Priok. "So there is no conducive atmosphere in the justice system for such cases."

In the Tanjung Priok case, army units were charged with having opened fire on Muslim demonstrators who had been outraged by the behavior of Suharto's troops. The demonstrators found the troops' acts to be offensive to Islam.

In particular, a soldier at Tanjung Priok had marched into a mosque -- blasphemously still wearing boots -- and torn down posters that were deemed subversive. Violent demonstrations -- and action by the army to suppress them -- ensued.

"We're raising a flag that the human rights tribunals have completely failed to do what they were set up to do," said Charmain Mohamed, a researcher in London for Human Rights Watch.

The human rights group issued a statement Tuesday underscoring the acquittals as evidence of continued military impunity in post-Suharto Indonesia.

That the Tanjung Priok case was even brought to court was seen as a victory of "Reformasi," the period of reform period that followed Suharto's forced resignation. But the collapse of the case is no less symbolic, lawyers say.

"Yes, this has been a big backtrack for reform in this country," said Asmara Nababan, a lawyer at the Jakarta-based Demos Center for Democracy and Human Rights Studies.

"We were very hopeful of convictions and our recommendations went to the top of the armed forces," Asmara said. "Now we are very disappointed by the acquittals."

There is a chance that the cases could be taken to the Supreme Court, should the Indonesian government wish to show a commitment to human rights, Asmara added. "But that's a big 'if."'

The acquittals are a sign of continuing military influence, according to human rights advocates. The latest acquittals, made public last week, involved a retired major general, a captain and 10 lower-ranking officers.

"Whether it is a massacre from the Suharto era or killings in East Timor, these verdicts show that the Indonesian military continues to get away with murder," said Brad Adams, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch in New York.

"The military remains above the law, apparently too powerful for the courts to tame."

Part of the problem, human rights groups say, is the lack of a witness protection program in Indonesia, something Parliament is soon to deliberate. But there are more general problems in Indonesia's judicial system.

"Certainly judicial reform is necessary," said Ken Conboy, managing director of Risk Management Advisory, a security firm in Indonesia. "But we don't see the impetus in the current administration for that at the moment."

"They're hitting a whole bunch of other areas, the president's got a lot on his plate," Conboy said. "He would have to burn a lot of political capital to make progress, so judicial reform has taken a back seat.

US-based rights group blasts ruling on 1984 massacre

Agence France Presse - July 11, 2005

New York -- A US-based human rights group on Monday blasted an Indonesian appeal court's decision to overturn the convictions of 12 soldiers in the massacre of Muslim protestors in 1984.

The court ruling "shows the almost complete failure of Indonesia's human rights courts," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement.

"The Tanjung Priok trials had represented Indonesia's most robust attempt to date to hold perpetrators accountable for (dictator) Suharto-era abuses," HRW said. "But following the acquittals...

victims and their families have no judicial redress for the 22- year-old killings in Jakarta."

An ad hoc human rights court last year sentenced an army captain to three years in jail and 11 of his subordinates to two years each for the shooting spree that killed 24 people in Jakarta's Tanjung Priok district in 1984.

The original verdicts were condemned by rights groups who said Indonesia lacked the nerve to bring powerful military figures to book for atrocities committed during the 32-year rein of former dictator Suharto, who stepped down in 1998.

The trials were Indonesia's second attempt to bring soldiers to court for rights abuses after court proceedings against 18 security officers or officials charged with atrocities surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote.

The human rights court acquitted all but one of the 18 accused of the atrocities, prompting calls from rights activists for a UN- backed war crimes tribunal.

"Whether it is a massacre from the Suharto era or killings in East Timor, these verdicts show that the Indonesian military continues to get away with murder," said Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director. "There is clearly no political will in Indonesia to address this kind of impunity."

"The military remains above the law, apparently too powerful for the courts to tame," he added.

Land/rural issues

The controversy over government land acquisition

Jakarta Post - July 14, 2005

Aleksius Jemadu, Bandung -- Recently, thousands of farmers took to the streets in front of the presidential palace to protest against the enactment of Presidential Regulation No. 36/2005, which allows the government to acquire land for public development projects.

The main impetus behind this regulation is that the government wants to accelerate infrastructure projects funded by foreign investors. The complicated process of land acquisition deters potential investors from financing these projects.

The protesters, however, are not buying this argument. They are afraid that the implementation of such a regulation may lead to arbitrary takeovers of private land in the name of public interest. They are not convinced that the government would be willing to compensate them for the land at a fair and commonly acceptable price.

Is there a win-win solution to these conflicting rationalities? Can the government serve the investors and the poor at the same time?

Over the last few months President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been trying to convince the public that he is quite serious about the idea of promoting good governance. The disclosure of corruption cases in various government offices is clear evidence of government's commitment to save taxpayers' money.

The alliance between the state and foreign investors in the era of economic globalization is a common phenomenon in many developing countries. Without the inflow of foreign capital it is almost impossible to achieve economic growth that is high enough to absorb the rapid increase of new job-seekers.

The logic of capital markets is that they always seeks to eliminate obstacles that hinder them from making profit. On the side of the government, the logic is that economic resources, including capital, have to be controlled in order to consolidate wealth. Hence, we observe an increasing competition among states to attract foreign capital.

On a wider perspective, controversies around the government's new land regulation reflect the uneasy combination of democratic polity and market economy. On the one hand the government has the obligation to attend to public aspirations, but on the other hand the government is forced to pave the way for the operation of capital on the basis of the primacy of economic efficiency.

In advanced democracies, the mechanism of the welfare state can minimize the negative effects of a market economy by giving special allowances to the economically marginalized members of society.

In emerging democracies like Indonesia, the government has a weak bargaining position vis-a-vis the powerful multinationals with the result that the poor tend to be victimized along the process of economic development. Another important damaging effect of the primacy of private capital in the market economy is that it is naturally inclined to destroy the distinctive ethos of public service.

For instance, privatization of water resources inevitably leads to the provision of this utility on the basis of people's ability to pay. It is quite evident that the market economy creates a very undemocratic discrimination against the poor.

It seems that the government has reached a point of no return with its land regulation. It would be a disaster for the government to disappoint foreign investors.

Assuming that those who are against this regulation are mainly concerned with the credibility of government bureaucracies in implementing it, there are a number of bureaucratic measures that the government has to put in place.

First, the government should allow the public to have open access to the mechanism of determining the amount of the compensation given to the original owners of the land that is taken over for development projects. Thus, there is a possibility for civil society organizations to exercise independent control over the collaboration between the government and the private capital.

Second, the government's desperate need for foreign capital can never be a justification for neglecting the poor sections in society whose only asset is their land. In the literature of political economy, the strategy called "growth with equity" can be proposed so that the government can reach the two goals at the same time.

The central government has to convince the public that the implementation of the new land regulation in the regions will be in accordance with the commitment to pay attention to the needs of the poor.

Collaboration between local government officials and private capital is often beyond the control of the local people. Therefore, there should be a guarantee that the central government will not be indifferent to their grievances.

[The writer is the head of the department of international relations at Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung. He can be reached at aleks@home.unpar.ac.id.]

Police arrest three during antigovt rally

Jakarta Post - July 11, 2005

Jakarta -- Police arrested three people on Sunday for allegedly provoking violence during a rally at the State Palace against a decree on land seizures.

About 400 people from several non-governmental organizations took part in the rally, which was held to protest Presidential Regulation No. 36/2005 on land acquisitions and Jakarta Gubernatorial Decree No. 1222/2005 on land acquisition committees in the province.

Antara reported the demonstration became heated at about 3 p.m. after a speaker at the rally told the crowd to close ranks to prevent the police from dispersing them. Officers then began to move in on the crowd and the two sides began pushing each other. Officers took away three of the demonstrators.

"Three of our friends were taken away. They are Syahrono from Bojong, West Java, Kohar from Yogyakarta and Mul from the Urban Poor Consortium," said rally coordinator Didik Rahmanto.

Didik said police insisted on dispersing the crowd, which began gathering at 1 p.m., because rally coordinators failed to notify the police beforehand of the demonstrations, as required by the law on freedom of expression.

"We notified the police that we would hold a rally that would last until 4 p.m.," Didik claimed, adding that many people in the crowd were "roughed up" by the police during the clash.

Police officers, who refused to comment on the incident, also impounded a car equipped with loudspeakers used during the rally.

"These two regulations are evidence of how the government is pushing through its own interests at the expense of people. They will simply sweep away the few rights left to the poor and kill any hope for a better future," said Didik.

During the rally, demonstrators wore clown masks and masks on which was written "RI-1", referring to the President.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued Regulation No. 36/2005 on May 3, citing the need to obtain land for development projects that are in the interest of the public, and to resolve land- related conflicts that have stalled several infrastructure projects.

The President has defended the policy and has promised the regulation will not be used to evict people without properly compensating them for their land.

The crowd expressed support for the House of Representatives, which has asked both the President and Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso to explain the regulations.

On June 7, the House gave the government two months to revise several articles in the Presidential regulation, including on the independence of land acquisition committees, the unilateral settlement of land compensation and the definition of "public interests".

The lawmakers also said the regulation could not be applied to ongoing projects.

Environment

Over US$15 million pledged to combat illegal logging

Agence France Presse - July 16, 2005

Jakarta -- The Indonesian government has pledged over US$15 million to aid in the fight against illegal logging which is leaving the country's forests depleted, the forestry ministry said Saturday.

The funding, which will be used to hunt down illegal loggers on the islands of Papua, Sumatra and Borneo, has been approved by parliament, forestry ministry spokesman Malam Sambat Kaban said.

The "Forest Preservation Operation III" was crucial to stop rampant illegal logging, which costs Indonesia over three billion dollars in lost revenue annually, Kaban was quoted as saying by the Suara Pembaruan newspaper.

Indonesian officials warned in April that timber barons had been targetting remote Papua province due to dwindling forests on Java and some parts of Sumatra islands.

Environmental investigators say that timber smuggling from Papua to China is the world's largest logging racket.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency EIA said 300,000 cubic meters (more than 10 million cubic feet) of merbau hardwood is being smuggled out of Papua every month to feed China's timber processing industry.

The EIA said illegal logging in Papua involved Indonesian military and civilian officials, Malaysian logging gangs and multinational companies as well as brokers in Singapore and dealers in Hong Kong.

Indonesia is losing forest areas equivalent to half the size of Switzerland every year, according to the EIA.

Rapid deforestation has had devastating environmental consequences for both Indonesia and the Southeast Asian region, causing floods and landslides and shrouding nearby countries with haze from illegal fires set to clear land.

Another tragedy in Aceh: Illegal logging

Jakarta Post - July 12, 2005

Contributor to The Jakarta Post Riedo Panaligan is a recipient of the 2005 Journalism Fellowship Program of the Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance. From Banda Aceh he has filed a special report on illegal logging in Aceh province, plus related issues. His report is covers this page and the facing page.

"We heard a big sound and ran away as fast as we could," said Sahbudin, describing how he and his family in Aceh Tenggara managed to escape the ravaging mixture of water, mountain rocks and cut logs that cascaded down Leuser mountains on the night of April 27, 2005.

The district of Aceh Tenggara is the latest site of flash floods in Aceh province. Nineteen people are confirmed dead and more than 100 families from five villages, including Lawe Mengduku where Sahbudin lives, have been greatly affected. Houses and farms have been destroyed and logs are everywhere.

According to Sahbudin, he was not surprised why such a calamity befell their villages. Erosion and flash floods happen in Aceh Tenggara every year.

Six chiefs of the villages that have been affected by the 2003 flash flood already wrote a letter on May 26, 2004 to then Governor Abdullah Puteh to act in order to stop logging activities inside the protected area, but to no avail. They say unless logging is stopped, disasters will never stop in Aceh Tenggara.

"It's obvious," said Yashud Hutapea, coordinator of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) in Aceh Tenggara, "that rampant logging inside the Leuser Ecosystem is the culprit of the flash floods." WALHI already recorded five reports of major landslides and flash floods in Aceh alone after the tsunami and a total of 143 cases for the province since 2000.

Misery seems reluctant to leave Aceh. Decades-long war, tsunamis and, lately, rampant illegal logging as a result of higher demand for raw materials, especially wood, for reconstruction of tsunami-stricken areas, have taken their toll.

Huge timber demand

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) here are sending warnings to the authorities not to sacrifice too readily the remaining forests of Indonesia under the guise of rehabilitating Aceh. "We must be careful in addressing the situation, or else we will just invite other disasters to occur," said Bambang Antariksan from Walhi Aceh.

It is estimated that the minimum wood requirement needed for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Aceh, which is foreseen to last for five years, is 1.1 million cubic meters (m3) of logs, equivalent to 446,000 m3 of sawn timber. Such a huge timber requirement will worsen the already sorry state of the forests of Aceh and nearby provinces.

Logging activities in Aceh are currently concentrated in the districts of Aceh Besar, Aceh Tenggara, Aceh Singkil and Aceh Timur, which, coincidentally, are areas where there are conservation sites or places covered by the Leuser Ecosystem, one of the richest bastions of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia.

Aside from Aceh, wood that was used in the emergency and relief phase for tsunami-stricken areas also came from the provinces of North Sumatra, Raui and Jambi, which also have tragic histories of erosion and flash floods.

Indonesia is home to 10 percent of the world's tropical forests, but it also has the highest rate of deforestation, with about three million hectares of forest lost every year.

Eden in peril

The Leuser Ecosystem, approximately 2.6 million hectares of tropical rainforest, is home to some of the most unique wildlife in the world like endemic species of tigers, elephants and rhinoceros, orangutans, hornbills, cloud leopards and the world's largest flower, the rafflesia.

It has nurtured generations of some of Sumatra's major ethnic groups like the Gayo, Alas, Acehnese, Batak, Pakpak, Karo, Singkil and Malay. Moreover, some four million people depend directly on this area as their water source.

Right in the heart of the ecosystem is the Gunung Leuser National Park, a world heritage site as declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). There are also nature parks and wildlife reserves located within the Ecosystem.

The Leuser Ecosystem is declared a protected forest by the Indonesian government, but still is one of the most exploited areas in Southeast Asia.

Due to the proliferation of logging activities during the 1990s, a logging stoppage was imposed in the whole province in 2001. Still, illegal logging continued.

The logging moratorium was lifted on September 2004 by then governor Abdullah Puteh, who is now in jail for corruption. However, as early as January 2004, logging permits were issued to different companies for the utilization of the forests of Aceh.

A total of 47 companies were granted licenses for use and felling of forest (IPHHKs) by the Aceh forestry office in 2004, with total target wood production for a year amounting to 116,203.82 m3 or the equivalent of more than 46,000 trees. This is almost 150 percent higher than the 47,500 m3 legally allowed capacity during the past years.

Logging lawful, or not?

Based on reports from different journalists and NGOs, there is virtually no way of knowing which of these logging companies operating in Aceh is legal or illegal. Permits are not displayed in public and logging companies have the habit of transferring their areas of operation from time to time.

Logging activities in Aceh are also being conducted in places classified as conflict areas. In many instances, media coverage in these areas is very limited.

According to Husaini Syamaun, Forest Use and Utilization Division head at the Aceh's forestry office, "Even with permits, logging activities are only permitted in production and limited production forests." "No logging is allowed inside protected forests and conservation areas," he said. "The government is striving to attain the vision of becoming a Green Province," he further stressed.

Of the 47 companies that have been granted an IPHHK, 22 have expired permits; yet, they continue to operate.

In the district of Aceh Tenggara, where the heart of Gunung Leuser Natural Park can be found, more than 90 percent of its forest cover is classified as protected forest. Only 289 hectares of forest are attributed to production purposes.

Last year, the Aceh forestry office gave 10 private companies the right to log, with each company operating in a minimum of 100 hectares.

After the tsunami, logging activities seem to be on the rise. According to Yashud, loggers also tend to justify their actions as part of the rehabilitation for Aceh.

Even the villagers in Aceh Tenggara attest that trucks that brought logs or processed wood during the early months after the tsunami from outside the district have signs like "For the Rehabilitation of Aceh".

From two trips a week before the tsunami, trucks now make three to four trips carrying processed wood away from the Aceh Tenggara district. In one trip, at least five trucks transport 12 m3 to 15 cubic m3 of sawn timber.

"Most of the wood coming out of here is first-class," Yashud said.

He said tropical hardwood trees like semaram, merbau, kruing and meranti are favorites of loggers because they peg a very high price on the international market, around Rp 18 million (US$1,800) per m3.

"That's why most of the wood here is not really going to Aceh," said Yashud, "but is being exported illegally outside the country." Lucrative business The logging situation in Aceh Tenggara mirrors the current situation of the forests in the province generally.

Logging is a very lucrative business in Aceh and benefits influential individuals and even security personnel.

From the capital town of Kutacane to the border of North Sumatra, more than three military checkpoints and barracks have been set up along the main highway of Aceh Tenggara; two or more large trucks transporting wood in the middle of the night are therefore hard to miss.

According to the affected villagers of the recent flash flood, local government staff went to their area days after the flash flood and facilitated the selection of logs in good condition littered on the river banks. They were warned not to get the logs or else they would be prosecuted.

This happened to 11 villagers from Lawe Gerger who tried to get a few logs and ended up in jail. Their relatives testify that they are not illegal loggers, just farmers who wanted to get some logs. Some of them are still in jail.

Aceh Tenggara regent Armen Dusky denied allegations that he was involved in the illicit business, saying, "I support the Green Province vision." He vowed to protect the Leuser Natural Park and would never tolerate destructive activities inside the protected forest, unlike what some groups had been portraying about him. "I also want our forest to be protected," said Armen.

Blind eye

Illegal logging activities have become more tolerable and apprehension for such activities has relaxed after the tsunami.

Aceh Police chief Gen. Bachrumsyah Kasman admitted that they had temporarily stopped their campaign against illegal logging to give way to the emergency and relief phase for Aceh.

He said that the Vice President Jusuf Kalla had asked him to take it easy with the apprehension of undocumented transport of wood because Aceh province needed whatever wood it could get.

The Aceh forestry office still has no working monitoring scheme to ensure that only companies with a permit will operate inside areas designated for logging activities.

Even Kuntoro Mangkasubroto, head of the Bureau of Rehabilitation and Reconstruction for Aceh and Nias Island, is also resigned to the issue because of the huge timber requirement needed for the province.

"I don't support illegal logging. Illegal is illegal, period," said Kunturo. "But if they give it for free (illegal logs), I will gladly accept," he said.

Construction of roads going to isolated areas is being pushed hard, specifically the controversial Ladia Galaska Project. The project is a series of roads that will connect the western and northern coasts of Aceh and pass directly through the heart of the Leuser ecosystem.

The project received major opposition from different sectors because it will give easier access for logging and lead to the further degradation of the Leuser Ecosystem.

Just recently, bidding for construction firms was held in Banda Aceh to build roads that are part of the Ladia Galaska Project. This shows that the project is still ongoing.

New hope

Currently, different groups are seeking solutions to stop the degradation of Aceh's natural resources while also answering the needs of the victims of the tsunami.

Recently, research institution Greenomics Indonesia and conservation group the World Wildwide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched the Timber for Aceh Program, which aims to convince donor countries to donate nontropical timber to Aceh.

It gained local and international support, and no less than Aceh's acting governor Azwar Abubakar himself is pursuing donor institutions to donate timber to support the Green Province vision for Aceh.

Initially, 50 container loads of timber from the United States, enough to build 1,200 houses, are expected to arrive in Aceh within this month.

Some sustainable ideas being implemented by different groups here in Aceh came directly from the victims themselves.

One group, the Muslim Aid Foundation (MAF) is currently building Acehnese houses for different coastal communities affected by the tsunami. According to MAF's Aceh Director Fadlullah Wilmot, the houses they are building are a bit modified to render them more economically viable and environment-friendly.

Materials are made from sustainable materials. House posts are made of old coconut trunks, walls of woven bamboo and roofs of palm or sagu leaves. These houses use wooden joints instead of nails to ensure better protection against earthquakes.

"Everybody is taking a part in building the houses. Men do the carpentry while the women and children weave the roofs. They are working as a family," he said.

"We just asked them and they told us what they want to do," said Fadlullah on how they came up with the idea of building such houses.

For years, Aceh has received more than its share of natural and manmade disasters.

Whatever the reason, the impact of disasters can only be minimized, if a community-supported resource management program is integrated as part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction program of Aceh.

Otherwise, the greater tragedy of unsustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation will continue to weigh most heavily on villagers like Sahbudin who, like all the people of Aceh, just wants to live happily and in peace.

Government, Newmont seek amicable deal

Jakarta Post - July 9, 2005

Jakarta -- The government is moving toward closure in the case against US giant Newmont Mining Corp. subsidiary over the alleged pollution of Buyat Bay in Sulawesi with the two parties seeking an out-of-court settlement.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said on Friday the government might reduce the US$133.6 million in damages it is seeking from Newmont unit PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR) should both sides strike a deal outside the court.

"We are not going to drop the criminal charges against Newmont, but for the civil lawsuit there is an understanding between us that we should explore ways to settle it out of the court," said Aburizal.

Aburizal was speaking following an overnight meeting between government officials and Newmont executives. Aside from Aburizal, Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh was attending the closed-door meeting.

The meeting was seen as another major blow to environmentalists after the Constitutional Court cleared the way on Thursday for mining companies to operate in protected forests.

Abdul Rahman admitted that the meeting was aimed at discussing a settlement of the lawsuit. But he refused to elaborate, asking the press to seek the content of the meeting through Aburizal.

Police named six Newmont executives suspects in the alleged pollution case, but prosecutors in North Sulawesi released five of them, leaving the company CEO Richard Ness the only suspect.

Newmont, which stopped operations last year, is accused of polluting Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi where it dumped its tailings produced by its gold mine near the area. The government also filed a civil lawsuit against the company.

Newmont has denied the accusation but has admitted that it released 17 tons of waste mercury into the air and 16 tons into the water over five years, but said that these releases were well within government regulated standards.

Asked whether the out-of-court settlement was intended to prevent the company from pulling out from the country, Aburizal said it was for the benefit of both sides.

"It is not because we are afraid. We are just concerned about a possible defeat in court. We should also think what will happen if we win," said Aburizal, adding that there would be a series of negotiations in the upcoming weeks.

The government has said the lawsuit was aimed at seeking damages to restore the environment in Buyat Bay and to relocate its residents, while the criminal prosecution was to deter those breaking the law on the environment.

Newmont's director of corporate and business development Robert Humberson refused to comment on the substance of the meeting.

"The process is still under way. But Newmont is hopeful of continuing the negotiations with the government," he said.

NGOs lash out at court over anti-environment ruling

Jakarta Post - July 9, 2005

Jakarta -- Environmental organizations have slammed the recent Constitutional Court verdict allowing mining companies to continue operations in protected forests, saying it set a bad precedent and would create more environmental destruction.

In a joint statement, the NGOs which lost the court battle said the judges were inconsistent in their stance on environmental issues.

"On one hand, the verdict said open pit mining would create an environmental catastrophe, yet on the other it exempted the mining companies (from the law protecting forests)," Siti Maimunah from the Network for Mining Advocacy (Jatam) said.

If the judges were consistent, they would have revoked the 2004 law because it risked harming the people, which was against the 1945 Constitution, the groups said. "But the court opted to compromise," they said.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday the government's decision to allow 13 mining companies to resume their operations in protected forests had not violated the Constitution.

The 13 firms are PT Freeport Indonesia, PT Karimun Granite, PT INCO, PT Indominco Mandiri, PT Aneka Tambang (Bahubulu), PT Aneka Tambang (Buli), PT Natarang Mining, PT Nusa Halmahera Mineral, PT Pelsart Tambang Kencana, PT Interex Sacra Raya, PT Weda Bay Nickel, PT Gag Nikel, and PT Sorikmas Mining.

The panel of judges voted unanimously for the enactment of Law No. 19/2004 revising Law No. 41/1999 on forestry that banned open mining in protected forests. The 2004 forestry law took effect after the House of Representatives endorsed a government regulation in lieu of law that allowed the mining companies to operate in protected forests. A verdict from the court is final and binding.

Former president Megawati Soekarnoputri issued the first regulation in lieu of a law permitting the mining, citing emergency conditions.

However, the environmental groups said the way the judges viewed the verdict showed they did not believe an emergency situation was in place.

"The judges recommended that the President thoroughly deliberate the conditions before issuing the regulation in lieu of a law, which implies that the judges actually saw the issuance of the controversial regulation lacked a sense of emergency, said Chalid Muhammad from the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi).

Chalid said the court ruling would encourage the government to issue more controversial regulations in lieu of laws under the guise of a state of emergency.

Health & education

Abortion clinic beyond reach of law

Jakarta Post - July 16, 2005

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya -- After attending to a client Agung (not his real name), an employee at the office of an abortion clinic in Dukuh Kupang, Surabaya, begins checking off names on the list of reporters who regularly come to pick up hush money.

The list contains about 100 names of journalists, many coming from dubious media companies, who regularly extort money from the clinic in return for not writing stories about its existence.

"They often come to take their share. Not just anonymous reporters, but several well-known ones from the local media firms in Surabaya," Agung said. A man in the parking lot, who refused to be named, said police men also made regular visits to the office.

It is located about two kilometers from Surabaya's infamous prostitute village of Dolly, which said to be the biggest red- light district in Southeast Asia. Running since 1996 when it was last shut down by police, the operation has survived the leadership of former East Java Police chiefs Insp. Gen. Sutanto from 2001 to 2002 (now National Police chief) and Insp. Gen. Firman Gani from 2002 to 2004 (now Jakarta Police chief).

Police under the present leadership of Insp. Gen. Edi Sunarno, meanwhile, claimed they were unaware such an abortion clinic existed.

A few hours later, a black van stops in front of the office and several women waiting there get in. Most are young, in their late teens or early 20s, and some are prostitutes while others are students.

The van heads toward the residence of "Dr. Stephen" in one of the upscale neighborhoods in Surabaya; the clinic where the abortions are carried out. Security is tight at the residence, with guards outside the office tightlipped about the house's operations.

A client, "Mia", said that before performing an abortion, the doctor would explain his reasons for carrying out the abortion -- that it was better to abort an unwanted child than bring it into the world, especially if there was not enough money to feed it. He also assured patients abortions were not against most major religions if the baby was less than three months old.

A student at one of the private universities in Surabaya, said Mia said it was the second time she had terminated a pregnancy, the result of a sexually active relationship with her boyfriend who was also a student.

"It's better to resort to abortion because we cannot afford to bring a child up at the moment. Besides, it would be a great shame to the family if I fell pregnant before I got married." The costs of an abortion range from Rp 1 million to Rp 2 million depending on the age of the fetus. Dr. Stephen performs about 20 abortions a day.

A procedure with Stephen takes about three hours. After regaining consciousness from the general anesthetic a patient is sent back to the office and told to return to the clinic for checkups each month.

While criticized by religious leaders, the practice of abortion is supported by many non-government organizations involved in family planning. "Abortion is the mother's right," said Djunaidi Saripurnawan, the research and development coordinator of Plan Indonesia.

School expenses burden parents

Jakarta Post - July 13, 2005

Jakarta -- A recent investigation conducted by the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) revealed that parents are still being burdened by various school fees for their children attending elementary school.

Head of ICW's public service monitoring division Ade Irawan said on Monday that his organization had undertaken surveys and interviews at 50 city elementary schools.

"We found that parents are being hit with 38 kinds of school fees," Ade told journalists after meeting with Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall on Monday.

The extra fees are for extracurricular activities, examinations, sports, and also for teachers' weddings.

However, he did not mention the amount that each parent had to fork out in fees.

The watchdog also found that up to 10 percent of schools in Jakarta, including high schools, bribed officials in education offices in each municipality in order to minimize supervision of academic activities and financial issues.

"Each school pays up to 5 percent of their annual budget of Rp 1 billion (US$103,000) to bribe officials," Ade added.

Other important finding was the power wielded by school headmasters who fully control both financial and academic issues without clear control mechanisms.

"A situation like this is prone lead to corruption," Ade said.

The survey found that school committees do not work effectively in controlling school management, often acting as mere rubber stamps for headmasters.

Sutiyoso welcomed the ICW report, saying that he would ask city education agencies to follow up on it. He also promised tough measures against any of those involved in corruption.

"I invite other non-governmental organizations to conduct such investigations," he added.

Taste for fast food leaves children malnourished

Agence France Presse - July 11, 2005

With its Gucci-filled shopping malls, Indonesia's capital shares the emerging superficial affluence of many other Asian cities, but while many in Jakarta are now better off, new wealth has brought an embarrassing and unusual side-effect: child malnutrition.

Indonesia is no stranger to starvation. The dark days of economic mismanagement under President Sukarno in the 1950s and 60s saw many go hungry, while famine continues to resurface in far-flung provinces prone to drought.

But in Jakarta, where a generous yearly budget of more than 1.45 billion dollars is regularly splashed on sprucing up monuments to national pride, the revelation that thousands of the city's children are underfed has drawn anger.

Jakarta's health agency reported last month that more than 8,000 infants under five were suffering from malnutrition, prompting scathing reports in the local media about 2.7 million dollars lavished on a "Las Vegas-style" fountain.

"With music and choreographed laser beams, the project is simply an embarrassment amid recent reports that 8,455 toddlers in the city are suffering from chronic undernourishment," the Jakarta Post newspaper said last month.

However, say experts, the fault lies not with Jakarta's free- spending Governor Sutiyoso, but with the fact that people in the city -- and across Asia -- are feeding their children with more expensive but more unhealthy food.

Though particularly evident in Indonesia, it is a problem that is being seen in many developing countries, where once frugal but nutritious meals are being lost under an avalanche of fast and greasy food as household incomes rise.

"In a good number of communities, even in a city such as Jakarta where there is lots of food, malnutrition is a serious problem," said Vanessa Dickey, a health specialist with the US-based aid organisation Mercy Corps.

Dickey, who is working with authorities in Jakarta to remedy the situation, says that in some areas of the city, up to 50 percent of children under five show signs of malnourishment -- indicated by slow growth rates.

The problem, she told AFP, is that with cash to spend, many Indonesians eschew traditional healthy fare of rice and vegetables in favour of fatty fried foods and sugary snacks that satisfy hunger cravings but offer few nutrients.

"This leads to the situation where in some cases, you see an overweight mother looking after a malnourished child," she said, adding that in some cases the problem occurred in families that were considered wealthy.

Dietary ignorance is the main culprit, says Dickey, with many Indonesian parents using unhealthy snacks as pacifiers for unruly children in between main meals, meaning that obesity can strike just as easily as undernourishment. "Our biggest foe is fast food," she said.

Rahmatullah, a Jakarta slum kid who measures six kilograms (13 pounds) short of the 14 kilograms considered normal for a 32- month-old infant, is a textbook example of the cases Dickey and her Indonesian colleagues are facing.

Still unable to stand or walk, Rahmatullah has just returned home -- a shack in a fly-infested alley close to the city's Sunda Kelapa port -- after several weeks in hospital, where he was admitted weighing just five kilograms. "He wouldn't eat the rice or porridge we gave him, but he liked fried fish and candy," his 65-year-old father, Junaidi, told AFP.

With eight children to look after since his wife died last year, Junaidi admits spending part of his meagre labourer's income on snacks to keep his offspring quiet. The wrappers that litter his doorway testify to their tastes.

"It hasn't been easy since my wife passed away. Because I'm the only parent, I have to work, clean and cook, I find it difficult to cope," he said, cradling Rahmatullah, dressed in a grubby "Spongebob Squarepants" T-shirt, in his arms.

To prevent other children suffering the same fate, Mercy Corps and local health workers are hoping to create better eating habits, using a tried and trusted sociological trick known as "positive deviance".

This examines the diet of the few families with healthy children in otherwise malnourished communities -- in other words, those who deviate from the normal trend with positive results -- and uses them as an example for others.

Parents and children take part in a two-week programme in which they are provided with three high calorie, high protein meals, including tofu, coconut milk and inexpensive fish, and urged to abandon snacks.

Says Dickey, although the programme requires considerable commitment from families taking part -- and has been rejected by some -- it has so far been successful, possibly paving the way for broader health awareness in Indonesia.

"It is very well received, communities latch onto it and enjoy it. It's a catalyst for change."

Teachers demand permanent status

Jakarta Post - July 11, 2005

Jakarta -- Hundreds of teachers who have been working for the government on a contract basis demanded permanent status as the government plans to hire some 300,000 new public servants this year.

They said that at least 70 percent of the new permanent teaching jobs should be allocated to them, particularly those whose contracts would expire this year.

The demand emerged during a gathering on Saturday of teachers from various regions who have been working on contract in state schools in Surakarta, Central Java.

Achmad Tugiran, a member of the association of teachers working on a non-permanent basis, stated that there were over 235,000 teachers working on contract who were hired in 2003 and whose contract will end later this year.

In addition, there were over 174,000 teachers hired in 2004, and whose contract will expire next year.

The plan to hire new public servants this year was announced by State Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi recently.

Millions of people have been working as teachers, nurses and other professions on a non-permanent basis, some of them for as long as 20 years.

Under the contract system, the workers receive less pay and no added benefits such as housing, meal or transport allowances, let alone pensions.

The government has more than 3.5 million permanent public servants.

"The government should give priority to non-permanent teachers hired in 2003 as their contract will soon expire," Achmad said.

"We're facing uncertainty here (because the contract will expire). The government should not neglect us," he added.

Islam/religion

Religious leaders condemn rising religious fanaticism

Jakarta Post - July 16, 2005

Hera Diani, Jakarta -- How much violence in this country is committed in the name of religion? Take Muslim scholar Jalaluddin Rahmat, for instance, whose belief leans toward the Syiah Islamic school of thought, like the majority of people in Iran. Jalaluddin wants nothing more than to follow the Syiah teachings, which are perceived as too liberal by conservative Muslims. Instead, he has been intimidated and threatened, and the Islamic boarding schools he owns in several regions have been burned or attacked.

"In a recent seminar at (Jakarta's) Istiqlal mosque, there was even a suggestion to ask the Attorney General's Office to ban Syiah teachings," Jalaluddin said in a seminar on religious radicalization on Thursday. A number of acts of intimidation and aggression against religious groups or individuals by "other devotees", or even the state itself have been recorded in the country.

The most recent cases were the detention of priest Mangapin Sibuea of the Doomsday Sect, Muslim cleric Yusman Roy, who was condemned for performing prayers in Bahasa Indonesia, as well as the July 9 attack against Muslim group Jemaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) by Muslim hard-liners.

Worried by the perceived rise of religious fanaticism in the country, religious leaders and scholars gathered on Thursday to condemn such aggressive acts.

"This is not the first time the JAI has been attacked. The government should be held responsible -- it did nothing to prevent or stop the attack," said Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla of the Liberal Islam Network (JIL).

Ulil was himself condemned in 2003 by Muslim group Forum Ukhuwah Umat Islam (FUUI), which issued a fatwa (edict) to kill Ulil, as the latter published an article criticizing the conservatism of some Muslim leaders in the country.

The scholars and leaders urged the government to protect the people's right to freely follow their religion.

Djohan Effendi of the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP) said religious discourse had suffered a huge setback since the early 20th century.

"Debates on religion were respectful in nature. Communist leader D.N. Aidit even befriended mullah. And prominent Muslim scholar like Agus Salim said that even atheists must be protected by the law," he said.

Protestant Priest Wienata Sairin has asked state institutions like the ministry of religious affairs to reevaluate their roles. They should come up with new paradigms instead of advocating uncompromising courses of action, Sairin said.

Meanwhile, Muslim scholar Dawam Rahardjo condemned the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), for issuing an edict that attacked certain religious groups. "The MUI must be held responsible because it issued an edict saying the blood of the Ahmadiyah congregation is halal," he said and thus attacking them would be permissible under Islamic law.

Moreover, the scholars and leaders asked the state to accept religions other than the five recognized by the state under the Constitution.

"There are so many religions and religious beliefs. The government must reposition itself in terms of religion. It claims to be only a facilitator, but it often interferes with religious practices," Sairin said.

Victims of religious fanaticism

1. Bantaqiah, Aceh (1997)
2. Children of God (1984)
3. Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation (JAI) (2002; 2003; July 9, 2005)
4. Dewa pop band (April 2005)
5. Hare Krisna (1971)
6. Islam Jamaah (1971)
7. Inkar Sunah (Sept. 30, 1983)
8. Jehovah Witnesses 9. Liberal Islam Network (JIL) (April 2005)
9. Konghucu 11. Islamic Dakwah Indonesia Institution (LDII) (2002)
10. Pondok Nabi (Doomsday Sect) (2004)
11. Aliran Kepercayaan (1983, 1997)
12. Musyarofah (June 4, 2005)
13. Nichiren Sosyu Indonesia (NSI)
14. Salamullah 17. Sadar Mapan 18. SARAS (March 2004)
15. Teguh Esha 20. Ulil Abshar Abdalla (Jan. 2003)
16. Yusman Roy (May 2005)

[Source: Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace]

Limited implementation of Sharia in Aceh

Jakarta Post - July 13, 2005

Mohamad Mova Al 'Afghani, Jakarta -- The recent caning of people convicted for gambling offences in Aceh has sparked controversy about the extent of the implementation of sharia law there. There have also been questions raised concerning the applicability of such laws to non-Acehnesse, non-Aceh residents and non-Muslims living in Aceh.

In the all modern legal systems, laws always address at least four fundamental issues namely, ratione loci (territorial applicability or the "where"), ratione materiae (regulated matters or the "what"), rationne personae (personal applicability or the "who") and rationne temporis (time period or the "when"). If any of these issues overlap, the laws may be deemed to be legally defective and could be subjected to a judicial review before the Constitutional Court as they may deny the right of an individual to obtain justice or legal certainty.

The first question that should be examined is the extent of the application of sharia law in Aceh. Law No. 19 2001 on Aceh's special autonomy does not explicitly grant Aceh a specific body of sharia law. What is explicit in the special autonomy law is that Aceh is granted its own sharia courts and that its Regional House of Representatives is granted powers to create local body laws, or Qanun.

The special autonomy law is silent about the maximum penalties for crimes in the Qanun. However, Article 225 in Law No. 32 2004 on regional government, which also applies to Aceh, stipulates the maximum sentences for all crimes in the Qanun -- six months imprisonment and a maximum fine of up to IDR 50 million. Viewing the Qanun through the regional government law, it is no different from the ordinary Peraturan Daerah or Regional Regulations, except for its Arabic and Islamic-oriented terminology.

A similar situation applies to the sharia courts. The authority of the courts is based upon Islamic sharia under the national legal system (Article 25 of the Special Autonomy Law). These courts are not separate courts -- they are still under the auspices of the Supreme Court. Under Law No. 4 2004 on judicial powers, the sharia court is only a "special chamber" existing alongside ordinary courts.

Like other bodies of law, sanctions for offences are written into Aceh's Qanun. As noted earlier, Qanun sanctions cannot be tougher or different than the limitations set by the law on regional governments. However, Qanun No 13 2003 on gambling rules that caning is an appropriate sentence for those found guilty of gambling offences. By stipulating such a harsh physical punishment this Qanun could be deemed to be in breach of regional law because it has violated the legal maxim of lex superior derogate lex inferior (a higher regulation prevails over a lower one).

Some experts argue that the deterrent effect of a punishment like caning is more potent than the current penal system. Some others are of the opinion that caning as a form of punishment is not necessarily different or harsher than a prison sentence -- and therefore should be allowed. I would rather not address the effectiveness of caning as this is better discussed by criminologists but as to the form of punishment, the issue still presumably lies within the realms of legal science.

Punishment -- whether it in the form of imprisonment, fines, the cutting off of hands or fingers, beheading or caning -- is a form of state coercion. Essentially, every punishment is a violation of human rights but is permitted to maintain order. As this form of coercion affects the liberty and physical freedom of the citizen, all methods of punishment must be in the form of undang-undang or law. Regional legislators have no authority to create legislation concerning a method of punishment other than what is recognized under the national legal system.

Another issue hovering around the implementation of the Qanun is the question "to whom will the law be applied" (rationne personae). The language used by Qanun is setiap orang (everyone). This would mean that anyone who violates the Qanun in Aceh would be punished. However, Article 25(3) of the law on special autonomy rules that the application of the Qanun and the sharia courts must only apply to Muslims -- both Acehnese Muslims and those from other ethnic groups and nationalities.

It seems that the move to give the Acehnese the right to create sharia law has been a half-hearted one. This form of special legal autonomy is effectively meaningless because despite the impressive Arabic terminology used in the Qanun, these laws are easily contestable if they go beyond the bounds of the regional government law. In effect, they only create a situation of more legal confusion.

For those appealing against sentences delivered under Qanun law there are several legal channels available. First, they can submit a request for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court arguing that provisions under the special autonomy law are in conflict with other laws and therefore violate the individual's right to legal certainty as guaranteed under Article 28D of the Constitution. Another appeal option would be to the Aceh Provincial Sharia Court, or they could petition the President to issue a regulation revoking the Qanun in accordance with Article 145 of the law on regional government. Yet another option would be to sue the Aceh regional authorities through the civil courts for compensation for any injuries caused.

If the Acehnese want an effective and far-reaching special autonomy like Hong Kong has, then Article 18 of the 1945 Constitution must be amended, so as to permit the enforcement of different, autonomous legal systems in Indonesia. In addition to that, the House of Representatives needs to pass a bill regulating and defining the limits of Aceh's sharia law. As long as the status quo exists, the harshest penalties under jinayat (Islamic criminal law) in Aceh should be limited to a maximum of Rp 50 million and six months imprisonment. Penalties which exceed or are different to these are likely to be illegal.

[The writer is a lawyer and a lecturer.]

Business & investment

Investment approvals up

Jakarta Post - July 14, 2005

Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta -- Approvals for fresh domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) are on the raise, increasing optimism that a pickup in investor confidence has finally started to set in.

On average, fresh investment approvals -- both from domestic and overseas sources -- rose by 51 percent in the first semester compared to the same period last year to Rp 80.85 trillion (US$8.5 billion), the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) announced on Tuesday.

BKPM chairman Muhammad Luthfi said FDI approvals during the January to June period alone posted a jump of 72 percent to Rp 56.34 billion compared to the corresponding period a year earlier.

New investment approvals in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry led the advance with 21 projects valued at $2.6 billion, ahead of the construction sector at 53 projects worth $540.7 million, he added.

Also included in the list of FDI approvals were 34 projects worth $531 million in the transportation, warehousing and communications sectors, 22 projects worth $520 million in the mining sector and 34 projects worth $384 million in the food processing sector.

The bulk of the FDI proposals came from Britain (50 projects worth $989 million), Singapore (108 worth $591 million), Canada (4 worth $553 million), the Netherlands (24 worth $374 million) and Japan (32 worth $332 million).

With Indonesia still struggling to lure back investment in the wake of the crisis, the BKPM data should provide some hope of a return of foreign investment, which is badly needed to quicken the pace of economic growth.

The country's FDI approvals reached their peak in 1995 with a record $39.66 billion, but collapsed to $13.64 billion in 1998 as a result to the Asian monetary crisis and ensuing political turbulence here.

National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) chairwoman Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the figures were encouraging, making the government's full-year total investment target of Rp 179 trillion attainable. "Achieving 45 percent of the full-year target (by June) is good enough," she said.

The government has targeted FDI approvals for this year at Rp 133.41 trillion ($14 billion) -- similar to what was achieved in 2003.

Other parts of the BKPM report show that domestic and foreign direct investment realization rose 43 percent to Rp 39.7 trillion in the first semester of this year compared to the same period last year.

The increase was mostly attributable to a 70 percent increase of FDI realization during the period to Rp 31.84 trillion -- equal to about 97 percent of the government's full year realization target.

In total, domestic and foreign investment realization in the first six months of the year provided jobs for 129,227 workers.

FDI realization alone provided 69,515 jobs, mostly in the construction, chemical and pharmaceuticals, metals, machinery and electronics, transportation, warehousing and communications, and food processing sectors.

In an attempt to improve the country's investment climate, the government has urged the BKPM to finalize the drafting of a new investment bill that would slash the time needed to set up a business from 156 days to only 30, and that would ensure proper coordination among ministries.

Meanwhile, the government is also vowing to curb rampant corruption and red tape, loosen rigid labor laws, improve tax rates and administration, guarantee legal certainty and work to improve the country's ailing infrastructure.

Cooperatives, SMEs remain neglected

Jakarta Post - July 13, 2005

Rendi A. Witular and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung -- The country's cooperatives and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) remain underdeveloped and commitments to assist their financing by the government, banks and corporate business has not materialized.

The sluggish development of the sector, which played a key role in cushioning the impact of the late 1990s financial crisis on the nation's economy, was of great concern, said State Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Suryadharma Ali.

"Lack of access to financial resources, poor bargaining power against the corporate sector, and an inability to increase production capacity are some of the key problems currently facing the sector," he said.

Suryadharma made his remarks during a launching ceremony for micro financing year on Tuesday in conjunction with National Cooperatives Day. The ceremony was also attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In his speech, Suryadharma emphasized the need for the business community, including state enterprises, to immediately realize their promises to assist in nurturing the cooperative and SME sector.

"Lending for these small businesses is still hard to get. Not to mention the high interest on loans as well as burdening collateral if they manage to secure them. State-controlled and privately owned banks are still difficult and cannot be relied upon," he said.

The central bank and the government have ordered local banks to allocate a total of some Rp 60.4 trillion (US$6.20 billion) in lending this year for cooperatives and small-medium businesses. The figure is lower than last year's lending realization for the sector worth about Rp 75 trillion.

In response to the lack of commitment by state-controlled banks in assisting small businesses, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Aburizal Bakrie said banks could not be blamed for the problems since their focus was to seek higher profits for the state.

"The government cannot not force banks to channel more of their loans to small and medium businesses. They should calculate their lending based purely on business considerations and in order to bring in more profits for the state," said Aburizal.

At present, there are 130,000 cooperatives and 4.5 million SMEs throughout the country. The government has targeted the number of cooperatives to soar to as many as six million by 2009.

Meanwhile, President Susilo acknowledged that there were still numerous problems confronting the country's small and medium businesses, but the government was upbeat the sector would grow significantly with the intense involvement of other parties.

"We understand that the development of the sector is not yet maximal. But we are heading toward improvement," said Susilo.

Susilo said that the government was now focusing on improving availability to financial resources for the sector, as well as its management, worker productivity, marketing, and partnership with the corporate sector.

During the ceremony, Susilo also witnessed the disbursement of loans worth Rp 443 billion from state-controlled banks, financial institutions, cooperatives and corporations, to 49 cooperatives and 6,900 SMEs.

Susilo said the funds were expected to help accelerate their development.

Weakening fundamentals worsen rupiah free fall

Jakarta Post - July 11, 2005

Riyadi Suparno, Jakarta -- The rupiah's plunge over the past few weeks may not have spoiled last weekend's wedding party for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's son, but it could eventually undermine his government. For most people, especially those in the middle class, the rupiah's fall to over Rp 9,800 a dollar -- its lowest level since March 2002 -- will likely serve as one more visible sign, after the fuel shortages, of the government's failure to meet their needs.

Although the responsibility for guarding the rupiah lies more with Bank Indonesia, the government also shares responsibility for maintaining the stability of the rupiah.

According to a special report on the rupiah by Standard Chartered Bank, the recent fall of the rupiah is not just a matter of an imbalance in the supply and demand of the dollar and rupiah, but rather is the result of the country's weakening fundamentals.

This includes the deteriorating current account due to rising imports as a result of increased domestic demand. The current account surplus is expected to drop to about US$2 billion this year from almost $2.9 billion last year and $8.1 billion in 2003.

Another fundamental factor weighing on the rupiah is the government's suspension of the privatization program for state- owned companies. Whereas president Megawati Soekarnoputri was quick to sell state companies, President Susilo is taking a more cautious approach to privatization. So far, very few dollars have been raised from the privatization program under Susilo.

As a result, the supply of dollars from trade and privatization has declined, thus providing little support for the rupiah.

The government seems to have expected this decline, and hopes to compensate for it by increasing official capital flows as a result of multibillion foreign grants and loan commitments from donors to help rebuild Aceh following the tsunami.

Foreign money for Aceh has indeed begun to trickle in, but less than expected because of perceived problems of governance in Indonesia.

Despite the weak official capital flows, the government and the private sector had hoped for better private capital inflows this year following the $5 billion acquisition of the country's second largest cigarette producer, HM Sampoerna, by Philip Morris of the United States.

Looking into the details of the acquisition, however, the expected dollars will not enter Indonesia any time soon.

According to Standard Chartered Bank's report, the Sampoerna family, who received $2 billion for its 40 percent stake in the cigarette company, has not reinvested the money in Indonesia. Also, more than 70 percent of public investors who sold their stake through a tender offer were foreigners, who may not hold on to their rupiah. Last, Philip Morris funded the purchase partly by borrowing rupiah onshore.

Thus, the expected private flows have not yet materialized, and consequently, no additional support is coming for the rupiah.

This delicate situation has been worsened by rising crude oil prices in the international market. As Indonesia becomes a net oil importer as a result of a lack of private investment in the oil sector, the government -- through state oil and gas company Pertamina -- has to fork out more dollars to import fuel to meet a quarter of the country's demand.

While dollar support for the rupiah is slim, the dollar has suddenly strengthened globally as a result of rising interest rates in the United States.

On the other hand, the adjustment of local interest rates has been too slow, compared to the rate increases in the United States. The US Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark rate by 225 points to 3.25 percent per annum, while Bank Indonesia has only raised its benchmark rate by 90 points to 8.25 percent.

As a result, people with excess liquidity have been dumping their rupiah and rushing to the greenback.

Given the situation, where the weakening of the rupiah has been driven by both global factors -- the strengthening of the dollar -- as well as weakening local fundamentals, the government and Bank Indonesia must strengthen their cooperation to defend the rupiah.

Bank Indonesia should continue to do its part by adjusting its interest rates so real interest rates -- interest rates adjusted to inflation -- are positive, and by smartly intervening in the market.

To make the measures more effective, the government needs to do its part to help increase the supply of dollars in the market.

The government should be commended for instructing state and state-owned companies to repatriate their dollars from offshore to onshore banks. However, it is a challenge to persuade private exporters to bring their dollar earnings back to the domestic market.

The government also needs to improve its governance to help expedite the disbursement of money for Aceh, and thus increase the dollar supply in the domestic market.

But most importantly, both the government and the central banks need to take longer term measures to bring the rupiah to the desired level of Rp 9,000 per dollar by improving economic fundamentals; especially better inflation management by the central bank and sound fiscal policies by the government.

Opinion & analysis

Moves against gambling

Jakarta Post Editorial - July 16, 2005

After decades of little serious effort to fight gambling, the new National Police chief's bold announcement that he planned to completely eradicate gambling nationwide came as a quite a surprise.

Gen. Sutanto's move on his first day in office should send a strong signal to gambling racketeers and also to the many corrupt police officers who support the enterprise.

In Jakarta, city police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani new-found zealotry on gambling meant that he went one better, pledging to halt all gambling in the city within just three days, shorter than the already implausible one-week deadline given to him by Sutanto.

Accomplishing this feat it appeared was deceptively simple. Firman gathered all sub-district and municipal chiefs of police in Jakarta, Depok and Bekasi and had them sign a contract about fighting gambling. The contract mandated the replacement of the district police chiefs if after three days people were still reporting the existence of gambling dens in their areas.

Gambling is illegal in this country. But many argue that its impact on younger generations is far less hazardous then drugs, which are known to destroy the lives of people of all ages. In this light, the police's decision to make gambling eradication their top priority is questionable.

However, gambling in this country is also symptomatic of another problem; weak law enforcement because of corruption in the police. And because of this, Sutanto's decree on gambling could be seen in a more positive light. Perhaps, as some surmised, it was as much about internal police reform as a crackdown on vice.

In big cities like Jakarta, gambling -- especially big-time gambling -- has become a cash cow for law enforcers. It is an open secret that gambling dens in many parts of Jakarta are protected by the police. A senior officer recently told a reporter in an interview that many police chiefs in Jakarta had received money from illegal casino owners for a long time. It was these police chiefs who then tipped off gambling owners once a raid was scheduled, the officer disclosed.

Reports of a certain underground casino in West Jakarta said it had "armed guards", making it impossible for strangers to get in.

In February this year, a raid on a house used as a gambling den in Taman Palem, West Jakarta, almost turned into a gun battle when a group of officers from the National Police were encountered by local policemen, who were protecting the illegal activity. Unofficial sources revealed that the Taman Palem gambling organizer regularly paid billions of rupiah in fees to the police for protection. Firman claimed at that time that he knew nothing about any large-scale gambling in his jurisdiction.

To top it all off, a group of casino owners claimed recently that several two- and three-star generals based at the National Police Headquarters were their backers.

The initial results of Firman's vow to clean up Jakarta from gambling was the arrest of a large number of operators of the illegal togel lottery and the seizure of gambling paraphernalia from areas in all municipalities.

These raids, however, did little to impress most people, who assumed that the police were prosecuting small-time operators and leaving the big fish alone.

This idea was given more credence when a resident of Kota Bambu Utara, West Jakarta, who was helping the police raid gambling dens in his area, told reporters police raided two small gambling dens but left many others untouched.

If this is the case, it is obvious that any claims made by city police chiefs about eradicating gambling in their areas are absurd.

So has anything changed? Are police more serious than before about cracking down on gambling? And what was the motive behind Firman's sudden pledge to eradicate gambling in the city? Firman only jumped when Sutanto rocked the boat. Why didn't he initiate a war on gambling on his first day as Jakarta Police chief in July last year? The three-day deadline Firman gave to his subordinates to cleanse the city of gambling could also indicate that he and his officers had already located all the gambling dens in Jakarta but had done nothing about them.

As a public relations effort, the police's pledge to cut down on gambling has been cheered on by some people, but it has been viewed cynically by many others -- including those on the force.

Speaking anonymously, one senior police officer at the Jakarta Police Headquarters said that the gambling raids were half- hearted ones because the municipal police chiefs were only acting to keep their jobs.

If one believes his comments, this would mean that the police's moves are all hot air, meaningless window-dressing that does not even succeed as a PR campaign because no one believes it.

Or perhaps this senior officer is just another cynic, undermining Sutanto and Firman's efforts because he is threatened by their plan. Maybe what we are seeing is exactly what it appears to be; a well-intentioned police campaign to rid the country of an immoral vice, and something that we should all support.

Which way would you bet?

The best choice for Aceh and Indonesia

Jakarta Post - July 13, 2005

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne -- Representatives of the Government of Indonesia (GoI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) are again meeting in Helsinki for the fifth and probably last round of talks aimed at securing an end to Aceh -- almost three decade long conflict.

While recent rounds of the talks have made significant progress, and there remains at least a verbal desire to reach a peace agreement, this coming round of talks is likely to see the peace process ending in failure, committing Aceh to future of bloodshed.

This likely failure of the Helsinki peace process was always avoidable, and for a while it did look as though a peace agreement was genuinely possible. The tragic Boxing Day tsunami that devastated Aceh was not the sole catalyst for the talks, but it did provide both sides with greater incentive, and accelerated the timing of the process.

The motives for ending the Aceh conflict were and remain multiple. First, if Indonesia is to have a future, it cannot continue as a state at war with itself, regarding part of itself as an occupied enemy territory, murdering, torturing, raping and burning as a matter of course.

Second, the international community will not invest in a country that is unable to resolve its most pressing problems, while donors are looking equally askance at the continuing conflict. Third, the cost of the Aceh conflict has created a financial burden that the still weak Indonesian economy cannot sustain.

Finally, there has been much talk about bringing the TNI under civilian authority, for a range of political, economic and legal reasons. Aceh is the site in which the TNI is most out of control and that in which it needs most to be reined in, and without which there is little prospect of meaningful civilian supremacy.

For GAM's part, it has been developing its political thinking, and had begun to consider alternative political arrangements that could address the most pressing issues that affected the people of Aceh.

After the first round of talks at the end of January, under the auspices of the Crisis Management Initiative, the peace process was seen to have some prospect of success and was formalized. Despite what some observers have said in Jakarta, the head of the CMI, President Marrti Ahtisaari made it very clear he would not continue with the process unless it was a formal one.

Both sides expressed willingness to reach a peace agreement, with both recognizing that compromise was necessary for such an agreement.

GAM took the lead, by not bringing to the peace talks its claim for independence. That is, if an agreement can be reached in Helsinki, its claim for independence will lapse. It has also presented a series of working papers to the talks, and proposed an alternative to the current "special autonomy" status of Aceh.

From GAM's perspective, and that of most Acehnese, there has been nothing "special" about Aceh's status, nor has it included any meaningful autonomy. GAM instead proposed the working name of "self government", which was to embody a genuine form of autonomy while still within the Republic of Indonesia. It was by compromising and agreeing in Round Two to this alternative to the current failed "special autonomy" that the talks were able to progress.

Through Rounds Three and Four, both GoI and GAM hammered out a large part of an agreement, including in principle local political parties for Aceh. The issue of local political parties is important because most Acehnese feel that the "national" parties are controlled from Jakarta and thus do not and cannot represent their interests.

Further, authentic democratic principles do not stipulate who can or cannot form or join political parties, or place conditions of their size, scope or policies. The current Indonesian model for political parties was the first step away from the New Order's undemocratic system, but it was only a partial step. Indonesia is maturing as a democracy, or claiming to, so removing restrictions on political parties is a logical and desirable next step.

The claim, made by some, that local political parties would lead to parties based on religion is nonsensical. Indonesia has always had religious-based parties, without threatening its integrity. The claim against "tribal" parties is equally empty, as such parties would by definition always be in a minority, truly representing the interests of their local constituencies but never able to muster enough votes to influence the DPR or the presidential system.

As the 2004 elections in Aceh did not allow parties that directly reflected the interests of Acehnese people, and were described by independent observers as deeply flawed, a peace agreement that saw new parties, which may include a transformed GAM among others, would require new elections.

After having agreed on so much -- perhaps 90 percent -- it was on this point that the GoI delegates objected. What of legislators who might lose their seats in new elections, they asked? If these legislators genuinely represented the interests of their constituents they should not fear being thrown out. And if they did not, they do not deserve to keep those seats.

From rejecting fresh elections for Aceh, the GoI delegation refused to formally agree, even in principle, to the establishment of local political parties. This was even though they had just the previous day discussed mechanisms by which such parties could be established.

From there it was a short step to walking away from "self government", or whatever the new arrangement was to be called. It was clear to see why the GoI delegation had back-flipped. There has been a great deal of pressure from the TNI, which has escalated its military campaign in Aceh since the talks began, and from some "nationalist" legislators in Jakarta.

As for the "nationalists", they appear confused. A "nation" is a bonded political community, in which its people, no matter how varied they might be, consider themselves to have common interests. The conflict which troubles Aceh is precisely because, under the Republic of Indonesia, the Acehnese have only experienced political expropriation, economic plunder, corruption and violence. This has been contrary to their interests, not in common with them. Set against the Acehnese' strong pride and long history of resisting external aggression, conflict will remain in Aceh as long as the present relationship with Jakarta prevails.

Yet here is a golden opportunity for the "nationalists" to build a real nation, by creating common interest and common welfare. At the same time it could put in place that which a previous government offered only as an empty term: Autonomy. The choice, therefore, is clear.

As the two sides return to Helsinki, they will be faced with the option of the GoI delegation making an offer that is comparable in its compromise to GAM's not bringing its claim for independence to the talks. Such a compromise will require changing the existing legislation on both Aceh's "special autonomy" and on the electoral laws. But it will bring lasting peace, foreign investment, and a new hope for the Indonesian nation. It will also prove that the Indonesian government is intelligent and creative enough to resolve its most critical problems.

The alternative to this is that, having brought nothing new to the talks, the GoI retreats to the status quo and guarantees a future filled with more death and destruction.

[The writer is Director of International and Community Development at Deakin University, Australia. He is also an adviser to the GAM delegation to the Helsinki peace talks.]

Haste makes waste

Jakarta Post Editorial - July 12, 2005

Leaders should lead by example. And the thriftiness of a government plays an exemplary role in setting the pace of a nation's consumptive habits.

Ideally we wish to see an efficient, responsive, thrifty government that provides all the services needed -- not necessarily demanded -- by its citizens.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's instruction to the bureaucracy to begin conserving energy deserves recognition. At the same time it also warrants plenty of critique.

Essentially, any conservation efforts should be supported. Not only do such measures help economize on public spending and shun excessive consumption, but they are also environmentally friendly.

No one could argue that there are countless ways the government can be more efficient. It is even more pertinent now given the nation's economic challenges, especially the intermittent shortages of fuel.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro even boasted that the government was "upbeat" that fuel-conservation directives within the government could even reduce fuel consumption by 5 percent to 10 percent.

We are hopeful, but not as confident, and even doubtful, of the short to medium term impact of these directives.

The President's instruction seems to be yet another move seen as a reaction to a predicament that arises without a well thought out plan.

Cost-cutting and efficiency measures should be part of a larger policy paradigm. One cannot simply tell nearly four million bureaucrats to cut down on expenses overnight.

The government's latest initiative is predictably tired, mechanical, across-the-board cuts. It does not, for example, first examine how such cuts will impact the already notoriously poor services provided by the civil service. Nor does it carefully measure the consequence of the cuts in fulfilling overall targets set by the government at the beginning of its term.

Turning off the air-conditioner, or showing up to work without a suit is by itself not a sign of prudent government consumption.

Just because civil servants are now perspiring more (due to the frugal use of air-conditioners) does not mean they are working harder or more efficiently.

Instead of arbitrarily telling officials to embark on conservation measures and cut up to 10 percent of fuel consumption, it would have been more strategic for the President at the beginning of his term to instruct the government to work with just 90 percent of the allocated budget appropriated.

Such a dramatic approach to budgeting and planning would have been more effective than the knee-jerk response currently being touted.

It would methodically introduce conservation measures and at the same time allow the government to achieve its promised targets without compromising the mobility and vitality of the public service.

Other public measures -- not just to conserve fuel and electricity -- on a short and long term basis could also be applied fairly to the general population. This could include progressive taxation for automobiles, water conservation, the promotion of alternative fuels, improvement of public transportation, etc.

In addition to solving immediate budgetary problems it is reasonable to suggest that this result-based conservation process will help reinforce the belief that the government not only cares but is taking consistent steps to spend wisely.

Susilo should not simply look at abating critics under the pretext of having "a sense of crisis".

Legitimate conservation efforts are part of a cultural habit. Any success in imposing such measures in the short term will be fleeting. The government should look toward a comprehensive effort that can be embraced and accepted by a population -- measures which in four years time will reduce pollution levels, conserve energy consumption, cut down on public expenditure and stop waste.

The President should learn what other democratically elected leaders have known for a long time: The more thrifty a government becomes, the more generous voters are at the ballot box.

'Democracy doesn't ensure access to justice'

Jakarta Post - July 11, 2005

Hera Diani, Bogor -- The Bojong waste treatment plant case, the 20 year-old unresolved Kedung Ombo land eviction case, land confiscation by military officers in Sidoarjo, East Java -- these are just a few drops in the ocean of flawed justice in this country.

Certainly, there is more openness and freedom compared to the period of the previous Soeharto regime. But access to justice is still limited and selective due to the classical problems of corruption, and a fetid legal culture that gives effective impunity to the military and the wealthy.

There has in fact been some institutional legal reform here in this country, with the establishment of a number of institutions, namely a Human Rights Court, a Corruption Eradication Commission, an Ombudsman, a Constitutional Court, and many others.

However, the commission establishment frenzy has yet to be effective in boosting access to justice.

A workshop on access to justice in "transitional" countries held here recently, concluded that while commissions like the ombudsman can help in offering solutions, it has to consist of honest and trusted members. "The commissions are needed to provide external supervision, which is more objective and is not attached to an esprit de corps.

"However, it has to be rearranged as some (commissions) overlap with one another, which will only lead to unnecessary burdens on the state budget and could create public confusion," said Maruarar Siahaan, a judge of the Indonesian Constitutional Court.

Organized by the Singapore-based Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), the Habibie Center and the Hans Seidel Foundation, the workshop implied that there is a need for a mechanism that will bring courts to the people.

The legal system could be simplified, for instance, with informal alternative dispute settlements and mediation, especially because there is deep public distrust of the judicial system.

In this case, legal aid schemes are pivotal and there should be improvement in the schemes, and possibly incentives for pro bono activities by lawyers.

Legal aid entails consultation and advice -- not only on criminal cases but also civil and administrative cases -- as well as provision of basic information on justice.

In terms of raising public awareness, it must be done using media that people are familiar with.

"Public education can be done through comic books and drawings. The government is sometimes too strict and bureaucratic. Don't hide behind the complicated things. Everything is complicated but there has to be political will," said Deborah Stothard, executive director of Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma.

The love of justice, she said, already existed in Asian culture, so people just need to be given confidence.

ASEF's director for intellectual exchange, Bertrand Fort, said that to enhance access to justice, it requires budget allocations to the judicial system for training and educating the law enforcers, as well as giving them proper salaries.

"There are hundreds of international agencies which disburse money, but the question is how to channel the money properly," Fort said.

He pointed to well-off non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that had no grasp of the grass roots level. "So, there must be genuine partnership between government, NGOs and the state apparatus to create efficient law enforcement," he said.

It has to be noted as well that not all judges are corrupt. Therefore, there should be a mechanism to protect them from punishment and threats.

On the notion of trust, there has to be critical and active trust, which means that people need to be committed to eventually trusting the system even though the system is flawed.

All actions and decisions should also be taken at local levels, with assistance and information.

External actors, in this case other countries, need to be involved as international pressure often succeeded in pushing for resolution of legal cases, such as the cases of gang rape in Pakistan recently.

"In terms of international pressure, it has to be understood that Asia has diverse value systems. Sometimes punishment for past wrongdoings is not necessary because apology is enough. This has to be introduced," said Thai-based Malaysian activist Stothard.

However, there is still a reluctance to be open and honest in regional discourse.

"We have also fallen into the trap of raising ourselves in default. Like 'Oh, at least our situation in Malaysia is better than Indonesia', for instance," Stothard said.

A country with less access to justice, she added, can access it from other countries with a more established legal system, such as Singapore.

"It is possible. It's the moral obligation of these countries (with more established legal systems). Government to government work must also encourage access to justice that will also boost investment," Stothard said.

The law in the mining sector

Jakarta Post Editorial - July 11, 2005

The Constitutional Court's unanimous ruling last Thursday that Law No. 19/2004 on forestry is constitutional certainly disappointed and angered environmentalists as the ruling boils down to a license for a number of firms to conduct open-pit mining in protected forests.

The court's president, Jimly Asshidiqie, was quoted by the media as saying that the unanimous decision had been based on the overriding need to improve the investment climate in the mining sector.

The ruling has cleared up once and for all the seven-year imbroglio that had virtually halted new investment in the extractive industries sector (apart from oil and gas) since 2002 and threatened to immerse the government once again in messy and costly international litigation.

However, citing only the need for an improved investment climate as the grounds for the decision could lead some to believe that the court, which is the guardian of our Constitution and national conscience, had succumbed to the political wishes of the government.

We beg to differ with the environmentalists on this particular issue. Given the history of Law No.19/2004, we should even commend the Court for its consistency in upholding the Constitutional provision that prohibits the retroactive application of a statute.

This legislation originated as a government regulation in lieu of law, which was hurriedly issued in early 2004 and was eventually enacted by the House of Representatives as Law No.19/2004 in July, 2004, in an effort to correct the glaring error made by the framers of Law No.41/1999 on forestry, which was made retroactively applicable to mining contracts awarded before 1999.

Hence, the amendment essentially boiled down to the insertion of transitional provisions into Law No.41/1999, which stipulated that companies that had obtained mining contracts prior to 1999 could continue to engage in open-pit mining in protected forests until the expiry of their concessions.

After all, the insertion of transitory provisions is normal practice in legislation that introduces new rules of the game, or which repeals provisions contained in earlier legislation.

Law No.41 only stipulated that open-pit mining operations were entirely prohibited in areas designated as protected forests, but had nothing to say about the legal status of the 150 mining contracts the government had awarded prior to 1999 for open-pit mining operations in protected forests.

The problem was that many of the 150 mining contractors had invested hundreds of millions in their concessions, and unilaterally annulling their contracts would have plunged the government into highly expensive and protracted litigation, and resulted in a lack of legal certainty in the mining industry.

It was this very same principle of non-retroactivity that was applied by the Constitutional Court in its majority ruling in July 2004, which stated that the Antiterrorism Law (No. 16/2003) could not be applied retroactively to cases arising out of the terrorist attacks in Bali on Oct. 12, 2002.

Consistency in the upholding of all the articles of the Constitution is key to building up the public's confidence and trust in the court, and its own ability to perform its role as the guardian of the Constitution.

This isn't an easy task as the court has to tread a fine line between fulfilling popular aspirations for justice and the demands of political exigency, while all the time striving to avoid any whiff of arbitrariness in its rulings. A credible constitutional court, both as regards legal competence and integrity, is vital to rebuilding public trust in the judicial system as its ruling cannot be appealed.

We share the great concern of environmentalists about the damage that could be inflicted on our forests by greedy miners. The dilemma, though, is that the sanctity of a legal contract must be honored, otherwise our economy will collapse into total chaos.

Law No.19/2004 seems to be the best compromise that could be struck between the objective of protecting our forests and that of maintaining legal certainty for investors and the public in general.

First of all, this legislation does not open wide the gates of our protected forests to open-pit miners as it permits only 13 concessions in such forests. Moreover, the concessionaires involved were selected by a special team made up of representatives of the government and the House on the basis of the level of investment already made, the commercial volumes of the mineral deposits already found and the potential benefits of their operations to the national economy.

We should respect the Constitutional Court's ruling. Our task now is to help oversee the enforcement of the legislation to ensure that no more companies, besides the 13 existing ones, are awarded open-pit mining concessions in protected forests and that the 13 mining companies strictly abide by the prevailing mining and forestry regulations.