AUT: (en) corpwatch on east timor (fwd)

[pmargin <pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> (by way of pmargin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Steve Wright))]

the first attempt I've seen to map out who owns what in Timor . . .

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 18:51:33 -0400
From: laiska_sivari@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Newsgroups: anet.mail.ainfos-en
Subject: (en) corpwatch on east timor

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E. Timor: Business interests are behind Indonesia's
               fight to hold on to East Timor



       By George J. Aditjondro

       Sydney Morning Herald
       May 8, 1999

       EAST TIMOR
       ABRI Inc

       THE fighting between the Indonesian-backed pro-integration militias
       and supporters of independence in East Timor cannot be understood
       fully without taking into account the substantial holdings in the
province
       of the former Indonesian president Soeharto and his family.

       These interests include 564,867 hectares of land. They are holdings that
       CNRT, the umbrella organisation of the East Timorese resistance
       movement, has made clear it would seize if Timor becomes an
       independent state.

       The Soeharto landholdings stretch from the western border to the eastern
       tip of East Timor and include 50,000 hectares of timber plantations
       allocated to Bob Hasan, one of the Soeharto family's business
       operators, and tens of thousands of hectares of sugarcane plantations on
       the southern coast controlled by Soeharto's children.

       The best marble deposits in Timor, at Manatuto, are owned by Siti
       Hardiyanti Rukmana, Soeharto's eldest daughter, who also has a
       monopoly over coffee production and export from East Timor, through
       a company of hers in Dili.

       These Soeharto interests are closely intertwined with the business
       interests of generals who had served under Soeharto during the invasion
       and annexation of East Timor, and other military operations.

       Batara Indra, an Indonesian conglomerate backed by retired generals
       Benny Moerdani and Dading Kalbuadi, who co-ordinated the operation
       that led to the killings of five Australian-based journalists at
Balibo in
       1975, controls the sandalwood forests of East Timor and the production
       and export of sandalwood oil.

       Batara Indra also exports Buddhist statues to Taiwan and Catholic
       statues to Italy, made from East Timorese sandalwood or marble.

       Most of the hotels and the only cinema in Dili are owned by Batara
       Indra. The large construction firms in Dili, involved in all major
       infrastructure projects - including building the irrigation canals and
       ditches for Indonesian "trans- migrants" - either belong to Moerdani's
       Batara Indra Group, or to the Anak Liambau Group of the
       Jakarta-appointed Governor of East Timor, Jose Abilio Soares.

       The Governor's family is also closely involved with the Soeharto
       family's businesses. Gil Alves, a brother-in-law of Governor Abilio,
       operates the alcohol sticker monopoly of Soeharto's grandson, Ari
       Haryo Wibowo, also known as Ari Sigit.

       Alves is also involved in a drinking water company, Aquamor, and a
       textile company, PT Dilitex, that are closely linked with Siti Hedijanti
       Harijadi, Soeharto's middle daughter who is married to the sacked
       General Prabowo Subianto.

       Looking at the leading figures of the pro-integration forces in East
       Timor, it is not difficult to find their links to the Soeharto
family or to
       their own property interests in the province.

       Top of the list is Governor Abilio, once a protege of Prabowo when the
       latter was still head of the Indonesian Army's special force, Kopassus.
       Basilio Araujo, the spokeperson of the pro-integration forces, is
also the
       deputy head of the provincial investment board, the body that decides
       who is allowed to invest in East Timor.

       Even the current army commander of East Timor, Colonel Tono
       Suratman, has Soeharto connections. His family are the co-owners of a
       pearling company, PT Kima Surya Lestari Mutiara, with Prabowo's
       wife. This company has pearl diving operations offshore from Flores
       and Lombok, west of Timor.

       Due to its high-level connections, this Suratman-Prabowo joint venture
       was allowed to operate within the boundaries of the Komodo National
       Park, in Flores, without even paying any royalties to the Nusa Tenggara
       Timur province, where the park is located.

       The entire top brass of the Indonesian Army and civilian bureaucracy in
       East Timor are closely interlinked with Soeharto's former inner circle,
       which has in turn been taken over by his successor, B.J. Habibie.

       Even the Indonesian Armed Forces commander, General Wiranto, has
       Soeharto connections, since all the army charities which are now under
       his patronage are co-shareholders of many of the Soeharto family's
       timber concessions and telecommunication companies.

       The Soeharto family's interests in East Timor may be small compared
       with their holdings in the rest of Indonesia, but their holdings in East
       Timor include the three onshore oil wells that were discovered in the
       '60s - the Suai Loro in Covalima, Aliambata in Vikeke, and Pualaca in
       Manatuto. And between those three wells lie vast untapped oil reserves.

       The Soeharto family has also made preparations to venture into the
       Timor Sea oil reserves. Last year, it set up a new oil company in Perth,
       Genindo Western Petroleum Propriety Limited. The company is headed
       by Bambang Trihatmodjo, Soeharto's middle son.

       Bambang and younger brother Tommy also own two Singapore-based
       oil and gas tanker fleets that operate in the seas between Indonesia and
       north-east Asia. No doubt they would be eager to be involved in a
       similar trade between the Timor Gap and those same Asian customers.
       Bambang is also co-owner of PT Elnusa, which is involved in building
       base camps for the oil companies and related petrochemical industries in
       Timor.

       Tommy, in addition to his tanker fleet, has his own air charter company
       which has been waiting to take advantage of the wealth that will flow
       from the Timor Gap, where three wells - Elang, Kakatua, and Kakatua
       North - have been producing 33,000 barrels of oil per day since July
       last year.

       And many of the Soeharto clan business partners in Indonesia's oil and
       gas fields, such as Mobil Oil, are also active in the Timor Sea, which
       could lead them into further joint ventures in this part of the world.

       This is why the Jakarta oligarchy - with the strong support from their
       East Timorese collaborators - are so keen on undermining a free and fair
       vote to determine East Timor's future political status.

       Behind the militia tactics in East Timor there is a strategy to partition
       East Timor into a western half that supports continued links with
       Indonesia and an eastern part that would be allowed to become
       independent. Such a partition would roughly follow the lines of the
       "oil-rich" and "oil-poor" parts of East Timor.

       An alternative strategy would allow the entire territory to obtain its
       political independence, as long as the landholdings of the Soeharto
       family and their East Timorese collaborators were to be respected by an
       independent East Timor state, and not be seized by the new government
       or by the rightful traditional landowners.

       Dr George J. Aditjondro is a lecturer at the Department of Sociology
       and Anthropology at the University of Newcastle. His new book, Is
       Oil Thicker than Blood? A Study of Oil Companies' Interests and
       Western Complicity in Indonesia's Annexation of East Timor will be
       published by Nova Science in the US this month.









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