Fwd (GLW): INDONESIA: US moves to strengthen military ties

["Alan Bradley" <abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following articles appear in the current issue of Green Left Weekly
(www.greenleft.org.au):

INDONESIA: US moves to strengthen military ties
BY PIP HINMAN

With Megawati Sukarnoputri freshly installed as president, and the country's
armed forces, the TNI, in the ascendancy, the US government is moving
swiftly to strengthen military ties with Indonesia.

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in Australia to promote closer
US-Australian defence ties and "regional security", said on July 29 that he
was keen to re-establish US training of Indonesian military officers as well
as the sale of weapons and equipment to the TNI.

Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, went on record the next day
heartily endorsing the US plan.

The move comes as US officials scurry to withdraw from circulation an
embarrassing archival report which documents US involvement in installing
the military regime of Suharto in 1965-66.

The report shows that the US supplied the military with lists of thousands
of members of the Indonesian Communist Party, who were then tracked down and
killed. Possibly a million Indonesians were murdered during Suharto's first
two years in power, setting the pattern for Suharto's 32-year reign.

The administration of George W. Bush is keen to rebuild close ties with
Jakarta. The previous Clinton administration was forced to suspend training,
equipment and weapons supplies to Indonesia following worldwide protest at
the TNI's post-ballot rampage in East Timor in 1999.

A 1998 defence bill included the Leahy provision which barred the Pentagon
from training foreign troops who have a history of human rights atrocities.
This provision, which attaches conditions to the re-establishment of full
military ties, was renewed on July 22 as part of Congress' 2002 Foreign
Operations Appropriations Act.

The 1998 Leahy provision came in after the Pentagon was discovered training
Indonesian officers despite a congressional ban on joint training with
foreign troops with a record of human rights violations. However, it did not
ban the sale of weapons, only "restricting" their use in occupied East Timor
and limiting military training to "non-tactical matters".

It was only in September 1999 when the futility of such conditions on the
TNI became so obvious that US Congress, along with the European Union and
other countries, was forced to suspend equipment sales and training
altogether.

Since then, Indonesia has campaigned to get this ban overturned, with some
success. The European Union lifted its ban on arms sales in January 2000,
with France leading the arms sales push, closely followed by Britain.

Australia, meanwhile, never stopped its training programs, only suspending
those with the elite Kopassus troops. The Australian government allocated
some $4 million last financial year to Indonesian officer training.

Bush is on record praising Indonesia for its "commitment to the rule of law
and democracy", despite the lack of any action being taken against any
high-level TNI officer being charged with murders in East Timor, Aceh or
West Papua.

Since Sukarnoputri's instalment, the police, TNI and their right-wing
militia accomplices have launched a renewed crack-down on Indonesian
democracy activists resulting in the arbitrary arrest of some 37 people in
the last month.

A new report, "The United States and Southeast Asia: A Policy Agenda for the
New Administration", drafted by Dov Zakheim, a Reagan-era Pentagon official
who is now one of Bush's under-secretaries of defence, identifies Indonesia
as "the region's most important state".

Its two recommendations are to strengthen the US military presence in
Southeast Asia and to promote, through multilateral institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund, "market-oriented economic reform,
technology-driven development and measures for poverty alleviation".

Released in June, the Council on Foreign Relations report describes the
region as "a troubling landscape of political turbulence and economic
fragility" and, with China in its sights, recommits the US to a 1948 pledge
to keep the region "free of any hegemonic power".

According to Gerry van Klinken, editor of the magazine Inside Indonesia, the
CFR report urges the US to re-engage Indonesia's army and states that
Indonesia's "basic cohesion and territorial integrity" be preserved at all
costs.

For the moment, the US State Department seems to favour retaining some
conditions on the restoration of full US military ties. But for how long?

Deputy assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs Ralph Boyce, who is
slated to be Washington's next ambassador to Jakarta, believes that the US
government should renew its training and equipping of Indonesian police
which, he says, acts as a counterweight to the TNI.

Human rights activists disagree. John Miller, director of the US-based East
Timor Action Network, said that renewing military ties with Indonesia "would
send the worst possible signal" to the new regime.

Not only did Sukarnoputri openly oppose the 1999 referendum in East Timor,
he said, but Eurico Guterres, leader of the most notorious militia group,
Aitarak, has been praised by her as a national hero and made a leader of her
party's youth wing.

Some right-wing commentators are worried about the consequences of the US
pursuing military ties with such unseemly haste.

Gareth Evans, a former Labor Party foreign minister who, together with
former PM Paul Keating, cultivated the "special relationship" policy with
Suharto, says that while he does not oppose such a move, the timing is all
important.

In a comment piece in the July 24 International Herald Tribune, Evans, who
now heads the International Crisis Group, a right-wing think tank, sounded a
warning about the backlash such a move could provoke: "I am one of those who
has to acknowledge, as Australia's foreign minister at the time, that many
of our earlier training efforts helped only to produce more professional
human rights abusers".

According to Jon Lamb from Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East
Timor, "Indonesia's scorched earth policy in East Timor hasn't been
forgotten - not by Australians, not by the world. Western governments
deciding to reward those criminals responsible for the carnage there, and in
Aceh and West Papua, will face concerted public opposition".

"The old discredited policy won't wash any more. If government was in step
with public opinion here it would end all military ties with Indonesia."

[Pip Hinman is the national secretary of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia
and East Timor (ASIET). Check out its web site, <http://www.asiet.org.au>.]


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INDONESIA: `The old forces are back in power'
The ouster of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his replacement by Megawati
Sukarnoputri has opened up a new, and likely volatile, era in Indonesia.

Reprinted here, in abridged form, is an interview with Budiman Sudjatmiko,
the prominent and outspoken chairperson of the radical leftist PRD, the
People's Democratic Party, about the likely shape of things to come in the
country, from the party's daily newsletter, Our Tasks.

What are your comments on the new Megawati government?

This new government is the fruit of the conflict among the bourgeois elite.
The essence of this conflict is the struggle for control of economic assets,
but it manifests itself as a political conflict.

Megawati became president after she allied herself with the surviving forces
of [former dictator Suharto's] New Order - Golkar [Suharto's political
party], the armed forces and the police (TNI/Polri)- as well as the
[right-wing Muslim] Central Axis.

We know that these forces have never struggled for total reformation. And in
fact Golkar and the TNI/polri were the main machine used for repressing the
people [under] the Suharto regime.

So there is a big chance that the democratic space may narrow?

Exactly. The current government is based on a criminal confederation of
elements opposed to total reformation. The repressive methods of the New
Order are being used again.

I have received reports from our comrades in East Java that just to hold
normal prayer meetings now you must get permission from the regional
military command. Religious teachers in Pasuruhan and Problinggo have been
terrorised by the military.

So what are the prospects for finishing the process of total reformation?

We can't expect much from the ruling elite now. Megawati is not going to
drag any of the Golkar people responsible for economic and political crimes
before the courts. All the generals responsible for massacring the people
feel safe. Megawati is in debt to these two forces - Golkar and the TNI.

Hamzah Haz [Sukarnoputri's new vice-president] has been using his civilian
militia in Yogyakarta, the Kabah Youth Movement, to terrorise the democracy
movement, often working with Golkar. To expect democracy from them is just
daydreaming.

With this narrowing of democratic space, why is the United States and the
European Union supporting the new government?

All the talk by these capitalist countries is just empty talk. All they are
concerned about is political stability. They need stable safe countries
where they can invest their capital. They will even support a military coup
if it will benefit their capital.

Megawati has offered them this stability. In her inaugration speech she
stressed that there needed to be stability to safeguard national integrity
but made no mention of strengthening human rights or democracy. This means
that Mega will use the army to defend national stability.

Apart from providing them with fertile fields, Megawati is also very
accommodating to international capital. International capital, through the
International Monetary Fund and its agents, will find it easy to implement
its plans for Indonesia: the cuts in consumer price subsidies, the
privatisation of state companies. Don't be surprised if fuel prices rise
again.

So what about the prospects for human rights and democracy in areas of
unrest, like Aceh and West Papua?

Of course, they are under threat too. Even before [Wahid] was ousted, the
army was carrying out massive terror in Aceh with great loss of life.

Now with Megawati and her narrow nationalistic jargon, repressive actions by
the military will increase. We know that Megawati, because of her narrow
nationalism, did not agree with East Timor becoming independent. The Papuan
and Acehnese people who are demanding independence will be suppressed by
Megawati, with the army as her main instrument.

So what are the tasks that face the democratic movement now?

First, I must reaffirm that the old forces of the New Order are back in
power. It is important that I say this so there is no confusion.

Second, the democratic forces must escalate their resistance. This is
crucial if the New Order forces are to be destroyed. We must explain this to
the people too. The people's resistance must be consolidated in organs of
resistance, from the neighbourhood to the national level.

Why not set up anti-New Order poskos [security and organising posts] in
strategic spots like markets, factories, bus terminals? We need these to
consolidate any resistance.

In the future, these poskos can be the basis for alternative institutions to
replace the rotting state institutions - alternative parliaments, government
institutions.

The people's protests must be continued as well. Golkar offices, parliament
buildings, army headquarters, government offices all must be targets. These
are the places where the forces of the New Order still nest.

The people have to seize their sovereignty. There has to be an early
election. And it has to be carried out by a provisional government,
[whatever] we call it. There is no way we can trust either the executive or
legislative that exists today, given how it is dominated by forces from the
New Order.

A provisional government must be constituted by all the forces that have
consistently fought to destroy the power of the New Order forces.

And so that any election is genuinely democratic, Golkar has to be put on
trial first. Golkar has to be held responsible for all its crimes,
institutional and individual.

The generals too have to be brought before the courts. The army has to be
returned to the barracks and the dual [internal political and external
defence] function of the TNI/Polri has to be dismantled in all its aspects.

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INDONESIA: `I just don't believe in her'

BY PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER

I don't blame President Sukarno for my arrest in the early 1960s. I blame
the army. But being a political prisoner in the early 1960s was very
different from being a captive of later regimes.

Sukarno's political opponents were free to visit their families, to go out
walking within a limited area if they wanted to. We were at least treated
with respect.

Under Suharto there were no rules, nothing. You could be thrown into prison
without first going to court. If you were found with anything to read, even
a piece of torn newspaper, you could be killed. If you were a prisoner in
Jakarta you could receive visitors - but for that you had to pay.

In 1979, when I left prison on Buru Island, all my papers were taken from
me. I was in a group of 40 who were separated from the others. When our ship
was north of Madura, my group was taken off the boat. It looked like the
authorities were planning to hide us away somewhere. But by chance, someone
from the Catholic church in Buru heard we were going to be exiled and he
spread the news.

So when we were put ashore in the Madura Straits and found a vehicle there
ready to take us to Nusakambangan, the notorious prison, the world was
already watching. And as a result, with numerous foreign ambassadors as
witnesses, the government was forced to give us our release papers.

During Suharto's New Order regime, Megawati, Sukarno's daughter, served in
parliament. After her father was overthrown, the New Order government gave
her a house and salary as a member of parliament.

But did she ever say anything about the way her father was treated? Did she
ever protest when her fellow countrypeople were imprisoned? Never. Did she
ever call Suharto to task? Never!

But then she's not alone. Even after Suharto resigned, no one would take him
to task, no one dared to bring him to trial. Silently, through his New Order
protege, he still holds power in this country.

Megawati came to power on the crest of a wave of youth rebellion. Those kids
didn't really think about it; they didn't have any other figurehead, so they
adopted her because she was Sukarno's daughter. That's all she is.

Maybe Megawati hasn't read her father's books. I don't see that she has
inherited any of his better characteristics. She has no experience. There is
no evidence that she can resolve the country's problems.

Yes, she might visit places where conflict has occurred, but for no other
reason than to show her tears. Her heart goes out to the people, she says,
but that's the most they get. The villagers praise her, but that's because
of ignorance. They don't know her.

No one seems to realise that Indonesia is entering a period of social
revolution. The signs are there. It can be seen in the farmers who, having
had their land stolen from them during the New Order, are now taking it back
by force. It can be seen in the protests by farmers outside regional
parliament buildings. It can be seen in the attacks on hundreds of police
and military posts.

In the past, these very same people would have let themselves be robbed of
their voices, but now they are fighting back. Whether they realise it or
not, they are the vanguard of a social revolution.

Now the nation needs a leader. We've fallen behind; Indonesia is exhausted.
People like to say that Indonesians are so friendly and polite, but that
kind of view seems to be nothing more than a leftover tourism slogan.

There is a struggle going on, and it is being controlled by people in
Jakarta - by the very same people who have done such things in the past.

As I see it, there is no real leadership at present; there are just people
with power. That students are now part of the democratic process is a sign
of progress; indeed, the change we have seen can be credited to the younger
generation.

This is not what Megawati fought for. She didn't do anything. The kids, the
students, did the fighting and she is here now to enjoy the results of their
sacrifice.

[Indonesia's greatest living novelist, long persecuted by the Suharto
dictatorship, Pramoedya Ananta Toer is the author of The Buru Quartet and
The Mute's Soliloquy. He is also a member of the PRD, the People's
Democratic Party.]

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INDONESIA: Elite squabbles, army arrests, people protest
BY MAX LANE

An intense struggle is underway within the Indonesian elite over how to
divide up the spoils after the ousting of President Abdurrahman Wahid. On
August 3, 12 days after Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected president by the
People's Consultative Assembly, it was announced that it would still be
another week before she would announce her cabinet.

The coalition of political parties which backed Sukarnoputri and her PDIP -
Golkar, the party of former dictator Suharto, and the parties of the
right-wing Muslim Central Axis - are insisting on an all-party cabinet.

Amien Rais, the chairperson of one of the largest parties in the Central
Axis and the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly, has openly
threatened not to cooperate with Sukarnoputri if he does not get his way.
Golkar chairperson Akbar Tanjung has also criticised the new president for
being too slow and not sufficiently involving his party in deliberations.

Adding pressure to Sukarnoputri has been a spate of bombings in Jakarta -
the dominant view in political circles in the capital is that they are the
work of military elements keen on ensuring that she agrees to Golkar and
Central Axis demands.

Meanwhile, the military has stepped up arrests of democratic activists seen
as a threat to its dominance. It appears that there is now a consistent
policy of arresting people under the colonial-era Haatzai Artikelen, which
makes it an offense punished by a long prison sentence to "spread hatred"
against the government.

On July 31, police in Surabaya arrested eight activists who were
distributing anti-Golkar and anti-military leaflets, issued by the Council
for the Salvation of the People's Sovereignty.

Those arrested included two members of the provincial parliament,
Mustawiyanto and M. Rozak, four members of the mass religious organisation
Nahdlatul Ulama, Yoni Fatahillah, Hamka Cahyaning, Ahmad Kawakid and Abdul
Hadi, and two members of the People's Democratic Party (PRD), Febri
Erfinanto and Rudi Akhikoh.

Mustawiyanto and Rozak are the first members of parliament to be arrested on
political charges since the 1965 crackdown in Indonesia.

In Bandung, the West Java police have issued an arrest warrant for Natalia
Scholastica, the West Java chairperson of the PRD. She is charged with
incitement to protest in relation to the Bandung worker protests that
occurred in June. Nineteen Bandung-based activists have been held as
political prisoners in the city's police headquarters since June 15.

In the same week, authorities in Jakarta also arrested seven police officers
in the detectice service, the police academy and human resources area. They
had met informally several times to discuss the legality of top police
officials' refusal to obey the orders of former president Wahid. They are
now being charged under various laws relating to insubordination.

On August 2, the police arrested Faisal Syaifuddin, the chairperson of the
Jakarta office of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA).

A police spokesperson stated that he was being charged under the "spreading
hatred" laws. However, pressed by journalists in Jakarta, he also stated
that Syaifuddin was being held because he had hindered investigations into
an accidental bomb explosion in an Acehnese student hostel last year.

Mohammed Nazar, the Aceh-based chairperson of SIRA, was arrested last year
for organising a demonstration in Aceh and is now serving a sentence of 10
months in prison. Also now in prison is Kautsar, the chairperson of the
Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front, and nine other of its
activists or supporters.

As yet the arrests have not dented the people's resistance. Demonstrations
continue to occur daily throughout Indonesia, mostly students in the cities
or supporters of Wahid, mainly peasants and workers in the small towns of
East Java.

In the East Javanese city of Jember, a Jember People's Congress of about
10,000 delegates rejected the Sukarnoputri government and demanded early
elections and the trial of Golkar and military officials. There are plans
for similar assemblies in other East Javanese towns, as well as for an East
Java-wide assembly in Surabaya.

On August 3, scores of organisations belonging to the People's Struggle
Alliance held a demonstration in Merdeka Square in Jakarta on the occasion
of the return to Jakarta of Abdurrahman Wahid.

The alliance is demanding early elections and the trial of Golkar and the
generals. Among alliance supporters are most of the student activist
organisations, the People's Democratic Party, the Indonesian National Front
for Workers' Struggles and numerous outspoken pro-democracy intellectuals
and academics.

There has even been a string of demonstrations by journalists demanding that
President Sukarnoputri not re-establish the Ministry of Information, which
was used by Suharto and Habibie to control the press but which was abolished
by Wahid.

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INDONESIA: Free the Bandung 19

Urgent solidarity action is needed from supporters of democracy worldwide to

secure the release of activists held by police for organising against the
Indonesian regime.

Particularly urgent is the case of the Bandung 19, who have imprisoned as
political prisoners by the authorities in police headquarters in the West
Javanese city since as far back as June 15.

The 19 are being held for their involvement in June protests against
regressive changes to labour laws and increases in oil prices.

On June 13 and 14, more than 20,000 workers struck and marched on the
provincial parliament building, and were attacked by riot police on both
occasions. On June 14, police assaulted the crowd with rubber bullets and
tear gas, injuring at least 19 people.

The Bandung 19 were arrested in the days after and blamed for starting the
"riot".

The young activists are from the Young Christian Workers (YCW) movement, the
National Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the People's Democratic
Party (PRD), amongst other groups.

They have been charged under criminal laws that prohibit displaying signs
that may cause humiliation to the Indonesian government, the Indonesian
people, public authorities or any similar person/institution; and for openly
using violence against people or goods.

The prisoners have been treated extremely badly. They went on a hunger
strike for eight days, and eventually were given medical attention and
ordered to end their fast.

One of the prisoners, Mardiyono from the Young Christian Workers, wrote in a
letter from prison: "The conditions in the custody are very bad. Each day we
are provided with rice and only salted fish and fermented beans.

"The policemen in charge call the roll every day and anytime we may get a
punch or a kick. We feel depressed, bored and frustrated. When members of
family came, they could only shed tears. In the first five days we got
torture that hurt us. We suffer physically and mentally. The police have
dreadfully violated the human rights. Therefore we will keep struggling for
democracy and human rights in Indonesia."

The 19 prisoners are: L.V. Mardiyono, 23, factory worker, from the YCW;
Normalinda, 22, student, LMND; George Dominggus Hormat, 21, student, LMND;
Fransiskus Xavarius Farneubeun, 21, worker, PRD; Kahpi, factory worker, PRD;
Albertus Budi Pratomo, 21, factory worker, PRD; Hiskia Hartono, 31, student;
Edy Irwansah, 20, labourer, YCW; Maraden Sinaga, 23, student, YCW; Deny
Nugraha, 33, worker, YCW; Wirya Wangsa Direja, 24, labourer, YCW; Deny
Kusmarna, labourer, YCW; Dindin Suherman, NGO worker at "Dewan Kota"; Asep
Ruhyat, NGO worker at "Dewan Kota"; Andy Hartono, 22, student, LMND; Anton
Jauhari, student, GPRI; Donny Danudirjo, 21, student, LMND; Yovi Wijaya, 21,
student, LMND; Sri Darwanti, 24, student, GPK.

Please write urgently to President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the National Chief
of Police and the chief of police for West Java demanding their immediate
and unconditional release.

Address letters to: Megawati Sukarnoputri, President, Republic of Indonesia,
Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Istana Negara, Indonesia. fax: (6221) 345 7782
(salutation: Your Excellency); Gen. Surojo Bimantoro, National Chief of
Police, Jl. Trunojoyo, No. 3 Kebayoran Baru, Jakart Selatan, Indonesia, fax:
(6221) 720 7277 (salutation: Dear Gen. Bimantoro); Chief of Police, West
Java Province, fax: (6222) 780 0236.

Send a copy of your letter to: Ms. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of
the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, c/o
OHCHR-UNOG, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland, fax: (4122) 917 9006; Mr. Asmara
Nababan, Secretary General, Komnas HAM, Jl. Latuharhary No. 4B Menteng,
Jakarta Pusat, fax: (6221) 392 5227.

Solidarity messages to the detainees and copies of protest letters should
also be sent to: YCW Indonesia <indonesia_ycw@xxxxxxxxxxx>; People's
Democratic Party, <prd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; and Action in Solidarity with
Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) <asiet@xxxxxxxxxxxx>.

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