-Caveat Lector- Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2001 Indonesia's wars over riches <http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/03/09/p6s1.htm> Despite efforts to be good corporate citizens, foreign companies are mired in separatist conflicts. By Dan Murphy Special to The Christian Science Monitor LHOKSEUMAWE, INDONESIA The Aceh coffee is thick and sweet, the grounds sticking to the teeth the way they like it here, as a tense group sips and talks in the thatched shade of a cafe across from an ExxonMobil pump station. One of the men, Sulaiman, gestures around the room: That quiet farmer on the bench lost his father and a brother to Indonesian soldiers nine years ago. Another man's motorcycle repair shop was burned by the military late last year. A third says his uncle was disappeared. Sulaiman suddenly chokes off his narrative. "You'd better go," he says. Out in the tropical glare, two soldiers have noticed a visitor and are ambling over. "We're probably in danger already." It's hard to disagree with him. In the last year, more than 1,200 people have been killed in Aceh, most of them civilians, and it appears the conflict is evolving into something more deadly still. At least 250 have been killed since the start of the year, and this month, faltering peace talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels have collapsed completely. On Wednesday the commander of the Army's elite Strategic Reserves said that a "military operation" had begun on March 1, in apparent violation of a cease-fire with the rebels. "GAM is an enemy of the state. We must get them all," Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu told local reporters. Diplomats in Jakarta say intelligence reports indicate the military is planning a major offensive. Violence has intensified throughout Aceh since 1998, when East Timor won its independence and former President Suharto fell, two events that inspired a surge of separatist activity and met with a brutal counterinsurgency. Lhokseumawe, the boomtown where ExxonMobil's pipelines, pumps, and work crews are tangled up with the local people's lives, is one of the main arenas of conflict. The company's natural gas operation in the province is, by unhappy circumstance, the common thread between the dream for independence, human rights abuses, and Aceh's hopes for a peaceful and prosperous future. Near where Sulaiman - who like many Indonesians uses only one name - and his friends sip coffee and curse the military, ExxonMobil runs the Arun gas field, Indonesia's largest. Analysts estimate the field spits out about $1.5 billion of product most years, helping to make Indonesia the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Yet almost all of the money has gone to Jakarta. Bringing that money back is one of the central rallying points of GAM. "Once we're independent, that field will make us as rich as Brunei," says GAM's Amni Ahmad Marzuki. Natural resources not only inspire GAM, but lie at the heart of Indonesia's determination to hold on. Soldiers guarding ExxonMobil's operation have tortured and killed civilians, say human rights investigators. GAM attacks are also higher in the area: If you stick a pin in a map of Aceh where every alleged human rights abuse has occurred, Lhokseumawe bristles like a porcupine. It's an increasingly familiar pattern across the globe. Gas, oil, and gold are shimmering lures for independence movements, which are then met with violence by the controlling regimes. "Rebel movements ... need both a grievance and a source of funding. Oil and mineral wealth can help provide both," says Michael Ross, a political scientist at the University of Michigan who studies resources and conflict. Companies like ExxonMobil - which have to cooperate with the government to stay in business - end up in the hot seat. For instance, ExxonMobil's contract with Indonesia requires it to pay for the military and police presence. "Without Mobil, we wouldn't have so many soldiers," says Yusuf Ismail Pase, a Lhokseumawe-based lawyer and human rights activist. "These military posts - they're like machines to make people disappear." ExxonMobil is understandably sensitive about its position and its executives declined to be interviewed. In a written response to questions, it stressed that it is not responsible for the behavior of the soldiers: "Our company condemns the violation of human rights in any form and has actively expressed these views to the President of Indonesia." Sometimes even the good can have negative consequences. Lhokseumawe is Aceh's second-largest city, thanks to Arun. In a province where most people are farmers, the city is home to dozens of small businesses that service Arun's workers. But that zone of economic opportunity is also helping to pay for both sides' guns: The city's relative wealth, combined with the conflict, creates extortion opportunities. Mr. Ross says that GAM probably generates revenue from extorting money from local businesses. The military does, too. The International Crisis Group estimated that 80 percent of the military's money comes from protection rackets and other outside ventures, usually illegal. The modern incarnation of GAM was founded in 1975, four years after the Arun field was opened. A military backlash that has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths soon followed, according to organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. That was supposed to change after the 1999 election of moderate President Abdurrahman Wahid. But, as a Western diplomat points out, "The Army continues to punish whole villages for their independence sympathies." Around Lhokseumawe, attitudes toward ExxonMobil are complex, and few are willing to speak about the company. Locals often blame ExxonMobil for abuses, since its presence justifies military posts in the region. But residents say they can live with ExxonMobil, provided more benefits flow their way. Back at the coffee shop, Sulaiman says he'd like a job. "We don't have a problem with Mobil," he says. "We have a problem with the military they've brought here." ExxonMobil has built mosques, schools, and hospitals, and made contributions to local charities. Yet even those efforts have begun to suffer. One ExxonMobil official says the full budget for local programs wasn't spent last year, in part because of the disruptions in the Lhokseumawe area. ExxonMobil itself has suffered hijackings of its vehicles and, last year, a brief hostage-taking involving a group of engineers. The violence is beginning to threaten the long-term viability of Aceh's cash cow. Mr. Pase, the human rights activist, says the company hasimproved as a corporate citizen, both in environmental protection and in community relations. But he says the best thing ExxonMobil could do would be to push the military to leave. "They have a moral responsibility to make that change." ---------- For further information: Political History of Aceh U.S. Committee for Refugees <http://www.refugees.org/news/crisis/indonesia/aceh.htm> Aceh: A Province in Distress, <http://www.thejakartapost.com/special/os_7.asp> Irian Jaya: The Rough Diamond of Indonesia Jakarta Post <http://www.thejakartapost.com/special/os_8.asp> Irian Jaya's valleys of death Japan Times <http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20010222a1.htm> ***** March 3rd Editorial by the daily La Naci�n of Costa Rica http://www.narconews.com/lanacioned.html Beyond Spectacle The Zapatista Army Marches through all Am�rica A week ago, "the march for indigenous dignity" began, from its headquarters in La Realidad, in Chiapas, led by the enigmatic subcomandante Marcos, 23 unarmed comandantes and their faces covered with ski masks, as well as indigenous groups, all of which form the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). In a week, after 3,000 kilometers and the celebration of 33 acts or special stops, the caravan will arrive in Mexico City. This long March, reminiscent of Mao - although different in that the many comandantes don't sleep in trucks but, rather, travel in a tourist bus equipped with television, air conditioning and bathroom - complies with one of the first promises by the EZLN: "Advance to the capital." On this occasion the proposal is not to defeat the government, as it announced on January 1, 1994, but, according to what its leaders have proclaimed in recent days, a dialogue for peace in Chiapas and the constitutional recognition of indigenous rights. As the caravan advances, criticism of the government of President Fox intensifies, sometimes with archaic rhetoric, but thunderous and, it seems, effective in many countries of the Third World. And the number of spectators grows each day as if this were a bicycle race. Subcomandante Marcos becomes today a national hero for diverse sectors of Mexico, culminating seven years of intense and continuous propaganda. Without a doubt, he is the consummate teacher. His role, in political, social, economic and social ideals since 1994, has discovered an unending mother lode, sustained and made even larger by the the advantage of irresponsibility that people of these kinds of movements have. This march and, in general, the actions of the EZLN are a direct matter for Mexico. But its strategy, methodology and results, positive or negative, cannot be disassociated from the reality of our countries because of the discourse it brings, its geographic proximity and its resonance, political and military, with similar movements in Latin America in recent years. For President Fox, it constitutes an enormous challenge at the dawn of his government, one that could determine, for good or for bad, his political future. But it is also for the Mexican people. The political leaders must understand that. From this perspective, the Colombian example, near and painful, represents the best laboratory. If the Mexican state cedes its most basic essence in the principles of sovereignty, legitimacy and government, the consequence is well known. The principal danger lies in not being able to distinguish, from the conceptual and practical points of view, between the justice of the indigenous demands, which must be satisfied, and the certain fact that an internal rebellion - like the alliance between drug trafficking and Colombian guerrillas - will always want and demand more. We cannot remain indifferent toward the internal situation of Mexico, above all if we look toward the south at the crisis in Colombia, Venezuela or Ecuador, whose triggers have been, in this order, drug trafficking, guerrillas and paramilitaries; the populism of a Marxist shade by President Ch�vez and the chaos of Ecuador aggravated by the growing opposition by indigenous groups. The common denominator of these complex situations has been the accumulation of economic and social problems, the political incapacity to react quickly with seriousness and effectiveness, a certain slumber and even complicity, in many cases, by Civil Society, reflected in the spineless city cultures. The political vacuum and governmental ineptness lead, in some cases, to rebellion, in others to messianic populism: in both cases to the fracture of the system. If these premises are joined, there is no democratic country that will be immune to the results. This is a time to observe and to learn. ***** U.S. Press Lies About Release of E.Z.L.N. Political Prisoners As the Zapatista Caravan nears its March 11, 2001 appointment with destiny in Mexico City, the U.S. propaganda machine cranks out its lies and deception: Alberto M. Giordano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Fri, 09 Mar 2001 IT'S A LIE: AP claim that "all" EZLN prisoners free is false March 9, 2001 Please Distribute Urgently and Widely IT'S A LIE AP's Claim that "All" EZLN Prisoners are Free in Chiapas is Untrue The Following Men, in Chiapas prisons on federal charges, and nine other Zapatistas are still imprisoned... Rafael L�pez Sant�z Conseta, Norberto L�pez Rinc�n, David Hern�ndez Hern�ndez, Gustavo Estrada G�mez, Mario Diaz G�mez and Jos� Hern�ndez Dias Read Our Interviews with Zapatistas who were Framed on Drug Charges: http://www.narconews.com/chiapaspart9.html We reported again on them in December... http://www.narconews.com/amnesty2000.html Because they were framed and tortured on federal drug charges, only President Vicente Fox can free them. Please take immediate action to assure that these good men and all 15 remaining Zapatista political prisoners are not forgotten and are released. Al Giordano Publisher The Narco News Bulletin http://www.narconews.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit: http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) 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