---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Dengan mengClick banner sponsor anda menyumbang Rp. 1000,- untuk HomePage IndoNews. ---------------------------------------------------------- ASIET News Updates - Jan 26, 1999 ================================= * Parliament to resume debate on election bills * Five hacked to death as toll tops 100 * Wiranto pledges to respect elections * East Timor and the politics of oil ---------------------------------------------------------------- Parliament to resume debate on election bills ============================================= Agence France Presse - January 24, 1999 Jakarta -- Indonesia's parliament is to reconvene Monday to finalize new bills that will set the ground rules for elections in June and for the country's post-Suharto political life. The Suharto-era parliament is racing against a January 28 deadline to complete fine-tuning the government-proposed bills so the country can prepare for general elections promised for June 7. They will cover political parties -- and how many of the more than 100 new parties that have blossomed since Suharto's fall in May will be able to run in June -- the conduct of the polls and the composition of a new upper and lower houses. But since the debate first began in November 17, the members of the 500-seat House of Representatives have been involved in acrimonious debate over several core issues, including civil servants' role in politics. Also hotly disputed is the number of unelected seats to be allocated to the armed forces, a main pillar of the 32-year-long Suharto regime, or whether they should sit in the house at all. In a high-level meeting between the government and senior legislators Friday, the two sides agreed to drop the issue of civil servants from the agenda, and leave it to a government regulation to be issued at a later date, the Jakarta Post said Saturday. However, Abu Hasan Sazili from the ruling Golkar party, who also chairs the House Special Committee responsible for deliberating the bills, said the final decision on whether or not to put the issue on ice could only be made at the open session of a special committee meeting scheduled for Monday. "The results of (Friday's) meeting will first be forwarded to faction leaders and members," Sazili was quoted by the Post as saying. Friday's three-hour meeting, dubbed "high-level (government) lobbying" by the press here, was attended by armed forces chief General Wiranto, Home Affairs Minister Syarwan Hamid, United Development Party (PPP) chairman Hamzah Haz and Golkar House faction leader Andi Mattalatta. Golkar has been stubbornly rejecting a government suggestion that civil servants be allowed to run for election if they resign their government posts when elected, saying that barring them from joining political parties would violate their civil rights. The minority Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) had earlier argued against the suggestion but later shifted to backing the proposed bill. The PPP argues the army should return to the barracks and quit politics. During Suharto's rule the ruling Golkar party received its main support from the block vote of bureaucracy and the military and their families, who helped it gain a landlside victory in every election. Ryaas Rasyid, who chairs the government team that drafted the political bills, was quoted by the Post as saying the planned government regulation would stipulate if a civil servant wanted to join a political party, he or she "must take leave without state stipend or resign." If followed, it would knock scores of ministers, including Golkar head and concurrently state secretary Akbar Tanjung, out of their government posts. Golkar deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman called the conditions unacceptable. "We don't want that," Darusman said, adding the clause on "leave without the state stipend" required further clarification as a current government regulation says a civil servant with five years service can take up to four years unpaid leave for "important and urgent personal reasons". Darusman argued that civil servants must not lose their "political rights" although Golkar agreed a neutral bureaucracy was vital for a free and fair election. A current law states that civil servants can hold membership or executive positions with political parties with the permission of their superiors. On the military representation issue the government has reducing the seat allotment to 55 from the current 75 in a 550 seat house. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, chief of the armed forces territorial affairs bureau said earlier the military would accept whatever decision the House made. Five hacked to death as toll tops 100 ===================================== Sydney Morning Herald - January 25, 1999 Louise Williams, Jakarta -- Five Muslim men have been dragged from a truck at a Christian road-block, hacked to death and their bodies set alight, with an outnumbered military patrol standing helplessly by. The unofficial death toll in religious violence on the devastated Indonesian island of Ambon is now put at more than 100. The new lynchings came only hours after Indonesia's Armed Forces Commander, General Wiranto, toured the riot-torn capital of the Moluccas, once known as the Spice Islands, and issued shoot-on- sight orders against armed gangs and imposed a night-time curfew. At least 20,000 locals on Ambon were sheltering at mosques, churches and police and military posts at the weekend after an Indonesian military Hercules evacuated remaining foreigners to Ujung Pandang, on the island of Sulawesi. About 5,000 soldiers and police patrolled the smouldering remains of Ambon's commercial and residential districts, trashed during five days of fighting between rival Muslim and Christian mobs, but residents said armed gangs were still roaming back-streets and outlying villages. Officials put the death toll at 52, but Christian and Muslim sources said the official toll counted only corpses brought to hospitals, and that many bodies had been dumped into rivers and the sea. The Ambon police chief, Colonel Karyono, also conceded that many more victims might be uncovered from within the remains of burnt out buildings. A local aid organisation, Baileo, said it had already recorded 122 deaths and 145 people injured in the main city of Ambon, but continuing violence in surrounding villages meant the death toll would climb. "The situation is still very tense," a Baileo spokesman said. "People are too scared to leave their homes and we cannot go outside the town. In one area we cannot reach, at least 500 homes have been destroyed." Indonesian newspapers listed the extensive damage, which includes the main market, scores of shops and hundreds of homes and cars. However, in an effort to prevent fuelling the explosive religious tensions, they made no mention of the destruction of eight mosques and eight churches. Ordinary Indonesians are only too aware of the religious divisions and the terrible consequences for the nation if revenge attacks break out in other parts of the country. Reports from predominantly Christian Ambon identify most of the victims as Muslims. However, Indonesia is a majority Muslim nation, and this leaves religious minorities on the heavily populated Muslim- dominated islands of Java and Sumatra fearful of retaliation. The lynching of the five Muslims was confirmed by police on Saturday. The five were stopped at a road-block in a predominantly Christian area, despite an escort of three armed soldiers. The mob manning the road-block demanded identity cards, which show a person's religion, and dragged the five from the truck. Soldiers fired warning shots, but the men were hacked to death on the road. "They threw their bodies into a gorge, poured gasoline over them and burned them," an Ambon police officer was quoted as saying. President B.J. Habibie announced Ambon was "under control" over the weekend but one local resident contacted by telephone said: "The main streets are controlled by the soldiers, but the small streets and outside the city are still being patrolled by the gangs." Some rice was now available in the city centre, but much of the commercial district had been destroyed, he said. The airport and seaport remained closed and local transport was paralysed. Wiranto pledges to respect elections ==================================== Agence France Pressse - January 24, 1999 (abridged) Jakarta -- Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto assured top opposition leaders Sunday the military would support any winner of a fair election and would not try to take over the government. "In dealing with the upcoming elections, it will show neutrality. The armed forces stated that it will place itself in a position equidistant from all parties," he said. "We will not support any political parties or create a government." Civilian representatives of the government of President B.J. Habibie were conspicuous by their absence from the meeting, called by Wiranto as the military tried to quell bloody riots in the country's east. The general also said all participants at the meeting had agreed to pull together to save the nation. "Our sense of brotherhood is being tested. That's why in this meeting we agreed to end that. "The armed forces will keep the elections fair and equal. Hence we can expect a successful election as it is the only entry point for the reform we have all been waiting for," Wiranto told journalists after the more than three-hour- long meeting at his offcial Jakarta residence. Those attending the meeting with Wiranto at his invitation included respected Moslem moderate Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid and the Sultan of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono X. Popular politician Megawati Sukarnoputri and several leading businessmen were also present, an AFP reporter said. Political party leader Amien Rais at first sent a message that he would not attend but later turned up. "Amien Rais refuses to meet with Wiranto at this meeting. He would like to ask ... why the armed forces has not prosecuted the perpetrators of the riots," Bara Hasibuan, head of political affairs for Rais' National Awakening Party, told AFP before he appeared. "All of us that met tonight have agreed to support the elections to take place successfully and securely," Wiranto said. "It was truly a meeting of minds that emphasized political nuances to find a way so that this country can stay united." The June 7 polls will result in the election of a new parliament and the formation of a new People's Consultative Assembly which is due to select a new president before the end of 1999. Gus Dur said after the meeting that the opposition leaders had been there to listen to Wiranto's commitment "that the armed forces will be more open with its statements in the future so that they could be more understandable." "This is something that we have actually been waiting for, to hear the armed forces' commitment to support reform," he added. East Timor and the politics of oil ================================== World Socialist Web Site - January 23, 1999 Mike Head -- Rarely does a veteran diplomat reveal the real concerns driving the foreign policy manoeuvres of a government he has served for decades. Such is the case, however, with an article that appeared in the Australian Financial Review this week written by Richard Woolcott, a former Australian ambassador to Indonesia and then secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Woolcott's article sheds light on the jockeying for position now taking place between various governments and oil companies over the future of the former Portuguese enclave of East Timor, or more particularly, the island's considerable oil and natural gas reserves, including those in the Timor Gap, the seabed between Timor and Australia. The article was prompted by an "historic shift" in Australian policy on East Timor announced on January 12 by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer. The minister said Canberra had decided to join calls for an "act of self-determination" in the Indonesian-occupied territory, that lies less than 500 kilometres to the north-west of Australia. Australian governments, both conservative and Labor Party, have supported the Indonesian annexation of East Timor ever since 1974-75, when the then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam held two meetings with the Indonesian dictator General Suharto to assure Suharto of Australian blessing. More than 200,000 Timorese -- a quarter of the population -- have died under Indonesian military rule since December 1975. In 1978 the Liberal-National Party government of Whitlam's successor, Malcolm Fraser, became the first in the world to formally recognise Indonesian sovereignty, in return for negotiations with Jakarta on sharing the spoils of the Timor Gap. The Labor government of Bob Hawke came to office in 1983 with a platform proclaiming "the inalienable right of the East Timorese to self-determination and independence" but quickly reaffirmed Fraser's recognition of Indonesian sovereignty and signed the Timor Gap Treaty in 1989. As recently as December 1995, the Keating Labor government signed a unique security treaty with Jakarta, committing the Australian military to intervene on Suharto's behalf in the event of instability. Now that Suharto has fallen, new arrangements are being sought to protect Australian corporate interests in Indonesia and East Timor. It is the future of the Timor Gap Treaty that Richard Woolcott raised in his article. He said both the Howard government and the Labor opposition had seen a need to change their policies on East Timor to meet what he described as an "evolving situation in Indonesia". His concern was that, "apart from an issue of regional significance, such as the possible fracturing of Indonesia, the changes could lead to substantial financial implications for the government if the Timor Gap Treaty, signed in 1989, were to unravel." Woolcott noted that major companies are exploring for oil and gas under the umbrella of the treaty. If Australian recognition of de jure Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor were abandoned, the treaty could be nullified, resulting in substantial financial claims. Woolcott emphasised that the principle of self-determination "is not a sacred cow". Indeed, the Timor issue provides a graphic picture of the way Western governments use lofty appeals to this principle to suit their commercial and strategic interests. In announcing the most recent shift, Downer was deliberately vague. Self-determination did not mean independence, or even a referendum on secession, he said. The government was "of the view that the long term prospects for reconciliation in East Timor would be best served by the holding of an act of self- determination at some future time, following a substantial period of autonomy". He added that this policy adjustment "does not alter the Government's position which continues to recognise Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor". At the same time, ruling circles in Australia -- and the companies drilling in the Timor Gap, which include Australia's BHP and its partners, Santos, Petroz and Inpex Sahul -- are scrambling not to be left behind if the Indonesian regime continues to breakup. Other forces are staking claims to the undersea reserves, including Portugal, which the UN still recognises as the sovereign power in East Timor, and the East Timorese leaders. This is reflected in the position of the Labor Party. It has criticised Downer for not going far enough. After being for 23 years the most fervent supporter of Indonesian rule, Labor is now calling for the renegotiation of the Timor Gap Treaty to transfer Indonesian royalties to an autonomous East Timorese administration. Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton also displayed rare candour in estimating that such an administration would have access to $A150 million a year in oil and gas royalties. BHP commenced oil production at its Elang, Kakatua and Kakatua North fields in July 1998. Royalty revenues at present are only $6.25 million a year but Brereton said the figure would rise considerably when BHP began operating the Bayu-Udan natural gas project in 2002. By one estimate, the oil and gas reserves in the treaty zone are worth $19 billion. Brereton, a leading minister in the previous Labor government, claimed that by allocating royalties to East Timorese representatives, the Australian government would finally have "a principled East Timor policy". The revenue would "contribute very significantly to the development of East Timor and the wellbeing of its people". As the record demonstrates, Labor's concerns are not for the wellbeing of the East Timorese people but the profits and strategic interests of Australian capitalism. Sections of business are now looking for a partnership with an aspiring East Timorese ruling elite. Labor's policy turn followed a statement last July by the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) that an East Timorese government would provide the oil companies with a "more secure and predictable environment" than the Indonesian administration. "The National Council of Timorese Resistance will endeavour to show the Australian government and the Timor Gap contractors that their commercial interests will not be adversely affected by East Timorese self-determination," the statement said. "The CNRT supports the rights of the existing Timor Gap contractors and those of the Australian government to jointly develop East Timor's offshore oil reserves in cooperation with the people of East Timor." The CNRT, headed by the jailed former resistance fighter Xanana Gusmao and Nobel Peace Prize winner Josi Ramos Horta, is primarily a bloc between East Timor's three main parties, Fretilin, UDT and Apodeti, all of which now favour a gradual transition to some form of self-rule, possibly in association with Portugal, or even Australia. Gusmao last year held talks with a BHP executive in Jakarta's Cipinang prison, where he has been allowed a constant stream of high-profile visitors. Recently he held talks with three US congressmen. Australia has joined other Western governments in urging the Habibie regime to release Gusmao so he can actively participate in UN negotiations currently under way between Indonesia and Portugal. Both Gusmao and Horta welcomed the Howard government's new line, with Horta describing it as "courageous". The CNRT leadership is looking for an arrangement with Canberra or any other Western power -- or oil companies -- which will support the ultimate formation of an East Timorese mini-state. ********************************************************** Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) PO Box 458, Broadway NSW 2007 Australia Phone: 61-(0)2-96901230 Fax : 61-(0)2-96901381 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] WWW : http://www.peg.apc.org/~asiet/ Free Xanana Gusmao, Budiman Sujatmiko and Dita Sari! Free all political prisoners in Indonesia and East Timor! ********************************************************** ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 26 Jan 1999 jam 10:56:08 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
