ASIET News Updates - December 23, 1998 ====================================== * Aceh in turmoil after sexual harassment by soldier - Waspada * Soliders accused of abducting activists to face trial - AFP * 'Third party' behind bloody Kupang riots - JP * Horta agrees with transition period leading to referendum - Lusa -------------------------------------------------------------- Aceh in turmoil after sexual harassment by soldier ================================================== Waspada - December 22, 1998 (slightly abridged) Seven government offices were seriously damaged and seven people -- four soldiers and three civilians -- were seriously injured when hundreds of people flooded into Lhokseumawe early Monday morning. The troubles came to a head at around 2.30am following an incident in which a soldier pulled the prayer robe of a young married woman from Dayah Tuha village who was on her way to the mosque for evening prayers. Thousands of people descended on Bayu village, about 15 kms east of Lhokseumawe, the place where the incident occurred. The security forces were unable to hold the huge crowd back. They blocked 15km of the Medan-Banda Aceh highway with electricity poles that were lying by the roadside about to be installed by the PLN, and burnt tyres. Traffic along the highway was blocked for 14 hours and eventually the traffic was re-directed to the road running parallel to the Pipeline of Mobile Oil. The government buildings seriously damaged included the Koramil (military command) command post, a police headquarters, a sub- district office, a village centre, a religious affairs office and the Lhokseumawe district court in Bukit Rasa. The crowds halted all vehicles including public transport and private cars, looking for members of the armed forces. They burned the Honda Accord vehicle of Major Harahap and Rp600,000 in cash belonging to the major who is a senior officer at the Liliwanga military command -- Korem, as he was on his way home with his family. The seriously and lightly wounded included the major and other soldiers, as well as the major's wife. The atmosphere in Lhokseumawe remained very tense throughout Monday. Many shops remained closed and local people stayed home. Few dared to venture out to the mosque for evening prayers. Soliders accused of abducting activists to face trial ===================================================== Agence France Presse - December 22, 1998 Jakarta -- Eleven members of the Indonesian armed forces will face a military court Wednesday, charged with involvement in the abduction and torture of political activists, a rights group said Tuesday. Munir of the Commission for Victims of Violence told AFP that he learned of the trial date from a subpoena sent by the military prosecutor to a former abductee asked to testify at the trial Wednesday. The 11 suspects, from the elite Kopassus special forces and including seven non-commissioned officers, are suspected of involvement in the abduction and torture of at least 24 activists earlier this year. Three of their superiors, including a son-in-law of former president Suharto, have already received administrative sanctions from the head of the armed forces on the advice of a military council probing the abductions. President B.J. Habibie on Monday pledged that the government will continue with its probe into the extent of the involvement in the abductions of Suharto's son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, who headed Kopassus at the time of the kidnappings. Prabowo was honorably discharged from the armed forces in August. Two other senior officers of Kopassus were barred at the time from ever holding an operational position in the armed forces. The military says the three senior officers might face court martial if evidence against them emerges during the trial of the 11 soldiers. At least 24 activists were abducted early in the year in the run-up to a general session of the People's Consultative Assembly to elect Suharto for a seventh consecutive term. Nine of the abducted victims have since resurfaced, one has been found dead and 13 are still listed as missing, Munir said. Munir however expressed doubts that much would come out of the current court case, saying that the military court "will not go into the depth of the matter, since the top-level officer giving the order" for the kidnappings was not on trial. 'Third party' behind bloody Kupang riots ======================================== Jakarta Post - December 21, 1998 Jakarta -- Rights campaigner Benjamin Mangkoedilaga said on Saturday that an investigation into recent unrest in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, revealed that it was not a spontaneous eruption of outrage over earlier unrest in Jakarta. Instead, it was determined that a "third party" masterminded the attacks against mosques and properties of the Muslim community in the predominately Catholic region, Benjamin said in Bandung. The new member of the National Commission on Human Rights was quoted by Antara as saying that witnesses reported the presence of strangers in their neighborhoods just before the rioting broke out. "The strangers wandered around in the sites of the rioting," said Benjamin, while "most Kupang residents claimed they did not know how the unrest began. They learned about the rioting after it spread. "There's no indication that the unrest was in retaliation for the tragedy. in Ketapang" he said. Ketapang, West Jakarta, was the scene of unrest in which 14 people were killed late last month when residents attacked churches. "What we have, instead, are indications that the (Kupang) unrest was plotted so that it looked like an interreligion conflict," he said. Benjamin described how the people he spoke to did not bear any grudge toward people of other faiths or ethnic groups. He also said that Muslims who lost their homes were given shelter by Catholic missionaries, while the damaged mosques were repaired with the help of the Catholic community. President B.J. Habibie met with some officials and community leaders from East Nusa Tenggara on Friday in Jakarta where they agreed that the rioting was triggered by attempts to use religion to pit one group against another. "The torching of places of worship in Kupang was not caused by religion, race or ethnic-related issues but by attempts to use religion to pit one group. against the other and to commit an act of deception," East Nusa Tenggara Governor Piet Tallo said after the meeting with Habibie. The Kupang riots on Nov. 30 followed a procession initiated by four Christian youth organizations to memorialize the Nov. 22 riots in Ketapang in which numerous buildings were also damaged. At least 11 places of worship were set ablaze and more than a dozen houses, a haj dormitory, government offices and school buildings were extensively vandalized in the Kupang riots, causing material losses of nearly Rp 30 billion. Police claim they have strong evidence linking eight people to the Kupang riots. Horta agrees with transition period leading to referendum ========================================================= Lusa - December 18, 1998 Helsinki -- Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Jose Ramos Horta said in Helsinki on Thursday he agreed with jailed East Timorese former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao's proposal for a transition period leading to a referendum on self-determination in his occupied home land. "The question of time is not that important, the referendum can be held in three or 10 years from now, because this is a matter for negotiations within the efforts of the UN secretary-general," Ramos Horta said in the Finnish capital at the start of a two-day visit. Gusmao proposed in a special interview with LUSA in the Cipinang prison in Jakarta earlier this week that East Timor be given a 10-year transition period leading to a referendum on self- determination. Gusmao also told LUSA that East Timor was not ready for immediate independence. Ramos Horta also said he believed that the outcome of elections in Indonesia next year could change Jakarta's official position on the problem of East Timor. "We are going to win this war, if Indonesia likes it or not," Ramos Horta said, adding the current political situation was "totally favourable" to the East Timorese resistance movement. The Nobel Peace Prize winner also said the Indonesian people were "tired of war in East Timor," because of which it was likely they would recognise East Timor's right of self-determination in a matter of months. Finland will hold the EU presidency in the second half of next year. Ramos Horta, vice-president of the National Timorese Resistance Council (CNRT), had a 1 1/2 hour meeting with Finnish Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen about the situation in East Timor on Thursday Ramos Horta is scheduled to meet with human rights activists and government and opposition leaders during his two- day stay in Helsinki, including President Martti Ahtisaari. [In a separate report on the same day, Lusa quoted the first vice-president of FRETILIN, Mari Alkatiri, as saying that he agreed that a transition period before independence was needed but considered that 10 years was "long" - James Balowski.] ********************************************************** 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! 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