http://www.active.org.au/sydney/
June 24, Canberra: Protest Australian military ties with Indonesia by ASAP 8:12pm Thu Jun 12 '03 article#2477 address: PO Box 458, Broadway, Sydney, NSW 2007, AUSTRALIA - phone: (+61 2) 9690 1032 - Fax: (+61 2) 9690 1381 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Acehnese community and their solidarity supporters will join the 'Defence and Industry 2003' conference protest on June 24. On June 24-26, in the ACT, the Australian government is hosting this conference at the National Convention Centre, Constitution Ave, Canberra. The Australia-Aceh Association in Sydney is organising transport to Canberra for the day. Please circulate Protest Australian military ties with Indonesia! The Acehnese community and their solidarity supporters will join the 'Defence and Industry 2003' conference protest on June 24. On June 24-26, in the ACT, the Australian government is hosting this conference at the National Convention Centre, Constitution Ave, Canberra. Some 1500 delegates are expected to attend to network and to plan the tender of defence contracts from, and with, the Howard government. The Defence and Industry 2003 conference is an important forum between the Australian government and international corporations which deal in arms. It will promote the manufacture, import and export of lethal weapons by Australian and international companies, and is therefore an ideal opportunity to put the arguments against such a lethal and inhuman military-industrial complex. Speakers at the conference include Senator Robert Hill, Minister for Defence, Ian Macfarlane M.P., Minister for Industry Tourism and Resources, Fran Bailey M.P., Parliamentary Secretary for Defence. Delegates from Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, British Aerospace, and other big international arms producing corporations are expected to attend. The Acehnese community will join other peace activists to protest against the government's decision to increase defence spending and to maintain military ties with the Indonesian government which is currently waging all-out war against the Acehnese people. The Australian government currently provides no military hardware to Indonesia, but it maintains a training program for Indonesian military officers and is looking to expand this. Senator Hill wants to resume military ties with Kopassus, the discredited special forces who masterminded the carnage in East Timor, and are now busy doing the same in Aceh and West Papua. The Australia-Aceh Association in Sydney is organising transport to Canberra for the day. They are encouraging solidarity activists to join with them to take their protest to Canberra. To book a seat on the bus, call Dahlan on 0401 956 274. To find out more about what's happening in Aceh, go to the home page of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific @ www.asia-pacific-action.org. Below is the arms embargo call from TAPOL. To sign on please contact Paul Barber at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR INTERNATIONAL MILITARY SANCTIONS AGAINST INDONESIA We are organisations with long-standing concerns about human rights in Indonesia and about the adverse impact on human rights of Indonesia’s military relations with other countries. This statement arises out of our alarm at developments in Aceh following the Indonesian Government’s declaration of martial law on 19 May 2003 and our concern about military operations currently underway in the Central Highlands of Papua. The military offensive in Aceh is now proceeding at a level that is causing widespread civilian loss of life and the destruction of Aceh’s public infrastructure. Human rights groups fear massive violations of human rights and are especially concerned about the safety of human rights defenders and civil society activists. Numerous reports of extra-judicial killings and torture are emerging from Aceh, including of students and boys as young as 12. Several NGOs have been forced underground because of dire warnings from the Martial Law Authority. Their activists have been threatened with arrest and as a result many have gone into hiding. Acehnese communities are being targeted in Jakarta and other cities outside Aceh. In an attempt to isolate Aceh and suppress the truth about the war, the Government has banned foreign aid workers and international NGOs and imposed severe restrictions on press freedom. Tens-of-thousands of people have been internally displaced and villagers are afraid to tend their land. The UN has expressed concern about a looming humanitarian crisis as food supplies run dangerously low. In Papua, military operations have intensified in the Central Highlands following an incident in Wamena on 4 April. Villagers are fleeing their homes and some deaths have been reported because of the lack of food. The Indonesian military (TNI) have obstructed investigations into the killing on 31 August of two US citizens and one Indonesian in the vicinity of the Freeport copper-and-gold mine. On 21 May, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed to reinstate a ban on military training for Indonesia because of the authorities’ failure to take effective measures to investigate these murders. Indonesian police and NGO investigations have implicated the TNI in the attack. The TNI is renowned for its brutality and lack of accountability in areas of conflict. In September 1999, the US imposed restrictions on arms exports and military relations with Indonesia following the TNI’s campaign of murder and mayhem in East Timor. The EU introduced similar restrictions at the same time, but they were lifted after four months. There has been no meaningful progress towards reform of the military or the ending of impunity in the intervening period. On the contrary, the TNI are seeking to enhance their political role. The proceedings at Indonesia’s ad hoc human rights court on East Timor have been a travesty of justice. Recently, the most senior officer charged with crimes against humanity, Major-General Adam Damiri missed several days of his trial in order to help prepare the TNI for its assault on Aceh. Military equipment supplied by other countries - especially the US and UK - is now being used by the TNI in Aceh. We hold those countries complicit in any attacks with such equipment on civilians and regard those countries as accessories to consequent breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law. Although there is currently a ban on the transfer of US weapons to Indonesia, the TNI is using weapons supplied before the ban. OV-10 Bronco counter-insurgency planes are rocketing villages in Aceh while C-130 Hercules transport aircraft have dropped hundreds of paratroopers over the region. Indonesia is preparing other US equipment for use, including F-16 fighter jets, S-58 Twinpack helicopters and numerous small arms. British-supplied Hawk aircraft are being used to attack and bomb villages. Scorpion tanks have also been deployed to the area. TNI spokesmen have said that they have no intention of complying with assurances given to Britain that the equipment would not be used for counter-insurgency purposes or to suppress human rights. Other countries with significant military ties with Indonesia include Australia, which is pushing to resume relations with Indonesia’s notorious special forces, Kopassus, and Russia, which recently signed a deal to supply four Sukhoi jet fighters and two MI-35 helicopters. Some governments are seeking to restore and expand training for members of the TNI and to collaborate with the TNI in seminars and conferences as well as joint exercises. The TNI, which has not engaged a foreign foe in over 50 years, has regularly used combat skills obtained in part through foreign training programs against civilians. We are convinced that the TNI represents a grave threat to the stability and security of Indonesia and we believe that the policy of western countries to strengthen their military ties with Jakarta as part of the “war on terror” is wholly misguided and dangerous. Given the backdrop of mounting casualties and human rights abuses attributable to the TNI and wanton killings in Aceh and Papua, we believe it is intolerable for governments to engage with the TNI on a business-as-usual basis. We therefore call upon all governments to: 1. Impose an embargo on the supply of military equipment to Indonesia, to include contracts agreed before the entry into force of the embargo; 2. Insist on the withdrawal from Aceh of all equipment previously supplied to Indonesia; 3. Suspend all forms of military co-operation with Indonesia to include training, participation in seminars and conferences, joint exercises and senior level military exchanges; 4. Press the Indonesian Government to end the military operations in Aceh and to resolve the conflict by means of peaceful dialogue, and to halt military operations in Papua and withdraw the elite forces now operating in the Central Highlands. June 2003 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Solidarity with Aceh grows BY PIP HINMAN & STUART MUNCKTON As news of Indonesian military atrocities in Aceh — including girls as young as six being raped — spreads, so does the solidarity with the Acehnese people’s struggle for democracy. On June 5, 33 people gathered outside the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur for a candlelight vigil organised by Solidarity for Aceh. The coalition is calling on GAM and the Indonesian government to agree to a cease-fire and resume negotiations. It is also calling on the Indonesian government to: allow international peace observers to monitor human rights and development programs; create an independent commission to investigate the attacks and killings and bring the perpetrators to justice; allow the Acehnese people freedom of expression; and abandon the subversion article in the criminal code for which the ultimate penalty is the death sentence. The group is also calling on the Malaysian government to broker a peace plan and facilitate a long-term solution to the conflict in Aceh. In Canberra on June 6, protesters demanded Indonesia cease its war on Aceh. Organised by the socialist youth organisation Resistance, the picket also called for the Australian government to cease all military ties with Indonesia. In Sydney supporters of peace in Aceh are discussing plans to broaden the campaign. TAPOL, the Indonesian Human Rights Campaign, based in Britain, has drafted an international statement calling for a global arms embargo with the Indonesia military. It is being circulated for signature and can be read at www.TAPOL.gn.apc.org or www.asia-pacific-action.org. To sign on, contact Paul Barber at [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003 Visit the current June 18 issue Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACEH: Support waning for Indonesia's terror war By JAMES BALOWSKI JAKARTA — Although coverage of Indonesia's brutal war in its northern-most province of Aceh has all but disappeared from the international media, it is still front-page news here. If you believe the headlines, the Indonesian military's (TNI) goal of crushing the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and “resolving” the Aceh “question” once and for all has been a resounding success. Three weeks into the “integrated operation”, the TNI is claiming that GAM militants are fleeing to the mountains, trying to escape to North Sumatra or nearby Malaysia. The TNI claims it has surrounded or taken control of most of GAM's strongholds and killed more than 100 GAM members. More than 70 have been arrested or have surrendered. However, human rights violations, the displacement and forced evacuation of civilians, press restrictions and violence against journalists, mass arrests of students and human rights activists and other harsh measures are undermining domestic and international tolerance for the TNI operation. On May 30, the TNI's Aceh military commander Major-General Endang Suwarya issued a decree prohibiting foreign vessels from entering Aceh's waters. He said this was to prevent weapons smuggling by GAM and that ships failing to heed warnings would be “blown out of the water”. On the same day, a decree was issued to limit the use of telecommunication equipment, in particular walkie-talkies. On June 1, Suwarya issued a decree authorising the seizure communications equipment throughout Aceh. The TNI has begun replacing civilian administrators at the district and sub-district level with military officers. TNI insists this is only a “temporary” measure. Police are on a nationwide alert for fleeing GAM members and have stepped up surveillance of about 20 locations in greater Jakarta and parts of Sumatra. Human rights activists are also being targeted. On June 4, Amnesty International stated: “There is now serious concern for the safety of all human rights defenders in [Aceh], some of whom have already been subjected to human rights violations.” Police spokesperson Sayed Husaini told Agence France Presse on June 3 that activists who assist GAM would be charged with subversion, adding that police have records and evidence against them. He gave no details on the size of the wanted list, other than to say there are “a lot”. Husaini said many are students from a state institute for religious studies in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, or are members of non-government organisations. He specifically named one, Kautsar, who is the deputy chairperson of Student Solidarity for Acehnese People. Among the NGOs threatened were the Information Centre on a Referendum for Aceh and Society's Solidarity for the People. Members of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front are also being hunted. Opposition grows On May 31, religious leaders from the country's two largest Islamic organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, along with the Indonesian Communion of Churches, demanded that the Indonesian government avoid civilian fatalities and boost humanitarian activities in the province. They emphasised that the main purpose of the integrated operations was “winning the hearts and minds of the Acehnese”, not a military takeover. Earlier, Muhammadiyah chairperson Ahmad Syafii Maarif suggested that more casualties would spark anti-government sentiment among the Acehnese. Maarif said the government should stop the war and look for ways of resolving the Aceh conflict peacefully. Jakarta governor Sutiyoso has warned Muslim preachers not to use mosques as a forum against the war. Sutiyoso's spokesperson Achyat Awe told the June 4 Jakarta Post that the governor had learned that many preachers were speaking out against the military operation during Friday prayers. The US government has also begun to express concern. Speaking after a meeting with Indonesian defence minister Matori Abdul Djalil in Singapore on May 29, US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz called for a political solution to the Aceh conflict and urged Jakarta to allow NGO monitors into the province. This would “help encourage the world that Indonesia is behaving professionally and carefully”, Wolfowitz said. A US State Department official added that “this is not the way we were hoping things would turn out” and that Washington is watching the situation “carefully”. Djalil said Indonesia's Aceh operation was both military and humanitarian and hoped for success within six months. “Maybe it will finish in just two or three months because we understand ... that too long [a period of] martial law ... is not good for our government.” `Deep concern' On May 29, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “deeply concerned” at the impact of the war on the civilian population of Aceh. In particular, he was “disturbed by reports of extra-judicial killings and widespread burning of schools”. He called on Jakarta to “ensure the necessary security conditions to allow international aid organisations safe and unhindered access to affected populations”. Indonesia's UN representative Slamet Hidayat expressed disappointment at Annan's statement. According to the May 30 Detik.com, Slamet said: “Although [Annan] is not making accusations, his statement could lead the international community to believe that there were civilians being murdered.” State minister of communications and information Syamsul Mu'arif said Jakarta plans to hire an international public relations firm to sell Indonesia's war. “We are weak in international public relations as foreign press coverage on Aceh has been giving a negative impression of the operation”, he told the May 31 Jakarta Post. Yasril Ananta Baharudin, a member of the parliamentary information and foreign affairs commission, said the government had failed to gain public support for the Aceh war and suggested it emulate the US government, which set up media centres to sway public opinion during its invasion of Iraq. Press restrictions Journalists who have ventured out of the relative safety of Banda Aceh continue to bring back stories of massacres and summary executions by TNI soldiers. There are reports that detail abductions of non-combatants and discoveries of corpses, some shot and others exhibiting signs of torture, on roadsides. Journalists say that, because of fear of reprisals by TNI, morgue workers now write “loss of blood” as the cause of death on corpses delivered with execution-style head wounds. Jakarta recently rejected requests from about 10 international journalists to enter Aceh. Suwarya has said there is no need for “foreign observers” in the province. Officials admit that such requests are normally dealt with by the department of migration but, following the declaration of martial law, the sole authority now lies with Suwarya. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists on May 29 issued a statement: “CPJ has documented a series of alarming incidents in which journalists have been targeted while driving on the main road between the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the town of Lhokseumawe [in North Aceh]... We are also gravely concerned by mounting evidence of a systematic effort by Indonesian security forces in Aceh to restrict reporting on the fighting there.” Similarly, on May 29, the Jakarta based Coalition Against Violence Toward Journalists detailed several violent incidents and restrictions imposed on journalists in Aceh. It said that the restrictions started when Suwarya asked the media on May 20 not to quote statements from GAM. Then on May 25, the TNI stipulated that all journalists had to report to the military before covering the operation to prevent “internationalisation” of the Aceh case. Andrew Marshal, writing in the June 9 Time magazine, painted a chilling picture of the political climate facing journalists in Aceh: “Of all the hardware currently deployed in Aceh, US-supplied bombers, British-made jets, tanks, armored troop carriers, assault helicopters, warships, it was a slate-gray Japanese sedan that unnerved us journalists the most. “The car bore a large sign reading `Press', yet it carried several uniformed men with guns. Who were they? GAM rebels? Not likely: the car was spotted several times in broad daylight in areas controlled by the TNI. “More likely, we thought, the passengers were soldiers deliberately misusing press stickers to besmirch our independent and non-combatant status, and to draw us into the line of fire by making vehicles carrying journalists legitimate targets of either GAM or the TNI. “It worked. By the end of the campaign's first week, at least seven real press vehicles had to brave a hail of bullets. Then, as journalists began to report on the mounting military atrocities against civilians, several reporters — Indonesian and foreigners — were interrogated by the police or army, and at least three received death threats. “The 54 Indonesian journalists `embedded' with various TNI units fared no better. They arrived in Aceh frightened, partly because they wore military uniforms and were indistinguishable from the troops and partly because their military keepers had told them GAM knew all of their names and intended to assassinate them. “Foolishly, I had assumed the presence of embeds might curb the worst excesses of the troops. Fat chance. Two embed teams have witnessed TNI atrocities and been warned — in one case, on pain of death — not to report them. `Before, the embeds were afraid of GAM', says an Indonesian colleague in Lhokseumawe in northern Aceh. `Now, they're more afraid of the TNI.'”. On June 2, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said it would investigate more than 20 cases of alleged human rights violations during the first two weeks of the operation. Komnas HAM reported that, from the testimonies obtained so far, there are indications that the perpetrators are members of GAM, rogue elements of the TNI and other unidentified groups. At a press conference in Jakarta on June 2, MM Billa, head of Komnas HAM's monitoring team in Aceh, said: “Based on these findings, Komnas HAM calls for an end to hostilities between the two opposing parties and for the reopening of negotiations and the involvement of civil society [in these negotiations]. The emergency military operation must be terminated in order to also end the possibility of continued civilian casualties.” Billah noted that the cases of human rights violations included summary executions of civilians in Bireuen on May 27, the torture of civilians in the village of Hadu (Bireuen) on May 23, sexual harassment of civilians in the village of Meunasah Krueng on May 23, rapes in greater Aceh on May 26, the rape of a 13-year-old child at the Ara Bungong Kampung in Bireuen on May 26, the arrest of Tempo journalists on May 26 and the forced expulsion or removal of residents. [For more coverage of the Aceh people's struggle for freedom, visit <http://www.asia-pacific-action.org>.] >From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003 Visit the current June 18 issue Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACEH: TNI forges statement by wounded German BY JAMES BALOWSKI At around 9pm on June 4, two German tourists camping out near Lueng Gayo beach in the sub-district of Teunom in West Aceh were fired on by Indonesian troops (TNI). Lothar Heinrich Albert (54) died from a bullet wound to the chest and his wife, Elisabeth Engel (50), was shot in the knee. She is now being treated at the regional military command hospital. At a press conference the following day, military operational commander Bambang Dharmono explained that the incident occurred after local people reported seeing a suspicious light behind their house. TNI troops were sent to investigate and, after twice calling out the “password” and firing warning shots in the air, fired in the direction of the light, hitting Albert and Engel. Dharmono stressed this was standard operational procedure and troops only fired after there was no response to their repeated warnings. TNI chief Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed deep concern and ordered an investigation into what is the latest in a series of shootings of unarmed people by soldiers. Welfare minister Yusuf Kalla warned that the shooting of foreigners in Aceh “will definitely trouble us” in the same way the killing of foreigners in West Timor several years ago had reverberated around the world. Although the exact circumstances of the incident are still being investigated, more interesting is a letter shown by Dharmono to reporters, which he says was “written” by Engel and in which she explicitly states that troops were not to blame for the death of her husband. In response to questions, Dharmono insisted that it was not written under duress. So, what's so interesting about the letter? Well, the June 6 Kompas daily was kind enough to reprint a photograph of the letter for all to see: “I, Elisabeth Engel say, that we will sleep on this beach and I (know) now, it was very dangerest area and it was not good, to do this at this situation. I know, I should'nd be there and about the heappen, my husband is death and I know, this was only a miss - understanding from military. I will except my husbands deaths. “Mauloboh, Juni 5.03 “s/- [illegible] Engel Elisabeth Engel” The language and style of handwriting (which is different from the signatures, and the month is written as “Juni” not “June”) suggests that it was obviously written by an Indonesian and not Engel. But, as the military points out, they probably shouldn't have been staying in such a dangerous area in the first place and the whole thing may have just been a terrible accident. Or perhaps because Engel was not fluent in English or wasn't feeling well enough, “someone else” wrote the letter which she then read, agreed to and signed. Maybe. But, I can help wondering why, if I was lying in a hospital bed with a hole in my leg, having just seeing my spouse gunned down in a hail of bullets, and in the absence of a lawyer or consular representative, my first act would be to agree to write or sign a letter who's sole purpose is to absolve the military of any wrong doing? >From Green Left Weekly, June 11, 2003 Visit the current June 18 issue Green Left Weekly home page @ http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/ ---- http://www.asia-pacific-action.org/ ===== Free West Papua ! Free Aceh ! Papua Merdeka !!! Aceh Merdeka !!! ===== -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
