---------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "signoff indonews" need more help?, send your mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body mail: "info refcard" ---------------------------------------------------------- * Tribunal told of senior officer's involvement * Irianese leaders decry Freeport expansion plan * Independence widens Timor's gap * Jakarta aims to cut East Timor losses ------------------------------------------------------------- Tribunal told of senior officer's involvement ============================================= Jakarta Post - January 29, 1999 Jakarta -- A military tribunal trying 11 alleged abductors of political activists revealed on Thursday the involvement of higher- ranking officers who have yet to be processed legally. A witness, First Lieutenant Pandit Purnawa of the National Police Detective unit, testified that his superior Col. Jhon Lalo instructed him to prepare a cell for activist Andi Arief on April 16 last year as Arief would be handed over to the police by an unidentified group of men later that night. "Andi, who was handcuffed and wearing shorts and a white T-shirt, was brought in by Col. Jhon Lalo, Lt. Col. Kamaludin Lubis and four men I did not recognize," said Pandit, who also testified that he did not recognize any of the 11 defendants. Andi, an activist of the Indonesian Student Solidarity for Democracy (SMID), an affiliate of the outlawed People's Democratic Party (PRD), was abducted by unidentified men in Bandar Lampung on March 28. Military prosecutor Harom Wijaya said after the court session that Jhon could be summoned to shed more light on the abductions while Kamaludin was already among 17 people to testify before the court. Another witness, Sucipto, a neighborhood chief in a low-cost apartment block in Klender, East Jakarta, told the court that kidnappers visited his house before they seized activists Nezar Patria and Aan Rusdianto on March 13 last year. Activist Mugianto was arrested separately half an hour later. He told the Jakarta Military Court trying the 11 Army Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers charged with kidnapping political activists that two men claiming to be personnel from the Jakarta Regional Military Command came over to his apartment on March 13 last year. "Don't be afraid, we are security personnel and we suspect that a number of your people here were involved in the blast in Tanah Tinggi in January 1998," Sucipto quoted one of them as saying. Sucipto, who lives on the third floor, said the men told him the "suspects" lived on the second floor. They demanded that Sucipto escort them there. "I instructed my secretary to go down to check, and she found that those people were not home," Sucipto said. He said the two "security personnel" waited in his apartment, one of them using a cellular phone to contact his "commander" using code words. We sat together for about one hour until my secretary told me the activists were home," Sucipto said. He added that he then was told to accompany the two unidentified men down to the second floor and to knock on the suspects' door. "When someone opened the door, he was quickly grabbed and handcuffed by these men and another was also handcuffed while a gun was pointed at his neck before they were taken away. "A number of other people also went in and took away a set of computers, documents and other things ... they did this in only about 15 minutes," Sucipto said. Just like Pandit, Sucipto said he did not recognize any of the defendants. Aan, Nezar, Mugianto and Andi had been among 23 activists who were abducted by unidentified men since April 1997. Nine of the activists have resurfaced after weeks of absence and spoke of abductions and torture, one of them was found dead and 13 others are still listed as missing. The court adjourned before noon and was set to resume next Tuesday. Human rights groups have said the trial of the 11 Kopassus soldiers was a "farce" staged only to protect senior military officers and former president Soeharto. The groups also questioned why the charges did not mention torture. Military prosecutors have insisted the defendants had acted on their own initiative and the charges only related to the nine activists who have reappeared. At the time of the abductions, the defendants were under the command of Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, who is Soeharto's son-in-law. Prabowo was honorarily discharged from the military in August for his involvement in the abductions. Rights activists have been demanding that Prabowo, now in Jordan, must be put on trial as he had admitted before the Officer's Honor Council in August that he was involved in the abductions. Irianese leaders decry Freeport expansion plan ============================================== Jakarta Post - January 31, 1999 Jakarta -- Irianese leaders, rebuking President B.J. Habibie for supporting the expansion plan of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, demanded on Friday their people have a say in the process of licensing the development. "The government is crazy. Officials in Jakarta have so easily allowed Freeport to increase its production without considering the devastating impact the expansion will have on us living around the mining field," Tom Beanal, a leader of the Amungme tribe living near Freeport's Orasberg mine in Irian Jaya, told The Jakarta Post. The Amungme, most of whom are poor, claim the mining site is on their ancestral land. Tom described "hellish" living conditions in the area due to pollution from the operation. "The expansion would unleash a more devastating impact on the local environment," he said by telephone from the Irian Jaya capital of Jayapura. Tom was dismayed Habibie and his ministers never consulted with the Irianese about Freeport's expansion. He feared the government would meet any opposition to the plan with violence. "People in Jakarta have never asked for our opinion. The government has never allowed the Irianese people to think. If we protest their decision, they will send troops to kill us." Habibie has instructed several ministers, including Minister of Mines and Energy Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, to assist Freeport in realizing its plan to increase ore output to 300,000 metric tons per day (tpd) from 160,000 tpd. Habibie gave the instruction despite Kuntoro's demand for further assessment of the plan. Freeport is currently producing about 240,000 tpd as part of trial operation to achieve the 300,000 tpd goal. The company has reportedly invested US$1 billion to expand production facilities for increased output. Tom said Freeport amassed great wealth from the mining of copper and gold in Grasbeig and nearby areas for two and a half decades, even as living conditions of the local people worsened. He also queried the probe by the Attorney General's Offiice into collusion charges leveled last year by American scholar Jeffrey Winters against Freeport and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita. Winters charged Freeport with dubious deals to enable Ginandjar's associate Aburizal Bakrie to own a stake in the company as a reward for the smooth renewal of its contract of work (COW) for Grasberg. The Attorney General's Office has investigated officials and businessmen implicated in Winters' allegation, but has not released findings to the public. A miffed Ginanjar vehemently denied the charges. "I see many lies. While the investigation into KKN (the local acronym for corruption, collusion and nepotism) charges has never been concluded, now the President has allowed the company to increase its output," Tom said. Consult Meanwhile, the vice chairman of the House of Representatives' Commission V overseeing mines and energy, Antonius Rahail, who is Irianese, urged the government to consult with the provincial administration before making a decision on Freeport's plan. "The President may make his own decision. However, the decision can't work if there is no support from the local people," Rahail, an Indonesian Democratic Party legislator, told the Post. Meanwhile, Kuntoro said on Friday in Bandung, West Java, his ministry would only allow the firm's expansion if Freeport was willing to increase its royalty payments to the government and could prove it possessed the technical ability to prevent the expansion from causing environmental damage. Many parties, including the Indonesian Forum for Environment (WALHI), have expressed doubts about Freeport's ability to protect the environment around the mining field. According to Director General of Mining Rozik B. Soetjipto, who accompanied the minister, the mines ministry is negotiating with Freeport to double its royalties to the government. Currently, the government receives royalties of between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent of Freeport's copper sales revenues and I percent of its gold and silver sales revenues. Freeport is 81.28 percent owned by New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, with the Indonesian government and PT Indocopper Investama Corporation each owning 9.36 percent. Indocopper is 50.48 percent owned by Nusamba Mineral Industries, linked to former president Soeharto, 49 percent by Freeport McMoRan and 0.52 percent by the investing public. Independence widens Timor's gap =============================== Financial Review - February 1, 1999 Greg Earl, Dili 00 It's about 500 metres from the squat Indonesian government architecture of the Dili port to the old Portuguese-style Motael church on the city's waterfront. For Dili's residents pondering the future of East Timor at the weekend, the contrast between the port and the church underlined the division in the city. As people left the church after a Catholic Mass in the native Tetum language early yesterday morning, they talked optimistically of transitional autonomy towards the long-sought goal of independence. In a striking display of new-found bravado, one young man sported a distinctive blue T-shirt proclaiming in Portuguese: "Resist and win. Referendum for East Timor." But on Saturday night the Bugis traders, who have flooded into the disputed province from Sulawesi under Indonesian rule, were voting with their feet at the wharf. An inter-island transport ship, the Multi Sejahtera, was packed for repatriation: a dozen new cars and trucks filled with goods, 1,100 local cattle and a few dozen Bugis heading back to safety. "There are no more projects," said one migrant construction worker, blaming a slowdown in central government spending in the potentially independent nation. One man lamely claimed he was bored, but conceded that he had already sent his family back to the city of Ujung Pandang in the first wave of evacuation by an ethnic group renowned for its aggressive pioneering of new trade routes. Transitional autonomy might sound good to the long downtrodden East Timorese, but it's the end of the road for the Bugis because the Indonesian Government has now rejected the idea of a long and phased path to independence. Earlier on Saturday in the town of Balibo, just across the border from West Timor, a group of villagers showed how fast the news of Indonesia's new policy had travelled with their unexpected grasp of the intricacies of independence politics. They also backed transitional autonomy, saying that the latest fighting between pro- and anti-independence groups showed East Timor wasn't ready to go it alone right now. One man said the Catholic Church was the best institution to call community leaders together to reach an agreement. "It could take one year, one month or one week," he said of the proposed community discussion. But the time for discussion might be quickly disappearing. Pro- integration supporters staged a brazen display of force outside Dili's Mahkota Hotel on Friday by firing their newly acquired guns in the air. As the local military commander Colonel Tono Suratman met pro- Indonesian Timorese inside the hotel, the integrationist militia members opened fire without any casualties to stop a demonstration by independence supporters. Photographs of young men holding automatic rifles and guarding cars were run on the front page of East Timor's main newspaper on Saturday, reinforcing the message that militias are now taking over the public security role from the Indonesian army. Human-rights groups last week warned that Indonesia's decision to allow the arming of local militias could disrupt any peaceful transition to autonomy by triggering serious violence before any talks could be held. That now already appears to have been the case, with more than 4,000 people seeking refuge in a church in the south-coast town of Suai at the weekend after alleged attacks by newly armed pro- integrationists. Six people have reportedly been killed in the area. But prominent human-rights activist Mr Florentino Sarmento said 30 pro-Indonesian Timorese had now been killed by independence supporters who had burnt integrationists' homes. Integrationists were using their new guns to defend themselves but were also misusing the weapons to attack independence supporters. Hopeful talk at the Motael Church of transitional autonomy might be quickly eroded by the emergence of old rivalries. In Balibo, a villager warned of dark organisations that had sprung up to create fear in villages to the south. Jakarta aims to cut East Timor losses ===================================== The Australian - February 1, 1999 Indonesia wants to resolve the East Timor problem rapidly because it had proved costly both economically and politically, Finance Minister Ginandjar Kartasasmita said at the weekend. His comments came as two prominent Indonesian opposition leaders declared they were opposed to independence for the disputed territory and coincided with the arrival of the first Portuguese diplomat in Jakarta since Indonesia unilaterally annexed East Timor 23 years ago. Last week in a surprising policy reversal, Indonesia said it might grant independence to the troubled territory, ending two decades of quasi-military rule if a majority of the people there reject the autonomy offer. East Timor was "very, very expensive not only in terms of money and materials" but also politically because it has meant Indonesia has been "harassed, patronised morally" in the international community, Mr Ginandjar said at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Indonesia's wish to resolve the problem, he said, was that "we want to turn a new leaf, it is part of the reforms. We are really serious when we say we are on our way to becoming the third- largest democracy in the world". Indonesian Democratic Party leader Megawati Sukarnoputri said President B.J. Habibie had no authority to make a decision on East Timor because his Government was not democratically elected. "East Timor's integration into Indonesia is constitutionally and politically legal because it was a manifestation of the wish of the East Timorese accommodated by the (Indonesian) House of Representatives," she said. Ms Megawati said she feared that relinquishing East Timor could result in war and disputes among the East Timorese. Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, the chairman of the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama Muslim organisation and strong backer of the popular and newly founded National Awakening Party, said Indonesia had decided to include the troubled territory as part of the nation. "That (decision) must be respected," Mr Wahid was quoted by Kompas as saying. "In my opinion, East Timor should remain part of Indonesia." Mr Ginandjar acknowledged at the economic meeting that the political situation in Indonesia was hampering the restoration of international investor confidence in the country, but said the June election would address that problem and after that "I am quite sure we are going to restore confidence". Indonesia would see negative growth this year, but should return to positive growth in the second half, providing elections go well and this should lead to stronger growth next year, Mr Ginandjar said. But for 1999 as a whole he expected nothing better than zero growth. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 2 Feb 1999 jam 09:36:51 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
