Astrid Felicia Lim, Jakarta – If SBY [recently resigned coordinating minister for politics and security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and presidential candidate for the military backed Democratic Party) becomes president, then responsibility for the military operation in Aceh, the investigation of human rights violations and reform of the military will be obstructed.
Indonesia & East Timor Digest
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April 16, 2004
April 15, 2004
The Indonesian government has rejected claims that it is failing to prosecute those responsible for the carnage in East Timor following its vote for independence.
Indonesia set up an ad hoc human rights court in 2001 to investigate and judge individuals suspected of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999.
Mark Colvin: One of the key claims in the Collins case is the statement by the Lieutenant Colonel that Australian Defence intelligence on East Timor was distorted by a pro-Jakarta lobby.
Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – For nearly 50 years, the Indonesian military held 20 percent of the county's parliamentary seats – but now the time has come for these unelected officers to leave the legislative building for good – and find a new place in the country's changed political landscape.
April 14, 2004
Mark Colvin: More details, meanwhile, are emerging about the character of the intelligence officer at the centre of the calls for a royal commission and the battle he fought within the Defence Force against claimed bias and intimidation.
Amnesty International has accused the United Nations of dragging its feet in bringing Indonesian officers to justice for the army-backed militia atrocities in East Timor in 1999.
Maputo – East Timor's foreign minister, Josi Ramos Horta, has accused Australia of delaying negotiations to demarcate the two countries' maritime borders in order to drain oil- and natural gas-riches from the Sea of Timor.
Tony Jones: Back now to our top story, the Colonel Collins affair and the Government's attempts to deal with it.
As we said earlier, the Defence Minister tonight released an internal legal review by a Melbourne QC that's highly sceptical of the Collins allegations. But do we now have the whole story?
Tom Allard – As an intelligence officer at Australian theatre headquarters in Brisbane, Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins was charged with writing highly classified reports on East Timor.
In July 1998, he wrote a chilling assessment that the Indonesian military was sponsoring militia violence and the Indonesian province was a powder-keg.
Presidential hopeful Akbar Tanjung came under fire at a lunch with the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club Wednesday, struggling to answer questions on corruption and details of his promise to fix the economy.
Tanjung started out strongly at an event whose audience was peppered with foreign diplomats keen to see the Golkar Party chairman in action.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Police on Tuesday arrested six suspects they said were part of a network of Aceh separatists involved in an abortive attempt to bomb a mall here last month.
Officers were hunting down two more suspects believed to be the masterminds of the bombing attempt, police said.
M. Arbi, Tapaktuan – After the people of Abdya voiced their demands for an extension to martial law in Aceh, on Tuesday April 13 the same demands were echoed by the people of South Aceh. Thousands of people spilled into the grounds of the regional parliament building in the town of Tapaktuan to listen to speeches by public figures demanding that martial law in Aceh be extended.
April 13, 2004
Derwin Pereira – Numbers don't lie. With 60 per cent of the votes tallied in the legislative election, Indonesia's two giants Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) are neck and neck for the top position.
Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – More than 300 additional paramilitary police arrived in the religiously-mixed regency of Poso, Central Sulawesi, on Monday after an new attack on a church over the Easter weekend injured seven Christians.
Robert Go, Seminyak – In the wake of criticism, Indonesia's major political parties began retracting their demands for a re-election yesterday.
Jakarta – The General Elections Commission (KPU) turned down on Monday a demand for a nationwide reelection by a score of political parties contesting the legislative election.
KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsudin said that the political parties failed to come up with a strong case, as they could only cite a small number of irregularities in polling stations.
Alisa P., Jakarta – Martial law in Aceh has entered its 10th month, and has consumed huge numbers of civilian casualties.
Jakarta – A candidate in last week's legislative elections in Indonesia won nearly 800 votes despite having died three months ago, poll officials said Tuesday.
"It's a bit ridiculous," said Andi Mappinawang, an election committee member in South Sulawesi province where the mix-up occurred. "Maybe the voters didn't know that he had died," he said.
Jakarta – Minister of National Education Abdul Malik Fajar rejected on Monday a plan to require senior high school graduates to undergo compulsory military service.
Malik said there was no urgency in implementing the program, which has been adopted by several Southeast Asian neighbors.
Nigel Wilson – East Timor says it may call on the US to broker a deal with Australia on maritime boundaries that would give it access to billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues now under Australian jurisdiction.
Sydney – Energy giant Woodside has warned it will scrap a multi-billion dollar oil and gas development in the Timor Sea unless East Timor ratified a controversial border treaty with Australia.
About a dozen people have rallied outside the Darwin office of the Member for Solomon this morning, to protest against Australia's treatment of East Timor in oil and gas negotiations.
East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri has indicated his parliament will not be ratifying an agreement that allows the oil and gas reserves to be developed.
Marianne Kearney – As his bus inches through a densely packed crowd of supporters decked out in yellow T-shirts, yellow bandanas and flags decorating their motorbikes, presidential hopeful and indicted war-crimes suspect Wiranto waves and smiles.
Alisa P., Jakarta – On April 12, Aceh Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh Papua, SAP) held a press conference at the offices of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) which was attended by most of the democratic groups who are involved in SAP.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua province now reaches 1,398 and has sparked concern among Papuans and local health officials.
Of the total, 912 people have been diagnosed HIV-positive and 486 have developed AIDS.
Jakarta – The liquidation of Bank Dagang Bali (BDB) and Bank Asiatic, caused in part by a number of lending irregularities, point to the fact that the painful and costly efforts to restructure the banking sector have yet to bear fruit.
Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – After a week-long rally triggered by relatively trouble-free legislative elections, the Jakarta stock market plunged on Monday on fears of political instability following news that several politicians may reject the general election results.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Golkar Party officials supervising the party's convention have expressed concern about possible money politics during unreported meetings of leaders of the party's regency chapters with presidential candidates.
Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The results to date of the count in the legislative elections appear to more or less reflect the amount of work put in by the political parties during the campaign, and how much they forked out on advertising.
April 12, 2004
Bambang Nurbianto and Evi Mariani, Jakarta – At least 25 families of 50 evicted fishermen in Ancol Timur survived on their boats on Sunday after the North Jakarta municipality demolished their houses a day earlier.
Lhokseumawe – The military killed on Sunday Suhardi Sulaiman, 33, alias Adi P., who has been listed as the most wanted rebel figure in Bireuen.
Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The martial law administration in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam opened a "reeducation" course on Sunday for 190 men and 10 women who have been accused of membership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Jakarta – Around 4,000 former employees of defunct aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) have demanded that the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) investigate alleged human rights abuses during the company's controversial massive retrenchment last year.
The Golkar party of former Indonesian dictator Suharto has regained the lead in Indonesia's general election – one week after the polls. It's still not clear when the computerised count will end, but Golkar now has a thin lead over President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle.
Irvan NR, Palu – Christians here lashed out at security forces for failing to protect them from Saturday's Easter shooting by unidentified gunmen in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, despite recent police reinforcements.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Supreme Court's decision find former East Timor governor Abilio Soares Jose Osorio Soares guilty of rights violations has drawn criticism from activists, who claimed the verdict was "discriminatory and insidious".
Indonesia's Supreme Court has upheld a three-year prison sentence handed to a former East Timor governor for crimes against humanity during the territory's bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – In a bid to provide stronger legal grounds for press freedom, the Constitutional Commission has proposed the inclusion of the issue in the newly amended 1945 Constitution.
Devi Asmarani, Surabaya – The rising star of Islamic-based parties in Indonesia is making waves by eroding the vote base of established secular giants.
But the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), formed to woo devout Muslims six years ago, downplayed its religious credentials to win support.
Jakarta – The number of political parties rejecting the legitimacy of the legislative elections has grown and so have their demands. Not satisfied with a recount, they are now calling for a new election.
Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid has alleged fraud in the computerided tally of election results and said 16 parties would meet to discuss whether to accept the outcome of Monday's poll.
Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The move by Bank Indonesia (BI) to close two small banks last week could trigger nervous depositors to shift their funds from smaller to larger banks, experts said.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Major parties said on Sunday it was too early to reject the results of the April 5 elections and called on the public to remain calm while waiting for the manual count.
April 11, 2004
Banda Aceh – Indonesian soldiers have shot dead five separatist rebels in Aceh while six others have surrendered to the authorities, the military said on Sunday.
The five Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members were killed on Friday in separate clashes in South Aceh, Bireuen and North Aceh districts, provincial military spokesman Lt. Col. Asep Sapari said.
Jakarta – Two men opened fire at a church during an Easter service in an eastern Indonesian town and lightly wounded seven people, including a four-year-old girl, police said on Sunday.
April 10, 2004
Jakarta – The economy grew at a snappy 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, driven mainly by strong consumer spending, according to Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah.
Jakarta – For the third consecutive time in recent weeks, the Supreme Court has acquitted a defendant of all charges of involvement in the 1999 mayhem in East Timor.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The government has dismissed unemployment data and projections from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) as inaccurate and misleading, saying it had launched various programs to cope with the unemployment time bomb.
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – With the country's poultry farmers yet to recover from the devastating impact of bird flu, they now face a new threat: an influx of much cheaper chicken eggs and meat smuggled from neighboring Malaysia.
Sian Powell, Jakarta – A politician soon to be elected in Indonesia has been linked to extremist Islamic organisations, including Bali bombing group Jemaah Islamiah.




