The National Human Rights Commission said in a statement issued Wednesday that human rights had been violated towards students at Trisakti University who were being prevented from speaking freely. Several students at the university said they had been threatened by unknown persons who warned them not to give evidence to the Commission.
Indonesia & East Timor Digest
Displaying 99401-99450 of 101304 Documents
May 28, 1998
May 27, 1998
John Mcbeth, Jakarta – Already feeble at the start of 1998, Indonesia's ability to feed its 200 million people has weakened further in recent months. The triple whammy of a severe drought, an economic slump and political turmoil have exposed fundamental flaws in the country's strategy for agriculture.
Seth Mydans, Jakarta – Indonesia's political upheaval has worsened its severe economic problems, and a high-level team from the International Monetary Fund arrived here Tuesday to explore ways to restart its rescue package.
Richard Borsuk, Jakarta – The investigation of businesses linked to former Indonesian President Suharto's family and friends has widened, opening on several new fronts.
May 26, 1998
Lindsay Murdoch – Three churches claim they have obtained evidence that Indonesian soldiers are responsible for the deaths of at least 137 people during a military crackdown in Irian Jaya over 18 months.
May 24, 1998
Terry Friel, Jakarta – The wealth of new Indonesian President Jusuf Habibie and his family is beginning to draw the same attention that helped bring about the ouster of his predecessor Suharto.
May 23, 1998
Jonathan Manthorpe, Jakarta – As Bacharuddin Habibie announced Indonesia's new cabinet Friday, the question became whether former president Suharto had indeed stepped down or merely stepped aside.
Jakarta – Indonesia's newly-appointed Information Minister Lieutenant-General Yunus Yosfiah said today there would be no problems with media freedom if the local media was responsible and upheld their code of ethics.
Rod Mickleburgh, Jakarta – Hundreds of armed Indonesian soldiers stormed the parliament buildings here late last night, ending a five-day occupation by university students demanding an end to autocratic rule in the country.
Jakarta – The son-in-law of former Indonesian president Suharto was relieved of command of the prestige after he had resigned as head of state a day earlier.
Dana Priest – US officials believe that an elite US-trained military unit in Indonesia has been involved in kidnapping and torturing political dissidents, and Washington is considering a permanent ban on ties with the unit, US defense and diplomatic officials said.
Jakarta – Students in many cities continued rallying for reform yesterday, with most demanding a fresh presidential election through a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the trial of former president Soeharto for alleged abuses of power.
May 22, 1998
Louise Williams – In the early hours of yesterday morning a deal was done – the last deal for President Soeharto.
His old ally, Mr Harmoko – the longest-serving Information Minister in Mr Soeharto's New Order Government, who helped manipulate and restrain the media to hide the realities of the President's rule – reappeared as executioner.
Indonesian soldiers entered the Parliament building Friday and ordered student protesters who have occupied the building for several days to leave.
After dark, dozens of military trucks arrived loaded with soldiers, who leapt out and started beating the students with sticks. The students had taken over Parliament to press their demands for political reform.
Jakarta – After pledging that his forces would protect ex-President Suharto and his family, powerful military chief Gen. Wiranto Friday rejected calls for an investigation into the former leader's wealth.
Since Suharto resigned Thursday, student protesters and other opponents have called for an inquiry into the fortune amassed by the Suharto clan during his 32-year rule.
May 21, 1998
David Storey, Washington, May 21 Reuters - The United States went through the final motions of an ungainly diplomatic dance as Indonesia's President Suharto, one of its old guard of allies from the Cold War days, slid reluctantly from power.
World leaders have welcomed the resignation of Indonesian President Suharto, and have urged for a peaceful continuation of political and economic reforms.
Bernard Estrade, Jakarta – The Suharto family is one of the richest in the world worth up to $ US40 billion ($ A64 billion) according to some estimates.
That is similar to the figure that the International Monetary Fund and other countries pledged to help save the ruined Indonesian economy.
Following is an unofficial translation of Indonesian President Suharto's resignation speech.
My fellow countrymen. I have been following closely the recent developments in the national situation, especially the aspirations of the people for reforms in all aspects of the nation's life.
May 20, 1998
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians marched against President Suharto across the nation Wednesday, while political leaders jockeyed for his ouster and the military took control of Jakarta.
On May 15, emergency pickets were held in many Australian cities to demand that the government cut all ties with the Suharto dictatorship and the Indonesian military, and to show solidarity with the Indonesian democracy movement. The protests were organised by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET).
[The following statement is being circulated by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) for endorsement.]
May 18, 1998
Harold Crouch, Canberra – President Suharto's three-decade rule seems about to end, but the succession is still far from clear.
May 17, 1998
John Hamilton, Jakarta - Jakarta is a city of fear ringed by steel as Indonesia hovers on the brink of rebellion and anarchy.
Yesterday I drove through the tense central city area where office buildings were locked and stores shuttered and barred.
May 16, 1998
Jakarta – Thousands of students and other demonstrators occupied the state Radio Republik Indonesia station at Semarang in Central Java and forced their demands to be broadcast, a report said yesterday.
An announcer read out the five demands on Friday and the broadcast was repeated an hour later, the official Antara news agency said.
Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta – Indonesia said Saturday almost 500 people had died in the devastating riots which swept its capital this week as President Suharto moved to restore his shaken authority over the battered nation.
Armed forces commander in chief General Wiranto has confirmed that the six students who were killed during protests at Trisakti University, Grogol, Jakarta, had been hit by live bullets aimed from above.
Habibie's position fell to him as a result of intra-elite manoeuvreing. It was hardly a victory for people's power. Consequently, his cabinet is by no means revolutionary or even strongly reformist in policy terms. It remains a New Order creation. None of the most prominent among the opposition figures of recent months are included in it.
May 15, 1998
The names of some fifty members of the People's Council set up in Jakarta yesterday have been announced. The Council is known by its Indonesian acronym MAR which stands for Majelis Amanat Rakyat.
Members of the Council had their first meeting at a cafe in Jakarta yesterday and agreed to put forward three immediate demands:
May 14, 1998
Richard Read, Tangerang – Shoe factory worker Dominguez Pirida strained Wednesday to comprehend workplace improvements pledged by Nike Chairman Phil Knight, a man whom he'd vaguely heard of half a world away. Better air quality inside plants sounded good. Improved independent monitoring of Nike's contract factories seemed fine.
Louise Williams, Jakarta – Rioting spread to new areas of Jakarta last night after Indonesian special forces troops, dropped by helicopter, sealed a major toll road to the airport, which had earlier been cut off by students protesting at the death of six of their colleagues.
Louise Williams, Jakarta – From the top of a pedestrian overpass that straddles the chaos raging across the 12-lane highway in central Jakarta, there is a clear view to a kill.
May 13, 1998
Louise Williams, Jakarta – A third political activist has confirmed the existence of an interrogation centre near Jakarta, where torture allegedly is being used against kidnapped opponents of the Soeharto regime.
The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) has received information from reliable sources that an East Timorese man, Costodio da Silva Nunes, was extra-judicially executed by Indonesian security personnel on 7 May, 1998.
The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) has received further information in relation to Sabino Barbosa Ximenes who was detained in Dili on 11 September, 1997, by members of SGI (Special Intelligence Unit).
Mark Landler, Jakarta, Indonesia – Security forces killed at least four students and injured more than 20 others when they opened fire on a demonstration that had spilled from a college campus onto a major highway here.
May 12, 1998
Raphael Pura, Jakarta – As Indonesia teeters on the edge of economic disaster, most eyes are on President Suharto, its stubborn, aging leader. But the brunt of the burden of saving Indonesia's economy rests on the shoulders of another man: Ginandjar Kartasasmita, an ardent nationalist and born-again reformer.
Jakarta – There are strong indications that the Kopassus, under the command of Major General (Army) Prabowo Subianto (now Lieut. Gen. and Commander of Army Reserve - Ed), is responsible for the abduction of activists. The intensive operation to kidnap activists began during the time of the General Assembly session in March l998.
David Watts, Solo – The absent President Suharto of Indonesia suffered a double political blow yesterday when an important Muslim leader and a group of retired generals came out against his continuation in office.
A prominent Muslim leader in Indonesia, also seen as the emerging leader of a People's Power movement against President Suharto, today, called for the right of self-determination of the East Timorese people to be respected. He also admitted that Indonesia's rule of the troubled territory is a severe drain on Jakarta's coffers.
May 11, 1998
Jay Solomon and I Made Sentana, Medan – All is quiet again in Indonesia's third-largest city – much too quiet.
After last week's rioting and looting left scores of people injured and caused massive property damage, residents are suddenly coping with a new problem: life without ethnic Chinese.
May 10, 1998
Keith B. Richburg, Jakarta – Indonesia's economic hardship worsening, social unrest spreading and anti-government protests showing no sign of abating, the key question on almost everyone's mind here is: What will the military do?
Award-winning Toronto Star foreign correspondent Paul Watson, who was arrested by Indonesian police after taking pictures of a riot in Medan, was deported to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, yesterday. Watson, The Star's Asian bureau chief, filed this story before being flown out of the country.
May 9, 1998
Jakarta – Scores of students were injured in clashes in central Java yesterday as campus demonstrations continued across Indonesia.
The trouble came despite the military's pledge to speed reforms and its call for the protests to end.
David E. Sanger, Washington – The United States today gave Indonesia $1 billion in loan guarantees, free of any conditions concerning human rights abuses surrounding the protests against President Suharto's rule. Almost simultaneously the Pentagon, citing the unrest, canceled a joint training exercise with the Indonesian military.
Alan Wheatley, London – Leading industrial nations bluntly told Indonesian President Suharto on Saturday they expected him to enact sweeping political reforms to head off social unrest triggered by the country's economic crisis.
Jakarta – As many as 80,000 villagers face starvation because of raging wildfires that have destroyed a vast forest area in the East Kalimantan province.
The newspaper Bisnis Indonesia reported Saturday that Juwono Sudarsono, minister for environment, said he will visit the region next Wednesday as part of the government's efforts to address the threat.
May 8, 1998
Andrew Marshall. jakarta – Church leaders representing more than 10 million Indonesian Protestants have added their voice to the growing chorus of demands for reform of the country's political system and pledged support for student protesters.
Jim Mannion, Washington – The United States called off a military training exercise with Indonesia and is reviewing all other scheduled joint military activities because of concern over political unrest there, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.
Geoffrey Barker – Australia moved to distance itself from Indonesia's rulers yesterday as a prominent Australian expert warned that continuing economic and ethnic crisis could turn Indonesians towards ruthless, demagogic leadership.