[The following are excerpts pertaining to Indonesia by Deputy Secretary Of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to the Defense Forum Foundation meeting about the war on terrorism on October 18, 2002.]
Question: In light of the heinous bombings in Bali this past weekend, I'd like to ask you a question about Indonesia, a country you know very well.
Australia's defence minister Robert Hill has confirmed Australia is considering resuming military links with Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces.
Australia broke off all joint exercises with Kopassus in 1998, partly due to concerns about its support for militiamen operating in East Timor.
The bombing in Legian, Bali, which killed 183 people and wounded hundreds of others has already impacted on a number of groups.
[Despite claims that the Laskar Jihad, Indonesia's largest and most militant Islamic militia has disbanded, Christian leaders say the group is still active. Boat loads of militants have left the Malukus provincial capital Ambon, but local Christian leaders say over 1,000 Laskar Jihad members remain.
Jakarta – Indonesia's economic growth is expected to be shaved to as low as 3.1 per cent this year after the deadly terrorist bombing in Bali, analysts say, citing rising risk premium and falling consumer confidence.
[One of Indonesia's largest and most militant militias, the Laskar Jihad, has been publicly disbanded in a surprise development which took place just hours before the Bali bombings. Analysts say the radical group had lost the backing of an influential body of islamic clerics.
John Aglionby, Kuta – Indonesia's most violent radical Islamist group, blamed for the deaths of thousands of Christians in eastern islands during four years of communal conflict, dissolved itself on Saturday, hours before the Bali bombings, it emerged yesterday.
Hamish McDonald – Although the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has dismissed the line of suspicion as "silly", some officials in his entourage must have wondered as they did the rounds of Indonesian military and police chiefs in Jakarta yesterday how clean were some of the hands they were shaking.
Mark Riley and Tom Allard – The Central Intelligence Agency issued an intelligence report listing Bali among possible targets of a pending terrorist attack just two weeks before the weekend's devastating Kuta bomb blast, the Washington Post is reporting.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's most violent Muslim extremist group, Laskar Jihad, has been disbanded. The move comes in the face of the deadly blasts in Kuta which have clearly shifted public opinion against such terrorist groups and the ideologies they preach.
Max Lane – On October 5, Indonesian police arrested Ricky Tamba, secretary-general of the Popular Youth Movement (GPK), an urban poor youth organisation that acts in political solidarity with the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD).
Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – Two Acehnese who participated in a hunger strike for three days at the provincial legislature here were rushed to the hospital on Tuesday with digestive disorders.
Sarah Stephen – The 168 East Timorese asylum seekers whose claims were rejected by the immigration department on September 25 are the first of almost 1700 asylum seekers who face the prospect of being forcibly returned to East Timor, despite many having lived in Australia for up to 10 years.
Kathy Marks, Bali – Sesca Rompas climbed on to a plastic stool and peered through a dirty window at her brother, Aldo Kansil, lying motionless on a bed below. He was a pitiful sight: two drips attached, arms swathed in bandages, his face an angry mosaic of burns.
Nani Farida and Kurniawan Hari, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Acehnese figures welcomed on Monday a proposal to allow the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to participate in elections, saying it would bolster efforts for a peaceful and fair solution to problems in the province.
Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Thousands of demonstrators representing entertainment centers in the city staged a rally in front of the City Council building and the City Hall on Monday, demanding that the administration allow them to remain open during the Ramadhan fasting month for Muslims in a few weeks.
ASAP condemns outright the barbaric bombing that took place in Bali on October 13 and that took the lives of at least 200 people from Bali, Indonesia, Australia and around the world. This was an act of mass murder carried out against defenceless people. ASAP extends its sympathy and solidarity to the families of all those killed and injured.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Military personnel in conflict areas have worked to escalate violence there in order to maintain their control over business activities, experts said on Monday.
They said military personnel in conflict areas were often involved in weapon smuggling, illegal logging, and car smuggling.
Max Lane – On October 14, in the Australian parliament Prime Minister John Howard seized on the terrorist incident in Bali last weekend to justify a further strengthening of repressive so-called anti-terrorist laws as well as of the security apparatus in Australia.
Bill Guerin, Jakarta – For Indonesia the pretense is well and truly over.
Medan – Dozens of Acehnese refugees living in temporary shelters in Medan, Deli Serdang, and Langkat, launched a hunger strike in front of the North Sumatra Legislative Council on Monday to demand the disbursement of Rp 100.5 billion in government funds.
Port Moresby - The Papua Council Presidium (PCP), on behalf of the people of West Papua, wishes to convey its sincere condolences and deepest sympathy to the families and relatives of the victims of the Saturday, 13th October 2002, terrorist bomb attacks at the tourist resorts in Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – It is no longer a secret that many police and military officers are involved in illicit businesses in many cities and towns across the country, and that would apparently include Tangerang.
Kanis Dursin, Tamiang, East Aceh – It was only 7 a.m., but hundreds of students had already gathered on the Tamiang Islamic University campus, a two-hectare compound from where King Tengku Arifin ruled in the 19th century.
It's hardly surprising that rabid Muslim clerics and shortsighted nationalist professors are blaming the US for the horrendous Bali nightclub bombing.
But something is seriously wrong when Indonesia's leading business newspaper also suggests that foreign countries might have masterminded the carnage as part of a covert plot to take over the nation's rich natural resources.
Greg Barton – The long hand of the military may have left its prints on the Kuta bomb. The shocking news from Bali probably couldn't get much worse. But the hard truth is, it just might. Most of the likely explanations for what happened point to systemic problems that are likely to escalate before they subside.
Louise Williams – Radical Islam has long played a bit part on the fringes of Indonesia's murky domestic political scene. The crucial question raised by the Bali bombings is whether the same forces of Islamic extremism have now been recruited to play a similarly destructive role in the international arena; as terrorists.
David Jenkins – In 1980, five Indonesian members of a so-called Komando Jihad (Holy War Command) hijacked a Garuda jet and forced it to fly to Bangkok. The plane was stormed by Indonesian commandos who killed four of the hijackers and the fifth man died in mysterious circumstances while being taken back to Jakarta.
[Business leaders have called for immediate action from the President to prove her leadership saying they fear social revolution if the government fails to unite to act decisively. The country's economy will be seriously set back by the bombings – with the tourism industry the first and most obvious casualty.]
Jakarta – Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung has been anticipating the worst in his appeal of the Central Jakarta District Court's verdict wherein he was sentenced to three years for corruption.
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Before the full glare of television cameras this month, Indonesian army chief Gen Ryamizard Ryacudu walked toward a line of 20 soldiers and tore one-by-one the badges of rank from their uniforms.
Irwan Firdaus – A car bomb destroyed a crowded nightclub on the tourist island of Bali Saturday, sparking a devastating inferno that killed at least 182 people and wounded 300 – many of them foreigners. Officials said it was the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.
Dean Yates, Bali – Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight, killing at least 182 people, many of them foreigners.
Banda Aceh – The deputy chairman of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Aceh chapter was killed after separatist rebels sprayed his car with bullets, military officials said.
Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute has expressed regret over a statement made by Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen Endriartono Sutarto, in which he accused an Acehnese of being behind the recent clash between the army and police in Binjai, North Sumatra.
Robert Go, Jakarta – A top rival of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has gone on the offensive, criticising the leadership and calling for a new man in the driver's seat.
The attacks come at a time when surveys have shown declining popularity ratings for the government.
Banda Aceh – Two policemen and a soldier have been killed by separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province, police have confirmed here on Friday.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The antiterrorism bill needs to provide a clear definition of a terrorist act, valid information to arrest terrorists and fair treatment of suspected terrorists, experts said on Friday.
Banda Aceh – Indonesian police said on Friday they shot and killed a separatist commander in restive Aceh province but denied rebel allegations he'd been tortured to death.
Prostitutes in Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya, have vowed not to make themselves available to officials to protest at a ruling banning their activities during Ramadan, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Alan Sipress, Jakarta – The Bush administration has warned Indonesian officials that it will withdraw some diplomats from the country unless police step up efforts to investigate a grenade explosion outside of a US building last month, a senior Indonesian security official said today.
Tony Sitathan – Irwin Goenawan graduated at the top in his class studying for magister manajeman, the Indonesian equivalent of a master of business administration (MBA) degree. He comes from a middle-class family.
Jakarta – Eighty four students who attacked a man they suspected of being an intelligence officer appeared at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday and were each ordered to pay a Rp 25,000 (US$2.8) fine or spend three days in police detention.
Robert Go, Jakarta – The newly-proposed National Security Council (DKN) provides President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government with a layer of protection from possible Islamic and nationalist backlash, if and when it steps up action against domestic terror threats.
Banda Aceh – A territorial commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), identified as Abu Arafah, alias Ibrahim, 33, was shot dead at an isolated village in Aceh province, Aceh Police spokesman Taufik Sutiyono said here on Thursday.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a report on East Timor Thursday, stressing what he termed "the vital necessity" of continued UN aid for the world's youngest nation.
Lisbon – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao says he would like to quit but will stay in the job to help his recently independent country grow. "If I could, I'd quit today," Gusmao said in an interview published Wednesday in daily paper Diario de Noticias.
The authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province have ruled out pursuing espionage charges against a Scottish woman detained for the past month, the prosecutor handling their case said.
"According to the chief, if we focus on spying it will be difficult to prove in court later," prosecutor Zainal Said told AFP Thursday.
Haze from forest and ground burning drifted back over Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, ending the reprieve brought by several days of rain, the meteorology office said.