Human Rights Watch World Report 1997 - Indonesia and East Timor

The most serious riot in Jakarta in two decades in July underscored increasing tension in Indonesia as demands of various groups for more political participation, less abuse by the security forces, and a greater share of the economic pie continued to be met with repression. Jakarta was not the only site of unrest during the year; demonstrations followed by riots brokeout in Irian Jaya in March, July and September; in Ujung-pandang (South Sulawesi) and Ngabang (West Kalimantan) in April; and in East Timor in June.

Freedom of expression and association continued to suffer with opposition politicians, journalists, nongovernmental organization (NGO) activists, trade unionists, students, and an independent election monitoring group all facing various forms of harassment, in some cases involving arrest and torture. The government-engineered ouster of Megawati Soekarnoputri as head of the opposition party, Partai Demokrasi Indonesia (PDI), in June, and the arrests in July, August and September of dozens of student leaders and independent labor leader Mochtar Pakpahan were only the most severe manifestations of government intolerance of dissent. The government also attempted to fan fears of a resurgence of a communist threat in order to legitimize its actions against critics and to discredit opposition parties and their members.

At the same time, there were more prosecutions of military officers for human rights abuses – at least four cases involving over twenty men – than in any previous year. The prosecutions were welcome, but given other developments in Indonesia, it was difficult to conclude that they were evidence of a greater sense of the need for government accountability. In East Timor, a wide range of human rights violations continued to take place, compounded by increased training of civilian and paramilitary militias composed of East Timorese and by increasing incidents of religious and ethnic violence. The granting of the Nobel Peace Prize in October to two East Timorese was expected to increase international pressure for human rights improvements there.

The right to monitor the human rights situation in the country was compromised by the intimidation and harassment of NGOs that followed the emergence of KIPP, the election monitoring organization, and the crackdown on the student-led People's Democratic Party in July and August.

The July riots led to criticism of Indonesian government actions internationally, particularly from the European Parliament and the United States, and nervousness among foreign investors, but few concrete actions were forthcoming.

Human Rights Developments

The most significant political and human rights developments in the country surrounded the rise and removal of Megawati Sukarnoputri as a political opposition leader; the occupation of PDI headquarters in Jakarta by her supporters and their removal by army-backed paramilitary forces on July 27; the riots that followed; and the arrest and detention of members of a small leftist party that the government blamed for the violence.

In a clear violation of freedom of association, Megawati was ousted from the PDI in a special party congress held in Medan, Sumatra in June. The government ceased to recognize her as an official of the PDI, her supporters were removed from the PDI candidate list for the 1997 parliamentary elections, and her efforts in September to open a new office were thwarted by the government on the grounds that the office violated a zoning ordinance.

Following the Medan congress, Megawati supporters occupied PDI headquarters in Jakarta. On July 27, hundreds of youths linked to the newly installed PDI head, Soerjadi, backed by police and military personnel, forcibly entered and physically removed Megawati's supporters and set fire to the headquarters. The attack sparked a full-scale riot, affecting the area around the PDI offices and spreading into other parts of the city. Protestors stoned and set fire tomore than twenty buildings; at least five people were killed and some 150 wounded. More than 200 people, including bystanders, were arrested; some of the latter were held up to five days and tortured to force confessions of involvement in the violence. Some 124 were later charged with crimes under the Indonesian criminal code and initially were denied access to lawyers. Virtually all of those formally charged were suspected Megawati supporters; meanwhile, none of the youths involved in the storming of the PDI headquarters were arrested.

The government, looking for a scapegoat for the riots, blamed a small leftist student-led organization called the People's Democratic Party (Partai Rakyat Demokratik, PRD) and its student, worker, peasant, and cultural affiliates. The PRD was accused not only of masterminding the riots but of being the new incarnation of the banned Indonesian Communist Party. By November 1, some thirty-nine students were in detention, at least five of whom had been tortured with electric shocks during military interrogation. Also in detention was labor leader Muchtar Pakpahan, general secretary of the Prosperous Worker's Union of Indonesia (Serikut Buruh Sejahtera Indonesia, SBSI), who was arrested at his home on July 30. Pakpahan was head of the NGO coalition supporting Megawati called the Indonesian People's Council (Majelis Rakyat Indonesia, MARI) which had the PRD as one of its members.

Both Muchtar and the head of the PRD, Budiman Sudjatmiko, who was arrested on August 11, were charged with subversion. While subversion is a capital offense, prosecutors were unlikely to seek the death penalty. The trials were expected to begin in late November or early December.

The government used the riots and the new "threat" posed by the PRD as a pretext for summoning and interrogating political critics. Prominent intellectuals such as Goenawan Mohammad, the former editor of Tempo magazine; former prisoner and internationally respected writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer; Bambang Widjojanto, head of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute; and Megawati herself were among those summoned.

The Ministry of Information and the social and political affairs office of the armed forces, which had tried to suppress reporting about the dispute within PDI prior to the July riot, issued a strong warning afterwards to three tabloid newspapers about their coverage of events. Of the three, Mutiara, Target, and Paron, the latter had carried an interview with PRD leader Budiman Sudjatmiko that some said led to the discovery of his hiding place and subsequent arrest. Controls on the press continued through the end of the year; members of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, who defied bans on reporting and provided in-depth analysis of events in an underground magazine called Suara Independen (Independent Voice) faced dismissal and arrest. On October 28, police confiscated 5,000 copies of the magazine and arrested two printing press workers on charges of defaming the president and distributing an insulting publication.

The government's crackdown on the PRD was foreshadowed by its moves in April and May against the independent election monitoring group set up in March called the Komite Independen Pemantau Pemilu (KIPP), in which student and NGO activists were deeply involved. Thirty branches of KIPP sprang up across the country within three months of its founding; government harassment of NGOs linked to KIPP increased as a result, with KIPP meetings banned in Solo, Lampung and elsewhere. On April 22, the Medan office of theLegal Aid Institute was firebombed following a KIPP meeting, and the office of an NGO in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, whose members were active in the local KIPP branch, was raided the same month. Also in April, a local government office in Bogor, West Java, made public accusations that KIPP secretary general Mulyana Kusumah was affiliated with a communist group as a high school student, more than thirty years earlier. Newspapers and magazines were told they could no longer publish Mulyana's writings. The allegations seemed designed to discredit the election monitors.

In another example of violations of freedom of expression, prominent government critic and former parliamentarian for the United Development Party (UDP), Sri Bintang Pamungkas, was sentenced on May 8 to two years and ten months in prison on charges of "defaming the president." Bintang had been arrested and charged under Article 134 of the criminal code for remarks made during a lecture given in Berlin, Germany in April 1995 (see 1996 World Report). The sentence was upheld by an appellate court in October.

Political unrest erupted in several different areas of Indonesia during the year. In Irian Jaya, tensions resulting from the army killing of civilians in the Timika area in 1994 and 1995 remained high, with local groups convinced that the huge Freeport copper and gold mine that dominates the area bore some responsibility, directly or indirectly, for the problem. In February, a military court in Irian Jaya sentenced four soldiers to prison terms ranging from eighteen months to three years for killing three Timika villagers. A week after the trial, the then Irian Jaya military commander Major General Dunidja issued a booklet for soldiers on human rights and military professionalism, indicating a new sensitivity on the part of the army to human rights criticism.

Between March 10 and 12, thousands of Irianese took part in demonstrations of unprecedented scale in Timika following an incident in which a local man was injured and taken to the hospital by a Freeport employee. Rioters stormed and attacked security posts as well as property belonging to the mining company and its employees. The riot led to unfounded accusations that NGOs had organized it and complicated efforts to release twenty-six hostages seized by a guerrilla group, the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM), in January, in violation of international humanitarian law. After negotiations to free the hostages failed, the Indonesian military mounted a rescue operation in May in which nine were freed and two were killed, apparently by Papuans but not by their immediate captors.

A second riot broke out on March 18 in Jayapura, capital of Irian Jaya, after the body of an independence leader, Thomas Wanggai, was returned for burial following his death in prison in Jakarta on March 12. Demonstrators were convinced Wanggai had been killed, although he seems to have died of natural causes.

Following the March riots and in light of the continued tensions between Freeport and the indigenous people within Freeport's contract of work area, the company indicated its intention to create a trust fund to be used for the benefit of the local community. On June 29, LEMASA (Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Suku Amungme), the representative body of the Amungme people, rejected the trust fund offer on the grounds that the funds would be channeled through the government rather than being given directly to the people. Disputes over that decision led to a demonstration on July 18 and subsequent allegations by the army that those who rejected the offer were subversives. Members of the Amungme group filed a class action suit against Freeport in U.S. district court under the U.S. Alien Tort Claim Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. As of July 29 more than 1,000 individuals had joined in the suit against Freeport.

Another hostage-taking incident took place in mid-August 1996. Thirteen employees of the Djajanti Logging Company were taken hostage about sixty kilometers from the town of Timika. The Indonesian press reported that the hostage-takers were OPM members, but the circumstances surrounding the incident remained murky. Army spokespersons initially insinuated that WALHI, an environmental NGO that had been openly critical of Freeport's activities in Irian Jaya, and Tom Beanal, executive director of LEMASA, were somehow involved, but the allegations, yet another form of harassment against NGOs, were subsequently dropped.

On April 7, some 2,000 resident of the village of Ngabang, 186 kilometers east of the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak, stormed an army camp to protest the severe torture of a local man named Jining. Jining was tortured because he drove by an army post too quickly. The army responded to the demonstrators with force, resulting in the death of a villager named Taku. On May 14, the National Human Rights Commission (KOMNAS) promised NGOs that it would investigate the incident, and the KOMNAS findings led to the prosecution of fourteen soldiers in July.

On April 22-24, riots broke out in Ujungpandang after student activists organized transport workers and others to protest a rise in transportation fares. Armored personnel carriers entered the campus of the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI), and in the ensuing turmoil, five students died. Three drowned after apparently jumping in a nearby river to escape army vehicles. Following an investigation by the government-appointed human rights commission, twelve soldiers were indicted on charges of procedural violations. On September 25, six of the twelve appeared in the Ujungpandang military court as their court martial began; in late October, the prosecutor recommended sentences of between five and six months for the accused.

A series of labor rallies took place during the year involving thousands of workers demonstrating for freedom of association and a higher minimum wage; Indonesia has only one legal trade union federation that is largely controlled by the government. One of the largest rallies took place in Surabaya, East Java, on July 8 involving 20,000 workers and led to the arrest of its student organizers on incitement charges. At year's end, it seemed likely that they would be charged with the political offense either of subversion or of "spreading hatred against the government."

Ethnic and religious violence increased in East Timor, some of it apparently deliberately provoked. In June, riots broke out in the town of Baucau after an Indonesian guard at a mosque in Baguia posted a picture of the Virgin Mary with a derogatory caption. The incident led to a protest march, security forces were called in to contain the demonstration, and upon their arrival, violence broke out. Over one hundred people were detained for their involvement in the demonstration.

Extrajudicial executions and torture continued in East Timor. In April 1996 a high school student, Paulo Dos Reis, was shot and killed by an Indonesian soldier after being suspected of resistance activities. Also in April Andre Sousa was shot and killed by an Indonesian soldier after he removed an Indonesian flag that had been flying at half-mast in honor of the death of President Soeharto's wife.

The Right to Monitor

Indonesian human rights organizations faced widespread harassment during the year throughout the country, although by year's end, fears of new regulations to curb their activities had not materialized. The alliance between human rights groups and pro-democracy activists in the formation of the independent election monitoring committee and the involvement of the largest human rights organization in the country, the Legal Aid Institute, in a coalition that supported Megawati and the PDI, led to tightened surveillance of NGO operations and intimidation of individual activists.

KOMNAS continued to function as a cautious but effective challenge to the military and helped bring about several prosecutions of soldiers accused of human rights abuses. KOMNAS at year's end was experiencing greater pressure from the government than ever before as a result of its preliminary findings of human rights violations in connection with the July riots, and there was widespread concern in Indonesia that the institution would emerge somewhat weakened as a result.

KOMNAS opened an office in Dili, East Timor, in July, but its effectiveness was compromised by the fact that it was located directly across the street from the district military command and was headed by a former prosecutor from the Indonesian island of Flores who did not speak the local language.

The Role of the International Community

The international community was sharply critical of Indonesia following the government's raid on the PDI headquarters in July and its subsequent actions against political activists. Other issues, such as East Timor and restrictions on freedom of expression, also received attention during the year at the U.N. and at the annual meeting of the World Bank-led donor consortium for development aid, the Consultative Group on Indonesia. Labor rights violations were the subject of debate in the U.S. as well as in the World Bank. But in general, governments studiously avoided linking trade privileges or arms transfers to human rights abuses. At the ASEAN Regional Forum, Jakarta largely succeeded in deflecting concerns about human rights as "interference in internal affairs," although it could not keep Burma off the agenda. The controversy over Freeport-McMoRan's role in Irian Jaya and abuses in the region had an impact on both U.S. and World Bank-provided political risk insurance programs provided to the company.

United Nations

A consensus chair's statement on East Timor was adopted by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva in April, reiterating concerns raised by the commission in previous years and calling for a clarification of the 1991 Dili killings, early release of detained East Timorese, and expanded access by international human rights monitors. But there was no attempt to promote a resolution despite Indonesia's continuing failure to respond positively to these recommendations. Meanwhile, the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue continued, under the U.N.'s auspices, with a meeting in Austria from March 19-22. Nigel Rodley, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, tried but failed to obtain permission from the Indonesian government to visit the territory. The government said that, as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights José Ayala Lasso had just visited in December 1995, there was no need for Rodley to come.

Europe

In March, the first Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit in Bangkok became the occasion for unscheduled bilateral talks between Portuguese Prime Minister Manual de Oliveira Guterres and President Soeharto on East Timor, where Guterres offered partial diplomatic relations with Indonesia in exchange for the release of imprisoned East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao. Not only did Soeharto reject the offer, but efforts were underway in late 1996 to ensure that East Timor was kept entirely off the agenda of the 1997 summit.

The European Parliament, on June 20, adopted a resolution following the suppression of protests in Baucau, East Timor earlier in the month; the motion also called for a halt in all military assistance arms sales from the EU to Indonesia, for the release of all political prisoners, and for the dropping of charges against ousted parliamentarian Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

When European Commission Vice-President Manuel Marin met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas in Jakarta on July 26, he said that the EU and ASEAN were looking for ways to separate their trade and investment relationship from discussion of human rights issues, and suggested this might meet putting a freeze of any discussion of East Timor at an EU-ASEAN foreign ministers meeting scheduled for February 1997 in Singapore.

On September 19, the European Parliament met in plenary session and adopted a resolution on Indonesia condemning the violent seizure of PDI headquarters and calling for the release of peaceful activists. The resolution also urged that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions undertake an investigation into the deaths that occurred during the storming of the PDI office.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl visited Indonesia from October 26-29, and while he raised East Timor and other human rights issues in passing, the main subject of the trip was trade. He was accompanied by three ministers and seventy business leaders, and the trip produced agreements on the setting up of several large German-Indonesian joint ventures.

United States

In the U.S., concerns about East Timor caused some members of Congress to press for a broadening of the existing U.S. ban on small arms sales to Indonesia, but the Fiscal Year 1997 foreign operations appropriations bill adopted in September contained funding to continue an expanded International Military Education and Training (IMET) program, while continuing the existing restrictions on arms sales. In addition, prominent members of Congress in March protested the prosecution of Sri Bintang Pamungkas in a letter to Foreign Minister Alatas.

The ASEAN annual ministerial meetings took place in Jakarta from July 23-27. U.S. Secretary of State Christopher used the opportunity to meet with members of Komnas and said, in an unusually pointed barb at the Soeharto government, that the U.S. had a "deep interest" in encouraging "political pluralism" in Indonesia.

After the July riots, officials of the U.S. expressed concern both in Jakarta and in Washington. In August, thirty-six members of the House of Representatives wrote to Foreign Minister Ali Alatas urging Jakarta to respect the rights of those arrested, to ensure restraint by the security forces, and to cooperate fully with KOMNAS in its investigations.

Members of the House and Senate also urged the administration to suspend the sale of F-16 advanced fighter planes to Indonesia as a way of signaling U.S. concern about the decline in human rights; by the time a Senate hearing took place in September, the administration had put the sale on hold out of deference to congressional opposition, while also stating its intention to proceed with the sale early in 1997. During a visit to Indonesia early in September, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Winston Lord failed to bring up the F-16 sale with Indonesian officials or suggest specific human rights improvements that would allow the sale to go forward. He did meet with NGOs and raised human rights concerns in his meetings with officials; he also briefly visited two detainees (Pakpahan and Budiman) in their detention cells, and in his public comments repeatedly gave the authorities credit for this gesture.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as of October had yet to issue a determination on whether to reinstate the formal review of Indonesia's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade benefits on worker rights grounds. United States law conditions the program on progress in protecting labor rights in recipient countries. In September twenty-nine members of the House of Representatives wrote to USTR to urge reinstatement of the review, noting, in particular, the arrest of Mochtar Pakpahan and other labor activists. (The GSP program was newly funded by Congress in mid-1996, leaving the status of petitions filed in 1995 unaddressed; a petition on Indonesia calling for a review on worker rights grounds had been pending since August 1995).

Asia/Pacific

The Australian government did its best to avoid any criticism of Indonesia's human rights record. In August, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued a weak statement following the July 27 riot, expressing the hope that conditions would return to normal quickly. But when Australian Prime Minister John Howard visited Indonesia in September, he avoided bringing up human rights altogether, despite pressure from Australian NGOs and members of parliament. The newly appointed Australian ambassador to Jakarta, John McCarthy, due to be posted in January 1997, told journalists he would avoid embarrassing the government publicly on human rights, while acknowledging that Australia was concerned about East Timor, freedom of expression, and other issues.

Japan also downplayed human rights concerns following the July crackdown, although the government did quietly urge Jakarta to release those detained solely for their peaceful political activity. Tokyo took no steps to review its large development aid program to Indonesia despite clear evidence of human rights violations.

Donors and Investors

At the World Bank-convened annual donors meeting in June, governments pledged $5.3 billion in development assistance for Indonesia, an increase of 7 percent over 1995 levels at constant exchange rates. In 1996, the bank loaned over $991 million to Jakarta and was the country's largest single donor. Some governments did express concern regarding Indonesia's human rights record in general terms, but no conditions were imposed and the bank congratulated the government on its overall economic performance.

In Irian Jaya, Freeport-McMoRan's $100-million political risk insurance contract with the U.S.-government-funded Overseas Private Investment Corporation, canceled in November 1995, was restored in April 1996 until the end of the year; the contract had been canceled on environmental grounds, though human rights concerns also were a factor. In September, the company itself abruptly canceled a separate $50-million political risk insurance contract with the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), shortly before an investigation team from MIGA was due to leave for Irian Jaya to examine human rights and environmental problems surrounding the mine.

Comments:
This report covers events of 1996

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